“Thousands” of evidence against Russia in Ukraine, Ukrainian president goes to NATO headquarters, calls on Westerners to show Israelis they are not “alone”, two fugitive informants allegedly allowed the Russian army to attack Groza, Ukraine calls for more support for mine clearance in the country…Le Figaro takes stock of the situation.
An international team of prosecutors seeking to bring senior Russian officers to justice over the invasion of Ukraine has already gathered “thousands” of evidence, the agency’s head told AFP on Wednesday (October 11). European judicial system Eurojust. Prosecutors are sifting through wiretaps, videos, satellite images and testimonies, building a mountain of evidence that will eventually number in “hundreds of thousands,” Ladislav Hamran said in an interview with AFP at The Hague. “We are talking about an unprecedented amount of evidence,” he said from the agency’s headquarters. “More submissions are coming to Eurojust from different countries… in the end we will be talking about hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence,” he added.
The European judicial agency coordinates a kind of prosecutor’s office made up of representatives from several European countries, the United States and the International Criminal Court (ICC), who work together to bring Russian leaders to justice for the invasion of Ukraine . Created barely three months ago, the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA) aims to fill a gap in international law that has been particularly criticized since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This office stores the evidence in a secure facility and translates it into English and Ukrainian, so it can be used in a future court. Sometimes dubbed “Nuremberg 2.0,” the ICPA is the first attempt since the Nazi war crimes tribunals to build a case against a country’s top leaders for the crime of aggression.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at NATO headquarters on Wednesday October 11 to participate in a meeting of the organization’s defense ministers, as part of a surprise visit. He was welcomed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg shortly before the start of a meeting of Alliance defense ministers devoted in part to support for Ukraine, which some fear will weaken after just under 600 days of war.
“We need the support of the leaders, that is why I am here,” declared Volodymyr Zelensky, who had said the day before he was worried about the consequences of the “tragedy” in Israel on the contribution of the allies to his country. “Your fight is our fight, your security is our security,” said Jens Stoltenberg alongside President Zelensky. “International attention risks turning away from Ukraine, and this will have consequences,” the Ukrainian leader warned Tuesday evening on a French television channel.
Volodymyr Zelensky also called on Westerners to show Israelis that they were not “alone,” encouraging them to come to Israel “to support people, just to support people who have suffered terrorist attacks.”
He mentioned air defense systems to protect Ukraine’s infrastructure. “Anti-aircraft defense is essential to protect the economy, inhabitants and infrastructure,” assured Jens Stoltenberg.
“We need more support, artillery, anti-aircraft defense,” added the NATO chief. Last winter, Russia shelled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, repeatedly depriving the population of electricity or heat. A situation that kyiv and its allies do not want to see happen again. The emphasis will be placed on an anti-aircraft “winter shield”, to learn the lessons of last year, a diplomat stationed at NATO summarized this week.
Also read: Concern about the state of Ukrainian air defense
The Russian army assured on Wednesday that it had “improved” its positions thanks to its large-scale offensive around the town of Avdiïvka, in eastern Ukraine, even if the Kiev forces claimed for their part to have repulsed its assault.
The attack on this industrial city in Donbass seemed to worry the Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday, who have been engaged in a sluggish counter-offensive for months.
Ukraine had reported “massive attacks” by Russian soldiers, warning that they were trying to surround Avdiivka, before saying at the end of the day that they had succeeded in “preventing the loss of positions”.
Despite this, the Russian Defense Ministry was satisfied with progress in this area on Wednesday. The troops, notably supported by artillery, “improved positions around the front line” near Avdiïvka, he declared on Telegram, without giving further details.
Andriï Kovalev, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian army, nevertheless reaffirmed that his soldiers had “repulsed all the enemy’s attacks”, without giving up ground. Avdiïvka, built around a large coking plant, is located 13 km from Donetsk, the capital, under Russian control, of the eponymous region whose annexation Vladimir Putin claimed a year ago.
The Ukrainian intelligence services (SBU) claimed on Wednesday October 11 to have identified two suspects, on the run, accused of having informed the Russian army of the gathering for a funeral in the village of Groza targeted by a Russian strike which killed 53 people . According to Kiev, the Russian army launched an Iskander missile on October 5 which hit a funeral reception for a soldier killed in Groza, a small village in the Kharkiv region (North-East) decimated by this carnage. According to an SBU press release, “two local residents: Volodymyr Mamon, 30, and his younger brother, Dmytro Mamon, 23” collected and gave the Russians the information necessary for this strike.
The two men “fled to Russia” in September 2022 after the region was liberated by the Ukrainian army. From there, they “formed their own network of informants” in order to inform the Russian army about operations in areas controlled by kyiv, according to the same source. In October 2022, the Ukrainian press had already identified Volodymyr Mamon and two of his brothers, Dmytro and Oleksandr, all three police officers, as “collaborators” of the Russians. “Volodymyr Mamon transmitted (the) information to the Russian occupiers” allowing them to launch the October 5 strike, the SBU lambasted Wednesday.
The Iskander missile, according to the Ukrainian authorities, had reduced to ruins a store and an adjoining café where around sixty people had gathered for the funeral of a soldier. “The Russian air attack killed 53 civilians, including a young child,” Ukrainian intelligence services recalled. According to the official report, five people remain missing.
Ukraine on Wednesday called for greater international support in the process of clearing large parts of its territory infested with mines and other explosive devices, at a donor conference hosted by Croatia. “Russian mines and (unexploded) shells in Ukraine are a problem that must be solved together,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal, who spoke via video link to participants in the conference taking place in Zagreb.
He said some six million people are directly at risk of mines after a large-scale mining campaign carried out in combat zones since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Some 30% of Ukrainian territory would be contaminated, according to figures from Kiev. Unless the demining process is accelerated, “it will take several decades to demine Ukraine,” added Denys Chmygal.
Dozens of countries and organizations have so far pledged to Ukraine a total of $300 million (282 million euros) for mine clearance, which is well below the needs for these very expensive operations, according to the head of the Ukrainian government.
Oleg Orlov, an official from the NGO Memorial, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, issued an indictment on Wednesday of the Russian assault against Ukraine, on the last day of his trial for having precisely denounced this offensive. His friend Dmitri Mouratov, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and another co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, lent him a hand.
Oleg Orlov risked five years in prison for having “discredited” the Ukrainian army, but the prosecutor finally demanded on Wednesday a fine of 250,000 rubles, or around 2,400 euros, a request of rare magnanimity in Russia, where many people have been sentenced to prison terms for similar acts.
Oleg Orlov, who has been appearing free since June and is one of the few Kremlin critics still at large in Russia, then spoke. A public figure who has also worked on the crimes committed in Chechnya by pro-Kremlin forces, he has loudly repeated all the bad things he thinks about Vladimir Putin’s decision in February 2022 to attack his Ukrainian neighbor. “I am being prosecuted only because I used my rights (…) it is a political trial,” he said, insisting, his voice slightly trembling, on the fact that “the war (. ..) is destroying the future of our country.”