“Ukraine – Russia”

Five days into the war, a Russian platoon commander and his unit arrived in Motyzhyn, just off the main highway linking western Ukraine to Kyiv. They hid tanks and artillery among the trees, excavated foxholes and commandeered the nearest houses. One became the officers’ quarters, a second a base for jailing, torturing and murdering civilians.

The commander – Oleg Krikunov, 33 – was better known to his troops and victims by the nom de guerre Kaluga. The horrors he allegedly perpetrated and presided over for a month in one small village in Ukraine have been catalogued by officials investigating atrocities carried out by Moscow’s troops, who have designated him a high priority on their list of wanted soldiers.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has predicted Russia will intensify its attacks this week, warning European partners that they too should be prepared for an increase in hostilities as Kyiv awaits a decision on its bid to join the EU.

The caution follows a European Commission recommendation to grant Kyiv candidate status to join – a diplomatic blow to Moscow.

“Tomorrow a historic week begins,” Zelenskiy said in a video address on Sunday night, adding: “There have been few such fateful decisions for Ukraine.

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian National Guard spotted 4x Russian MT-LB armoured vehicles, and passed the location to Ukrainian Army artillery; as a result 1 was damaged and 3 were destroyed. pic.twitter.com/76ulwdgOI2

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 19, 2022

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet with Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in Toronto on Monday where they will discuss the Ukraine war and joint efforts to deal with the food and fuel price inflation it is causing.

The Treasury said that Yellen during the visit will highlight strong economic ties between the two North American allies, visiting a business incubator and participating in a public forum at the University of Toronto.

Germany must limit its use of gas for electricity production and prioritize the filling of storage facilities to compensate for a drop in supply from Russia, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Sunday.

In a move that goes against the principles of his environmentally-friendly Green Party, the country will also have to increase the burning of coal, Habeck said.

Russian gas company Gazprom announced last week that it was reducing supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for technical reasons, saying there had been delays in the repair of compressor turbines by the German company Siemens Energy.

The nuclear bluster and threats from many of those connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have, at times, been bone-chilling.

“The horsemen of the apocalypse” are on their way, Dmitry Medvedev warned this past week. The former Russian president, whom many European countries once considered to be relatively friendly to the West, had days earlier condemned the leaders of those same countries, vowing to “do everything to make them disappear.”

But as President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine reaches the four-month mark, there have also been notable shifts in how both sides may be assessing the so-called nuclear “red lines.”

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.