War Crimes Verdict Looms as Russian Offensive Intensifies

Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons for his war-torn country to help prevent further atrocities like those reported in the city of Bucha. (File/AFP)
Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons for his war-torn country to help prevent further atrocities like those reported in the city of Bucha. (File/AFP)
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War Crimes Verdict Looms as Russian Offensive Intensifies

Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons for his war-torn country to help prevent further atrocities like those reported in the city of Bucha. (File/AFP)
Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons for his war-torn country to help prevent further atrocities like those reported in the city of Bucha. (File/AFP)

With a verdict due Monday in the conflict’s first war crimes trial, Moscow's offensive in eastern Ukraine is only intensifying, with the city of Severodonetsk under "round-the-clock" bombardment as Russian troops attempt its encirclement.

The trial in Kyiv -- seen as a public test of the Ukrainian judicial system's independence -- comes as international institutions conduct their own investigations into alleged abuses that have turned cities like Bucha and Mariupol into watchwords for destruction, AFP said.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose country is a vital staging area for Western arms shipments and host to millions of the war's refugees, pointed to the devastation in those cities as a reason for why "business as usual" with Russia was no longer possible.

"An honest world cannot return to business as usual while forgetting the crimes, the aggression, the fundamental rights that have been trampled on," he told Ukraine's parliament Sunday.

Three months after launching an invasion that failed in its initial goal of capturing Kyiv, Moscow's forces are now squarely focused on securing and expanding their gains in the Donbas region and on Ukraine's southern coast.

But as its relentless offensive continues, Russia's lead negotiator said Sunday that Moscow was willing to resume negotiations with Ukraine, which it blames for "freezing" earlier talks.

Any talks, however, will not include concessions of land, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who tweeted the war must end with "complete restoration of (Ukraine's) territorial integrity".

- First war crimes trial -
On Monday, Zelensky will continue his drive to rally Western support for his country's cause, targeting the world's political and business elite gathering in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos for the World Economic Forum.

As Ukraine's president addresses the forum's attendees via videoconference, a panel of judges in Kyiv will be determining the fate of Russian Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin in the conflict's first war crimes trial.

The shaven-headed 21-year-old from Siberia has admitted to killing a 62-year-old civilian in the early stages of the invasion, but told the court he was pressured into an act for which he was "truly sorry".

"I was nervous about what was going on. I didn't want to kill," he said from the glass defense box, wearing a grey and blue hoodie, as the trial concluded Friday.

Shishimarin's lawyer has argued for an acquittal, saying his client was carrying out what he perceived to be a direct order that he initially disobeyed.

Prosecutors, who have asked for a life sentence, said he was "well aware" he was executing a "criminal order".

- 'Scorched-earth tactics' -
In the eastern city of Severodonetsk, a focus of recent fighting, regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said Russian forces attempting its encirclement were "using scorched-earth tactics, deliberately destroying" the city.

Gaiday said Russia was drawing forces from a vast area -- those withdrawn from the Kharkiv region, others involved in Mariupol's siege, pro-Russian separatist militias, and even troops freshly mobilized from Siberia -- and concentrating their firepower on the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

At least seven civilians were killed and eight others wounded in Sunday's bombardment of the Donetsk region, according to the Ukrainian army's Facebook page.

Shelling and missile strikes also continued to pound Kharkiv in the north, as well as Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia in the south, Ukrainian officials said.

With the nation under relentless assault, Ukraine's parliament on Sunday voted to extend martial law through August 23.

Millions of ordinary Ukrainians, meanwhile, face a daily struggle to survive.

"There is no work, no food, no water," said Angela Kopytsa, 52, breaking down into tears as she spoke to AFP reporters on a Russian-organized tour of captured Mariupol.

Kopytsa said her home had been destroyed during the fighting in the port and that "children at maternity wards were dying of hunger".

Once-bustling Mariupol, which has been without electricity since early March, has now been reduced to a wasteland of charred buildings

- Davos snubs Moscow -
Thousands of miles away, Monday's meeting in Davos is expected to be dominated by the political and economic fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russian business and political leaders, who once participated in debates and mingled with other A-listers at champagne parties, have been barred from this year's gathering -- dubbed "History at a Turning Point" -- over the war.

Zelensky is due to confer with Davos delegates via videoconference to mark the opening of the Ukraine House Davos, a forum for Kyiv and its international backers.

And a strong Ukrainian contingent, including the foreign minister, has made the journey to plead their case.

