Ukraine launches offensive to drive out Russian forces in Northeast
Chloe Folmar – May 6, 2022
Ukraine launched an offensive Friday to drive out Russian troops in the northeast part of the country.
The two militaries have been engaged in an arduous battle with neither side able to gain the upper hand, The New York Times reported.
However, Ukrainian troops are rallying to form an offensive against the Russian forces, which are pushing toward key cities in the northeast including Kharkiv and Izium.
“There are fierce battles going on, as well as the transition from defensive operations to offensive actions in the Kharkiv and Izium areas,” Ukrainian Commander in Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said Thursday, according to the Times.
Ukrainian officials have warned, meanwhile, that Russian President Vladimir Putin could intensify attacks on the country during Russia’s Victory Day on Monday.
The holiday commemorates the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in 1945, near the end of World War II.
Officials warn that there is a threat of more intense missile strikes over the weekend and on Monday.
Ukraine’s success in its offensive is in part due to the advanced artillery and weapons it possesses thanks to Western contributions to its defense. The West has provided weapons and intelligence, and multiple outlets on Thursday reported the intelligence played a role in the sinking of a Russian warship.
Ukraine officials warn of offensive; Biden announces $150m more in aid – Live Ukraine updates
Celina Tebor, Ryan W. Miller and Jeanine Santucci – May 6, 2022
Ukrainian officials on Friday were warning about a potential offensive before Russia’s Victory Day on Monday.
The day marks the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, sparking worries the Russian military may increase attacks over the weekend.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned in a social media post Friday there is a “high probability” of rocket fire across Ukraine in the coming days. There were no plans for a curfew but street patrols would be reinforced, Klitschko added. Zaporizhzhia’s mayor said there would be a curfew through Tuesday afternoon there.
Officials from Ukraine’s national security council also warned about the potential for more shelling, urging residents not to ignore air raid sirens in a Facebook post from the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine’s Center for Counteracting Disinformation.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be open to negotiating with Russia only if its military retreated to its position from before its invasion.
Zelenskyy made the comment during a meeting Friday at London’s Chatham House think-tank. Ukrainian and Russian officials have previously held peace talks during the war, but negotiations have largely stalled in recent weeks.
If the Russian military returned to its position from Feb. 23, the day before the invasion began, “we will be able to start discussing things normally,” Zelenskyy said.
Latest developments:
►The European Union is planning to add Alina Kabaeva, a woman romantically linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox church, to its sanctions list, CNN and the Guardian reported.
►First lady Jill Biden will be in Romania on Friday to begin her solo trip to Europe. She plans to meet with refugees Sunday in a small Slovakian village on the border with Ukraine.
►Germany will provide Ukraine with seven powerful self-propelled howitzers as the country steps up its aid of heavy weaponry, the German defense minister said Friday.
►Russia’s military has fired 2,014 missiles on Ukraine and 2,682 flights of Russian warplanes have been recorded in Ukrainian skies, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
US funding for Ukraine ‘nearly exhausted’ with new round of aid
President Joe Biden on Friday announced an additional $150 million in military aid for Ukraine, which he said “nearly exhausted” the funding Congress has authorized to Biden’s office during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Biden called on Congress to “quickly” pass an additional $33 billon in military, economic and humanitarian assistance that the White House requested last month.
“For Ukraine to succeed in this next phase of war its international partners, including the U.S., must continue to demonstrate our unity and our resolve to keep the weapons and ammunition flowing to Ukraine, without interruption,” Biden said in a statement.
The latest round of aid includes 25,000 155mm artillery rounds, counter-artillery radars, jamming equipment, and field equipment and spare parts, according to the White House.
The shipments are designed to help Ukrainian troops battle Russian forces in the eastern part of the country where the open terrain favors artillery battles.
Earlier Friday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters that more than 220 Ukrainian soldiers have completed training on M777 howitzer cannons. Almost all of that 90 howitzers the Pentagon has shipped to Ukraine are now ready for use there, he said.
The United States has now committed approximately $4.5 billion to aid Ukraine’s military since Biden entered office, $3.8 billion of which was since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has tied additional Ukraine aid to a COVID-19 relief package to try to force both through. Congress was unable to pass COVID-19 relief funds before heading out to recess earlier this month. But Republicans have balked at linking the two spending items together.
-Joey Garrison and Tom Vanden Brook
Biden to meet with G7 leaders, Zelenskyy on more Russian sanctions
President Joe Biden will participate in a virtual meeting Sunday morning with G7 nations to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine, including potential new sanctions on Russia, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.
The meeting, which German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will chair, will also include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It’s set for one day before Russia’s “Victory Day,” a holiday the U.S. expects Russian President Vladimir Putin to use to falsely claim victory in his war in Ukraine.
“He expected to be marching through the streets of Kyiv,” Psaki said of Putin. “That’s obviously not what is going to happen.”
