Author: John Hanno

Reuters

Ukrainian volunteers recount three weeks in Russian captivity, allege beatings

Alessandra Prentice and Sergiy Karazy – April 19, 2022

DYMER, Ukraine (Reuters) – Volodymyr Khropun and Yulia Ivannikova-Katsemon say they were helping people flee villages on the front line in northern Ukraine when they were detained by Russian soldiers over two days in March.

Both said they were then held with around 40 other captives on the concrete floor of a nearby factory, their hands bound. Nearly a week later they were transferred in a military truck to Belarus, and on to detention centres in Russia, they said.

Khropun, an electrical engineer, and Ivannikova-Katsemon, an emergency services dispatcher, were freed with 24 others in a prisoner exchange on April 9.

Standing outside the dank windowless room where they say they were kept in the formerly occupied village of Dymer, north of the capital, Khropun and Ivannikova-Katsemon have returned to describe their three weeks in Russian custody, which they said included being beaten. Ivannikova-Katsemon also said she was tasered.

Related video: Volunteers collect body bags in Bucha

Volunteers collect body bags in Bucha

Ukrainian volunteers continued collecting bodies of those killed in the Ukrainian town of Bucha on Thursday, as outrage rises over alleged atrocities carried out by Russian forces in areas near Kyiv. (April 7)

Both said they were working as volunteers for the local Red Cross when they were taken prisoner, interrogated and accused of passing information on the activity of Russian forces to the other side, which they deny.

The Ukrainian Red Cross confirmed they were both volunteers. They were both reported as missing or illegally detained civilians by the Euromaidan SOS initiative of Ukrainian human rights group The Center for Civil Liberties as of March 26.

Reuters was not able to independently verify all the details of their stories. The Kremlin and Russia’s defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment about their accounts.

Khropun and Ivannikova-Katsemon’s detailed narratives shed more light on the mistreatment Ukraine alleges some of its citizens and soldiers have faced in Russian captivity since the start of the war. Their journey also shows one way Russia has transferred some of the hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners it says it holds to Russian territory.

Since the start of the war on Feb. 24, Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of violating the Geneva Conventions that cover the protection of civilians during war and the treatment of prisoners of war.

In March, Russia’s human rights ombudswoman said she had heard about cases of “cruel and inhuman treatment” of Russian POWs in Ukraine.

This month Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman said returning POWs had described mistreatment while in Russian captivity that included being kept in basements, denied food and made to take off their clothes.

Authorities from both sides have repeatedly said they abide by international humanitarian law in terms of treatment of prisoners.

Speaking in the factory in Dymer, Khropun described what happened when he was first detained by Russian forces, after driving evacuees through a checkpoint on March 18.

“They arrested me, closed my eyes – as in, they pulled a hat over my eyes, bound it on with scotch tape – and then wrapped my hands in tape, like a terrorist. Then I was transferred here,” said Khropun, 44.

He and Ivannikova-Katsemon had both been regularly crossing the front line to help locals escape the fighting around villages north of Kyiv. Ivannikova-Katsemon, 37, was detained similarly the next day, she said.

“There was always hope with God that I would return (home),” said Ivannikova-Katsemon, who has children, occasionally pausing to steady her voice or hold back tears. “The hard thing was not being able to tell family and friends that I was alive and in captivity.”

‘NIGHTMARE COME TO LIFE’

The two said they were held in an unheated room at the small factory in Dymer, huddled on thin mattresses and scraps of cardboard. Around 40 detainees were crammed into the space, sharing a plastic pot for a toilet.

“It was like a nightmare come to life,” Khropun said, speaking to Reuters back in the room where he was held.

He pointed to the dirty mattress he shared with several others. The floor was littered with trash, empty boxes of Russian army rations, zip ties and loops of tape that they said had bound people’s hands.

Ivannikova-Katsemon described how she was able to slightly loosen the binding around her wrists with a safety pin that she kept hold of throughout her time in captivity by hiding it inside her hair tie.

The Russians brought food once or twice a day, mostly army crackers and the occasional pot of cooked food. There were only two plastic spoons so some people ate with their hands, others with scraps of paper, said Khropun.

One of the spoons was still jabbed into a pot that was half-full of what looked like rotting cabbage stew.

A bullet hole was visible in the concrete ceiling of the room. One of the guards had fired into the air to spook them, they said.

BELARUS AND RUSSIA

After nearly a week, Khropun and Ivannikova-Katsemon said that they and around 14 other detainees were loaded onto a military truck. They weren’t told where they were going, but the stop-start journey through Belarus would eventually take them to official detention centres in Russia.

In Belarus, they said they were interrogated by the Russian military. They each received a document that included their photo, date of birth, height, hair colour and other identifying details that designated them as “a person who has shown opposition to the special military operation” – Russia’s term for its war in Ukraine.

They showed Reuters copies of the documents, titled ‘Certificate of Identity’ and issued by the Russian armed forces.

“The first stage was being stripped naked, photographed, the noting of scars, I have a few. Then the pouring of water (on me) and a beating,” Ivannikova-Katsemon said. The document she received lists her scars in a section called “Other features”.

Once in Russia, the two said they passed through several different detention centres. At one point, Ivannikova-Katsemon said she was told she would be sent to work in a timber camp in Russia’s far east.

“I don’t know the place, they just said: Siberia,” she recalled.

Khropun said he faced multiple interrogations in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, sometimes being forced to kneel for long periods in cold rooms or beaten on his knees or ribs.

He said younger prisoners were singled out for especially tough beatings by guards, who also shaved the captives’ heads and beards, sometimes leaving a tuft or half a moustache as a form of humiliation.

He said he tried to keep up the morale of his fellow detainees, who he said were also Ukrainian civilians. “I’d say, ‘guys – we will all get home 100%. There is just one small question: when?'”

RETURN HOME

On April 8, the two said they were given back the clothes they were wearing when first detained, still dirty from the days spent on the factory floor.

In handcuffs, they were taken by plane to Crimea from where they were driven by truck to Ukraine-controlled territory on April 9.

They said they had been selected for a prisoner swap, but did not know why they were picked over others.

After around three weeks in captivity, they were home.

