Category Archives: Russia

The Russian military's chief of general staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov (right), speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin last December in Moscow. Back in 2013, Gerasimov was the first Russian military official to talk about "hybrid warfare." The U.S. and NATO have not sent troops into Ukraine but are seeking to counter Russia through a variety of means outside the battlefield. Sergei Guneyev/AP hide caption

The Russian military's chief of general staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov (right), speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin last December in Moscow. Back in 2013, Gerasimov was the first Russian military official to talk about "hybrid warfare." The U.S. and NATO have not sent troops into Ukraine but are seeking to counter Russia through a variety of means outside the battlefield.

The U.S. and Russian militaries have both talked for years about "hybrid warfare" as the future of war. Yet it remains a fuzzy term with no fixed meaning. The general idea is waging unconventional war on multiple fronts and well beyond the traditional battlefield.

What's clear is the U.S. and its allies are doing this now perhaps on a scale never seen before as they attempt to counter Russia in the war in Ukraine.

Here's a look at what it means in the current conflict:

Q. How did "hybrid warfare" enter the military vocabulary?

The first prominent figure to talk about it publicly was James Mattis, the retired Marine Corps general and former U.S. defense secretary. He used the term in a 2005 speech, though he didn't go into detail.

Then in 2013, the Russian military's chief of the general staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, gave a speech on hybrid warfare that caught the attention of some Western journalists.

Gerasimov, it turns out, was not talking about a new Russian military doctrine. He was actually addressing what he believed the U.S. was doing to support uprisings around the world. Gerasimov speculated on how Russia might respond but wasn't proposing a new Russian approach.

But in 2014, Russia stealthily seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula using disinformation, cyberattacks and "little green men" in unmarked military uniforms. There was virtually no fighting. Some in the West described this as an example of the "Gerasimov doctrine," though there has never been evidence that such a game plan exists.

Mark Galeotti, a British journalist who closely follows the Russian military, wrote a mea culpa in 2018 titled "I'm Sorry for Creating the 'Gerasimov Doctrine.' "

"To my immense chagrin," he wrote, "I coined the term 'Gerasimov doctrine,' though even then I noted in the text that this term was nothing more than 'a placeholder,' and 'it certainly isn't a doctrine.'"

Q. How exactly are the U.S. and its allies waging this type of warfare?

The U.S. and its NATO allies haven't sent a single soldier into Ukraine, but they began their unconventional warfare before the first shot was fired.

The U.S. released intelligence in advance of the Russian invasion, "pre-bunking" Russian disinformation such as the claim that Ukraine is being run by Nazis.

President Biden's administration worked closely with Europe for months to ensure they would roll out a tough, unified sanctions package as soon as the war began.

The comprehensive sanctions continue to mount by the day. The U.S. on Tuesday announced sanctions against 11 Russian military leaders. The European Union and Japan both announced they were placing additional sanctions on Russian oligarchs.

One of the most important steps has been the U.S. sanctions on the Central Bank of Russia. This will keep President Vladimir Putin's government from getting access to roughly half of the $600 billion war chest it had amassed before the war.

Russia faces a cascade of bond payments that are due, starting Wednesday. If Russia defaults on any of these payments considered a real possibility in the near future it could become a pariah on international financial markets for years to come.

Q. These moves are being made at the government level. What else are we seeing?

On social media, the West is generating wave after wave of public support. Every day, sympathetic scenes of Ukrainian civilians are going viral.

Contrast this with Putin's crackdown on all forms of media, the arrests of thousands of protesters and swift punishment for those who stray from the Kremlin's version of the events in Ukraine.

"What we're seeing now is Russia failing dramatically at implementing its hybrid war objectives," said Dmitri Alperovitch, a Russia expert who heads the think tank Silverado Policy Accelerator. "In fact, they're prosecuting a conventional war on the ground in Ukraine and not doing a good job of it. They're just getting completely destroyed in the information sphere, with Ukrainians being much more adept at pushing their narratives globally."

In another major development, many iconic Western companies have already announced they are suspending operations or pulling out of Russia altogether. They include McDonald's, Apple, Starbucks, big airlines, big banks and big oil. Before the war, it was far from clear they would respond this way.

"Most of the impact is actually coming from Western companies that are unilaterally deciding to pull out of Russia," said Alperovitch. "They're not getting their marching orders from the CIA or the White House. They're doing this on their own. This is what the Russians truly underestimated. They thought that this would be all driven top down, and it's actually bottom up."

Q. Hybrid warfare may be widespread, but can it determine the outcome of the war?

The punishment for Russia is real. The country has been largely cut off from the world overnight. Russians are waiting in line at banks for hours to get money. The ruble has crashed; interest rates have doubled to 20%; the stock market is closed for a third week.

Collectively, this may be an unprecedented global pressure campaign against Russia.

But the single most important factor is still likely to be what happens on the ground between the Russian and Ukrainian forces. Ukraine has put up strong resistance, but Russia has the advantage in sheer firepower, allowing it to grind down Ukraine's defenses over time.

"We have to determine how we change Putin's calculus," said Alperovitch. "I think that can only come with economic pressure turning Russia into a new North Korea, completely isolated economically and diplomatically. Putin's all in now, so it's very difficult to actually get him to change course."

