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The Russian invasion of Ukraine

Ukrainian attack on ferry kills one in Russian port

One person has been killed and others wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on a ferry at port in southern Russia, the regional governor has said.

Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev said the ferry had caught fire at Port Kavkaz but there was no risk of it spreading.

The port lies a few kilometres from the Kerch bridge, which enables road and rail travel between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

"Unfortunately there are injured and dead among the crew and port staff," Mr Kondratyev said.

He added that emergency services were on the scene.

Ukraine attacked the same area at the end of May, hitting an oil terminal near Port Kavkaz.

The area around the Russian-built bridge over the Kerch Strait has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces since the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

Russian navy ships based in Crimea have been sunk or badly damaged. Earlier this month the head of Ukraine's navy said the Russian Black Sea Fleet had been forced to move almost all of its warships from occupied Crimea to other ports.

In a separate development overnight, Ukraine's air defences downed seven Shahed-type attack drones and a cruise missile launched by Russia.

One Russian attack drone struck a critical infrastructure facility in Sumy Region.

Russian forces shot down 25 Ukrainian drones in the west of the country and over Crimea, Moscow's defence ministry said.

BBC
 
Ukraine says overnight Russian airstrike targeted critical infrastructure in Sumy region

Ukraine said on Tuesday that an overnight Russian airstrike targeted critical infrastructure facilities in the country’s northeastern Sumy region.

The attack was reported in a statement by the Sumy Regional Military Administration on Telegram, which provided no further information on the extent of the damage or whether there have been any casualties.

A later statement by the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said 50,400 consumers in 72 settlements initially lost power due to the attack.

The ministry also said on Telegram that the attack led to the blackout of several substations and consumers connected to them in the regions of Sumy and the neighboring Chernihiv.

Earlier, Ukraine’s Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk claimed that the country’s air defenses shot down seven out of eight drones launched by Russia overnight.

He further claimed that a Kh-69 cruise missile which was also launched during the attack did not reach its target as a result of “active countermeasures.”

Russian authorities have not yet commented on the claims.

SOURCE:https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/ukr...ritical-infrastructure-in-sumy-region/3283166
 

Ukraine tells China that Russia not ready for ‘good faith’ talks​


Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told his Chinese counterpart that his government did not believe Russia was ready for “good faith” negotiations to end the war, his ministry said Wednesday.

Kuleba’s statement to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi came as he visited China for talks starting Tuesday with Russia’s most important ally.

China presents itself as a neutral party in the war, insisting that the only way to end it is by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table.

It says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations, though it is a key political and economic partner of Russia, with NATO members branding Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said Kuleba told Wang that Kyiv was prepared to negotiate with Russian representatives when Moscow is willing to hold talks “in good faith.”

“Dmytro Kuleba reiterated Ukraine’s consistent position that it is ready to negotiate with the Russian side at a certain stage, when Russia is ready to negotiate in good faith, but stressed that currently there is no such readiness on the Russian side,” the ministry said Wednesday.

It cited Kuleba as saying: “I am convinced that a just peace in Ukraine is in China’s strategic interests, and China’s role as a global force for peace is important.”

Kuleba is the first senior Ukrainian official to visit China since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
His trip is scheduled to last until Friday.

China’s foreign ministry had said Kuleba and Wang held talks in the city of Guangzhou, with spokeswoman Mao Ning telling journalists they “exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis.”

“Although the conditions and timing are not yet mature, we support all efforts that contribute to peace and are willing to continue to play a constructive role for a ceasefire and the resumption of peace talks,” she said.

“China has always been firmly committed to promoting a political solution to the crisis,” she added.

China has sought to paint itself as a mediator in the war, sending envoy Li Hui to Europe on multiple visits, and releasing a paper calling for a “political settlement” to the conflict.

However, Western countries said the plan, if applied, would allow Russia to retain much of the territory it has seized in Ukraine.

Beijing has rebuffed claims it is supporting Russia’s war effort, insisting last week that its position was “open and above board” and accusing the West of fueling the conflict through arms shipments to Kyiv.

China did not attend a peace summit in Switzerland last month in protest against Russia not being invited.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called during that summit for Beijing to engage seriously with developing peace proposals.

Kuleba said on arrival in China Tuesday that “we must avoid competition between peace plans” and urged Beijing to “look at relations with our country through the prism of its strategic relations with Europe.”

Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told AFP that Kyiv would likely seek this week to “convince China that it should participate in a second peace summit.”

“Beijing can try to extract a price, even for sending somebody like special envoy ambassador Li Hui,” he said.

China has offered a critical lifeline to Russia’s isolated economy since the conflict began.

But that economic partnership has come under scrutiny from the West in recent months, with the United States vowing to go after financial institutions that facilitate Russia’s war effort.

The United States and Europe have also accused China of selling components and equipment necessary to keep Russia’s military production afloat.

 
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said he is seeking “common ground” in talks this week with his Chinese counterpart on ending his country’s war with Russia

Kuleba met Wednesday with Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Guangzhou, a major commercial and manufacturing center in southern China. It is the first visit to the country by a Ukrainian foreign minister since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has strained Ukraine’s relations with China.

“I am convinced that a just peace in Ukraine is in China’s strategic interests, and China’s role as a global force for peace is important,” Kuleba said in opening remarks.

China has close ties with Russia and has pushed for an end to the war that would take into account the interests of both sides. That position has put it at odds not only with Ukraine but also Western European countries and the United States, which are demanding a Russian withdrawal as the basis for any settlement.

China did not participate in a peace conference in Switzerland last month that did not include Russia.

Kuleba was expected to lobby Chinese officials to attend another peace conference planned for sometime before the American presidential election in early November. His visit reflects a calculation that any peace deal favorable to Ukraine would likely be a non-starter without China on board.

Chinese officials maintain that China and Ukraine have friendly and cooperative relations. Noting the growth in trade between them, Wang said in his opening remarks that ties have continued to develop normally “despite complex and ever-changing international and regional situations.”

Kuleba arrived in China on Tuesday and is scheduled to depart on Friday. In a video posted late Tuesday on his social media accounts, Kuleba said he would have extensive negotiations to look for common ground in the pursuit of peace in Ukraine.

“We need to move to a just and stable peace,” he said, according to a translation posted by Euromaiden Press, an English-language news site on Ukraine. “China can play a significant role in this. Let’s go.”

His visit follows a rare public rebuke of China by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in June at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Zelenskyy accused China of helping Russia block countries from participating in the Swiss peace conference. China denied pressuring others.

It was the first time Zelenskyy had departed from careful attempts to court Beijing away from its strong relationship with Moscow.

China published a separate six-point peace plan with Brazil ahead of the conference. The move and the timing likely angered Ukrainian officials, who were in the midst of seeking support for their peace proposal.

“We must avoid the competition of peace plans,” Kuleba said in his social media video this week.

Source: The Diplomat
 
Russia will take five years to capture four Ukrainian regions 'if they carry on as they are' - UK army head

If Russia keeps up its attacks on Ukraine, it will likely take five years for its forces to "grind their way" to a minimum goal of fully capturing just four regions at a loss of up to 1.8 million soldiers, dead and wounded, the new head of the British army has said.

General Sir Roly Walker said in a long war "there are no winners. It is an utter devastation for both sides and lost generations".

Answering questions at a conference in London, the new Chief of the General Staff said that the war in Ukraine was "not going well for anyone".

But he warned that Vladimir Putin must fail or else a wider security framework that protects the Euro-Atlantic NATO alliance - the true target of his aggression - would be at risk.

"It has just started in Ukraine, so it must fail in Ukraine otherwise where does it go next?" he told an audience of military personnel, industry officials and other defence experts at the Land Warfare Conference in London, held by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) thinktank.

The general was responding to a question on his predictions for how he thought Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine would unfold and when it might end.

"If they carry on as they are, it would probably take the Russians five years to grind their way to their minimum objectives of the four oblasts [regions]," General Walker said.


news.sky.com

Russia will take five years to capture four Ukrainian regions 'if they carry on as they are' - UK army head

General Sir Roly Walker also said Moscow could lose up to 1.8 million soldiers as it tries to reach its minimum objective of capturing Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
Russia is a dictatorship. It will survive the astronomical cost of this war by controlling its population. Ukrainian allies on the other hand will suffer massively the longer this war wages. The West which was aiming to control China at the SCS is draining its resources at the wrong battle front.
 
Ukraine thrown into war's bleak future as drones open new battlefront

The black box sits on the army truck dashboard like a talisman, its tiny screen lighting up with warnings when Russian drones are above us. We are driving fast along a country road in the darkness near the front lines outside Kharkiv.

Like many in this war, the soldiers inside have come to revere the little cube they call "sugar"; it warns of the unseen dangers above.

On the vehicle’s roof are three mushroom-shaped antennas that make up separate drone-jamming equipment. The car emits an invisible aura of protection that will thwart some, but not all, of the Russian attack drones patrolling the skies above this battlefield.

"It has detected the Zala Lancet Russian drones," says Senior Lt Yevhenii, 53, from the front passenger seat, describing one of the most powerful long-range Russian drones and its targeting drone. "Is that why we’re driving so fast?" I ask, aware that the drone-jamming antenna is useless against a Lancet.

"We’re not a priority for them, but it’s still better not to slow down because it’s very dangerous," says Yevhenii, from the Khartia Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard.

The jamming equipment blocks roughly 75% of frequencies that drones use to communicate with their operators, but some like the Lancet are difficult to block because they are entirely autonomous once their target has been marked. Because of the Lancet’s power, it tends to be used on larger targets, such as armoured vehicles or infantry positions, the Ukrainians say.

Almost none of this technology was here in Ukraine a year ago; now it is commonplace. Drones, which were once peripheral to the war, are a central component for both sides, alongside infantry and artillery as Ukraine struggles to hold back Russian advances.

Ukraine has been thrown into the bleak future of war, where within minutes individual soldiers, fast-moving vehicles and trench positions can be precisely targeted. Drones have civilians in their sights too: about 25 from Russia attacked Kharkiv on Tuesday night, although most were intercepted.

Ukraine's army is fighting back with its own drones, and there are dozens across this stretch of front line. One Ukrainian soldier tells me every day they kill 100 Russians.

The last images from drone cameras are usually of men panicking, their arms flailing, weapons firing before they are killed. The brigade’s 37-year-old drone commander, who goes by the call sign Aeneas, says that without shelter in a building there is little chance of survival - for Russians, and his men too.

"It's the new way or a new path in modern war. In 2022 it was only infantry war and today one half is only a war of drone, a battle between Russian drones and ours," he says.

The move to drone warfare is a combination of necessity and innovation. Drones are in plentiful supply, even though when armed they lack the explosive fire power of artillery.

Ukraine has consistently run short of artillery shells, and its allies have been slow to produce and supply them. But a Drone Coalition of Ukrainian allies has pledged to supply the country with a million drones this year.

Russia has made its own innovations on the battlefield too, using an older technology, and the village of Lyptsi, just six miles (10km) from the Russian border, has paid the price.

It was devastated by glide bombs - Soviet-era "dumb bombs" fitted with fins and a satellite guidance system. Some are as large as 3,000kg (6,600lbs) and, when launched from aircraft, glide onto Ukrainian infantry positions and towns to highly destructive effect.

One woman named Svitlana, who was driven out of Lyptsi by these attacks, told us: "Everything was exploding all around. Everything was burning. It was scary there. It was impossible to even get out of the cellar."

Aeneas takes us on a tour of his drone teams, embedded along the front line in Lyptsi. Every vehicle we encountered near there was fitted with drone-jamming equipment; but the jammer’s protection ends when you exit the vehicle.

It’s dangerous to be caught out in the open, so we follow Aeneas running across the rubble for cover.

Out of breath, we make it to the drone unit’s underground base beneath a ruined building, where we are introduced to two operators, Yakut and Petro. There are drones on every surface, next to a frying pan with their evening meal.

They get through many hundreds of drones in a month, as most are single-use and detonate on their target.

Their weapon of choice is the First Person View (FPV) drone, which carries a payload of between 1kg (2.2lbs) and 2kg of explosive, packed with shrapnel. The drones are modified off-the-shelf models which have cameras to send video back to their remote operators. "We call them celebration drones in Ukraine. They were used to film weddings and parties before the war," Aeneas says.

I watch on a screen in real time beside Yakut who is fixed in concentration flying a drone manually to a target, across open fields and woodland. "He knows every puddle, every tree in the area," Petro says.

The FPV drone approaches a building where a Russian soldier is believed to be hiding. It flies through an open window and detonates, the operator's screen turning to static as the signal is lost. At the same time, another drone team is targeting a Russian Tigr light-armoured vehicle and scores a direct hit, captured by a second surveillance drone that’s watching from above.

The men stay on these positions, flying missions day and night, for up to five days at a stretch and spend as little time outside as possible. Their biggest fear is glide bombs: one landed nearby earlier that week, and the whole building shook. What happens if there’s a direct hit? I ask Petro. "We die," he replies.

Aeneas shows me a recording from earlier in the week: a Russian soldier is caught in the open and the unit’s drone has him in its sights. The soldier notices it and runs for cover, hiding in a drainage culvert by the roadside. Slowly the drone lowers to its level, checking one side of the drainage pipe, then going around the other side, where the soldier is hiding. It detonates and the man is blown out, dying by the roadside. "He was divided into two parts," explains Aeneas.

