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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) Advertisements promise cash bonuses and enticing benefits. Recruiters are making cold calls to eligible men. Enlistment offices are working with universities and social service agencies to lure students and the unemployed.

A new campaign is underway this spring across Russia, seeking recruits to replenish its troops for the war in Ukraine.

As fighting grinds on in Ukrainian battlegrounds like Bakhmut and both sides prepare for counteroffensives that could cost even more lives, the Kremlins war machine badly needs new recruits.

A mobilization in September of 300,000 reservists billed as a partial call-up sent panic throughout the country, since most men under 65 are formally part of the reserve. Tens of thousands fled Russia rather than report to recruiting stations.

The Kremlin denies that another call-up is planned for what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine, now more than a year old.

But amid widespread uncertainty of whether such a move will eventually happen, the government is enticing men to volunteer, either at makeshift recruiting centers popping up in various regions, or with phone calls from enlistment officials. That way, it can avoid declaring a formal second mobilization wave after the first one proved so unpopular, according to a recent report by the U.S.-based think tank Institute of the Study of War.

One Muscovite told The Associated Press that his employer, a state-funded organization, gathered up the military registration cards of all male employees of fighting age and said it would get them deferments. But he said the move still sent a wave of fear through him.

It makes you nervous and scared no one wants to all of a sudden end up in a war with a rifle in their hands, said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal. The special operation is somewhat dragging on, so any surprises from the Russian authorities can be expected.

Its been more than a week since he handed in his card, he said, and exemptions usually get resolved in a day or two, heightening his anxiety.

Russian media report that men across the country are receiving summonses from enlistment offices. In most of those cases, men were simply asked to update their records; in others, they were ordered to take part in military training.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that serving summonses to update records in enlistment offices is usual practice and a continued undertaking.

Other unconfirmed media reports say authorities have told regional governments to recruit a certain number of volunteers. Some officials announced setting up recruitment centers with the goal of getting men to sign contracts that enable them to be sent into combat as professional soldiers.

Ads have appeared on government websites and on the social media accounts of state institutions and organizations, including libraries and high schools.

One of them, posted by a municipal administration in the western Yaroslavl region, promised a one-time bonus of about $3,800 to sign up, and if sent to Ukraine, a monthly salary of up to $2,500, plus about $100 a day for involvement in active offensive operations, and $650 for each kilometer of advancement within assault teams.

The ad said the soldier would also get tax and loan repayment breaks, preferential university admission status for his children, generous compensation for his family if he is wounded or killed in action, and the status of a war veteran, which carries even more perks.

In the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, officials asked universities, colleges and vocational schools to advertise for recruits on their websites, said Sergei Chernyshov, founder of a private vocational school there.

Chernyshov posted the ad on his social media account so that everyone knows what our city hall is up to, but he told the AP that he doesnt plan to put it on the school website. Its weird to target vocational school students, he said.

Other efforts include enlistment officials meeting with college students and unemployed men, or phoning men to volunteer.

A Muscovite who spoke on condition of anonymity for his own safety said that he received such a call and was surprised at how polite it was: After my No, there were no threats or (attempts to) convince me - (just) Thanks, goodbye.

There have only been isolated cases of enlistment officials really pressuring men to sign up, said Grigory Sverdlin, founder of a group called Go by the Forest that helps men avoid mobilization.

The group gets up to 100 messages a day from men seeking advice on dealing with summonses or enlistment officials, he said, compared with dozens per day in recent months. In most cases, the officials wanted to update their records with addresses and phone numbers, and they might try to recruit men during that process.

But Sverdlin said some cases stand out.

In the Vologda region, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Moscow, the group received messages saying that almost everyone going to the enlistment office after receiving a summons is forced to sign a paper barring them from leaving the region, he said.

Lawyer Alexei Tabalov, who runs the Conscripts School legal aid group, believes theres nothing unusual in authorities handing out summonses now. Some of the notices are traditionally served before Russias spring conscription draft, scheduled to begin April 1 for those eligible for mandatory service.

