Ukrainian MP tweets image with claims that Russian soldiers carved a swastika onto a woman they raped and killed
Cheryl Teh – April 6, 2022
Russian soldiers seen in the Volnovakha district of the separatist-controlled Donetsk region of Ukraine on March 26.Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images. Ukrainian MP tweets image with claims that Russian soldiers carved a swastika onto a woman they raped and killed.
Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko said Russian soldiers raped, tortured, and killed a woman.
She shared an image on Twitter of what appeared to be a swastika carved crudely onto someone’s skin.
Reports of war crimes like mass killings and rapes have emerged from Ukraine in recent weeks.
A Ukrainian MP said this week that Russian troops carved a swastika onto a woman they tortured, raped, and killed.
MP Lesia Vasylenko tweeted a graphic image on Monday of what appeared to be an exposed torso featuring a large swastika that appeared to be carved into burned skin.
“Tortured body of a raped and killed woman. I’m speechless. My@mind is paralyzed with anger and fear and hatred. #StopGenocide#StopPutinNOW,” Vasylenko wrote in the post.
In a separate tweet on April 5, Vasylenko claimed that the Ukrainian government had found records of 5,000 war crimes committed by Russia.
Insider was unable to independently verify Vasylenko’s claims.
However, footage posted on YouTube by independent journalist Patrick Lancaster from a school basement in Mariupol appears to show the same body lying on the ground. Lancaster’s video has since been removed but appears to still be circulating on Twitter.
Putin and Ukraine backfire by Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com
Putin has commenced blaming (firing, exiling to Siberia, jailing or who knows what else) those he believes failed his vision of a reborn Soviet Empire. Based on a keen sense of self preservation, browbeaten close advisors surely decided to refrain from trying to stop him blundering into the senseless and self destructive war/invasion of a Democratic, peaceful, industrious and successful neighbor, for merely exposing Putin and his Kleptocratic criminal enterprises tenuous hold on an emerging partially-woke Russian populace.
Putin believed Ukrainian’s would welcome his poorly trained military conscripts with open arms and kisses of gratitude for rounding-up all the Nazi’s left over from WWII. Unfortunately, no one with an ounce of authority dared remind him Ukraine was a Democratic nation led by a Democratically elected Jew, who’s great grand-parents died when the Nazis burned their village and his grandfather and his grandfather’s brothers all entered the Soviet Red Army, but only his grandfather survived.
He also believed those hoodwinked low paid conscripts would engender as much nationalistic determination as the patriotic Ukrainian’s fighting for their lives and loved ones and their nation and Democracy.
Likewise, the cowed generals seated at the block long conference table, peed their highly decorated uniforms every time they had to fend off taunts and darts fired by Putin at 60 paces. No one had the courage to stop a madman bent on destroying a peaceful neighbor, and with it their own Russian Federation.
Putin can’t blame the Russian zombie nation he keeps behind his Iron Curtain of propaganda, but the rest of the world can and will. His facade though, is showing as many cracks as the vaunted Russian war machine. In spite of Putin’s flashback to Czarist Russia, this is the 21st Century, where information grapevines steeped with minute-by-minute news and world views are influenced and possibly distorted by Facebook, Instagram, twitter, Snapchat etc. etc.
Putin’s information wack-a mole isn’t keeping pace with modern day technology. Each time he quashes another independent media source, a couple more pop up.
It could be Radio Free Europe broadcasting through the maze. It might be a courageous state sponsored news room producer dancing across the nightly news set behind an unaware spokesperson, with a sign begging viewers to open their eyes and ears.
Or Arnold Schwarzenegger using Twitter and Telegram to speak directly to his Russian followers, telling them about his fathers actions during the siege of Leningrad, which caused him a lifetime of both physical pain from a broken back and shrapnel and mental pain from guilt, for participating in an unjust war. He pleaded for the Russian soldiers to keep from making the same tragic mistakes his father made.
It might even be a few reformed self preserving oligarchs clearing their conscience and or spilling the beans in return for titles to their confiscated multimillion dollar condos, yachts and jets.
It could be the more than 200,000 Russians fleeing the country, a massive brain drain not witnessed since the worst of the Soviet Union’s dark days. It could be the growing thousands of Russian protestors courageous enough to risk a quick trip to a gulag and 15 years in prison for calling Putin’s invasion and war just what it is.
Yes, the lack of information/abundance of ignorance will be a challenge to overcome; approximately 65% of the Russian public believe Putin is acting responsibly, is standing up for and preserving the mother-land, is not a diabolical monster, is going god’s work faithfully endorsed by the State Sponsored Russian Orthodox Church Military Industrial Kleptocratic Complex, all based on what stories Putin jambs down their throat.
It’s unlikely Putin’s ultra ego will allow him to turn tail and flee back to Russia in disgrace; he will continue to pummel and plunder innocent civilians until the heavily sanctioned citizens of Russia get tired of living in terror, in financial depravation and in national disgrace. Will Putin take a bullet, fire himself, hang himself, flee the country, maybe to one of his yachts and just drift into oblivion.
During an interview, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour asked spokesperson for Putin, Dmitry Peskov, about his intension of using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine.
“I need to ask you this, because the world is afraid, and I want to know whether Putin intends the world to be afraid of the nuclear option. Would he use it?” the CNN anchor asked Peskov.
Putin “intends to make the world listen to and understand our concerns” about the perceived “anti-Russia” threat from the West, said Peskov.
“I want to ask you again. Is President Putin, because, again, the Finnish president said to me that when he asked Putin directly about this, because President Putin has laid that (nuclear) card on the label, President Putin said that, if anybody tries to stop him, very bad things will happen. And I want to know whether you are convinced or confident that your boss will not use that option.”
“Well, we have a concept of domestic security, and, well, it’s public. You can read all the reasons for nuclear arms to be used,” Peskov responded. “So, if it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be used, in accordance with our concept.”
