Ukrainian prosecutor investigating potential Bucha war crimes says that Russians left behind a computer server that could help identify perpetrators
Azmi Haroun – April 11, 2022
Ukrainian prosecutor investigating potential Bucha war crimes says that Russians left behind a computer server that could help identify perpetratorsA woman witnesses bodies being processed from a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine.Erin Trieb for Insider
Ukrainian authorities are investigating war crimes in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb that Russia occupied.
Last week, Ukrainian authorities unearthed a mass grave where more than 300 people had been buried.
Prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko said that Russia left behind a server with info about the killings.
The chief regional prosecutor in Bucha, Ukraine, told the New York Times that Russian soldiers left behind a computer server with potentially damning information as investigators are zeroing in on killings and mass graves in the city.
Last week, Ukrainian authorities unearthed a mass grave in the Kyiv suburb, claiming that Russian soldiers killed and buried 360 Ukrainians in a 45-foot-long trench. Journalists who visited Bucha after Russian troops pulled out also reported bodies of civilians in their homes, on the street, and in the suburb’s glass factory.
Around 35,000 people live in the northern Kyiv suburb.
“We have already established lists and data of servicemen,” prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko told The Times. “This data runs to more than a hundred pages.”
Kravchenko added that the killings are being investigated as war crimes and that most of the more than 250 people killed were hit by bullets or shrapnel.
Serhiy Kaplychny, who works at Bucha’s cemetery, told The Times that only two members of the Ukrainian military were killed and buried in the mass grave. A separate visual investigation by The New York Times found that the mass grave was created before Russia pulled out of the suburb on March 30.
As troops were driven out by Ukrainian forces, videos and photos of atrocities from Bucha flooded the internet.
Kravchenko told The Times that authorities are investigating reports of rape, torture, and executions that took place in Bucha over the month that Russia occupied the city, highlighting that many of the heinous acts were reported to occur at the glass factory.
The Ukrainian government has also set up a website, warcrimes.gov.ua, where citizens and reporters have posted over 7,000 photos and videos related to potential war crimes in Bucha and elsewhere in Ukraine.
Next Big Battle in Ukraine Will Likely Look Very Different, Experts Say
Cora Engelbrecht – April 12, 2022
FILE – A Ukrainian soldier walks with children passing destroyed cars due to the war against Russia, in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 4, 2022. Local authorities told The Associated Press that at least 16 children were among the hundreds of people killed in Bucha. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Russian and Ukrainian forces are converging in the eastern part of the country, as thousands of civilians have streamed out of the region ahead of what threatens to be the war’s next big battle.
The fighting could look substantially different from the battle for Ukraine’s capital, which saw Russian forces pushed back from areas around Kyiv, leaving smoldering tanks and bombed-out suburban homes in their wake.
After retreating from the areas around Kyiv, Russian forces are repositioning for a new offensive on the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
They’ll be operating in familiar territory there, given Russia’s 2014 invasion, and with shorter supply lines, analysts say. The Russians also will be able to rely on a vast network of trains to resupply their army — no such rail network existed for them north of Kyiv.
Ukraine’s leaders say they are gearing up for a large clash as well. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, urged NATO leaders last week to send reinforcements. Western arms have poured into Ukraine in recent days, but Kuleba said more were needed, and quickly. The battle for eastern Ukraine “will remind you of the second World War,” he warned.
The center of gravity appears to be near the eastern city of Izyum, which Russian units seized last week as they try to link up with other forces in the Donbas region, the southeastern part of Ukraine. The Russians are also trying to solidify a land corridor between the Donbas and the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014.
There are other signs that the two armies are gearing up for a big fight. Newly released satellite images showed a Russian convoy of hundreds of vehicles moving south through the Ukrainian town of Velykyi Burluk, east of Kharkiv and north of Izyum, according to Maxar Technologies, which released the images Sunday.
“This is going to be a large-scale battle with hundreds of tanks and fighting vehicles — it’s going to be extremely brutal,” said Franz-Stefan Gady, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “The scope of the military operations is going to be substantially different from anything the region has seen before.”
Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Moscow has backed separatist uprisings in two eastern provinces — Donetsk and Luhansk — of the Donbas. The conflict has killed more than 14,000 people over the past eight years.
