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Israel Accuses Drone Maker Of Bombing Armenian Soldiers, At Baku's Request
Israel has accused an Israeli drone maker of bombing ethnic Armenian soldiers in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region at the request of Azerbaijani clients during a sales demonstration, government and local media reported.
The accusation by Israel’s Justice Ministry on August 29 did not specifically mention Azerbaijan or Nagorno-Karabakh in its statement. But Israeli media said a complaint filed with the Defense Ministry, which promoted an investigation, made it clear that Azerbaijani officials and ethnic Armenian soldiers were involved.
The Defense Ministry complaint was leaked to the Maariv newspaper, which first reported the incident.
It was unclear who exactly filed the complaint.
In its statement on August 29, the Justice Ministry said it plans to indict the chief executive, deputy CEO, and other officials and employees of Aeronautics Defense Systems for the incident, which it said occurred in 2017.
"Aeronautics and 10 of its employees were informed that they were set to be charged, pending a hearing," the Justice Ministry said, according to The Times of Israel.
The Aeronautics team was suspected of "fraudulently obtaining something under aggravated circumstances," along with violations of Israel's security export control law, the newspaper reported.
In response, the Yavneh-based firm said it is “convinced that after we first present our position at the hearing, the State Prosecutor’s Office will reach an informed decision that there is no reason to put the company or any of its officers in court and will order the case closed.”
An official at Azerbaijan’s embassy in Washington, D.C., declined to comment to RFE/RL on an Israeli legal proceeding, saying he did not want to interfere in another country’s internal matters.
No one was immediately available at the Armenian Embassy, and the Israeli Embassy said it could not immediately comment.
Maariv and The Times of Israel newspaper reported that the incident occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani territory that was seized in the early 1990s by Armenian-backed forces after a war that killed more than 30,000 people.
The reports said Aeronautics officials in 2017 were working on a potential $20 million deal with Baku, when Azerbaijani officials asked them to demonstrate their Orbiter 1K armed drone on Armenian soldiers.
The reports said two employees refused to carry out the attack before two higher-ranking executives eventually agreed to do it. They said the drone did not directly hit their targets, but two soldiers were injured in the attack.
The Times of Israel quoted Army Colonel Armen Gyozalian as confirming that two soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident.
Israel suspended Aeronautics' export license after the complaint was filed with the Defense Ministry, the report said.
Sporadic fighting continues in Nagorno-Karabakh, despite three decades of diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict.
Azerbaijan is one of the largest importers of Israeli military equipment. In 2016, an Israeli-made drone dove into a bus carrying seven Armenians, an incident that was captured partially on video.
The Times of Israel reported that that drone was made by another Israeli firm, Aerospace Industries.
With reporting by AFP, The Times of Israel, and Maariv
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Russia's Muratov To Auction Nobel Medal To Assist Ukrainian Refugees
The editor in chief of the independent Moscow-based newspaper Novaya gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, is putting his Noble Prize medal up for auction to raise funds to help Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia's unprovoked invasion.
Muratov, who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for his battle to uncover the truth as a journalist, said in an announcement in his newspaper on March 22 that he was making the move given the millions of Ukrainians already displaced by the war since it began on February 24.
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"I ask auction groups who are interested in putting this award, known to the whole world, to auction to contact us," said Muratov, who won the award along with Maria Ressa, who co-founded Rappler, a news website critical of the Philippine government.
Muratov and Novaya gazeta used the announcement to call for the "immediate" implementation of five measures in Ukraine -- a cease-fire, an exchange of prisoners of war, the repatriation of deceased, the creation of humanitarian corridors, and assistance for refugees.
Tens of thousands of Russian troops have invaded Ukraine since Moscow launched its attack, with intense air strikes and street battles taking place in several areas across the country.
Since early March, Muratov and his newspaper have avoided reporting what is happening in Ukraine because of censorship and the threat of criminal prosecution of journalists who do not follow the government line.
Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor has banned the description of Russia's actions in Ukraine as an invasion or a war, instead insisting they are called "special military operations."
A law endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 5 envisages prison sentences of up to 10 years for individuals convicted of the offense.
The penalty for the distribution of what authorities deem "deliberately false information" about the Russian military that leads to "serious consequences" is 15 years in prison.
Muratov's statement came hours after the Russian social-media network VKontakte blocked the accounts of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, opposition Moscow municipal lawmaker Ilya Yashin, and Navalny's team over their posts about the war in Ukraine because they did not follow the government's edict.
Navalny's Team Says Data Links Putin To $700 Million Superyacht
The team of jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has published details about a superyacht that they suspect belongs to President Vladimir Putin.
The team said in a video on its YouTube channel on March 21 that all crew members, except the captain, of the Scheherazade yacht worth $700 million, are Russian citizens, and many of them are employed by the Federal Protection Service (FSO), the agency responsible for Putin's personal security.
According to Navalny's team, the 140-meter long superyacht was made in Germany in 2020. Details on its owner are unknown.
However, in mid-March, The New York Times cited sources that U.S. authorities had linked the yacht to Putin. A former crew member also confirmed the link to the newspaper.
According to the report, the yacht traveled to the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi twice, once in 2020 and again in 2021. It is known that Putin regularly visits his residence in Sochi.
The ship's captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, a British national, has denied that Putin owned or had ever been on the yacht. He also refused to name the vessel's owner.
If the yacht's connection to Putin is proven, it will be impounded, as Putin is currently under sanctions from the European Union over Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
At this point, the yacht is anchored at the Marina di Carrara port in the Italian region of Toscana.