But since the only existential threat to the Russian Federation is clearly Putin himself, I guess he should nuke himself and all the cowards in the Kremlin and the Federal Assembly, who failed to stop him from blundering into his existential threat to humanity.
Putin claimed he was invading Ukraine in order to save it from Nazi overlords who disdain Russian speaking Ukrainians. But what exactly does President Putin and the Russian war mongers have to offer Ukraine, or anyone for that matter? Terrorized families, more than 10 million refugees, millions of women and children fleeing for their lives, grand parents hiding in cellars because they’re too disabled or feeble to flee. Beautiful historic cities bombed into dust. Starving innocent people dogging rockets and missiles, and mass graves when they fail that. A ruling government that commanders 85% of a nations wealth and hands it over to a handful of connected oligarchs. Leadership that invests the balance of that GDP in military weapons of war and a domestic police state apparatus that suppresses descent, choice, individualism and above all, freedom. Ukraine has clearly seen this playbook before and are determined to fight with every ounce of their battered bodies to preserve their Democracy.
Putin has no one to blame but himself, for creating this Putinopia of his own imagination and for investing in a brutally structured Kleptocratic czarism, instead of in the Russian people.
When and if Putin finally cries uncle, there must be no plausible justifications or excuses condoned and no face saving plea deals negotiated this time. Ukraine, Europe and the entire world demands long overdue justice from this Russian marauder. Only a reckoning before the World Criminal Court for the perpetrators and supporters of this conflagration will suffice, and reparations for a plundered, innocent, sovereign nation must be exacted.
This time, for the good of the world and human existence, the civilized world cannot let this megalomaniac off the hook; the businesses who pulled out of Russia must refuse to return until Putin and his lot are disposed of. A free and fair election of all government officials supervised by a United Nations tribunal could go a long way to eventually returning Russia to some semblance of respect and legitimacy.
The crippling sanctions must remain in place until Ukraine is guaranteed security, reparations and justice. The thousands of war protestors, including political prisoners like Alexis Navalny must be exonerated. I guess it’s better late than never that countries who prospered from riches stolen from Russia are finally taking international money laundering laws serious, but if they and the U.S. had done more to crack down on Russia’s ruling Kleptocrats during the last two decades of Putin’s criminal reign, maybe he wouldn’t have had the means to launch this war.
America and the West must also come to terms with it’s own failings. Access to Russia’s oil and gas can no longer justify allowing Vladman the Madman to threaten the entire world order and existence with a nuclear holocaust. And if the Russian people and their cowed institutions can’t keep Putin or his successors in check, NATO and the United Nations must.
And blindly obedient Trump cult followers, far right government haters and our right wing media must also wake up. Idolizing, enabling and refusing to hold Autocrats and tyrants like Putin and his adoring want-a-be Donald J. Trump accountable for criminal conduct encourages and enables catastrophic tragedies like we’re witnessing in Ukraine today.
The blatant lies used by Putin to invade a peaceful, sovereign Democratic nation reminds us of the 2020 election “Big Lie” Trump still propagates to delude his faithful. But as Ukraine and the world tragically now realizes, condoning lies and ignoring the truth and facts can have apocalyptic consequences. In addition to Putin’s senseless war of choice, Trump and his sheeple used lies and conspiracies to try to overturn a free and fair election and attempt to overthrow our own Democracy. Putin and Trump are one in the same when it comes to truth telling.
Fake news collaborators can’t be ignored or downplayed. The Foxification of Russia’s state run media and the Russification of our own far right wing nationalistic media, undermines democratic fundamentals and the rule of law in both countries.
The Biden administration just finally passed a $1.2 trillion long overdue infrastructure bill. If Russia stopped the war today, it would probably cost more than that to rebuild Ukraine. And how many generations will it take before the millions of tons of forever chemicals and toxic military materials can be scrubbed and leached from Ukraine’s homeland soil and water. This war has set back environmental and climate change progress in Europe for a decade or more and self serving maniacs like Putin and Trump couldn’t care less.
I’ve written about tarbabys many times and said that a certain one might be the biggest one yet, but this Ukraine tarbaby latched on by Putin might just top all those others combined. Brer Rabbit Putin thought he could just waltz into his neighbors backyard and take by force what the industrious and forward thinking Ukrainians have nurtured since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But considering the crippling lasting sanctions on Russia’s economy and Russian society, Putin’s blatant disregard for anyone but himself, the consequential damages inflicted on Ukraine and it’s defenders, the pain and grief and misery suffered by so many, this tar on Russia’s national reputation will take many generations to erase.
Bucha survivors recount ‘senseless’ horror as they emerge from hiding
James Longman – April 6, 2022
As Mykola Pavlyuk stood outside his apartment building in Bucha, tears streamed from his eyes, cutting through the grime on his face. He was desperate to share his story but shook from the trauma of it.
Pavlyuk, 53, was one of the surviving residents of the besieged Ukrainian town, northwest of Kyiv, where gruesome evidence of killings and torture has come to light following the withdrawal of Russian forces. He told ABC News that when Russian troops came to his apartment building, they killed all the men who were younger than 50, including two of Pavlyuk’s friends.
Pavlyuk said he was given 20 minutes to bury them. He showed ABC News the shallow graves he hastily dug in the backyard, each marked with a plank of wood and topped with a religious icon. He wanted to give them whatever dignity he could.
“But it’s too shallow,” Pavlyuk said. “I just wanted to protect them from the dogs.”
Pavlyuk and other residents spoke with ABC News in the days after Russian forces departed Bucha, leaving an apparent trail of death, destruction, terror and trauma that has shaken the international community. Hundreds of people were said to have been killed during the occupation. When ABC News arrived on Tuesday, bodies still lay in the streets. World leaders have called for an investigation into whether war crimes, including genocide, were committed.
