offensive in the kursk region of russia, ukraine created the first military commandant. what does it mean, what lawyers say about the status of these territories? let's talk about it today. of the bbc, i'm olga palomaryuk. after 10 days of advances of ukrainian forces in the kursk region, the question arose before the military and political leadership of ukraine: what to do with the captured territories? ukraine, according to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces oleksandr syrsky, controls more than 100 km of russian territory in the kursk region, 82 settlements, and the length of the captured territory from the border is 30.5 km. this

was announced at today's rate. russia did not comment on these data. also, in the kursk region, ukraine created the first military commandant's office, headed by major general eduard moskalyov. he is 50 years old. until recently , moskalyov was the commander of the odesa operational-strategic group of troops. in march 2022, he headed the command of the united forces of the armed forces of ukraine, and before that he was the deputy commander. eduard moskalyov became the first ukrainian. military commandant on captured armed forces ukraine's russian territories. so, what is the military commandant's office, what will its work be from the point of view of international law? we talk about it with an expert from the foundation for the support of fundamental research. nataliya handel is with us, mrs. nataliya, i congratulate you, thank you for joining. explain, please, what is the principle of operation of the military commandant's office, what does international law say about it? congratulations. in fact, we will first start with

the national legislation, with the order of the ministry of defense of ukraine, which was adopted in 2017, order 164, which contains paragraph 42, which is dedicated specifically to military occupation, and in order to exercise control during military occupation, the powers of the military administration are provided, respectively, in general. the regime of occupation, it is established by international humanitarian law, and accordingly , the state that exercises effective control over the territory must establish life activities, ensure security and ensure order in the territory over which this control is exercised, that is , the military command, in accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law, must to ensure... security and law and order in

the territory under its control, including the protection of the civilian population located in this territory, providing this civilian population with the necessary humanitarian assistance, including medicine, and also the protection of cultural values, i.e. the fulfillment of all provisions , which is dedicated to the right of occupation, which is contained in the fourth. convention on the protection of the civilian population in time of war, the first additional protocol, which concerns the protection of victims of international armed conflict, and the hague provisions on the laws and customs of war on land to the fourth hague convention of 1907. yes, well, i have a clarification here, precisely from a legal point of view, so the territories of the kurdish region, which are currently under the control of ukrainian forces, if i understand correctly, are occupied. what is their status? there are two possible

regimes here: the first regime, when hostilities are conducted , and when there is still no such effective control by the state, the parties in an armed conflict, yes, that is, this will be the regime of hostilities, that is, when the parties are directly involved hostilities are active, and the parties are trying to establish control over... these territories, when control is already established, when these functions of law and order, security, and protection are ensured, then the regime of occupation begins to operate, that is, occupation is the occupation of the enemy's territory, precisely this is a legitimate method of waging war, and accordingly it is regulated by international humanitarian law, and when control is established over... part of the territory, then

according to article 42 of the hague regulations on the laws and customs of war on in sukhodoli in 1907, this regime began to operate, so... what does this status change for ukraine, as well as for the local population there? and changes a lot, why? because for ukraine these are additional obligations, i.e. the obligation to comply with this large set of norms of international humanitarian law, which are dedicated to the regime of occupation, i.e. this is the establishment of life, this is the provision of security, as i have already said, this is the provision of civilian protection. .. the population with the necessary humanitarian aid, this is also an opportunity allowing the civilian population to leave the territory of the russian federation, if they wish, then to the territory of ukraine, that is, it is also a question of regulating the treatment of

the civilian population, as well as a very large number of other norms that also concern justice, which also directly concern security. creation and operation of critical infrastructure in the water supply, energy sector, that is, there are many issues related to the provision of all life that is in the territory under control, including the protection cultural values ​​and other provisions, which are also related to any territory where people live directly. they talked about judges, then i wonder legally what laws are now in force in these territories, the laws of the russian federation are in force in these territories, that is , the occupying state should not change the legislation, but again, the norms of international

humanitarian law also apply, that is, ukraine must act clearly within the limits of obligations, and i have already mentioned the instruction on the application of norms of international humanitarian law armed forces of ukraine. this is order 164 of the ministry of defense of ukraine, it is also written there and there is a reference when it comes to military occupation, a reference to both the geneva convention, the fourth, the first additional protocol, and the hague regulations of 1907, that is, relatively speaking, all but two the laws of the russian federation, they continue to operate, but with this prod they come into force... the norms of international humanitarian law in the context of the occupation regime, i.e. ukraine can create military administrations commanders, that is legitimate, because, accordingly, ukraine is exercising control at the moment, because there is a theater of war taking place, and