Greg Myre is a national security correspondent for NPR who was based in Russia from 1996 to 1999. Follow him on Twitter: @gregmyre1.

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Without sending troops, the U.S. wages 'hybrid warfare' against Russia - NPR

Russia announced sanctions against top U.S. officials in retaliation for American sanctions against Russia. Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Russia announced sanctions against top U.S. officials in retaliation for American sanctions against Russia.

As sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and allies continue to roil Russia's economy, Russia responded by issuing sanctions of its own against top American officials.

Russia's foreign ministry said it was issuing a "stop list" to prevent members of the Biden administration from entering Russia.

"This step, taken as a response measure, is the inevitable result of the extreme Russophobic policy of the current US Administration, which, in a desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony, has abandoned any sense of decorum and placed its bets on the head-on containment of Russia," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The list includes President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, CIA Director William Burns, press secretary Jen Psaki, deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh, USAID Administrator Samantha Power, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo and U.S. Export-Import Bank President and Chair Reta Jo Lewis.

Hillary Clinton and President Biden's son, Hunter Biden, are also on the list.

Psaki downplayed the significance of the announcement Tuesday, saying "none of us are planning tourist trips to Russia, none of us have bank accounts that we won't be able to access, so we will forge ahead."

The U.S. and allies have sanctioned Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov personally over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russia said it would soon announce more sanctions on U.S. officials, lawmakers, business people and media personalities that the country accuses of "Russophobia."

Russia also said on Tuesday that it was sanctioning top Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and more than 300 lawmakers and officials.

Western countries have imposed a plethora of sanctions against Russian oligarchs and officials, Russian companies, Russian oil and Russian banks.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Sunday that the sanctions are having a severe impact on Russia's economy.

"We expect a deep recession in Russia," she told CBS.

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Russia sanctions Biden and Blinken in retaliation for US sanctions - NPR

Since the invasion of Ukraine began, 400 companies have announced their withdrawal from Russiabut some companies have continued to operate in Russia undeterred.

Originally conceptualized as a simple "withdraw" vs. "remain" list, our new list of companies now consists of four categories:

1) WITHDRAWAL - Clean Break: companies completely halting Russian engagements;

2) SUSPENSION - Keeping Options Open for Return: companies temporarily curtailing operations while keeping return options open;

3) SCALING BACK - Reducing Activities: companies scaling back some but not all operations, or delaying investments;

4) DIGGING IN - Defying Demands for Exit: companies defying demands for exit/reduction of activities

Download the list by clicking here.(make sure to "download" the file from Box as an excel document rather than "previewing" for best file quality)

The list is updated continuously by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute to reflect new announcements from companies in as close to real time as possible.

Our list has already garnered extensive coverage for its role in helping catalyze the mass corporate exodus from Russia.

When this list was first published the week of February 28, only several dozen companies had announced their departure.

Hundreds of companies have withdrawn in the days since, and we are humbled that our list helped galvanize millions around the world to raise awareness and take action.

Although we are pleased that our list has been widely circulated across company boardrooms, government officials, and media outlets as the most authoritative and comprehensive record of this powerful, historic movement, we are most inspired by the thousands of messages we have received from readers across the globe, especially those from Ukraine, and we continue to welcome yourtips, insights, and feedback.

Please refer to Jeffrey Sonnenfeld's insights and commentary below on why our work matters.

Click here to read the March 17th commentary from Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian in Fortune accompanying the release of our new list.

Click here to view Jeffrey Sonnenfeld's related PBS NewsHour appearance on how business blockades and sanctions pressure Putin by crippling Russia's economy.

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400 Companies Have Withdrawn from RussiaBut Some Remain - Yale School of Management

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with his China's counterpart Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony following the Russian-Chinese talks on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on September 11, 2018.

Sergei Chriikov | AFP | Getty Images

Sanctions, asset freezes and withdrawals of international companies are hammering the Russian economy in response to President Vladimir Putin's military assault on Ukraine, leaving Moscow with only one ally powerful enough to rely on as a source of potential support: China.

"I think that our partnership with China will still allow us to maintain the cooperation that we have achieved, and not only maintain, but also increase it in an environment where Western markets are closing," Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Sunday.

U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan, in response, said it had warned Beijing that there "will absolutely be consequences for large-scale sanctions evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill them." On Monday, U.S. and Chinese diplomats discussed the issue over seven hours of talks.

Siluanov had made reference to U.S.-led asset freezes on nearly half of Russia's central bank reserves $300 billion of the $640 billion in gold and foreign currency that it had amassed since a previous wave of Western sanctions that followed its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea in 2014.

The remaining reserves are in gold and Chinese yuan, effectively making China Moscow's main potential source of foreign exchange to back up the spiraling ruble amid devastating capital outflows.

In some of Beijing's most explicit comments on the sanctions yet, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yisaid Monday during a call with a European counterpart that "China is not a party to the crisis, nor does it want the sanctions to affect China." He added that "China has the right to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests."

Spokespersons for China's Dubai consulate, its Abu Dhabi embassy and its South African embassy were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

How much could China help ease Russia's economic pain? Quite a lot, theoretically.

