Weekly megathread for news/updates/discussion of Russian invasion of Ukraine - February 9

Ukraine’s rocket campaign reliant on U.S. precision targeting, officials say (Washington Post)

Ukrainian officials said they require coordinates provided or confirmed by the United States and its allies for the vast majority of strikes using its advanced U.S.-provided rocket systems, a previously undisclosed practice that reveals a deeper and more operationally active role for the Pentagon in the war.

The disclosure, confirmed by three senior Ukrainian officials and a senior U.S. official, comes after months of Kyiv’s forces pounding Russian targets — including headquarters, ammunition depots and barracks — on Ukrainian soil with the U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and other similar precision-guided weapons such as the M270 multiple-launch rocket system.

One senior Ukrainian official said Ukrainian forces almost never launch the advanced weapons without specific coordinates provided by U.S. military personnel from a base elsewhere in Europe. Ukrainian officials say this process should give Washington confidence about providing Kyiv with longer-range weapons.

[...]

Ukraine could carry out strikes without U.S. help, but because Kyiv doesn’t want to waste valuable ammunition and miss, it usually chooses not to strike without U.S. confirmation, the official said, adding that there are no complaints about the process.

The Dossier Center (Центр «Досье») has recently published an article (in Russian) detailing Putin's switch to moving via his private, armored train – rather than a plane – across Russia.

Putin's switch to ground movement started in late 2021, when the Russian army began preparations for the invasion of Ukraine. The train is nearly indistinguishible from a regular public train (save for a few details, like camoflaged special communications antennae), but is fitted to Putin's needs: each departure sees the "secret" part of the train (where Putin resides during the move) readjusted in the image of the objective of the move. The train's unobstructed movement is so important, RZhD – the public-train company of Russia – adjusts every other train's schedule in order to make sure there are no unnecessary stops to Putin's.

Military Ombudsman (Военный омбудсмен, an opposition/anti-Kremlin Telegram channel) reports (in Russian): men who return to Russia after several months of absence (likely after fleeing the war and/or mobilization) are being interrogated at the airport. (In this case, the Vnukovo airport is mentioned specifically, following a call to the channel's hotline.)

Said interrogations are what you might call "the usual": several hours of illegal detention, with checking one's phone's chat history, browsing history, contacts etc. etc. etc.. It's the exact same thing that's been happening at the border since the start of the war, except now it aims its prongs outwards. (And for some reason, men are all too eager to return to the country. I cannot for the life of me fathom why.)

While I'm not going to insist this is yet another sign of an upcoming new wave of mobilization, a lot of signs point in that direction recently: from checking military status of all current male students and teachers, to consolidating an all-encompassing citizen database, to the Ministry of Internal Affairs refusing to issue biometric passports in many cases.

If you've been following Russian war crimes, you didn't need anyone to tell you these exist, but Russia has at least 43 "re-education" camps for abducted Ukrainian children, according to Conflict Observatory. (They describe themselves as follows: "This is a new collaborative endeavor with Esri, Alcis, and Quiet Professionals LLC, and with research, analysis, and documentation provided by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, and PlanetScape Ai".)

You can download the full 34-page PDF report on the same page. (Direct link.) Here are the key points:

• More than 6,000 children in Russia’s custody (aged 4 months to 17 years)
• At least 43 facilities in network (including Crimea and the regions bordering Ukraine, but also Siberia and Far East)
• Primary purpose of the camps appears to be political re-education (aka "integration programs", but also military education)
• Children from two of the camps have been placed with foster families in Russia (in the Moscow region, also schooled there)
• Children’s returns from at least four camps have been suspended
• All levels of Russia’s government are involved

Needless to say, this is horrific. I have no words. I hope those involved aren't killed in the war so that the Hague could get their hands on them.

Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko jailed for highlighting Mariupol killings (BBC)

Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko has been jailed for six years for posting on social media about a deadly attack by Russian warplanes on a theatre in Ukraine.

The court in Barnaul in Siberia found her guilty of spreading "fake news", under laws introduced aimed at stifling dissent about the invasion of Ukraine.

She was also barred from activities as a journalist for five years.

Hundreds of civilians died when the Mariupol theatre was bombed last March.

Ponomarenko was detained last April, weeks after the bombing, for posting that Russian warplanes had carried out the attack even though the Russian defence ministry had denied it.

She is one of a growing number of Russian dissidents jailed for criticising the war in Ukraine.

Prosecutors said Maria Ponomarenko had committed a criminal offence brought in within days of the invasion of spreading "knowingly false information" about the Russian armed forces.

Addressing the court ahead of her sentence she stressed that under Russia's constitution she had done nothing wrong: "Had I committed a real crime then it would be possible to ask for leniency, but again, due to my moral and ethical qualities, I would not do this."

Declaring herself a patriotic, opposition pacifist, she ended her address by saying: "No totalitarian regime has ever been as strong as before its collapse."

The journalist and activist, who has two young children, has suffered mental health problems in jail, according to her lawyer, and last year compared her conditions in pre-trial detention to torture.

Last summer, Moscow councillor Alexei Gorinov was jailed for seven years after he was filmed speaking out against Russia's war in Ukraine in a city council meeting. Earlier this week a UN working group called for his release, concluding that his detention was arbitrary and contravened the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In December one of Russia's most prominent opposition figures, Ilya Yashin, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years for spreading "fake news" about the military after he went on YouTube to condemn the killing of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians by Russian occupying forces in Bucha, near Kyiv.

SpaceX Comes Clean About Limiting Starlink For Ukranian Troops