The operators are cool and dispassionate, almost clinical in their targeting and killing. They are as far as three miles (5km) away from their targets, one step removed from the immediate blood and guts of the battlefield. But encountering these weapons on the frontline is nerve-wracking.

A few days later, after dark, at an infantry trench close to Russian positions, a unit commander tells me he believes the Ukrainians have the upper hand in drone warfare, the Russians the advantage with glide bombs.

Russia also has the advantage in drone numbers: six for every Ukrainian one, although the drone teams I was with say they have the technological edge and are quicker at finding ways to counter-attack and jam Russian drones.

The trench is in a wooded copse, surrounded by fields, a thick canopy of trees provides cover.

But as we are speaking a Russian FPV drone is detected and begins to move closer to the position. The few dim lights, mostly phone screens, are turned off in the trench, and the men sit silently as the drone’s approach gets louder. We hold our breath as it hovers overhead. For what seems like an age, no one dares move. But then the drone moves on, in search of another target.

The largest drone in the brigade’s arsenal is the Vampire, which with its six rotors is the size of a coffee table. Again we join Aeneas on another mission in Lyptsi after dark, under the sound of constant artillery fire, where we meet the heavy bomber team. They work to attach the bomb to the drone.

"[Weighing] 10kg (22lb), the Russians call this drone the Bogeyman," says Aeneas. Its payload is powerful enough to take out their intended target, a Russian command post, they say.

As the men work, a Russian drone makes a number of passes overhead: each time it does, the soldiers retreat into the basement, wait for the all-clear, then resume the assembly. As the drone takes off into the night in a cloud of dust, they watch its progress again from a second surveillance drone.

Just then, with barely any warning, we see on the drone’s thermal camera three Russian glide bombs detonating over the Ukrainian position, over a kilometre away. The shock waves are visible: seconds later they reach our location and the house around us shudders violently.

Ukraine’s allies know that by supporting the drone effort, they are helping the country’s cause, but it isn’t simply an act of charity.

The head of the British military, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, has said that the UK’s armed forces can learn from Ukraine how to fight future wars. He said in a speech on Tuesday that he wants the Army to have "battalions of one-way attack drones".

Aeneas and his men know this. As we leave their position, a Russian drone returns and we drive off at speed into the darkness. In the truck he tells me: "No one is fighting war this way - they are learning from us. This will be the future war."

BBC
 
Russia is offering Moscow residents a record $22,000 to fight in Ukraine

Authorities in the city of Moscow are offering a record signing-on bonus for new recruits to fight in Ukraine, in the latest sign of a scramble to boost Russian troop numbers.

The financial sweetener comes as President Vladimir Putin struggles to recruit soldiers for his army as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine grinds on in its third year.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin introduced the one-time signing bonus of 1.9 million rubles (about $22,000) for city residents who join the military, according to a statement on Tuesday.

Anyone taking up the offer would earn as much as 5.2 million rubles ($59,600) in their first year of service, the statement added.

Those willing to join the fight in Ukraine can also receive one-time cash payments of about $5,690-$11,390 for injuries, “depending on the severity,” and the family of a soldier killed in action could be paid $34,150.

While Russia’s casualty numbers remain shrouded in secrecy, estimates say the death toll among troops is high. More than 70,000 soldiers were likely killed or wounded in May and June alone, the UK defense ministry said in an update on July 12, as the Russian army faced high losses on a new front in the Kharkiv region.

It is estimated that Russia has lost 87% of the active-duty ground troops it had prior to launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its pre-invasion tanks, a source familiar with a declassified US intelligence assessment provided to Congress told CNN in December last year.


 
Ukraine's hopes and challenges after long wait for F-16s

The first F-16 fighter jets are set to arrive in Ukraine from Nato member states, after many months of preparation and pilot training.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said they are essential to help Ukrainians push back against Russia's aerial dominance and “unblock the skies”.

Russian forces have been preparing for the Ukrainian F-16s too.

They have targeted a number of Ukrainian military airfields and there are growing concerns that these long-awaited jets will be attacked and destroyed soon after they arrive.

In July alone, at least three airfields have come under attack: Myrhorod and Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine and one in southern Odesa region.

Moscow claims it has destroyed five Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jets and one MiG-29, along with a radar and valuable Patriot air defence launchers.

Kyiv authorities are keeping mostly silent and the air force has refused a BBC request for comment, claiming on social media that the destroyed jets and air defence system were in reality decoys that had cost Russia several expensive Iskander missiles.

Decoys or not, Ukraine’s allies, and many Ukrainians themselves, fear there may be insufficient protection for the US-built F-16s.

Until now the Ukrainian air force has largely relied on “dispersed operations” to ensure its warplanes are not hit on the ground, according to Prof Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for air power and technology at Royal United Service Institute.

Planes and equipment are regularly moved around within or between bases, he explains, so “if Russia does launch an airstrike, they’ll probably just hit an empty tarmac or grass”.

But that may have to change if Ukraine is to protect its valuable fleet of Western aircraft from Russian missiles.

F-16s require perfectly smooth runways swept clear of stones and other small items of debris, if they are not to run the risk of engine failure.

Any attempt to improve the infrastructure on existing bases will become visible to “Russian observation whether orbital or human intelligence sources,” Prof Bronk believes.

Now it has spy drones such as Zala, Supercam and Orlans that can send real-time images from deep inside Ukrainian territory, avoiding Ukraine’s electronic detection and jamming systems.

Drone unit commander Oleksandr Karpyuk says the drones can now be pre-programmed to fly long distance in radio silence.

Russian defence ministry video showing the attack on Myrhorod airbase earlier this month appears to show the moment Iskander ballistic missiles hit the area where several jets were parked.

There is no indication that the F-16s have yet arrived in Ukraine, although Kyiv-based aviation expert Anatoliy Khrapchynsky suggests Russian forces are “probing” Ukrainian airfields because they believe they might be.

Only this month US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the transfer of F-16s was already under way from Denmark and the Netherlands.

Some 65 F-16s have been pledged by Nato countries.

When in theatre they will roughly double the number of fighter jets currently at Ukraine’s disposal, which are all Soviet-era MiG-29s and Su-27s.

For Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky they cannot come a moment too soon, after an 18-month wait.

He had originally opened for twice as many as the 65 he has been promised, such is the need for fighter aircraft to carry out key types of mission:

  • Suppression of Enemy Air Defences - SEAD missions - the military is desperate to take out Russia’s surface to air missile systems
  • Air Interdiction operations, to disrupt, delay or destroy Russia’s ground forces
  • Defensive Counter Air (DCA), to protect Ukrainian territory from Russian aircraft and missiles.
These defensive missions are for the moment perhaps the most important.

This year Ukraine has been under huge threat from Russian glide bombs, which are basically dumb bombs fitted with pop-out wing kits and guidance modules to deliver precision strike stand-off capabilities, similar to the JDAM munitions from the United States.

Russia is churning out these add-on kits and these souped-up bombs have been wreaking havoc on the front lines.

Around 3,000 were dropped in March alone, mostly from Su-34 fighter-bombers.

If Ukraine can protect its F-16s on the ground, the hope is that they could play an important part in pushing back the Russian aircraft to a point where the glide bombs can no longer target Ukrainian ground forces.

The F-16s would work alongside the limited number of Western-supplied surface to air missile systems such as Patriot and NASAMS which are already on the ground.

The warplanes will be armed with AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, which can turn “autonomous” and self-guide to target after a certain distance from launch.

Currently Ukraine’s Soviet-era aircraft use missiles that require a constant “lock” on a Russian plane throughout the targeting and launching phase.

That places the Ukrainian jets under greater threat because they cannot fire a missile and then turn away, which the F-16s can do.

Not everyone believes the F-16s will be able to protect Ukraine’s frontline towns.

If the jets fly high, they will be vulnerable to Russia’s air defence systems, warns Prof Bronk. If they fly low, they will have to fly deeper into Russian territory to give their missiles sufficient range. And that carries even greater risks.

Rather than seeing the F16s as potential targets, Anatoliy Khrapchynsky argues they will only enhance Ukraine’s air defences, because of their ability to intercept cruise missiles while Patriot batteries shoot down ballistic missiles.

Each airbase will have crews on shift that will take off in case of an aerial threat.

But the problem is that Ukraine is facing a big shortage of Patriots and missiles for them. President Zelensky says Ukraine needs at least 25 Patriot defence systems to protect its skies and it has only a handful.

The F-16s won’t necessarily turn the tide of the war, but they will have a significant impact in attacks on the ground and in the air.

The question is whether there will be enough of them, and whether they can be protected on the ground.

BBC
 
BouncerGuy said:
Russian forces have been preparing for the Ukrainian F-16s too.

They have targeted a number of Ukrainian military airfields and there are growing concerns that these long-awaited jets will be attacked and destroyed soon after they arrive.
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I think this is what may happen. Russians destroying those F-16s quickly.

West seems to be wasting money left, right, and center on this conflict. Many of their equipment have been destroyed.
 
Pentagon accounting error creates path for billions more to be sent to Kyiv

The Pentagon has found $2bn worth of additional errors in its calculations for ammunition, missiles and other equipment sent to Ukraine, increasing the improperly valued material to a total of $8.2bn, a US government report revealed on Thursday. In 2023, the Pentagon said staff used “replacement value” instead of “depreciated value” to tabulate the billions in materials sent to Ukraine. The $6.2bn error created a path for billions more to be sent to Kyiv.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on Hong Kong to prevent Russia and Russian businesses from using the region to circumvent sanctions. Kuleba met with Hong Kong leader John Lee as part of a visit to China. He called on the administration to prevent Russia from using Hong Kong to circumvent restrictions resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to a statement from the Ukrainian foreign affairs ministry. “These restrictive measures are necessary to weaken Russia’s potential to wage war and kill people in Ukraine,” the statement said.

Russia attacked Ukrainian energy facilities in two regions with drones, causing disruptions to electricity supplies, the national power grid operator said on Friday. Ukrenergo said power supplies had been already restored to most consumers in the northern Chernihiv and Zhytomyr regions. Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector have intensified since the spring, resulting in blackouts in many regions and forcing Kyiv to start large-scale electricity imports from the European Union.

A court in Moscow on Thursday ordered the head of a defense ministry’s construction division to be detained for two months on suspicion of abuse of power, Russian news agencies reported, the latest in a series of arrests of high-ranking ministry officials this year. Andrei Belkov heads the Military Construction Company, which builds bases, hospitals, schools and other facilities for the military, according to its website.

Russian and Chinese bombers flew together for the first time in international airspace off the coast of Alaska, in a new show of expanding military cooperation that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday raises concerns. The flights Wednesday were not seen as a threat but it was the first time that Chinese bomber aircraft have flown within the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone. And it was the first time Chinese and Russian aircraft have taken off from the same base in northeast Russia.

The Turkish navy intercepted a marine drone in the Black Sea off Istanbul, authorities said, with media reporting that it contained explosives and might be Ukrainian. Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a number of mines suspected of having floated down from the conflict zone have been spotted off the Turkish coast. The public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.

Debris from what is believed to be a Russian drone landed in a rural area of Romania, the country’s Defense Ministry said Thursday, in the latest apparent incident of drone wreckage from the war in neighbouring Ukraine falling on to the Nato member’s soil.

The Netherlands and Denmark are to deliver 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine “before the end of summer”, the Dutch defence minister announced Wednesday, saying Kyiv “urgently” needed more military support. The two countries bought the German-made tanks last year for 165mn euros ($186m) before sending them for refurbishment.

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/a...tes-path-for-billions-more-to-be-sent-to-kyiv
 
Cricket Warrior said:
Russia is offering Moscow residents a record $22,000 to fight in Ukraine

Authorities in the city of Moscow are offering a record signing-on bonus for new recruits to fight in Ukraine, in the latest sign of a scramble to boost Russian troop numbers.

The financial sweetener comes as President Vladimir Putin struggles to recruit soldiers for his army as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine grinds on in its third year.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin introduced the one-time signing bonus of 1.9 million rubles (about $22,000) for city residents who join the military, according to a statement on Tuesday.

Anyone taking up the offer would earn as much as 5.2 million rubles ($59,600) in their first year of service, the statement added.

Those willing to join the fight in Ukraine can also receive one-time cash payments of about $5,690-$11,390 for injuries, “depending on the severity,” and the family of a soldier killed in action could be paid $34,150.

While Russia’s casualty numbers remain shrouded in secrecy, estimates say the death toll among troops is high. More than 70,000 soldiers were likely killed or wounded in May and June alone, the UK defense ministry said in an update on July 12, as the Russian army faced high losses on a new front in the Kharkiv region.

It is estimated that Russia has lost 87% of the active-duty ground troops it had prior to launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its pre-invasion tanks, a source familiar with a declassified US intelligence assessment provided to Congress told CNN in December last year.


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Both countries are in a desperate state.

Russia's literally paying it's young men $100k to go commit suicide in the Ukraine war front meat grinder.

