With the election behind him, Putin says Russia aims to set up a buffer zone inside Ukraine

Associated Press

With the election behind him, Putin says Russia aims to set up a buffer zone inside Ukraine

The Associated Press – March 18, 2024

Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are depicted in a tug-of-war game on a memorial in Izium, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Sunday, March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are depicted in a tug-of-war game on a memorial in Izium, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Sunday, March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Family members of Vitaliy Alimov, his mother Maria and his wife Natalia, mourn over his body before his funeral in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Ukraine, Monday March 18, 2024. Alimov, a firefighter, was killed in the Russian attack on Odesa on Friday March 15. (AP Photo/Victor Sajenko)
Family members of Vitaliy Alimov, his mother Maria and his wife Natalia, mourn over his body before his funeral in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Ukraine, Monday March 18, 2024. Alimov, a firefighter, was killed in the Russian attack on Odesa on Friday March 15. (AP Photo/Victor Sajenko)
FILE - Men in unmarked uniforms stand guard during the seizure of the Ukrainian corvette Khmelnitsky in Sevastopol, Crimea, Thursday, March 20, 2014. When Ukraine's Kremlin-friendly president was ousted in 2014 by mass protests that Moscow called a U.S.-instigated coup, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by sending troops to overrun Crimea and staging a plebiscite on joining Russia, which the West dismissed as illegal. (AP Photo, File)
Men in unmarked uniforms stand guard during the seizure of the Ukrainian corvette Khmelnitsky in Sevastopol, Crimea, Thursday, March 20, 2014. When Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted in 2014 by mass protests that Moscow called a U.S.-instigated coup, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by sending troops to overrun Crimea and staging a plebiscite on joining Russia, which the West dismissed as illegal. (AP Photo, File)
Emergency services workers look on as Military chaplain Archpriest Ioann shovels earth into the grave of Vitaliy Alimov during his funeral in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Ukraine, Monday March 18, 2024. Alimov, a firefighter, was killed in the Russian attack on Odesa on Friday March 15. (AP Photo/Victor Sajenko)
Emergency services workers look on as Military chaplain Archpriest Ioann shovels earth into the grave of Vitaliy Alimov during his funeral in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Ukraine, Monday March 18, 2024. Alimov, a firefighter, was killed in the Russian attack on Odesa on Friday March 15. (AP Photo/Victor Sajenko)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said after extending his rule in an election that stifled opposition that Moscow will not relent in its invasion of Ukraine and plans to create a buffer zone to help protect against long-range Ukrainian strikes and cross-border raids.

The Kremlin’s forces have made battlefield progress as Kyiv’s troops struggle with a severe shortage of artillery shells and exhausted front-line units after more than two years of war. The front line stretches over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) across eastern and southern Ukraine.

Advances have been slow and costly, and Ukraine has increasingly used its long-range firepower to hit oil refineries and depots deep inside Russia. Also, groups claiming to be Ukraine-based Russian opponents of the Kremlin have launched cross-border incursions.

“We will be forced at some point, when we consider it necessary, to create a certain ‘sanitary zone’ on the territories controlled by the (Ukrainian government),” Putin said late Sunday.

This “security zone,” Putin said, “would be quite difficult to penetrate using the foreign-made strike assets at the enemy’s disposal.”

He spoke after the release of election returns that showed him securing a fifth six-year term in a landslide in an election devoid of any real opposition following his relentless crackdown on dissent.

Monday marks the 10th anniversary of Russia’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula, which set the stage for Russia to invade its neighbor in February 2022. However, Putin has been vague about his goals in Ukraine since that full-scale invasion floundered.

Putin again warned the West against deploying troops to Ukraine. A possible conflict between Russia and NATO would put the world “a step away” from World War III, he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron recently said that sending Western troops into Ukraine should not be ruled out, though he said the current situation does not require it.

Commenting on the prospects for peace talks with Kyiv, Putin reaffirmed that Russia remains open to negotiations but won’t be lured into a truce that will allow Ukraine to rearm.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has apparently shut the door on such talks, saying Putin should be brought to trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which last year issued an arrest warrant for Putin on war crime charges.

With crucial U.S. aid being held up in Washington, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham arrived in Kyiv on Monday, the U.S. Embassy said. Ukraine desperately needs the around $48 billion that the package of support would provide, especially artillery shells and air defense systems.

Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 17 out of 22 Shahed drones launched by Russia over various regions of the country overnight. Russia also fired five S-300/S-400 missiles at the Kharkiv region and two Kh-59 at the Sumy region, both in northeastern Ukraine, it said.

Authorities say the intensity of ground attacks and airstrikes has increased recently in the Sumy region, prompting the evacuation of 56 people, including 26 children, from one border village over the past week.

In the past two and a half months the region has been struck more than 3,000 times, after some 8,000 strikes over all of last year, the Ukrainian regional government says. The number of aerial bomb attacks has tripled, and Russian saboteurs are highly active, according to officials.

This story corrects the name of the court to the International Criminal Court.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Russia claims it used ‘vacuum bomb’ to kill large number of Ukrainian soldiers

CNN

Russia claims it used ‘vacuum bomb’ to kill large number of Ukrainian soldiers

Brad Lendon, Manveena Suri, Josh Pennington and Sophie Jeong – March 16, 2024

CNN

Russia says it killed large numbers of Ukrainian soldiers with a so-called “vacuum bomb”, a powerful munition that sucks in oxygen from the surroundings to sustain an explosion.

The deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces told Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a meeting that up to 300 soldiers were killed “as a result of an accurate strike by an aerial munition,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

CNN cannot independently verify the numbers and there has been no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Colonel General Alexei Kim did not indicate where the strike took place but described the location of the strike as the “deployment point of the ‘Kraken’ nationalist formation,” according to the ministry, referring to a special unit of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.

Kim said a “volumetric detonation bomb” was used in the airstrike, RIA Novosti reported Saturday.

Volumetric weapons are also known as vacuum bombs, thermobaric weapons or fuel-air explosives.

The destruction caused by a thermobaric weapon is caused by the blast wave it creates and also the vacuum resulting from the fuel-air mixture sucking in oxygen to sustain the detonation, according to the Lieber Institute for Law & Warfare at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York.

The force of such a blast is enough to collapse buildings and rupture organs. Walls or even caves don’t provide protection, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

Details of the Russian airstrike emerged during a meeting at the headquarters of the Joint Group of Forces, where Shoigu heard reports from commanders on the current situation in the “zone of the special military operation,” the ministry said, Russia’s phrase for its war in Ukraine.

Kim also did not mention when the strike was carried out but noted that “over the past week alone, as a result of effective work of reconnaissance and strike systems, three American Patriot complexes, a Vampire multiple rocket launcher, more than 10 foreign-made artillery systems and fuel and ammunition depots were destroyed,” according to the ministry.

Kim also told Shoigu during the meeting that Ukraine is “suffering significant losses in both equipment and manpower as a result of the use of high-precision weapons and strike drones,” the ministry said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The ‘authoritarian’ lessons Trump and the Republicans want to learn from Orbán’s Hungary

Independent

The ‘authoritarian’ lessons Trump and the Republicans want to learn from Orbán’s Hungary

Katie Hawkinson – March 15, 2024

Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán pictured together meeting in March 2024 (HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE)
Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán pictured together meeting in March 2024 (HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE)

As he gears up for the 2024 election, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump met with an old ally: Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary who has triggered a democratic backslide in his country.

Mr Orbán met with Mr Trump last week, bypassing any meetings with President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris despite stopping in Washington, DC — where he visited with The Heritage Foundation, a powerful conservative think tank staffed by many former Trump administration officials.

Their meeting came just one week before National Hungary Day when Mr Orbán gave a speech condemning the “Western world.”

“They start wars, destroy worlds, redraw countries’ borders and graze on everything like locusts,” Mr Orbán told a crowd in Budapest, per the Associated Press. “We Hungarians live differently and want to live differently.”

The exact details of the discussion between Mr Trump and Mr Orbán are unclear. Mr Trump’s campaign released a statement describing their conversation as focused on “a wide range of issues affecting Hungary and the United States, including the paramount importance of strong and secure borders to protect the sovereignty of each nation.”

Regardless, the conversation clearly went well, with Mr Orbán calling the former president his “good friend” on Monday. The same day, the Hungarian Prime Minister also praised Mr Trump’s reported comment that he will not send any aid to Ukraine if elected. Meanwhile, Mr Trump has mentioned Mr Orbán in several remarks, including a 2023 speech in which he wrongly referred to him as the President of Turkey.

Even beyond Mr Trump, the GOP has a fixation with Hungary and Mr Orbán’s government. In 2022, former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson focused on Hungary, releasing a documentary that appeared to portray the country as a model for conservatism. More recently Carlson has been singing the praises of Vladimir Putin’s Russia – both Mr Trump and Mr Orbán have a close relationship with the Russian dictator.

