Thread: Russia launches Ukraine invasion

Another porkie? I wonder. These Ukies are shameless liars- so what can you believe?

The Russian is visible and is also the same guy in a Russian news video. He's been identified right down to his home address.

So what can you believe? ��

Originally Posted by sabang

So what can you believe? ��

The video of the castration, and the news video showing the same murderer as a Russian soldier were both put out by Russians. Your cognitive bias isn't very "cerebral", is it now.

Lets see how long this lasts....i'm not putting my money on 120 days.

Ukraine war: First grain ship leaves under Russia deal

The first ship carrying grain has left a Ukrainian port under a landmark deal with Russia.

Turkish and Ukrainian officials say the ship left the southern port of Odesa early on Monday morning local time.

Russia has been blockading Ukrainian ports since February, but the two sides agreed a deal to resume shipments.

It is hoped the deal will ease the global food crisis and lower the price of grain.

In a statement issued ahead of the ship's departure, Turkey said the Sierra Leone-flagged vessel would dock in Lebanon, adding that further shipments were planned over the coming weeks.

The Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul set up under the deal said the ship was carrying some 26,000 tonnes of corn and was expected to arrive in Turkish waters for inspection on Tuesday.

"Today Ukraine, together with partners, takes another step to prevent world hunger," Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Alexander Kubrakov wrote on Facebook.

"Unlocking ports will provide at least $1 billion in foreign exchange revenue to the economy and an opportunity for the agricultural sector to plan for next year."

Mr Kubrakov added that 16 other ships were waiting to depart in the ports of Odesa Region in the coming weeks.

Last month's deal - brokered by the UN and Turkey - took two months to reach and is set to last for 120 days. It can be renewed if both parties agree.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62375580

Ukraine has dealt a significant blow to Russia by blowing up a critical rail line, UK military intelligence has said.

The rail link connecting Russian-occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine with Crimea is highly unlikely to be working after a Ukrainian strike against a Russian ammunition train, Britain said on Wednesday.

Russian forces are likely to repair the railway line in a few days, although it will remain a vulnerability for Russian forces and their logistical resupply route from Crimea into Kherson, according to the intelligence update on Twitter.

It said Russia has publicised the ferry crossing recently established to replace the damaged Antonovsky Bridge over the Dnipro river in Kherson as being for civilian use. However, the Russian military will almost certainly use it for troop movements and logistical resupply.

It is likely there will be an increase in civilians attempting to flee Kherson and surrounding areas, as hostilities continue and food shortages worsen, according to the update.

Meanwhile, Russia on Wednesday said it had destroyed a depot of foreign arms near the city of Lviv, in a rare strike on western Ukraine.

"Air-launched high-precision long-range missiles near the city of Radekhiv in Lviv region destroyed a storage base with foreign-made weapons and ammunition delivered to the Kyiv regime from Poland," the defence ministry said in a statement.

The statement did not specify what types of weapons were destroyed in the attack on Radekhiv, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) northeast of the regional capital Lviv.

The ministry said it also destroyed four warehouses containing rockets, artillery weapons and ammunition in the southern region of Mykolaiv and the eastern region of Donetsk.

President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, sparking a conflict that has killed thousands, displaced millions and fuelled fears of a global food crisis over blocked grain exports.

After abandoning efforts to take Ukraine's capital Kyiv, Russian troops have instead focussed on capturing the eastern region of Donbas.

In recent weeks the Ukrainian army, bolstered by deliveries of Western-supplied long-range artillery, has sought to stage a counter-offensive to retake the southern region of Kherson.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that despite arms supplies from the West, his country's forces could not yet overcome Russian advantages in heavy guns and manpower.

“This is very much felt in combat, especially in the Donbas,” he added. “It is just hell there. Words cannot describe it.”

Russia has accused the US of direct involvement in the Ukraine war.

Russia's Defence Ministry, headed by an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said comments made by Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine's deputy head of military intelligence, to Britain's Telegraph newspaper showed that Washington was entangled in the conflict despite assertions it was limiting its role to arms supplies.

Mr Skibitsky told the paper there was consultation between US and Ukrainian intelligence officials before strikes and Washington had an effective veto on intended targets, but that US officials were not providing direct targeting information.

“All this undeniably proves that Washington, contrary to White House and Pentagon claims, is directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It is the Biden administration that is directly responsible for all Kyiv-approved rocket attacks on residential areas and civilian infrastructure in populated areas of Donbas and other regions, which have resulted in mass deaths of civilians.”

Russia'''s rail link with Crimea out of action after Ukraine strike, says UK intelligence

Ukraine has recaptured 53 settlements in Russian-occupied Kherson region - governor


KYIV, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Ukraine has recaptured 53 settlements in the mostly Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson since the start of Moscow's invasion, the regional governor said on Tuesday.


