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[RD] Russia Invades Ukraine: Eight

saamohod said:
I don't think the Kerch bridge is any longer a high value target as it was in 2022-23. Russia was given ample time to adapt and take measures. Currently they are building a railroad along the Azov Sea coastline for that very reason. Disabling the bridge would cause some minor inconvenience for Crimean civilians, but won't collapse the military logistics.
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The symbolism would be huge though. And the damage for Russian morale.
 
Here are a few examples:

In Yahidne, use of Ukrainian civilians as human shields by Russian forces:
https://www.economist.com/europe/20...age-tries-to-make-sense-of-russian-occupation

A HRW report corroborated the use of human shield in Yahidne and detailed other crimes committed by Russia against civilians elsewhere. It's too long to quote (depressing...), but here's the link:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/05/18/ukraine-executions-torture-during-russian-occupation

Another example of civilians being used as human shields by Russian forces in Obukhovychi:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61020565

A report by the UN highlighting the use of children as human shields by Russia:
https://www.reuters.com/world/un-adds-russia-list-shame-killing-children-ukraine-2023-06-22/

And a direct link to the report:
https://childrenandarmedconflict.un...nual-report-on-children-and-armed-conflict-2/

If you want direct video evidence, there was a drone video from Zaporizhia that seemed to show Russian forces using Ukrainian POWs as human shields and possibly killing one. I hope this is allowed by forum rules. It's just an article but it has a link to the video.
https://meduza.io/en/news/2023/12/1...may-have-used-ukrainian-pows-as-human-shields

Maybe it's all just an elaborate hoax like the Kuwaiti baby incubators in 1990. But if that's the case, you gotta admire the effort that was put into it. Anyway, what's certain is that a lot of people are suffering from this senseless war.

A Ukrainian village tries to make sense of Russian occupation​

370 villagers were locked in a cellar for a month while soldiers plundered their homes​


Apr 11th 2022|Yahidne, Chernihiv oblast

THE RUSSIANS rolled into Yahidne, a small farming village just south of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, shortly after 4pm on March 3rd. The weeks that followed may not be forgotten for centuries. At least 20 of the villagers died during 28 days of occupation. Six were shot in highly suspicious circumstances. A father and his 12-year-old daughter were gunned down as they tried to escape; the weapons used were so powerful they severed the girl’s head. Another dozen died from suffocation in a basement in the local school. They were locked in there, along with the entire village, as human shields to protect a massive Russian army camp above ground during the whole period.

Olga Martienko mops up tears with a pink scarf as she recalls the experience. She is 57, but looks a great deal older. There were 370 people sheltering in the school basement (pictured), she says; the youngest was a month old. Four to each square metre, the neighbours slept standing against one another, breathing in the same increasingly putrid air, and relieving themselves in the same bucket at the top of the stairs. On some days they were allowed out to breathe some fresh air; but on others they were not. “Almost as soon as the bombing started, people started hallucinating,” Mrs Martienko says. For significant periods, the villagers were forced to cohabit with corpses in the basement, as the most frail passed away and there was no way of taking the bodies out.

Ms Martienko’s spot was at the entrance to the cellar. She was first to face Russian soldiers when they dropped by with their regular inspections. She braced herself whenever she saw torchlights under the cracks of the basement door. Some of them whispered words of horror at the conditions, she says. Others came in drunk, and asked why she was so old; they wanted young girls for sex, they said. One rotation tried to make them sing the Russian national anthem; the villagers refused, and they recollect this moment of solidarity with laughter and with pride. “We counted the days right up until they left,” says Ms Martienko. “It was like being born again when we saw they had gone.”

The Russians left quickly on the night of March 30th, bolting the door and ordering Yahidne’s residents not to leave the basement until morning. In their rush, the soldiers left behind equipment and stark insights into their primitive ways. Cigarettes, bottles, human waste and stolen clothes—bras included—still litter their dugouts and sleeping quarters in the school’s ground floors. Outside the school, just beyond six white body bags, is a crate of military propaganda. The “military patriotic preparedness” boxes were apparently used to explain to the soldiers why they were fighting in Ukraine: teaching aids sketch key dates of glorious Russian history and the Russian military oath; a map shows most of Ukraine as historic Russia. Another crate contains reading materials: a book of the Dalai Lama’s teachings, and a magazine from Tuva, the Buddhist region of southern Russia where some of the units came from.

