CNN maps how Kyiv is changing the face of modern warfare
Drone strike data, along with an exclusive interview with a Ukrainian drone manufacturer, sheds light on the scale and ambition of Kyiv's air war against Moscow. CNN's Katie Polglase reports.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
42 minutes ago
- CNN
Desperate to get its illegally detained civilians out of Russia, Kyiv offers Ukrainian collaborators in exchange
Ukraine sent dozens of its own citizens to Russia last month, releasing them from prisons in an attempt to secure the release of dozens of Ukrainian civilians held illegally in Russian jails – a move described by human rights activists as desperate and worrying. According to the Ukrainian government, 70 Ukrainian civilians convicted of collaborating with Russia were released as part of the 1,000 for 1,000 prisoner exchange between Kyiv and Moscow last month. Ukraine said all of them went into exile voluntarily, as part of a government scheme that gives anyone convicted of collaborating with Russia the option of being sent there. But human rights groups and international lawyers say the scheme is problematic, contradicts previous statements made by the Ukrainian government, and could potentially put more people at risk of being snatched by the Russians. 'I completely understand the sentiment, we all want the people (who are detained in Russia) to be released as quickly as possible and Russia has no will to do that… but the solution that is offered is definitely not the right one,' said Onysiia Syniuk, a legal analyst at Zmina, a Ukrainian human rights group. The program, called 'I want to go to my own,' was launched last year by Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Ministry of Defense, the Security Service and the parliament's Commissioner for Human Rights. A government website outlining the program includes photos and personal information of some of the 300 Ukrainian people that the government says have signed up to the program. The profiles of 31 of them are stamped with a picture of a suitcase and the words 'HAS LEFT,' with a note saying he or she 'left for Russia while at the same time real Ukrainians returned home.' According to Kyiv, at least 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are known to be detained in Russia, although the real number is likely to be much higher. Some 37,000 Ukrainians, including civilians, children and members of the military, are officially recognized as missing. Many have been detained in occupied territories, detained for months or even years without any charges or trial, and deported to Russia. They include activists, journalists, priests, politicians and community leaders as well as people who appear to have been snatched by Russian troops at random at checkpoints and other places in occupied Ukraine. The detention of civilians by an occupying power is illegal under international laws of conflict, except for in a few narrowly defined situations and with strict time limits. Because of that, there is no established legal framework for the treatment and exchange of civilian detainees in the same way there is for prisoners of war. Russia has, in some cases, claimed that the Ukrainian civilians it is holding are prisoners of war and should be recognized as such by Ukraine. Kyiv has been reluctant to do so because it could put civilians living in occupied areas of Ukraine at risk of being arbitrarily detained by Russia as it seeks to grow its pool for future exchanges. Ukraine's human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets told CNN last year that Kyiv believes Russia has been taking Ukrainians hostage to use them as bargaining chips, and that he rejected the idea of exchanging civilians as part of a prisoner swap. Kyiv has rallied its allies to increase pressure on Russia over the issue and tried to get Moscow to agree to release the detained civilians through third countries, similar to the way some Ukrainian children have been returned with the help of Qatar, South Africa and the Vatican. Several international organizations, including the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), have also repeatedly called on Moscow to unconditionally release its civilian detainees. Russia has ignored the pleas. The 'I want to go to my own' program is an attempt by Kyiv to get some of the detained civilians back without having to recognize them as prisoners of war. But human rights groups are urging the Ukrainian government to continue to press for unconditional release of civilians. 'Under international humanitarian law, it is not possible to talk about exchanging civilians. All civilians unlawfully detained must be released unconditionally,' said Yulia Gorbunova, a senior researcher on Ukraine at Human Rights Watch (HRW). 'But in practice, things are a lot more difficult because Russia is not playing by the rules. For Ukrainian civilians, to be included on an exchange list is their main hope. I think the scheme is an attempt to find a way to do this,' she told CNN. Announcing the 1,000 for 1,000 exchange, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted as much. 'I would like to thank our law enforcement officers today for adding Russian saboteurs and collaborators to the exchange fund,' the president said, while also thanking Ukrainian soldiers for capturing Russian troops on the front lines. But it seems that the scheme did not yield the results Kyiv was hoping for. Petro Yatsenko from the Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War told CNN Ukraine did not know ahead of the time who was being returned. The headquarters said the returnees included a group of at least 60 Ukrainian civilians who were convicted of criminal offenses unrelated to the war. The headquarters' deputy head, Andriy Yusov, told CNN many of them had been convicted by Ukrainian courts and were serving sentences in Ukrainian prisons when Russia launched its full-scale, unprovoked invasion in February 2022 and occupied the areas where they were detained. After completing their sentences, Russian authorities were supposed to deport these prisoners from the occupied territories back to Ukraine. Instead, it kept them, unlawfully, in detention centers normally used for illegal immigrants and only released them as part of the 1,000 for 1,000 prisoner swap. The RussianHuman Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova described the convicted Ukrainian collaborators sent to Russia as 'political prisoners,' but did not give any more details on who they were or what would happen to them next. Moskalkova's office did not respond to CNN's request for comment. The 'I want to go to my own' website