“Of course there was the sense of joy, but it was somehow hard to fully comprehend,” said Khropun.

Khropun and Ivannikova-Katsemon said they were the only ones to be exchanged from the group of detainees who were sent from Dymer to Russia. They described their fears for the others they believe are still being held in Russia.

The Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that 26 prisoners were swapped with Russia on April 9, but have not named them all. The office of deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who is in charge of negotiating the swaps, did not respond to a request for comment about the release of Khropun and Ivannikova-Katsemon.

On April 11, Vereshchuk said in total some 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians were being held in Russia and by pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

Ukraine held around 600 Russian military prisoners of war and no civilians as of April 4, according to Vereshchuk.

Russia does not release exact figures, but in late March its human rights ombudswoman said there were more than 500 Ukrainian POWs in Russia.

Ivannikova-Katsemon said she wears a medical corset and takes medicine to manage the pain she feels as a result of her treatment in captivity.

“But these monsters, who supposedly call themselves liberators, did not break me,” she said, standing in the spring sunshine outside the Dymer factory.

(Additional reporting by Stefaniia Bern in Kyiv; Editing by Rachel Armstrong, Frances Kerry and Jan Harvey)

Business Insider

Families of crew aboard Russia’s sunken warship Moskva have begun questioning the official line that it was fully evacuated

Sinéad Baker – April 19, 2022

• Moskva, Russia’s Black Sea flagship, sank Thursday after a suspected Ukrainian missile strike.
• Families of some crew members are now questioning Russia’s claim it fully evacuated the ship.
• A mother of one crew member told The Guardian she was informed Monday that her son had died.

Relatives of crew members aboard the sunken Russian warship Moskva say they haven’t been able to locate their loved ones in the days since it went down.

The Moskva, a missile cruiser that was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, sank on Thursday. Russian state media blamed an on-board explosion but Ukraine said it struck the ship with missiles, something the Pentagon later confirmed.

The Moskva is thought to have had around 500 crew on board. Russia said the ship was completely evacuated but the families of some crew members have begun questioning that claim.

Yulia Tsyvova, whose son Andrei was on board, told The Guardian she didn’t receive an update about his whereabouts until Monday, when she received a call from Russia’s defence ministry to say he was dead.

“He was only 19, he was a conscript,” Tsyvova said. “They didn’t tell me anything else, no information on when the funeral would be.”

She added: “I am sure he isn’t the only one who died.”

Dmitry Shkrebets told The Guardian about his son Yegor, a cook on the Moskva, who was said to be listed as missing in action.

“A conscript who isn’t supposed to see active fighting is among those missing in action,” Shkrebets said. “Guys, how can you be missing in action in the middle of the high seas?”

Shkrebets said other families had contacted him to say their sons were missing after the Moskva sank.

Irina Shkrebets, mother of Yegor, said she went to a hospital to look for her son and discovered about 200 burnt bodies.

She told independent Russian news outlet The Insider: “We looked at every burnt kid. I can’t tell you how hard it was, but I couldn’t find mine.”

She added: “There were only 200 people, and there were more than 500 onboard the cruiser. Where were the others?”

Russia has been accused of covering up the scale of its military deaths since it invaded Ukraine on February 24. Reports suggest Russia has transported thousands of dead soldiers to Belarus from Ukraine, and Ukrainian officials have said there are thousands of unclaimed Russian corpses in its morgues.

Some families of Moskva crew members have learned that their loved ones are alive – not by seeing them in person, but from video shared by the Russian military, The Guardian reported.

Some parents were afraid of reprisals from Russia if they were seen to be questioning what happened to their sons, the newspaper said.

Business Insider

Russia is dropping bunker-buster bombs on a Mariupol steel plant where Ukrainian civilians are hiding, commander says

Sinéad Baker – April 19, 2022

• Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are hiding in a Mariupol steel plant as Russian forces continue attacking.
• An Azov Regiment commander said Russia was dropping bunker-busting bombs on the plant.
• Officials say civilians, including children, are sheltering there.

Russia is dropping bunker-buster bombs on a steel plant in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol where soldiers and citizens have been hiding, a Ukrainian military commander said.

Denys Prokopenko, the commander of the Ukrainian National Guard’s Azov Regiment, said on Monday that Russia had started dropping bombs on the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant, the Associated Press reported.

Prokopenko said his troops were there alongside civilians.

The plant includes underground tunnels, and Mariupol’s city council said on Telegram on Monday that up to 1,000 citizens were also hiding there.

Bunker busting bombs are designed to hit targets that are deep underground and to penetrate through thick defenses.

Prokopenko said Russian troops were aware that civilians were hiding there, and firing anyway: “Russian occupational forces, and their proxy … know about the civilians, and they keep willingly firing on the factory,” he said.

Russia on Tuesday told troops in the plant to lay down their arms by midday Moscow time if they wanted to live. “All who lay down their arms are guaranteed to remain alive,” Russia’s defense ministry said, Reuters reported.

Mikhail Vershinin, head of the Donetsk regional patrol police, said on Sunday that children were among the civilians at the plant, Politico reported. Mariupol is in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

The port city of Mariupol has been one of the most-hit parts of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24. Seizing Mariupol would give Russia effective control over the land route from Russian-controlled Crimea and the eastern Donbas region, where Russian troops started attacking early Tuesday.

Ukrainian officials estimate that around 21,000 civilians have been killed in the city, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Sunday: “The city doesn’t exist anymore. The remaining of the Ukrainian army and large group of civilians are basically encircled by the Russian forces.”

Some of those remaining in the city are in the steel plant, which may be the last pocket of resistance in the city.

Russia has ordered Ukrainian soldiers left in Mariupol to surrender, but they have refused.

Yan Gagin, an advisor to the Russia-backed separatist forces in Donetsk, told Russian media outlet Ria Novosti that the steel plant is “basically another city” under Mariupol, and that it was built to withstand bombings.

Business Insider

Harvard Law professor says US should liquidate Russia’s foreign reserves and use the money to fund military aid to Ukraine

Jake Epstein – April 19, 2022

• Russia may have up to $100 billion in foreign exchange reserves sitting in the US.
• A Harvard Law School professor is now suggesting that Biden liquidates the assets.
• The money could be used to quickly unlock military aid for Ukraine.

