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REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) Leaders from across the continent were heading toward Iceland early Tuesday for a rare summit of the 46-nation Council of Europe that will once more step up support for member state Ukraine and condemn expelled Russia for inflicting war on its neighbor.

And after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stocked up on promises of military hardware throughout a long weekend of diplomatic hobnobbing with the continents major leaders, the two-day summit of Europes main human rights body will be centering on providing legal and judicial means to go after the Kremlin.

By Wednesdays conclusion, leaders at the summit want to have the outlines of a system in place that will set up a register of all the damage already caused by Russian forces, so Moscow can be held liable for compensation to the victims later. They are hoping that the United States, which has observer status at the summit, will also back that initiative.

The register is just one of a number of international initiatives set up to ensure accountability for the crimes inflicted in Ukraine, said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The Council also wants to make sure that Russia can be held accountable for what it sees as a plethora of crimes committed during the invasion.

I will very strongly support the creation of a dedicated tribunal to bring Russias crime of aggression to trial, said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Plans for such a court in The Hague have yet to bear fruit.

In Kyiv, the words of support were no match for Moscows military might, as Russia launched an intense air attack on the capital using a combination of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.

In the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, diplomacy was seeking a counterweight, with keynote speeches by Sunak, von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Zelenskyy headed home Tuesday after a fruitful three-day tour through Europe where leaders promised him an arsenal of missiles, tanks and drones to replenish Ukraines weapons supplies ahead of a long-anticipated spring offensive.

There will be no escaping the plight of Ukraine during the two-day summit of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe. Since its inception in 1949 it has been a guardian, with fluctuating success, of human rights, democracy and the rule of law on the continent. Rarely has the need been higher than in todays world.

The summit will also want to focus on the plight of children that have been moved from Ukraine to Russia during the invasion. In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. Another official has also been indicted.

Since the start of the war, the Russians have been accused of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories to raise them as their own. Thousands of children have been seized from schools and orphanages during Russias occupation of eastern Ukraine and it is not known where they are now.

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Casert reported from Brussels

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Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Council of Europe summit in Iceland seeks to hold Russia to account for Ukraine war - The Associated Press

KYIV/LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - Ukraine on Monday hailed its first substantial battlefield advances in six months as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won pledges for new long-range drones in Britain to add to a haul of Western arms for a counteroffensive against Russian invaders.

Since last week, the Ukrainian military has started to push Russian forces back in and around the embattled city of Bakhmut, its first significant offensive operations since its troops recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November.

"The advance of our troops along the Bakhmut direction is the first success of offensive actions in the defence of Bakhmut," Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of Ground Forces, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

"The last few days have shown that we can move forward and destroy the enemy even in such extremely difficult conditions," he said. "We are fighting with fewer resources than the enemy. At the same time, we are able to ruin its plans."

In its evening battlefield update on Monday, Ukraine's army General Staff said Russian forces were pressing efforts backed by heavy shelling to gain ground but had failed to advance around the village of Ivanivske on the city's western fringes.

The battle for Bakhmut has become the longest and bloodiest of the war and has totemic significance for Russia, which has no other prizes to show for a winter campaign that cost thousands of lives.

Over the past half year, Kyiv has dug in on the defensive while Moscow mounted its campaign, sending hundreds of thousands of fresh reservists and mercenaries into Europe's bloodiest ground combat since World War Two.

Kyiv is now preparing a counteroffensive using hundreds of new tanks and armored vehicles sent by Western countries since the start of 2023, aiming to recapture the sixth of Ukraine's territory Moscow claims to have annexed.

Zelenskiy met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London on Monday, the latest stop in a tour that brought him to Rome, Berlin and Paris over the past three days, pocketing major new pledges of weapons along the way.

Britain, which last week became the first Western country to offer Ukraine long-range cruise missiles, followed that up during Zelenskiy's visit by promising drones that could strike at a range of 200 km (125 miles).

