Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 03-12-2024

It looks likely that claims by pro-Kremlin sources that the reported downing of a Su-27 fighter aircraft is fake news and instead part of a Kyiv disinformation campaign may be true.

The latest evidence seems to back up Belgorod officials' claims that the reported shootdown and crash of a frontline Kremlin Su-27 fighter plane in the region never happened.

The alleged late-morning downing of the Russian fighter jet on Tuesday took place near the town of Valuiki in the Belgorod region. The rural center is some 160-170 kilometers from the villages of Lozovaya Rudka and Graivoronskiy in the region, where pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters attacked Russian border troops overnight.  

Lawmakers argued that Brussels had caved in to Orban's "blackmail" in order to secure Orban's support for Ukraine entering EU talks.

The European Parliament's legal affairs committee has thrown its weight behind suing the European Commission over a decision to unfreeze 10 billion euros ($11 billion) for Hungary, lawmakers said on Tuesday.

European lawmakers have accused the commission of in December caving in to pressure from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was blocking efforts to support Ukraine. 

Pope Francis would do better to keep his ill-informed opinions about Ukraine to himself rather than playing the malign messenger who preaches bad Russian narratives of invincibility.

Pope Francis apparently has bought into the Russian war narrative and is crassly attempting to sell it as a moral imperative. In comments recorded earlier in February during a just-released interview with Swiss public broadcaster RSI, the pontiff urged Ukraine to find “the courage of the ‘white flag’ and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.”

That is not going to happen.

A Freedom of Russia Legion representative reports ongoing combat in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, with active drone operations and multiple Russian Armed Forces vehicles destroyed.

The Ukraine-allied Russian volunteer fighters – which have now infiltrated Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions – are bringing the fight to Russia to highlight the counterfeit nature of upcoming sham elections, volunteer-fighter Alexey Baranovsky said, in exclusive comments to Kyiv Post.

“We timed this operation to coincide with the week of electoral procedures, and as concerned citizens of Russia, we decided to express our opinion about these elections and the Putin regime,” Baranovsky, of the Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR) told Kyiv Post – even as combat continued in Belgorod and Kursk.

EU officials said Kyiv might receive profits generated from frozen Russian assets held at the Euroclear depository as early as July this year, though some members will likely oppose the proposal.

The European Commission is preparing a plan to support Ukraine’s defense with up to €3 billion ($3.28 billion) generated from frozen Russian assets held by the Belgium clearing house, Euroclear, the Financial Times (FT) reported.

The proposal will likely be submitted for discussion at an EU leader summit next week and were it to be approved by European capitals, could be delivered to Kyiv as early as July this year.

President Zelensky said the Russians have been stopped. That’s only partially true. Russians continue pressing all along the front line, incurring heavy losses.

A multiple-axis assault by Kremlin forces has not stopped and is even gaining ground in a few locations, although the pace of attacks across the front is slowing, frontline sources reported on Tuesday.

In comments to French media on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv’s forces had effectively brough Russian attacks across the front to a halt. According to the Presidential website the Ukrainian leader said: “At present Russian advance in the east has been stopped by our commanders and troops… at the present, tactically, their advance is stopped, and they are losing large numbers of people.”

Following other revisionist histories recently promulgated by Moscow that seek to give rationale to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two Duma members want to nullify Krushchev’s 1954 act.

Two members of Russia’s State Duma have submitted a bill that seeks to revoke Khrushchev’s decision to transfer Crimea to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkrSSR), and retroactively return the Peninsula to Russia.

Crimea became part of Russia in 1783 when it was annexed following the defeat of Ottoman forces at the Battle of Kozludzha. In 1954 the Soviet government transferred Crimea from the Russian Soviet Federation of Socialist Republics (RSFSR) to the UkrSSR.

This year's manoeuvres come with Middle East tensions soaring in the face of the Israel-Hamas war that has drawn in Iranian allies around the region, including Yemen's Huthi rebels.

Chinese and Russian warships have entered Iranian territorial waters for a joint naval exercise with Iran, state media reported Tuesday.

This year's manoeuvres come with Middle East tensions soaring in the face of the Israel-Hamas war that has drawn in Iranian allies around the region, including Yemen's Huthi rebels who have launched a campaign of attacks on commercial shipping in Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, drawing Western reprisals.

Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov claimed that the city administration building was hit by a Ukrainian drone, resulting in two casualties.

The city administration building in the Russian city of Belgorod was hit by a drone on Tuesday, March 12, as reported by regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov via Telegram.

“In Belgorod, an enemy UAV crashed into the city administration building,” the governor stated.

Despite winning the Oscar for “Best Documentary Feature Film” the moment they got the award to celebrate its achievement was missing from the highlights program.

Disney Entertainment faced criticism after it was revealed that the segment during Sunday’s Oscar ceremony when the award for the documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” was being made had been left out of the international TV broadcast due to “time constraints.”