A Harvard Law School professor suggested recently that the US should liquidate Russia’s foreign reserves and use the money to fund Ukrainian military aid.

Russia’s central bank may have up to $100 billion in foreign exchange reserves sitting in the US and liquidating the funds may be an “obvious solution” to punishing Russia for its unprovoked war against Ukraine, constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe and Harvard Law student Jeremy Lewin wrote in a New York Times op-ed published on Friday.

When the US Treasury banned transactions with Russia a few days after President Vladimir Putin’s February 24 war declaration against Ukraine, Russia’s assets sitting in the Federal Reserve and other banks were frozen.

Liquidating the funds could be a quick way to unlock money to provide military aid for Ukraine, while also saving American taxpayers from feeling “burdened,” Tribe and Lewin wrote.

Tribe and Lewin said such a move by President Joe Biden would also show that the US is “committed to making even the world’s most powerful states pay for their war crimes.”

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of committing war crimes in the wake of the recent discovery of mass civilian killings in the Kyiv suburb Bucha.

In response, international organizations started investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity, the EU ramped up its sanctions on Russia, and the US unlocked hundreds of millions in military aid for Ukraine.

Liquidating Russia’s funds would come at a particularly urgent time for Ukraine’s military, Tribe and Lewin wrote, as a renewed Russian offensive takes shape in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

While the US seizing Russian mansions and yachts is significant, the duo argued, the process of selling them to make money would be too slow.

They also added that coming after Russia’s frozen funds — which, unlike assets of oligarchs, are state-owned — means the US can skirt legal protections for what it otherwise private property.

If the US were to make the move, it would not be the first time it made a foreign government physically pay for its actions.

Frozen Iraqi, Iranian, and Venezuelan funds have all been used by past administrations to provide compensation to victims of terror attacks or fund opposition leaders.

And as recently as February, Biden unlocked billions in funds from Afghanistan’s central bank that were frozen after the Taliban seized control of the country last year.

Reuters

Poland ready to take in at least 10,000 injured Ukrainian soldiers

April 19, 2022

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s health service has capacity to treat at least 10,000 injured Ukrainian soldiers, the Polish prime minister said on Tuesday, as Russia launches a new offensive in eastern Ukraine.

Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters during a visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv that Poland was already treating “several dozen” soldiers and was prepared to take in more.

“We are ready to take in at least 10,000 (soldiers), if necessary,” he said. “We are doing everything to take in and treat all injured soldiers from Ukraine.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday told CNN that between 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have died so far in the war with Russia and another 10,000 have been injured.

Morawiecki was visiting Lviv to open a Polish-funded “container town” built to provide temporary accommodation for 300-350 refugees in portable cabins.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Edmund Blair)

ABC News

Russian offensive ‘limited’ so far, fall of Mariupol ‘not inevitable’: Pentagon update Day 55

Matt Seyler and Luis Martinez – April 19, 2022

The Pentagon has been providing daily updates on the U.S. assessment of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s efforts to resist.

Here are highlights of what a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Tuesday on Day 55.

MORE: Russia begins long-feared offensive in Ukraine’s east

‘Limited’ Russian offensive operations so far in eastern Ukraine

The U.S. has seen “limited” Russian offensive operations southwest of Donetsk and south of Izium, but these are believed to be “preludes to larger offensive operations that the Russians plan to conduct,” a senior U.S. defense official said.

“These are actual ground offensives, and they are being supported, of course, by some long-range fires, mostly artillery, which is right out of the Russian doctrine,” the official said.

But while there is ongoing fighting in the region, a more devastating offensive is still in the works.

“You’ve seen comments by [Ukraine’s] President Zelenskyy yesterday, and even for [Russian Foreign Minister] Lavrov, about this new offensive beginning … We think that these … are preludes to larger offensive operations that the Russians plan to conduct. So, we’re not pushing back on the notion that offensive operations have begun, but again, we think that this is a prelude of larger offensive operations that are potentially still in the offing here,” the official said.

The Pentagon believes Russia’s military is working to learn from its mistakes fighting in the north, where it was plagued with logistical and supply problems, conducting what officials call “shaping operations” to set favorable conditions on the battlefield before beginning its new offensive in earnest.

“In other words, continue to reinforce, continue to make sure they have logistics and sustainment in place, continue to make sure that they have proper aviation and other enabling capability,” the official said.

Over the last 24 hours, two Russian battalion tactical groups (BTGs), or up to 2,000 more combat troops, have been sent into Ukraine, according to the official. This brings the total to an estimated 78 BTGs inside the country, all in the south and east.

About 75% of Putin’s total combat power originally arrayed against Ukraine remains, according to the official. This takes into account all military capabilities, including troop casualties, destroyed vehicles and aircraft, and expended missiles. This is the lowest assessment we’ve heard out of the Pentagon.

Fall of Mariupol and Donbas ‘not inevitable’

“People speak about this as if it’s inevitable, that Mariupol is going to fall, that it’s inevitable that Donbas will be taken by the Russians. We don’t see it that way. And we’re doing everything we can to make sure that it’s not inevitable,” the official said.

With fighting concentrated around Donbas, Ukraine has to move aid coming in from the U.S. and others all the way across the country.

“Right now we know from our discussions with the Ukrainians that they are getting this materiel, it’s getting into the hands of their fighters,” the official said.

But Russia aims to isolate Ukrainian forces in the east.

“Clearly what the Russians want to do is cut them off and to defeat them in the Donbas,” the official said, reiterating that defeat is not inevitable.

Ukraine has more operable planes than 2 weeks ago

At a separate briefing later Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Ukraine currently has more operable military planes right now than it did two weeks ago because Ukraine has received additional aircraft as well as parts to get damaged planes flying again.

Kirby was reticent to provide any details on where the parts and planes came from but stressed that they did not come from the U.S.

MORE: Russia-Ukraine live updates: Russian forces try to storm steel plant in Mariupol

“They have received additional aircraft and aircraft parts to help them get more aircraft in the air,” Kirby said at the on-camera briefing at the Pentagon.

“And that’s not by accident, that’s because other nations who had experience with those kinds of aircraft have been able to help them get more aircraft up and running,” said Kirby.

