The Crimes of Crime: Putin Embedded in Ukraine’s War with the Kremlin: How Putin is Seeking to Publish Crime?
And this is the logic Putin appears to be following, rubber-stamping the sham referendums in Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and declaring them part of Russia.
He called on Ukraine to “cease fire” immediately and “sit down at the negotiating table,” but added: “We will not negotiate the choice of the people. It has been made. Russia won’t betray it.
Andrey Kortunov, who runs the Kremlin-backed Russian International Affairs Council in Moscow, sees it, too. “President Putin wants to end this whole thing as fast as possible,” he told CNN.
Many Russians had felt untouched by the war, as a result of the turmoil and protest after Mr. Putin ordered the military to be drafted. Many men have been drafted because they are too old or Disability Discrimination Act-eligible.
Independent Russian media quoting Russia’s revamped KGB, the FSB, put the total exodus even higher. There have been an estimated 160,000 to 190,000 soldiers who have left the country since the beginning of the war.
CNN is unable to verify the Russian figures, but the 40 kilometers (around 25 miles) traffic tailbacks at the border with Georgia, and the long lines at crossings into Kazakhstan and Finland, speak to the backlash and the strengthening perception that Putin is losing his fabled touch at reading Russia’s mood.
Kortunov says he doesn’t know what goes on in the Kremlin but that he understands the public mood over the huge costs and loss of life in the war. We got into this mess and a lot of people are asking questions. Why, you know, we lost so many people.”
He used the same method to annex the peninsula from the Ukranian government as he did in the past, threatening a nuclear strike should the Ukranian government try to take it back.
Western leaders are in a battle of brinksmanship with Putin. Last Sunday US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Washington would respond decisively if Russia deployed nuclear weapons against Ukraine and has made clear to Moscow the “catastrophic consequences” it would face.
Explosive Shock Waves in the Danes and Germans: Russia’s Impossible Effort to End the Cold War
Both Danish and Swedish seismologists recorded explosive shockwaves from close to the seabed: the first, at around 2 a.m. local time, hitting 2.3 magnitude, then again, at around 7 p.m., registering 2.1.
In a matter of hours, patches of the sea were found and Danes and Germans sent warships to protect them.
Russia says it has launched an investigation. But former CIA chief John Brennan said Russia has the expertise to inflict this type of damage “all the signs point to some type of sabotage that these pipelines are only in about 200 feet or so of water and Russia does have an undersea capability to that will easily lay explosive devices by those pipelines.”
Western intelligence sources said that Russian naval vessels were seen in the area in the days prior. NATO’s North Atlantic Council has described the damage as a “deliberate, reckless and irresponsible act of sabotage.”
Europe rushed to replenish gas reserves ahead of winter, while cutting back on Russian supplies and searching for alternative providers as Putin tried to maintain his control over the Baltic Sea.
The bottom line is that the result ofUkraine gaining traction on the battlefield is that Putin is trying to take charge and get every advantage, so he is trying to adapt to the circumstances.
No one knows what is going on in Putin’s mind. Kortunov thinks that Putin won’t be willing to compromise beyond his own terms for peace, despite the fact he should be ready to do so. But we don’t know what these degrees [are] likely to be.”
Volker expects Putin to pitch France and Germany first “to say, we need to end this war, we’re going to protect our territories at all costs, using any means necessary, and you need to put pressure on the Ukrainians to settle.”
Putin knows he is in a corner, and he doesn’t seem to realize how small his space is – would he really make good on his nuclear threats?
Vladimir Putin’s Debacle in Lyman — a Memorandum of State-of-the-Art and the Status of the Relations between Russia and Ukraine
Russia’s retreat from Lyman, which sits on a riverbank that has served as a natural division between the Russian and Ukrainian front lines, came after weeks of fierce fighting.
Two days after President Vladimir V. Putin held a grandiose ceremony to commemorate the incorporation of four Ukrainian territories into Russia, the debacle in the city — Lyman, a strategic railway hub in the eastern region of Donbas — ratcheted up pressure on a Russian leadership already facing withering criticism at home for its handling of the war and its conscription of up to 300,000 men into military service.
The Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported on Sunday that Russian troops in the last few days of their occupation had dealt with desertion, poor planning and a delayed arrival of reserves.
The Kremlin reflected the disarray of its forces on the ground, where territory was rapidly changing hands, acknowledging that it did not yet know what new borders Russia would claim in southern Ukraine. Mr Putin is going to continue to consult with the people of the regions about their borders, according to his spokesman.
A global affairs analyst is Michael Bociurkiw. He is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is a regular contributor to CNN Opinion. The opinions he gives in this commentary are of his own. CNN has more opinion.
The Zaporizhzhia Bridge, Russia, Assault, Attacks on Ukraine’s Infrastructure, and Putin’s Unretarded Humility
To add to Putin’s sense of humiliation, the bridge explosion came amid a surging Ukrainian counteroffensive that has seized key pockets of Russian-controlled territory, including in regions Putin recently annexed.
The conflict in western Ukraine was being pushed into a new phase by large-scale Russian bombardment, just as much of the country was starting to get back to normal.
The strikes occurred as people headed to work and while kids were being dropped off at schools. A friend in Kyiv said she had just left the bridge when it was hit.
The area around my office in Odesa was quiet between air raid sirens as of lunchtime, with no reports of missiles or drones being shot down. (Normally at this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be heaving with customers, and chatter of plans for upcoming weddings and parties).
Just a few hours after Zaporizhzhia was hit by multiple strikes on apartment buildings, the city was attacked again on Monday. At least 17 people were killed and several dozens injured.
In a video filmed outside his office Monday, a defiant President Volodymyr Zelensky said it appeared many of the 100 or so missile strikes across Ukraine were aimed at the country’s energy infrastructure. The Prime Minister said that some provinces are without power and that at least 11 important infrastructure facilities have been damaged.
In scenes reminiscent of the early days of the war when Russian forces neared the capital, some Kyiv media outlets temporarily moved their operations to underground bomb shelters. Many people in a metro station took cover as a small group sang patriotic Ukrainian songs.
Indeed, millions of people in cities across Ukraine will be spending most of the day in bomb shelters, at the urging of officials, while businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible.
Just as many regions of Ukraine were starting to roar back to life, and with countless asylum seekers returning home, the attacks risk causing another blow to business confidence.
The symbolism of the only bridge linking mainland Russia and Crimean is something that Putin can’t overstate. That the attack took place a day after his 70th birthday (the timing prompted creative social media denizens to create a split-screen video of Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President”) can be taken as an added blow to an aging autocrat whose ability to withstand shame and humiliation is probably nil.
Hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive, record-breaking infrastructure projects seems to be a penchant of dictators. Putin personally opened the chen bridge in Europe, driving a truck across. The world’s longest sea crossing bridge, which was built in 1988 to link the former Portuguese and British territories with Macau, was one of the first things that China did after it reclaimed Hong Kong. Two years of delays resulted in the opening of the road bridge.
Kremlin can do nothing but destroy a country: Ukraine confronts Putin in the wake of Monday’s mass televised attack on Ukraine
The reaction among Ukrainians to the explosion was instantaneous: humorous memes lit up social media channels like a Christmas tree. Many people expressed their happiness via text messages.
Sitting still was never an option for Putin. He responded in the only way he knows how, by unleashing more death and destruction, with the force that probably comes natural to a former KGB operative.
Putin has been placed on thin ice by increasing criticism at home, which was also an act of selfish desperation.
Before Monday’s strikes, the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, had told Ukrainian journalist Roman Kravets in late August that, “by the end of the year at the minimum we have to enter Crimea” – suggesting a plan to push back Russian forces to pre-2014 lines, which is massively supported by Ukrainians I’ve spoken to.
It’s important for Washington and other allies to get in touch with China and India to stop them from using even more deadly weapons.
Anything short of these measures will only allow Putin to continue his senseless violence and further exacerbate a humanitarian crisis that will reverberate throughout Europe. A weak reaction will be taken as a sign in the Kremlin that it can continue to weaponize energy, migration and food.