Russia captured swathes of southern Ukraine in the first phase of its Feb. 24 invasion. Ukraine is now pledging to conduct a major counter-offensive to retake land and has used Western-made long-range weapons to hit Russian supply lines.

"As of now, 53 settlements have been confirmed as liberated," acting governor Dmytro Butriy said on national television.


That figure was nine settlements more than the number he gave on Monday, which appeared to indicate a quickening tempo of Ukrainian gains in the region.

Ukraine has recaptured 53 settlements in Russian-occupied Kherson region - governor | Reuters

• US Senate votes overwhelmingly to let Sweden and Finland join NATO

The Senate voted 95-1 on Wednesday to ratify NATO membership for Finland and Sweden, with overwhelming bipartisan support expected for quickly expanding the Western military alliance in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The sole no vote was Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri. Fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted present.

___________

• French parliament ratifies Sweden, Finland's NATO bids

Both bills ratifying protocols passed with 209 deputies in favor and 46 against

The Nordic countries, long resistant to joining NATO, sought membership after Russia began its war on Ukraine on Feb. 24. Finland has a long border with Russia.

"I have the honor of defending this text on behalf of the government. Our security has been increased with these memberships,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Twitter.

With the vote, she added, France joins 20 other NATO member states in ratifying Sweden and Finland’s membership.

Military operation in Ukraine

2 Aug, 18:48

Russian Supreme Court designates Azov nationalist battalion as terrorist organization

As the court announced only the operative part of the judgement, its motives remain unknown.

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/.

"The Russian Supreme Court has designated the Ukrainian Azov nationalist battalion as a terrorist organization and outlawed its activities in Russia, TASS reports.

"To satisfy the administrative motion of the prosecutor general and to recognize the Ukrainian paramilitary unit Azov as a terrorist organization, banning its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation," the judge read out the decision.

The court announced only the operative part of the judgement, its motives remain unknown. The ruling has not yet come into effect, and it may be appealed against in the court of appeal.

The suit was examined in the absence of representatives from the opposite side. Most of the hearing took place behind closed doors, journalists were only allowed to watch the broadcast at the stage of the examination of witnesses. The witnesses - Russian human rights activists and journalists, told the court about the numerous episodes of crimes committed by Azov militants. In the courtroom, they showed interviews with residents of Mariupol and Volnovakha, whose relatives had been killed, kidnapped, or tortured by militants from the Azov battalion.

Members of the organization recognized by the court as a terrorist organization are criminally liable. The founders and leaders are punished by 15 to 20 years in prison with a fine of up to 1 million rubles (over $16,500), while rank-and-file participants - from 5 to 10 years in jail with a fine of up to 500,000 rubles. Those who had voluntarily stopped participation in the activities of the organization before the investigation began, are exempt from criminal liability."

Russian Supreme Court designates Azov nationalist battalion as terrorist organization - Russian Politics & Diplomacy - TASS

What about your mercenaries the Wagner group? how does Russia classify them

Ukraine violates laws of war by placing weapons at schools — Amnesty International

Which doesn't actually matter because murderous Puffy the war criminal bombs schools, hospitals and other civilian targets anyway.

Or is he starting to look for excuses now?

Originally Posted by malmomike77

What about your mercenaries the Wagner group?

My mercenaries?

I hold the status of citizen in two countries, and one country's government ID card. None of which are Russian.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Or is he starting to look for excuses now?

THE LORD's officials are currently collecting evidence to provide to Russian/UN/International courts. Which may or may not decide to prosecute the accused.

No "misspeaking" by him, unlike some.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Pisky, a kilometer from the first street of Donetsk, Ukraine?

Amazing, at this stage of the war that the Ukrainians hold a piece of land that is basically just outside the city of Donetsk. Both sides are taking casualties, Russia being the attacker of these heavily fortified positions is taking far more than the Ukrainians.

US says Russia aims to fabricate evidence in prison deaths


WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials believe Russia is working to fabricate evidence concerning last week’s deadly strike on prison housing prisoners of war in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine.


U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia is looking to plant false evidence to make it appear that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the July 29 attack on Olenivka Prison that left 53 dead and wounded dozens more, a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence finding told The Associated Press on Wednesday.


Russia has claimed that Ukraine’s military used U.S.-supplied rocket launchers to strike the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic.


The Ukrainian military denied making any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka. The intelligence arm of the Ukrainian defense ministry claimed in a statement Wednesday to have evidence that local Kremlin-backed separatists colluded with the Russian FSB, the KGB’s main successor agency, and mercenary group Wagner to mine the barrack before “using a flammable substance, which led to the rapid spread of fire in the room.”

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the classified intelligence — which was recently downgraded — shows that Russian officials might even plant ammunition from medium-ranged High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, as evidence that the systems provided by the U.S. to Ukraine were used in the attack.

