WAR IN UKRAINE: March 7, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 377
The head of Russia's Wagner private army says it is not getting the ammunition it needs from Moscow, as it seeks to gain control of Bakhmut. The eastern city has seen months of intense fighting, as Wagner and regular Russian troops try to seize it. But Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin says his army's lack of ammunition could be "ordinary bureaucracy or a betrayal". And in a further sign of the rift, on Monday Mr Prigozhin said his representative was unable to access the headquarters of Russia's military command. It is unclear where the headquarters is located - BBC
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday that if the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut fell, it would not presuppose that Moscow had regained the initiative in the war. "I think it is more of a symbolic value than it is strategic and operational value," Austin told reporters while visiting Jordan. "The fall of Bakhmut won't necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight," he said. He added that he would not predict whether or when Bakhmut might fall - VOA
The Ukrainian government has named a new director of the country's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) from among three candidates in a live-streamed meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers to address domestic and international corruption concerns as foreign assistance plays a crucial role in Ukraine's war effort. The extraordinary session on March 6 appointed Semen Kryvonos to the post. He had previously led an architectural and urban-planning inspectorate. "This demonstrates our determination to move to the start of [EU] accession negotiations already this year," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on Telegram after the vote - RFE/RL
Most of Ukraine's winter grain crops - winter wheat and barley - are in good condition and could produce a good harvest, Ukraine's academy of agricultural science was quoted as saying on Monday. “The analysis of the viability of winter wheat ... showed that the vast majority of plants - 92% to 97%, depending on the predecessor and sowing date - were in relatively good condition," the APK-Inform consultancy quoted a report by the academy as saying, despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine - Reuters
Russia caused $54 billion worth of environmental damage to Ukraine, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ruslan Strilets reported. This figure includes pollution of land, air, water, burnt forests, and destroyed natural resources. “Our main goal is to show these figures to everyone so that they can be seen in Europe and the world; so that everyone understands what the price of this environmental damage is and how to restore this damage to Ukraine,” added Strilets.
Required viewing…
“Please let me die…”
The CBS news show, 60 Minutes, tells the story of three former female Ukrainian POWS and how they stayed alive under Russian captivity for six months. The women, one of them pregnant, survived what UN investigators have found to be common practice in Putin’s POW prisons: executions, starvation, attacks by dogs, twisting joints until they break, rape, torture by electrical shock and boiling water, and mock executions.