"The major request to the whole world here is: do not stop backing Ukraine," Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze told reporters on the eve of the summit.

More than 50 heads of state or government will be among the 2,500 delegates, ranging from business leaders to academics and civil society figures.



Ukraine Will Send Team to US Next Week for Talks on New Draft Mineral Deal

Yuliia Svyrydenko, Ukraine's Minister of Economy answers on journalists questions during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP)
Yuliia Svyrydenko, Ukraine's Minister of Economy answers on journalists questions during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP)
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Ukraine Will Send Team to US Next Week for Talks on New Draft Mineral Deal

Yuliia Svyrydenko, Ukraine's Minister of Economy answers on journalists questions during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP)
Yuliia Svyrydenko, Ukraine's Minister of Economy answers on journalists questions during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP)

Ukraine will send a team to Washington next week to begin negotiations on a new draft of a deal that would give the US access to Ukraine’s valuable mineral resources, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko told The Associated Press.

“The new draft agreement from the US shows that the intention to create a fund or jointly invest remains,” Svyrydenko said Saturday, during a trip to northern Ukraine.

The delegation from Kyiv will include representatives from the Ministries of Economy, Foreign Affairs, Justice and Finance.

The long-running negotiations over a mineral deal have already strained relations between Kyiv and Washington. The two sides had been preparing in February to sign a framework agreement but the plan was derailed following a contentious meeting in the Oval Office between US President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

After some Ukrainian lawmakers leaked the new draft, critics slammed it as little more than an attempt to strip Kyiv of control over its own natural resources and infrastructure. According to the leaked document, the new draft includes not only rare-earth minerals but gas and oil.

Ukraine holds significant deposits of more than 20 minerals deemed strategically critical by the US, including titanium, which is used to make aircraft wings, lithium, key to several battery technologies, and uranium, used in nuclear power.

New draft only gives the US side of the deal Despite the disruption following the Oval Office meeting, Ukrainian officials showed interest in signing the framework deal at any time, seeing it as an important step to win the favor of President Donald Trump and shore up US backing in the war against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

After weeks of silence on the status of the deal, the US sent a new draft to Kyiv, which goes further than the original framework.

It’s unclear why the US chose to bypass the signing of the framework deal and instead moved forward with a more comprehensive draft agreement, which would likely require ratification by Ukraine’s parliament.

However, Ukrainian officials have been cautious about commenting on the contents of the draft, stressing that it currently reflects only one side’s position.

“What we have now is a document that reflects the position of the US Treasury legal team,” said Svyrydenko. “This is not a final version, it’s not a joint position.”

She said that Ukraine’s task now is to assemble a technical team for negotiations, define its red lines and core principles, and send a delegation to Washington for technical talks as early as next week.

“It’s clear that the full parameters of this agreement can’t be discussed online,” Svyrydenko said. “We need to sit down with the teams and continue the conversation in person.”

Legal, investment, and financial advisers are being selected, she said.

“This marks a new stage in relations with the United States — one that requires expertise across multiple areas,” she said. “Ultimately, everything will be decided through the course of negotiations.”

Ukraine seeks terms acceptable to both sides

Svyrydenko declined to elaborate publicly on Ukraine’s official evaluation of the new draft, but noted that there is now a more detailed document outlining the fund’s creation. And while the initial draft focused primarily on the intention to establish the fund, Svyrydenko said the latest version lays out how American advisers envision its structure and operation.

It remains unclear what role Ukraine would play in managing the fund under the newly proposed US draft. However, analysts who reviewed the leaked document said Kyiv’s involvement would likely be minimal — a point Ukraine hopes to challenge in upcoming negotiations, using the previously agreed framework as its reference.

A previous version of the framework agreement, obtained by The Associated Press, outlined plans for a jointly owned and managed investment fund between the United States and Ukraine, intended to support the reconstruction of Ukraine’s war-torn economy.

Under the terms, Ukraine would allocate 50% of future revenues generated from key national assets — including minerals, hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas, and other extractable resources — to the fund.

The framework agreement, which was never signed, stated that revenues from its natural resources would go into the fund and be used for the reconstruction of the country, not that ownership or control of those resources would be transferred to the United States.

“We’re very focused on ensuring that the final draft of the agreement, after negotiations, fully aligns with our strategic interests,” Svyrydenko said. “I believe the work on the previous memorandum showed that both teams are capable of reaching these goals and agreeing on terms acceptable to both sides.”