“We certainly have helped with the trans-shipment of some additional spare parts that have helped with their aircraft needs, but we have not transported whole aircraft,” he said.

Russian missile strikes

The U.S. assesses Russia has fired at least 1,670 missiles against Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion. The official noted that bad weather lowers visibility, making it harder for the U.S. to observe launches and other battlefield actions, so the actual number could be higher.

Despite the recent airstrikes in Kyiv and Lviv, Russia’s firepower is focused on Mariupol and Donbas.

MarletWatch – Outside the Box

Opinion: Putin has launched the first economic world war, and the EU and the West are his targets

Antonia Colibasanu – April 19, 2022

The Kremlin is prepared to disrupt the West and its socio-economic order

​As momentous as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is, the most strategically important event in recent weeks was the global economic war between Russia and the U.S. and its allies. Russia, however, has been preparing to confront the West and challenge the Western socio-economic model for a long time.

Russia’s strategic interests in Ukraine are well-known. The geography and history of Russia compel its leaders to create and preserve a buffer between Moscow and the major powers in Western Europe, and to ensure access to the Black Sea. Ukraine is crucial to both goals. But beyond Ukraine, the Kremlin perceives the eastward expansion of Western influence, including into Russia, to be a modern invasion by stealth that threatens the Russian regime.

It is not Western organizations such as NATO and the European Union that challenge the Kremlin, but the socio-economic model that enabled the West to win the Cold War and that enticed Eastern Europeans to want to join the West. When he became president of Russia in 2000, in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse and the economic crisis of the 1990s, Vladimir Putin inherited a broken country. Many Russians contemplated joining the European Union, hoping that alignment with the West would bring a better life.

The priority for the Russian establishment was to stabilize and rebuild the country. Putin just wanted to survive politically. Following the example of past successful Russian leaders, he centralized power. Knowing he needed stability and growth to slow the rate of emigration and address Russia’s poor demographics, Putin sought to make Europe economically dependent on Moscow. Looking back at history and the current power balance, he identified Germany as the lynchpin of his strategy of dependence.

‘Russian ties to Germany were key to establishing ties to the European Union more broadly, but this was only the beginning of Russia’s strategy in Europe.’

Russian ties to Germany were key to establishing ties to the European Union more broadly, but this was only the beginning of Russia’s strategy in Europe. Russia opened up its economy to Western investment, established links throughout the Continent and tried to understand the inner workings of EU bureaucracy. It established close business ties with Italy, France and later Hungary, and built a political network that would help expand its influence in Europe. For Moscow, learning about European vulnerabilities was just as important as building up its economy and growing Russia into a stable economic power.

The Kremlin also campaigned to join the World Trade Organization to establish deeper relationships with the world’s biggest economic players. In the process, it benefited from foreign investments in Russia and learned how the global economy works, building partnerships with not just Western economies but also other economic powers. The only problem was that China, its major ally against the West, was not seeing the accelerated growth it hoped for and was still very much dependent on the U.S. market, giving Beijing limited ability to counter U.S. interests in the world and forcing Russia to keep its focus on Europe.

Average Russians saw improvements in their standard of living under Putin. In major Russian cities, life was similar to that in the West. However, when it became a major player in the energy market, Russia also increased its exposure to global economic cycles. The European economic crisis of the 2010s sent shivers through Moscow. Russia’s economy remained fragile overall, and the gap between urban and rural areas remained dangerously high, potentially threatening Putin’s control.

At the same time, the West offered an attractive model to rival Russia’s. It wasn’t so much the growing Western influence in Russia’s buffer zone that bothered the Kremlin, but the fact that ordinary Russians might look at Eastern Europe and see a better model for political organization and economic growth.

Then the pandemic hit. The Russian president apparently feared that the economic insecurity wrought by COVID-19 could threaten his country’s economic security and stability. As the worst socio-economic effects of the pandemic faded, action against the West became urgent. From the Kremlin’s point of view, this was a unique moment. The U.S. has been trying to reduce its presence in Europe and instead focus on the Indo-Pacific and domestic problems. In other words, from the Kremlin’s point of view, the trans-Atlantic alliance and the European Union appear weak. Most important, Russia’s leaders believe they have gained sufficient knowledge of the way the West works and can fight it effectively.

Preparing for war

Russia has been preparing to confront the West since at least the early 2000s. Besides stockpiling foreign reserves, Moscow constructed trade blocs and deepened relations with projects like the Eurasian Economic Union. In Europe, it enticed Germany to become dependent on Russian natural gas, which as is clear today made it extremely difficult for Europe to cut off Russian energy imports. Shifting from gas would require Europe to build new infrastructure — a costly, time-consuming process.

The close German-Russian partnership also benefited the Kremlin’s Europe strategy in other ways. To give a practical example, the EU had plans to make the Danube River fully navigable through the establishment of additional canals, increasing Central Europe’s connection with the Black Sea. This would have given Europe more leverage against Russia at the moment, when the war in Ukraine has forced the rerouting of commercial flows from the Black Sea to much more expensive land routes. Instead, positive relations with Moscow made the project seem unnecessary, and it faded away.

‘It is no coincidence that after 2012, the first full year that Nord Stream 1 was operational, Europe became much more reluctant to adopt policies that could be seen as anti-Russian.’

It is no coincidence that after 2012, the first full year that Nord Stream 1 was operational, Europe became much more reluctant to adopt policies that could be seen as anti-Russian. There was simply no interest in Germany to carry them out. It is also no coincidence that relations between the U.S. and Germany have cooled over that time. The U.S. needed Germany to lead Europe, or at least maintain neutrality, to prevent Russia from expanding its influence in Europe as the U.S. drew back. The fact that Russia joined the World Trade Organization in 2012 gave it even more leverage in the world economy.

Ties with top EU politicians

It is also worth noting that the Kremlin used personal relationships to shore up its influence. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was tapped to lead Nord Stream 1. Nord Stream AG also hired former Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen as a consultant to speed up the permit process in Finland. Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi served on the board of Delimobil, a Russian car-sharing service. Former Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho was on the board of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank. Former Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern resigned from the board of Russia’s state-owned railway company in the early days of the war in Ukraine, while another ex-chancellor, Wolfgang Schussel, remained on the board of Russia’s Lukoil.

