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KYIV, Ukraine—Ukraine’s forces continued to defend the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut on Monday as President Volodymyr Zelensky posthumously gave the nation’s highest award to a Ukrainian soldier who had been filmed saying “Glory to Ukraine” before he was executed by Russian troops. After initial errors, Ukrainian authorities identified the soldier as Oleksandr Matsiyevsky, a sniper in the 119th Territorial Defense Brigade from the northern region of Chernihiv. A video released by a unit affiliated with Russia’s Wagner paramilitary organization showed him smoking next to what seemed like a freshly dug grave.
March 12 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy bestowed posthumously the honour of "Hero of Ukraine" on Sunday on a soldier who defiantly said "Glory to Ukraine" before being seen to be shot dead in a video posted on social media. "Today, I have bestowed the title of Hero of Ukraine on soldier Oleskandr Matsievskiy," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. For his bravery, for his confidence in Ukraine and for his 'Glory to Ukraine'." The term "Glory to Ukraine" is more than a century old but came into general use after Ukraine won independence from Soviet rule. It has been in widespread use as a greeting during the war, always drawing the response "Heroyam Slava" ("Glory to the Heroes").
Ukrainian aircraft launched three strikes on areas of concentration of Russian forces, according to a statement by the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Tuesday night. Bakhmut had a pre-war population of around 70,000 but has been ruined during months of fighting as a focal point of Russian assaults and determined Ukrainian defence. A Russian takeover of Bakhmut would open the way to seizing the last remaining urban centres in the industrial Donetsk province. 'GRINDING SLOG'[1/4] Ukrainian service members ride BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near the frontline city of Bakhmut, Ukraine February 27, 2023. The meeting will be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Britain's James Cleverly, while China is expected to send its foreign minister, Qin Gang.
The messages are a snapshot of a fateful day for Ukraine and Europe — capturing the fear, love and support shared in the first hours of war. Ira YeroshkoOh Girls:((( I can’t believe it started friend one yeah. Oleksandr StarunThe war started. Lilia TurchynSvitlanka, the war started Be careful, and tell our mom to be careful with Myroslav Where did you read that? On Feb. 24, she was in Lviv with her husband and 4-year-old son, Ustym.
A ruined Russian tank has been dumped outside the country's embassy in Berlin. The rusted heap appeared as a vivid symbol on the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The gesture came on the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The destroyed T-72 1B tank sits at an intersection near the embassy on the city's famed Unter den Linden boulevard. A ruined Russian T-72 tank sits on a flatbed truck outside the Russian embassy in Berlin, in February 2023.
[1/6] Ukrainian servicemen of the 17th Independent Tanks Brigade are seen atop of a T-64 tank, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near the frontline town of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine February 23, 2023. "Using Ukraine, the collective West is seeking to dismember Russia, to deprive it of its independence. U.S. President Joe Biden will meet virtually on Friday with G7 leaders and Zelenskiy to mark the anniversary and announce new sanctions against those aiding Russia's war effort, the White House said. Ukraine and its Western partners have brushed off the nuclear talk as a diversion from a stalled military campaign. Some U.S. and Western officials estimate Russia's military casualties at nearly 200,000 dead or wounded, while in November the top U.S. general said more than 100,000 troops on each side had been killed or wounded.
Ukraine war: major developments since Russia's invasion
  + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +7 min
Following are some of the major developments in Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two. Russian forces made slow, steady gains in a phase of the conflict that inflicted a heavy toll on both sides. UKRAINE COUNTER-ATTACKSAs the war churned on, the United States and Europe began giving Ukraine increasingly powerful and longer-range weaponry and used sanctions to try to hamper Russia's military machine. In early September, Ukrainian forces reeled off surprising gains in the northeastern Kharkiv region, wresting back the sole rail hub supplying Russia's regional front line. Joyous residents feted the return of Ukrainian forces, though the city remains subject to Russian shelling.
Ukraine's military said it shot down 47 of 59 Russian missiles - some fired from Tu-95 strategic bombers in the Russian Arctic. Russia responded with fury to news on Wednesday that Germany and the United States would send dozens of modern tanks to Ukraine. [1/11] A local resident carry home staff from a house of his neighbour damaged by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Hlevakha, outside Kyiv, Ukraine January 26, 2023. After being promised modern tanks, Ukraine is now seeking Western fourth-generation fighter jets such as the U.S. F-16, an adviser to Ukraine's defence minister said. The United States on Thursday formally designated Russian private military company the Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization, freezing its U.S. assets for helping Russia's military in the Ukraine war.
Russia's foreign minister said Russia was open to negotiating with Ukraine in the early months of the war. Sergey Lavrov blamed the US and other Western nations for blocking peace talks. In the weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, a number of fruitless peace talks took place as Russia continued to bomb Ukrainian cities. Neither Russia nor Ukraine have shown signs that a diplomatic resolution to the war is now forthcoming. Russia, meanwhile, has said that Ukraine would need to accept Russia's annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia as part of any peace agreement.