High tech defense systems are needed to protect the energy infrastructure around the country. The need to protect heating systems is urgent with winter just around the corner.
The Russian-Ukraine War and the War on the Warthroes: A View from the Chatham House Senior Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Studies
The time has come for the West to further isolate Russia with travel and trade restrictions but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states need to be pressured to come on board.
It is not the first time the war is close to an unpredictable new phase. “This is now the third, fourth, possibly fifth different war that we’ve been observing,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.
Despite the fact that the war has favored Russia, American and Ukrainian officials say the fighting is more likely to continue for months more. And a number of variables could become particularly pertinent in shifting the trajectory of the conflict: more difficult fighting conditions in December, the extent to which President Vladimir V. Putin is willing to escalate the fight, whether Europe’s unity can be maintained this winter as energy prices soar and the potentially changing political environment in the United States that could result in a decrease of military support to Ukraine.
Giles said that anything that could be described as a Ukrainian victory is now more plausible. “The response from Russia is likely to escalate further.”
The attacks on Monday and the strikes throughout the week were indicative of Russian President Vladimir Putin lashing out after a number of setbacks in the war.
In the south of Kherson region, troops hoisted the country’s flag above a building last month. The counter-offensive started and Ukrainian officials say they have liberated hundreds of settlements.
Russia said it would help evacuate residents of Kherson to other areas as the offensive continued in the region. The announcement came shortly after the head of the Moscow-backed administration in Kherson appealed to the Kremlin for help moving residents out of harm’s way, in the latest indication that Russian forces were struggling in the face of Ukrainian advances.
These counter-offensives have shifted the momentum of the war and disproved a suggestion, built up in the West and in Russia during the summer, that while Ukraine could stoutly defend territory, it lacked the ability to seize ground.
The Russians were playing for the whistle and hoping to avoid a collapse in their frontline before the winter set in, according to the senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking like it is, that will be a huge success for the Russians.
The Institute for the Study of War says that Ukrainian troops are mostly pushing Russian forces eastwards, with Moscow likely to defend the cities of Starobilsk and Svitzer in the Luhansk region.
Landing a major blow in Donbas would send another powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve on its gains before temperatures plummet on the battlefield, and the full impact of rising energy prices is felt around Europe.
There are a lot of reasons why the Ukrainian government wants to do things quickly. “The winter energy crisis in Europe, and energy infrastructure and power being destroyed in Ukraine itself, is always going to be a test of resilience for Ukraine and its Western backers.”
NATO leaders have vowed to stand behind Ukraine regardless of how long the war lasts, but a number of European countries rely heavily on Russian energy and could face a serious cost-of-living crisis if the war goes on for too long.
Ukraine’s national electricity company, Ukrenergo, says it has stabilized the power supply to Kyiv and central regions of Ukraine after much of the country’s electricity supply was disrupted by Russian missile attacks on Monday and Tuesday. But Ukrainian Prime Minister has warned that “there is a lot of work to do” to fix damaged equipment, and asked Ukrainians to reduce their energy usage during peak hours.
Experts think that Russia will not use its aerial bombardment to form a recurrent pattern; while estimating the military reserves of both armies is difficult, Western assessments suggest that Moscow doesn’t have the capacity to keep it up.
“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Jeremy Fleming, a UK’s spy chief, said in a rare speech on Tuesday.
Russia may be unable to disrupt ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives due to its limited supply of precision weapons.
The amount of manpower and weaponry each side has left in reserve is very important for determining how momentum will shift in the coming weeks. On Tuesday and Monday, Ukrainian forces repelled at least 18 cruise missiles and are urging Western allies to have more protection against future attacks.
It is not uncommon for the Russian Missile strikes to be an occasional feature for shows of extreme outrage as the Russians don’t have enough precision missiles to sustain that kind of high-tempo missile assault into the future.
In terms of pure manpower, it wouldn’t have a significant impact on Russia’s reserves, because of the large number of active duty troops in Belarus. There would be another assault on Ukraine’s northern flank below the Belarusian border.