This is just a short list of top politicians, all of whom had at least some influence over their country’s foreign policy discussions. They have certainly been useful to Russian economic growth and the advance of Russia’s economic strategy in Europe.

Working closely with Europeans for the past two decades has enabled Russia to learn what is important for the stability of their countries. It has also helped the Kremlin better understand their political agendas and support causes that work to its advantage. For example, Russia enthusiastically supported many green policies, like Germany’s decision to give up nuclear power — which translated into greater reliance on Russian gas. And Russia has openly supported populist parties throughout Europe and effectively used information warfare, all in an attempt to destabilize and ultimately divide Europe.

Globally, Russia has maintained close relations with traditional enemies and competitors of the West. Joining the WTO gave it a stronger position on the global stage, which is used to advance the influence and interests of emerging global players, including the BRICS countries, which also include Brazil, India, China and South Africa. Though the results were modest, Russia promoted the group as an alternative to the West and continued to focus on building ties to China and India, establishing links that it hoped would withstand in a potential confrontation with the West, which we’re seeing play out today.

To counter the current sanctions, it has looked to China for help. The Eurasian Economic Union gives it proxies for continuing to do business with the world. At the same time, Russia’s presence in the Middle East and parts of Africa helps it keep the price of oil high — high enough that it can keep paying its bills. Influence in the Middle East and the Sahel, two highly unstable but resource-rich areas, also gives Russia more leverage over the world economy.

‘Russian strategy certainly has its weaknesses, but Russia has options in countering the West.’

In building its network, Russia has tried to focus on economics and enhancing weaknesses in the global network. It expanded its influence abroad, making sure the dependencies it was encouraging were strong enough to give it leverage but lose enough to allow its withdrawal when necessary. Russian strategy certainly has its weaknesses, but Russia has options in countering the West during the current global economic war. Supporting EU fragmentation through its economic ties in Europe and using the knowledge of European politics that it’s gained over the years are likely the most important elements of its strategy. The moment European citizens feel the repercussion of Western sanctions is when the bloc will become more fragile, which will allow Russia to exploit the EU’s weaknesses.

The world is witnessing its first economic world war of the modern era. The rules are undefined, and the global economy is complex, meaning collateral damage is unavoidable and frequently unpredictable. Slowly, we are becoming aware of the repercussions the sanctions on Russia are having on the global economy. Less clear are the instruments that Russia can employ against the West. How this will change the world is a mystery. All we can do is look back at what Russia has prepared for and guess what could come next. This is only the beginning.​​

The Guardian

Russia deploys up to 20,000 mercenaries in battle for Ukraine’s Donbas region

Julian Borger in Washington – April 19, 2022

Russia has deployed up to 20,000 mercenaries from Syria, Libya and elsewhere in its new offensive in Ukraine’s Donbas region, sent into battle with no heavy equipment or armoured vehicles, according to a European official.

The official said the estimates of mercenary involvement on the ground in eastern Ukraine range from 10,000 to 20,000 and that it was hard to break down that figure between Syrians, Libyans and other fighters recruited by the Russian mercenary company, the Wagner Group.

“What I can tell you is that we did see some transfer from these areas, Syria and Libya, to the eastern Donbas region, and these guys are mainly used as a mass against the Ukrainian resistance,” the official said. “It’s infantry. They don’t have any heavy equipment or vehicles.”

Syrian ex-soldiers have been offered monthly salaries of between $600 and $3,000, depending on rank and experience, to fight in Ukraine. Wagner is reported to have moved most of its soldiers who had been fighting in Libya to Ukraine, and last month Ukrainian military intelligence claim that Russia had made a deal with the Moscow-backed Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar to send Libyan fighters.

The mercenaries are being thrown into the Russian attempt to capture as much as possible of eastern Ukraine, in what western defence officials have described as a rush to have some sort of victory that Vladimir Putin can announce at the 9 May military parade in Moscow commemorating the second world war.

The Kremlin is seen as having four objectives in this second phase of its war in Ukraine, the European official said: capturing the Donbas, securing a land bridge to Crimea in which the besieged city of Mariupol is crucial, seizing Kherson oblast to secure the supply of freshwater to Crimea, and capturing additional territory that could be used as a buffer or a bargaining chip in negotiations.

Russia is still thought to have three-quarters of the armed force it began the war with in February: 76 battalion tactical groups, about 60,000 troops in all. Western officials say the Russian army faces many of the same limitations that led to its defeat in the battle for Kyiv and the north.

It has logistical challenges even though the supply lines to the Donbas are shorter, and much will depend on the condition of the roads and railways.

“You need to keep in mind that the Russian army is very dependent on railroads and the train network has been targeted many times by the resistance,” the European official said. Furthermore, morale in the Russian ranks is low and getting lower, the official said.

“They don’t like this war because they don’t like the idea of killing people who speak Russian. They have lost many comrades in the north and they have lost the navy cruiser Moskva.”

Third, the Russians still do not have guaranteed air superiority so cannot provide permanent close air support to their troops on the ground, the official said.

Russian commanders are seeking to crush the last stand by Ukrainian marines in Mariupol to free up troops to push north with the aim of cutting off Ukrainian forces fighting in the Donbas, a senior US defence official told reporters on Tuesday.

The official said, however, there was no inevitability about that happening, pointing out that the Ukrainian military was being replenished on a daily basis with new weaponry.

After talking to allied leaders, Joe Biden announced that the US would be providing Ukraine with long range howitzers, which the US defense official said would arrive “very, very soon”. The official added that seven planeloads of equipment, part of the $800m tranche approved last week, will begin arriving in the next 24 hours. The Pentagon said that Ukraine had also received aircraft recently, but not from the US. Washington has however supplied aircraft spare parts to help get more of Ukraine’s planes in the air.

Today

Trapped in terror: Three Ukrainian women held hostage by Russian soldiers speak out

Danielle Campoamor – April 19, 2022

On March 3, Russian forces took hold of Yahidne, a small village outside of Chernihiv, Ukraine, and held the villagers captive in a school basement for 25 harrowing days.

