Mediaboss Marketing

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraines foreign minister said Thursday his country wont budge from its demand that Russia withdraw its forces from Crimea, as well as from other parts of Ukraine that Moscow illegally annexed more recently, for the war to end.

Calling the conflict in Ukraine a bleeding wound in the middle of Europe, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said all his countrys territory must be treated equally in dealing with the Kremlin after its full-scale invasion more than 13 months ago.

We are united by U.N. charter principles and the shared conviction that Crimea is Ukraine and it will return under Ukraines control, Kuleba said, speaking by video link to a gathering in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

Every time you hear anyone from any corner of the world saying that Crimea is somehow special and should not be returned to Ukraine, as any other part of our territory, you have to know one thing: Ukraine categorically disagrees with these statements, he said at the Black Sea Security Conference.

Russia took over Crimea in 2014, and during the current war has expanded its presence there. Occasional acts of sabotage and other attacks against Russian military and other facilities on the peninsula have occurred since, with the Kremlin blaming Ukraine. The Kyiv government hasnt claimed responsibility for the attacks but welcomes efforts to repel the Russian presence there.

The Kremlin wants Kyiv to acknowledge Russias sovereignty over Crimea and also recognize Septembers annexation of the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine has rejected those demands and wont hold talks with Russia until Moscows troops pull back from all occupied territories.

Though there is no sign of possible peace negotiations, the two countries have sporadically exchanged prisoners of war and have engaged in a wartime deal for the export of Ukrainian grain and Russian grain and fertilizers. The grain deal has helped ease concerns about the global food supply, especially to countries in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia where many are already struggling with hunger.

The agreement, which was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey last July is delicate, however, and has been the subject of repeated threats by Moscow to end it.

In the latest dispute, Russias Foreign Ministry said Thursday that no discussion about extending the Black Sea grain deal beyond May 18 would take place until progress was made towards resolving what it called five systemic problems that have resulted from sanctions on Russia over the war.

It said in a statement those issues were reconnecting the state-owned Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT international banking system; resuming supplies to Russia of agricultural machinery, spare parts and services; lifting restrictions on insurance and reinsurance and the ban on access to ports; restoring the operation of the Tolyatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline; and unblocking foreign assets and accounts of Russian companies related to the production and transportation of food and fertilizers.

Russia agreed last month to extend the grain deal for 60 days instead of the 120 days set under a previous extension to send a warning signal to the West.

On the battlefield, military analysts say, an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in coming months could take aim at the land corridor between Russia and Crimea, hoping to split Russias forces in two.

That would be a daunting military challenge. Satellite images show the Kremlins forces are digging extensive trench systems in the area between mainland Ukraine and the Black Sea peninsula.

The fighting in recent months has become a war of attrition, with neither side able to gain momentum over the winter and often resorting to long-range bombardment.

At least four civilians were killed and 11 were wounded in the latest Russian barrages that continued to hit civilian infrastructure, Ukraines presidential office said Thursday.

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces over the previous 24 hours launched 32 airstrikes, two missile strikes and 40 attacks from multiple rocket launchers.

In other developments:

Russias Prosecutor Generals Office has opened an investigation into a video appearing to show the beheading of a Ukrainian serviceman that appeared online this week, according to the government departments press service. It said it intended to assess the reliability of these materials. Ukraine on Wednesday also launched an investigation into what it alleged was the latest atrocity blamed on Russia since it invaded in February 2022.

A Russian mine exploded near a generator room at one of the reactors at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraines state nuclear operator Energoatom said. Russian occupiers continue to turn the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant into a military base, mining the perimeter around the plant, Energoatom wrote on Telegram. According to sources, an explosion rang out near the engine room of the fourth power unit, the company said.

Europes largest nuclear plant has six reactors, all of which have been shut down over the past year. The U.N.s atomic energy agency has been trying for months to obtain agreement between Ukraine and Russia on securing the plant, whose reactors and other equipment still require an external electricity supply to operate safety systems.

___ Associated Press writers Stephen McGrath in Bucharest, Romania, and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report. ___ Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

See the rest here:
Ukraine stands firm on Crimea, wants Russia out of all areas - The Associated Press

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) Neighbors Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova signed cooperation agreements in Romanias capital Thursday after a trilateral meeting on ways to strengthen security in their Black Sea region to counter threats posed by Russian aggression.

The Black Sea Security Conference in Bucharest brought together the three countries foreign and defense ministers, government officials and international partners. The aim was to address the wide-ranging impact that Moscows war in Ukraine is having on the region.

NATO member Romanias Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu called Russia the most direct and serious threat to the Black Sea region and the Western alliance, and said war-torn Ukraine and embattled Moldova are essential to our future European security.

Instead of peace and stability, the Black Sea region has become the primary target of the Russian aggression, he said, adding that a strong NATO presence there is a must.

After signing the agreements, which aim to boost political, economic, and security cooperation between the three nations, Aurescu said it records the fact that we have similar visions.

Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba who spoke to the Bucharest gathering by video link called the war a bleeding wound in the middle of Europe and said a security network for countries in the region that feel threatened by the maniac on the loose must be sought.