“Russia is operating in terrain which is very familiar,” said Keir Giles of the Conflict Studies Research Center in Britain. Moscow’s forces “will have learned from its mistakes in the early days of the campaign against Ukraine,” he added.
There’s also the added benefit for Russia of railways in the east, Giles said, explaining that the networks there are dense and traverse territories already under Russia’s control.
Still, for all of the presumed Russian advantages in the east, some analysts doubt that the army will be any more effective in eastern Ukraine than it was north of Kyiv. The Russian forces that attacked the Ukrainian capital were so mauled that many of the units are too depleted to start fighting again, according to Western officials and analysts. They also say that many Russian units appear to be suffering from low morale, with some soldiers refusing to fight.
“Normally, a serious military would take months to rebuild, but the Russians seem to be hurling them into this fight,” said Frederick W. Kagan, the director of the Critical Threats project at the American Enterprise Institute, which has partnered with the Institute for the Study of War to track the war in Ukraine. “The forces they are deploying are badly beat up and their morale appears to be low.”
Kagan said that, in the east, Russian forces may encounter some of the same mobility problems that they sustained in their invasion of northern Ukraine. Russian forces were largely confined to the country’s roads, as they were not able to traverse the terrain. That left Russian armored vehicles and trucks vulnerable to attack from Ukrainian forces, which — using Western-supplied anti-tank missiles — destroyed hundreds of Russian vehicles.
For the Russians, transportation problems are likely to get worse. Spring rains will turn much of the terrain into mud, further hampering mobility.
Kagan noted that Russian forces are “remarkably road-bound, which might actually make the east more challenging because the road network is much worse than the network around Kyiv.”
Ultimately, Kagan said, both armies face steep challenges.
“The Russians have a lot of weight to bring to bear, but they have a lot of problems,” Kagan said. “The Ukrainians have high morale, high motivation. And a lot of determination. But they’re outnumbered, and they don’t have the infrastructure of a militarized state to support them.”
Ukrainian pilot reveals what his country’s military really needs in fight against Russia
Greg Norman – April 13, 2022
A Ukrainian pilot who is frequently up in the sky trying to defend his country’s airspace from the Russian military says what Ukraine really needs to turn the tide is more advanced aircraft and weaponry – or else their pilots will continue to be “just targets” for the technologically-superior invading forces.
The 29-year-old fighter pilot, who identified himself only by his call sign “Juice”, made the remark to the Washington Post after Poland – and now Slovakia – floated plans of providing Soviet-era MiG-29 jets to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s military.
“We’re ready to be killed,” Juice told the newspaper, describing how the MiG-29 jets he flies makes him and his colleagues “just targets” for Russia’s more advanced aircraft. “But we don’t want this, of course. We want to kill Russians and take down their bombers that are killing our cities and our families.”
A ground staffer directs a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 fighter jet during a training session in a military airbase outside of Kyiv in November 2016. (Getty Images)
“We have losses almost everyday in our air force,” he reportedly added. “You won’t see this on TV because everything is classified right now, but actually we have a lot of losses. That’s why we need to be technically equal with the Russians. Just our mental advantage is not enough to fight with these technologies.”
The newspaper reports that allies have been considering sending MiG-29s to Ukraine because it’s what the country’s military is familiar with using – and retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Herbert Carlisle added that if they received American-manufactured F-16s, their pilots and operational crews would have to learn “significantly different” flight systems and maintenance procedures.
But Juice and another Ukrainian pilot told the Washington Post that the learning curve isn’t as steep as it sounds, with the latter saying it could probably take two weeks for Ukraine’s military to get up to speed with using F-series aircraft.
Juice also said Ukraine’s military has been improvising in the skies to make up for the differences in technology, sometimes leading Russian pilots into areas where air defense systems are ready to strike.
“We are just trying to do something nonstandard, and sometimes it’s successful and sometimes it’s not,” Juice told the Washington Post. “Sometimes they’re just stupid and Russians are just showing their incompetence and underestimating our training.
“But in general, we cannot gain a real air superiority, unfortunately,” he said, adding that Western countries should supply Ukraine with more advanced air-defense systems if they can’t receive updated planes.