So, why do Mr Trump and Mr Orbán get along so well? Experts tell The Independent it’s because Mr Trump wants to learn from Mr Orbán if re-elected in 2024.

Why is Donald Trump obsessed with Viktor Orbán?

The former President and Mr Orbán have similar goals for the future world order — making them eager allies, Robert Benson, a senior policy analyst with the Center for American Progress, told The Independent.

“It’s no coincidence that someone like Viktor Orban is attempting to build a relationship with Stephen Miller, with Donald Trump, with the Maga Republicans on this side of the Atlantic,” Dr Benson said. “Because they see themselves in a civilizational battle for the future of what they call ‘Western Civilization.’ This is steeped in anti-immigrant xenophobia, in right-wing nationalism, and in tropes about the nation-state.”

Mr Trump, of course, has made his far-right, anti-immigration stance clear since day one of his 2016 presidential campaign. Similarly, Mr Orbán has expressed radical views on immigration since 2015 — and in 2022, he said he did not want Hungarians to become “peoples of mixed race.”

“I am the only politician in the EU who stands for an openly anti-immigration policy,” Mr Orbán said. “This is not a race issue for us, this is a cultural issue.”

Meanwhile, Kim Scheppele, Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University, sees the Trump-Orbán relationship in a different light — rather than plotting a new future for civilization, she says the two leaders are “just opportunistic, transactionalists looking to cut a deal whenever it happens.”

“Both of them are just transactional politicians,” Dr Scheppele told The Independent. “One of the reasons why both of them love dictators — and don’t like organizations like Nato, the EU and so on — is because dictators are also transactional. They don’t expect you to be loyal forever; everything is just a deal in the moment.”

Both Mr Trump and Mr Orbán have expressed disdain for Nato and its processes. The former president has threatened to violate Nato by allowing Russia to attack member states; meanwhile, Mr Orbán delayed a vote on Sweden’s membership for 18 months. As a result, the country was not admitted until this year.

Mr Trump would not have to entirely pull out of Nato to reject their principles during a potential second presidency. As journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum wrote in The Atlantic, Mr Trump could simply reject Article 5, which states an attack against one Nato nation “shall be considered an attack against them all”. Though, as former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said, a second Trump presidency could certainly mean the end of US Nato membership. Though he did not outright reject it, Mr Trump did not specifically endorse Article 5 at the 2017 Nato summit.

“Trump admires lots of dictators, but I think he admires them because they stay in power forever, because they look all powerful, but that mostly because their foreign policy doesn’t tie them up in strings,” Dr Scheppele said.

Mr Trump has formerly expressed that he would be a dictator on day one of his potential second presidency.

“Orbán becomes a model for this kind of foreign policy,” Dr Scheppele continued.

Now, Hungary is in a democratic backslide. Mr Orbán has sought to undermine education, even targeting his former ally-turned-enemy George Soros, who founded Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Mr Orbán forced Mr Soros – who has become a hate figure to the hard right across the world over his support for civil society projects – to relocate the university to Vienna in 2018.

In 2022, the EU Parliament declared that Hungary could no longer be called a full democracy, labelling it an “electoral autocracy.” Lawmakers raised several concerns about the Hungarian government, including the lack of media pluralism, religious freedom and independence of the judiciary.

“Academic freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of association, the right to equal treatment, including LGBTIQ rights, the rights of minorities, as well as those of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, are also problematic,” Parliament said in a statement.

Then, in 2023, Hungary passed Mr Orbán’s Defence of National Sovereignty Act, which authorized the creation of a new government authority that can gather information on any organizations or individuals that benefit from foreign funds or that can influence public debate.

Dr Scheppele called the law an “authoritarian monster.” Meanwhile, the European Commission said last month the law violated European Union law.

What could this alliance mean if Mr Trump is re-elected?

Practically, Dr Benson said a second Trump administration could bring withdrawals from international institutions.

“So, in the event that Trump were to win the presidency in 2024, he would probably withdraw from international institutions,” Dr Benson told The Independent. “He’s mentioned his disdain for NATO. This plays neatly into a playbook for Vladimir Putin, who is banking exactly on our domestic politics to be able to succeed in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, Dr Scheppele pointed to Project 2025, a conservative playbook for the next presidential administration that calls for a series of actions to bolster a potential conservative presidency come the 2024 election. Its purpose is to avoid the mistakes of 2017 when Mr Trump first took office and the GOP was woefully underprepared. Along with replacing supposedly impartial federal officials with fellow conservatives, Project 2025 also calls for several policy revisions, such as re-adding the citizenship question to the US Census and reversing the FDA approval of abortion pills.

Wes Coopersmith, the Chief of Staff for the Heritage Foundation who oversees Project 2025, told The Independent that replacing employees with GOP allies if Mr Trump is elected would be “democratic.”

“We think the most democratic way to run the administration is with folks who agree with the President, who voted for the president, who agree with his policies and want to implement that,” Mr Coopersmith said.

Mr Orbán’s success leading an “authoritarian” government relied on “decapitating” the civil service and replacing it with his extremist allies, which mirrors the Project 2025 strategy, Dr Scheppele said.

“In 2010, [Orbán] came in and decapitated the civil service, replacing with all his own loyalists, reinstated Civil Service protection for them and captured the state bureaucracy — that was a big part of how he went about locking himself into power,” Dr Scheppele told The Independent. “You see this as the blueprint for Trump.”

“There is an ideological battle at play between liberal democracy and those who espouse a kind of perverted autocracy,” Dr Benson said.

“It’s clear that this is very much part of the stakes going into 2024 here at home,” he continued.

Ukrainians living under Russian occupation are coerced to vote for Putin

Associated Press

Ukrainians living under Russian occupation are coerced to vote for Putin

Yuras Karmanau and Emma Burrows – March 14, 2024

A couple walk past billboards which promote the upcoming presidential election with words in Russian: "Your voice is important" in a street in Luhansk, the capital of Russian-controlled Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday called on people in Ukraine's occupied regions to vote, telling them and Russians that participation in the elections is "manifestation of patriotic feeling," Presidential elections are scheduled in Russia for March 17. (AP Photo)
A couple walk past billboards which promote the upcoming presidential election with words in Russian: “Your voice is important” in a street in Luhansk, the capital of Russian-controlled Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday called on people in Ukraine’s occupied regions to vote, telling them and Russians that participation in the elections is “manifestation of patriotic feeling,” Presidential elections are scheduled in Russia for March 17. (AP Photo)
A volunteer holds a flag reading "let's go to the elections" promoting the upcoming presidential election in a street in Donetsk, the capital of Russian-controlled Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday called on people in Ukraine's occupied regions to vote, telling them and Russians that participation in the elections is "manifestation of patriotic feeling," Presidential elections are scheduled in Russia for March 17. (AP Photo)
A volunteer holds a flag reading “let’s go to the elections” promoting the upcoming presidential election in a street in Donetsk, the capital of Russian-controlled Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday called on people in Ukraine’s occupied regions to vote, telling them and Russians that participation in the elections is “manifestation of patriotic feeling,” Presidential elections are scheduled in Russia for March 17. (AP Photo)
A woman walks past a billboard which promote the upcoming presidential election with words in Russian: "Together we are strong, we vote for Russia!" on a bus stop in Luhansk, the capital of Russian-controlled Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday called on people in Ukraine's occupied regions to vote, telling them and Russians that participation in the elections is "manifestation of patriotic feeling," Presidential elections are scheduled in Russia for March 17. (AP Photo)
A woman walks past a billboard which promote the upcoming presidential election with words in Russian: “Together we are strong, we vote for Russia!” on a bus stop in Luhansk, the capital of Russian-controlled Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday called on people in Ukraine’s occupied regions to vote, telling them and Russians that participation in the elections is “manifestation of patriotic feeling,” Presidential elections are scheduled in Russia for March 17. (AP Photo)

Ukrainians living in regions illegally annexed by Russia are being coerced to vote in the presidential election of their wartime occupierVladimir Putin — an exercise denounced by Ukraine as an illegitimate effort by Moscow to tighten control over its neighbor.

Polls don’t open in Russia until Friday, but they are open in four annexed regions of Ukraine close to the front line, some of which are not fully in Putin’s control.

The election is taking place under highly distorted and restrictive conditions. Many Ukrainians fled these regions – or were deported by Russia – after Putin’s invasion two years ago, and there are reports of people being forced to vote at gunpoint. There are no international election observers in Ukraine.

The Russian government is prodding Ukrainians with billboards and posters to vote “for their president” and to “take part in the future of our country.” It is promoting the election with a “V” symbol in the colors of the Russian flag — a letter emblazoned on Russian tanks and a clear nod to Putin’s first name.

“ The elections are an extension of military occupation and of the war itself … rather than an exercise in the democratic franchise,” said Sam Greene, a director at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington.