Ukraine's hoping against hope that Trump loses the election or dies of exertion from campaigning in his old age. Would be the end of their war in 6 months if he's president.

Much as I hate for Russia to gain from this hateful invasion of an independent country, the only way for this is to end is to give them something to save face. Let them keep some of the devastated Borderlands they have sacrificed tens of thousands of their youth for and this war. Both sides should currently be motivated to end this war before winter and the US elections.
 
Red-Indian said:
Both countries are in a desperate state.

Russia's literally paying it's young men $100k to go commit suicide in the Ukraine war front meat grinder.

Ukraine's hoping against hope that Trump loses the election or dies of exertion from campaigning in his old age. Would be the end of their war in 6 months if he's president.

Much as I hate for Russia to gain from this hateful invasion of an independent country, the only way for this is to end is to give them something to save face. Let them keep some of the devastated Borderlands they have sacrificed tens of thousands of their youth for and this war. Both sides should currently be motivated to end this war before winter and the US elections.
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Russia are in a bad state but Ukraine are on the brink of economic collapse.

This war wasn’t started by Russia. It was started by the American military complex as almost every major war in the last 50 years has been.

What business did America have building bases in Ukraine pointing towards Russia?

By the way these devastated lands Russia occupy in the Donbas are some of the most resource rich lands in the world.
 
bones said:
Russia are in a bad state but Ukraine are on the brink of economic collapse.

This war wasn’t started by Russia. It was started by the American military complex as almost every major war in the last 50 years has been.

What business did America have building bases in Ukraine pointing towards Russia?

By the way these devastated lands Russia occupy in the Donbas are some of the most resource rich lands in the world.
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I'm not denying Ukraine is worse off and the US is innocent but the Russians or I should say Putin and his advisors are idiots.
The US has bases in Taiwan and China hasn't attacked.
Russia has bases in Cuba but the US hasn't attacked. They only objected to nuclear weapons.

There are other ways to coerce recalcitrant neighbours - funding political opposition, economic sanctions, and I hate to say it...funding separatists.

Killing half the youth in your country and making tens of thousands mothers weep on an ego trip is not great strategy to resist military bases in your independent neighbour country.
 

Russia Seizes Town Amid Wave of Front-Line Advances​


Russian forces have captured a town and advanced in key areas of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, according to reports that come amid an assessment that Moscow's tactics had changed across the entire front line.

"The enemy captured Vovche and advanced in Yasnobrodivka, Krasnohorivka, near Dibrova and Zhelanne," read the Telegram post of pro-Ukrainian channel DeepState, which maps the state of play on the front line.

Next to an image of the front line map showing the reported Russian gains, according to DeepState, pro-Kyiv X user Jürgen Nauditt posted, "the situation in some parts of the front worsened."

Some of the Russian advances were noted by the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) which said that Moscow's forces were trying to exert pressure across the front line to prevent Ukraine from seizing the initiative.

The think tank said on Friday that the Russian military had expanded the area of responsibility (AOR) in which its Central Grouping of Forces was operating in the Donetsk region.

This suggested that Moscow had changed its previous tactic for the grouping to act simply as a "maneuver force in the Avdiivka direction" where Russian forces have advanced toward but where rapid tactical gains are unlikely.

The ISW said earlier this week that Ukraine had stopped a mechanized assault by Russian forces near Kostiantynivka with Moscow losing a significant amount of equipment.

Amid a push to capture the strategic city of Pokrovsk, Russia is pressing along an arc of three key points in Donetsk region—Chasiv Yar, just west of Bakhmut, which Russia captured in the spring of 2023, the city of Toretsk and areas west of Ocheretyne.

Although it suffered a high cost in personnel and equipment, Russia had made limited gains with its reinvasion of the Kharkiv region in May but the offensive near the border with Ukraine did manage to divert Ukrainian resources.

This was described by a battalion commander of Ukraine's 47th brigade who told The Washington Post that Russian forces are "almost at the point of capturing the Donetsk region."

"Their first objective is to destroy us," said the soldier named Oleksandr, "the second is to push us so that they can get more leverage for peace talks."

Ukraine's General Staff has said the "hottest situation" remained near Pokrovsk while other Ukrainian commanders and soldiers interviewed by the Post said there was a lack of troops and resources as well as failures in leadership decisions.

Reinforcements have not yet emerged following Kyiv's new mobilization law, and one sergeant with the call sign "Bart" said there was "serious chaos" on the front line.

www.newsweek.com

Russia seizes town amid wave of front-line advances

Russian forces are exerting pressure across the front line to stop Ukraine from seizing the initiative, said one think tank.
www.newsweek.com www.newsweek.com
 

100 Percent of Russian Drones Shot Down in 'Massive' Attack, Ukraine Says​


Ukraine has successfully thwarted a major attack on Kyiv, further demonstrating the nation's ability to protect its cities from Russian attacks.

The assault took place in the early hours of Wednesday, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, and involved the use of guided air missiles and 89 Shahed-131/136 attack UAVs aimed at the capital and its surrounding regions. It was launched from various locations in the west of Russia and near the Sea of Azov.

"This is one of the most massive attacks by Shahed-131/136 attack UAVs. The enemy used the same number of Shahed drones on New Year's Eve, January 1, 2024," the Air Force wrote on social media platform Telegram. "As then, today Ukrainian air defense withstood and repelled a massive attack by enemy drones. Of the 89 Shahed-131/136 attack UAVs detected by the radar units of the Air Force, all 89 were shot down."

Using the full weight of Ukraine's missile defense capabilities, the country was also able to down a KH-59 guided air missile aimed at the Mykolaiv oblast south of Kyiv.

Air Force Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk thanked "all the defenders of the sky for their combat work and eloquent result."

On Telegram, Kyiv City Military Administration Chief Serhiy Popko said: "Under the conditions of such a dense and massive air attack, our forces and means of air defense worked perfectly," and added that there were no casualties as a result of the assault.

Unmanned aerial vehicles have played a major role in the ongoing fight over Ukraine's skies, and Russia has combined their use with traditional assaults on the country in the years since the invasion began.

The latest barrage came only two days after a similar assault, during which nine out of the 10 Shahed drones launched by Russia were destroyed in the Dnipro, Kherson and Kirovohrad regions.

Kyiv has attempted to respond in kind to the attacks on its soil, targeting critical Russian energy infrastructure and military assets across the country.

Earlier in July, Russian officials said that at least 75 Ukrainian drones had targeted several Russian regions, including one of the country's largest oil refineries.

On Sunday, the Ukrainian military said its drones had struck the Polyova oil depot in the Kursk oblast, which the military said had resulted in "powerful explosions" and fires.

A day earlier, reports emerged that Ukrainian drones had attacked a Russian military airfield in Dyagilevo, around 120 miles south of Moscow. The air base serves as a training hub for Russian bomber regiments.

www.newsweek.com

100 percent of Russian drones shot down in "massive" attack, Ukraine says

Ukraine has effectively repelled a significant assault on Kyiv, further showcasing the country's ability to defend its cities against Russian attacks.
www.newsweek.com www.newsweek.com
 
There are still people who actually think Ukraine will win this war?
Also china will invade and take over Taiwan 100%
 
pakistani pride said:
There are still people who actually think Ukraine will win this war?
Also china will invade and take over Taiwan 100%
Click to expand...
Probably a better post for the Russia-Ukraine thread but I personally think there is no possible path for Ukraine to win this war short of Putin's assassination. It's only a question of how little concessions can be made to Russia to save face on both sides.

I think the West has achieved it's aims though. At minimal cost to themselves (just some money and some arms), they have inflicted horrific losses and casualties on Russia both economically and human. In fact, I personally believe they may have overplayed their hand. I think the only way forward for Russia is to become sort of a vassal/slave state to the true superpower - China...a bit like the UK is to the USA. Yes still powerful in a limited sense but totally subservient in international matters.

As far as China is concerned, I think an invasion of Taiwan is pure fantasy. China for all it's bluster and bluff is one of the most pragmatic nations in the world in terms of actual military involvement. There is yes a likelihood of China and Taiwan merging but I believe it's more likely to be an East-West Germany type of merger and will require considerable change of political climate in China. The Taiwanese people are too used to personal and political freedoms for the last 50 years to give them up easy.
 
FearlessRoar said:

Russia jails US journalist Gershkovich on spying charges​


US journalist Evan Gershkovich has been sentenced by a Russian court to 16 years in a high-security penal colony on espionage charges, after a secretive trial decried as a "sham" by his employer, his family and the White House.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter was first arrested last March while on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg, about 1,600km (1,000 miles) east of Moscow, by security services.

Prosecutors have accused him of working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), accusations Mr Gershkovich, the WSJ and the US vociferously deny.

It marks the first conviction of a US journalist for espionage in Russia since the Cold War ended more than 30 years ago.

Both sides in the trial have 15 days to appeal against the verdict, the judge said.

The trial began last month, and the last two days' proceedings had originally been scheduled for August. Prosecutors had asked for an 18-year prison sentence.

But in an unexpected move, the hearing was brought forward to Thursday, and the judge gave the verdict late on Friday afternoon.

In a charging indictment, prosecutors accused Mr Gershkovich, 32, of acting “under instructions from the CIA" to collect "secret information" about a factory that produces tanks in the Sverdlovsk region.

The reporter has consistently denied the accusations, and in a statement on Thursday the WSJ called the trial a "shameful sham" and his detention an "outrage".

Washington accuses Russia of holding him as a bargaining chip, to be used for a possible prisoner swap with Russian citizens in foreign jails.

But Moscow knows that the US is prepared to make swaps in order to release its own citizens, and the two countries are known to have been discussing such a swap.

Russian observers say a quick conviction could mean that an exchange is imminent. According to Russian judicial practice, an exchange generally requires a verdict to already be in place.

www.bbc.com

US journalist Evan Gershkovich jailed for 16 years in Russia

His employer, The Wall Street Journal, has called the allegations "shameful" and a "sham".
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
Click to expand...

Russia to free Gershkovich and Whelan in major prisoner swap​


Three US citizens imprisoned in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, are expected to be released on Thursday, under a prisoner exchange deal.

Gershkovich, US Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva will be released under the deal agreed by the Biden administration, a senior US official confirmed.

Others are believed to be part of the deal. The exchange has not occurred yet but is expected later today.

There has been speculation for days of a major swap between various countries which was heightened after several dissidents and journalists jailed in Russia were moved from their prison cells to unknown locations.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Kremlin opponent with dual Russian-British citizenship, is one of those detainees whose whereabouts are unknown which has fuelled expectations that he too could released.

Others potentially on the list are Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin and veteran human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov.

Although secret prison transfers are common in Russia, the multiple "disappearance" of well-known prisoners was unusual.

Earlier this week, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko pardoned a German citizen Rico Krieger who had been sentenced to death for terrorism and other charges.

In Germany, Vadim Krasikov - identified by German officials as a colonel in Russia’s FSB intelligence service - is serving a life sentence for the 2019 murder of a Kremlin opponent in a Berlin park.

He maybe among the prisoners Russia gets in return. If all the exchanges take place it will be one of the biggest prisoners swaps between Russia and the West in history.

www.bbc.com

Russia to free Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan in prisoner swap

It is part of a major exchange of Russian political prisoners and Russians jailed for crimes in the West.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
Ukraine receives first batch of US-built F-16 fighter jets, officials say

Ukraine has received a first batch of U.S.-built F-16 fighter jets to help it fight Russian forces, Lithuania's foreign minister and a U.S. official have said.

The long-awaited arrival is a milestone for Ukraine, which has not publicly commented on it for now. The lengthy process to procure the U.S.-designed aircraft and train Ukrainian pilots to fly them has frustrated Kyiv.

Russia has had time to prepare defences to try to nullify the F-16s' impact, and Ukraine has had to survive with a depleted air force a fraction of the size and sophistication of its enemy's.


www.france24.com

Ukraine receives first batch of US-built F-16 fighter jets, officials say

The first batch of long-awaited F-16 jets has arrived in Ukraine, Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis and a US official said on Thursday. Ukraine wanted the weapons because of their destructive…
www.france24.com www.france24.com
 

Two men charged over alleged Russia-linked arson plot​


Two more men have been charged in relation to an alleged arson attack against a Ukraine-linked business in London, taking the total number of suspects to seven.

It comes after two British men were charged in April with helping a foreign intelligence service in relation to a large fire which broke out at an industrial estate in Leyton in March.

It is understood the foreign country in question is Russia.

On Saturday, the Metropolitan Police said Jakeem Barrington Rose, 22, and Ugnius Asmena, 19, had been charged with aggravated arson. Neither are accused of ties to Russian intelligence.

They were arrested on Thursday and appeared in court earlier on Saturday.

Mr Asmena, of no fixed address, was born in Lithuania and has previously unsuccessfully applied for EU Settled status, the court was told.

Mr Rose, of Croydon, also faces two charges of possessing a knife.

Neither was asked to enter a plea during the short hearing.

Earlier this year, Dylan Earl and Jake Reeves were charged with National Security Act offences in relation to the fire, becoming the first two people to be prosecuted under the new law.

The legislation is designed to crack down on alleged espionage, sabotage and foreign interference.