DNIPROVS’KE, Ukraine — The smell of sawdust hangs in the air around a network of neatly dug trenches in a quiet and densely forested area on Ukraine’s border with Belarus. Originally built in April, Ukrainian forces continue to update and strengthen defenses such as these trenches, amid reports of Russian troops and armor pouring into Belarus. Air force drills will be held from Monday to Feb. 1 using all of Belarus's military air fields, and joint army exercises involving a “mechanized brigade subdivision,” the Belarusian defense ministry said. “We are now focused on the reserves and groupings of troops that Russia is putting in the temporarily occupied territories. Across the Dnipro river from Belarus, not far from the trenches, Ukrainian forces are taking no chances.
But Ukraine and its backers say work to repair and rebuild should not wait until the war is over. Estonia, Ukraine's neighbor and one of its biggest allies during the war, is helping with multiple rebuilding projects, including the bomb-sheltered kindergarten. Oleksandra Azarkhina, Ukraine's deputy infrastructure minister, told Insider that Ukraine wants to rebuild facilities like kindergartens so that people can still have normal lives, despite the war. One Zhytomyr resident, Sofiia Zinchuk, told Insider she felt "wonderful" when she heard the kindergarten would be built. It shows that we're not going to comply with destructions and inconveniences," she told Insider.
A Culture in the Cross Hairs
  + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Jason Farago | Haley Willis | Sarah Kerr | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +30 min
A Culture in theCross Hairs Russia’s invasion has systematically destroyed Ukrainian cultural sites. It has also dealt a grievous blow to Ukrainian culture: to its museums and monuments, its grand universities and rural libraries, its historic churches and contemporary mosaics. This is how empires always work.” The war in Ukraine is a culture war, and the extent of the destruction is becoming clearer. Kyiv Sviatohirsk UKRAINE Damaged or destroyed religious sites Areas controlled by Russia at any time since invasion. Kyiv Sviatohirsk UKRAINE Damaged or destroyed religious sites Areas controlled by Russia at any time since invasion.
Since the early days of the invasion, Mr. Putin has conceded, privately, that the war has not gone as planned. “I think he is sincerely willing” to compromise with Russia, Mr. Putin said of Mr. Zelensky in 2019. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. “I think this war is Putin’s grave.” Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, a Russian prisoner of war held by Ukraine, in October.
An elderly woman looks at damaged caused by overnight Russian shelling of a residential building on Dec. 1, 2022 in Kherson, Ukraine. Sunday marks exactly one month since Russia's troops withdrew from Kherson and its vicinity after an eight-month occupation, sparking jubilation across Ukraine. The regional administration said Saturday that shelling over the past month has killed 41 people, including a child, in Kherson, and 96 were hospitalized. When aid trucks arrived a month ago, war-weary and desperate residents flocked to the central Svoboda (Freedom) Square for food and supplies. Longer-term questions remain: Kherson sits in an agricultural region that produces crops as diverse as wheat, tomatoes, and watermelon — a regional symbol.
However, the patterns suggest that sexual violence “maybe even more frequent” in territories that were occupied for longer periods, he added, without providing evidence. Widespread or systematic sexual violence could amount to crimes against humanity, which are generally seen as more serious, legal specialists said. Moscow, which has said it is conducting a “special military operation" in Ukraine, has denied committing war crimes or targeting civilians. Evidence that sexual violence was planned could indicate it was part of a systematic attack or that some level of command was aware, said Kim Thuy Seelinger, an advisor to the ICC on sexual violence in conflict and a research associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said it has opened dozens of criminal cases involving sexual violence by members of the Russian armed forces against women, children and men.
However, the patterns suggest that sexual violence “maybe even more frequent” in territories that were occupied for longer periods, he added, without providing evidence. Widespread or systematic sexual violence could amount to crimes against humanity, which are generally seen as more serious, legal specialists said. Moscow, which has said it is conducting a “special military operation" in Ukraine, has denied committing war crimes or targeting civilians. Evidence that sexual violence was planned could indicate it was part of a systematic attack or that some level of command was aware, said Kim Thuy Seelinger, an advisor to the ICC on sexual violence in conflict and a research associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said it has opened dozens of criminal cases involving sexual violence by members of the Russian armed forces against women, children and men.
During winter, Kyiv sees temperatures plunge below the freezing point, making the potential for power outages in the coming months particularly alarming. Vita Spivakovska, who has a 6-month-old daughter, is facing power cuts each day that last up to 15 hours. Freezing is not the only problem that would face Kyiv’s residents if this scenario was repeated in the thick of winter. People eating lunch by candlelight due to a power cut at a bar in Kyiv on Oct. 24. “These points are equipped with everything necessary: heat, lighting, bathrooms, dining rooms, places to rest, banks of warm clothes and warm blankets,” he added.