In addition to setting up polling stations, Russia has dispatched officials with ballot boxes to people’s homes, saying it is safer for them to vote on their doorsteps.

The Kremlin views the voting in occupied regions of Ukraine as a “test of loyalty” for civilians and local elites, said Volodymyr Fesenko, the head of Penta, a political think tank.

Polls are already open in Russian-occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. In Crimea, which was annexed from Ukraine by Putin in 2014, polls will open Friday.

In the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, said his city was a symbol of Russia’s “military nightmare” and of an “electoral process in ruins.” He said a woman “accompanied by two Chechen military men with machine guns” showed up at his neighbor’s apartment with a ballot box and made clear that voting was not optional.

There have been multiple reports of Russian-installed authorities forcing people to vote, and threatening to withhold medical care or other social benefits from those who do not. More than two dozen Ukrainians who refused to vote have been arrested, according to human rights activists.

Analysts say the Kremlin is eager for a high turnout — in Russia and the occupied regions of Ukraine — to signify control, silence dissent and present Putin as a legitimate leader. The Institute for the Study of War said it expects the Kremlin and Russia-installed officials in Ukraine to “fabricate” a high turnout.

The Ukrainian governor of the Zaporozhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, said that — based on publicly available lists — the Kremlin has brought more than half of the election officials and activists into the region from Russia.

The Russia-installed governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said Thursday that turnout in early voting was “better than expected” and that lines were forming at polling stations.

In the eastern region of Luhansk, which has been partially occupied since 2014, some residents told The Associated Press that they were going to vote for Putin, although several said they had no idea who else was on the ballot.

“I will vote for Putin, because I don’t know anyone else,” said Veronica, a 30-year-old nurse.

Tatiana, a 20-year-old student, said of Putin: ”I trust him so much that other candidates are no longer suitable for me.”

The AP is not identifying them by their full names because of concerns for their safety.

In a video address on Thursday, Putin urged people in Ukraine’s occupied regions — and in Russia — to vote, telling them that “each of your votes is valuable and significant.”

It is unclear how many people live in the newly annexed regions of eastern Ukraine, where the Kremlin has been accused of resettling Russians. Britain’s Ministry of Defense estimated Wednesday that a third of the pre-war Ukrainian population remains, and analysts said the lack of transparency makes it easy to manipulate the vote.

In February, the Russia-installed governor of Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, Evgeny Balitsky, said in an interview that he personally ordered the deportation of pro-Ukrainian citizens, because “these were people who we could not convince and we have to deal with them more harshly.”

Balitsky said “a large number of families” were dropped off near the front line because some of them had insulted Russia’s flag, anthem and Putin.

In Mariupol, which was flattened by the Russian military early in the war, the population has dropped from just over 400,000 people to around 200,000. Half of the current population, according to Boychenko, the mayor, are not Ukrainian and include construction workers and laborers from remote Russian regions. The Kremlin, he said, is trying to repopulate Mariupol “to create a loyal majority out of poor settlers.”

At least 27 people have been arrested for refusing to vote in the occupied areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, according to Pavlo Lysianskyi of the Eastern Human Rights Group.

“The Kremlin is demonstratively increasing pressure on local residents,” Lysianskyi said.

There are also cases, he said, of authorities forcing people to write explanations of their refusal to vote, which could become the basis for initiating criminal cases against them. That practice was also used in local Russian elections held in occupied Ukrainian regions in September.

Karmanau reported from Tallinn, Estonia. Burrows reported from London.

Russia election 2024: Voting begins in election Putin is bound to win

BBC News

Russia election 2024: Voting begins in election Putin is bound to win

Laura Gozzi and Francis Scarr – BBC News – March 15, 2024

President Vladimir Putin speaking with Lieutenant Colonel Artyom Zhoga during a ceremony to present Gold Star medals to Heroes of Russia at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow on December 8, 2023.
It was never in doubt but President Putin confirmed he would run during a Kremlin ceremony in December

Voting has begun in Russia’s presidential election, which is all but certain to hand Vladimir Putin another six years in power.

Ballots will be cast over three days, even though the result is not in doubt as he has no credible opponent.

Polling stations opened in the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia’s easternmost region, at 08:00 local time on Friday (20:00 GMT on Thursday) and will finally close in the westernmost Kaliningrad enclave at 20:00 on Sunday.

It was at a grand military awards ceremony last December that Vladimir Putin told the Russian public he would stand for the presidency for a fifth time.

The solemn event, held in one of the Kremlin’s most opulent halls, Russia’s leader of 24 years had just handed out top honours to soldiers who had taken part in Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

He was chatting with a small group of participants when the commander of a pro-Russian unit in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region approached him.

“We need you, Russia needs you!” declared Lt-Col Artyom Zhoga, asking him to run as a candidate in Russia’s forthcoming presidential election. Everyone voiced their support.

Vladimir Putin nodded: “Now is the time for making decisions. I will be running for the post of president of the Russian Federation.”

His spokesman Dmitry Peskov later described the decision to run as “absolutely spontaneous”. But the Kremlin rarely leaves its choreography to chance.

Instead, straight away its well-oiled media machine swung into action.

On all state channels, 71-year-old President Putin was promoted as a national leader who stood head and shoulders above any potential rivals.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with athletes at the Palace of Sambo in Krasnodar, Russia on March 7, 2024
Vladimir Putin does not need to campaign – his face is rarely absent from state TV

“Support for the president transcends party support alone,” reported one correspondent on state TV news later that week. “Vladimir Putin is the people’s candidate!”

He has already been in power in Russia longer than any ruler since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

He has been president since 2000, apart from four years as prime minister because of a two-term limit imposed by the Russian constitution.

He has since changed the rules to give himself a clean slate to run again in 2024 by “switching back to zero” his previous terms. That means he could also run for another six-year term in 2030, when he will turn 78.

During his time in office, Vladimir Putin has methodically tightened his grip on power so no real threat to his rule exists any longer. His most outspoken critics are either dead, in jail or in exile.

Alexei Navalny appears on a screen via video link from the IK-6 penal colony in the Vladimir region, during a court hearing to consider an appeal against his sentence in the criminal case on numerous charges, including the creation of an extremist organization, in Moscow, Russia September 26, 2023
The only major opposition figure in Russia, Alexei Navalny, is now dead – his widow says he was murdered

Yet the Kremlin remains determined to give a semblance of legitimacy to Russia’s electoral process.

Although there can be no doubt about the ultimate election result, the authorities seem to care greatly about a high turnout, which will be presented as evidence of his popular mandate.

Turnout at the last election in 2018 was officially 68%, but international observers reported several cases of ballot-stuffing.

This year, voting will be easier than ever before, ending on Sunday.

In the parts of occupied Ukraine that Russia calls its “new regions”, polls opened 10 days before election day, and social media has been awash with ads urging people to go vote.

When they do, they will be faced with a choice – or rather a semblance of one.

Joining Russia’s leader on the ballot will be Nikolai Kharitonov, representing the Communist Party, which remains Russia’s second most popular party, more than 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union. It draws its support from a small but loyal base of those nostalgic for their Soviet past.

Nikolai Kharitonov is portrayed in a campaign video walking to his imagined new job in the Kremlin
Nikolai Kharitonov is portrayed in a campaign video walking to his imagined new job in the Kremlin

The other two candidates are Leonid Slutsky of the nationalist LDPR and Vladislav Davankov of the New People, ostensibly a liberal, pro-business party.

Despite their vastly different political standings, all three broadly back the Kremlin’s policies – and none stands a chance against the incumbent.

Another hopeful – local Moscow councillor Boris Nadezhdin – announced his candidacy last year, generating a rare moment of optimism for opposition-minded voters.

He was a frequent guest on talk shows on state TV and had been relatively critical of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

But in a country where many have been jailed for speaking out against the war, he would never make the ballot paper.

Thousands queued up to offer signatures in his support, and perhaps spooked by the crowds, Russia’s election authorities rejected his bid, claiming that more than 15% of his collected signatures were flawed.

Boris Nadezhdin, a representative of Civil Initiative political party, speaks to journalists after the Central Election Commission barred him from running in Russia's 2024 presidential election, at the commission's office in Moscow, Russia February 8, 2024.
Boris Nadezhdin was barred from running more than a month before the election

Mr Nadezhdin’s exclusion from the race ended any possibility of a surprise.

Televised debates have taken place in the run-up to the vote, without Vladimir Putin taking part.

Instead, TV coverage has focused on his regular choreographed meetings with factory workers, soldiers and students while his state-of-the-nation address at the end of February was widely seen as a pre-election pitch aimed at burnishing his credentials as a man of the people.

Although some of the speech was devoted to the war in Ukraine, it was largely dedicated to domestic issues. Perhaps a tacit acknowledgement that many Russians are more concerned by problems closer to home than Russia’s supposed successes on the battlefield or its endless strife with the West.

