“Ukraine – Russia”

Russian forces are having to fight for weeks to capture “a single home” in Bakhmut, the head of the mercenary Wagner Group has said, as he appeared to cast the blame for slow progress on a lack of supplies from the Kremlin.

Bakhmut is one of the largest towns still held by Kyiv in the industrial Donetsk region and has been the focus of the Russian onslaught since August.

British intelligence has said that Russia’s forces are unlikely to make a breakthrough despite throwing thousands of men at the town in one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

War is hell on earth — and if you doubt it, visit Ukraine or watch Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Netflix’s gut-wrenching new adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic antiwar novel of 1929.

Even a small war is hellish for those caught up in it, of course. But a world war is the worst thing we humans have ever done to one another. In a memorable essay published last month, Henry Kissinger reflected on “How to Avoid Another World War.” In 1914, “The nations of Europe, insufficiently familiar with how technology had enhanced their respective military forces, proceeded to inflict unprecedented devastation on one another.” Then, after two years of industrialized slaughter, “the principal combatants in the West (Britain, France and Germany) began to explore prospects for ending the carnage.” Even with US intermediation, the effort failed.

h/t DM

Mystery fires that have broken out across Russia in recent months have been blamed on Ukrainian saboteurs and even Western intelligence operatives. But a new documentary by British filmmaker Jake Hanrahan suggests a “large-scale, active resistance inside Russia” is now being waged by Russia’s own citizens.

“There’s this thing like, ‘Well, it must be the CIA,'” Hanrahan told RFE/RL when asked about the spate of attacks on war-related infrastructure inside Russia. “How about, ‘No’? How about some Russians are genuinely so sick of Putin that they’re going to do something about it.”

Ukraine’s president says Russia is planning a protracted campaign of drone attacks in a bid to demoralise Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky said he had received intelligence reports suggesting that Moscow would launch the attacks using Iranian-made Shahed drones.

It comes after Ukraine carried out a strike that it said killed hundreds of Russian troops in the Donbas region.

In a rare admission of battlefield losses, Russia said the attack killed 63 of its troops.

#Ukraine: Another Russian Orlan-10 drone fell to the ground near the positions of the Ukrainian 231st TDF Battalion, presumably in the East, and was recovered. pic.twitter.com/M53XHA8vd5

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) December 31, 2022

Western countries must be prepared to provide long-term support to Ukraine as Russia shows no signs of relenting, Nato’s secretary general has said.

Jens Stoltenberg told the BBC that military support would ensure the survival of Ukraine as a sovereign country and force Russia to sit down and negotiate an end to the war.

Russia’s leader accuses the West of using Ukraine to destroy his country.

Russian missiles and drones have hit Ukraine on New Year’s Eve and Day.

#Ukraine: Extremely rare footage of a Msta-S 152mm SPH in use with the Ukrainian army – captured from Russian forces and now is being used against them.

Ukraine originally possessed 40 of these howitzers – to date almost none of them are operational due to a lack of spare parts. pic.twitter.com/pW5FzEFV3r

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) January 1, 2023

A Ukrainian Himars attack on a town in Russia-held eastern Ukraine flattened completely destroyed a vast building holding several hundred Russian mobilised men inside.

Early estimates from Kyiv and from pro-Russian sources suggest the New Year’s Eve attack on the barracks in Makiivka could be Russia’s single biggest loss of life since the start of the invasion last February.

The Ukrainian military on Monday mocked Russia over the attack on a former school building in Makiivka, a suburb of Donetsk, attributing it to “smoking in inappropriate places” and claiming that it killed “about 400” people.

🚀🔥☠️ What's left of the Technical University #19 in Makiivka. It's completely leveled. ~600 invaders resided there. Just a couple of HIMARS missiles landed. Problem is, they've stored ammo in the basement… 🙀 pic.twitter.com/B0WaKnFY7a

— Smart Ukrainian Cat 🌪️ 🙀 (@SmartUACat) January 1, 2023

Far from restoring Russia’s greatness, the president’s war has reduced it to a third-rate power

Deep in the recesses of the Kremlin, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has been poring over maps of Ukraine.

We cannot, of course, know what drives this reclusive, ever more paranoid despot. His spectral presence haunts the nightmares of millions, but his own personality is a void — humanity’s black hole.

I am a Ukrainian soldier, but my service, despite what many might imagine, does not consist of sitting in a trench or sleeping in a dugout. I am not under mass artillery strikes. In ten months of war I have not once opened fire at the enemy.

My job is guarding the northern border. For more than two months, my squad and I have been working with crews manning anti-aircraft installations defending against rocket attacks and Iranian kamikaze drones.

Suspicions that places of worship are being used to hide Kremlin collaborators have returned with a vengeance

At the foot of a steep wooded hill on the banks of the Siversky Donets river, a white stone statue of the Virgin Mary guards an artillery-scorched wasteland.

The bridge is broken, the homes and shops on the opposite bank reduced to matchwood and rubble.

The white walls of the monastery to her left bear deep shrapnel wounds. She herself is untouched except for her hands, which were blown off by an early salvo of Russian artillery in March.

It was, the monks here decided, a sign.

Savelia Curniski has guided thousands of Canadian tourists through Ukraine, including many from Saskatchewan who are of Ukrainian descent.

Curniski’s grandparents came to Canada from Ukraine in 1904, and she is among the more than 12 percent of Saskatchewanians of Ukrainian descent.

She had great enthusiasm for connecting with her roots, and for helping others do so as well, when she started giving tours in the 1990s. But in 2004, an encounter at a truck stop in Ukraine changed her life and took her tours in a very different direction.

Three days before Christmas, Iryna Hazhev is sitting in a restaurant on the outskirts of Lviv, in Western Ukraine. The 24-year-old, a captain in a mortar battery of the 24th Mechanized Brigade, is on a break from deployment. She wears her military uniform but is giving herself the liberty of some civilian flourishes, including gold loop earrings and blue nail polish. She seems relaxed – or as relaxed as can be for a soldier about to be sent to Bakhmut, in the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine, the site of some of the war’s fiercest fighting.

#Ukraine: Another Russian cruise missile (Kh-101/Kh-55) was shot down by Ukrainian 9K38 Igla MANPADS operators today. Two 9M39 missiles are fired, with one striking the target. pic.twitter.com/5MS92CFiTx

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) December 29, 2022

A new opinion poll has revealed, among other things, that a substantial majority of German citizens think that Ukrainians should immediately begin negotiations with Russia to finally bring an end to the war, which has just entered its eleventh month, and which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.

The survey, carried out by UK market research and data analytics firm YouGov on behalf of Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), has shown that 55% of German are in favor of Ukraine beginning peace talks with Russia now, with just 27% saying it is not the appropriate time for peace talks, the radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk reports.

Although the wish for peace talks prevails among voters of every political party represented in the Bundestag, Germany’s lawmaking body, the connection with a voter’s preferred party is certainly worth noting.