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The Russian invasion of Ukraine

FearlessRoar said:
Ukraine has done wrong. Now, this war will escalate more than before.
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I'm not sure what you're expecting the Ukrainians to do. Lie down and take it? Obviously they'll need to compromise somewhat eventually but they need to be able to negotiate from a position of strength like the Vietnamese did against the invading Americans or they'll be wiped out as a nation. That means hitting the Russians where it hurts. Obviously the Russians are brutal and will kill Ukrainian civilians brutally like the Israelis are doing in Palestine but that's the price of freedom for smaller countries targeted by big powers nowadays unfortunately.

I read a great blog post the other day about Russia's real target in all of this is actually Poland. Poland knows this and that's why they are contributing a massive share of their defense budget to Ukraine for the war effort.
 
Ukraine has rotated in fresh forces to push back a rapid Russian takeover of a key frontline town in the eastern region of Donetsk.

Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade announced this morning that it had been “urgently redeployed to strengthen Ukrainian troops in the Avdiivka area”.

“The situation in the city at the time the brigade was established was extremely critical,” the statement read.

“Separate battalions of the 3rd Armored Brigade raided the enemy-occupied areas of Avdiivka. The enemy’s forces in our section are approximately 7 brigades.”

Russian forces have pushed into the northeast and south of the city over the past fortnight and look to be accelerating their attack through the area this week.

Ukrainian war tracker DeepState posted an updated map last night of Avdiivka that suggested Russian forces had almost severed the city in two.

Ukraine’s 110th Brigade have been defending from within the city for almost two years but the newly-appointed military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said yesterday that they had made “important decisions aimed at strengthening the combat capabilities” in Avdiivka. The 110th is believed to have now been moved back.

Source: The Independent
 
Germany and France will sign bilateral agreements on security commitments with Ukraine on Friday during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to their respective capitals, both governments said on Thursday.

Zelenskiy will meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin in the late morning on Friday, the chancellery said in a statement.
"In the framework of these talks, a bilateral agreement about security assurances and long-term support will be signed," it said, adding that Zelenskiy would hold a joint news conference with Scholz before meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The Ukrainian president is then expected to jet off to Paris to secure further bilateral security commitments.

French President Emmanuel Macron will "reaffirm France's determination to continue to provide, in the long-term and with all of its partners, unwavering support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people," his office said.

As Kyiv seeks NATO membership and fights a two-year-old Russian invasion, diplomats have said that Zelenskiy would conclude bilateral security assurances with France and Germany this week after beginning talks in July.


Reuters
 
Ukraine war: Deadly strike on Russian shopping centre in Belgorod

Seven people - including a one-year-old baby girl - have been killed in a Ukrainian air attack on Russia's city of Belgorod, the region's head says.

Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov says another 18 were wounded in Thursday's strike close to the Ukrainian border.

Videos circulating on social media showed several ambulances parked outside a heavily damaged shopping centre with shattered windows.

Russia said air defence systems had shot down 14 Ukrainian missiles.

Russian Zvezda TV, which is closely affiliated with the ministry of defence, said one rocket had hit a shopping centre with another landing on the city's sports stadium.

Belgorod lies about 30km (19 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

It has often been targeted by Ukrainian forces since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

A drone and rocket attack in December killed 25 people and wounded another 100 in the deadliest strike on Belgorod so far.

Last night, Russia fired 26 missiles at Ukraine, killing a 66-year-old woman in Chuhuyiv, near Kharkiv in the north-east, and wounding several more people.

Meanwhile, the battle for Ukraine's eastern town of Avdiivka rages on.

Some Ukrainian soldiers have told the BBC that the town could fall at any moment, describing severe shortages of weapons and ammunition.

Nato Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg warned on Thursday that the US failure to approve continued military assistance to Ukraine is already having an impact on the battlefield.

Avdiivka is a key location because it is a gateway to the Russian-seized city of Donetsk. It has been effectively on the front line since 2014 when the conflict in eastern Ukraine started.

BBC
 
I blame this on Ukraine leaders gaffe
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The US has warned that Russia could seize Ukraine's key eastern town of Avdiivka - the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in recent months.

"Avdiivka is at risk of falling into Russian control," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, citing Ukraine's ammunition shortages.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to do everything to "save as many Ukrainian lives as possible".

Russian troops have made gains in Avdiivka, threatening to encircle it.

The town - which has been almost completely destroyed - is seen as a gateway to nearby Donetsk, the regional Ukrainian capital seized by Russian-backed fighters in 2014 and later illegitimately annexed by Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

At Thursday's briefing in Washington, Mr Kirby said Avdiivka could fall largely "because the Ukrainian forces on the ground are running out of artillery ammunition".

"Russia is sending wave after wave of conscript forces to attack Ukrainian positions," he said.

"And because Congress has yet to pass the supplemental bill, we have not been able to provide Ukraine with the artillery shells that they desperately need to disrupt these Russian assaults.

"Russian forces are now reaching Ukrainian trenches in Avdiivka, and they're beginning to overwhelm Ukrainian defences."

Earlier this week, the US Senate approved a $95bn (£75bn) foreign aid package - including $60bn for Ukraine - after months of political wrangling, but it faces an uphill battle in the House of Representatives.

Ukraine is critically dependent on weapons supplies from the US and other Western allies to be able to continue fighting Russia - a much bigger military force with an abundance of artillery ammunition.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Thursday that the US failure to approve continued military assistance to Ukraine was already having an impact on the battlefield.

Source: BBC
 
Ukraine troops leave embattled eastern town

Ukraine's military says it has withdrawn its troops from Avdiivka - the key eastern town for months besieged by Russian forces.

Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said he acted "to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of service personnel".

He added that the troops were moved to "more favourable lines".

His deputy said the Russians had a huge artillery advantage, and were advancing "on the corpses of their own soldiers".

Avdiivka - a gateway to the Russian-seized city of Donetsk - has been engulfed in fierce fighting for months, and is now almost completely destroyed.

It has been a battlefield town since 2014, when Russian-backed fighters seized large swathes of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The fall of Avdiivka marks the biggest change on the more than 1,000km-long (620-mile) front line since Russian troops seized the nearby town of Bakhmut in May 2023.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

In a statement on Facebook early on Saturday, Gen Col Syrskyi said his decision was based on "the operational situation around Avdiivka".

"Our soldiers performed their military duty with dignity, did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units, inflicted significant losses on the enemy in terms of manpower and equipment."

Gen Syrskyi - who was only appointed as the country's top commander a few days ago - said Ukrainian troops were "taking measures to stabilise the situation and maintain our positions".

In a separate statement soon afterwards, one of his deputies said the troops had already left Avdiivka to "pre-prepared positions".

"In a situation where the enemy is advancing on the corpses of their own soldiers, with a ten-to-one shell advantage, under constant bombardment, this is the only correct solution," Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskyi added.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had earlier warned that Avdiivka was "at risk of falling into Russian control".

He said this was largely "because the Ukrainian forces on the ground are running out of artillery ammunition".

"Russia is sending wave after wave of conscript forces to attack Ukrainian positions," he said.

"And because Congress has yet to pass the supplemental bill, we have not been able to provide Ukraine with the artillery shells that they desperately need to disrupt these Russian assaults."

Earlier this week, the US Senate approved a $95bn (£75bn) foreign aid package - including $60bn for Ukraine - after months of political wrangling, but it faces an uphill battle in the House of Representatives.

Ukraine is critically dependent on weapons supplies from the US and other Western allies to keep fighting Russia - a much bigger military force with an abundance of artillery ammunition.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Thursday that the US failure to approve continued military assistance to Ukraine was already having an impact on the battlefield.

Russian troops have been making significant gains in Avdiivka recently, threatening to encircle it.

Earlier this week some Ukrainian soldiers privately admitted the town could fall at any moment.

"We're upset," Ukrainian officer Oleksii, from Ukraine's 110th Mechanised Brigade in the Avdiivka area, told the BBC, standing beside a huge mobile artillery piece as Russian guns boomed in the distance.

"Currently we have two shells, but we have no [explosive] charges for them… so we can't fire them. As of now, we have run out of shells," said Oleksii.

BBC
 
Red-Indian said:
I'm not sure what you're expecting the Ukrainians to do. Lie down and take it? Obviously they'll need to compromise somewhat eventually but they need to be able to negotiate from a position of strength like the Vietnamese did against the invading Americans or they'll be wiped out as a nation. That means hitting the Russians where it hurts. Obviously the Russians are brutal and will kill Ukrainian civilians brutally like the Israelis are doing in Palestine but that's the price of freedom for smaller countries targeted by big powers nowadays unfortunately.

I read a great blog post the other day about Russia's real target in all of this is actually Poland. Poland knows this and that's why they are contributing a massive share of their defense budget to Ukraine for the war effort.
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Don't even dare to compare the Russian strategy to the Israelis. One is fighting a highly trained army heavily supplied by the collective West over a 800 mile front. The other is fighting against guys with sticks and stones in a small area. The Russians have been very cautious to avoid civilian casualties the Israelis simply don't care.
 

Ukraine war: 'Artificial shortage' of weapons helps Putin, says Zelensky​

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has made an urgent appeal for more weapons to avoid a "catastrophic" situation in Europe.

An "artificial deficit of weapons" will only help Russia, Mr Zelensky told an international conference in Germany.

Ukrainian troops have been running out of ammunition as vital US support has been held up by supporters of former President Donald Trump in Congress.

Mr Zelensky said he was prepared to tour the front lines with Mr Trump.

"If Mr Trump will come, I am ready to go with him to the front line. What does it mean, the real war, not Instagram, the real war," the Ukrainian president said.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris, however, repeated assurances of support to Kyiv.

The US "can't play political games" over the military aid, she said at a joint news conference with Mr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference.

The gathering of world leaders and senior defence officials comes one week before the two-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Before Mr Zelensky spoke, his top military commander said Ukrainian troops had withdrawn from Avdiivka, a key city in eastern Ukraine, marking one of Russia's biggest military victories for months.

The president told delegates Ukrainian efforts were "limited only by the sufficiency and length of range of our strength".

"Keeping Ukraine in the artificial deficits of weapons, particularly in deficit of artillery and long-range capabilities allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war," he said.

"Ukrainians have proven that we can force Russia to retreat," he said. "We can get our land back."

He went on to warn that the Russian leader would make the next few years "catastrophic" for many more countries if the Western world did not stand up to him.

"Do not ask Ukraine when the war will end. Ask yourself, why is Putin still able to continue it?" Mr Zelensky told the conference.

Ukraine is critically dependent on weapons supplies from the US and other Western allies to keep fighting Russia - a much bigger military force with an abundance of artillery ammunition.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said help for Ukraine from the UK, the EU and the US would make a "real difference" to the fight against Russia.

But earlier this week, the US Senate approved a $95bn (£75bn) foreign aid package - including $60bn for Ukraine - after months of political wrangling, but it faces an uphill battle in the House of Representatives, where members of the Republican Party who are loyal to Mr Trump seem unwilling to pass the measure.

Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told the Munich conference Europe should help Ukraine more because it was in its interests, and stop "all that whining and moaning about Trump".

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said a Putin victory in Ukraine was "not only a tragedy for the Ukrainians but it sends not only a message to Putin but also to [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping], that when they use military force, they get what they want. So what happens in Ukraine today and can happen in Taiwan tomorrow. And therefore I strongly believe that it's a good deal for the United States to support Ukraine. It's not charity, it's an investment into their own security."

Source: BBC
 

Ukraine accuses Russia of killing unarmed prisoners after fall of Avdiivka​

Ukraine has launched an investigation into allegations that Russian forces executed eight unarmed Ukrainian soldiers after they took control of the city of Avdiivka.

The Security Service of Ukraine, under the guidance of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, opened a pre-trial investigation into the alleged killing of unarmed prisoners of war in Avdiivka and the village of Vesele, state-run media outlet Ukrinform said on Monday.

“Under the procedural supervision of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, a pre-trial investigation has been initiated into the violation of the laws and customs of war combined with premeditated murder (Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine),” Ukrinform quoted the security agency as saying in a statement.

Source : Al Jazeera
www.aljazeera.com

Ukraine accuses Russia of killing unarmed prisoners after fall of Avdiivka

Security Service of Ukraine announces probe after footage of alleged executions circulates on Telegram messaging app.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
The Bald Eagle said:

Ukraine accuses Russia of killing unarmed prisoners after fall of Avdiivka​

Ukraine has launched an investigation into allegations that Russian forces executed eight unarmed Ukrainian soldiers after they took control of the city of Avdiivka.

The Security Service of Ukraine, under the guidance of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, opened a pre-trial investigation into the alleged killing of unarmed prisoners of war in Avdiivka and the village of Vesele, state-run media outlet Ukrinform said on Monday.

“Under the procedural supervision of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, a pre-trial investigation has been initiated into the violation of the laws and customs of war combined with premeditated murder (Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine),” Ukrinform quoted the security agency as saying in a statement.

Source : Al Jazeera
www.aljazeera.com

Ukraine accuses Russia of killing unarmed prisoners after fall of Avdiivka

Security Service of Ukraine announces probe after footage of alleged executions circulates on Telegram messaging app.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
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No end in sight for this war unfortunately.
 
The question is, will the actions of Israel against the Palestinians give the Russians more confidence in possibly committing atrocities in the region? personally I believe that the Russians are well within their rights to protect their national interests and not want any military bases in Ukraine, however the killing of civilians in Palestine with no consequences is unfortunately creating a precedent in global conflicts. This may lead to Russia taking action against Ukraine which will have dire consequences on the civilian population and vice versa.
 
Shadow_muaythai said:
The question is, will the actions of Israel against the Palestinians give the Russians more confidence in possibly committing atrocities in the region? personally I believe that the Russians are well within their rights to protect their national interests and not want any military bases in Ukraine, however the killing of civilians in Palestine with no consequences is unfortunately creating a precedent in global conflicts. This may lead to Russia taking action against Ukraine which will have dire consequences on the civilian population and vice versa.
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(the bolding is mine)

If you believe that, you'll have to accept a lot of things - that countries that are able to are well within their rights to protect their national interests through use of military force. America was well within it's rights to invade Iraq, China would be well within it's rights to invade Taiwan, India would be well within it's rights to invade Maldives etc. etc. It becomes a very slippery slope. I believe all of the above are wrong.

Obviously in international politics, much as we hate it, we have to live with the fact that bigger, more powerful countries have rights smaller, less powerful countries don't but we have to draw the line somewhere and I believe the line should be at military force. Use all the economic, social levers you have etc. but do not use military force. The world should be able to get together to condemn that. Still unsatisfactory but reality is reality.

As far as the use of force on civilian populations is concerned - whether in Iraq, Palestine or Ukraine - that should invite international pariah status.
 
Russia accuses British Council of spying for Ukraine

Russia's FSB on Wednesday said the British Council, a UK agency in charge of education and culture, has been gathering information for Ukraine's intelligence.

Russia's security service alleged the agency, which ceased activities in Russia since 2018, had been gathering information in parts of the Kherson region occupied by Russian forces.

"Through organisations under its control (the British Council) carried out intelligence activities in the interests of Kyiv," the FSB said.

Contacted by AFP, the British Council did not immediately comment.

The FSB alleged it "used Ukrainian refugees living in the UK to obtain military and political intelligence via their contacts in the Kherson region".

It said that a resident of Novaya Maitchka, controlled by Russian forces, turned to the occupying authorities to report the alleged crime.

The FSB added it would be carrying out "checks" in the area and warned it could prosecute people for "confidential collaboration with a government", a crime punishable by eight years in prison.

The British council was founded in 1934. It received UK government funding but operates independently.

Moscow banned the British Council in 2018, after London accused Russia of poisoning Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.


www.brecorder.com

Russia accuses British Council of spying for Ukraine

MOSCOW: Russia's FSB on Wednesday said the British Council, a UK agency in charge of education and culture, has been...
www.brecorder.com
 
Ukraine says it has downed second Russian A-50 spy plane in weeks

Ukraine says it has downed a Russian A-50 military spy plane - the second such claim in just over a month.

The plane was destroyed between the Russian cities of Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar, Ukrainian military sources said, over 200km from the front line.

Emergency services reportedly found plane fragments in Kanevskoy District and put out a raging fire.

Russia has not commented on the claim. Saturday marks two years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion.


www.bbc.com

Ukraine says it has downed second Russian A-50 spy plane in weeks

An A-50 aircraft is reportedly shot down over Russia, more than 200km from the front line.
www.bbc.com
 
Volodymyr Zelensky says 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed during Russia's full-scale invasion.

The Ukrainian president said he would not give the number of wounded as that would help Russian military planning.

Typically, Ukrainian officials do not make casualty figures public, and other estimates are much higher.

It comes after the defence minister said half of all Western aid for Ukraine has been delayed, costing lives and territory.

Mr Zelensky said on Sunday that he was providing an updated death toll in response to the inflated figures that Russia has quoted.



BBC
 
France's President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday there was no consensus on sending troops to Ukraine, but the subject could not be ruled out.

"There is no consensus at this stage... to send troops on the ground," Macron said after hosting some 20 countries allied to Ukraine.

"Nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we must so that Russia does not win."


Reuters
 
Russia Warns Of "Inevitable Conflict" If NATO Sends Troops To Ukraine

The Kremlin warned on Tuesday that conflict between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance would become inevitable if European members of NATO sent troops to fight in Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron opened the door on Monday to European nations sending troops to Ukraine, although he cautioned that there was no consensus on such a step at this stage as allies agreed to ramp up efforts to deliver more munitions to Kyiv.

"The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Macron's remarks.

Asked by reporters what the risks of a direct Russia-NATO conflict would be if NATO members sent their troops to fight in Ukraine, Peskov said:

"In that case, we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability (of a direct conflict)."



Source: NDTV
 
Germany and Poland are just two of the countries that have affirmed they will not send troops to Ukraine after reports that some Western countries may be considering doing so.


SKY News
 
Ukraine's military says it has shot down 10 Russian military jets in as many days, which marks a sharp increase over the preceding months.

The claim comes despite shortages experienced by Ukrainian forces due to delays in Western supplies.

Ukraine says a total of 342 Russian planes and 325 helicopters have been shot down since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.


BBC
 
Putin warns West against sending troops to Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Western countries against sending troops to Ukraine.

The consequences of such a decision would be "tragic", he said.

In his annual state of the nation address, President Putin accused the West of trying to drag Russia into an arms race.

At the same time, he said that Russia needed to strengthen its defences on its western border now that Sweden and Finland were joining Nato.

President Putin said the West "provoked" the conflict in Ukraine and "continues to lie, without any embarrassment, saying that Russia allegedly intends to attack Europe".

Probably referring to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week that sending Nato ground troops to Ukraine "could not be excluded", President Putin said: "The consequences for possible interventionists will be... tragic."

"We also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory," he added.

"All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilisation. Don't they get that?"

Several Nato countries, including the US, Germany and the UK, ruled out deploying ground troops to Ukraine.

President Putin also boasted about Russia's sophisticated weapons - like hypersonic aircraft and unmanned underwater vehicles - and said that Russia's strategic nuclear forces are in a "state of full readiness".

Notably, President Putin explicitly referred to the two years of fighting in Ukraine as a "war", despite his repeated insistence that Russia's invasion should be described as a "special military operation".


www.bbc.com

Putin warns West against sending troops to Ukraine

In his annual address, Russia's president says the consequences of such a move would be tragic.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
Cricket Warrior said:
Putin warns West against sending troops to Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Western countries against sending troops to Ukraine.

The consequences of such a decision would be "tragic", he said.

In his annual state of the nation address, President Putin accused the West of trying to drag Russia into an arms race.

At the same time, he said that Russia needed to strengthen its defences on its western border now that Sweden and Finland were joining Nato.

President Putin said the West "provoked" the conflict in Ukraine and "continues to lie, without any embarrassment, saying that Russia allegedly intends to attack Europe".

Probably referring to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week that sending Nato ground troops to Ukraine "could not be excluded", President Putin said: "The consequences for possible interventionists will be... tragic."

"We also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory," he added.

"All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilisation. Don't they get that?"

Several Nato countries, including the US, Germany and the UK, ruled out deploying ground troops to Ukraine.

President Putin also boasted about Russia's sophisticated weapons - like hypersonic aircraft and unmanned underwater vehicles - and said that Russia's strategic nuclear forces are in a "state of full readiness".

Notably, President Putin explicitly referred to the two years of fighting in Ukraine as a "war", despite his repeated insistence that Russia's invasion should be described as a "special military operation".


www.bbc.com

Putin warns West against sending troops to Ukraine

In his annual address, Russia's president says the consequences of such a move would be tragic.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
Click to expand...
If Western countries interfere in the Ukraine-Russia war, it might be the start of World War 3.
 

Drone hits Russian apartment building - Ukraine blamed​

A drone hit a five-storey apartment building in Russia on Saturday morning, with some of the country's media outlets pointing the finger at Ukraine.

Residents of the building in St Petersburg reported a strange sound, a blast and then a fire just after 7am local time.

One resident, Elena, told Reuters news agency: "I first heard a whistle, because I had just opened the window, then a pop, a blaze and a full apartment of smoke, the window flew out."

Russia's Rosgvardiya national guard said 100 people were evacuated, while Russian news agency RIA Novosti said six people needed medical help after the explosion.

Video from the scene showed the building's facade with blown-out windows, damaged balconies, shattered glass and wreckage on the ground.

Russian media outlets said the incident could have been caused by a downed Ukrainian drone which had been heading towards a fuel depot nearby.

Ukraine's defence ministry said it "did not possess information about the indicated situation" and Russia's defence ministry has not commented.

news.sky.com

Drone hits Russian apartment building - Ukraine blamed

One hundred people were evacuated after a drone hit a residential building in St Petersburg early on Saturday.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
Zelensky appeals to West over deadly Russian drone attack on Odesa

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had called on Western allies to deliver more air defence systems after at least eight people were killed in a Russian drone strike on Odesa.

