Moscow's War: Terrorizing, Hunting, Killing Civilians -- Human Safari

 

"Located in southern Ukraine on the banks of the Dniepr River across from the Russian army, Kherson has become a hunting ground for what locals call a “human safari”." 

"The Russian forces are using drones to target civilians – whether they are on foot, driving, or even on bicycles. The drones they use are known as FPVs, for “first-person view”, meaning the operators see what the drone sees in real time."

"For residents of Kherson, these drones have become a daily threat."

"At least 577 civilians were killed by short-range drones in Ukraine in 2025, and more than 3,000 were injured, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). Nearly 95% of civilian casualties were recorded in territory held by the Ukrainian government." 

"In an October 2025 report focusing on the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, the UN Commission of Inquiry of Ukraine found that 'Russian armed forces’ short-range drone attacks ... amount to a crime against humanity ... and war crimes'."

France 24

 

"It starts in the evening. Sometimes, from 8 or 9pm, they start terrorising us. Sirens go off, drones start hitting."

"But in our practice, based on statistics, the peak is around 2, 3 or 4 am. That is when most strikes occur, when people are peacefully sleeping." 

Maryna Averina, spokesperson, State Emergency Service of Ukraine, Odessa region 

FPV drone with a spool of fibre-optic cable. Image credit: Armyinform.com.ua

 

The buzz of drones alert Ukrainians of incoming drones equipped with cameras, rigged out with explosives and steered by joysticks in the hands of a Russian military operative a mere dozen kilometres' distance. They know from experience that they will be tracked, chased and attacked by these drones. Familiarity with the phenomenon and the drones' random, unexpected presence, they are familiarly named as Russia's 'human safari' scheme of population demoralization. Translated; a terror campaign begun in Kherson which evolved with new technology, then spread to border areas within Ukraine. 

 

This hunting down of civilians for the quite obvious purpose of a reign of terror, part of the Kremlin's 

'special military operation', in Vladimir Putin's obsession with destroying Ukraine as a sovereign state, while annexing southern Ukraine bit by bit as it did in 2022 when it captured Crimea in 2014. The United Nations has recognized the deadly tactic as a war crime, one that has crossed the border from one army battling another, to an army deliberately targeting civilians, in opposition to international prohibitions on targeting civilian populations. 

 

"It's a really horrible problem the Russians are imposing on Ukrainian civilians in these towns where they're using the human safari tactic", observed Robert Tollast, military sciences researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, London. Russians just across the Dnieper River began two years ago deploying cheap commercial first-person view (FPV) quadcopters to stalk and strike civilians as they went about the course of their days; biking, standing at bus stops, walking their dogs.

 

The spool of fibre-optic cable is usually quite large. Image credit: Armyinform.com.ua

 

Begun in Kherson, by April of 2025 the attacks killed 42 civilians each month, injuring close to 300, according to an independent UN human rights commission report. The campaign, determined investigators, was ordered by Moscow for the purpose of systematically terrorizing the population, amounting to "murder as a crime against humanity". At  first Ukraine took to jamming -- flooding the drone frequencies with empty radio noise, which worked for a while.  Until Russia equipped the drones with fibre-optic filament.

 

These hair-thin tethers unspool in flight for 19 kilometres; with small payloads even further, as they carry video to the operator who commands the drone in return. Equipped with these filaments that bypass radio signals, the drones could no longer be jammed. It was  found that if someone knowledgeable, like a soldier, could grasp a filament it could be snapped through a combination of loops and pinches. Someone in the right place at the right time who could muster the speed required to pull off that simple solution could save another person's life, as the drone, the integrity of the fibre-optic threat broken, could no longer relay video and messages back to the operator. 

"The Russian drones are said to “zero in on vulnerable, everyday locations: crowded markets, petrol stations, cafes, post offices, and humanitarian aid centers.” Some days, the drones target ambulances, police officers, nurses, doctors, and garbage collectors. "

"However, most days, the drones “hunt and wound or kill commuters on their way to work, or target pensioners eking out survival in the winter cold.” The drones also scatter butterfly anti-personnel mines “along streets, courtyards, playgrounds and public squares.” These small, camouflaged mines are hard to see, easily blending in with leaves and brush, and have led to a rise in foot amputations."

"The attacks have become so prevalent that civilians are unable to leave their houses during the day unless there is heavy rain or overcast conditions that prevent the drones from flying or decrease their accuracy. When they do venture out, many residents carry radio frequency drone detectors [devices designed to detect the radio frequencies used to control drones] and only travel after dark. "

Articles of War  

Articles of War

 

White-Washing the 14th Waffen SS Galicia

"I don't understand this upside-down universe where people here admire the Waffen SS and somehow that's OK."

"It doesn't embarrass the people at my university very much that they have a [group] that has been laundering Waffen SS reputations and funds for years now."