this war, this international armed conflict , was caused by russia with its aggression, and thus these actions that ukraine is taking are legitimate from the point of view of international humanitarian... and law from the point of view of the war itself, and it is necessary to observe all the prescriptions related to the regime of occupation. yes, thank you, mrs. natalya, unfortunately we have to finish, the expert of the foundation for the support of fundamental research, nataliya handel was in touch with us. thank you what is happening now in kursk region? the ukrainian command says about the advance of the russian side that the offensive has been stopped, but what can be said for sure, the russians are quite fast. began to dig in rapidly, as evidenced by satellite data. correspondents from the bbc verifi team analyzed them earlier. as bbc verify, we analyze satellite images and the latest footage of ukraine's continued advance into russian territory. here's an estimate

from the institute for the study of war, a us-based think tank. on this map you can see how far according to reports, ukrainian troops advanced deep into russia. for the last week. the farthest point where we observed ukrainian troops in the kursk region is more than 28 km from the border. using satellite imagery, we were also able to identify five locations where russia appears to be rapidly digging a network of trenches. we know they are new because these trenches started appearing only a few days after ukraine moved into kursk oblast last tuesday. for example, look at the satellite image of the day when the operation started and compare with this. it was taken on august 14, and you can clearly see that these trenches were built in the last week. we've also geolocated this video

showing the construction of one of them. and you can see heavy equipment here, next to a long line of earthen embankment, near ... an expert from the british think tank russia told us that the fact that the russians are digging a trench shows that they are worried about the further advance of ukraine. ukrainian troops are still kilometers from those trenches, but ours the team will continue to monitor all developments. during the operation in the korsk region, ukraine used british tanks. this was reported to the bbc by a source in great britain. we are talking about challengenger 2, ukraine received them last year to reinforce the summer counteroffensive. according to the official information of such tanks. 14, one of them was destroyed, regarding the use of these tanks in the offensive in the kursk region, at

the request of the bbc, the british ministry of defense refused to comment on what kind of weapons ukraine uses, but stated that according to the statute un, ukraine has the full right to self-defense, and challengenger 2 tanks are not the only western armored vehicles observed in russia after the start of the ukrainian offensive in kurshchyna, among them bradley and stryker armored vehicles supplied by the usa, as well as marders supplied by germany. western military observers emphasize that the success of the ukrainian offensive is connected with what they call a general armed maneuver, and this is the opinion of the british analyst alexander lord. i believe that the key problem of this war is that neither side could gain an advantage on the battlefield. the front, for the most part , moved very slowly, and this is an attempt to change the distribution of forces in favor of ukraine. at the moment, the ukrainians are defending themselves in the donbass, so the attempt to capture the territory is also in essence. to force the russians to change the plan, to withdraw troops away from donbas, which is a critical military

objective of russia, i think it is in the military interests of ukraine, and possibly in the diplomatic interests, to possibly use these lands in the kurdish region as a bargaining chip. i think so potentially one of the goals of the offensive is to show western partners that ukraine can conduct large-scale offensive operations. it is clear that the 2023 counteroffensive did not achieve any of its objectives, so the fact that this operation allowed the ukrainians to seize the initiative on the battlefield, gain operational surprise, and force the russians to defend on their own territory is very important to the ukrainian narrative, from the point of view of view of continuing to receive support from western partners, but of course some western individuals, that decision makers may be concerned about potential escalation, that's why, in my opinion. we haven't seen much change in western policy to allow ukraine

to use, for example, long-range storm shadow cruise missiles inside russia. this may well change, and this is probably what the ukrainians want to encourage their western allies to allow the use of such weapons. so what will happen next? as for the events in the kursk region, the kremlin will eventually react. western experts are currently calculating possible options for the development of events. and here is the opinion of american viewer matthew schmitt. ukraine is now looking at what it can do next, because the fact that the offensive went so well surprised them themselves. they are very careful and rational in matters such as the opening of humanitarian corridors, they are careful in how they treat the russian population. they are trying to bring the war to russia and to the russians so that putin can no longer hide it from them, and they are succeeding. the fact that... it takes putin so long to get the situation under control shows the weakness of various parts

his army the fact that the ukrainian offensive is not being responded to by the military, but by the fsb, shows that he doubts and does not trust his military, and now the russians know it. they know that someone has failed in their work and are looking for someone to blame, and putin is trying to shift the blame away from himself. but in any case, the government clearly did not fulfill its main task - the protection of the population. and this is a real strategic victory for ukrainians. the risk for ukrainians is that in such offensives there is a possibility that the troops can surround it is possible to lose people, but i am sure that the ukrainians planned different scenarios, and under the conditions of such an unprepared reaction of the russian side that we are observing now, the ukrainians will be able to exit in a controlled manner if necessary, well, see you tomorrow at 90 pm. all the best, take care.