Mr Earl is accused of planning to target the business, as well as attempting to recruit individuals to materially assist a foreign intelligence service, undertaking fraudulent activity and arson.

Mr Reeves is accused of accepting money knowing that it was from a foreign intelligence service.

Three other suspects - Dmitrijus Paulauska, Paul English and Kojo Mensah - have previously been charged with lesser offences not linked to national security legislation.

A trial is scheduled to begin next June.

On Saturday, Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said there is no wider threat to the public and the "investigation remains ongoing".

www.bbc.com

Two men charged over alleged Russia-linked arson plot in London

Seven people have now been charged over a suspected arson attack against a Ukraine-linked business.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
Ukraine says it sank Russian submarine in Crimea

Ukraine's military says it attacked and destroyed a Russian submarine while it was anchored at a port in the occupied Crimean peninsula.

The Rostov-on-Don, a kilo-class attack submarine launched in 2014, sank after it was struck in a missile attack on the port city of Sevastopol on Friday, Ukraine's general staff said in a statement.

It was reportedly one of four submarines operated by Russia's Black Sea fleet capable of launching Kalibr cruise missiles. The Russian defence ministry has not commented.

Officials in Kyiv said the attack also destroyed four S-400 air defence systems protecting the peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Intelligence officials in the UK noted last September that the Rostov-on-Don "likely suffered catastrophic damage" in a missile strike while undergoing maintenance at a Sevastopol shipyard.

Ukraine's military said Russia subsequently repaired the vessel and it was recently testing its capabilities near Sevastopol. The vessel was worth $300m (£233m), they added.

"The destruction of Rostov-on-Don once again proves that there is no safe place for the Russian fleet in the Ukrainian territorial waters of the Black Sea," the general staff in Kyiv said in a statement on Saturday.

It marks the latest attack on Russian naval forces in Sevastopol in recent months. In March alone, Ukraine said it hit two landing ships and a patrol vessel in the port city.

Since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 it has suffered several major naval setbacks. Ukraine says it has seriously damaged or sunk at least 15 warships, including the Black Sea fleet's flagship, the Moskva.

Last week Ukraine's military said Moscow had been forced to withdraw all of its naval assets from the Sea of Azov - a body of water connected to the Black Sea - due to repeated strikes on its vessels.

And Russia's internal security service, the FSB, recently said it foiled a Ukrainian plot to destroy its last remaining aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. The ship, launched in 1985, has been undergoing repairs since 2018.

Meanwhile, officials in Kyiv said Ukrainian drones targeted a major airfield and oil depots in Russia.

The attack targeted the Morozovsk airfield, where guided bombs which have recently wrecked havoc on Ukrainian cities, are stored.

Online footage said to be from the base showed powerful explosions and huge fires, after what appears to be several hits on fuel or ammunition depots. Russia said many of the drones used were shot down, but local authorities have declared a state of emergency around the air base.

Oil storage facilities were also targeted in the Rostov, Kursk and Belgorod regions.

The attacks come after Russia launched more than 600 guided air bombs towards Ukraine in a week, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He said that it was crucial that Ukraine stopped Russian aircraft from launching the munitions and said that attacking airfields in Russia to do so was "quite fair".

Ukraine's allies have previously been reluctant to allow it to strike within Russia using Western weapons, though the US has recently granted Kyiv permission to attack some targets along the border.

Earlier this week Lithuania's foreign minister said the first deliveries of F-16 fighter jets had arrived in Ukraine. Long promised by Kyiv's Nato allies, President Zelenky views the planes as central to his country's air defence plans.

The Times newspaper reported that six jets donated by the Netherlands had arrived in the country, but Dutch defence officials declined to comment when approached by the BBC earlier this week.

Officials in Kyiv will also hope that the jets can help arrest Russian momentum on the frontlines. Moscow's forces have been making incremental gains in the east of the country for several weeks.

BBC
 
Zelenskiy praises Ukraine’s strikes on military targets inside Russia

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, praised his forces on Saturday for hitting military targets inside Russia, after his army reported several strikes including on an airfield and an oil depot.

“I would like to thank each of our soldiers and all those who work in our defence industry for striking Russian airfields, oil refineries and logistics,” he said in his daily statement.

Kyiv has stepped up aerial attacks on Russian territory, saying it carries out the strikes in retaliation for the bombardments that Ukraine has faced since Russia invaded more than two years ago.

“Every strike that accurately responds to Russia’s bombs, that destroys Russian logistics, Russian bases, that makes it more difficult for the occupier to stay on our land. Every such strike brings the just end of the war closer,” he added.

Earlier, a Ukrainian defence source told AFP that drones had hit the Morozovsk airfield in the Rostov region, destroying an ammunition depot.

Russian officials did not address claims regarding the destroyed airfield, but local governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram that authorities had introduced a state of emergency in the district of Morozovsk.

The source in the Ukrainian defence sector also said its forces had hit a fuel warehouse in the Kamensky district of the Rostov region, where Russian officials earlier reported that a drone attack had set fire to oil tanks.

Later the Ukrainian armed forces said they had sunk the B-237 Rostov-on-Don submarine in occupied Crimea the day before, and destroyed four missile launchers.

Kyiv has over the course of the war increasingly claimed responsibility for strikes on Russian-held territory. Zelenskiy has been asking allies to lift restrictions to allow Ukraine to use western weapons to strike on Russian-controlled territory.

Once again, Zelenskiy advocated for his army to be allowed to target places “where the occupier is, from which Russia strikes at Ukraine, launches missiles, Shahed drones, bombs”.

www.theguardian.com

Zelenskiy praises Ukraine’s strikes on military targets inside Russia

Ukrainian army reports several hits on sites including Russian airfields, oil refineries and logistics
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 

From Whoppers to Magnums: The firms staying put in Russia despite Ukraine war​


Some Western companies still operating in Russia are pausing their plans to exit, despite the continued efforts to isolate the country's economy.

The invasion of Ukraine sparked a mass exodus of multinationals from the Russian market, wary of a potential consumer backlash should they stay.

Starbucks and McDonald's were among those to pull out as the West unleashed sanctions on Moscow and sought to isolate Russia's economy.

But nearly two and half years on, more than 2,000 foreign firms remain in Russia, according to the Kyiv School of Economics.

That is compared to around 1,750 that have either scaled back their operations or left completely.

The price and difficulty of corporate withdrawal have both significantly increased since the start of the war in Ukraine, as the Kremlin has sought to minimise capital outflow.

Chris Weafer, an investment strategist who has worked in Russia for more than 20 years, told Sky News the mounting cost and bureaucratic barriers have caused some clients to put departure plans on hold.

"There is a sense that maybe it is too late to leave," he said.

"Most companies that are still here have the attitude of let's keep our head down and hope conditions change and we won't have to leave."

Companies from so-called "unfriendly" states are now forced to sell their assets at a 50% discount.

The Russian government also charges a 15% exit tax on top, but only if the buyer (which must be local) is approved.

According to Mr Weafer, it is part of the Kremlin's "messaging" to show Russians it can "overcome" the economic constraints imposed by the West.

"When Russian people go to the stores and see the same Western brands that they've always been used to, then it fits the message coming from the Kremlin which is that life is normal, that Russia's been able to withstand the sanctions," he said.

Consumer goods giant Unilever is among those still operating in Russia.

Despite condemning the war and scaling back its business, the UK-headquartered company continues to manufacture, among other things, Cornettos and Magnums for the local market.

Burger King is among other prominent Western brands still visible in Moscow, despite promising to quit Russia soon after the war began.

Maintaining a presence in Russia is not a breach of sanctions, but companies are contributing to the economy, and as such, have attracted criticism from campaign groups.

"These Western companies that are still doing business in Russia don't have a moral bone in their body," Mark Dixon, founder of The Moral Rating Agency, told Sky News.

"It's idiotic, for the West to be pumping money and helping Ukraine which it should be doing, while its own companies are propping up the Russian economy."

Explaining its decision to remain in Russia, Unilever has previously said it did not want to abandon its staff.

It has also expressed a fear a departure would see its assets appropriated by the state.

When approached for comment, Unilever referred to a statement made by chief executive Hein Schumacher in October 2023, which said: "It is clear that the containment actions we have taken minimise Unilever's economic contribution to the Russian state.

"However, I understand why there are calls for our company to leave the country, and we continue to look at our options."

Burger King's owner, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), has previously suggested the restaurant's franchise structure prevents it from exiting.

The Canadian-American company owns 15% of the business in Russia and, after the invasion, it claimed its local partner refused to close.

The local partner did not reply to a request for comment.

In a statement, RBI told Sky News: "We cut off all corporate support for the Russian market in March of 2022, including operations, marketing, and supply chain support, in addition to refusing approvals for new investment and expansion.

"RBI has not made any profits from Burger King in Russia since early in 2022."

Outside one branch of Burger King near Moscow Zoo, some diners spoke of their delight at still being able to eat there.

"I'm very happy that at least someone stayed with us," Irina told Sky News.

Fyodor, accompanied by his family, was more cynical: "It seems that for many corporations, money is much more important than their image."

news.sky.com

From Whoppers to Magnums: The firms staying put in Russia despite Ukraine war

Starbucks and McDonald's were among those to pull out as the West unleashed sanctions on Moscow - but some firms have remained.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
Ukraine drone attack kills ambulance paramedic, driver in Russia's Kursk, local governor says

A drone launched by Ukraine hit an ambulance near the town of Sudzha in Russia's Kursk region, killing the driver and a paramedic, the acting governor of the southwestern region said on Wednesday.

Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that a doctor was also wounded.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Moscow launched with its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.



Reuters
 

Putin accuses Ukraine of 'provocation' amid alleged border incursion​


President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of launching "another major provocation", after defence officials said around 300 Ukrainian troops crossed into Russia's Kursk region on Tuesday.

Fighting is reportedly ongoing in the area, as Moscow said troops supported by 11 tanks and more than 20 armoured combat vehicles, crossed the border near the town of Sudzha, 10km (six miles) from the frontline.

Thousands of people have left their homes in the region, officials said. Ukraine has yet to comment on the Russian allegations.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of the Security Council in Moscow, Mr Putin accused Ukrainian forces of "firing indiscriminately" at civilian buildings and residences.

Fighting reportedly took place in various villages on Russian territory throughout Tuesday. It was followed by Ukrainian air attacks which killed three civilians and continued into the night, Russian authorities said.

Twenty-four people, including six children, have been wounded in Ukrainian shelling of the border region, Moscow said.

On Wednesday, Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed it prevented the Ukrainian Armed Forces from advancing “deep into Russian territory” in the Kursk region and said it had destroyed several Ukrainian drones overnight.

However, a number of air alerts continued to be issued in Kursk, where local authorities urged residents to limit their movements and all public events were cancelled.

Footage posted online - and verified by the BBC - showed fighter jets flying low overhead in the region on Tuesday, with smoke rising from areas on the ground.

The acting regional governor, Alexei Smirnov, said he had briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation, which he said was under control.

Mr Smirnov also said several thousand people had left areas of the region that were under attack and added doctors from Moscow and St Petersburg were on their way to offer assistance.

Kyiv has not yet commented on any of the reports about events in Kursk.

One colonel in Ukraine’s military, Vladislav Seleznyov, told the prominent Nexta channel the attack was “preventative” with an estimated 75,000 Russian troops continuing to gather close to the border.

After a major cross-border incursion by Russia into the north-eastern Kharkiv region in May, there had been fears Moscow would attempt the same into the Sumy region further north.

With Ukraine now apparently capturing several settlements and highways the other way, those ambitions may well have been frustrated, for now.

But with Ukrainian forces already overstretched and outmanned, some military analysts are questioning the wisdom of such cross-border raids.

This isn't the first incursion into Russia by fighters based in Ukraine. Some groups of anti-Kremlin Russians launched raids last year, which were repelled.

The forces crossed into the Belgorod and Kursk regions again in March, where they engaged in clashes with Russian security forces.

www.bbc.com

Putin accuses Ukraine of 'provocation' amid alleged border incursion

Fighting has been taking place since Tuesday, with footage showing smoke rising in some areas.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
State of emergency declared as Ukraine launches raid into Russia

A state of emergency has been declared in the Kursk region of Russia, as a rare cross-border attack by Ukrainian troops continued for a second day.

The acting regional governor, Alexei Smirnov, said the move was necessary "to eliminate the consequences of enemy forces coming into the region".

Thousands of people have also been evacuated from border areas, Mr Smirnov said earlier, adding that doctors were being drafted in from other cities.

Earlier, President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of launching a "major provocation" after Moscow said hundreds of troops crossed the border near the town of Sudzha, 10km (six miles) from the border, on Tuesday morning.


www.bbc.com

Putin accuses Ukraine of 'provocation' amid alleged border incursion

Fighting has been taking place since Tuesday, with footage showing smoke rising in some areas.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 

Steve Rosenberg: Kursk incursion won't turn Russians against war​


Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was conceived in the Kremlin as a short, sharp military operation.

The expectation was that it would take a matter of days, a few weeks maximum, for Russia to establish control over its neighbour.

That was nearly two-and-a-half years ago.

The war in Ukraine rages on. It has not gone at all as Moscow had intended.

