At least 20 torture centers in the liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson have financial links to the Kremlin, according to international investigators helping Ukraine delve into suspected Russian war crimes.
Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city to fall early in Moscow’s invasion, was liberated by Ukraine forces in November. Wayne Jordash, an international human rights lawyer and managing partner of the law firm Global Rights Compliance, told CNBC that more than 1,000 Ukrainians gave first-hand accounts of time in the torture centers. Electric shock torture and waterboarding were common, Jordash said.
“A paper trail has been exposed that shows that the main torture chambers in Kherson and those administering them (get) the financial support of the Russian state,” he said.
Jordash leads a Mobile Justice Team, a group of international lawyers and investigators supporting Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office. He said the team determined the torture sites were directly managed by several Kremlin security agencies.
The Kremlin has routinely denied claims that its forces commit war crimes or deliberately target civilians.
Developments:
►The White House said it will announce a new military-assistance package for Ukraine on Friday but did not reveal its value.
►EU nations were discussing plans to set up a joint procurement scheme to speed up the delivery of howitzer artillery rounds Ukraine says are crucial to countering Russian forces.
►The cooperation agreements reached this week by China and Belarus, a close ally of the Kremlin, “may facilitate Russian sanctions evasion by channeling Chinese aid to Russia through Belarus,” the Institute for the Study of War said.
►The G-20 meeting of 19 nations and the European Union failed to release a statement that would have condemned Russia’s war. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia and China were the two nations blocking a consensus.
►German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on China to refrain from sending weapons to Russia and instead use its influence to press Moscow for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
RUSSIA’S WEAPONS PROBLEM:Russia will be out of ‘military tools’ by spring, Ukraine’s top military spy says
Ukraine denies attacking Russian civilians
A Ukrainian official on Thursday dismissed as “classic provocation” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that about 50 Ukraine terrorists attacked villages in the Bryansk region of western Russia. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a tweet that Russia “wants to scare its people to justify the attack on another country & the growing poverty after the year of war.”
Andriy Yusov, the spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, blamed the attacks on an internal confrontation between Russian citizens.
Putin accused Ukrainians of “another terrorist act, another crime,” saying they entered the border region and opened fire on civilians.
“They saw that it was a civilian vehicle, they saw that civilians and children were sitting there,” Putin said. He reiterated his recurring theme, accusing Ukraine of trying to deprive ethnic Russians of their history, traditions and language.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said undisclosed measures were being taken to “destroy” the attackers.
Blinken, Lavrov meet at G-20 gathering
Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke briefly at the Group of 20 nations meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.
The encounter marks the first time the two countries have met at a senior level since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, souring relations between Washington and Moscow.
Blinken said at a new conference he made three points to Lavrov: that the U.S. would support Ukraine for as long as it takes to end the war, that Russia should reverse its decision to suspend participation in the New START nuclear treaty, and that Moscow should release detained American Paul Whelan.
“End this war of aggression, engage in meaningful diplomacy that can produce a just and durable peace,” Blinken said he told Lavrov, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no interest in a fair resolution.
Lavrov said had a “quick word” with Blinken at the latter’s request when their paths crossed, the state-run Tass news agency reported.
In another delay, Hungary puts off vote on Finland and Sweden joining NATO
It’s not only Turkey standing in the way of the latest proposed NATO expansion.
The Hungarian parliament has put off until the second half of March a vote on whether to approve membership bids by Finland and Sweden, another delay in a slow-moving process that has frustrated the alliance’s leaders. The Nordic countries were formally invited to join in June, but admission requires unanimity.
Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, has said he’s in favor of Finland and Sweden joining NATO but alleges their governments have “spread blatant lies” about his nation that need to be clarified. Some analysts see Orban’s holdout as ploy to gain concessions.
Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO countries yet to approve the applications. The other 28 gave their OK by the end of September. Turkey has voiced support for Finland but objects to Sweden on grounds that it hasn’t cracked down on Kurdish separatists and other groups Ankara considers terrorists.
Bezdorizhzhia effect: Ukrainians hope Russians get stuck in the mud
Bezdorizhzhia may prove a useful tool in Ukraine’s defense of its land.
It’s not a new weapon provided by the West, but rather the Ukrainian term for the muddy conditions at this time of year that makes it difficult to travel on unpaved terrain. The British Ministry of Defense believes it may help Ukraine’s cause, saying such limited mobility “typically provides some military advantage to defending forces.”
The ministry noted that the soil has been freezing overnight and thawing during the day around the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, where Russian forces have been making a strong push to take over. The task will become more difficult if the ground gets muddier with the warmer temperatures that are expected later in the month.
“This will add further friction to ground operations and hamper the off-road movement of heavier armored vehicles, especially over churned-up ground in the Bakhmut sector,” the ministry said.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk province, said about 5,000 people, including 37 children, remain in Bakhmut, which before the war had a population of more than 70,000.
Russia will run out of crucial weapons by summer, Ukraine official says
Russia will run out of “military tools” to achieve its war aims in Ukraine by the end of the spring, Ukraine’s top military intelligence official predicted in a USA TODAY interview.
Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov’s forecast comes amid considerable uncertainty about what the next phase of the war will look like as it moves into its second year. For weeks, Ukrainian officials had signaled that Russia was planning a major offensive to coincide with the one-year anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24. A notable new offensive has yet to materialize.
“Russia has wasted huge amounts of human resources, armaments and materials,” Budanov said. “Its economy and production are not able to cover these losses. It’s changed its military chain of command. If Russia’s military fails in its aims this spring, it will be out of military tools.”
– Kim Hjelmgaard
Contributing: The Associated Press
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