If China decided to open up a full swap line with Russia, accepting rubles as payment for anything it needed to buy including crucial imports like technology parts and semiconductors that Moscow has been cut off from in the latest rounds of sanctions China could essentially plug most of the holes fired into Russia's economy by the West.

But whether that's entirely in Beijing's interest to do so, and how much it could backfire, is another matter.

"In terms of to what extent China could help Russia, they could help them a ton," Maximilian Hess, a Central Asia fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told CNBC. "But they would be risking major secondary sanctions on themselves, major renewed trade and sanctions war with the U.S. and the West as well."

Given the uncertain state of Chinese markets over the last few weeks, amid mounting inflation and a major new Covid-19 outbreak in the country, "it might not be the best time to do that," Hess said.

Still, Beijing does have a long-held alliance with Russia and can benefit from its position.

Before the invasion, Beijing and Moscow announced a "no limits" strategic partnership they said was intended to counter U.S. influence. China's position has been to ultimately blame the U.S. and NATO's eastward expansion for the conflict, and on March 7 its foreign minister, Wang, called Russia his country's "most important strategic partner."

"No matter how perilous the international landscape, we will maintain our strategic focus and promote the development of a comprehensive China-Russia partnership in the new era," Wang said from Beijing.

(China would) be taking all the liabilities and risks of the Russian economy onto their own balance sheet at a time when the Russian economy is at its weakest in decades

Maximilian Hess

Central Asia fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute

And while China's government has expressed "concern" over the conflict in Ukraine, it has refused to call it an invasion or condemn Russia, largely pushing Moscow's narrative of the war on its state news outlets.

"China and Putin have a clear interest in working together more closely," Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, wrote in an early March research note.

"China is happy to cause problems for the West and would not mind turning Russia gradually into its pliant junior partner." It could also take advantage of its position to buy Russian oil, gas and other commodities at discounted prices, similar to what it's been doing with Iran.

To what extent China's leadership steps in to support Moscow will play a key role in the future of Russia's economy. China is Russia's top export market after the European Union; trade between China and Russia reached a record high of $146.9 billion in 2021, up 35.9% year on year,according to China's customs agency. Russian exports to China were worth $79.3 billion in 2021, with oil and gas accounting for 56% of that. China's imports from Russia exceeded exports by more than $10 billion last year.

"Russia can use China over time as a bigger alternative market for its raw material exports and a conduit to help circumvent Western sanctions," Schmieding said.

"But for both countries with their very different perceptions of history, it could be an uneasy and fragile alliance that may not outlast Putin."

The powerful alliance of the G-7 economies, composed of the U.S. and its European and Asian partners, can slap harsh secondary sanctions on any entity that supports Moscow. But the problem here is that China's economy is the second largest in the world and is a key part of global supply chains. It impacts global markets far more than Russia does. Any move to sanction China would mean much greater global effects, and likely economic pain for the West, too.

Beijing likely seeks a "third way somewhere between the binary choice of supporting Russia or refusing to do so," analysts at New York-based research firm Rhodium Group wrote in a note in early March. That middle path involves "quietly maintaining existing channels of economic engagement with Russia while minimizing the exposure of China's financial institutions to Western sanctions."

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Indeed, in early March, the chairman of China's banking regulator, Guo Shuqing, said China opposed "unilateral" sanctions and would continue normal trade relations with the affected parties.

But maintaining that kind of economic engagement with Russia will be "hard to conceal under the current sanctions architecture," Rhodium's analysts wrote.

Could Beijing keep letting Russia access and trade with its yuan reserves, which total around $90 billion, or about 14% of Russia's FX reserves? Yes. But what if Beijing allowed Russia's central bank to sell yuan-denominated assets for dollars or euros? That would likely expose it to sanctions.

China can still trade with Russian firms in rubles and yuan through the Russian banks that haven't yet been sanctioned. But despite many years of working to increase bilateral trade in their own currencies, the vast majority of that trade including 88% of Russian exports is still invoiced in dollars or euros.

Not only that, but China could be essentially catching a falling knife by taking on the credit and sanctions risks of Russia's rapidly deteriorating economy.

"China could alleviate the vast majority of the pain," Hess said. "But if they offered those swap lines and everything, effectively they'd be taking all the liabilities and risks of the Russian economy onto their own balance sheet at a time when the Russian economy is at its weakest in decades."

"So that's maybe not the wisest move economically," Hess said. "But politics are different decisions."

More here:

How much can and will China help Russia as its economy crumbles? - CNBC

A worker attaches a wiring harness to the chassis of an X model SUV at the BMW manufacturing facility in Greer, South Carolina, November 4, 2019.

Charles Mostoller | Reuters

DETROIT The war in Ukraine is expected to lower global light-duty vehicle production through next year by millions of units, according to S&P Global Mobility.

The automotive research firm, formerly known as IHS Markit, on Wednesday downgraded its 2022 and 2023 global light vehicle production forecast by 2.6 million units for both years, to 81.6 million for 2022 and 88.5 million units for 2023.

