March 17, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

The independent UN human rights commission released a report on Thursday that concluded Russia committed abuses and atrocities that likely amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

While the bulk of the evidence gathered concerned the conduct of Russian forces, the commission said it had also documented "a small number of violations committed by Ukrainian armed forces, including likely indiscriminate attacks and two incidents that qualify as war crimes."

The report's findings include:

The commission said that in the course of gathering evidence it visited 56 cities, towns and settlements and conducted several hundred interviews in person and remotely. It also "inspected sites of destruction, graves, places of detention and torture, as well as weapon remnants; and consulted documents, photographs, satellite imagery and videos."

A US surveillance drone is operating over the Black Sea, according to data from FlightRadar24, a flight tracking website. 

The RQ-4 Global Hawk is seen flying at 52,000 feet over the southern Black Sea. Its flight track shows that it entered international airspace over the Black Sea from Romania and traversed from west to east. According to FlightRadar24 data, the flight track shows the drone operating in international airspace southeast of Crimea and west of the Russian coastal city of Sochi. 

Asked at a news conference Thursday when the US would fly drone missions again, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said, “I’m not going to get into talking about specific missions, routes, timelines of operations. I think Secretary [Lloyd] Austin was pretty clear that we’re going to continue to fly and operate in international airspace where international law allows, and that includes the Black Sea region.”

Some background: The RQ-4 Global Hawk is a spy drone capable of high-altitude, long-endurance missions with a suite of surveillance and intelligence gathering capabilities. It has a wingspan of 130 feet and a maximum takeoff weight of 32,000 pounds, making it far larger than the MQ-9 Reaper that went down on Tuesday. 

On Thursday, CNN reported that the US was conducting an assessment of drone operations over the Black Sea following a collision between a Russian fighter jet and a US spy drone that forced the drone down.

The US military was “taking a close look” at the drone’s routes and assessing how to better deconflict with the Russians, who have been regularly flying their fighter jets in and out of Crimea, officials said. The Pentagon has asked European Command to justify surveillance flights in the area going forward in part to assess risk, a senior US military official said.

The US military had not stopped the drone flights entirely amid the assessment. The military sent the same model of drone, an MQ-9 Reaper, on a mission in approximately the same area over the Black Sea shortly after the collision occurred in an effort to survey the crash site and monitor Russians looking for the debris. 

If you're just joining us, here's everything you need to know on Friday's developments in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin has brushed off Poland and Slovakia's donations of fighter jets to Ukraine, and accused NATO of increasing its involvement in the war.

This week, the two nations announced further pledges of weapons to support Ukraine, including MiG-29 fighter jets. Poland has promised four of the planes, and Slovakia 13.

"It seems that these countries are thus engaged in the disposal of old unnecessary equipment," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

He told reporters that the move is "yet another example" of how NATO members are "increasing their level of direct involvement in the conflict."

Peskov said it would not chance the outcome of what Moscow consistently calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine, adding that the move could cause more problems for Kyiv.

The Kremlin has released the schedule of meetings planned between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow next week. 

The two leaders will start with a one-on-one on Monday followed by an "informal lunch," with negotiations set to take place Tuesday, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. 

On Friday, Moscow and Beijing confirmed that Xi will travel to meet Putin in his first visit to Russia since the war in Ukraine began.

The visit will be seen as a powerful show of Beijing’s support for Moscow in Western capitals, where leaders have grown increasingly wary of the two nations’ deepening partnership as war rages in Europe.

Russian forces are carrying out fewer offensive actions in Ukraine than at any time since January, according to the UK's defense ministry.

Russian and Wagner Group forces have obtained footholds west of the Bakhmutka River in the center of the Bakhmut, but "more broadly across the front line, Russia is conducting some of the lowest rates of local offensive action that has been seen since at least January 2023," the ministry said in its daily bulletin Friday.

Ukrainian officials and other analysts have also noted a decline in Russian offensive action in recent weeks, even as fire from artillery and rocket systems, as well as airstrikes, continue.

A Ukrainian military spokesman, Col. Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, said Wednesday that Russian ground attacks have decreased from 90-100 attacks per day to 20-29 per day and two to nine at night.

"The enemy has somewhat lost its offensive potential amid significant losses in manpower and equipment," Dmytrashkivskyi said. "In addition, it has significantly reduced the use of military equipment, especially at night."

And the Institute for the Study of War noted earlier this week that "the overall pace of Russian operations in Ukraine appears to have decreased compared to previous weeks."

However, indirect fire — from artillery, rocket systems and air strikes — continues to cause widespread damage across the Donetsk region.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk region military administration, said that six people were wounded in two waves of shelling in the city of Kostyantynivka on Thursday, with Toretsk and Chasiv Yar also targeted.

Slovakia will send 13 MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said Friday, making it the second NATO member to pledge the aircraft after Poland.

"Promises must be kept and when [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky asked for more weapons including fighter jets, I said we'll do our best. Glad others [are] doing the same," Heger said on twitter. 

Military aid is key, he added, to ensure Ukraine "can defend itself" and Europe against Russia.

Some context: Poland has already announced that it will transfer four MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said the planes – from about a dozen that it had inherited from the former German Democratic Republic – would be handed over after being serviced.

The White House said Thursday that Poland’s decision to send the fighter jets is a "sovereign decision" that won’t spur US President Joe Biden to send F-16 aircraft.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin declared a “no-limits” friendship in February last year, when the Russian President visited Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

Weeks later, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.

Since then, China has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion — or referred to it as such, instead blaming the advance of NATO for provoking the conflict and repeating the Kremlin’s stance.

It has also provided diplomatic support for Moscow, while strengthening economic and military ties to its northern neighbor.

In recent weeks Western officials have begun publicly raising concerns that China may be considering providing Russia with lethal military assistance, an accusation denied by Beijing.

Here's a timeline of closer relations between Beijing and Moscow:

Read more here.

Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Russia is for “peace” and China will uphold its “objective and impartial position” on international and regional issues including the Ukraine crisis, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday.

Xi's trip comes as Beijing attempts to present itself as a neutral peace broker in the Ukraine war and as it struggles to balance its “no-limits” relationship with Moscow and fraying ties with the West.

Western officials have also raised concerns that China may be considering providing Russia with lethal military assistance, an accusation denied by Beijing.

CNN reported last month that the US has intelligence suggesting the Chinese government is considering providing Russia with drones and ammunition for use in the war in Ukraine, with sources familiar with the intelligence saying negotiations between Russia and China about the price and scope of the equipment were ongoing.

China and Russia's deep defense spending ties have not changed even in face of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, customs records reviewed by CNN have also showed.

Speaking at the briefing Friday, Wang said China has always taken a “prudent and responsible” attitude and controlled the export of military and civil dual-use items in accordance with the law.

Economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia is “open and transparent,” he said.