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Magyarország
2022. március 3. 15:24 A jelenlegi helyzetben Magyarország biztonsága az első, az az ország határozott érdeke, hogy ne sodródjon bele a háborúba - mondta a Miniszterelnökséget vezető miniszter ma a Kormányinfón, Budapesten. Kiemelte: Magyarország határozott döntése, hogy nem küld katonákat Ukrajnába és fegyverszállítmányt sem enged át a magyar-ukrán határon. A katonai szakértők és a rendelkezésre álló információk alapján ugyanis komoly esélye van annak, hogy megsemmisítik ezeket a szállítmányokat, ezért Kárpátalja és az ott élők védelme érdekében ez az indokolt és helyes magatartás - tette hozzá. A kárpátaljai magyarok biztonsága a legfontosabb, sokan elhagyni kényszerültek az országot, de a 18-60 év közötti férfiak már nem hagyhatják el, ezért sok család inkább ott maradt, és az ő biztonságuk kiemelt jelentőségű. Hangsúlyozta: Magyarország álláspontja szerint az első biztonságos országban kell gondoskodni a menekültekről, ez volt az álláspontja a délszláv háború idején és a migrációs válság idején is. A mostani helyzetben Magyarország az első biztonságos ország az Ukrajnát elhagyók számára - mutatott rá. Kifejtette: fontos a humanitárius segítségnyújtás, az elmúlt napokban több civil akció indult, amelyeket az állam igyekszik koordinálni és hozzájárulni ezekhez. Kijelöltek szálláshelyeket, minden menekültnek segítenek, a határátkelők nyitva vannak, az átkelés folyamatos és gyors. Az Országos Rendőr-főkapitányság, az Országos Idegenrendészeti Főigazgatóság és az Országos Katasztrófavédelmi Főigazgatóság felkészült a megnövekedett feladatok ellátására. Tegnapi adatok szerint eddig mintegy 120 ezren lépték át a magyar-ukrán határt. Közölte: a kormány 1,3 milliárd forint támogatást biztosít a nagy segélyszervezeteknek. Ez az összeg tovább növelhető. Hat segítségpontot nyitottak meg határközeli településeken - fűzte hozzá. Úgy látja, az érkezők között van, aki csak átutazik Magyarországon - főleg harmadik országok Ukrajnában jogszerűen tartózkodó állampolgárai. Akik magyarok, Magyarországon vannak rokonaik, barátaik, van hova menniük legalább átmenetileg. Arról is beszámolt, hogy 600 millió forint értékben küldtek élelmiszert, gyermekápolási és higiéniai termékeket Kárpátaljára, ezen kívül 30 tonna élelmiszert és 100 ezer liter üzemanyagot küldtek, és most indult el egy 140 millió forintos szállítmány az egészségügyi ellátáshoz szükséges eszközökkel. Magyarország - egyeztetve a kárpátaljai magyarokkal és a kormányzóval - mindent megtesz, hogy ne csak azokat segítse, akik ide menekültek, hanem azokat is, akik ott maradtak - jelentette ki. Elmondta: Magyarország minden olyan Oroszország elleni szankciót támogat, amelyet valamennyi uniós tagállam támogat, az ország eddig sem élt és ezután sem fog vétóval élni. Hangsúlyozta: Magyarország elítéli Oroszország ukrajnai beavatkozását, a háború nem elfogadható eszköze a viták rendezésének. Ugyanakkor óvatosnak kell lenni a szankciókkal, mert fontos, hogy a háború árát ne a magyar és az európai emberek fizessék meg. Komoly véleménykülönbségek vannak a szankciókat illetően, és lényeges, hogy ne olyan intézkedések szülessenek, amelyek károsabbak az Európában élőknek, mint azoknak, akiket szankcionálni akarnak - mondta. Kitért arra: vannak olyan felelőtlen vélemények, amelyek olyan területeken követelnek szankciókat, ahol az nekünk "fájna", például az energiaszektorban. Ha a Paks által termelt árammennyiséget szabadpiacról kellene beszerezni, az évi 260 ezer forint többletterhet jelentene egy átlagos magyar háztartásnak. Közölte: a szankciók első vesztesei már megvannak, ilyen a Sberbank, ahol 70 ezer ügyfélnek volt betétje, őket 100 ezer euro-ig kártalanítják. Azonban vannak, akiknek ennél magasabb összegük volt a banknál, 12 önkormányzat is érintett, nekik segítenek: a bérkifizetésekről a kincstár fog gondoskodni, valamint kedvezményes hitelfelvételt biztosítanak számukra. A miniszter önös politikai érdekeik félretételére, felelősségteljes viselkedésre, Magyarország biztonságának figyelembe vételére kért minden politikai erőt. Gulyás a legfontosabbnak azt nevezte, hogy a háború, a biztonság kérdésében nemzeti egység jöjjön létre. Bejelentette azt is: Magyarország kivezeti a koronavírus-járvány miatti korlátozások többségét. /.../ (Forrás: Kormány): https://tinyurl.com/3xcw49km
2022. március 3. Ukrajnából Magyarországra érkező menekült ember ellátatlanul nem marad - mondta a miniszterelnök ma a magyar-ukrán határ mellett fekvő Beregsurányban újságíróknak. Orbán Viktor kiemelte: baj idején a legfontosabb a nyugalom, a higgadtság, a tapasztalat és a rutin. “Sajnos vagy szerencsére nekünk válságviselt minisztereink vannak”, a miniszterek többsége látott már valamilyen válságot, ezért a koordináció jól működik – mondta. Hozzátette: az önkéntesek munkáját összehangolták, mindent adományt csoportosítanak, szétosztanak és eljuttatnak a megfelelő helyre. Szállás van, egyelőre ellátás van, munkalehetőség is lesz. Azokat a menekülteket, akiknek nincs olyan ismerősük, akinél megszállhatnának és Magyarországon maradnak, átmeneti szálláson helyezik el. Az ország különböző pontjain már kijelöltek számukra megfelelő helyeket, ahol ételt és szállást kapnak akkor is, ha hosszabb