Sunak's government said it would soon start training Ukrainian pilots to fly fighter jets. French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with France's TF1 television that France was open to training Ukrainian pilots but he and Zelenskiy had not discussed delivering warplanes.

"I have not talked about airplanes. I have talked about missiles. I have talked about training," Macron said.

Zelenskiy described the new weapons pledged by the Europeans as "important and powerful."

In a video address from a train taking him back to Kyiv, he said, "We are returning home with new military help. Newer and more powerful weapons for the front, more protection for our people. Greater political support..."

Sunak said the war was at a "pivotal moment" and Britain would remain steadfast. "It is important for the Kremlin to also know that we are not going away. We are here for the long term."

The Kremlin said it did not believe the added hardware would change the course of what it calls a "special military operation" to eliminate security threats posed by Kyiv's pursuit of ties with the West. Kyiv and Western backers call Russia's actions an unprovoked land grab.

Ukrainian forces drove Russian troops back from Kyiv a year ago, and recaptured ground in the second half of 2022, but have since endured a punishing Russian assault while waiting for arms to arrive.

Ukrainian officials are generally mum about details of offensives that are under way, but have reported substantial territorial gains on both the northern and southern outskirts of Bakhmut over the past week.

Moscow has acknowledged retreating north of the city, and the head of the Wagner private army fighting inside Bakhmut has said Russia's regular forces have fled positions on the northern and southern flanks.

Ukrainian officials portray the fighting in that area as localized advances, not the major counteroffensive yet to get under way.

A respected Russian news outlet's report on Saturday that four Russian military aircraft were shot down near the borders of Belarus and Ukraine was inadvertently confirmed by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday.

"Three days after the events near us - I mean in the Bryansk region, when four aircraft were shot down, we are forced to respond. Since then, we, our troops, have been on high alert," Lukashenko was quoted as saying at an air force command base, according to the Pul Pervovo Telegram channel, a state outlet that reports on Lukashenko's activities.

There was no official response from Ukraine. But Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelenskiy, on Saturday called the incident "justice ... and instant karma."

Belarus is a close ally of Russia, which used it as a launch pad for the invasion, though Lukashenko has insisted Belarus is not a party to the war and has not sent troops to fight alongside Russian forces.

Writing by Peter Graff; editing by Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Ukraine hails gains in Bakhmut as Zelenskiy wins more weapons in Europe - Reuters.com

14 May 2023

Victory Day commemorations in Berlin saw many turn out in the German capital with differing views

Russian communities across Europe have been polarised by the Ukraine war - and that threatened to spill over in Berlin this month when they marked the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Given how much Vladimir Putin uses the Soviet victory over fascism in 1945 to justify Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there was no avoiding the war here in the German capital.

Many German-based Russians clearly believe the president's reasons for the war, with some views in Berlin virtually indistinguishable from the narratives promoted by Russian state TV - but others are just as vocal in opposing it.

The commemorations in Berlin started on 8 May, as Germany marked the 78th anniversary of its liberation from fascism, and groups of Russians visited the Soviet war memorial in Treptower Park.

One, Alexander, who is originally from Russia but has lived in Germany for more than 20 years, said he believed Russian forces were "defending Donbas, Crimea, Kherson, and Odesa against fascists" - listing places in south-eastern Ukraine.

Alexander shows personal items decorated with portraits of Putin, he says he believes Russia is fighting fascism in Ukraine

"They belong to Russia! Russia is taking back what belongs to it," added Anna, another Russian living in Germany.

Alexander then showed me a cigarette holder and a tobacco box he had decorated by taping portraits of President Putin to them.

But the events that matter most to Russian speakers were held the following day, 9 May - marked in Russia as Victory Day.

They kicked off with the Russian ambassador laying flowers to the imposing statue of a Soviet soldier in Treptower Park. Again, the event mostly attracted supporters of the Kremlin's policies and rhetoric.

One of them, a young Russian called Yevgenia, told me that "the collective West, particularly America" were fanning the flames of neo-Nazism in Ukraine.

