The head of the Russian private military contractor Wagner claimed Thursday that his forces have started pulling out of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, and handing over control to the Russian military, days after he said Wagner troops had captured the ruined city.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s millionaire owner with longtime links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in a video published on Telegram that the handover would be completed by June 1. There was no immediate comment from the Russian defense ministry.
It was not possible to independently verify whether Wagner’s pullout from the bombed-out city has begun, and the Ukrainian General Staff said Wednesday that heavy fighting was continuing inside the eastern city after a nine-month battle that killed tens of thousands of people.
Prigozhin’s Bakhmut triumph delivered a badly needed victory for Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has lost momentum and now faces the possibility of a Ukrainian counteroffensive using advanced weapons supplied by Kyiv’s Western allies.
Top Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said Thursday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was already underway, cautioning that it should not be anticipated as a “single event” starting “at a specific hour of a specific day.”
Writing on Twitter, Podolyak said that “dozens of different actions to destroy Russian occupation forces” had “already been taking place yesterday, are taking place today and will continue tomorrow.”
Prigozhin has a long-running feud with the Russian military leadership, dating back to Wagner’s creation. He has also built a reputation for inflammatory — and often unverifiable — headline-grabbing statements.
During the 15-month war in Ukraine, he has repeatedly and publicly chastised Russia’s military leadership, accusing them of incompetence and failure to properly provision his troops as they spearheaded the battle for Bakhmut.
Wagner’s involvement in the capture of Bakhmut has added to Prigozhin’s standing, which he has used to set forth his personal views about the conduct of the war.
Military medics give first aid to wounded Ukrainian soldiers at a near Bakhmut on May 24, 2023.Efrem Lukatsky / AP
“Prigozhin is … using the perception that Wagner is responsible for the capture of Bakhmut to advocate for a preposterous level of influence over the Russian war effort in Ukraine,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said.
His frequent critical commentary about Russia’s military performance is uncommon in Russia’s tightly controlled political system, in which only Putin can usually air such criticism.
His flat statement of what he would do over the next week in Bakhmut came a day after he again broke with the Kremlin line on Ukraine. He said its goal of demilitarizing the country has backfired, acknowledged Russian troops have killed civilians and agreed with Western estimates that he lost more than 20,000 men in the battle for Bakhmut.
Meanwhile, Russian unleashed a barrage of Iranian-made Shahed 36 drones against Kyiv in its 12th nighttime air assault on the Ukrainian capital this month but the city’s air defenses shot down all of them, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.
The Kremlin’s forces also launched 30 airstrikes and 39 attacks from multiple rocket launchers as well as artillery and mortar attacks across Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said.
In Russia, meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that five Swedish diplomats are to be expelled from the country.
According to the statement, the decision is a response to Stockholm’s “openly hostile step” to declare five employees of Russian foreign missions in Sweden “personae non grata” in April.
Moscow additionally announced its decision to close its consulate in Göteborg in September, as well as its “withdrawal of consent” to the activities of the Swedish consulate in St. Petersburg.May 25, 2023 
Ukraine Uncensored NetworkFrench President Emmanuel Macron will visit China from Wednesday, hoping to dissuade Beijing from supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine but without alienating a crucial trade and geopolitical player.
"China is the only country in the world capable of having an immediate and radical impact on the conflict, in one direction or the other," an official from Macron's office told reporters Friday on condition of anonymity.
Macron will look to stand firm towards President Xi Jinping on Ukraine while taking "another path" from the directly confrontational tone often heard from Washington, the official added.
The French leader's aims include preserving and rebalancing China's trade ties with Europe as well as safeguarding French interests in the Asia-Pacific region -- where Paris sees itself as a player thanks to its overseas territories and military deployments.
That Macron's visit will have an impact beyond France and affect the entire 27-nation European Union is clear from that presence on the trip of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
She visited Macron in Paris Monday to coordinate their preparations.
In a speech last week, von der Leyen cautioned Beijing against direct support for the war while ruling out the 27-member European Union "decoupling" from China.
The Europeans won't hold Xi back from arming Russia by "saying nicely what he shouldn't do," said Antoine Bondaz of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS).
He predicted instead that the leaders would warn him off arms deliveries in public while dangling the threat of sanctions in their private talks.
China has portrayed itself as seeking a peaceful resolution to Russia's attack on its neighbor.
But Xi's friendly visit to Moscow last month and announcement of a peace plan most saw as skewed towards Russia have Western countries doubtful.
Von der Leyen last week complained that "far from being put off by the atrocious and illegal invasion of Ukraine, President Xi is maintaining his 'no-limits friendship' with Putin's Russia" -- recalling a phrase coined immediately before the invasion last February.
"How China continues to interact with Putin's war will be a determining factor for EU-China relations going forward," she added.
Within the bloc, economic heavyweights France and Germany see preserving trade with China as a priority, while nations in the EU's east -- closer to Ukraine and with stark memories of Russian occupation -- would prefer to up the pressure on Beijing over the invasion.
Macron will himself bring a delegation of some 60 business leaders to Beijing, including the bosses of Airbus and EDF -- some hoping to sign lucrative new contracts.
"We do not want to cut economic, societal, political and scientific ties," von der Leyen said, although Brussels like Paris hopes to "rebalance" the trading relationship "on the basis of transparency, predictability and reciprocity".
Macron and the EU Commission chief will place the "accent on de-risking rather than de-coupling," Francois Godement, an Asia expert at the Institut Montaigne think-tank, wrote on Twitter.
He added that they would look for "low-key but practical responses" to frictions with Beijing that "do not insult China's future" -- given Xi appears firmly in the driving seat at home.
Macron will also meet French residents in Beijing after arriving on Wednesday afternoon, before Thursday talks with Chinese leaders and a state dinner in the evening.
On Friday, he will travel to Guangzhou in southern China to meet local students.
But Macron will also be eyeing France's footprint across the entire Asia-Pacific region.
Around 1.6 million citizens reside in French overseas territories there, from La Reunion off Madagascar's east coast to New Caledonia northeast of Australia and the dozens of Pacific islands of French Polynesia.
Thanks to its vast population, abundant natural resources and economic heft, the Asia-Pacific has become "the nerve center of the planet", said Cedric Perrin, co-author of a French Senate report on the region.
France hopes its vast economic zone and 7,000 deployed troops can lend it a seat at the table as tensions mount on several fronts, including with nuclear-armed North Korea and between China and the United States over the island of Taiwan.
Perrin believes the country "must re-state a strong and realistic position towards China, especially regarding the need to respect international law" if it wants to be taken seriously as regional player. Apr 4, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network Russian ambassador Anatoly Borovik announced that Russia is prepared to respond to journalists in Cambodia over Moscow’s ongoing “military operation” in Ukraine, which has widely been condemned as an act of aggression on its neighbour.
