March 24, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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The conflict in Ukraine has created a “dire” human rights situation, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The agency has catalogued thousands of cases of civilian casualties along with cases of torture, rape and arbitrary detention in the Ukraine conflict over six months — August to January.

The UN also said it has documented dozens of cases of summary executions of prisoners of war (POWs) carried out by both Russian and Ukrainian forces since February 2022, but admits it is far harder to get information from Russia, or territories under Russian control than it is from Ukrainian authorities.

The agency announced Friday that it has also documented hundreds of cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions by both Ukrainian and Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion, according to the Head of the UN Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

If you’re just catching up, here’s what you should know:

Children awaiting reunification: Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova said on Friday that 56 Ukrainian children who are now in Crimea and Krasnodar Krai are awaiting reunification with their families. The announcement comes a week after the the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia. 

Bakhmut developments: Russian forces are depleted in Bakhmut and a Ukrainian counteroffensive could soon be launched, one of Kyiv’s top generals has said, raising the prospect of an unlikely turnaround in the besieged city. The commander in chief of Ukraine’s military emphasized the difficulty of the battle for Bakhmut during a call Friday with the head of the British Armed Forces.

Russian attacks: Ukraine repelled 38 Russian attacks over the past 24 hours, the country’s military said in a situation update on Friday evening. Russia is focusing its efforts in the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Maryinka and Shakhtarsk areas, the military’s general staff said, adding that’s where Ukrainian forces repelled more than three dozen attacks.

US and Canada alliance: Ukraine can rely on the United States and Canada as partners, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an address to parliament in Ottawa alongside US President Joe Biden on Friday. Trudeau called Biden a ‘’true friend to Canada,” saying the alliance “matters more than ever in this consequential moment.”

President Joe Biden said Friday he’s not alarmed following the high-profile meetings earlier this week between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Instead, Biden said “we’re the ones expanding the alliances.”   

The president noted that while US officials have recently warned of signs that China could be considering increasing its military support for Russia, “they haven’t yet.”  

“Doesn’t mean they won’t, but they haven’t yet,” Biden said. “And if anything’s happened, the West has coalesced significantly more.” 

Biden went on to cite increased cooperation across alliances, including through the G7, the Quad Alliance, ASEAN and AUKUS. He added he has now met with 80% of the world’s leaders.

“So, I just want to put it in perspective, I don’t take it lightly … what China and Russia are doing, and it could get significantly worse,” Biden said. “But let’s put it into perspective. We are united coalitions — we, we the United States and Canada.” 

A bipartisan group of senators want the Biden administration to continue to support international investigations into alleged Russian war crimes, they wrote in a letter to US President Joe Biden.

The lawmakers said they “welcome the significant assistance” the administration has provided to document potential crimes during Russia’s war in Ukraine, the letter read.

However, the letter said they acknowledge the role of the International Criminal Court in investigating such incidents and urged the Biden administration to support the ICC and to share evidence with prosecutors.

“Last year’s bipartisan congressional action to enhance that support was done in collaboration with your administration to balance all perspectives on the U.S. relationship with the ICC. Yet, months later, as the ICC is working to build cases against Russian officials, including Putin himself, the United States reportedly has not yet shared key evidence that could aid in these prosecutions,” the letter read.

Having international investigations move forward are important so that “Putin and others around him know in no uncertain terms that accountability and justice for their crimes are forthcoming,” the senators wrote in the letter.

Read the full text of the letter here.

For context:

Last week, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

The day before the announcement of the warrant, the United Nations found in a report that Russia has “committed a wide range of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law” in Ukraine.

The report claims that the war crimes perpetrated by the Russians included “attacks on civilians and energy-related infrastructure, wilful killings, unlawful confinement, torture, rape and other sexual violence, as well as unlawful transfers and deportations of children.”

The commander in chief of Ukraine’s military emphasized the difficulty of the battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut during a call Friday with the head of the British Armed Forces.

Ukrainian Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi shared a Telegram post outlining his conversation with Britain’s Chief of the Defence Staff Adm. Sir Tony Radakin.

“I informed my colleague about the operational situation along the entire front line. The situation in the Bakhmut direction is the most difficult,” Zaluzhnyi wrote. “Due to the titanic efforts of the Defense Forces, the situation has been stabilized.”
“We also discussed the issue of strengthening Ukrainian air defense,” he added.

Zaluzhnyi thanked Radakin, the United Kingdom and other allies for their support.

