The Washington Post

2022-04-12 22:01:01 In Ukraine, Facebook fact-checkers fight a war on two fronts

First came a one-minute video taken on the streets of Bucha, a Kyiv suburb abandoned by retreating Russian forces. The footage showed numerous bodies, civilians in winter coats, scattered along the muddy roads like leaves on a fall day.

Then came the deluge of misinformation: On social media, some argued the images were fake, that the bodies were actors pretending to be dead. Others falsely claimed the Ukrainian military had slain their own countrymen.

It fell to Valeriia Stepaniuk, 22, to set things straight.

Stepaniuk fact-checks content for Facebook as part of her job at a think tank called VoxUkraine. After scouring credible news sources — such as a BBC article that said satellite imagery disproved Russian claims that the Bucha footage was staged — she and a handful of colleagues are compiling a report to debunk the misinformation flooding social media.

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2022-04-12 21:02:51 War impels many in Ukraine to abandon Russian language and culture

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — At the moment the rockets began to slam into the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in the early morning hours six weeks ago, Lidiia Kalashnykova was jolted from her sleep and made her decision: from then on, she would speak only Ukrainian.

“As strange as it may sound, it was that very instant, and all that stress served to make me reject the Russian language — completely,” Kalashnykova said.

Like most Ukrainians, Kalashnykova functions equally well in both languages. In her everyday life, though, and with her husband and two small children, she largely spoke Russian. She was raised in a Russian-speaking family and estimated that 90 percent of her relatives speak Russian.

But when Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, she said she “realized in a second” that she had “no right to use any language other than Ukrainian” and that “the Ukrainian language is actually my weapon.”

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2022-04-12 19:45:16 Russian journalist who protested Ukraine war on TV hired by German outlet

Russian TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has been hired by the German media company Die Welt, a month after she drew worldwide attention for bursting onto a live broadcast on Russian state television to protest the war in Ukraine.

Ovsyannikova, 43, was hired as a freelance correspondent for Die Welt’s newspaper and TV channel, publishing firm Axel Springer said.

“WELT stands for what is being so vehemently defended by the courageous people of Ukraine on the ground right now: freedom,” she said in a statement announcing her hiring. “I see it as my duty as a journalist to defend that freedom.”

On March 14, Ovsyannikova ran onto the set of Russian state TV’s flagship program on Channel One while holding a sign that read “NO WAR.” In a prerecorded message before her protest, she said she had a Russian mother and a Ukrainian father and was ashamed of having worked on “Kremlin propaganda” while at Channel One.

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2022-04-12 18:36:15 Putin says peace talks with Ukraine are at an ‘impasse’

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called the war in Ukraine a “tragedy” but insisted that Russia had “no choice” but to invade its western neighbor.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting in eastern Russia with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said: “What is happening in Ukraine is a tragedy, no doubt about that. But we had no choice. It was just a matter of time [before an attack on Russia].”

Putin traveled to Russia’s far-eastern Amur region to meet with Lukashenko, an ally who has supported the Russian president and his war in Ukraine.

Lukashenko called the war a “dangerous moment” with the West, blaming Britain and the United States in particular. Putin thanked him for helping with negotiations with Ukraine but said they have reached a deadlock, for which he blamed the Ukrainians.

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2022-04-12 17:14:05 Ukraine braces for new offensive as Russia reinforces military in east

Ukraine and its international partners are bracing for Russia to launch a new offensive, with the Pentagon on Monday saying there are signs that the Kremlin has begun reinforcing and resupplying its forces in the eastern Donbas region as a top official in Moscow vowed there would be no letup in hostilities before the next round of peace talks.

U.S. intelligence has observed a massive Russian military convoy making its way south toward Izyum, a strategically important town in northeast Ukraine that Russia seized earlier this month and may use now as a staging point to carry out assaults on larger cities to the south, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

The expectation, Kirby added, is that the “same brutal tactics, that same disregard for civilian life and civilian infrastructure, will probably continue” as Russian military commanders concentrate on the Donbas.