PHOTO: ABC News’ James Longman reports from Bucha, Ukraine, on April 5, 2022, where he spoke with resident Mykola Pavlyuk who detailed alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces, as human rights groups document the atrocities. (ABC News)
When Russian troops arrived in Bucha in late February, they asked everyone for documentation and forced the men to strip down naked to reveal any tattoos, according to Pavlyuk. They immediately shot and killed anyone whom they deemed a threat, without asking any questions, he said.
The mayor of the nearby village of Motyzhyn, Olga Sukhenko, and her family appear to have met the same fate. ABC News witnessed their lifeless bodies in a wooded area.
Another Bucha resident, who declined to give her name, told ABC News her husband was also forced to remove his clothes to show whether he had any tattoos.
Russian soldiers took over Pavlyuk’s apartment building, turning the homes of Ukrainian families into wartime dormitories for drunk, violent thugs, he said. Rooms that Pavlyuk showed ABC News were strewn with blankets and old food.
Pavlyuk said he and his wife lived in the basement for more than month with little food or water, only leaving to cook on a stove outside.
He told ABC News they faced the constant fear of an arbitrary killing or a random act of violence, like when a friend was killed by a grenade he said was thrown as a joke by a drunk soldier. The friend’s body parts lay outside on the ground for days until Pavlyuk was allowed to gather them, put them in a bag and bury them in a grave next to his two other friends, he said.
PHOTO: A mass grave is seen behind the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints in the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 3, 2022. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)
More bodies were dumped in a mass grave outside a church. Residents had gone out to collect some of the dead from the streets while the town was under Russian occupation. The trench was filled with bodies in black plastic bags that lay on top of other victims, who were either wrapped in sheets or nothing at all. Locals told ABC News there could be as many as 90 people buried there.
Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, seizing territory and bombing entire cities. As the war grinds on, Russia faces strong resistance from Ukraine, whose troops managed to take back some territory in recent days as Russian forces retreated.
According to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova, at least 410 civilians have been found dead in Bucha and other recently recaptured towns near Ukraine’s capital, where there’s an ongoing investigation into possible war crimes committed by Russian forces. Graphic images have emerged from Bucha showing unarmed individuals in civilian clothes who appear to have been executed with their hands or legs bound, sparking outrage from the United States as well as a number of other nations and institutions.
Russia has denied responsibility, calling the images “fake” and saying all of its units withdrew completely from Bucha around March 30. An ABC News analysis of videos and satellite imagery confirms some of the bodies seen lying in the streets of Bucha were there as early as March 19, when the town was still occupied by Russian forces, contradicting Russia’s claims that the scene was “staged” after its troops left.
PHOTO: A body of a man with hands bound by white cloth and a bullet wound to the head, who according to residents was shot by Russian soldiers, lies in the street in Bucha, Ukraine on April 3, 2022. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)
While in Bucha, ABC News encountered a Human Rights Watch team gathering evidence of war crimes.
“What we’ve seen so far and what we’ve heard from residents — what we’ve been documenting — is really horrific, including reports that Russian forces have pulled people out of their homes, briefly interrogated them and then executed them,” said Richard Weir, a researcher in the Crisis and Conflict division at Human Rights Watch.
A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross was also on scene in Bucha, assessing needs and delivering humanitarian aid.
“Humanitarian situation is dire,” ICRC spokesperson Alyona Synenko told ABC News. “We have seen extremely vulnerable people — elderly, people with limited mobility, people who are sick, who are alone in their unheated apartments with no electricity, with no running water, with medical needs.”
PHOTO: Bags containing bodies of civilians are seen at the cemetery after being picked up from the streets before they are taken to the morgue, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha, Ukraine April 4, 2022. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)
Bucha residents Tatyana Chernysh and her husband told ABC News they must have survived “by God’s will” when so many of their neighbors did not.
“At any time, the occupiers could enter our premises and do with us whatever they wanted,” said Chernysh’s husband, who said he was too frightened to give his first name. “It was terrifying. It was awful.”
The couple didn’t leave their house while Russian troops occupied the town. They said “good people” brought them food and medicine. Although the Russian soldiers camped away from their home, Chernysh and her husband said they heard unyielding gunfire and that stray bullets pockmarked their house.
Since the withdrawal of Russian forces and the recent arrival of aid, Chernysh and her husband have finally come out of hiding to see what remains of their battered town. They recalled seeing bodies strewn across the streets and sidewalks.
“It is obvious their intention was to destroy Ukraine, destroy our people, destroy our economy, destroy our culture,” Chernysh’s husband said of the Russian troops. “They claimed they came to liberate. They didn’t. They are terrorists.”
PHOTO: Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 3, 2022. (Rodrigo Abd/AP)
After surviving such “senseless” horror, the family said they “feel safe” and intend to stay in Bucha, despite a lack of electricity, running water and reliable communication.
“It’s where we live. We don’t want to yield our homes to occupiers,” Chernysh’s husband said. “It is our town. It is our home. We are going to stay.”
Putin has 2, maybe 3, daughters he barely ever talks about who just got hit by US sanctions — here’s everything we know about them
Mia Jankowicz, Ellen Cranley, Michelle Mark – April 6, 2022
Russian President Vladimir and his now ex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva.Sergey Ponomarev/AP
Russian president Vladimir Putin has at least two, possibly three, daughters he rarely talks about.
He has two adult daughters with his ex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva: Maria, 36, and Katerina, 35.
On April 6, 2022, the White House put both on its sanctions list because of the war in Ukraine..
The international community has been laser-focused on Russian President Vladimir Putin amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 69-year-old leader has fought hard to prevent the media and the world from knowing much about his personal life. But five weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US applied sanctions to both women, barring them from the US financial system.
Putin’s carefully curated macho image — he’s often photographed riding horses, lifting weights, and posing shirtless — has colored much of the public’s understanding of him. He has also made a concerted effort to shield his children from the spotlight, prompting many to question whether he even has children at all.
