Svitlana Moronets

May 10, 2024

Azatbek Omurbekov is notorious in Ukraine as the ‘Butcher of Bucha’. The 40-year-old commanded the 64th Brigade, which was involved in the slaughter of more than 1,400 civilians in the town just outside Kyiv two years ago. Sanctioned by London and allies, he tops the ‘kill list’ of war criminals compiled by Ukrainian forces – making him a hero of modern Russia, lauded by Vladimir Putin himself. He was chosen to star in a military parade in Khabarovsk on the Russia-China border yesterday, standing atop a moving tank to mark the country’s victory over Nazi Germany.

Putin marked Victory Day in Moscow with a lone 80-year-old T-34 tank (borrowed from a museum) standing in Red Square, accompanied by armoured vehicles and saluting soldiers – just a fraction of what the Kremlin displayed before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Cheering crowds welcomed the President and other ‘heroes of the special military operation’ who stood behind him. Among them was Senior Lieutenant Chalym Chuldum-ool, who served in a unit that held more than 350 villagers captive in a school basement in Chernihiv Oblast for almost a month, and Major Boris Dudko, who was involved in the massacre in Bucha. The entire event seemed more like a celebration of the invasion of Ukraine than a commemoration of victory over the Nazis.

There was no festive mood in Kyiv. Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a brief speech and presented awards to the most distinguished servicemen – or to their widows, parents, and children. There were no cheering crowds; the event was unannounced and short to avoid drawing attention that might expose those present to Russian missile attacks. ‘The world slept through the rebirth of Nazism at 5 a.m. on 24 February 2022. And today, everyone who remembers the second world war and has survived to this day feels a sense of déjà vu,’ Zelensky said. ‘As in 1945, only a united free world – united in the anti-Putin coalition – can stop the Moscow Nazis through action rather than words.’

There is a feeling in Ukraine that the worst days are yet to come. Eight settlements in Donbas have been lost to Russia in the past three weeks. Forces are gathering north of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Just this morning, it emerged that a group of Russian armoured vehicles broke through at the border between Russia and the north of the Kharkiv Oblast, advancing half a mile near the town of Vovchansk. The fight began at 3 a.m. London time, and Russian artillery fire has not stopped since.

The weapons of large calibre from recently authorised US aid won’t arrive until the end of the summer at the earliest. Washington is using this time to figure out what can be transferred to Ukraine without undermining Nato’s own combat-readiness. The delay is hard for Ukrainians to understand or accept because it seems to subordinate a real war to an imagined one. Ukrainians are the ones whose lives depend on these weapons at this very moment.

Some nine million Ukrainians died in the second world war. Half were civilians, the other half served in Stalin’s Red Army. ‘Never again’ became an international slogan many believed in Ukraine – until it did happen again in 2014 and then February 2022. The world went to war in the 1930s because not enough was done to stand up to aggressors in the first place. Ukrainians can hope that the West will not make the same mistake again.

Ukraine in Focus

By Svitlana Morenets

Portrait of the week in Ukraine:

• Russian forces have started an attack this morning north of the Kharkiv Oblast, advancing half a mile near the border town of Vovchansk in an effort to create a buffer zone.
• Ukrainian long-range drones have set a recordby flying 950 miles and hitting an oil refinery in Bashkortostan in central Russia.
• Ukrainian courts have halted the criminal prosecutions of almost 11,000 defendants who volunteered to join the army.
• Two Ukrainian colonels have been detained in a Russian plot to assassinate Volodymyr Zelensky.
• Russian assault groups have broken into the town of Krasnohorivka in Donetsk Oblast, but their advance was blocked at a local factory. They are now cut off from the supply of ammunition.
• Ukraine has built a secret network of weapons production factories, which are reportedlylocated underground, some hidden behind fake walls.
• EU ambassadors have agreed to use profits from frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s recovery and military defence.
• The Netherlands will start delivering F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine this autumn after Denmark begins transferring its aircraft in the summer.
• The Pentagon is working with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to deny Russia use of internet service Starlink at the front line.
• Lithuania’s parliament has authorised sending its military trainers to Ukraine, but Kyiv has not yet asked for a deployment.
• Russia has stopped using the Crimean Kerch Bridge to transport military equipment to the front line and is instead using overland routes in occupied eastern Ukraine.
• Italian weapons supplied to Ukrainian troops can only be used within Ukraine’s borders, Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani has said, adding that Rome is not at war with Russia.
• Xi Jinping has reportedly supported Emmanuel Macron’s idea of a global truce during the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.
• Budapest will not participate in Nato’s $100bn five-year fund for Ukraine, the Hungarian foreign minister has said, calling it a ‘crazy mission’.
• The UK and allies have sanctioned the Russian leader of the cyber-crime gang LockBit, which carried out 3,000 cyber-attacks in the US and Europe in recent years.

Wider reading on the war:

Why attacking the Crimean bridge isn’t needed any more – Molfar

Battle of Chasiv Yar begins: on the ground with Ukrainian forces defending the city key to Russia’s plans – Kyiv Independent

Russia can lose this war – CNN

Why Ukraine should keep striking Russian oil refineries – Foreign Affairs

How the West is helping Ukraine won’t be enough to win – Politico

Quote of the week

‘We must embrace a more assertive stance in a world that demands resilience. If we take anything away from Putin’s unlawful incursion, it should be the understanding that hesitancy and minimal action only embolden aggressors’.

– UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron during a speech at the National Cyber Security Centre yesterday.

In pictures:

Kyiv: Security officers arrest one of a pair of Ukrainian government protection unit colonels who were allegedly involved in a Russian plot to kidnap and kill Volodymyr Zelensky (Photo: Security Service of Ukraine)

The war in numbers

Ukrainian prison population:

20,000.

Ukraine has started recruiting convicts for the front line.

Profits from Russian frozen assets in the EU:

€3bn per year.

to be used to buy weapons for Ukraine.

Slovak citizens raise funds to buy:

2,500 shells.

Some 65,000 donated, raising €4m in four weeks.

A note from the author: Thank you for your interest in this newsletter. I hope it helps you to understand my country – and the war – better from a Ukrainian perspective. If you enjoy the Ukraine in Focus newsletter, please forward it to someone you know: you can sign up here. My writing for The Spectator can be found here. All feedback is welcome: svitlana@spectator.co.uk