Addressing a March 31 press conference on “Russia-Cambodia Relations,” Borovik said he was ready to answer questions from journalists, both electronically and through press conferences, as a friendly gesture of respect.
“I am personally ready to answer any questions Cambodian journalists may have. We will conduct press conferences in Khmer as a show of the friendly relationship we have with the Kingdom,” he said.
On bilateral relations, the envoy expressed hopes that the increased media engagement would allow the two nations to reach closer understanding, and draw attention to the fact that more than 8,000 Cambodians had mastered the Russian language, thanks to widespread scholarship programmes.
“Russia granted the scholarships because it had always paid close attention to the humanitarian and human resource development of Cambodia,” he told the conference.
“Unfortunately, the fall of the Soviet Union and the difficult economic situation of Russia in the 1990s resulted in a reduction of the numbers of scholarships we could offer,” he noted.
The ambassador said he believed that interpersonal communication is crucial to strengthening mutual understanding between the peoples of Russia and Cambodia.
“The year 2023 saw an increase to 25 scholarships to Russia – next year, that number may be as high as 40,” he said.
“The dual outcomes of the scholarship programme are that Cambodian youths will receive a quality education, while also gaining a clear understanding of the beauty and culture of Russia,” he added.
Diplomatic ties between Russia and many countries around the world have changed dramatically following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged that the Ukrainian government was biased towards the West and intended to join NATO, which he said posed a threat to Russian security.Apr 4, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network Ukranian farmers are facing a range of challenges and danger as they begin sowing their spring crops.
Key points:
- Ukraine's latest crop forecast suggests the 2023 grain harvest will be half the size of pre-war levels
- Farmers are forced to de-mine paddocks before sowing crops
- HarvEast Holding predicts up to 30 per cent of Ukraine farmers will go bankrupt
HarvEast Holding director Dmitry Skornyakov spoke to ABC Landline about the slow process of clearing land mines from fields.
"When [the] Russian army escaped from Kyiv region in April 2022, they mined our fields very severely," he said.
"So far this year we've de-mined almost 9,000 hectares, which was done manually.
"But now we have about 1,000 hectares which is the most severely mined — it's been mined almost every metre."
He said an armoured vehicle from the army was being used to clear the remaining paddocks.
"To de-mine 800 hectares we'll need a year using this machine, but we have no other choice because it's very dangerous to work there," he said.
"Our neighbours tried to sow after manual de-mining and they had an explosion on one of their tractors. The driver survived but with many injuries."
Crop forecast falls
Ukraine's grain output is forecast to decline with farmers unable to access paddocks and struggling with cashflow.
The Ukrainian agriculture ministry is reportedly expecting a grain harvest in 2023 of 44.3 million tonnes, which is about half the pre-war level.
Mr Skornyakov said the crop forecast sounded right.
He expected up to 30 per cent of Ukrainian farmers to go bankrupt this year.
He said farm inputs were extremely expensive and the logistical costs were a major challenge.
"We don't buy our fertiliser from Belarus or Russia anymore ... so if Morocco supplies us with phosphorous, it goes to some European port and then by trucks to Ukraine, so we pay premium," he said.
"It's forcing Ukraine farmers to save money by applying less fertiliser, less chemicals and buy cheaper seeds.
He said some regions of Ukraine, for safety reasons, had rules in place that restricted the number of hours farmers could work each day.
"In the past if I seeded sunflowers in two weeks, it'll now take three or four weeks, and because sowing is late, it'll affect yield," he said.
"So this [reduced crop] forecast is right, we'll see a significant decrease in tonnage."
In a sign of how the war impacts the rest of the world, Ukraine's agriculture ministry said the country was failing to meet demand from many of its grain customers.
"Unfortunately, due to Russia's war against Ukraine, Yemen's import demand has been the least met so far, [with] only 216,000 tonnes out of the 3.8 million tonnes needed, which amounts to only 6 per cent," it said.Apr 4, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network - Moscow is preparing for its second summit with African countries.
- The summit scheduled for the end of July in St. Petersburg.
- Lavrov said the chances of damaging the conference were diminishing.
- Moscow has turned its efforts to countries in Asia and Africa.
The US is trying to wreck Russia's planned summit with African countries as part of efforts to isolate Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed in an interview published on Tuesday.
Lavrov told the news site Argumenty i Fakty that Moscow is different from Western countries in its relations with Africa in that "we never tell our foreign partners how they are supposed to live. We have no secret agenda".
Moscow is preparing for its second summit with African countries, scheduled for the end of July in St. Petersburg, including work on infrastructure, technology and energy projects.
International isolation
"It is true that the United States and its vassals are doing everything possible to achieve Russia's international isolation," Lavrov told the website.
"In particular, they are trying to torpedo the planned second Russia-Africa summit ... to persuade our African friends not to take part."
In any case, Lavrov said, the chances of damaging the conference were diminishing as "fewer and fewer people are now willing to pull out all the stops for former colonial powers.
"Attempts to interfere in our cooperation with countries for the global South and East will therefore continue, but success is far from guaranteed."
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.
Focus on Asia, Africa
Shunned by most Western countries since its invasion of Ukraine just over a year ago, Moscow has turned its efforts to countries in Asia and Africa.
Lavrov has been particularly eager to nurture ties with Africa, visiting the continent twice this year as well as making a tour in mid-2022.
South Africa this year held 10 days of military exercises with the Russian and Chinese militaries.
And the Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries, active in what Moscow described as its "special military operation" in Ukraine, has been deployed against insurgents in Mali and the Central African Republic.
US President Joe Biden hosted a US-Africa leaders’ summit in 2022 in Washington, seeking to bolster alliances amid the growing Russian and Chinese presence on the continent.Apr 4, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network When the war started, Russia had alleged that NATO soldiers were fighting in Ukrainian army uniform. This was not proved, though there were instances of fighters of other nationalities joining the war on ‘sympathetic’ considerations. If such elements are permitted, it would be difficult to punish only the Wagner Group. Besides, several countries have used clandestine agents to subvert other countries. History tells us that mercenaries were used all over the world till the 1648 Westphalian Peace
Vappala Balachandran Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat
On November 9, 2022, Pope Francis condemned the use of mercenaries in Ukraine, saying that they were inflicting “so much cruelty” on the population. The global media had then alleged that the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, was responsible for the atrocities. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wagner did not represent the state but had the right to work anywhere in the world as a private military contractor as long as it did not break the Russian law.