Karyn Ball, professor, Holocaust scholar, University of Alberta

Yaroslav Hunka, right, waits for the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Sept. 22. The University of Alberta is returning endowment funds from the family of Hunka, a Ukrainian man whose military service was linked to the Nazis.Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press

After professors at University of Alberta lodged complaints that the University continues to engage in white-washing Nazi crimes, a panel scheduled to discuss the Waffen SS was quietly cancelled. A number of online discussions have been held at the university since an episode involving Ukrainian-Canadian veteran Yaroslav Hunka who served in the Waffen SS was invited to the House of Commons on September 22 on the occasion of Ukraine's Jewish President addressing Parliament. The-then Speaker of the House, ignorant of the Nazi connection, invited the man, characterizing him as a Ukrainian 'hero'.

Despite reality, speakers at the online discussions claim that the 14th Waffen SS Galicia was never involved in Nazi war crimes, attributing such claims to Russian disinformation. When, once again the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the university planned another online discussion for October 14, university professors launched yet another protest. Complaints were filed to the university's administration charging the CIUS in whitewashing Nazi collaborators and war crimes. 

The Hunka family had endowed the organized event with $30,000, before it was cancelled. The Waffen SS Galicia was involved in massacres of civilians during the Second World War, and used as well by the Nazis to crush an uprising in Slovakia. The university's vice-president of academics announced the Hunka family funding would be returned to them. "On behalf of the university, I want to express our commitment to address antisemitism in any of its manifestations, including the ways in which the Holocaust continues to resonate in the present", she stated.

Laurie Adkin, a political scientist at the university, called for an investigation of funding and activities of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Recently an article in  media outlet Progress Report revealed that the university took money from Hunka, as well as from other Waffen SS members, accepting as well funds from the estate of Volodymyr Kubijovyc, a Nazi collaborator who founded Waffen SS Galicia, advocating for ethnic cleansing, for a Ukraine without Jews or Poles.

 

Monument to the people slaughtered by the 14th Waffen-SS at Huta Pienacka. Image via Stako

 

Another veteran of the Waffen SS Galicia division, Peter Savaryn, had served at the University of Alberta as chancellor from 1982 to 1986. He helped to fund the CIUS and had been awarded the Order of Canada in 1987. Among nationalist Ukrainian-Canadians, members of Waffen SS Galicia are viewed as heroes, reflecting their battles against Soviet forces, at that time in the war fighting the Nazis with the Allied coalition. Oakville, Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta both host monuments in honour of the Ukrainian SS troops.

There is a sharp distinction from that group to the 40,000 Ukrainian-Canadians who were members of Canada's military, fighting the Nazis, for whom no monuments have ever been erected in honour of their loyalty to democratic values and Canada. A 1980s study of war criminals in Canada found 600 former members of SS Galicia still resident in Canada. "The Division was an SS division and technically all of its officers and senior NCOs are liable for trial as war criminals", a 1948 British government report noted.

"The University of Alberta says it is reviewing other donations it has received after returning $30,000 from the family of Yaroslav Hunka, a Waffen SS veteran who got a standing ovation in Parliament during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last month."

"The university is facing calls to return hundreds of thousands of dollars in endowments in the names of Ukrainians linked to the Waffen SS Galicia division, who were admitted to Canada after the Second World War. They include an endowment of about $430,000 in the name of Volodymyr Kubijovych, who played a key role in the SS unit’s establishment in 1943."

The Globe and Mail

Left image: Peter Savaryn (left standing) and Volodymyr Kubijovyč (center sitting) pictured here at the 1976 contract signing between the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and Shevchenko Scientific Society of Europe to collaborate on the Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Right image: Volodymyr Kubijovyč (circled in red) gives a Nazi salute at the 14th Waffen-SS recruitment ceremony in 1943.

Russian Humanitarian Concerns

"All night and all morning the enemy terrorizes the civilian population. Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine."

"The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations."

"And we will get victory."

"The enemy can attack our cities, but it won't be able to break us."

"Russia doesn’t have any chance on the battlefield, and it tries to compensate for its military defeats with terror. Why this terror? To put pressure on us, on Europe, on the entire world."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

"[The Russian military used] long-range air- and sea-based high-precision weapons [to strike Ukrainian military and energy facilities]."

"[hey hit] all assigned targets."

Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov

A Ukrainian national flag rises over a local council's headquarter building, heavily damaged during Russia's attack in the village of Lymany near a frontline in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Speculation was that the Russian military had exhausted its store of cruise missiles in its massive bombardment last week hitting cities across Ukraine. And although Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced that that particular mission had accomplished its aim, Russia had no intention of renewing another similar large attack just a few days ago, what he said appears to have slipped his mind, as evidenced by this latest round of attacks, substituting cruise missiles that come at a cost of $1 million apiece to an alternative with a price tag of $20,000 each: Iran-produced Shahed drones.

