EA on Australia’s ABC and France 24 English: Ukraine — Putin on the Defensive

Monday’s Coverage: Zelensky — Kremlin Wants to “Deceive” US

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1833 GMT:

The French Foreign Ministry has accused Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU of escalating cyber-attacks against French ministries, defense firms, and think tanks since 2021.

France brought charges against the GRU’s APT28 unit, “Fancy Bear”, based in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia.

The French National Cybersecurity Agency said APT28 carried about 4,000 cyberattacks last year, 15% more than in 2023.

UPDATE 1430 GMT:

Investigative reporting says Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died and underwent torture in Russian captivity, was missing internal organs when it was returned by Moscow.

The Forbidden Stories journalism network, citing an international forensic pathologist, said the missing organs may have been deliberately removed to obscure signs of suffocation or strangulation.

Showing evidence of an autopsy, the body had its brain, eyes, and part of the trachea removed. A bruise was found on Roshchyna’s neck, along with a suspected fracture of the hyoid bone, a common indicator of strangulation.

More than 40 journalists from 13 international media outlets participated in the investigation, with more than 50 interviews with former prisoners, ex-prison guards, and human rights activists.

Roshchyna’s body was handed over in late February, falsely identified in Russian documents as an “unidentified male”.

Yurii Belousov, head of the war crimes department at the Prosecutor General’s Office, said last week that numerous signs of torture and ill treatment were found on the journalist’s body. Experts saw signs that Roshchyna could have been tortured with electric shocks.

Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territories. Moscow admitted her detention the following year.

According to Russia, Roshchyna died on September 19, 2024. Ukrainian officials confirmed her death on October 10, 2024.

UPDATE 1005 GMT:

The transfer of US-made Abrams tanks from Australia to Ukraine has been delayed because of resistance from the Trump Administration.

Australia pledged last October to send Kyiv 49 “soon-to-be-retired” M1A1 Abrams tanks as part of a military aid package.

Australian defense officials said the US has to grant formal permission before the vehicles can be delivered to another country.

An American official claimed the Biden Administration had warned Australia against sending the tanks before the package was announced last fall.

UPDATE 1001 GMT:

On the diplomatic defensive, the Kremlin has stepped back from its demand for the removal of Ukraine’s Zelensky Government.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “There are legal issues related to legitimacy, but in this case, starting the peaceful settlement process takes precedence, and the primary thing is to begin this negotiation process.”

All other concerns are “secondary,” he declared.

UPDATE 0856 GMT:

At least eight civilians, including a child, have been killed and at least 24 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

Air defenses downed 37 of 100 attack drones launched by Russia overnight, and 47 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

Five civilians were slain and four wounded in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

A 68-year-old man was killed by a drone attack on the Semenivka community in the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine, a 12-year-old girl was killed and five people injured, including a 6-year-old girl.

A civilian was killed in the Shostka district in northeast Ukraine, as the Russians fired almost 20 KAB bombs and 35 attack drones against the Sumy region.

Other casualties were reported in the Kharkiv, Kherson, and Kyiv regions.

UPDATE 0737 GMT:

Germany’s incoming Ghancellor Friedrich Merz has declared a priority for staunch support of Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.

Merz told colleagues in the Christian Democratic Union, “The pillars we have relied on over the past years and decades are crumbling around us. Trust in our democracy is damaged like never before in our country’s postwar history.”

He announced that pro-Kyiv foreign policy expert and former soldier Johann Wadephul will be the new Foreign Minister.

Wadephul, a conservative MP and long-time foreign policy advisor to Merz has said Russia’s invasion “is not about a few square kilometres in Ukraine but rather the fundamental question of whether we will allow a classic war of conquest in Europe”.

Merz said that despite domestic debate about Germany’s role in Ukraine, there were “no ifs or buts” about its continued support of Kyiv. Putin’s invasion was nothing less than a battle “against the entire political order of the European continent”.

He assured that Germany will remain “on the side of this attacked country and therefore on the side of all people in Europe who are committed to democracy and the rule of law…to freedom and an open society”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Proposing an immediate 30-day ceasefire, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has called out Vladimir Putin’s “manipulation”.

Earlier on Monday, Putin — on the diplomatic defensive after his mass murder in Kyiv last week threw away Russia’s advantage and unsettled Donald Trump — announced a “truce” from May 8-11, around Moscow’s Victory Day celebration of the defeat of Germany in World War II.

Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the nation:

Russia has consistently rejected everything and continues to manipulate the world, trying to deceive the United States. Now, yet again, another attempt at manipulation: for some reason everyone is supposed to wait until May 8 before ceasing fire — just to provide Putin with silence for his parade.

We value human lives, not parades. That’s why we believe — and the world believes — that there is no reason to wait until May 8. The ceasefire should not be just for a few days, only to return to killing afterward. It must be immediate, full, and unconditional — for at least 30 days to ensure it is secure and guaranteed. This is the foundation that could lead to real diplomacy.

Russia responded on Tuesday morning with more attacks on Kyiv. Blasts were heard after Ukraine’s air force issued air raid alerts for the capital.

Russia Restates Its Ultimatum

Just before Putin’s declaration, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and proclaimed that the Trump Administration is “serious about facilitating an end to this senseless war”. Rubio raised “the next steps in Russia-Ukraine peace talks and the need to end the war now”.

But Lavrov had already reasserted the Kremlin’s ultimatum for its 38-month full-scale invasion.

The Foreign Minister insisted the ball was “not in our court”. But he then told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, “International recognition of Russia’s ownership of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is imperative.”

He also called for a ban on Ukraine’s entry into NATO, the country’s demilitarization, and changes to Ukrainian legislation that would restore the position of the Russian language, culture, and religious organizations.

Lavrov demanded the lifting of international sanctions on Moscow, the abolition of international lawsuits and arrest warrants against Russian officials, and the return of frozen Russian assets.