The villagers say that the Tuvan soldiers were the most cruel of all—especially when they started drinking. “They couldn’t handle their alcohol and didn’t understand us,” says Natalya Cherepenko, a small-scale farmer. “We did our best to avoid any contact with them.” The Tuvans lived away from the school, commandeering the villagers’ ramshackle but proudly kept huts in five parallel streets. Those streets were no-go areas without an armed escort, says Mrs Cherepenko. Ethnic Russian soldiers, generally more “understanding” of the Ukrainian villagers, would occasionally offer that protection, allowing the villagers to their homes to collect a change of clothes and medicines. They even kept guard as Mrs Cherepenko milked her cows, which she was allowed to do once a day. “One of the young lads kept saying sorry to me. He said he was from Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, that he thought he would be doing military exercises, and that his mum had no idea he was in Ukraine.”

The villagers tell stories of soldiers and commanders making ethical choices inside a lawless military structure that expected nothing of them. One type of soldier killed and ransacked their homes, they say, stealing expensive laptop computers, alcohol, chickens, and everything else they could lay their hands on. But another category went out of their way to make life easier for the villagers, allowing them out when commanders weren’t looking. They were the ones who brought water, and doctors to them during nights of the worst bombardment. “Of course, we all understood we were human shields locked in a basement at their pleasure,” says Nadezhda Tereshchenko, “but they told us they were taking responsibility for our safety while we were there, and I think there is some truth to that.”

Halyna, a villager whose missing brother-in-law was found buried with gunshot wounds to his head, is less charitable. She says the majority of the soldiers belonged to a third category: oblivious to the destruction they were creating, yet arrogant enough to believe they were doing God’s work. “The most upsetting thing was seeing them bring you water, and thinking they were doing you a good deed,” she says, “while you realise they are wearing your kid’s brand new trainers.”
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Ukraine War: 'Russian soldiers held us as human shields'​

7 April 2022
By Jeremy Bowen,BBC News, Obukhovychi

Clear evidence of Russian troops rounding up Ukrainian civilians and using them as human shields has been found by the BBC. In multiple interviews in Obukhovychi, villagers say they were taken from their homes at gunpoint and held in a school by Russians trying to stop advancing Ukrainian forces. Local people also gave accounts of Russian troops shooting civilians and holding others captive in and around Ivankiv, the neighbouring town.

On the night of 14 March, Russian soldiers in Obukhovychi were under attack and losing men and armoured vehicles. The Ukrainians were regaining territory.

As darkness fell, local people, sheltering in their cellars, heard explosions and the grinding sound of armoured vehicles manoeuvring.

They had been under Russian occupation since the start of the invasion - the area was on the main axis of Russian advance. Obukhovychi is 100km (60 miles) from Kyiv, close to Belarus and just south of the exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

We have now managed to speak to many people about what happened that night. They all told us the same stories about 24 hours that traumatised the village.

Families described how the Russians went door-to-door, rounded them up at gunpoint, and marched them to the local school - where the Russian forces used them as protection.

Many of the houses in the village had the Ukrainian word for "people" painted on their gates - a way of warning soldiers to be careful and not hurt them. But, in the end, the signs were a magnet to Russian troops.

We were told that if people didn't open their doors, the Russians broke them down. About 150 civilians, including the elderly and small children, were taken from their cellars to the school.

"The [Russians] are fascists, vandals. It was chaos, children and people crying… I don't want to talk about the Russians. They're not human beings," 60-year-old Ivan told us.

Lydmila Sutkova described the terror of being rounded up at the school. "When explosions came, we thought if the ceiling falls this will become a mass grave."

Others told us that some of the Russian soldiers were drunk, and threatened to take them to Belarus.

Maria Bilohovost, an 89-year-old great grandmother, told us she had survived World War Two and that the Russian invaders were like the Germans. "Except they spoke Russian, so I knew what they were saying."

She said the Russians left her in the house but took the rest of her family - including her granddaughter Maryana and great-granddaughter Marharyta. Maryana says two-year-old Marharyta still shows signs of anxiety.