ideig kénytelenek maradni. Vannak, akik elesettebbek, részben mert nem beszélik a nyelvet és mert nem tudják, hogy maradni akarnak-e. Elkezdték szervezni a menekültek munkához juttatását. Hozzátette: “ez egy munkaalapú ország, itt mindenkit munkához segítünk”. A magyar menekültek egyszerűbb helyzetben vannak, mert beszélik a nyelvet, vannak ismerőseik, kapcsolataik, gyorsan találnak szállást, sőt, a legtöbbjük munkát is. Szólt azokról a harmadik országbeli menekültekről, akik többnyire diákok voltak Ukrajnában – indiaiak, nigériaiak, kínaiak. Szintén bejöhetnek Magyarországra és a nagykövetségeikkel kötött megállapodások alapján Budapestről hazamehetnek. Akik pedig nem akarják elveszíteni az eddigi tanulmányi éveiket, azokkal “megállapodunk” és ha akarnak, vissza tudnak jönni magyarországi egyetemekre, hogy befejezzék a tanulmányaikat. A diákoknak van iskola, vannak tolmácsaink, a körülményekhez képest a dolgok gördülékenyen mennek – összegzett a miniszterelnök, megjegyezve, hogy Magyarország segíteni tud a bajbajutottakon. De a helyzet megoldásának és a baj felszámolásának kulcsa “nem Magyarországon van, hanem odaát”. Kérdésre elmondta: az oroszokkal és az ukránokkal is Szijjártó külügyminiszter tarja a kapcsolatot, ő személyesen a háború kitörése óta nem beszélt senkivel. A kérdésre, hogy tervezi-e, úgy felelt: “ahogy a szükség hozza, amikor szükség van rá, akkor beszélek”. Kérdezték a paksi beruházásról. Azt mondta, Paks II megépül “menetrend szerint”, reményei alapján a “mi kormányunk irányításával, úgy, ahogy elterveztük”. Paks II-re szüksége van Magyarországnak és szüksége van a magyar embereknek, nélküle a magyar ipar is versenyképtelenebb lenne, és a családok rezsiköltsége is magasabb lenne. Ezért a kormánynak semmilyen oka nincs arra, hogy megváltoztassa korábbi terveit és nincs is ilyen szándéka – szögezte le. Angol nyelvű kérdésre, hogy mit üzen Zelenszkij ukrán és Putyin orosz elnöknek, Orbán Viktor angolul úgy fogalmazott: nem hiszi, hogy az ukrán és az orosz vezetőnek tőle kellene üzenet, tanács. Nekik nincs üzenete, csak azoknak a menekülteknek, akik jelen vannak. Nekik azt üzeni, hogy Magyarország jó barátja Ukrajnának, “az ukrán emberek (…) számíthatnak ránk”. A magyarok kívánni tudnak és amit kívánnak, az a béke. Ami most van, az háború, a háborút pedig csak tárgyalással, tűzszünettel lehet megállítani. Hangsúlyozta, hogy ő is szívből békét kíván. Ez azonban nem az európai vezetőkön vagy a magyar miniszterelnökön múlik, hanem az oroszokon és az ukránokon, alapvetően az oroszokon – mondta. A magyar kormány megpróbálta előmozdítani az egyeztetéseket, felajánlotta a feleknek, hogy Budapesten folytassanak béketárgyalásokat. Magyarország mindig elérhető lesz, ha az oroszoknak és az ukránoknak a békekötéshez szükségük lesz rá – nyomatékosította. Egy külföldi újságíró azt vetette fel, hogy a magyar kormány most nagyon másként áll a határokhoz érkező emberekhez, mint 2015-ben. Orbán Viktor azt mondta: a magyarok nem a kényelmes, biztonságos Nyugaton élnek, hanem a nehézségek közepén és ez évszázadok óta így van. Ebből fakadóan “mi különbséget tudunk tenni” migránsok és menekültek között. A magyar álláspont az, hogy a migránsok álljanak meg, a menekültek viszont kapják meg az összes segítséget – jelentette ki a miniszterelnök. (forrás: MTI / Miniszterelnök)
Balkans
3 March 2022 War and hate: Lessons for the Balkans from the invasion of Ukraine. In the week that Russia attacked Ukraine, in speeches given by President Putin on 21 February and 24 February he indulged in the usual arguments that go with wars of aggression about how attack is defence, invasion is prevention, and aggressors are victims. Demilitarisation means stripping Ukraine of all means to defend itself, including its independence and territorial integrity; denazification means killing Ukraine’s president and other members of the government; and stabilisation means installing a puppet regime under Russia’s control. But the core mission of the invasion is the recolonisation of Ukraine. The conflict is far from over: the Russian military will likely commit more atrocities before it ends. The war could have dangerous long-term consequences for the whole world, as is particularly clear in the Western Balkans. This region of south-eastern Europe is home to some of Putin’s staunchest supporters. The Serb leader in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik; the political leadership in Serbia; and the Democratic Front party in Montenegro continue to be Putin’s sidekicks. But, now, they not only threaten Europe with instability on its borders but also support his invasion of Ukraine. The Serbian leadership likes to equate the Russian bombing of Ukraine with the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. The NATO operation came after the Milosevic regime’s fourth war in ten years, after it subjected ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to a form of apartheid and forced around half of the country’s population to flee its campaign of ethnic cleansing. Those conflicts were also driven by dehumanising hatred. People in the Balkans have something else to learn from Ukraine – as does the entire world. Despite the extreme danger they are in, Ukrainian leaders have not drawn on hatred to mobilise their people and give them courage. They have made a point of fighting not the Russian people but Putin’s policies and aggression. They are sending the message that they do not see the Russian people as the enemy. Even in the fog of war, they seem to be mindful of their society in the future. They do not use hate as a weapon. Societies recover much faster from war than from hate. Whatever happens, in the end, Ukrainians will need to rebuild their society. And for that they will need the legacy of resilience without hatred. (Source: TheEuropeanCouncilonForeignRelations)
