“Ukraine – Russia”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday and received several bipartisan standing ovations as he thanked the U.S. Congress for their generosity.

With the $45 billion of proposed spending on Ukraine in the $1.7 trillion omnibus government funding bill, the total given to Mr. Zelenkyy’s government since Russia’s unprovoked invasion will be north of $100 billion. In less than a year. With zero congressional oversight.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled 5,000 miles wanting Congress to give him $45 billion but more so wanting not to ask for it.

The charismatic Ukrainian leader insisted, “Your money is not charity.” Who called truth the first casualty of war?

The aid package requested amounts to 30 percent of Ukraine’s prewar gross domestic product and likely all of its 2023 military expenditures. It roughly equals the entire annual economy of Vermont or Wyoming. Zelenskyy wants to transfer a lot of money from the U.S. economy to the Ukrainian economy, and he does not even need to fire the prosecutor to make it happen.

Evidence obtained in a months long investigation identifies the Russian regiment — and commander — behind one of the worst atrocities in Ukraine.

When videos and photos emerged in April showing bodies of dozens of civilians strewn along a street in Bucha, Ukrainians and the rest of the world voiced horror and outrage. But in Russia, officials had a completely different reaction: denial.

President Vladimir V. Putin dismissed the gruesome scene as “a provocation,” and claimed that the Russian Army had nothing to do with it.

But an eight-month visual investigation by The New York Times concluded that the perpetrators of the massacre along Yablunska Street were Russian paratroopers from the 234th Air Assault Regiment led by Lt. Col. Artyom Gorodilov.

Russia’s brutal invasion has revealed the depth and strength of Ukrainian nationhood.

On 24 February 2022, the world changed in ways with which we are still to come to terms.

That, of course, was the day Russian president Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine. ‘I have decided to conduct a special military operation’, he said, sat at a desk in the Kremlin, a Russian flag behind him.

Fighters from Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group have ballooned from 1,000 to nearly 20,000 in Ukraine, British government officials say, a sign of Russia’s growing reliance on the military contractor in support of its invasion.

Russia is widely believed to be struggling to recruit soldiers and maintain morale. The West estimates Russia has lost tens of thousands of soldiers and President Vladimir Putin launched a recruitment drive in September to boost numbers.

President Zelensky arrived in Washington this evening for talks with President Biden and a meeting with Congress that is expected to secure billions of dollars’ worth of fresh military equipment for Ukraine.

His first foreign trip since Russia’s invasion in February was fraught with security challenges but the prospect of another $47 billion in military support — and the opportunity to address American leaders — was worth the long journey. It included a flight from Poland, rather than his own country, which would have carried a greater risk of being shot down by Russian forces.

STOCKHOLM — Two military helicopters shattered the calm of suburban Stockholm on a late November morning, swooping over a private home in the sleepy locale of Kil in a high-profile raid on a Swedish couple accused of spying for Russia.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw the police piling into their house,” a neighbor of the arrested Stockholm couple told POLITICO. “The noise of the helicopters woke up the whole street, and we just stood on our driveways watching the action.”

The rattle of helicopters in the darkness was the latest sign that European nations’ high-stakes games of espionage with Russia are increasingly being played in the open.

#Ukraine: A Russian Ka-52 attack helicopter (RF-91335, 43 Yellow, formerly 43 White) was reportedly shot down by a Russian Pantsir-S1 in a friendly fire incident in #Zaporizhzhia Oblast. pic.twitter.com/IWXeORBI0M

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) December 20, 2022

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lands in Washington Wednesday, he will come with one of his biggest requests of the U.S. since Russia invaded his country nearly 300 days ago — and he might not get the answer he wants.

… During the meeting with Biden and his national security team, the Ukrainian delegation is expected to make another round of pleas for long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, and Gray Eagle and Reaper drones, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The person and others were granted anonymity to describe internal discussions.

But U.S. officials aren’t ready to budge. The Biden White House has flatly rejected sending the ATACMS. The costs of doing so are high, U.S. officials say. Sending long-range missiles to Kyiv could risk provoking Putin using potentially even more lethal weapons inside Ukraine.

⚡️Life does not stop at the front line.

Preserving meat by smoking, a method that works perfectly in wartime conditions.

I love it! Bread, onions or peppers and tea!

Wonderful food!

Vegetarians should not watch this video. 😅#Hungary #Ukraine 🇭🇺❤️🇺🇦👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/V4RXtXltRS

— Dénes Törteli 🇪🇺🇭🇺🇺🇦 (@DenesTorteli) December 21, 2022

OTTAWA — There will be many prayers offered up this Christmas that the guns fall silent across Ukraine in the New Year.

But let’s hope that any peace is prompted by Russia’s realization that it cannot win, rather than because the Ukrainians have run out of ammunition.

The latter is a very real prospect. As retired Australian Major Gen. Mick Ryan wrote last week in an influential Twitter thread: “In 2023, the Ukrainian army may run out of munitions before it runs out of fight. Based on current usage of ammunition in the war, production of munitions is increasingly lagging battlefield needs.”

#Ukraine: A Ukrainian 9A310M1 TELAR of the Buk-M1 air-defense system was destroyed by a Russian Lancet loitering munition in Oleksandrivka, #Kherson Oblast. pic.twitter.com/8bI8tl2FRl

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) December 20, 2022

Out on the frontline, near the eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman, on 8 November at 15.10, a Russian serviceman called Andrey decided to ignore the orders of his superiors and call his mother with an unauthorised mobile phone.

“No one feeds us anything, mum,” he complained. “Our supply is shit, to be honest. We draw water from puddles, then we strain it and drink it.”

Russian forces had been on the back foot in the Donetsk oblast for weeks. Lyman, taken by the Russians in May, was liberated by Ukrainian forces in October.

#Ukraine: A Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter was shot down by the Russian forces in the vicinity of Pervomaiske, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/CZnW13kd6n

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) December 19, 2022

OTTAWA – The federal government says it plans to target a Russian oligarch using a law to confiscate and divert assets held by people who have been sanctioned.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada will try to seize and forfeit US$26 million, or about C$36 million, from a firm owned by Roman Abramovich.

Abramovich is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the former owner of Chelsea Football Club in England.