NYT - July 29, 2022 -Russia - Ukraine War Briefing

 

July 29, 2022

By Carole Landry Editor/Writer, Briefings Team

Hello. This is your Russia-Ukraine War Briefing, a weeknight guide to the latest news and analysis about the conflict.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, to accept a proposal for the release of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, but reported no breakthrough. President Volodymyr Zelensky visited a port in the Odesa region and expressed hope that grain exports could begin in the coming days. Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported big increases in profits from soaring oil and gas prices. Follow our live updates. Track the invasion with our maps.

Part of the prison camp in Olenivka, Ukraine, on Friday.Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

A disputed blast kills Ukrainian P.O.W.s

Russia and Ukraine traded blame for an explosion at a prison camp in the Russia-occupied eastern Donetsk region that killed at least 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The attack took place yesterday in the town of Olenivka, where Russia is holding thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war, including about 2,500 fighters who were forced to surrender at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. The fighters are considered war heroes in Ukraine, while Russia has treated the prisoners as trophies.

Each side accused the other of committing a war crime. At least 40 captured fighters were killed and dozens more were maimed, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials.

Russia’s defense minister claimed that Ukraine had used a U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, to strike the prison. Ukraine’s motive, Russia said, was to intimidate Ukrainian soldiers who might consider surrendering.

Ukraine rejected the claim, accusing Russia of bombing the facility to hide evidence of torture and extrajudicial executions and calling it a false-flag operation to discredit Ukraine.

Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service, the S.B.U., published an audio recording of what it claimed were two Russian-backed separatist fighters discussing the explosion over the phone. In the call, which could not be independently verified, one person said that there was no sound of any rocket before the explosion, and that Russian forces had likely blown up the barracks themselves.

Prisoners who have been released from Olenivka described hellish conditions at the camp. They said guards provided just enough food for prisoners to survive and meted out regular beatings.

The Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement that it used the HIMARS exclusively to attack Russian military targets. The HIMARS units have fired hundreds of satellite-guided rockets in Ukraine, and there have been no reports of them mistakenly hitting civilian targets.

The explosion came one day after a video circulated online that appeared to show a Russian soldier castrating a Ukrainian prisoner of war. The video’s authenticity could not be independently confirmed, and the location of the alleged mutilation was unclear.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken is resisting calls to formally declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

Labeling Russia a terrorist state

Pressure is mounting on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to formally declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, a label currently reserved for North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran.

The Senate this week unanimously passed a nonbinding resolution supporting such a move after appeals from Ukraine, and the House of Representatives is gearing up for a similar vote. Blinken, however, is resisting the move, my colleagues Michael Crowley and Edward Wong report.

If the State Department were to add Russia to the list of state sponsors of terror, that finding would result in more sanctions on Russia’s economy, including penalties on countries that do business with Moscow. It would also waive traditional legal barriers that prevent private citizens from suing foreign governments for damages, potentially including the families of Americans killed or injured while fighting Russia in Ukraine.

Some supporters of the designation would not mind further isolating Russia.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said the move would put Russia “in a very small club.”

“It consists of nations like Syria, Iran, Cuba, that are outside the bounds of civilized countries,” he said. “They are pariahs.”

It could rupture, once and for all, the Biden administration’s limited diplomatic links with Moscow, analysts say, at a time when the U.S. is trying to secure the release of two imprisoned Americans, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.

Even during the war, the U.S. wants to continue working with Russia on some issues, including the international talks with Iran over restoring the 2015 nuclear agreement.

What else we’re following

In Ukraine

A rocket hit a crowded bus stop in the southern city of Mykolaiv, killing at least five people, Ukrainian officials said. From Opinion: Writing in a guest essay, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, called on Western allies to increase their support and to reject what he described as Russia’s “fake peace proposals.”

In Russia

Russian authorities have asked a court to revoke the media license of Novaya Gazeta, the Moscow newspaper and website whose editor received a Nobel Peace Prize. Russia’s security service, the F.S.B., has become a far more expansive arm of an increasingly ruthless state, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan write in Foreign Affairs.

Around the world

Authorities in Lebanon were investigating whether a Syrian ship that docked in one of its ports was carrying Ukrainian grain stolen by Russia.

A major U.N. nuclear conference begins next week. The I.A.E.A., a nuclear watchdog, says that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine is in an “alarming” state, CBS reports.

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Towns and cities across Europe are finding ways to help citizens cut back on energy use, fearing a Russian gas cut.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back Monday. — Carole