Putin has never publicly acknowledged his children, though media outlets have for years speculated and reported about the two daughters Putin had with his ex-wife, and even that a girlfriend may have had another daughter in 2015.
One of them, Katerina Tikhonova, appears to be building a public profile, and was seen last year speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia — the country’s equivalent of Davos. But as with her earlier media appearances, nobody explicitly linked her with Putin.
Here is what we know about the lives of Putin’s secret kids.
Pat Ralph contributed reporting to previous versions of this article.
Putin had two daughters in his first marriage to former flight attendant Lyudmila Shkrebneva, to whom he was married for three decades until their divorce in 2013.
AP
Their daughter’s names are Maria and Katerina. Maria was born in Leningrad in 1985, and Katerina was born in Germany in 1986 when the family lived there during her father’s time in the KGB.
Maria and Katerina Putin, from their father’s personal archive.Reuters
Both girls are named after their grandmothers. Maria’s nickname is Masha and Katerina’s nickname is Katya.
Putin’s father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, and his mother, Maria Ivanovna Shelomova.Kremlin
Masha and Katya are common Russian shortenings for Maria and Katerina.
When the family moved to Moscow in 1996, the girls attended a German-language school. The children were reportedly removed from school when Putin became acting president, and teachers educated them at home.
Then-acting President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila applaud during a concert after an award ceremony in Gudermes on January 1, 2000.REUTERS
“Not all fathers are as loving with their children as he is,” Lyudmila said in a quote on Putin’s government website. “And he has always spoiled them, while I was the one who had to discipline them.”
Vesti.ru screengrab
Maria studied biology in college and went to medical school in Moscow, while Katerina majored in Asian Studies in college. Both girls attended university under false identities.
Putin and wife Ludmila arrive at the airport in Rostock-Laage, Germany on June 6, 2007.Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images
Maria, now 36, is a medical researcher and lives in Moscow with her Dutch husband, Jorrit Faassen.
AP
Maria and Faassen reportedly have a child — Putin told filmmaker Oliver Stone in 2017 that he was a grandfather. When Stone asked if he played with his grandchild, Putin replied, “Very seldom, unfortunately.”
“The Putin Interviews” was a four-part series that premiered on Showtime in May 2017.Showtime
Meanwhile, Katerina reportedly lives a high-flying life, living in lavish apartments and acquiring a fortune.
Russian President Vladimir Putin makes a toast during an award ceremony in the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 28, 2017.Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool Photo via AP
Katerina, now 35, is an accomplished acrobatic dancer and has a senior position at her alma mater, Moscow State University, heading a $1.7 billion startup incubator.
Katerina Tikhonovna, daughter of Vladimir Putin, dancing.Jakub Dabrowski/Reuters
Katerina married Russian billionaire Kirill Shamalov in 2013. But the couple divorced in 2018, and the divorce case revealed they were worth $2 billion.
Kirill Shamalov, the former husband of Putin’s daughter KaterinaReuters/Kommersant Photo/Dmitry Dukhanin
There are no official current photos of the girls. For Katerina, we found the slightly varying first names “Katerina”, “Katya”, and “Yekaterina,” and the last names “Putina,” “Tikhonova,” and “Shamalov.”
Katerina Tikhonova (L), daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, dances with Ivan Klimov during the World Cup Rock’n’Roll Acrobatic Competition in Krakow, Poland, on April 12, 2014.REUTERS/Jakub Dabrowski
Finally, there are rumors that Putin has a third daughter with girlfriend and former Russian rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva.
Putin greets rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabayeva during a meeting with candidates to the Russian Olympic team for Summer Olympics 2004 at the presidential residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow on March 10, 2004.REUTERS/Pool AS
But neither the child nor the relationship with Kabaeva have been confirmed.
Putin smiles next to Russian gymnast Alina Kabaeva during a meeting with the Russian Olympic team at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on November 4, 2004.REUTERS/ITAR-TASS/PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE
Putin has tried to shelter his children from the media, attempting to keep them out of politics so they can live normal lives.
Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images
Despite this, Katerina made her debut on Russian state TV as a biotechnology expert in December 2018.
Katerina Tikhonova (R) on Rossiya 1 on December 7, 2018.Rossiya 1
Her appearance did not include comment on her being related to Putin. The link was briefly made public in the course of a dance competition, but later retracted.
Katerina Tikhonova (L) and Vladimir PutinREUTERS
In June 2021, Katerina addressed a conference that is Russia’s equivalent of Davos — but nobody called her Putin’s daughter, apparently out of fear of reprisal from the Kremlin.
Katerina Tikhonova, deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University, on screen taking part in a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, on June 4, 2021.Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters
In late 2020, Putin announced Russia had completed its COVID-19 vaccine, although it had yet to complete clinical assessments. Putin said he gave the shot to one of his two daughters, but wouldn’t specify which one.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, on August 11, 2020.Sputnik/Aleksey Nikolskyi/Kremlin via REUTERS
Putin said his daughter’s temperature decreased after getting two shots. “She has taken part in the experiment,” he said, adding, “She’s feeling well and has a high number of antibodies.”
Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo / AP Images
It was a rare acknowledgment for Putin, but one still shrouded in mystery.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting of the Russian Security Council at Moscow’s Kremlin.Alexei Nikolsky\TASS via Getty Images
In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, prompting condemnation from around the world. Three weeks later an activist filmed himself inside what he said was a Biarritz apartment owned by Katerina’s ex-husband, saying he wanted to host Ukrainian refugees there.
An image showing an activist flying a Ukrainian flag from the balcony of a villa linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Biarritz, France. Russia Today
In April, the US sanctioned Maria and Katerina, saying that they had “enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people.” A statement said “This action cuts them off from the US financial system and freezes any assets they hold in the United States.”
