Ukraine, Briefly

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This week, an air attack on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv killed at least one person, while three others were killed in the southern city of Kherson amid an increase in Russian shelling, Reuters reported. The strikes came as Russia warned Western nations that sending more weapons to Ukraine will lead “to significant escalation” of the conflict, the Guardian added. Even so, the UK’s former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin had every intention of promoting conflict in the days before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to the Associated Press. The British ex-leader added that Putin told him it would “only take a minute” to hit him (Johnson) with a missile, a statement that the Kremlin denied.

Also this week:

• A group of pro-Russian activists in Germany donated funds to a Russian army division fighting in Ukraine that were used to purchase communication equipment, according to an officer in the division and messages from the group’s organizers seen by Reuters, despite European Union sanctions against such purchases. The report comes shortly after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he wants to continue direct talks with Putin to end the war, in spite of finally relenting on shipments of tanks to Ukraine, Anadolu Agency reported.

• Meanwhile, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic broke with his NATO allies by suggesting that Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, was forever lost to Ukraine, Insider wrote. He also criticized the flow of Western weapons to Ukraine, saying it “prolongs the war.” Ukraine condemned his comments, prompting the Ukrainian internet database “Mirtvorec” (Peacemaker), which publishes the names and addresses of persons it considers enemies of Ukraine, to place him on its “black list,” Balkan Insight noted. Still, Pentagon officials told a congressional committee in a secret briefing that Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to recapture Crimea from Russian troops in the near future, according to Politico.

• Human Rights Watch released a report this week, saying it has documented “numerous cases” of Ukrainian forces scattering mines on territory that was controlled at the time by Russia, NPR added. The findings allege that Ukrainian troops placed so-called “petal mines” in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium. Petal mines are outlawed by the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, to which Ukraine is a signatory, because of their ability to maim and kill indiscriminately.

• At the same time, a former Russian military officer told the BBC that Russian troops are responsible for brutal interrogations during the Ukraine war, including shooting Ukrainian men and threatening them with rape. The military officer, Konstantin Yefremov, attempted to resign from the army many times but was eventually discharged for refusing to return to Ukraine. He has now fled Russia.