“Thanks to the help of our partners, we are holding on and will definitely win,” he said.

The battle for Bakhmut: The besieged city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region has been a focal point of the frontline fighting between Russia and Ukraine for months.

One of Kyiv’s top generals this week said that Russian forces are depleted in Bakhmut, and a Ukrainian counteroffensive could soon be launched. It raised the prospect of an unlikely turnaround for Ukraine.

While experts say that capturing Bakhmut is unlikely to dramatically alter the overall picture of the war in eastern Ukraine — where little territory has changed hands in 2023 — it would hand Russia a symbolic victory and mark the first Ukrainian city it has captured in eight months.

Ukraine can rely on the United States and Canada as partners, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an address to parliament in Ottawa alongside US President Joe Biden on Friday. 

Trudeau said like the US, Canada has provided “significant military support” to Ukraine, such as artillery, ammunition, armor and tanks. He said the Canadian armed forces have been training Ukrainian military members since 2015.

“As you well know, Mr. President, Canada will continue to stand strong with Ukraine, with whatever it takes,” Trudeau said. “Together, both of us are partners that Ukraine — and the world —can count on.”

The prime minister pointed to sanctions and other economic measures put in place by the US, Canada and other allies “to continue to deplete the Kremlin’s war chest.”

Trudeau called Biden a ‘’true friend to Canada,” saying that the alliance “matters more than ever in this consequential moment.”

Biden calls out Putin: Addressing parliament after Trudeau, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin has failed to meet his goals with the Ukraine invasion.

“Guess what? His lust for land and power has failed thus far,” the US leader said of Putin. “The Ukrainian people’s love of their country is going to prevail.”

Biden echoed Trudeau’s remarks about the US and Canada standing in support of Ukraine.

“Let’s once more affirm that we’re going keep that torch of liberty burning brightly and support the Ukrainian people,” Biden said.

The president also said Moscow has failed to shake the resolve of the NATO alliance.

“Putin was certain he would have been able to break NATO by now,” Biden told the assembled lawmakers.

But, he said, the US and Canada will “keep our alliance strong and united, and we’ll defend every inch of NATO territory. An attack against one is an attack against all.”

The United Nations has documented hundreds of cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions by both Ukrainian and Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion, according to the Head of the UN Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

The UN has documented more than 600 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions carried out by Russian forces, and 91 by Ukrainian forces, since the war began on February 24 of last year up until the end of January 2023.

“Unfortunately, we found that there have been significant violations on both sides,” , Matilda Bogner said, referring to prisoners of war being subjected to “summary executions,” torture, “ill treatment” and “horrific conditions” while being detained.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued Friday its latest report, which cataloged cases of civilian casualties, torture, rape, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention.

Ukraine repelled 38 Russian attacks over the past 24 hours, the country’s military said in a situation update on Friday evening. 

Russia is focusing its efforts in the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Maryinka and Shakhtarsk areas, the military’s general staff said, adding that’s where Ukrainian forces repelled more than three dozen attacks.

The general staff said Moscow’s armies were still putting pressure on the eastern city of Bakhmut, but it remained under Ukrainian control. 

“In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy continues to assault the city of Bakhmut, which is held by our defenders, as well as in the areas of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bohdanivka, Ivanivske and Stupochky in the Donetsk region,” it said. 

Russian forces are depleted in Bakhmut and a Ukrainian counteroffensive could soon be launched, one of Kyiv’s top generals has said, raising the prospect of an unlikely turnaround in the besieged city.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s land forces, said on his Telegram channel Thursday that “[Russians] are losing significant forces [in Bakhmut] and are running out of energy.”

His comments come days after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise trip to the front lines of the Donetsk region, and will raise hopes in the West that Kyiv’s contentious decision to keep troops in Bakhmut will pay dividends.

A counteroffensive has seemed an unlikely prospect for several weeks, as forces from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group bombarded Bakhmut and edged closer toward seizing control of the city.

But that effort has come at a considerable cost to manpower and resources, and now appears to have slowed.

Russian troops have launched more than 200 strikes on the area in the past 24 hours alone but are losing hundreds of men each day in their efforts, the spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of the Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, said later on Thursday. CNN is unable to verify those figures.

Cherevatyi said another area that was seeing intense fire was to the northeast of Bakhmut, on the front line running north from the town of Kreminna.