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2022-04-12 13:33:58 Hubris and isolation led Vladimir Putin to misjudge Ukraine

More than six weeks into his war against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is feeling the sting of failure.

Thousands of Russian battlefield deaths. Three front-line retreats by the Russian military. Millions of Ukrainians who will never forgive Moscow. More isolation than ever — and very few goals achieved.

Putin is now regrouping to focus his military campaign on Ukraine’s east in what is widely seen as “Plan B,” after his forces failed to topple Ukraine’s government or wrest control of its biggest cities. All the while, questions are mounting about how a Russian leader steeped in security policy and known for railing against the folly of regime-change wars could have sleepwalked into a such a strategic mess.

At issue is a broader question that will occupy historians for years: How could Russia — a country with such deep familial, cultural and historic ties to its western neighbor — get Ukraine so wrong?

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2022-04-12 10:12:11 Here is the latest from Ukraine.

- Russia is resupplying and reinforcing its troops positioned in the eastern Donbas region, with Izyum likely to become a staging point for further attacks on southern cities, the Pentagon said Monday. Washington is warning that the “same brutal tactics, that same disregard for civilian life and civilian infrastructure, will probably continue.”

- The U.S. Defense Department is monitoring unconfirmed reports that Russia has used chemical weapons during its siege of Mariupol, a senior official said Monday. The Post has not been able to confirm the reports, and Britain and Australia said they were working with partners to verify the details.

- Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer pressed President Putin for an immediate cease-fire and humanitarian corridors during their meeting on Monday.

- Ukraine’s capital is slowly coming back to life, as some Kyiv residents return despite officials' warnings that rocket attacks could happen at any time.

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2022-04-12 08:49:40 Here’s the latest on Ukraine’s key battlegrounds and retaken cities.

Eastern Ukraine: Western and Ukrainian officials say they're bracing for a fresh Russian assault on the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. “We predict that active combat operations will begin any time soon,” a spokesman for Ukraine’s defense ministry said Monday. Officials say Izyum — which Russian forces seized Friday — appears to be a key staging point for further attacks.

Kyiv region: Ukrainian authorities say they're still recovering bodies from towns around the capital. Seven more bodies were pulled from the rubble in Borodyanka, Ukraine’s emergency services said Monday, for a total of 19 and counting.

Mariupol: Ukraine and Russia are still fighting for control of this city. Moscow’s troops made “territorial gains” this weekend, according to the Institute for the Study of War. The mayor said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have been killed here since the siege began.

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2022-04-11 22:19:52 Here is the latest from Ukraine.

- President Biden met virtually Monday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to push the country to abandon its neutral stance on the war. In comments ahead of the meeting, Modi said spoke recently with both Putin and Zelensky and suggested direct talks aimed at peace.

- A senior U.S. defense official said Russian forces carried out an airstrike on the international airport on the outskirts of Dnipro, but there is “no evidence” that suggests it destroyed an S-300 air defense system. Earlier, Ukrainian and Russian officials traded seemingly contradictory claims about a reported Russian attack against a weapons system given to Ukraine by a European nation.

- Russia appointed a new commander to oversee the entirety of its invasion in Ukraine. Here’s what to know about Gen. Alexander Dvornikov.

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2022-04-11 21:01:29 Defense official: No evidence Russia destroyed S-300 air defense system

Russian forces carried out an airstrike on the international airport on the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, but there is “no evidence” suggesting that it destroyed an S-300 air defense system, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday.

The strike Sunday destroyed infrastructure at the airport, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.

Russian officials said they used Kalibr cruise missiles to carry out the strike on a hangar on the outskirts of Dnipro.

Russian officials have said they plan to invigorate their campaign to take out Ukrainian air defenses, which have partly survived despite weeks of Russian airstrikes and shelling.

The Pentagon is aware that Russia has stated that as a goal, but U.S. defense officials said they have not seen it follow through.

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