Hossein Amirabdollahian claimed, however, that Tehran didn’t know if its drones were used against Ukraine and stated Iran’s commitment to stopping the conflict. Moscow has said those came in response to what it alleged were Ukrainian attacks on Crimea, the region that Russia illegally annexed in 2014. A worker repairs damaged lines after a missile strike on a power plant in an undisclosed part of Ukraine. The Russian forces targeted the city and the areas around it with heavy artillery, as they have done repeatedly since July. Elsewhere in the region, Ukrainian forces shot down a drone and another projectile, according to Reznichenko.
Iran may soon arm Russia with surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missiles, three U.S. and Western government officials said, in what would be significant escalation of Iranian support for President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. If delivered, they would be the first advanced, precision-guided missiles that Iran has provided Russia since the war started. Short-range ballistic missiles have a range of hundreds of miles, and could help Moscow replenish its dwindling stockpile, which have been depleted by Russia’s war in Ukraine. “We remain concerned about the potential for Iran to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles,” White House National Security Council adviser John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday. Ed Ram / Getty ImagesThe Washington Post and CNN reported earlier on indications that Iran may supply ballistic missiles to Russia.
The report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine details violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in four regions occupied by Russian armed forces. In some cases, the commission found that Ukrainian forces committed war crimes against Russian troops, though those incidents were less frequent. An 83-year-old woman described how, while her village was occupied by Russian armed forces, she was raped by a Russian armed forces serviceman in her house where her physically disabled husband was also present. The commission wrote that some victims declined to be interviewed while others have considered suicide. The report also documents Russian forces unlawfully confining Ukrainian civilians in overcrowded makeshift facilities before carrying out interrogation sessions which involved methods of torture:
ZURICH, Oct 18 (Reuters) - A United Nations commission found Russian forces were responsible for the "vast majority" of human rights violations in the early weeks of the war in Ukraine, including attacks on civilians that were potential war crimes. It also found abuses committed by Ukraine, including two cases of people who were out of action who were shot, wounded or tortured. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"Russian armed forces are responsible for the vast majority of the violations identified, including war crimes. All four of those provinces have since been fully recaptured by Ukraine, after Russia's assault on the capital failed. Kyiv has said it will punish abuses committed by its own forces but believes the number of such incidents is small.
An Afghan soldier fighting for the Soviets sits on a Soviet-made T-64 tank near the Salang Pass on August 17, 1989. However, these systems were mostly exported, and it's unclear whether either is currently operational on Ukrainian tanks. Defending Ukraine, 2014-2015A Ukrainian tank in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk in July 2014. A burned Ukrainian tank in Uglegorsk, on the frontline near Debaltseve, in February 2015. A pro-Russian separatist stands guard near a T-64 tank in Donetsk in July 2014.
Russia’s invasion causes damage across Ukraine
  + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Michael Ovaska | ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +3 min
Graphics Russia’s invasion causes damage across UkraineRussia's invasion of Ukraine has caused widespread destruction with direct damages of over $97 billion as of June 1 according to a report by the World Bank, the Ukrainian government and the European Commission. Note: As of June 1, 2022 Sources: World Bank, the government of Ukraine and the European CommissionThe report — the first comprehensive damage assessment of the war's impact on Ukraine — provided preliminary figures that will rise as the war continues. Regions like Kyiv and Chernihiv retaken by Ukrainian troops and returned to government control accounted for 22% of damages. Map of Ukraine showing regions of Ukraine and proportional circles for the cost of damage by region. RebuildUA, a project that analyzes the destroyed infrastructure of Ukraine, used drone footage and satellite images to determine 23% of Irpin buildings were damaged.
Russian troops have raped and tortured children in Ukraine, carried out a “large number” of executions and committed other war crimes, according to a United Nations investigation by legal experts. “Based on the evidence gathered by the commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine,” Erik Mose, the chairman of the three-member commission, told the U.N. Human Rights Council. Mose, a Norwegian judge, said the commission has documented cases in which children have been "raped, tortured and unlawfully confined." Children also have been killed and wounded in “indiscriminate attacks” by Russian forces using explosive weapons, he said. Russia has denied committing war crimes and defended its conduct of the war since it launched the invasion Feb. 24.
Erik Mose, Chairperson of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, attends the Human Rights Council special session on the human rights situation in Ukraine, at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May 12, 2022. REUTERS/Denis BalibouseGENEVA, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The chair of an independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said on Friday that it had concluded that war crimes had been committed in Ukraine following investigations conducted in four regions of the country. "Based on the evidence gathered by the Commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine," Erik Møse told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. He did not say explicitly who had committed the crimes but the commission's work was focused on areas of Ukraine previously occupied by Russian forces such as Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy. Investigators from the commission, which was created by the U.N. Human Rights Council in March, visited 27 places and interviewed more than 150 victims and witnesses.
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