“Ukraine – Russia”

British police are “working closely” to ensure that weapons from the Ukrainian war do not reach the UK and find their way into the hands of terrorists.

Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Matt Twist said the conflict was one of several “international challenges” affecting security in the UK.

Speaking at the International Security Expo in London on Tuesday, he added: “Whatever the outcome of this awful conflict, it is clear that over the medium term there will be huge amounts of weapons and ammunition in the region, which will take some time to stabilise and normalise when the phase of outright war ends.

OTTAWA — For decades, Prestwick Airport was the only airport in Scotland offering transatlantic flights — hundreds of thousands of Scots flew to their new home in Canada from the west-coast hub.

Now, Canadians are going the other way. In March, the military set up a facility at Prestwick to receive and redirect cargo aid to Ukraine. This week, Defence Minister Anita Anand said the detachment would be expanded to 55 Canadian Forces personnel and a third aircraft added to transport equipment. The facility now proudly boasts a piece of A4 paper with the words: “Welcome to CFB Prestwick” printed on them.

#Ukraine: The utterly disintegrated remains of a Russian 9A310M1-2 TELAR of the Buk-M1-2 air defense system in Izium, #Kharkiv Oblast.

It's unknown what caused such serious damage. pic.twitter.com/fvOTqCnqTU

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 27, 2022

Western leaders have blamed ‘deliberate’ sabotage after the Nordsteam pipe from Russia suffered ‘unprecedented’ damage off Sweden – causing 3000ft-wide bubbles in the Baltic Sea and causing prices to spike.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said her government believes the leaks were caused by ‘deliberate actions’, adding that the gas supply pipeline will be out of action for around a week.

She said this evening: ‘It is now the clear assessment by authorities that these are deliberate actions. It was not an accident. There is no information yet to indicate who may be behind this action.’

Since Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s first mobilisation since the second world war last Wednesday, povestka, or draft papers, have been delivered to people across the country.

As husbands, brothers and sons bade emotional farewells to families before they left to fight in Ukraine, others were scrambling to find a way to leave Russia, spurred by reports that some conscripts were being sent directly to the frontlines without training.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A series of unusual leaks on two natural gas pipelines running from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany triggered concerns about sabotage Tuesday, overshadowing the inauguration of a long-awaited pipeline that will bring Norwegian gas to Poland in efforts to bolster Europe’s energy independence from Moscow.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the events “an act of sabotage,” while Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she could not rule it out after three leaks were detected over the past day on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which are filled with gas but not delivering the fuel to Europe. An energy standoff over Russia’s war in Ukraine halted flows on Nord Stream 1 and prevented them from ever starting in the parallel Nord Stream 2.

#Ukraine: An attack formation of Russian vehicles was destroyed by Ukrainian engineering troops – two MT-LB armored personnel carriers, a BMP-1 IFV, a tank and an IMR-2 military engineering vehicle blew up on anti-tank mines, presumably in #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/IJWzTlifOu

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 26, 2022

One of the British prisoners who was captured whilst fighting in Ukraine has revealed how he was forced by the Russians to listen to ABBA and Cher on repeat.

Shaun Pinner, a 48-year-old army veteran, spoke of how he was forced to listen to the music 24 hours a day, as well as being stabbed and subjected to electrocutions.

While in captivity he was forced to listen to the soundtrack of Mamma Mia and only given stale bread and dirty water to consume.

All eyes may be on the Italian election results this morning, but Europe’s got much bigger problems on its hands than the prospect of a Right-wing government. Winter is coming, and the catastrophic consequences of Europe’s self-imposed energy crisis are already being felt across the continent.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — As Europe heads into winter in the throes of an energy crisis, offices are getting chillier. Statues and historic buildings are going dark. Bakers who can’t afford to heat their ovens are talking about giving up, while fruit and vegetable growers face letting greenhouses stand idle.

In poorer eastern Europe, people are stocking up on firewood, while in wealthier Germany, the wait for an energy-saving heat pump can take half a year. And businesses don’t know how much more they can cut back.

“We can’t turn off the lights and make our guests sit in the dark,” said Richard Kovacs, business development manager for Hungarian burger chain Zing Burger. The restaurants already run the grills no more than necessary and use motion detectors to turn off lights in storage, with some stores facing a 750% increase in electricity bills since the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile in Germany…

A protest was held in Lubmin, Germany yesterday.

It’s the location where Nord Stream 2 reaches German land.

Russian Germans and their supporters demanded the pipeline to be opened.

3 Ukrainian women showed up to counter-protest and were attacked.

pic.twitter.com/sEoNgDVjHw

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 26, 2022

He was killed around noon on 24 September during hours of intense shelling in the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. We came across him by chance, and learned later than his name was Andriy Yablonsky, and he was 52.

A woman in a red coat screamed in anguish nearby, as she sheltered in a doorway. This was Andriy’s sister. “What should I do for my brother?” she wailed. For more than an hour he couldn’t be moved because there was no let-up in the barrage.

A Russian draft officer has been shot by a man angry at his friend’s conscription and another man has set himself on fire in a protest as opposition to Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilisation for the war in Ukraine grows.

Protests were also expected to continue for a third day in Russia’s Dagestan region, where officers have fired automatic weapons in the air to disperse angry crowds. Meanwhile, thousands of cars have lined up at the Russian borders carrying young men seeking to flee the country in order to escape the draft.

#Ukraine: A Ukrainian BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle was destroyed by a Russian LMUR/Izdeliye 305 helicopter-launched air-to-surface guided missile in #Kherson Oblast. pic.twitter.com/fAuupzZSLl

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 26, 2022

They play Russian ballads about crime and punishment to drown out the screams when they take prisoners for interrogation in the torture cell. You might come back with fewer teeth, some broken ribs, or you might not come back at all.

That is life in captivity for Ukraine’s fighters, where they face treatment that former inmates say breaches the Geneva Conventions, including regular violence, torture and the withholding of sleep and food.

'This is a war that no Russian wants to fight.'

Con Coughlin, Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor at the Daily Telegraph, says 'the whole Putin era is starting to collapse' as more than 730 protesters were detained across Russia.

💻 GB News on YouTube https://t.co/KHMl3BS8eC pic.twitter.com/9JA6ri1VAF

— GB News (@GBNEWS) September 25, 2022

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has said he’s ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory, raising the fear he might use a small, or “tactical” nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden has warned him that doing so would be the most serious military escalation since World War II.

Who knows? I was convinced Putin would not invade as he seemed to be winning just by posturing.

During the Cold War Soviet subs being stalked by US hunter killers would make a sudden turn and head straight for the American sub, the maneuver was known as the “Crazy Ivan”.

We may have a Crazy Putin.