Yet, there were indications that the Wagner Group was officially treated on a par with the Russian government organs, if not preferentially. On March 14, the Russian Duma (Parliament) passed a law making it a crime to ‘discredit’ Wagner fighters. On March 30, Evan Gershkovich, an American national who is a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested in Yekaterinburg (Russia) for enquiring about the group.
In 2017, a video appeared of a Syrian man being decapitated by the Wagner Group for deserting the Syrian army. On March 16, news agency Reuters published a special interview of five Russian prisoners who had fought in Ukraine in return for a promise of freedom by Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group.
Although the global media has been replete with Wagner’s activities, the arrest warrants issued on March 17 against Putin and Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova by the Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) mention only the forcible and illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
This is because of the incredibly lengthy definition of ‘mercenary’ in Article 1 of the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries (1989). Briefly, a mercenary is not a member of the parties in conflict, nor part of their regular armed forces, but motivated only by private gain or specially recruited for undermining the territorial integrity of a state. If this definition is fully implemented, all ‘clandestine’ intelligence operations against another country would fall within its ambit.
When the Ukraine war started, Russia had alleged that NATO soldiers were fighting in Ukrainian army uniform. This was not proved, though there were instances of fighters of other nationalities joining the war on ‘sympathetic’ considerations. If such elements are permitted, it would be difficult to punish only the Wagner Group.
Besides, several countries have used clandestine agents to subvert other countries. The US, which has codified a legal definition of ‘covert operations’, would be the first target. Title 50 US Code defines covert operations as an activity to ‘influence political, economic or military conditions abroad’ where the US role would not be apparent. That is, perhaps, the reason why the ICC warrants have excluded the Wagner Group.
History tells us that mercenaries were used all over the world till the 1648 Westphalian Peace Treaty, which was signed after the 80 Years’ War (1568-1648) and 30 Years’ War (1618-1648). Around 20 per cent of the European population perished during these wars. Germany was totally devastated and plundered by thousands of mercenaries. These brutal wars brought home the need to regularise the law on wars.
In due course, the Westphalian Treaty, with its 128 clauses, guided the charters of the League of Nations (1920-1946) and the United Nations (UN) in 1945. Following this, the UN clearly prohibited the use of mercenaries based on the 1907 Hague Convention, Article 2 (paragraph 4) of the UN Charter (1945), Article 3 of the Geneva Convention (1949) and 1989 International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries.
India had an indirect experience with foreign mercenaries in 1981 during a failed coup against the then Seychelles President France-Albert Rene. The ‘Froth Blowers’ under former British-Indian Army Major Thomas Michael Hoare, known as ‘Mad Mike’ Hoare, took control of an Air India Harare-Bombay flight from the Mahe airport on November 25, 1981, and diverted it to Durban. In 1986, there was another coup attempt against Rene, after which he had requested the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to depute a team of Indian intelligence officials to upgrade their preventive security.
Yevgeny Prigozhin has been prominently in the news after it was found that the regular Russian army was not able to meet Putin’s strategic objectives. The court documents accessed by The Guardian (UK) indicate that his criminal history started in 1980 following a robbery in St Petersburg. For this and other crimes, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. After release in 1990, he became a hot dog vendor and later a food caterer. He worked his way up to provide food to high-class hotels and private groups.
Gradually, he came to know Putin and became an event manager through his company Concord, bagging government contracts. A photo of him serving wine to the then visiting US President, George W Bush, and his wife during a dinner hosted by Putin at Villa Lindström in 2006 was published by The Guardian.
According to The Guardian, in 2014 Russian Defence Ministry officials were asked to meet Prigozhin to give land to him at Molkino in southern Russia to train ‘volunteers’ who would have no official links to the Russian army. That was the beginning of the Wagner Group, which started with Crimea in 2014 and Syria in 2015.
Prigozhin was the subject of an FBI lookout notice in 2022 for his alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election from early 2014 to February 16, 2018, as “the primary funder of the St Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency”. On January 26, the US Treasury issued sanctions against the Wagner Group for being “a transnational criminal organisation”.
The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists in six continents, chose Prigozhin as the ‘2022 Person of the Year’ in ‘organised crime and corruption’ for being a mercenary leader who had become “perhaps the most conspicuous avatar of everything that is darkest about his motherland.”Apr 4, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network United Nations — Ukraine and the U.S. have warned that handing Russia the gavel to chair the United Nations Security Council will provide President Vladimir Putin's regime a platform to spread disinformation at a pivotal moment in his grinding war against civilians in Ukraine. Russia was taking the lead of the 15-nation Security Council on Monday under the monthly procedural rotation, allowing Putin's mission to the U.N. to set the agenda of its most powerful body.Under U.N. procedure, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia was to bang the gavel as his country assumed control of the council, which has primary responsibility under the U.N. Charter "for the maintenance of international peace and security."The Russian presidency in the UNSC [U.N. Security Council] is a stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said ahead of the Monday handover. "A state that systemically ruins international peace and security will be presiding over the body tasked with maintaining them.Yesterday, the Russian army killed another Ukrainian child —a five-month-old boy named Danylo… One of the hundreds of artillery strikes that the terrorist state launches every day, and at the same time, Russia chairs the U.N. Security Council," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, the day Russia's role formally began, calling it, "proof of the bankruptcy of procedures in world institutions."
Russia's role, while somewhat procedural, comes on the heels of Putin's announcement that he will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, just over Ukraine's northern border, and also days after the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Moscow also assumes presidency of the council amid growing concern over the safety of Russian-occupied nuclear power plants in Ukraine.
- Latvia urges NATO not to overreact to Russia's nuclear threat
Russia's U.N. Ambassador and its Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have set the council's agenda for the month ahead, including three main meetings: One on violations of agreements on the export of conventional arms and military equipment, and two to be chaired by Lavrov himself, on April 24 on the "sovereign equality of states," and the following day on the Middle East.
CBS News has confirmed that Russia also plans to hold an informal or "Arria" meeting in which Moscow will attempt to defend itself against allegations that it has orchestrated the seizure of children from occupied Ukrainian territory, as well as other acts that are now under criminal indictment as possible war crimes at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
The court issued an arrest warrant for Putin himself last month, saying there were "reasonable grounds to believe" the Russian leader personally bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population, referring to the relocation of children against their will.
"A country that flagrantly violates the U.N. Charter and invades its neighbor has no place on the U.N. Security Council," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week. "We expect Russia to continue to use its seat on the Council to spread disinformation and to try to distract from the attempt to justify its actions in Ukraine and the war crimes members of its forces are committing."
A spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the U.N. said Washington saw "no feasible international legal pathway," however, to change the fact that Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council, and so qualified to hold the rotating presidency.