Romania
3 Mar 2022 Army helicopter, fighter jet crash in Romania, killing all crew. Eight military personnel have died after their helicopter and fighter jet crashed separately in bad weather in eastern Romania near the Black Sea. The IAR 330 Puma helicopter crashed yestersday in the area of Gura Dobrogei, 11km from the airfield, killing all seven on board. It was searching for the MiG-21 LanceR, shortly after the fighter jet – part of a formation of two MiG-21 LanceR planes performing air patrol missions – lost contact and disappeared from the radar. Later yesterday, the fighter jet was also found, having crashed near Cogealac, an uninhabited area near the Black Sea. The 31-year-old pilot died. “It is premature to discuss possible causes. Certainly, there were unfavourable weather conditions, but we can’t comment now,” spokesman General Spanu said on local television yesterday. Today, military and religious commemoration ceremonies for the victims will be held in all Romanian military units. The European Union member is on the front line to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank as Russia wages its all-out war in neighbouring Ukraine, and has seen international reinforcements arrive in recent weeks. The United States has sent a squadron of Stryker armoured vehicles and about 1,000 troops in recent weeks to a Romanian base near the Black Sea, adding to the 900 personnel already stationed in the country. Over the past month, six Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft from Germany’s air force have joined four similar planes Italy dispatched before the crisis. More than 500 French soldiers are being sent to the eastern European country this week. Crashes of the MiG-21 LanceR occur occasionally. In 2018, a Romanian Air Force pilot died after his MiG-21 LanceR crashed during an air show in the southeast of the country. The Romanian Air Force still relies on the Soviet-era MiGs for missions of air policing, though it is modernising its aircraft. Romania, a former member of the communist bloc, has seen tens of thousands of refugees arrive since Russia invaded its neighbour Ukraine last week. (Source: AlJazeera)
Russia
Thu, March 3, 2022, 6:27 p.m. President Putin pushed ahead with his invasion in disregard of a United Nations vote to immediately halt the fighting. The extent of Moscow’s isolation was exposed late yesterday as the UN General Assembly voted 141 to 5 in favor of a measure urging Russia to immediately cease its aggression. Only North Korea, Syria, Belarus and Eritrea joined Russia in opposing the measure. Putin rejected claims by U.S. and European officials that the offensive has bogged down amid tough resistance. “All the goals that have been set are being attained,” he told top officials in televised comments to a meeting of his Security Council. He claimed his forces are fighting “neo-Nazis” and forces from outside Ukraine, whom he accused of using civilians as human shields and of holding foreigners hostage. Russian forces fired missiles at Kyiv and bombarded cities across Ukraine. Police in Kyiv said that there were explosions in the capital overnight, but that it was the result of Ukraine’s air defenses hitting Russian missiles launched at the city. In the south, a spokesman for Russian-backed separatists threatened strikes on the port of Mariupol to demoralize the Ukrainian army and encourage its surrender, adding in comments broadcast on Rossiya 24 today that an evacuation corridor for civilians wasn’t working. Russian troops have advanced on Mariupol but Ukraine still held control of the city. Refugees continued to spill over the borders, with more than a million people leaving Ukraine for neighboring countries. As the UN warned that 10 million people - or almost a quarter of Ukraine’s population - could end up fleeing their homes, the prime ministers of Lithuania and Estonia called for the UN to broker a humanitarian corridor for those fleeing the shelling to be established, while acknowledging that both Moscow and Kyiv would need to agree to the plan. Against the backdrop of escalating violence, a second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine were held in the Bialowieza Forest on the border between Poland and Belarus. It’s a location famous for a meeting in 1991 of the leaders of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, who signed a treaty dissolving the Soviet Union. Russia will fulfill its objective of “demilitarization, in the sense of destroying the weapons infrastructure that threatens us,” Foreign Minister Lavrov told in Moscow before the delegations met. “Even if we sign a peace