Russia is expected to take the action as it anticipates independent investigators and journalists eventually getting access to Olenivka, the official added.


Ukraine has effectively used HIMARS launchers, which fire medium-range rockets and can be quickly moved before Russia can target them with return fire, and have been seeking more launchers from the United States.


Earlier Wednesday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is appointing a fact-finding mission in response to requests from Russia and Ukraine to investigate the killings at the prison.


Guterres told reporters he doesn’t have authority to conduct criminal investigations but does have authority to conduct fact-finding missions. He added that the terms of reference for a mission to Ukraine are currently being prepared and will be sent to the governments of Ukraine and Russia for approval.


The Ukrainian POWs at the Donetsk prison included troops captured during the fall of Mariupol. They spent months holed up with civilians at the giant Azovstal steel mill in the southern port city. Their resistance during a relentless Russian bombardment became a symbol of Ukrainian defiance against Russia’s aggression.


More than 2,400 soldiers from the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian national guard and other military units gave up their fight and surrendered under orders from Ukraine’s military in May.


Scores of Ukrainian soldiers have been taken to prisons in Russian-controlled areas. Some have returned to Ukraine as part of prisoner exchanges with Russia, but other families have no idea whether their loved ones are still alive, or if they will ever come home.


US says Russia aims to fabricate evidence in prison deaths | AP News

Russia is being threatened by the “range and precision” of western-supplied weapon systems as Ukraine continues to target its military strongholds, Britain’s Ministry of Defence says.

Russian forces have “almost certainly” tried to hide a supply route in Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine from radar imagery and possible missile targeting equipment, according to the MoD.

It’s believed pyramidal radar reflectors have been positioned in the water near the recently damaged Antonivskiy Bridge and by the recently damaged nearby rail bridge, both of which cross over the Dnipro River.

The radar reflectors “are likely being used to hide the bridge”, the latest defence intelligence update said.

“This highlights the threat Russia feels from the increased range and precision of Western-supplied systems.

“Ukraine’s missile and artillery units continue to target Russian military strongholds, personnel clusters, logistical support bases and ammunition depots which will highly likely impact Russian military logistical resupply, and put pressure on Russian military combat support elements.”

Ukraine struck an ammunition train, carrying Russian troops, on Monday near the Brylivka railway station in Kherson Oblast.

The MoD said Russian forces were likely to repair the railway line within days, but it will remain a “vulnerability” for their logistical supply route from Crimea into the Kherson region.

Instead, Russian forces were likely to use a ferry crossing, recently established to replace the damaged Antonovsky Bridge “for troop movements and logistical resupply”.

Meanwhile, at least five people were killed and six injured on Thursday when Ukrainian forces shelled Donetsk, a Ukrainian city held by Russian-backed separatists, officials in the breakaway region said.

Footage on social media showed bodies lying beside a road in central Donetsk.

The Donetsk People’s Republic said in a statement that 5 people had been killed and 6 injured during shelling of the city’s Voroshilovsky district.

Reuters said it could not immediately verify battlefield reports.

Donetsk city has been controlled by Russian-backed proxies since 2014, but the Ukrainian army continues to hold positions on the city’s outskirts.

Russian forces reportedly fired 60 rockets at Nikopol, in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.

Fifty residential buildings were damaged in the city of more than 100,000 and some projectiles hit power lines, leaving city residents without electricity, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Nikopol is across the Dnieper river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was taken over by Russian troops early in the war.

Experts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War believe Russia is shelling the area intentionally, "putting Ukraine in a difficult position".

Russia ‘threatened by range and precision of western-supplied’ missiles - MoD | Evening Standard

Originally Posted by bsnub

The Donetsk People’s Republic said in a statement that 5 people had been killed and 6 injured during shelling of the city’s Voroshilovsky district.

An important statement. That would signal that artillery has finally arrived to support Pisky.

• Military bases set up in residential areas including schools and hospitals
• Attacks launched from populated civilian areas
• Such violations in no way justify Russia’s indiscriminate attacks, which have killed and injured countless civilians

Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals, as they repelled the Russian invasion that began in February, Amnesty International said today.

Such tactics violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians, as they turn civilian objects into military targets. The ensuing Russian strikes in populated areas have killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure.

“We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law.”

Not every Russian attack documented by Amnesty International followed this pattern, however. In certain other locations in which Amnesty International concluded that Russia had committed war crimes, including in some areas of the city of Kharkiv, the organization did not find evidence of Ukrainian forces located in the civilian areas unlawfully targeted by the Russian military.

Between April and July, Amnesty International researchers spent several weeks investigating Russian strikes in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions. The organization inspected strike sites; interviewed survivors, witnesses and relatives of victims of attacks; and carried out remote-sensing and weapons analysis.