Biden on Monday will also sign into law the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act, which will allow the U.S. to lend or lease military equipment to Ukraine.
— Joey Garrison
White House: Reports on role of US intelligence to sink Russian ship ‘inaccurate’
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called recent reports that the U.S. provided “specific-targeting” intelligence to help Ukraine take down the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet an “inaccurate overclaiming of our role.”
“We did not provide Ukraine with specific-targeting information for the Moskva,” Psaki said, referring to the ship struck by Ukrainian forces last month. “We were not involved in the Ukrainians’ decision to strike the ship or the operation they carried out. We had no prior knowledge of Ukraine’s intention to target the ship.”
The New York Times, citing unnamed U.S. officials, reported Thursday that U.S. intelligence helped lead to the sinking of the Moskva “as part of a continuing classified effort by the Biden administration to provide real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine.” Other media outlets including NBC News reported similar accounts.
Psaki said the U.S. does provide intelligence to help Ukraine understand the Russian threat in the Black Sea, but that Ukraine has a “greater level of intelligence.”
“And so, on this specific report, it’s just not an accurate depiction of how this happened,” Psaki said.
— Joey Garrison
Civilians rescued from Mariupol steel plant
About 50 additional civilians were able to evacuate Friday from the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol, said Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential office.
The Russian Interdepartmental Humanitarian Response Center said the 50 civilians included 11 children.
The latest humanitarian operation comes as Russian troops have intensified shelling at the plant in recent days, Ukrainian officials have said. Asked Friday about the siege, Zelenskyy said: “Mariupol will never fall. I’m not talking about heroism or anything … There is nothing there to fall apart. It is already devastated.”
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk said the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal will continue Saturday.
Russian politician in Kherson: Russia will be here ‘forever’
A senior leader in the Russian political party affiliated with President Vladimir Putin said Friday during an appearance in Ukraine, “Russia is here forever.”
Andrei Turchak, secretary of the General Council of United Russia, visited the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which Russia has occupied since March, and met with the region’s head administrator, Volodymyr Saldo, said Russian state news agency TASS.
“I want to say again — Russia is here forever. There should be no doubt about this. There will be no return to the past,” Turchak said, according to TASS.
Russian forces are stealing grain from Ukraine, UN official says
An official from the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization on Friday said there is “anecdotal evidence” that Russian troops were stealing grain from Ukraine.
The accusation comes amid concerns about a growing food crisis due to the war.
About 700,000 tons of grain have disappeared in Ukraine, Josef Schmidhuber, deputy director of FAO’s markets and trade division, said Friday.
“There’s anecdotal evidence that Russian troops have destroyed storage capacity and that they are looting the storage grain that is available,” he said. “They are also stealing farm equipment.”
Ukraine repels Russian attacks in Donbas, begins counteroffensive in Kharkiv, Izyum
Ukrainian forces have repelled at least 11 attacks in the Donbas region, destroying Russian tanks and vehicles in the process, the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said in a statement Friday.
Fighting continues in the region, and Russian forces are aiming to take full control of Popasna and resume offensives in Lyman and Siversk, the Ukrainian military said.
However, Ukrainian defense chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi on Thursday announced a planned counteroffensive to repel Russians from Kharkiv and Izyum. Ukrainian troops have already pushed Russian forces east from Kharkiv in recent days.
Hungary’s prime minister Orban rejects EU’s Russian oil ban
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday decried the European Union’s proposed ban on Russian oil, comparing the move to dropping an “atomic bomb” on Hungary’s economy.
Orban said his country was willing to negotiate on the latest round of economic sanctions against Russia, but including an embargo on Russian oil could not be accepted.
Hungary relies heavily on Russia for its energy, with about 85% of gas and 60% of oil coming from Russia. Switching to other sources of oil would be too burdensome on Hungary’s economy, Orban said.
“We cannot accept a proposal that ignores this circumstance because in its current form it is equivalent to an atomic bomb dropped on the Hungarian economy,” he added.
Former President George W. Bush speaks to Zelenskyy
Former President George W. Bush said he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday, calling him “the Winston Churchill of our time.”
“I thanked the President for his leadership, his example, and his commitment to liberty, and I saluted the courage of the Ukrainian people,” Bush said in a Twitter post, which included photos of the two men speaking by video link.
“President Zelenskyy assured me that they will not waver in their fight against Putin’s barbarism and thuggery. Americans are inspired by their fortitude and resilience. We will continue to stand with Ukrainians as they stand up for their freedom.”
Mariupol authorities say Russia violates ceasefire during evacuation operation
May 6, 2022
An aerial view shows shelling in the Azovstal steel plant complex, in Mariupol
KYIV (Reuters) – Local authorities in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol accused Russian forces on Friday of opening fire on a car on its way to evacuate civilians from a vast steel works, killing a fighter and violating a ceasefire agreement.
