RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
NATO moving closer to war with Russia – Orban
The European Union and NATO member states are getting “closer to war”with Russia every week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday in an interview with local station Kossuth Radio.
He pointed to recent media reports stating that Paris intends to send French soldiers to train Ukrainian troops, as well as reports that the US has given Ukraine permission to strike targets deep inside Russia using certain weapons.
“It is absurd that instead of protecting us, NATO is dragging us into a world war. It’s like a firefighter going to put out a fire with a flamethrower,” Orban said, stressing that members of the military bloc are inching closer to full-blown war all the time.
He cited “discussion, preparation and destruction” as three key stages preceding such a conflict, saying that members of the bloc are “now completing the discussion and are at the preparation stage.”
He cited “discussion, preparation and destruction” as three key stages preceding such a conflict, saying that members of the bloc are “now completing the discussion and are at the preparation stage.”
Meanwhile, a US official told several media outlets on Thursday that Washington had given Ukraine the green light to strike targets deep within Russian territory using a certain number of weapons in order to protect Kharkov Region. Ukraine’s military is not officially allowed to attack targets far behind the front line with weapons supplied by Western supporters. However, high-ranking officials have been sending mixed messages about a change in policy in recent weeks.
Moscow has warned that any Western moves to allow Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory could trigger further escalation.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this week that “several”members of the US-led military bloc, including the UK, have “never imposed any” restrictions on Kiev.
Orban recently announced plans to reassess Hungary’s role within the NATO bloc, citing reluctance to take part in a conflict against Russia. Budapest has opposed NATO funding and arming of Ukraine from the beginning of the military conflict in February 2022.
The Hungarian government has opted not to supply Kiev with any weapons, and has not allowed its territory to be used for their delivery either, despite mounting pressure from Brussels and Washington. The prime minister has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
** First French troops en route to Ukraine — MP
The first group of French military instructors are coming to Ukraine, high-profile Ukrainian politician Aleksey Goncharenko said on Friday.
His statement comes just days after Ukraine’s top commander Aleksandr Syrsky announced that had authorized the presence of the French personnel in the country.
“My sources informed me that the first group of French instructors is already on its way to Ukraine,” Goncharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and a delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday evening.
NATO boots on the ground is a contentious issue inside the US-led alliance, whose members maintain that they are not parties to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow, meanwhile, has said that it views Ukraine’s Western backers as direct participants, stressing that Western-supplied weapons are being used to strike targets on Russian soil.
In February, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he could not rule out the possibility of NATO member states sending troops to Ukraine in the future, although French officials soon clarified that he meant non-combat personnel. Macron later argued that NATO should adopt a policy of “strategic ambiguity” towards Russia. The French leader has been working behind the scenes to forge a coalition of countries willing to dispatch trainers to Kiev, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
Syrsky, who was made Ukraine’s top general in February, said on Monday that he had signed the papers allowing instructors from France to visit Kiev’s training facilities and “familiarize themselves with their infrastructure and personnel,” and had notified French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu.
Moscow has warned that any additional military aid to Kiev amounts to serious escalation. Western military personnel are already active in Ukraine and “have been there for a long time,” President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. “They are [foreign] specialists under the guise of mercenaries,” he told the press. He said that the deployment of Western forces to Ukraine would be “another step towards a serious conflict in Europe and a global conflict.”
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Thousands of Ukrainian prisoners apply to join army in return for parole
Ukraine recruiting prisoners to help replenish army ranks
Minister says up to 20,000 prisoners could be mobilised
Inmates taking part will have remaining sentences cleared
Certain categories of prisoner are barred from joining up
Scheme echoes similar recruitment of prisoners in Russia
In its quest to fill the dwindling ranks of its infantry, Ukraine has turned to recruiting prisoners to join the fight against Russia, and more than four thousand have applied so far.
Under a deal offered to inmates by the government, prisoners will have their remaining sentences cleared - regardless of length - if they agree to serve in the army without leave until the end of the war.
At that point they would be granted parole.
"My mother was in hysterics ... I've been here for five years – a year left and I'm going off to war," one of those who signed up, Mykola Rybalka, told Reuters in the yard of his prison in Kyiv region.