Maryana's mother Olena tells us that she was afraid they would all be shot in the gym. "I was scared for my daughter. I don't have the words. I'm still frightened. Machine guns - a two-year-old girl should not see this."

Olena says that while the Russians were occupying the village, young women and girls hid inside their homes. "We were really terrified. One lady went to collect wood for the fire in her house - she was shot in the leg. They just did it for fun."

In Obukhovychi, there was no mass slaughter of civilians - but we were told stories of individuals, including a local priest, being killed.


Up the road, the nearby village of Termakhivka is built around a desolate crossroads, where routes lead to Belarus, Chernobyl, Warsaw and Kyiv. There were burnt out military vehicles and military emplacements - once held by the Russians, we were told, but now manned by Ukrainians.


One local man, 25-year-old Bogdan, says he was held captive for 15 days outside in sub-zero temperatures - often bound and gagged - by Russian troops. He rolled up his trouser leg to show where a Russian had shot him.

"He put me on a bench near the house, aimed his machine gun at me and shot my knee… the reason is that I have a younger brother. He served in the army. They found his military cap and his military photos."

Bogdan also took us across a waterlogged field to show us a patch of disturbed ground - which he said was a shallow grave. The Russians forced him to dig the hole, he explains, so they could bury the body of a man who had been shot.

Getting to these villages was a hard slog. It meant going the long way round, across pontoon bridges and along back roads through miles of deep forest.

This part of Ukraine is a land of rivers and swamps. It's one reason why the Russian advance stopped.

A destroyed bridge on the edge of Ivankiv
Now the Russians have pulled out of this area, it is slowly being reconnected to the rest of the country. While we were there, the Ukrainian army fixed a temporary bridge over a river on the road to the capital, next to the ruins of one the Russians blew up as they were retreating to Belarus. Dozens of volunteers were helping out, lighting fires, making soup, cutting trees, digging up stumps and smoothing out new roadways

In areas where Ukrainian forces are in control, evidence is accumulating that Russian troops repeatedly broke the laws of war.

The question is how the Russians are treating civilians in the places which they still occupy.
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UN adds Russia to list of shame for killing children in Ukraine​

By Michelle Nichols
June 22, 202311:35 AM EDTUpdated 10 months ago



UNITED NATIONS, June 22 (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called out Russia on Thursday for killing 136 children in Ukraine in 2022, adding its armed forces to a global list of offenders, according to a report to the U.N. Security Council seen by Reuters.
The United Nations also verified that Russian armed forces and affiliated groups maimed 518 children and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals. Russian armed forces also used 91 children as human shields, according to the report.

Russia has denied targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
The report also verified that Ukrainian armed forces killed 80 children, maimed 175 children and carried out 212 attacks on schools and hospitals. The Ukrainian armed forces are not on the global offenders list.
Guterres said in the report that he was "particularly shocked" by the high number of children killed and maimed and attacks on schools and hospitals by Russian armed forces.

He also said he was "particularly disturbed" by the high number of such offenses against children by Ukrainian armed forces.
Russia's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Guterres' annual report to the 15-member Security Council on children and armed conflict covers the killing, maiming, sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of aid access and targeting of schools and hospitals.

The report was compiled by Virginia Gamba, Guterres' special representative for children and armed conflict.
Gamba last month visited Ukraine and Russia, where she met with Russia's envoy for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova - whom the International Criminal Court wants to arrest on war crimes charges.
The International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting children from Ukraine and the unlawful transfer of people to Russia from Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.

Moscow said the warrants were legally void as Russia was not a signatory to the treaty that established the ICC.
The U.N. report on children and armed conflict verified the abduction of 91 children by Russian armed forces; all of them were subsequently released. The report also verified the transfer of 46 children to Russia from Ukraine.
Moscow has not concealed a program under which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but presents it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the war zone.
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Ukraine

311. The United Nations verified 2,334 violations against 1,482 children (629 boys, 474 girls, 379 sex unknown), including 91 children who were victims of multiple violations. The information does not represent the full scale of violations against children, as verification depends on many factors, including access.