But here’s the thing. Over the last 29 months, so often we’ve heard senior Russian officials claiming that the operation is going “according to plan.”

President Vladimir Putin last said that in May, despite everything that had happened in the preceding two years: the heavy Russian casualties on the battlefield, the destruction of multiple Russian warships in the Black Sea, drone attacks deep inside Russia (even on the Kremlin itself), the shelling of Russian towns and villages near the Ukrainian border, the mutiny by Wagner mercenary fighters who had marched on Moscow.

Now there is a new addition to the list: this week’s cross-border Ukrainian assault on Russia’s Kursk region.

First, a disclaimer: it’s difficult to know exactly what is happening right now in the Sudzha district of Kursk region. It is unclear how many Ukrainian troops are there, how much territory they have seized and what their final objective may be.

Today’s edition of the Russian broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta declared: “Events on the Kursk front are shrouded in the notorious fog of war.”

But even in fog, some things are clear.

It’s evident that what is unfolding in Kursk region is further evidence that Russia’s war in Ukraine has not gone "according to plan". Events appear to have taken Russia’s political and military leadership completely by surprise.

Don’t expect Moscow to admit that.

More likely, Russian officials will use the Ukrainian assault to try to rally the Russian public around the government and bolster the official Kremlin narrative that (a) in this conflict Russia is not the aggressor, and (b) Russia is a besieged fortress surrounded by enemies who are plotting to invade and destroy it.

In reality it was Russia that launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

There’s clearly a big difference in language. When Russia poured it troops across the border into Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin called this a "special military operation" and claimed that Russia was “liberating” towns and villages.

Moscow has described Ukrainian troops pushing into Russia as “a terrorist attack” and “a provocation.”

The assault by Ukrainian forces on Kursk region and the fierce fighting there are a sign that hostilities are coming closer to home. But will that turn Russian public opinion against the war?

Not necessarily.

Last year I visited Belgorod, a Russian region which, like Kursk, borders Ukraine. It was being shelled from across the border. Everyone I met told me that nothing like this had happened before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine: before February 2022 it was all peace and quiet in Belgorod region.

But instead of concluding that the "special military operation" had been a mistake, most people I spoke to called for Russia to step up its military action and push deeper into Ukrainian territory.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is calling for exactly that. In a social media post today he wrote:

“We can and we should take more land of the Ukraine that still exists. [We should go to] Odesa, to Kharkiv, to Dnepro, Mykolaiv. To Kyiv and onwards.”

But Dmitry Medvedev doesn’t get to call the shots. Vladimir Putin does. We wait to see how he responds to what have been a dramatic few days in southern Russia.

www.bbc.com

Steve Rosenberg: Shock Kursk incursion won't turn Russians against the war

The attack on Kursk has led some Russians to call for a deeper military push into Ukraine.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 

Mass YouTube outage reported in Russia​


Russian internet monitoring services reported a mass outage on the availability of video hosting site YouTube on Thursday as Russian authorities step up criticism of the platform.

Russian internet monitoring service Sboi.rf said there had been thousands of glitches reported about YouTube in Russia. Users said they could only access YouTube via virtual private networks (VPNs).

“YouTube is not working,” one anonymous user said in comments on the site.

Reuters reporters in Russia were unable to access YouTube. The website remained available via some mobile devices.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor also did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

YouTube is one of the last major bastions of free expression on the Russian internet, where the site continues to host materials by Kremlin opponents that have been largely removed from other social media sites popular in Russia.

The site’s download speeds have notably slowed in recent weeks, for which Russian lawmakers have blamed YouTube owner Alphabet’s Google, something the company disputes.

Alexander Khinshtein, head of a parliamentary committee on information policy, warned last month that YouTube speeds would drop by as much as 70 percent.

He said the degradation was “a necessary step, directed not against Russian users, but against the administration of a foreign resource that still believes it can violate and ignore our legislation without punishment.”

Khinshtein later explicitly blamed the slowdown on Google’s failure to invest in Russian infrastructure, such as its local cache servers, something YouTube rejected.

A YouTube spokesperson said last week it was aware of reports that some people were unable to access YouTube in Russia. This was not because of any actions on technical issues on its part, it said.

 
Third day of fighting in Kursk region, Russia says

Russian forces continued intense fighting with Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk region, Moscow's defence ministry has said.

Russia says at least 1,000 Ukrainian troops, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, crossed the border on Tuesday.

Some 3,000 people have had to evacuate the region, as ongoing military altercations have killed at least four people, Kursk's deputy Governor Andrei Belostotsky said on Thursday.

Ukraine's military is yet to directly comment on the reports, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said, without referencing the assault: “Everyone can see that the Ukrainian army knows how to surprise [and] achieve results.”


www.bbc.com

Russia-Ukraine war: Fighting in Kursk enters third day, Russia says

Without mentioning the incursion, Ukraine's president says his army knows how to surprise.
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Russia must feel war consequences, says Zelensky amid Ukrainian attack

Three days into Ukraine’s cross-border attack on Russia's Kursk region, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Moscow must "feel" the consequences for its invasion of Ukraine.

"Russia brought the war to our land and should feel what it has done”, Mr Zelensky said in his Thursday evening address, without directly referencing the Ukrainian offensive.

"Ukrainians know how to achieve their goals. And we did not choose to achieve our goals in the war," he added.

Russia says at least 1,000 Ukrainian troops, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, entered its territory on Tuesday morning - in what appears to be one of the largest assaults on Russian soil since the war began.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier accused Ukraine of a "major provocation".

Ukrainian officials have been largely silent on the offensive. The exact situation on the ground is hard to determine, with few specific details released by either side.

“Everyone can see that the Ukrainian army knows how to surprise [and] achieve results," the Ukrainian president said earlier on Thursday, without directly referencing the assault.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was monitoring Kursk’s nuclear plant, according to state-owned Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.

Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday that its troops were "continuing to destroy" armed Ukrainian units with air strikes, rockets and artillery fire.

The ministry said Russian reserves had been rushed to the region.

The Institute for the Study of War, a well-respected think tank, said geo-located footage showed Ukrainian armoured vehicles had advanced to positions 10km (6.2 miles) into the Kursk region in the first two days of the incursion.

Russia's military leadership is under severe scrutiny domestically, as some popular and generally well-informed pro-war Telegram channels have said the situation on the ground is not as stable as the Kremlin has suggested.

The influential pro-war Rybar Telegram channel strongly criticised the highest ranks of the Russian military on Wednesday, saying that "for two months the full information was sent to the useless headquarters", adding that there was enough time "to make an appropriate decision".

In a publicised video call with Mr Putin on Thursday, Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said buses and trains were being used to evacuate people to other Russian regions that had offered to accommodate them.

The efforts were being hampered by Ukrainian shelling, he added.

Posts from his Telegram account continued to warn Kursk residents of missile strikes throughout the night and into Friday morning.

The Russian defence ministry said in a statement on Telegram on Friday morning that it had intercepted and destroyed 75 UAV missiles, which had flown over regions including Kursk.

Russian state news agencies reported early on Friday that a fire had broken out at a military airfield in the neighbouring Lipetsk region. It was not clear what caused the fire or whether it was related to the fighting in Kursk.

A red threat level alert had been issued in Lipetsk, but was later lifted on Friday morning. The regional governor Igor Artamonov earlier said an energy infrastructure facility had been damaged and power supply disruptions reported.

Local leaders in regions adjacent to Kursk, in both Russia and Ukraine, also told residents to leave for their safety.

On Wednesday, the head of the Ukrainian region of Sumy, Volodymyr Artyukh, ordered the evacuation of areas bordering Kursk.

In the Russian region of Belgorod, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Thursday that settlements across his province had been attacked by Ukrainian forces over the past 24 hours.

Ukraine’s key allies seemed surprised by the offensive - with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying the US was reaching out to Ukraine to better understand what it hoped to achieve.

This is not the first incursion into Russia by fighters based in Ukraine. Some groups of anti-Kremlin Russians launched raids last year, which were repelled.

The forces crossed into the Belgorod and Kursk regions again in March, where they engaged in clashes with Russian security forces.

On Wednesday evening, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko said the Ukrainian army had established control over the Sudzha gas hub, a major facility involved in the transit of natural gas from Russia to the EU via Ukraine, which has continued despite the war.

It is the only point of entry for Russian gas into the EU.

As of Thursday, gas was reportedly still flowing from Sudzha.

Russia's National Guard said it had reinforced security around Kursk's nuclear power station, which lies some 70km north-east of Sudzha.

For the past few months Russia has made incremental gains in eastern Ukraine, as many of Kyiv's ground forces have faced relentless attacks in the eastern Donbas region.

In a recent interview, Ukraine's head of defence intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said the main offensive by Russian forces "is expected to be over in a month and a half to two months".

BBC
 
Ukraine says it hit airfield deep inside Russia

Ukraine's military says it has hit a military airfield deep inside Russia, destroying warehouses with guided bombs.

In a statement, the military reported a huge blaze and multiple detonations at the Lipetsk airfield, more than 350km (217 miles) from Ukraine's border, after the overnight strike.

Lipetsk's regional authorities said a state of emergency was now in place in the area, confirming the detonations at an "energy infrastructure facility". Residents of four nearby villages were being evacuated.

This comes as Ukraine's army is continuing its big cross-border offensive in Russia's western Kursk region, where a state of emergency is also in place.

Reports suggest that Ukrainian troops are operating about 10km inside Russian territory - the deepest cross-border advance by Kyiv since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Russia's military says up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, entered the Kursk region on Tuesday morning.

It says more than 300 troops have been killed and wounded - a claim that has not been independently verified.

In an video address late on Thursday, without directly mentioning the alleged incursion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow must "feel" the consequences for its invasion of Ukraine.

"Russia brought the war to our land and should feel what it has done”, he said, without directly referencing the Ukrainian offensive.

"Ukrainians know how to achieve their goals. And we did not choose to achieve our goals in the war," he added.

BBC
 

Russia struggles to repel deep incursion by Ukraine​


Russia's military has said it is "continuing to repel" a Ukrainian cross-border incursion into the western Kursk region - a surprise attack now in its fourth day.

The Russian defence ministry said Ukraine lost more than 280 military personnel in the past 24 hours - a claim that has not been independently verified.

Reports suggest that Ukrainian troops are operating more than 10km (six miles) inside Russia - the deepest cross-border advance by Kyiv since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine has not openly admitted the incursion, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Moscow must "feel" the consequences for its invasion.

Meanwhile, 10 people have been killed and 35 injured in a Russian strike on a shopping centre in the Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka, close to the frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on his Telegram channel.

Residential buildings, shops and more than a dozen cars were also damaged, he added.

News of the strike came hours after Ukraine's military said it had overnight hit a military airfield deep inside Russia, destroying guided bombs stored in warehouses.

In a statement, the Ukrainian military reported a huge blaze and multiple detonations at the Lipetsk airfield, more than 350km (217 miles) from Ukraine's border, after the overnight strike.

The statement said the airfield was known for housing Russia's Su-34, Su-35 and MiG-31 war planes - but provided no further information about the attack.

Lipetsk's regional authorities said a state of emergency was now in place in the area, confirming the detonations at an "energy infrastructure facility". Residents of four nearby villages were being evacuated.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Russian defence ministry said its forces were repelling "an attempt by the Ukrainian armed forces to invade the territory of the Russian Federation".

It said Russia was using aviation and artillery, managing to suppress "raid attempts by enemy units".

Earlier on Tuesday, a "federal state of emergency" was declared in the Kursk region - a move that underlines how grave the current situation is.

Russia said that up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, entered the Kursk region on Tuesday morning.

"Russia brought the war to our land and should feel what it has done,” Mr Zelensky said in a video address late on Thursday.

"Ukrainians know how to achieve their goals. And we did not choose to achieve our goals in the war," he added.

www.bbc.com

Russia struggles to repel deep incursion by Ukraine

A surprise Ukrainian offensive in Russia's western Kursk region is now in its fourth day.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
Russia seeks to repel Ukraine as cross-border incursion continues

Ukraine is continuing it cross-border incursion into Russia for a fourth day.

Reports suggest that Ukrainian troops are operating more than 10km (six miles) inside Russian territory – the deepest cross-border advance by Kyiv since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022

Moscow says it is moving reinforcements – including heavy armoury and missile launchers – to the western Kursk region, state media reports
Russia's defence ministry says its troops are "continuing to repel" Ukraine's incursion - a claim not verified independently
Its emergency ministry declared a federal state of emergency in the area

President Vladimir Putin has chaired a meeting with members of the Russian Security Council at a residence outside of Moscow
Ukraine has not explicitly confirmed the incursion, but President Volodymyr Zelensky says Moscow must "feel" the consequences for its invasion.

In Ukraine, the prosecutor general's office say a Russian strike on a supermarket in the front-line Donetsk region has killed 14 people and left 44 injured

Source: BBC
 

Russia in 'counter-terror' mode over Ukraine attack​


Russia has imposed a "counter-terrorism operation" regime in three regions to try to halt a surprise cross-border incursion by Ukrainian troops.

The authorities in the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions on the border with Ukraine now can restrict the movement of people and vehicles and use phone tapping among other measures.