All Russian men from age 18 to 27 must serve one year in the military, but a large share avoid the draft for health reasons or get student deferments. The share of men who avoid the draft is particularly big in Moscow and other major cities, and many simply evade enlistment officials bearing conscription summonses.

Tabalov said that men have reported going to enlistment offices to update their records but have officials there who beat around the bush and promote the idea of signing the contract, talk about how one should love their motherland and defend it.

He doubted anything could make volunteering attractive after 13 months of a war that has killed and wounded tens of thousands.

People already understand what it means to sign a contract, he said. Those who got burned once are unlikely to fall into the same trap.

Tabalov said that his group continues to get messages from soldiers who want to terminate their contracts, but that isnt legally possible until President Vladimir Putin ends the partial mobilization, which began in September, with a new decree.

Getting out of the war automatically means criminal prosecution, Tabalov said, adding there have been a flurry of criminal cases since December, with prosecutions of soldiers who desert or go AWOL.

The news outlet Mediazona counted 247 verdicts in 536 criminal cases on these and similar charges, adding that over a third of those convicted got suspended sentences, which allows authorities to send them back to the front line.

The current recruitment campaign is similar to one enacted last summer, before the September call-up, said Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst with the Institute of the Study of War.

Back then, authorities also used financial incentives, and various volunteer battalions were formed, but the effort clearly wasnt successful, because Putin eventually turned to the partial mobilization.

Whether this one will succeed or not is unclear.

Theyve already recruited a significant portion of people that were financially incentivized last summer. And they struggled to do so last year, Stepanenko said.

The current recruitment effort shows the militarys awareness of manpower needs in Ukraine.

What the mobilization campaign of 300,000 servicemen told us is that its not enough to form a sufficient strike group for Russia to push forward with its offensive operations, she said.

___

Associated Press writer Yuras Karmanau contributed to this report.

___

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Originally posted here:
New Russian campaign tries to entice men to fight in Ukraine - The Associated Press

Listen to this story:

Lviv and Kyiv, Ukraine Boghdan Sulanov, the fast-talking vocalist of a heavy metal rock band called YAD, traverses a crammed backstage area. He edges past a guitarist who has just finished a high-octane, adrenaline-fuelled set, leaving him drenched in sweat, and reaches a small table piled with audio equipment, tea and biscuits. From underneath the table, he fishes out a rucksack with the clothes he will soon wear onstage.

The concert hall, an intimate venue in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, is covered in music posters and on a night in early February, it is packed with several hundred rock enthusiasts eagerly awaiting the next performance. The atmosphere is electric, and Sulanov is excited.

Young people didnt appreciate music in the same way before the war, says the 33-year-old, referring to Russias full-scale invasion of his native Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Our band always sing about our problems, and right now, it is that we want to survive, says Sulanov, as he takes in the frenetic backstage atmosphere.

On stage, Bohdana Nykyforchyn, a 35-year-old singer with shoulder-length dyed red hair, screams into a microphone while her bandmate pounds away on a drum set.

Nykyforchyn transports the room through a range of emotions, alternating between soft melodic tones and more aggressive, fast-paced vocals. At one point, her voice cracks, and she looks like she might cry. After her set, she explains why. I am eight months pregnant, and my dream was to climb this stage, she says. When the second song came on, I felt all my emotions bubble up. My hormones are everywhere!

The members of YAD run out onto the stage, and the audience, ranging from fresh-faced teenagers to grey-haired middle-aged rockers, erupts in excitement. The people standing in the front row scream out the words to their songs, including a young boy who looks to be about 10 years old. The guitarist briefly stops strutting around the stage when he spots the boy and gives him a heartfelt thumbs-up.

Marichka Chichkova, the event organiser who is helping out at the bar, admits that although heavy metal is not her preferred music genre, she is happy to see all the people enjoying themselves. She looks up at the stage and remarks, Its also a release for musicians; this is very important, too.

