Russian military and Wagner Group forces have recently gained footholds west of the Bakhmutka River in the town of Bakhmut, according to a British Defense Ministry intelligence update.

The river, the ministry said, had recently marked the front line of the battle in the fighting in the Donbas town of Bakhmut. Ukrainian forces continue to defend the western portion of the town, the report said.

Meanwhile, the report said, Russia is conducting some of its lowest rates of local offensive fighting since January.

“This is most likely because Russian forces have temporarily depleted their combat power to such an extent that even local offensive actions are not currently sustainable,” it said.

The Russians will likely increase their “offensive potential” once personnel and munitions stocks are replenished. Until then, the ministry said, Russian commanders “will likely be forced to choose between carrying out offensive operations and conducting a credible defense of the full line.”

China is hoping there will be a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine and is urging Russia and Ukraine to come to the table for peace talks, China’s foreign minister told his Ukrainian counterpart in a telephone conversation Thursday.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Qin Gang told Dmytro Kuleba that China “has committed itself to promoting peace and advancing negotiations and calls on the international community to create conditions for peace talks.”

Qin also said “China hopes that all parties will remain calm, rational and restrained,” according to the statement, as Russian’s invasion of Ukraine has recently passed its one-year anniversary.
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China is hoping there will be a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine and is urging Russia and Ukraine to come to the table for peace talks, China’s foreign minister told his Ukrainian counterpart in a telephone conversation Thursday.

China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Qin Gang told Dmytro Kuleba China “has committed itself to promoting peace and advancing negotiations and calls on the international community to create conditions for peace talks.”

Qin also said “China hopes that all parties will remain calm, rational and restrained,” according to the statement, as Russian’s invasion of Ukraine has recently passed its one-year anniversary.

The U.S. military released a video Thursday of a Russian military intercept that resulted in the downing of a U.S. surveillance drone Tuesday over the Black Sea.

The video shows a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 dumping fuel as it approaches the U.S. MQ-9 drone from behind and passes over the top.

A second Sukhoi Su-27 approaches in a similar manner, and as it reaches the drone, the video feed is disrupted at the moment the U.S. military says the Russian fighter aircraft collided with the drone.

A final shot shows the video feed restored and that one of the drone’s propeller blades has been bent.

The video’s release came a day after U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke to his Russian counterpart about the encounter.

“The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows, and it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner,” Austin told reporters after announcing that he had “just got off the phone” with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

It was the first call between the two defense leaders since October, according to officials.

Meanwhile, Poland became the first NATO country to dispatch fighter jets to Ukraine, agreeing to send four Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Kyiv’s forces in the coming days. The U.S. and other Western allies far have balked at Kyiv demands for attack jets.

The downed U.S. MQ-9 drone was “conducting routine operations” in international airspace Tuesday, according to the U.S. military, when the pair of Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft intercepted it. U.S. forces brought down the drone in international waters after the Russian jet struck the drone’s propeller.

“We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional. We also know it is very unprofessional and very unsafe,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Wednesday.

Milley said he was “not sure yet” whether the physical contact between the Russian aircraft and the drone was intentional.

Russia said it is considering whether to try to retrieve the drone, but U.S. officials said its operatives were able to remotely erase sensitive software on the drone to prevent Russia from collecting secret information before sending the aircraft into the Black Sea.

The U.S. does not have ships in the Black Sea, which is largely controlled by Russia.

“But we do have a lot of allies and friends in the area, and we’ll work through recovery operations. That’s U.S. property,” Milley said.

Another top U.S. military leader, Gen. Erik Kurilla, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that since March 1, the U.S. is seeing an increase “in the unprofessional and unsafe behavior of the Russian Air Force.” He said armed Russian fighter jets fly over U.S. bases in Syria “in an attempt to try and be provocative.”

Kurilla said that Russia tries to “renegotiate the deconfliction protocols that they violate every day.”

Russia denied that its Su-27 jets came into contact with the U.S. drone and pinned blame for the crash on the operation of the drone. A U.S. military official told VOA the unmanned MQ-9 has not yet been recovered. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Tuesday the United States summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the incident.

The Russian Defense Ministry Telegram channel reported Wednesday that Shoigu has blamed the incident on the United States’ “non-compliance with the restricted flight zone declared by the Russian Federation, which was established as part of a special military operation.”

Earlier Wednesday, Austin and Milley hosted the 10th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group more than a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The virtual meeting included 51 participants. Milley said the group promised “a broad mix of air defense systems,” in addition to providing more artillery, armor and ammunition. For example, Sweden will provide 10 more Leopard tanks to Ukraine, and Norway will partner with the United States to provide two additional National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS.

“Ukraine matters. It matters not to just Ukraine or to the United States, it matters to the world. This is about the rules-based international order,” Austin told reporters Wednesday.

“Russia is running out of capability and out of friends,” he added. “Putin still hopes he can wear down Ukraine and wait us out, so we can’t let up, and we won’t.”
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Unions representing more than a million health care workers in England, including nurses and paramedics — but not doctors — reached a deal Thursday to resolve months of disruptive strikes for higher wages.