Yevgenia was sporting the St George's Ribbon - a Kremlin-backed symbol often used by Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. Like many at the rally, she and her friend held aloft a Soviet flag, as Russian flags were banned.

Yevgenia (right) wears a St George's Ribbon - a Kremlin-backed symbol used by Russian troops in the Ukraine war

But not everyone supported such views.

The monument to the grieving mother at the other end of Treptower Park was the meeting point for those who wanted to honour the victims of fascism without supporting Mr Putin's claims that he is fighting "fascists" in Ukraine.

And many of the people who gathered there were Russians. One of them, Kirill, told me he fled Russia last October to avoid being drafted into the army and being sent to fight in Ukraine.

"I do not want to become a murderer for Putin. I do not believe the lies I'm told by TV," he said.

"I was very afraid, but I attended anti-war rallies. I did all I could do," Kirill told me, standing alongside a poster about political prisoners in Russia.

Kirill, with a poster of political prisoners in Russia, says he left the country to avoid being drafted into the Russian army

Kirill fled Russia after being arrested, fined and beaten for attending anti-war rallies in St Petersburg.

Another young Russian in this corner of Treptower Park, an activist called Alexandra, thought President Putin had turned Victory Day into a propaganda tool. "It is an absolute sacrilege for us," she told me.

Her friend Ekaterina chimed in: "It is important for me to show that not everyone from Russia supports what is happening in Ukraine or what this day has turned into.

"The way it is marked now is a one big reason why this war started on 24 February last year."

At another important event held by Russians in Berlin on Victory Day, dozens gathered at the Brandenburg Gate for what is known as the march of the Immortal Regiment.

Even though such marches are encouraged by the Kremlin, the one held in Berlin seemed less overly political than the events in Treptower Park, with dozens of Russians solemnly carrying photographs of their ancestors who fought in World War Two.

A group of anti-war Russians demonstrated against Victory Day being turned into a propaganda tool - but their event was outnumbered by the rally sporting Kremlin-encouraged symbols such as St George's ribbons or Soviet flags.

Kristina attends a demonstration with a sign criticising the West's supply of weapons to Ukraine

But what do Germans think of all this?

I was able to find the whole spectrum of opinions among them. Many came to Treptower Park on 8-9 May to offer thanks for the Soviet army liberating Germany from fascism, and were less concerned with the present.

"What Putin is doing in Ukraine now doesn't change the fact that [Russia did liberate Germany]," one of them, Wolfgang, told me.

Another German demonstrator, Kristina, was against weapons deliveries to what she described as the "fascist regime" in Ukraine.

But a young man, Janek, said it was "shameful" that President Putin was using the defeat of Nazism as a foreign policy tool.

"They say they want to free Ukrainians from the Nazis there - but it's just not true, it's propaganda," he said.

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Ukraine war: Russians in Germany split over Putin's invasion - BBC

US newspaper report, denied by mercenary groups leader, says locations were offered in exchange for a withdrawal near Bakhmut.

The head of Russias Wagner mercenary group offered in late January to reveal Russian military positions to Kyiv in exchange for a Ukrainian withdrawal around Bakhmut, The Washington Post reports, citing leaked Pentagon documents.

The US newspaper reported late on Sunday that Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose fighters have spearheaded the battle for the eastern Ukrainian city, made the offer via his secret communications with Ukrainian intelligence, which he has kept throughout the war.

The documents do not clarify which Russian positions Prigozhin would have given up. Two Ukrainian officials told the Post that Prigozhin had extended the offer more than once.

Still, Kyiv reportedly rejected the offer because it does not trust the Wagner Groups boss.

According to another document, Prigozhin also told Ukraine that the Russian military was struggling with ammunition and advised them to push towards the border of Crimea.

But on Monday, the Wagner founder took to the Telegram messaging app to deny that he had offered Kyiv Russian positions in Bakhmut.

The Kremlin said The Washington Post report sounds like a hoax.

During the fight for Bakhmut, the longest and bloodiest battle of the Ukraine war, Prigozhin has repeatedly blasted Russian military commanders, complaining that Moscow is not sending enough arms to his fighters to take the city.