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Dance like there is no tomorrow: Ukraines wartime music scene - Al Jazeera English

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China, Japan and the Ukraine war - Financial Times

WASHINGTON Attorney General Merrick B. Garland makes a point of refusing to discuss active investigations, but during a recent trip to Ukraine he broke form, revealing that U.S. prosecutors had identified several specific Russians suspected of war crimes against one or more Americans.

Despite Mr. Garlands assessment, the possibility of identifying Russians who targeted Americans in a war zone and bringing them to justice in the United States rather than charging them in absentia appears remote for now. As a result, the Justice Department is increasingly focused on a supporting role: providing Ukraines overburdened prosecutors and police with logistical help, training and direct assistance in bringing charges of war crimes by Russians in Ukraines courts.

In terms of actually bringing cases in the United States anytime soon, its probably a very slim possibility at this point, said David J. Scheffer, who served as the U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues from 1997 to 2001 and helped create international judicial systems to prosecute defendants from the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

But were providing a lot of assistance on the investigative side to help other people bring cases in other courts, Mr. Scheffer said, and thats a big deal.

To coordinate that effort, Mr. Garland appointed Eli Rosenbaum, a veteran prosecutor, in June to oversee the Justice Departments war crimes accountability efforts. The choice was well-received: Mr. Rosenbaum is best known for his dogged pursuit of Nazi war criminals and the unmasking in the 1980s of the former U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheims role in the mass killings of civilians during World War II.

Mr. Rosenbaums selection came as a surprise to him he was on the verge of retirement and he was immediately struck by the magnitude of the task. The prosecutor generals office, Ukraines equivalent of the Justice Department, was sagging by the end of last year with a caseload of more than 70,000 accusations of Russian war crimes.

The Ukrainian authorities are confronting challenges unlike anything that weve experienced, even in our most complex cases, and theyre having to do this during wartime, Mr. Rosenbaum said. We have a responsibility to do anything we can to help.

The work being done by the American and Ukrainian prosecutors is separate from that being carried out by the International Criminal Court, which on Friday issued a warrant for the arrest of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, saying he bore criminal responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children. (The United States has never joined the International Criminal Court out of concern that it could someday try to prosecute Americans. The Pentagon has been blocking an effort by other agencies in the Biden administration, including the Justice and State Departments, to share intelligence with the court about Russian atrocities.)

One of Mr. Rosenbaums first tasks was to work on an agreement, signed in September by Mr. Garland and Ukraines prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, that allowed officials in both countries to communicate without seeking State Department approval for every interaction. The deal allowed them to exchange evidence and information over secure channels.

Justice Department officials see Russian atrocities in Ukraine as a grave threat to the rule of law and say they believe that pact could be a gateway for greater involvement. They are now assisting Mr. Kostins deputies on at least one major investigation involving a Russian attack, which is seen as test case for potential future collaborations.

But the Ukrainians would like more help, in particular greater access to intelligence on Russian military assets, units and leadership. The two sides are currently exploring new avenues for exchange of intelligence information, Mr. Kostin wrote in an email.

Even without additional help, Ukraine has already brought dozens of cases using intercepted open-line communications and video evidence, resulting in the conviction of 25 Russians on charges such as shelling civilians and torturing Ukrainian soldiers. Many have been charged in absentia: Only 18 of the more than 200 Russians identified by Ukrainian prosecutors as possible war criminals have been captured.

U.S. officials and nongovernmental human rights groups have quietly tried to help Ukraines prosecutors to focus on bigger, more significant cases first. But the Russian invasion and the wanton killings of civilians have awakened a powerful national determination in Ukraine to see justice carried out and to see that no atrocity goes unpunished or at the very least, unexamined.

Several officers with Ukraines national police attended a conference of U.S. law enforcement officials in Dallas this fall, where they shared details on several uncompleted investigations, including a Russian attack in the first days of the war that reportedly resulted in the deaths of 14 civilians.

A senior official with Ukraines national police flipped open his tablet to show an edited, 10-minute video, much of it taken by security cameras that Russian soldiers had failed to destroy.

