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The Summary of the Report Background 2014-2021 Since the first months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2014, faith-based communities of various denominations have fully experienced the brutality and ruthlessness of Russia’s repressive policy in the occupied territories of Crimea and the Donbas region. Russian troops and Russian- backed separatists have targeted religious leaders and individual believers of most faiths, except the Orthodox parishes affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate. Representatives of religious minorities were arbitrarily arrested, threatened, beaten, illegally imprisoned, tortured, and some were deliberately killed. The repressive policy in the self-proclaimed “people’s republics,” in those parts...

Ukraine said on Monday its troops had regained more territory on the eastern and southern fronts in the past week of its counteroffensive against Russian forces. Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said in televised comments that Ukraine had retaken nearly 2 square km (0.77 square mile) of land around the eastern city of Bakhmut, captured by Russia in May after months of fighting. She later added on the Telegram messaging app that the Ukrainian army had in the past week also recaptured 4.8 square km in the southern Tavria sector. In her televised comments, Maliar said Ukrainian forces had captured...

A newly launched Ukrainian hotline offering Russian soldiers a chance to surrender — and stay alive — has been fielding thousands of calls from desperate draftees, according to Ukrainian officials. Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, said in a recent interview with Voice of America that thousands of enemy troops have reached out to the “I Want to Live” program via phone or online chat to give up their arms. Yusov said the hotline has been receiving offers of surrender at a rate of hundreds a day from soldiers already fighting in...

The “Ghost of Kyiv” is a myth, Ukrainian officials admitted over the weekend. After several news outlets last week identified the legendary, mysterious, hero fighter pilot as a 29-year-old dad recently killed in battle with the Russians, military officials acknowledged Saturday that there was no such person. “The ghost of Kyiv is a superhero-legend, whose character was created by Ukrainians!” Ukraine’s Air Force Command wrote on Facebook. The reputed hero had been credited with taking out as many as 40 Russian aircraft until he was shot down March 13 while battling an “overwhelming” number of enemy forces, the Times of...

The Ghost of Kyiv was a Ukrainian fighter pilot. A lone warrior in the aerial defense of Ukraine’s embattled capital city in the early weeks of the Russian invasion. Deftly maneuvering his 30-year-old, twin-engine MiG-29, the Ghost jealously guarded the sky over Kyiv. Fighting against the odds with antiquated weaponry, he shot down 40 Russian warplanes before finally succumbing to enemy fire three weeks into the war. The Ghost of Kyiv, real name Stepan Tarabalka, died in the cockpit of his trusty MiG on Marchth 14, The Times reported. Just one problem. The Ghost of Kyiv legend isn’t true. Even...

One hundred fifty-five years ago, the Atlantic Monthly published on its front cover the lyrics to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which not only is one of this nation’s most well-known patriot songs, but also, arguably, its most spiritual. The melody was borrowed from a Civil War marching song, which paid tribute to the abolitionist John Brown, and which was popular with Union soldiers. The song’s lyrics – “poor old John Brown is dead, his body lies mouldering in the grave” – were inoffensive to soldiers marching into battle, but deemed too coarse to be sung by the general...

Syria calls U.S. charge of chemical weapons use 'lies' The Syrian government Friday called White House allegations that it has used chemical weapons in the country's civil war "full of lies," according to state media reports. Syria's Foreign Ministry instead blamed such attacks on "terrorist" groups, the term it uses to refer to the opposition.

The interview with Hussein Kamel: the text of the transcript is here: http://www.casi.org.uk/info/unscom950822.pdf Gen. Hussein Kamel, the former director of Iraq's Military Industrialization Corporation, in charge of Iraq's weapons programme, defected to Jordan on the night of 7 August 1995, together with his brother Col. Saddam Kamel. Hussein Kamel took crates of documents revealing past weapons programmes, and provided these to UNSCOM. Iraq responded by revealing a major store of documents that showed that Iraq had begun an unsuccessful crash programme to develop a nuclear bomb (on 20 August 1995). Hussein and Saddam Kamel agreed to return to Iraq, where...