Russia did not immediately comment on the Mariupol city council’s statement. Moscow has denied targeting civilians and had offered a ceasefire to allow the evacuation of civilians trapped in the Azovstal steel plant with Ukrainian fighters.
“During the ceasefire on the territory of the Azovstal plant a car was hit by Russians using an anti-tank guided weapon. This car was moving towards civilians in order to evacuate them from the plant,” Mariupol city council said in an online post.
“As a result of the shelling, 1 fighter was killed and 6 were wounded. The enemy continues to violate all agreements and fails to adhere to security guarantees for the evacuation of civilians.”
Reuters could not verify the city council’s statement.
Russian forces have occupied Mariupol, leaving the city’s last defenders – and scores of civilians – holed up in the Azovstal plant.
The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have helped evacuate some of the civilians and Ukraine said a new attempt was under way to evacuate the civilians on Friday.
Andriy Biletsky, a founder of the Azov Regiment that is fighting in the steel works, wrote in an online post that there was renewed fighting at the plant and appealed for help evacuating them.
“The fighting is continuing, the shelling does not stop,” he wrote in a post in which called for a petition to be drawn up to increase pressure on the United Nations and global leaders to help evacuate fighters as well as civilians.
“Every minute of procrastination is the life of civilians, soldiers and the wounded,” he wrote.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
Heroic Mariupol Defenders Wrecking Putin’s Victory Day Plans for May 9
Philippe Naughton – May 6, 2022
ALEXANDER NEMENOV
Ukrainian officials claimed on Friday to have rescued hundreds more civilians who had been trapped in a besieged steel plant in the battered city of Mariupol.
An official in Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidential office said almost 500 civilians had now been evacuated from the Azovstal plant, although it was not clear how many were left there.
But for the 2,000 Ukrainian fighters thought to remain in the sprawling Azovstal complex, which features a maze of underground tunnels designed to withstand a nuclear attack, freedom is a distant prospect.
Mariupol’s last defenders face what could be the longest weekend of their lives as Russian forces—desperate to deliver something for Vladimir Putin to celebrate in Monday’s Victory Day celebrations—try at all costs to capture the plant.
Victory Day, marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, was the biggest event on the Soviet calendar, with annual parades on Red Square featuring goosestepping Red Army soldiers and the latest Cold War tanks and missiles.
It’s lost none of its mystique in post-Soviet Russia, especially since Putin launched his ill-fated “special operation” to “denazify” Ukraine on Feb. 24. Many of those pouring over the border took their dress uniforms with them in their tanks and APCs, confident that they’d be parading through a “liberated” Kyiv within days—but 10 weeks later Russia has had no real victories in a conflict that has cost the lives of as many as 25,000 of its soldiers including dozens of senior officers.
The closest the Russians have come to victory is in Mariupol, the strategic port city on the Azov Sea that was among the invaders’ first targets. The city of almost half a million people has been virtually destroyed and thousands have been killed by relentless bombardment, including an estimated 600 people killed while taking refuge in a theater.
The city’s last defenders are holed up in the Azovstal steel plant, including units from the Azov Regiment, a fighting force that began life as a neo-Nazi paramilitary unit in the 2014 Donbas war but is now part of the Ukraine National Guard. When Kremlin propagandists talk of “denazification,” the word “Azov” is never far behind.
In its daily intelligence update on Friday, the British Ministry of Defence said Russian forces were continuing their ground assault on Azovstal, despite President Putin ordering that it be “sealed off” last week. “The renewed effort by Russia to secure Azovstal and complete the capture of Mariupol is likely linked to the upcoming 9 May Victory Day commemorations and Putin’s desire to have a symbolic success in Ukraine,” it said.
Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) claimed on Thursday that Russia was planning to hold a Victory Day parade in Mariupol itself, to allow Putin to claim at least a tactical victory inside Ukraine. “The main avenues of the city are urgently cleaned, the debris and the bodies of the dead removed, as well as the ammunition which did not explode,” it said.
Most chilling of all, according to another Ukrainian official, the Russians were planning to take as many as 2,000 men being held in a nearby “filtration camp” and march them through Mariupol in a “war prisoners parade”—even though they are not actual prisoners of war.
“It will be a grotesque crowd scene for another propaganda image,” said Pyotr Andryuschenko, an aide to the Mariupol mayor.
Putin’s chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Friday denied that any parade was planned for Mariupol, although he said one would eventually be held there.
In the meantime, the Ukrainian soldiers in the Azovstal, running short on food, water, and medicine to treat their wounded, just cling on.
“They won’t surrender,” Kateryna Prokopenko, whose husband Denys is an Azov commander, told the Associated Press. “They only hope for a miracle.”
Prokopenko was speaking after a phone call with her husband in which he told her he would love her forever. “I am going mad from this. It seemed like words of goodbye,” she said.