The conflict has caused logistical and supply chain problems as well as parts shortages of critical vehicle components. Most notably, many automakers source wire harnesses, which are used in vehicles for electrical power and communication between parts, from Ukraine. The problems add to an already strained supply chain due to the coronavirus pandemic and an ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips.

European auto production is expected to experience the most disruption, according to S&P. The firm cut 1.7 million units from its forecast for Europe, including just under 1 million units from lost demand in Russia and Ukraine. The rest of the cuts are from parts shortages involving chips and wiring harnesses caused by the war.

That compares to S&P cutting its North America light-duty vehicle production by 480,000 units for 2022 and by 549,000 units for 2023.

About 45% of Ukraine-built wiring harnesses are normally exported to Germany and Poland, placing German carmakers at high exposure, according to S&P. Automakers such as Volkswagen and BMW have been among the most impacted since Russia's invasion of Ukraine about three weeks ago.

Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess earlier this week said the war has put the company's 2022 outlook into question, as the automaker experiences parts problems. He said the company was moving some of its production out of Europe to North America and China in response to war-related supply-chain disruptions.

BMW cut its car division's 2022 profit margin forecast on Wednesday from 8%-10% to 7%-9%, due to the impact of the unfolding Ukraine crisis.

BMW's plants will be back to full production next week following the luxury automaker halting or lowering production output at some German plants after the invasion, said the company's chief technology officer, Frank Weber.

Weber said the company has worked with suppliers to duplicate, not relocate, the wire harnessing production to attempt to keep jobs in the country.

"When you look at Ukraine, this wire harnessing industry gives work to maybe 20,000 people," Weber told reporters Wednesday during a remote roundtable. "We didn't just want to take away the work there."

In total, S&P on Wednesday said it removed nearly 25 million units from global light-duty vehicle production from its forecast between now and 2030.

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Russia's invasion of Ukraine will lower car production by millions of units over two years, S&P says - CNBC

As another war engulfs Europe, it was left to a squash player to remind the world of a few awkward truths.

After winning a tournament in England late last week, Egyptian squash champion, Ali Farag, noted that since Putins invasion of Ukraine, all sorts of usually demure types including athletes trained by their agents to shut up for fear of censure or losing money have, remarkably, emerged from comfortable silence to condemn the oppression of Ukrainians by a larger and ruthless occupying power.

Indeed, these suddenly uninhibited voices have been amplified by a lot of Western media that, as a general editorial rule, believe that athletes should keep quiet and play their silly games and let better-equipped journalists continue to lecture the rest of us on serious matters like war and peace.

Given this newfound licence to speak out without inviting the blanket wrath of an agitated swarm of condescending Western scribes, Farag said that just as the killing of innocents in Ukraine was unacceptable, the 74-year-long oppression of Palestinian innocents was unforgivable too.

Telling that truth, he added, did not fit the Wests narrative of what kind of oppressed people are worthy of praise, sympathy and attention and what other kinds of people who have also suffered the inhumane whims of a large, ruthless occupying power are not.

Please keep that in mind, Farag urged.

Well said, sir.

Beyond this blatant hypocrisy, the coverage of Putins war in Ukraine by Western media has not only revealed a sickening score of hypocrisies but marquee-sized blind spots about prickly subjects that, like clockwork, provoke hysterical outbursts of outrage by a swaggering tribe of easily triggered journalists and politicians.

Exhibit A:

Western columnists and editorial writers have been busy lately trying to outduel each other in resurrecting the sullied ghost of Winston Churchill to demand that Putin, his insanely rich pals and not-so-well-off Russians, pay a debilitating price for invading Ukraine.

These days, the economic weapons of choice championed by the revenge-hungry keyboard cavalry involve boycotting, divesting from and imposing sanctions on anything or anyone emblazoned with a made-in-Russia label.

Perhaps, like me, you remember when the keyboard cavalry smeared anyone, anywhere who, at any time, has suggested using the same economic weapons to resist made-in-Israel apartheid as anti-Semites intent on the destruction of the little-country-that-could.

Irish author Sally Rooney tasted the clichd rod of these rank hypocrites late last year after she committed the anti-Semitic sin of opting not to have an Israeli publisher translate her new novel into Hebrew as a small gesture of concord with occupied Palestinians.

Back then, BDS was a useless, anti-Semitic affront. Today, it is all the rage among journalists and politicians who once denounced it like crazed hyenas.

Exhibit B:

It is laudable and somewhat dizzying to see Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swing open Canadas door to welcome without hesitation or bureaucratic obstacles the legion of Ukrainians harmed by Putins bullets and bombs.

In Trudeaus cynical calculus, this necessary humanitarian gesture may inspire a political dividend as well.

Canada is home to a sizeable Ukrainian diaspora. The last census revealed that more than 1.3 million Canadians of Ukrainian descent call Canada chez nous.

In crass political terms, that big number translates into big influence.

Alas, the same census shows that a little more than 44,000 Canadians claim Palestinian ancestry.

In crass political terms, that small number translates into small influence.

The latter figure goes, I think, some way towards explaining Trudeaus shameful reneging of his support while opposition leader to help get only 100 of the thousands of Palestinian children injured by Israeli bullets and bombs to Canada for medical help.

As prime minister, Trudeau has not responded to repeated entreaties made publicly and privately by Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Palestinian-Canadian doctor, Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish, to keep his pledge finally.

