Russo-Ukraine War - 07 March 2022
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"To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal]
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's plans did not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories, the goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. As stated in the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian military does not strike at cities, but disable only the military infrastructure, so nothing threatens the civilian population.
Ukraine is ready to hold a dialogue with Russia on security guarantees, on the future of the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Crimea, but is not ready to capitulate. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview for ABC News. "I have spoken many times about NATO and publicly conveyed messages to both Russia and President Putin: we are ready for any guarantees of our country's security from the respective states that must guarantee. And Russia is also among these states, because Russia is our neighbor," he said.
According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the future Ukraine must have a collective security agreement with all its neighbors and with the participation of the world’s leading countries - the United States, France, Germany and Turkey, with which our country borders in the Black Sea. "These will be guarantees not only for Ukraine. These will be guarantees for Russia as well, about which it is constantly talking. Although I don't know who it is protecting itself from. Because Ukraine has never attacked anyone, it only conducted defensive actions. Because it protects the last thing we have - the family and the land," the President stressed.
"It is important to me how people who want to be part of Ukraine will live there. I am interested in the opinion of those who see themselves as citizens of the Russian Federation. However, we must discuss this issue. As well as compromises on Crimea. We cannot recognize that Crimea is the territory of Russia. I think it will be difficult for Russia to recognize that this is the territory of Ukraine. I think we are smart enough to ensure that the decision on these two issues does not cause any revolutions within societies, so that people are satisfied with this decision: both those who live in those territories and those who live in Ukraine," said Volodymyr Zelenskyy
When asked why he refused to leave Ukraine when he was offered it because of the threat to his life, Volodymyr Zelenskyy answered: “I refused. Because how can I? I am a citizen of this state, a legitimately elected President. If I left, I would end my life. I would be alive, but I would no longer be human. I would just be a body. I would not respect myself. And worst of all, what would I say to my children. Who am I? Did I behave as the President? As the guarantor of the Constitution? This is not just a phrase - the guarantor of the Constitution. I am the guarantor of my people. So we have to stand together. We have to defend ourselves together. That's why I'm here. I help my country, I support my state as much as I can. I support and I am proud of my military". Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that and expressed hope for a "happy end".
Boris Johnson wrote: "Vladimir Putin’s act of aggression must fail and be seen to fail. We must not allow anyone in the Kremlin to get away with misrepresenting our intentions in order to find ex post facto justification for this war of choice.... We despair of the decision to send young, innocent Russians into a futile war.... His assault on Ukraine began with a confected pretext and a flagrant violation of international law. It is sinking further into a sordid campaign of war crimes and unthinkable violence against civilians.... no matter how long it takes, we must prevent any creeping normalization of what Russia does in Ukraine. The lesson from Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 and seizure of Crimea in 2014 is that accepting the results of Russian aggression merely encourages more aggression. We cannot allow the Kremlin to bite off chunks of an independent country and inflict immense human suffering and then creep back into the fold."
Putin has said he will not send conscripts or reservists to fight in Ukraine and that “professionals” fulfilling “fixed objectives” were leading the war. “Conscripted soldiers are not participating and will not participate in the fighting. There will not be an additional conscription of reservists either,” Putin said in a televised address. “The fixed objectives are only carried out by professional servicemen.”
Russia is recruiting Syrians and other foreign fighters as it ramps up its assault on Ukraine, the Pentagon said. “We do believe that the accounts of them – the Russians – seeking Syrian fighters to augment their forces in Ukraine, we believe there’s truth to that,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told journalists.
The United States does not believe Russian forces have made major progress in the north and northeast of Ukraine in the last few days, the Pentagon said. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that Russian troops had taken the city of Kherson and were attempting to encircle Mariupol, but were not in control of it. Kirby also said Russia’s move to longer-range attacks had increased civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure. “More civilians are being killed and wounded,” he said.
A senior US Defense Department official stated that “nearly 100%” of the pre-staged Russian forces are now inside Ukraine. The “main advance is still stalled outside” Kyiv. The miles-long convoy is mostly a “re-supply convoy” though there are some “combat elements.” Russia remains unable to control the skies. “President Zelenskyy has the vast majority of his fixed wing aircraft available to him,” the official said. Russia has already launched more than 625 missiles against Ukraine. He also said that Ukraine has enough surface-to-air weapons for protection.
In an interview with FRANCE 24 on Monday, former US national security adviser H.R. McMaster said that Ukraine can win the war with Russia, remarking that President Vladimir Putin had already lost the conflict in a sense by not winning outright. McMaster said the Russian military had proven to be a “Potemkin army” and said they would continue to face stiff resistance from Ukrainians backed by a united West.
He said he feared, however, that Putin might launch an all-out assault on Kyiv, similar to the one he unleashed on Grozny in Chechnya and in Syria's Aleppo. He urged Western countries to do more to help Ukraine by sending increasingly sophisticated weapons and setting up training posts in the west of the country. McMaster predicted that Putin’s final goal is not limited to Ukraine but that he also has his eyes trained on Moldova and Georgia. He urged the world to take seriously the threat of Russian using a nuclear device, especially as it struggles on the ground in Ukraine and faces crippling sanctions from a united front of Western powers.
