WASHINGTON EXAMINER
APRIL 28 2022
“This assessment is based on a careful and rigorous review of public sources and also intelligence sources,” said Beth Van Schaack, U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice at the United Nations, on Wednesday. “These images and reports suggest that atrocities are not the result of rogue units or individuals; they rather reveal a deeply disturbing pattern of systematic abuse across all areas where Russia’s forces are engaged.”
“We now have credible information that a Russian military unit operating in the vicinity of Donetsk executed Ukrainians who were attempting to surrender, rather than take them into custody,” Van Schaack said. “If true, this would be in violation of a core principle of the law of war: the prohibition against the summary execution of civilians and of combatants who are ‘hors de combat’ [out of action] by virtue of surrender, injury, or other forms of incapacitation.”
“Our simple message to Russia’s military and political leadership and to the rank-and-file is this: the world is watching, and you will be held accountable.”
GUTERRES IN KYIV: U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is in Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, following his Kremlin meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin two days ago.
Before meeting with Zelensky, Guterres toured Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, where earlier this month the bodies of civilians who had been bound and tortured were found on the streets after Russian troops withdrew.
"I imagine my family in one of those houses that is now destroyed and black. I see my granddaughters running away in panic. The war is an absurdity in the 21st century. The war is evil. There is no way a war can be acceptable in the 21st century," Guterres said, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
"I fully support the ICC, and I appeal to the Russian Federation to accept, to cooperate with the ICC. But when we talk about war crimes, we cannot forget that the worst of crimes is war itself," Guterres added during a stop in Bucha.
PUTIN THREATENS ‘LIGHTNING-FAST’ STRIKES: As Russia ramps up its operations in the east, with the aim of claiming all of the Donbas region, Putin has issued another cryptic warning to the U.S. and other nations supporting Ukraine’s defensive efforts.
In a speech to Russian lawmakers, Putin again vowed that “all the goals of the special military operation launched on February 24 will definitely be attained,” and he said Russia would swiftly retaliate against outside interference with its military goals.
“If anyone intends to intervene from the outside and create a strategic threat to Russia that is unacceptable to us, they should know that our retaliatory strikes will be lightning-fast,” he said, according to a government transcript. “We have the tools we need for this, the likes of which no one else can claim at this point. We will not just brag; we will use them if necessary.”
HAPPENING TODAY: President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks at 10:45 a.m. on “support for Ukrainians defending their country and their freedom against Russia’s brutal war,” according to the White House.
ALSO THIS MORNING: National security adviser Jake Sullivan will take part in a White House-hosted virtual minister-level meeting at 7:30 a.m. launching a "Declaration for the Future of the Internet” with more than 50 partners from around the world. Livestream at https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/
TREVOR REED COMES HOME: Biden said his decision to trade a convicted Russian drug trafficker for the freedom of Marine veteran Trevor Reed, unjustly imprisoned in Moscow for nearly three years, was not an easy call, but it came down to concern for his health and the emotional suffering of his family.
“I heard in the voices of Trevor’s parents how much they’ve worried about his health and missed his presence,” Biden said in a statement. “The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly.”
Biden vowed to continue to work to secure the release of Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan and WNBA star Brittney Griner, who are also being held in Russian jails.
“[Reed’s] safe return is a testament to the priority my administration places on bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad,” Biden said.
“Putin continues to use U.S. citizens as pawns in his political games, and I call for the immediate release and return of other American hostages, in particular, Paul Whelan, who has been sentenced to 16 years in a hard labor camp,” said Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Great nations do not use hostage-taking to achieve their goals.”
‘MUNITIONS CONTINUE TO FLOW’: Despite Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s threat to target Western arms shipments into Ukraine, so far none have been hit, according to the Pentagon.
“Munitions continue to flow into Ukraine,” said spokesman John Kirby at yesterday’s Pentagon briefing. “The United States is helping coordinate that continues to flow in there, including while we were overseas just over the last couple of days. And efforts to get those munitions into Ukrainian hands will also continue going forward as they are in a very active fight.”
Kirby said that “more than half” of the 90 155mm howitzers the U.S. is sending to Ukraine are already in the country and that so far, more than 50 Ukrainian soldiers have completed training on how to use the U.S. system.
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THE IRAN NEGOTIATIONS? Five Republican House members have written Biden requesting that senior administration officials appear before the Foreign Affairs Committee to brief Congress on what’s happening with the Iran nuclear negotiations.
“Congress and the nation deserve to understand how your administration plans to fulfill your ‘unshakable commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon’ yet to date only closed-door classified briefings have been provided to Congress," says the letter signed by Reps. Claudia Tenney of New York, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Gregory Steube of Florida, Ronny Jackson of Texas, and Maria Salazar of Florida.
“This is a start, but it is not enough. Special Envoy Robert Malley works for the American people, and he should answer to them,” the lawmakers said, citing reports about disarray within the State Department’s Iran team, Russia’s increasingly central role in the negotiations, and unfavorable deal terms.
FORBES ‘MAGNUS OPUS’ DEAL QUESTIONED: Florida Republican Rep. Mike Waltz is concerned that a China-based company with financial links to the communist government is acquiring U.S.-based media company Forbes Global Media Holdings.
Waltz has fired off a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asking if the planned acquisition by Magnus Opus Ltd should come under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
“It is my understanding that on March 25, 2021, Magnus Opus received its seed funding from [China Investment Corporation],” Waltz writes. “As you are aware, CIC is a financial arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the timing of Magnus Opus’s meeting with Forbes’ representatives so soon after receiving its seed money from CIC raises questions about the initial intent of investment.”
“The potential ownership of a major American media company by an arm of the CCP raises serious national security concerns and whether the deal should be allowed to move forward,” Waltz said.
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