A little play on language and allusion there; since Islamist 'martyrs', aka suicide bombers are familiarly labeled shaheeds, given heroic status, the assurance that Paradise awaits them with its plentiful rewards including a bevy of beautiful, dewy-eyed virgins eager to fulfill the martyr's every fantasy. So the Iranian drones, named shahed, are also called suicide drones, accomplishing unmanned what human suicide bombers aspire to do; destroy and kill.

Tanks at the port city of Mykolaiv were set on fire by Russian drone attacks, according to the city's mayor   Telegram

One civilian infrastructure hit by a 'suicide drone', aka Iranian drone, struck downtown Kyiv, the site of an apartment building. "I have never been so afraid... It is murder, it is simply murder, there are no other words for it", apartment dweller Vitalii  Dushevskiy said of his experience in the blasted building. A second person who occupies the flat with him explained they have attempted to leave their flat, then discovered the staircase "all gone". All gone as well tragically were several residents of the building, including a pregnant woman.

In attempts to shoot the drones down while blasts reverberated through central Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers fired into the air, as an anti-aircraft rocket went streaking into the sky. An explosion and orange flames followed, sending residents racing for shelter. Later in the day as attacks continued, people in Kyiv began walking about the city carrying on with their normal business through the course of the day, adamant that they would persevere and Russia was on its military back foot.

 

Suicide drones continued flying to assigned targets to detonate. According to Russia's defence ministry a "massive" attack on military targets and energy infrastructure was hugely successful across Ukraine, with the use of high-precision weapons. Perhaps not so much 'military targets' as vengeful attacks on civilian infrastructure in a deliberate attempt to cause as much terror and panic along with infrastructure destruction as conceivable.

 

These heavy aerial bombardments has Ukraine asking for its allies to agree to a closed-sky scenario in the prevention of further such widespread attacks. Which would mean a kind of direct intervention on the part of the European Union and NATO that no one is yet willing to commit to. "This is already a tradition: to wake Ukrainians with missiles on Mondays", commented 47-year-old lawyer Alla Voloshko, taking shelter in her apartment block's basement. 

According to Ukraine's military, 37 Russian drones had been destroyed since Sunday evening representing about 85 percent of the attacking drones. The Everi marine terminal in the port city of Mykolaiv in the south was hit on Sunday night, damaging sunflower storage tanks and sending leaking oil up in flames. "This is an entirely civilian facility. There is no military", senior manager Andriy noted of the attacks that represented a Russian effort to "destroy the economy and to destroy food security."

Once more, Russian shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant disconnected it yet again from the Ukrainian power grid. Occupied by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian staff, the plant's reactors have been shut down for weeks, but they require power to maintain security -- keeping the fuel inside the reactors cool, in prevention of a meltdown.

Firefighters work after a drone attack on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. Waves of explosive-laden suicide drones struck Ukraine's capital as families were preparing to start their week early Monday, the blasts echoing across Kyiv, setting buildings ablaze and sending people scurrying to shelters. (AP Photo/Roman Hrytsyna)

Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Not Going Quite as Planned

"The occupiers cannot win on the battlefield, so they resort to the killing of civilians."

"After the enemy was dislodged from Snake Island, he decided to respond with the cynical shelling of civilian targets."

Ivan Bakanov, head, SBU, Ukraine security service

"These missiles, Kh-22, were designed to destroy aircraft carriers and other large warships, and the Russian army used them against an ordinary nine-storey building with ordinary civilian people [within it]."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

"[The Russian pullback from Snake Island bears] colossal psychological significance [for Ukraine]."

"Snake Island is key for controlling the Black Sea and could help cover the Russian attack if the Kremlin opted for an amphibian landing operation in Odesa or elsewhere in the region."

"Now, those plans are pushed back."

Oleh Zhdano, Ukrainian military analyst

Russia said it pulled out its forces from Ukraine's Snake Island as a 'goodwill gesture.' Ukraine’s military, however, said the Russians fled after relentless attacks by its forces.

 

At great cost, both to the aggressor and to the victim, Ukrainian resolve in responding in kind to the Russian military, using all means at their disposal to defend and push back the enemy invader. A choreograph that has provided a dramatic war theatre totally unexpected in the courage displayed by Ukrainians in their time of existential crisis while at the same time amply demonstrating the lack of military expertise and personnel coordination an invading military as well equipped as Russia's has the potential to encounter in its losses of senior military personnel and equipment.

The Kremlin, along with Vladimir Putin must be writhing in futile fury over the time, personnel and material being consumed by this ill-advised venture they so confidently launched. Not to mention how degraded their reputation has become throughout the international community as a viciously despised tyranny whose irenic display of territorial aggression has appalled the free world. The far-reaching effect of Russia's costly war in lives and infrastructure, has placed food dependent nations in a vulnerable position, awaiting a replacement source of grains and edible oils.

