Global Pulse

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  • Captured Ukrainian-born soldiers tell BBC why they fought for Russia

    Captured Ukrainian-born soldiers tell BBC why they fought for Russia

    Deep in Western Ukraine, tucked behind reinforced high walls and multiple layers of secured locked gates, sits a prisoner of war camp holding dozens of men captured while fighting on behalf of the Russian military. A closer look at the camp’s population reveals a striking, complex reality of the ongoing war: unlike the initial wave of conscripts drawn mostly from remote, economically depressed Russian regions at the start of the 2022 full-scale invasion, many current detainees are recruited from major Russian urban centers including St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. More surprisingly, a notable share of the prisoners are not Russian citizens at all – they are Ukrainian-born men who took up arms against their home country.

    Gaining meaningful access to interview prisoners of war carries significant challenges. Reporters must first confirm that no coercion is being used to force participation, then gauge how open subjects can be under detention conditions. With independent journalists barred from embedded access to Russian military units inside Russia, however, these interviews offer a rare, unfiltered window into the shifting dynamics of the war and the varied motivations that drive men to fight for Moscow – including those born on Ukrainian soil. All participants were given the option to decline interviews, and conversations with willing subjects were conducted far from guard posts and off-camera. Beyond structured formal interviews, the reporter was able to hold direct, Russian-language conversations with detainees across multiple locations within the facility.

    The camp holds detainees from two core groups: soldiers pulled from major Russian cities, and Ukrainian natives from Russia-occupied eastern Ukrainian territories. For one Ukrainian-born detainee, 20-year-old Anton, his connection to the Russian side began when he was just 10 years old, when his home region in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas fell to Moscow-aligned separatist forces. When he turned 18 in 2022, the same year Russia launched its full-scale invasion, he immediately enlisted in the Russian army.

    “I don’t regret my choice. I went to defend my land,” Anton says, adding that most of his close friends also volunteered. Now, he says, he receives repeated text messages notifying him of their deaths: “Dead, dead, dead.” Multiple other prisoners echoed his account, reporting that nearly all of their original units have been killed in action, and far fewer new volunteers are stepping forward to replace them – even with the promise of massive enlistment bonuses. This trend suggests that Putin’s goal of avoiding politically unpopular large-scale domestic mobilization may soon face new pressures.

    Under Ukrainian law, Ukrainian citizens captured fighting for Russia are charged with treason, but after trial they are transferred to standard POW camps alongside Russian detainees. Officially, Kyiv still recognizes these men as Ukrainian citizens and views Russia’s occupation of their home regions as temporary, but on-the-ground realities are far more nuanced. “They’re very pro-Russian, and their national identity is very blurred,” explains Petro Yatsenko, a representative from Ukraine’s coordination headquarters for prisoners of war.

    Anton rejects any label of traitor, saying firmly, “I consider myself Russian. A country means nothing, it’s all about nationality. All my family are from Russia. All my roots are from there.” When asked about his Ukrainian surname, he dismisses it as a meaningless irrelevant detail.

    Anton’s identity is not an anomaly: an entire generation of Ukrainians born in occupied Donbas has grown up under Russian rule, attending Kremlin-controlled schools and consuming state-aligned Russian media that has portrayed Kyiv’s government as “Nazi” and illegitimate for nearly a decade. Since the 2022 full-scale invasion, this model of cultural and political reorientation has been expanded to newly captured territories across the country. Anton has fully internalized this narrative, repeating standard Russian talking points consistently: he refers to Putin as “my President” and supports a continued push to seize the entire Donbas, even after hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides. “It’s a shame that people died, especially those who are innocent,” he says. “But war is war. It could have been ended. But no-one wanted to do that.”

    In the camp’s hospital, 20-something Artyom lies in a corner bed, his body riddled with shrapnel from battlefield fighting. He had only served two months on the front lines before being captured. Like Anton, he is a native of Donetsk and enlisted voluntarily, and he says financial incentives were not his only motivation. “We have our own grudges,” he explains, referencing the heavy shelling his region faced in 2014 when Ukrainian forces moved to stop the separatist breakthrough.

    His experience in the Russian military left him deeply embittered. He describes his commander as incompetent, and says he never received the 400,000 rouble (approximately £3,470 or $5,000) enlistment bonus he was promised. To add to his grievances, the wounded Russian soldier in the bed adjacent to his received five times that signing bonus.