Speaking on Ukrainian television Friday, Cherevatyi said that “It is not that [Wagner] are withdrawing, but that due to heavy losses they have to be reinforced by units of the regular army of the Russian Federation, primarily by airborne troops.”

He added that Russian forces in the area are “making several dozen attacks every day. There were 32 firefights over the last day,” in and around Bakhmut. There were also air strikes launched by both fixed-wing planes and attack helicopters, he said, but added that “artillery is a much bigger factor of influence on military operations there than aviation.”

Read more here.

In its latest financial and diplomatic sanctions, the US is going after companies and individuals involved in the crackdown against Belarus’ pro-democracy movement and the existing regime’s involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Biden administration on Friday sanctioned Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s personal “luxury airliner.”

Lukansheko’s regime “relies on state-owned enterprises and key officials to generate substantial revenue that enables oppressive acts against the Belarusian people,” Treasury Under Secretary Brian Nelson, a top US sanctions official, said in a statement

The US remains “committed to imposing costs” on Lukashenko’s regime for its suppression of democracy and support for Putin’s war, the statement added.

Here are other individuals and entities facing sanctions:

More on the Belarus-Russia relationship: Lukashenko is a close ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin who permitted Russian troops to use Belarus to stage their initial invasion into Ukraine last year. The US and its allies have since then targeted Minsk with a set of sweeping sanctions. Additionally, the European Union does not recognize the results of the 2020 Belarus election and the US has called it a “fraudulent.” The widespread fraud sparked mass pro-democracy protests which led to a brutal crackdown from the government. 

Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova said on Friday that 56 Ukrainian children who are now in Crimea and Krasnodar Krai are awaiting reunification with their families.

“Currently 56 children remain in the health resorts of the Krasnodar Krai and Crimea. They are safe and in touch with their families. There is an action plan for each child so that they are reunited with family,” said Lvova-Belova in a statement on her Telegram channel.

Remember: Last Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia. The ICC said that Lvova-Belova was “allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation.”

Lvova-Belova dismissed the ICC’s arrest warrant against her, saying it was “great” that the international community appreciated her work for children, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

According to Lvova-Belova, to date 33 Ukrainian children have returned to their parents in Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The children were brought home by their parents or a trusted representative.

“Children have been in health camps in the Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory since autumn. With the consent of their parents, citizens of Ukraine, they were temporarily sent away from the hostilities - to rest and gain strength,” she said.

“It was not possible to immediately ensure a safe return trip for everyone, since the front line has changed significantly, [and] parents and children found themselves on different sides,” she added.

Lvova-Belova said that since October last year, the Russian authorities have been “consistently assisting in the reunification of children who arrived on vacation” from areas of conflict; and from this group, more than 2,000 children have already returned to their families.

CNN’s Rob Picheta and Lauren Said-Moorhouse contributed to this post.

The Kazan Aircraft Building Plant claims it is increasing the production of modernized version of Tu-160M strategic bombers, according to the statement published on Friday by the Russia’s state industrial corporation Rostec.

“The plant is producing upgraded strategic missile carriers Tu-160M. The decision to resume their production was made by the President of Russia. The updated aircraft have significantly expanded combat capabilities, they have a significant potential,” the statement said. “Further development of the platform will make it possible to use it for new types of weapons, including advanced ones.”

More background: Russia relies heavily on imports of Western components for its military industry, and has struggled to produce advance long range missiles as well as other equipment to continue its war in Ukraine because of sanctions. Moscow has relied heavily on older equipment and even brought back previously decommissioned armored vehicles and tanks, with analysis suggesting it has happened in part because of Western sanctions. 

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a large-scale effort to build up capacities to produce more weapons for its so-called ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine. Putin said increased production of an “additional volume” of weapons is “urgently needed” and assured that special attention would be paid to the legalities and allotment of funding towards the initiative. 

The United Nations says it has documented dozens of cases of summary executions of prisoners of war (POWs) carried out by both Russian and Ukrainian forces since February 2022, but admits it is far harder to get information from Russia, or territories under Russian control than it is from Ukrainian authorities.

In a new report, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says it has documented the summary execution of 15 Ukrainian POWs by Russian forces, in addition to the use of Ukrainian POWs as human shields, the death of two wounded POWs due to lack of medical care, as well as torture. 

