A child at the window of a train leaving Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, February 27, 2022
(Andriy Andriyenko/AP/Shutterstock)

EA on Times Radio: How Putin Revived NATO

Thursday Coverage: Russia’s Forces “Pushed Back 15 Miles” Near Kyiv

UPDATE 2115 GMT:

Extending a recently-passed bill, Vladimir Putin has authorized prison sentences of up to 15 years for publishing “fake” information about Russia’s actions abroad.

The bill passed by the Duma had been specifically about reporting on the invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking in Turkey on Friday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied that Russia invaded and said concerns about civilian casualties are “pathetic shrieks”.

UPDATE 2110 GMT:

French President Emmanuel Macron said after a European Union summit in Brussels, “We are going to work with Turkey and Greece to launch a humanitarian operation to evacuate all those who wish to leave” the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine.

Macron added, “I will have a new discussion with President Vladimir Putin within the next 48 to 72 hours to work out the details and secure the modalities.”

The President said French officials spoke Friday with the mayor of Mariupol and 150,000 residents still in the city are trapped in “dramatic conditions”.

UPDATE 1830 GMT:

The Russian Defense Ministry has indicated that Moscow might be pulling back from its objectives of toppling the Zelenskiy Government and occupying most of Ukraine.

The Ministry covered up the pullback with the declaration that the first phase of Russia’s invasion “have generally been accomplished”, and operations will now focus on the “liberation” of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

The Ministry asserted that Russia’s proxies now control 93% of the Luhansk oblast and 54% of Donetsk. It proclaimed, “The combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been considerably reduced, which…makes it possible to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation of Donbas.”

A “senior US official” assessed that Russia is concentrating on occupation of the east, “They are prioritizing it and we concur, our information would concur, with that.”

UPDATE 1545 GMT:

“Western officials” say a 7th Russian general has been killed in the invasion of Ukraine.

The commander of Russia’s 37th Motor Brigade was “run over” and killed by his troops, “as a consequence of the scale of losses that had been taken by his brigade”.

The officials say about 20 of 115-120 Russian battalion tactical groups are “no longer combat effective”. That estimate matches the assessment of NATO that Russia has lost up to 20% of its invasion force in the first month of its assault.

UPDATE 1458 GMT:

Switzerland has adopted the latest European Union sanctions against Russia.

However, Swiss authorities are not suspending the broadcasts of Russian State outlets RT and Sputnik: “Despite the fact that these outlets are used to spread targeted propaganda and disinformation by the Russian Federation, the Federal Council is of the opinion that it is more effective to counter untrue and harmful statements with facts instead of preventing them from being broadcast.”

UPDATE 1451 GMT:

The Russian Defense Ministry has acknowledged the deaths of 1,351 troops in its invasion.

The Ukraine military says more than 15,000 Russian personnel have been killed. NATO puts the number at between 7,000 and 15,000 while US intelligence has a “conservative” estimate of more than 7,000.

UPDATE 1445 GMT:

The UN rights office has confirmed the killing of 1,081 civilians and wounding of 1,707 during the Russian invasion. The actual toll is expected to be far higher.

UPDATE 1140 GMT:

UN monitors report mass graves in besieged Mariupol, including one with 200 bodies.

“We have got increasing information on mass graves that are there,” said Matilda Bogner, the head of the UN human rights team, citing satellite images.

Earlier today local officials said at least 300 sheltering civilians were killed in the Russian attack on the Drama Theater on March 16 (see 0938 GMT).

The UN also says that it has claims of Russians killing civilians in cars during evacuations, and that it has documented abductions of Ukraine officials, some who appear to have been taken hostage.

UPDATE 1130 GMT:

Executives of Thailand’s Channel 5, owned by the Thai Army, have reportedly met with the Russian Ambassador to discuss “information sharing cooperation”.

UPDATE 1045 GMT:

Local and regional officials says ongoing Russian attacks on Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv have killed 10 civilians.

Police said four people were slain in an attack on a humanitarian aid center in a hospital on Friday.

On Thursday, shelling of a post office killed six civilians and wounded 15.

UPDATE 1020 GMT:

Australia has imposed sanctions on 22 personnel of Russian State outlets or Kremlin-supported sites.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the list includes “senior editors from organizations including Russia Today, the Strategic Culture Foundation, InfoRos, and NewsFront.”