A four-month-old baby and a three-year-old child were among the victims of the overnight strike on Ukraine's southern city, local officials said.

"Russia continues to wage war on civilians," President Zelensky said.

Russian troops have recently made gains in Ukraine which faces arms shortages.

Last month, Moscow took control of the key eastern town of Avdiivka.

Ukraine's commander-in-chief has signalled he will replace some military leaders on the eastern front.

In a post on Telegram on Saturday, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said a nine-storey building had been destroyed as a result of "an attack by Russian terrorists" in Odesa.

Footage from the scene showed that several floors of a residential building had been destroyed.

The death toll has risen steadily throughout the day, as rescuers pulled out more bodies from the rubble.

At least eight people are now confirmed to have been killed and another eight injured. But a number of people are still unaccounted for, and there are fears the death toll will rise further.

Separately, Ukrainian officials said one person had been killed in the north-eastern Kharkiv region near the Russian border and another in the southern Kherson region.

In a post on social media, Mr Zelensky said: "We need more air defences from our partners. We need to strengthen the Ukrainian air shield to add more protection for our people from Russian terror. More air defence systems and more missiles for air defence systems saves lives."

Ukraine's air force said it had downed 14 or 17 drone launched by Russia overnight.

Russian forces have has launched thousands of Iranian-made drones at Ukrainian targets since they invaded Ukraine over two years ago.

In retaliation Ukraine has targeted Russian sites, notably oil facilities.

On Saturday a drone struck a residential building in St Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city. About 100 people were evacuated and there are no reports of casualties, officials say.

Some Russian media said the incident could have been caused by a downed Ukrainian drone, which was heading towards a fuel depot. There has been no official confirmation of this from the Kremlin.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin is now in its third year.

Early on Saturday, the commander-in-chief of Ukrainian forces, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, signalled that he would replace some commanders on the eastern front.

The move comes after the fall of Avdiivka, which marked the biggest change on front line since Russian troops seized the nearby town of Bakhmut in May 2023.

Avdiivka was engulfed in fierce fighting for months. This week, Ukraine's military withdrew from two nearby villages, losing more territory as the supply of weapons and ammunition from its Western allies ran short.

Gen Syrskyi said he would change those commanders whose orders and actions had threatened the lives of troops.

He wrote on Telegram: "I have sent groups of specialists to individual brigades where there are problems with the preparation of the headquarters to transfer experience and provide assistance."

Gen Syrskyi praised some brigades, and promised - after listening to front-line units - to provide reserves, ammunition and expertise to back them up.

He insisted the situation on the front line "remains difficult, but controlled".

President Zelensky sacked Gen Syrskyi's predecessor, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, less than a month ago.

SOURCE: BBC
 
Ukraine war: Russia says it intercepts 38 Ukrainian drones attacking Crimea

A series of explosions have rocked Crimea, after a reported Ukrainian drone attack on the peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Video posted online shows a blast allegedly near a fuel depot in the south-eastern city of Feodosiya.

Russian officials said 38 drones had been shot down. The Kerch bridge which connects Crimea with Russia was temporarily closed.

The attack comes as Ukraine continues to urge allies to boost arms supplies.

Russian troops have recently made gains in Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to sustain its forces with Western-made arms. Moscow took control last month of the key eastern town of Avdiivka.

However, according to British military intelligence, this has come at a huge cost. In its latest update, it said February had been the deadliest for the Russians since the start of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022 - with 983 killed and wounded per day.

"Today, Russia has highly likely lost over 355,000 personnel killed or wounded during the Ukraine war," it said. It is not clear how the figure was reached.

Russia does not provide a record of casualties.

A few days ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Ukraine had lost 31,000 troops since 24 February 2022. He also claimed that 180,000 Russian troops had been killed since then.

Russia has not reported any damage from the latest attack on Crimea, although eyewitnesses have reported windows shaking and car alarms going off. Kyiv has not confirmed its forces were involved.

On Saturday, a Russian drone hit a block of flats in the Ukrainian city of Odesa, killing at least 12 people, including five children. Sunday is a day of mourning in Odesa and the region.

In a separate development on Sunday, Russia targeted the southern Kherson region, killing one person and injuring another three, according to Ukrainian officials.

They also said 16 people were injured in Russian shelling of the town of Kurakhove, in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.



www.bbc.com

Ukraine war: Russia says it intercepts 38 Ukrainian drones attacking Crimea

Reports say a fuel depot was hit during the attack on the town of Feodosiya on the occupied peninsula.
www.bbc.com
 
Ukraine war updates: Berlin accuses Russia of 'information war' in first reaction to Russian leak

Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has accused Russia of conducting an "information war" against Berlin to create divisions within the country. That comes after the Russian leak last Friday of a 38-minute audio recording of German military officials discussing Ukraine.

In Germany's first reaction to the leak, Pistorius said Sunday that the leak — an embarrassment for Berlin that raised questions over basic military security protocol — was "part of an information war that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is waging."

"It is a hybrid disinformation attack. It is about division. It is about undermining our unity," a Reuters translation of the comments stated.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius observes a military exercise.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius observes a military exercise.
Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
During the call, German officers were heard discussing the possible delivery of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, possible strike targets such as the Crimean bridge, as well as stating that British troops were "on the ground" in Ukraine.

In other news, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Sunday that political will is needed among international partners to ensure that Ukraine gets the military supplies it needs.

"If this does not happen, it will be one of the most shameful pages of history — if America or Europe lose to the Iranian "Shahed" [Iranian-made drones] or Russian fighters," he said.

Russian court upholds ruling barring anti-war candidate from vote
Russian politician, the Civic Initiative Party hopeful Boris Nadzhdin speaks to journalists after the meeting at the Central Elections Commission, on February 8, 2024, in Moscow, Russia.
Russian politician, the Civic Initiative Party

Russia's Supreme Court has upheld a ruling barring opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin from running in this month's presidential election, Nadezhdin said on Monday.

Nadezhdin was barred from standing when the Central Election Commission said it had found irregularities, including names of dead people, in the list of supporters' signatures he had presented in support of his candidacy.

Kremlin says German military call verifies Western 'plans for strikes on Russian territory'
The Kremlin said a call between German military officers that was leaked by Russian media last Friday showed that the German military department "is substantively and specifically discussing plans for strikes on Russian territory," Russia Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday.

"In itself [the military's conversation] suggests that within the Bundeswehr plans to launch strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation are being substantively and specifically discussed ... Everything here is more than obvious," Peskov said, news agency Tass reported.

Russian media leaked a 38-minute recording last Friday in which senior German officers discussed the possibility of sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, as well as the possibility of attacking the Crimean Bridge that links the Russian mainland with annexed peninsula Crimea.

The Kremlin spokesperson said the audio recording raised the question of whether the plans the German military officials had discussed were part of German state policy. In any case, Peskov claimed that the recording proved "the direct involvement of Western countries in the conflict around Ukraine."

Peskov said Russia would assess the results of the German investigation into the leak that was announced by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has summoned the German ambassador, after the leak of an audio recording of German military officials discussing Ukraine and the possible targeting of Russian infrastructure in occupied Ukraine.

Germany's ambassador to Moscow, Alexander Lambsdorff, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday "in connection with a conversation between German officers regarding the attacks on the Crimean Bridge," news agency Tass reported, citing an unnamed source.

The summons comes after Russian media leaked a 38-minute recording in which senior German officers discussed the possibility of sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, as well as attacking the Crimean Bridge that links the Russian mainland with annexed peninsula Crimea.

The officers purportedly discussed the extent to which Taurus missiles were capable of destroying the Crimean Bridge, as well as the details of the preparation of the attack.

Germany confirmed the call was real but said it couldn't tell whether it had been edited. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has demanded an investigation into the leaking of the call, which Der Spiegel magazine said was held on the WebEx platform rather than a secure internal army network. On Sunday, Germany's defense minister accused Russia of waging an "information war" against it.

Window to support Ukraine 'slowly closing,' British lawmaker and defense expert says
The window of opportunity to help Ukraine is "slowly closing", a British lawmaker and former chair of the country's parliamentary defense committee said Monday as he commented on the furore over the leak of a German military meeting.

"The window to support Ukraine is slowly closing and we need to give them the military equipment the need and that includes those [German-made] Taurus missiles," Tobias Ellwood told the BBC's Today program Monday.

Ellwood was asked to comment on the Russia media's publication last Friday of a 38-minute recording of a call in which German officers were heard discussing weapons for Ukraine. In the recording, German military officials are heard discussing the possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv, which Chancellor Olaf Scholz has publicly so far firmly rejected.

They also discussed the training of Ukrainian soldiers, and possible military targets such as the bridge over the Kerch Strait that links Russia to annexed peninsula Crimea.

Germany's defense minister said on Sunday Russia was conducting an "information war" aimed at creating divisions within Germany, his first reaction to the publication in Russia of an audio recording of a meeting of senior German military officials.

Russian media on Friday published a 38-minute recording of a call in which German officers were heard discussing weapons for Ukraine and a potential strike by Kyiv on a bridge in Crimea, prompting Russian officials to demand an explanation.

On Saturday, Germany called it an apparent act of eavesdropping and said it was investigating.

"The incident is much more than just the interception and publication of a conversation ... It is part of an information war that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is waging," Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday.

"It is a hybrid disinformation attack. It is about division. It is about undermining our unity."

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied accusations of spreading false or misleading information when faced with allegations from other countries.

A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said on social media on Friday: "We demand an explanation from Germany," without detailing its particular concerns.

Russia's embassy in Berlin has not responded to an emailed request for comment.

Participants in the call discuss the possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv, which Chancellor Olaf Scholz has publicly so far firmly rejected. They also talk about the training of Ukrainian soldiers, and possible military targets.

Zelenskyy: Political will needed to help us or it'll be a 'shameful' page in history
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during 'Ukraine.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said political will among his country's international partners is required to ensure that Ukraine secures the military supplies it needs.

"Each partner knows what is needed. The main thing is the political will to implement everything. To provide exactly the level of supply that will help," Zelenskyy said on Telegram Sunday.

"If this does not happen, it will be one of the most shameful pages of history — if America or Europe lose to the Iranian "Shahed" [Iranian-made drones] or Russian fighters," he added.

There are concerns that the window of opportunity for supporting Ukraine is gradually closing, with Russia emboldened from recent gains in the east and continuing reluctance among some Western partners — such as Germany and some prominent Republicans in the U.S. — to supply more military aid or more advanced weapons (such as long-range Taurus missiles when it comes to Berlin).


Source: CNBC
 
The Bald Eagle said:
Ukraine war updates: Berlin accuses Russia of 'information war' in first reaction to Russian leak

Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has accused Russia of conducting an "information war" against Berlin to create divisions within the country. That comes after the Russian leak last Friday of a 38-minute audio recording of German military officials discussing Ukraine.