312. A total of 92 children were used by Russian armed forces (91) and Ukrainian armed forces7 (1) as human shields (90), as a hostage and for domestic chores (1) and for intelligence-gathering (1).
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​

Video shows Russian soldiers may have used Ukrainian POWs as human shields​

10:48 am, December 14, 2023
Source: Meduza

Russian soldiers on the Zaporizhzhia front may have used Ukrainian POWs as human shields during combat, reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Ukrainian service, citing a video taken by one of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) units using a drone.

According to RFE/RL, the footage was shot in the vicinity of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region. The exact location, which journalists were able to verify, has not been disclosed for security reasons.

Journalists write that in the 19-minute video, “a group of Russian soldiers, with their automatic weapons ready for battle, are seen moving towards Ukrainian positions. In front of them are unarmed individuals, walking with their hands raised.” In the video, one of the armed soldiers physically shields himself with an unarmed person, holding him by the shoulder.

The unarmed individuals are dressed in uniforms different from those worn by the armed people. The Russian soldiers appear to be periodically shooting “from behind the backs of the unarmed individuals” toward AFU positions.

Eventually, a fight ensues between the advancing and defending forces, after which one of the presumed POWs, separated from the group, is left lying on the ground. Judging by the video, the shot at him was fired by a Russian soldier, RFE/RL reports.

Ukrainian military personnel, who provided the video to journalists, described the actions shown in the video as reconnaissance by combat, aimed at identifying AFU positions’ fire capabilities.

Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets, commenting on the footage, stated that this is the first such video he has seen during the war. He added that the Geneva Convention “explicitly prohibits the use of POWs in combat” and that “prisoners, once granted official [POW] status, must be kept in a specially created camp away from the frontline.”
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So russia gets accused bot of "kidnapping children" because of moving them outside the war zone, and of "using children as human shileds"? :crazyeye: And you manage to believe both?

A UN report that calls "abduction" to the temporary removal of children from harm's way cannot be taken seriously. Especially when the report itself acknowleges that they were "subsequently freed". They were never "abducted", they were transported out of the war zone so that they didn't become "human shields" accidentally.

Is is also not the russians who are specifically targeting ukranian pows for bombing or shooting down (in planes). It's the NATO staff operating the missile batteries "donated" to Ukraine. Because the ukranians themselves are not the ones operating the western AD systems, they lacked the training.

Just as it wasn't the russians bombing themselves in the nuclear plant they controlled, it was the ukranians. But the reporting in the west blamed the victims of the bombardments for the bombardments... If you want to believe obvious and even self-contradictory lies (such as the kidnappend children/human shieleds thing), keep going. Reality won't bend to your beliefs, though.
 
Thanks for the substantiated post.
You asked for evidence.
I showed you evidence of a small town population being mistreated and used as human shield by Russian forces.
I then showed you evidence of another small town suffering the same fate.
I also showed you a video of Ukrainian POWs being used as human shields.
There are plenty of filmed evidence of Russian forces executing and torturing Ukrainian POWs. I obviously cannot share them here. But since you follow the war closely I'm sure you're aware of them.
You can ignore all of these or discard them as non-credible. That's your prerogative.

You then decide to focus exclusively on the UN report about children . Sure, I agree with you that the Western press exaggerates the issue of "Putin kidnapping children" for its own agenda. But here I shared an annual report by the UN on children and armed conflict.

For sure Russia moved some children for their own protection. And sometimes, either because the parents were killed or unavailable, parental consent could not be obtained. Russia does gains little from mistreating children, except bad PR.

However, there's no question that this war launched by Russia has caused immense suffering for children. And there's no question that Russian forces are sometimes ill-disciplined or have simply little regard for human rights (I could send you pages and pages of evidence, but you will discredit all of them and launch your repetitive tirade against NATO instead).

Most people that are abducted end up being released one day, sometimes by their captors. This, by itself, does not cancel the fact that they were abducted.