Russia’s leader proposed a raft of social measures, including a modernised tax system that was “fairer” for Russian families and incentives aimed at increasing Russia’s dwindling birth rate.

The speech provided a glimpse into the many issues Russia is facing, including poverty affecting families and faltering education, infrastructure and healthcare.

For a man who has spent 20 years as president, Vladimir Putin has proven unable to solve many of these issues.

Instead, up to 40% of Russia’s budget in 2024 is being spent on the military and national security.

Many of his measures require considerable cash injections or investment, and Russia has a serious corruption problem that means funds often do not reach their intended destinations.

But that will hardly matter in an election that most international observers expect will be neither free nor fair.

In the absence of genuine enthusiasm for the vote, campaign videos from the poll’s also-rans have created a social media buzz, coming across as near-caricatures.

Communist hopeful Nikolai Kharitonov is portrayed angrily clenching his fist while listening to the latest news from volatile commodity markets. “We’ve toyed with capitalism and that’s enough!” he declares, marching across Red Square to take up residence in the Kremlin after his imagined election victory.

Of course, nothing of the sort will happen.

In another video, nationalist LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky is shown trying out the office of his late predecessor Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who led the party for 30 years until his death two years ago.

When an aide tries to switch name-plates on the desk, Mr Slutsky tells her forcefully: “No, leave it there!”

LDPR campaign video
Leonid Slutsky is quite happy to remain in the shadows of his predecessor and Vladimir Putin

All it does is show how happy he is to remain a sideshow to Vladimir Putin’s main act.

The only potential intrigue so far has come from an initiative from Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, whose death in prison last month she has blamed on “bloody mobster” Vladimir Putin.

She has urged supporters to swamp polling stations at midday on Sunday and vote for anyone but him. “We need to use election day to show that we exist and there are many of us,” she said in a video message.https://syndication.bbcstudios.com/p0hfj1pv-processed.mp4

But Ms Navalnaya herself has said that the purpose of the campaign is mostly to allow supporters to silently identify one another at the polling station, rather than to wield any real change.

On 18 March, Russians will doubtless wake up to find President Putin has been re-elected.

When he appears at a victory rally in Moscow, he may even shed a tear – as he did after the 2012 presidential election – and profusely thank voters for the trust they have placed in him.

For the next six years, the illusion of democracy is all but guaranteed to continue.

Using coercion, Russia has successfully imposed its citizenship in Ukraine’s occupied territories

Associated Press

Using coercion, Russia has successfully imposed its citizenship in Ukraine’s occupied territories

Lori Hinnant, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Samya Kullab and Hanna Arirova – March 15, 2024

An election commission official inspects the passport of a person who came to vote at a polling station, during a presidential election in Makiivka, Russian-controlled Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Friday, March 15, 2024. People in Moscow-controlled Ukrainian regions are voting in Russia's presidential election, which is all but certain to extend President Vladimir Putin's rule after he clamped down on dissent. (AP Photo)
An election commission official inspects the passport of a person who came to vote at a polling station, during a presidential election in Makiivka, Russian-controlled Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Friday, March 15, 2024. People in Moscow-controlled Ukrainian regions are voting in Russia’s presidential election, which is all but certain to extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule after he clamped down on dissent. (AP Photo)
42-year-old Vyacheslav Ryabkov, an internally displaced person from Kozachi Laheri in the Kherson region of Ukraine, is pictured in Kolomyya, Ukraine on Feb. 13, 2024. Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
42-year-old Vyacheslav Ryabkov, an internally displaced person from Kozachi Laheri in the Kherson region of Ukraine, is pictured in Kolomyya, Ukraine on Feb. 13, 2024. Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
Natalia Zhyvohliad, an internally displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, poses with some of her children at the IDP shelter in Kyiv, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Natalia Zhyvohliad, an internally displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, poses with some of her children at the IDP shelter in Kyiv, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
50-year-old Natalia Zhyvohliad, a displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, is pictured standing outside her temporary modular house in Kolomyya, Ivano-Frankivsk region on Feb. 13, 2024. Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
50-year-old Natalia Zhyvohliad, a displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, is pictured standing outside her temporary modular house in Kolomyya, Ivano-Frankivsk region on Feb. 13, 2024. Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
42-year-old Vyacheslav Ryabkov, an internally displaced person from Kozachi Laheri in the Kherson region of Ukraine, shows in Kolomyya on Feb. 13, 2024 the scars on his arms caused by Russian soldiers who cut him with a knife. Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
42-year-old Vyacheslav Ryabkov, an internally displaced person from Kozachi Laheri in the Kherson region of Ukraine, shows in Kolomyya on Feb. 13, 2024 the scars on his arms caused by Russian soldiers who cut him with a knife. Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
Natalia Zhyvohliad, an internally displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, fries fish for her children at the IDP shelter in Kyiv, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Natalia Zhyvohliad, an internally displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, fries fish for her children at the IDP shelter in Kyiv, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
42-year-old Vyacheslav Ryabkov, an internally displaced person from Kozachi Laheri in the Kherson region of Ukraine, shows in Kolomyya on Feb. 13, 2024 the scars on his stomach caused by Russian soldiers who cut him with a knife. Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
42-year-old Vyacheslav Ryabkov, an internally displaced person from Kozachi Laheri in the Kherson region of Ukraine, shows in Kolomyya on Feb. 13, 2024 the scars on his stomach caused by Russian soldiers who cut him with a knife. Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
50-year-old Natalia Zhyvohliad, an internally displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, is pictured with her children, daughter-in-law and grandson in their temporary modular house in Kolomyya, Ivano-Frankivsk region on Feb. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
50-year-old Natalia Zhyvohliad, an internally displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, is pictured with her children, daughter-in-law and grandson in their temporary modular house in Kolomyya, Ivano-Frankivsk region on Feb. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
Natalia Zhyvohliad, an internally displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, fries fish for her children at the IDP shelter in Kyiv, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Natalia Zhyvohliad, an internally displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, fries fish for her children at the IDP shelter in Kyiv, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — He and his parents were among the last in their village to take a Russian passport, but the pressure was becoming unbearable.

By his third beating at the hands of the Russian soldiers occupying Ukraine’s Kherson region, Vyacheslav Ryabkov caved. The soldiers broke two of his ribs, but his face was not bruised for his unsmiling passport photo, taken in September 2023.

It wasn’t enough.

In December, they caught the welder on his way home from work. Then one slammed his rifle butt down on Ryabkov’s face, smashing the bridge of his nose.

“Why don’t you fight for us? You already have a Russian passport,” they demanded. The beating continued as the 42-year-old fell unconscious.

“Let’s finish this off,” one soldier said. A friend ran for Ryabkov’s mother.

Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship ahead of elections Vladimir Putin has made certain he will win, an Associated Press investigation has found. But accepting a passport means that men living in occupied territory can be drafted to fight against the same Ukrainian army that is trying to free them.

A Russian passport is needed to prove property ownership and keep access to health care and retirement income. Refusal can result in losing custody of children, jail – or worse. A new Russian law stipulates that anyone in the occupied territories who does not have a Russian passport by July 1 is subject to imprisonment as a “foreign citizen.”

But Russia also offers incentives: a stipend to leave the occupied territory and move to Russia, humanitarian aid, pensions for retirees, and money for parents of newborns – with Russian birth certificates.

Every passport and birth certificate issued makes it harder for Ukraine to reclaim its lost land and children, and each new citizen allows Russia to claim a right – however falsely – to defend its own people against a hostile neighbor.

The AP investigation found that the Russian government has seized at least 1,785 homes and businesses in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions alone. Ukraine’s Crimean leadership in exile reported on Feb. 25 that of 694 soldiers reported dead in recent fighting for Russia, 525 were likely Ukrainian citizens who had taken Russian passports since the annexation.

AP spoke about the system to impose Russian citizenship in occupied territories to more than a dozen people from the regions, along with the activists helping them to escape and government officials trying to cope with what has become a bureaucratic and psychological nightmare for many.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said “almost 100% … of the whole population who still live on temporary occupied territories of Ukraine” now have Russian passports.

Under international law dating to 1907, it is forbidden to force people “to swear allegiance to the hostile Power.” But when Ukrainians apply for a Russian passport, they must submit biometric data and cell phone information and swear an oath of loyalty.

“People in occupied territories, these are the first soldiers to fight against Ukraine,” said Kateryna Rashevska, a lawyer who helped Ukraine bring a war crimes case against Putin before the International Criminal Court. “For them, it’s logical not to waste Russian people, just to use Ukrainians.”

CHANGING THE LAW

The combination of force and enticement when it comes to Russian passports dates to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Russian citizenship was automatically given to permanent residents of Crimea and anyone who refused lost rights to jobs, health care and property.