Getty/Reuters
The Wall Street Journal said that the EU could also sanction the two women, but it was not immediately clear whether this had taken place.
14 Russian-owned luxury yachts were seized by Dutch authorities — 12 of them are still being built
Kate Duffy – April 6, 2022
Dry dock shipyard Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands.Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty Images 14 Russian-owned luxury yachts were seized by Dutch authorities — 12 of them are still being built
14 yachts were seized by Dutch authorities, the Netherlands’ government said on Wednesday.
12 of the yachts were still being built, while two are undergoing maintenance, a minister said.
The vessels can’t be delivered, transferred or exported under sanctions, he added.
A total of 14 yachts were seized by Dutch customs authorities as part of sanctions against Russia, the government of the Netherlands said on Wednesday, Agence-France Presse (AFP) first reported.
Of the 14 vessels, 12 were still under construction across five shipyards in the Netherlands for Russian beneficiaries, foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra said in a 10-page letter to the Dutch parliament, translated into English by AFP.
The other two yachts were undergoing maintenance, the government said, per AFP.
“Given the current measures, these vessels cannot be delivered, transferred or exported for the moment,” Hoekstra said in the letter, cited in AFP.
The letter didn’t disclose who owns the yachts and said that authorities were investigating the matter further. The shipyards were made aware of the status of the yachts, Hoekstra added.
Hoekstra said in the letter that the people linked to the yachts weren’t on the EU sanctions lists but the government was looking into the possibility of one yacht having connections with a Russian oligarch who has been sanctioned by the union, AFP reported.
The government of the Netherlands didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
No superyachts are anchored in the Netherlands but they are being built there, Hoekstra said in the letter.
Major ship manufacturers, such as Heesen and Oceanco, which have built superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs, come from the Netherlands. For example, the $120 million superyacht owned by Igor Sechin which was seized in France last month was made by Oceanco.
Heesen built the Galactica Super Nova owned by Vagit Alekperov, which lost tracking signals after leaving a port in Montenegro.
Hoekstra also said in the letter that the Netherlands had so far frozen 516 million euros in assets and 155 million euros in transactions.
Related: Robb Report
The Netherlands Stops 12 Superyachts From Leaving Its Shipyards—in Case They’re Owned by Russian Oligarchs
Michael Verdon – April 6, 2022
Officials in the Netherlands have decided to detain superyachts being built for wealthy Russians until they can verify the owners. Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra wrote in a letter to the Dutch parliament that the dozen yachts under construction—and two others that are being refitted—will not be allowed to leave the yards until it’s established that the owners are not on EU, UK and US sanctions lists.
“The situation is, at the moment, that in five yards there are 12 yachts under construction for so-called Russian ultimate beneficial owners,” Hoekstra wrote in the letter. “Because of the current export measures, these vessels should not be delivered.”
Today’s decision follows the seizure on Monday of a 254-foot yacht in Spain at the behest of the US government. The vessel, named Tango, is reportedly owned by Viktor Vekselberg, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sailing Yacht A was one of the first yachts to be seized in Italy on March 13. – Credit: Courtesy CC BY-SA 4.0
Other oligarch-owned yachts have been seized in the UK, France and Italy. They include the 192-foot Phi, detained by UK authorities just hours before it was to leave London.
The $75-million superyacht Axioma was seized by authorities in Gibraltar. According to Reuters, the 236-foot yacht is owned by Dmitry Pumpyansky, chairman of TMK, Russia’s largest steel and pipe manufacturer. Pumpyansky was added to both the UK and EU sanctions lists earlier this month. On March 17, the 443-foot Crescent was prevented from leaving Spain. A police source told Reuters that Crescent is linked to Igor Sechin, the chief executive of Rosneft, Russia’s oil giant. A second yacht linked to Sechin, the Amore Vero, was seized earlier that month in France.
In the Netherlands, halting the construction of a dozen superyachts could have a significant impact on the maritime sector. Shipyards such as Feadship, Heesen, Damen Shipyards and Oceanco had combined sales of about $1.66 billion in 2020, according to Reuters.
On Monday, the 254-foot yacht Tango was detained in Spain. – Credit: Courtesy Francisco Ubilla
The Financieele Dagblad estimates that about $85 billion in Russian assets are based in the Netherlands, and about $50 billion of that belongs to Russians on the sanctions list. Superyacht experts have told Robb Report that about 10 percent of yachts over 100 feet currently under build, representing about 30 new builds, have Russian owners.
Dutch authorities did not name the 12 yachts or the five shipyards. Of the two yachts in the country for maintenance, one is thought to be owned by a Russian on the sanctions list.
Related: HuffPost
U.S. Seizes Oligarch’s $90 Million Yacht Amid Russian Sanctions
Mary Papenfuss – April 5, 2022
American authorities, working with Spanish officials, seized an oligarch’s yacht Monday amid sanctions against Russia’s elite over the Ukraine invasion.
“Today marks our task force’s first seizure of an asset belonging to a sanctioned individual with close ties to the Russian regime. It will not be the last,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
At the request of U.S. authorities, Spanish officials took possession of a 255-foot yacht known as the Tango in the port of Palma de Mallorca. It’s estimated to be worth at least $90 million.
The yacht is owned by Ukraine-born billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and heads the Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate with interests in minerals, mining and tech, among several other sectors. Vekselberg, who once had homes in New York and Connecticut, was also questioned in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election.
A Civil Guard stands by the yacht called the Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain on Monday. (Photo: Francisco Ubilla via Associated Press)
A Civil Guard stands by the yacht called the Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain on Monday. (Photo: Francisco Ubilla via Associated Press)
Justice Department officials obtained a warrant for the confiscation after arguing that the yacht should be forfeited for violating sanctions statutes. It’s the first U.S. seizure of an oligarch’s yacht since Garland and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen created the Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs task force to enforce sanctions over the Ukraine invasion.