agreement, it will definitely have to include such a clause.” Any hopes of a fresh impetus for cease-fire efforts were diminished by Moscow’s insistence that Ukraine must still be “demilitarized.” Ukraine has said it won’t agree to preconditions or “ultimatums.” The ruble plunged again today as Russia continued to suffer the economic fallout from its invasion, after its credit rating was slashed to junk on the back of a wave of sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and others. The EU is seeking to tighten the screws on Russia by removing its most-favored nation status at the World Trade Organization, a move that could hit further 95 billion euros ($105 billion) of Moscow’s exports to the bloc with tariffs. The price of oil whipsawed, further roiling the global economy. Further enlargement of the 27-nation EU is suddenly back on the table with Moldova and Georgia, both formerly part of the Soviet Union, submitting applications for membership. Ukraine applied to begin accession talks earlier this week, albeit the application process to align with the bloc takes years. “Ukraine has set a process in motion and this will be discussed with member states,” European Commission President von der Leyen said in Bucharest. “But right now the focus is on ending the war.” Germany was approving the release of 2,700 Strela anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. NATO warned of a “high risk of collateral damage on civilian shipping” in the northwest Black Sea, within and adjacent to Ukraine’s territorial waters. Hours later, the Estonian owner of a cargo ship said it had gone down near Odesa. Billionaire Deripaska, sanctioned by the U.S. since 2018, speaking at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, said an “Iron Curtain” has fallen on Russia and the country is facing a severe crisis for at least three years. He said the first step to getting out of the crisis is peace. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan would freeze the assets of oligarchs in his country, adding that it was “outrageous” for Putin to order Russian strategic nuclear forces be put on higher alert. (Source: Yahoo / Bloomberg)
March 3, 2022 During his March 3 phone call with French President Macron, the Russian ruler made clear that he is committed to taking full control of Ukraine and “neutralizing” the country. Following their conversation, Macron warned that “the worst is yet to come.” A detailed and presumably regime-sanctioned article * published simultaneously by a number of Kremlin-linked news sites on February 26 offers a window onto what Putin’s end goal in Ukraine might look like. The article lavished praise on Putin for taking the decision to resolve the “Ukrainian question” for future generations. Due to the setbacks faced by Russian forces in Ukraine during the first days of the invasion, the article appears to have been deemed premature and was subsequently deleted. The picture that emerges from the text is of the complete military conquest of Ukraine. The apparent objective is to eradicate all vestiges of Ukrainian identity while condemning the country to a grim future as a military dictatorship locked firmly inside a new Russian Empire. This vision tallies closely with Putin’s own stated objectives for the current military campaign along with his long record of public contempt and animosity towards Ukrainian statehood. Ever since he first came to power at the turn of the millennium, Putin's first task was to end the process of disintegration that began in 1991 by waging a brutal Second Chechen War. Crimea and Belarus were gathered in 2014 and 2020 respectively. Now it is Ukraine’s turn. As the article explained, “Russia is restoring its historical fullness, gathering the Russian World, the Russian people together in its entirety of Great Russians, Belarusians, and Little Russians.” What the borders of a Kremlin-controlled Ukrainian puppet state might look like? Russian officials have repeatedly declared that the issue of Crimea is closed. On the eve of the current war, Putin also recognized the two so-called “separatist republics” of eastern Ukraine as independent states. Kremlin negotiators are reportedly now demanding that Ukraine recognize the loss of Crimea and the separatist republics as part of any peace deal. Putin has repeatedly made territorial claims to large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, which he argues were erroneously allocated to Ukraine by Lenin during the formative years of the USSR. Since the initial outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in 2014, Putin has often referred to these lands by their Czarist name of “New Russia.” It is likely that some or all of this territory will be annexed by Moscow if Russia is able to implement its plans for the subjugation of Ukraine. In Putin’s imperialistic worldview, a Ukrainian national identity independent of Russia is seen as intrinsically hostile to Russia’s own sense of self. It is also viewed as synonymous with a pro-Western foreign policy and Ukrainian membership of the broader European community of nations. Eradicating this independent identity is what Putin means when he speaks of “denazification” of Ukraine, an objective of his invasion. This