Here are a few additional points made by the UN report that describe Russian actions that are not compatible with your narrative the peaceful invading forces of Putin "the dove" protecting the children. Obviously the numbers are "small". The report itself states that it's far from documenting the full scale of atrocities.
-Four boys were detained by Russian armed forces and subjected to ill-treatment and/or torture.
-The United Nations verified the killing (477) and maiming (909) of 1,386 children (626 boys, 471 girls, 289 sex unknown) attributed to Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups (658: 136 killed, 518 maimed)
-Rape (1) and other forms of sexual violence (2) perpetrated against three girls between the ages of 4 and 17 were verified and attributed to the Russian armed forces in Kyiv region (2) and Chernihiv region (1).
-The United Nations verified the military use of 23 schools and 7 hospitals by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups (24).
-another child was used as a hostage in exchange for civilians and prisoners of war.
-In addition, the United Nations verified the transfer of 46 children to the Russian Federation from areas of Ukraine that, in part, are or have been under the temporary military control of the Russian Federation, including children forcibly separated from parents, children removed from schools and institutions without the consent of guardians,
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innonimatu said:
Is is also not the russians who are specifically targeting ukranian pows for bombing or shooting down (in planes).
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one "planes", Russian responsibility to put them at risk by flying near the front line. Proof of responsability was already posted in the thread.

innonimatu said:
It's the NATO staff operating the missile batteries "donated" to Ukraine. Because the ukranians themselves are not the ones operating the western AD systems, they lacked the training.
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proof that the NATO staff is operating the missile batteries ?

are they also operating the high tech artillery systems ?

innonimatu said:
Just as it wasn't the russians bombing themselves in the nuclear plant they controlled, it was the ukranians. But the reporting in the west blamed the victims of the bombardments for the bombardments...
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Russian uses the plant as a military base, proof already posted in the thread

innonimatu said:
If you want to believe obvious and even self-contradictory lies (such as the kidnappend children/human shieleds thing), keep going. Reality won't bend to your beliefs, though.
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can't wait to see how you link evidences from Terra II.
 
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As Russian Troops Broke Through Ukrainian Lines, Panicky Ukrainian Commanders Had No Choice But To Deploy One Of Their Least-Prepared Brigades​

The situation in and around Ocheretyne is desperate for Ukraine

This weekend, Russian drones and scouts surveilling the front line just west of the ruins of Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, observed something strange. Ukrainian trenches just east of the village of Ocheretyne, previously manned by soldiers from the Ukrainian army’s elite 47th Mechanized Brigade, were empty.

The village was undefended.

Seizing the opportunity, the Russian army’s 30th Motor Rifle Brigade raced several miles along the railroad threading west from Avdiivka and captured most of Ocheretyne—and potentially also Novobakhmutivka, the village south of Ocheretyne.

It’s the fastest penetration into Ukrainian territory by Russian forces in months—and it threatens to collapse Ukraine’s defensive line west of Avdiivka. A line that has held for months, but now has a deep and widening gap in it. “Pandora's box is open,” Ukrainian analysis group Deep State commented.

To get a sense of how frightened Ukrainian commanders are right now, consider the brigade they rushed into the breach north and west of Ocheretyne: the 100th Mechanized Brigade. The brigade is one of the newest and most lightly-equipped brigades in the Ukrainian army—and seemingly unsuited for the kind of front-line triage commanders are asking of it.

The collapse in Ocheretyne reportedly isn’t the 47th Mechanized Brigade’s fault. That brigade—the main operator of Ukraine’s American-made armored vehicles—was following orders to withdraw from Ocheretyne in order to redeploy to the rear for a much-needed period of rest after spending nearly a year in combat.

The 115th Mechanized Brigade was supposed to take the 47th Mechanized Brigade’s place in Ocheretyne, seamlessly filling the same fighting positions with enough troops to maintain the integrity of the defensive line west of Avdiivka.

But something went wrong. According to Mykola Melnyk, the famed 47th Mechanized Brigade company commander who lost a leg during Ukraine’s counteroffensive last year, “certain units just fudged off.”

The 115th Mechanized Brigade’s failure to hold the line practically invited the Russian 30th Motor Rifle Brigade into Ocheretyne—and triggered a panicky response in Ukrainian headquarters. Commanders ordered the battle-weary 47th Mechanized Brigade to turn around and return to the front line. They also ordered the 100th Mechanized Brigade to counterattack.

www.forbes.com

As Russian Troops Broke Through Ukrainian Lines, Panicky Ukrainian Commanders Had No Choice But To Deploy One Of Their Least-Prepared Brigades

The situation in Ocheretyne is desperate for Ukraine. The army was compelled to deploy the lightly-armed 100th Mechanized Brigade into combat with a bigger Russian force.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

"A wonderful mess" it is.
 