The attention to evidence of Putin's alleged wealth, or the perks that he has at his fingertips, is nothing new.
Officially, Putin earned a salary equivalent to $136,000 in 2020, and in his income and asset declaration that year he listed a modest apartment, three Soviet-era cars, and a small camping trailer handed down by his late father.
But in more than two decades as president or prime minister, he has regularly been accused of amassing a huge personal fortune. Putin has consistently denied the allegations.
In 2012, three years before he was shot dead near the Kremlin, opposition politician Boris Nemtsov co-authored a report describing a stunning array of helicopters and jets, homes, luxury watches, and four yachts that, according to the report, belonged to Putin or were available for his use in connection with his office.
In February, an 82-meter-long yacht also allegedly linked to Putin traveled from the Germany city of Hamburg to the Russian port city of Kaliningrad, two weeks before Russia started an unprovoked military attack on Ukraine and just ahead of sweeping Western sanctions on Putin and those close to him that have frozen their assets outside of Russia.
In early 2021, Navalny's team issued an investigation shining a spotlight on a $1.35 billion estate on the Black Sea's exclusive Gelendzhik Bay that was allegedly built for Putin.
Navalny Awaits Sentencing After Conviction On Charges He Denies
A court in Russia has found opposition politician Aleksei Navalny guilty of embezzlement and contempt charges that could add more than a decade to the prison term he is already serving.
Judge Margarita Kotova began reading the verdict on March 22 at the penal colony outside Moscow where Navalny is being held.
She has yet to announce his sentence. Prosecutors have asked for a prison sentence of 13 years.
Looking gaunt and dressed in his all-black prison outfit, Navalny stood with his lawyers in the makeshift courtroom filled with security officers as Kotova read out the accusations against Russian President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critic.
The 45-year-old, who is a lawyer himself, seemed unfazed during the proceedings, often looking down while Kotova spoke as he perused court documents.
Navalny has spent the last year in the penal colony on a different charge after returning from abroad, where he was recovering from a near-fatal poison attack that he blames on the Kremlin.
The corruption crusader reiterated his innocence during his final statement at the trial, noting the prosecution's demands highlighted the corrupt nature of the trial.
Russian authorities have tried to cast Navalny and his supporters as Western-backed operatives trying to destabilize Russia. Many of Navalny's allies have fled Russia rather than face restrictions on their freedom or even prison time at home.
His Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) has been labelled an "extremist" organization and banned.
The new case against Navalny was launched in December 2020 on allegations that the 45-year-old anti-corruption campaigner embezzled money from his now defunct and banned Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and for contempt of a Moscow court.
Investigators accused Navalny of taking around $33,770 in donations for his own personal use. Navalny and his supporters reject all the charges, calling them politically motivated.
The contempt charge stems from a separate case he was involved in last year.
Within weeks of returning from his convalescence in Germany in January 2021, Navalny was handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole. His conviction is widely regarded as the result of a trumped-up, politically motivated case.
It is not clear whether any new sentence he receives will run concurrently or be tacked on to the penalty he is now serving.
The Kremlin has denied any role in the poisoning, which along with his arrest sparked widespread condemnation and sanctions from the West.
Zelenskiy Warns Ukraine 'On The Brink' As Battle For Mariupol Rages
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned that his country is on the "brink of survival" as Russian forces continue to pound key infrastructure and civilian targets more than four weeks after launching an unprovoked invasion.
Explosions and gunfire could be heard in the key port city of Mariupol, the most contentious battleground in the war so far, as Ukrainian defenders battled on March 22 to stave off the deadly onslaught.l
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Zelenskiy, who has remained defiant throughout the conflict despite Russia's overwhelming advantage in firepower, says Ukraine could never give up the strategic port, or other cities, including Kharkiv and Kyiv.
"For Russian troops, Ukraine is the gates of Europe, where they want to break in, but barbarism must not be allowed to pass," he told Italian lawmakers in an address via video link.
"We are on the brink of survival," he added.
The Ukrainian leader has given similar speeches to lawmakers in several other countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany, and Israel, to plead his case for more military assistance in battling Russian troops.
The two sides have been holding talks via video links to come up with a formulation for a cease-fire, and Zelenskiy continues to insist on the need to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin "in any format" to end the fighting.
"I believe that without this meeting, it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war," said Zelenskiy, who added that any compromises made in talks with Russians would be put before the Ukrainian people in a referendum.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed on March 22 that the process was going "much more slowly and less substantively than we would like." Peskov added that he could not go into detail given the sensitivity of the talks.
After Zelenskiy's speech, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi praised Ukraine for its "heroic" resistance and blasted Russia for its actions.
"The arrogance of the Russian government has collided with the dignity of the Ukrainian people, who have managed to curb Moscow's expansionist aims and impose a huge cost on the invading army," Draghi said.
For the past two weeks, Russia has attempted to encircle the besieged city of Mariupol, an important port on the Sea of Azov. Taking control of the city would give it a land link between Crimea -- which Moscow seized in 2014 -- and territory controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Residents of Mariupol, which had a population of 400,000 before the war broke out, have for the past two weeks been trapped without basic supplies, such as water, food, and fuel.
At least 2,300 people have died in Mariupol, some buried in mass graves, authorities say.
Russia has stepped up its attacks in recent days, with many targets such as hospitals, apartment buildings, and civic buildings such as theaters being destroyed by seemingly indiscriminate bombings.