Ukrainian survivors believe at least 20 people died during the month-long Russian occupation, including 11 elderly villagers who passed away while inside the basement. No official death toll has been released by Ukrainian officials.

Surviving off limited food and forced to go to the bathroom in buckets, men, women and children huddled together — four people per square meter — as Russian forces ransacked and destroyed their homes. Adults slept sitting up, while mothers used their bodies as makeshift beds for their children. The youngest Ukrainian held captive was just 2 months old.

To keep track of time, villagers etched the passing days into one of the basement walls.

TODAY Parents spoke, through a translator, to three Ukrainian women who were held captive by Russian troops in Yahidne and described, in detail, the conditions of their imprisonment. Now liberated, they say they want to world to know what the Russian military did to their homes, their village and their families.

The Defiant Grandmother

Valentyna Lohvynchuk, 56, told TODAY Parents Russians began shelling her village on the first day of March. Afraid, she hid in the cellar in the basement of her home with others from her village. They stayed in the basement until March 3 when, at around 4 pm, Russian soldiers came to her home.

“At first they were just shooting everywhere around — we could hear them from the basement,” Lohvynchuk told TODAY Parents. “Then they opened the basement doors and immediately threw something small inside: Some small explosive package.”

Related: Russian missile destroys José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen restaurant in Ukraine

Lohvynchuk and the others began to cry out, begging the soldiers not to shoot.

“We started crying, yelling, ‘Please, do not kill us. Here in the basement, you can see it’s only women and children,'” she explained. “Then they said, ‘OK. Actually, we came here to protect you.'”

The soldiers took the women and children from their home, rounding up all the citizens of the town and holding them hostage in the basement of the village school.

“There were 350 adults and 76 children,” Lohvynchuk said. “When they were pushing us into the basement, we saw that next to the school in the village there was a huge hole in the ground. We thought it was a potential mass grave and we were afraid we would all be killed and just thrown into this hole.”

With no access to electricity, medical care and limited access to food and clean drinking water, the elders of the village began to die.

“Over time, 11 elderly people died,” Lohvynchuk explained. “We were not allowed to bury them properly.” At times, the bodies laid next to the survivors for days before Russian troops allowed some of the villagers to take the bodies to the surface, where “there was some special place, which was used to burn fire, next to the school, and they allowed us to put some corpses there.”

“All people were very frightened, and didn’t speak much,” she added. “We were all just praying to God, and asking God to help.”

Related: Desperation, then hope: American ex-military rescue pregnant surrogates in Ukraine

One evening, Lohvynchuk says a drunk Russian soldier descended into the basement, demanding a young Ukrainian woman go with him. Fearing the soldier had intended to rape the woman, the villagers formed a human shield around her.

“We were all around her. We started asking him, begging him, imploring him,” Lohvynchuk said. “Thank God, he listened to us, and he left her alone.”

Related: Ukrainian survivor of Russian kidnapping and rape shares her story

On March 30, Russian troops locked the basement doors and barricaded them from the outside, warning their captives not to leave. From inside the basement, the villagers heard terrible explosions and began to fear that the Russians intended to purposefully bomb the school, killing everyone inside. Two weeks earlier, on March 16, Russian forces bombed a theater used as a shelter in Mariupol, killing up to 300 people.

At around 6:30 pm, some of the Ukrainian men trapped in the basement forced the doors open, and found the school and the town deserted. The Russian forces left nothing but destruction in their wake.

“They lived in our houses and after they left everything was damaged,” Lohvynchuk explained. “They stole everything they could, and everything they couldn’t take they just broke or set on fire. I don’t know how to call them people. They are not human beings.”

On March 31, Ukrainian forces arrived at the village, and a group of volunteers helped Lohvynchuk travel to Yagotin, near Kyiv, to live with her daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters.

Related: Why one Ukrainian mom wrote family contact information on her daughter’s body

While safe, Lohvynchuk says the horrors of Russian occupation will stay with her forever.

“I have not come back to my senses since this experience,” she explained. “Today my daughter took me to the ophthalmologist, and my eyesight has deteriorated. I believe it’s from the stress.”

“Before the Russian soldiers left, they told us Putin’s plan,” she added. “His plan was to have our village inhabited by the Tuva Republic in Russia. That Ukrainians must be exterminated — no place for them to live here — and Russians would take this land. That was Putin’s plan.”

The stories from civilians in Yahidne could not immediately be verified by TODAY, though the Associated Press has documented the village’s destruction and the civilians being held in a basement as well. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians.

The Resilient Mother

Tetyana Diohtyar, 36, is a mother of three children, ages 10, 4, and 4 months old. Diohtyar lived with her husband and children close to Cherniv, and traveled to Yahidne for refuge after the first Russian bombs fell, assuming the soldiers would not bother to attack such a small town.

She was staying with her husband’s two brothers and their families when the Russian troops invaded Yahidne.

“On March 3, we heard very loud gunfire very close to our building,” Diohtyar told TODAY Parents. “We immediately took all of our kids and very quickly rushed to the cellar.”

After 20 minutes, the families heard people walking around their home — they were shouting and cursing. They quickly realized the voices were looking for them.

“A bit later, one military man appeared in the cellar,” Diohtyar explained. “I was in panic. I took my youngest son in my arms and I started crying, yelling and imploring him please, for God’s sake, don’t touch us. Don’t kill us. We have only kids here.”

The soldier took her husband and his two brothers away — she did not know what was going to happen to them. The solider only told them to remain in the cellar. Her 10-year-old daughter cried out for her father, begging God to bring him back to her.

The soldiers interrogated her husband, who is a member of a rescue team in Ukraine. After finding what they believed to be a military uniform, they held a gun to his face. It was only after her husband explained that he’s a first responder, not a soldier, that the Russian soldier lowered his weapon.

Related: Biden calls for Putin to face war crimes trial over atrocities in Bucha

After 15 minutes, the men returned to the cellar — the soldiers had searched them and confiscated their cell phones. They then took the older children — ages 15, 18 and 20 — and searched them, too. After finding two computers and their iPhones, the soldiers began to interrogate the children, who are students attending school in Ukraine.

The soldiers stripped the two young men naked, and forced the young woman on her knees.

