Russian forces will soon be down to their last supplies of fuel and unable to transport their troops in Ukraine after the crippling attack on the Kerch Bridge between Crimea and Russia, say analysts.

“If we’re talking about the ability to manoeuvre, ie drive places, I think we are talking days into very short weeks of supply,” intelligence analyst Forbes McKenzie told Sky News.

Ukrainians have been degrading Russian logistics with artillery and well targeted HIMARS rocket attacks, but the Kerch Bridge attack has left Russians even more exposed.

They will soon be unable to move their troops, say observers, which will put them in huge difficulty if the Ukrainians continue advancing.

Mr McKenzie said: “Can they stand and fight? They could sustain that likely through the winter time but if Ukraine has Russia on the move, ie they are dominating the battle space, pushing them back, forcing the Russians to manoeuvre and there’s no diesel to manoeuvre the armour with, it’s highly likely the armour will be left in place.”

President Vladimir Putin will have hoped his missile onslaught across Ukraine today has projected an image of strength. They are being read in the West as quite the opposite. The act of an increasingly desperate commander running out of options.

Mr Putin today warned that the missile attacks could be repeated if Ukraine carried out more ‘terrorist’ attacks such as that on the Kerch Bridge. But military analysts in the West question his ability to do so.

Long distance precision-guided weapons are expensive to produce and Russia has used up many of its supplies. Russia has also bolstered its arsenal with Iranian-supplied Shaheed drones.

But they too are being depleted. Ukraine has been effective at locating the warehouses where they are being stored and destroying them. Both forms of munitions are finite resources.

The Russian missile attacks follow a series of retreats and defeats by their forces on the ground.

If the Ukrainians are able to move quickly enough and push the Russians back fast enough, they may force them to abandon their armour.

Read more:
What satellite images of the Kerch Bridge explosion tell us
Which cities have been attacked following Crimea bridge explosion?

“We could see the Ukrainians stealing their entire armoured capability,” says Mr McKenzie.

That would be a humiliating outcome for President Putin which would pose an existential threat. He cannot afford to look weak or fail in this war.

His military is on the back foot and increasingly threatened by Ukrainian advances and now, say western observers, starved of logistics.

His position is looking increasingly desperate and he is running out of time.

Oct 10 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin may meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan this week to discuss a Turkish proposal to host talks between Russia and the West on Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia had not received any signals about the prospect of negotiations with the West in Turkey, but did not rule out that Putin could discuss this with Erdogan.

Both Putin and Erdogan are expected to visit Kazakhstan this week.

Tensions between the West and Russia over its seven-month long invasion of Ukraine are still rising, with Moscow launching missile strikes across Ukraine on Monday in response to a weekend explosion that badly damaged a Russian-built bridge to Crimea.

Turkey, which has close relations with both Moscow and Kyiv, has been seen as a potential mediator in the conflict, and in July helped broker a deal to export Ukrainian grain blockaded in Black Sea ports.

Erdogan has urged Putin to reduce tensions and in September called on Moscow to give peace negotiations another chance.

The White House said on Sunday that both sides needed to find a way to negotiate an end to the war.

Reporting by Reuters

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Child pornography is illegal in most countries, but there is substantial variation in definitions, categories, penalties, and interpretations of laws. Differences include the definition of “child” under the laws, which can vary with the age of sexual consent; the definition of “child pornography” itself, for example on the basis of medium or degree of reality; and which actions are criminal (e.g. production, distribution, possession, and/or downloading and viewing of material). Laws surrounding fictional child pornography are a major source of variation between jurisdictions; some maintain distinctions in legality between real and fictive pornography depicting minors, while others regulate fictive material under general laws against child pornography.

Several organizations and treaties have set non-binding guidelines (model legislation) for countries to follow. While a country may be a signatory, they may or may not have chosen to implement these guidelines. The information given in this article is subject to change as laws are consistently updated around the world.