Funny, each time a Russian is caught pants down with his lying, he quickly switches to something else.

Oh, BTW, speaking of Russian blatant lies and this nuclear plant, let's remember the better-than-fiction case where the Russian tried to explain to the nuclear inspector that a rocket which landed in the ground, was actually a Ukrainian rocket which "did a 180° turn to make it appears it came from Russian position".
 
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Russia vetoes UN vote on stopping arms race in outer space​

Russia has vetoed a resolution at the UN Security Council calling on all countries to prevent an arms race in outer space.

The draft resolution, put forward by the US and Japan, sought to reaffirm a principle already set out in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

The US has warned that Russia is believed to be developing a space-based, anti-satellite nuclear weapon.

Russia said it was "firmly committed" to the existing treaty.

The draft, put forward on Wednesday, called on "all States, in particular those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the objective of the peaceful use of outer space and of the prevention of an arms race in outer space."

It also called on countries to uphold the Outer Space Treaty, under which all parties agreed "not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction".

Of the council's 15 members, 13 voted in favour, while Russia - one of five permanent members with a veto - voted against and China abstained.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, called the move "baffling".

"Russia has vetoed a straightforward resolution that affirms a legally binding obligation," she said. "President Putin himself has said publicly that Russia has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space.

"So today's veto begs the question, why? Why, if you are following the rules, would you not support a resolution that reaffirms them? What could you possibly be hiding?"

In February, White House spokesperson John Kirby said Russia was developing a "troubling" new anti-satellite weapon, though added that the weapon was not yet operational.

The weapon was space-based and armed with a nuclear weapon to target satellites, the BBC's US partner CBS News reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in response that Moscow was "categorically against" the use of nuclear weapons in space.

More than any of its potential global adversaries, the US depends on satellite communications for everything from military operations and surveillance to civilian uses like GPS systems and financial transactions.

On Wednesday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan reiterated that the US assessed that "Russia is developing a new satellite carrying a nuclear device".

Details of the intelligence behind the claim have not been made public.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: "Russia is firmly committed to its international legal obligations, including 1967 The Outer Space Treaty."

Russia's envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, described the US-Japanese resolution as a "cynical ploy" with "hidden motives".

The UN Security Council is made up of five permeant members - the US, UK, France, China, and Russia - each of which has a veto, and 10 seats that rotate between the other UN member states.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-68894500
 
Some details BBC forgot to mention.
Russia and China proposed an amendment to the resolution that sought to prevent the placement of weapons of any kind in space. The two countries have for years promoted a treaty that would ban placing weapons of any kind in space, an approach the United States and many other Western nations have opposed because of questions of scope — it would not include ground-based ASATs — and verification. The amendment was rejected with seven nations voting in favor of it, seven opposed, and Switzerland abstaining.
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spacenews.com

Russia vetoes U.N. resolution on nuclear weapons in space

Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution crafted in response to reports that the country was developing a nuclear anti-satellite weapon.
spacenews.com spacenews.com
 
red_elk said:
Some details BBC forgot to mention.

spacenews.com

Russia vetoes U.N. resolution on nuclear weapons in space

Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution crafted in response to reports that the country was developing a nuclear anti-satellite weapon.
spacenews.com spacenews.com
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So two of the countries that have apparently successfully tested ASAT capability (China and Russia) didn't want to include them in their proposal?

I wonder why.
 
red_elk said:
It's all a matter of interpretation. Evacuating children from war zone magically turns into "abduction". Presense of military guards at the plant is "turning it into a military base".
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Interpreting an invasion is one of the stupidest activities I've seen people enjoy, it's true.
 

Poland ready to help Ukraine to get military-age men back, minister says​

WARSAW, April 24 (Reuters) - Poland is ready to help Ukraine in getting military-age male citizens to return and help their home country in fighting in the war against Russia, Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian government announced rules on Wednesday under which passports for military-age men can be issued only inside the country instead of foreign diplomatic missions.
As a result, men aged between 18 and 59 living abroad will be unable to renew expiring passports or obtain new ones.

Poland has suggested in the past helping Ukraine so that those who are subject to military service go back to their country to fulfill their civic obligation, Kosiniak-Kamysz told Polsat News television.