The announcement came as early-career physicians spent a third day on picket lines and the day after U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt announced a budget that included no additional money for labor groups that have staged crippling strikes amid a punishing cost-of-living crisis and double-digit inflation.

Any strike actions will be halted while rank-and-file members vote on whether to accept an offer of a lump-sum payment for the current year and a 5% raise next year.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was a good deal for National Health Service staff who persevered through the pandemic along with patients and taxpayers. He encouraged other striking unions to come to the bargaining table.

“We don’t want disruption for patients. We don’t want disruption for schoolchildren in our classrooms,” Sunak said during a visit to a London hospital, where he met with nurses. “Today’s agreement demonstrates we are serious about this, and we can find workable solutions.”

But the head of the Royal College of Nursing, one of at least five unions supporting the deal, said the pay offer would not have come if nurses hadn’t made the difficult decision to go on strike, forcing the government to negotiate.

“It is not a panacea, but it is real, tangible progress. And the RCN’s member leaders are asking fellow nursing staff to support what our negotiations have secured,” Royal College of Nursing General Secretary Pat Cullen said.

Unite, the largest trade union in the U.K. but with a smaller presence in the health care field, blasted the government for months of “dither and delay” that caused unnecessary pain to staff and patients, and said it would not recommend the deal but let workers vote on it.

“It is clear that this government does not hold the interest of workers or the NHS at heart,” Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said. “Their behavior and disdain for NHS workers, and workers generally, is clear from their actions. Britain has a broken economy, and workers are paying the price.”

Unions argue that wages in the public sector have failed to keep pace with skyrocketing food and energy costs that have left many households struggling to pay their bills.

Inflation in the U.K. reached a 40-year high of 11.1% in October before dropping in January to 10.1%.

A wave of strikes by train drivers, airport baggage handlers, border staff, driving instructors and postal workers since last summer has created havoc for residents.

Firefighters, who canceled a planned strike, and London bus drivers recently reached deals to keep working. But many other professions remain locked in pay disputes. Tens of thousands of teachers, civil servants and workers on the capital’s subway system all walked off the job on Wednesday.

Some have criticized health care workers for jeopardizing lives, though ambulance crews said they responded to the most urgent calls, and emergency rooms were staffed.

The health care workers, including midwives and physical therapists, had been in talks since they held what organizers said was the largest strike in the history of the country’s National Health Service last month.

The labor actions echo the economic unrest that has rippled across France, including over the government’s plan to increase the retirement age.

The U.K.’s lackluster economy is likely to avoid a recession this year, though growth will still shrink. The International Monetary Fund last month said the country would be the only major economy to contract this year, performing even worse than sanctions-hit Russia.

It was not immediately clear where the funding for raises would come from because they weren’t in the budget Hunt announced Wednesday, and The Department of Health and Social Care had recently claimed that raises above 3.5% were unaffordable.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said they would look for cost savings and the funding would ultimately be up to the Treasury and would not come at the expense of patients.

If the Treasury doesn’t provide the additional money, the overburdened public health system could be forced for a second consecutive year to cut spending or positions, said Ben Zaranko of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, an independent think tank that analyzes U.K. government fiscal and economic policies.

“There must be a risk that the NHS is asked to make heroic efficiency savings to absorb these costs, struggles to do so, and instead has to be bailed out in six months or a year’s time,” Zaranko said. “That would hardly lend itself to sensible financial planning.”

A ratified deal with nurses and others will ease some of the pain on the state-funded public health system, which has been beset by winter viruses, staff shortages and backlogs from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The deal only applies to workers in England, because Scotland and Wales have semiautonomous governments in charge of health policy.
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United Nations investigators accused Russian authorities of a pattern of grave, wide-ranging human rights violations against Ukrainian civilians that, in many cases, could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In its first comprehensive report on the situation in Ukraine since Russia invaded that country on February 24, 2022, the three-member International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has concluded that “the Russian authorities have committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, in addition to a wide range of war crimes.”

The war crimes include attacks on civilians and energy-related infrastructure, willful killings, torture and inhuman treatment, unlawful confinement, rape and unlawful transfers and deportations of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

“The conflict in Ukraine has had devastating effects at various levels,” said Erik Mose, chair of the commission. “Human losses and the general disregard for the life of civilians are shocking.

“The number of displaced persons or those seeking refuge abroad is the highest in Europe since the Second World War,” he said.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that more than 5.4 million people are internally displaced, and more than 8.1 million Ukrainians have fled as refugees to neighboring European countries.

Mose said the destruction of essential infrastructure — schools, health facilities, residential buildings and other facilities — has had an immense impact on people’s lives.

“The effects of the aggression upon people and on the country will not be overcome without great effort and commitment,” he said.

Over the past year, the commission has traveled to Ukraine eight times, visited 56 localities, and interviewed nearly 600 women and men.

“While the commission could establish a dialogue with Ukraine authorities and receive responses to its questions, it regrets that it was not able to establish such a dialogue with the Russian Federation,” Mose said.

Among its findings, the commission has gathered evidence of the use of explosive weapons by Russian armed forces in populated areas “with an apparent disregard for civilian harm and suffering.”

The report said the attacks were indiscriminate and disproportionate “in violation of international humanitarian law.”