Last week, the Wagner boss threatened to pull his forces out if more weapons were not sent to the front line but later said he was told they would be regarded as traitors if they left.

Other leaked US documents have revealed that the Russian Ministry of Defence is privately considering how to respond to Prigozhins criticism of the militarys performance during the war.

Moscow acknowledged on Friday that its forces had fallen back in Bakhmut, which Prigozhin called a rout not, as Russia said, a regrouping.

But on Sunday, Prigozhin said on Telegram that his forces were in control of 28 multistorey buildings in western Bakhmut, where Ukrainian troops are based.

Ukrainian forces, he said, held 20 buildings and an area of 1.69sq km (0.65sq miles).

While Ukraine continues preparing for its anticipated counteroffensive, Ukrainian Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi on Monday hailed operations in Bakhmut.

On Telegram, he said: The advance of our troops along the Bakhmut direction is the first success of offensive actions in the defence of Bakhmut.

The last few days have shown that we can move forward and destroy the enemy even in such extremely difficult conditions. We are fighting with fewer resources than the enemy. At the same time, we are able to ruin its plans.

But Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said heavy fighting continued in and around the city and everything was difficult there.

The Russians have not changed their goals. They are sending assault troops to the outskirts of Bakhmut, she wrote on Telegram.

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Wagner boss offered up Russian positions to Kyiv: Washington Post - Al Jazeera English

REYKJAVIK, May 16 (Reuters) - European leaders are meeting in Iceland on Tuesday for a two-day summit meant to show their support for Ukraine but also send a powerful message on core democratic values many feel are under threat.

In only the fourth summit of the Council of Europe (CoE) since it was founded after World War Two, the 46 members of the leading human rights body, which is entirely separate from the European Union, will gather to discuss emerging threats as the war in Ukraine rages on.

"The Council of Europe is often underestimated in its importance," Frank Schwabe, a German lawmaker who was closely involved in the planning of the summit told Reuters.

The CoE's democratic values are upheld by the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, where citizens can take governments to court in case of human rights violations.

Russia's membership was suspended the day after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow then left the watchdog hours before a vote to expel it.

According to a draft of the final declaration seen by Reuters, the leaders will approve a new Register of Damages, a mechanism to record and document evidence and claims of damage, loss or injury incurred as a result of the Russian invasion.

"The summit will also be about saying what happens if you don't respect the rules," Schwabe said. "The threat of expulsion is already a sharp sword. Even Russia didn't want to leave the Council of Europe, Turkey doesn't want to leave either."

Turkey, which is in the middle of a presidential election fought by President Tayyip Erdogan, faces removal from the CoE after it failed to implement a 2019 court ruling to release jailed businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala.

The CoE's Committee of Ministers has launched infringement proceedings against Ankara that have so far stressed dialogue but could eventually see Turkey's removal or its membership suspended, experts say.

European leaders such as Germany's Olaf Scholz, Britain's Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the summit in Reykjavik, while Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address his counterparts via videolink.

Icelandic organisers said the meeting will be an opportunity to support Ukraine through "concrete measures" as well as to boost initiatives to address emerging threats to democracy, including from climate change and artificial intelligence.

Macron's office said the Council is looking at how its little-known bank, the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), could help meet the needs of struggling Ukrainians.

Meanwhile, Sunak will use the meeting to urge other leaders to stop "the humanitarian disaster caused by illegal immigration," his office said.

The British prime minister will make the case for reforming the European Court of Human Rights' power to block British migrant deportation flights to Rwanda, Number 10 said in pre-released remarks.

Sunak will call for a reform of the court's Rule 39, which was used to issue last-minute injunctions to ground the flights of migrants to the East African country, plans that have been critised by opponents, charities, and religious leaders as inhumane.

Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill in London;Writing by Michel Rose; Editing by Christina Fincher

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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European leaders meet in Iceland to reaffirm values as Ukraine war rages on - Reuters.com