"I think many Poles are outraged when they see young Ukrainian men in hotels and cafes, and they hear how much effort we have to make to help Ukraine," he said, without giving any details on how Poland will help.

 

China harbors ship tied to North Korea-Russia arms transfers, satellite images show​


China is providing moorage for a U.S.-sanctioned Russian cargo ship implicated in North Korean arms transfers to Russia, according to satellite images obtained by Reuters, as U.S. concerns grow over Beijing's support for Moscow's war in Ukraine.
Britain's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank said the Russian vessel Angara, which since August 2023 has moved to Russian ports thousands of containers believed to contain North Korean munitions, has been anchored at a Chinese shipyard in eastern Zhejiang province since February.
The ship's presence at the Chinese port underscores the challenges facing the United States and its allies as they try to choke off military and economic support for Russia.
With Ukraine under a renewed Russian assault and running short of ammunition, U.S. officials have issued increasingly stark warnings about what they say is China's help rebuilding Russia's military after its early setbacks in the Ukraine war.

 
Russian Military Official Is Held on Bribery Charges
BY MATTHEW LUXMOORE

A Russian deputy defense minister responsible for the armed forces’ most ambitious construction projects was arrested on bribery charges, in the highest-profile corruption scandal Russia has seen in years and at a time when the war in Ukraine is at a critical juncture. Timur Ivanov, a stalwart ally of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, was placed in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo jail Wednesday, facing up to 15 years in prison for allegedly receiving payoffs while processing defense contracts, according to the country’s Investigative Committee. At least one other alleged accomplice of Ivanov’s also was detained.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Shoigu was told in advance that authorities were going to arrest Ivanov, who served under him for years. Ivanov was responsible for the construction and maintenance of military infrastructure across Russia, and arranged the billeting of troops at army bases in Russia and in occupied Ukraine. He has been sanctioned by the U.S. and European Union since 2022. Ivanov couldn’t be reached to comment.

On Tuesday, as Shoigu gave a televised briefing to Russia’s military leadership and praised the operation he is leading in Ukraine, Ivanov was shown dressed in his military uniform sitting near his boss as screens played footage of Russian weapons in action. Less than 24 hours later, he appeared in the same uniform in a clip posted online by the Moscow court circuit. This time, he stood in the defendant’s cage of a Moscow court, where a judge jailed him until June 24 pending trial.
Ivanov was long the target of investigations by independent Russian journalists and exposés by critics of President Vladimir Putin’s government. According to a probe by the Dossier Center, which is financed by exiled Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Ivanov profited from contracts to rebuild Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, which Russia captured in 2022.

Ivanov’s arrest comes three months after Putin in February ordered Russia’s Federal Security Service to step up efforts at tackling graft in state defense procurement. It also comes ahead of an expected cabinet reshuffle following Putin’s inauguration for a fifth presidential term next month, one of the rare occasions when Russian officials switch roles or step down from long-held duties. Analysts say the unwritten agreement that underpins Putin’s rule, which tolerates corruption to the extent that it doesn’t destabilize the system, keeps officials on their toes, because they rarely get prior warning that they are in danger of going too far. “You are usually allowed to be corrupt, but you never understand the circumstances in which that corruption can become a liability,” said Sam Greene, a Russia expert at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

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Timur Ivanov appeared in a Moscow court on Wednesday. MOSCOW CITY COURT PRESS SERVICE/ AGENCE FRANCE- PRESSE/ GETTY IMAGES
 
The Kiel Institute's Ukraine Support Tracker just got its quarter annual update the other day:
www.ifw-kiel.de

Ukraine Support Tracker - A Database of Military, Financial and Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine

The Ukraine Support Tracker lists and quantifies military, financial and humanitarian aid promised by governments to Ukraine.
www.ifw-kiel.de www.ifw-kiel.de

The US is back, for now. But this is still a European thing, and the European support does reflect that. Otoh the EU support clearly increasingly operates on two trajectories that seems to be diverging – one part of the EU stepping up and funneling military aid to Ukraine, and one part that... doesn't. They aren't completely absent, but they are increasingly just leaning into the common EU financial, non-military, support mechanisms.
 
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