Giles said that reopening of the northern front would be a challenge for Ukranian. If Putin prioritized an effort to recover the area that has been wrested from him, it would give Russia a new route into the region.
President Zelensky spoke to CNN about the battle for Bkahmut, Biden’s visit to Kyiv and more. The full interview will be aired on Wednesday, March 8.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Ukraine needed “more” systems to better halt missile attacks, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
“These air defense systems are making a difference because many of the incoming missiles [this week] were actually shot down by the Ukrainian air defense systems provided by NATO Allies,” he said.
Ukraine “badly needed” modern systems such as the IRIS-T that arrived this week from Germany and the NASAMS expected from the United States , Bronk said.
“Two rounds” of artillery from Kiev’s critical infrastructure as Ukrainian soldiers launched offensives on Wednesday night – accompanied by a guide
“There are many things Russia can do to make the war personal, not just for people of Ukraine but around Europe, to try to force pressure on governments to remove their support for Ukraine,” Giles said.
There is no guarantee that mobilized forces will be used. If support roles were used in Russia, they could ease the burden on the rest of the professional army. They could also put units in place along the line of contact, cordon some areas and man checkpoints. They are not likely to be a capable fighting force. There are signs of trouble among the soldiers in Russian garrisons.
In that case, Mr. Putin could lash out more broadly against Ukraine. The attacks of the past week — particularly striking critical civilian infrastructure — could be expanded across Ukraine if missile supplies hold out, while Russia could directly target the Ukrainian leadership with strikes or special operations.
But a deafening boom of outgoing artillery from the critical Eastern Ukrainian town shakes that notion out of the system, as Ukrainian soldiers on Wednesday launched offensives to try and reclaim positions from Russian forces.
Our guide is Ukrainian military medic, who goes by her nom-de-guerre “Katrusya.” In tinted sunglasses and fatigues, she slings our convoy into the centre of the city at breakneck speed.
She took us to see a building that had just been shelled. As another shell hit nearby our car came to a complete halt. We scrambled for cover as more artillery rained and whizzed down nearby for around 20 minutes.
The fight against the Wagner group in Bakhmut: The fate of the Ukrainian army in Donestk, Ukraine. Is Vladimir Putin worried about the shelling?
A handful of residents are still on on the streets of Bakhmut. Buildings have no windows; the streets are pockmarked with craters and industrial garbage bins have merged into small pools of trash.
Those who remain seem to live in a parallel universe. The elderly ladies drag their shopping trolleys behind them as they are out on their bikes, and it appears that which shops are open is a mystery.
Sergey is one of the Bakhmut inhabitants. Asked if he is worried about the shelling he replies, “Afraid of what, mate? Everything is going to be okay.
Many soldiers and civilians have been killed in the fighting. “I cannot give you the number, but it is a lot… there are lot of injured from both sides and also lots of dead.”
The battle for Bakhmat has been intensifying in recent days. The fighting in the city has been described as the most difficult by the Ukrainian President.
Bakhmut lies at a fork that points toward two other strategic towns in the Donestk region: Konstantinivka to the south-west and Kramatorsk, and Slovyansk to the north-west. All three are key to Vladimir Putin’s total control of the region.
“It achieved its goals by 1,000%,” he said. Even if the military leadership retreats to better places, the case of defending Bakhmut will still be a great strategic success for the Ukrainian military.
Here, Russian forces have made small, steady gains, largely thanks to the Wagner group, which is considered by analysts to be a Kremlin-approved private military company.
Katrusya says she’s come up against Wagner fighters, and despite their international notoriety, they seem more like a hodgepodge of soldiers for hire, she says.
“They are a rabble. There a few very well-trained professional fighters, but the majority of them have found themselves accidentally fighting in this war looking for money or for the ability to get out of jail,” she said.
In September, a video made its way to the web appearing to show Prigozhin offering prisoners from his jails clemancy in exchange for six months of combat service in Ukraine.
She acknowledges the price for Ukraine will be enormous. “We will lose the best of the best, the most motivated and trained but we will definitely win we have no other choice it is our land. We will win.
