Ukraine Briefly

March 17, 2023

Ukraine, Briefly

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This week, Poland said it is planning to give Ukraine around a dozen Soviet-made fighter jets, making it the first NATO country to fulfill the Ukrainian government’s increasingly urgent requests for warplanes, the Associated Press reported. At the same time, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said the country’s counter-intelligence has dismantled a Russian spy ring collecting information on military equipment deliveries to Ukraine, according to the Telegraph.

Also this week:

• A Russian fighter jet collided with a United States Air Force drone over the Black Sea, marking the first time aircraft from both nations have come into direct physical contact since Moscow invaded Ukraine last year, CNN wrote. Video footage from the drone showed the Russian jet dumping fuel on the US aircraft twice before the collision. Russia denied that a collision occurred, but US officials countered that the highest levels of the Kremlin approved the aggressive maneuver, NBC News added.

• Chinese leader Xi Jinping intends to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since the start of the Ukraine war, most likely after visiting Moscow next week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Wall Street Journal. Officials familiar with the matter said the meetings with Putin and Zelenskyy – the latter of which is slated to take place digitally – show Beijing’s effort to play a more active role in putting an end to the conflict.

• Russian soldiers in Ukraine committed a series of violations that amounted to war crimes and potential crimes against humanity, according to a recent United Nations report, Axios noted. The findings cover a period from the start of the invasion in February 2022 to mid-January 2023, in nine regions of Ukraine. Meanwhile, a group of Russian women and mothers have petitioned President Putin to stop sending their husbands and sons “to the slaughter” by forcing them to join assault units with insufficient training and supplies, CNN reported.

This story originally appeared in the March 17, 2023 newsletter, The Democracy Two-Step.