is clearly absurd in a country ruled by a Jewish president where far right parties consistently poll in the low single digits. Putin is openly opposed to the emergence of a strong and independent Ukrainian national identity and accuses today’s Ukraine of becoming an “Anti-Russia.” Rather than acknowledging Ukrainian agency, Putin prefers to blame post-Soviet Ukraine’s rejection of Russia on nefarious Western influence while insisting that the country naturally belongs within the Kremlin orbit as part of the so-called “Russian World". The recently published article indicates that Putin may have felt the clock was ticking and time was against Russia. “Returning Ukraine back to Russia would be more and more difficult with every passing decade. Derussification would gain momentum as would incitement of Ukrainians against Russians.” This certainly fits with developments in recent years. The straw that broke the camel’s back appears to have been President Zelenskyy’s decision to shut down four Kremlin-linked Ukrainian TV channels and charge Putin’s closest Ukrainian ally Medvedchuk with treason. Putin aims to establish a new loyalist regime in Ukraine led by a Russian puppet resembling Belarus Lukashenka. After British intelligence leaked details of a plot to appoint pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Murayev, these plans appear to have been revised. There is now talk of Moscow seeking to install former Ukrainian president Yanukovych, who was stripped of his powers during the 2014 Euromaidan and fled Kyiv for Russia. This would be entirely in keeping with Kremlin propaganda, which has insisted for the past eight years that Yanukovych was illegally removed by a Western-backed coup. A puppet Ukraine would in many ways resemble today’s Belarus. It would necessarily be a police state. Ukraine’s formerly powerful pro-Russian political parties were weakened by the onset of hostilities with Russia in 2014. Moscow may be tempted to allow Kremlin loyalist parties to function superficially at a local level in order to maintain a semblance of democracy, but Russia would demand total obedience from its chosen viceroy. In public life, the Russian language would be granted official status. Likewise, cultural narratives of historic unity between Russia and Ukraine would be resurrected. Any deviations from the dogma of Slavonic brotherhood would be ruthlessly suppressed. The Kremlin has reportedly already drawn up lists which indicate that the FSB and GRU plan to incarcerate large numbers of pro-Ukrainian and pro-Western politicians, think tankers, academics, civil society activists and journalists. Putin would target the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, enraged by the Patriarch of Constantinople’s 2018 decision to grant Ukraine Orthodox independence from Russia and would see avenging this step as an important symbol of Russia’s renewed authority over Ukraine. If he is able to achieve military superiority and control over Ukraine, Putin’s planned purge will entail rooting out every aspect of Ukrainian national identity which does not support his imperial Russian thesis of Russians and Ukrainians as “one people.” The country will revert to its Czarist era identity as “Little Russia.” Needless to say, all talk of Euro-Atlantic integration will be banished from public dialogue. (Source: TheAtlanticCouncil)
* (See also the Russ. langv. referenced article's archive format in: RiaNovosti at 08:00 26.02.2022): https://tinyurl.com/427psjz8
3 Mar, 2022 14:14 President Putin has detailed Russia’s demands concerning Ukraine, during a phone call today with his French counterpart Macron. He reiterated the objectives of the Russian military operation, including demilitarization of Ukraine and its neutral status in the future. The goals of Russia’s military action will be achieved “in any case,” country’s president told. Putin stated that his country’s objectives will be achieved regardless of any circumstances and that, by delaying peace talks with Moscow, Kiev is simply exposing itself to more Russian demands. The Russian leader called on Macron to contribute to the effort to safely evacuate foreign nationals from Ukraine, specifically mentioning a large group of Indian students stranded in the city of Kharkov. The French president said he will contact the government of Ukraine on the issue. The conversation lasted for some 90 minutes. Macron talked with Putin right before having a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky. (Source: RT)