Its time to turn the Black Sea into what the Baltic Sea has become, a sea of NATO, Kuleba said, referring to Finlands recent admission to the NATO military alliance. He also called for a resolute step forward on the path to Ukraines own NATO membership, a move that Western officials are wary of committing to.

After signing the trilateral declaration Thursday, Moldovas Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said that Moldova remains the target of hybrid attempts to destabilize our country and that the impact of Moscows war is being felt by every citizen of non-NATO Moldova.

Moldova, which has faced a long series of crises over the past year including alleged Russia-backed destabilization plots, was granted European Union candidate status last June, the same day as Ukraine.

As well as addressing security issues, the Black Sea Security Conference held on Apr. 12-13 discussed topics including freedom of trade and the facilitation of energy transport routes.

Officials also discussed the importance of countering Russias cyberwarfare efforts. Romanias Aurescu said Moscow is orchestrating (attacks) against the region, against European and Allied states.

Continued here:
Ukraine, Romania, Moldova boost ties at security meeting - The Associated Press

Ukraines economy plummeted in the year that Russia started its war in Ukraine, with the gross domestic product (GDP) falling by 29.1 percent in 2022, data from the state statistics service published late on Wednesday shows.

Ukraines export-led economy has been battered by the consequences of Moscows full-scale invasion in February 2022, with the highly restricted access to Black Sea ports hindering crucial metal and grain shipments and the infrastructure industry dramatically weakened.

In peacetime, Ukraines farmers supplied a tenth of the wheat and half the sunflower oil sold on world markets. Its shipments of grains and oilseeds through the Black Sea fell to zero last March, from 5.7 million metric tons in the previous month.

The Ukrainian government has predicted a slightly harder drop of 30 percent drop in earlier forecasts, with risks and uncertainties remaining high. It expects the economy to grow by 1 percent this year, expecting the situation in the transport, retail and construction sectors to improve.

The sharpest drop in Ukrainian GDP in the decade before 2022s plunge was recorded in 2014, the year of the Russian invasion of Crimea, when GDP dropped by 9.8 percent.

See original here:
Ukraines GDP crashed by 29.1 percent in year of Russian invasion - POLITICO Europe

Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has issued a strong statement urging international leaders to act after videos circulated on social media that appeared to show Ukrainian soldiers beheaded by Russian forces. One video being circulated appears to show the beheaded corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a destroyed military vehicle. A voice says: They killed them. Someone came up to them. They came up to them and cut their heads off. A second clip, which may have been filmed in summer last year, judging by the appearance of foliage in the clip, claims to show a member of Russian forces using a knife to cut off the head of a Ukrainian soldier. The Guardian has not independently verified the origins and veracity of the two videos, but Ukrainian authorities are treating them as genuine.

The Kremlin has described a video of Russian soldiers apparently beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war lying on the ground as awful, but questioned the videos authenticity.

Serbia, one of the only countries in Europe that has refused to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, agreed to supply arms to Kyiv or has sent them already, according to a classified Pentagon document. The document, a summary of European governments responses to Ukraines requests for military training and lethal aid or weapons, was among dozens of classified documents posted online in recent weeks in what could be the most serious leak of US secrets in years.

The UK government has imposed sanctions on the financial fixers who have allegedly helped Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov hide their assets. The new sanctions, unveiled by the Foreign Office on Wednesday, are targeted at what officials describe as oligarch enablers whom they accuse of knowingly assisting the billionaire businessmen to shield their wealth.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday said the United States will investigate the leak until the source is found. We will continue to investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this and the extent of it, Austin said during a press conference at the state department.

US intelligence reportedly warned Ukraine in February that it might fail to amass sufficient troops and weaponry for its planned spring counter-offensive, and might fall well short of Kyivs goals for recapturing territory seized by Russia, according to a trove of leaked defence documents.

The same leaked US military documents indicate that the UK has deployed as many as 50 special forces to Ukraine. The documents suggest that more than half of the western special forces personnel present in Ukraine between February and March this year may have been British. It is unclear what activities the special forces may have been engaged in or whether the numbers of personnel have been maintained at this level.

The leak of a trove of highly sensitive documents online could be a move by the US to deceive Russia, its deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying Wednesday. Its probably interesting for someone to look at these documents, if they really are documents or they could be a fake or it could be an intentional leak, Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agencies.

Ryabkov also said Russia was currently considering granting US diplomats consular access to Evan Gershkovich, but that the US designation of the Wall Street Journal reporter as wrongfully detained meant nothing to Russia and would not change its approach to his case. We will not tolerate any attempts to pressure us, and it has no significance what status they assign to this person in Washington. We will act in accordance with our own internal needs, norms and laws that apply in this situation, and nothing more, Tass quoted Ryabkov as saying.

The Kremlin has said the outlook for the Black Sea grain deal was not so great, claiming that promises to remove obstacles to Russian exports of agricultural and fertiliser exports had not been fulfilled. On Tuesday no vessels were cleared to travel using the grain initiative, after Russia scrubbed out the names of three ships, submitted by the Ukrainian side, as they returned home. Ukraines deputy infrastructure minister for seaports and maritime, Yurii Vaskov, described the situation as critical. If the standoff continues, global food prices are likely to go up by 15%, he said.

