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IOL News
3 days ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Kursk Under Fire, Truth Under Siege
By Gillian Schutte On 5 June 2025, I attended the Russian-hosted international online press symposium titled 'Liberation of Kursk Region', a teleconference convened to present first-hand accounts, evidence, and legal testimony on the attacks carried out by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and foreign mercenaries during incursions into the Kursk Region. It was a sobering exercise in counter-memory — one that exposed the ideological filters through which Western media interprets war, and how it strategically erases certain kinds of suffering. The event brought together a panel of experts, eyewitnesses, and officials to report on the nature of these violations. Each presentation revealed both the physical damage inflicted on the Russian civilian population, as well as the deeper injury of denial — a refusal by the Western bloc to recognise the legitimacy of Russian civilian grief. The eyewitness accounts shared by three Kurskites were harrowing. One described watching elderly neighbours die when their home was shelled. Another spoke of civilians being shot at close range. A third, fighting tears, recounted the rape of women during the brief occupation of their village. These testimonies were the lived memories of war and trauma, delivered with quiet devastation. Rodion Miroshnik, Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, provided a comprehensive briefing on what Russia identifies as crimes committed by the Kiev regime. He detailed the shelling of border villages, destruction of non-military infrastructure, use of foreign mercenaries, and the discovery of banned Western-supplied munitions, including cluster bombs and white phosphorus, in civilian zones. Miroshnik cited ongoing investigations by the Russian Investigative Committee into violations of international humanitarian law — all allegedly ignored by the institutions tasked with upholding these laws. According to Miroshnik, several communities in the Kursk Region suffered not only bombardment but were also subject to brief occupations by AFU-aligned forces. During these episodes, civilians were reportedly displaced, forcibly taken into Ukrainian territory, and subjected to psychological trauma. Families returning to liberated areas faced destroyed homes, contaminated land, and unexploded ordnance, with little to no humanitarian intervention from the international community. Igor Kashin, Head of the Special Projects Department in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, presented a legal analysis of these findings. His tone was forensic. He itemised the breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other international protocols, explaining how evidence had been submitted to various global institutions — including the UN and the ICC — yet no meaningful action had followed. Olga Kiriy, a Russian filmmaker and documentarian, delivered a visual account of the devastation. Her footage showed razed schools, burning residential blocks, and civilians returning to ghost towns, still wearing the shock of war on their faces. In one of her documentaries she shows a Ukranian soldier admitting to the rape of women by himself and his unit. Her presentation conveyed what words could not: the raw aftermath of military violence on people who remain unseen and unspoken in the official Western narrative of the conflict. Ivan Konovalov, military analyst and historian, contextualised the attacks on Kursk within a broader framework. He explained that the AFU operations were tactical provocations — designed to destabilise border regions and provoke retaliation, which could then be framed by NATO-aligned media as further proof of Russian aggression. He pointed out that these attacks coincided with deliveries of new Western weaponry to Ukraine, raising serious questions about the complicity of foreign governments and arms manufacturers. The testimonies shared during the teleconference dismantled the binary framework imposed by Western media, where Ukraine is valorised as a struggling democracy and Russia is reduced to a caricature. The reality conveyed by the speakers was more complex and far more disturbing. Russia, too, has civilians. Its towns and villages are not abstract zones on a geopolitical map but home to people who have suffered death, displacement, and the terror of war. Yet these accounts are absent from global headlines. They are not debated in parliaments, nor dissected on primetime panels. Instead, they are swiftly relegated to the realm of 'disinformation' — a catch-all term used by liberal institutions to shut down inconvenient truths. This is the machinery of narrative warfare — where facts are not weighed for their truth, but for their utility to power. The West's information order sustains itself through omission, selective moral outrage, and the assumption that some lives matter more than others. As a South African journalist who has long documented structural injustice, I recognise this silencing. It follows a pattern familiar to the Global South — where international law is invoked as a weapon rather than a principle; where invasions by Western powers are called interventions, but defensive operations by others are framed as crimes; and where victims must pass ideological litmus