21:55 ET, Mar 2 2022 Updated: 5:33 ET, Mar 3 2022 Russia has taken its first major city in Ukraine after days of fierce battles. Kolykhaiev, the mayor of Kherson, confirmed the city's capture last night. He posted at around 1am local time that "armed visitors" had stormed a city council meeting and imposed a curfew. He had previously warned the city faces "humanitarian crisis" as he begged for a green corridor to help clear the dead. “We dont have any Ukrainian forces in the city, only civilians and people here who want to live.” "We had no weapons and were not aggressive. We showed that we are working to secure the city and are trying to deal with the consequences of the invasion," he wrote on Facebook. Russia is reported to have suffered heavy losses during the battle. At least 300 civilians and soldiers have been killed on the Ukrainian side in Kherson. "The city is crawling with hundreds of tanks and Russian soldiers, who have published notices forbidding movement of more than two people together in a car and demanding that people raise their arms when approaching checkpoints," Rabbi Wolf told Israeli news outlet Kan. Russian troops had reportedly been pulling down the flags from buildings - but citizens are taking them back from the invaders. Lakhuta, head of the regional administration, added in a post on Telegram: "The occupiers are in all parts of the city and are very dangerous." The city near Crimea is home to 300,000 people - and opens up the pathway for the Russians to move towards Odessa, Ukraine's main port and naval base. Fierce fighting is still raging in nearby Mariupol, home to almost 450,000 people. The city lies in a key location, between the annexed Crimean Peninsula where a number of Russian forces are based, and the pro-Russia breakaway provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk. "There's been colossal destruction of residential infrastructure, there are many wounded and unfortunately many civilian dead, women, children, old people," Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, told Ukraine's 1+1 TV Channel. "Our railway link has been cut - they even went to the railway station and fired on our diesel locomotives so that people can't be evacuated". He said Russian forces are surrounding the city on all sides and are several kilometres away. Water supplies are also reportedly under threat in the city. "We have been bombed nonstop for more than 15 hours". "They do not fight with their army, they just destroy entire districts," the city's deputy mayor Orlov told the BBC. One British soldier now fighting in the Ukrainian Marines said he and his comrades were "encircled in Mariupol" as he urged people to "continue the support" for Ukraine. Further rocket attacks have struck Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv, hitting the regional police department and part of a university. Shelling was reported in Okhtyrka, where dozens of buildings were reportedly destroyed, bloodshed in Chernihiv. Russia admitted for the first time it had suffered casualties - saying 500 soldiers have been killed and around 1,600 have been wounded. Ukraine puts the figures much higher. Eerie videos from today showed Russian warships massing off Crimea in the Black Sea. It raised fears Russia could begin their all out assault on the coast now Kherson has fallen. A million people have now fled Ukraine so far, according to the United Nations, amid fears of the largest movement of people since World War Two. A second round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are due to take place tonight, according to Russian state news. (Source: TheU.S.Sun)
March 3, 2022 Top Russian general killed in Ukraine. Maj. Gen. Sukhovetsky, the commanding general of the Russian 7th Airborne Division, was killed in fighting in Ukraine earlier this week. His death was confirmed by a local officers’ organization in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia. The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear. Sukhovetsky, who was 47, began his military service as a platoon commander after graduating from a military academy and steadily rose through the ranks to take a series of leadership positions. He took part in Russia’s military campaign in Syria. He was also a deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army. (Source: Stripes)
Ukraine
10:42 PM IST, 03 Mar 2022 In the south of the country, Ukraine’s military headquarters said today that Russia was sending four amphibious assault ships to land troops near Odesa, a city of 1 million and a major seaport. Images on social media purported to show the landing craft and their escort standing off the southern coast of Crimea, opposite the coastline that includes Odesa. With a naval fleet reported near the Ukrainian city of Odesa and the city of Kherson taken, it’s increasingly clear that Russia’s invasion is gaining pace in the country’s open and hard-to-defend coastal plains. “The fact that they left occupied Crimea (for Odesa) is true,” Kovalenko, an Odesa-based military analyst for the website Inforesist, said yesterday of the Russian naval detachment. “Why they didn’t attempt to land I don’t know.” Images from earlier in the week showed citizens making steel tank traps and sandbags, in anticipation of a potential amphibious assault the local military believes has been delayed by poor weather conditions. The situation in Odesa is stable, but that’s unlikely to last, Kovalenko said, not least because the city hosts a large – if for years inactive – population of pro-Russian residents. In 2014, they clashed with supporters of the so-called Maidan revolution, leaving 48 dead. All but two were pro-Russians, and 42 died when the building they had retreated to was set on fire. In March 1, President Zelenskiy replaced Odesa’s regional governor, Hrynevetsky, with Marchenko, an army colonel who until last year commanded a mechanized brigade in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. While