“They asked them why they had these gadgets and how they got them,” Diohtyar explained. “(The students) explained that they earned money to buy them. The soldiers were surprised that Ukrainians could earn enough money to buy an iPhone.”

“The children could not understand why, as students, they couldn’t have a notebook,” she added. “Why these people didn’t understand these are just things they needed for studying.”

Diohtyar says that once everyone was returned to the cellar, a solider told the family they had been authorized to kill them all.

“They said they would not do it now, though,” she added. “They told us to wait to die until midday tomorrow.”

The next day, the family heard knocking on the cellar door. The soldiers had returned, and told them they had 10 minutes to get to the basement of the village school or they would throw a grenade into the cellar.

The family entered the basement on March 5, and were able to find a small room to house the whole family — 18 people in total.

“We could just sit and sleep while we were sitting,” Diohtyar explained. “We took kids on us — on our bodies. We were sort of making layers of people and younger kids, they were over their mothers’ bodies.”

Diohtyar was breastfeeding, and began to fear she would not have an adequate amount of food to produce enough milk for her then 3-month-old.

“There was a scarcity of food,” she explained. “We ate only once, maximum twice a day. I was all the time trying to drink enough liquid to make sure I would have milk. Luckily, I did have milk to feed my child.”

Related: Russia bombs art school turned shelter: Mariupol ‘wiped off the face of the Earth’

For weeks, the family lived in darkness. Without any electricity, the villagers lit candles, burned oil and lit any cotton they could find on fire. While the weather was brutally cold, inside the crowded basement it grew hot and suffocating. Diohtyar says the inability to breathe is one of the reasons why 11 of the village’s elders perished inside the basement.

“Sometimes they allowed us to take the dead body out on the same day,” she added. “But in some cases, they would allow us to do it on the next day or even two days later.”

To keep the children calm, with the permission of the Russian soldiers the villagers raided the school. They brought the children crayons for them to write on the basement walls, as well as paint and paper. From the kindergarten classes, the adults brought children legos, cars and other toys.

On March 30, Diohtyar says they were beginning to run out of food and asked the soldiers if they could emerge from the basement to gather more bread, cereal and grains. In response, an officer gave the villagers two handwritten copies of a Russian anthem and told the villagers he would allow them to gather more food if they learned the anthem by heart and sang it.

“We refused to do it. We didn’t do it,” Diohtyar said. “Luckily, shortly after that, we were free.”

Once liberated, Diohtyar and her family returned to the family’s home only to find it completely destroyed.

“We literally had only the floor and walls left. Everything else — all windows, all furniture, all doors, door frames — they were all broken and burnt,” she said. “They stole our washing machine, mattresses, sofas, and destroyed what they could not take away. We could hardly find anything to take with us. We could not even find clothes for the kids to take with us.”

The family also found their dog lying dead outside, shot by Russian soldiers.

Related: One American left safety behind to care for abandoned animals in Ukraine

Now in western Ukraine, Diohtyar says her 10-year-old daughter cries constantly. But Diohtyar is determined to be strong for her family.

“I am a strong woman. We will go back to our village and rebuild our house. I will plant flowers in the flower beds and eat apples from the apple trees, which we have in the orchard,” she said. “We will plant new trees. My kids are next to me and I will live for my kids.”

“We should not forget about this experience,” she added. “We will overcome it and rebuild our house. Renew everything we can. The most important thing is that we are lucky we have all survived.”

The Courageous Widow

Antonia, 29, who asked that her last name be withheld for her safety, told TODAY Parents that she traveled to Yahidne with her husband and 7-year-old son to stay with her mother, assuming it would be “a much safer place for us to stay, to kind of hide away from the dangers of war.”

Like so many of her fellow Ukrainians, her family hid in the home’s cellar once the Russian shelling began.

“There were three families staying in my mother’s house at first,” Antonia told TODAY Parents. “Our family, my husband and my son; My friend from Cherniv and her son; my step-father’s niece and her husband.”

On March 5, Russian soldiers broke into her mother’s home and found the family hiding.

“There were three men with guns,” she said. “Of course, our kids were very scared. They started crying immediately. The soldiers started yelling at us, asking us, ‘Why are you hiding here?'”

Antonia says they tried to explain to the soldiers that they wanted to stay in their home — they did not want to evacuate. The soldiers demanded everyone give them their cell phones and write down their passwords, then allowed them to return to the cellar. They were told that if they left the cellar for any reason, they would be killed.

“My husband kept one cell phone, and as soon as we got to the cellar he called his mother and told her to delete him from all the chats he was a member of and post on his Facebook page that his phone was in the hands of the Russians,” Antonia said. “He did not want Russians to get his information.”

At that moment, a Russian soldier appeared and caught her husband on the phone. They immediately took him and the other adult man in the cellar away.

“Unfortunately, that was the last moment I saw my husband,” Antonia said. “I managed to tell (the Russian soldiers) not to touch my husband. ‘Don’t touch him,’ I said. These were the last words that were addressed to him and my husband.”

Related: Zelenskyy accuses Russians of ‘genocide’

Her son was sleeping when the soldiers took his dad away. When he awoke, he immediately asked Antonia where his father was.

“I had to tell him that his father was taken to prison. That he’s a prisoner now,” she said. “He was very scared and upset and he kept asking me, ‘Oh, mommy, will we see our father again? How will they treat him? I hope they will not make any pain to him. They will not torture him.’ And I tried to calm our son down. I tried to tell him that everything would be fine.”

Two days later, the soldiers returned, aiming their guns at the remaining family members and ordering them to leave the cellar and go to the village school’s basement.

“We had to run to school — there was constant shelling and explosions around us. Some gunfire. We were very scared and my son was in tears all the time. He was afraid,” Antonia explained. “Then something exploded pretty close to us and we immediately fell to the ground. I was trying to close my son with my body, and when it got quiet he actually started disturbing me and saying, ‘Mommy, mommy, let us quickly run.’ So we started running towards school again.”

Related: First lady of Ukraine shares heartbreaking photos of children killed in the war

Antonia and her family were some of the last villagers to enter the school basement.

Immediately, Antonia tried to find her husband. When she realized he was not in the basement with the others, she began to fear the worst. Determined to focus on her son and the needs of her remaining family members, she tried to find enough room for the family to stand or sit. They began to ration food — the adults often skipped meals in order to feed the children.

