A mural by artist Aziz Asmar in Idlib, Syria, expressing solidarity with Ukrainians under attack by Russia, February 24, 2022

Tuesday’s Coverage: Zelensky Rejects Lowering Mobilization Age to 18

UPDATE 1820 GMT:

The European Union has approved a 15th package of sanctions against Russia over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The package adds 47 persons and 34 entities in Russia and in third countries to the blacklist, citing them for contributions to Russia’s military and technological enhancement through the “circumvention of export restrictions”.

The EU said it also seeks to “constrain the activity of additional vessels of third states operating to contribute or support actions or policies supporting Russia’s actions against Ukraine”.

UPDATE 1438 GMT:

A Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine has sentenced nine Ukrainian troops to lengthy prison terms over their defense of the city of Mariupol in 2022.

The court in the occupied Donetsk region sentenced the troops to prison terms ranging from 24 years to life in a high-security penal colony.

The defendants were captured in the Azovstal steel plant, which finally surrendered in May 2022 after 12 weeks of Russian bombing, ground assaults, and siege.

UPDATE 1356 GMT:

At least eight civilians were killed and 57 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

A missile attack on Zaporizhzhia city in southern Ukraine late Tuesday killed seven people and wounded 22. A clinic was destroyed, and at least 20 residential buildings damaged.

In the neighboring Kherson region, one civilian was killed and 15 injured.

Russian attacks against the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine injured 19 people, 17 of them in the town of Zlatopil by two Iskander-M missiles which damaged 16 residential buildings.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine helped Syria’s rebels who toppled the Assad regime in an 11-day offensive last weekend, say “sources familiar with Ukrainian military activities abroad”.

Ukraine’s intelligence service HUR sent around 20 experienced drone operators and 150 first-person-view drones to the rebel headquarters in Idlib Province in northwest Syria four to five weeks ago.

“Western intelligence sources” assess that the drones had a modest role in the offensive. However, they demonstrate Kyiv’s challenge to Russia, beyond Ukraine’s resistance of Moscow’s 33 1/2-month invasion.

An HUR official said in June that “since the beginning of the year, the [Syrian] rebels, supported by Ukrainian operatives, have inflicted numerous strikes on Russian military facilities represented in the region”. A special unit, Khimik, was working “in collaboration with the Syrian opposition”.

Rocket-propelled grenades, improvised mortars, and improvised explosive devices were used against columns of military vehicles, checkpoints, strongholds, and foot patrols. Videos showed attacks on a bunker, a white van, and other targets.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed in September that “Ukrainian intelligence emissaries” in Idlib were conducting “dirty operations”. Alexander Lavrentyev, the Kremlin’s Special Representative for Syria, said in a November interview, “We do indeed have information that Ukrainian specialists from the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine are on the territory of Idlib.”

But at the start of December a Russian Telegram account, connected with Moscow’s military, played down Ukraine’s assistance:

Firstly, HUR members did visit Idlib, but they stayed there for only a short time….

Secondly, HTS has long had its own UAV program.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on Tuesday:

Assad and Putin are more than just vassal and lord. They are accomplices in violence. Dictators like Assad cannot survive without dictators like Putin. And Putin will try to get a revenge for Assad’s fall.

This is why we need unity and strength to confront regimes that only sow humiliation and leave nothing but suffering, pain, and ruins in their wake. By assisting Ukraine in its fight against Putin’s dictatorship, the international community is assisting many other regions in restoring security and protection from violence.