It began with a battered, disorderly column of Russian support vehicles redeploying into a wooded area off a main road, north of Kyiv, for protection. From their hidden position, soldiers could be seen firing indiscriminately at speeding cars of panicked civilians who were trying to flee.

What we consider before using anonymous sources.Do the sources know the information? Whats their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source.

One local man, who risked his life to check on one of the vehicles afterward, filmed with a cellphone what he found: a family of four, mother, father and two young children so riddled with bullets their lifeless bodies were almost unrecognizable. He was able to notify their relatives by retrieving identification from the crashed car.

By the time Ukrainian forces recaptured the area, many of the cars, bodies and other evidence were gone. It took the police months to compile video and eyewitness accounts; the man who found the family was terrified of Russian retribution and had to be coaxed to share his video. But the material collected included identifiable unit markings on Russian trucks and images of individual soldiers.

The Russian soldiers ended up on a spreadsheet pieced together by Ukrainian investigators, with their names, photographs and biographies harvested from social media accounts.

They tried to get away with it, but they left too many traces behind, said a Ukrainian official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his safety.

One of the biggest problems in bringing cases against the men, the official added, is that a lot of the guys who did this have been killed already.

What makes Ukraine different from previous battlefield investigations is the omnipresence of video, along with other digital evidence from texts, emails, social media accounts and private messaging apps. But using it effectively is another matter.

Mr. Rosenbaum was surprised to learn that some investigators in Ukraine, a country with a robust tech sector, still relied on traditional, paper-based record-keeping. He reached out to prosecutors all over the Justice Department to tap their extensive experience in bringing big-data cases.

It turned out that American prosecutors had been repeatedly required to devise complex, cloud-based storage, analysis and communications systems for specific cases. Few provided as many important lessons as the system built to handle the largest investigation in the departments history: the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

The department has shared that information with European partners, who have been working to create a state-of-the-art case management system for Ukraine. It is expected to go online this year.

Many European countries have had a significant law enforcement presence on the ground in Ukraine for much of the war. The Justice Department, by contrast, only recently authorized one of its staff members to return to the country, apart from F.B.I. officials assigned to the embassy in Kyiv, according to people familiar with the situation.

The only other U.S. law enforcement officials who have operated in Ukraine during the war are four contractors employed by the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program run by the Justice Department, which has provided Ukrainian police departments with training and equipment for decades. They quickly pivoted to providing training and evidence collection assistance for war crimes, said the programs director Gregory Ducot.

In Washington, prosecutors began collecting information on American victims from the first hours of the war. Christian Levesque, who is leading the investigation by the departments human rights section, said her team was examining anything at all from news reports to intelligence that could possibly yield evidence.

This is the most important thing that Ive done in my career, Ms. Levesque said.

She declined to discuss which cases the department was currently pursuing, although she echoed Mr. Garlands assessment that they were gaining ground.

The potential universe of cases involving American victims is very small, with no more than a handful having been killed or injured. They include the disappearance of Grady Kurpasi, who was severely injured and captured by Russian forces in fighting near Kherson last fall; Pete Reed, a humanitarian worker who was killed in a missile strike last month while treating wounded Ukrainian civilians in Bakhmut; and James Hill, an American living in Ukraine, who was killed in Chernihiv shortly after the Russians invaded early last year.

The legal bar for indictment is high. Prosecutors would have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that those charged with crimes knowingly attacked an American with the intent to harm rather than mistakenly attacking noncombatants. No one has been charged under the main U.S. war crimes law since it went on the books in 1996.

The Justice Department could also bring cases under the federal torture statute, but that has also been sparingly used.

Late last year, Congress amended existing law to give U.S. prosecutors sweeping new powers to prosecute war crime offenses regardless of the nationality of the victim or the offender, provided the person is present in the United States. That gave U.S. prosecutors similar investigative authority as some international tribunals.

Mr. Rosenbaum who once brought charges against a concentration camp guard 75 years after the Holocaust based on a waterlogged record found in a shipwreck believes that this new authority will result in cases, but only if future generations keep up the grinding, time-consuming work.

We can bring these people to justice, he said. But it will take years, probably decades, not weeks or months.