olenivka is a prison in the occupied territory of ukraine. since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the russians have held thousands of prisoners of war there. and civilian hostages. this is a preserved, abandoned prison. it was uncanned just before the start filtering i think we were one of the first to get there. people interviewed by journalists for kyiv independent

remember this prison with horror, because of hunger and brutal treatment by its employees. here he was still running, he was still so short in height, he was still bragging that i was so small, but my kick was so quick, he wound the belt on his arm and stood with the belt, there was a room where the boys were brought, where they were tortured several by one hours, they wrapped them with tape and beat them very hard. lenivka became a place of mass murder ukrainian prisoners of war. he guides the beam of this flashlight in this direction. and i just saw that this way and that until the end of that flashlight, it's just covered with bodies, you know? we collected information step by step about how the prison functioned, its guards, managers and curators from russia.

our team recorded dozens of interviews with people who returned from... captivity and witnessed gross violations of international law. some of our interlocutors will remain anonymous for security reasons. to us managed to reproduce the picture of the horrors of olenivka, albeit with some white spots. february 24, 2022. russian troops invaded the territory of ukraine. land, sky and sea were advancing on mariupol, an industrial city on the shores of the sea of ​​azov. for 86 days , the ukrainian army defended mariupol

under daily bombardment. 82 of which are fully surrounded. military servicewoman maryana mamonova was in charge of the medical service of the marine corps unit. i found out about it in mid-march, when we were already at the factory. everyone knows me. they ask questions there or write comments, how could you not know that you are pregnant, you know, maybe in such civilian conditions you would have learned about it much faster, but we had tasks that had to be performed, we had wounded people, we had to had to evacuate, i had one pregnancy test, but it

showed a positive result, you can imagine, a positive result in mariupol, a city that is surrounded. a city that is simply demolished from the face of the earth, and you realize that you will be a mother. for almost a month and a half, maryana mamonova saved the wounded military in mariupol surrounded by russians. even the man who was in another region of ukraine did not know. about her pregnancy, at the end of march, i wasn't sure that i would survive, i texted him and sent him emojis, you know, there's mom, dad, there's a girl, mom, dad, a boy, and i thought that he, well , he still guesses, he guessed, but, as he told me, to accept

the idea that his wife is pregnant, and in mariupol he was afraid, every day the situation ... in mariupol became worse and worse, problems with weapons began , food and water, russian troops occupied the city kilometer by kilometer. and when we were moving to one of the combat positions, the car was stopped, and the russian military stopped, who, opening the car, pointed at the weapon and said that we are prisoners of war of the russian federation and the donetsk people's republic, this is the only... april 6, 2022 . maryana mamonova was taken as a prisoner of war together with other marines to olenivka, a prison almost 100 km from the place of their service. at that time, this name did not

mean much. before the tragedy after which the whole world learned about olenivka, there were almost four months left. since the 1990s, the deer park functioned as a correctional colony for men in the donetsk region. after the capture of part of the region in 2014, it came under the control of the pro-russian occupation authorities and was subordinated to the illegally created service of execution of punishments with the center of management in donetsk. for some time , the occupation authorities held convicts there, but later the prison was closed. with the beginning of the full-scale invasion of russia, olenivka became a camp for prisoners of war and civilian hostages from mariupol. "we were brought to olenivka, it was three o'clock in the morning or four, one of these russian soldiers said that there was a woman entering the car, they decided that we would take them out

first, i saw how our boys were received, there was a command to run out quickly, when they run out, they are beaten with sticks, from one end and from the other come russian escorts with sticks, they do not look at what to beat, they just beat, beat and beat. new and new groups of ukrainian prisoners of war were brought to volynivka. the so-called reception lasted several hours. she was accompanied by beatings and abuse. you they kick you out of the bus, they quickly ask you your last name and middle name, then they drive you into the yard, then they put you in the so-called position on the courts, you sit in a deep squat,