“Together, with our international partners, we will do everything possible to hold accountable any individual whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war,” Garland said.
Russia has refuted claims of mass killings since the town was freed from their control on 31 March, with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claiming footage and images of bodies in the streets were “staged” and Ukrainians had used “fake dead bodies”.
Survivors are now telling their stories of life under Russian control, as they come to terms with what they saw.
Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv. (AP)
One man, Vanya Skyba, was among eight men who came under Russian fire at a checkpoint on 5 March, before trying to take shelter in a nearby basement.
He told the Economist when they were found later that evening, they were asked if they were soldiers or had ever fought in Donbas.
“We said no, we were builders,” Skyba said.
“But they moved us to a base on Yablonska street 144. They made us take our clothes off, lie face down, and then they searched our telephones and bodies for symbols and tattoos.”
He said that to make an example and make the other men talk, one of the men was killed.
The brutal move worked, and one of the men admitted he was a part of Ukraine’s territorial defence.
For hours, Skyba said he and the rest of the men were beaten and tortured in an ordeal that only ended when an order was given to kill them.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy examines the site of a recent battle in Bucha. (AP)The town just outside of Kyiv has become the scene for alleged war crimes. (AP)
Skyba told the Economist he had only survived the shooting because he played dead after the bullet went through his side.
The accents and appearance of the Russian soldiers led to Skyba assuming they were from Buryatia, in eastern Siberia.
The order to kill was given by a man who had a standard Russian accent, Skyba said.
He added: “The Buryatis asked what they should do with us. The Russian answered that they should ‘yebashit’ us [‘f***ing do them in’]—but to do it away from the base.”
Skyba said the remaining men were taken the side of the building and shot, but he only survived after the bullet passed through his side.
He fell to the concrete floor and played dead, only fleeing to a nearby home when he could hear the soldiers were gone.
A Ukrainian soldier walks with children after the town was liberated. (AP)Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday the evidence of civilian killings from the town of Bucha are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’. (AP)
Another unit of Russian soldiers found him later, but believed his cover story that he owned the home and led him to a bomb shelter in the cellar of the same building where he had been shot.
Skyba stayed there for a few days with women and children before he was able to flee to Kyiv when humanitarian corridors opened.
Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday they were investigating possible war crimes by Russia after images from Bucha showed the bodies of civilians lying on the ground and makeshift graves.
“The horrors that we’ve seen in Bucha are just the tip of the iceberg of all the crimes (that) have been committed by the Russian Army,” Kuleba said at a press conference alongside UK foreign secretary Liz Truss.
“Half measures are not enough anymore. I demand most severe sanctions this week, this is the plea of the victims of the rapes and killings. If you have doubts about sanctions go to Bucha first.”
Russia’s failure to take down Kyiv was a defeat for the ages
Robert Burns – April 5, 2022
Ukrainian soldiers celebrate at a check point in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 3, 2022. Kyiv was a Russian defeat for the ages. It started poorly for the invaders and went downhill from there. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)Ukrainian servicemen ride on a fighting vehicle outside Kyiv, Ukraine, April 2, 2022. Kyiv was a Russian defeat for the ages. It started poorly for the invaders and went downhill from there. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)This photo shows a view of the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Kyiv was a Russian defeat for the ages. It started poorly for the invaders and went downhill from there. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 3, 2022. Kyiv was a Russian defeat for the ages. It started poorly for the invaders and went downhill from there. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kyiv was a Russian defeat for the ages. The fight started poorly for the invaders and went downhill from there.
When President Vladimir Putin launched his war on Feb. 24 after months of buildup on Ukraine’s borders, he sent hundreds of helicopter-borne commandos — the best of the best of Russia’s “spetsnaz” special forces soldiers — to assault and seize a lightly defended airfield on Kyiv’s doorstep.
Other Russian forces struck elsewhere across Ukraine, including toward the eastern city of Kharkiv as well as in the contested Donbas region and along the Black Sea coast. But as the seat of national power, Kyiv was the main prize. Thus the thrust by elite airborne forces in the war’s opening hours.
But Putin failed to achieve his goal of quickly crushing Ukraine’s outgunned and outnumbered army. The Russians were ill-prepared for Ukrainian resistance, proved incapable of adjusting to setbacks, failed to effectively combine air and land operations, misjudged Ukraine’s ability to defend its skies, and bungled basic military functions like planning and executing the movement of supplies.
“That’s a really bad combination if you want to conquer a country,” said Peter Mansoor, a retired Army colonel and professor of military history at Ohio State University.
For now at least, Putin’s forces have shifted away from Kyiv, to eastern Ukraine. Ultimately, the Russian leader may achieve some of his objectives. Yet his failure to seize Kyiv will be long remembered — for how it defied prewar expectations and exposed surprising weaknesses in a military thought to be one of the strongest in the world.
“It’s stunning,” said military historian Frederick Kagan of the Institute for the Study of War, who says he knows of no parallel to a major military power like Russia invading a country at the time of its choosing and failing so utterly.
On the first morning of the war, Russian Mi-8 assault helicopters soared south toward Kyiv on a mission to attack Hostomel airfield on the northwest outskirts of the capital. By capturing the airfield, also known as Antonov airport, the Russians planned to establish a base from which to fly in more troops and light armored vehicles within striking distance of the heart of the nation’s largest city.
It didn’t work that way. Several Russian helicopters were reported to be hit by missiles even before they got to Hostomel, and once settled in at the airfield they suffered heavy losses from artillery fire.
An effort to take control of a military airbase in Vasylkiv south of Kyiv also met stiff resistance and reportedly saw several Russian Il-76 heavy-lift transport planes carrying paratroopers downed by Ukrainian defenses.
Although the Russians eventually managed to control Hostomel airfield, the Ukrainians’ fierce resistance in the capital region forced a rethinking of an invasion plan that was based on an expectation the Ukrainians would quickly fold, the West would dither, and Russian forces would have an easy fight.
