“Ukraine – Russia”

A 21-year-old man says he is in a ‘very depressed state’ having been sent to fight against his wishes as parents file complaints to watchdog

Russian soldiers have complained to the military watchdog about being tricked into joining the frontline in Ukraine, a massive leak on Wednesday revealed.

A trove of complaints from troops and their relatives sent to the Russian Military Prosecutor’s Office and obtained by Bellingcat and The Insider revealed what appears to be a wide-spread practice of forcing and tricking soldiers into going to Ukraine.

One unnamed soldier said he was away on military drills on a warship off the Syrian coast when “we were tricked into going to Ukraine: no one asked me if I wanted to take part in the special military operation,” the man said, using the Kremlin’s term for the invasion.

Russia’s weapons are “ineffective” and “obsolete”, with armoured vehicles and helicopters unable to withstand small arms fire and missiles that have only a 33 per cent chance of hitting their target, according to an internal Ukrainian government report.

The dossier compiled by the country’s Ministry of Defence and seen by The Times claims that Russian weapons recovered from the battlefield are unreliable and do not meet modern requirements.

Ukrainian defence officials also state in the report that Russia is having to suspend multimillion-pound arms contracts with other nations, either because of sanctions or the need to replenish losses of combat equipment in Ukraine.

Video from Ukraine's 53rd Mechanized Brigade of a Russian T-72 tank driving into a pond.https://t.co/7vifcsQI5U pic.twitter.com/SNqxQ2Aw3w

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) August 10, 2022

One person has been killed after blasts at a military base in Crimea, the head of the Russia-appointed regional administration has said.

Sergei Aksyonov wrote on social media that the blasts had taken place at the Saky military base near Novofedorivka on the peninsula’s western coast.

Footage circulating on social media appeared to show multiple explosions.

Russia’s defence ministry later said ammunition was detonated, but this has not been independently verified.

Investigators attempting to uncover the extent of presumed Russian atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha have reached what may be the closest they will come to a full understanding of the massacre.

Mykhailyna Skoryk-Shkarivska, the town’s deputy mayor, said at a Monday press conference that 458 civilians’ bodies had been tallied in the formerly occupied city. Of that total, 419 of them were either fatally shot, tortured, or bludgeoned to death, while 39 deaths were considered from natural causes, though those are still being investigated as possible war crimes, according to the Washington Post. Nine were children who were under the age of 18.

Man known as ‘Putin’s chef’ touring jails looking for physically fit murderers and thieves, offering presidential pardons and a salary

The Kremlin insider known as “Putin’s chef” personally toured Russian prisons to recruit 1,000 convicts to fight for his Wagner Group of mercenaries in Ukraine, a Russian opposition website has reported.

Together with the charity Russian Sitting which supports families of convicts, the Verstka news website said that the Wagner Group had persuaded up to 1,000 Russian criminals from 17 prisons to sign up to fight in Ukraine in return for a salary and a presidential pardon.

#Ukraine: A Russian T-80BV tank and four BMP-1 IFV were destroyed or captured by Ukrainian forces last month in Krasnopillya, #Donetsk Oblast. Some of this footage is previously seen. pic.twitter.com/CvGFuU9gMo

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 8, 2022

Canada’s top soldier is declining to confirm media reports that Canadian military members are on the ground in Ukraine to train locals in fighting invading Russian forces.

Gen. Wayne Eyre, Canada’s chief of the defence staff, appeared on Power & Politics on Monday following reports from Global News and the New York Times that Canadian Forces special operations members are training Ukrainians during Russian’s ongoing invasion.

But when asked about the reports, Eyre said the military is “never going to talk about discreet or sensitive special operations or confirm or deny them.”

The UN has called for international inspectors to be given access to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, after it was shelled at the weekend. But how dangerous is the situation and what is likely to happen next?

The plant, built in the Soviet era, is the largest nuclear reactor in Europe. Its six pressurised water reactors (of which at least two are currently operating) are important to Kyiv as they can produce power for up to 4m homes.

Situated on the south bank of the Dnieper river at Enerhodar, south-west of the city of Zaporizhzhia itself, the plant occupies an extremely important strategic position both for Russian and Ukrainian forces, who have been contesting control of the site since early in the war.

Western outlets and politicians are becoming more strident in their criticism

Three days. The publication of a CBS report ‘Arming Ukraine’ lasted three days before it was taken down for quoting an NGO worker who said that only 30% of western aid was reaching the frontlines of Ukraine. According to the network, the NGO worker gave this assessment in late April, insisting that delivery had since improved. Now the documentary is being ‘updated’ to reflect this new information.

Despite the backlash against CBS, there has been a slow but perceptible shift in discussing topics that were once considered verboten.

Three billboards in the Ural city of Ekaterinburg shine a light on what was once one of Russia’s most shadowy organisations, the private military contractor Wagner.

“Motherland, Honour, Blood, Bravery. WAGNER”, one of the posters reads.

Another, which locals said first appeared on the outskirts of the country’s fourth largest city in early July, depicts three men in military uniform next to the words “Wagner2022.org”.

When you and your pals were about to recreate the famous coffin dance meme pic.twitter.com/41h0AZNdWL

— vlad🩸🇺🇦 (@dovgvlad) August 7, 2022

LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) – More than 450 foreign-made components have been found in Russian weapons recovered in Ukraine, evidence that Moscow acquired critical technology from companies in the United States, Europe and Asia in the years before the invasion, according to a new report by Royal United Services Institute defence think tank.

Horrific video and photos have emerged that appear to show the head of a Ukrainian prisoner of war stuck on a pole outside a house in the eastern Ukrainian city of Popasna, which was captured by Russian forces in May and is close to the current frontline in the Donbas.

The Ukrainian governor of Luhansk province, Serhiy Haidai, posted the gruesome photo on his Telegram channel. It has since been widely shared on social media. Ukrainians have accused Russian troops of barbaric medieval behaviour and likened the image to Lord of the Rings.

#Ukraine: A Russian infantry fighting vehicle filmed being hit with an unknown top-attack munition. Though it looks somewhat similar to previously seen SMArt submunitions, some aspects as speed and angle are different here. Possibly we are seeing something not documented before. pic.twitter.com/uS3eb0aAfp

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

A woman walks towards the camera, her hips sashaying as she sweeps her hands up from her waist and over her breasts, bending low in front of the lens to fill its view with her cleavage.

In another video, the camera gazes down a man’s bare chest, warm candlelight exaggerating the grooves of his abdominal muscles and a bulge in his trousers.

Ukrainian partisans appear to have launched a campaign of assassinations of pro-Russian officials in occupied Kherson ahead of a planned offensive to recapture the region.

On Saturday, Vitaly Gur, the Moscow-installed deputy head of the town of Nova Kakhovka, near Kherson, was shot as he stepped out of his apartment block. He died on his way to hospital in Crimea, according to Russian media.

#Ukraine: A Ukrainian soldier firing a captured modern Russian RPO PDM-A "Shmel-M" rocket-assisted flamethrower at Russian positions.

Though it may look like the projectile falls few meters away, which is in fact a special liner which designed to increase the range of fire. pic.twitter.com/OiYSnYfKdI

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 7, 2022