    Within the camp, detainees are allowed to work to earn small wages that can be spent on extra food, cigarettes, and other small comforts. In one outbuilding, POWs assemble wooden coffins for local clients – a macabre assignment that comes after a previous contract to build garden sheds. In a separate workshop across the courtyard, a small group of prisoners constructs artificial Christmas trees and paints holiday decorations, work that will likely end up on the tables of Christmas shoppers across Ukraine. Both groups say their earnings go to small extra comforts they cannot get through standard camp rations.

    Sergei, another detainee, was born in the occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk, but identifies as Russian, following his parents who moved to the Donbas when both Ukraine and Russia were part of the Soviet Union. He enlisted in the Russian military a decade ago “to defend my homeland,” but says that if he is released, he will retire and never return to the front. “I’ve done my bit,” he says. For most detainees, however, that choice is not available.

    Working next to Sergei stacking plastic tree branches is Konstantin, a former drug dealer who enlisted in the Russian military exclusively to avoid serving a 15-year prison sentence in Russia. “For me, 15 years in prison was too much,” he explains. “I know it probably doesn’t excuse me, but it’s a fact. I’m 44 now, I would be 60 [when I got out]. So no.” These so-called “convict soldiers” only earn their freedom if they survive until the end of the war, a grim outcome for troops assigned to high-casualty assault units. Three convicted murderers interviewed for the report shared that they had been promised release after one year of combat, only to have their contracts automatically extended without warning.

    When asked about fighting and killing fellow Ukrainians on the battlefield, Sergei dismissed the question as “provocative” and declined to answer. Konstantin answered carefully, acknowledging the tragedy of the conflict: “I see nothing good in any war, and in a war like this there can be nothing good a priori. I’m not saying we’re the same as Ukrainians, but we are close. We all have relatives there. This just isn’t good.” Even so, he still believes his choice to enlist was the right one for his circumstances.

    Neither Konstantin nor Sergei expect the war to end soon, and both agree that Putin will not halt his campaign until he controls the entire Donbas. “But everyone I know there has had enough,” Konstantin says. “I just want this to be over, as soon as possible.”

    While most of the Ukrainian-born POWs interviewed were from 2014-occupied territories and joined voluntarily, there are exceptions. One Donetsk native said he was forcibly conscripted into the Russian army. He appeared visibly nervous during the interview, constantly scanning the room for listeners, unsure of who he could trust. Official Ukrainian intelligence estimates that more than 50,000 Ukrainians have been forcibly conscripted in occupied regions, with independent analysts putting the number far higher. This detainee said his family remained in Donetsk after the invasion not out of loyalty to Russia, but simply because it was their home. Now, his only goal is to return to his wife and children, and hide to avoid being sent back to the front if he is released: “I’m just going to hide,” he confided.

    At lunchtime, detainees in navy blue overalls file into the camp dining hall, heads bowed and hands clasped behind their backs. As they eat a simple meal of soup and stew, a video titled *Myths about Crimea* plays on a loop, debunking Russia’s false claims to historic ownership of the peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. None of the prisoners pay any attention to the broadcast. Kyiv’s so-called “re-education” efforts for these POWs appear half-hearted at best; the government’s core priority for the detainees is to use them as bargaining chips for prisoner swaps to bring captured Ukrainian soldiers home. Even that path to freedom is uncertain for the Donbas natives, however: Russia has shown little interest in exchanging these men. “Only a dozen or so have been transferred this year,” Konstantin says. “It seems like they don’t want to exchange us. I think we will be the last to go.”

    Additional reporting by Anastasia Levchenko

  • Russian missile barrage kills at least 6 in Kyiv, injures 33

    Russian missile barrage kills at least 6 in Kyiv, injures 33

    In a major escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, a massive overnight Russian missile assault on Kyiv left at least six civilians dead and 33 others injured, local Ukrainian officials confirmed Friday. The attack, which unfolded throughout Thursday night, sent deafening explosions echoing across Ukraine’s capital, and air raid warnings stayed in effect well into the early hours of Friday.

    The barrage targeted 12 separate sites across three of Kyiv’s key districts: Darnytskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, and Solomianskyi. Multiple civilian infrastructure sites were damaged in the strikes, including private residential buildings, a local medical clinic, and an educational facility. First responder and emergency teams worked through the night to extract residents who had been trapped beneath collapsed rubble.