Rybalka, who said he was in for theft, is one of 129 prisoners in a colony of 700 who have applied to join the military, according to the justice ministry.
"You know, five years behind these walls leave their mark. You've seen a lot and understood a lot. You're not scared of anything anymore," he said.
Ukraine, whose population of about 38 million compares with Russia's 144 million, has struggled to recruit enough soldiers, particularly to fight in frontline positions where they bear the brunt of enemy attacks and suffer heavy losses.
Its troops are outnumbered and exhausted, and a new law has recently been signed aimed at mobilising several hundred thousand more soldiers - although it will likely take months for significant numbers of new troops to be ready.
"There is competition between military commanders to hire (prisoners) since there is a lack of manpower, so they really want to have access to these people," Justice Minister Denys Maliuska told reporters visiting the prison on Thursday.
Recruiters from Ukraine's 3rd and 5th Assault Brigades who were present at the press event both rated the motivation of the prisoners as generally high.
The 5th Brigade's representative, who introduced himself as Vladyslav, told Reuters his brigade had recruited around 90 people from the prison, and were recruiting in others.
He said those who joined his brigade would be put into separate, prisoner-only units, and that commanders would keep a close eye on them.
There was, however, little scope for them to desert considering the amount of fire Russia could aim at a disorderly withdrawal, Vladyslav added.
The 3rd Brigade's representative, Oleh Petrenko, said his brigade would not treat convicts differently to other men.
"We don't see any difference between normal mobilised (men) and prisoners."
THOUSANDS APPLY
Early on in the full-scale war, private Russian mercenary group Wagner recruited tens of thousands of Russian prisoners to fight in Ukraine, offering them a full pardon if they survived six months at the front.
Russia's Defence Ministry has since continued recruiting convicts from prisons for its own Storm-Z formations.
In Ukraine, prisoners convicted of certain offences are barred from serving. These offences include the murder of two or more people, manslaughter through drink-driving, sexual crimes, treason and corruption.
The justice ministry said 4,564 prisoners had applied to join the army so far. They need to pass medical checks and have their application approved by a court – more than 1,700 already have the green light.
The minister has previously said he expects between 10,000 and 20,000 inmates to sign up in total.
Maliuska said he hoped most applicants would be serving in about two months. Reuters was invited into a local courthouse, and saw how a judge approved the application of a man serving a sentence for armed robbery.
He appeared via video link from prison, and the process took about 10 minutes.
The judge, Dmytro Tkachenko, said the prison made sure it only sent applicants who met the law's criteria, and that he and two other judges had been hearing between 10 and 20 such cases a day over the past week.
Of about 100, two had been rejected, both due to the applicants changing their mind.
Under the new law, 782 prisoners have already been freed from prison and handed over to the armed forces.
"They (will be) in the media spotlight, and if there is a single deserter or a single crime, that would be the type of thing in the media that would be bad PR for us," Maliuska said.
Twenty-three-year-old Vitaliy Yatsenko, who is halfway through a seven-year sentence for selling drugs, said he had hoped to sign up at the beginning of Russia's invasion but had not been allowed at that point.
He has now submitted his application to join the army.
"First of all, I want to help my country. And I want society to understand that people have the ability to rehabilitate."
** Ukraine and Russia announce major prisoner swap
Ukraine and Russia announced their first exchange of prisoners of war in nearly four months on Friday, with 150 people freed after negotiations mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said 75 Ukrainian prisoners had been returned from Russia. They included four civilians while the rest were members of the military.
Russia's Defence Ministry said Ukraine handed over 75 people in a deal brokered by the UAE, RIA news agency reported.
"After a long pause, another prisoner swap took place: 75 defenders and civilians were released from the enemy's captivity," Ukraine's Coordinating Committee on Dealing with Prisoners of War said.
Pictures released with a statement from the committee showed servicemen draped in blue and yellow national flags.
Ukrainian officials said they brought back 19 defenders of Snake Island, a tiny rocky outcrop in the Black Sea that became a symbol of Ukrainian defiance in the first days of the war when Ukrainian guards refused to surrender to Russian forces.
The committee also said that as a part of the swap, the bodies of 212 Ukrainian defenders were handed over by Russia.
RT/Reuters