Among the cases documented in the report is that of an officer of the Ukrainian National Guard tortured and then executed after refusing to hand over a password for entry to a radio station in Mariupol in April 2022. In another case, in September, a wounded Ukrainian serviceman was shot three times in the chest and once in the head after being captured by fighters from the Wagner mercenary group in a village south of Bakhmut. 

“Summary executions and attacks against POWs and persons hors de combat are prohibited under international law, and where deliberate, constitute war crimes,” the report notes.

The report also highlights the lack of cooperation UN investigators have received from Russian and Russian-occupying authorities, saying it has been unable to gain any access to POWs interned by the Russian Federation, despite repeated such requests. It mentions one occasion only, in August, when a UN team was allowed to meet, but not interview, 13 Ukrainian POWs held in Russian-occupied Luhansk.

On the other side, the report says it has documented – through open-source information, in situ visits and witness interviews – the summary execution of at least 25 Russian POWs being held by Ukrainian forces. 

In one incident in March 2022 in the Luhansk region, the UN report suggests some members of Russian-affiliated armed groups were killed by Ukrainian servicemen after refusing to pronounce their intent to surrender. The UN report says the Russian fighters, some possibly injured or dead, were lying on the ground in the wake of an artillery attack.

In contrast to the lack of cooperation from Russian authorities, the report says UN teams have been given “full and confidential access” to Russian POWs held in official places of internment by Ukraine, “which OHCHR acknowledges with great appreciation.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has catalogued thousands of cases of civilian casualties along with cases of torture, rape and arbitrary detention in the Ukraine conflict over six months — August to January.

“The human rights situation across the country remains dire amid the ongoing armed attack by the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” the OHCHR said in its latest report issued Friday.

OHCHR reported the following numbers it has recorded since August:

Among those subsequently released, OCHCR had been able to interview 89 people, the vast majority of whom reported torture and ill-treatment while in detention. It said this was aimed at forcing them “to confess to providing assistance to Ukrainian armed forces, to compel them to cooperate with the occupying authorities or to intimidate those with pro-Ukrainian views.”

The abuse included beatings with batons and rifle butts, threats to shoot their hands and legs, mutilate or execute them; sleep deprivation and exposure to freezing temperatures, sometimes after pouring water on them, according to the victims. Some were threatened with being raped.

The OHCHR highlighted the case of a woman subjected to repeated rape while being held by members of the Russian armed forces and the Security Service of Russia (FSB). According to her testimony, she and her husband had been blindfolded and taken to the men’s base. “A man who introduced himself as the commander told her: ‘Tell me how you love Ukraine now. We’ll beat Ukraine out of you’,” the report said.

Russian missile attacks killed three in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostantynivka overnight, and shelling killed another two people in the northern Sumy region, officials said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have claimed that Wagner mercenaries are deporting residents of occupied areas of the city of Bakhmut to Russia. CNN cannot independently verify this claim.

Here are the latest headlines:

Ukraine says it has received the bodies of 83 of its fallen soldiers from the Russian side. Separately it has handed over an undisclosed number of seriously wounded Russian soldiers.

Ukraine had handed over to Russia “all the seriously wounded occupants, whose conditions made it possible to transport them and who were captured since the beginning of the large-scale invasion,” said the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

“In this case, it is not an exchange of prisoners of war, but specifically repatriation: the return of seriously wounded prisoners without any conditions, as required by international humanitarian law,” the headquarters added.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday it is “critically important” to identify an object that was discovered next to the Nord Stream pipelines explosion site. 

“It is critically important to determine what kind of object it is, whether it is related to this terrorist act — apparently it is — and to continue this investigation,” Peskov said during a daily call with reporters. “The investigation must be transparent and inclusive.”

Earlier, the Danish Energy Agency invited the operator of Nord Stream, Nord Stream 2 AG, to take part in an operation to retrieve an object found near the gas pipeline. Peskov said that the Kremlin viewed it as positive news.

Some background: The incident, in which underwater explosions occurred before the pipelines burst in several places last September, remains a major point of contention between Russia and the West.

No decision has been taken yet on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the BRICS summit in South Africa in August, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

“No decision has been made on this yet,” Peskov told CNN.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are collectively known as the fast-growing BRICS economies.

Earlier this month, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin on war crimes charges. The warrant relates to an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

South Africa is a party to the convention that requires the arrest of anyone for whom a warrant has been issued by the court.

Estonia has ordered the expulsion of a diplomat working for the Russian Embassy for “undermining Estonia’s security,” the Estonian foreign ministry announced in a statement on Friday. 