In Germany's first reaction to the leak, Pistorius said Sunday that the leak — an embarrassment for Berlin that raised questions over basic military security protocol — was "part of an information war that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is waging."

"It is a hybrid disinformation attack. It is about division. It is about undermining our unity," a Reuters translation of the comments stated.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius observes a military exercise.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius observes a military exercise.
Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
During the call, German officers were heard discussing the possible delivery of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, possible strike targets such as the Crimean bridge, as well as stating that British troops were "on the ground" in Ukraine.

In other news, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Sunday that political will is needed among international partners to ensure that Ukraine gets the military supplies it needs.

"If this does not happen, it will be one of the most shameful pages of history — if America or Europe lose to the Iranian "Shahed" [Iranian-made drones] or Russian fighters," he said.

Russian court upholds ruling barring anti-war candidate from vote
Russian politician, the Civic Initiative Party hopeful Boris Nadzhdin speaks to journalists after the meeting at the Central Elections Commission, on February 8, 2024, in Moscow, Russia.
Russian politician, the Civic Initiative Party

Russia's Supreme Court has upheld a ruling barring opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin from running in this month's presidential election, Nadezhdin said on Monday.

Nadezhdin was barred from standing when the Central Election Commission said it had found irregularities, including names of dead people, in the list of supporters' signatures he had presented in support of his candidacy.

Kremlin says German military call verifies Western 'plans for strikes on Russian territory'
The Kremlin said a call between German military officers that was leaked by Russian media last Friday showed that the German military department "is substantively and specifically discussing plans for strikes on Russian territory," Russia Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday.

"In itself [the military's conversation] suggests that within the Bundeswehr plans to launch strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation are being substantively and specifically discussed ... Everything here is more than obvious," Peskov said, news agency Tass reported.

Russian media leaked a 38-minute recording last Friday in which senior German officers discussed the possibility of sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, as well as the possibility of attacking the Crimean Bridge that links the Russian mainland with annexed peninsula Crimea.

The Kremlin spokesperson said the audio recording raised the question of whether the plans the German military officials had discussed were part of German state policy. In any case, Peskov claimed that the recording proved "the direct involvement of Western countries in the conflict around Ukraine."

Peskov said Russia would assess the results of the German investigation into the leak that was announced by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has summoned the German ambassador, after the leak of an audio recording of German military officials discussing Ukraine and the possible targeting of Russian infrastructure in occupied Ukraine.

Germany's ambassador to Moscow, Alexander Lambsdorff, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday "in connection with a conversation between German officers regarding the attacks on the Crimean Bridge," news agency Tass reported, citing an unnamed source.

The summons comes after Russian media leaked a 38-minute recording in which senior German officers discussed the possibility of sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, as well as attacking the Crimean Bridge that links the Russian mainland with annexed peninsula Crimea.

The officers purportedly discussed the extent to which Taurus missiles were capable of destroying the Crimean Bridge, as well as the details of the preparation of the attack.

Germany confirmed the call was real but said it couldn't tell whether it had been edited. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has demanded an investigation into the leaking of the call, which Der Spiegel magazine said was held on the WebEx platform rather than a secure internal army network. On Sunday, Germany's defense minister accused Russia of waging an "information war" against it.

Window to support Ukraine 'slowly closing,' British lawmaker and defense expert says
The window of opportunity to help Ukraine is "slowly closing", a British lawmaker and former chair of the country's parliamentary defense committee said Monday as he commented on the furore over the leak of a German military meeting.

"The window to support Ukraine is slowly closing and we need to give them the military equipment the need and that includes those [German-made] Taurus missiles," Tobias Ellwood told the BBC's Today program Monday.

Ellwood was asked to comment on the Russia media's publication last Friday of a 38-minute recording of a call in which German officers were heard discussing weapons for Ukraine. In the recording, German military officials are heard discussing the possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv, which Chancellor Olaf Scholz has publicly so far firmly rejected.

They also discussed the training of Ukrainian soldiers, and possible military targets such as the bridge over the Kerch Strait that links Russia to annexed peninsula Crimea.

Germany's defense minister said on Sunday Russia was conducting an "information war" aimed at creating divisions within Germany, his first reaction to the publication in Russia of an audio recording of a meeting of senior German military officials.

Russian media on Friday published a 38-minute recording of a call in which German officers were heard discussing weapons for Ukraine and a potential strike by Kyiv on a bridge in Crimea, prompting Russian officials to demand an explanation.

On Saturday, Germany called it an apparent act of eavesdropping and said it was investigating.

"The incident is much more than just the interception and publication of a conversation ... It is part of an information war that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is waging," Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday.

"It is a hybrid disinformation attack. It is about division. It is about undermining our unity."

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied accusations of spreading false or misleading information when faced with allegations from other countries.

A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said on social media on Friday: "We demand an explanation from Germany," without detailing its particular concerns.

Russia's embassy in Berlin has not responded to an emailed request for comment.

Participants in the call discuss the possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv, which Chancellor Olaf Scholz has publicly so far firmly rejected. They also talk about the training of Ukrainian soldiers, and possible military targets.

Zelenskyy: Political will needed to help us or it'll be a 'shameful' page in history
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during 'Ukraine.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said political will among his country's international partners is required to ensure that Ukraine secures the military supplies it needs.

"Each partner knows what is needed. The main thing is the political will to implement everything. To provide exactly the level of supply that will help," Zelenskyy said on Telegram Sunday.

"If this does not happen, it will be one of the most shameful pages of history — if America or Europe lose to the Iranian "Shahed" [Iranian-made drones] or Russian fighters," he added.

There are concerns that the window of opportunity for supporting Ukraine is gradually closing, with Russia emboldened from recent gains in the east and continuing reluctance among some Western partners — such as Germany and some prominent Republicans in the U.S. — to supply more military aid or more advanced weapons (such as long-range Taurus missiles when it comes to Berlin).


Source: CNBC
Click to expand...
This bloody war must end now before it burst opens into a world War.
 
Ukraine war: Russian Black Sea fleet ship damaged in drone attack, Kyiv says

A Russian patrol ship has been damaged after being attacked by sea drones in the Black Sea, according to Ukrainian intelligence.

The Sergei Kotov, which was launched in 2021, was allegedly hit in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Ukraine's military intelligence service said the Black Sea fleet ship suffered damage to the stern as well as right and left sides.

The Kremlin is yet to comment.

Ukrainian intelligence official Andrii Yusov told the RFERL broadcaster the attack had killed and injured sailors on board.

The Sergei Kotov is one of four patrol ships completed for the Russian Navy's Project 22160. According to Ukraine, the vessel played a part in the attack on Snake Island on the first day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, along with the Moskva cruiser.

The Moskva was sunk by Ukraine in 2022.

Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine almost 10 years ago. In recent months Ukraine has repeatedly hit Russia's Black Sea fleet stationed on the peninsula.

Ukraine said the cost of the sunken ship was $65m (£51.2m), adding that it was hit near the Kerch Strait which separates Crimea from Russia.

Last month, another Russian amphibious ship, the Caesar Kunikov, was sunk off in a drone attack just south of the town of Yalta.

Ukraine's intelligence directorate released video of what it said were Magura V5 sea drones striking the Caesar Kunikov.

BBC
 
BouncerGuy said:
Ukraine war: Russian Black Sea fleet ship damaged in drone attack, Kyiv says

A Russian patrol ship has been damaged after being attacked by sea drones in the Black Sea, according to Ukrainian intelligence.

The Sergei Kotov, which was launched in 2021, was allegedly hit in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Ukraine's military intelligence service said the Black Sea fleet ship suffered damage to the stern as well as right and left sides.

The Kremlin is yet to comment.

Ukrainian intelligence official Andrii Yusov told the RFERL broadcaster the attack had killed and injured sailors on board.

The Sergei Kotov is one of four patrol ships completed for the Russian Navy's Project 22160. According to Ukraine, the vessel played a part in the attack on Snake Island on the first day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, along with the Moskva cruiser.

The Moskva was sunk by Ukraine in 2022.

Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine almost 10 years ago. In recent months Ukraine has repeatedly hit Russia's Black Sea fleet stationed on the peninsula.

Ukraine said the cost of the sunken ship was $65m (£51.2m), adding that it was hit near the Kerch Strait which separates Crimea from Russia.

Last month, another Russian amphibious ship, the Caesar Kunikov, was sunk off in a drone attack just south of the town of Yalta.

Ukraine's intelligence directorate released video of what it said were Magura V5 sea drones striking the Caesar Kunikov.

BBC
Click to expand...

Ukrainian intelligence says seven people have been killed and six more injured after a Russian patrol ship was hit and sunk in a sea drone attack.

The Sergei Kotov was allegedly hit in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Ukraine's military intelligence service said the Black Sea fleet ship suffered damage to the stern as well as right and left sides.

The Kremlin is yet to comment, but some Russian bloggers confirmed the sinking of the Sergei Kotov.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the extent of damage to the ship.
 
Russia hits Ukraine’s port of Odesa during Zelenskiy and Greek PM visit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis were visiting the Black Sea port of Odesa on Wednesday when a Russian missile hit the infrastructure, close enough for leaders to see the strike.

“It seems to me that we have not only heard, we have seen this strike today,” Zelenskiy told a joint press conference.

The attack occurred at an estimated 500 to 800 metre distance from the delegations, sources said.

“You see who we’re dealing with, they don’t care where to hit.”

The Ukrainian air force announced a ballistic missile threat in the region this morning but there were no official reports up until the press conference after leaders inspected the port and Ukraine’s humanitarian corridor for maritime exports.

The strike killed five people, a Ukrainian navy spokesperson said.

Mitsotakis, who was on his first visit to the country since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, said that during the tour the delegation heard sirens and a big explosion as they headed towards their cars.

“I believe that this is for us the most vivid reminder that there is a real war waging here,” Mitsotakis said, urging other European leaders to visit Ukraine to get a first-hand sense of the war’s impact on civilians.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its troops attacked a hangar housing Ukrainian naval drones in the port, adding that “the goal has been achieved”.

Ukraine’s Black Sea port infrastructure has been a constant target for Russian attacks, which have stepped up since mid-July when Moscow quit a U.N.-brokered deal that allowed safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments and Kyiv established its own export corridor.

Russia has launched over 880 attack drones and over 170 missiles on Odesa region port infrastructure since, a Ukrainian navy commander said during the tour.

“No one is intimidated by this new attempt at terror - certainly not the two leaders on the ground nor the brave people of Ukraine,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X, commenting on the attack.


Brecorder
 
The Ukrainian military will stabilize the battlefield situation shortly and aims to form units for counter-offensive actions later this year, a top military commander said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian forces experienced a setback following nine months of mostly stable front lines, when the eastern city of Avdiivka fell into Russian hands earlier in February after months of devastating attacks.

Ukrainian troops were forced to leave several settlements neighboring the city due to Russia’s continued offensive amid its own depleting stockpiles of munitions. A vital aid package from the US has been stalled by Republicans in Congress.