The U.S. military on March 21 accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in their bloody invasion of Ukraine, while President Joe Biden told a group of U.S. business leaders on March 21 that Russia's actions were that of a country encountering far more resistance than expected.
"His back is against the wall," Biden said of Putin, adding that Moscow would face "severe" consequences if it were to use chemical weapons.
Amid expectations of further air strikes against the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko implemented a new 35-hour curfew that took force at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT/UTC) on March 21.
The mayor of Boryspil, which is close to Boryspil International Airport near Kyiv, on March 22 advised residents to evacuate as fighting with Russian forces nears.
Mayor Volodymyr Borysenko said in a video address posted on Facebook that there "is no need to be in the city now, as there is already fighting going on in the area around it."
"I call on the civilian population to be smart, reach out to our call center, and leave town as soon as an opportunity arises," he added.
Earlier on March 22, the Defense Ministry said Ukrainian troops forced Russian forces out of the northwest Kyiv suburb of Makariv after a fierce battle.
Russian troops appear to be trying to surround Kyiv as they slowly move toward the city center.
Boryspil International Airport is Ukraine's largest airport, located 29 kilometers east of the capital.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces.
NATO, the United States, and most other Western allies have said they will not send troops to Ukraine, but instead have launched a series of crippling sanctions on Russia's economy and those around Putin.
Poland and the Baltic states are now pushing for even tougher sanctions, including an EU ban on Russian oil and gas imports. However, Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas, and some other EU member states are resisting.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov has said Europe would be hit hard in the event of an embargo on Russian oil, striking the continent's energy balance.
Russia has denied targeting civilians despite widespread evidence of deadly attacks on nonmilitary sites.
Observers have speculated that Russian military momentum has been stopped by Ukrainian forces in many parts of the country and that the sides could be heading for a long, protracted stalemate in the war.
Almost 3.6 million have fled across Ukraine's borders to neighboring countries, the United Nations' refugee agency estimated on March 22, with the bulk of them arriving in NATO and European Union member Poland.
"This is another tragic milestone for the people of Ukraine and it has been achieved in just under one month," UNHCR spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told a briefing, adding that 6.5 million people had been internally displaced within Ukraine.
"You are looking at almost one-quarter of the entire population. The speed and the scale of this outflow and this displacement crisis is unprecedented in recent times."
With reporting by AP and Reuters
Japan Chides Russia For Withdrawing From Treaty Talks Over Tokyo's Stance On Ukraine
Japan has slammed Russia for its decision to withdraw from negotiations aimed at signing a formal World War II peace treaty because of Tokyo's tough stance against Moscow's military action in Ukraine.
"The latest situation has been all caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters on March 22, adding that Russia's response was "extremely unjustifiable and absolutely unacceptable."
The issue dates back to World War II, as Russia and Japan have never signed a peace treaty to formally end the conflict.
One of the key issues is competing claims over territorial rights to the Kurile Islands, which Tokyo calls its Northern Territories. Soviet troops seized them from Japan at the end of the war, and Russia still occupies the island group.
Following Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, the authorities in Tokyo voiced strong condemnation and have joined with Western partners in placing sanctions on Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it broke off talks "due to the impossibility of discussing the core document on bilateral relations with a country that has taken an openly hostile position and is striving to cause harm to the interests of our country."
The statement also said Russia was ending a visa-free regime for Japanese people to visit the disputed islands. Many Japanese have traveled to the visit the graves of their ancestors.
Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
Pro-Kremlin Newspaper Posts Russian Death Toll Of Almost 10,000, Then Deletes It
The Russian Komsomolskaya pravda newspaper briefly published a figure indicating a Russian death toll of nearly 10,000 soldiers from the fighting in Europe -- then quickly deleted the information.
The online report on March 20 cited the Russian Defense Ministry as reporting that 9,861 Russian soldiers had died since the start of the war on February 24.
The information was seen in an archive version seen by news outlets, including dpa and The Wall Street Journal, on March 21.
The pro-Kremlin newspaper did not immediately make a statement about the report or its deletion.
Russia has officially confirmed just 498 deaths, a figure given early in the conflict without updates.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have estimated the deaths at more than 7,000, with some estimates going near 10,000, although casualty figures in the war are impossible to independently confirm.
Yaroslav Trofimov of The Wall Street Journal wrote on Twitter that "Either [the newspaper's website] KP.ru has been hacked or someone there got the leaked numbers and posted them."
Based on reporting by dpa and The Wall Street Journal
Zelenskiy Says Any War Compromises Will Be Put To Ukraine Referendum
KYIV -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says any potential deal agreed in peace negotiations to end the war with Russia will be submitted to the Ukrainian people in a referendum.
"I explained it to all the negotiating groups: When you speak of all these changes [in a possible deal] and they can be historic...we will come back to a referendum," Zelenskiy told Internet news site Suspilne on March 21.
“The people will have a say in any type of compromises. But what the [compromises] will end up being will be the result of our talks and agreements between Ukraine and Russia. Therefore, I am ready to do whatever is necessary if our people support my decisions," he added.
Zelenskiy restated his insistence on the need to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin "in any format" to end the fighting.
"I believe that without this meeting, it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war," Zelenskiy said.
He remained defiant, however, in the face of Russian demands to surrender the key port city of Mariupol, along with other cities, including Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Russia’s “ultimatums will only happen if we are destroyed. Then they be executed automatically,” he said.
"[They demand] give us Kharkiv, Mariupol, Kyiv. Neither Kharkiv residents, nor Mariupol residents, nor Kyiv residents, nor the president -- we can't do that.”
