WAR IN UKRAINE: March 3, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 373
Russian forces blew up a key bridge linking the besieged city of Bakhmut to the nearby village of Khromove overnight, police in the Donetsk region said. Police in the city of Konstantinyvka told CNN they hope to repair the bridge in the coming days since it's a vital artery for the extraction of civilians and the movement of supplies such as ammunition. The bridge is also the last main supply route from Bakhmut to the city of Chasiv Yar. The military can still access the city through dirt tracks and fields, police said. The police's account was confirmed by a special forces solder in Bakhmut, who told CNN the bridge was hit with a Russian missile, leaving a large crater.
The EU bloc plans to deliver jointly funded ammunition to Ukraine within weeks - FT
A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has rejected statements by Russian officials saying a Ukrainian sabotage group had entered Russia and taken hostages, calling them a "classic, deliberate provocation."
The Guardian: Russian torture chambers in Kherson Oblast 'not random but rather part of a carefully thought-out plan.' Since the liberation of Kherson on Nov. 11, 2022, more than 20 torture chambers have been investigated by a team of Ukrainian and International lawyers. “The mass torture chambers, financed by the Russian state, are not random but rather part of a carefully thought-out and financed blueprint with a clear objective to eliminate Ukrainian national and cultural identity,” said British barrister Wayne Jordash - Kyiv Independent
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says a meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) countries has been marred by Russia's war against Ukraine amid calls for China to use its relationship with Moscow to help push for an end to the yearlong conflict. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on March 2 urged China not to send weapons to help Russia's war in Ukraine and instead asked Beijing to exert pressure on Moscow to pull back its forces - RFE/RL
China has abstained from signing the final G20 summit statement in India without giving a reason.
Required reading…
Amid rumblings of a Russian-backed coup, Moldova needs the West’s help
MICHAEL BOCIURKIW
Thursday marked the 31-year anniversary of the start of the conflict between Moldova and the unrecognized, Russian-aligned breakaway state of Transnistria – a campaign that Moldovan-born journalist Paula Erizanu called “one of Russia’s first attempts to keep a former colony under its influence.”
Today, the long arm of the Kremlin is being accused of working through proxies to bring all of Moldova back into its sphere – an effort consistent with the playbook it has used elsewhere in the region.
Last June, Moldova was granted candidate status to enter the European Union as it worked to achieve energy independence from Russia. But in early February, Natalia Gavrilita stepped down as Moldova’s prime minister after just 18 months in office, citing “so many crises caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine.” Not long after, demonstrations began against her fellow pro-Western President Maia Sandu in the capital of Chisinau, supported by pro-Russian parties playing on the economic pain being disproportionately heaped on rural and senior Moldovans.
Read my full Globe and Mail oped here