Air assault missions behind enemy lines, like the one executed at Hostomel, are risky and difficult, as the U.S. Army showed on March 24, 2003, when it sent more than 30 Apache attack helicopters into Iraq from Kuwait to strike an Iraqi Republican Guard division. On their way, the Apaches encountered small arms and anti-aircraft fire that downed one of the helos, damaged others and forced the mission to be aborted. Even so, the U.S. military recovered from that setback and soon captured Baghdad.
The fact that the Hostomel assault by the Russian 45th Guards Special Purpose Airborne Brigade faltered might not stand out in retrospect if the broader Russian effort had improved from that point. But it did not.
The Russians did make small and unsuccessful probes into the heart of Kyiv, and later they tried at great cost to encircle the capital by arcing farther west. Against enormous odds, the Ukrainians held their ground and fought back, stalling the Russians, and put to effective use a wide array of Western arms, including Javelin portable anti-tank weapons, shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and much more.
Last week the Russians abandoned Hostomel airfield as part of a wholesale retreat into Belarus and Russia.
A sidelight of the battle for Kyiv was the widely reported saga of a Russian resupply convoy that stretched dozens of miles along a main roadway toward the capital. It initially seemed to be a worrisome sign for the Ukrainians, but they managed to attack elements of the convoy, which had limited off-road capability and thus eventually dispersed or otherwise became a non-factor in the fight.
“They never really provided a resupply of any value to Russian forces that were assembling around Kyiv, never really came to their aid,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. “The Ukrainians put a stop to that convoy pretty quickly by being very nimble, knocking out bridges, hitting lead vehicles and stopping their movement.”
Mansoor says the Russians underestimated the number of troops they would need and showed “an astonishing inability” to perform basic military functions. They vastly misjudged what it would take to win the battle for Kyiv, he says.
“This was going to be hard even if the Russian army had proven itself to be competent,” he said. “It’s proven itself to be wholly incapable of conducting modern armored warfare.”
Putin was not the only one surprised by his army’s initial failures. U.S. and other Western officials had figured that if the invasion happened, Russia’s seemingly superior forces would slice through Ukraine’s army like a hot knife through butter. They might seize Kyiv in a few days and the whole country in a few weeks, although some analysts did question whether Putin appreciated how much Ukraine’s forces had gained from Western training that intensified after Putin’s 2014 seizure of Crimea and incursion into the Donbas.
On March 25, barely a month after the invasion began, the Russians declared they had achieved their goals in the Kyiv region and would shift focus to the separatist Donbas area in eastern Ukraine. Some suspected a Putin ploy to buy time without giving up his maximalist aims, but within days the Kyiv retreat was in full view.
Putin may yet manage to refocus his war effort on a narrower goal of expanding Russian control in the Donbas and perhaps securing a land corridor from the Donbas to the Crimean Peninsula. But his failure in Kyiv revealed weaknesses that suggest Russia is unlikely to try again soon to take down the national capital.
“I think they learned their lesson,” said Mansoor.
Putin is staking his political future on victory in Ukraine – and has little incentive to make peace
Monica Duffy Toft – April 5, 2022
Monica Duffy Toft: Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
Peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t be easy. Mikhail Klimentyev/SputnikAFP via Getty Images
First, Putin seems to believe that the net benefits of his war in Ukraine will outweigh the costs. He recently moderated his aims once it became clear that his military was struggling to capture Kharkiv, Kyiv and other regional capitals, but he is still in the fight – which means he still thinks he has something to win.
Second, given the intelligence reports that he may have received faulty information, he might be hesitant to negotiate until he is confident that he actually knows what is going on.
Moreover, Putin seems to have domestic support on his side. A recent Levada poll shows that his approval rating has shot up from 71% in February to 83% since the invasion of Ukraine. What this means is that Putin may have time on his side so long as he can control the news and narrative about the war.
Will sanctions bite?
The West is relying on sanctions to force Putin to the negotiating table.
But sanctions take time to hurt. Given that its civilians are dying of thirst, exposure and malnutrition every day, time is a luxury Ukraine doesn’t have.
Sanctions are also indiscriminate. They affect leaders but also innocent civilians. And the harm lingers even after the target gives in, reinforcing the narrative that Russia is the victim here, being targeted by the West.
What’s more, Russia has powerful incentives to dig in and continue to fight.
First, the information war currently being waged in Ukraine, Russia and across the world now is just as critical to an acceptable long-term resolution as the physical war. War is many things, including a performance judged by a worldwide audience. If Russians learn the truth, Putin’s leadership could come into question just as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s did after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989.
It’s true that Putin’s efforts to control the narrative will be difficult to maintain indefinitely. Images of burned-out residential apartment buildings, civilian casualities and refugees fleeing their homes are now seen globally every day. Moreover, as the Russian military continues to see increasing numbers of its members killed, the mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, daughters and sons of the fallen soldiers will demand to know whether their loved ones serving in Ukraine are safe.
The critical question now becomes whether Putin can finish his 20-year project to return Russia to a totalitarian past, with him as leader, or if the war will lead to his political demise.
At the heart of this all is not how Putin interacts with the West but his relationship with Russians. Outsiders tend to judge Putin and his motives by how his actions affect us. For him, his domestic audience is more important. In other words, so long as he can win the information war in Russia, his tenure and immense wealth will remain secure. How the West sees him is not a key concern.
Power of authoritarian rule
Putin has already been in power longer than any of his contemporary U.S. and NATO rivals. He is likely to stay in power by rigging elections and suppressing his opposition.
But in democracies, leaders change. With a change in leadership may come changes of policies more favorable to Putin. In two years, the United States, for example, may have a new president. Putin only has to hang on until January 2025 in the hope of more favorable treatment.