“We will stabilize the situation shortly,” Oleksandr Pavliuk, appointed as ground force commander during the recent top military reshuffle, said in televised comments, “and do everything possible to prepare the troops for more active actions, and to seize the initiative.”

He said current work was aimed at withdrawing military units that lost their potential and restoring them to later form a force for counter-offensive actions this year.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that Russia would try to mount a new offensive this spring or summer, but that Kyiv had a battlefield plan of its own.


 
I get the feeling that this war for Russia is going to be like Vietnam for the US or Afghanistan for the USSR. Long drawn out, painful and no clear victory conditions.

The other side is not absurdly weak and has backing from countries behind the scenes who don't want to get fully involved but have every interest in prolonging the war to weaken their enemy. Most of Europe dislikes Russia and will continue to supply Ukraine arms for a long time as long as it isn't too expensive. It's still a relatively cheap way to weaken Russia.

Given where things stand, this could become like one of those endless battles that bleed all of Ukraine's and most of Russia's youth out.

Maybe if Trump comes to power, it could force something once he cuts all aid off but I don't know. Europe - especially Germany, France and Poland could stretch it a few more years if they continue to chip in.
 
This war needs to end now. No point fighting when things are looking bad for the whole world both financially and morally. Just get it over with. Escalating this war means the whole world is going to jump into this fight soon and it will get worse every day.
 
BouncerGuy said:
This war needs to end now. No point fighting when things are looking bad for the whole world both financially and morally. Just get it over with. Escalating this war means the whole world is going to jump into this fight soon and it will get worse every day.
Click to expand...
Doubt it'll end that easy. Lot of incentives for everyone to prolong it and bleed Russia slowly.

Russia and Ukraine are the only two with motivation to end it but it's an ego issue for Russia and an existential issue for Ukraine. Maybe if Putin & Zelensky are gone a few years from now?

One saving grace is that no other country looks remotely like they're interested in getting involved besides supplying stuff to the fighting parties. Europe to Ukraine and to a lesser extent, China to Russia.
 
Eastern residents brace for Russian advance

In eastern Ukraine, the tide of this war hasn't just changed - it's coming in fast.

"We know what's coming," says Mariya as she packs up the TV in her flat in Kostyantynivka. She's having it delivered to Kyiv before making the journey there with her son.

"We're tired all day [and suffer] moods and panic attacks. It's constantly depressing, and we're scared."

In February, Russia captured the strategic town of Avdiivka. Since then, the invaders have advanced further west, and taken several villages.

Ukraine says its forces are "holding on". But Russian troops are now attacking in five areas along the 1,100km (700 mile) front line.

And it's here in the eastern Donetsk region that Ukraine's defenders are being tested the most.

People in cities like Pokrovsk, Kostyantynivka and Kramatorsk are now facing a fast-approaching front line, and even occupation.

Mariya and her mother Tetyana are finding life increasingly difficult as the Russians advance closer.

Their city is littered with signs of the approaching threat 30km (19 miles) away.

Almost every street has a damaged building. Workers replace gold panels on a church after they were blown off by a missile strike on the neighbouring train station, now destroyed.

Anxiety fills the cold air in this town, once part of the industrial heartland of the former Soviet Union. Russia slowly destroys Ukraine's cities as it tries to take them. That's what is feared the most here.

Mariya explains that her mother Tetyana is staying, but she's confident she'll follow her eventually.

"I've already left twice, what's the point?" says a defiant Tetyana from her apartment around the corner. She gives us slippers to wear around her home, which explains why it's spotless.

"It's scary everywhere. The whole country is on fire."

Her eyes moisten. It's one thing to stay in your home for as long as you can, it's another to risk death or Russian occupation.

While the whole of Ukraine is a war zone, the Donetsk region - along with four others - is a battlefield. When you weave through its dense forest and expansive, rugged terrain, you always feel like you're approaching the coal face of this conflict.

You can hear heavy fire from as far as 40 km away, so the distant sound of artillery is constant. From one vantage point you can see the erosion of Ukrainian territory.

Plumes of smoke come from the directions of Avdiivka, a town Russia has recently taken, and Horlivka, which it's controlled since 2014.

Russia is using its size, air superiority and deeper ammunition reserves to keep pushing, at a time when Western military aid to Ukraine is running low or being held up by domestic politics.

Nearby lies a wide valley with several reservoirs. It's this natural landscape which Ukraine says will allow its forces to "stabilise" the front line.

Perhaps after chaotic withdrawals in the past, Ukrainian generals are willing to temporarily concede territory in the hope it can be liberated in the long term.

Across the front line there is a small minority of people labelled as "Zhdun" by the Ukrainians. It's a derogatory word which means "waiters", referring to those who are pro-Russian and waiting to be occupied.

It doesn't apply to everyone who ignores offers of evacuation. Some just refuse to abandon their homes and have got used to the constant danger.

Valeriy isn't one of them. After his home in the village of Toretsk was almost shelled twice, he's taking his belongings and grandson Denys to a pickup point.

With the Russians just 5km away, their neighbours wish them well but still refuse to leave. The pair then board an armoured police vehicle.

"I've lived my life already," the 67-year-old tells us at the other end of his journey in Kostyantynivka. "But I need to save the little one."

"I worked in the mine for 20 years so I'm not afraid of anything, but I'm worried for him," he adds.

Denys, who's 14, nods approvingly. "My last friend left three weeks ago," he says.

Evacuation from front-line settlements is compulsory for families with children. Despite that 15 children still remain in Toretsk.

Anton Pron from the White Angels police evacuation squad, who helps evacuate people away from front-line towns, tells us the situation is worsening every day.

"There's constant shelling and artillery," he says. "The enemy's aviation is working all the time. The Russians drop bombs only on residential houses."

These days, the train station in the nearby city of Kramatorsk is the last stop for arriving troops and increasingly, departing civilians laden with bags.

Distant rumbles of artillery serve either as a sobering welcome or a reason to leave. Couples hold long embraces on a platform flanked by freight trains which provide protection in case of a missile strike.

At least 61 people were killed by one here in 2022. Shrapnel marks are still scorched onto the pavement.

We meet Alla, who's waiting for her train to Kyiv. "A year ago, we thought we'd get help from the West and that our counter offensive would work, but not anymore," she says.

"People used to believe, but not now."

Ukraine hopes its eastern lands will one day be somewhere safe to live again. Right now it's unclear what these departing passengers will be returning to.

Should its Russian invaders gain more momentum in the Donetsk region, the question of where they will stop will be increasingly difficult to answer.

BBC
 
The Ukrainians front line is collapsing rapidly..by all estimates May will be a crucial month. The war is coming to a rapid end..I expect negotiations to start around July August or perhaps after Trump wins.
 
the Great Khan said:
The Ukrainians front line is collapsing rapidly..by all estimates May will be a crucial month. The war is coming to a rapid end..I expect negotiations to start around July August or perhaps after Trump wins.
Click to expand...
I've seen all sorts of armchair analysis both way. Ukraine's collapsing, Russia's running out of equipment etc. etc. It's been 2 bloody (very bloody) years. Thousands of people dead on both sides...tens of thousands actually.

I'll believe any big change when I actually see it. As far as I'm concerned, too any people have too much invested to let this end quickly. It's going to drag on for a long, long time.

I think I posted earlier on this thread or maybe another that I talked to a bunch of young Russian guys in Bali. They were there to escape from conscription. If I believe them (and they were a little drunk so I took it with a pinch of salt), every friend, cousin, acquaintance of theirs has either already left or is leaving to escape. Only rural youth are getting caught in the conscription net. Don't know if Russia will have the big manpower advantage it needs if they were even partly telling the truth.
 
Investigators bust ring trafficking Indians to fight for Russia in Ukraine

India’s federal investigation agency says it has busted a major international human trafficking network involved in sending workers to the Russia-Ukraine war under the guise of lucrative job offers.

Multiple from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches at 15 places in seven cities including the capital New Delhi on Thursday.

The raids came amid growing media reports of Indian nationals being unwittingly recruited to join the Russian army in its invasion of Ukraine after they moved countries in response to adverts for jobs seeking “army helpers”.

At least two Indians have died so far, with the most recent one reported on Wednesday, while about 35 people are believed to be fighting in the war, said a CBI spokesperson.
The federal investigations agency has so far recovered £471,500 in their raid, along with incriminating documents, electronic records such laptops, mobiles, desktops and CCTV footage, according to local media reports.

“Searches are on. Certain suspects have also been detained for questioning at various locations. So far, around 35 instances of victims sent abroad have been established. The identity of more trafficking victims are being established. Investigation is continuing (sic),” a CBI spokesperson said.

The probe was launched based on a preliminary complaint, locally known as a First Information Report (FIR), filed on 6 March. It named private visa consultancy firms and agents accused of being engaged in trafficking, reported The Times of India.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Indian embassy in Russia confirmed the “tragic death” of Mohammed Asfan, a clothes seller from Hyderabad. He travelled to Russia via Dubai in November seeking work with his family claiming he was “duped” by a Middle East-based agent and did not know he would be forced to fight on the frontline, where he was killed.

In February, the government of India urged its nationals to “stay away” from the Russia-Ukraine war, while calling on Russian authorities to expedite the release of its citizens.

On Friday, the Indian foreign ministry said it had “strongly taken up the matter with the Russian government for early discharge of such Indian nationals”.

“We once again appeal to Indian nationals to not be swayed by offers made by agents for support jobs with the Russian Army. This is fraught with danger and risk to life,” it said in a statement.


The Independent
 

Pope says Ukraine should have 'courage of the white flag' of negotiations​

ROME, March 9 (Reuters) - Pope Francis has said in an interview that Ukraine should have what he called the courage of the "white flag" and negotiate an end to the war with Russia that followed Moscow's full-scale invasion two years ago and that has killed tens of thousands.

Francis made his comments in an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI, well before Friday's latest offer by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to host a summit between Ukraine and Russia to end the war.

Erdogan made the fresh offer after a meeting in Istanbul with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy has said while he wants peace he will not give up any territory.

The Ukrainian leader's own peace plan calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops from all of Ukraine and the restoration of its state borders. The Kremlin has ruled out engaging in peace talks on terms set by Kyiv.

A spokesman for Zelenskiy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the pope's remarks.

In the interview Francis was asked for his position on a debate between those who say Ukraine should give up as it has not been able to repel Russian forces, and those who say doing so would legitimise actions by the strongest party. The interviewer used the term "white flag" in the question.

"It is one interpretation, that is true," Francis said, according to an advance transcript of the interview and a partial video made available to Reuters on Saturday. It is due to be broadcast on March 20 as part of a new cultural programme.

"But I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates," Francis said, adding that talks should take place with the help of international powers.

"The word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate," Francis said.

It was believed to be the first time Francis has used terms such as "white flag" or "defeated" in discussing the Ukraine war, although he has spoken in the past about the need for negotiations.

Last year the 87-year-old pope sent a peace envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, to Kyiv, Moscow and Washington to sound out leaders in those countries.

