For several weeks now, Ukrainian soldiers have been given a new role in the war that has been raging for two and a half years: they are occupiers. Around 100 Russian villages are said to be under Ukrainian control since the offensive in the Kursk region. How the Ukrainian military is dealing with this new role is reports the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
“It is important that we do not behave like those who brought the war to us with looting and rape,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press conference last week.
The WSJ journalists report, among others, on Maria Andreeva. After the Ukrainian military occupied the 76-year-old’s village, her family received news that Ukrainian soldiers had brutally murdered her.
In fact, Andreeva’s daughter, who lives in Norway, discovered a video on social networks. It shows her mother receiving a package with water and food from Ukrainian soldiers. Andreeva’s daughter organized a transport for her mother to safety: to Ukraine, through the Ukrainian military.
There is no humanitarian corridor through which the approximately 20,000 people in the region can be cared for or leave the country. According to Ukrainian sources, Russia refuses to create such a corridor. It is difficult to get independent news from the Kursk region.
Only a few days ago, however, the government in Kiev set up a hotline. Russians who wish to be evacuated from the occupied region to Ukraine can register there. There is no information on how often it is used.
Maria Andreeva now lives in Sumy, in the border region in northeastern Ukraine. In the past, she says, people didn’t know where Russia ends and Ukraine begins. “We were friends. And now, just because of one idiot, we’re fighting each other.”
The most important news of the day:
- President Vladimir Putin’s party claims to have won the regional elections in Russia without any problems. The candidates of United Russia emerged victorious from the elections held from September 6 to 8 in 83 regions of the country, said the secretary of the party’s general committee, Vladimir Yakushev, on Monday. More here
- Russian authorities are apparently increasingly taking action against overly critical military bloggers in their own country. However, the way in which you deal with reporting critical of the Kremlin is said to have changed over time. More here
- The European Union has received “credible information” from its allies about Iran’s supply of ballistic missiles to Russia. “We are examining the matter with member states and, if confirmed, this delivery would represent a significant material escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine,” said Peter Stano, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, in Brussels on Monday. More in the live blog
- Russia says it has captured another town near the strategically important city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Monday that the Russian army had “liberated” the village of Memryk, located about 20 kilometers from Pokrovsk.
- Unlike Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Kremlin currently sees no basis for peace talks with Ukraine. “As far as a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine is concerned, there are no tangible outlines yet,” said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow.
- According to government sources, Poland’s secret services have broken up a ring of saboteurs who were allegedly planning cyberattacks in the country on behalf of Russia and Belarus. The aim of the group was to collect information that could be used for blackmail, said Digitalisation Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski in Warsaw.
- Russia once again attacked the Ukrainian capital Kiev from the air last night. “It was the fifth airstrike on Kyiv since the beginning of September,” the Kyiv military administration wrote on Telegram. All drones that posed a threat to the capital were shot down.
- According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, NATO must respond to Russian spy planes entering European airspace. The violation of Romanian and Latvian airspace by Russian drones on Monday is a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine, the minister wrote on his Facebook page.
- China has announced a joint military exercise with Russia to take place later this month. The exercise aims to “deepen strategic cooperation between the Chinese and Russian militaries,” the Defense Ministry in Beijing said on Monday.