Nine months into the Russian occupation of the peninsula, 1.5 million Russian passports had been issued there, according to statistics issued by the Russian government in 2015. But Ukrainians say it was still possible to function without one for years afterward.

Beginning in May 2022, Russia passed a series of laws to make it easier to obtain passports for Ukrainians, mostly by lifting the usual residency and income requirements. In April 2023 came the punishment: Anyone in the occupied territories who did not accept Russian citizenship would be considered stateless and required to register with Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry.

Russian officials threatened to withhold access to medical care for those without a Russian passport, and said one was needed to prove property ownership. Hundreds of properties deemed “abandoned” were seized by the Russian government.

“You can see it in the passport stamps: If someone got their passport in August 2022 or earlier, they are most certainly pro-Russian. If a passport was issued after that time – it was most certainly forced,” said Oleksandr Rozum, a lawyer who left the occupied city of Berdyansk and now handles the bureaucratic gray zone for Ukrainians under occupation who ask for his help, including property records, birth and death certificates and divorces.

The situation is different depending on the whims of the Russian officials in charge of a particular area, according to interviews with Ukrainians and a look at the Telegram social media accounts set up by occupation officials.

In an interview posted recently, Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-installed governor in Zaporizhzhia, said anyone who opposed the occupation was subject to expulsion. “We understood that these people could not be won over and that they would have to be dealt with even more harshly in the future,” he said. Balitsky then alluded to making “some extremely harsh decisions that I will not talk about.”

Even children are forced to take Russian passports.

A decree signed Jan. 4 by Putin allows for the fast-tracking of citizenship for Ukrainian orphans and those “without parental care,” who include children whose parents were detained in the occupied territories. Almost 20,000 Ukrainian children have disappeared into Russia or Russian-held territories, according to the Ukrainian government, where they can be given passports and be adopted as Russian citizens.

“It’s about eradication of identity,” said Rashevska, the lawyer involved in the war crimes case.

Natalia Zhyvohliad, a mother of nine from a suburb of Berdyansk, had a good idea of what was in store for her children if she stayed.

Zhyvohliad said about half her town of 3,500 people left soon after for Ukrainian-held lands, some voluntarily and some deported through the frontlines on a 40-kilometer (25-mile) walk. Others welcomed the occupation: Her goddaughter eagerly took Russian citizenship, as did some of her neighbors.

But she said plenty of people were like her – those the Russians derisively call “waiters”: People waiting for a Ukrainian liberation. She kept her younger children, who range in age from 7 to 18, home from school and did her best to teach them in Ukrainian. But then someone snitched, and she was forced to send them to the Russian school.

At all hours, she said, soldiers would pound on her door and ask why she didn’t have a passport yet. One friend gave in because she needed medicine for a chronic illness. Zhyvohliad held out through the summer, not quite believing the threats to deport her and send her brood to an orphanage in Russia or to dig trenches.

Then last fall, the school headmaster forced her 17-year-old and 18-year-old sons to register for the draft and ordered them to apply for passports in the meantime. Their alternative, the principal said, was to explain themselves to Russia’s internal security services.

By the end of 2023, at least 30,000 Crimean men had been conscripted to serve in the Russian military since the peninsula was annexed, according to a UN report. It was clear to Zhyvohliad what her boys risked.

With tears in her eyes and trembling legs, she went to the passport office.

“I kept a Ukrainian flag during the occupation,” she said. “How could I apply for this nasty thing?”

She hoped to use it just once — at the last Russian checkpoint before the crossing into Ukrainian-held territory.

When Zhyvohliad reached what is known as the filtration point at Novoazovsk, the Russians separated her and her two oldest boys from the rest of the children. They had to sign an agreement to pass a lie detector test. Then Zhyvohliad was pulled aside alone.

For 40 minutes, they went through her phone, took fingerprints and photos and questioned her, but they ultimately let her through. The children were waiting for her on the other side. She misses her home but doesn’t regret leaving.

“I waited until the last moment to be liberated,” she said. “But this thing with my kids possibly being drafted was the last straw.”

WEAPONIZING HEALTH CARE

Often the life-or-death decision is more immediate.

Russian occupation officials have said the day is coming soon when only those with Russian passports and the all-important national health insurance will be able to access care. For some, it’s already here.

The international organization Physicians for Human Rights documented at least 15 cases of people being denied vital medical care in occupied territories between February 2023 and August 2023 because they lacked a Russian passport. Some hospitals even featured a passport desk to speed the process for desperate patients. One hospital in Zaporizhzhia oblast was ordered to close because the medical staff refused to accept Russian citizenship.

Alexander Dudka, the Russian-appointed head of the village of Lazurne in the Kherson region, first threatened to withhold humanitarian aid from residents without Russian citizenship. In August, he added medicine to the list of things the “waiters” would no longer have access to.

Residents, he said in the video on the village Telegram channel, “must respect the country that ensures their safety and which is now helping them live.”

As of Jan. 1, anyone needing medical care in the occupied region must show proof they have mandatory national health insurance, which in turn is only available to Russian citizens.

Last year, “if you weren’t scared or if you weren’t coerced there were places where you could still get medical care,” said Uliana Poltavets, a PHR researcher. “Now it is impossible.”

Dina Urich, who arranges the escapes from occupied territory with the aid group Helping to Leave, said about 400 requests come in each month, but they only have the money and staff for 40 evacuations. Priority goes to those who need urgent medical care, she said. And Russian soldiers at the last checkpoints have started turning back people without the Russian passports.

“You have people constantly dying while waiting for evacuation due to a lack of health care,” she said. ““People will stay there, people will die, people will experience psychological and physical pressure, that is, some will simply die of torture and persecution, while others will live in constant fear.”

IMPORTING LOYALTY

Along with turning Ukrainians into Russians throughout the occupied territories, the Russian government is bringing in its own people. It is offering rock bottom mortgage rates for anyone from Russia who wants to move there, replacing the Ukrainian doctors, nurses, teachers, police and municipal workers who are now gone.

Half of Zhyvohliad’s village left, either at the start of the war when things looked dark for the Kherson region or after being deported across the frontline by occupation officials. The school principal’s empty home was taken over by a Russian-appointed replacement.

Artillery and airstrikes damaged thousands of homes in the port city of Mariupol, which was besieged by Russian forces for months before falling under their control. Most of the residents fled into Ukrainian-held territory or deep inside Russia. Russians often take over the property.

Russia also offered “residential certificates” and a 100,000 ruble ($1,000) stipend to Ukrainians willing to accept citizenship and live in Russia. For many people tired of listening to the daily sounds of battle and afraid of what the future might bring, it looked like a good option.

This again follows Russia’s actions after the annexation of Crimea: By populating occupied regions with Russian residents, Russia increasingly cements its hold on territories it has seized by force in what many Ukrainians describe as ethnic cleansing.

The process is only accelerating. After capturing the town of Adviivka last month, Russia swooped in with the passports in a matter of days.

The neighboring Kherson town of Oleshky essentially emptied after the flooding caused by the explosion of the Kakhovka Dam. The housing stipend in Russia looked fabulous by comparison to the shelling and rising waters, said Rima Yaremenko.

She didn’t take it, instead making her way through Russia to Latvia and then to Poland. But she believes the Russians took the opportunity to drive the “waiters” from Oleshky.

“Maybe they wanted to empty the city,” she said. “They occupied it, maybe they thought it would be theirs forever.”

Ryabkov said he was offered the housing stipend when he filled out his passport paperwork but turned it down. He knows plenty of people who accepted though.

By the time the Russian soldiers caught Ryabkov in the street, in December, everyone in his village was either gone or had Russian citizenship. When his mother arrived, he was barely recognizable beneath all the blood and the Russian guns were trained on him. She flung herself over his body.

“Shoot him through me,” she dared them.

They couldn’t bring themselves to shoot an elderly woman, and she eventually dragged him home. They started preparations to leave the next day.

It took time, but they made it out using the Russian passports.

“When I saw our yellow and blue flag, I started to cry,” he said. “I wanted to burn the Russian passport, destroy it, trample it.”

Hinnant reported from Paris. AP journalists Illia Novikov and Susie Blann contributed to this report.

Russia’s war machine is trying to turn Ukrainian teenagers into soldiers

CNN

Russia’s war machine is trying to turn Ukrainian teenagers into soldiers

Ivana Kottasová, Olga Voitovych and Svitlana Vlasova – March 15, 2024

Russian forces deported Bohdan Yermokhin from the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the spring of 2022, flew him to Moscow on a government plane and placed him into a foster family. He was sent to a patriotic camp near the capital where flag-waving staff praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and tried to teach him nationalistic songs.

The Ukrainian teenager was given a Russian passport and sent to a Russian school. And then, in the fall of 2023, not long before his 18th birthday, he received a summons from a Russian military recruitment office.