"One may feel shame," Francis said about negotiating, "but how many dead will it (the war) end up with? (One should) negotiate in time, find a country that can be a mediator," Francis said, mentioning Turkey among the countries that had offered.

"Do not be ashamed of negotiating, before things get worse," said Francis, who has made hundreds of appeals for what he calls "martyred Ukraine". Asked if he was willing to mediate, Francis said "I am here".
In another part of the interview, speaking of the war between Israel and Hamas, Francis said: "Negotiating is never a surrender".

Last month Zelenskiy said that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the Russian invasion in February 2022 and that tens of thousands of civilians had been killed in the occupied areas of the country.

Source: Reuters
 
  • The Ukrainian film 20 Days in Mariupol, which was shot inside the besieged port city during the assault by Russian forces, has won the best documentary Oscar at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
  • Odesa came under a barrage of Russian drone attacks over Monday night and Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s military said on Telegram. It reported 10 Shahed-type drones were shot down. “Unfortunately, it was not possible to avoid the hits. In the Odesa district, an infrastructure facility was damaged, administrative buildings were damaged, and the fire was quickly extinguished.” Private houses had their windows smashed by the shock wave and debris damaged commercial buildings, the southern operational command said. No deaths or injuries were reported.
  • Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed as “virtual mediation” from a distance Pope Francis’s call for talks under a “white flag” with Russia. Ukraine’s president made no direct reference to Francis or his comments but mentioned religious figures helping inside Ukraine. “They support us with prayer, with their discussion and with deeds. This is indeed what a church with the people is,” Zelenskiy said. “Not 2,500km away, somewhere, virtual mediation between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.”
  • Francis was criticised after saying Ukraine should have the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia. Some politicians and commentators in Europe reacted with anger after the pontiff appeared to stay silent on Russia’s crimes as aggressor in the invasion, which has killed tens of thousands, and placed the onus on Ukraine to make peace. Ukraine’s minister for foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote: “Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags.”
  • Ukraine has “almost certainly” accelerated the construction of defensive positions on several areas of the frontline, according to a UK defence intelligence update. This includes anti-tank dragon’s teeth and ditches, infantry trenches, minefields and fortified defensive positions. The update adds this is indicative of the “attritional character” of the conflict, and attempts to breach “will highly likely be accompanied with high losses”.
  • UK vehicles that fall foul of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) rules can from next week be donated to Ukraine rather than being scrapped. Applicants will be able to donate vehicles in return for the same grant payment available to drivers who scrap or retrofit their vehicles – up to £2,000 ($2,600) – the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced.
  • Weapons imports to Europe doubled over the past five years, partly due to the Ukraine war, while exports from Russia halved, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) has said. Ukraine has become the world’s fourth-largest arms importer, while France has replaced Russia as the world’s second-largest exporter behind the US.
  • Sipri noted that at least 30 countries had supplied major weapons as military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. Other European nations also increased imports, with a larger share coming from the world’s number one armourer, the US. China was traditionally one of the biggest recipients of Russian arms but has been pushing to develop its domestic production. China still accounted for 21% of Russian exports, while India was the biggest recipient with 34%.
  • Emmanuel Macron, the French president, should be able to visit Ukraine in the coming weeks, according to officials. Macron was supposed to go in February to sign a bilateral security accord with Zelenskiy but signed it in Paris instead. Two diplomatic sources said the French presidency was considering whether to include other western heads of state in the eventual trip, to show unity among allies and solidarity with Ukraine.

Source: The Guardian
 

Anti-Putin paramilitaries claim incursion into Russia from Ukraine​

Ukraine’s military intelligence says anti-Putin Russian volunteer militias are not acting under orders from Kyiv.

Pro-Ukrainian militias claim they have crossed into Russian border regions and launched attacks, while Russia insists it beat back the raids, staged three days before it holds a presidential election.

Groups of Ukraine-based militias, made up of pro-Kyiv Russian volunteer fighters who oppose Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, reported on Tuesday that they had entered the Kursk and Belgorod regions, their alleged attacks launched amid Ukraine’s largest drone and missile offensive since Ukraine invaded Russia in February 2022. The recent Ukrainian offensive set two oil refineries in Russia ablaze.

Source: Al Jazeera

www.aljazeera.com

Anti-Putin paramilitaries claim incursion into Russia from Ukraine

Ukraine’s military intelligence says anti-Putin Russian volunteer militias are not acting under orders from Kyiv.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 

US to send new weapons package worth $300 million for Ukraine​


WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - The United States will send a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $300 million, President Joe Biden's administration said on Tuesday, the first such move in months as additional funds for Kyiv remain blocked by Republican leaders in Congress.

The White House has been scrambling to find ways to send more military assistance given the situation on the battlefield and the resistance to the funding from Republican hardliners.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the funding was coming from unanticipated cost savings from Pentagon contracts and would be used for artillery rounds and munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

"This ammunition will keep Ukraine's guns firing for a period, but only a short period," Sullivan told reporters, adding it may only be helpful to Ukraine for a couple of weeks.

"It is nowhere near enough to meet Ukraine's battlefield needs and it will not prevent Ukraine from running out of ammunition," Sullivan said.

The new weapons package was first reported by Reuters earlier on Tuesday.

Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Pat Ryder said the package included anti-aircraft missiles and artillery rounds. He said providing weapons to Ukraine through Pentagon contract savings was likely a one-time situation and not a sustainable way of funding Kyiv.

The last drawdown was in December 2023 when funds to replenish stocks fell to zero.

U.S. officials have also looked at options for seizing some $285 billion in Russian assets immobilized in 2022 and using the money to pay for Ukraine weaponry.

The announcement came as Poland’s president and prime minister meet President Joe Biden at the White House later on Tuesday to talk about ways to bolster support for Ukraine.

"Financial support for Ukraine is cheap considering what the other support could be," Polish President Andrzej Duda told reporters.

Using the funds that have been returned to replenish stocks opens a narrow window to allow more aid to be sent from existing stocks as the Biden administration waits for supplemental funding to be passed by lawmakers.

Biden, a Democrat, has backed military aid to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, while his likely Republican opponent in the Nov. 5 U.S. election, former President Donald Trump, has a more isolationist stance.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, an ally of Trump, has so far refused to call a vote on a bill that would provide $60 billion more for Ukraine.

The measure has passed the Democratic-run Senate, and both Republicans and Democrats in the House say it would pass if the chamber's Republican leaders allowed a vote.

Leaders of U.S. intelligence agencies pressed members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday to approve additional military assistance for Ukraine, saying it would not only boost Kyiv as it fights Russia but discourage Chinese aggression.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that the situation along the front of the country's war with Russia was the best in three months, with Moscow's troops no longer advancing after their capture last month of the eastern city of Avdiivka.

Zelenskiy, in an interview with France's BFM television, said Ukraine had improved its strategic position despite shortages of weaponry, but suggested the situation could change again if new supplies were not forthcoming.

He said earlier that Russia is preparing a new offensive against Ukraine starting in late May or summer. Zelenskiy has said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since February 2022.

Russia's capture of Avdiivka gave the Kremlin's forces breathing room in defending the Russian-held regional center of Donetsk, 20 km (12 miles) to the east.

Earlier this month, a top military commander said Ukrainian troops were forced to leave several settlements neighboring Avdiivka due to Russia's continued offensive amid its own depleting stockpiles of munitions.

Denmark will provide a new military aid package including Caesar artillery systems and ammunition to Ukraine worth around 2.3 billion Danish crowns ($336.6 million), the Danish Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

European Union countries are set to agree on a new 5 billion-euro ($5.46 billion) top-up to a fund used to finance military shipments to Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing four officials briefed on the discussions.

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Source: Reuters
 
Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war

President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict.

Putin, speaking just days before a March 15-17 election which is certain to give him another six years in power, said the nuclear war scenario was not "rushing" up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

"From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready," Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA in response to a question whether the country was really ready for a nuclear war.

Putin said the U.S. understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory - or to Ukraine - Russia would treat the move as an intervention.

"(In the U.S.) there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic restraint," said Putin, the ultimate decision maker in the world's biggest nuclear power.

"Therefore, I don't think that here everything is rushing to it (nuclear confrontation), but we are ready for this."

Putin's nuclear warning came alongside another offer for talks on Ukraine as part of a new post-Cold War demarcation of European security. The U.S. says Putin is not ready for serious talks over Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine has triggered the deepest crisis in Russia's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Putin has warned several times the West risks provoking a nuclear war if it sends troops to fight in Ukraine.

Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering full-scale war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.

NUCLEAR WAR?

In a U.S. election year, the West is grappling with how to support Kyiv against Russia, which now controls almost one-fifth of Ukrainian territory and is rearming much faster than the West and Ukraine.

SOURCE: REUTERS
 
Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war

President Vladimir Putin told the West on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict.

Putin, speaking ahead of a March 15-17 election which is certain to give him another six years in power, added that the nuclear war scenario was not "rushing" up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

"From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready," Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA when asked whether Russia was really ready for a nuclear war.

Putin said the U.S. understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory - or to Ukraine - Russia would treat the move as an intervention. Moscow claims to have annexed four regions of Ukraine and says they are now fully part of Russia.

"(In the U.S.) there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic restraint," said Putin.

"Therefore, I don't think that here everything is rushing to it (nuclear confrontation), but we are ready for this."

The Biden administration has said it has no plans to send troops to Ukraine but has stressed the need to approve a stalled security aid bill that would ensure Ukrainian troops got the weapons they need to continue the war, now in its third year.



 
Cricket Warrior said:
Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for nuclear war

President Vladimir Putin told the West on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict.

Putin, speaking ahead of a March 15-17 election which is certain to give him another six years in power, added that the nuclear war scenario was not "rushing" up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

"From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready," Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA when asked whether Russia was really ready for a nuclear war.

Putin said the U.S. understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory - or to Ukraine - Russia would treat the move as an intervention. Moscow claims to have annexed four regions of Ukraine and says they are now fully part of Russia.

"(In the U.S.) there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic restraint," said Putin.

"Therefore, I don't think that here everything is rushing to it (nuclear confrontation), but we are ready for this."

The Biden administration has said it has no plans to send troops to Ukraine but has stressed the need to approve a stalled security aid bill that would ensure Ukrainian troops got the weapons they need to continue the war, now in its third year.



Click to expand...
If it happens then it will surely be the beginning of World War 3.
 

Russia 'jams signal' on plane carrying Grant Shapps - report​

Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an aircraft used by defence minister Grant Shapps to travel from Poland back to Britain, a government source and journalists travelling with him have told Reuters.

It has been reported that the GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the plane flew close to Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.

Mobile phones could no longer connect to the internet and the aircraft was forced to use alternative methods to determine its location, they said.

Mr Shapps is today conducting a day trip to eastern Europe to meet UK troops taking part in Exercise Steadfast Defender.

Sky News
 
Don’t even understand what’s Putin’s end plan is anymore, to be what UK is US but Russia will be to China?
 
sweep_shot said:
Putin doesn't want Ukraine to be a puppet state of West. I think that's what the endgame is.