He said that even in cities already occupied by Russian forces, “people don't give in to them. [The Russians] raise their flags -- the people take them down."
Putin ordered a large-scale invasion of Ukraine four weeks ago, alleging Russia's actions are a "special military operation" to demilitarize Ukraine and ensure its neutrality while removing its leaders.
Putin has also long demanded that Ukraine give up any intentions of joining NATO.
In reference to NATO, Zelenskiy has conceded that his country was unlikely to join the Western military alliance.
"We have all already understood it," Zelenskiy said, adding that Ukraine would not be admitted to NATO because member states fear Russia’s reaction.
"That's all. And we have to calm down and say: 'OK [we need] other security guarantees'," he said.
"There are NATO countries that want to provide security guarantees...who are ready to do what the alliance would do if we were members," he said, calling that “a normal compromise."
In a video address, Zelenskiy thanked protesters in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson, hailing their courage in confronting the foreign troops, who used stun grenades and fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd.
Zelenskiy said that “we saw slaves shooting at free people, slaves of propaganda that replaced their conscience.”
The war has turned ordinary Ukrainians into heroes and “the enemy doesn’t believe it’s all real,” Zelenskiy added.
“There is no need to organize resistance.“ Resistance for Ukrainians is part of their soul.”
With reporting by AFP and dpa
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Biden Warns U.S. Private Sector Of Russian Cyberattacks, Citing 'Evolving Evidence'
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Joe Biden has warned the nation’s businesses and nongovernmental organizations to immediately “harden” their defenses against potential cyberattacks by the Russian government, citing “evolving intelligence” of such plans by the Kremlin.
"I urge our private-sector partners to harden your cyberdefenses immediately.... We need everyone to do their part to meet one of the defining threats of our time," Biden said in a White House statement on March 21.
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U.S. officials have long accused Russian actors of cyberattacks on American individuals, organizations, and governments, often in Kremlin-led actions.
Experts have warned about the increased dangers of such attacks following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the West’s tough response of sanctions and military aid to Kyiv.
“This is a critical moment to accelerate our work to improve domestic cybersecurity and bolster our national resilience,” Biden said.
“I have previously warned about the potential that Russia could conduct malicious cyberactivity against the United States, including as a response to the unprecedented economic costs we’ve imposed on Russia alongside our allies and partners,” he added, calling it “part of Russia’s playbook.”
He said the latest warnings are based on “evolving intelligence” that the Kremlin is exploring options for potential cyberattacks. He did not give specifics.
He said the federal government will step up defensive actions but urged others to increase efforts to protect critical infrastructure.
“If you have not already done so, I urge our private-sector partners to harden your cyberdefenses immediately by implementing the best practices we have developed together over the last year,” he said.
In February, several Ukrainian government websites and the websites of some Ukrainian banks went offline in what the Kyiv government said was an apparent cyberattack by Russian actors.
The websites of the parliament, the cabinet, and the Ministry of Reintegration of the Occupied Territories were among those that were inaccessible.
The government said the attack was a distributed denial of service (DDoS) -- a type of attack that overwhelms websites by sending a large number of requests at once.
Moscow denied any involvement.
Russian Actress Chulpan Khamatova In Exile Following Criticism Of Ukraine War
Chulpan Khamatova, a prominent Russian actress known for her roles in international films, says she has gone into exile in Latvia following her country’s invasion of Ukraine.
In an interview broadcast on YouTube on March 20, the 46-year-old actress -- who leads the Gift of Life children’s cancer charity in Russia -- said she has been in Riga the past several weeks with her daughters.
Khamatova -- known internationally for her role in the 2003 film Goodbye Lenin! -- said she was on holiday when the war started.
“I thought at the start that I would just wait. Then I signed the petition against the war. And then it was made clear to me it would be undesirable for me to go back," she said. "I know I am not a traitor. I love my motherland very much."
Khamatova said that in order to return to Russia she would either have to deny that a war was taking place or apologize for not supporting what President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation.”
“Lie to yourself, lie to the whole world, live not according to the truth,” she said.
"I don't know how to ignore what I see with my own eyes and receive from my Ukrainian friends about what is happening," she added.
On February 24, Khamatova posted a statement on her Facebook page decrying the war and calling for an end to hostilities. She signed a petition along with other Russian celebrities, organizations, and charities demanding an end to the war.
A decade ago, Khamatova appeared in a campaign video in support of Putin, citing his help for her charity.
She is the latest of several Russian cultural stars who have come out against the war or decided to leave the country.
Olga Smirnova, a principal dancer for the famed Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, left Russia for the Netherlands in protest at her country's unprovoked offensive against Ukraine.
With reporting by AFP
Russia Breaks Off WWII Peace Talks Over Japan's Stance On Ukraine Invasion
Russia said it was withdrawing from negotiations with Japan aimed at signing a formal World War II peace treaty because of Tokyo's tough stance against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
"The Russian side, in the current conditions, does not intend to continue talks with Japan on the peace treaty," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on March 21.
Russia and Japan have never signed a peace treaty to formally end World War II.
One of the key issues is competing claims over territorial rights to the Kurile Islands, which Tokyo calls its Northern Territories. Soviet troops seized them from Japan at the end of the war, and Russia still occupies the island group.
Following Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the authorities in Tokyo voiced strong condemnation and have joined with Western partners in placing sanctions on Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it broke off talks "due to the impossibility of discussing the core document on bilateral relations with a country that has taken an openly hostile position and is striving to cause harm to the interests of our country."
The statement also said Russia was ending a visa-free regime for Japanese people to visit the disputed islands. Many Japanese had traveled to the visit the graves of their ancestors.
Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
World Chess Body Disqualifies Russia's Karjakin For Supporting Invasion Of Ukraine
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has disqualified Russian chess player Sergey Karjakin for six months for publicly supporting Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
"Sergey Karjakin is found guilty of breach of article 2.2.10 of the FIDE Code of Ethics, and is sanctioned to a worldwide ban of six months from participating as a player in any FIDE rated chess competition, taking effect from the date of this decision, 21 March 2022," FIDE said in a statement.
The penalty means Karjakin won't participate in the World Candidates Tournament, scheduled to start on June 16.
The 32-year-old Karjakin has supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine since it started on February 24. The invasion has been harshly criticized by many in the chess world.
Karjakin, who was born in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that was forcibly annexed by Russia eight years ago, represented Ukraine until 2009.
In a statement on his Telegram account, he called the FIDE decision "shameful."
"All sports selections have been trampled, the basic principle that sport is out of politics has been trampled," Karjakin added.
Last week, FIDE banned Russia and Belarus from its official competitions "until further notice" in response to the attack on Ukraine.
Belarus was included because it has provided logistical support for Moscow in its offensive, including allowing Russia to use Belarusian territory to launch operations.
- By RFE/RL
Russia Summons U.S. Ambassador After Biden Calls Putin A 'War Criminal'
Russia's Foreign Ministry has summoned U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan over recent comments by President Joe Biden calling Russian President Vladimir Putin "a war criminal" for Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
The ministry said in a statement on March 21 that it issued a démarche and handed a note of protest to Sullivan "in connection with the recent unacceptable remarks by the head of the White House, Joe Biden, regarding the president of Russia."
"Such statements by the American president, which are not worthy of a high-ranking statesman, have put Russian-American relations on the verge of rupture," the statement added.
Biden called Putin a "war criminal" when talking to journalists on March 16.
A day later, he referred to Putin as a "pure thug" and a "murderous dictator," though he did not repeat the "war criminal" accusation.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at the time that Biden was "speaking from his heart" after seeing images on television of the "barbaric actions by a brutal dictator through his invasion of a foreign country."
Since Putin launched the large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, several civilian targets -- including hospitals, schools, apartment buildings, and other civic structures -- have been hit by Russian air attacks.
Russia denies targeting civilians, despite ample evidence to the contrary as documented by media and in eyewitness accounts and social media videos from inside Ukraine.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe Celebrates Reunion With Family But Still Seeks Freedom For Others Held In Iran
A British-Iranian woman released from a prison in Tehran last week has appealed for the release of another prisoner, Morad Tahbaz, whose family says is now on a hunger strike after being left out of the deal that brought her and another dual national home.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe told journalists on March 21 that her relief at being released following six years of detention in Iran was tempered by reports that Morad Tahbaz, an environmentalist who holds British, U.S., and Iranian passports, was again being held by authorities after temporarily being furloughed.
“I believe that the meaning of freedom is never going to be complete as to such time that all of us who are unjustly detained in Iran are reunited with our families,’’ she said at a news conference where Tahbaz’s daughter was present.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, a British-Iranian retiree, arrived back in Britain on March 17 after being released a day earlier.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taking her daughter to see her family in 2016 when she was arrested and convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She was sentenced to five years in jail and spent four of those years in Tehran's notorious Evin prison and one under house arrest.
Ashoori was sentenced in 2019 to 10 years in prison after being convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and another two years for "acquiring illegitimate wealth."
Both have denied any wrongdoing.
The release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori was reached as world leaders try to revive the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear pact. Negotiations on renewing the deal have stalled over Russia’s demand that its trade with Iran be guaranteed amid massive sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
After the release of the two prisoners, British officials said they had resolved what they called a parallel issue -- repaying a 400 million pound ($526 million) debt to Iran dating back to 1979 due to an unfulfilled purchase of tanks.
On the same day Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori were released, Tahbaz, who was arrested in January 2018 during a crackdown on environmental activists, gained his freedom as well.
However, the British Foreign Ministry said Tahbaz was taken back to prison on March 18 to be fitted with a tracking bracelet.
Tahbaz's daughter, Roxanne, told the March 21 news conference that since then her father's whereabouts have been unclear and that "we've only just found out...that he's been returned to the prison."
Tahrane Tahbaz, Morad's sister, said in an interview with the BBC that she hasn't heard from her brother since he was taken back into custody.
"We have heard through a relative just a few hours ago that he's been taken from the prison...to an undisclosed location and that he's gone on hunger strike," she added.
"Frankly, for four years we were led to believe that he would be part of the deal when it was made," she said. "And that's what we were told. And the deal was made, the money was paid...And he wasn't part of the deal -- and he's still there -- and we're very worried."
- By Current Time
Holocaust Survivor, 96, Killed In Russian Bombing Of Kharkiv
A 96-year-old survivor of the World War II-era Nazi concentration camps has been killed by Russian shelling in Ukraine's eastern city of Kharkiv.
The Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorial said on March 21 that the vice president of the Buchenwald-Dora International Committee, Borys Romanchenko, had died after a Russian bomb hit his apartment block in Kharkiv on March 18.
"We are stunned," the foundation said.
Romanchenko was captured by Nazi troops and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in in 1942.
Until the war ended, he spent time in concentration camps in Peenemunde, Dora-Mittelbau, and Bergen-Belsen.
For many years, Romanchenko took active part in public events to commemorate victims of the Holocaust.