“The diplomat in question has been engaged in directly and actively undermining Estonia’s security and constitutional order, spreading propaganda that justifies Russia’s military action and causing divisions in Estonian society,” the statement from the ministry read.

The person in question was declared persona non grata after their activities were found to have violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. They were ordered to leave Estonia by March 29, the ministry said. 

Wagner mercenaries have begun deporting residents of the Bakhmut suburbs they control, the Ukrainian National Resistance Center (NRC) – an official body – said on Thursday.

“Militants forcefully take local residents to captured areas of Luhansk region, where they are filtered. After that, they are deported to Perm (Russia) and other remote regions of the Russian Federation,” the center said.

CNN cannot independently verify this claim.

“Locals are deported under the intention of evacuation. After that, they are assimilated in remote areas of the empire, because they are now dependent on the occupiers,” the NRC said.

Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of the Armed Forces, addressed these claims on Ukrainian television Friday.

“This is one of the regular crimes of the Russian Federation. There is nothing to be surprised at, because the entire military structure of the Russian Federation is a criminal … All of this will be recorded, documented and handed over to the relevant national and international jurisdictions,” he said.

Russian airborne troops are playing a greater role in the fighting around Bakhmut because of the growing losses of the Wagner private military company, the Ukrainian military says.

“It is not that [Wagner] are withdrawing, but that due to heavy losses they have to be reinforced by units of the regular army of the Russian Federation, primarily by airborne troops,” Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of the Armed Forces, told Ukrainian television Friday.

Russian forces in the area are “making several dozen attacks every day. There were 32 firefights over the last day” in and around Bakhmut, Cherevatyi said, adding that there were also air strikes launched by both fixed-wing planes and attack helicopters.

“Artillery is a much bigger factor of influence on military operations there than aviation,” he noted.

Shelling by Russian forces overnight Thursday in the northern Sumy region killed two people and caused extensive damage in four communities, the Sumy regional military administration said.

Bilopillia, Vorozhbinska, Richkivska and Mykolaivka were struck by Russian shells, it said.

Bilopillia suffered 80 hits from rockets, 20 from artillery, and was hit by an airstrike, according to the military administration.

Two people were killed and nine injured, it added.

Residential and administrative buildings were also damaged and destroyed, it said.

A quick recap: Russian fighter aircraft also launched more than 10 guided bombs against targets in Sumy overnight, Ukrainian officials said earlier. While Sumy often suffers cross-border artillery attacks, it rarely comes under such concentrated aerial bombardment.

Three people were killed in a Russian missile attack on the city of Kostantynivka in the eastern Donetsk region overnight, Ukrainian authorities said.

The city has been struck with increasing frequency by Russian missiles, especially the inaccurate S-300. Kostantynivka lies about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the embattled city of Bakhmut.

The Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office said that at 1 a.m. local time Friday, the Russian army fired two missiles from an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system.

One hit the building of what’s known as an invincibility point — a place where civilians can access the internet, charge devices and receive other basic needs.

“Three women, who were internally displaced persons from Bakhmut, Chasiv Yar and…Pokrovsk district, aged 57 to 62, were killed,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Two other people were injured, it added.

Russian fighter aircraft launched more than 10 guided bombs against targets in the northern Sumy region overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.

While Sumy often suffers cross-border artillery attacks, it rarely comes under such concentrated aerial bombardment.

Yurii Ihnat, a Ukrainian air force spokesman, said about 10 Su-35 aircraft — Russia’s newest fighter jet — attacking the Sumy region with guided bombs.

“This is a serious threat, as guided bombs can fly far, and the planes are not within the range of our air defense,” Ihnat said. “Thus, more than 10 of these guided bombs attacked targets in the Sumy region. The losses there are being clarified.”

Ihnat also confirmed that Iranian-made Shahed drones had been used in an attack on the southern city of Kryvyi Rih. 

Serhiy Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said one Shahed was shot down but there “were also hits by five UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle). No one was killed or injured.”

Lysak did not elaborate on what was struck.

Russia is unable to honor its arms delivery commitments to India because of the war in Ukraine, the Indian Air Force (IAF) said, placing a potential strain on New Delhi’s relationship with its largest defense supplier as Moscow attempts to ramp up weapons production.

An IAF representative told an Indian parliamentary committee that due to the Ukraine war a “major delivery” from Moscow “is not going to take place.”