    Military analysts say the stepped-up missile campaign on Kyiv is a deliberate Russian strategy to deplete Ukraine’s limited air defense stockpiles. Ukraine currently operates only a small number of air defense systems capable of intercepting incoming ballistic missiles, and stockpiles of interceptor missiles for its U.S.-supplied Patriot air defense systems remain consistently low. A previous development saw former U.S. President Donald Trump authorize licenses allowing Ukraine to domestically produce Patriot air defense systems, a decision he later reversed, adding further strain to Ukraine’s air defense capabilities.

    In one of the hardest-hit areas of the capital, Solomianskyi district, the top two floors of a nine-story residential apartment building were completely destroyed by the impact, and blazes broke out across multiple other floors of the structure. Trapped civilians were reported in two additional residential buildings as well as a school that was being used as a public bomb shelter.

    The attack comes as Ukraine has simultaneously ramped up its own long-range strike campaign against Russian targets. Ukrainian forces have been targeting weapons storage depots, military command facilities, and other key strategic sites deep inside Russian territory, with the stated goal of eroding Moscow’s capacity to continue large-scale offensive strikes against Ukrainian population centers.

  • ‘People, not robots’: Ukraine’s soldiers justify human role amid drone revolution

    ‘People, not robots’: Ukraine’s soldiers justify human role amid drone revolution

    On an unseasonably frosty August dawn in central Ukraine, hundreds of newly graduated Ukrainian paratroopers trundled across sprawling fields of corn and rapeseed, gearing up for their first parachute jump as part of final qualification training. Strapped into heavy gear and waiting in formation for their turn to board aircraft, many of these rookie soldiers already know that the combat jump they are training for may never happen in an active warzone. Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, cutting-edge military technology has upended long-standing norms of warfare, reshaping the very purpose of frontline infantry and traditional airborne forces.

    Today, the iconic image of war—massed infantry advancing across the front and intense dogfights between manned fighter jets—has largely become a relic of the past. Uncrewed aerial systems, commonly known as drones, now dominate the battlespace, while ground-based robotic platforms are increasingly integrated into frontline combat missions, carrying out offensive strikes and resupplying troops trapped in high-risk positions. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense confirmed this paradigm shift in a July update, reporting that approximately 90 percent of all targets destroyed by Ukrainian forces are now taken out by drone strikes.

    Despite this dramatic technological revolution, Ukraine’s newest generation of paratroopers remains convinced that traditional military skills and the human role in combat remain irreplaceable. Twenty-one-year-old recruit Karyi, who uses a callsign for operational security, noted that while advanced technology can deliver devastating firepower, it has inherent limits. “I’d love to see artificial intelligence winning wars, liberating territories,” he told AFP reporters on the training ground, “but that is not the reality we face today.”

    Airborne forces have held elite status in militaries across the globe for nearly a century, with combat parachute drops a core tactic of warfare since World War II. But amid the current drone-driven conflict with Russia, newly trained paratroopers are now deployed for a more fundamental mission: holding critical frontline positions and repelling ongoing Russian advances. Large-scale parachute insertions behind enemy lines are “not practical at all” in modern drone-equipped warfare, explained young officer Roman Kulievych during the training exercise. Still, he added, the tradition of paratrooper training endures because it builds mental resilience that sets airborne forces apart from other branches of the military.

    Instructors emphasize that traditional paratrooper training serves a far broader strategic purpose than just teaching the technical skill of jumping from aircraft: it is rigorous psychological preparation for the stresses of frontline combat. “It is essentially part of psychological training: this way we understand if the personnel are ready for stressful situations … and how they fight their fears,” said 24-year-old drill instructor Axel.

    This philosophy is on full display during the final test to earn the coveted paratrooper beret: a grueling forced march through harsh terrain. Trainees navigate kilometers of sand bogs and swampy ground, surrounded by simulated explosions, constant gunfire, shouted instructor commands, the stench of rotting animal carcasses and artificial fake blood designed to replicate the chaos of combat. At the end of the march, recruits must go through consecutive hand-to-hand combat bouts against three experienced veteran paratroopers.

    “It shapes your psyche and moulds your motivation to fight, so that in critical situations, you know you are capable of something more,” Karyi explained of the brutal training.