several Russian attempts to land troops around Odesa since Feb. 24 have been repelled, these were small diversionary operations, according to Kovalenko. “It’s clear that Russia intends to punch a corridor to Transnistria, and in that regard Odesa is both the last and the key element,” Kovalenko said. Transnistria, a pro-Russia enclave of neighboring Moldova is just 70 km northwest of the city. Across the south, maps produced by Western analysts to track Russia’s invasion of its westward neighbor already show areas shaded to mark occupation starting to join in a solid strip along the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. An amphibious landing of marines took Ukraine’s second Azov Sea port Berdyansk and may have pressed on to join with Russian and pro-Russia separatist troops pushing west to encircle and lay siege to the southern city of Mariupol, city under heavy bombardment again today. Electricity and heat have been cut off. Meantime troops that moved out of Crimea, spread east, taking the town of Melitopol could soon create a land corridor from the peninsula to Russia’s mainland border, should Mariupol fall. Until now, Crimea and Russia have been connected only by a 19 km bridge that opened in 2018. Other troops from Crimea moved west to Kherson and Mykolaiv, the last significant town before the historic port city of Odesa and potentially heading west through Transnistria. Ukrainian authorities in Mykolaiv said they fended off an attack yesterday morning. In the north of the country, a combination of stronger than expected Ukrainian pushback and logistics failures that left many forces sidelined has slowed the Russian advance. Heavy fighting and shelling continued in Kharkiv. Huge quantities of equipment and supplies continue to push toward the capital, Kyiv. Russia says it is only aiming for military targets. With a naval fleet reported near the Ukrainian city of Odesa and the city of Kherson taken, it’s increasingly clear that Russia’s invasion is gaining pace in the country’s op Russian defense specialist for Chatham House Boulegue, speaking on the webinar yesterday said. There were signs - including Russian attacks on communications infrastructure in Kyiv, and the spread of false declarations of capitulation online - that Russia will bring its full cyber warfare capabilities and air power to bear in the coming days. That could rupture communications between Ukraine’s commanders and defenses across the eastern half of a nation roughly the size of France, as well as their ability to move food and new weapons supplies from Europe and the U.S. to the places they’re needed, according to Boulegue. Having removed the government, Russia would also aim to change the narrative of its campaign, he said, because with no political leadership “the army is no longer an army, it’s a group of ‘terrorists’.” (Source: Bloomberg)
March 3, 2022 A number of Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 drones were delivered to Ukraine on Tuesday, March 1 and have moved into combat positions. Additional Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-air missiles had been deployed to the front line. The additional Bayraktar drones will complement the twelve that Ukraine already possesses. In total, Kyiv ordered forty-eight drones from Turkey; it is unclear how many were delivered in the most recent batch. The Bayraktar is a lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with air-to-ground anti-armor missiles. In addition to its military capabilities, one of the drone’s primary selling points is its high cost-effectiveness. Each drone is estimated to cost less than $10 million - far cheaper than a traditional manned aerial system - and is thought to have very low maintenance costs. In operation, they can carry out repeated strikes against far more expensive land targets with minimal risk to Ukrainian soldiers. The drone has previously seen service in the Middle East and in Nagorno-Karabakh in late 2020. Azerbaijan used the drones to great effect against the Armenian military, leading many to believe that the drones played a major role in Baku’s victory in the conflict. The Bayraktars are expected to be a crucial factor in Kyiv’s war of attrition against its much larger neighbor. Although Russian air forces singled out the drones for destruction almost immediately, Moscow’s failure to secure air superiority over Ukraine and its disorganized air defenses have given the Bayraktars room to operate. On February 28, a Bayraktar drone destroyed a fuel train inside Russia carrying gasolinemto stalled armor columns in Ukraine, a strike regarded as a major blow to Russia’s air defense credibility. Ukraine’s deployment of the Bayraktars against Russia is seen as the first time the drones have been put to use against a major military power. (Source: TheNationalInterest)
India