“We were in the basement for 11 days,” Antonia said. “It was the longest 11 days of my life. There was no room to lie down. We tried to sleep while we were sitting next to each other.”

On March 9, a Russian soldier asked a woman in the basement to come with him — he wanted her to identify two dead bodies found in a nearby cellar. When the woman returned, she told the villagers not to worry — the bodies were not local. But a very real chill crept down Antonia’s spine.

“I went up to her and asked her if she could describe their clothes,” Antonia said. “When she described what they were wearing, I understood it was my husband.”

Related: Ukrainian official calls for no-fly zone: We need the protection of the sky

She wanted to openly weep, but she feared drawing attention to herself. If Russian soldiers had decided her husband deserved to die, she thought, what would keep them from deciding she deserved death, too?

“I could not allow myself to express any emotions,” she explained. “I had to subdue my emotions. I cried at night, but only quietly and when no one could see.” She decided not to tell her son anything. Maybe, just maybe, someone else was wearing her husband’s clothes.

“I wanted to have this little hope,” Antonia added. “I could not tell my son that his father was dead.”

After the village was liberated, Antonia was able to communicate with family members back home in Chernihiv. She was told two dead bodies were delivered to a morgue in Chernihiv. Her husband’s cousin had identified one of the bodies as that of her husband. He sent her a picture of her husband’s body.

“I had mentally accepted that my husband was most likely dead,” Antonia said. “So when I saw that picture, the only thing I was thinking was how I was going to tell my son, and how to do it the right way.”

Antonia then called her mother, and it was during her conversation that her 7-year-old overheard her say that her husband had been killed.

“He immediately asked me, ‘So, what do you mean? You mean I don’t have a father? Where’s my father? Will he come back? Do you mean he won’t come back? You mean I will not see him again?'” she said. “And I said, ‘Yes, unfortunately you are correct. Your father is no longer alive.'”

Related: Inside the daring rescue that saved dozens of Ukrainian orphans

Before the war, Antonia had lost her step-father. When describing his death to her son, she would tell him that his grandfather was no longer living on earth, but in the sky — he was now a star. Upon learning his father had died, her young son leaned on that same understanding.

“Immediately, when he understood his father was dead, he asked me, ‘So, our father is also a star now?'” she explained. “And I told him, ‘Yes, he is a star.’ Then that night, we went out in the dark, looked up at the sky and tried to find his grandfather and father in the stars.”

Antonia and her husband celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary on Feb. 25. She says he was a wonderful man and father, who was dedicated to his job and had a lot of friends — friends who are now helping to care for Antonia and her son, who are now safely in Poland.

She says her husband also loved to fish — a hobby Antonia’s son also grew to enjoy. The two used to bet on who could catch the most fish. Now, Antonia says her son will catch fish for his father.

“My son is my purpose in life now,” she added. “I will keep living for him.”

Reuters

Ukraine’s military gets more aircraft and parts to repair others, Pentagon says

April 19, 2022

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ukraine’s military has received additional aircraft as well parts for repairs to get damaged aircraft flying again, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

Ukraine has defied expectations of allies and military experts by not only keeping its air force operational nearly two months after the start of Russia’s invasion but actually repairing aircraft and, apparently, adding to its inventory.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not offer details on which countries provided aircraft, but acknowledged new transfers and said Ukraine had more operable fighter aircraft than it had two weeks ago.

“They have received additional aircraft and aircraft parts to help them get more aircraft in the air,” Kirby told a news briefing, without elaborating.

Kirby said Washington had not provided any aircraft to Kyiv.

“We certainly have helped with the trans-shipment of some additional spare parts that have helped with their aircraft needs, but we have not transported whole aircraft,” he said.

Still, that might soon change. The United States has announced plans to transfer Russian-made helicopters to Ukraine that had once been intended for Afghanistan.

More than 50 days into the war, the skies over Ukraine are still contested in part due to Ukraine’s fleet of aircraft and air defenses, including portable, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles provided by the United States and its allies.

That has allowed Ukraine to wage a much more effective ground campaign than if Russia had air dominance and could defend its invading forces from the skies.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)

Related:

The Hill

Ukraine gets additional aircraft, plane parts to bolster fleet

Ellen Mitchell – April 19, 2022

Ukraine has been given additional fighter aircraft and aircraft parts from other countries to increase its fleet amid Russia’s attack, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson said Tuesday.

“I would just say, without getting into what other nations are providing, that they have received additional platforms and parts to be able to increase their fleet size, their aircraft fleet size. I think I’d leave it at that,” press secretary John Kirby told reporters.

He also said Ukrainian forces have received support “to get some of their fixed wing aircraft more operable again,” and now have available to them more fixed-wing fighter aircraft than they did two weeks ago.

“That’s not by accident,” Kirby said. “That’s because other nations who have experience with those kinds of aircraft have been able to help them get more aircraft up and running.”

The United States has begun to flow into Europe security assistance for Ukraine from the $800 million lethal aid package approved by the Biden administration last week.

A flight carrying such assistance arrived in Europe yesterday, with seven more expected to arrive on the continent in the next 24 hours, a U.S. defense official told reporters earlier Tuesday.

The overall package includes 11 Mi-17 helicopters, 300 Switchblade drones, 18 Howitzers, 200 M113 armored personnel carriers, 10 counter-artillery radars, 500 Javelin anti-tank missiles, chemical attack protective equipment, body armor and helmets.

“None of these shipments sit around very long before being offloaded off of aircraft and onloaded appropriately in ground transportation to get them into Ukraine,” the official added.

Kirby said Tuesday that every day “there’s somewhere on the neighborhood of eight to 10 flights” laden with Ukrainian military aid landing at European locations.

“They’re not all U.S. flights and they’re not all coming from America — but eight to 10 flights … that material is getting put on pallets and put on a ground delivery transportation means and getting into Ukraine via a various amount of routes,” Kirby said.

Of note are the heavier systems being given of late from the U.S. and other NATO nations — including aircraft, Howitzers and tanks — due to Russia’s warnings that such military aid would be seen as interfering in the war.