According to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, such attacks have caused 90.3% of civilian casualties in the conflict. Since the start of the war, the U.N. has recorded at least 8,000 deaths and nearly 13,300 injured, although it believes “the actual figures are considerably higher.”

The commission has collected evidence showing a widespread pattern of summary executions, which commissioner Pablo de Greiff said show that “Russian authorities have committed unlawful killings of civilians in areas which came under their control …which are violations of the right to life and in certain cases are war crimes.”

The commission has documented numerous cases of rape and sexual and gender-based violence affecting women, men and girls ages 4 to 82 committed by Russian authorities “as they undertook house-to-house visits in localities under their control and during unlawful confinement.”

Commission member Jasminka Dzumhur said the group has investigated the situation of forced transfer and deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

“The commission documented that Russian officials have taken legal and policy measures regarding Ukrainian children deported to Russian Federation.

“This includes citizenship and family placement measures, which have profound implications for a child’s identity,” she said. “Such measures are in violation of the right of the child to preserve his identity, including nationality, name and family relations, without unlawful interference as recognized by international human rights law … and may also amount to a war crime.”

The Ukrainian government reports that 16,221 children have been deported to Russia. The commission said it has not been able to verify these figures.

The commission found that the Ukrainian armed forces in a limited number of cases violated international humanitarian law. It said they have used cluster munitions, which are banned under international law, and that Ukrainian troops in two incidents had tortured and abused Russian prisoners of war, which could amount to war crimes.

The commission has drawn up a list of individuals identified as being responsible for war crimes. That list will not be made public and will be turned over to the U.N Human Rights Office for future prosecution.

The commission is calling for all violations and crimes to be investigated and for those responsible to be held accountable either at the national or the international level.

The report will be submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council next week.
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At least one person was killed and two were injured in an explosion that caused a fire at a building belonging to the border patrol of Russia’s FSB security service in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don on Thursday, local authorities said.

Footage captured by Reuters showed a plume of thick black smoke billowing into the air, near residential buildings and a shopping center in a built-up district of the city.

Local emergency services said an explosion had occurred, igniting a fire that spread to an area covering 880 square meters.

They said one person had been killed and two more injured in the incident.
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Dutch farmers dealt a blow to Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s environmental plans Wednesday, ploughing up the political landscape to win elections that will shape the upper house of parliament.

Exit polls showed the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging, BBB), which was founded less than four years ago, riding a wave of recent protests to win the most seats in the Dutch senate.

The farmers’ party immediately vowed to challenge the Rutte government’s plans to cut nitrogen emissions by reducing livestock numbers and possibly closing some farms.

“What is happening here? We really knew we were going to win, but this is so indescribable,” stunned BBB leader Caroline van der Plas told public broadcaster NOS.

She described the nitrogen plans as a “kind of dogma dictated from The Hague”.

The BBB is on course to win 15 seats in the 75-seat senate, ahead of the 10 seats of Rutte’s center-right party, based on exit polls from provincial elections that also determine the make-up of the upper house.

The farmers could now work with other parties in the senate to block nitrogen legislation proposed by Rutte’s four-party coalition, which is on course to lose eight seats to put its total at 24.

‘Don’t feel heard’

The Netherlands has been rocked by months of rowdy demonstrations in which farmers blockaded government buildings with tractors, winning support from international figures including former US president Donald Trump.

Thousands of farmers rallied in The Hague on Saturday. They also used tractors to blockade the location of a televised party leaders’ debate on the eve of the election.

But their cause has struck a chord in the Netherlands, a country with a proud farming tradition that despite its small population of 18 million is the world’s second largest agricultural exporter after the United States.

The Dutch government says it needs to reduce nitrogen emissions by 50% by 2030, blaming fertilizers and manure from agriculture in particular for pollution.

It says it must comply with a Dutch court order saying it had breached EU rules on nitrogen emissions affecting soil and water.

But the farmers say they are being unfairly targeted by the still unfinalized proposals compared to sectors such as construction, industry and transport.

“We don’t really feel heard,” Erik Stegink, national president of the BBB and a pig farmer himself, told AFP ahead of the vote.

“Sometimes we don’t even feel welcome in our own country anymore.”

‘Curious’

Exit polls showed the farmers’ party in first place in all the provinces surveyed, including a stunning 31.3% in its heartland in the rural Overijssel region and 14.3% in North Holland, which includes Amsterdam.

Rutte, the Netherlands’ longest-serving leader who has been in power since 2010, said ahead of the vote he hoped his coalition could resolve the issue.

Tessel van der Veeken, a 21-year-old student voting in The Hague, said she was “not worried but curious” about a BBB win.

Voter Michael van Heck, 69, described the farmers as a “populist party”, adding that he expected a “big victory from the BBB and I hope at least stable” for Rutte’s VVD party.

The farmers have also won support from the global far-right, who allege, without evidence, a sinister “globalist” plot to rob farmers of their land.

But exit polls showed the Dutch far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD) party, which won the last provincial elections in 2019, being virtually wiped out.

Its leader Thierry Baudet has described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “hero” and embraced Covid conspiracy theories.
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