“Ukraine – Russia”

Pro-Russia separatist forces have stepped up the forced conscription of men – including Ukrainian passport holders – in occupied areas of the Donbas region, amid mounting evidence of the scale of losses on the Russian side.

According to credible evidence from the region, forced conscription – already a feature of the Russian-backed separatists’ rule before the Kremlin’s invasion on 24 February – appeared to have picked up again in June, with checkpoints and patrols, some reportedly involving Chechen fighters allied to the Kremlin, on the lookout for men to recruit.

Anton (name has been changed) was a businessman in Ukraine. On February 24, he drove to the border with his wife and their two children to escape the Russian invasion. The trip, which usually takes only a few hours, took them almost the entire day.

But while they were still en route, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy banned men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country.

Bad press coming out of Germany’s DW? I’m shocked.

Russia appears to have shot down one of its own $40million fighter jets in the skies over eastern Ukraine, in just the latest humiliation for Putin’s military.

Footage of a flaming wreck falling from the skies over Alchevsk, in Luhansk, first emerged overnight Sunday when pro-Moscow Telegram accounts posted it – saying ‘allied forces’ had shot the aircraft down.

Russia on Monday outrageously claimed that its massive army has failed to deliver Ukraine to President Vladimir Putin because it is fighting against experimental super-soldiers, turned into “cruel killing machines” by US studies.

Two Russian lawmakers told reporters this week that the Kremlin is investigating the blood of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and has found “evidence” of experimentation, Russian outlet Kommersant reported.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dismissal of senior officials is casting an inconvenient light on an issue that the Biden administration has largely ignored since the outbreak of war with Russia: Ukraine’s history of rampant corruption and shaky governance.

As it presses ahead with providing tens of billions of dollars in military, economic and direct financial support aid to Ukraine and encourages its allies to do the same, the Biden administration is now once again grappling with longstanding worries about Ukraine’s suitability as a recipient of massive infusions of American aid.

Aleksey Yukov has lost count of the bodies he’s recovered in the Donbas over the past five months. He says he thinks it’s more than 300, but he can’t be sure.

Aleksey and his men drive a refrigerated white van, marked with a red cross, to carry out their work. They often drive towards danger to collect the bodies and remains of dead Ukrainian and Russian troops and civilians.

“We work with no days off. Constantly. We drive, we investigate, we transport, we search, all the time,” he says.

Britain, America and the EU are turning their attention away from Kyiv at the worst possible time

The fall of Boris Johnson contributes to Ukraine’s rising peril. His Churchillian support for Ukraine and push for blistering sanctions in the face of a lacklustre response from Joe Biden and heel-dragging in European capitals propelled him to world leadership in the campaign against Russia. None of Johnson’s potential successors are likely to equal his resolve, especially as the domestic economic consequences of the war continue to bite and bite hard.

The sidelining of Ukraine’s security chief and its prosecutor general by Volodymyr Zelenskiy has renewed questions over Russian intelligence infiltration of key ministries before the war, as well as suggesting divisions among the president’s inner circle of top officials are becoming increasingly public.

After recent anonymous briefings against Zelenskiy’s childhood friend Ivan Bakanov – who had been in charge of the 30,000-strong state security service, the SBU, since 2019 – over claims of failure to counter Russian infiltration, he was abruptly suspended on Sunday along with the prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, who had been leading war crimes investigations.