Ukraine Briefly

March 31, 2023

Ukraine, Briefly

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This week, Russia announced it would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a move seen as retaliation for the United Kingdom announcing last week that it would supply Ukraine with armor-piercing shells constructed from depleted uranium, France 24 reported. Although the rounds contain tiny amounts of radioactivity, Moscow says the ammunition has “nuclear components” that justify its move into Belarus. Russian President Vladimir Putin added that the move does not violate any nonproliferation agreements and likened his plans to the United States stationing its weapons in Europe, NBC News added. NATO and Ukraine criticized the move as “dangerous and irresponsible,” adding that it risks making Belarus a “nuclear hostage.”

Also this week:

• The delivery of depleted uranium shells comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that there would be no new counter-offensive against Russian troops until Western allies send more military support, according to the BBC. Even so, Russia launched another wave of Iranian-made drones on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and its surroundings this week. Ukraine’s air defenses shot down almost all of them and there were no reports of casualties. Meanwhile heavy fighting continued in and around Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk, Radio Free Europe noted.

• The United Nations Security Council rejected a resolution by Russia this week that demanded an international investigation into what appears to have been sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, Voice of America reported. The proposed resolution would have established an international independent commission that would probe the explosion, including identifying the “perpetrators, sponsors, organizers and accomplices.” Authorities in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany are conducting investigations into the attacks. According to preliminary reports, the damage was caused by “powerful explosions” and “gross sabotage.”

• Hungary’s parliament approved Finland’s NATO membership on Monday, putting an end to months of delays and pushing the Nordic country one step closer to full membership in the Western military alliance, the Associated Press wrote.

• Russian authorities arrested a reporter for the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, with officials accusing him of spying for the United States, according to CBS News. The arrest of US citizen Evan Gershkovich represents a significant increase in the Kremlin’s efforts to suppress dissent, a crackdown that gained traction following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

• The UK and Poland will build two temporary villages in western and central Ukraine to provide housing for people forced from their homes by Russia’s invasion, with the British government pledging more than $12.3 million for the effort, Reuters added.

• The French parliament decided this week to declare the starvation of millions of Ukrainians during Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s reign as genocide, Radio Free Europe reported. The resolution comes as the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine revives memories of the famine known by Ukrainians as the Holodomor. The European Parliament did so in December and called on Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, to do the same and apologize.

This story originally appeared in the March 31, 2023 newsletter, Joyful Warriors.