See the article here:
Justice Dept. Embraces Supporting Role in Pursuing War Crimes in Ukraine - The New York Times

New Zealand

Kane Te Tai fought with the International Legion and was known for documenting battles and daily life in Ukraine on social media

Thu 23 Mar 2023 00.22 EDT

A former New Zealand soldier who drew an online following with his dispatches from the frontline of the Ukraine war has been killed in fighting there.

The death of Kane Te Tai, 38, was confirmed by New Zealands foreign ministry Thursday, citing Ukrainian government sources.

Te Tai, who fought with the International Legion, is the third New Zealander known to have died in Ukraine.

For many in New Zealand, Te Tai was the face of the countrys unofficial involvement in Ukraines war. He fundraised for equipment and undertook news interviews before he left New Zealand in May 2022, and documented his friendships, battles and daily life on Instagram and Facebook.

A video he posted earlier this month recorded the moment when he was unexpectedly reunited with a Ukrainian friend who had been held hostage for months by Russian troops, and whom Te Tai recognised when the man began to call out, New Zealand! New Zealand!

My brother! Te Tai replied.

Last April, Te Tai told TVNZ that he would leave his job at a construction hire company and travel to Ukraine, to help in any capacity I can.

He was one of a number of foreign fighters estimated to be in the low thousands who have traveled to the conflict since Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed for volunteers from abroad last February.

At least eight Britons, seven Americans and four Georgians are among those who have died in the war against Russia.

Te Tai who served for almost a decade in New Zealands army, including in Afghanistan had posted tributes on social media to members of the International Legion who had died. Last month, he was interviewed in a CNN story about the group using his call sign, Turtle where he was credited as his units leader. The story showed the group training new recruits near the embattled town of Vuhledar, close to the frontline.

There is such a lot of emotion within these fights, Te Tai told CNN. Mainly because from a lot of what Ive seen, they [Russian soldiers] dont want to be here either.

After leaving the army in 2010, Te Tai co-founded a charitable trust to support veterans mental health; Aaron Wood, the joint founder, said in a statement posted to Facebook on Tuesday that he had been told of Te Tais death and wanted to help to arrange the retrieval of his body.

Kane had a huge heart and loved helping people, Wood wrote. He told the Guardian on Thursday that his friend had helped a number of New Zealand veterans to access mental health support in the past five years.

Te Tais mother told RNZ she had heard of her sons death via his contacts in Ukraine. He was an awesome father, awesome son, awesome uncle and brother, she added.

New Zealands foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it was aware of reports that a New Zealander had been killed there and confirmed Te Tais death on Thursday. The countrys embassy in Warsaw is attempting to learn further details, a statement said.

New Zealand soldiers have been formally deployed to the UK to train Ukrainian troops, but the country has no military presence on the ground in Ukraine. The defence ministry has acknowledged that an unknown number of current or former soldiers could be on the frontline in their own capacity.

Dominic Abelen a New Zealand soldier who was on leave without pay from the army was killed in August during combat in Donetsk. He had not told the army he was going to Ukraine and did not seek permission to travel there.

In January, Andrew Bagshaw a dual British-New Zealand national who had travelled to Ukraine from Christchurch where he was a research scientist was killed during a humanitarian mission, also in eastern Ukraine.

New Zealands prime minister Chris Hipkins told reporters on Wednesday that the war in Ukraine was unjust and an illegal invasion by Russia. But he urged New Zealanders not to travel there.

Te Tai had read online of an $11m NZD reward for his death offered by Russias Wagner mercenary group, Wood said.

He joked about turning himself in so he could collect it.

On Sunday, Te Tai told Wood in WhatsApp messages that after 10 months of combat, he had been training his replacement and intended to leave Ukraine for good in the next fortnight.

He wrote, Thats enough war for me, Wood said. He added that Te Tai loved Ukraine, but wrote: Before the game gets me or before I just decide that life here is too easy, maybe its time to start living my real life.

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Former New Zealand soldier killed fighting Russian forces in Ukraine - The Guardian