Putin may announce annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories on May 9 — Interior Ministry
May 6, 2022
Protesters against Russia’s war in Ukraine pass by a picture of dictator Vladimir Putin at an anti-war exhibition near the Russian embassy in Bucharest, Romania. April 30, 2022
Denysenko noted said during the last week the Russian occupiers were unable to progress on any fronts and “are looking for at least some opportunities to catch up and try to demonstrate their ‘victories.’”
He said the large-scale missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine in the previous days are connected with this, and the “general hysteria gripping the Kremlin.”
“There are now two parties in the Kremlin: one says that the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, and even Kherson oblasts and the occupied territories in Zaporizhzhia should be announced by May 9 (none of the oblasts is completely occupied — ed.),” Denysenko said.
“The other party says that if the annexation goes ahead, Moscow will simply have no leeway for future negotiations. I think it will be decided in the coming days whether Putin will make a statement.”
Earlier, U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter, citing U.S. intelligence sources, said that by mid-May Russia will try to annex the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson oblasts.
Russia-focused outlet Meduza, citing sources close to the Kremlin, also wrote that militants from the pseudo-republics of Luhansk and Donetsk could hold referendums in mid-May on the illegal annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which are partially occupied by Russia.
Meduza’s sources also claimed that a pseudo-referendum in the partially occupied Kherson Oblast on the creation of the so-called “People’s Republic of Kherson”, which could also be “annexed” by Russia in the future, might also take place on these dates.
CNN quoted unnamed U.S. and Western officials as saying that on May 9, Putin could officially declare war on Ukraine instead of his so-called “special military operation” – as Russia currently terms its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated earlier that Ukraine would withdraw from negotiations with Russia if the occupiers held pseudo-referendums in the territories temporarily occupied by them, in particular in Kherson and Zaporizhzhya oblasts.
Putin has become a problem. The main indicator of Russia’s defeat
May 6, 2022
A process that began on April 24 during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s historic meeting with the head of the U.S. State Department Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Kyiv continued throughout the last week.
It included a meeting in the U.S. Ramstein airbase of the defense ministers of the 40 most industrial powers in the world. They, in fact, entered into a military alliance in support of Ukraine. The West has finally clearly formulated its goals.
When asked what the purpose of the war was, Austin replied: “The purpose of the war for the United States is the victory of Ukraine. Restoration of its territorial integrity, and that Russia, as a result of the war, is weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”
That is, the West has already formulated a program not only for the victory of Ukraine in the war but also for the post-war structure. This is a common practice after world wars, but in essence, this is not a Russo-Ukrainian war, this is a world war that the insane dictator Putin declared against the entire West and the free world. After the world war, the victorious powers form a new world order. And now Ukraine will be the main victorious power in this process.
During these two months of the war, the Americans spent a long time hesitating, they were cautious. But, in the end, with its heroic resistance, Ukraine, as it were, pushed them back into the arena of world politics, which they were almost about to leave. After such a reputational disaster as Afghanistan, the dictators of the world were sure that two more blows needed to be struck — to conquer Ukraine and Taiwan. Then the West and the United States would be completely discredited, and entirely different orders would reign in the world.
However, the heroic resistance of Ukraine has prevented this scenario. The free world has gone on the attack, and the West has overcome its fear of nuclear blackmail, which Putin has used quite effectively for himself for 15 years. He constantly threatened to use tactical nuclear weapons in the war with NATO, hoping that NATO would get scared and retreat in horror. He was dealt an answer.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley called General Valery Gerasimov and made it clear to him, to tell his boss that they will not retreat, they will not capitulate, but on the contrary, they will retaliate with a nuclear strike. So don’t even think about resorting to nuclear weapons. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland was even more straightforward. The West got rid of this fear of nuclear blackmail, and clearly defined its program — victory over Putin’s fascist Russia.
If we consider the significant events of recent days, then the indicator of the largest political defeat of Russia was the position of Israel. Which, in response to Sergei Lavrov’s anti-Semitic attacks is taking a tougher stand in the face of Russia.
It is removing restrictions on the transfer of military technology and assistance to Ukraine. Many did not notice, but Israel participated in the meeting in Ramstein. This is very important. Israel has technology that the Americans cannot provide.
In turn, China, although it continues a cold war with the United States, is not going to rush to the aid of the Russian Federation. It primarily protects its own interests. What is happening suits Beijing — weakening, isolated from the West, from all modern technologies, financial resources, Russia is rapidly becoming easy prey.
No one in China, not one of the 1.5 billion Chinese who are taught from school textbooks, forgets what vast territories of Siberia and the Far East are inherent Chinese territories, torn away from it by the tsarist government in the 19th century. And it is waiting for the return of these territories — as they like to say in Moscow — to their native, not Russian, but Chinese harbor.
Watching all this, powerful people in the Kremlin are becoming a danger for Putin. Influential people outside the Kremlin do not pose a danger for him. The soldiers included. Let’s not delude ourselves: they are not liberals, but the same Russian imperialists, they would not mind snatching off some piece of Ukraine. But even before the start of the war, retired generals warned Putin that the occupation of Ukraine was a fool’s errand. And everything that is happening confirms it.