Throughout these investigations, researchers found evidence of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from within populated residential areas as well as basing themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages in the regions. The organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab has analyzed satellite imagery to further corroborate some of these incidents.

Most residential areas where soldiers located themselves were kilometres away from front lines. Viable alternatives were available that would not endanger civilians – such as military bases or densely wooded areas nearby, or other structures further away from residential areas. In the cases it documented, Amnesty International is not aware that the Ukrainian military who located themselves in civilian structures in residential areas asked or assisted civilians to evacuate nearby buildings – a failure to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians.

Launching strikes from populated civilian areas

Survivors and witnesses of Russian strikes in the Donbas, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions told Amnesty International researchers that the Ukrainian military had been operating near their homes around the time of the strikes, exposing the areas to retaliatory fire from Russian forces. Amnesty International researchers witnessed such conduct in numerous locations.

International humanitarian law requires all parties to a conflict to avoid locating, to the maximum extent feasible, military objectives within or near densely populated areas. Other obligations to protect civilians from the effects of attacks include removing civilians from the vicinity of military objectives and giving effective warning of attacks that may affect the civilian population.

The mother of a 50-year-old man killed in a rocket attack on 10 June in a village south of Mykolaiv told Amnesty International: “The military were staying in a house next to our home and my son often took food to the soldiers. I begged him several times to stay away from there because I was afraid for his safety. That afternoon, when the strike happened, my son was in the courtyard of our home and I was in the house. He was killed on the spot. His body was ripped to shreds. Our home was partially destroyed.” Amnesty International researchers found military equipment and uniforms at the house next door.

Mykola, who lives in a tower block in a neighbourhood of Lysychansk (Donbas) that was repeatedly struck by Russian attacks which killed at least one older man, told Amnesty International: “I don’t understand why our military is firing from the cities and not from the field.” Another resident, a 50-year-old man, said: “There is definitely military activity in the neighbourhood. When there is outgoing fire, we hear incoming fire afterwards.” Amnesty International researchers witnessed soldiers using a residential building some 20 metres from the entrance of the underground shelter used by the residents where the older man was killed.

In one town in Donbas on 6 May, Russian forces used widely banned and inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions over a neighbourhood of mostly single or two-storey homes where Ukrainian forces were operating artillery. Shrapnel damaged the walls of the house where Anna, 70, lives with her son and 95-year-old mother.

Anna said: “Shrapnel flew through the doors. I was inside. The Ukrainian artillery was near my field… The soldiers were behind the field, behind the house… I saw them coming in and out… since the war started… My mother is… paralyzed, so I couldn’t flee.”

In early July, a farm worker was injured when Russian forces struck an agricultural warehouse in the Mykolaiv area. Hours after the strike, Amnesty International researchers witnessed the presence of Ukrainian military personnel and vehicles in the grain storage area, and witnesses confirmed that the military had been using the warehouse, located across the road from a farm where civilians are living and working.

While Amnesty International researchers were examining damage to residential and adjacent public buildings in Kharkiv and in villages in Donbas and east of Mykolaiv, they heard outgoing fire from Ukrainian military positions nearby.

In Bakhmut, several residents told Amnesty International that the Ukrainian military had been using a building barely 20 metres across the street from a residential high-rise building. On 18 May, a Russian missile struck the front of the building, partly destroying five apartments and damaging nearby buildings. Kateryna, a resident who survived the strike, said: “I didn’t understand what happened. [There were] broken windows and a lot of dust in my home… I stayed here because my mother didn’t want to leave. She has health problems.”

Three residents told Amnesty International that before the strike, Ukrainian forces had been using a building across the street from the bombed building, and that two military trucks were parked in front of another house that was damaged when the missile hit. Amnesty International researchers found signs of military presence in and outside the building, including sandbags and black plastic sheeting covering the windows, as well as new US-made trauma first aid equipment.

“We have no say in what the military does, but we pay the price,” a resident whose home was also damaged in the strike told Amnesty International.

Military bases in hospitals

Amnesty International researchers witnessed Ukrainian forces using hospitals as de facto military bases in five locations. In two towns, dozens of soldiers were resting, milling about, and eating meals in hospitals. In another town, soldiers were firing from near the hospital.

A Russian air strike on 28 April injured two employees at a medical laboratory in a suburb of Kharkiv after Ukrainian forces had set up a base in the compound.

Using hospitals for military purposes is a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

Military bases in schools

The Ukrainian military has routinely set up bases in schools in towns and villages in Donbas and in the Mykolaiv area. Schools have been temporarily closed to students since the conflict began, but in most cases the buildings were located close to populated civilian neighbourhoods

At 22 out of 29 schools visited, Amnesty International researchers either found soldiers using the premises or found evidence of current or prior military activity – including the presence of military fatigues, discarded munitions, army ration packets and military vehicles.

