Crisis in Ukraine: Daily Briefing
3 February, 6 PM Kyiv time
1. Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (RNBO) reported at 12:30 PM Kyiv time that Kremlin-backed terrorists continue to shell and attack Ukrainian positions. Despite constant shelling and attacks by Kremlin-backed terrorists on Ukrainian position near Debaltsevo, the city remains under the control of Ukrainian forces. The RNBO reported that in attacks near Debaltsevo, Vuhlehirsk and Popasne, Kremlin-backed terrorists, Russian mercenaries and soldiers suffered heavy losses. According to operational information, the retreat of the fleeing Kremlin-backed terrorists was blocked by units of the internal forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The RNBO reported that in the last 24 hours, 5 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 27 Ukrainian soldiers were wounded. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported at 9:30 AM Kyiv time that Kremlin-backed terrorists continued shelling residential areas of cities and towns. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reported at 10:40 AM that as a result of shelling by Kremlin-backed terrorists of several towns in Donetsk oblast, 6 civilians were killed, including an 11-year old girl. 18 civilians were wounded.
2. UN: Death toll now exceeds 5,358 people in conflict in Eastern Ukraine
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein stated that the death toll in the conflict now exceeds 5,358 people, and that another 12,235 people have been wounded since mid-April last year. “In just the three weeks up to February 1, at least 224 civilians have been killed and 545 wounded.”
3. Canada will join US-Ukraine Joint Commission
On 2 February, Canadian Minister of National Defence R. Nicholson announced that Canada will join the US-Ukraine Joint Commission on Defence Reform and Bilateral Cooperation “in order to better coordinate Canada’s ongoing provision of assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The US-Ukraine Joint Commission is the most effective and efficient venue for Canada to ensure the donations and training opportunities provided to Ukraine are appropriate, coordinated and synchronized with Canada’s ally the United States.”
4. US State Department: “We are always evaluating other options that will help create space for a negotiated solution”
During a US State Department press briefing on 2 February, when asked, “There are a whole plethora of reports out this morning that the Administration is reconsidering providing lethal assistance to the Ukrainian Government. Would you care to address those?” State Department spokesperson J. Psaki answered,“we are constantly assessing our policies on Ukraine to ensure they are responsive, appropriated, and calibrated to achieve our objectives. We are particularly concerned about recent escalating separatist violence and separatist attempts to expand the territory they currently control further beyond the ceasefire line agreed to in Minsk, as well as the increasing toll of civilian and military casualties. Naturally, we take into account events on the ground and events that are ongoing. So I’m not going to go into details of internal policy discussions, but we do continue to assess how to best support Ukraine. Our focus does remain on pursuing a solution through diplomatic means, and we are always evaluating other options that will help create space for a negotiated solution to the crisis.”
5. KHPG: Russian conscripts coerced into fighting in Ukraine
The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) stated that the NGO Soldiers’ Mothers of St. Petersburg “has reported a sharp increase in complaints from conscripts and their families who say that the young men are being forced to sign contracts purportedly in order to be sent ’for exercises’ to the Rostov oblast on the border with Donbas. Reports of such coercion are not new, but the increase coincides with the major escalation in overt Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine over recent weeks. […]Some say that persuasion is being used, others – threats. Conscripts from military unit No. 54096 in Mulino, Nizhny Novgorod region allege that the commanders simply told them that they had been transferred to contract service. The father of another young conscript from the Leningrad oblast was told that he needed to sign a contract which could later be broken. This was supposedly because he needed to be sent ‘for exercises’ and they weren’t allowed to send conscripts. […] The organization fears that a repeat is likely of the events in August 2014 when several members of the 18th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, sent to Rostov on the Don from Dagestan were killed, probably in Ukraine. […]There are constant reports suggesting that the families of soldiers killed are under enormous pressure to say nothing, not to mention physical attacks or forms of legal or other pressure on those who reveal details.”