Russia is fuelling the cost of its misadventure with gas and oil sales to energy-hungry nations that have become energy-dependent on its natural resources. And despite Europe beginning to wean itself away from consuming Russian resources, China and India have stepped into the breach. The price of fuel has escalated thanks to the conflict, as has food products and Russia is the beneficiary of those higher prices. A conflict whose complications have embroiled not only Europe but the broader world community.

 

Ukrainian soldiers run for cover during an artillery duel between Ukrainian and Russian troops in Lysychansk. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Yet another Russian airstrike on residential areas in Ukraine has once again demolished civic buildings and destroyed Ukrainian civilian lives. The small town of Serhilvka, relatively near Odeaa was hit by three missiles aimed at civilian areas and taken as representative of payback by the Kremlin for the humiliation of having to withdraw from the strategic Snake Island because of Ukrainian military bombardment against the Russian military stationed there.

Back in the initial stages of the invasion, the Russian navy took control of the island planning to use it as a stage for an eventual assault on Odesa, the largest port in Ukraine, and headquarters of its navy. From the start to the present, the Russian military has deliberately targeted civilian enclaves; hospitals, apartment buildings, schools, despite claiming it does no such thing. Kyiv and its regions were struck by Russian missiles again last weekend following calm after the Russian military retreat when plans to occupy Kyiv were foiled.

A shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk where scores of people died was also carried out last week. Russian forces continue their strategy in eastern Ukraine to encircle the city of Lysychansk representing the final stronghold of resistance in Luhansk, which beside Donetsk, make up the Donbas region. "The shelling of the city is very intensive. The occupiers are destroying one  house after another with heavy artillery and other weapons. Residents of Lysychansk are hiding in basements almost round the clock", advised Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidal.

Buildings destroyed by a military strike are seen in Lysychansk. (Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters)

Singing From The Same Hymnal With Slight Deviations

AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino     Pope Francis arrives to attend a ceremony at the Maronite Cathedral of Our Lady of Graces in Nicosia, Cyprus

"I listened and then told him: I don't understand anything about this."

"Brother, we are not state clerics, we cannot use the language of politics but that of Jesus. We are pastors of the same holy people of God."

"Because of this, we must seek avenues of peace, to put an end to the firing of weapons."

"The patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy."

"[The] barking of NATO at Russia's door [may have forced Putin to invade]. An anger that I don’t know if you can say was provoked, but maybe facilitated."

Pope Francis

"Patriarch Kirill recalled that at the end of the Soviet era, Russia received an assurance that NATO would not move an inch eastwards. However, this promise was broken, even the former Soviet Baltic republics joined NATO."

"Russia could not and cannot allow this to happen."

Russian Orthodox Church

Russian Orthodox Church says Pope Francis 'chose the wrong tone' over 'Putin's altar boy' comment

So recently reconciled, just as recently distancing themselves from each other's positions. The inescapable political dimensions aligned with religious convictions has placed two elite ranking clerics, each of whom assumes the position of shepherd over vast flocks of followers at odds with one another. The caution of diplomacy appears to have fled the scene when Pope Francis spoke frankly of the division between the world of religion and that of politics.

 

Except that for the fact that his further statements bridged that division. And has left simmering resentment of his sentiments and clumsy analogy linking Patriarch Kirill with Russian President Vladimir Putin to the extent that the Patriarch is fully in support of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine. Not the least bit reflective of a high-placed and esteemed leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church's assumed leading concern; that of peace and brotherhood.

 

Nothing can quite lead to a justification of Mr. Putin's order to the Russian military to launch an invasion of its neighbour. In the process destroying entire towns and villages, civic infrastructure, bombing hospitals, rail stations, schools, apartment buildings and even supposedly safe corridors arranged for people to escape the confines of a besieged city. And then there is the rape, the looting, the incidental murders.

 

Pope Francis himself failed to condemn the very leader by name when he despaired over the conflict. Somehow finding it politically diplomatic to abhor the war in its strident brutality but overlooking the mention of exactly who was responsible for launching it. And now buying the Russian president's grievance at NATO's expansion to excuse the rage a despotic ruler succumbed to, taking his revenge over a perceived betrayal of unity with Russia, to innocent civilian populations suffering the onslaught.

There is, thus, a degree of agreement between the two clerics; Pope Francis's on a more modest scale than Patriarch Kirill's, but each sympathetic to Russia's president's paranoia and purpose in choosing to destroy Ukraine to teach his Slavic cousins a lesson. Pope Francis, in his media interview in Italy described his conversation with his Orthodox counterpart who listed off justifications for the war, in a pre-printed agenda he read from.