Now Putin has become the main problem of the Russian authorities and the mafia group that is in power. He is destroying the country, which is a source of food for them, where they had it made.
I think they are now considering very seriously the question of the possible removal of Putin from power. And each new success of Ukraine at the front (and these successes will sharply increase in two weeks, when the most modern weapons in the world will arrive in full), pushes them to this decision. It’s inevitable.
Some say they are even worse than Putin. But it is not a question of who is good or bad. The question is who will sign the surrender. There is such a thing as military logic, and the victory of Ukraine is unavoidable. Putin only hinders them in this process.
And do not forget about the goals of the war, which are declared by the entire world community — to weaken Russia so that it will never be able to repeat this aggression again. Therefore, after the war, both Ukraine and the rest of the world will not rely on good or bad Russian leaders. They will create conditions so that no leaders, good or bad, can ever commit aggression against neighboring countries from the territory of the Russian Federation.
‘If I panic it will be worse.’ In Donbas, weary civilians try to cope.
Scott Peterson – May 6, 2022
The well-worn Ukrainian settlement a few miles west of Kramatorsk is in the direct line of a Russian troop advance. But Anna Lunina – with her three youngest children playing around her – is determined to remain composed.
As an explosion sounds just over the horizon, her daughter Yulia, 9, reacts by throwing up her arms in mock not-again exasperation, a single braid of black hair bouncing as she glances up to the sky with a look of trepidation that seems more real.
“This is the guys saying, ‘Hello.’ It can start at 5 a.m. and go all day,” says Ms. Lunina, of the “noisy” shelling that has increased here and all along the arc of the Donbas front lines in eastern Ukraine, as Russian forces bid to encircle this industrial heartland.
“I try to be calm and not panic,” says the lanky mother of five in a “Star Wars” T-shirt, as her youngest son, Ruslan, 5, demands a hug. “They cry, but if I panic it will be worse.”
Three more booms reverberate loudly across the budding greenery of the early spring landscape, where rutted mud roads have finally dried.
“This is quiet – they are just starting,” mutters Ms. Lunina. “When the windows shake or the doors open, then we go to the bunker.”
Ukrainians in the Donbas are used to conflict, and have weathered war since 2014, when Russian-backed separatists seized portions of Luhansk and Donetsk. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began 72 days ago is of a different magnitude, and is redefining the lives of those few who remain here.
From church faithful, who distribute food and organize evacuations, to police officers registering an uptick in murders – and even ordinary citizens just trying to cope with panic and paranoia – all describe communities under extraordinary and increasing pressure.
“No safe place”
For these Donbas residents, the April 8 Russian attack on the Kramatorsk railway station, when it was heaving with several thousand would-be evacuees, was a shared and galvanizing event. Russian cluster munitions killed some 59 civilians, replacing any lingering sense of invincibility with a new and harrowing vulnerability.
“We understood that there is no safe place at all,” says Evhen Pavenko, an official of the Ark of Salvation Pentecostal church, which is housed in a Soviet-era theater near the train station, and has become a humanitarian aid hub and bomb shelter.
In his wallet, Mr. Pavenko carries a sharp piece of shrapnel the size of a fingertip, one that burst from the Russian cluster munition. It reminds him of why he saw so many dead Ukrainians on the train platform that day.
“It’s really hard to gather people to evacuate now, because everyone is hesitating,” he says.
At the station, he points out the blast pattern of one impact on the train platform, near where cloth flowers in the Ukrainian national colors of blue and yellow are tied to a rail, amid several children’s toys.
“I’m very surprised I was not traumatized in my soul,” says Mr. Pavenko. “There were many, many dead here.”
Hard times, at night
Among the casualties that day was Maryna, a 30-something mother trying to flee the Donbas with her two daughters. Yulia, 8, was untouched but traumatized by the explosions, and could not speak for hours afterward. Katya, 12, was severely wounded but survived, because a man threw himself on top of her before he died himself.
“He saved Katya,” says the girls’ grandmother, Nina Lialko, speaking in the town of Druzhkivka, south of Kramatorsk. The English teacher is distraught as she describes Katya’s multiple surgeries.
“After the death of my daughter, I am not afraid of anything,” says Ms. Lialko. She was the only person at Maryna’s funeral, and won’t leave the Donbas now. “It is very difficult, especially at night, alone, and I feel awful,” she says.
Dasha Serokurova says those moments at night were also the most difficult moments for her mother, who finally last week boarded a dawn evacuation van from Druzhkivka.
“From the very beginning, she was very anxious,” says Ms. Serokurova, wiping away tears as she waved goodbye to her mother. “With every air raid siren she would go to the shelter, which made her more nervous.”
