Russo-Ukraine War - 15 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 goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country.
Russian editor Marina Ovsyannikova, who brandished a banner reading “They are lying to you here” during a prime-time news broadcast on state TV, said she was questioned for 14 hours, not allowed to contact relatives and denied legal help. “I was in a tough situation, I will speak more tomorrow I just need to rest today,” Ovsyannikova said following a court hearing at Moscow’s Ostankinsky district court. A judge with Moscow’s Ostankinsky district court ordered the state TV employee to pay a fine of 30,000 rubles ($280, 247 euros). She also risked criminal charges with a penalty of up to 15 years in jail under new laws introduced after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24.
“I’m still convinced that Russia is committing a crime,” Ovsyannikova, whose father is Ukrainian, said in the video address. “I’m ashamed that I allowed lies to be spoken from the TV screen. I’m ashamed I allowed Russian people to be zombified.”
"As far as this woman is concerned, this is hooliganism," said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. "The channel and those who are supposed to will get to the bottom of this," he told reporters, describing Channel One as a pillar of objective and timely news.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the protester in his nightly video address: “I am grateful to those Russians who do not stop trying to convey the truth. To those who fight disinformation and tell the truth, real facts to their friends and loved ones,” Zelenskyy said. “And personally to the woman who entered the studio of Channel One with a poster against the war.”
One of the advisers to the Ukrainian president's chief of staff said that the war could last until early May. In a video published by multiple Ukrainian media, Oleksiy Arestovich said the exact timing would depend on how much resources the Kremlin is willing to commit, but he is expecting two scenarios. One is a peace deal being struck within the upcoming one or two weeks and the second is the war continuing until an agreement is met in mid to late April. Yet, he added even after peace is agreed, small military clashes are still possible for up to a year.
Berdyansk is gradually returning to civilian life and is under the control of the National Guard, the agency said. "The situation in the city is controlled by the National Guard. Employees of the department are engaged in demining the territory of the city, removing abandoned Ukrainian military equipment from the streets of the city and ensuring public order," the report says.
The Russian armed forces took the entire territory of the Kherson region under full control. This was stated on 15 March 2022 by the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov. "The armed forces of the Russian Federation have taken full control of the entire territory of the Kherson region," he said. According to him, the grouping of troops of the Donetsk People's Republic, continuing offensive operations, broke through the defenses of Ukrainian nationalists, took control of the settlement of Panteleymonovka and reached the Verkhnetoretskoye-Novoselovka-2 line.
The Russian armed forces destroyed the hangars near Kramatorsk, where the planes and helicopters of the Ukrainian armed forces were located, the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said. "At the military airfield near Kramatorsk, three hangars were destroyed, in which there were four Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft, one Mi-24 helicopter and five Mi-8 helicopters," he said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the Russian military shot down two Ukrainian aircraft, one helicopter and 13 drones in a day. Also, operational-tactical, army and unmanned aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed 136 military facilities of Ukraine in a day. In addition, the Russian Armed Forces seized a stronghold of nationalists and foreign mercenaries in Ukraine, seized 10 Javelin missile systems and other weapons.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation showed footage showing the destruction of two infantry fighting vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a result of a hit by a precision-guided munition. "Two combat vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were discovered by an unmanned aerial vehicle of the RF Armed Forces, after which they were destroyed by an accurate hit of a precision-guided munition," the military department said in a statement.
The official representative of the People's Militia of the Donetsk People's Republic, Eduard Basurin , said that over the past day, seven Ukrainian servicemen had defected to the DPR. "Seven servicemen of the 54th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine crossed over to the side of the Donetsk People's Republic. The 3rd company of the Donbass battalion of the 54th brigade threw down their weapons and in full force fled to the point of permanent deployment in the city of Lozovaya, Kharkiv region," Basurin's report says.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “more than 40,000 Syrians have registered to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine so far.” Russia has promised Syrian soldiers, who earn between $15 and $35 per month, a salary of $1,100 to fight in Ukraine, the Observatory reported. They are also entitled to $7,700 in compensation for injuries and their families to $16,500 if they are killed in combat.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine have completed the recruitment of units with reservists of the first wave and are mobilizing the remaining categories of those liable for military service. According to the head of the personnel department of the headquarters of the command of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Roman Gorbach, it is possible that conscripts will also be in the combat zones.