    For modern frontline soldiers, the nature of fear has shifted dramatically amid the rise of drones. Instead of bracing for an enemy infantry charge, troops now live in constant fear of being spotted by an unseen drone pilot operating from miles away behind enemy lines. This new reality, Ukrainian instructors say, means conventional ground troops require even stronger mental preparation than in past conflicts. Daily life for frontline troops in the age of drone warfare includes days without rotation, chronic food shortages, and the constant stress of staying perfectly still to avoid revealing their position to circling enemy drones.

    Midway through training, an air raid siren cut through the hum of conversation among the waiting paratroopers, forcing a halt to jump operations until the threat of enemy attack passed. The unit commander balanced strict discipline with dry, profane military humor and quiet paternal care for his young troops as he reorganized the trainees. “Gentlemen, stop screwing around and get over here to help your brothers gear up the parachute. Find yourself a good-looking life companion and get to work,” he shouted to the group. After helping a fellow trainee strap on his parachute rig, one recruit offered a firm handshake and a wish for good luck. “Luck is for losers,” the other replied. “In our line of work, it’s skill and courage.”

    Senior instructor Yuriy, who leads one of the training squads through the punishing obstacle course, has occasionally questioned the need for such grueling traditional training in an era of autonomous drones and AI-assisted warfare. He acknowledged that one day, conflict could be dominated by technical specialists operating remote systems from safe positions behind the front. “But still, territory is only held by a unit when actual units are standing there — meaning people, not robots,” he argued.

    Karyi echoed that conviction, summing up the shared perspective of the new generation of Ukrainian troops. “First and foremost, a human is still behind all of this, and these people must be of high quality,” he said.

  • Russia unleashes ‘massive attack’ on Kyiv, killing at least five

    Russia unleashes ‘massive attack’ on Kyiv, killing at least five

    A coordinated wave of Russian missile assaults carried out overnight across Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and its surrounding outskirts has left at least five civilians dead and 23 more wounded, Ukrainian emergency management officials confirmed Thursday. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine (DSNS) labeled the assault a “massive attack” that targeted multiple civilian sites, including multi-story residential apartment buildings and commercial storage warehouses, leaving several structures partially or fully reduced to rubble.

    Emergency response teams have been deployed across the affected districts to search for survivors trapped beneath collapsed building debris, with crews already extracting at least one person alive from the wreckage. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that a children’s hospital in the capital suffered damage during the strikes, with shattered window panes and multiple civilian vehicles parked nearby set on fire by blast waves. The Solomyanskyi district, an industrial hub located in Kyiv’s southwest, was also struck by multiple missiles, according to the mayor.

    Outside the city boundaries, the Brovary district of the broader Kyiv region recorded one fatality and one additional injury, regional governor Tymur Tkachenko announced. Regional authorities issued public shelter alerts early in the night ahead of the strikes, notifying residents that active air defense operations would be underway across the area. Multiple follow-up missile warnings were issued by local administrative bodies, aligned with alerts from Ukraine’s national air force command.

    The strikes severed electrical transmission lines across the region, cutting power to thousands of residential and commercial properties and leaving large swathes of the Kyiv area without power overnight. Utility technicians have launched urgent repair work to restore service to damaged energy infrastructure. Photos from the scene show Kyiv residents seeking shelter in underground spaces to avoid incoming fire, with thick plumes of smoke rising from impact sites across the capital.

    This latest attack comes as Kyiv has endured almost daily overnight assaults over recent weeks, with some waves of strikes resulting in dozens of fatalities and severe casualties. The escalation in Russian attacks follows a string of recent missile and drone strikes targeting Russian territory that have raised pressure on Moscow’s government to enter peace negotiations to end the conflict, which has now stretched into its fifth year. This week alone, two separate attacks on Russian soil have killed at least 16 people, including one child.

    Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and as of the latest frontline reports, Russian forces occupy approximately one-fifth of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, with most occupied land concentrated along the country’s eastern border regions.

  • Israel army admits firing on car in death of five-year-old Hind Rajab

    Israel army admits firing on car in death of five-year-old Hind Rajab

    In a striking reversal of its earlier denials, the Israeli military acknowledged Wednesday that its forces opened fire on the vehicle carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab during a 2024 Gaza incident, announcing it has launched a formal criminal investigation into the killing that has sparked global condemnation. The young girl’s death, which has become a defining symbol of civilian harm in Gaza’s ongoing conflict, followed a desperate hours-long emergency call she placed to the Palestinian Red Crescent on January 29, 2024. Her bullet-riddled body was recovered from the vehicle days later in Gaza City, alongside the remains of six family members and two Red Crescent rescuers dispatched to rescue her.