All Russian ground forces have entered Ukraine’s eastern flank: senior US defense official
Caitlin McFall – April 13, 2022
Moscow has shifted its focus in its war against Kyiv after nearly 50 days of fighting with a senior U.S. defense official reporting Wednesday that all of Russia’s ground forces have now entered Ukraine’s eastern flank.
Security officials have been sounding the alarm that the Kremlin’s inability to take the capital city of Kyiv meant it would launch a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Fighting in Ukraine has shifted to the eastern part of the country. Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images
Russia launched its second convoy this week and ground forces are flooding across Ukraine’s northern border into the Lunhask region, the official said.
“I think you’d go so far as to say all their ground forces are either in the Donbas – Luhank Oblast or the Donetsk Oblast – and then in the south arrayed all the way from Mariupol down to Mykolaiv,” the official added.
Defense officials have warned that Russia’s determination to continue with its “special military operation” in a concentrated location like the Donbas, will mean an even more brutal fight ahead.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion Wednesday, questioning how many will need to die before he gives up.
“Do you remember how Russia bragged that they would seize Kyiv in 48 hours? Instead, Ukraine has been repelling the enemy for 48 days,” he said in an address to the nation.
“They say they do everything for the sake of the people, for the sake of Donbas, but even during World War II, Donbas did not see such cruelty in such a short time,” he continued. “In Donbas, the story of the siege of Leningrad was repeated. What would the people who died or almost died in Leningrad during the Nazi blockade say about this? What would they say about the blockade of Mariupol?”
Zelenskyy said this week that Ukrainian forces were not getting what they needed from allies to quickly end the war before it escalates even more in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president again urged the U.S. and NATO to send warplanes so that his troops could remove the weeks-long blockade on Mariupol and help repel more invading Russian forces from taking a greater hold in the region.
The U.S. has provided more than 1.7 billion in security assistance since the invasion began but has refused to provide jets over fears it could direct Russian aggression toward NATO nations across Ukraine’s borders.
The Biden administration is expected to announce another round of security aid this week.
Kremlin leaves captured Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk out to dry, saying Russia doesn’t want to exchange prisoners for him
Jake Epstein – April 13, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Ukrainian tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk during their meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia on July 18, 2019.Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File Kremlin leaves captured Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk out to dry, saying Russia doesn’t want to exchange prisoners for him
Moscow denied a Ukrainian offer to swap a captured Putin ally for prisoners.
Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian politician, was captured by Ukraine’s security service on Tuesday while fleeing house arrest.
Medvedchuk chaired a pro-Russian political party and is thought to have been Putin’s pick to replace Zelenskyy as a puppet leader.
Russia shot down Ukraine’s offer to swap captured Kremlin ally Viktor Medvedchuk for Ukrainian prisoners, seemingly cutting ties with the oligarch who has close personal connections to Putin.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that Medvedchuk is “not a citizen of Russia” and has nothing to do with President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation,” Interfax reported.
“He is a foreign political figure,” Peskov said. “We don’t know at all whether he himself wants some kind of participation on the part of Russia in resolving this libelous situation against him.”
Ukraine’s security service on Tuesday said it captured Medvedchuk while he was trying to flee the country, after escaping from house arrest in February. The Ukrainian tycoon faced treason charges.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered Russia the chance to swap kidnapped Ukrainians for Medvedchuk, who chairs a pro-Russian opposition political party.
Putin and Medvedchuk are close allies. The two have reportedly gone on vacation together and Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s youngest daughter.
Medvedchuk — who was thought to be Putin’s choice to serve as a puppet leader to replace Zelenskyy if the Ukrainian government was toppled — also has an estimated net worth is $620 million.
Medvedchuk was sanctioned by the Obama administration for undermining democracy in Ukraine after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
The statement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said peace talks had reached a “dead end” and Russian troops would not leave Ukraine until the Kremlin’s goals are accomplished.
“It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is trying to wipe out the idea of being Ukrainian,” Biden said.
More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in the city of Mariupol since the beginning of the invasion in February, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said Monday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the acts of Russia in Ukraine a genocide, and Biden said it would be up to international lawyers to see if the term fits.
“More evidence is coming out literally of the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine,” Biden said.
How do you define genocide?