you can't stand on your toes, you can't change the position of your legs, your hands must always be behind your head, your back is straight, your head is bent, if you ask a question, they beat you, if you lower your hands, they beat you on the hands, because you lower them, you try to sit down, they beat you on the back, respectively, that you stand up then on your legs, which don't bend, because your legs hurt really hard, really hard, and then you start to get up, fall, get up again and just like that , you jog back, there further to the isolation cell. kostyantyn velychko, an aitivets resident, and yevhen malyarchuk, a businessman from mariupol. in the first days of the full-scale invasion, they volunteered to evacuate civilians from the blockaded city. both were detained. at checkpoints , representatives of the occupation forces and sent to olenivka, as well as other civilians who did not pass the filtering, humiliating illegal inspection at the exit from the occupied territories.

as for the conditions, you must understand that this is a censored, abandoned prison. it was uncanned just before the start of filtration. i think we were one of the first to get there. the first building where prisoners of war and civilian hostages were taken after the so-called reception is dizo. disciplinary cell of the prison. a dilapidated room with constantly flowing sewage. the stench is terrible, the floor is concrete, there are no benches, and if there are, they are metal. all in mold, all in fungus

a new stage arrives, they immediately shove you into the cells, you can't sleep because there's nowhere to lie down, they slept in three shifts, we had a guard who kept track of how much time had passed and woke up those who fell asleep. and they lay down, others stood, the radio is constantly playing, the light is always on, it is never turned off, they slept on the floor, on the concrete, i was lucky that i took my winter jacket, it was my mattress and pillow and blanket. the average temperature at night in april-may was 5-9°c. there was no heating in the buildings. rang and i said: god, i must be in the morning i won't wake up from the fact that i was simply, simply freezing, and everyone was sleeping dressed in boots, everyone who had anything and, you know, huddled together,

so that it was possible to at least, well at least... warm up somehow. all the prisoners we talked to, without exception, also said that there was a critical shortage of food and water in olenivka. the first few days, a piece of bread and a glass of water. that's all the food. in the future, a canteen was already launched. boilers, something like thin soup began to be given, some tea without sugar, well, it's hard to call it tea either, pasta and even porridge appeared later, we wanted to eat all the time, all that saved us there was bread, there were no problems with the barn there, you start hiding this bread, you can't eat it all for lunch, because you have to

leave it for the evening, and i have always, you know... there were some supplies of bread, i was always hiding food in my pockets for some reason, i was afraid that i wouldn't have anything to eat, everyone was sick, we were fed a clear thing from one dish, about 200 people in a dizo, and for all the dizo , probably 20 sets of plates and spoons, according to the cameras, there is no substance, they were thrown, people ate, they put dirty things in the same plates as well. the water never appeared in the system, it was brought, it was technical, it was so-called potable, it is difficult to call it potable, it was brought in fire trucks, it was a mess, we tore t-shirts, made something like gauze to pour this water and clean it of rust. i just wanted

to drink plain water to get drunk, just to get drunk, instead of rinsing it in your mouth and spitting it out, because if you swallow this water, you will have a stomach ache, and something else. tatyana eldiab served as a cook in the unit. signed a contract with the ukrainian army for a few months before full-scale war. she was captured on the territory of one of the mariupol metallurgical plants, which was used as a shelter by the ukrainian military. when you enter olenivka, everything changes. there is no life there. dizo,

there is a broken tile on the floor, and you... feel the same as that tile, it was morally very difficult, to be without food, without water, without medicines, even without feminine hygiene. during the first three months of the full-scale war, the prison operated under the banner of the pro-russian occupation authorities. olenivka's staff consisted of local collaborations. employees of the prison system, they did not hide their faces, unlike the special forces who were brought in for the so-called reception of prisoners of war, they were for russia, they told that we do not exist, ukraine does not exist, only they exist, and the future is only theirs, because we they were not people, i remember these words. in order to live,

women constantly lived in cells on the second floor of the disciplinary detention center, on the first floor there was a room where men were taken for so-called interrogations, they were tortured for several hours, those girls were constantly banging on the door with their hands and shouting, you know, stop, stop, you just can't stand it. as people shout, it was so difficult for me in those moments, you know, i cried constantly, i could not control myself, not for 5 minutes, not for 10, but for hours, hours one, two, when at night you hear the sound of tape being opened , you understand that now everyone will cry, girls, they wrapped them with tape.