Britain: Russia suppresses criticism of aggression in Ukraine

2024-01-26 21:00:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The four-year prison sentence handed down by Russia on Thursday to Igor Girkinin, a former Federal Security Service officer and military blogger, is part of a wider crackdown on critics of the Kremlin and aggression in Ukraine, according to the daily intelligence report British Ministry of Defense on Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The campaign also reflects the "more authoritarian nature of life" in President Vladimir Putin's Russia, the British ministry said on Friday.

The report said Mr Girkin had fought as part of pro-Russian separatist forces in Donetsk in 2014, served as defense minister in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic for a short period and had written online in support of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

In 2022, he became highly critical of the Russian leadership and what he saw as its failure to effectively conduct the "special military operation" in Ukraine.

He was arrested in 2023 after the brief rebellion of Yevgeny Prigozhin, co-founder of the mercenary group 'Wagner'. In November, Mr. Girkin said he would run in Russia's 2024 presidential election.

After Mr Prigozhin's rebellion, the British report said, it is likely that the Kremlin has become more sensitive to criticism of Ukraine "from hard-line nationalists" because they are one of the "credible alternatives" to President Putin's leadership.

Meeting of the Security Council

On Thursday, the UN Security Council met at Russia's request for an emergency meeting, following the downing of a Russian military transport plane near the Russia-Ukraine border on Wednesday. Both sides are calling for an investigation.

UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said the organization is unable to verify the circumstances of the crash.

"What is clear is that the incident occurred in the context of the Russian occupation of Ukraine and the ongoing war," she said. "To avoid further escalation, we call on all concerned to refrain from actions, rhetoric or claims that could further fuel the already dangerous conflict."

Moscow has accused Kiev of downing the plane on Wednesday in the Belgorod region. Russia said the plane had 74 people on board, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be part of a prisoner exchange.

"Ukrainian prisoners of war were transported to the Belgorod region to carry out another exchange that was agreed between Moscow and Kiev," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday in New York, where he was attending a meeting of the U.N. of.

"Instead, the Ukrainian side launched an air defense missile from the Kharkiv region. The missile targeted the plane and it was a fatal attack."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his government insists on an international investigation to establish the facts.

At the Security Council, a Ukrainian envoy repeated her government's call for an international investigation, saying they do not have access to the area inside Russian territory where the plane crashed.

"After the plane crash, the Federal Security Service and the Russian military did not allow emergency workers to inspect the crash site according to protocol," said UN Deputy Ambassador Khrystyna Hayovyshyn. "According to our military intelligence, only five bodies were taken to the local morgue in Belgorod and no bodies are visible in the videos from the crash site."

Russia's envoy, Dmitry Polyanskiy, disputed the claim, calling it "paranoid nonsense".

Some council members warned against speculation and unsubstantiated accusations.

Video of Wednesday's plane crash posted on social media showed a plane plummeting from the sky before exploding into a massive fireball as it hit the ground in the western Belgorod region of suburban Russia.

Kharkiv borders Belgorod, which is Russian territory. The two sides have carried out numerous prisoner exchanges since Russia launched its aggression in Ukraine nearly two years ago.

Nuclear concerns

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency briefed the council Thursday on the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine.

Mr. Rafael Grossi told reporters after the private meeting that he would return to Ukraine in the next 10 days and then travel to Moscow.

The nuclear plant, which is located in territory controlled by Russian forces, recently lost external power for the eighth time. The location of the nuclear plant has also often been at the epicenter of fighting, raising fears of a nuclear accident.

Asked by a journalist how dangerous the situation in Zaporizhzhia is on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most dangerous, Mr. Grossi said the situation changes from moment to moment.

"I think there are days where the danger level is almost 10, and there are days when nothing seems to happen," said Mr. Grossi. "The problem is this: complete uncertainty, because this is a war."

VOA UN correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this article. Some materials were provided by the news agencies 'Associated Press', 'Agence France-Presse' and 'Reuters'./ VOA