The documentary, directed by Mstislav Chernov, depicted life in Mariupol during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces struck and destroyed the Russian-flagged tanker, the Mechanic Pogodin, which had been used by Russians as a surveillance post near the Kinburn Spit.

Ukraine's Air Force reported that they destroyed a tanker Monday that Russian forces had been using as a post for surveillance and for launching deadly kamikaze drones on Ukraine’s Kherson region.

A video posted by Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk shows the strike on the tanker, followed by a massive plume of smoke.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

Brussels is pushing to give Ukraine €2bn-€3bn this year from profits derived from Russia’s frozen assets, accelerating the funding plan as US financial support to Kyiv wanes. The European Commission is preparing a plan, according to officials, that would involve seizing sanctions-related profits, dating from February onwards, earned at the central securities depository Euroclear. After months of wrangling, a first tranche of money could be disbursed as early as July if Brussels can secure approval of member states, officials said. The proposal is expected before a summit of EU leaders next week. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has called for the funds to be used for military support, rather than postwar reconstruction as had been originally envisaged — a contentious approach for some capitals. About €190bn in Russian sovereign assets have been immobilised at Euroclear since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, generating €3.85bn in profits. The latest plans would provide between €2bn and €3bn to Ukraine this year, depending on interest rates, the officials said. The total profits siphoned from Euroclear could reach €20bn by 2027, according to EU officials. The hotly debated question of whether to use Russian funds tied up in Brussels-based Euroclear to aid Ukraine has become more pressing as the war has entered its third year and international aid has dwindled. The depository holds the bulk of the €260bn in Russian central bank assets frozen by western sanctions - FT

Donald Trump “will not give a penny” to Ukraine if he is re-elected US president, the far-right Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said after a controversial meeting with Trump in Florida. “He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war,” Orbán told state media in Hungary on Sunday. “Therefore, the war will end, because it is obvious that Ukraine can not stand on its own feet. According to Orbán, Trump has a “detailed plan” to end the Ukraine war, which began two years ago when Russia invaded. Calling Trump “a man of peace”, Orbán said: “If the Americans don’t give money and weapons, along with the Europeans, the war is over. And if the Americans don’t give money, the Europeans alone can’t finance this war. And then the war is over.” (This would likely mean Ukraine losing the war to Russia.) - The Guardian

The aircraft, on a scheduled flight en route to the Severny airfield near Ivanovo, crashed in a wooded area shortly after takeoff with its right outboard engine visibly ablaze.

Russia said Tuesday that a military cargo plane with 15 people on board had crashed in Russia's Ivanovo region while taking off from an airfield northeast of Moscow for a scheduled flight.

“An Il-76 military transport aviation plane crashed in the Ivanovo region while taking off to perform a scheduled flight. On board were eight crew members and seven passengers,” the defense ministry said in a statement.

Tomoko Akane, a Japanese jurist who joined the International Criminal Court on a nine-year term in March 2018, was elected as president of the court on Monday.

Judge Tomoko Akane was chosen as President of the International Criminal Court elected on March 11, alongside Judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala, who became First Vice-President, and Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou as Second Vice-President. Akane replaces Polish lawyer Piotr Hofmanski, who has headed the ICC since March 2021. She will serve as chair of the ICC until 2027 as the members of the Presidency were elected for a three-year term with immediate effect.

Judge Akane was one of those, along with ICC prosecutor Karim Khan and judges Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez and Rosario Salvatore Aitala, who issued arrest warrants for Putin and Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the forced deportations of more than 16,000 Ukrainian children to Russia.

While Ukraine wants to stop the Russian Orthodox Church from carrying out Kremlin aims, it doesn't aim to mimic Moscow by cracking down on people’s religious freedom.

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has become a key player in the ongoing war against Ukraine, using its religious authority and influence to justify and support Russia's aggressive actions.

The ROC not only denounces Ukraine's sovereignty, culture, and religious identity but also engages in a new form of religious warfare, where it organizes and funds private military groups and blesses weapons of mass destruction. The ROC's leader, Patriarch Kirill, has been accused of offering spiritual rewards to Russian soldiers who die fighting against Ukraine, thus creating a religious motivation for the war.

While the vote will be symbolic, it will give political parties an opportunity to publicly express their positions in relation to Macron's strategy on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron's Ukraine strategy will be put to a symbolic vote in parliament's lower house on Tuesday as political tensions rage in the run-up to June's European Parliament elections.

Following a debate, the National Assembly lower house will hold a non-binding vote on the government's Ukraine strategy including a bilateral security agreement signed by Macron and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky last month.

A Freedom of Russia Legion representative confirmed to Kyiv Post that fighting occurs on Russian territory. Media reports suggest Lozovaya Rudka in Belgorod is now under Russian volunteer control.

Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine said Tuesday, March 12, that they had launched a cross-border attack into the Belgorod and Kursk regions of Russia and are engaged in active combat.

The Polish-American diaspora has been a major player in helping Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion by Russia.

On March 12, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk are meeting the US President, Joe Biden in Washington, DC on the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO in 1999.

Addressing the Polish nation on Monday evening, the Polish President said that, ‘’Joining NATO is one of Poland’s greatest achievements in modern history.”

Kyiv Post debuts Overnight Digest supplementing the War in Ukraine Update.

Highlights:

• Zelensky: “We need to further limit Putin’s access… to resources.”
• Zelensky: Three defense lines across 2,000 kilometers created
• Hungary Prime Minister Orban tells of Trump’s version to end war after talks
• CNN: Russia produces three times more artillery than Kyiv’s partners altogether
• Pentagon: $10 billion required to replace materiel sent to Ukraine
• CIA chief Burns says it would be “massive and historic mistake” to stop funding Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the nation that Kyiv’s allies must “further limit” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “access to resources,” implying the quantity of Western components that are still found in Russian weaponry.

Attacks caused fires at the facilities, located hundreds of kilometers apart in the towns of Kstovo and Oryol.

Two Russian fuel depots were targeted in separate drone attacks early morning Tuesday, March 12, regional governors said, as Ukraine launched a barrage of strikes across multiple regions of Russia.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 25 Ukrainian drones were destroyed or intercepted across nine regions, including Moscow, Leningrad, Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk, Tula, and Oryol. The attacks also targeted the Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh regions.

Alarm is growing among US allies as Congress blocks aid for Ukraine and Trump threatens to cut funding for Kyiv if elected while urging Russia to invade NATO countries that fail to pay their dues.

US President Joe Biden hosts Poland's President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the White House Tuesday to try to reassure key NATO ally Warsaw of Washington's support after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Duda urged NATO allies before the visit to up their spending in response to growing fears about Moscow's aggression, and will reportedly ask Biden to send more US troops to the alliance's eastern flank with Russia.

A rare 9C19 Ginger radar system, crucial for Russian anti-aircraft defense, collects data on air targets and transmits them to the command posts of the Russian air defense forces.

Guerrillas from the ATESH movement uncovered the presence of a unique 9C19 Ginger radar system used for detecting ballistic missiles, spotted in Dzhankoy, occupied Crimea, as per their report shared via Telegram.

In a released video, the partisans disclosed, "An agent of our movement discovered the 9C19 Ginger radar system, which is being towed on tractors towards the military airfield."

According to the Chief of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, operations in the Black Sea are used a test of Ukraine’s strategy and tactics when operating there and on the Crimean Peninsula.

The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Defense of Ukraine (HUR) said that Ukrainian sabotage raids in the Black Sea are preparations for a future “serious operation” in occupied Crimea. According to him, the operations in the Black Sea are a test of “the correct way to approach and leave [the peninsula].”

“In addition, this is a good message for the population that has been living under occupation for 10 years. Many of them believe that they have been forgotten,” Kyrylo Budanov said in the documentary War for the Sea: From Dnipro to Crimea, which premiered on March 10 as part of Ukraine’s national telethon.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

• A Ukrainian military observer offered assessments of Russian force generation and defense industrial base (DIB) capacities that are consistent with ISW’s previous assessments.
• Russia’s increased defense industrial base (DIB) production is likely not sustainable in the medium and long-term as it will likely suffer from labor shortages, decreased weapons and equipment stockpiles, and an inability to completely compensate for military and dual-use items it can no longer acquire due to sanctions.
• Transfers of North Korean weapons to Russia by sea have apparently resumed after a pause since mid-February 2024.
• A Ukrainian military source noted that Russian forces are increasingly using grenades equipped with chemical substances in the Zaporizhia direction, in potential violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to which Russia is a signatory.
• The Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has summoned Russian Ambassador to Moldova Oleg Vasnetsov in response to claims that Russia will operate polling stations in pro-Russian Moldovan breakaway region Transnistria during the Russian presidential election.
• Russia, China, and Iran will hold the joint Maritime Security Belt – 2024 naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman between March 11–15.
• The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) claimed that the West intends to use Armenia as a tool against Russia, a notable escalation in its information operations criticizing Armenian efforts to distance itself from security relations with Russia.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill on March 11 that allows Russian authorities to further restrict actors it deems “foreign agents” to consolidate control over the Russian information space ahead of the presidential election.
• France is reportedly prepared to build a coalition of countries that are open to potentially sending Western military personnel to Ukraine.
• Russian forces recently made confirmed advances near Kreminna, Bakhmut, and Donetsk City.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin continues efforts to cater to Russian servicemembers and their families with the promise of various social benefits.

Authors: Christina Haward, Grace Mappes, Nicole Wolkov, Riley Bailey, and George Barros.