UK defense ministry highlights Russia’s ‘critical resource problems’
The latest intelligence update from the UK Defense Ministry highlights Russia’s “significant resource problems in Ukraine”, which it says are “possibly contributing to an unaffiliated command that hinders Russia’s operations”.
serhi haidaiThe governor of Luhansk posted on Telegram that there would be an evacuation train from Pokrovsk at 4.30 pm today to take people from eastern Ukraine to Lviv, as efforts continue to provide routes across the country for those who want to flee. want.
In its latest daily update, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said yesterday they defused 685 explosive devices on Ukrainian soil. He says the total number of warships disposed of since Russia’s latest offensive began on February 24 has reached 110,593 explosive devices.
Thomas Meaney is a fellow at the Max Planck Society in Göttingen, and he writes for us today that Finland and Sweden may join NATO – but even they cannot guarantee that it will make them safer :
Whether Finland and Sweden will actually be safe in NATO is another question. His announcements have drawn only a mild rebuke from the Kremlin, which has warned against military build-up in both countries. Vladimir Putin’s regime never suggested the possibility of hostilities against any country with which it has consistently cordial relations. Memories of previous Russo-Finnish military confrontations suggest that anyone contemplating an incursion into Finland should consider medical treatment.
A sensitive point in the Finland-NATO question is that Russians are the largest minority in Finland. Their main representative organization has made it clear that it can resolve any of its political issues through the processes of Finnish politics. But some Finnish officials fear Putin may use Russian grievances inside Finland as an excuse for hostility.
Read more here: Thomas Meaney – Finland and Sweden may join NATO: but even they can’t guarantee it will make them safe
Evacuation of Troops from Azovstal Steelworks
UK defense ministry highlights Russia’s ‘critical resource problems’
The latest intelligence update from the UK Defense Ministry highlights Russia’s “significant resource problems in Ukraine”, which it says are “possibly contributing to an unaffiliated command that hinders Russia’s operations”.
sean walker
The fate of hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers, who have endured weeks of resistance at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, remains unclear even after the fighters surrendered and were transferred to Russian-controlled territory.
Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said he would be turned into a prisoner exchange, but some Russian officials said on Tuesday he could be prosecuted and even killed. Lawmakers in Russia’s State Duma said they would propose new laws that could derail prisoner exchanges of fighters who Moscow claims are “terrorists”.
Russian investigators have said they plan to interrogate the soldiers and charge them with “crimes committed by the Ukrainian regime against the civilian population in southeastern Ukraine”.
Tuesday evening seven Buses carrying Ukrainian troops departed from the Azovstal plant in the port city and arrived in Donetsk, a former prison colony in the Russian-controlled city of Olenivka, Reuters reported.
Full story here.
Here’s more about the war crimes trial starting today.
Vadim Shishmarin, 21, will appear in Kyiv’s Solomansky District Court at 2:00 p.m. (GMT) on February 28 on charges of war crimes and premeditated murder in the death of a 62-year-old man in northeastern Ukraine.
Soldier from Irkutsk, Siberia, faces a possible life sentence.
“He understands what he is being accused of,” his lawyer Viktor Ovsiyannikov told AFP without disclosing the case to the defense.
Ukrainian officials say they are cooperating with investigators and accepting facts about the incident that happened just four days after the Russian offensive began.
Prosecutors said Shishimarin was commanding a unit in a tank division when his convoy was attacked.
He and four other soldiers stole a car, and as they were traveling near the village of Shupakhivka in the Sumy region, they encountered a 62-year-old man on a bicycle.
“One of the soldiers ordered the accused to kill the civilian so that he would not condemn them,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Shishimarin then fired a Kalashnikov assault rifle from the vehicle window and “the man died instantly a few dozen meters from his home”, he said in a statement.
In early May, Ukrainian authorities announced his arrest without giving details, publishing a video in which Shishmarin said he had come to Ukraine to fight “to financially support his mother”.
Describing his actions, he said: “I was ordered to shoot, I shot him once. He collapsed and we continued our journey.
His lawyer said that the matter is proving to be challenging. “This is the first such case in Ukraine with such an indictment. There are no relevant legal practices or rulings on such matters. We will settle it,” he said.
Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Irina Venediktova in a series of tweets underscored the importance of the case to her country.
“We have over 11,000 cases of war crimes going on and already have 40 suspects,” she said.
“From this first trial, we are sending a clear signal that every criminal, every person who ordered or assisted in the commission of crimes in Ukraine, will not shirk responsibility.”
Two Russian soldiers are on trial since Thursday for firing rockets at civilian infrastructure in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Ukraine crisis.
The big news today is that the first war crimes trial since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine will begin in Kyiv. It is against a Russian soldier who is accused of killing an unarmed civilian, a 62-year-old man, in northeastern Ukraine days after the offensive began.
The trial, which is expected to be followed by many others, will test the Ukrainian justice system at a time when international institutions are also conducting their own investigations into abuses committed by Russian forces.
Vadim Shishmarin, 21, will appear in Kyiv’s Solomensky District Court on charges of war crimes and premeditated murder, as the soldier from Irkutsk, Siberia, faces a possible life sentence.
Here’s what else you need to know:
- The International Criminal Court sent a 42-member team to Ukraine on Tuesday In what it called the largest such deployment in its history, to investigate alleged war crimes since the Russian invasion.
- The US will create a new unit to research, document and promote alleged war crimes by Russia in Ukraine. The US State Department said the conflict observatory will “capture, analyze and make available widely available evidence of war crimes committed by Russia and other atrocities in Ukraine.”
- Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine stalledTrade blocs with both sides and a sign of a return to Moscow talks could be difficult, officials said on Tuesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovy He said he believes no peace agreement can be reached if negotiators try to “shift the conversation” to focus on what the West has to say, rather than the immediate situation in Ukraine. He said that this ruled out the possibility of progress in talks. Lavrov said, “We always say that we are ready to negotiate … but we were not given any other option.”
- The fate of the more than 260 Ukrainian soldiers who ended weeks of resistance at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol is unclear, after the fighters surrendered and were transferred to Russian-controlled territory. Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said he would be turned into a prisoner exchange, but some Russian officials said he could be prosecuted or even killed.
- Eight killed and 12 injured in missile attack on Russia’s Desnas village According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, in the northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv. Regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said Russia fired four missiles at around 5 a.m. local time on Tuesday. He said two missiles hit the village buildings.
- A village in Kursk, Russia’s western province bordering Ukraine, came under fire from Ukraine.The regional governor said, but there were no casualties.
We will be blogging throughout the day, so keep following you as soon as the news comes.