WAR IN UKRAINE: April 13, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 47
Many journalists who’ve returned from the scenes of mass destruction around Kyiv and beyond find it not only tough to comprehend, but also to express - so vast is the devastation and so inhumane the brutality. One respected foreign journalist I spoke to at length yesterday said she spoke to at least two women raped by Russian servicemen. They described their attackers as being high on drugs or intoxicated. On more than one occasion, they asked Ukrainian villagers for information about ‘where the Nazis are hiding.’ More details to follow, but the reports from the field that are being shared with me are absolutely horrific - and well beyond comprehension.
A local woman works in the garden of her destroyed house in Andriivka, a village 40 kilometers west of Kyiv, on April 6, 2022. The village had suffered from heavy artillery shelling by Russian forces. Credit: Kostyantyn Chernichkin/Kyiv Independent
The Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian presidents are travelling to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to meet President Zelensky, an adviser to the Polish leader has said. This and the previous visits of leaders from other neighbouring countries is part of a trend of Ukraine forging micro-alliances with like-minded parters in the region. Some are moving ahead, in the face of NATO inaction, to provide Ukraine with advanced weaponry.
US President Joe Biden has said, for the first time, that "dictator" Vladimir Putin is carrying out genocide in Ukraine. "Yes, I called it genocide. It has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being — being able to be Ukrainian," Biden said at an event in Iowa.
It is too early for people who left their homes in Kyiv and surrounding areas to return, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said, even as the border service said it has seen an uptick in the number of people returning to the country. The Kyiv region is still facing difficult times, Maylar said, describing the situation as dynamic - RFE/RL
As of April 12, the number of children killed in the Russian Federation's armed aggression in Ukraine increased to 186. More than 344 children have been injured. The data is not conclusive since the information collection continues in the areas of active hostilities, in the temporarily occupied and liberated territories.
According to a post on Ukraine President Zelensky’s Instagram page and other sources, Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine - politician Viktor Medvedchuk -was arrested in Western Ukraine by the security services of Ukraine (SBU). Before the war he was charged with treason but fled house arrest once hostilities started. Later, Zelensky suggested in an address to exchange Medvedchuk for Ukrainians held in Russian captivity. An adviser to Zelensky, Oleksiy Arestovych, told Ukrainian television that Medvedchuk had been stopped while trying to flee the country in a soldier’s uniform.
Medvedchuk, who’s daughter has Putin as a godfather, was apparently wearing an army uniform to avoid detection. In 2021, Forbes estimated he was worth $620M.
The BBC analysed publicly available info about 1083 Russian servicemen, who were killed in action. It provided a fascinating picture of the background and social position of Russian soldiers, who are deployed in Ukraine. A key finding: the vast majority come from depressed or semi-depressed regions of Russia (ie Dagestan) as well as from former Soviet republics such as Tajikistan. Strikingly, there were zero reports of soldiers from Moscow KIA, even from Ukrainian sources. More here
A map showing the regions where Russian soldiers in Ukraine killed in action originated. The most - 93 - came from Dagestan, one of the most depressed regions in the Russian Federation. Source: BBC