According to the United Nations, genocide is defined as intentionally destroying, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, by one of these acts:
Killing members of the group.
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
“The crime of genocide may take place in the context of an armed conflict, international or non-international, but also in the context of a peaceful situation,” according to the United Nations’ website.
Genocide can be considered a war crime if it is committed during a war, said Harold Hongju Koh, an international law professor at Yale Law School.
It also can be committed during peacetime, which makes it an international crime such as the Rwandan genocide in 1994, in which more than 800,000 people were killed after the majority ethnic Hutus targeted the smaller Tutsi population and others.
How do you prove genocide?
Koh told USA TODAY that to prove genocide, there has to be a high level of intent.
“The tricky part of it which is relevant to the president’s statement yesterday is if I kill one person, that’s homicide,” he said. “If I kill that person with the intent to destroy every person of that person’s ethnic group, then it could be a part of genocide, but you don’t know.”
Koh, who was a legal adviser to the State Department under President Barack Obama, said there is a process the State Department follows to determine whether genocide has been committed.
“Four of its bureaus meet to go over all the evidence and decide whether they can call it war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide,” he said.
It can take several months to make a declaration of genocide before it becomes official.
“Proving an intent to destroy an entire group is difficult, because it’s not that often someone says ‘I have intent to destroy the entire group,'” Koh said. “You don’t have a smoking gun that often.”
How many genocides have there been?
Since the 1900s there have been multiple documented genocides, including the Armenian genocide in 1915, the Holocaust in 1941, and the Bosnian genocide beginning in 1992, when an estimated 100,000 people were killed.
In 2003, a genocide occurred in Darfur, Sudan, where an estimated 400,000 people died in the conflict, according to The Genocide Education Project.
Russia’s losses in Ukraine include many elite troops that take years and millions of dollars to train, BBC investigation finds
Mia Jankowicz – April 12, 2022
Russian soldiers on a tank in Donetsk, Ukraine on March 26, 2022.Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A BBC investigation found that the Russian army has lost numerous elite troops in Ukraine.
Some officers lost take over a decade, and between thousands and millions of dollars to train.
Estimates of Russian troop losses vary. Around 20% of those identified by the BBC were officers.
Russia has lost some of its most specialized and costly troops in its invasion of Ukraine, according to a BBC investigation.
Of the 1,083 Russian fighters identified by the BBC ‘s Russian-language operation, around a fifth — 217 — were officers ranking from junior lieutenant to general, the network said.
The BBC said that among those troops were some of Russia’s most expensive and difficult to replace.
The higher-ranking losses include 10 colonels, 20 lieutenant colonels, 31 majors and 155 junior officers, the BBC reported. To illustrate the cost to Russia, it said:
An infantry lieutenant costs $10,000 to train, over a five-year period.
Other officers can cost up to $60,000 each to train.
A top fighter pilot can cost up to $14 million to train over a period of 14 years.
Figures like these suggest that even Russia’s best troops are being killed in Ukraine, not just low-ranking soldiers who are easier to muster.
The BBC can track only a minority of troops killed in Russia. The network previously reported that Russia is suppressing news of casualties in the country, and defense officials give only sporadic updates. Western intelligence sources have said the true loses are much higher.
Members of elite units have also been killed, the BBC investigation found: 15 men from the special forces of the GRU intelligence agency and 10 special-forces troops of Rosgvardia, the Russian national guard.
It also noted that three of those killed had earned maroon berets marking them out as Russia’s most elite troops.
The BBC said that officers and elite fighters may be over-represented in its sample because their elevated status means their bodies are retrieved more urgently and their lives celebrated more widely.
As of early April, 18 commanders and generals have been reported killed in action, as Insider’s Alia Shoaib reported. The Kremlin has only officially confirmed the death of Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, in what was considered a major blow to troop morale.
As Insider’s Chris Woody reported on March 21, senior Russian officers tend to be more directly involved in combat than their US or NATO counterparts, exposing them to more danger.
Biden administration preparing to send more than $700 million in new military aid to Ukraine: reports
Charles R. Davis – April 12, 2022
A Ukrainian soldier stands near an apartment ruined from Russian shelling in Borodyanka, Ukraine, Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2022.AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
The Biden administration is preparing to send more than $700 million in military aid to Ukraine.