The Russian Orthodox Church had its own version of the Zoom conference between the two elder Church statesmen: "It's regrettable that a month and a half after the conversation with Patriarch Kirill, Pope Francis chose the  wrong tone to convey the content of this conversation." It was, after all, a confidence betrayal of a colleague, housed in language more fitting to a flippant exchange between two low-ranking sport figures than the top echelon of Christianity.

How can they bring peace and harmony, in other words, to their parishioners when they themselves bicker between their chosen positions? In setting the record straight, the Orthodox Church added "the Pope said, in agreement with the Patriarch, that 'the Church must not use the language of politics, but the language of Jesus'." A senior cleric which has over 100 million followers, as opposed to an infinitely more senior cleric whose following numbers 1.34 billion.

Soviet-Style Totalitarian Rule

"This idea was born last year and now it has become especially relevant."

"Similar work has already been carried out, but now it will be co-ordinated by the Kremlin's domestic political bloc."

"Through this system, employees at all levels will be explained both their goals and objectives and the national policies and, at the right time, 'signals' will be sent to the Kremlin from this network."

"Each of its divisions has recently appointed a person responsible for informing employees about activities in support of the Russian army, and installations for the placement of various visual content are descending from the head office for this."

Kommersant newspaper report 

In a plan that harks back to the paranoia of Josef Stalin's Soviet Union in the 1930s, these "political officers" will also push Vladimir Putin's political agenda and ensure official support for his war in Ukraine stays on track Credit: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

 

Political commissars have been assigned to Russian government ministries and state-owned companies. Their vital task is to be the eyes and ears of the Kremlin, and their reports will be rendered directly to the Presidential Administration, the beating heart of Vladimir Putin's Kremlin. An old tactic given new life under the special circumstances of President Putin's 'special military operation' in Ukraine. A military operation so special it has, in three months, claimed the lives of fifteen-thousand Russian servicemen, a significantly smaller number of their Ukrainian counterparts, and a much larger number of Ukrainian civilians.

 

This is, needless to say, a reality that must not be whispered within Russia. For to do so, to speak of 'war', to mention in hushed tones 'war crimes', and to hint at the fact that despite Vladimir Putin's pride in equipping his military with the latest technological gadgetry in updated materiel and state-of-the-art munitions, ships, planes, and missiles, there has been a desperate need to dust off Soviet-era tanks and other military equipment to make up for those lost to Ukrainian military prowess standing firm against the Russian invasion.

 

Mention any of this. Protest audibly. Stand in a collaborative protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on a Moscow street, and expect arrest and the possibility of a 15-year prison sentence for sedition. Now, political commissars are tasked to report back to the president's office what they gain in knowledge of the "emotional state and mood" of government staff. Anger and paranoia rule the day in the presidential suite at the Kremlin.

 

The "political officers" are tasked as well with acquainting employees with the virtues of the invasion, and the intention to 'rescue' Ukrainians from the talons of the neo-Nazis governing them from Kyiv. The 'liberation' of Ukraine is uppermost in the tender regard of the Russian president, and he wants everyone to be aware of that singular fact. The trusted political officers, prepared to propagandize the issue in the workplace, have been elevated to the rank of deputy minister.

 

One can judge just how nervous the Kremlin is about the potential for dissent from a wider public, by the fact that even though most of the Russian public is supportive of the invasion, as a good-neighbour act by Russia for their Ukrainian 'cousins', particularly those in Russian government ranks, concern remains with respect to hidden dissent. In a country where criticism of the war is strictly banned, and discussion of any kind focusing on casualties is summarily suppressed. The threat of a long prison sentence can have that effect, in any event.

 

The Kremlin is resolved that the Z logo of the major battle group in Ukraine be popularized and become dear to the hearts of the Russian public. To that end, posters celebrating the mission of the 'special operation' and T-shirts feature the Z logo are being made available. Broadcasts of support for the invasion run continuously on state-operated television. The new initiatives boost a high level of state control, paralleling Stalin's network of informers; no surprise, given Mr. Putin's stated admiration for Stalin as a great man and superb leader.

 

The official narrative of the special operation has had repercussions as well on education curricula. Publishers have been placed on notice that textbooks must delete references to Ukraine. "You can mention how we saved Kyiv, but it is no longer possible to talk about any independence of Ukraine as a country", commented one publishing source. Another source revealed his publishing house was forced to re-write 15 percent of its textbooks, deleting references to Ukraine. 

Putin Taps Into Russia’s Centuries of Paranoid Aggression- Photo: The Daily Beast

"The Killing Does Not Stop"

"Ukraine needs clear guarantees of its security but, so far, we see the Russian side is not fulfilling even elementary agreements on humanitarian corridors for the exit of civilians from the encircled cities."

"Civilians are simply being destroyed with Russian weapons."

"Look at what is happening to them in Ukraine. NATO is many times stronger than our armed forces and yet Ukraine has held back a full scale offensive by one of the world's largest armies for a second week. Do you really think Russia has the potential for World War Three? Stop this self-hypnosis."

