March 28, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Russia will not provide the United States with data on its nuclear forces that is shared semi-annually under a key nuclear arms control treaty, and in response, the US will not do so either, a top Pentagon official and a National Security Council spokesperson said Tuesday.  

Moscow’s move not to provide the information comes after President Vladimir Putin suspended Russia’s participation in the New START Treaty, the only bilateral agreement left between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. The US has strongly condemned Russia’s suspension, which the NSC spokesperson called “legally invalid.”

“Yesterday, we had a further interaction with Russia, pressing them on the upcoming end of the month, there is due a semiannual data exchange every six months, under the treaty, we exchange data on kind of high-level numbers,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb said at a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing. 

“We are going to continue to examine what are the diplomatic countermeasures [that] are appropriate,” Plumb said. “What we're trying to do, sir, is balance both responding to Russia's irresponsible behavior but to continue to demonstrate what we believe a responsible nuclear power’s action should be.”

The NSC spokesperson described the decision not to provide data in response to Russia’s action “as a lawful countermeasure intended to encourage Russia to return to compliance with the treaty,” and noted that “Russia’s failure to exchange this data will…be a violation of the treaty, adding on to its existing violations of the New START Treaty.”

“In the interest of strategic stability, the United States will continue to promote public transparency on our nuclear force levels and posture,” the NSC spokesperson said.

A Russian man whose 12-year-old daughter drew an anti-war picture at school has been sentenced to two years in prison by a court in the Tula region for his own anti-war online posts, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

The man – Alexey Moskalyov – had been charged with “discrediting the Russian military” and was under house arrest after being accused of repeatedly publishing anti-war posts.

RIA Novosti said that according to the indictment, Moskalyov, "using his personal computer, posted on his page in social networks statements in the form of text-graphic publications discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation."

One of those posts read: “Army of Russia. The oppressors around us," according to the court, as quoted by Russian independent news site Mediazona.

In April last year, Moskalyov’s 12-year-old daughter Masha drew a picture of Russian missiles being fired at a Ukrainian family and wrote “No to war” and “Glory to Ukraine” during her art class, according to Mediazona.

The school subsequently called the police.

On December 30, Moskalyov’s house was searched in connection with the case of repeated “discrediting” of the Russian army also based on his comments on social media.

RIA Novosti said prosecutors had requested two years in prison for Moskalyov. Moskalyov pleaded not guilty but failed to turn up to his hearing in the city of Yefremov on Tuesday.

After Moskalyov was placed under house arrest at the beginning of this month, Masha – who he was raising alone — was placed in an orphanage. RIA Novosti said the whereabouts of Masha’s mother were unknown.

In a video published by the independent Russian Telegram channel SOTA, lawyer Vladimir Bilienko displayed some of Maria’s drawings for her father.

“[There was] a letter for Dad. There is a big heart at the end [and an inscription] ‘Dad, you are my hero’,” Bilienko said.

According to the chairman of the commission for minors in Yefremov, Svetlana Davydova, the family had been "on a preventive list of families in a socially dangerous situation" since May last year.

More on the case: Alexander Brod, a member of the Human Rights Council, said Moskalyov did not fulfill his obligations as a father, according to RIA Novosti, adding that Maria had not attended school for a year.

RIA Novosti cited court spokesperson Olga Dyachuk as saying Tuesday: "The court sentenced him to two years in prison in a penal colony. Moskalyov was supposed to be taken into custody in the courtroom, but that didn't happen, because he escaped from house arrest at night, the court announced the decision in his absence."

The court acknowledged that Moskalyov had a daughter under the age of 18 as mitigation, but the prosecutor said the offense was committed during the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The Russian human rights group Memorial said that "the criminal prosecution of Moskalyov is motivated by his political views and is aimed at the involuntary termination of civil activity of critics of the authorities and intimidation of the society as a whole.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that the production of individual types of ammunition will increase seven to eight times by the end of the year.

Western analysts have expressed skepticism that Russia’s military-industrial capacity and supply chains can be accelerated so quickly.

It made the announcement as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu toured enterprises in the Chelyabinsk and Kirov regions. The ministry issued video of Shoigu at a factory making large-caliber ammunition and shells. 

The Defense Ministry said that projects were being implemented to modernize and expand production capacities, as well as increase labor productivity.

It said this would increase production “to meet the needs of the Russian troops, and by the end of this year, the production of individual product samples will increase seven- to eight-fold.”

On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Russian state TV that the Russian defense industry is "developing at a very fast pace" and would produce three times more ammunition than is being supplied to Ukraine by "the igniters of conflict."

The US decision to fly its surveillance drones further south over the Black Sea after a Russian jet collided with a US drone earlier this month “definitely limits our ability to gather intelligence” related to the Ukraine war, a senior US military official tells CNN.

Flying drones at greater distances reduces the quality of intelligence they can gather, a US military official explained, noting that spy satellites can compensate to some degree but have shorter times over targets, again reducing effectiveness relative to surveillance drones. 

After the Russian jet collided with a US Reaper drone earlier this month, the US began flying its surveillance drones further south and at a higher altitude over the Black Sea than previously, placing them further away from airspace surrounding the Crimean Peninsula and eastern portions of the Black Sea.  