"It would be possible for the U.S. and its allies to demand a debate on Ukraine and demand that Russia recuses itself from presiding over the meeting because of its role in the war," Richard Gowan, an expert on the global body and U.N. Director for the International Crisis Group, told CBS News, referring to U.N. Charter provisions that state "a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting" on some types of resolutions.
But those rules, Gowan noted, leave it to the sitting president of the council — which right now is Russia itself — to decide whether any party in particular should abstain from a vote.
Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya dismissed the argument that there was no way to block Russia from assuming the presidency of the council, insisting instead that there was "no political will to stop it."
Even if it could be booted from the Security Council, or the U.N. entirely, some experts doubt the wisdom of any efforts to completely sideline Russia.
Stephen Schlesinger, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who wrote a book on the U.N.'s creation, told CBS News it was "far better to keep Moscow inside the body than to throw it out."
"Inside the U.N., it is possible to name and shame Putin's lawless breaches of the Charter," he said, noting that former U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, who played a direct role in establishing the world body, also believed it was better to keep both good and bad international actors within the same assembly as a means of leveraging for peace.
Schlesinger argued that media coverage of U.N. actions and debates would likely fade if Russia were not in the debate: "Then Russia would truly be a desperado state with no limits."Apr 3, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network The head of Putin’s Wagner Group ‘private army’ claims his troops have captured the town
U
krainian forces are locked in “especially hot” battles against Russian soldiers in the eastern town of Bakhmut, Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday.
The Ukrainian president gave no indication that his military was on the brink of retreating from the mining town where Russian units have suffered very heavy losses.
The head of Putin’s Wagner Group “private army”, claimed his troops, involved in a months-long effort to encircle and capture the bombed-out town, had raised a Russian flag on its administrative building.
“From a legal point of view, Bakhmut has been taken. The enemy is concentrated in the western parts,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in video posted on his press service’s Telegram account.
Prigozhin has previously made claims that were premature.
Russian forces have been gradually seizing more of Bakhmut but have suffered 30,000 casualties in some of the fiercest fighting of the war as they have tried over many months to seize the town, according to British military intelligence.
Ukraine’s defence chiefs said in a Monday update that Bakhmut and several other towns including Avdiivka were at the “epicentre of hostilities”
The enemy continues its assault on the city of Bakhmut. However, our defenders courageously hold the city,” they added.
Mr Zelensky, in his Sunday night video address, thanked soldiers fighting in Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka.
Especially Bakhmut. It is especially hot there,” he said.
Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar had earlier described the Bakhmut situation as “tense”.
Ukrainian forces were defending their positions and Russian units were being thrown into battle with scant attention to losses as they attacked, he added.
Ukrainian military commanders have said their own counter-offensive, backed by newly delivered Western tanks and other heavy weapons, is not far off, but have stressed the importance of holding Bakhmut in the meantime.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting had engulfed the centre of Bakhmut. Ukrainian forces had repelled 25 enemy attacks, but Russian forces had captured the AZOM metal plant.
Unconfirmed footage appeared to show a huge explosion at the plant, though there were doubts about it as there was no snow on the ground in the town recently hit by wintry weather.
“The enemy is attacking (Bakhmut’s) centre from the north, the east and the south and is trying to take (it) under its full control,” Mr Zhdanov, who has close ties to the Ukrainian military, said in a video on YouTube.
In Russia, a well-known military blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed by a bomb in a St Petersburg cafe on Sunday in what appeared to be the second assassination on Russian soil of a figure closely associated with the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s state Investigative Committee said it had opened a murder investigation into the blast, which wounded 32 people.Apr 3, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network Russian envoy to Belarus says weapons will be moved to ally’s territory despite ‘noise in Europe and the United States’.
Russia will place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus near its ally’s borders with NATO countries, the Russian envoy to Minsk has said, in a move set to escalate tensions with the West.
Russian ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov said on Sunday night that the weapons would be moved to the country’s western border as part of moves to “ensure security”.
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“This will be done despite the noise in Europe and the United States,” Gryzlov told Belarusian state television.
Gryzlov said a storage facility would be completed by July 1, without specifying exactly where the weapons would be stationed.
The envoy’s comments come after Russian President Vladimir Putin last month announced plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Belarus shares borders with Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, all of which are members of NATO, the military alliance originally established to deter Soviet expansion in Europe after World War II.
NATO has increased the number of its troops stationed in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland by nearly tenfold since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, one of Putin’s closest allies, said on Friday that some of Russia’s strategic nuclear weapons could be deployed to his country’s territory along with a position in Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal.
Tactical nuclear weapons have a shorter range and lower yield than strategic nuclear weapons and are designed for carrying out limited strikes on the battlefield.Apr 3, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged his Russian counterpart, in a rare phone call between the diplomats since the Ukraine war, to immediately release a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained last week as well as another imprisoned American, Paul Whelan, the State Department said Sunday.
In the call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Blinken conveyed “grave concern” over the Kremlin’s detention of journalist Evan Gershkovich on espionage allegations, according to a State Department summary of the call. Blinken called for his immediate release.
Blinken also sought the immediate release of Whelan, whom the statement said was wrongfully detained. U.S. officials said they were considering a similar determination for Gershkovich that could be made at any time. Should that happen, his case would be largely transferred to the office of the U.S. Special Presidential for Hostage Affairs.
Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless. He is serving a 16-year sentence.
of creating an environment that permits diplomatic missions to carry out their work,” according to the State Department.
The FSB, Russia’s top security agency and successor to the KGB, said Gershkovich was collecting information on an enterprise of the military-industrial complex. Russian authorities detained him last week, the first time a U.S. correspondent has been held on spying accusations since the Cold War.
In its summary of the call, Russia’s foreign ministry said Lavrov “drew Blinken’s attention to the need to respect the decisions of the Russian authorities” about Gershkovich, whom Moscow claims, without evidence, “was caught red-handed.”
The Journal has adamantly denied the allegations and demanded his release. U.S. officials have also called on Russia to let him go, with President Joe Biden telling reporters on Friday that his message to the country was “Let him go.”
The Kremlin said Lavrov also told Blinken it was unacceptable for U.S. officials and Western news media to continue “whipping up excitement” and politicizing the journalist’s detention. “His further fate will be determined by the court.”
The State Department described the detention of Gershkovich as unacceptable.
Emma Tucker, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, said it was “gratifying” and “reassuring” to learn of Blinken’s call because it shows the U.S. government is taking the case “right up to the top.” The Journal has been unable to get messages to the reporter or learn any official information about him, she told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
U.S. consular officials have requested a visit with Gershkovich but no announcement of such access has been made. Officials said they were hopeful consular access could be arranged in the coming week but could not speak to when that might happen.