This comes as the Ukrainian offensive into the Kursk region is now in its fifth day. Kyiv has not openly admitted the incursion.

Reports suggest that Ukrainian troops are fighting more than 10km (six miles) inside Russia - the deepest advance since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The new security measures in the three Russian border regions were announced by the National Counter-Terrorism Committee (Nak) on Friday.

It said this was done "to ensure the safety of citizens and suppress the threat of terrorist acts by enemy sabotage and reconnaissance units".

The authorities now have powers to enter private homes, restrict the movement of traffic and pedestrians, order the temporary relocation of people and monitor information sent electronically.

In recent years, Russia has imposed the "anti-terrorist operation" regime in villages and towns of its North Caucasus region, where security forces have been battling militants.

Last year, such a regime was briefly imposed in the capital, Moscow, during a short-lived armed mutiny by Russia's Wagner mercenaries.

The latest measures come as Moscow is struggling to contain the Ukrainian offensive.

Russia said that up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, entered the Kursk region on Tuesday morning.

The Ukrainians have since reportedly seized a number of villages, and are also threatening the regional town of Sudzha.

On Friday, a video emerged purportedly showing armed Ukrainian soldiers who claimed to have control over the town, as well as a key Russian gas facility there owned by the Gazprom company.

BBC Verify has now confirmed that the footage was indeed from the Gazprom facility on the north-western outskirts of Sudzha, about 7km from the border with Ukraine. The video alone does not verify the claim that Ukrainian troops have taken the whole town.

Russian military bloggers earlier claimed that the town was in Moscow's hands.

Earlier, BBC Verify checked and confirmed the location of another video posted online on Friday morning. It shows a 15-vehicle Russian convoy damaged, burned and abandoned on a road through the town of Oktyabrskoe, roughly 38km from the border on the Russian side.

The footage also shows Russian soldiers, some injured, possibly dead among the vehicles.

Moscow has since sent reinforcements - including tanks and rocket-launching systems - to the Kursk region.

In its latest report on Saturday morning, the Russian defence ministry said its troops were "continuing to repel the attempted invasion" of Ukrainian forces.

It claimed that Ukraine's attempts to "break through deep into Russian territory" had been foiled.

The Russian claims have not been independently verified.

www.bbc.com

Russia launches counter-terror operation over Ukraine incursion

Russia imposes strict measures in three regions to try to halt a surprise incursion by Ukrainian troops.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
The Russian army has conducted airstrikes against Ukrainian forces, including using a thermobaric bomb, also known as a vacuum bomb

The pressure from the bomb's extra hot blast is capable of vaporising human bodies.

It is not the first time Moscow is reported to have deployed such weapons, as Ukrainian officials alleged they were being used in the invasion just weeks after it began in February 2022.

Using vacuum bombs is not a breach of international law, but targeting civilians with them is.

Moscow on Saturday announced it was launching a "counter-terrorism operation" in response to the largest cross-border attack by Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of his smaller neighbour.

The US has said it does not consider the action in Kursk to be escalatory
The measures announced for Kursk and for the neighbouring Belgorod and Bryansk regions that border Ukraine allow the government to relocate residents, control phone communications and requisition vehicles, the defence ministry said.

Tass news agency reports upto 76,000 people have been evacuated from the Kursk region.

Ukraine's daring operation in Kursk has not yet been commented on by Kyiv officials and its aims are uncertain.

In neighbouring Belarus, where Russian troops are deployed but which has not sent its own army into Ukraine, President Alexander Lukashenko said air defences had shot down unspecified objects launched from Ukraine that were flying over Belarusian territory.

"I do not understand why Ukraine needs this. We need to figure it out. As I said before, we made it clear to them that any provocations will not go unanswered," Mr Lukashenko said, according to state news agency Belta.

A Russian plane-launched missile slammed into a Ukrainian shopping mall in Kostiantynivka, in the separatist eastern region of Donetsk, on Friday, killing at least 14 people and injuring 44 others, authorities said.

Source: Sky News
 
Russia is finished this is embarrassing on an epic scale.

China , Japan and the muslim areas need to start reclaiming their areas back in south and eastern Russia.
 
Ukraine's Zelensky acknowledges offensive in Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged, for the first time, that his military is conducting an offensive inside Russia's western Kursk region.

In his nightly televised address on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine's military is pushing the war "onto the aggressor's territory."

This comes five days after Ukraine began its operation, which has taken Russia by surprise and prompted mass evacuations across both sides of the border.

In Ukraine, the capital Kyiv and in the Sumy region came under Russian air attack in the early hours of Sunday, officials said.

A 35-year-old man and his four-year-old child were killed in Kyiv, Ukraine's emergency services said on Sunday.

Three more were wounded, including a 13-year-old child, according to a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on Telegram early on Sunday morning that air defence units were "operating" and warned civilians to stay in shelters.

In his Saturday address, Mr Zelensky thanked Ukraine's "warriors", and said he had discussed the operation in Russia with the country's senior military commander Oleksandr Syrsky.

"Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor," he added.

Reports say Ukrainian troops are threatening to seize one regional town as they fight more than 10km (six miles) inside Russia - the deepest advance since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

At least 13 people were injured - two seriously - in Kursk in the early hours of Sunday, the region's acting governor Alexei Smirnov said.

More than 76,000 people have already been evacuated from the border area, according to Russia's state Tass news agency, and Mr Smirnov said on Sunday he had ordered officials to speed up the operation to get civilians to safety.

Russia's National Counter-Terrorism Committee imposed a "counter-terrorism operation" regime across three regions on Friday in response to Ukraine's surprise cross-border incursion.

This means authorities in the border regions of Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions can restrict the movement of people and vehicles and use phone tapping among other measures.

Russia said that up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, entered the Kursk region on Tuesday morning.

The Ukrainians have since reportedly seized a number of villages, and are also threatening the regional town of Sudzha.

On Friday, a video emerged purportedly showing armed Ukrainian soldiers who claimed to have control over the town, as well as a key Russian gas facility there owned by the Gazprom company.

BBC Verify has now confirmed that the footage was indeed from the Gazprom facility on the north-western outskirts of Sudzha, about 7km from the border with Ukraine. The video alone does not verify the claim that Ukrainian troops have taken the whole town.

Russian military bloggers earlier claimed that the town was in Moscow's hands.

BBC Verify checked and confirmed the location of another video posted online on Friday morning. It shows a 15-vehicle Russian convoy damaged, burned and abandoned on a road through the town of Oktyabrskoe, roughly 38km from the border on the Russian side.

The footage also shows Russian soldiers - some injured, some possibly dead - among the vehicles.

Moscow has since sent reinforcements - including tanks and rocket-launcher systems - to the Kursk region.

In its latest report on Saturday morning, the Russian defence ministry said its troops were "continuing to repel the attempted invasion" of Ukrainian forces.

It claimed that Ukraine's attempts to "break through deep into Russian territory" had been foiled.

The Russian claims have not been independently verified.

On Friday, the UN nuclear agency urged both Russia and Ukraine to "exercise maximum restraint" as the fighting was edging closer to the Kursk nuclear power plant - one of the biggest such facilities in Russia.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said measures must be taken “to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences”.

The power plant is located about 60km north-east of Sudzha.

BBC
 
Number of injured people in Kursk rises to 15: Official

That’s according to the acting governor of Russia’s Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov.

“As a result of the fall of rocket debris on an apartment building in the regional centre, 15 people were injured. Everyone is receiving the necessary medical care,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Earlier, Smirnov reported 13 victims, two of whom were in serious condition.

Al Jazeera
 
Russian army claims to have halted Ukraine troops in Kursk

Russia’s army says it has halted Ukraine’s advance into its western region of Kursk in several places, hitting soldiers and equipment in areas up to 30km (20 miles) from their shared border.

The Defence Ministry said Russian troops had “foiled attempts by enemy mobile groups with armoured vehicles to break through deep into Russian territory”, including near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez.

Al Jazeera
 
Ukraine claims to control 1,000 sq km of Russian territory

Ukraine's top commander has said Kyiv's forces control 1,000 sq km of Russian territory as they press their biggest cross-border incursion in two-and-a-half years of full-scale war.

Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukraine continued to "conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region" seven days after it began.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had brought war to others and now it was coming back to Russia.

But Russian leader Vladimir Putin described the offensive as a "major provocation" and ordered Russian forces to "to kick the enemy out of our territory".

A growing number of people have been evacuated from the western Russian region for their safety, with a further 59,000 told to leave.

The local governor said some 28 villages in the area had fallen to Ukrainian forces, that 12 civilians had been killed and that "the situation remains difficult".

Ukrainian troops launched their surprise attack last Tuesday, advancing up to 18 miles (30km) into Russia.

The offensive is said to have boosted morale on the Ukrainian side, but analysts say the strategy brings fresh dangers to Ukraine.

A senior British military source, who asked not to be named, told the BBC there was the risk that Moscow will be so angered by this incursion that it could redouble its own attacks on Ukraine’s civilian population and infrastructure.

In comments aired on state television, President Putin said on Monday: "One of the obvious goals of the enemy is to sow discord, strife, intimidate people, destroy the unity and cohesion of Russian society.

"The main task is, of course, for the defence ministry to dislodge the enemy from our territories," he told a meeting of officials.

The region's governor said 121,000 people had been evacuated from their homes. He told Mr Putin that about 2,000 Russian citizens remained in areas occupied by Ukrainian forces in the area.

"We don't know anything about their fate," he said.

He warned people to take shelter from missiles in rooms without windows and with solid walls.

In Belgorod, the region next to Kursk, about 11,000 people were also urged to leave, as governor Vyacheslav Gladkov told people from the Krasnaya Yaruga district they were being moved due to "enemy activity on the border".

He issued a similar missile warning, and told people to shelter in their basements.

In his nightly address, Ukraine's president acknowledged the offensive, saying: "Russia must be forced to make peace if Putin wants to fight so badly."

"Russia brought war to others, now it's coming home. Ukraine has always wanted only peace, and we will certainly ensure peace," Mr Zelensky added.

Ukrainian officials have said thousands of troops are engaged in the operation, far more than the small incursion initially reported by Russian border guards.

An official told news agency AFP that their aim was "to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia".

Speaking to the BBC's Newshour programme, Kurt Volker, a former US Ambassador to Nato, said Ukraine's incursion could cost President Putin politically at home.

He said Ukraine's incursion into Russian territory had happened "because of President Putin and the way he's conducted this war."

"That is not going to be lost on the elites in Russia. It's not going to be lost on the public. Putin has provoked attacks on the Russian territory itself and people are having to be evacuated. That's quite something."

During a meeting with Mr Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday, US Senator Lindsey Graham called the cross-border operation "brilliant" and "bold", and urged the Biden administration to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs.

Some in Russia have questioned how Ukraine was able to enter the Kursk region - with one pro-Russian war blogger, Yuri Podolyaka calling the situation "alarming".

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said a tough response from Russia's armed forces "will not take long".

Russian ally Belarus said it was bolstering its own troop numbers at its border after claiming Ukraine had entered its airspace with drones.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency said late on Monday it had inspected a damaged cooling tower at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine following a fire on Sunday, but could not immediately find the cause.

Mr Zelensky has accused Russia of deliberately starting the fire in order to "blackmail" Ukraine, while Zaporizhzhia's Kremlin-installed regional governor has said it was caused by Ukrainian shelling.

BBC
 
BouncerGuy said:
Ukraine claims to control 1,000 sq km of Russian territory

Ukraine's top commander has said Kyiv's forces control 1,000 sq km of Russian territory as they press their biggest cross-border incursion in two-and-a-half years of full-scale war.

Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukraine continued to "conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region" seven days after it began.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had brought war to others and now it was coming back to Russia.

But Russian leader Vladimir Putin described the offensive as a "major provocation" and ordered Russian forces to "to kick the enemy out of our territory".

A growing number of people have been evacuated from the western Russian region for their safety, with a further 59,000 told to leave.

The local governor said some 28 villages in the area had fallen to Ukrainian forces, that 12 civilians had been killed and that "the situation remains difficult".

Ukrainian troops launched their surprise attack last Tuesday, advancing up to 18 miles (30km) into Russia.

The offensive is said to have boosted morale on the Ukrainian side, but analysts say the strategy brings fresh dangers to Ukraine.

A senior British military source, who asked not to be named, told the BBC there was the risk that Moscow will be so angered by this incursion that it could redouble its own attacks on Ukraine’s civilian population and infrastructure.

In comments aired on state television, President Putin said on Monday: "One of the obvious goals of the enemy is to sow discord, strife, intimidate people, destroy the unity and cohesion of Russian society.

"The main task is, of course, for the defence ministry to dislodge the enemy from our territories," he told a meeting of officials.

The region's governor said 121,000 people had been evacuated from their homes. He told Mr Putin that about 2,000 Russian citizens remained in areas occupied by Ukrainian forces in the area.

"We don't know anything about their fate," he said.

He warned people to take shelter from missiles in rooms without windows and with solid walls.

In Belgorod, the region next to Kursk, about 11,000 people were also urged to leave, as governor Vyacheslav Gladkov told people from the Krasnaya Yaruga district they were being moved due to "enemy activity on the border".