Throughout his two-decade tenure as Russia’s head of state, Putin has tied his personal leadership with Russia’s fate. I believe that means he is unlikely to accept a peace that doesn’t involve a guarantee of Russia’s right to intervene in the sovereign affairs of Ukraine. Settling for anything less than reconstituting Soviet “spheres of influence” would mean he would feel a loss of status on the international stage and likely lose considerable popularity at home, especially in light of the costs that Russian citizens have already paid and will likely to pay in the future.
But is this a price the West is willing to pay to avoid an expanding war in Europe?
Russia’s Latest Atrocity Unleashed Nitric Acid Cloud That Could Blind Ukrainians
Allison Quinn – April 5, 2022
via Facebook
Russian forces on Tuesday reportedly struck a tank of nitric acid in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, sparking panicked warnings for residents to protect their faces and remain indoors.
Serhiy Gaidai, the head of the Luhansk regional administration, issued a video address warning residents the toxic fumes can cause “severe damage.”
“Prepare protective face masks soaked in soda solution. When applied locally to the eyes, nitric acid causes severe damage with extensive necrosis of the cornea and conjunctiva, leading to loss of vision,” he said, urging those living near Rubizhne to remain indoors and seal up their windows.
“This chemical is very toxic and we don’t know where the toxic cloud will go. We will be monitoring the air and waiting for rain,” he said.
In comments to Ukrainian media, Zelensky vowed that Ukrainian authorities would create an “internal mechanism” to track down the Russian soldiers accused of committing war crimes against Ukrainian civilians, much like Israel’s Mossad hunted down Nazi fugitives across the globe.
“We will definitely deal with this,” he said, adding that “lists will be compiled” of all those Russians accused of executing and torturing Ukrainian civilians. “There are people who really want to find these criminals,” he said.
“Prosecutors of various nations will deal with all of these crimes… They see a great deal of evidence. And, unfortunately, the evidence will only keep coming—there will not be any less. There is still Izyum ahead, and many places where there is still no access [for Ukrainian authorities]—the occupied Melitopol, Berdyansk—we have no idea what happened there,” he said.
His comments came as the scale of Russian atrocities in the town of Bucha, a Kyiv suburb, left the world reeling, with hundreds of innocent residents found slain in the streets, some with signs of torture. Newly released satellite footage from the now-liberated town showed that the bodies of slaughtered civilians had littered the streets for weeks before Ukrainian forces reclaimed the territory from Russia, debunking Moscow’s shameless claim that Putin’s troops didn’t kill “a single civilian” there and that it must have been Ukrainian forces.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has claimed the executions were “staged” by Ukrainian psy-ops specialists, a claim that was echoed in a full-blown propaganda campaign on Russian state TV that said Western intelligence services were behind the killings.
In the face of those Russian denials on Tuesday, Ukrainian media released aerial video that purportedly captures Russian troops in Bucha firing directly at a man who was simply riding past them on a bicycle.
Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Komarov also shared footage from Bucha showing the aftermath of Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian evacuees. He said at least three vehicles of civilians were found shot up along an evacuation route, including a bus with a young couple inside and a vehicle where an elderly couple were slain.
Zelensky: Russia ‘will try to hide the traces of their crimes’
Niamh Cavanagh, Producer – April 5, 2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian military of plotting to cover up the mass killing of his country’s civilians in a bid to “distort the facts.”
Speaking in an emotional address to the nation in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Zelensky warned that Kremlin-led forces were attempting to hide the atrocities that were committed in the areas still occupied by Moscow. His speech comes days after hundreds of Ukrainian civilians were reportedly found dead in Kyiv suburbs like Bucha in the aftermath of the recent withdrawal of Russian troops in the region.
In his 10-minute speech, Zelensky accused Russia of using the same propaganda tactics it used when a Malaysia Airlines passenger flight was shot down in 2014 over eastern Ukraine. An independent Dutch investigation found that Russian-backed rebels downed the plane with a surface-to-air missile, killing 298 people. Russia blamed the Ukrainian government for the tragedy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks from Kyiv on Monday. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
“They used the same tactics when the occupiers shot down a Malaysian Boeing over Donbas,” Zelensky said. “They blamed Ukraine. They even came up with various conspiracy theories. They even went so far as to claim that the corpses were ‘thrown’ on board the plane before it crashed.”
Zelensky made his comments undoubtedly aware that the Russian government is already promoting implausible theories to explain the images and video of bodies littering the streets of Bucha. The Russian Defense Ministry suggested that some of the dead civilians were actually actors pretending to be dead, claiming that the video shows the bodies still moving. Independent media fact checkers and satellite images contradict Russia’s claims; the many journalists documenting the aftermath of the killings also undermine Russia’s case.
Ukrainian servicemen carry a dead body found in a basement in the city of Bucha, Ukraine, on Monday. (Marko Djurica/Reuters)
“We must also be aware that after the revealed mass killings of civilians in the Kyiv region, the occupiers may have a different attitude to their crimes in another part of our country where they came,” Zelensky said. “They are already launching a false campaign to conceal their guilt in the mass killings of civilians in Mariupol. They will do dozens of stage interviews, reedited recordings, and will kill people specifically to make it look like they were killed by someone else.”
He added: “Probably now the occupiers will try to hide the traces of their crimes. They did not do this in Bucha when they retreated. But in another area it is possible.”
Last week, the head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine told Reuters that thousands of civilians may have died in the besieged port city of Mariupol since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24. The estimate includes around 210 children. Russian forces have blockaded the city, which has spent weeks without access to food, water or electricity, and it may be some time before the full extent of the devastation there is known.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted on Monday that he had spoken to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and told him that Ukraine would “collect evidence and hold Russian war criminals to account.”
President Biden said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin should face a war crimes investigation for the deaths in Bucha.
Zelensky is due to address the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. His office said he “will give all the evidence” to the international community.
Zelensky, center, walks through Bucha on Monday. (Ronaldo Schemidy/AFP via Getty Images)
