“Ukraine – Russia”

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, several packages of sanctions targeting Russia’s lucrative energy industry (mostly oil, gas, and coal) have been introduced by the United States, the European Union, and other Western nations. These countries are also undertaking efforts to wean themselves off their dependency on Russian energy supplies.

After shelling occurred near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya power plant, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the international community to come up with a stronger response and ban Russian imports from yet another sector: nuclear power. But blocking and replacing Russia’s deliveries of uranium, reactors, and nuclear technology to the rest of the world is easier said than done.

Russia has stopped the flow of gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Europe, citing the need to carry out repairs, in a move that has heightened already acute nervousness over the reliability of winter energy supplies.

The halt on the Baltic Sea pipeline at 5am on Wednesday would last for three days, Gazprom, the Russian state energy company said. It had warned two weeks ago that the outage was due but the German government said it had not been formally told, receiving the information instead via social media after it was posted on Gazprom’s Telegram channel.

Kherson was the first major city to fall to Russia after Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Now it has become the focus of a reported counteroffensive by Kyiv’s forces to take it back.

Ukrainian claims of new attacks on Russian positions around the strategic southern port city at the mouth of the Dnieper River’s exit into the Black Sea have spurred speculation that the long-awaited attempt to seize back the region and its capital was under way.

#Ukraine: The K2 Unit of the Ukrainian 54th Mechanized Brigade destroyed a Russian T-72B tank in the vicinity of Marinka, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/12ZpjawXps

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 30, 2022

Ukraine has deployed a fleet of dummy Himars across the battlefield to trick Russian forces into wasting expensive long-range weapons on pointless targets.

The decoy versions of the US-supplied rocket launcher systems have drawn fire from at least 10 Kalibr cruise missiles fired by Moscow’s naval fleet in the Black Sea.

Russian drones were said to be unable to distinguish between the wooden dummy targets and the real deal when scouting the battlefield for Ukrainian targets.

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian Air Force has released video showing for the first time ever US-supplied AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles being fired from their MiG-29 jets.

They seem to be fired in pairs from the inboard pylons where R-27 AAM would otherwise be carried. pic.twitter.com/o0OMTiwnow

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 30, 2022

#Ukraine: When you need very mobile firepower- a Ukrainian lightweight dune buggy with a French-donated MILAN 2 ATGM launcher mounted on the roof for rapid deployment against Russian armour. pic.twitter.com/htMxtyoUTl

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 24, 2022

The state premier of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, drew the ire of Ukraine’s ambassador in Germany over a suggestion that the Russian war be “frozen” to give diplomacy a chance.

Kyiv’s ambassador in Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, rescinded an invitation to the Premier of Germany’s Saxony state, Michael Kretschmer to visit Ukraine.

“I invited you to Ukraine. This invitation has been canceled. You are not wanted. Period,” the diplomat wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Nothing happens by accident right?

Fears of a Russian attack prompted Ukraine to curtail public celebrations of its Independence Day last week.

But when a missile struck a railway station full of civilians some Russian nationalists were underwhelmed. They had been whipped into an expectation of retaliation for the murder three days earlier in Moscow of Darya Dugina, the daughter of a nationalist ideologue, which the authorities had blamed with barely plausible haste on a supposed Ukrainian assassin.

Britain is to supply Ukraine with hundreds of “microdrones” so small they can fly within feet of Russian soldiers and enter buildings to spy on their positions.

The six-inch Black Hornet drones, which look like a child’s toy helicopter, were first used by British forces during the invasion of Afghanistan.

The miniature drones have a 1.2-mile range, a top speed of 11mph, night vision and a flight time of up to 25 minutes.