Anyway, Ukraine is losing the war.
Click to expand...
Isn't that Ukraine's decision and not his?

You're probably right that Ukraine's losing the war eventually. Funds and ammunition from the west notwithstanding, they can't possibly compete with a neighbour bigger, wealthier and better armed than them.

I think the end result of this will be that after a long draining war, Russia will end up a puppet state of China and what's left of Ukraine a puppet state of the States. They'll both lose this generation of youth and the States and China will get to test their weapons against each other in preparation for the next set of wars between them.
 
Russian missiles kill 20 in Odesa, Zelenskiy vows retaliation

A Russian ballistic missile attack struck a residential area in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa on Friday, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 70, in Moscow's deadliest attack in weeks, Ukrainian officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia would receive a "fair response" from Ukrainian forces for what he said was a "vile" assault on a city that has been attacked by Russian drones or missiles almost every day this month.

Two Iskander-M missiles fired from the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula damaged civilian infrastructure and gas and electricity supply lines in the southern city, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on national television.

A medic and a rescuer were killed by a second missile after rushing to the scene to treat people hurt in the initial strike. Ten people had suffered serious injuries, Kiper said.

Local officials and national police said police were among the dead, including at least two senior officers. A former deputy mayor of the city was also killed.

"The explosion was very strong, especially the second one... This is a very powerful missile that flies from the occupied Crimea in a few minutes," Kiper said.

Some residents, he said, were facing gas and electricity supply cuts as a result of strikes.


 
Growing up I thought I’ll never see a day where Pakistanis are on the side of Russia and Indians arguing against Russia.

Geo-politics can change anytime.
 
JaDed said:
Don’t even understand what’s Putin’s end plan is anymore, to be what UK is US but Russia will be to China?
Click to expand...

Putin’s goal is simple, west should stop interfering in old soviet countries.

Whether it’s the right goal or not, jury’s still out.
 

Russia: Schools and shops shut in Belgorod amid air strikes​


Shops and schools have been closed in the Russian city of Belgorod after bombardments that authorities there have blamed on Ukraine.

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said two people were killed - as voting continues in a general election Vladimir Putin is certain to win.

Air defence systems downed eight Ukrainian missiles, Mr Gladkov said.

Mr Putin accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt his bid for another six-year term.

Students in Belgorod - which is near the border with Ukraine - will not attend school on Monday and Tuesday, the governor said. While shopping centres in Belgorod will be closed on Sunday and Monday, Mr Gladkov added.

Mr Gladkov said one woman was killed in a car park while with her son, as they walked a dog. "Medics are fighting for her son's life," the governor added.

Images circulating on social media show a car park billowing with smoke and fire. Belgorod has been the target of several retaliatory strikes from Kyiv.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed that it had "inflicted losses" in the border areas of Ukraine and the Belgorod and Kursk regions.

Also on Saturday, the governor of the Samara region - southeast of Moscow - said Ukrainian drones targeted two oil refineries.

In a post on Telegram, Dmitry Azarov said one of the refineries, in Syzran, had been set alight but there were no casualties.

A Ukrainian source told Reuters Kyiv's SBU intelligence agency struck three Samara region Rosneft refineries - in Syzran, Novokuibyshevsk and Kuibyshevsk.

Kyiv has not commented about the attacks in Belgorod.

Source: BBC
 
Ukraine war: Multiple drone attacks repelled, says Russia

Russia's defence ministry says its forces have destroyed dozens of drones in several regions across the country, including Moscow.

The biggest attack happened in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, where an oil refinery was targeted.

The attacks come as Russia holds a general election in which President Vladimir Putin is guaranteed to win.

In Ukraine, officials reported an overnight barrage of Russian drones and missiles on the port city of Odesa.

The Ukrainian governor of the north-eastern city of Kharkiv said 15 settlements had been shelled by Russia over the past 24 hours.

In Russia, authorities said 17 drones had been launched against an oil refinery and had been neutralised, but one sparked a fire as it fell.

No deaths were reported as a result of the fire, which has been extinguished.

One person is thought to have died of a heart attack during the strike. It is the sixth oil refinery attacked in Russia over the past week.

A source has confirmed to the BBC that Ukrainian forces targeted the Slovyansk oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia. The security source referred to a "successful result", and a "large fire".

It said again that Ukraine's aim was to undermine the Russian economy and its oil exports.



BBC
 

Russia says it will evacuate children from Belgorod after Ukraine shelling​

Russia plans to evacuate about 9,000 children from a border region because it is being shelled continuously by Ukraine, a local official has said.

The children will be moved from the Belgorod region farther east, away from the Ukraine border, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Tuesday.

The announcement came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin wants to create a buffer zone to help protect border regions from long-range Ukrainian strikes and cross-border raids that have occurred with more frequency in recent months.

Ukraine has used its long-range firepower to hit oil refineries and depots deep inside Russia and has sought to unsettle the Russian border regions, putting political pressure on Putin.

In addition, Ukraine-based Russian opponents of Putin and the Kremlin have launched cross-border raids.

Last week, there was an incursion in the Belgorod and Kursk regions, which the Russian Defence Ministry said that Moscow’s military and security forces thwarted, killing 30 fighters.

Putin discussed the cross-border incursions during a meeting on Tuesday with top Federal Security Service (FSB) officials.

Civilian areas of Belgorod have been struck with particular frequency in recent weeks. According to Gladkov, 16 people died, and 98 were wounded over the last week.

On Saturday, he ordered the closure of shopping malls through Monday and schools through Tuesday because of the security situation.

The planned evacuation of children is one of the biggest publicly announced in the Belgorod region since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

About 1,000 people, including children and their families, were evacuated to other Russian regions last June, and there have been other sporadic reports of evacuations over the past year.

Under the latest evacuation order, it was unclear whether adults would accompany the children. If so, the total number of evacuees could be much higher.

Gladkov said that roughly 600 people were in temporary accommodation on Monday after being evacuated from their homes.

Three people were wounded on Tuesday in an aerial attack from Ukraine on the Belgorod region, Gladkov said, including a 14-year-old who had part of a limb amputated. His mother was also seriously hurt in the attack, he said.

The previous day, four members of the same family died in an attack on the Belgorod village of Nikolskoe, according to Gladkov.

A grandmother, mother, her partner and 17-year-old son were killed after a missile struck their house, he said.

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the claims.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
 
Ukrainian drones operated by the GUR military intelligence agency attacked the Engels air base deep inside Russian territory early on Wednesday and Kyiv was assessing the damage, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters.

The governor of the Saratov region, where the base is located, said Ukrainian drones had been downed near the city of Engels but did not report any damage.

“The results are being verified,” the Ukrainian source said of the attack.

The base is the main home of Russia’s long-range strategic bomber fleet and is located near the city of Saratov - about 730 kilometers (450 miles) southeast of Moscow and hundreds of kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Three Russian air force personnel died in December 2022 when a drone believed to be Ukrainian was shot down at the Saratov base.

Russia has regularly conducted missile and drone attacks on targets in Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.

 
FearlessRoar said:
Ukraine has done very wrong, now Russia's retaliation will cost Ukraine dearly.
Click to expand...
Russia said Wednesday that another person was killed in Ukrainian attacks on its Belgorod region, as President Vladimir Putin vowed to restore security in the country’s border areas.

Ukraine has shelled the Belgorod region for months but last week stepped up attacks ahead of Russia’s presidential election.

Anti-Kremlin Russian fighters also claimed several incursions last week on Russian border regions.

“According to preliminary information, one person died,” Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on social media.

“The man was in the car when it was hit by shrapnel and died of his wounds at the spot before the ambulance arrived,” Gladkov said.

In Moscow, Putin promised to restore safety in Russia’s border regions and said his inevitable win in a weekend presidential vote was a “prologue” to victory in Ukraine.

He spoke inside the Kremlin’s gilded Andreyev Hall, addressing election officials after winning a fifth term in office in a vote with no genuine opposition.

“We will do everything to support people who lost their businesses and homes, we will do everything possible,” Putin said.

“But the first thing, is of course to ensure security. There are different ways, they are not easy, but we will do them,” he added, without elaborating.

“Victory in the elections is just a prologue to those victories that Russia so badly needs and that will definitely come,” Putin said, two years into the Ukraine offensive.

He praised the “bravery of the people of Belgorod.”

Gladkov also said Wednesday that schools in some border areas would shift to remote learning, a day after saying around 9,000 children would be evacuated from the region.

 

Wave of Russian missiles strikes Ukraine’s Kyiv, wounds more than 10​


Russia has launched a wave of missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, wounding at least 13 people and damaging several buildings, according to local officials.

The attack on Thursday, the first mass strike in 44 days, targeted the city with ballistic and cruise missiles, said Serhiy Popko, the head of the city’s military administration.

Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride said the authorities believe about 31 missiles in total were launched by the Russians, and two of them were said to have been Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

Officials said air defenses downed “about three dozen enemy missiles” but rocket fragments fell onto a kindergarten in the Sviatoshynskyi district while an apartment building and a car caught fire in other areas. A number of other residential buildings and industrial facilities were also damaged in the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, while air alerts lasted for nearly three hours.

An 11-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man were among the wounded, with two taken to hospital.

“Air raid sirens started to sound and just before dawn we got the first of these thunderous explosions ringing out across the capital as missiles were being intercepted, air defenses got to work and missiles started falling down, or bits of those missiles as they were intercepted ", McBride reported.

The attack came hours after a visit by White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to Kyiv during which he promised that the United States’ support to Ukraine in the fight against Russia would continue, even as crucial aid remains stuck in Congress since late 2023.

The freeze has piled more pressure on already outgunned Ukrainian troops, with services on the front lines raising the alarm about ammunition shortages and warning they could not hold out forever under current conditions.

“From our perspective, we are confident we will get this done. We will get this aid to Ukraine,” Sullivan told a joint news conference on Wednesday after meeting Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak, without giving a timeline.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Western nations must show the “political will” to help Kyiv.

www.aljazeera.com

Russia unleashes first missile wave on Kyiv in weeks

Some 30 cruise and ballistic missiles shot down over Kyiv in the first large attack on Ukraine’s capital in 44 days.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
More than two years after invading Ukraine, the Kremlin has said that Russia regards itself to be at “war” due to the West’s intervention and support of its neighbour.

So far, the Kremlin has insisted that the attack on Ukraine ordered on February 24, 2022, was only as a “special military operation” to ensure the “demilitarisation and denazification” of Russia’s neighbour. This term implied that the operation had a limited scope, while the use of the broader term “war” was effectively banned.

“We are in a state of war. Yes, it started out as a special military operation, but as soon as this group was formed, when the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, it became a war for us,” Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov told Arguments and Facts, a weekly newspaper based in the country.

“I am convinced of that. And everyone should understand this, for their internal motivation.”

Peskov’s comments came five days after Russian President Vladimir Putin was re-elected for six more years and after what Kyiv said was Russia’s largest air raid on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

The remarks appeared to signal that Russia was digging in for an even longer standoff over Ukraine with the United States and its allies.