South Korea has agreed to lend the US 500,000 rounds of artillery, a newspaper reported on Wednesday, as Seoul attempts to minimise the possibility that the ammunition could end up in Ukraine - a move that could spark domestic criticism of President Yoon Suk Yeol. Citing unidentified government sources, the Dong-A Ilbo said South Korea had decided to lend the shells rather than sell them - an approach it believes would lower the likelihood of them eventually being supplied to Kyiv.

Protests by European farmers are political and shipments of Ukrainian grain are not reducing the profitability of their business, Ukrainian food producers union UAC claimed on Wednesday. Poland last week said it would temporarily halt Ukrainian grain imports after farmers protests led Polands agriculture minister to resign, but transit would still be allowed. The political nature of the European farmers strikes is obvious. Ukraine sells some grain to Poland, and this is not a massive amount, Denys Marchuk, deputy chair of the Ukrainian agrarian council (UAC), said in a statement. However, certain forces need to demonstrate that this is due to an oversupply of Ukrainian grain, he said, noting that the country faced elections later this year.

Ukraine has asked India for additional medicines and medical equipment, the South Asian countrys foreign ministry said on Wednesday. The request came during the three-day visit to India by Ukraines deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova.

Russias upper house of parliament has voted to introduce electronic call-up papers via an online portal for the first time. The Federation Councils vote came a day after the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, gave its approval to changes in the law. The bill will now go to President Vladimir Putin, who is now expected to sign it into law. Changes to the legislation would mean that once an electronic summons is received, citizens who fail to show up at the military enlistment office are automatically banned from travelling abroad.

View original post here:
Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 413 of the invasion - The Guardian

12 April 2023

Image source, Getty Images

Russia has suffered big losses on the battlefield and needs to replenish its forces in Ukraine

The Russian parliament has approved legislation to start serving call-up papers online.

The Kremlin has denied the move is aimed at speeding up further mobilisation of Russian men or putting a stop to widespread draft-dodging.

Thousands of Russians have avoided the draft to escape the war in Ukraine.

Critics say the law is further evidence of authorities creating an "electronic Gulag", referring to the Soviet-era network of prison camps.

Until now, conscription papers in Russia have had to be served in person or via an employer.

In reality, it has meant many avoiding the draft by moving away from where they were registered to live, or simply not opening the door when military officials came calling.

Under the new legislation, call-up papers will be deemed to be served as soon as they appear on a special "State Services" government portal called "Gosuslugi".

"The summons is considered received from the moment it is placed in the personal account of a person liable for military service," Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Russian parliament's defence committee, said on TV.

From that moment, a conscript will be obliged to turn up at his local enlistment office.

Citizens who fail to show up will be banned from travelling abroad and could face other restrictions. They will not be able to buy or sell property, their driving licences will be invalidated and they will be unable to register small businesses.

Of the 395 Russian MPs who voted on the legislation, 394 supported it and one abstained. Russia's lower house or State Duma has 450 MPs.

The new legislation will come into effect when it is signed by President Vladimir Putin, which is likely to happen soon.

Last September, the Kremlin began a chaotic emergency mobilisation campaign to support Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine, amid a series of humiliating defeats after its full-scale invasion.

Image source, ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP

Some of those who protested against Russia's military mobilisation were themselves handed draft papers

More than 300,000 former soldiers and ex-conscripts are believed to have been called up, in a drive that often saw young men being picked up on the street or in shopping malls.

Thousands of men aged 18 to 27 fled abroad to avoid the draft and protests broke out in numerous Russian cities, although they were swiftly suppressed.

According to leaked US documents, Russia is estimated to have suffered between 189,500 and 223,000 casualties. Those numbers include 35,500-43,000 men killed in action and another 154,000-180,000 wounded.

BBC News Russian has compiled a list of 17,000 Russian servicemen who are confirmed dead, through gathering information from open sources, with names, ranks and in many cases, the military units they served in.

The last time Russian authorities revealed casualties figures was in September last year, when they confirmed the deaths of 5,937 servicemen.

"A once convenient online government portal turned out to have a flip side," tweeted Ilia Krasilshchik, who founded the Helpdesk website, which offers advice and assistance to Russian men trying to avoid being sent to fight in Ukraine.

"In an instant, you can be marked out and your exit from the country can be shut off. That's it. Who needs new waves of mobilisation? Take people out one by one in an attractive interface of a digital state."

The State Services government web portal is widely used by Russians to apply for a new passport or a marriage licence, pay bills and fines or make an appointment with a GP.

But Mr Krasilshchik warned that the state had turned it into a site to provide the Russian state with cannon fodder for Ukrainian guns.

President Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, denied the new legislation was linked to an attempt to widen mobilisation: "This is simply to improve military records. The system has to match modern requirements."

See more here:
Ukraine war: Russian parliament approves online call-up - BBC