Yuz Aleshkovsky, Author Of Songs, Books About Soviet Gulag, Dies At 92
Yuz Aleshkovsky, one of the Soviet Union's best-known dissident writers, has died in the United States at the age of 92.
Aleshkovsky's son, Aleksei Aleshkovsky, said on March 21 that his father had died in Tampa, Florida.
Generations of Soviet citizens knew Aleshkovsky's popular songs, such as Comrade Stalin, You Are Big Scholar, even though they were not officially allowed to be performed.
Aleshkovsky was born in Siberia and was sentenced to four years in prison in 1949 while serving in the Soviet Army on a charge of car hijacking. Aleshkovsky drew from his years of experience in the Soviet prison system to write his songs and books.
Although his works about life in Soviet prisons were not allowed to be officially staged, they became very popular across the country. People learned them by heart and distributed them via audiotapes, even though few knew who the author was.
Later, Aleshkovsky became known for several children's books, as well as for scripts he wrote for movies for teenagers in the 1970s.
After his verses about the gulag system were published in an underground samizdat publication, Aleshkovsky was forced to emigrate to Austria and then eventually to the United States.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Aleshkovsky would visit Russia and take part in various television projects. In 1995, he and a popular Russian rock musician, Andrei Makarevich, recorded an album titled Okurochek (A Little Cigarette Butt).
Aleshkovsky also participated in dozens of radio programs for RFE/RL's Russian Service.
Former RFE/RL Freelance Journalist Summoned For Questioning In Kaliningrad
KALININGRAD, Russia -- A freelance journalist who formerly worked with RFE/RL's North.Realities in the city of Kaliningrad has been summoned to the prosecutor's office over her online articles.
Yulia Paramonova told RFE/RL that officers questioned her on March 21 in relation to an extremism case, although she says they did not clarify any details of the case.
"They asked me how long I worked [for North.Realities], what materials I published, stressing the political issues my materials covered. I told them that I mainly covered news and wrote longer items that derived from the news, which were of a social, economic, and political nature," Paramonova said, adding that the officers declined to explained exactly why she was being questioned.
Paramonova informed the officers that she had stopped working as a freelance correspondent for North.Realities as of March 1.
She was also asked about salaries and honorariums of journalists working for RFE/RL, a question she refused to answer, citing the country's constitution.
The officers mentioned that she worked for a media outlet that had been officially added to the so-called "foreign agents" list, Paramonova said.
"I think that they are working on a list of 'national traitors,' enemies of the people. My lawyer and I must be on that list," Paramonova said.
Several media outlets reported on March 21 that a former correspondent at another RFE/RL online project, Siberia.Realities, was detained on unknown charges. Andrei Novashov was detained after his home was searched in the Siberian city of Kemerovo.
The clampdown on media and journalists has intensified across Russia after Kremlin unleashed war in Ukraine on February 24.
Russian Court Labels Meta Platforms 'Extremist,' Effectively Outlawing Facebook, Instagram
A court in Moscow has ruled to label Meta Platforms an “extremist organization," a move that effectively outlaws its Facebook and Instagram social media platforms.
The Tver district court, ignoring a plea by Meta's lawyers to postpone the hearing to give them time to respond in the case, said on March 21 that its ruling takes effect “immediately.”
The designation, according to prosecutors, will only outlaw Facebook and Instagram and not Meta's WhatsApp messaging platform, since it is not a public platform.
State prosecutors filed the request after news surfaced that Meta Platforms was permitting Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers after Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
In court, they said Meta "deliberately allowed hate speech against Russians, which created an alternative reality in which any pro-Russian position was suppressed and hatred was incited.”
There was no immediate reaction to the ruling on Meta's corporate media page or on any of its social media sites.
According to Reuters, Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On March 10, Meta said that as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as, 'Death to the Russian invaders.'"
It added that the company "still won't allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians."
Russian authorities had already blocked access to Facebook after it blocked some posts by state-owned media outlets.
Prosecutors said at the trial that Russians who still have accounts with the services will not face legal liability. But some human rights lawyers have warned that such promises may not be honored.
Moscow has been taking moves to limit access to independent media, including social media, over the past year.
EU Ministers Discuss Further Russia Sanctions
Foreign and defense ministers from the European Union are meeting in Brussels to discuss more sanctions on Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The ministers from the bloc's 27 members are also discussing emergency aid and military cooperation during their March 21 meeting.
A decision on further sanctions "is going to dominate and it's not going to be easy," an EU diplomat said ahead of the meeting, with the divisive question of a ban on Russian energy imports still unresolved.
The meeting comes ahead of a flurry of contacts between Western allies over Ukraine: An EU summit, a NATO summit, and G7 talks are all planned for later in the week.
Poland and the Baltic states are pushing for tougher sanctions including an EU ban on Russian oil and gas imports. However, Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas, and some other EU member states are resisting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 21 that Europe would be hit hard in the event of an embargo on Russian oil, striking the continent's energy balance.
Poland also wants more emphasis on NATO in a common defense strategy, EU diplomats told the dpa news agency.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov is to brief the EU ministers on the current situation in the conflict. Moldova's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu is also attending.
Based on reporting by dpa and Reuters
Kyiv Mayor Announces New 35-Hour Curfew From Late March 21
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has announced a new 35-hour curfew for the Ukrainian capital from later on March 21.
The former boxing champion said in a statement on Telegram that the curfew will begin at 8 p.m. local time on March 21 and last until 7 a.m. on March 23.
Klitschko said shops, pharmacies, and gas stations would not open on March 22. Parts of the city have come under fire repeatedly from Russian forces.