Russian officials have gradually also started to use the word “war” more often, having conceded that fighting is now set to go on for longer than initially thought.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Deaths and injuries have been reported after a gun attack at a concert hall near Moscow, Russian media say.

At least three people dressed in camouflage opened fire leaving people wounded at the Crocus City Hall, Russian news agencies reported.

Video obtained by Reuters news agency shows a large blaze and smoke rising from the hall.

Police are at the scene, reports Russia's state news agency RIA, adding that gunmen started a fire in the building.


BBC
 
At least 40 people have been killed after gunmen attacked a packed concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow, Russian intelligence said.

More than 100 were wounded at the Crocus City Hall, the FSB Federal Security Service added.

The Islamic State group has claimed it carried out the attack. Russia has not commented.


BBC
 
Over 100 dead now and nearly 200 injured.

Apparently it was 5 of them who entered the mall and started firing shots as people started to run and then they entered into the concert hall and where they even blew off the roof of the hall as they were prepared with bombs and grenades.
 

Kyiv worries Putin will exploit the bloodshed in Moscow to escalate his war in Ukraine​


As Russia reels from a devastating attack at a concert hall, Kyiv is worried Vladimir Putin will exploit the bloodshed to escalate his war in Ukraine regardless of who is to blame.

On Friday night, the extremist Islamist militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the mass shooting that left at least 60 people dead and dozens more wounded in a Moscow suburb.

But the Kremlin has yet formally to accuse any organization, nation or individual. IS has on occasion in the past falsely claimed credit for attacks, though the brutality unleashed at the concert hall matched Islamic State tactics.

In the swirl of confusion and terror, speculation also grew that the gunmen who carried out the mass shooting may have been linked to the Ukraine war, such as a so-called "false flag" operation by Russia that it could pin on Kyiv to garner more domestic support.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry strongly rejected what it said were claims by Russian officials that Ukraine was involved.

It said it viewed any such allegation "to be a planned provocation by the Kremlin to further fuel anti-Ukrainian hysteria in Russian society, create conditions for increased mobilization of Russian citizens to participate in the criminal aggression against our country and discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the international community".

The ministry noted the Russian regime has a "long history of bloody provocations by its special services", adding: "There are no red lines for Putin's dictatorship. It is ready to kill its own citizens for political purposes, just as it has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians during the war against Ukraine as a result of missile attacks, artillery shelling and torture."

As well as waging a war against Ukraine, Russia also has problems with Islamist extremism - an issue which it had in the past cooperated with the UK and the US on, though that has long since stopped as relations froze.

US embassy issued warning of extremist attacks

On 7 March, the US embassy in Moscow issued a warning to US citizens in the Russian capital to avoid large crowds for the next 48 hours because of reports "that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings".

It did not give any further details about what kind of extremists had triggered the alert.

Kremlin weaponises information to influence public

In the aftermath of any terrorist attack anywhere in the world, accurate information is difficult to find. It typically takes time to understand what has happened and who was involved.

However, the atrocity on Friday evening has struck in a country where the truth is often buried or distorted as the Kremlin weaponises information and disinformation to influence its people and the world - especially at a time when it is locked in a war against Ukraine.

Sam Greene, a director at the Centre of European Policy Analysis, said in a post on the social media site X, that the attack was "an act of terrorism, full stop".

"Having failed to prevent it, the Kremlin will likely look for a way to use it, which may well mean blaming Ukraine," he wrote, while cautioning: "The fact that the Kremlin will use the attack for political purposes does not mean it was a false flag."

news.sky.com

Kyiv worries Putin will exploit the bloodshed in Moscow to escalate his war in Ukraine

In the swirl of confusion and terror, speculation also grew that the gunmen who carried out the mass shooting may have been linked to the Ukraine war, such as a so-called "false flag" operation by Russia that it could pin on Kyiv to garner more domestic support.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 

Kyiv says hit two large Russian ships in strikes on Crimea​


The Ukrainian military said it hit two large Russian landing ships, a communications center and other infrastructure used by the Russian navy in the Black Sea during strikes on the annexed Crimean Peninsula early on Sunday.

The statement did not say how it hit the targets, but a Moscow-installed official in the region reported a major Ukrainian air attack and said air defenses had shot down more than 10 missiles over the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

“The defense forces of Ukraine successfully hit the Azov and Yamal large landing ships, a communications center and also several infrastructure facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in temporarily occupied Crimea,” Ukraine’s military said.

Reuters could not immediately verify the extent of any damage.

 
Russia struck critical infrastructure in Ukraine's western region of Lviv with missiles early on Sunday, Kyiv said, in a major airstrike that saw one Russian cruise missile briefly fly into Polish airspace according to Warsaw.

Moscow launched 57 missiles and drones in the attack that also targeted the capital Kyiv, two days after the largest aerial bombardment of Ukraine's energy system in more than two years of full-scale war, Kyiv said.


Reuters
 
At least three people have been killed in Russian attacks on northeastern and southern Ukraine, officials said, as Kyiv called for more Patriot air defence systems to battle a surge in missile strikes.

Russia used guided bombs in air strikes on the city of Kharkiv on Wednesday for the first time since 2022, killing at least one person and wounding 16, local officials said.


Al Jazeera
 

Dubai's glitz dims for Russians on costs, US sanction pressures​

Two years ago, Dubai became a hot favorite with Russians looking to park money or build new lives after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. That allure is now dimming as the cost of living in the glitzy emirate surges and its banks get stricter in enforcing U.S. sanctions.

Russian money flows into the United Arab Emirates — which Dubai is part of — are showing signs of slowing, according to bankers, executives and investment professionals. None of them predict a widespread exodus of cash already in the UAE, yet executives say it seems to have absorbed most of the benefits of Russian money and is unlikely to see more large inflows.

Some Russian arrivals are considering moving to new jurisdictions or even returning home as an expat rush into Dubai drives up rents and daily expenses.

Unlike the U.S. and the E.U., the Gulf country doesn’t have sanctions on Russia. Still, Russian entities setting up bank accounts are now more likely to face scrutiny from local banks as the UAE comes under increased U.S. pressure to tackle potential sanctions evasion, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified in discussing information that is private.

Investment based immigration firm Henley & Partners is seeing fewer Russians establishing in the UAE, “so the trendline is going down,” said Philippe Amarante, its head of the Middle East.

“In fact, some of my Russian clients have either downsized their Dubai real estate assets they bought two years ago, maintain still a small base here, but moved back to Moscow or to other available and very attractive jurisdictions like Mauritius.”

UAE-based banks including Emirates NBD Bank PJSC, Mashreqbank PSC and First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC have tightened scrutiny of Russian entities and in recent months have attempted to ensure greater compliance with U.S. sanctions, people familiar with the matter said.

Bankers based in Dubai said that although average middle-class Russians who aren’t sanctioned have largely not faced major issues opening accounts, several sanctioned Russians have been rejected by banks. Some with political affiliations or connections to sanctioned persons have also faced difficulties operating bank accounts, some of the people said.

In a statement, Emirates NBD said that it is committed to combating financial crime and follows “applicable international sanctions,” but declined to comment on details. Mashreqbank and First Abu Dhabi Bank didn’t respond to requests for comment.

MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC, Russia’s biggest mining company, also decided against starting trading in the UAE due to logistics and banking issues, people familiar with its operations said. Norilsk Nickel’s press service declined to comment.

In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, Dubai real estate agents reported a surge in wealthy Russians hunting for property in the emirate’s swankiest neighborhoods.

The UAE doesn’t provide statistics on inflows by nationality. Still, in rankings of the real estate buyers, Russian passport holders have now slipped to No. 3 last year, trailing Indian and British nationals, after holding the No. 1 slot in 2022, according to Dubai broker Betterhomes. In an interview with CNBC in January, the chairman of real estate developer Damac Properties Dubai Co PJSC said Russian demand was slowing although other buyers were holding up the market.

Meanwhile, even Russian firms that haven’t faced banking problems have grappled with other difficulties. Switzerland-registered fertilizer company EuroChem Group AG — founded by sanctioned Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, who holds a UAE passport — introduced itself to local media at a reception in the glamorous Arts Club Dubai last year. It’s since cut back on its local staffing, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified in discussing matters that aren’t public.

In recent months, many functions, including PR, have been shifted back to Moscow partly because maintaining operations in Dubai with record high rents and school bills was proving to be too costly, the people said. The fertilizer company hasn’t had a problem with its UAE bank accounts and continues to operate them, they said.

In a statement, EuroChem said it has reorganized some of its functions in the UAE, cutting some personnel, while adding people in departments like compliance. “It is a routine business process driven by our internal organizational objectives,” it said.

Several Russians in Dubai who were interviewed by Bloomberg said they are weighing relocation to Europe or other places for the longer term as the war moves into its third year.

Maria, a 42-year-old Russian designer, said Dubai’s high cost of living and the summer desert heat have forced her to consider options like France or Berlin for her family. She asked to be identified only by her first name to keep her personal details confidential.

Ivan Kozlov, 37, left his job as a derivatives structurer at VTB Capital in Moscow over two years ago, lived with his family in Turkey for about two months and then landed in Dubai in May 2022, where he co-founded Resolv Labs, offering investment products based on crypto.

While the start-up is approaching the end of its fundraising process, Kozlov is considering moving to Europe, possibly to Spain, where one of his business partners lives. While the UAE is a good place to do business, he struggles with lifestyle issues like the hot summers and limited opportunities to walk in the open, he said. “The main problem is that you don’t feel like it’s a place that you can call your home in the long run.”

In late February, the UAE got removed from a global watchdog’s so-called gray list, and Emirati officials are keen to demonstrate that regulations won’t get relaxed immediately afterwards, some of the people familiar with the matter said. That has made the UAE and its financial institutions much stricter in dealing with Russian entities or executives, particularly those facing sanctions, the people said. Representatives for the UAE government and U.S. Treasury Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The impact on the UAE economy will be relatively marginal given interest from the wealthy in other parts of the world, said Steffen Hertog, an associate professor at the London School of Economics. “That said, the impact on Dubai will be a bit larger than that on Abu Dhabi given its larger reliance on foreign investment and real estate.”

And Russians aren’t ready to fully abandon the UAE. Aluminum producer United Co. Rusal International PJSC moved global trading operations to Dubai at the end of last year.

Oil traders, many of whom relocated from Geneva and London at the outset of the war, also still prefer the UAE, using the dirham as a convenient alternative to the dollar, according to some of the people familiar with the matter. But even this cohort has faced tougher scrutiny since October, when the U.S. ratcheted up enforcement of its price-cap sanctions on crude, the people said.

Despite the pressures, Russians are leaving their mark on Dubai. They now have their own medical facilities, dentists and football academy in the emirate. All that isn’t convincing people like Kozlov to stay. “This is like an airport cafe where everyone is just waiting for the next flight,” he said.

Source: Bloomberg News
 
Well, yes, somewhere or the other, Russia has suffered losses due to US sanctions.
 
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