One of the difficulties of making wartime assessments is the fact that the war has undergone different phases, with one side having an advantage and the other side not. The Ukrainians were able to defeat the Russians in the battle for Kyiv, but they were unable to stop Russia from moving ahead during the fighting in the Donbas over the summer.
As jubilant residents waved Ukrainian flags after a major Russian retreat, the city of Kherson was entered by the Ukrainian troops.
Videos shared by Ukrainian government officials on social media showed scenes of civilians cheering and awaiting the arrival of a contingent of Ukrainian troops shortly after Russia said that the withdrawal of its forces across the Dnipro River was complete.
The loss of Kherson would be Russia’s third major setback of the war, following retreats from Kyiv, the capital, last spring, and from the Kharkiv region in the northeast in September. Kherson was the only provincial capital Russia had captured since invading in February and it was a major link in Russia’s effort to control the southern coastline along the Black Sea.
Even as its soldiers fled, the Kremlin said that it still considered Kherson — which President Vladimir V. Putin illegally annexed in September — to be a part of Russia.
He spoke as residents of the region who had been through nine months of occupation were happy.
A Ukrainian drone unit in Kherson city: “We have broken the defense!” Yevgeny Prigozhin, the commander of a Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit, and a former soldier of Bakhmut
Oleh Voitsehovsky, the commander of a Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit, said he had seen no Russian troops or equipment in his zone along the front less than four miles north of Kherson city.
He said that the Russians left all the villages. We looked at dozens of villages and did not see a single car. We don’t see how they are leaving. They retreat quietly, at night.”
Several explosions were heard during the last hours of the Russian occupation, according to people in Kherson who spoke by telephone on Friday.
Serhiy, a retiree living in the city who asked that his last name not be published for security reasons, said in a series of text messages that conditions in the city had unraveled overnight.
“At night, a building burned in the very center, but it was not possible even to call the fire department,” he wrote. “There was no phone signal, no electricity, no heating and no water.”
Four people in the city said on Friday that there was a Russian military presence but it was not visible.
It said that Russian forces were setting up defensive positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro and shelling the advancing Ukrainians across the river.
The head of a private military group in Russia tried to explain their failure to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been the scene of intense fighting.
During a New Year visit with fighters on the front line, Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that there was a fortress in every house, and only clowns who sat around and predicted things.
“They say, ‘the combined forces have advanced into Artyomovsk and broken the defense,’” he said, referring to Bakhmut by its Soviet name. In 2016 the name was changed to Bakhmut.
Artyomovsk and Putin: a key player in Russia’s invasion of Poland and its invasion of the Republic of Macedonian Republic
“Then they say that it means breaking through the defense of one house, and breaking through the defense of the next house, right?” he asked.
“Therefore the question is: “Who is going to take Artyomovsk? Which combined forces? He said it would be the combined force of the two forces. Who else? Who else is there besides Wagner?
Responding to a question from CNN’s Christiane Amanpour at a press conference in the capital city, Zelensky said: “Victory will be inevitable. I am certain there will be victory.”
On Friday, the former Russian President and deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council said that Russia’s goal was ” to push the borders of threats to our country as far as possible, even if these are the borders of Poland.”
Ukrainian president Kathalina Pahitsky, student president of the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv, Ukraine
Zelensky used the first anniversary of the war to rally troops and renew calls for international assistance for his country. He gave awards to soldiers and then held a press conference.
Earlier on Friday morning, the Ukrainian leader addressed members of the military in Kyiv. He told them it was they who would determine the future of the country.
The landmarks of the world lit up in colors of the Ukrainian flag and new weapons on Friday in support of the country.
There is a $2 billion security package announced by the U.S. that includes new funding for contracts, including 155-millimeter cannon, counter-drone equipment and secure communications equipment.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the international community to prevent Putin’s crimes from becoming our new normal.
Germany increased it’s commitment from 14 to 18 tanks for Ukraine by sending another four Leopard 2 tanks. The Prime Minister of Sweden also promised to send tanks to his country’s neighbor.
And Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he intends to present the idea of imposing new sanctions against Russia during a virtual meeting with G7 leaders and Zelensky.
