“Ukraine – Russia”

NATO’s secretary-general has warned that the war in Ukraine could go on for years and urged the supply of state-of-the-art weapons to Kyiv even if “costs are high,” as Ukraine’s allies sought to preempt any international “fatigue” nearly four months into Russia’s unprovoked invasion.

The cautions came as Russia stepped up its offensives against Syevyerodonetsk and other eastern Ukrainian cities and with the European Union readying for a recommendation next week to make Ukraine a candidate to join the bloc.

#Ukraine: Ukrainian M777 155mm howitzers at work in Bohorodychne, #Donetsk Oblast – hitting two parked Russian BMP infantry fighting vehicles, destroying both. pic.twitter.com/hrWV0aKkxm

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 18, 2022

The elderly and sick died quietly.

Crowded with hundreds of others held captive by Russian soldiers for four weeks in an airless, unsanitary school basement in Yahidne, a village in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine, the ill and the frail were particularly vulnerable.

Several could not withstand the lack of medicine, food, fresh air, and overall comfort in the dark, stuffy rooms they shared with more than 300 other captives of the invading forces, survivors said.

Oleksandr’s war lasted only a week. The 36-year-old, a Ukrainian electrician working in Gdansk, hurried back to join up after Russia invaded and was deployed on 10 May to guard a chest-high trench in Donbas against the odds.

“We were shelled constantly during the day. There was not 10 minutes without Russian shelling,” he said, describing a fearful human cost: “Every day one person was killed and another couple wounded. Big losses, really big losses.”

On the seventh day, 16 May, it was over. A Russian drone had hovered over Oleksandr’s position near Avdiivka and, armed with the location, the invaders hurled one shell, then another, closer, and finally a third, closer still.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of colonial arrogance and said its sanctions “blitzkrieg” against his country has failed in his latest tirade against the United States and Europe.

Addressing the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 17 — a showcase event being held this year with almost no Western participation — Putin defended his country’s invasion of Ukraine, which many in the United States and Europe say is akin to the colonization wars of past centuries.

Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska on being Russia’s target No 2: ‘When you see their crimes, maybe they really are capable of anything’

In the early hours of 24 February, Olena Zelenska became aware of the sound of muffled booms somewhere in the distance. As she drifted towards wakefulness, she realised the sounds she was registering could not be fireworks. Her eyes snapped open; she discovered she was alone in the bed. She jumped up and hurried to the next room, where she found her husband, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, already dressed for work in a suit and tie.

“What’s going on?” she asked him.

“It’s started,” he told her.

#Ukraine: Ukrainian M777 155mm howitzers at work in Bohorodychne, #Donetsk Oblast – hitting two parked Russian BMP infantry fighting vehicles, destroying both. pic.twitter.com/hrWV0aKkxm

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 18, 2022

President Joe Biden has announced a new $1 billion weapons package for Ukraine to counter Russian advances in the Donbass region and strengthen U.S. allies’ resolve to sustain and even intensify efforts to arm Ukraine.

Despite Ukraine’s initial success in repelling Russian invaders, many expressed concern that a protracted conflict might favor the Russians due to the sheer size of their force and firepower.

However, according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the tide could turn if the international effort to help Ukraine intensifies in the coming weeks and months.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy referenced Star Wars and the second world war as the Ukrainian president appeared as a hologram at a conference in Paris to seek aid from big tech firms.

He told a crowd of hundreds at the VivaTech trade show that he was offering technology firms a unique chance to rebuild Ukraine as a fully digital democracy.

He asked for help on the terms of lend-lease – the way in which the United States helped the Allies during the second world war, offering aid without payment but on the understanding that hardware would be returned.

Ukrainians in territories occupied by Russian forces are said to be using all means at their disposal to sabotage the invaders, including by poisoning cherries, a local official said Thursday.

Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, revealed during a television broadcast that subversive Ukrainian farmers were able to take occupiers out of commission with the help of contaminated stone fruit.

A third American volunteer fighting in Ukraine has been reported as missing amid concerns that all three may have been captured by Russian or pro-Russian forces.

The family of the former Marine Corps officer Grady Kurpasi disclosed that he had been missing in the Kherson area since late April following the earlier disclosure that two other American military veterans had lost contact with their families.