Tucker said the newspaper is hopeful a lawyer might be able to meet with Gershkovich this coming week, and in the meantime has been “pressing constantly for reassurance that he’s not being mistreated in any way.”
Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, noted that the government has advised U.S. citizens to leave Russia. “This is not unexpected, in that Russia is acting as an illegal state at this point. There are no laws or rules or no international norms that they are following,” Turner, R-Ohio, told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
In alleging that U.S. officials and news media are hyping Gershkovich’s detention, Russian officials are reprising a theme they used in the apprehensions of basketball star Brittney Griner and other U.S. citizens. The Kremlin has said it prefers to resolve such cases quietly and has emphasized the need to follow Russia’s judicial process. Often, that means the chance of progress in U.S. efforts to free its detained citizens isn’t likely until formal charges are filed, a trial is held, a conviction is obtained, and sentencing and appeals are completed.
More than 30 news organizations and press freedom advocates have written the Russian ambassador in the United States to express concern Russia is sending the message that reporting inside the country is criminalized.
On Saturday night, Griner, who was detained for 10 months by Russian authorities before being released in a prisoner swap for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, issued a statement with her wife, Cherelle, calling for the release of the 31-year-old Gershkovich.
“Every American who is taken is ours to fight for and every American returned is a win for us all,” the couple said in a statement posted on Instagram.
Interactions between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats have been rare since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, though they did have a brief conversation last month on the sidelines of the Group of 20 conference of foreign ministers in India. It was the highest-level in-person talks between the two countries since the war.
That interaction was their first contact since last summer, when Blinken talked to Lavrov by phone about a U.S. proposal for Russia to release Whelan and Griner. Though Whelan was not included in the one-for-one swap that resulted in the release of Griner, U.S. officials said they remain committed to bringing him home.Apr 3, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network The battle for Bakhmut in Ukraine raged for months, with Wagner supporting Russian troops and Ukraine warning the fall of the town would lead to the loss of huge swathes of its territory.
MOSCOW, Russia - Russia's Wagner paramilitary group on Monday claimed it had captured the city hall in Ukraine's eastern town of Bakhmut, giving it "legal" control, but Kyiv said its forces still held the town.
The battle for Bakhmut has raged for months with Wagner supporting Russian troops and Ukraine warning the fall of the town would lead to the loss of huge swathes of its territory.
Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin posted a video on his Telegram channel showing him holding a Russian flag, which he said his forces would plant on Bakhmut's city hall.
"This is the Wagner private military company; these are the guys who took Bakhmut. In a legal sense, it's ours,” Prigozhin said.
Ukrainian military leaders said on Monday after Prigozhin's video was released that enemy troops had tried to take control of the town, but their forces had "repelled more than 20 enemy attacks".
President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier on Sunday praised Ukrainian troops' defence of the city, much of which now lies in ruins.
"I am grateful to our warriors who are fighting near Avdiivka, Maryinka, near Bakhmut... Especially Bakhmut! It's especially hot there today!" Zelensky said on Telegram.
In Kostyantynivka, a town about 27 kilometres from Bakhmut, a "massive attack" of Russian missiles left three men and three women dead and eleven wounded Sunday, Ukrainian authorities said.
The attack targeted residential areas where "ordinary civilians" were living, Zelensky said.
There was a large crater in a yard and windows were shattered from ground to top floors in two 14-storey tower blocks, while private homes nearby had smashed roofs, AFP journalists saw.
Liliya, a 19-year-old psychology student, stood outside her severely damaged high-rise block.
"Everything is bombed out. And I think it's like that in every flat, in fact. Because it was such an impact that it was very hard for anything to stay unbroken."
BLOGGER KILLED
Earlier on Sunday, a leading Russian military blogger and fervent defender of the military offensive in Ukraine was killed by a bomb attack at a cafe in St Petersburg, investigators said.
Vladlen Tatarsky was reportedly killed after receiving a gift rigged with an explosive device at an event organised by Cyber Front Z, which refers to itself on social media as "Russia's information troops".
The explosion occurred at "Street Food Bar No. 1", located along the Neva River not far from the historic city centre, with the interior ministry saying police had been called to the scene at 6:13 pm (1513 GMT).
Officers cordoned off the street outside the building with around 20 police cars, alongside six ambulances as well as fire trucks, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
Around two dozen other people were injured.
Russia's foreign ministry paid tribute to Tatarsky on Sunday, saying he was among "defenders of the truth" and lashing out at Western governments for failing to react to the attack.
"Russian journalists constantly feel the threat of reprisals from the Kyiv regime," spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.
WESTERN 'HYPE'
Moscow condemned on Sunday the Western "hype" around the arrest of US journalist Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges, dismissing Washington's latest call for his release.
Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told his US counterpart Antony Blinken that Gershkovich had been "trying to receive secret information" when he was arrested this week.
Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, is believed to be the first foreign journalist held for spying in post-Soviet Russia, and his arrest is expected to escalate the Kremlin's confrontation with the West.
His arrest on 30 March has drawn outrage from the West and is being seen as a serious escalation of Moscow's sweeping crackdown on the media.
"The timing of the arrest looks like a calculated provocation to embarrass the US and intimidate the foreign press still working in Russia," the Wall Street Journal's board of opinion editors said.
The White House has condemned the allegations as "ridiculous" and has warned Americans currently in Russia to leave for their own safety.
Several other US citizens are in jail in Russia, including Paul Whelan, a former Marine, who was arrested in 2018 and handed a 16-year sentence on espionage charges that he denies.
US officials have refused to be drawn on the possibility that Gershkovich's arrest could be Moscow's latest effort to engineer a prisoner swap.
"This is not a new tactic for Mr Putin and for Russian officials to detain foreigners and in particular Americans," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There have been several such high-profile exchanges between Moscow and Washington over the past year.
In December, Moscow freed US basketball star Brittney Griner, arrested for bringing cannabis oil into the country, in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.Apr 3, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network Ukraine conflict summary for the past week
- Russia Finally Admits to Destroying NATO’s Deep Underground Command Bunker in Kiev
- Putin announces plan to station nuclear weapons in Belarus
- Zelensky accuses Russia of holding Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant 'hostage'
- The capability of Russia’s Su-35 fighter fighters truly amazes Ukrainian officials.
- To counter Russia, the 4 Nordic countries’ air forces aim to combine a force of 300 fighter jets.