The exodus of 70% to 80% of the prewar population has given these sandbagged and boarded-up Donbas cities the feel of ghost towns, adding to the sense of isolation for those who stay.
Members of the Protestant Church of Good Hope, who organize evacuations from Druzhkivka, say they used to do larger, daily runs of evacuees to the Kramatorsk rail station, until it was targeted.
They have replaced fear with faith, as risks increase. Several took part in rescue efforts at Kramatorsk, and have been thanked for providing aid and even coffins.
“We are believers, people of faith,” says Olena Severyna. “We trust God. We pray every day that, with God’s will, there won’t be a hair that falls from our head.”
“Of course we are afraid and nervous, but we are trying to concentrate on our work,” says her husband, Serhii Severyn.
Pro-Russian sentiment
Adding to the pressure has been continued, local pro-Russian sentiment, despite evident Russian military brutalities on front lines across Ukraine.
“They watch Russian TV, and believe that Ukrainians are attacking themselves,” says Petro Serhiievsky, who works for the Druzhkivka City Council. “Russian propaganda is very, very powerful” in the Donbas, as in Russia, he says.
“I am very surprised. There are still people here who do not feel anything, are not empathetic,” says Mr. Serhiievsky. In one example, during Easter, he says several pro-Russian residents broke curfew, set up a table outside, and drank noisily. They only stopped when soldiers came and shot into the air.
Yet Mr. Severyn says he knows how the anti-Ukraine propaganda works, after living in Russia in 2012. “They used to show the Ukrainian government and activists as fascists, so it has been a decade,” he says of Russia’s self-declared “denazification” mission in Ukraine.
The result of the increased pressure in these towns is plain to see, according to police in Druzhkivka. Burglaries are up, and there have been two homicides in the past two weeks – one of a man who refused to hand over his car for an evacuation. He was killed with a hammer.
“Usually we have one murder a year,” says the head of the police station, who gave the name Dmytro. The police also caught an infiltrator whose tracking of Ukrainian troop movements led to a Russian attempt to strike a military convoy.
“We are trying to encourage people to leave,” says Dmytro. A “precise hit” on the power station that day, he says, which knocked out electricity for hours and played havoc with phone signals, is a sign that “it is not as safe as it was.”
The rising tide of uncertainty is raising levels of fear. At a food distribution in Kramatorsk, for example, where dozens of people wait outside an apartment block to receive potatoes, tinned food, and other staples from a church charity, a woman in a blue puffer jacket sidles up to a visitor with a camera and asks that photos not be taken.
“These photos can be used by Russians to target this place,” says the woman, who gave the name Nadiya. “A lot of people posted on social media the evacuations at the Kramatorsk train station, which assisted the attack.
“I don’t want to be targeted. This is no use to your job, or to us,” says the woman, her gray hair pulled back by a large purple hair clip. An air raid siren starts its wail.
“I wasn’t at the railway station, but I was very close. I’m very scared after that,” says Nadiya. “People are different now. I can tell even by the people standing here: People who had anxiety before, it’s increased a lot.”
Puppies to play with
Among those carrying their food from that distribution point up the sidewalk is the family of Anna Lunina. The day of the railway bombing, they were waiting for a bus that would have delivered them to a stop across the street from the blast – but by chance it was delayed.
Now they are at home, listening to jet fighters overhead, and trying to determine if the explosions are getting closer. Last week, a neighbor buried a soldier son.
Children Yulia and Maksym, 8, take the steps down into the concrete cellar out back – built with the Stalin-era house in 1944 as winter storage for vegetables. It now doubles as the family shelter: Plywood on tires form three beds, and there is some food, jugs of water, and even a homemade antenna for a small TV screen.
Yulia complains that most of her friends have left, so “there is no one to play with.”
But there are three new puppies, which arrived soon after the start of the Russian invasion, and have wartime names: Bullet, Powder, and Hurricane – the latter for a multiple rocket system.
When were they born? Ms. Lunina jokes, “Probably at the first explosion.”
Reporting for this story was supported by Oleksandr Naselenko.
On May 9, Moscow will again celebrate Victory Day, marking the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany, but this year’s military display in Red Square will be more subdued than in past years. One reason is that the invasion of Ukraine has not gone well. Ten weeks into the war, the Kremlin may be wondering why some 200,000 Russian soldiers and better armaments have not defeated a much smaller enemy.
A big reason is that Russia’s superior numbers are no match for the superior motives of Ukrainian fighters. Not only are Ukrainians defending their country’s sovereignty and know their terrain well; they are more certain than Russian soldiers that they reflect the qualities of their society, such as equality-based rule of law.
While both nations have compulsory military service, far more of Russia’s troops are drafted, many of them unwilling conscripts in a war they barely understand. Bribery to evade the draft is common in Russia. In Ukraine’s army, forced conscription has been rare during the war because of a rush of volunteer fighters. The country’s democratic reforms have reduced corruption in the military and allowed commanders to grant more freedom for officers to act on their own. Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, tells officers to “turn your face to the people, to your subordinates.”