Yermokhin, who’s now back in Ukraine and recovering from his ordeal in Kyiv, told CNN he believed this was the last step in Russia’s attempt to bully him into submission – a bid to sign him up as a soldier to fight against his own people.

“(I was told that) Ukraine was losing, that children were used for organ donations there, and that I would be sent to war right away. I told them that if I was sent to the war, at least I would fight for my own country, not for them,” he said.

Yermokhin was part of a group of children known as the “Mariupol 31,” who were taken to Russia. Ukrainian authorities estimate that 20,000 children have been forcibly transported to Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. More than 2,100 children remain missing, according to official statistics, but the government says the real number could be much higher.

Bohdan Yermokhin, 18, in central Kyiv. - Ivana Kottasova/CNN
Bohdan Yermokhin, 18, in central Kyiv. – Ivana Kottasova/CNN

Last March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, for their alleged role in abducting and deporting Ukrainian children. Russia has publicly acknowledged the transfer of Ukrainian children without guardians, despite some having guardians or parents.

Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said his office was convinced that Russia’s efforts to turn Ukrainian teenagers deported to Russia – or living in occupied areas of the east – into soldiers were part of a wider drive by Putin to erase the Ukrainian identity. It is also an opportunity for Moscow to replenish its forces on the front lines.

“It’s not theoretical,” he said. “We now have examples of forcible mobilization of Ukrainian people. All Ukrainian teenagers held in Russia, when they turn 18, they are put on a (recruitment) list of Russian military,” told CNN.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, it is illegal under the Geneva Conventions for an occupying power to compel or pressure the local population to serve in its armed forces. Human Rights Watch has said Russia is committing a war crime by doing so.

But Lubinets told CNN that Ukrainian authorities have seen Russian officials do just that in occupied areas, compelling Ukrainians to serve. The conscription efforts start with the opening of regional offices for various Russian government departments, including health and social services.

“Then comes education. All schools must use new books where the message is that Ukraine and the Ukrainian nation never existed and that Ukrainian children have always been Russian children,” Lubinets told CNN.

“The next step is forcing everyone to take Russian passports. If you don’t, you can’t access any services, you can’t get medical care in hospitals, for example… and the next step is mobilization. All men in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine are put in a special recruitment database for the Russian military.”

Yermokhin said he went through the entire process described by Lubinets — although he said the Russians didn’t seem very consistent at times.

“I was always told that I was from Russia and that I was born in Russia, that there is no Ukraine, and that it simply did not exist, that Mariupol was Russia. But in my Russian passport, my place of birth was listed as ‘Ukraine, the city of Mariupol,’” he said, smirking.

Lvova-Belova herself confirmed that Yermokhin received a Russian passport and military summons. In a statement posted on her Telegram channel in November she said that the summons was not unusual, because “all citizens of Russia receive” it. She said that since Yermokhin was still a student, he would be able to defer his military service until after finishing his education.

‘We are losing these children’

Many of the children deported to Russia came from socially vulnerable Ukrainian families. Some had been orphaned or were placed in foster homes when their birth parents became unable to care for them.

It’s these children that Mykola Kuleba is most worried about. He heads Save Ukraine, a Kyiv-based non-governmental organization that specializes in bringing deported children back to Ukraine.

“We are losing these children. Many of them will never come back because they are growing up with this poison, with this horrible propaganda, they are very vulnerable to it,” he said.

Yermokhin said he saw this firsthand. He spent years living with foster families and in group homes after losing his parents as a small child and was in a boarding school in Mariupol when Russian troops took over the city in May 2022.

“Many of us were abandoned by our guardians, abandoned by foster parents during the war… and then the Russians come in and they act in this hypocritical way, offering warmth and pretending that they care, and these children see this and think, well, this is better than it was there (in Ukraine),” Yermokhin said.

He said this happened to Filip, his best friend from Mariupol, who was reportedly adopted by Lvova-Belova. “His foster parents abandoned him in Mariupol during the war and he hadn’t seen any warmth since his (birth) mother died. Now he has it… but I want him to know that we are waiting for him here.”

“Out of the four of us mates from Mariupol, three are now here (in Ukraine) and we are waiting for him,” he added.

The office of Lvova-Belova did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. However, in a statement posted to her Telegram channel in November 2022, Lvova-Belova recalled adopting a teenage boy called Filip from Mariupol.

“If you look at history, Russians have done this (before), they also took children out of Chechnya and now these children (now adults) are fighting for them,” Yermohkin said, referring to Russia’s wars to reclaim the breakaway republic of Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Kuleba said there is no doubt that the deportations are part of a wider strategy. “It’s a Russian strategy to turn Ukrainian children into Russian children and militarize them. They are kidnapping children, and they are erasing their identity, because they want to destroy the Ukrainian nation,” he said.

Singing the Russian anthem, wearing Russian uniform

Sixteen-year-old Artem’s experience is eerily similar to that of Yermokhin. He too feels like he was being groomed to become a Russian soldier.

He was one of 13 children taken by Russian soldiers from a school in the Kharkiv region in 2022. “We had no choice whether to go or not. We were told we were being evacuated, boys, girls, and small children,” he said.

CNN spoke to Artem at a Kyiv center for children who have been returned from Russian captivity. His social worker was present during the interview but did not interfere in the conversation. Save Ukraine, which runs the center, asked CNN not to release Artem’s last name due to his age.

“The Russian soldiers asked us whether we were (supporting) Ukraine or Russia. And we did not answer anything. The younger children were crying, and we tried to calm them down. We were scared ourselves, but we had to comfort the small children,” he added.

Artem said the group was taken to several locations within occupied areas of Ukraine before being brought to the city of Luhansk, where they started school.

“All the lessons were in Russian, and we were always told that Ukrainians were killing Russians,” he said.

“It was clear they wanted us to turn against Ukraine, but we made a pact (with the other children from his school) that we would not give into the attempts to turn us into Russians and we did not speak Russian,” he said, adding that the smaller children in the group were more at risk of being influenced by the propaganda and were often kept away from the older Ukrainian kids.

“We went to classes every day and were told to sing the Russian anthem. We tried to stand back and pretended to sing, but we did not sing,” he added.

The worst part, Artem said, was the uniform.

He said he and the other older children from the cohort were made to wear a uniform that was very similar to the Russian military uniform and had the letter Z — a symbol of support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — on its sleeve.

“It was made of rough material, similar in color to the uniforms of the Russian military. We were given it and told that when there were holidays, we had to wear it,” he said. “I really thought that this was it and that they gave me the uniform because I might be sent to the Russian army. It was scary.”

Artem said it was impossible to refuse — the teachers threatened the children with severe punishment if they failed to wear the uniform. Yet even then, he felt horrible about putting it on – especially when he found out he was used by Russia for propaganda machine in nationalistic videos.

In one video, Artem is seen with a group of children receiving boxes of tangerines from uniformed members of the National Guard. The children are prompted by their teacher to say, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” and give a thumbs up.

CNN has seen several images of Artem wearing uniform-like clothing at the boarding school in the occupied city of Luhansk. He is shown wearing a camouflage top and trousers with a black armband that prominently features a white letter Z in two photographs, one of which shows him sitting in a classroom during a lesson.

In another, he is in what appears to be a full replica of a Russian military uniform during what the school described as a celebration of the Russian national holiday known as “Defender of the Fatherland Day.” All the photographs were published by the school and are still publicly accessible.

“When I saw myself in the uniform in photos and videos on the Internet, I thought for myself that I was a traitor and that I betrayed Ukraine, I swapped Ukraine for Russia… even though I knew I was forced to do it,” he said.

Ultimately, both Artem and Yermokhin are among the lucky ones – they have managed to return to Ukraine.

Artem said he got hold of a cell phone and was able to reach his mother, who had spent six months not knowing what had happened to him. She was able to locate him and get him back home with the help of Save Ukraine.

Yermokhin tried to escape Russia twice, once through Belarus and once through occupied Crimea, but was caught and returned to Moscow on both occasions.

The Ukrainian authorities and his lawyer had been trying to get him out of Russia for some time before he received his Russian military summons, but those attempts were unsuccessful. He was only allowed by Russia to return to Ukraine upon his 18th birthday.

Ukrainian authorities do not reveal the details of negotiations that lead to the return of Ukrainian children. They said a number of international organizations and third countries, including Qatar, were involved in Yermokhin’s repatriation.

Thousands of Ukrainian children remain in Russia and, according to Save Ukraine, some of them have been enrolled in military and naval academies across the country. The charity says it has been able to return 251 children to Ukraine so far and is helping them to readjust.

Every Monday for more than a year, Yermokhin recalled, he was expected to sing the Russian anthem during a flag-raising ceremony at his school. He tried to avoid it but, when forced to attend, found a way to avoid listening to the anthem and the nationalistic lecture that followed.