"Of course we want peace. But this does not mean that we will agree to the dismantling of our freedom and our democracy, our natural European aspirations. If Russia takes a position based on reality, not on unrealistic ambitions, then progress is possible."

"So far, we've seen that the Russian side does not ensure the fulfillment of things that are promised. Russian troops shoot people when they try to leave the occupied cities."

"Russian troops are shelling routes along which an exit of people could be organized, particularly in Mariupol and Volnovakha. So I have to state that the Russian side manipulates these rounds more than it actually invests in the negotiations."

"Negotiations are not a date to get to know each other and look for something in common. Contact is a false goal ... you need to be result-oriented. On Sunday, in Irpin, a city on the outskirts of Kyiv, Russian troops opened fire on civilians who were trying to get out of the city. A total of eight people died, including a family with two children ... In Kyiv, a Russian cruise missile was shot down over Ukraine's most important children's hospital ... the killing does not stop."

"President Zelenskyy has repeatedly offered direct negotiations with Vladimir Putin. So far, we have not received a positive response. Why? Is it possible that on the Russian side there is a lack of confidence in Putin?"

"If the West is afraid to create a humanitarian no-fly zone, then there must be a decision to transfer combat aircraft to us. We are, of course, very grateful to our partners for the sanctions but the ongoing massacres of civilians in Ukraine show that existing sanctions are not enough.You have to understand Russia is actually a very poor country. With the exception of some large cities and a rather small segment of people who benefit from the flow of oil and gas dollars, most Russian citizens live a very difficult, hopeless and poor life."

"They will feel the pain of the rise in prices and loss of opportunities but this is not new -- they've always been made to live like that."

Mikhail Podolyak, chief negotiator, Ukraine 

A Ukrainian firefighter works at an apartment building after it was hit by artillery shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 14. (Vadim Ghirda/AP)

 

The negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to put a stop to the ongoing invasion seem pointless as long as Russian troops have their standing orders to continue attacking Ukrainian cities, and the expectation by Moscow is that they will continue their attacks, including the shelling of corridors established to enable civilian evacuation of bombarded cities, in the hope of saving lives from an enemy invader that appears to be flouting all civilized rules of warfare meant to protect civilian lives.

Russian forces continue to fire on civilians attempting to evacuate through these humanitarian corridors, effectively trapping vulnerable people within partially occupied cities coming under continual fire. Ensuring that those citizens remain in place in inhumane insecurity, facing a shortage of food and medical supplies, where their electricity and heating have been cut off and potable water resources are faltering. 

Mikhail Podolyak, isolated in a bunker in Kyiv, accuses Russia of "manipulating" the talks hoping to lead to peace, and in the process promising cease-fires that never come to fruition; a severe betrayal of any expectation that Ukraine negotiators can rely on a serious response to their efforts to sway Russian negotiators to send their offers of conciliation back to Moscow for serious consideration. Even slight agreements on temporarily holding back fire to enable people to reach safety has not been communicated to the troops.

 

Mr. Podolyak is one of President Zelenskyy's most trusted aides, entrusted with leading three rounds of negotiating talks with the Russian negotiating delegation. His experience during those talks has led him to hold out faint hope for a breakthrough to be achieved any time soon. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claims that should Ukraine agree to cede Crimea to Russia, recognize Donetsk and Luhansk as independent and that done, commit to not joining NATO or the European Union, the conflict could conclude "immediately".

 

A firefighter carries a hose in front of a residential building that was hit by a shell in the Obolon district in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 14. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

In contrast to Mr. Podolyak's position of skepticism over Russia's willingness to reasonably debate the critical issues with a view to stopping the violence, the Russian lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, claims progress has been achieved. To achieve any measure of progress between the two sides however, seems as remote as it was before the talks were initiated, according to this senior Ukrainian negotiator.

 

And in a spirit not of optimism but of faint hope, Mr. Podolyak repeated his country's request for a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine's skies. "Thousands of houses, hundreds of businesses, a significant part of them destroyed from the air, by missiles and combat aircraft. If the Russian troops did not have such support from the air, they would not have been able to wreak such havoc."

 

When the issue came up during an interview of the death of a fellow Ukrainian negotiator, Denis Kireev, Mr. Podolyak was silent. Reports from Russia claimed the negotiator to have been killed as he was being arrested for treason. "This man died performing a task in the interests of the Ukrainian state", he responded. Without going into the obvious explanation that doing anything at all to favour Ukraine over Russia merits the charge of treason on Russia's part.

 

"Most of our cities that Russia planned to capture are fighting bravely. In cities that are temporarily occupied, there are mass protests ... this is real civic heroism: people coming out unarmed with a national flag against armed invaders and demanding that they get out of our country."Ukraine will not give up its freedom and will not give up its democracy", he averred with pride.

Talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine will resume, as fighting rages around the country Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

Ukrainian Bio-Lab Threatening Russia?

"[There is likely a] high degree of probability that the United States and its Western allies were producing chemicals for the distinct purpose of selectively attacking] various [groups from within the population of Russia]." 

"[Documents uncovered by the Russian military in Ukraine on 24 February - the day the Russian invasion started] show that the Ministry of Health of Ukraine has set the task of completely destroying bio-agents in laboratories."

"The Pentagon knows that if these documents fall into the hands of Russian experts, then it's highly likely that Ukraine and the United States will be found to have violated the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons."

General Igor Kirillov, head, Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops, Russian Armed Forces

Russian state TV has been showing sites which officials say are being used to develop bioweapons

 

"There are no indications that Ukrainian labs have been involved in any nefarious activity, or any research or development in contravention of the Biological Weapons Convention."

Filippa Lentzos, biosecurity expert, King's College London

 

"[The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens stored at the country's public health labs to prevent] any potential spills [that would spread disease among the population]."  

"[The agency collaborated with Ukrainian public health labs for several years to enhance biosafety and biosecurity and help prevent] accidental or deliberate release of pathogens."  

World Health Organization

 

"These labs publish in openly available literature."

"They collaborate on many public health projects with global partners."

Brett Edwards, senior lecturer, security and public policy, University of Bath

"Devoting considerable sums of money and significant resources to conducting bioweapons research makes no strategic sense for Ukraine given the difficulty in using them in a conflict."  

"Conventional warfare weapons are much easier and more effective to use for countries like Ukraine."                                                                                                      Dan Kaszeta, former US serviceman, expert on defence against biological weapons

The US says it funds work in Ukrainian labs to tackle dangerous diseases  Getty Images

 Back in 1991, several former Soviet bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine underwent conversion by the United States, becoming facilities meant to decommission weapons of mass destruction. For the obvious purpose of preventing them from falling into the possession of those who might wish to use them following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This appears to be the program that has now sparked conspiracy theories, useful to Russian propaganda intent on painting Ukraine and its Western allies with broad, black strokes of threats by whatever means, to Russia.

In 1992 when then-Russian Premier Boris Yeltsin, visited the United Kingdom, at a time when relations between Russia and the West were on a friendly track with signs of warming trust and collegiality, he spoke with members of the Defence Intelligence Staff, telling them that Russian bioweapons scientists were undertaking research into the influence on human genes of chemical substances.

This was echoed years later when Dr.Christopher Davis, serving on the Defence Intelligence Staff spoke of the research as having opened the door to a weapon that could be indiscriminately sprayed, yet it would prove lethal to only "certain people it was designed to find and attack". Russia has first-hand knowledge of the potential of developing biological weapons to target individuals of a distinct ethnic group, since Russia itself developed such weapons in the past.

Scientists are notoriously inquisitive about the nature of things and their interaction; it is what moves science forward, for good and for ill. Laboratories may not be involved directly in formulating bioweapons, but legitimate fears abound with respect to "dual-use" biological research. The type of research whose product could feasibly be used for nefarious purposes, once in the wrong hands.

In 2019, the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University circulated a warning of the possibility that biological weapons could be formulated and produced for the very purpose of targeting a demographic representing a particular ethnic group, based entirely on their DNA. Russia's new claims warning that Ukraine was producing just such weapons, fall directly into the type of claims that follow a typical pattern of disinformation linked to Russian propaganda.

 

Dr. Filippa Lentzos, co-director of the Centre for Science and Security Studies at King's College London, had on an earlier occasion tackled similar claims made by Russia of the existence of a laboratory in Georgia dedicated to a similar purpose, to justify its invasion and conflict with Georgia, another former USSR satellite which was anxious to go its own way of independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Reports in Russian state media in 2018 claimed untested drugs were given to citizens at a lab funded by the U.S. in Georgia.

 

A convoy of pro-Russian troops are seen outside the separatist-controlled town of Volnovakha in the Eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region on Saturday. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

 

Now the very same claims, under very similar circumstances are once again being trotted out to justify Russia's need to invade Ukraine leading to the destruction not of a putative bioweapons laboratory but the entire national infrastructure. When Russia invaded Georgia, it re-possessed the allegiance of two provinces. Moscow has already done that in Ukraine, repeating the very same pattern that the Kremlin never seems to tire of, declaring eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the Donbas to be independent of Ukraine; Russian territory. With Crimea thrown in for good measure.

 

And with Mariupol encircled and battered with artillery and constant shelling, with the bombing of apartment buildings, schools, government offices and hospitals it too is meant to fall into Russian hands to provide a land link between Russia and the Crimean peninsula. A gradual, creeping reclamation of a sovereign geography Moscow claims historically to be part of Greater Russia.