Ukraine needs a no-fly zone to stop Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Canada’s parliament, as Western leaders continue to rule out directly intervening in the conflict. Addressing the House of Commons in Ottawa via video on Tuesday morning, Zelenskyy said Ukraine has experienced 20 days of “full-scale aggression” by Russia.
“Can you imagine when you call your [allies], and you ask please close the sky, close the airspace, please stop the bombings, how many more cruise missiles have to fall on our cities until you make this happen? And in return they express their deep concerns about the situation,” he said.
Documentary evidence of the preparation of Kiev's invasion in March on the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, as well as in the Crimea, was obtained during a Russian special operation in Ukraine, said Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced an attempt to strike Belarusian territory with a Ukrainian Tochka-U missile, which was intercepted and shot down in the Pripyat region. “I warned you that they would push us into this operation, into this war. Literally two days ago, at night, the launch of another Tochka-U missile on the territory of our Belarus, a strike on our territory, which we successfully with the Russians, is evidence of this intercepted and destroyed over Pripyat," Lukashenka said.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine again used the Tochka-U tactical missile system during shelling of the Donetsk People's Republic, the DPR representative office at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire said. The attack on Donetsk using the Tochka-U rocket, as a result of which 21 civilians were killed and 35 were injured, once again showed the true face of the Kiev radicals, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Gennady Gatilov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Geneva Headquarters, drew the attention of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. “A full day has passed since the Ukrainian Tochka-U cluster missile [according to preliminary data] killed 20 civilians and wounded 28 in Donetsk. The lack of any response from OHCHR is likely to caused by the fact that the West decided not to show the tragedy of Donbass to its citizens. Correct me if I'm wrong."
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky decided to remove Oleksandr Pavlyuk, commander of the military operation in Donbass, for his unauthorized decision to fire a Tochka-U missile at the center of Donetsk, said Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the People's Militia Department of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Among other reasons for replacing Pavlyuk, he named the defeat of the grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass. "According to our source, the leadership of Ukraine has lost confidence due to the complete inability of Pavlyuk to organize the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the loss of Volnovakha and the blocking of Ukrainian troops in Mariupol," Basurin explained.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed Major General Eduard Moskalev as the new commander of the so-called Joint Forces Operation (JFO, Kyiv’s military operation in Donbass). Lieutenant-General Oleksandr Pavlyuk, who served as commander of the JFO, has now been appointed head of the Kiev regional military administration. As President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky explained, this was done in order to "further strengthen the defense of the capital and the Kiev region."
Moscow and Washington have diametrically different approaches to current events in Ukraine, what is happening was largely a consequence of Washington's policy, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. "We have diametrically opposed approaches to everything that is happening in Ukraine. Everything that is happening now is largely a consequence of the policy that Washington has been pursuing for many years," the deputy minister said. He also added that the role of the United States of America in the situation around Ukraine is purely destructive.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators will introduce a bill that could give the U.S. administration the power to confiscate the assets of Russian entrepreneurs under U.S. restrictive measures in favor of Ukraine. In their new initiative, which will be presented on 15 March 2022, US lawmakers will call on the US Treasury Department "to offer a monetary reward for information that will lead to the seizure of the assets of Russian oligarchs under sanctions." It is noteworthy that the bill provides for the transfer of confiscated assets to Ukraine as part of assistance in restoring the destroyed infrastructure on its territory, as well as for the needs of the Ukrainian army.
Russia has quit the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog based in Strasbourg, pre-empting possible expulsion over its invasion of Ukraine. Pyotr Tolstoy, head of the Russian delegation at the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly, said on his Telegram channel that he had handed over a letter from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announcing Moscow’s decision.
At least three million people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, according to a tally by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). About 29,000 people were evacuated by the Ukrainian authorities from the war zone through humanitarian corridors on 15 March 2022, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office. More than 425,000 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania after the start of a special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Border Police said. The number of people evacuated to Russia from Donbass and Ukraine has grown to almost 260,000.
Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova has died after her vehicle came under fire on 14 March 2022, according to a local media outlet, the Kyiv Independent, and Reporters Without Borders. Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was also killed in the same incident, which took place in Horenka, in the outskirts of Kyiv.
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