Decency and humanity demand providing safe haven to Palestinian children and their families in desperate need.

Clearly, for Trudeau, damaged Palestinian children are not worth sheltering, but damaged Ukrainian children are.

Exhibit C:

I suspect that the ugly undercurrent driving Trudeaus refusal to help 100 Palestinian kids is that he does not want to be accused by the establishment press of offering succour to Palestinian terrorists who use those disfigured kids as human shields.

Most Western media and pedestrian politicians like Trudeau abide by this stubborn, simplistic equation: Palestinians + Hamas = terrorists.

De facto: All Palestinians are anti-Semites bent on the violent erasure of Israel.

This is, of course, a gross, but self-serving distortion.

It is akin, I am afraid, to describing all Ukrainians as democracy-loving pluralists, as amnesiac journalists and politicians have been prone to do recently.

Anyone making this uncharitable point is bound, on cue, to be tarred as a Putin apologist or stooge.

Still, it should be possible, even during these horrible times filled, as they are, with misery and death, to challenge the prevailing view that Ukraine is a lovely democratic oasis that requires the countrys more sinister history to be airbrushed out of view or consideration by journalists and politicians turned revisionists.

In the rush to show unwavering solidarity with besieged Ukrainians, columns like these published in 2018 by Reuters and in 2019 by The Nation detailing the countrys cobweb network of avowedly fascist groups and personalities that penetrated Ukraines military, police, government and bureaucracy and campaignedto transform Ukraine into a hub for transnationalsupremacy have, for the most part, disappeared.

So have stories about Ukraines hideous pogroms of Jews throughout World War II and the much more recent and disturbing expressions of anti-Semitism featuring tiki-torch marches and chants of Jews out, Nazi-salutes and illiterate Holocaust denials.

In 2014, when Putins seizure of Crimea exposed the decrepit state of Ukraines military, virulent far-right militias like the Azov regiment stepped into the breach, fending off the Russian-backed separatists while Ukraines regular military regrouped. Once these groups succeeded in pushing back Russian-backed separatists from strategic cities like Mariupol, they not only achieved widespread legitimacy, but also won effusive praise from Ukraines government.

These are our best warriors, then-President Petro Poroshenko reportedly said at an awards ceremony, Our best volunteers.

A number of these militias were eventually absorbed into Ukraines army. Meanwhile, other ultranationalist groups preferred to operate independently, attracting like-minded fascists through youth summer camps who went on to attack city council meetings, Roma, LGBT events, anti-racist and environmental activists and feminists with impunity.

Several commentators have claimed that, over time, Ukraines neo-Nazi militias have been reduced to a fringe.

Others disagree, arguing that too many Ukrainians continue to regard the militias with gratitude and admiration and share their intolerant and illiberal ideology.

In 2012, the far-right Svoboda party translated its previous electoral breakthrough in regional elections into 38 seats in Ukraines federal parliament after securing two million votes, or slightly more than 10 percent of the popular vote.

It is true, that, in the years since, the partys appeal has waned. But one observer wrote: this argument is a bit of red herring. Its not extremists electoral prospects that should concern Ukraines friends, but rather the states unwillingness or inability to confront violent groups and end their impunity.

In 2014, in the urgent face of Russian aggression, the Ukrainian state embraced openly everyone willing to fight, including neo-Nazis. Today, it is once again all hands on deck in Ukraine as it were to stave off Putins imperial designs. And some of those Ukrainian hands are as repulsive as it gets.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.

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Russia-Ukraine: Ugly truths in the time of war - Al Jazeera English

COMRAT, Moldova (AP) Across the border from war-engulfed Ukraine, tiny, impoverished Moldova an ex-Soviet republic now looking eagerly Westward has watched with trepidation as the Russian invasion unfolds.

In Gagauzia, a small, autonomous part of the country thats traditionally felt closer to the Kremlin than the West, people would normally back Russia, which they never wanted to leave when Moldova gained independence. But this time, most have trouble identifying with either side in the war.

Anna Koejoglo says shes deeply conflicted.

I have sisters (in Ukraine), I have nephews there, my own son is in Kyiv, the 52-year-old said, quickly adding that her other, younger, son is studying in Russia.

My heart is (broken), my insides are burning, she told The Associated Press.

Koejoglo is one of Moldovas 160,000 Gagauz, an Orthodox Christian people of Turkic origin who were settled there by the Russian Empire in the 19th century. They make up over 80% of Gagauzias population, but only 5% of Moldovas 2.6 million people.

In the early 1990s, when landlocked Moldova voted to leave the Soviet Union, its Gagauz and Russian minorities wanted to stay. But unlike Russian-backed separatists in eastern Moldova who took up arms in 1992 to establish the unrecognized, breakaway Trans-Dniester area which Russia essentially controls, maintaining some 1,500 troops there the Gagauz in the south chose to compromise.

In 1994, they reached an agreement with the government in Moldovas capital, Chisinau, settling for a high degree of autonomy. Still, Gagauzia has maintained a strong relationship with Russia, where many Gagauz find education and job opportunities. Its population generally opposes the pro-Western shift embraced by ethnic Moldovans who account for 75% of the countrys people.