"I ask everyone to stay at home -- or in shelters when the alarm sounds," Klitschko said.
Klitschko announced the first 35-hour curfew on March 15.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
- By RFE/RL
Pentagon Accuses Russia Of 'War Crimes,' Vows To Assist With Evidence Collection
The U.S. military accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in their bloody invasion of Ukraine, echoing comments made by President Joe Biden and by European Union and Ukrainian officials.
"We certainly see clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes and we are helping with the collecting of evidence of that," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing on March 21.
"But there's investigative processes that are going to go on, and we're going to let that happen. We're going to contribute to that investigative process,” he said. “As for what would come out of that, that's not a decision that the Pentagon leadership would make."
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague generally prosecutes alleged war crimes.
The Pentagon accused the Kremlin of carrying out indiscriminate attacks as part of an intentional strategy in the conflict.
The Pentagon comments follow remarks by Biden, who said he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “war criminal” for actions in Ukraine and by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said that what Russian forces were doing in their assault on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol “is a massive war crime.”
Russian forces continued their campaign to seize Mariupol on March 21, with bombing reducing much of the city to rubble amid thousands of casualties among civilians.
Russia began its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and has hit military and civilian areas in many major cities, including Kyiv, the capital, and Kharkiv, leading to widespread condemnation from world leaders and street protests in many cities.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
As Accusations Of Russian War Crimes Mount, Mariupol Defenders Struggle To Hold Off Invasion
Amid growing accusations of war crimes, Ukrainian forces and residents of Mariupol have continued what the government called their "heroic" resistance to a brutal Russian attack as the Ukrainian president restated his call for peace talks even as he took a defiant stand against the Kremlin's surrender ultimatums.
Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine
RFE/RL's Ukraine Live Briefing gives you all of the latest on Russia's unprovoked invasion of its neighbor, how Kyiv is fighting back, the plight of civilians, and Western reaction. The Live Briefing presents the latest developments and analysis, updated throughout the day.
As Mariupol's Ukrainian defenders battled to stave off the deadly onslaught on March 21, Russian forces intensified and broadened their attacks elsewhere, including on the capital, Kyiv, where an air strike on a shopping mall and nearby apartment building killed at least eight people.
Ukrainian President President Volodymyr Zelenskiy remained defiant as Kyiv rejected a Russian ultimatum to surrender Mariupol, saying Ukraine could never give up the strategic port or other cities, including Kharkiv and the capital.
In comments to local media on March 21, Zelenskiy accused Moscow of trying to "destroy" his country. "Ukraine cannot fulfill Russian ultimatums," he said. "We should be destroyed first, then their ultimatum would be fulfilled."
He said the Russians wanted Ukraine to "hand over" the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mariupol but that neither the Ukrainian people "nor me, as president, can do this."
In an interview with news site Suspilne on March 21, Zelenskiy restated his insistence on the need to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin "in any format" to end the fighting.
"I believe that without this meeting, it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war," said Zelenskiy, who added that any compromises made in talks with Russians would be put before the Ukrainian people in a referendum.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on March 21 that "significant progress" in the peace talks between negotiators is needed before a meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy would be a possibility.
Mariupol: Apocalyptic Images From A City Under Siege
Russia has for the past two weeks attempted to encircle Mariupol, an important port on the Sea of Azov. It is seeking to take control of the city, allowing it to link Crimea -- which it seized in 2014 -- with territory controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
At least 2,300 people have died in Mariupol, some buried in mass graves, authorities have said.
On March 20, an attack destroyed an art school sheltering some 400 people in the city. There was no immediate report on casualties, but authorities fear many people could still be under the rubble.
WATCH: Russian troops occupying the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson fired live rounds and stun grenades at peaceful protesters. Amateur video showed at least one person being wounded.
That attack came after Russian air strikes on March 16 flattened a theater in Mariupol where civilians were also sheltering. City authorities said 130 people were rescued but many more could remain under the debris.
In addition, Russian forces have been accused of bombing a maternity hospital in the city, where an estimated 90 percent of the buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
The U.S. military on March 21 accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in their bloody invasion of Ukraine.
"We certainly see clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes and we are helping with the collecting of evidence of that," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing.
Earlier, Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat, said that "what's happening now in Mariupol is a massive war crime, destroying everything, bombarding and killing everybody."
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov hailed Mariupol's "heroic defenders" after authorities rejected an ultimatum by Russia to give up the besieged city as of 5 a.m., saying there was “no question of any surrender.”
Reznikov said their resistance was slowing the progress of Russia's military and disrupting attempts to subjugate other Ukrainian cities.
"By virtue of their dedication and superhuman courage, tens of thousands of lives throughout Ukraine were saved. Today, Mariupol is saving Kyiv, Dnipro, and Odesa," he said.
Residents of Mariupol, which had a population of 400,000 before the war broke out, have for the past two weeks been trapped without basic supplies, such as water, food, and fuel.
In Kyiv, air strikes hit the Retroville shopping mall in the northwest outskirts of the capital late on March 20, killing at least eight people. The mall, surrounded by several high-rise apartment buildings in the Podil neighborhood of Kyiv, was still smoldering on the morning of March 21.
RFE/RL correspondents saw devastating scenes in the area, with workers attempting rescue efforts as ambulances, police, and firefighters converged on the area.
One man, who said he lives about a kilometer away, told RFE/RL: “I have never felt the earth shake like that. It was a powerful explosion."
“They are killing my city. They are killing the place where I live,” he added.