The admission, published in a report by India’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday, is the first official confirmation by Indian authorities amid swirling rumors and reports in local media suggesting shortcomings in Russian capacity.

CNN has contacted the Russian Embassy in New Delhi but did not receive a response at the time of publishing.

The report did not mention the specifics of the delivery.

The biggest ongoing delivery is the S-400 Triumf air defense system units India bought in 2018 for $5.4 billion. Three of these systems have been delivered and two more are awaited, Reuters reported.

IAF also depends on Russia for spares for its Su-30MKI and MiG-29 fighter jets, the mainstay of the service branch, according to Reuters.

Russia is the world’s second-largest arms exporter, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a large-scale effort to build up capacity to produce more weapons for the war in a move he said was “urgently needed.”

Strained relations: New Delhi has strong ties with Moscow dating back to the Cold War, and remains heavily dependent on the Kremlin for its military equipment — a vital link given the ongoing tensions along India’s shared Himalayan border with an increasingly assertive China.

The admission by the IAF is “very serious,” according to Harsh V. Pant, vice president of studies and foreign policy at the New Delhi-based think thank Observer Research Foundation.

“I think it underscores the problems that (India) has been bedeviling this relationship for quite some time,” he added. “And the Ukraine crisis has accelerated the trend that India, for a very long time, has been trying to diversify, and was concerned about its overdependence on Russia.”

Read more here.

After paying a visit to the front lines in the southern region of Kherson on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed optimism that cooperation with European allies could bring a victory by the end of the year.

He warned, however, that there were still problematic areas such as delays in the supply of armaments.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is eyeing a counteroffensive in Bakhmut as Russian forces in the besieged city appear to be losing momentum, one of Kyiv’s top generals said Thursday.

Here’s the latest headlines:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had an optimistic view on the end of the war for his European allies, while also warning of some areas that he believes need improvement.

He said, “if our joint efforts are resolutely focused on Ukraine’s victory, the victory will be gained already this year.”

“No one knows for sure how long the war will last and which battles will bring us success faster and which ones will require more effort. But what is clear is that if there are no delays or stagnation in our cooperation, that if our joint efforts are resolutely focused on Ukraine’s victory, the victory will be gained already this year,” Zelensky told a meeting of the European Council.

The Ukrainian President said he appreciated European support for the work of the International Criminal Court and efforts to launch a compensation scheme that would use billions in seized Russian assets to rehabilitate Ukraine.

But he said there were several areas where cooperation was still lacking:

Zelensky said Ukraine was progressing in developing its institutions to European standards and its “transformation into a modern, fully accountable to society, corruption-free and institutionally stable” state. It was critical that its accession path to the European Union not be impeded, he said.

“Ukraine is ready for a decision to start accession negotiations on EU membership already this year. The same readiness is needed from all of you — every leader in Europe.”

Zelensky ended his speech by warning that “If Europe hesitates, evil may have time to regroup and prepare itself for years of war.”

Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have kept up their bombardments across the Donetsk region, with more than 200 strikes against the Bakhmut area alone in the past 24 hours — but they claim the Russians are losing hundreds of men a day across the front lines.

The eastern city of Bakhmut remains “the focus of the enemy’s main attack,” according to Serhii Cherevatyi, the spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of the armed forces.

Cherevatyi said it was difficult to tell whether the intensity of Russian attacks around Bakhmut was waning because of factors such as weather, the rotation of units or reserves being brought forward by the Russians.

However, he said Russian tactics have remained the same with small tactical groups “trying to deplete our defenses.” He said soldiers from the Wagner mercenary group are near Bakhmut, with Russian troops providing reinforcements where necessary.

Cherevatyi drew a distinction between the battle for Bakhmut and fighting elsewhere. He said further north, Wagner was less in evidence around Lyman and Kupyansk, where regular Russian forces, supported by the Luhansk militia, had made more than 400 attacks over the past day.

“The main task now is to withstand, to deplete the enemy’s forces, while units are being trained both in Ukraine and abroad, equipped with new defense equipment, and coordinated,” Cherevatyi said.

In and around the town of Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region, intense Russian bombardments and airstrikes continue against Ukrainian defenses.

“All the time we were in the city, there were explosions. We did not see a single building that was not damaged. Unfortunately, there are still civilians in Avdiivka. People live in basements,” military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi said.

But he said many of the civilians were unwilling to leave, especially the elderly, and there has been no electricity in the city since May last year.