For Peotr Sarangi, a 25-year-old Gagauz, the old ties still hold strong.

(The) Gagauzian population supports Russia more, many remain pro-Russian, he said.

Although Moldova is neutral militarily and has no plans to join NATO, it formally applied for EU membership when the Russian invasion began. Its also taken in about a tenth of the more than 2.3 million Ukrainians who fled their country for safety.

Ilona Manolo, a 20-year-old Gagauz, has no qualms in laying the blame with Moscow. I think that Russia is at fault. ... Id rather support (Ukrainian) refugees, than Russia, she said.

Theres similar sentiment elsewhere among Moldovas rich patchwork of ethnic minorities even expressed by ethnic Russians who live outside the separatist region of Trans-Dniester.

One of the latter group, Nikola Sidorov, described the invasion of Ukraine as a terrible thing. He said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin went too far (and) needs to calm down.

The 79-year-old added that the issue has become a subject of heated debates among his ethnic kin in Moldovas second largest city, Balti, where ethnic Russians make up some 15% of the population.

An ethnic Ukrainian who lives in Balti said her sympathies were divided.

Im very sorry for the people of Ukraine ... but I also feel sorry for Russians, said Iulia Popovic, 66. I understand that it is all (happening because of) politics and that the situation is very difficult.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the Ukraine crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Invasion jolts Russia's friends in tiny West-leaning Moldova - The Associated Press - en Espaol

As the world's largest country in total area, Russia showcases a wide diversity of landforms. In general terms, it is divided into some very specific geographical zones.

The broad European Plain, or Volga River Plain extends from the Ural Mountains to its western borders with Europe.

The central and southern areas of Russia include large fertile areas, marsh, steppes (plains without trees) and massive coniferous forests.

Siberia is a combination of frozen tundra, with rolling hills rising to plateaus, punctuated by scattered mountain ranges.

Mountains Mountain ranges are found across Russia, with many of the major ones stretching along its southwestern, southeastern and eastern borders

In the far southwest the Caucasus Mountains slice across the land. The country's highest point, Mt. Elbrus at 18,481 ft. (5,633 m), is located there. It has been marked on the map above by a yellow upright triangle.

Making up the natural border between European Russia and Asia, the Ural Mountains extend from the Arctic Ocean to Kazakhstan's northern border.

The Kolyma Mountains in far northeastern Russia extend about 1,126 km (700 mi) north and south to the east of the Kolyma River and roughly parallel to the coast of Siberia. Some rise to over 6000 feet (1830 meters).

Rivers Russia has more than 100,000 rivers with a length of 7 miles, or greater. Some of the world's longest rivers flow through the vast lowland plains that dominate the Russian landscape.

Significant rivers include the Volga, Dnieper and Dvina (west), the Lena, Ob, and Yenisey (central) and the Amur in the far east.

At 1,642 m (5,387 ft), Lake Baikal (marked on the map) is the deepest and among the clearest of all lakes in the world. Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world.

Steppe Long characterized as the typical Russian landscape, the steppe region displays a broad range of treeless, grassy plains punctuated by mountain ranges, and provides the best conditions for human settlement.

Taiga Accounting for over 60% of Russia, this forested region extends from its western borders then east towards the Pacific Ocean. Russia contains the world's largest reserve of coniferous wood, however, due to extensive logging the supply is steadily on the decrease; as well, to make way for agriculture, much of the forested zone has been cleared.

Tundra Stretching 4,349 miles (7,000 km) from west to east, the Russian Arctic is a vast treeless and marshy plain, and is well-known for its white nights (dusk after midnight, and dawn fairly soon after) through summer and days of near total darkness through winter.

Russia has 46 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast), 21 republics (respubliki, singular - respublika), 4 autonomous okrugs (avtonomnyye okrugi, singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 9 krays (kraya, singular - kray), 2 federal cities (goroda, singular - gorod), and 1 autonomous oblast (avtonomnaya oblast')

The oblasts are:Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl';

The 21 republics are: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan (Ufa), Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Magas), Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik), Kalmykiya (Elista), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk), Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola), Mordoviya (Saransk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Sakha [Yakutiya] (Yakutsk), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk);

Autonomous okrugs: Chukotka (Anadyr'), Khanty-Mansi-Yugra (Khanty-Mansiysk), Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar), Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard);

Krays: Altay (Barnaul), Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Perm', Primorskiy [Maritime] (Vladivostok), Stavropol', Zabaykal'sk [Transbaikal] (Chita);

Federal cities: Moscow [Moskva], Saint Petersburg [Sankt-Peterburg];

Autonomous oblast: Yevreyskaya [Jewish] (Birobidzhan)

Russia, the world's largest country by area, stretches from Northern Asia to Eastern Europe. The Arctic Ocean borders Russia to the north and the Pacific to the east. The country also has a short coastline on the Baltic Sea in the northwest. The exclave of Russia, Kaliningrad also borders the Baltic Sea as well as Lithuania and Poland. The southern borders of Russia are with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, North Korea, and Mongolia. The western and southwestern borders of Russia are with Finland, Norway, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Latvia.

Russia Bordering Countries: Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Estonia, Finland, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Azerbaijan, North Korea, China.