Since there has not been a major attack on the city in a few weeks, people are left to gauge the risk whenever the sirens are sounded.
Kathalina Pahitsky, a 16-year old student, went to the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv to lay flowers in memory of two former students from her school who lost their lives fighting in the war.
It was a bitterly cold morning in Kyiv, but Pahitsky said she felt it was her duty as the student president of her school to represent her classmates and pay her respects to the fallen heroes.
“Their photographs are here on the main street. It is a great honor. They died as heroes. It is very important to us. She said that it would have been for them.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/24/europe/kyiv-war-anniversary-intl-cmd/index.html
Atamas, Ukraine, meets Putin in the White House, in India, and in Beijing: a Russian-Chinese Ambassador to the Indian Embassy
Olexander Atamas, who was an IT worker before the war and now serves with the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said it was hard to describe his feelings on Friday.
He told CNN that he feels confident in his abilities, but that he doesn’t feel a fear. I was frightened one year ago and I was stressed. But currently there is no fear at all.”
The impression that Russia could lose the war has been made by President Putin in the first days of the conflict. The Russian strike on Kyiv didn’t go as planned. The Russian behemoth seemed not nearly as formidable as it had been made out to be. The war suddenly appeared as a face-off between a mass of disenchanted Russian incompetents and supercharged, savvy Ukrainian patriots.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, visits the White House Friday for talks with President Biden, following her trip to Canada.
The top US and Russian officials met for the first time in years while attending the meeting of the Group of 20 nations in India.
In Beijing, Alexander Lukashenko of Russia met with his counterpart from China, and declared that their nations’ friendship was unbreakable. Lukashenko, a close Kremlin ally, endorsed China’s proposal to end the war in Ukraine.
Resolving Ukraine’s Troubles: Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, the Ukrainian President and Deputy Vice Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, one of Europe’s staunchest supporters of Ukraine, is set to remain in her post after her center-right party overwhelmingly won Sunday’s election.
You can read past recaps here. More coverage of NPR’s stories can be found here. You can receive updates throughout the day by listening and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine.
Russian troops will be able to capture key cities in eastern Ukraine, if they seize control of Bsachmut, the president warned in an interview with CNN as he defended his decision to keep the Ukrainian forces in the besieged city.
“This is tactical for us,” Zelensky said, insisting that Kyiv’s military brass is united in prolonging its defense of the city after weeks of Russian attacks left it on the cusp of falling to Moscow’s troops.
He stated that if Russia is able to put a flag on top of Bakhmut, it would help mobilize their society and create a powerful army.
A growing threat of hundreds and even thousands of Ukrainian troops being cut off from the outside and a rising number of casualties have some commanders questioning the necessity of holding Bakhmut.
Nearly 4,000 civilians – including 38 children – remain inside the battered city, the country’s Vice Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said elsewhere on Tuesday. “We have special evacuation teams, who help, and armored vehicles. She said that people often stay in the basement and don’t know where they are. “This makes evacuation much more difficult.”
NATO intelligence meanwhile estimates that for every Ukrainian soldier killed defending Bakhmut, Russian forces have lost at least five, a military official with the alliance told CNN on Monday. The official cautioned the 5-to-1 ratio was an informed estimate based on intelligence.
An adviser within the Ukrainian Presidency, Mykhailo Podolyak, told CNN on Monday that in defending Bakhmut, Ukraine had two main goals: buying time to replenish its forces and inflicting heavy losses on Russian armies.
Zelensky convinced the US, UK, Germany and a group of other European nations to provide military aid to help integrate weapons systems and tanks into its operations.
Zelensky told CNN that the video showed “the Russian attitude towards POWs (prisoners of war). They don’t have any laws of war or international law or any conventions. It’s a question that these people – they don’t respect anything. He said that they do not fight like soldiers.
The man has been identified by the Ukrainian army as Tymofii Mykolayovych Shadura and he says he is going to be executed.
For us, war is for freedom, democracy and our values. For them it’s terrorism – that’s the attitude. And they post this video…. This is the face of this war. He said that this is the face of the Russian Federation.