Russian forces struck many of the schools used by Ukrainian forces. In at least three towns, after Russian bombardment of the schools, Ukrainian soldiers moved to other schools nearby, putting the surrounding neighbourhoods at risk of similar attacks.
In a town east of Odesa, Amnesty International witnessed a broad pattern of Ukrainian soldiers using civilian areas for lodging and as staging areas, including basing armoured vehicles under trees in purely residential neighbourhoods, and using two schools located in densely populated residential areas. Russian strikes near the schools killed and injured several civilians between April and late June – including a child and an older woman killed in a rocket attack on their home on 28 June.

In Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces were using a university building as a base when a Russian strike hit on 21 May, reportedly killing seven soldiers. The university is adjacent to a high-rise residential building which was damaged in the strike, alongside other civilian homes roughly 50 metres away. Amnesty International researchers found the remains of a military vehicle in the courtyard of the bombed university building.

International humanitarian law does not specifically ban parties to a conflict from basing themselves in schools that are not in session. However, militaries have an obligation to avoid using schools that are near houses or apartment buildings full of civilians, putting these lives at risk, unless there is a compelling military need. If they do so, they should warn civilians and, if necessary, help them evacuate. This did not appear to have happened in the cases examined by Amnesty International.

Armed conflicts seriously hamper children’s right to education, and military use of schools can result in destruction that further deprives children of this right once the war ends. Ukraine is one of 114 countries that have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, an agreement to protect education amid armed conflict, which allows parties to make use of abandoned or evacuated schools only where there is no viable alternative.

Indiscriminate attacks by Russian forces

Many of the Russian strikes that Amnesty International documented in recent months were carried out with inherently indiscriminate weapons, including internationally banned cluster munitions, or with other explosive weapons with wide area effects. Others used guided weapons with varying levels of accuracy; in some cases, the weapons were precise enough to target specific objects.

The Ukrainian military’s practice of locating military objectives within populated areas does not in any way justify indiscriminate Russian attacks. All parties to a conflict must at all times distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects and take all feasible precautions, including in choice of weapons, to minimize civilian harm. Indiscriminate attacks which kill or injure civilians or damage civilian objects are war crimes.

“The Ukrainian government should immediately ensure that it locates its forces away from populated areas, or should evacuate civilians from areas where the military is operating. Militaries should never use hospitals to engage in warfare, and should only use schools or civilian homes as a last resort when there are no viable alternatives,” said Agnès Callamard.

Amnesty International contacted the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence with the findings of the research on 29 July 2022. At the time of publication, they had not yet responded.

Ukraine: Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians - Amnesty International

How convenient that you choose to post an AI report that just happens to support your shit narrative. Why omit the overwhelming amount of their reports on the widespread and far larger scale Russian atrocities?

Just more of your massive hypocrisy...

Ukraine: Russian soldiers filmed viciously attacking Ukrainian POW must face justice - Amnesty International

Ukraine: Civilians killed by ‘reckless’ Russian attacks on Serhiivka apartment block and beach resort - Amnesty International

Russian forces must face justice for war crimes in Kyiv Oblast

Ukraine: Russian forces extrajudicially executing civilians in apparent war crimes – new testimony - Amnesty International

Ukraine: Russia’s cruel siege warfare tactics unlawfully killing civilians – new testimony and investigation - Amnesty International

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...guage-website/

Amnesty got you butthurt now too? Diddums.

Originally Posted by sabang

Amnesty got you butthurt now too? Diddums.

No butt hurt dipshit, just pointing out that you are a fraud and a useful idiot. There has been no AI report about Ukraine until this one. Everything else has been about the massive scale war crimes that Russia has committed. Ukraine is defending its own territory. It fights for every square inch, often times those are civilian areas, a far cry from Russia massacring unarmed civilians and POW's you pathetic hypocrite.

Why did you not post the other articles about Russia?

Russia’s “Filtration” Operations, Forced Disappearances, and Mass Deportations of Ukrainian Citizens 

On the eve of the Ukraine Accountability Conference, the United States calls on Russia to immediately halt its systematic “filtration” operations and forced deportations in Russian-controlled and held areas of Ukraine. The unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime.  Russian authorities must release those detained and allow Ukrainian citizens forcibly removed or coerced into leaving their country the ability to promptly and safely return home.  We call on Russia to provide outside independent observers access to so-called “filtration” facilities and to forced deportation relocation areas in Russia.


Estimates from a variety of sources, including the Russian government, indicate that Russian authorities have interrogated, detained, and forcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, from their homes to Russia – often to isolated regions in the Far East.  Moscow’s actions appear pre-meditated and draw immediate historical comparisons to Russian “filtration” operations in Chechnya and other areas. President Putin’s “filtration” operations are separating families, confiscating Ukrainian passports, and issuing Russian passports in an apparent effort to change the demographic makeup of parts of Ukraine.