Accusing Russia of 'indiscriminately killing civilians', Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that if Ukraine fails, 'then Putin will feel emboldened enough to continue his high rate warfare against Europe.' 'It is cheaper to help Ukraine now than to stop Putin later,' he added.
Ukrainian forces have retaken the regional airport in the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolayiv from Russian forces, regional Governor Vitaliy Kim said. "The roads are open, we control the bridges, you can safely leave Mykolayiv (city) and other towns," he said in a televised statement.
According to some experts, Russia's slow and expensive advance in Ukraine should not be misconstrued as a total failure of Moscow’s military goals. “The coverage of the war is focusing almost exclusively on the tactical level of war. Moreover, we are only seeing the Ukrainian side of the fighting, reported by journalists sympathetic to the defenders. Frankly, I just do not believe that the Russians are doing as badly as the western media is reporting,” says Edward Erickson, a former American military officer and a retired Professor of Military History from the Department of War Studies at the Marine Corps University.
“At the operational level of war, looking at Russian operations as an integrated campaign, the Russians seem to be doing well. They are advancing on multiple axes of advance and making substantial gains on a daily basis,” Erickson told TRT World. “There isn't enough Russian infantry to assault and seize major cities with millions of angry weaponised citizens,” he added.
“They have isolated Kharkiv, and I think they will isolate Kiev soon. For a fact, they have not brought their vast firepower resources to bear en masse anywhere, and we have not seen the VVS [Russian air force] mount major operations yet,” says Erickson. “Most often, commentators focus on the Russian Federation’s intent of capturing large portions, if not all, of Ukraine. As far as I can tell, the consideration of the timing of various phases should be secondary to the achievement of objectives,” Ioannis Koskinas, a senior fellow at the international security program of New America, an American think-tank, said.
“Put another way, it appears as if Russia has captured territory in the east and south and is converging on Kiev and some of the other large cities, but it’s moving deliberately. Whether that is to protect supply lines, shortage of fuel, or simply slow on purpose, to wear out defenders, is hard to tell from publicly available information,” Koskinas, a former US military officer, told TRT World.
“I am surprised at the lethargy of the Russian assault; it seems to be slow and plodding up north. In the east, they're getting their butts handed to them,” said Mike Repass, a retired US Army Major General, who trained and advised the Ukrainian army.
The aim of the Russian army must be to take over the western borders of Ukraine to cut supply lines of the country from Poland and Romania, the two NATO states. Then, the Ukrainian population would be left with Russia as their sole source of food and medical supplies.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed a decree banning weapons supply to Ukraine, explaining the decision by the need to defend his own country’s security. In a video statement, the prime minister said that the decree has been released following an assessment of the situation in Ukraine. As the “military actions are getting closer and closer to the Hungarian border,” Orban said, it was decided to outlaw the weapons supply. “The order makes it clear that weapons cannot be transported from Hungary’s territory to the territory of Ukraine,” Orban said.
Russia released a list of countries and territories that took "unfriendly" action against Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine. The move came after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that temporarily allows overseas creditors to be paid in rubles instead of foreign currencies. Officials said Russian borrowers can make payments on their debt owed to creditors from the listed nations and territories in the ruble. Any ruble payments will be at the value calculated with the exchange rate set by the Russian central bank. The list includes Japan, the United States, Britain, EU member states, South Korea and Taiwan.
When the third round of conflict talks between Ukraine and Russia ended, Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky said: "Our expectations from negotiations were not fulfilled. We hope that next time we will be able to take a more significant step forward." Kyiv's presidential advisor Mikhailo Podolyak said "We have achieved some positive results concerning the logistics of humanitarian corridors". Zelensky assured that negotiations with Russia will continue until a result is reached in the settlement.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the war could end "immediately" if Ukraine agreed to four conditions: being barred from entering NATO, recognizing Crimea as Russian territory and the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent; and ceasing all military action. Zelensky told ABC News that acknowledging the territories is "more difficult" than it may seem and that Russia's conditions amount to an "ultimatum."
Ukraine rejected Russia’s proposal to evacuate civilians from major cities during its attack against the neighboring country. According to Moscow’s plan, people leaving Kiev were to arrive in Belarus, from where they would be flown to Russia, while some of those leaving other cities would cross into Russia directly. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk accused Moscow of blocking evacuations in the past by “shelling [safe passage] routes.... Now the Russians are saying that they can open [humanitarian] corridors, but they want civilians to leave for the Russian territory, which is absurd, cynical and unacceptable”.
The United Nations said more than 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine, describing the exodus as "the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II." More than a million people had crossed into Poland alone. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has said nationality would not play a role in Germany's decision to host refugees fleeing Ukraine. "We want to save lives. That doesn't depend on the passport," Faeser told the German newspaper. So far, around 30,000 to Germany, according to German authorities. Fifty Ukrainians have been granted visas under a scheme for refugees with family links to the UK, the Home Office has announced. It is about 1% of the 5,535 people who had applied since the programme launched 48 hours earlier. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had said 200,000 Ukrainians would be eligible to travel to the UK as he extended the offer of visas to a wider range of family members.
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