The Editor-in-Chief of RT’s TV channel, Margarita Simonyan, director and presenter Tigran Keosayan, and Rossiya-1 journalist Olga Skabeeva are among those named.

UPDATE 0938 GMT:

Local officials in besieged Mariupol say at least 300 people were killed in the Russian bombing of the Drama Theater on March 16.

Up to 1,300 people — including women, children, and the elderly — were sheltering in the theater when it was destroyed.

Rescue efforts were hampered for days by ongoing Russian sheltering, with confirmation of only 150 survivors.

See also Ukraine War, Day 22: Russia Destroys Mariupol Theater Where Up to 1,300 Were Sheltering

A spokesman for the city council said Friday morning:

Until the last, I do not want to believe in this horror. Until the last, I want to believe that everyone managed to escape. But the words of those who were inside the building at the time of this terrorist act say otherwise.

The Drama Theatre in the heart of Mariupol has always been the hallmark of the city. A place of meetings, dates, a point of reference. “Where are you? I’m on Drama.” How many times have we heard or said this phrase? “On the Drama.”

Now there is no more Drama. In its place, a new point of pain for Mariupol residents appeared, ruins that became the last refuge for hundreds of innocent people.

UPDATE 0859 GMT:

Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has expressed hope that Russian forces will allow some civilians to leave besieged Mariupol in private cars today.

Verseshchuk said buses are waiting in the nearby city of Berdyansk to take the evacuees northwest to Zaporizhzhia.

UPDATE 0855 GMT:

In a late-night video address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, “The 30th day. It’s been a month. Had Russia known that this was expecting them, I’m sure, they would have been scared to come here.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Almost 60% of Ukraine’s children have been displaced by Russia’s invasion.

The UN children’s agency UNICEF reported on Thursday that 4.3 million of about 7.5 million children in Ukraine have fled their homes. About 1.8 million of them are refugees while 2.5 million are internally displaced.

Earlier this week, the UN said almost a quarter of Ukraine’s population are displaced inside or outside the cuntry.

UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell summarized on Friday:

[This is] one of the fastest large-scale displacements of children since World War Two….

This is a grim milestone that could have lasting consequences for generations to come. Children’s safety, wellbeing and access to essential services are all under threat from non-stop horrific violence.

The Ukraine Prosecutor General’s office says 135 children have been killed and 184 injured by the Russian invasion.

Children Trapped in Mariupol

Other children are trapped by Russian sieges, including of the port city in Mariupol in southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian police general Vyacheslav Abroskin has offered to surrender himself to the Russians if they allow him to evacuate the children, besieged for four weeks and facing starvation and no heat, water, or electricity.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that about 100,000 people — around 1/4 of Mariupol’s population — are still besieged.

Russian soldiers with loudhailers are driving around parts of the city lying that the city of Odesa, at the other end of the corridor along the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, has fallen. They are also saying other destinations for refugees are now rejecting them.

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsperson, said 402,000 people — including 84,000 children — have been forcibly deported by Russian forces from Mariupol and other areas in the east of the country. Russia acknowledged that civilians had been moved, but insisted that they sought evacuation to Russian territory.

Russian outlets pressed their version with staged interviews.

Russia Stalled; Ukraine Bombs Russian Warship

Beyond Mariupol, there was little change in the military situation on Thursday with Russia’s ground offensives stalled.

Ukrainian officials cited further gains to the west and east of the capital Kyiv. They said Russian forces are now 35 miles from the city.

In the headline development, Ukraine put out of action the Russian landing ship Orsk, bombing it in the occupied port of Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov.

Two other Russian warships fled the area, with reports that the attacks also struck ammunition depots.

The Orsk — with a capacity of 400 troops, 20 tanks, and 45 other armored vehicles — was intended for movement of Russian forces as they try to consolidate and extend their occupation of southern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military may have been unwittingly assisted by Russian State media, which featured tours of the Orsk as they proclaimed Russian strength and victory.

The UK military assessed, “It is likely that the Ukrainians will continue to target logistical assets in Russian-held areas. This will force the Russian military to prioritise the defense of their supply chain,” reducing Moscow’s capability for offensive operations.

Russia appeared to face further problems with a failure rate of up to 60% of some of its precision-guided missiles, according to “three US officials with knowledge of the intelligence”.

US defense officials said earlier this week that Russia has launched more than 1,100 missiles of all kinds during its invasion.