The ability of Ukraine’s soldiers to collaborate and improvise comes out of the country’s young democracy. As President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told The Economist last month, “It’s not about who has more weapons or more money or gas or oil, et cetera. And that’s why we have to have agency. That’s what I understood, the first thing that I understood, that we the people have [agency]. People are leaders.”
If history is any guide, Ukraine will win this war. In their 2002 book, scholars Dan Reiter and Allan C. Stam looked at wars since 1815 and found that democracies won more than three-quarters of them. One reason: An emphasis on individual liberties and rights results in better leadership in warfare. So far, Ukraine’s battlefield victories fit the book.
Ex-spies and diplomats say the Biden administration needs to ‘shut-up’ after NYT report about US intelligence helping Ukraine kill Russian generals
John Haltiwanger – May 6, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, September 13, 2021.Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ex-US officials said the Biden administration needs to “shut-up” about intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
This came after a NYT report said US intel was helping Ukraine kill Russian generals.
A veteran diplomat said discussing intelligence used for targeting would bolster Putin’s propaganda about Russia being a victim.
Former US officials and diplomats in recent days have sharply criticized the Biden administration over a New York Times report based on conversations with senior officials that said US intelligence was helping Ukraine kill Russian generals.
“Shut up about it,” John Sipher, a former CIA officer who served in Russia, said in a tweet on the Times report.
Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, in a tweet responding to Sipher said, “Exactly. No one should be talking to press about such things.”
Striking a similar tone, former US diplomat Aaron David Miller tweeted that the “whole shift in tone” following Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to Ukraine is “worrisome.”
“Weakening Russia; winning; and now stories @NYT about killing Russian generals. Why can’t we just shut up?” Miller said.
The intel-sharing reports by the NYT and NBC News suggested, without specifying, that the US shared intelligence so precise — such as high-resolution images or transmissions made by radars or radios — that the Ukrainian military could use it to plan strikes. The NYT reported that the “White House finds some value in warning Russia that Ukraine has the weight of the United States and NATO behind it,” but the Pentagon insisted that it doesn’t provide the location of Russian generals to Ukraine and has no role in Ukrainian decisions about where to strike.
After a trip to Kyiv last month, Austin told reporters, “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”
Austin’s frank comments came a few weeks after President Joe Biden was accused of calling for regime change in Russia after he said Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” The White House scrambled to clarify the Biden’s remarks, stating, “The president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia or regime change.”
Following up on Austin’s comments, a National Security Council spokesperson in a statement to CNN said, “We want Ukraine to win,” adding, “One of our goals has been to limit Russia’s ability to do something like this again, as Secretary Austin said. That’s why we are arming the Ukrainians.”
The Russian warship “Moskva” (“Moscow”), a Slava class guided missile cruiser, off the Black Sea shore in 2014.Darko Vojinovic/Associated Press
On the heels of the bombshell Times story, a separate report from NBC News said that US intelligence also helped Ukraine sink the Moskva — a guided missile cruiser and the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
Richard Haass, a veteran diplomat and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, in a tweet responding to reports on the Moskva said he couldn’t “fathom why US officials are discussing US helping Ukraine sink Russian ships or kill its generals.”
Haass warned that “this bolsters Putin’s narrative that Russia is a victim” while distracting “attention from the reality of Russian aggression and its incompetence vs Ukraine.”
The Biden administration has forcefully pushed back on the notion it has explicitly provided intelligence to Ukraine for the purpose of taking out specific people or targets.
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson on Wednesday said the Times report was framed in an “irresponsible” way.
“The United States provides battlefield intelligence to help the Ukrainians defend their country. We do not provide intelligence with the intent to kill Russian generals,” Watson added.
Similarly, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby on Thursday said the US doesn’t “provide intelligence on the location of senior military leaders on the battlefield or participate in the targeting decisions of the Ukrainian military.”
Kirby in a statement said the US didn’t provide Ukraine “specific targeting information for the Moskva,” per NBC.
“We were not involved in the Ukrainians’ decision to strike the ship or in the operation they carried out,” Kirby went on to say, adding, “We had no prior knowledge of Ukraine’s intent to target the ship. The Ukrainians have their own intelligence capabilities to track and target Russian naval vessels, as they did in this case.”
The Biden administration said the reports on US intel sharing were a result of leaks. “Leaks like this and stories like this, they’re unhelpful to the effort to help Ukraine defend itself,” Kirby told CNN on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov seemed to brush off the reports on US intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
The Russian military is “well aware that the United States, Great Britain and NATO as a whole are constantly transmitting intelligence and other parameters to the Ukrainian armed forces,” Peskov told reporters on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Peskov said that the intelligence sharing, combined with the weapons the West is giving Ukraine, doesn’t “contribute to the quick completion” of Russia’s war. But he added that it also won’t hinder Russia’s ability to achieve its goals in Ukraine.
