“Well over” 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine, according to the US’s top army general.
“Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side,” said Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Wednesday. “There has been a tremendous amount of suffering, human suffering.”
An estimated 40,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded and anywhere between 15 million and 30 million Ukrainians have been displaced, he added.
The UN refugee chief recently put the figure at 14 million.
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Russia has probably committed crimes against humanity by forcibly transferring Ukrainian civilians in Russian-occupied areas of the country to other regions, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
It said civilians were moved from occupied Ukraine further into Russian-controlled areas or into Russia, with children separated from their families in violation of international humanitarian law.
Amnesty said it had been told by civilians they had endured “abusive screening processes” – known as filtration – which sometimes resulted in arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment.
“Separating children from their families and forcing people hundreds of kilometres from their homes are further proof of the severe suffering Russia’s invasion has inflicted on Ukraine’s civilians,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general.
“Russia’s deplorable tactic of forcible transfer and deportation is a war crime. Amnesty International believes this must be investigated as a crime against humanity,” she said.
“Well over” 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine, according to US Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side,” Milley said on Wednesday. “There has been a tremendous amount of suffering, human suffering.”
An estimated 40,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded, he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the G20 summit in Bali next week, an Indonesian government official told Reuters on Thursday.
Putin will be represented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to Jodi Mahardi, a spokesperson for the Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Affairs.
The Russian president is due to join one of the meetings virtually, he added.
As G20 host, Indonesia has resisted pressure from Western countries and Ukraine to withdraw Putin’s invitation to the summit and expel Russia from the group, saying it does not have the authority to do so without consensus among members.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo told the Financial Times that Russia was welcome at the summit, which he feared would be overshadowed by a “very worrying” rise in international tensions.
Indonesia has also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has said he would not take part if Putin does and was expected to join virtually.
The Biden administration won’t give Ukraine advanced drones despite pleas from Kyiv and a bipartisan group of Congressmen, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Pentagon declined the request based on concerns that providing the Gray Eagle MQ-1C drones could escalate the conflict and signal to Moscow that the US was providing weapons that could target positions inside Russia, US officials and other people familiar with the decision said.
Nataliya Vasilyeva reports that Russian theatregoers are being taken hostage and held at gunpoint as part of a surprise act put on by veteran separatist fighters to hammer home the reality of war in eastern Ukraine.
Unsuspecting audience members at the opening night of a new play in Kaluga, about 120 miles south-west of Moscow, were shocked when burly men dressed in Ukrainian military uniforms and carrying guns burst into the auditorium, grabbing people out of the crowd and firing blanks into the air.
The show was produced by pro-separatist actors from Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region and opened against a backdrop of heavy Russian losses after more than eight months of war.
A local television channel broadcast footage showing members of the crowd screaming while others looked on in disbelief as the armed men stormed down the aisle, shouting abusively into the crowd and manhandling them.
Audience members could be heard shrieking: “Let me go!” and “it hurts!”.
Read more here.
A former British paratrooper who served in Afghanistan has been killed in Ukraine while fighting to defend Bakhmut from Russian attacks.
Simon Lingard died when the trench he was fighting from was struck by a shell on Monday.
At least two other British fighters were injured during the fighting in the eastern Donbas city, according to The Sun.
Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of 72,000, has been the focus of an intense Russian assault in recent months.
Ukraine claimed that on Monday alone more than 700 Russian troops were killed in action, mostly in areas around Bakhmut and nearby Avdiivka.
Russia has resorted to wave attacks on Bakhmut, hurling groups of poorly trained soldiers forward with little regard for their safety.
Mr Lingard, a former machine gunner from Blackburn who during his military career served with the elite Special Forces Support Group, travelled to defend Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February.
Richard Kemp argues that at such a critical moment, combat planes could make the difference between victory and defeat for the West. Read his column here.
Matthew Lynn in his latest column writes that the Kremlin’s dastardly attempt to blackmail the West into turning its back on Ukraine has backfired. You can read his full take here.