Dmytrashkivskyi said the Russians were trying to bypass the town “and these attacks are constantly accompanied by shelling. Yesterday the enemy managed 26 attacks and suffered quite significant losses. More than 100 people were killed and more than 240 wounded,” he claimed. “During the day, they attack with the help of aircraft, artillery and manpower. They are suffering heavy losses in manpower and equipment.”

The estimated cost of reconstruction efforts in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion has reached $411 billion, according to an updated assessment by the World Bank.

This amounts to 2.6 times the country’s estimated GDP in 2022. It includes an estimated $135 billion of direct damage — mainly to the housing, transportation, energy, commerce and industry sectors, according to the bank. The majority of damage is concentrated in frontline eastern regions, including Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk. 

The updated cost estimate covers damage incurred in the one-year period after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022. It marks an increase from the bank’s $349 billion estimate in June 2022.

“The amount of damage and recovery needs currently does not include data on the loss of infrastructure, housing and businesses in the occupied territories,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, referring to areas controlled by Russia’s troops. “When the defense forces release them, we expect that the data will be supplemented, and the Government will immediately begin restoration work in these territories.”

The reconstruction cost is a joint assessment made by Ukraine’s government, the World Bank Group, the European Commission and the United Nations.

Any arrest of Vladimir Putin overseas under the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) warrant for the Russian President would mean “a declaration of war against Russia,” Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday, according to state-run news agency Tass.

“Clearly, such a situation is never going to happen but still, let’s imagine that it has happened. The incumbent head of a nuclear country arrives in, say, Germany, and is arrested. What does it mean? A declaration of war against Russia,” Medvedev said, responding to a media question. “In such a case, all our weapons will target the Bundestag, the [German] chancellor’s office and so on.”

Responding to German Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann’s remark that Berlin would have to implement the ICC decision and arrest the Russian President if he arrived in Germany, Medvedev said: “Does he even realize that it would be a casus belli, a declaration of war? “

Medvedev also reiterated that the ICC’s decision would have a detrimental impact on Moscow’s relations with the West.

“Our relations with the Western world are already poor; they are perhaps at their worst ever. Even when Churchill delivered his Iron Curtain speech, our relationship was better. And all of a sudden, they make such a move against our head of state,” Medvedev said, according to Tass.

Hungary said Thursday it would not arrest Putin if he entered the country, despite the ICC issuing an arrest warrant for him last week, accusing him of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said that even though Hungary is a signatory to the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC, and ratified it in 2001, arresting Putin would have no basis in Hungarian law.

“We can refer to the Hungarian law and based on that we cannot arrest the Russian President … as the ICC’s statute has not been promulgated in Hungary,” Gulyas said. He added that the Hungarian government had not yet “formed a stance” on the ICC arrest warrant for Putin.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says he will discuss Russia’s war on Ukraine with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a state visit to China next week.

Sánchez said he will address three topics with Xi:

Sanchez said he would specifically address the issues of peace, on Kyiv’s terms, and Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

“That means respecting the UN human rights charter, with regards to the territorial integrity which is being violated by Russia, in this case in Ukraine,” he told reporters as he arrived for a European Council meeting in Brussels. “And logically it will be Ukrainians themselves who establish the conditions for the beginning of that peace dialogue that will logically have to occur.”

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said it has no information to provide regarding the matter.

The Spanish prime minister said he was thankful for President Xi’s invitation and referred to China as “a global actor of the first order,” adding it was important to hear Beijing’s view.

Beijing has attempted to position itself as a peace broker in the conflict despite its growing relationship with Russia. Xi departed Moscow on Wednesday after pledging to deepen ties with President Vladimir Putin during a three-day state visit. Their talks failed to achieve a breakthrough on Ukraine.

A meeting between Britain’s Prince William and Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw focused on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and its impact on Polish society, a spokesperson for the Prince of Wales said in a statement.

“The Prince of Wales took the opportunity to thank the President and the Polish people who have done so much to support the people of Ukraine who’ve fled here,” the spokesperson said.

“They discussed the importance of the need for ongoing support to Ukraine and its people.”

Some context: Prince William made a rare, unannounced trip to Poland on Wednesday, meeting British and Polish troops stationed near the Ukrainian-Polish border and praising their “cooperation in support of the people of Ukraine and their freedom.”

The Prince of Wales first visited the 3rd Brigade Territorial Defense Force base in Rzeszów, where he met Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak and viewed a display of military equipment.