The essentials in brief:
- The EU wants to search for missing Ukrainian children
- UN concerned about executions by Russians and Ukrainians alike
- Ex-Kremlin chief Medvedev reads Stalin telegram to armaments representatives
- Blinking does not rule out border negotiations in the long term
- Estonia expels other Russian diplomats from the country
The EU wants to work for the return of the Ukrainian children who are believed to have been kidnapped by Russia. There should soon be an international conference on this, announced EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels. “It’s a terrible reminder of the darkest times in our history, what’s happening there, the deportation of children,” von der Leyen said. According to her, 16,200 Ukrainian children have probably been kidnapped so far, only 300 of them have returned.
“We want to exert international pressure to take all possible measures to determine the whereabouts of these children,” von der Leyen said. You have started an initiative together with the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the Ukraine.
UN concerned about executions of prisoners on both sides
The United Nations has expressed “deeply concern” over the execution of dozens of prisoners of war in Ukraine. “This was often committed immediately after the capture on the battlefield,” said the head of the UN human rights commission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, in Kiev. On the Russian side, the crimes were often committed by the notorious Wagner mercenary group, it said. Of 15 known killings of Ukrainian soldiers, 11 were attributed to the Wagner fighters. At the same time, Ukrainian investigations into Russians killed were also underway: Bogner continued that five investigations involving a total of 22 victims were known.
According to its own statements, the United Nations interviewed more than 400 people on both sides who are or were prisoners of war for their report. The majority of the more than 200 Ukrainians who have already been liberated reported abuse before their internment, it said. During interrogations, the detainees were beaten, hooked up to electricity, shot, stabbed and threatened with mock executions by the Russian military and secret service. At least five prisoners of war died due to inadequate medical treatment, the UN said.
At the same time, “a good half of the 200 Russian prisoners of war interviewed reported abuse and torture by the Ukrainian armed forces or the SBU secret service,” it said been threatened with sexual violence or death, reported Bogner.
Ex-Kremlin chief Medvedev reads Stalin telegram to armaments representatives
Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev has resorted to an unusual method to increase domestic arms production: in front of representatives of a national armaments commission, the 57-year-old quoted the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, as can be seen from one of several videos that Medvedev himself published on social networks.
In the video, Medvedev, now deputy head of the Russian Security Council, can be heard reading from a WWII-era telegram from Stalin calling on a factory in the city of Chelyabinsk to produce tank parts on time: “Should in If in a few days it turns out that you are violating your duty to the Fatherland, I will start crushing you like criminals,” Stalin’s 1941 letter continued. Medvedev is considered a fervent supporter of Russia’s brutal war of aggression against the neighboring country.
Hungary would not have Putin arrested
Hungary would not arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin on its territory, who has received an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said the arrest warrant is not legally binding in Hungary. The Rome Statute of the ICC has not been formally incorporated into Hungarian law because it “would be unconstitutional”.
Last Friday, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin and his child rights commissioner, Maria Alexeyevna Lvowa-Belowa, for the alleged kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia in the war of aggression against Ukraine. Some countries, including Russia, China and the US, do not recognize the ICC.
Blinken believes that border negotiations are possible in the long term
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken does not rule out long-term negotiations on Ukraine’s future borders. However, the decision to do so lies with the Ukrainians, he stressed to a parliamentary committee in Washington. Any peace agreement must be “just and lasting”. According to Blinken, Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity must be preserved. “But how this is specifically defined in the territory, we’re waiting for the Ukrainians to tell us.”
At the same time, the US Secretary of State added: “I believe there are areas in Ukraine where Ukrainians are determined to fight on the ground. And maybe there are areas where they decide they want to try to regained in other ways.” According to observers, Blinken indicated that Washington does not believe it is likely that Kiev’s troops will recapture all of the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia – especially Crimea.
Estonia expels other Russian diplomats from the country
Estonia has again declared an employee of the Russian embassy in Tallinn to be undesirable and expelled from the country. At the request of the Foreign Ministry, the diplomat must leave the Baltic EU and NATO state by March 29. The appointed chargé d’affaires of the Russian representation had been informed of this, it said in a statement. The expulsion was justified with actions that would have violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Estonia had previously repeatedly asked Russian diplomats to leave the country and in January called for a reduction in the number of embassy and consular staff in Tallinn. This led to a diplomatic dispute: Russia expelled the Estonian ambassador on February 7th. Estonia reacted immediately: In return, Russia’s ambassador had to leave the Baltic state. Internationally, Estonia is one of the most determined supporters of Kiev.
EU wants to supply Ukraine with more ammunition
European Union leaders have approved further military aid to Ukraine. At the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, they finally approved a comprehensive ammunition package. The goal is “to provide one million rounds of artillery ammunition in a joint effort within the next twelve months,” according to a summit statement.
Zelenskyj calls for modern fighter jets
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has once again called on the heads of state and government of the EU states to deliver modern fighter jets to his country. He is grateful to Poland and Slovakia for the decision to provide Soviet MiG-29 fighter jets, said Selenskyj at the EU summit, to which he was connected via video. “This will significantly strengthen the defense of our airspace. But we need modern aircraft.”
Slovakia had previously announced that it had handed over the first four of its 13 promised Soviet MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine. Earlier, Poland had announced the delivery of fighter jets of the same type.
Volunteers repair the broken roof of a house in the village of Oleksandrivka, Kherson region
Zelenskyj: Life is returning to Cherson
After a visit to the Cherson region in southern Ukraine, which was largely recaptured by Ukrainian troops in the autumn, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj drew a positive conclusion. In some places, more than 90 percent of the buildings were destroyed, said Zelenskyj in his video speech every evening. “But even to villages like that, people are coming back, and it’s proof that life still wins.” Ukraine will do its utmost “to rebuild our territories”. Life is even returning to the fields around Cherson that have been cleared of Russian shells and mines.
According to Ukrainian sources, three people were killed in Russian attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka on Friday night. Two people were also injured in the rocket fire, the emergency services said in the Telegram online service, correcting earlier reports that five people had been killed in the attacks.
qu/sti/se/bru (dpa, rtr, afp)
This article will be continuously updated on the day of its publication. Reports from the combat zones cannot be independently verified.
