Jun 7 Buonasera Mag
Severodonetsk, Kherson, The Black Sea, the weaponisation of rape, demining, Medvedev, the Taliban, Bulgaria, Germany, DFRLab Open/360 Summit 2022, PM Johnson, The New Iron Curtain, WTF
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Stories we’re following…
During president Zelensky’s nightly address he said that his troops still had “every chance” of holding Severodonetsk despite being outnumbered by Russian forces. There seems to have been no let-up to the fighting in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk - which have become "dead cities" according to President Zelensky.
Russian troops continue to storm the city of Siverodonetsk where heavy fighting is taking place, Ukraine’s military has said in its latest operational report. According to Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces, Ukrainian helicopters reportedly struck at clusters of enemy forces in the Kherson region, and planes at ammunition depots in the Mykolayiv region.
Russian troops with Iskander-M systems positioned in Belarus along Ukrainian border. According to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Russia has also deployed medium-range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery systems Pantsir, S-400 missile systems, and operational and tactical aircraft along the border.
Sexual violence in Ukraine remains prevalent and underreported as Russia’s invasion is “turning into a human trafficking crisis” according to the UN. “Women and children fleeing the conflict are being targeted for trafficking and exploitation” Pramila Patten, the United Nations special representative on sexual violence, told a UN security council on Monday.
Ukraine would need about six months to demine the water around its Black Sea ports even if the Russian blockade is lifted, according to Ukraine’s first deputy minister of agrarian policy and food, Taras Vysotskyi.
Tsikhanouskaya told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that, when the war broke out, “many people in Belarus thought that Ukrainians needed help, so battalions were organized.” “There are now about 1,500 people (fighting). They are… in different cities, under the supervision of the Ukrainian army,” Tsikhanouskaya said.
An official installed by Russia in Kherson has signalled that Moscow could attempt to stage a vote on annexation to Russia. "It will most likely be a referendum," said Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the administration put in place by the Kremlin.
Russian court rules that the real number of Russian dead in Ukraine is a state secret.
Sales in Russia of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) in May 2022 plummeted by 84% year on year to 24,268 vehicles, according to AEB.
Medvedev on Telegram: “I hate them. They are bastards and degenerates. They want death for us, Russia. And as long as I am alive, I will do everything to make them disappear.
Russian lawmakers have voted to take Moscow out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights as a member of the Council of Europe.
Russian opposition leader Milov has been put on the wanted list. Earlier, the Ministry of Justice recognized him as a "foreign agent". Russian author, Dmitry Glukhovsky, has also been put on the list and arrested in absentia for writing an article discrediting the Russian army.
The U.S. accused Russian Abramovich of violating sanctions by re-exporting a $60 million Gulfstream jet and a $350 million Boeing Dreamliner to Russia and has order seizure of the yachts.
A court in Fiji has ruled that a superyacht Amadea, linked to Suleiman Kerimov, be removed from the Pacific island nation by the United States because it was a waste of money for Fiji to maintain the vessel amid legal wrangling over its seizure.
The Economist: “More than 100 Russian private jets landed in Dubai in the weeks after the invasion.”
The terrorist movement "Taliban", banned in Russia, will take part in the XXV St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Back at the ranch: the defence ministry in Belarus has said its armed forces have begun conducting combat readiness training exercises.
Bulgaria has received its first shipment of LNG from the United States.
Latvia said it will stop airing 80 Russian TV channels until the end of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine and the return of occupied Crimea to Ukraine.
Chancellor Scholz announces the reinforcement of German troops on the east flank of NATO : The German contribution is to be "developed towards a robust combat brigade" (usually comprises between 1500-5000 soldiers).
Samantha Power USAID: "We're going *all in* on de-kleptification. Today I am announcing the creation of a new de-kleptification guide, a handbook to help countries make the difficult transition from kleptocracy to democracy."
Russia's UN ambassador walked out of a Security Council meeting after his country was blamed for causing a global food crisis. Watch the video below.