“There is such a thing as headphones,” he said. “You put them on and sit there, and no one sees what you’re doing.”

Looking back at his experience, Yermokhin said he might not have realized at the time how much pressure he was under. “They tried to break me,” he said. “Thinking of it all now, I am shocked that I got through it.”

Victoria Butenko contributed to this report.

6 more years of Vladimir Putin will bring increasingly weak, dysfunctional Russia

United Press International – Opinion

6 more years of Vladimir Putin will bring increasingly weak, dysfunctional Russia

William Partlett, University of Melbourne – March 14, 2024

UPI
People stand in front of a large screen that shows a live broadcast of the Russian President Vladimir Putin delivering his annual address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow on February 29. Photo by Maxim Shipenkov/EPA-EFE

March 14 (UPI) — There is very little drama in Russia’s presidential election this weekend. We all know Vladimir Putin will win. The only real question is whether he will receive more than 75% of the vote.

It could be tempting to see these results as a sign of the strength of the Russian system. Recent gains by the Russian army in Ukraine seem to further support this.

But my own research — soon to be published in a forthcoming book — shows the election results and Russia’s military gains in Ukraine hide a much more problematic reality for the country.

Russia’s system of government is not only undemocratic, rights abusing and unpredictable. It is also increasingly dysfunctional, trapped in a cycle of poor quality and weak governance that cannot be solved by one man, no matter how much power he has.

Constitutional dark arts

The weakness stems from the hyper-centralization of power in Russia around the president.

This centralization is the product of an increasingly common logic that I call the “constitutional dark arts.” This logic generally holds that democracy and rights protection are best guaranteed in a constitutional system that centralizes authority in one elected leader. This line of thinking is present in many populist, authoritarian countries, such as Hungary and Turkey.

The foundation of this kind of system in Russia is the 1993 Constitution. It was drafted by then-President Boris Yeltsin and his supporters (many in the West) as an expedient for dismantling communism and implementing radical economic reforms. As such, it contains a number of rights provisions and democratic guarantees, alongside provisions that centralize vast power in an elected Russian president.

Yeltsin (and his Western supporters) described this system as democratic because it made the president answerable to the people. They also argued that rights provisions would allow courts to limit any abuses by the centralized state.

These reformers hoped Yeltsin could use this concentrated power to build democracy in Russia. Thirty years later, however, we can see how this use of the “constitutional dark arts” backfired spectacularly.

Since 2000, Putin has ruthlessly deployed this centralized authority to eliminate any checks on power. He has also transformed elections, the media and the courts from sources of accountability into mechanisms to project the image of strong presidential power.

The upcoming presidential election is just the most recent example.

Poor quality governance

Although this centralized system has allowed Putin to dominate politics, it fosters weak and poor governance, particularly outside Moscow. At least two factors are at play.

First, centralized decision-making in Russia is often made using incomplete or false information. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 is an example. It was based on intelligence that the operation would be over quickly and Ukrainians would likely welcome Russian forces.

Second, centralized directives are delegated to under-resourced, incompetent and weak institutions. Russia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was disastrous, in large part due to the poorly resourced regional authorities who were overwhelmed by a crisis of this scale.

This dysfunction has been a central message of the political movement led by the opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Before his death last month, Navalny and his team harshly criticized the corruption and weakness of the Russian regime and its inability to fix roads, provide healthcare and adequately pay teachers or doctors.

This message was potent, making Navalny the first opposition politician to build a broad coalition that spanned Russia’s 11 time zones.

This broad coalition frightened the Kremlin to such an extent that it led to Navalny’s poisoning in August 2020. Although it remains to be seen how his political movement responds to his death, this central criticism of the government remains one of its most potent messages.

Although it’s impossible to get independent polling on domestic issues during the Ukraine war, it does appear Putin and his administration are concerned about this weakness. In his Feb. 29 address to parliament, Putin tacitly acknowledged these problems, promising new national projects to improve infrastructure, support families and enhance the quality of life.

These kind of promises, however, are unlikely to be implemented. Putin has traditionally promised these kinds of changes around presidential elections. But, when it comes to implementing them, Russia’s regional sub-units are often given no resources to do so.

With so much money now going to the war, it is unlikely the latest set of promises will be any different.

Increasing dysfunction

With Putin soon to start his fifth presidential term, this centralization and personalization of power is only going to increase.

Externally, this centralization is likely to produce an increasingly unpredictable Russia, led by a man making decisions on the basis of an increasingly paranoid world view and incorrect or manipulated information. As former German Chancellor Angela Merkel once described Putin, he is really “living in another world.”

This is likely to lead to more foreign policy adventurism and aggression. It will likely foster harsher repression of any dissenting voices inside Russia, as well.

We are also likely to see an increasingly dysfunctional Russia, one in which roads, housing, schools, healthcare and other infrastructure will continue to deteriorate, particularly outside Moscow.

This extends to the military, which remains weak despite its recent battlefield gains. For instance, Russia’s overly centralized command structure has decimated the officer class and led to stunning losses of equipment. Although Russia has managed to muddle through by relying on its vast human and industrial resources, these systemic problems are taking a serious toll on its fighting capacity.

Despite escalating repression, these problems pose an opportunity for a democratic challenger, particularly when Putin is inevitably replaced by another leader.

Russia’s dysfunctional government is also an important reminder for Western media, policymakers and commentators. While it should not serve as a reason for complacency, highlighting Russia’s poor governance is an important tool in combating the Kremlin’s carefully curated image of power and control.The Conversation

William Partlett is an associate professor of public law at the The University of Melbourne.

GOP nominee to run North Carolina public schools called for violence against Democrats, including executing Obama and Biden

CNN

GOP nominee to run North Carolina public schools called for violence against Democrats, including executing Obama and Biden

Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck – March 14, 2024

From Michele Morrow/Facebook

The Republican nominee for superintendent overseeing North Carolina’s public schools and its $11 billion budget has a history marked by extreme and controversial comments, including sharing baseless conspiracy theories and frequent calls for the execution of prominent Democrats.

Michele Morrow, a conservative activist who last week upset the incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction in North Carolina’s Republican primary, expressed support in 2020 for the televised execution of former President Barack Obama and suggested killing then-President-elect Joe Biden.

In other comments on social media between 2019 and 2021 reviewed by CNN’s KFile, Morrow made disturbing suggestions about executing prominent Democrats for treason, including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer and other prominent people such as Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates.

“I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad,” she wrote in a tweet from May 2020, responding to a user sharing a conspiracy theory who suggested sending Obama to prison at Guantanamo Bay. “I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.”

In another post in May 2020, she responded to a fake Time Magazine cover that featured art of Obama in an electric chair asking if he should be executed.

“Death to ALL traitors!!” Morrow responded.

In yet another comment, Morrow suggested in December 2020 killing Biden, who at that time was president-elect, and has said he would ask Americans to wear a mask for 100 days.

“Never. We need to follow the Constitution’s advice and KILL all TRAITORS!!! #JusticeforAmerica,” she wrote.

CNN reached out to Morrow and her campaign multiple times but did not receive a response.

From activist to candidate

Last Tuesday, Morrow defeated Catherine Truitt, the incumbent North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, in the Republican primary. Morrow, a registered nurse and grassroots activist who homeschooled her children, ran on a platform of supporting parental rights and opposing critical race theory.

As superintendent, Morrow would oversee the state’s public school system and help set educational priorities, manage the school system’s budgets, and work with the state’s Board of Education to set and implement curriculum standards. Her website lists endorsements by “conservative school boards” but remains light on changes she’d make if elected.

Morrow has in the past called public schools “socialism centers” and “indoctrination centers.”

In a campaign speech in February, Morrow advocated for a constitutional amendment to abolish the state Board of Education, which sets policies and procedures for public schools in the state. Doing away with the board would put direct control over the state’s education agenda under the superintendent and the state legislature, which is currently controlled by Republicans.

“I’d like to see a constitutional amendment to get rid of the state Board of Education,”she said. “If the superintendent is elected and works under the legislature – knowing that they’re accountable to the legislature to oversee the DPI and to oversee and have impact into the superintendents in the 115 districts, I think we would be so much better off because you don’t have all these extra people right in mix.”

Morrow has espoused a wide range of extreme views on social media in recent years. Many of her past extreme comments were made on her now-dormant personal Twitter account — which is separate from her campaign account.

Morrow also promoted QAnon slogans and tweeted that the actor Jim Carrey was “… likely searching for adrenochrome” – a reference to a conspiracy theory shared by QAnon believers that celebrities harvest and drink the blood of children to prolong their own lives. Media Matters, a left-leaning publication, was first to report the QAnon tweets.

All together, Morrow tweeted “WWG1WGA” – the slogan that stands for “where we go one, we go all” and is commonly associated with the QAnon conspiracy – more than seven times in 2020.