    Prior to Wednesday’s admission, the Israeli military had insisted its troops were not deployed in the area near the attack. In an official statement, the military said that after reviewing available evidence and identifying alleged coordination failures linked to the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance’s movement to the scene, the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division would lead the probe. According to the military’s updated findings, troops fired on the vehicle because it was approaching their position in violation of pre-issued advance notice given to local residents. The initial gunfire killed five of the vehicle’s passengers, leaving Hind and her cousin Layan Hamada alive. An evacuation by Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance was coordinated after the shooting, but the military confirmed allegations that a shell was fired at the ambulance once it arrived, killing the two paramedics on board.

    Alongside the Hind Rajab investigation, the military announced it would also open a criminal probe into the 2025 killing of 15 Palestinian medics and humanitarian workers in southern Gaza, an incident that prompted widespread global outrage and accusations of potential war crimes from United Nations officials. The March 23, 2025 incident saw a team of first responders targeted by Israeli forces while searching for missing colleagues, with additional emergency and aid teams hit in consecutive strikes over several hours, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The dead included eight Red Crescent staff, six Gaza civil defence workers, and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, whose bodies were later found in a mass grave near the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The military said Wednesday that while six of the dead were identified as Hamas members, the circumstances of the firing raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct, justifying a formal investigation. It also confirmed that troops had crushed the victims’ vehicles and covered their bodies with metal mesh after the incident.

    Israel’s foreign ministry framed the launch of the criminal investigations as proof the country is a “law-abiding democracy” committed to upholding the rule of law, noting that Israel conducts thorough probes into allegations of misconduct even amid its ongoing war against armed groups that seek its destruction. But the Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation, a legal organization that pursues accountability for alleged Israeli violations in Gaza, said it has no confidence in the Israeli military-led investigation. The group emphasized that even if the probe proceeds as announced, it should not be misinterpreted as a genuine step toward justice for the young girl and other victims.

    Controversy also surrounds the military’s decision to decline criminal investigations into two other high-profile civilian casualty incidents that drew international scrutiny: the killings of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) employees and four Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff in Gaza. WCK founder Jose Andres called the decision wrong and deeply painful for the organization and the victims’ families, saying there is no excuse for the attack on his team. The U.S.-based charity described the ruling as inconsistent with the pursuit of full truth, called the decision deeply offensive, and repeated its demand for an independent international commission to investigate the killings.

  • Israel admits that it fired on vehicle carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab

    Israel admits that it fired on vehicle carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab

    Two and a half years after the deadly 2024 Gaza City incident that claimed the life of five-year-old Palestinian child Hind Rajab, alongside eight other people including two rescue paramedics, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued a historic first admission that its forces opened fire on the vehicle carrying the young girl and her family. The announcement Wednesday also confirmed that a full criminal investigation will be launched into the January 29, 2024 killings, marking a rare shift from the military’s previous denials of wrongdoing in the high-profile case that sparked global outrage.

    The tragic sequence of events began on that January day, when an initial Israeli strike on the vehicle carrying Rajab and her relatives killed multiple family members immediately. The five-year-old survived the initial attack, and in a harrowing, now-infamous phone call with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), she begged medics to come rescue her as gunfire and tank movements echoed around her in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.

    After PRCS coordinated a safe passage for a rescue mission directly with the IDF, an ambulance carrying two experienced paramedics, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, was dispatched to extract the injured child. Shortly after the ambulance arrived at the scene, it too was hit by Israeli shelling, killing both rescue workers on board. Twelve days after the attack, search teams recovered the bodies of Rajab, six of her family members, and the two dead paramedics from the destroyed vehicles.

    PRCS has repeatedly accused Israeli forces of deliberately targeting the rescue ambulance even after full coordination for the mission was completed. In previous interviews, Rajab’s mother Wissam Rajab described the chaotic circumstances that separated her from her daughter the day of the attack: as the family tried to flee intense Israeli bombardment in the area, poor weather conditions led Wissam to place five-year-old Hind in a car with her uncle, his wife, and their children, while the rest of the family fled on foot. After hearing sustained gunfire near the vehicle, family members contacted PRCS to report the car was under attack.