Reports also indicate Russian authorities are deliberately separating Ukrainian children from their parents and abducting others from orphanages before putting them up for adoption inside Russia. Eyewitnesses and survivors of “filtration” operations, detentions, and forced deportations report frequent threats, harassment, and incidents of torture by Russian security forces.  During this process, Russian authorities also reportedly capture and store biometric and personal data, subject civilians to invasive searches and interrogations and coerce Ukrainian citizens into signing agreements to stay in Russia, hindering their ability to freely return home.


Evidence is mounting that Russian authorities are also reportedly detaining or disappearing thousands of Ukrainian civilians who do not pass “filtration.” Those detained or “filtered out” include Ukrainians deemed threatening because of their potential affiliation with the Ukrainian army, territorial defense forces, media, government, and civil society groups. Eyewitnesses, survivors, and Ukraine’s General Prosecutor have reported that Russian authorities have transported tens of thousands of people to detention facilities inside Russian-controlled Donetsk, where many are reportedly tortured.  There are reports that some individuals targeted for “filtration” have been summarily executed, consistent with evidence of Russian atrocities committed in Bucha, Mariupol, and other locations in Ukraine.


President Putin and his government will not be able to engage in these systematic abuses with impunity. Accountability is imperative. This is why we are supporting Ukrainian and international authorities’ efforts to collect, document, and preserve evidence of atrocities. Together, we are dedicated to holding perpetrators of war crimes and other atrocities accountable.


The United States and our partners will not be silent. Ukraine and its citizens deserve justice.

Russia’s “Filtration” Operations, Forced Disappearances, and Mass Deportations of Ukrainian Citizens  - United States Department of State

When Yevgeny Chubarin told his mother he was joining the Russian army to fight against Ukraine, she cried and begged him not to go. But his exhilaration shone through. By May 15, he had an AK-47 and was on his way. The 24-year-old stone-factory worker was killed the next day.

Stories like his are taboo in Russia, where the wrenching grief of many families is buried beneath the triumphant bombast of state media. The war is portrayed as an existential struggle for survival, against “Nazis” as well as NATO, and a virtual news blackout about the bloody toll underscores Kremlin anxiety about the durability of its manufactured support.

Yet some stories seep out. Vladimir Krot was a 59-year-old Soviet-trained pilot, a retired Afghan war veteran, who begged to serve in Ukraine. He kept asking despite repeated rejections and, in June, as casualties mounted, he finally was told “yes.” Krot died just days later, when his SU-25 jet went down during a training flight in southern Russia. He left behind a wife and 8-year-old daughter.

The number of war dead is a state secret. It is a crime to question the invasion or criticize the military. Independent journalists who speak to bereaved relatives or cover funerals have been arrested and told that showing such “tears and suffering” is bad for public morale. Authorities have ordered some online memorial pages to be shut down.

The Kremlin’s priority has been to prevent angry voices of mourning families and antiwar activists from coming together and gaining traction. Information about war dead could deter Russia’s increasingly urgent recruitment effort, scraping up prisoners with military experience and offering highly paid contracts for deployments.

Internal security agents visited Dmitry Shkrebets this summer after he accused Russian authorities of lying about how many sailors died when the Black Sea flagship Moskva was sunk by Ukrainian missiles on April 13. His son Yegor, one of the conscripts onboard, was listed as “missing.” The agents accused Shkrebets of making bomb threats and confiscated his laptop, as he detailed on VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook. On Tuesday, 111 days after Yegor’s death, the military finally gave his father a death certificate.

“It will never be easier,” Shkrebets wrote in a post. “There will never be true joy. We will never be the same again. We have become different, we have become more unhappy, but also stronger, tougher. We no longer fear even those who should be feared.”

But independent analyst Bobo Lo of the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, believes the Kremlin has largely contained the risk of unrest over the high casualty count. Because most people are so cautious about airing dissent, gauging the real level of support for the war is difficult. Pollster VCIOM, which is close to government authorities, reported in June that 72 percent of Russians back the fighting.

Politically, Russian President Vladimir Putin “has been able to defend this,” said Lo, a former deputy head of mission at the Australian Embassy in Moscow. “Partly through controlling the information narrative, but also because this is now seen as a war against the West.”

With many families afraid to speak out and no credible casualty count, independent media and rights groups keep their own tallies. Their numbers, based only on confirmed open-source death reports, are modest.

The independent Russian outlet Mediazona and BBC News Russian counted 5,185 war dead as of July 29, with the greatest losses in remote and impoverished areas such as the southern region of Dagestan and the Siberian region of Buryatia. The wealthy cities Moscow and St. Petersburg were barely touched, the two outlets concluded. Moscow with 12.5 million residents, lost just 11 servicemen, and St. Petersburg 35.