He issued a similar missile warning, and told people to shelter in their basements.

In his nightly address, Ukraine's president acknowledged the offensive, saying: "Russia must be forced to make peace if Putin wants to fight so badly."

"Russia brought war to others, now it's coming home. Ukraine has always wanted only peace, and we will certainly ensure peace," Mr Zelensky added.

Ukrainian officials have said thousands of troops are engaged in the operation, far more than the small incursion initially reported by Russian border guards.

An official told news agency AFP that their aim was "to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia".

Speaking to the BBC's Newshour programme, Kurt Volker, a former US Ambassador to Nato, said Ukraine's incursion could cost President Putin politically at home.

He said Ukraine's incursion into Russian territory had happened "because of President Putin and the way he's conducted this war."

"That is not going to be lost on the elites in Russia. It's not going to be lost on the public. Putin has provoked attacks on the Russian territory itself and people are having to be evacuated. That's quite something."

During a meeting with Mr Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday, US Senator Lindsey Graham called the cross-border operation "brilliant" and "bold", and urged the Biden administration to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs.

Some in Russia have questioned how Ukraine was able to enter the Kursk region - with one pro-Russian war blogger, Yuri Podolyaka calling the situation "alarming".

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said a tough response from Russia's armed forces "will not take long".

Russian ally Belarus said it was bolstering its own troop numbers at its border after claiming Ukraine had entered its airspace with drones.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency said late on Monday it had inspected a damaged cooling tower at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine following a fire on Sunday, but could not immediately find the cause.

Mr Zelensky has accused Russia of deliberately starting the fire in order to "blackmail" Ukraine, while Zaporizhzhia's Kremlin-installed regional governor has said it was caused by Ukrainian shelling.

BBC
Click to expand...

Control would be short-term most likely. Russia are likely to get those back very soon.
 
Bhaijaan said:
Then you don’t know who China is 😂🤣.

You will find out soon enough.
Click to expand...

Are you scared more of Chinese , Muslims or bad guys characters in Bollywood?


On topic , all those who entered Russia will be eliminated soon . Ukraine are wanting similar involvement from others in Europe & America as Israel does . The Chechen forces are in Kursk now .
 
Russian shelling kills one, injures two in Ukraine's Sumy region

Russian shelling killed at least one civilian and injured two more in Ukraine's Sumy region, the local administration said, as Kyiv troops proceed with their major cross-border assault in Russia's adjacent Kursk region.

The casualties were reported in the Krasnopillia area, the regional military administration said.

It said 45 Russian attacks on the region had been recorded on Tuesday, including guided bomb strikes, explosions from drones, and shelling.

The regional military said Russia stepped up airstrikes on border settlements following the incursion.

Kyiv's military on Tuesday restricted the movement of civilians within a 20 km (12 mile) zone of the northeastern border area.

It cited an "increase in the intensity of hostilities" and the activation of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups, adding the measure was temporary and that residents could still access their homes by showing proof of registration.


Reuters
 
Its weird. guys who back russia in ukraine want world sympathy for palestine, all the while claiming moral superiority
 
Second Russian region declares state of emergency after Ukraine attack

A state of emergency has been declared in the Russian border region of Belgorod following attacks by Ukrainian forces.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the situation was "extremely difficult" due to daily shelling in the region.

"Houses are destroyed, civilians died and were injured," he said.

It follows Ukraine's surprise cross-border attack in Russia's Kursk region last week, leading to mass evacuations and a state of emergency being declared there by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a video on Telegram, Governor Gladkov said he would be appealing to the government to declare an emergency "at the federal level".

He said the city of Shebekino and the village of Ustinka had been attacked by Ukrainian drones. No casualties have been reported as of yet.

Russia says it shot down 117 drones overnight, which mainly targeted four regions - Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod.

In a statement on Wednesday morning, Mr Gladkov said there had been 23 drone attacks over the past 24 hours in Belgorod.

Shelling and shrapnel had damaged a church, 14 houses, an administrative building, several vehicles and a gas supply line, he said.

He added that one civilian had been wounded as a direct result of a drone attack in the urban Shebekinsky district.

Belgorod lies just south of the Kursk region, the location of Ukraine's deepest incursion into Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

In a video on Telegram on Wednesday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed troops had advanced 1-2km further into Kursk since the start of the day.

But exactly how much Russian territory has been seized is uncertain, and there is scepticism over army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi's previous claim that a total of 1,000 sq km was under Ukrainian control.

Speaking via video link to President Zelensky, Mr Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces had captured 100 Russian prisoners of war during the cross-border incursion.

Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhy has said Kyiv is not interested in "taking over" Russian territory.

"The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace... the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defence forces into Russia will stop," he told reporters.

President Putin claimed on Monday that Ukraine had refused Russian proposals to return to a peaceful settlement plan.

"It appears that the enemy, with the help of his Western masters, is fulfilling their will, and the West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians," he said.

Russian's foreign ministry special envoy Rodion Miroshnik has described Ukraine's incursion as a "terrorist action", accusing Ukraine of putting the prospect of peace talks "on a long pause" by attacking the Kursk region.

President Zelensky has long said Ukraine will not negotiate with Moscow until Russian forces leave all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea which was annexed in 2014.

Russia has so far struggled to halt the Ukrainian advance, with almost 200,000 Russians having fled their homes in parts of the Kursk region.

Moscow insisted on Tuesday that Ukrainian attempts to push deeper had been thwarted, but this has been proved wrong before.

In his first comments since the operation, US President Biden said that the offensive was “creating a real dilemma for Putin".

The prime ministers of Finland and Estonia, meanwhile, said they supported Ukraine's military operation in Kursk at a joint press conference on Wednesday.

Last week, the German Foreign Ministry said Ukraine was entitled to self-defence which was "not limited to its own territory".

BBC
 
BouncerGuy said:
Second Russian region declares state of emergency after Ukraine attack

A state of emergency has been declared in the Russian border region of Belgorod following attacks by Ukrainian forces.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the situation was "extremely difficult" due to daily shelling in the region.

"Houses are destroyed, civilians died and were injured," he said.

It follows Ukraine's surprise cross-border attack in Russia's Kursk region last week, leading to mass evacuations and a state of emergency being declared there by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a video on Telegram, Governor Gladkov said he would be appealing to the government to declare an emergency "at the federal level".

He said the city of Shebekino and the village of Ustinka had been attacked by Ukrainian drones. No casualties have been reported as of yet.

Russia says it shot down 117 drones overnight, which mainly targeted four regions - Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod.

In a statement on Wednesday morning, Mr Gladkov said there had been 23 drone attacks over the past 24 hours in Belgorod.

Shelling and shrapnel had damaged a church, 14 houses, an administrative building, several vehicles and a gas supply line, he said.

He added that one civilian had been wounded as a direct result of a drone attack in the urban Shebekinsky district.

Belgorod lies just south of the Kursk region, the location of Ukraine's deepest incursion into Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

In a video on Telegram on Wednesday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed troops had advanced 1-2km further into Kursk since the start of the day.

But exactly how much Russian territory has been seized is uncertain, and there is scepticism over army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi's previous claim that a total of 1,000 sq km was under Ukrainian control.

Speaking via video link to President Zelensky, Mr Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces had captured 100 Russian prisoners of war during the cross-border incursion.

Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhy has said Kyiv is not interested in "taking over" Russian territory.

"The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace... the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defence forces into Russia will stop," he told reporters.

President Putin claimed on Monday that Ukraine had refused Russian proposals to return to a peaceful settlement plan.

"It appears that the enemy, with the help of his Western masters, is fulfilling their will, and the West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians," he said.

Russian's foreign ministry special envoy Rodion Miroshnik has described Ukraine's incursion as a "terrorist action", accusing Ukraine of putting the prospect of peace talks "on a long pause" by attacking the Kursk region.

President Zelensky has long said Ukraine will not negotiate with Moscow until Russian forces leave all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea which was annexed in 2014.

Russia has so far struggled to halt the Ukrainian advance, with almost 200,000 Russians having fled their homes in parts of the Kursk region.

Moscow insisted on Tuesday that Ukrainian attempts to push deeper had been thwarted, but this has been proved wrong before.

In his first comments since the operation, US President Biden said that the offensive was “creating a real dilemma for Putin".

The prime ministers of Finland and Estonia, meanwhile, said they supported Ukraine's military operation in Kursk at a joint press conference on Wednesday.

Last week, the German Foreign Ministry said Ukraine was entitled to self-defence which was "not limited to its own territory".

BBC
Click to expand...
I don't doubt Russia will take this back within weeks but it has been a massive egg on Putin's face. For all his claims of not allowing a single foreign foot to fall on Russian land to now scolding his generals and scrambling to redeploy forces.

I'm afraid both this and F16 deployment are temporary tactical wins for Ukraine but even tactical wins have been scarce for them in this war. Huge morale boost for the Ukrainians.
 
Russia is taking nothing back their whole armed forces are in complete dissaray .

They are screwed

Russia relied on its cold winters to destroy enemies now modern warfare standoff weapons, aircraft , drones negates all that .

Can't wait like old days for plague to strike mongol horde or supply lines frozen and frigid winter to destroy napoleon and hitler .
 
Putin's plan is to make as many gains as possible till January and hope Trump wins the election and force Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire on current lines. He politically cant return empty handed after spending so much on the war

Russia is stretched thin while focussing on the frontline. That's why Ukraine is hitting their airbases and refineries all over the country. Its not possible to have effective air defence in a country the size of russia. They were not anticipating a offensive in Kursk and probably left it thinly guarded with inexperienced troops who surrendered at the first sign of trouble . If they have to divert a lot of troops to protect Kursk, that's a victory for Ukraine because it eases pressure on them on the frontline.

Both countries are right now playing for bargaining position at the negotiating table. I reckon the war will end by Spring 2025
 
mazkhan said:
Russia is taking nothing back their whole armed forces are in complete dissaray .

They are screwed

Russia relied on its cold winters to destroy enemies now modern warfare standoff weapons, aircraft , drones negates all that .

Can't wait like old days for plague to strike mongol horde or supply lines frozen and frigid winter to destroy napoleon and hitler .
Click to expand...

Keep waiting . Russia has cemented control over their new lands , Ukraine will never get those back , the people chose Russia & Putin liberated them . Ukraine are running around a few villages in Russia , they won’t make it alive & will die in Russia. Enjoy the wait
 
KingKhanWC said:
Keep waiting . Russia has cemented control over their new lands , Ukraine will never get those back , the people chose Russia & Putin liberated them . Ukraine are running around a few villages in Russia , they won’t make it alive & will die in Russia. Enjoy the wait
Click to expand...

lol Putin has to go to North Korea and Iran to get ammo and drones for his campaign. He has depleted the Russian army (already hollowed out by years of corruption) to the extent that they are bringing back 50 year old tanks into service. It will take decades to bring back the Russian army up to speed, maybe even more.

Putin was hoping for a quick resolution to war which didnt happen. Now he's fighting because he has no option . He will end up with conquered land but at what cost
 
This is a trap.

Russians have read Bharatiya literature and have learnt the art of war from Chanakaya himself.

Once the enemy (shatru) is deep within the Chakravyu, then Russians will encircle them and smash them.

It’s Yudhneeti at its finest.
 
oatmeal said:
lol Putin has to go to North Korea and Iran to get ammo and drones for his campaign. He has depleted the Russian army (already hollowed out by years of corruption) to the extent that they are bringing back 50 year old tanks into service. It will take decades to bring back the Russian army up to speed, maybe even more.

Putin was hoping for a quick resolution to war which didnt happen. Now he's fighting because he has no option . He will end up with conquered land but at what cost
Click to expand...

North Korea & Iran have quality military equipment in various areas . This isn’t the 1960s lol .

Putin is fighting NATO , Ukrainez main battalions inc the Azov Nazis were wiped with months . Ukraine will not get those lands back , it’s idiotic to suggest otherwise, which you are not .

Russian economy is just fine , Moscow is cleaner than most European capitals now . The cost will be to Europe which is in decline mostly due to Russian success.

Read Back through this thread & you’ll see who was correct .
 
KingKhanWC said:
North Korea & Iran have quality military equipment in various areas . This isn’t the 1960s lol .

Putin is fighting NATO , Ukrainez main battalions inc the Azov Nazis were wiped with months . Ukraine will not get those lands back , it’s idiotic to suggest otherwise, which you are not .

Russian economy is just fine , Moscow is cleaner than most European capitals now . The cost will be to Europe which is in decline mostly due to Russian success.

Read Back through this thread & you’ll see who was correct .
Click to expand...

It still shows that Russia is running low on Ammo and drones , that they have to go to other countries. Shahed like drones are not terribly difficult drone to manufacture, why is Russia forced to buy that from Iran and ammunition from North Korea. Because they are facing shortages to their supply chain

How is Russia fighting NATO, its Ukrainian soldiers with NATO equipment unless you count the foreign legion as NATO which is a handful of soldiers. NATO isnt even giving Ukraine all the top equipment. HIMARS is a decades old system, Patriot missile systems too. Imagine if Putin actually had to fight NATO and all its modern equipment, without Nukes they would have to surrender in two days.

