February 27, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Russia’s suspension of participation in a key nuclear arms control treaty hasn’t come into force yet, a top State Department official said Monday, but she expects certain treaty notifications will cease once it’s finalized.

“The suspension hasn’t been officially affected yet in the sense that we’re still receiving notifications, as recently as today, under the treaty, regular notifications,” Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance Mallory Stewart said at an event at Brookings Institution.

“But we expect that as soon as that suspension has been formalized, that those will stop,” she said. 

Some more context: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that Russia would suspend its participation in New START – the only remaining agreement between the world’s largest nuclear arsenals. US officials have condemned this move as “irresponsible.”

Stewart said the United States is “trying to follow up” with the Russians “to truly understand what else could be included in the suspension, and what could be continued.”

“Right now we expect it will just be the launch notifications under that 1988 agreement, and that they said they’ll abide by the actual numerical limitations,” she said.

Under the treaty, both sides give “pre‑launch notifications of the launch of treaty‑accountable ballistic missiles,” according to the State Department.

Two Ukrainian rescue workers have been killed amid a wave of Russian drone attacks, although air defenses shot down 11 of 14 drones launched by Moscow, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Elsewhere, UN chief Antonio Guterres has said that the Russian invasion has set off "the most massive violations of human rights."

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Moscow is concerned about the situation in Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria and is closely monitoring developments there, the Kremlin said Monday.

Speaking on a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said “the situation in Transnistria is the object of our closest attention and cause for concern.”

Peskov alleged that the situation has been “provoked externally” and warned of possible “provocations” from Kyiv and European countries.

Tensions have been mounting in Moldova, as the country's President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of using “saboteurs” to stoke unrest amid a period of political instability, echoing similar warnings from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Some context: Russia has been accused of laying the groundwork for a coup in Moldova, a small country on Ukraine's southwestern border, that could drag the nation into the Kremlin’s war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has meanwhile baselessly accused Kyiv of planning its own assault on a pro-Russian territory in Moldova where Moscow has a military foothold, heightening fears that he is creating a pretext for a Crimea-style annexation.

At least two people have been wounded by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine over the last 24 hours, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk region military administration.

One person was wounded in Kurakhove and several buildings in the area were also damaged, he said.

One person was wounded and three houses were damaged in Kostiantynivka, added Kyrylenko.

And in Avdiivka "there were sporadic incomings during the night, and in the morning - two massive attacks on residential and industrial areas," Kyrylenko said. 

The towns of Vuhledar, Novoukrainka and Bohoiavlenka also came under fire, he added. 

Two rescue workers who were responding to a drone attack in Ukraine's Khmelnytskyi region were killed when Russian forces struck the same site for a second time, according to Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs.

"Today, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry team lost two rescuers: 21-year-old Vladyslav Dvorak and 31-year-old Serhii Sevruk," Ihor Klymenko said Monday.

"Together with their colleagues from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, they were eliminating the consequences of a Russian UAV attack in Khmelnytskyi region overnight. And then the enemy attacked again. Deliberately at our unarmed heroes," he added.

"Two of them died. Three more rescuers were wounded. Now doctors are providing them with all the necessary assistance," said Klymenko.

The Kremlin has declined to comment on CNN reporting that China is considering providing drones and ammunition to Russia for use in the Ukraine war.

“I don't see the need to comment. This information was refuted by the Chinese side,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told CNN during a regular press briefing on Monday.

Pressed further if Moscow had asked China for military equipment and aid, Peskov repeated that “all this information as a whole was refuted by the Chinese side” and he had nothing to add.

CNN reported Friday that the US has intelligence that negotiations between Russia and China are ongoing around the price and scope of equipment to be supplied, but Beijing has not made a final decision yet.

The US is “confident” that China is considering sending lethal equipment to Russia, according to CIA director William Burns.

Separately, Peskov said Moscow paid “great attention” to a “peace plan” proposed by China, but so far there are none of the necessary conditions for peace in Ukraine.

“At the moment, we do not see any prerequisites for the transition of this whole situation into a peaceful direction,” Peskov said.

“The special military operation continues, we are moving towards achieving the goals that were set,” he added.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered "the most massive violations of human rights we are living [through] today," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Monday.

"It has unleashed widespread death, destruction and displacement," Guterres continued.

"The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented dozens of cases of conflict-related sexual violence against men, women and girls," he added.

Guterres made the speech at the UN Human Rights Council’s meeting commemorating the 75-year anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Geneva.

He called on international governments to respect and revitalize the declaration, which he said is often "misused and abused."

Some context: Russian war crimes and human rights abuses during the war in Ukraine add up to a "litany of violations of international humanitarian law," Human Rights Watch said in January.

In the rights group’s annual report, it said that evidence of war crimes in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, were part of a pattern that "has been repeated countless times."

HRW’s World Report 2023 also highlighted the bombing of a theater in Mariupol, despite signs warning that children were sheltering there, as well as strikes on other non-military targets.

Russian forces are focusing their efforts on conducting offensive operations in eastern Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Monday. 

Ukrainian forces repelled 81 Russian attacks around Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk over the last 24 hours, it said, adding "the threat of Russian missile strikes remains high throughout Ukraine."

"The enemy is trying to destroy the critical infrastructure of our country, continues to carry out strikes and artillery shelling of civilian facilities and civilian houses," the General Staff said. "The enemy is constantly conducting aerial reconnaissance to adjust its strikes."

Two of the Russian attacks were conducted by using Shahed-136 UAVs against civilian infrastructure, the General Staff said. Both drones were shot down. 

Russian forces also fired more than 50 times from multiple launch rocket systems targeting civilian infrastructure in the Donetsk region and the Kherson region, in the south of the country, the General Staff said.

"There are killed and wounded civilians, civilian buildings were destroyed and civilian infrastructure was damaged," it said. 

Russian attacks have killed at least one person and injured two others in the Kherson region in the last 24 hours, according to the regional military administration.

"They fired from multiple rocket launchers, mortars, artillery, tanks, UAVs and infantry fighting vehicles," it said. 

At least two people were killed and four others wounded Monday in a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi, local officials have said.

In a Telegram post, mayor Oleksandr Symchyshyn said one of the deceased was a rescue worker with Ukraine's State Emergency Service who "died in the line of duty" in the city, located about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Kyiv.

Later Monday, Serhiy Hamaliy, the head of the Khmelnytskyi region military administration, said that another person had died as a result of the attack.

"Unfortunately, there is one more death in the hospital," Hamaliy said in a Telegram post. "The doctors could not save the life of another rescuer."

Ukrainian authorities said earlier that 11 of 14 Shahed drones launched by Russia were shot down Monday, with the majority destroyed near the capital, according to preliminary estimates.