The New York Times Ukraine-War Briefing - November 21, 2022

 

November 21, 2022

By Carole Landry Editor/Writer, Briefings Team

Welcome to the Russia-Ukraine War Briefing, your guide to the latest news and analysis about the conflict.

Ukraine marked the nine-year anniversary of the Maidan protests, which eventually led to the country’s confrontation with Russia.  Poland’s defense minister said that he would propose deploying German-supplied air defense systems near the Ukrainian border, where Russia’s bombardment has raised fears of spillover. At least a dozen shells exploded near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant yesterday. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency is calling for establishing a protected area around the facility. Get the latest updates here. Track the invasion with our maps.

Grim videos and a troubling question

A series of videos that surfaced on social media last week is raising questions over whether Ukrainian forces committed war crimes when they captured a group of Russian soldiers this month in the Luhansk region.

The soldiers, most of whom are seen lying on the ground, appear to have been shot dead at close range after one of their fellow fighters opened fire on Ukrainian soldiers standing nearby.

My colleagues from the Visual Investigations team verified the authenticity of several videos that were recorded during the Ukrainian fight to recapture the village of Makiivka in mid-November. They were filmed by two sources: an unnamed Ukrainian soldier who was capturing video on his phone, and drone videos most likely shot by Ukrainian forces surveilling the offensive.

The videos do not show how or why the Russian soldiers were killed. Russia’s foreign ministry has accused Ukraine’s forces of “mercilessly shooting unarmed Russian POWs.” Ukraine’s commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said that Russian soldiers had opened fire during the act of surrendering.

One of the videos shows at least four Ukrainian soldiers approaching a shed at a farmhouse where a group of Russian soldiers were hiding. The video cuts off, and when it restarts, six Russian soldiers are lying facedown on the ground beside one another. The video shows four other Russian soldiers slowly exiting the shed, one after the other, some with their arms raised. They join the other soldiers on the ground.

The capture of these soldiers is initially orderly, until an 11th Russian soldier emerges and opens fire, aiming at one of the Ukrainian soldiers. A frame-by-frame analysis of what happened next shows a Ukrainian soldier raising his rifle and then aiming at the Russian soldier.

The video ends and it’s unclear what happens next. But a subsequent aerial video of the location shows the bloody aftermath. The Russian soldiers are lying motionless, apparently dead. Blood is pooling around them, and some appear to be bleeding from the upper body or head. The Russian soldier who fired at the Ukrainians appears to have been killed on the spot, and he is lying in the position from where he opened fire.

Iva Vukusic, a war crimes prosecution expert at Utrecht University, said that it was difficult to determine whether a war crime had been committed, based on the video evidence alone. One key variable is the amount of time between the final two videos.

“Was it in one or two bursts of fire at the moment of, or immediately after, the last Russian comes out and shoots at the Ukrainians?” Vukusic said. “Or was it after the immediate threat had been neutralized, as an act of revenge? Then this is more clearly a war crime.”

The Russian gunman’s actions are critical, Vukusic said. “It may very well be that, had this guy not fired, that they all would have been captured as POWs and survived,” she added.

Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister overseeing European integration, said yesterday that her government would investigate, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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A night operation targeting Russian forces behind the front line.Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

Surveillance and sabotage

A volunteer Ukrainian special forces team called the Bratstvo battalion has undertaken some of the war’s most difficult missions along the front lines. In the south, they use boats to infiltrate the Russian-controlled side of the Dnipro River.

The Bratstvo fighters have been conducting secret raids and other special operations for months, as part of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The group gave access to The New York Times to report on two recent operations, which took place before the recapture of Kherson. One of the missions had to be aborted.

In the second, the fighters crossed the Dnipro at night to lay mines on a road used by Russian soldiers and attack a mortar position. They were back before dawn.

Preparing to go on a night operation.Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

“We laid the mines and then came back without any noise, and they did not see us,” one 18-year-old soldier said, having observed Russian soldiers from a distance of 100 yards or more. “Some were walking, some were standing, some were just watching their phones,” he said.

But the unit did not push further to attack the mortar positions. The lay of the land was not good, the moonlight too bright and the group too large, said Vita, the only female soldier on the team. “Lots of boots, lots of noise,” she said. “And we froze a lot.”

What else we’re following

To provide comprehensive coverage of the war, we often link to outside sources. Some of these require a subscription.

In Ukraine

At least 437 children have been killed in the nine months of the war, the Ukrainian prosecutor general said. During his first visit to Kyiv since taking office, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain promised more air-defense weapons for Ukraine. The government is preparing to evacuate residents from Kherson and Mykolaiv, where fighting has damaged the infrastructure, as winter sets in. Train service between Kyiv and Kherson was restored this weekend.  The photographer Brendan Hoffman captured images from a mine-clearing team at work in a pine forest northwest of Kyiv.  The Ukrainian tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky, who is now a soldier, said he finds the silence from most Russian players shameful.

Around the world

The U.S. is sending officials to push Russia’s trading partners to enforce sanctions, The Wall Street Journal reported.  The U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, warned that a failure to help Ukraine could lead to a world of “tyranny and turmoil.” From Opinion: Several Russian opposition groups met outside Warsaw this month to imagine Russia without Vladimir Putin.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back Wednesday. — Carole

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