Russian economy is overheating and the central bank had to raise interest rates multiple times. War time economies see a lot of activity because all resources are diverted to war but that also means they overheat quickly and face labour shortages because of the draft. Because of strict censorship , Russian citizens cant protest or complain like Europeans and Americans do. They will not collapse because they have natural resources but they also cant thrive under sanctions like they did when they were selling natural gas to Europe

If you were still living in Pakistan and given the choice of emigrating to Europe or Moscow, which would you pick. Even if you personally chose to live in Russia , 99% of people would choose Europe.
 
Putin had very clear goals when he started the campaign
  • Force a regime change in Kyiv
  • Force Ukraine to move away from NATO
  • Capture land in eastern ukraine
  • Show Russia's military strength and force the world community to accept the invasion like they did in 2008
He only partially succeeded in one of these goals , that is to capture territory and this was a slow attritional battle and not a rapid blitzkreig. He didnt envision fighting for 2.5 years to achieve this. He has lost so much of navy, spent hundreds of missiles, billions of rubles over this. If this is success then the Soviet/American invasion of Afghanistan were successes.
 
oatmeal said:
It still shows that Russia is running low on Ammo and drones , that they have to go to other countries. Shahed like drones are not terribly difficult drone to manufacture, why is Russia forced to buy that from Iran and ammunition from North Korea. Because they are facing shortages to their supply chain

How is Russia fighting NATO, its Ukrainian soldiers with NATO equipment unless you count the foreign legion as NATO which is a handful of soldiers. NATO isnt even giving Ukraine all the top equipment. HIMARS is a decades old system, Patriot missile systems too. Imagine if Putin actually had to fight NATO and all its modern equipment, without Nukes they would have to surrender in two days.

Russian economy is overheating and the central bank had to raise interest rates multiple times. War time economies see a lot of activity because all resources are diverted to war but that also means they overheat quickly and face labour shortages because of the draft. Because of strict censorship , Russian citizens cant protest or complain like Europeans and Americans do. They will not collapse because they have natural resources but they also cant thrive under sanctions like they did when they were selling natural gas to Europe

If you were still living in Pakistan and given the choice of emigrating to Europe or Moscow, which would you pick. Even if you personally chose to live in Russia , 99% of people would choose Europe.
Click to expand...

Without nukes ? Lol

Russia is a nuclear power & will use this if there is an existential threat to them . It could have wiped out Ukraine in a few mins but Russia doesn’t want to destroy or even rule Ukraine , it only liberated ethnic Russians.

Iranian drones are some of the best . I mentioned this years ago when they captured the American drone , reengineered it produce their own . They have stealth drones now , which we may see shortly.

Russia has the most advanced hypersonic missile technology which has been shared with Iran & NK. It’s a militarily arrangement to help each other . Russia has been helping Syria , saving it from western takeover, it stood firm .

Russian economy is growing , so you’re wrong , stop watching western news , they said Ukraine will win in months lol

I never left Pakistan . If you’re rich you stay in Pak . If not you choose the country where you can make the most money , that would be my priority. Hoping to visit Moscow soon
 
oatmeal said:
Putin had very clear goals when he started the campaign
  • Force a regime change in Kyiv
  • Force Ukraine to move away from NATO
  • Capture land in eastern ukraine
  • Show Russia's military strength and force the world community to accept the invasion like they did in 2008
He only partially succeeded in one of these goals , that is to capture territory and this was a slow attritional battle and not a rapid blitzkreig. He didnt envision fighting for 2.5 years to achieve this. He has lost so much of navy, spent hundreds of missiles, billions of rubles over this. If this is success then the Soviet/American invasion of Afghanistan were successes.
Click to expand...

lol stop making up rubbish.

Show me where did Putin state on his opening speech after the invasion , he wanted regime change?
 
KingKhanWC said:
Without nukes ? Lol

Russia is a nuclear power & will use this if there is an existential threat to them . It could have wiped out Ukraine in a few mins but Russia doesn’t want to destroy or even rule Ukraine , it only liberated ethnic Russians.

Iranian drones are some of the best . I mentioned this years ago when they captured the American drone , reengineered it produce their own . They have stealth drones now , which we may see shortly.

Russia has the most advanced hypersonic missile technology which has been shared with Iran & NK. It’s a militarily arrangement to help each other . Russia has been helping Syria , saving it from western takeover, it stood firm .

Russian economy is growing , so you’re wrong , stop watching western news , they said Ukraine will win in months lol

I never left Pakistan . If you’re rich you stay in Pak . If not you choose the country where you can make the most money , that would be my priority. Hoping to visit Moscow soon
Click to expand...

If Russia uses nukes, they will get destroyed too. Even china wouldnt support them using a nuke. The only reason NATO isnt intervening directly is because Russia has nukes, they lose that bargaining chip the moment they lose even a tactical nuke.

Shahed Drones are not the best lol. They are slow and noisy and easy to intercept. their only function is to overwhelm air defences.#

We will see when Iran uses these advanced missiles against Israel in its upcoming attack and how many missiles get through.

Russia thought they would win in days lol. Instead they got stuck in mud reaching Kyiv and were repelled.
 
KingKhanWC said:
Keep waiting . Russia has cemented control over their new lands , Ukraine will never get those back , the people chose Russia & Putin liberated them . Ukraine are running around a few villages in Russia , they won’t make it alive & will die in Russia. Enjoy the wait
Click to expand...

That offensive in the east and south of Ukraine has become a meatgrinding quagmire it's like a Vietnam with massive amounts of casualties to capture scorched earth.

Russian neither has the resources or manpower population to continue such war for years.

Plus this war has proven their weapons are complete crap and technologically inferior
 
KingKhanWC said:
lol stop making up rubbish.

Show me where did Putin state on his opening speech after the invasion , he wanted regime change?
Click to expand...

So they were marching on Kyiv to talk to Zelensky for peace talks. Putin wanted a Russia friendly government back in charge, most likely Yanukovich. This is so obvious lol. Cant believe you are even denying this
 
Kingkhan wc are you even reading or watching the news Ukraine has captured 1000sqkm of Russian land in kursk
They have penetrated over 30km in some places and the Russian army and think tank are totally inept to even deal with what is an incursion with 1000-2000 troops

Even in pakistan war with india pakistan army never let indians overrun them and advance 30km into western pakistan.
 
mazkhan said:
That offensive in the east and south of Ukraine has become a meatgrinding quagmire it's like a Vietnam with massive amounts of casualties to capture scorched earth.

Russian neither has the resources or manpower population to continue such war for years.

Plus this war has proven their weapons are complete crap and technologically inferior
Click to expand...

The east has been secure for months now . Mariupol is a lovely town now . Youre making no sense as usual
 
oatmeal said:
So they were marching on Kyiv to talk to Zelensky for peace talks. Putin wanted a Russia friendly government back in charge, most likely Yanukovich. This is so obvious lol. Cant believe you are even denying this
Click to expand...



You wrote a clear goal by Putin for his invasion was regime change. Forget the conjuncture & simply show me his statement after the invasion ? It can’t be too hard for you - use bullet points if it helps lol
 
mazkhan said:
North Korea & Iran have quality military equipment

😆😆😆
Click to expand...

Iran has decent drone technology tbf but they are selling lawnmower drones like Shaheds to Russia. Which Russia should be able to manufacture on its own but they arent because they are stretched and they dont have experience in evading sanctions
 
KingKhanWC said:
You wrote a clear goal by Putin for his invasion was regime change. Forget the conjuncture & simply show me his statement after the invasion ? It can’t be too hard for you - use bullet points if it helps lol
Click to expand...
lol so according to you Putin wouldn't lie or hide his original intentions behind the invasion. He will spell out everything before starting the march on Kyiv to eat borsch

I have a nice lightly used bridge to sell you
 
oatmeal said:
lol so according to you Putin wouldn't lie or hide his original intentions behind the invasion. He will spell out everything before starting the march on Kyiv to eat borsch

I have a nice lightly used bridge to sell you
Click to expand...

It was never the aim , even the bbc children’s news will admit this. It’s not a discussion or debate when you make up stuff .
 
Last edited by a moderator:
KingKhanWC said:
It was never the aim , even the bbc children’s news will admit this. It’s not a discussion or debate when you make up stuff .
Click to expand...



It's funny you see a israeli jewish conspiracy behind every one but here , you need Putin to spell out clearly that he wanted a more friendly government to russia. :ROFLMAO:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Putin is to blame for Ukraine's incursion - former defence advisor

A former advisor to Ukraine's Ministry of Defence says he doesn't think Russia is able to "escalate beyond the point that we've seen so far" following Ukrainian troops entering Russian territory.

Speaking to our colleagues on the BBC News Channel from Kyiv, Alexander Khara says he's not expecting Russia to do anything that it hasn't done since 2022.

Khara adds that he doesn't think there'll be any cases of "deliberate pain and deliberate damage" to Russian civilians by Ukrainian soldiers, but he adds that he expects Russians to "behave brutally".

"It’s Putin who is to blame for the war in general and for the Ukrainian move to incur into the Russian territory," he says.

"We want to survive, it’s a struggle for our existence, and we’re trying to do whatever is possible to make it through, and to deter Russia from further annexation of Ukrainian territory”.

Source: BBC
 
Ukraine targets four Russian airbases in major drone attack, Kyiv source says

Ukraine carried out its largest long-range drone strike of the war on four Russian military airfields overnight, a Kyiv security source said, an attack hailed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as "timely" and "accurate".

The strike, which targeted Russia's Voronezh, Kursk, Savasleyka and Borisoglebsk air bases, aimed to undermine Moscow's ability to use warplanes for gliding bomb attacks on Ukraine, the source said.

Reuters could not independently verify the claim. Ukraine was still assessing the scale of damage, the source said.

"Thank you for the accurate, timely, and effective strikes on Russian airfields. Ukrainian drones work exactly as they should," Zelenskiy said as he addressed the military on Wednesday.

Russia's defence ministry said earlier that its air defences had destroyed 117 drones and four tactical missiles launched by Ukraine at several regions including Kursk.

The strike on the airfields comes as Ukrainian troops are trying to press forward in Russia's Kursk region after they launched a surprise operation which has yielded their biggest battlefield gains since 2022.

Since the incursion last week, Russian forces has reduced the number of guided bomb attacks on border settlements in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, the local governor said on Monday.


 
Advance into Russia continues, says Ukraine

Ukraine says its forces are continuing their advance into Russian territory, moving forward in several directions.

Russia's western border region of Kursk came under a surprise attack last week, leading Russian authorities to declare a state of emergency in the area.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said troops had advanced 1-2 km further into Kursk since Wednesday morning, and had also captured 100 Russian soldiers. But Russia claims it has stopped any further advances.

Now in its second week, this is Ukraine's deepest incursion into Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

The amount of Russian territory seized is uncertain, with both countries making conflicting statements.

A commander of the Chechen Akhmat special forces unit, Maj-Gen Apti Alaudinov told viewers on Russian state-controlled TV, Channel One, that Russian forces had almost “completely blocked” the Ukrainian military from advancing.

But in a video link to President Zelensky, army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi stated Ukrainian troops were now fully in control of the Kursk border town of Sudzha.

The BBC is unable to independently verify this claim, but a Ukrainian television report filmed from within the town showed Ukrainian soldiers removing a Russian flag from a school.

Amid Kyiv's claims of territorial gains, Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhy said they were not interested in "taking over" Russian territory.

"The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace... the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defence forces into Russia will stop," he told reporters.

In an earlier meeting with government officials, Mr Zelensky said he would consider setting up “military commandants' offices” in the region.

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk outlined plans for a “security zone” in Kursk, to protect Ukraine’s borders.

Her Telegram post said Ukraine would organise humanitarian aid for Russian civilians within the security zone, and open evacuation corridors to both Russia and Ukraine.

Yan Furtsev, a local official with Russia's liberal opposition party, Yabloko, said the situation in the Kursk region was "tense".

"Citizens that are leaving their homes are in a very difficult psychological situation," he told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight, adding they were experiencing a lot of "stress and sadness".

Mr Furtsev said about 180,000 civilians needed to be evacuated. So far 121,000 had left, he said, with everyone needing basic essentials such as food and clothing.

Earlier Russia declared a second state of emergency, this time in the neighbouring Belgorod region, where homes have been damaged in drone attacks and shelling.

Moscow says that overnight it shot down 117 drones overnight, which mainly targeted four regions - Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod.

Long-range drones were also fired at Russian airfields in Voronezh and Kursk, as well as Savasleyka and Borisoglebsk, Ukraine's security services told AFP.

The Ukrainian military quoted a secret service source as calling it a "fun" night at the airports overnight, in what was a specially planned operation.

In his first comments on the operation since it began, US President Joe Biden said that the offensive was “creating a real dilemma for Putin".

Meanwhile, various European allies have voiced their support for Ukraine.

The prime ministers of Finland and Estonia said they supported Ukraine's military operation in Kursk, while Latvia’s foreign minister went a step further by saying Kyiv “has the right” to use Nato weapons on Russian territory.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin had previously described this as a "red line".

Last week, the German foreign ministry said Ukraine was entitled to self-defence which was "not limited to its own territory".

BBC
 
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