Firefighters battle a blaze set by Russian attacks on the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ukraine, December 13, 2024

Thursday’s Coverage: 2 Chinese Soldiers Captured While Fighting For Russia’s Invasion

UPDATE 1651 GMT:

A Russian family is leaving the US, where they had sought asylum, after husband and father Sergey was detained in the Trump Administration’s crackdown on non-citizens.

Sergey and his wife Marina left Russia three years ago under threat of arrest after protesting against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

On March 27, Immigration and Customs Enforcement called Sergey into the agency’s San Francisco office, on the pretext of an administrative appointment, and arrested him. He was transferred to a detention center 250 miles away.

The family’s asylum claim was cut off. Seregy could reapply, but he would have to remain in detention indefinitely and risk being deported to Russia.

ICE asked Marina to come back and check in, but she fears arrest and separation from her child: “If both the parents are in prison, will they put my daughter in a foster family?”

So the couple are petitioning for Sergey’s release so they can leave for Serbia.

More than 8,300 Russian nationals have applied for asylum in the US during Vladimir Putin’s invasion. About 85% were granted it in 2024, butsince mid-2024, asylum seekers from Russia and other post-Soviet countries are increasingly being detained while their cases are in process.

UPDATE 1640 GMT:

The Guardian offers the context for the Chinese nationals fighting in Russian units in Ukraine.

The videos are across Chinese social media. Some are slickly produced Russian propaganda about being “tough” men; some sound more like influencer advertisements for a working holiday. Others are cobbled-together screenshots by regular citizens about to leave China. But they all have one thing in common: selling the benefits of becoming a Chinese mercenary for Russia….

Numerous recruitment clips are easily found on Chinese social media. All of them emphasise the pay on offer, ranging from 60,000 to 200,000 RMB (£6,000 to £21,000) as a sign-on bonus and monthly salaries of about 18,000 RMB (£1,900).

One video, which has had hundreds of thousands of views across different platforms, appears to be a Russian recruitment ad with Chinese subtitles overlaid. It shows Caucasian men leaving their day jobs to fight and asks viewers: “Do you want to show strength here? Is this the path that you long for? You are a tough man, be like them!”

A Russian influencer with more than 300,000 followers speaks in Mandarin about the financial rewards of joining Russia’s army, with sign-on bonuses, monthly payments from Moscow, military and housing benefits, and medical and child care.

“Trained by experienced coaches, equipped with the best professional equipment,” she says. “In Moscow, anyone under 60 years old can sign up, regardless of whether they have served in foreign military service. Foreign and Russian citizens can sign up voluntarily.”

UPDATE 1122 GMT:

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has denounced religious persecution by Russian officials in occupied Ukrainian territory.

Citing the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance, the Foreign Ministry said 67 clergy members of various faiths have been killed during Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Russian occupation authorities also hold more than 30 religious figures in detention.

More than 640 places of worship, including 596 Christian churches, have been damaged or destroyed. The Russian Orthodox Church has forcibly absorbed eight dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which included over 1,600 parishes and 23 monasteries.

UPDATE 1112 GMT:

Russia has freed American-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina, imprisoned for “treason” for donating $51.80 to the nonprofit organization Razom for Ukraine, in a prisoner exchange in Abu Dhabi.

Karelina was sentenced to 12 years last year for “funding the Ukrainian Armed Forces”.

The US released Artur Petrov, a German-Russian dual citizen arrested in 2023 in Cyprus for exporting sensitive microelectronics.

UPDATE 1057 GMT:

At least 12 civilians, including a 16-year-old boy, have been injured by a Russian drone attack on Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

The teeanger is in serious condition.

UPDATE 1050 GMT:

In an apparent change of plan, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will join the Ramstein summit of Ukraine’s partners by video conference, say American and European officials.

Earlier reports said Hegseth would skip the gathering of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the first absence by a US Defense Secretary during Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Hegseth’s predecessor, Lloyd Austin, launched the UDCG to coordinate assistance among around 50 of Kyiv’s allies, jointly providing $126 billion in military aid for Ukraine.

European officials said Hegseth joining online is a better option than his complete absence, but they still prefer him attending in person.

UPDATE 0857 GMT:

At least five civilians were killed and at least 23 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 85 of 145 drones launched by Russia overnight, and 49 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

Four civilians were slain in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and one in the Kherson region in the south.

Casualties were also reported in the Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and Poltava regions.

UPDATE 0818 GMT:

Trump Administration and Russian delegations have begun their third round of direct talks.

The officials are meeting in the Russian Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The consultations are expected
to last several hours.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Wednesday that the talks will be focused “solely” on embassy operations, “not on normalizing a bilateral relationship overall” or on halting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

UPDATE 0641 GMT:

Following the capture of two Chinese soldiers alongside Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says there are at least 155 fighting for Moscow’s invasion.

In a briefing with reporters, officials released two dossiers with names and photos of the Chinese nationals. Zelensky said he believes “there are more, many more”.

The President said he does not know of China’s leaders giving “some kind of command” to those fighting for the Kremlin. But he asserted that Beijing must have been aware of some men joining the Russian military in return for payment.

We record that they knew about it. We record that these are Chinese citizens, they are fighting against us, using weapons against Ukrainians on the territory of Ukraine. Their motivation, money or not, politics, etc., is not yet known to me. But it will be known.

Chinese officials suggested the men joined on their own initiative, while maintaining that claims of significant numbers were “totally unfounded”.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said: “The Chinese government always asks Chinese citizens to stay away from conflict zones, avoid getting involved in any form of armed conflict, and especially refrain from participating in any party’s military operations.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ahead of Friday’s summit of Ukraine’s partners in Ramstein, Germany, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appeals for bolstered air defenses against Russia’s deadly missile and drone attacks.

Last Friday, a Russian missile strike on a residential building and a playground killed 20 civilians, including nine children, and wounded 75. The assaults have continured through this week, with 15 civilians wounded by a drone attack on Dnipro city on Wednesday.

In his nightly video address to the nation, Zelensky referred to Ukrainians “living under the constant threat of such attacks”:

We have repeatedly raised this issue with the American side and with everyone in Europe who is in a position to help. We are counting on decisions….

Right now, the world lacks not the systems themselves – but only the political decisions needed to protect lives. The systems do exist. There are even enough Patriots in the world to guarantee protection from Russian terror once and for all.

However, Ukraine’s civilians are being threatened not only by the Russian strikes, but by the Trump Administration’s retreat from the protection against them. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not expected to attend the summit in Ramstein — the first time that the civilian head of the Pentagon has skipped the gathering during Russia’s 37 1/2-month invasion.

Zelensky did not refer to Hegseth or the Administration, which has not authorized any aid to Kyiv as it pursues direct talks with both Russia and Ukraine.

Instead, The President noted:

The second priority at Ramstein is ensuring continued support throughout this year. Stability and predictability of aid are the things that disappoint the aggressor and actually incite toward diplomacy.

We need to eliminate Putin’s temptation — his hope that support for Ukraine will vanish. It won’t. The support will continue. We need that signal, and we need a steady supply of defense assistance.