    Wissam Rajab initially believed everyone in the car had been killed, until a first call from her 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamadeh confirmed the two girls were still alive but trapped and injured. “Hind and I are wounded, and all my family is dead, I don’t want to die. Please call an ambulance to save us. I’m scared. The tanks are 500 metres away from me,” Hamadeh told her, before the line went dead. When the family reconnected, only Rajab was alive on the line. “I’m alive, but Layan was martyred. Mum, I’m afraid, they are all dead. Come and get me,” the five-year-old said. In the released audio of her final call with PRCS medics, Rajab’s pleas can be heard clearly over background gunfire: “I’m scared of the dark, come get me. Don’t leave me, I’m cold, hungry, and afraid.”

    Hind Rajab’s death quickly circulated across global media, sparking widespread international condemnation of Israeli forces’ actions. A documentary film about her killing, *The Voice of Hind Rajab*, was nominated for an Academy Award earlier this year, cementing the case’s place in global public discourse.

    In its Wednesday statement, the IDF said the decision to launch a criminal probe was made over “alleged failures in the coordination” of the PRCS ambulance movement. The investigation will be led by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division, the IDF’s primary body for examining claims of military misconduct.

    This admission marks a reversal of the IDF’s original position, which claimed that Israeli forces were not even present in the Tel al-Hawa area at the time of the killings. Multiple independent media reports contradicted that claim, documenting Israeli tanks operating in the neighborhood that day. Shortly after the incident, the IDF issued a statement saying it had “conducted raids on terror targets” in Tel al-Hawa alongside other areas of Gaza, but later deleted the press release from its official website.

    Alongside the new probe into Rajab’s killing, the IDF also announced Wednesday that it would open a separate criminal investigation into the March 2025 killing of 15 aid workers in Tel al-Sultan, in southern Gaza. However, the military closed three other high-profile cases of aid worker deaths, concluding there was “no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.” The closed cases include the killing of two Doctors Without Borders (MSF) employees in November 2023, two additional MSF workers in February 2024, and seven World Central Kitchen workers killed in an April 2024 strike.

    Since the start of Israel’s large-scale military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, Palestinian health authorities report that more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 174,000 have been injured, the vast majority of them civilians.

  • Israeli soldier visiting India accused of war crimes in Gaza’s Khan Younis

    Israeli soldier visiting India accused of war crimes in Gaza’s Khan Younis

    A Palestinian-backed humanitarian organisation, the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), has launched a second legal action in India, filing a formal war crimes complaint against an unnamed Israeli soldier accused of intentionally destroying civilian infrastructure in the besieged Gaza Strip. The complaint was submitted to Indian judicial authorities this Tuesday, marking the group’s second high-profile accountability push against an Israeli soldier traveling through the South Asian nation.

    HRF’s first complaint came in June 2024, targeting Eitan Gilboa, a soldier with Israel’s 271st Combat Engineering Battalion. Gilboa had publicly shared graphic content to his social media channels, including photos of his unit “turning entire neighbourhoods in Gaza into ash and dust” and personal video of himself celebrating the mass demolitions. After the complaint was filed, Indian national authorities took no investigative or legal action against Gilboa, who departed the country without facing any consequences for his alleged actions.

    The new, second case centers on an Israeli soldier whose identity has not been released to the public. According to HRF’s court filing, the soldier directly participated in the systematic, unlawful destruction of civilian residential and community property in Abasan al-Saghira, a town located in Gaza’s southern Khan Younis Governorate, between March and April 2024. The organisation argues that the soldier’s conduct meets the international legal definitions of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide.

    The legal team representing HRF in India emphasized that New Delhi is bound by the Geneva Conventions and broader international law to investigate credible allegations of grave humanitarian crimes. Speaking to Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity, the lead lawyer on the case stated: “India cannot become a ‘second home’ where Israeli soldiers accused of grave international crimes travel with impunity, and come to cleanse themselves of accountability after participating in the destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza. The obligation is clear: where there are credible allegations of grave breaches of international humanitarian law, India must act.”

    Since the outbreak of hostilities following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has reached unprecedented scale. Palestinian authorities estimate that approximately 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured in Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the enclave. Independent damage assessments confirm that roughly 82 percent of all residential and public structures across Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, while 90 percent of the territory’s critical energy infrastructure has been demolished.