Hours after the attack, Vitali Klitschko, the Ukrainian capital's mayor, announced a new 35-hour curfew to come into force at 8 p.m. on March 21.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces.
Poland and the Baltics are pushing for tougher sanctions, including an EU ban on Russian oil and gas imports. However, Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas, and some other EU member states are resisting.
WATCH: People in Kyiv voiced shock after a massive Russian air strike destroyed a shopping mall and also hit residential buildings. At least eight people were reported to have been killed.
Peskov said Europe would be hit hard in the event of an embargo on Russian oil, striking the continent's energy balance.
The Russian military claimed that it had for the first time in combat used its state-of-the-art hypersonic missile to hit particularly important targets in Ukraine, a move widely condemned in the West.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on March 21 that the Kinzhal hypersonic missile “has proven its efficiency in destroying heavily fortified special facilities.”
Russia has denied targeting civilians, despite incontrovertible evidence of deadly attacks on nonmilitary sites.
Observers have speculated that Russian military momentum has been stopped by Ukrainian forces in many parts of the country and that the sides could be heading for a long, protracted stalemate in the war.
Filippo Grandi, head of the UN's refugee agency said on March 20 that at least 10 million of Ukraine's population of 44 million people have fled their homes.
About 3.4 million have fled across Ukraine's borders to neighboring countries, with the bulk of them arriving in NATO and European Union member Poland.
With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, BBC, and Reuters
Ukraine To Send Dozens Of Buses To Help Evacuate Residents Of Embattled Mariupol
Ukraine’s central government plans to send dozens of buses to the southern port city of Mariupol to aid the evacuation of refugees from fighting there amid a continuing onslaught by invading Russian forces.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nearly 50 buses were set to arrive in the city on March 21.
She said that 3,985 people were evacuated on March 20 from Mariupol to the city of Zaporizhzhya about 225 kilometers away.
Overall, she said, 7,295 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on March 20, with four out of the seven planned routes working.
An estimated 350,000 people remain in besieged Mariupol, which Russia is seeking to seize to establish a link between Crimea -- which it seized in 2014 -- to connect with territories controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Municipal officials report a humanitarian catastrophe in Mariupol, with residents trapped without basic services, such as water, food, and fuel, as fighting rages in the city.
According to Russian state media, Moscow has agreed to open “humanitarian corridors” for two hours on March 21.
Moscow has agreed to allow residents to leave cities in the past, but residents have reported Russian attacks on some of the evacuation routes.
Based on reporting by Reuters
Deputy Commander Of Russia's Black Sea Fleet Reportedly Killed In Action
The deputy commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has been killed in battle near the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the Kremlin-installed governor of the Russia-occupied city of Sevastopol said.
"Captain 1st Rank Andrei Nikolayevich Paly was killed in the fighting [near Mariupol]," Mikhail Razvozhayev said on his Telegram channel.
Reports said the general was 51 years old.
The Russian Navy did not respond to a request for comment.
Sevastopol, a port city on the Crimea Peninsula, is the base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Crimea was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014.
If confirmed, it would mark the latest fatality among Russia’s top military officers following reports of several being killed in action during the invasion of Ukraine.
On March 19, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed that the commander of the Russian Eighth Army, Lieutenant General Andrei Mordvichev, had been killed at the Chornobaivka airfield near the city of Kherson.
The Ukrainian Presidency at the time said the general was the fifth top-ranking officer killed since the invasion began on February 24, an unprecedented number of fatalities among a military leadership in such a short period of time.
The claims could not be independently confirmed.
With reporting by Reuters
- By RFE/RL
'Propaganda On State Channels': Anti-War TV Editor Says Many Russians Oppose 'Putin's War'
The Moscow TV editor who protested the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine during a live state TV newscast says many Russians oppose Vladimir Putin’s decision to go to war and she called on them to speak up against the military action.
“You know, first of all, I want to say to everyone: The Russian people are really against the war,” Marina Ovsyannikova said in an interview broadcast on March 20 on ABC in the United States.
“It’s Putin’s war, not the Russian people’s war,” she said, speaking from Moscow through a translator.
On March 14, Ovsyannikova appeared suddenly behind the host of Vremya on Russia's Channel One newscast holding a poster reading “NO WAR" in English and "Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They are lying to you,” in Russian.
The bottom line of the poster said “Russians against war” in English. She also shouted "Stop the war. No to war."
She could be seen and heard for several seconds before the channel switched to a different report.
She was later fined on a charge of calling for unsanctioned protests, although it is not clear what other charges she might still face in criminal courts.
She has since turned down an offer of asylum by French authorities.
Speaking from Moscow through an interpreter, she said: "I have publicly refused to take political asylum in France because I am a patriot. I don't want to immigrate and lose another 10 years of my life to assimilate in some other country."
She told ABC that her protest was a "spontaneous" decision but that her feelings of dissatisfaction with the government had been growing for years. She added that many of her colleagues had the same feelings.
"The propaganda on our state channels was becoming more and more distorted, and the pressure that has been applied in Russian politics could not leave us indifferent," she said.
"When I spoke to my friends and colleagues, everyone until the last moment could not believe that such a thing could happen -- that this gruesome war could take place," she said.
"As soon as the war began, I could not sleep, I could not eat. I came to work, and after a week of coverage of this situation, the atmosphere on [Channel One] was so unpleasant that I realized I could not go back there."
Ovsyannikova, who has resigned her job, said she hoped to "maybe stimulate some people to speak up against the war."
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, ABC, MSN, and AFP
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