Central to QAnon lore is the notion of the “Storm,” a belief there will be a day when thousands will purportedly be arrested, subjected to military tribunals, and face mass executions for their alleged crimes, with Donald Trump leading efforts to dismantle them alongside other QAnon “patriots.”

Violent fantasies about executing Democrats

Morrow’s post about publicly executing Obama was just one of numerous she has made espousing carrying out violent fantasies against Democrats.

On Twitter, the platform now known as X, and on the now-defunct conservative Twitter alternative, Parler, Morrow used the hashtag “#DeathtoTraitors” a combined 12 times – usually in relation to prominent Democrats.

“Obama did it. Hillary did it. Schiff did it. Comey did it. Yates did it. Holder did it. Clapper did it. Gates did it. Fauci did it. Time for #WeThePeople to DO IT and #DrainTheSwamp!!!!! #NoJusticeNoCountry #DeathToTraitors #ProsecuteThemNow #TakeBackAmerica .@dbongino #KAG,” she wrote in one tweet from May 2020, referring to “sedition.”

In another post from July 2019, Morrow targeted Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and other Democrats, suggesting their impending death for unspecified “treason.”

“@IlhanMN and her other law-hating Dems must be getting a little nervous. Are they just realizing the punishment for treason is death?!?” Morrow wrote.

In a post on Parler, Morrow used the hashtag #deathtotraitors in discussing the Democratic governors of North Carolina and New York, Cooper and Cuomo. Morrow publicized her Parler handle in a tweet and CNN found the deleted Parler posts on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

“Our Communist sympathizer, Comrade Cooper, has the same plans for NC!Expose them NOW!Can we we see the CCP list, @SecPompeo??? #PrisonTimeforFederalCrimes #DeathToTraitors #FreeOurCitizens,” Morrow wrote in 2020, discussing restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In other posts on Parler, Morrow shared posts from other users and a QAnon account about locking up Democrats at Guantanamo Bay and prisons.

Morrow’s ire also went beyond Democrats, including one post in December 2020 calling for putting Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia in prison after he certified Georgia’s results for Joe Biden in that year’s presidential election.

Shared conspiracies and made anti-Muslim comments

In other comments, Morrow repeatedly shared the false claim that Obama was Muslim, called Islam evil, and expressed belief in a conspiracy theory that tens of thousands of Chinese troops were stationed in Canada to invade the United States to help Joe Biden become president.

“Tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers are already in Canada and probably Mexico waiting for orders to invade,” she wrote on January 8, 2021.

In another post from September 2019, Morrow said that Barack Obama (referred to as B.O.) was a puppet for the “Deep State” and the “Muslim movement” and suggested he pay the highest penalty for his alleged crimes.

“B.O. was a puppet for the Deep State and the Muslim movement to destroy our Constitutional Republic. We cannot give up until ALL the guilty pay the highest penalty for their crimes. We will lose our country #SAVEOURNATION #JusticeForAll #TraitorsMustPay

“The DEEP STATE globalists and Muslim extremists, intent on destroying America, placed Omar and MANY others into our govt. #WakeUpAmerica #IslamIsEvil #ToleranceIsDeadly,” she wrote in January 2020.

In one post, Morrow said Muslims should be banned from elected office in the United States and said Rep. Omar, who came to the United States as a refugee, should, “head back to Somalia.”

Photos show Ukraine bracing for Russian assaults with some of the same tricks that derailed its big counteroffensive

Business Insider

Photos show Ukraine bracing for Russian assaults with some of the same tricks that derailed its big counteroffensive

Ella Sherman – March 13, 2024

  • New photos show Ukraine’s military building up its defenses in Kharkiv.
  • Ukraine has already put in trenches and dragon’s teeth, among other fortifications.
  • Experts suggest that Ukraine defend what it has and deny Russia more land gains.

Scenes from an area of Ukraine that has seen heavy fighting at times over the course of the war show the country’s military preparing various defenses that the Russians have used to slow down the Ukrainians.

In some sectors of the front, due to poor planning, limited tools and stalled support, Ukraine has been slow on the draw in building defenses to stop the advancing Russian army. This problem has been most visible around Avdiivka, where troops may have to build under enemy fire.

Preparing for potential future Russian assaults, Ukraine has begun building defenses in other areas using dragon’s teeth, trenches, and bunkers, among other tactics.

Digging Defenses
Kharkiv Region Bolsters Defenses With New Fortifications
Workmen are seen preparing trenches on the new defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine. Ukraine has accelerated the building of fortifications, making reinforced dugouts on the second line of defense, setting up anti-tank obstacles, ditches, and trenches for infantry.Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty ImagesMore

With a focus on defense, Ukraine has been building around Kharkiv, where its army recaptured a significant amount of territory from the Russians in fall 2022.

Pictured above is a brown landscape with dirt mounds — the result of continuous digging of trenches and ditches for soldiers to hide in. The deep trenches are then reinforced with logs.

A number of conflict experts have said that given Russia’s current advantages, its momentum, and the strains on the Ukrainian armed forces, digging in and weakening the Russian forces through attrition is probably the best option right now.

Bunkers
Kharkiv Region Bolsters Defenses With New Fortifications
A workman is seen preparing trenches on the new defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine. Ukraine has accelerated the building of fortifications, making reinforced dugouts on the second line of defense, setting up anti-tank obstacles, ditches, and trenches for infantry.Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty ImagesMore

Within trenches, bunkers are built, as seen here. They’re made up of wood and metal and secured with wiring.

Dara Massicot, a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior fellow, argued recently that if Ukraine doesn’t build quick enough, Russia will “maximize momentum before the ground thaws and mud returns, take advantage of understrength Ukrainian forces as they ration equipment, and engaging Ukrainian forces before they have time to fully dig in.”

This situation may be reality for the areas closely surrounding Avdiivka, where the Russians are rapidly approaching and Ukraine is not sufficiently prepared, but around Kharkiv, in places like Kupiansk, it looks to be a different story.

Dragon’s Teeth
"Dragon's teeth" anti-tank obstacles
“Dragon’s teeth”, anti-tank obstacles, are seen on the new defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine. Ukraine has accelerated the building of fortifications, making reinforced dugouts on the second line of defense, setting up anti-tank obstacles, ditches, and trenches for infantry.Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty ImagesMore

This image illustrates the strategically placed masses of concrete lined up in between sharp wire for reinforcement.

Drone view of "Dragon's teeth", anti-tank obstacles, seen on the new defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine.
Drone view of “Dragon’s teeth”, anti-tank obstacles, seen on the new defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine.Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

Defense mechanisms like dragon’s teeth work as anti-tank spikes that act as physical battlefield obstacles and require combat engineers to install and break through them. The razor wire makes clearance more complicated.

By slowing the assault, it potentially leaves troops and vehicles exposed, possibly to indirect fire like artillery or small exploding drones.

The Tools
Kharkiv Region Bolsters Defenses With New Fortifications
Drone view of the construction of the defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine. Ukraine has accelerated the building of fortifications, making reinforced dugouts on the second line of defense, setting up anti-tank obstacles, ditches, and trenches for infantry.Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

Underground fortifications like trenches require costly equipment like those pictured above. The need for tools like excavators has grown to point where crowdfunding has been key for some units of the Ukrainian military to get what they need.

Drone view of the construction of the defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine.
Drone view of the construction of the defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine.Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

While crowdfunding may be a helpful short term solution in times of desperation, such as when the demand for this kind of equipment outpaces the supply, Ukraine relies on Western partners, Washington in particular, for most of the necessary, long-term funding and support.

Overview
Kharkiv Region Bolsters Defenses With New Fortifications
Drone view of the construction of the defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine. Ukraine has accelerated the building of fortifications, making reinforced dugouts on the second line of defense, setting up anti-tank obstacles, ditches, and trenches for infantry.Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

Drone footage offering a birds-eye view of the defenses shows us what lines of defense Ukraine has against Russia. In the front are rows of what look like dragon’s teeth. Farther back are where Ukraine’s soldiers would actually be.

There may also be mines or other unseen threats. It’s hard to tell from the pictures alone.

Drone view of the construction of the defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine. Ukraine has accelerated the building of fortifications, making reinforced dugouts on the second line of defense, setting up anti-tank obstacles, ditches, and trenches for infantry.
Drone view of the construction of the defense line on March 12, 2024 in Kharkiv region, Ukraine. Ukraine has accelerated the building of fortifications, making reinforced dugouts on the second line of defense, setting up anti-tank obstacles, ditches, and trenches for infantry.Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

Having already invested millions of dollars in this defensive strategy in January, Ukraine has only really just begun building defensive fortifications within the past few months.

Experts like Stimson Center fellow Emma Ashford said that although it’s unlikely for Ukraine to take back its captured land, a defense strategy should be used to “deny Putin further gains.” This includes not allowing Russia to reach Kharkiv.