tests before they are deemed worthy of empathy. The suffering in the Kursk Region demands recognition. The use of banned munitions against civilians, the forced displacement of families, and the destruction of non-military infrastructure all constitute grave breaches of international law. That these acts are committed using Western weapons, under the cover of Western media silence, reveals a moral crisis at the heart of the liberal order. The conference was more than a forum for Russian voices. It was a reminder that truth is not owned by the powerful. It must be spoken even when it is buried. The people of Kursk have lived through war. They have returned to broken homes and haunted fields. Their testimonies exist. Their pain is real. And their silence is manufactured by design. If the term 'liberation' is to have meaning, it must include liberation from the monopolies that determine whose pain is legitimate. It must disrupt the asymmetry of grief that defines the West's geopolitical posture. We owe that to the people of Kursk. We owe it to all communities whose trauma is edited out of history to suit imperial narratives. And we owe it to ourselves, if we are to resist becoming complicit in the global machinery of selective justice. *Gillian Schutte is a South African writer, filmmaker, and critical-race scholar known for her radical critiques of neoliberalism, whiteness, and donor-driven media. Her work centres African liberation, social justice, and revolutionary thought. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.
Al Jazeera
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Russia mocks Ukraine during direct talks, raising suspicion of bad faith
Russia questioned Ukrainian sovereignty and undermined the authority of its president as the two countries engaged in their first direct talks since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Istanbul on May 15 for the talks his Russian counterpart suggested days earlier. Accompanying him were his foreign and defence ministers. But Russian President Vladimir Putin did not show up, nor did his cabinet members. He sent a junior delegation, headed by ambassador-at-large Rodion Miroshnik, that was not empowered to sign a ceasefire. However, in sour tones, Russia cast aspersions on the legitimacy of the Ukrainian team. 'The delegation is waiting for the clown to speak out, for the hallucinogens to wear off, and for him to finally allow those he's banned from negotiating for three years to sit down at the table,' Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on social media, referring to Zelenskyy's decree against direct talks while Russia waged war in Ukraine. 'We analysed Ukrainian legislation, and according to it, we understand that Zelenskyy's powers as the legitimate leader of the country have expired,' said Russian lead negotiator Rodion Miroshnik on May 16, the day of the talks. He was referring to the fact that Zelenskyy did not hold a scheduled presidential election last year. The Ukrainian constitution allows Zelenskyy to remain in office at a time of national crisis, and the Ukrainian parliament extended Zelenskyy's term until the end of martial law. But Russian officials have used the extension to paint Zelenskyy as illegitimate. 'There is a risk that agreements reached and signed in an illegitimate manner may be disavowed,' said Miroshnik. 'The most important and fundamental thing for us remains who exactly will sign these documents on the Ukrainian side,' said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov the day after the talks. But Russia's stance has stirred suspicion that Moscow is laying the groundwork to eventually wriggle out of any agreement. 'This rhetorical campaign is part of efforts to set conditions for Russia to withdraw from any future peace agreements at a time of Russia's choosing,' wrote the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. Ukraine proposed a ceasefire followed by a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin. Russia rejected both demands, proposing instead an exchange of 1,000 prisoners of war from each side, followed by a submission of ceasefire proposals in writing. 'We agreed that each side would present its vision of a possible future ceasefire, laying it out in detail,' said Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky, a member of the negotiating team. The war will meanwhile continue – in its favour, Russia believes. During the talks, Russian forces launched assaults near Pokrovsk and Toretsk in Ukraine's east, capturing some turf. On Saturday night, Russia unleashed 273 drones on Ukraine's cities – its largest barrage of the war. And on Monday, the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed to have captured two settlements, Maryino in Sumy and Novoolenovka in Donetsk. Moscow has answered Kyiv's calls for a ceasefire by insisting on talks without preconditions, but it reportedly demanded them on Friday. Sources familiar with the proceedings told Bloomberg the Russian delegation demanded a priori recognition that the four provinces Russia partly occupies, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, be handed over in their entirety. Russian Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev insisted that the four regions Russia invaded in 2022 were Russian by law. 