WAR IN UKRAINE: April 13, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 414
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday condemned as “beasts” those who purportedly beheaded Ukrainian soldiers shown in two videos that emerged on social media in the past week. The videos appear to be of separate events – one of them may have been filmed very recently, while the other, from the amount of foliage seen on the ground, looks like it was filmed during the summer. The first video, which was posted to a pro-Russian social media channel on April 8, was purportedly filmed by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group and appears to show the beheaded corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a destroyed military vehicle. Zelensky vowed those behind the purported atrocities would be held accountable. “There is something that no one in the world can ignore: how easily these beasts kill,” he said in a video message - CNN
Separately, the Security Service of Ukraine says it has launched an investigation into the online appearance of a video on social media purporting to show the beheading
Russian forces have built three lines of defensive zones across nearly 120 kilometers in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast, but it is unclear if Russia can accumulate enough troops and artillery to support the defenses, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported on April 12.
Russian occupying forces have transported more than 100,000 Ukrainian children from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts for "medical treatment," Ukraine's National Resistance Center reported on April 12 - Kyiv Independent
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal made another major push for modern and sophisticated U.S. weapons in a meeting at the Pentagon with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
The United States has imposed sanctions on more than 100 people and entities in a move aimed at further curbing Russia's access to the international financial system through facilitators and their businesses - RFE/RL
On Wednesday the Russian parliament approved a law that made the country’s conscription program more efficient, more modern – and harder to evade. It would allow for the electronic delivery of military call-up papers, in addition to traditional letters, and bans those liable for military service from traveling abroad. It also includes tough penalties for those who ignore a summons – barring them from getting a loan, moving into a new apartment, registering as self-employed and driving a vehicle - CNN
Required reading…
Ukraine’s Best Chance
A Successful Offensive Could End the War With Russia
Before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the prevailing view was that Ukrainian resistance would crumble quickly. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency thought so, as did Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who reportedly predicted that Kyiv could fall in 72 hours. Yet more than a year later, Ukraine’s army fights on, having achieved remarkable advances on the battlefield. In March, it repelled Russia’s attack on Kyiv and areas north of the city. It had retaken Kharkiv Province by mid-September and has subsequently attacked the main Russian defense line between Svatove and Kreminna in adjacent Luhansk Province. In November, it forced Russia to withdraw from the part of Kherson Province that lies on the Dnieper River’s right bank. Ukraine has now regained about half the land Russia seized after the invasion.
The initial pessimism about Ukraine’s chances was, however, scarcely unreasonable. Russia had overwhelming superiority in the standard measures of military power, such as the number of soldiers and the quantity and quality of major armaments. Moreover, Putin had initiated a megabucks military modernization drive in 2008 that was widely considered by experts to have made the Russian armed forces substantially stronger. For these reasons I, too, believed that Russia would prevail and not end up mired in a protracted war.
Read the full Foreign Affairs analysis here