International stance

Organizations

International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC)

This organization combats child sexual exploitation, child pornography, and child abduction. For child pornography they have set up “model legislation” which defines child pornography, and sets up recommended sanctions/sentencing. According to research performed in 2018; child pornography is illegal in 118 of the 196 Interpol member states. This figure represents countries that have sufficient legislation in establishing 4 or 5 of 5 criteria met as defined by the ICMEC.

ECPAT International (ECPAT)

ECPAT focuses on halting the online sexual exploitation of children, the trafficking of children for sexual purposes and the sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry. This organization tracks countries that have implemented standards as defined by agreements such as the Convention on Cybercrime, and Lanzarote Convention through their human rights reports.

Treaties

At least 2 major treaties are in place with 1 “optional protocol” to combat child pornography worldwide. These are considered International obligations to pass specific laws against child pornography which should be “punishable by appropriate penalties that take into account their grave nature”. The first of these treaties has to do with The Council of Europe’s Cybercrime Convention, the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, and the EU Framework Decision that became active in 2006. These required signatory or member states to criminalize all aspects of child pornography. The second involves the United Nations which established Article 34 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This stated that all signatories shall take appropriate measures to prevent the exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials. An optional protocol was also added that requires signatories to outlaw the “producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling or possessing for the above purposes” of child pornography. Some of the negotiations and reviews of the process took place at the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in 1996 and 2001.

Debate

While laws criminalizing child sexual abuse now exist in all countries of the world, more diversity in law exists on issues such as the exact minimum age of those depicted in pornography, whether the mere possession of child pornography should be a crime, or whether sentences for such possession should be modified. Convictions for possessing child pornography also usually include prison sentences, but those sentences are often converted to probation for first-time offenders.

In 1999, in the case of R. v. Sharpe, British Columbia’s highest court struck down a law against possessing child pornography as unconstitutional. That opinion, written by Justice Duncan Shaw, held, “There is no evidence that demonstrates a significant increase in the danger to children caused by pornography”, and “A person who is prone to act on his fantasies will likely do so irrespective of the availability of pornography.” The Opposition in the Canadian Parliament considered invoking the notwithstanding clause to override the court’s ruling. However, it was not necessary because the Canadian Supreme Court overturned the decision with several findings including that viewing such material makes it more likely that the viewer will abuse, that the existence of such materials further hurts the victims as they know of its existence, and that the demand for such images encourages the abuse.

In the United States, some federal judges have argued that the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines’ recommended penalties for possessors of child pornography are too harsh. Judge Jack B. Weinstein of New York criticizes the mandatory sentence for possession of child pornography as often higher than the penalty for actually committing the act of child abuse it depicts. Furthermore, child pornography prosecutions have led to dozens of suicides, some of them among the innocently accused. The requirement that people convicted of possessing child pornography pay restitution has been criticized by some judges and law professors. This has been particularly controversial in cases involving millions of dollars of restitution, as in those pertaining to the Misty Series. But in 2010, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that restitution directly to depicted minors was an appropriate penalty for possession of child pornography.

During the nomination process at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention, anarcho-capitalist and U.S. presidential candidate Mary Ruwart came under fire for her comment in her 1998 book, Short answers to the tough questions, in which she stated her opposition not only to laws against possession of child pornography but even against its production, based on her belief that such laws actually encourage such behavior by increasing prices. Shane Cory, on behalf of the minarchist United States Libertarian Party in his role as executive director, issued a response saying, “We have an obligation to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, and we can do this by increasing communication between state and federal agencies to help combat this repulsive industry. While privacy rights should always be respected in the pursuit of child pornographers, more needs to be done to track down and prosecute the twisted individuals who exploit innocent children.” Cory resigned after the party refused to vote on a resolution asking states to strongly enforce existing child porn laws.

Status by country

Africa

Asia

Europe

North America

Oceania

South America

See also

• Legal status of fictional pornography depicting minors
• List of pornography laws by country

Notes

References

External links

• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (USA). “Child Pornography Fact Sheet”. Archived from the original on 15 November 2007. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
• National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (UK). “Child abuse images and the internet: A reading list”. Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2009.