 

A woman puts her head in her hands as she sits on a cot in a shelter, set up for displaced persons fleeing Ukraine, inside a school gymnasium in Przemysl, Poland, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Surviving Mariupol

"The stuff that you're hearing about chemical weapons, this is straight out of their playbook."

"They start saying that there are chemical weapons that have been stored by their opponents or by the Americans, and so when they themselves deploy chemical weapons, as I fear they may, they have a sort of ... fake story, ready to go."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

 

"In Russia, we are already considered dead. I was given the opportunity to call my parents and they told me that a funeral for me had already been arranged."

"If we are exchanged [as prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia], then we will be shot by our own people."

Captured Russian soldier, begging Ukraine not to return him to Russia 

"[The two Ukrainian de-bombers showed] mind-boggling bravery."

"This Russia-dropped bomb would flatten a building -- and yet these Ukraine EOD [explosive ordnance disposal] technicians defuse it with two hands and a bottle of water, while shells audibly land nearby."

Charles Lister, senior fellow, Middle East Institute think-tank, Washington

"Some people will have food but I'm not sure for how long it will last. Many people report having no food for children."

"People started to attack each other for food."

"People started to ruin someone's car to take the gasoline out."

Sasha Volkov, deputy head, International Committee of the Red Cross delegation to Mariupol

"Because my mother is a midwife and my father owns a car, they are helping people and they can't just leave them."

"There are a lot of people who, for example, are too old or who have babies and they are scared to leave under the bombing and falling rockets."

"There is a humanitarian catastrophe happening in Ukraine and they need the world to help them."

Mariia Moskalenko, internally displaced

 

"Airstrikes started from the early morning. Airstrike after airstrike."

"All the historic centre is under bombardment."

"They want to absolutely delete our city, delete our people."

Petro Andrushenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, East Ukraine

A number of civilians were killed and dozens injured after a Russian attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol

 

Russian expectations -- for the time being in any event -- appear to have been dashed. Their lightning-strike invasion of Ukraine with the intention of swiftly bringing matters to a head by decapitating the government of the population's democratic choice has quite evidently not gone quite according to plan. Despite superior fighting numbers and a decided advantage in up-to-the-moment technical machinery of modern warfare, the Kremlin appears to have vastly under-rated Ukraine's indomitable spirit of resistance.

 

The Russian military has been given orders of priority; Mariupol and Kyiv. Kyiv is encircled and the Russian convoys have been bogged down, quite literally. Mariupol's fate has been far more immediate, bombarded from the sky, ground artillery aiming at the city's infrastructure -- hospitals not excluded -- it is in the process of being completely destroyed. A plight seen by other towns and villages in the northeastern part of the country, closer to Kyiv.

 

The bombing of Mariupol's children's and maternity hospital saw three people killed, with another 17 injured. Citizens of the city unable to flee the bombardment since evacuation routes are also targeted are running perilously low of the most basic requirements to prolong life. A situation which has resulted in people turning against one another to acquire for themselves what others too must have to exist; water, food, warmth, medication.

 

The people living in Mariupol this winter have been denied heat for days in -9C overnight temperatures and they are steadily running out of food. Which has led to events quite removed from normal life in the eastern city, where people have been breaking into shops and supermarkets hoping to garner food for their families. The deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation has reported that some people had taken to attacking others.

It is believed that over 1,200 civilians have been killed in the city of 430,000. The city's cemeteries no longer dig single graves for individual corpses and conduct ordinary funerals. Instead a 25-metre-long trench has been prepared to receive the overwhelming numbers of casualties that the city's morgues are unable to deal with. In every metric of human existence, this situation really merits the description of "humanitarian catastrophe".

 

A deep trench - some 25 metres long - has been dug in a cemetery in the heart of the city

 

"We do not have the opportunity to bury them in private graves", explained Vadym Boichenko, Mariupol's embattled mayor. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov saw fit to dismiss concerns surrounding civilian casualties, characterizing them as "pathetic shrieks", insisting the hospital was being used as a base by 'far-right fighters'. 

Residents of the city were advised to prepare dead bodies by tying their hands and legs together, to cover them and leave them outside their homes. Others drag bodies to the mass graves rolled into carpets or plastic bags. There is no count being taken of the numbers that have been buried in mass graves, nor are there records being kept of names and other identifying features.

For the most part the endless shelling by Russian forces is responsible for the dead, while some have died from natural causes at their homes, but because of full morgues, authorities are unable to arrange for their collection. Family and friends are not permitted to gather at the cemetery where those they know and love are being rolled into the trenches.

Tanya, a six-year-old, was among those killed in the shelling. She died of dehydration, trapped under the rubble of her home. Her burial too was among those other countless, unnamed corpses.

 

Dead bodies are placed into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022, as people cannot bury their dead because of the heavy shelling by Russian forces.

AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka