BLOGONITY

WARSAW, POLAND — Poland said Saturday it has been paying for Ukraine’s Starlink subscription and will continue to do so despite sources saying the United States could consider cutting Ukraine’s access to the satellite internet system.  U.S. negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine’s critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country’s access to Elon Musk’s vital Starlink satellite internet system, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.  Starlink provides crucial internet connectivity to the war-torn country and its military.  “We pay and will continue to pay a subscription fee for satellite internet for Ukraine,” Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said in a post on Musk-owned social media platform X.  “I cannot imagine that someone could decide to terminate a business contract for a commercial service to which Poland is a party,” added Gawkowski, who is also Poland’s digital affairs minister.  SpaceX, which operates Starlink, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.  Ukrainian military officials did not immediately reply to a request for comment.  Poland has delivered 20,000 Starlink units to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and has been funding their maintenance to support internet connectivity, according to information on the Polish presidency’s website.  President Andrzej Duda will meet Donald Trump later Saturday during a visit to the United States, amid a widening rift between Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that has alarmed Kyiv’s European allies.  …

STRASBOURG, FRANCE — One person died and two police officers were seriously injured in a knife attack in eastern France on Saturday that occurred during a demonstration, the local prosecutor said. Three more officers were lightly wounded in the attack in the city of Mulhouse, carried out by a 37-year-old suspect who is on a terror prevention watchlist, prosecutor Nicolas Heitz told AFP. The list, called FSPRT, compiles data from various authorities on people with the aim of preventing “terrorist” radicalization. It was launched in 2015 following deadly attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s offices and on a Jewish supermarket. The suspect attacked local police officers in Mulhouse shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) Saturday afternoon, France’s national antiterror prosecutors’ unit PNAT said in a statement. A passerby was killed trying to intervene and help police, the prosecutor’s office said. One of the seriously wounded police officers sustained an injury to the carotid artery, and the other to the thorax, Heitz said. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was expected to travel to the scene of the attack later Saturday. Police established a security parameter after the attack, which happened shortly before 4 p.m. local time during a demonstration in support of Congo. According to union sources, the suspect, born in Algeria, has been under judicial supervision and house arrest, and under an expulsion order from France. “Horror has seized our city,” Mulhouse Mayor Michele Lutz said on Facebook. The incident was being investigated as a terror attack, she said, but “this must obviously still be confirmed by the judiciary.” French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday that the deadly knife attack was “Islamist terrorism,” after France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office confirmed it was investigating the case. “It is without any doubt an act of Islamist terrorism,” Macron told reporters on the sidelines of the annual French farm show, adding that the interior minister was on his way to Mulhouse. The suspect has been arrested, the prosecutor’s office said. Some information in this report is from Reuters. …

PARIS — Mohamed Amra, a French fugitive known as “The Fly,” who was freed by gunmen in a brazen attack against a prison van in May, was arrested in Romania on Saturday, the French interior minister said. French police had launched a massive manhunt for the fugitive, whose escape resulted in the deaths of two prison guards and was seized upon by right-wing politicians as evidence that France had lost its grip on drug crime. Three officers were wounded in the attack, which was caught on CCTV and shocked France because of its extraordinary violence. France had tasked more than 300 investigators with finding Amra and had requested an Interpol red notice, hoping for foreign assistance. “I congratulate all forces which made Mohamed Amra’s arrest in Romania today possible. A warm thank you to Romania for its decisive cooperation,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on X. Amra is a 30-year-old from northern France, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. Police sources said he was involved in drug trafficking and accused of being a major drugs gangland figure. Amra has a long history of convictions for violent crimes that started when he was 15. He was also suspected of ordering hits while in prison. At the time of his escape, Amra was facing two fresh charges, one for attempted murder and another for participation in a gangland killing in the southern city of Marseille on the French Riviera, a hub for drug trafficking and gang violence. But despite the government labelling him “public enemy number one,” and the deployment of massive means, Amra was not captured as quickly as the authorities had hoped. The Paris prosecutor’s office said he had been convicted of burglary by a court in Evreux on May 10 and was being held at the Val de Reuil prison until his escape on May 14. He had also been indicted by prosecutors in Marseille for a kidnapping that led to a death, it said. On Saturday, the government reacted with relief that the chase was over. “After a manhunt lasting several months, Amra has been arrested, finally!” Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said on X. President Emmanuel Macron hailed Amra’s capture as “a formidable success.” Some information in this report is from Agence France-Presse. …

BERLIN — German politicians made a final scramble for votes Saturday on the eve of key elections in which conservatives hope to win despite the dramatic rise of the far right. Sunday’s vote comes at a time of upheaval for Europe and its biggest economy as U.S. President Donald Trump has ended a united Western stance on the Ukraine conflict by reaching out to Russia. Trump’s threats of a trade war spell more trouble ahead for Germany, after its economy has shrunk for the past two years, and as it also faces bitter social polarization on the flashpoint issues of immigration and security. Sunday’s vote is being held more than half a year ahead of schedule after center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-way coalition collapsed in early November. The conservative CDU-CSU alliance, led by Friedrich Merz, has long had a strong lead in opinion polls at around 30%, double that of Scholz’s SPD. The far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has been polling in second place at around 20%, boosted by anger over a spate of deadly knife attacks and car rammings blamed on migrants. Just 10 days before the election, an Afghan man was arrested for ploughing a car through a street rally in Munich, killing a 2-year-old child and her mother and wounding dozens. Germany was again shocked by a stabbing that badly wounded a 30-year-old Spanish man at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial on Friday, although police have not yet spoken about the suspected motive.   Two major problems The AfD has had strong support from Trump’s inner circle, with tech billionaire Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance speaking out in support of the party. With domestic tensions running high, two far-right demonstrations as well as a counter protest are expected to draw crowds in Berlin on Saturday. In a final TV debate with Scholz on Wednesday, the CDU’s Merz called on Germans to give him a strong mandate to “solve the country’s two major problems: migration and the economy.” On Saturday afternoon, Merz will hold a final election rally in Munich alongside Markus Soeder, leader of the CSU, the CDU’s sister party in the southern state of Bavaria. Scholz, speaking at his final campaign rally in Dortmund on Friday, stressed his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and defended Germany’s commitment to free speech in a pushback against recent comments Vance made in a blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference. … “On eve of elections, Germany faces changing world situation” →

ROME — The Vatican carried on with its Holy Year celebrations without the pope Saturday, as Pope Francis battled pneumonia and a complex respiratory infection that doctors say remains touch-and-go and will keep him hospitalized for at least another week. Francis slept well overnight, Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said in a brief early update Saturday. But doctors have warned that the main threat facing the 88-year-old Francis would be the onset of sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia. As of Friday, there was no evidence of any sepsis, and Francis was responding to the various drugs he is taking, the pope’s medical team said in their first in-depth update on the pope’s condition. “He is not out of danger,” said his personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone. “So, like all fragile patients, I say they are always on the golden scale: In other words, it takes very little to become unbalanced.” Francis, who has chronic lung disease, was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened. Doctors first diagnosed the complex viral, bacterial and fungal respiratory tract infection and then the onset of pneumonia in both lungs. They prescribed “absolute rest” and a combination of cortisone and antibiotics, along with supplemental oxygen when he needs it. Carbone, who along with Francis’ personal nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, organized care for him at the Vatican, acknowledged he had insisted on staying at the Vatican to work even after he was sick “because of institutional and private commitments.” He was cared for by a cardiologist and infectious specialist in addition to his personal medical team before being hospitalized. Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of medicine and surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, said the biggest threat facing Francis was that some of the germs that are currently located in his respiratory system pass into the bloodstream, causing sepsis. Sepsis can lead to organ failure and death. “Sepsis, with his respiratory problems and his age, would be really difficult to get out of,” Alfieri told a press conference Friday at Gemelli. “The English say, ‘knock on wood,’ we say ‘touch iron.’ Everyone touch what they want,” he said as he tapped the microphone. “But this is the real risk in these cases: that these germs pass to the bloodstream.” “He knows he’s in danger,” Alfieri said. “And he told us to relay that.” … “Pope’s doctors say sepsis could threaten his fight against pneumonia” →

Preparations are underway for a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Saturday, marking a dramatic shift away from Western isolation of Moscow over its war in Ukraine. Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just the war in Ukraine. “The question is about starting to move toward normalizing relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” he said. But he said that efforts to organize such a meeting are at an early stage, and that making it happen will require “the most intensive preparatory work.” Ryabkov said that U.S. and Russian envoys could meet “within the next two weeks” to pave the way for further talks between senior officials. Russian and U.S. representatives on Tuesday agreed to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, according to the two countries’ top diplomats, at a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia that marked an extraordinary about-face in U.S. foreign policy under Trump. After the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the AP that the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow; to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation. He stressed, however, that the talks — which were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and other senior Russian and U.S. officials — marked the beginning of a conversation, and that more work needs to be done. Lavrov, for his part, hailed the meeting as “very useful.” No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which came as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more-numerous Russian troops, three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbor. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv didn’t take part, and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia scheduled for last Wednesday. European allies also have expressed concerns they are being sidelined. …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been branded “a dictator without elections,” but rivals are already circling for his job as expectations mount of a vote later this year. U.S. President Donald Trump’s broadside at Zelenskyy hit a sensitive spot. Presidential elections in Ukraine should have been held in March or April 2024. But they were not — due to Russia’s full-scale invasion. Ukraine’s constitution bars elections during martial law, which was imposed by Kyiv just a day after the Kremlin launched its all-out war in February 2022. There are also major security concerns. Packed polling stations would make tempting targets for a Russian military that has repeatedly struck civilian targets, including schools, hospitals and apartment buildings. RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service found people in Kyiv opposed to the idea when it spoke to them on Feb. 20. “We have Russian-occupied territory where people will not be able to vote and will not be able to make their own choice,” said one woman. “Who can run a campaign in a time of war?” said another voter. The same day, some 130 Ukrainian civic groups issued a joint statement declaring the impossibility of holding elections under current circumstances. “Only after the end of the war and the achievement of a stable peace … will it be possible to organize elections freely, fairly, democratically, and accessibly,” they wrote. Nevertheless, presidential hopefuls are already making what appear to be their first cautious moves. There’s expectation in the air that some kind of ceasefire or peace deal will emerge this year, making elections possible within a matter of months. Former President Petro Poroshenko has even given a date, Oct. 26, which he says was revealed by insiders in Zelenskyy’s office and which would coincide with other elections. “According to the constitution, there should be parliamentary elections at the end of the year. Although they should have taken place two years ago. And at the end of October, we should have had local elections,” he said. Zelenskyy’s party denied any plans for Oct. 26. The president has said elections could take place this year if martial law is lifted — something that would be possible after a deal to stop the fighting. Pro-Russian figures have also started getting active. Yuriy Boyko, who came in fourth in the 2019 election, launched a TikTok campaign in December that echoed Kremlin talking points and earned him an invitation for questioning from … “As war rages, Ukraine’s politicians circle presidential ‘electric chair’” →

WASHINGTON — This week, thousands of conservative politicians, activists and influencers convened outside Washington for the Conservative Political Action Conference, the premier annual gathering of the American right. The four-day event, hosted by the American Conservative Union since 1974, features U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, among other high-profile speakers from around the world. Dubbed the “Woodstock for conservatives,” CPAC was once the go-to event for conservative Republicans and presidential hopefuls, with its presidential straw poll serving as a barometer of grassroots support. However, Trump’s political rise in recent years has transformed it into a platform for populism. Driven by the rise of populist movements globally, the conference has ventured overseas in the past decade. It launched its first international conference in Japan in 2017, expanded to Australia, Brazil and South Korea in 2019, then added Hungary, Mexico and Israel in 2022. Argentina joined the fold last year following the election of populist President Javier Milei. The international conferences, CPAC says, serve to “unite conservatives from all over the world, strengthen the movement, and challenge globalism.” They are also used for public outreach, recruitment and mobilization, according to a recent paper on CPAC by Grant A. Silverman, a research assistant at George Washington University in Washington. CPAC’s growing international outreach mirrors a recent surge in far-right populism worldwide. Last year’s foreign speakers included Presidents Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and Javier Milei of Argentina, as well as Prime Minister Victor Orbán of Hungary. Here’s a look at some of the foreign speakers for this year’s CPAC and what they’re saying: Javier Milei, Argentine president Milei, wielding a chain saw, electrified the CPAC crowd Thursday when he shared the stage with billionaire Elon Musk and presented Musk, Trump’s cost-cutting czar, with his signature campaign prop. “This is the chain saw of bureaucracy,” Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, shouted, waving the tool. As head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk, who made his first CPAC appearance, is spearheading the Trump administration’s massive governmentwide cost-cutting efforts. This marks Milei’s third CPAC appearance. The self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” campaigned in 2023 on shrinking Argentina’s government, often brandishing a chain saw at rallies. At last year’s Washington conference, he vowed to eliminate unnecessary government agencies, declaring, “We will not surrender until we make Argentina great again!” Speaking at CPAC Argentina in December, Milei declared that the “new winds of freedom are sweeping … “Amid rising worldwide populism, America’s premier conservative conference goes global” →

Uncertainty looms over U.S.-Ukraine relations as Ukraine enters the fourth year of war with Russia. Recent shifts in Washington’s rhetoric have raised fears that Ukraine could be pressured into an unfavorable peace deal — or be left to confront Russia without U.S. support. While most Ukrainians are now in favor of peace talks, many insist any settlement be on Ukraine’s terms. Myroslava Gongadze has the story from Warsaw, Poland, with reporting from Anna Chernikova in Kyiv, Ukraine. …

Pope Francis’ medical team said Friday that his medical condition was not life-threatening, but that the pontiff was not out of danger. “If the question is, ‘Is he out of danger?’ the answer is, ‘No,’ ” Sergio Alfieri, the head of the team of doctors at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital taking care of the pope, said. “But if you then ask us if, at this moment, his life is in danger, the answer is [also], ‘No.’” The doctors said Francis was in good spirits and had maintained his sense of humor. Alfieri said when he greeted the pope Friday in the pope’s hospital suite as “Holy Father,” the pope returned the greeting with “Holy Son.” Francis, the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics, was admitted to the hospital last week after a case of bronchitis worsened. At the hospital, he was diagnosed with double pneumonia and a complex bacterial, viral and fungal infection, and doctors placed Francis on a strengthened drug therapy. Francis also has been receiving supplements of oxygen when needed, his doctors said Friday. Alfieri said Francis was not on a ventilator. Alfieri said there was a possibility that germs from Francis’ respiratory tract could enter his bloodstream, causing sepsis, but there was currently no evidence that it had happened. Sepsis is a complication of an infection that can lead to organ failure and death. The 88-year-old pontiff has been able to get out of bed and do some work, according to his doctors. They said Francis would remain in the hospital “at least” through next week. With his hospitalization, there has been speculation about Francis stepping down from his duties as head of the Roman Catholic Church, a post he has held since 2013. His immediate predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, was the first pope in 600 years to resign. In a recent memoir, Francis addressed the possibility of his own resignation if he became incapacitated. He said such a move would be a “distant possibility,” justified only if he were facing “a serious physical impediment.” However, in 2022, Francis confirmed he wrote a resignation letter not long after becoming pope. He said it was written in case medical issues prevented him from executing his papal duties. The Catholic faithful around the world have been encouraged to pray for Francis’ rapid recovery. On Friday in the Philippines, a hourlong prayer was held for Francis at the Manila Cathedral. Francis … “Pope’s condition not life-threatening, but his life is still in danger, doctors say” →

berlin — A man was seriously injured in a stabbing at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, police said Friday evening, two days before a watershed national election.  Police said they did not know the identity or motive of the male attacker, who was still at large. The investigation was continuing.   Video of the scene showed emergency vehicles and heavily armored police lined along one side of the memorial site, a vast field of grey concrete pillars. The memorial is across a street from the U.S. Embassy.   “An as yet unidentified male suspect attacked a person standing here, who was so seriously injured that he had to be taken by the fire brigade to hospital for emergency treatment,” police spokesperson Florian Nath said.  The attack occurred around 6 p.m. (1700 GMT). The victim’s life was not in danger, and he was being prepared for surgery, Nath said.  He added that police did not believe there was any imminent danger to the public.  The monument, one of the German capital’s most sacred sites, commemorates the 6 million Jews murdered by Adolf Hitler’s Nazis during World War II, one of the darkest episodes in human history and a continuing focus of German historical atonement.  The area surrounding the monument was sealed off.  The national election campaign, in which polls suggest a far-right party could come in second place for the first time in nine decades, has been marred by a series of high-profile attacks. One of those was a stabbing blamed on an Afghan immigrant, which prompted a fraught debate on immigration.  Earlier on Friday, an 18-year-old ethnic Chechen was arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, Bild newspaper reported.   …

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA — Thousands rallied across Slovakia on Friday to mark the seventh anniversary of the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee. The rallies are part of a wave of protests against the pro-Russia policies of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico. People in Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava, observed a minute of silence to honor Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova, both age 27. They were shot to death at their home in the town of Velka Maca, east of Bratislava, on Feb. 21, 2018. The killings prompted major street protests unseen since the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. The ensuing political crisis led to the collapse of a coalition government headed by Fico. Kuciak had been investigating possible government corruption, among other issues, when he was killed. People applauded the parents of Kuciak and the mother of Kusnirova, who greeted them from the stage. “I believe that our common fight will be successful,” said Jozef Kuciak, the father of Jan. Marian Kocner, a businessman who had been accused of masterminding the killings, has been acquitted twice. Prosecutors have said they believe Kocner paid the convicted triggerman to carry it out and appealed. The current anti-government protests are the biggest demonstrations since the 2018 slayings. They are fueled by Fico’s recent trip to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a rare visit to the Kremlin by a European Union leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine began almost three years ago and his recent remarks that Slovakia might leave the 27-nation EU and NATO. “We’ve had enough of Fico,” people chanted. The crowds at rallies in 47 towns and cities at home and 16 abroad, according to organizers, demanded Fico’s resignation. About 10,000 protesters chanted “Resign, resign,” at Freedom Square in Bratislava. Fico’s views on Russia have sharply differed from the European mainstream. He returned to power last year after his leftist party Smer (Direction) won a parliamentary election in 2023. He has since ended Slovakia’s military aid for Ukraine, criticized EU sanctions on Russia and vowed to block Ukraine from joining NATO. He declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as an enemy after Ukraine halted on Russian gas supplies to Slovakia and some other European customers. …

BERLIN — German police said Friday they have arrested an 18-year-old Russian man on suspicion of planning a “politically motivated” attack in Berlin, two days before national elections. The man was detained late Thursday in the state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, police and prosecutors said in a statement. Authorities did not provide further details about the attack plot, but the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported the suspect was Chechen and is believed to have been planning an attack on the Israeli Embassy. The Israeli Embassy could not be reached for comment outside of business hours, while state prosecutors and the Russian Embassy did not immediately respond to written requests for comment from Reuters. German newspaper Bild reported Friday that the investigation had been the result of a tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency. It said the suspect had been trying to leave the country via Berlin’s BER airport when he was detained. Riot police and specialist officers were involved in making the arrest, which came after that tip-off, officials said. “No further details as to the background and motive can be given for the moment to protect the investigation,” they added. The man appeared in court Friday and was remanded in custody. German authorities are on high alert ahead of Sunday’s federal elections. Some material in this report is from Reuters. …

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing for a peaceful resolution to Russia’s now three-year war in Ukraine. VOA examined several approaches floated by think tanks recently aimed at achieving a lasting peace to the war. Maximum pressure strategy A plan by the Center for European Policy Analysis, or CEPA, titled “How to Win: A Seven-Point Plan for Sustainable Peace in Ukraine,” calls for “a maximum pressure strategy to bring Russia to the negotiating table in good faith.” It proposes that the U.S. and its allies: “Should provide immediate materiel support to Ukraine without caveats, aiming to wear down Russia’s military and thereby improve Ukraine’s negotiating position.” “Should increase sanctions on Russian financial institutions and energy sector entities, release frozen Russian assets to support Ukrainian defense and reconstruction and enact secondary sanctions to intensify economic pressure not only on Russia but also on the authoritarian regimes of China, Iran, and North Korea.”   CEPA says that “Ukraine and Europe” must be included in any peace talks with Russia, that the U.S. should support “a European-led coalition of the willing” to enforce any “ceasefire line with an international force,” and that “European allies must make consistent and as rapid as possible progress toward Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.” One of the report’s authors, Catherine Sendak, CEPA’s director for transatlantic defense and security, told VOA’s Ukrainian service that the United States should enter talks with Russia only having “equipped Ukraine with the strongest possible means” and using its toughest “diplomatic tools.” She added that the issue of Ukraine’s possible membership in NATO should not be included in talks with Russia. “To discuss that with a non-NATO member … I don’t believe it is advantageous to any negotiation,” Sendak said, noting that it would give Russia “veto power, if you will, over … choosing members to join the alliance or not.” Negotiating tactics Josh Rudolph, a German Marshall Fund senior fellow and head of its Transatlantic Democracy Working Group, worked on Russian and Ukrainian policy at the National Security Council during the first Trump administration. Last month, he offered policy recommendations to the current Trump administration on ending the Ukraine conflict. Among them: “Approach [Russian President Vladimir] Putin from a position of strength. Whereas Putin looked tough and capable at the outset of Trump’s first term, his blunder in Ukraine has left him diminished. … As the dominant partner in this relationship, … “Four scenarios for securing peace in Ukraine” →

RFE/RL   — Iya Rashevskaya was told her husband — a member of the country’s armed forces – had gone missing in the frontline in the eastern Donetsk region, in April 2023.  The news of Serhiy Skotarenko’s disappearance came just a month after he had joined the military, having given up his job abroad.  Rashevskaya soon found out that her husband, a native of Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhya region, was alive and being held captive in Chechnya along with several other Ukrainian prisoners of war.  A Ukrainian soldier who was released in a prisoner swap in June 2023 told Rashevskaya that he and Skotarenko had been held in the same jail in Chechnya.  Rashevskaya recalls getting an unexpected, brief video call from her husband in August 2023.  “My husband asked about me and our children. He also asked me to help him to return home, saying we were his only hope,” Rashevskaya said. “He looked awful, he has lost a lot of weight.”  Ukrainian captives in Chechnya “were being held in a basement and survived on instant noodles, bread, and water,” according to Rashevskaya.  Ukrainian authorities estimate that more than 150 Ukrainian POWs are currently being held in Chechnya, a Russian region ruled by authoritarian leader Ramzan Kadyrov.  Kadyrov says the soldiers were captured by Chechen military units fighting alongside other Russian forces in Ukraine.  But Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of POWs has claimed that Chechnya also often “buys” Ukrainian captives from various Russian military units to use them as a bargaining chip in negotiations.  RFE/RL cannot independently verify the claim.  Some of the Ukrainian captives were exchanged with Chechen fighters seized by Ukrainian forces.  Kadyrov, a vocal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has sent thousands of Chechen fighters to Ukraine since the invasion began three years ago.  In December 2024, Kadyrov threatened to use Ukrainian captives as human shields to protect strategically important buildings in Grozny from Ukrainian drone attacks. He said he would place them on the rooftops of buildings.  He made the statement after Ukrainian drones reportedly hit a police campus in the Chechen capital.  In January 2024, Kadyrov offered to release 20 Ukrainian captives in exchange for the removal of U.S. sanctions against his relatives and horses.  Kadyrov, 48, and several of his family members, including his mother, Aymani Kadyrova, have been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union in recent years.  Kadyrova, 71, … “Russian region holding Ukrainian Prisoners of War as ‘bargaining chip’” →