gives details of some those sent to Russia in the prisoner exchange, including the offenses they were convicted of. Many were serving years-long sentences for collaboration with Moscow. Some were convicted of supporting the invasion or sharing information with Russian troops. Most received sentences of between five and eight years in prison. But human rights lawyers say the Ukrainian collaboration law under which these people were sentenced is itself problematic. HRW has previously issued an extensive report criticizing the anti-collaboration law, calling it flawed. Gorbunova said the group analyzed close to 2,000 verdicts and that while there were genuine collaborators among them, a lot of them were 'people who, under international humanitarian law, should not have been prosecuted.' She said these included cases where there's been 'little or no harm done' and or where there was no intent to harm national security. Some of the cases involve people who had been working in public service in areas that were then occupied and who had simply continued doing their jobs. 'Helping people on the streets, people who are sick or have disabilities, distributing humanitarian aid. Teachers, firefighters, municipal workers who collect trash, that type of thing – they could be convicted of working for the occupation as collaborators,' she said. 'That is not to say that there are no actual collaborators who commit crimes against national security…who should be punished, (but) this legislation is so vague that essentially a very wide range of activities of people living and working under occupation could qualify as collaboration, which is troubling and problematic,' she said. While the initiative's website includes what it says are handwritten notes from each of the convicted collaborators indicating their wish to leave for Russia, human rights organizations say the way in which they have been disowned by their country is ethically dubious. Syniuk told CNN: 'These people are still Ukrainian citizens, and the wording that they have on the website is that they were exchanged for 'real Ukrainians'– that is very … not okay.' CNN's Victoria Butenko and Svitlana Vlasova contributed reporting.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Ukraine Says It Has Stepped Up Its Drone Game, Again
Ukraine over the past three years has developed a wide range of drones and robotic weapons that have been deployed against Russian forces to deadly effect. The latest addition to this remote-controlled arsenal is the Magura V7, a homemade weapon system that launches antiaircraft missiles from a 24-foot remote-controlled speedboat. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, presented it to reporters on May 14. The system shot down two Russian Su-30 warplanes last month, according to the Ukrainian agency and independent analysts, in what is believed to be the first-ever successful use in combat by a drone boat against a fighter jet. Russia has not acknowledged the hits, but one was reported by Vladislav Shurygin, a Russian military expert. The use of the new systems is part of Ukraine's broader innovation involving drones and their use. Last weekend, Ukraine hit airfields from eastern Siberia to Russia's western border with a swarm of drones that it said it secretly planted on Russian territory. It was one of the war's most audacious strikes by Ukrainian forces. Although drones of that type have been used before, the airfield attack was the first time they had been deployed hidden onboard trucks and transported overland to launch sites deep inside Russia. The new sea drones are a technological as well as a tactical innovation. The new drones that were presented to reporters look like sleek green speedboats, with missiles mounted on the sides and an electronic eye in the center. In December, Ukraine said an earlier version of the new drones shot down two Russian Mi-8 helicopters in the Black Sea. The weapon, one of its operators explained at the presentation on May 14, can linger for days in the open water, tracking Russian fighter jets and then ambushing them. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Ukrainian drone attacks force airport shutdowns near Moscow, mayor says
Moscow's two major airports temporarily suspended operations early on June 8 due to a wave of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting the Russian capital and its surrounding regions, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported on Telegram. According to Sobyanin, air defense units began intercepting drones flying toward Moscow shortly after 4 a.m. Between 5:59 a.m. and 8:19 a.m., he reported the downing of 10 drones in separate waves. Each incident was followed by the deployment of emergency services to the crash sites. The attacks forced authorities to temporarily close Moscow's Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports — two of the city's busiest hubs. Operations were reportedly suspended around 6:53 a.m. local time, disrupting passenger traffic and causing delays. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that 61 Ukrainian drones were launched between the evening of June 7 and the morning of June 8, targeting Russian territory and occupied Crimea. The ministry said drones were intercepted over Moscow and its suburbs, as well as in Bryansk, Belgorod, Kaluga, Tula, Oryol, and Kursk oblasts. Ukraine's military has not yet commented on the attack, and the Kyiv Independent cannot verify information provided by Russian officials. Kyiv has stepped up its long-range drone campaign against Russia in recent months, particularly targeting Moscow and key military infrastructure. Though most drones are intercepted before reaching the capital, the threat has caused repeated disruptions to civilian air travel. Since Jan. 1, Ukrainian drone raids have prompted at least 217 temporary airport closures across Russia, according to data from Rosaviatsia, Russia's aviation agency, the independent outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported on May 14. On the nights ahead of Russia's Victory Day on May 9, drone strikes prompted widespread flight restrictions that affected travel plans for more than 60,000 passengers, according to the Association of Russian Tour Operators. While Ukrainian officials have not publicly commented on the latest attacks, defense officials in Kyiv have consistently described strikes on military and logistical targets inside Russia as legitimate acts of self-defense amid Moscow's ongoing aggression. Read also: Ukraine's new drone strategy — cripple Moscow's airports, make Russian population 'pay' We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