'They first proclaimed themselves the subjects of international law following referendums and then addressed us with a request to accede to the Russian Federation. So, from the standpoint of international law, everything is fine here,' he told the St Petersburg International Legal Forum on Tuesday. It appeared that Russia was trying to set another precondition for a second round of talks, which should entail an agreement on Ukraine's non-aligned status, Leonid Slutsky, the head of the State Duma's committee on international affairs, told the pro-Kremlin newswire TASS on Tuesday. The surrendering of the four regions and neutrality – an agreement never to join NATO and the European Union – are among conditions Putin set in a speech last June. As delegations resumed their talks on Monday, Zakharova confirmed that those still constituted Russian goals. Putin outlined the next steps after speaking with United States President Donald Trump on the phone on Monday. 'Russia is ready and will continue to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a potential future peace treaty outlining a number of positions, such as, for instance, settlement principles, the timeframe for signing a potential peace agreement, and so on, including a potential ceasefire for a certain period in case relevant agreements are reached,' Putin told reporters . The next day, Putin called Ukrainians Neonazis for tearing down World War II monuments, and 'idiots' who 'would come second in a contest of idiots', as he visited the border region of Kursk for the first time since Russian forces reclaimed it following a Ukrainian counter-invasion. Trump urged Putin to meet with Zelenskyy. Peskov downplayed the demand, saying they 'touched upon the issue of direct contact'. 'It is important that America remains engaged in the process of bringing peace closer. It is America that Russia fears, and it is American influence that can save many lives, if used as leverage to make Putin end the war,' Zelenskyy said in his Tuesday evening address. But others had doubts that Trump's negotiating tactics were going to produce a good result for Ukraine. US former ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink explained on Monday why she resigned her post last month. 'I resigned from Ukraine and also from the foreign service because the policy since the beginning of the [Trump] administration is to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia,' she told CBS's Face the Nation. 'Peace at any price is not peace at all. It's appeasement. And as we know from history, appeasement only leads to more war.' Europe, Canada and Australia remain the holdouts among Ukraine's allies in favour of a harder line against Russia. A 17th EU sanctions package came into force on Monday, restricting the movement of 189 tankers considered to be smuggling Russian oil, and bringing the total to 342. The EU also sanctioned Russian arms manufacturers and 28 Russian judges for human rights violations.
Russia Today
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Ukrainian attacks kill six civilians during Victory Day ceasefire
Six Russian civilians were killed and 23 others wounded in Ukrainian attacks during the 72-hour Victory Day ceasefire, top Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik has said. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a unilateral truce from May 7-8 to May 10-11 to mark the 80th anniversary of Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and to encourage unconditional peace talks with Kiev. However, Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky declined to support the ceasefire, dismissing it as a Russian ploy and an 'attempt at manipulation.' Miroshnik, who is the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large tasked with documenting Kiev's alleged war crimes, told TASS on Monday that ahead of the start of the truce 'the Ukrainian Nazis not only failed to reduce the intensity of attacks on civilian targets, but increased the number of such strikes by almost a quarter,' compared to previous days. During the ceasefire, Ukrainian forces targeted 'residential buildings, medical transport, civilian vehicles and commercial facilities,' he said. According to the diplomat, the 'most flagrant' attacks took place in Kursk Region bordering Ukraine. In one of the incidents, a man lost his life as a result of a strike by a US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launcher on the village of Zvannoye, and in another a woman was killed after an aerial bomb was dropped on the village of Glushkovo, he said. Overall, during the past week, the Ukrainian military fired at least 2,636 munitions at civilian targets inside Russia, with the border regions of Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk being affected the most, Miroshnik said. The majority of those attacks were carried out with the use of drones, he added. The strikes killed 21 civilians and left 70 others wounded, the diplomat said. The intensification of attacks by Kiev over the past seven days was an attempt 'to intimidate the civilian population' of Russia, he stressed. Russia's Defense Ministry said earlier that the Ukrainian military has committed more than 14,000 violations of the Victory Day truce, including making five unsuccessful attempts to cross into Russian territory in Kursk and Belgorod regions. According to the ministry, the Russian military strictly observed the ceasefire regime, only responding to attacks when they happened.