03 Mar 2022 1:29 pm India stands away from US on Russia, advocates a middle path while keeping options open. Yesterday at the UN General Assembly vote, India once again abstained. Though the resolution condemning Russian action in Ukraine was supported by an overwhelming majority of 141 votes in favour, 35 abstentions, and five votes against. This is the fourth Indian abstention. India’s stand has been criticized abroad as well as at home. The argument is that as the world’s largest democracy India should have firmly stood with Ukraine the smaller country that had been invaded by a much bigger neighbour. If we fail to condemn Russia’s action, what happens if China sitting on India’s border in Ladakh decides to take it over? These are troubling questions. India believes by abstaining it has the option of reaching out to relevant sides in an effort to bridge the gap and middle ground aimed at fostering diplomacy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first priority is the security of Indian students stuck in Kharkiv and other areas of the conflict zone. In Kharkiv one unfortunate young Indian has already lost his life. Modi spoke to President Putin last evening basically to make sure that Indian nationals are brought back to safety. Moscow and Delhi are co-ordinating closely to ensure a safe passage for students. According to officials Russians have been given the locations where Indian students are holed up and will avoid those targets. India’s position is clear. This is not India’s war, nor is it in India’s neighbourhood. It has more to do with the big power rivalry in Europe. Global interests of major players are at stake. It is a continuation of the Cold War era where Russia and America were busy fighting proxy wars across the globe. But the ideological battle between Communism and Capitalism ended with the defeat of Communism and the break-up of the former Soviet Union in 1991. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was a military alliance against the spread of Communist Russia. Now that communism is dead, why expand NATO? In 1991, NATO had just 16 members today it has 30 and counting. Moscow believes its national security will be compromised if NATO expands to its doorstep in Ukraine. It is no longer relevant who is to blame. Yes, Russian aggression is wrong. But India has to look after its own interests and continue to balance its ties with the West with its traditional friendship with Moscow. Over 70 percent of Indian military hardware is of Russian make. It is not easy to switch to US arms when the majority of its armaments continue to be Russian. During India’s military confrontation with China in 2020, Russia provided India with much-needed spare parts despite its growing tactical friendship with China. In the hydro-carbon sector too, India and Russia co-operate. Most of India’s nuclear power plants are Russian-built. At the time of tough nuclear sanctions against India, it was Russia that came to New Delhi’s aid. Aerospace is again an important sector of co-operation. Defence collaboration has resulted in producing the Brahmos missile, which New Delhi was to sell to the Philippines. That would now be stalled thanks to sanctions. Surprising that Congress leader Chidambaram forgets all of that while calling for the Modi government to stand with Ukraine. He may also have had a memory lapse about the 1971 Bangladesh war of liberation, where only Russia stood with India. Despite talks of democracy and principles that the US is invoking now, where was the love for democracy and human rights when Pakistan cracked down on its Bengali-speaking citizens. It did not suit the US then to take a stand against Pakistan. International diplomacy is all about national interests. By doing the balancing act, New Delhi is doing just that. This does not mean that India is isolated or has broken all ties withthe US and its allies. India is engaging with all major powers including the US, France, Germany, and the EU. India is sending out humanitarian aid to Ukraine, despite not condemning Russian action publicly. At the UNSC India had consistently called for a cessation of hostilities and restrain on both sides. Chapter 6 of the UN charter calls for diplomacy and negotiations to settle all disputes. This is after all why the UNSC is in place: to prevent future wars. India has been pleading to both sides to get back to the negotiating table. Many are wondering if China could in the foreseeable future take a leaf out of Russia’s book and march into say Arunachal or Ladakh? Considering that China and Russia are today much closer, what could happen? For one, despite the obvious strategic reasons why China and Russia are together today, the fact remains that both countries are also suspicious of each other. Like India, Russia does not wish to see China as a sole power in Asia. Also, according to the former Indian ambassador to China, Rao, who said in a recent interview with the Print’s Jyoti Malhotra, she believes China is much more pragmatic and while confrontation with India will continue, it is unlikely to start a war. It is not in the kind of desperate position that Russia is today. The US is also reaching out to China in its bid to isolate Russia. President Xi will not hesitate to take the offer, considering the enormous economic stakes involved. With the US and the west’s focus shifting to Russia for the next few years, attention to China will be somewhat less. India will continue with its middle path, remain neutral in the conflict. (Source: OutlookIndia)
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