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LVIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia and Ukraine kept a fragile diplomatic path open with a new round of talks Monday even as Moscows forces pounded away at Kyiv and other cities across the country in a punishing bombardment the Red Cross said has created nothing short of a nightmare for civilians.

Shortly before dawn on Tuesday, large explosions thundered across Kyiv as Russia pressed its advance on multiple fronts.

Elsewhere, a convoy of 160 civilian cars left the encircled port city of Mariupol along a designated humanitarian route, the city council reported, in a rare glimmer of hope a week and a half into the lethal siege that has pulverized homes and other buildings and left people desperate for food, water, heat and medicine.

The latest negotiations, held via video conference, were the fourth round involving higher-level officials from the two countries and the first in a week. The talks ended without a breakthrough after several hours, with an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying the negotiators took a technical pause and planned to meet again Tuesday.

The two sides had expressed some optimism in the past few days. Mykhailo Podolyak, the aide to Zelenskyy, tweeted that the negotiators would discuss peace, cease-fire, immediate withdrawal of troops & security guarantees.

Previous discussions, held in person in Belarus, produced no lasting humanitarian routes or agreements to end the fighting.

In Washington, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that while the Biden administration supports Ukraines participation in the talks with Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin would have to show signs of de-escalating in order to demonstrate good faith.

And what were really looking for is evidence of that, and were not seeing any evidence at this point that President Putin is doing anything to stop the onslaught or de-escalate, she said.

Overall, nearly all of the Russian military offensives remained stalled after making little progress over the weekend, according to a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagons assessment. Russian troops were still about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the center of Kyiv, the official said.

The official said that Russian forces have launched more than 900 missiles but that Ukraines airspace is still contested, with Russia not achieving total air superiority.

Overnight, air raid alerts sounded in cities and towns around the country, from near the Russian border in the east to the Carpathian Mountains in the west, and fighting continued on the outskirts of Kyiv. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces shelled several suburbs of the capital.

Ukrainian authorities said two people were killed when the Russians struck an airplane factory in Kyiv, sparking a large fire. The Antonov factory is Ukraines largest aircraft plant and produces many of the worlds biggest cargo planes.

Russian artillery fire also hit a nine-story apartment building in the northern Obolonskyi district of the city, killing two more people, authorities said.

And a Russian airstrike near a Ukrainian checkpoint caused extensive damage to a downtown Kyiv neighborhood, killing one person, Ukraines emergency agency said.

Kateryna Lot said she was in her apartment as her child did homework when they heard a loud explosion and ran to take shelter.

The child became hysterical. Our windows and the balcony were shattered. Part of the floor fell down, she said. It was very, very scary.

In an area outside Kyiv, Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall was injured while reporting and was hospitalized, the network said.

In Russia, the live main evening news program on state television was briefly interrupted by a woman who walked into the studio holding a poster against the war. The OVD-Info website that monitors political arrests said she was a Channel 1 employee who taken into police custody.

A town councilor for Brovary, east of Kyiv, was killed in fighting there, officials said. Shells also fell on the Kyiv suburbs of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, which have seen some of the worst fighting in Russias stalled attempt to take the capital, local authorities said.

Airstrikes were reported across the country, including the southern city of Mykolaiv, and the northern city of Chernihiv, where heat was knocked out to most of the town. Explosions also reverberated overnight around the Russian-occupied Black Sea port of Kherson.

Nine people were killed in a rocket attack on a TV tower in the western village of Antopol, according to the regions governor.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, firefighters doused the smoldering remains of a four-story residential building. It was unclear whether there were casualties.

In the southern city of Mariupol, where the war has produced some of the greatest suffering, the city council didnt say how many people were in the convoy of cars headed westward for the city of Zaporizhzhia. But it said a cease-fire along the route appeared to be holding.

Previous attempts to evacuate civilians and deliver humanitarian aid to the city of 430,000 were thwarted by fighting.

Ukraines military said it repelled an attempt Monday to take control of Mariupol by Russian forces, who were forced to retreat. Satellite images from Maxar Technologies showed fires burning across the city, with many high-rise apartment buildings heavily damaged or destroyed.

The Kremlin-backed leader of the Russian region of Chechnya said on a messaging app that Chechen fighters were spearheading the offensive on Mariupol.

Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the war has become nothing short of a nightmare for those living in besieged cities, and he pleaded for safe corridors for civilians to leave and humanitarian aid to be brought in.

The situation cannot, cannot continue like this, he said. History is watching what is happening in Mariupol and other cities.

A pregnant woman who became a symbol of Ukraines suffering when she was photographed being carried from a bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol last week has died along with her baby, The Associated Press has learned.

Mariupol residents including Natalia Koldash rushed to shelter inside a building Sunday as an unidentified plane passed overhead.

We have no information at all, Koldash said. We know nothing. It looks like we are living in a deep forest.

Associated Press video showed debris from a damaged residential building and another building that a young man named Dima described as an elementary school.

There was no military at this school, he said. Its unclear why it was hit.

The Russian military said 20 civilians in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine were killed by a ballistic missile launched by Ukrainian forces. The claim could not be independently verified.