When CNN first reported this change, one US official said the new routes were part of an effort “to avoid being too provocative,” as the Biden administration continues to be careful to avoid any incident that could escalate into a direct conflict with Russian forces. The official said the drone flights would continue this way “for the time being,” but added there is already “an appetite” to return to the routes closer to Russian-held territory.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council referred questions to the Pentagon. 

More on the US routes: In the wake of the collision with the US MQ-9 Reaper drone on March 14, US officials have repeatedly said that the US would continue to fly in international airspace. However, the new routes place those flights more than forty nautical miles from the Ukrainian coast, rather than the 12 nautical miles normally recognized as the limit of a nation’s airspace. 

According to a senior US military official, there is concern that once the US has moved its flight routes away from areas closer to the Ukraine coast, it will be harder to return to them and assert freedom of flight for US aircraft. The US Navy has not sailed into the Black Sea since December 2021.

The downing of the drone marked the first time Russian and US military aircraft had come into direct physical contact since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.  

CNN's Oren Liebermann contributed reporting to this post.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach on Tuesday defended plans to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international competitions. 

"We see this almost every day in a number of sports. We see it most prominently in tennis, but we see it also in cycling. We see it in some table tennis competitions, we see it in ice hockey, we see it in handball, we see it in football and in other leagues — in the United States, but also in Europe, and we also see it in other continents," he added.

More background: In February 2022, the IOC executive board recommended that International Sports Federations and sports event organizers "not invite or allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international competitions.” 

But this January, the IOC outlined a multi-step plan for Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate at the upcoming 2024 Summer Games in Paris and the 2026 Winter Games in Milan, which was met by criticism from the United States, Canada and several European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland.

Russian and Belarusian athletes have been competing as neutrals in some international competitions.

"It's even that the governments on whose territory the competitions are taking place, they're issuing visas (to Russians and Belarusian athletes) with very few exceptions. In other countries, they're even issuing working permits where it's necessary for these players and athletes,” Bach said.

On Thursday, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe announced Russian and Belarusian athletes will still be excluded from World Athletics Series Events “for the foreseeable future” due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reaffirming the organization’s March 2022 decision.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has continued a tour of the country's regions with a visit to Sumy in the north – dedicated to the defense a year ago of the city of Okhtyrka.

He recalled the shelling of a kindergarten in February 2022 and noted that Okhtyrka had suffered heavy losses and “brutal enemy attacks.”

According to the presidential website, Zelensky said, "it is a great honor for me to present Okhtyrka today with the honorary award of the hero city, the defender city, the winning city.”

"Justice is the most important thing for us today, so we will not forgive what was done against Ukrainians, against Ukraine. We will bring to justice all the murderers from the Russian Federation, terrorists and the aggressor state itself," Zelensky said.

“We will not leave a single wound caused by this war on the body of our country. We will rebuild absolutely everything that has been destroyed," he added.

In the past week, Zelensky has been to the area around Bakhmut and Kostiantynivka in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as to Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south.

Britain and Poland on Tuesday announced plans to build two temporary villages in Ukraine with housing for people who have been forced to flee their homes due to Russia’s invasion. 

London pledged up to 10 million pounds (or about $12.3 million) to provide shelter and power for more than 700 displaced Ukrainians, the UK government said in a statement announcing its new partnership with Warsaw. 

The two accommodation villages will be built in Lviv in western Ukraine and Poltava in the east, the statement said, adding the allies would also provide 2.6 million pounds ($3.2 million) worth of generators “to support up to 450,000 people via schools, hospitals and community centers in re-taken and frontline areas, including Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Kherson.” 

The announcement comes as an ongoing Russian assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has left millions of people without access to electricity, water and central heating.

“Widespread power cuts, some lasting eight to twelve hours a day, have forced families to resort to desperate measures for survival, like melting snow for water and heating bricks for warmth,” the government statement said. 

It added the UK and Poland would also donate up to 2.5 million pounds ($3.1 million) to the Ukrainian Red Cross “to support those living through extreme cold in harsh winter conditions.” 

“From the pages of the Polish history we know that Ukraine is fighting not only for their freedom but also for our freedom. There is no free Europe without free Ukraine,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said, according to the statement. 

In response to the announcement, Mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovyy said that “hundreds of people have got a chance for a new life, because Russia took away their old one.” 

Ukraine's top land commander has said that his forces are aiming to "inflict heavy losses" on Russian forces in Bakhmut with a view to launching a counterattack. Fighting has raged around the besieged city in eastern Ukraine for months.

Elsewhere, Russian officials say they are willing to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, following accusations of "radiation blackmail" from Kyiv.

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Russia is ready to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russia's state-owned nuclear energy monopoly Rosatom said Tuesday.

Moscow is ready to negotiate "ensuring nuclear safety” and “understanding the development of the situation at the plant" during Rafael Grossi’s expected visit to the plant this week, said Renat Karchaa, an adviser to Rosatom’s CEO, on state TV Russia 24.

“We are open to these questions," Karchaa said, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Some context: Russia captured the plant in early March 2022. Since then, international and local experts have warned about the possibility of a nuclear disaster that could affect thousands of people in the surrounding area.

IAEA chief Grossi tweeted Sunday saying he is on his way for a first-hand assessment of "the nuclear safety and security situation at the facility.”

On Monday, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was visiting the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions. 

Zelensky accused Russia of nuclear blackmail over its control of the nuclear power plant.

“No other terrorist has reached such depths in his cynicism, in which Russia constantly seeks and finds a new bottom.”