- The fighting heats up, and Ukraine dispatches commandos to relieve the siege of
- Russia fires supersonic missile at mock target in Sea of Japan
- Former Ukraine General Predicts Russia Will Launch Major Summer Offensive
- Ukraine hits Russian-held city deep behind front as talk of counteroffensive grows
- Ukrainian President Zelenskyy invites China's President Xi Jinping to visit Ukraine
- Russia stages nuke missile drill as fighting continues in Ukraine
- Zelenskyy Stresses Need to Win Fight for Bakhmut
- President Ruto says nobody gains from Russia-Ukraine war
- American Consensus on Ukraine Has Fractured
- Ukrainian hackers use Russian officer's wife's nude photos to gather intelligence
- Russia Targets Kharkiv With Drones And Missiles In Overnight Attack
- Russia’s arrest of American journalist sparks outrage, fear of more hostage-taking
- Japan bans steel, aircraft exports to Russia in latest sanctions
- Neo-isolationists on the right and left dismiss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as of little consequence to the U.S. To them, it’s a territorial dispute between faraway countries
- Russia becomes president of UN Security Council despite Ukraine invasion
- IMF approves $15.6bn Ukraine loan, part of $115bn in global support
This past week was a bit confusing, as both forces claimed to have a upper hand, This coming week is going to be calm a bit as both countries are preparing and regrouping for a summer offensive, but we should expect airstrikes of course, and the consistent fighting in bakhmut Apr 2, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network The International Monetary Fund said its executive board approved a four-year $15.6bn (€14.35bn) loan programme for Ukraine, part of a global $115bn (€105bn) package to support the country's economy as it battles Russia's 13-month-old invasion.
The decision clears the way for an immediate disbursement of about $2.7bn to Kyiv, and requires Ukraine to carry out ambitious reforms, especially in the energy sector, the fund said in a statement.
The Extended Fund Facility (EFF) loan is the first major conventional financing programme approved by the IMF for a country involved in a large-scale war.
Ukraine's previous, $5 billion long-term IMF programme was cancelled in March 2022 when the fund provided $1.4bn in emergency financing with few conditions. It provided another $1.3bn under a "food shock window" programme last October.
An IMF official said the new $115bn package includes the IMF loan, $80bn in pledges for grants and concessional loans from multilateral institutions and other countries, and $20 billion worth of debt relief commitments.
Ukraine must meet certain conditions over the next two years, including steps to boost tax revenue, maintain exchange rate stability, preserve central bank independence and strengthen anti-corruption efforts.
Deeper reforms will be required in the second phase of the programme to enhance stability and early post-war reconstruction, returning to pre-war fiscal and monetary policy frameworks, boosting competitiveness and addressing energy sector vulnerabilities, the IMF said.
A senior US Treasury official said the programme was "really solid" and included commitments from Ukrainian authorities to achieve 19 structural benchmarks over the next year alone.
IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said the programme faced "exceptionally high" risks, and its success depended on the size, composition and timing of external financing to help close fiscal and external financing gaps and restore Ukraine's debt sustainability.Apr 1, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network Russia becoming president of the United NationsSecurity Council is a "stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning," Ukraine's foreign minister has said.
On Saturday, Russia took over from Mozambique as the leader of the United Nation's top body.
Each of the body's 15 members assumes the presidency for a month, on a rotating pattern.
Russia's presidency means the Council - which is responsible for maintaining international peace and security - is now headed by a country whose president is subject to an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.
Dmytro Kuleba, Russia's foreign minister tweeted on Saturday: "Russian presidency in the UNSC is a stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning.
"A state that systemically ruins international peace and security will be presiding over the body tasked with maintaining them."
As Security Council president, Russia will be responsible for setting the agenda for the month, organising meetings, managing the distribution of information to Council members, issuing statements, and communicating the Council’s actions to the public.
Ahead of assuming the presidency, Moscow said it would hold an informal meeting of the Council in early April.
The country's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said last week that the meeting will centre on “the real situation” of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, an issue that has gained the spotlight following the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for President Putin for war crimes related to their abduction.
The court said it was seeking Putin’s arrest because he “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”.
Mr Nebenzia called the issue of the children “totally overblown” and said Moscow wants to explain at the Security Council meeting, around April 6, that they were taken to Russia “simply because we wanted to spare them of the danger that military activities may bring”.
China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are permanent, veto-wielding members of the Security Council.
Its 10 other members are elected by the 193-nation General Assembly for staggered, two-year terms. They’re allocated by global regions.
The council deploys peacekeeping missions, can approve sanctions and speaks out - sometimes - on conflicts and flashpoints, while also surveying such thematic issues as terrorism and arms control.
While many matters are perennials on the agenda, council members also can use the platform to spotlight emerging concerns or topics of particular interest to them.Apr 1, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network Kyiv faces a key tactical question: How can the Ukrainian military dislodge Kremlin forces from land they are occupying? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is working hard to keep his troops, and the general public, motivated for a long fight
File Photo
Europe's biggest armed conflict since World War IIis poised to enter a new phase in the coming weeks.
With no suggestion of a negotiated end to the 13 months of fighting between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainian defense minister said last week that a spring counteroffensive could begin as soon as April.
Kyiv faces a key tactical question: How can the Ukrainian military dislodge Kremlin forces from land they are occupying? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is working hard to keep his troops, and the general public, motivated for a long fight.
Here's a look at how the fighting has evolved and how the spring campaign might unfold:
How did the war get here?
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 2022, but its attacks fell short of some main targets and lost momentum by July. Ukrainian counteroffensives took back large areas from August through November.
Then the fighting got bogged down in attritional warfare during the bitter winter and into the muddy, early spring thaw.
Now, Kyiv can take advantage of improved weather to seize the battlefield initiative with new batches of Western weapons, including scores of tanks, and fresh troops trained in the West.
But Russian forces are dug in deep, lying in wait behind minefields and along kilometers (miles) of trenches.
How has Russia fared so far?
The war has exposed embarrassing shortcomings in the Kremlin's military prowess.
With no suggestion of a negotiated end to the 13 months of fighting between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainian defense minister said last week that a spring counteroffensive could begin as soon as April.
Kyiv faces a key tactical question: How can the Ukrainian military dislodge Kremlin forces from land they are occupying? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is working hard to keep his troops, and the general public, motivated for a long fight.
Here's a look at how the fighting has evolved and how the spring campaign might unfold:
How did the war get here?
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 2022, but its attacks fell short of some main targets and lost momentum by July. Ukrainian counteroffensives took back large areas from August through November.
Then the fighting got bogged down in attritional warfare during the bitter winter and into the muddy, early spring thaw.
Now, Kyiv can take advantage of improved weather to seize the battlefield initiative with new batches of Western weapons, including scores of tanks, and fresh troops trained in the West.
But Russian forces are dug in deep, lying in wait behind minefields and along kilometers (miles) of trenches.
How has Russia fared so far?
