- Dec 29, 2008
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Behind the front lines of the war, Russian forces are trying to ensure that the territory they have captured can never be integrated into Ukraine again, according to European intelligence officials.
In more than a year since the invasion, Moscow has entrenched its control of large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine by engineering cultural and demographic shifts through violence, economic coercion and the replacement of local populations, the officials said, asking not to be named discussing confidential material.
The goal of those alleged war crimes appears to be to eliminate the Ukrainian identity in the areas Russia has occupied, the European officials said. As a result of those abuses, Kyiv will need more than just success on the battlefield to re-establish control, they said. The Russian actions, they added, suggest little interest in negotiating over the occupied areas on the part of President Vladimir Putin, who vowed to secure victory at a military parade in Moscow on Tuesday.
Russian forces “are engaged in filtration operations, torture and extrajudicial killings,” Michael Carpenter, the US permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said by email. “Healing the wounds of war will not be easy.”
Kremlin officials have denied that Russian forces have perpetrated any human rights abuses in Ukraine while Putin himself has argued that there is no such thing as a Ukrainian national identity. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president for alleged war crimes.
In more than a year since the invasion, Moscow has entrenched its control of large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine by engineering cultural and demographic shifts through violence, economic coercion and the replacement of local populations, the officials said, asking not to be named discussing confidential material.
The goal of those alleged war crimes appears to be to eliminate the Ukrainian identity in the areas Russia has occupied, the European officials said. As a result of those abuses, Kyiv will need more than just success on the battlefield to re-establish control, they said. The Russian actions, they added, suggest little interest in negotiating over the occupied areas on the part of President Vladimir Putin, who vowed to secure victory at a military parade in Moscow on Tuesday.
Russian forces “are engaged in filtration operations, torture and extrajudicial killings,” Michael Carpenter, the US permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said by email. “Healing the wounds of war will not be easy.”
Kremlin officials have denied that Russian forces have perpetrated any human rights abuses in Ukraine while Putin himself has argued that there is no such thing as a Ukrainian national identity. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president for alleged war crimes.