Russia Today
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Ukrainian attacks kill six civilians during Victory Day truce
Six Russian civilians were killed and 23 others wounded in Ukrainian attacks during the 72-hour Victory Day ceasefire, top Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik has said. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a unilateral truce from May 7-8 to May 10-11 to mark the 80th anniversary of Soviet victory over Nazi Germany and to encourage unconditional peace talks with Kiev. However, Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky declined to support the ceasefire, dismissing it as a Russian ploy and an 'attempt at manipulation.' Miroshnik, who is the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large tasked with documenting Kiev's alleged war crimes, told TASS on Monday that ahead of the start of the truce 'the Ukrainian Nazis not only failed to reduce the intensity of attacks on civilian targets, but increased the number of such strikes by almost a quarter,' compared to previous days. During the ceasefire, Ukrainian forces targeted 'residential buildings, medical transport, civilian vehicles and commercial facilities,' he said. According to the diplomat, the 'most flagrant' attacks took place in Kursk Region bordering Ukraine. In one of the incidents, a man lost his life as a result of a strike by a US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launcher on the village of Zvannoye, and in another a woman was killed after an aerial bomb was dropped on the village of Glushkovo, he said. Overall, during the past week, the Ukrainian military fired at least 2,636 munitions at civilian targets inside Russia, with the border regions of Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk being affected the most, Miroshnik said. The majority of those attacks were carried out with the use of drones, he added. The strikes killed 21 civilians and left 70 others wounded, the diplomat said. The intensification of attacks by Kiev over the past seven days was an attempt 'to intimidate the civilian population' of Russia, he stressed. Russia's Defense Ministry said earlier that the Ukrainian military has committed more than 14,000 violations of the Victory Day truce, including making five unsuccessful attempts to cross into Russian territory in Kursk and Belgorod regions. According to the ministry, the Russian military strictly observed the ceasefire regime, only responding to attacks when they happened.
United News of India
13-05-2025
- Politics
- United News of India
Six Russian civilians killed in Kiev's attacks during victory day ceasefire: Moscow
Moscow, May 13 (UNI) A total of 23 civilians were injured and six of them died in Ukrainian attacks during a three-day Victory Day ceasefire declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large for crimes committed by Kiev, Rodion Miroshnik, said in a report obtained by Sputnik. "During the three-day ceasefire, the strikes of the Ukrainian armed units damaged residential buildings, medical transport, civilian cars, commercial objects. There were also victims among civilians. Twenty-three civilians were injured, six of them died," Miroshnik said. The most appalling cases took place in the Kursk Region, where the Ukrainian forces used heavy armament such as HIMARS rocket launchers and aircraft bombs. In the Belgorod Region on May 9, Ukrainian forces attacked the building of the local administration with a drone. As a result, Deputy Governor of the Belgorod Region Aleksander Lorents and an officer of the Russian Federal National Guard were injured. Overall, from May 5–11, 21 people were killed, another 70 injured in the Ukrainian forces' attacks, Miroshnik said. The Ukrainian armed units fired no less than 2,636 munitions, including 122mm multiple launch rocket systems, 152mm and 155mm artillery shells, including those with cluster warheads, as well as grenades, mines and drones. "The vast majority of the weapons used by the Ukrainian armed forces to attack civilians is produced by the West," Mirosknik added. Ahead of Victory Day, President Putin declared a ceasefire from midnight Moscow time on May 8 to midnight Moscow time on May 11 (21:00 GMT on May 7 to 21:00 GMT on May 10). UNI SPUTNIK ARN