    To build its latest case, HRF compiled evidence using a range of open-source intelligence tools, including high-resolution satellite imagery, social media footage posted by Israeli forces, and on-the-ground witness reports. The organisation’s analysis confirms that the targeted buildings in Abasan al-Saghira were deliberately demolished in planned operations, not destroyed as collateral damage during active combat. HRF notes that this pattern of systematic destruction matches independent findings published by Amnesty International regarding the intentional clearing of a “buffer zone” along Gaza’s eastern perimeter, and is consistent with the continuing expansion of Israel’s so-called “Yellow Line” security boundary deeper into Palestinian territory.

    Every year, tens of thousands of Israeli veterans travel to India after completing their mandatory military service. Many follow the popular post-service travel route known locally as the “hummus trail”, which crosses multiple popular tourist destinations across India’s states and union territories. HRF director general Dyab Abou Jahjah emphasized in a formal statement that the organisation’s core mission is to pursue accountability for alleged crimes in Gaza, saying “HRF exists to ensure that no one who participates in genocide escapes justice.”

    Diplomatic context frames the legal action, as the Israeli government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior diplomatic officials, has repeatedly publicly praised India’s diplomatic support for Israel over the past two and a half years. To date, India has declined to back South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, has refused to join international calls for a mandatory arms embargo on Israel, and Indian private firms have continued to supply critical military components to Israeli defense industries.

  • US to send hospital ship to Peru as El Nino threat looms

    US to send hospital ship to Peru as El Nino threat looms

    In a bilateral announcement made Wednesday following high-level talks in Miami, United States Ambassador to Peru Bernie Navarro confirmed that the U.S. will deploy the hospital ship USNS Comfort to Peru’s northern Pacific coast in February 2027 to assist the South American nation in managing the widespread public health and infrastructure impacts of the ongoing El Niño climate phenomenon. The deployment forms part of a broader new cooperation roadmap between the two countries, finalized during meetings between Navarro and Peruvian Foreign Minister Carlos Espá. The agreement comes as the U.S. ramps up both humanitarian assistance and joint security engagement across Latin America, in the wake of recent devastating earthquakes in Colombia and Venezuela that have tested regional response capacity.

    During the Miami discussions, the two sides outlined a multi-pronged support package beyond the hospital ship deployment, including specialized technical expertise, new equipment donations, and joint surveillance overflights designed to help Peruvian authorities prevent, prepare for, and respond to extreme weather events tied to El Niño. The exact monetary value of the U.S. aid commitment was not released to the public following the talks. Espá also used the visit to meet with U.S. business leaders who have expressed interest in new investment opportunities in Peru’s mining and infrastructure sectors, opening a new economic channel of bilateral engagement alongside climate and security cooperation.

    Speaking in Spanish, Ambassador Navarro explained that the core goal of the bilateral meeting was to map out Peru’s specific needs ahead of the projected 2027 El Niño peak, and build a framework for faster, more coordinated emergency response. He noted that recent humanitarian response efforts following the Colombia earthquake highlighted gaps in cross-border coordination that this new partnership aims to address. The USNS Comfort is no stranger to Peru, having previously deployed to the country for humanitarian medical missions in both 2018 and 2019.

    Meteorologists have warned that the 2027 El Niño event could match or exceed the intensity of the record-breaking 1997 El Niño, one of the most destructive climate events in modern history. The 1997 event triggered widespread catastrophic damage across the Pacific basin, including deadly heatwaves, extreme rainfall, catastrophic flooding, and large-scale wildfires that displaced hundreds of thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage. For Peru, which sits on the eastern Pacific where El Niño forms, the phenomenon brings particularly severe public health and infrastructure risks, from contaminated floodwaters to disrupted access to care for vulnerable coastal communities.

    Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, who took office on July 28, has identified preparation for the potentially catastrophic El Niño event as one of her administration’s top policy priorities, framing proactive investment in disaster response as critical to protecting lives and livelihoods across the country.

  • Australia ‘outraged’ after Israeli decision not to prosecute over killing of aid worker in Gaza

    Australia ‘outraged’ after Israeli decision not to prosecute over killing of aid worker in Gaza

    In a decision that has sparked sharp diplomatic anger between Canberra and Jerusalem, Israel has opted not to prosecute any military personnel over the April 2024 airstrike that killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six of her colleagues working with the global food security non-profit World Central Kitchen in Gaza.

    Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong released a formal statement Thursday condemning the outcome, which she confirmed Australian officials received notification of overnight Wednesday. Wong called the Israeli government’s choice “outrageous”, noting that it carries an extra layer of offense for being announced on World Humanitarian Day, an annual observance honoring the work of humanitarian aid workers across the globe.

    Notably, the decision to forgo prosecution comes even after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) itself acknowledged that the April strike on Frankcom and her colleagues’ convoy was caused by severe procedural breakdowns, incorrect target identification, and flawed command decision-making. Wong emphasized that the Israeli government’s refusal to hold any personnel accountable “falls far short of the accountability we expect” from a close diplomatic partner.

    To underscore Australia’s formal objection, Wong announced that she would summon Israeli Ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman for a formal meeting to convey Canberra’s position. She has also directed the Australian Ambassador to Israel to deliver the government’s stance directly to Israeli leadership, as the Australian government weighs what additional diplomatic steps it will take moving forward. Wong reaffirmed that Australia will not relent in its pressure on Israel to secure full accountability and justice for Frankcom, her six slain colleagues, and their grieving families.

  • Ecuador intel chief, five Americans killed in Kenya helicopter crash

    Ecuador intel chief, five Americans killed in Kenya helicopter crash

    A devastating helicopter crash in central Kenya on Wednesday claimed the lives of all seven people aboard, among them Ecuador’s top intelligence official and five American citizens, according to official statements from multiple regional and national authorities.

    The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) confirmed the crash took place in the early morning hours in Samburu County, a semi-arid region located north of Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi. The helicopter, operated for scenic tourist flights, had departed from the Loisaba wildlife reserve, a popular destination for luxury wildlife viewing and aerial excursions, before going down near Mount Ololokwe. A revered sacred site for the local Samburu community and a top hiking spot with a summit standing 2,000 meters above sea level, Mount Ololokwe draws hundreds of adventure tourists annually, with many operators offering helicopter overflight tours of the mountain and surrounding landscapes.

    Visual evidence shared by the Kenya Red Cross on the social platform X showed the crash site engulfed in open flames. Rescue teams immediately faced significant challenges accessing the wreckage due to the region’s rugged, uneven terrain. Fredrick Kabunge, director of Kenya’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Department (AAID), confirmed the full scope of casualties: one pilot and six passengers were on board, and there were no survivors. Samburu County police chief David Nkoroi told reporters late Wednesday that rescue and recovery operations had to be paused overnight, as falling darkness and the complex topography of the crash site made continued work unsafe. Operations were scheduled to resume at dawn Thursday.

    Ecuador’s Transport Minister Roberto Luque confirmed that 42-year-old Michele Sensi-Contugi, the head of Ecuador’s National Intelligence Center, and his wife Stephany were among the victims. Appointed to lead the intelligence agency in 2024, Sensi-Contugi was a former business executive and a close ally of Ecuador’s right-wing President Daniel Noboa, who has positioned the Latin American country as a key partner for the United States in its renewed campaign against transnational drug cartels. “Today Michele and Stephany left us too soon. Thinking of their family, especially their children and parents,” Luque wrote in a post on X mourning the couple’s death.

    A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department confirmed that five U.S. citizens were killed in the crash, though officials declined to release the identities of the American victims pending next-of-kin notification. However, Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, a subsidiary of media giant NBCUniversal, confirmed that one of the deceased was Jose Alberto Suarez, a senior executive at the network’s Florida operations. In a joint statement, NBCUniversal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde and two other top executives expressed the company’s grief over Suarez’s death. “We are heartbroken to learn the tragic news that Jose was killed in a helicopter accident in Kenya,” the statement read. “Jose was an exceptional colleague who cared deeply about his teams, the communities they served and the important role our stations play in people’s lives.”

    Video footage shared on X of the crash site shows thick black smoke billowing into the sky above the base of Mount Ololokwe. As of Thursday morning, authorities have not yet determined the root cause of the crash, with KCAA confirming that formal accident investigations are ongoing. The crash marks the second deadly helicopter incident in Kenya this year: a March crash in western Kenya killed six people, including a sitting Kenyan member of parliament.