The war has exposed embarrassing shortcomings in the Kremlin's military prowess.Apr 1, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network Ukraine Uncensored Network Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II is poised to enter a new phase in the coming weeks.
With no suggestion of a negotiated end to the 13 months of fighting between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainian defense minister said last week that a spring counteroffensive could begin as soon as April.
Kyiv faces a key tactical question: How can the Ukrainian military dislodge Kremlin forces from land they are occupying? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is working hard to keep his troops, and the general public, motivated for a long fight.
Here’s a look at how the fighting has evolved and how the spring campaign might unfold:
HOW DID THE WAR GET HERE?
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 2022, but its attacks fell short of some main targets and lost momentum by July. Ukrainian counteroffensives took back large areas from August through November.
Then the fighting got bogged down in attritional warfare during the bitter winter and into the muddy, early spring thaw.
Now, Kyiv can take advantage of improved weather to seize the battlefield initiative with new batches of Western weapons, including scores of tanks, and fresh troops trained in the West.
But Russian forces are dug in deep, lying in wait behind minefields and along kilometers (miles) of trenches.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
- UN food chief: Billions needed to avert unrest, starvation
- 1 year ago, scenes of horror emerged from Ukraine's Bucha
- Russia arrests Wall Street Journal reporter on spying charge
- US: Russia seeks arms-for-food deal with North Korea
HOW HAS RUSSIA FARED SO FAR?
The war has exposed embarrassing shortcomings in the Kremlin’s military prowess.
The battlefield setbacks include Russia’s failure to reach Kyiv in the early days of the invasion, its inability to hold some areas and its failure to take the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut despite seven months of fighting. Attempts to break the Ukrainian will to fight, such as relentlessly striking the country’s power grid, have failed too.
Moscow’s intelligence services badly misjudged Ukraine’s resolve and the West’s response. The invasion also depleted Russian military resources, triggering difficulties with ammunition supplies, morale and troop numbers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, apparently concerned that the war could erode public support for his government, has avoided an all-out push for victory through a mandatory mass mobilization.
“The Russians have no end of problems,” said James Nixey, director of the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, a think tank in London.
Realizing he cannot win the war any time soon, Putin aims to hunker down and drag out the fighting in the hope that Western support for Kyiv eventually frays, Nixey said.
Russia’s strategy is designed around “getting the West to crumble,” he said.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE UKRAINIANS?
The Ukrainian military starts the season with an influx of powerful weapons.
Germany said this week that it had delivered the 18 Leopard 2 tanks it promised to Ukraine. Poland, Canada and Norway have also handed over their pledged Leopard tanks. British Challenger tanks have arrived too.
Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has said he’s hopeful Western partners will supply at least two battalions of the German-made Leopard 2s by April. He also expects six or seven battalions of Leopard 1 tanks, with ammunition, from a coalition of countries.
Also pledged are U.S. Abrams tanks and French light tanks, along with Ukraine soldiers recently trained in their use.
The Western help has been vital in strengthening Ukraine’s dogged resistance and shaping the course of the war. Zelenskyy recognizes that without U.S. help, his country has no chance to prevail.
The new supplies, including howitzers, anti-tank weapons and 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition, will add more muscle to the Ukraine military and give it a bigger punch.
“Sheer numbers of tanks can drive a deeper wedge into Russian holding positions,” Nixey said.
In their counteroffensive, Ukrainian forces will look to break through the land corridor between Russia and the annexed Crimean peninsula, moving from Zaporizhzhia toward Melitopol and the Azov Sea, according to Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.
If successful, the Ukrainians “will split the Russian troops into two halves and cut off supply lines to the units that are located further to the west, in the direction of Crimea,” Zhdanov said.
WHAT MIGHT THE END GAME BE?
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, reckons that Ukraine will need to launch a series of counteroffensives, not just one, to get the upper hand.
The operations would have “the twin aims of persuading Putin to accept a negotiated compromise or of creating military realities sufficiently favorable to Ukraine that Kyiv and its Western allies can then effectively freeze the conflict on their own regardless of Putin’s decisions,” the institute said in an assessment published this week.
Nixey has no doubt that each side will keep “tearing chunks out of each other” over the coming months in the hope of gaining an advantage at the negotiating table.
A make-or-break period may lie ahead: If Kyiv fails to make progress on the battlefield with its Western-supplied weapons, allies may become reluctant to send it more of the expensive hardware.
The stakes are high: Defeat for Ukraine would “have global ramifications, and there will be no such thing as European security as we (currently) understand it,” Nixey said.Apr 1, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network The war that began with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has passed a grim one-year milestone, with mounting military and civilian deaths.
As fighting rages in and around Bakhmut, Western nations have raised their military support for Ukraine to the highest level yet, with commitments to send main battle tanks.
Japan bans Russia-bound exports of steel, aluminum and aircraft including drones in its latest sanctions imposed due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, the country's trade ministry said. The latest measure, which also prohibits Japanese entities from exporting a wide variety of industrial items such as construction machinery, ship engines, testing equipment and optical devices to Russia, will go into effect on April 7, the ministry said in a statement. The announcement comes days after Russia's Defense Ministry said the navy had fired supersonic anti-ship missiles at a practice target in the Sea of Japan.Turkey's parliament ratifies Finland's application to join NATO, lifting the last hurdle in the way of the Nordic country's long-delayed accession into the Western military alliance. All 276 lawmakers present voted in favor of Finland's bid. "This will make the whole NATO family stronger & safer," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter in welcoming Turkey's action. Alarmed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Finland and Sweden abandoned their decades-long policy of nonalignment and applied to join the alliance. Full unanimity is required to admit new members into the 30-member alliance, and Turkey was the last NATO member to ratify Finland's accession.Mar 31, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network Russia’s arrest of an American journalist on Thursday sparked outrage in the U.S., escalating fears that Moscow may attempt to take additional hostages as tensions reach new heights during the war in Ukraine.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, part of the newspaper’s Moscow bureau, was detained by Russian authorities in the city of Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage, accused of collecting a state secret about the Russian military-industrial complex.
The White House has indicated that it’s too early to say if Gershkovich’s arrest will lead to more incidents — and noted Thursday the motive for the move was unknown — but journalism groups are already sounding the alarm.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) warned that Moscow’s overall goal could be to stamp out foreign journalists in Russia from publishing information critical of the Kremlin, after cracking down on Russian journalists over the past year. The group said that Russia is likely to draft fabricated information in Gershkovich’s case.
“Russia managed to eliminate free press in the last 12 months or so. And now it could be the next stage to deal with foreign media,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “It’s all about Russia’s attempt to control reporting.”
She also warned that Gershkovich’s case could become a long, diplomatic battle.
