Translated material
War
Thousandth day. Perhaps, for the first time, Ukraine launched an attack with ATACMS missiles on Russian territory (and not on the Kursk region, as one might assume)
Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian invasion since February 24, 2022. During this time, war became a part of our lives. We understand that many of you are no longer able to follow military news as closely as before. That's why we changed the format of our daily chronicle. Now it comes out once a day, and instead of short messages, we go into more detail on the key stories that are affecting the course of the war right now. We will publish your letters in some of these materials, because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. Please share your personal war stories with us and what you think of the new format . Find the feedback form at the end of this article. The chronicle of the previous day can be read here .
Ukraine
The Ukrainian Armed Forces may have attacked Russia with ATACMS missiles
The publication "RBK-Ukraine" and the editor-in-chief of "Censor.net" Yuri Butusov, citing sources, reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched ATACMS missiles for the first time on the internationally recognized territory of Russia. According to sources, the attack was carried out on an arsenal near the city of Karachev in the Bryansk region.
Two days earlier, it became known (this is unofficial and unconfirmed information) that US President Joe Biden authorized such strikes - but only in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops entered in August 2024. In addition to the Russian military, there are military personnel from the DPRK in the Kursk region.
Kyiv does not officially confirm the use of ATACMS. In the morning report, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine only reported the very fact of the attack on the arsenal in Karachev, without specifying what type of weapon was used. After publications about the use of American long-range missiles, the General Staff told the Ukrainian Channel 24 that it “has no information” about this.
Russian authorities said nothing at all about the attack on the arsenal in Karachev (although residents reported the sounds of explosions in local public pages). Governor of the Bryansk region Alexander Bogomaz reported on 13 drones shot down over the region.
The US State Department does not actually deny the use of ATACMS missiles against targets in Russia: Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols, in an interview with the Brazilian publication Globo, said that some “weapons that President Biden has allowed Ukraine to use will give it more opportunities for self-defense.”
Russia
The second trial of Alexei Gorinov has begun
The 2nd Western District Military Court of Moscow has opened the hearing of a new criminal case against former Moscow municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov.
Gorinov was charged with “justifying terrorism” (Part 1 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, up to five years in prison) due to conversations with cellmates about the explosion on the Crimean Bridge and about the Ukrainian Azov battalion. According to investigators, Gorin’s conversations with other prisoners could have formed in them “an opinion about the admissibility of the activities of an organization recognized as terrorist by the legislation of the Russian Federation, as well as the commission of sabotage and terrorist acts at transport infrastructure facilities of the Russian Federation.”
According to Mediazona, the preliminary meeting, despite the fact that it was closed, was attended by 15-20 people from the support group, as well as representatives of the embassies of Great Britain, the USA and Australia. Gorinov himself participates in the process via video link from the colony.
Gorinov is the first person in Russia convicted under the article on “fake news” about the army. This article appeared in legislation in early March 2022, a few days after the start of the full-scale invasion, and already at the end of April Gorinov was detained and placed under arrest. The basis for the criminal case was Gorinov’s speech at a meeting of the council of municipal deputies of the Krasnoselsky district of Moscow: he said that it was inappropriate to hold a local competition of children’s drawings when children were dying in Ukraine, and called what was happening a “war” and not a “special military operation.” In July 2022, Gorinov was given seven years in prison. While in prison, his health deteriorated greatly and he was denied medical care.
According to official statistics cited by the Russian state agency TASS, in the first two years of the article on “fakes” (until March 2024), 79 sentences were passed on it; 42 people received real prison sentences. According to estimates by the human rights project OVD-Info, to date 334 criminal cases have been initiated under this article.
World
The former head of the European Commission proposed to take Ukraine into the EU “partially”
Jean-Claude Juncker, who served as head of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019, said that Ukraine could “partially” join the EU in the near future. According to him, Kyiv is still a long way from full membership in the community: “There are many unresolved problems in Ukraine, from corruption to the rule of law, that need to be resolved before membership can be seriously considered.”
What is “partial” membership in Juncker's understanding? Ukraine could participate in some internal processes in the European Union and send its representatives to official meetings - but without the right to vote. For Kyiv, Juncker believes, such a format could be a signal of recognition by Brussels of its successes on the path to European integration.
Juncker already made a similar statement a year ago, calling on official Brussels not to give Kyiv “false promises” about imminent membership and pointing out that Ukraine is not ready to join the EU, in particular, because of corruption “at all levels of society.” Then he was criticized in Kiev.
The course towards joining the European Union has been indicated in the Constitution of Ukraine since 2019. The country officially applied for EU membership on February 28, 2022, four days after Russia began its full-scale invasion.
In the summer of 2023, Ukraine received official candidate status for accession to the EU. In December of the same year, Brussels announced the start of formal membership negotiations. These negotiations do not mean guaranteed admission of Ukraine into the community.
Unlike joining NATO, Vladimir Putin never demanded that Ukraine refuse to join the European Union.
Today is the thousandth day of the war. Due to Russian aggression, thousands of civilians in Ukraine have lost their homes; they have no access to water, food, warm clothing, medicine, or hygiene products. We ask you to help them if you have the opportunity. If you are not in Russia (otherwise it may not be safe ), please support the Let's charity project launched by Meduza, Support Service and Dozhd. The money goes to help Ukrainian civilians affected by the war.
War through the eyes of readers. One letter
Vladimir. Bucharest (formerly Donetsk and Kyiv). First, in 2014, my family fled near Kyiv, and in 2022, from near Kyiv, I fled first to the south of Ukraine, and then to Romania. The war changed everything, and changed everything twice, and each time for the worse - it’s hard to lose everything and then again settle down in a new place literally from scratch. Each time I was left with only what I took with me in my bags, and now, after two wars, this is my way of thinking and life - to have only what is easy to part with, or what you can take with you in a suitcase. This is unpleasant for me, but this will probably be with me forever, just as with today’s old people there is forever respect for any food and the fear of throwing it away after the hungry Soviet times. Some people dream of living as a nomad, but I dream of my own corner, a closet of unnecessary junk and a pet.
How has my attitude towards people and the world changed? I guess I stopped being attached to places and people and considering them home. It’s strange to constantly see the same people, the same places, but know that you are an alien here who will fly away somewhere further.
I want to live at home, but my tragedy is that I don’t know where it is. And I can’t make a place a home either.
Why did this section appear?
Meduza talks about the war every day - but we are sure that reports from the front, photographs of destruction, reports of shelling and news about politicians’ attempts to agree on something alone are not enough. The story of war is incomplete without the stories of people.
Tell us and our readers how war affects your life. What happened to you, what you feel, how you cope with what is happening and plan to move on with your life. It doesn’t matter where you are from - from Kharkov or Mariupol, Donetsk or Belgorod, Kyiv or Sudzha, from Ukraine or Russia - or some other country. There are no unimportant stories. We will publish some of your stories.
Please also share with us your thoughts about our new format of military chronicles. Tell us what topics you think are especially important right now. Explain what journalists don't see and what gets lost in the news. Thank you!
"Jellyfish"