By contrast, the CIA and British intelligence MI6 estimate that at least15,000 Russians have been killed since their country’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, losses equal to the decade-long Soviet war in Afghanistan. And that was “probably a conservative estimate,” MI6 chief Richard Moore told the Aspen Security Forum last month.

Chubarin’s death was an ominous reflection of the Russian military’s desperation. A former conscript from the Karelia region, he signed a three-month contract and was too excited to ask how much he would be paid. His mother, Nina Chubarina, thinks he wanted to prove himself as a man. She wonders if he was trying to win back his ex-wife.

“He knew it was dangerous,” she said in a recent interview. He left on May 11, sending cheerful messages and videos after he arrived in Belgorod in southern Russia. He got little training in his four days there, then made a rushed call home. He had been issued a machine gun and was headed to the war.

“That was it. That was the last time we spoke,” she said. The military told her he was found dead near Mariupol on May 16. “He was a very brave guy, was not afraid of anything. He was so cheerful and open and so kind.”

Chubarina, a dairy farmworker, does not question the war. She just rereads a poem her son sent her while a conscript in 2017, about growing up and leaving her behind: “Forgive me for all the pain that has fallen on your weary shoulders. Please accept my soldier’s bow. It is from the bottom of my heart.”

Sergei Dustin of Baltiysk refuses to be quiet. His daughter, Alexandra, married a marine named Maksim and became a widow at 19. He vented his rage on Facebook, saying Russians needed to ask why their sons were dying.

He described the war as a “massacre started by crazy old men who think they are great geopoliticians and super strategists, incapable, in fact, of anything but destruction, threats against the world, puffing out their cheeks and endless lies.”

Some responses called him a traitor. His son-in-law had left in the winter for “training exercises” and ended up in Ukraine. An old friend from Ukraine was fighting on the other side. Dustin hoped neither would die.

He refused to hear any details about how the young man died, and his daughter shut herself inside her grief. “It’s very hard for her to understand and acknowledge that her husband was taking part in an operation that, to put it mildly, was far from nice,” he said. “This whole story just brings sorrow and tragedy for everyone.”

Not many grieving families publicly question the war effort. The silence serves to minimize public understanding of its impact on the home front. In the eastern Siberia city of Ulan-Ude, a recent survey by the independent news site Lyudi Baikala found that few residents knew that more than 250 people from the region had been killed, a count the site calculated using open sources.

Still, cracks have appeared. In Buryatia, a group of wives of Russian soldiers made a video in June to demand that the military bring their men home. Hundreds of soldiers from the region contacted an activist group there for information on how to break their contracts, according to Alexandra Garmazhapova, founder of the Free Buryatia Foundation. Casualties on a local memorial page on VKontakte rise daily.

On Monday, the deaths of local basketball players Dmitry Lagunov and Nikolay Bagrov were confirmed. A woman named Raisa Dugarova responded on the page. “Why does Buryatia have to bury its sons every day?” she asked. “Why are we doing this?”

The following day there was another entry, about the death of Zolto Chimitov, a corporal in his early 30s who had been born in the rural village of Tsakir. He became a boxing champion, later training to be a forester. He had three children.

“Oh god, please stop this war. How many of our guys can die?” a woman named Yevgenia Yakovleva wrote. “My soul is torn from pain. I don’t know how to accept this, survive and live with it.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...r-deaths-toll/

NEAR IZYUM, Ukraine — It turns out, some Ukrainian soldiers discovered, that Javelin cases make great beds. The U.S.-made antitank missiles are packed in large, black rectangular capsules — perfect for elevating a slim cot off the dirty, cold floors of front-line positions.

“Make sure you mention they’re empty,” said a soldier, showing off the makeshift beds. “The last thing we need is Americans thinking they’re sending us Javelins just so we can sleep on them.”

It’s the opposite, actually: The 93rd Mechanized Brigade had fired so many Javelins at Russian tanks that they needed something to do with the pile of empty cases.

The fighting in this stage of war between Russia and Ukraine has shifted toward an exchange of long-range artillery and missile strikes. But despite Javelins being a shorter-range weapon — its maximum range is about 2.5 miles — soldiers here near Russian-occupied Izyum in northeastern Ukraine still consider Javelins an effective way to inflict punishing damage on Russian troops. Lt. Oleksandr Sosovskyy referred to the weapons as his “good buddies.”

He said the Ukrainian and Russian troops in many places are dug in on front lines just a few miles apart — within Javelin range.

“We keep burning their vehicles, and that means that a few more houses in Ukraine will stay intact,” he said. “Children won’t get killed. Civilians and military won’t get killed.”

For years, as Ukraine was locked in a simmering conflict with Russian-led separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, Javelin antitank missiles were the premier military aid from Washington — a defensive, lethal weapon intended to deter greater hostilities. Then, they were kept away from the front line and never used outside of training environments, but already “Javelin” had become part of the lexicon in Ukraine as a symbol of Western support.

After Russian tanks actually crossed the border on Feb. 24 — and some were immediately wiped out with Javelins — the cult around the weapons grew. “Javelin” — or “Javelina” for a girl — is now a common name for pets. Local department stores sell plush Javelin missile toys for children. An internet meme of religious figures cradling Javelins became so popular that its creator started a charity organization selling T-shirts with the images. Ukraine’s defense minister recently wore a “Saint Javelin” patch on his bulletproof vest.

Lt. Col. Bohdan Dmytruk is another fan of the anti-armor system. A battalion commander in Ukraine’s 93rd brigade, Dmytruk said he’s seen a decline in the quality of tanks Russians are using on the front lines. He has an intimate understanding of his enemy — his battalion was fighting the same Russian brigade in the Sumy region, farther north, earlier in the war, and they are now facing off again in the Kharkiv region.

In Sumy, the 93rd brigade was victorious, expelling Russian forces from the region. In the more than three months that they’ve been posted near Izyum, the front line hasn’t budged much, though Dmytruk said his unit advanced about 5 miles along one part of it during that time. The road to Ukraine’s current trench positions is littered with destroyed Russian vehicles and rotting soldiers’ corpses. The grain fields here have been burned and filled with craters from artillery shells ― sunflowers tend to sprout around their edges.

The tanks the Russians are using now are older, Dmytruk said, because Javelins and similar weapons have depleted their arsenal. Even the crews operating the tanks now are less experienced, often not even managing to fire on Dmytruk’s forces before they’re taken out, he said, because they didn’t properly load the ammunition.

“The Ukrainian military basically destroyed their newest tanks and infantry combat vehicles in the first wave of fighting,” Dmytruk said. “The last vehicle of theirs we damaged just a couple days ago was a BMP-1, which is one of their oldest models. They would’ve had that one sitting in storage for a long time, so they’re really emptying out their stocks right now.”

Washington has provided Ukraine with more than 5,000 Javelins as part of its more than $8 billion in material aid since the start of the Biden administration. In the first days of the war, Javelins were passed around to anyone who spotted an enemy column — sometimes with on-the-spot instruction.

Before the Russian invasion, some Ukrainian servicemembers had attended special sessions with U.S. trainers on how to use the Javelin. But it was nowhere near enough to defend against Russian tank convoys once the war started.

Sosovskyy said he watched a 5-minute YouTube video and scanned a 12-point instruction manual — all while being driven to the spot from where he had to start firing the weapons. The first time, it didn’t work.

“You shoot, but something’s not working and then you are trying to learn on your own, with the enemy right there,” he said. “When we figured it out and managed to hit targets, not only would the target get destroyed, but the rest of the convoy would get scared and flee. Javelins helped us quickly get rid of them.”

“You’re like in a cartoon,” Sosovskyy added. “Click-click and it flies.”
Using Javelins and other antitank missiles, such as British NLAW and the Ukrainian-made Stugna-P, now requires more of a hunt. The 93rd brigade uses drones to look for targets. Then small teams — usually about two people — move into firing range to take it out with Javelins or NLAWs, which are considered lighter and easier to use but reserved for shorter distances.

Members of the 93rd brigade have also come up with creative ways to reach the Russians. Dmytruk said his soldiers will sometimes attach a “present” — an antitank grenade — to a drone that will then drop it on any enemy vehicle.

“Right now, they’re afraid to even walk up to their tanks,” Dmytruk said. He said he’s intercepted audio of some Russian commanders telling their soldiers to fill white bags with dirt and cover the tops of their tanks. Dmytruk said doing that is “useless.”

And it’s not just empty Javelin cases his brigade recycles. If a Russian tank or combat vehicle is lightly damaged and recoverable, the Ukrainians will snag it for themselves. Dmytruk said his battalion alone has destroyed 18 Russian tanks, but five were taken as “trophies” that Ukrainian soldiers repaired, repainted and redeployed to the front.

Among them are two T-80 models parked in thick mud and under the cover of tree branches. They weren’t hit with Javelins — then they wouldn’t have been salvageable. But with many of their tanks captured, the Russians are turning to older tanks, and the Ukrainians are fighting them with their own newer ones.

“We can see it by their equipment that they are lacking some,” Sosovskyy said. “We learn that from intercepted messages or some stories. We see they are panicking, that their reconnaissance is getting weaker. So we are hopeful. And we’ll be doing everything we can to kick them out of here.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...-russia-tanks/