The U.N. has recorded at least 596 civilian deaths since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, though it believes the true toll is much higher. Millions more have fled their homes, with more than 2.8 million crossing into Poland and other neighboring countries in what the U.N. has called Europes biggest refugee crisis since World War II.

All day crying from the pain of having to part with loved ones, with my husband, my parents, 33-year-old refugee Alexandra Beltuygova said in the Polish border town of Przemysl after fleeing the industrial Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

I understand that we may not see them. I wish this war would end, she said.

Russias military is bigger and better equipped than Ukraines, but its troops have faced stiffer-than-expected resistance, bolstered by arms supplied by the West.

During a meeting in Rome with a senior Chinese diplomat, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned China against helping Russia.

Two administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said China had signaled to Moscow that it would be willing to provide both military support in Ukraine and financial backing to help stave off effects of Western sanctions, which include a fourth set of EU sanctions announced late Monday.

The Kremlin has denied asking China for military equipment to use in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia has its own potential to continue the operation and that it was unfolding in accordance with the plan and will be completed on time and in full.

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Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and AP journalists from around the world contributed to this report.

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Follow the APs coverage of the Ukraine crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Original post:

Russia keeps up attacks in Ukraine as two sides hold talks - The Associated Press - en Espaol

China has already decided to provide Russia with economic and financial support during its war on Ukraine and is contemplating sending military supplies such as armed drones, US officials fear. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, laid out the US case against Russias invasion in an intense seven-hour meeting in Rome with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, pointing out that Moscow had feigned interest in diplomacy while preparing for invasion, and also that the Russian military was clearly showing signs of frailty. Earlier, it was reported that the US had told allies that China responded positively to a Russian request for military equipment, a claim Beijing has denied.

An employee of Russias state Channel One television interrupted a Russian state TV broadcast by shouting No to war and holding a sign that read Dont believe the propaganda. Theyre lying to you here. The poster held up by Marina Ovsyannikova on Monday evening also said, in English, Russians against the war. The protest was welcomed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who said: Im thankful to those Russians who dont stop trying to deliver the truth.

Russia-Ukraine talks will continue on Tuesday, Zelenskiy said. In an address on Monday night he also called on Russian soldiers to surrender. Addressing them directly he said: What are you dying for? If you surrender to our forces we will treat you as humans have to be treated, with dignity.

The UKs Ministry of Defence said Russia could be planning to use chemical or biological weapons in a faked attack in Ukraine or a staged discovery of biological agents.

Almost all of the Russian advances in Ukraine remain stalled, a senior US defence official said during a background briefing, CNN reports. Russian forces moving on Kyiv have not appreciably progressed over the weekend. A close ally of Putin, national guard chief Viktor Zolotov, blamed the slower than expected progress on what he claimed were far-right Ukrainian forces hiding behind civilians.

US president Joe Biden is considering travelling to Europe for in-person meetings with Nato allies, Reuters reports. Biden could meet other leaders in Brussels on 23 March and then travel to Poland, the report said.

A convoy of more than 160 cars departed from Mariupol today, local officials said, in what appeared to be the first successful attempt to evacuate civilians from the encircled Ukrainian city. After several days of failed attempts to deliver supplies to Mariupol and provide safe passage out for trapped civilians, the city council said a local ceasefire was holding and the convoy had left for the city of Zaporizhzhia.

The mayor of Ukraines frontline city of Kharkiv said the city had been under constant attack by Russian forces, Reuters reports. Speaking on national television, Ihor Terekhov said Russian troops had fired at central districts causing an unspecified number of casualties.

A Russian airstrike hit a residential building in Kyiv as Moscows forces stepped up their brutal campaign to capture Ukraines capital and other major cities. One person was found dead in the nine-storey apartment building, officials said, with three more people hospitalised as air raid sirens sounded in the capital and other cities hours before Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were set to resume talks.

The Antonov aircraft plant in Kyiv was shelled by Russian forces, the Kyiv city administration said in an update on its official Telegram account on Monday morning. At least two people were killed and seven injured, it said.

Ukrainian authorities have denied accusations by Russia after a Ukrainian missile allegedly exploded in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk killing 20 civilians. Ukrainian military spokesperson Leonid Matyukhin said the missile, that carried warhead shrapnel, was in fact a Russian rocket. The Russian and Ukrainian claims cannot be independently verified.

There are reports that Russian forces blew up explosives at Ukraines Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Ukraines parliament earlier said Russian troops planned to begin disposal of ammunition in front of the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europes largest nuclear power station.

At least nine people were reportedly killed and nine more wounded in an airstrike on a television tower in Ukraines northern Rivne region today. There are still people under the rubble, governor Vitaliy Koval said in an online post, Reuters reports.

Ninety children have been killed and more than 100 wounded in Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February, the Ukrainian general prosecutors office said. The highest number of victims are in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kherson, Mykolayiv and Zhytomyr regions, it said in a statement.

Ukraines prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said Russian forces were behaving like terrorists and Putin had started a full-scale war in the centre of Europe that could become a third world war. Addressing the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, he said Europe chose the road of pacifying the aggressor for years instead of defending the values of democracy, the rule of law and human rights.

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 20 of the Russian invasion - The Guardian