Contrary to Peskov’s claims, which were in line with Moscow’s rosy propaganda on the war, the Russian military has struggled to make any significant gains in Ukraine since Putin ordered the invasion in late February. Russia is estimated to have lost up to 15,000 troops. After failing to take Kyiv, Russia has turned its attention to the eastern Donbas region.
Putin’s Private Army Accused of Raping New Moms on Maternity Ward
Philip Obaji Jr. – May 6, 2022
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty/Security Service of Ukraine
ABUJA, Nigeria—Russian mercenaries from the notoriously brutal Wagner Group, which some have called Vladimir Putin’s “private army,” allegedly raped women admitted to a maternity ward in a hospital in the Central African Republic (CAR), according to military officials who spoke to The Daily Beast.
On the night of April 10, three Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, which is also active in Ukraine right now, allegedly staged the attacks at a hospital in the Henri Izamo military camp in the capital Bangui.
Officials, who are stationed in CAR’s military headquarters but keep an eye on the activities of so-called Russian “military instructors,” told The Daily Beast that the men forced themselves on women—a couple of whom had just given birth—who were receiving treatment in the infirmary’s maternity ward.
“[The military headquarters] received a report last month from the [hospital] center detailing how three Russian instructors stormed the maternity ward and began to sexually assault women on admission,” one of the officials told The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, as he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.
Many of the mercenaries operating in Africa under Wagner—a private military company run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, one of President Putin’s closest associates—were withdrawn to help fight the war in Ukraine—as first reported by The Daily Beast—but there are still plenty in operation on the continent.
“Among the victims, the military was informed, are two mothers who had just given birth to babies and health workers on duty,” said the official, who added that the military “is convinced that the report is genuine.”
Another official in CAR’s military headquarters with knowledge of the operations of Wagner mercenaries in the restive African nation told The Daily Beast that it was the third time the military had received a report about Russian mercenaries invading the maternity ward of the infirmary and sexually assaulting women.
On all three occasions, according to the official, investigators found the allegations to be “genuine,” but taking action against the mercenaries was almost impossible as officers are “scared of angering the Russians.”
A human rights campaigner who has spoken to a victim of a previous rape at the Henri Izamo military camp informed The Daily Beast that the Russian mercenaries who assaulted her when she was receiving treatment at the infirmary sometime last year arrived late at night, dragged her out of her bed, and began to rape her on the floor.
“She was so sick and was sleeping when the Russians arrived,” said Cédric Niamathé, a Bangui-based human rights activist who helps connect victims of various abuses to human rights lawyers. “All she could remember was opening her eyes and seeing a naked white soldier, who had covered her mouth with his hand, on top of her, raping her.”
A couple of regional publications—quoting eyewitnesses—have given accounts of how the most recent incident occurred.
HumAngle, a West and Central Africa focused news site headquartered in Nigeria, quoted a gendarme who was on duty on that day as saying that the Russians arrived at the infirmary’s maternity ward “with pistols and whisky in their hands” and met the two women who had just given birth, as well as some other female health workers, in the room.
“They started indecently touching the women and signaling for sex from the two women who had just put to bed,” said the gendarme. He also alleged that the Russians tried to rape the nurse on duty who had confronted them saying the women had just given birth and still had blood on them. “She struggled to free herself [and] ran to the labour room,” he reportedly said.
“As this was going on,” said the gendarme, a “nurse aide who happened to be an adjudant-chef (Chief Warrant Officer) and who was still in the maternity tried to beg the Russians to be human but they turned on her and sexually abused her one after the other.”
Corbeau News Centrafrique, one of CAR’s well-known independent news outlets, which spoke to an eyewitness, reported that the sexual assault on the nurse aide lasted for hours, with each mercenary allegedly taking turns to abuse her. The news outlet also reported that one of the women who had just given birth said her ordeal was painful and humiliating.
Victims of rape hardly ever get justice in CAR. Over four years ago, Human Rights Watch documented 305 cases of rape and sexual slavery carried out against women and girls by members of armed groups between early 2013 and mid-2017. Of the 296 victims interviewed, only 11 of the 296 women interviewed said they made an attempt to file a criminal complaint. No members of armed groups was ever arrested or tried for committing sexual violence, according to the organization. Instead, the number of victims continued to grow.
In 2020, the Gender-Based Violence Information Management System—a monitoring system maintained by humanitarian partners including UNFPA—recorded 2,281 cases of sexual violence. More than a third of those brutalities were committed by members of armed groups.
As for those women reported to have been raped at the Henri Izamo military camp by Wagner mercenaries, there would be no surprise if justice isn’t served. Even those with the power to either take action or recommend that action be taken are unconvinced that anyone will be punished.
“Disciplining a Russian instructor who has committed a crime is not what the military can confidently act on,” a senior CAR military official told The Daily Beast privately. “Only the president can decide on how to deal with the Russians.”