The news was first reported by CNN and Reuters.
The US has already sent more than $2.4 billion in assistance since the year began.
The Biden administration is preparing to send more than $700 million in additional military assistance to Ukraine, according to reports on Tuesday.
Citing two unnamed US officials, Reuters reported that the aid would total $750 million and be announced as soon as Wednesday. According to the news service, the aid would consist of military equipment from US stockpiles, including ground artillery systems, bypassing the need for additional congressional authorization.
The aid could also include a range of new military equipment that Ukraine has been requesting, including helicopters and armored vehicles, The Washington Post reported.
Since the start of the year, the US has provided more than $2.4 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-tank missiles that have inflicted heavy losses on the invading Russian forces.
Ukraine secret service says it has arrested top Putin ally
April 12, 2022
(Reuters) -Ukraine’s security services on Tuesday said they had arrested pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who is President Vladimir Putin’s closest and most influential ally in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had earlier published a photo of a tired-looking and handcuffed Medvedchuk, who says Putin is godfather to his daughter.
In February, Kyiv said Medvedchuk, the leader of the Opposition Platform – For Life party, had escaped from house arrest. Last year authorities opened a treason case against Medvedchuk, who denies wrongdoing.
“You can be a pro-Russian politician and work for the aggressor state for years. You may have been hiding from justice lately. You can even wear a Ukrainian military uniform for camouflage,” the security services said in an online post.
“But will it help you escape punishment? Not at all! Shackles are waiting for you and same goes for traitors to Ukraine like you.”
The post cited Ivan Bakanov, head of the secret services, as saying his operatives had “conducted a lightning-fast and dangerous multi-level special operation” to arrest Medvedchuk but did not give details.
Last month Zelenskiy said the Opposition Platform – For Life, which is Ukraine’s largest opposition movement, and several other smaller political parties with ties to Russia had been suspended.
A spokesperson for Medvedchuk was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Max Hunder; writing by David Ljunggren; editing by Chris Reese and Grant McCool)
Russian convoy heads for eastern Ukraine, defense official says weather will force troops to stick to roads
Caitlin McFall – April 12, 2022
A senior defense official said Tuesday a convoy of Russian vehicles headed south in the direction of eastern Ukraine appears to be slow-moving and will likely be forced to stick to the roads due to the spring weather.
The official told reporters it was unclear how fast the convoy was moving but said it is not heading for the eastern front with any “breakneck speed.”
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Monday that the Russian convoy appears to be an attempt to “reinforce their efforts in the Donbas” – but he was unable to confirm what Russian forces are bringing with them apart from a “mix of personnel” and armored vehicles.
The convoy is roughly 37 miles north of the city of Izyum, which is roughly 16 miles from the Donbas regional border.
“I don’t know its final destination,” a senior defense official told reporters Tuesday, noting the convoy is moving south. “But I would rely on that with the spring whether they have to stay on the paved roads. They’re staying on highways and avenues. They’re not going off-roading here.”
Officials have long warned warmer weather will make it more difficult for Russia to carry out ground invasions as heavily-armored vehicles will be slower moving in muddy conditions.
The senior U.S. defense official said it does not appear that Ukrainian troops have started attacking the convoy as of yet, though Russia’s previous attempts to push a convoy south into Kyiv proved unsuccessful earlier this year.
Russia is assessed to have maintained just over 80 percent of its combat force since Moscow’s invasion 47 days ago.
But officials have also warned that Russia could be looking to recruit as many as 60,000 more troops to aid in its deadly campaign.
The U.S. and NATO said last week that Russia will seek to hit eastern Ukraine with a “major offensive” after it failed to take the capital city of Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy warned Tuesday that his forces are still short of what they need to end the Russian incursion, and again urged allied nations to send Kyiv jets and more armored vehicles.
The U.S. pledged to send Ukraine Switchblade drones armed with tank-busting warheads but Washington has continued to refuse to send actual warplanes.
A senior defense official told reporters that a “significant” amount of the first 100 Switchblade drones have been delivered to Ukraine and more are expected imminently.
The official said the U.S. is in constant communication with Ukraine to get it what it needs in a timely manner.