#Ukraine: Big news from the Black Sea- the Ukrainian Navy claims to have destroyed the Russian "Vasily Bekh" rescue vessel, as it travelled to the famous Snake Island; it reportedly had a Tor-M2KM SAM system on board.

The strike was filmed by a TB-2 drone; 2 munitions are used. pic.twitter.com/pCjMf2RX4d

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 17, 2022

Andriy watched anxiously as Russian soldiers connected his mobile to their computer, trying to restore some files. Andriy, a 28-year-old marketing officer, was attempting to leave Mariupol. He had deleted everything he thought a Russian soldier could use against him, such as text messages discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or photos of the devastation in his city caused by weeks of relentless shelling.

But the internet in Mariupol, a once bustling port in southern Ukraine, had been cut off as part of the siege imposed by Russia, and Andriy had not been able to take down some of his social media posts. He remembered the first days of the war, when he had shared some anti-Russian messages and speeches from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. “I’m screwed,” he thought.

The soldiers, Andriy said, already had their focus on him.

An elderly Ukrainian woman brandishing a red Soviet flag has become the unlikely face of Kremlin propaganda after a video of her encounter with Ukrainian soldiers went viral. The BBC tracked down “Babushka Z” to try to establish the truth behind the incident.

“I don’t think they should glorify me. I am just a peasant woman. I don’t understand why I’ve become a celebrity.”

The woman who has become known as Babushka Z – “grandmother” in Russian, the Z referring to the symbol often painted on armoured vehicles – is gobsmacked when the BBC shows her photos of her newfound fame. “I’ve never seen any of it,” she says.

Two former US servicemen have been captured during fighting with Russian forces in Ukraine, The Telegraph has been told.

The pair were taken prisoner during a fierce battle outside the north-east city of Kharkiv last week, according to comrades who were fighting alongside them.

Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, had been serving as volunteers with a regular Ukrainian army unit. They are believed to be the first US servicemen to end up as Russian prisoners of war.

Europe’s unity over the war in Ukraine is at risk as public attention increasingly shifts from the battlefield to cost of living concerns, polling across 10 European countries suggests, with the divide deepening between voters who want a swift end to the conflict and those who want Russia punished.

The survey in nine EU member states – Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden – plus the UK found support for Ukraine remained high, but that preoccupations have shifted to the conflict’s wider impacts.

“Europeans had surprised Putin – and themselves – by their unity so far, but the big stresses are coming now,” said Mark Leonard, a co-author of a report by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) on changing attitudes to Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine fights for Sievierodonetsk as Russia’s ‘surrender’ ultimatum passes

Ukraine ignored a Russian ultimatum to surrender the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday as NATO defence ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss sending more heavy weapons to replenish Kyiv’s dwindling stocks.

Russia had told Ukrainian forces holed up in a chemical plant in the shattered city to stop “senseless resistance and lay down arms” from Wednesday morning, pressing its advantage in the battle for control of eastern Ukraine.

#Ukraine: A Russian tank was destroyed by a Ukrainian RK-3 Korsar anti-tank guided missile operator in the vicinity of Izium, #Kharkiv Oblast. pic.twitter.com/hQc1OJ783c

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 14, 2022

Maybe it’s luck, or some kind of divine providence. According to the capricious nature of life in a war zone, JT should not be alive.

Yet there he is — a Canadian military volunteer in Ukraine who beat the odds.

The former military combat engineer fought through the bloodied grape fields of Kandahar during Canada’s war in Afghanistan. He first came within a whisker of death in 2006, when he and his fellow soldiers were strafed accidentally by an American A-10 ground attack jet.

Walking around Kyiv in his new Ukrainian military attire, Igor Volobuyev felt as if he finally fulfilled his purpose.

For weeks after leaving Russia for Ukraine, the former vice-president of Gazprombank spent his days trying to convince officials to provide him with Ukrainian documents and allow him to sign up for military service to fight against a country where he had spent most of his adult life.

“The moment war broke out, I knew right away I wanted to go and defend Ukraine,” Volobuyev said in an interview in the Ukrainian capital.