Because Russian trials deny the accused basic rights and are often conducted in secret, Said said Gershkovich’s chances of freedom hinge on negotiations between the U.S. and Russia, which is seeking to benefit from the arrest.
“What Russians usually do, it’s like playing chess [with] many moves ahead, and they try to benefit with every move,” Said explained. “When I woke up and I heard this news, my immediate question was, ‘Which high-profile or even not very high-profile Russian is in an American jail?’ Because I think that is going to be the way it’s going to be resolved eventually.”
Meanwhile, the White House said it is focused on getting access to Gershkovich before assessing the threat level in Russia for journalists.
“It’s too soon to know or to be able to indicate that this is some sort of larger movement afoot here,” national security spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday. “We’re focused on Evan. We’re focused on … getting consular access to him as soon as we can so that we can assess for ourselves the condition that he is in and we can keep his family informed.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said the administration doesn’t “have any specific indication that journalists would be targeted.”
The Russian Federal Security Service, the main successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, arrested Gershkovich for allegedly trying to gain access to classified information and claimed he was acting on orders from the U.S.
Jean-Pierre, during a press briefing with reporters, would not answer a question about whether Gershkovich had ever worked for the U.S. government while lambasting the charges against him as “ridiculous.” The Journal has rejected the allegations against him and called for his release.
“The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich,” the newspaper said in a statement. “We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.”
Washington condemned the arrest of Gershkovich, who made an initial court appearance in Moscow and pleaded not guilty before he was ordered held until May 29. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “deeply concerned” about the arrest.
“In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish journalists and civil society voices,” Blinken said in a statement.
President Biden was briefed on Thursday morning about Gershkovich’s detention, and representatives from the Journal spoke with officials from the White House and State Department on Wednesday evening.
Other press advocacy organizations have condemned the detention, including the National Press Club, which on Thursday called on the State Department to designate Gershkovich’s detention as an unjust detention.
For many Americans, the case is a reminder of the arrest and trial of WNBA star Brittney Griner last year.
Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony last summer but was released in a prisoner exchange in December. The U.S. traded convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout for Griner, who was detained for carrying cannabis vape cartridges.
Russia has also detained former U.S. Marine and American citizen Paul Whelan since 2018 on espionage charges.
When asked if there is a concern that Russia was encouraged to arrest more high-profile Americans after Griner was released, the White House said the detention of foreigners — and particularly Americans — was not new for the Kremlin.
“This is not a new tactic for Mr. Putin and for Russian officials,” Kirby said. “It’s not new for them to detain Americans, and it’s certainly not new for Mr. Putin to strike back against a free and independent press.”
Gershkovich’s detention is also reminiscent of the arrest of U.S. News & World Report journalist Nicholas Daniloff, who was accused of espionage in 1986. Former President Reagan’s administration argued that his arrest was in retaliation for the U.S. arresting of Gennadi Zakharov, a Soviet working at the United Nations.
The arrest of Gershkovich comes about four days after the U.S. charged a Russian national, Sergey Cherkasov, as an agent of the Russian Intelligence Service. Cherkasov, who is being held in Brazil, is also accused of bank and fraud charges.
Russia passed a law shortly after the invasion of Ukraine last year that prohibits the publication of information related to “discreditation” of the military. About 170 people have been arrested or charged in relation to the crackdown since February 2022, according to the International Press Institute.
Gershkovich has worked as a reporter in Russia since 2017 and joined the newspaper in January 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal.
He most recently wrote about the impact of Western sanctions on Russia, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow and tensions in the Kremlin involving Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Maria Zakharova, director of the press department for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement on Telegram that Gershkovich’s arrest “has nothing to do with journalism.”
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the status of a ‘foreign correspondent,’ a journalistic visa and accreditation are used by foreigners in our country to cover up activities that are not journalism,” the statement read.
U.S. lawmakers on Thursday expressed their outrage over Gershkovich’s arrest, stressing concerns over Moscow using Americans as leverage.
“Once again, Russia’s desperate authoritarian regime has taken a U.S. citizen hostage – simply for being an American reporter. Russia must release Evan Gershkovich and other unjustifiably held Americans immediately,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Wednesday.
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), the co-chairman of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, said the arrest marks an “escalation not seen between our two countries since the days of the Soviet Union and the Cold War.”
“I am deeply concerned that this detention is the latest salvo in Putin’s efforts to use Americans as leverage in his conflict with Ukraine,” Quigley said in a statement. “He failed to successfully use [Brittney] Griner to degrade our support for Ukraine and he will fail again now.”Mar 31, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network Russia targeted the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with missile and drone strikes overnight, the Ukrainian military said on March 31, as fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces for the control of Bakhmut and other key towns in the eastern region of Donetsk continued.
Russian forces targeted civilian infrastructure in the city of Kharkiv with nine missile strikes launched from S-300 air-to-surface systems and 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its daily report, adding that nine drones were destroyed.
Emergency services were assessing the situation on the ground. It was not immediately know if there were casualties among the civilian population.
"The enemy continues to ignore the laws and customs of war, using terror tactics against the peaceful citizens of our country," the military said.
Heavy fighting continued in and around Bakhmut, where the Ukrainian defenders repelled 22 attacks over the past 24 hours, and in Avdiyivka, Lyman, and Maryinka.
A civilian was killed and six others were wounded by Russian shelling in the area around Bakhmut, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirylenko, wrote on Telegram on March 31.
Bakhmut, a mining city with a prewar population of 70,000 people, has become the epicenter of Russia's offensive for the control of eastern Ukraine. About 2,000 civilians are thought to be left in the city that has been all but razed to the ground.
In southern Ukraine, the city of Zaporizhzhya was also targeted by overnight shelling by Russia that damaged civilian infrastructure, the secretary of the Zaporizhzhya City Council, Anatoliy Kurtev, reported on Telegram.
Kurtev said no people were injured.
The latest fighting came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy marked the 400th day of Russia's full-scale invasion, saying in his evening address on March 30 that his country is preparing its next steps but did not explicitly mention an anticipated counteroffensive.
Zelenskiy said that during those 400 days, Ukraine has come a "colossal way" through its struggle, citing the recapture of areas of the Kharkiv region and the city of Kherson along with the ongoing defense of Bakhmut and the Donbas region in general.
"This is the heroism of Ukrainians, which the world will not forget," he said, adding, "We are preparing our next steps, we are preparing our active actions, approaching victory.... We will not leave a single trace of Russia on our land, and we will not leave any enemy unpunished."
Ukrainian military commanders have said a counteroffensive is not far off, but Zelenskiy indicated earlier this week that Kyiv is still waiting on "sufficient weapons" before mounting any major attacks.Mar 31, 2023 Ukraine Uncensored Network 