The Moscow Times, Unlike Moskva cruiser, Moskva sailors were part of special military operation
Military unit 84201, whose sailors served on the sunken Moskva cruiser, has been included in the list of participants in the “special military operation”, as stated in the response of the Black Sea Fleet Prosecutor’s Office to Gulnaz Urazaeva, the mother of a wounded sailor, Mediazona reports.
Kaja Kallas, Speech at the Policy Exchange- 6 Jun 2022
The free world has made many right decisions in support of Ukraine. But we need to speed it up. If aggression pays off somewhere, it invites it elsewhere.
We're witnessing Russia's state-orchestrated calls for genocide. The aim: dehumanise Ukrainians and wipe Ukraine off the world map. A “Nazi” is simply any Ukrainian who resists. Putin and all those who have committed atrocities must know that their judgment day will come.
To hold perpetrators accountable, Ukraine must win back its territories and Russia must fail. We must do all we can to help push back the Russian invasion and end massive war crimes on our doorstep. Otherwise, worse will follow. This is what Estonian history teaches us.
Before premature calls for peace, remember: for half of Europe, peace after WWII didn't mean the end of atrocities but more repressions. This is being repeated in Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine – children deported en masse to Russia, women raped, men imprisoned.
There should be no fear of a bad relationship or a non-existent relationship with war criminals. We must isolate Russia politically and economically to make sure Russian troops run out of equipment and the Kremlin runs out of money. This must be our long-term policy.
We must deliver accountability for war criminals and justice for victims. The aggressor must also pay reparations. Victims must be compensated. A fund for victims could be one way, using Russian assets and central bank reserves frozen by sanctions.
If we fail here, the international rules-based order is at stake and no nation can feel safe. We don’t think about freedom and world order until they're gone. Let’s make our best efforts so that nobody has to experience it.
The Ukrainian flag that fluttered over Azovstal was handed over to the museum. Kirill Budanov, head of the main intelligence department of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, handed it over to the museum as reported by the BBC Russian service.
Olga Lautman, The Many Deaths of Vladimir Putin
The debate about the Russian leader’s health really got underway in February, just before the invasion, when his strange behavior at a televised meeting of senior staff left even professional observers bemused. In the subsequent welter of commentary, his demeanor was described as weird, creepy, and off-the-rails, among other things.
Casey Michel, Decolonize Russia
The former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski once said that without Ukraine, Russia would cease to be an empire. It’s a pithy statement, but it’s not true. Even if Vladimir Putin fails to wrest back Ukraine, his country will remain a haphazard amalgamation of regions and nations with hugely varied histories, cultures, and languages. The Kremlin will continue ruling over colonial holdings in places including Chechnya, Tatarstan, Siberia, and the Arctic.
Soldatov & Borogan, Report: The New Iron Curtain
On March 7, 2022, 11 days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian Deputy Minister for Digital Development Andrei Chernenko wired an urgent order.1 Government agencies must switch from foreign web hosting to Russian services and move their websites to the .ru Internet domain. The order prompted a disturbing question: Was the Kremlin cutting Russia off from the global Internet?
In remembrance of Ukrainian journalists…
Back in the UK, Johnson pulls through…
DFRLab 2022: Contested Realities/Connected Futures
The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) presents the fifth annual 360/Open Summit on June 6 and 7 at the Square, in-person in Brussels and online around the world. Our global team of experts from five continents will convene alongside policymakers and journalists, activists and advocates, and industry representatives for two days of cutting-edge programming.
Programming note:
On Tuesday evening at 9:30 pm CET on LiberiOltre’s live channel…
Livia and I will be joined by Bill Browder , CEO Hermitage Capital Management, Head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign and author of Red Notice (2015), and Freezing Order (2022), and VP of the Italian Federation of Human Rights, Eleonora Mongelli.
We’ll be discussing the beginnings of the Global Magnitsky Act, how Bill made fighting Russian corruption his life’s work and why it’s important for governments to adapt the Global Magnitsky Act.
We’re signing off. Thanks for reading…
Mo & Scott