“Ukraine – Russia”

Underground efforts appearing to spread, say analysts, after reports of explosions and attacks on Russian border guards

Ukrainian partisans in occupied areas of the country are increasing attacks and sabotage efforts on Russian forces and their local collaborators, with organised underground efforts appearing to spread.

Six Russian border guarders were reportedly killed last week when their position came under fire near the Zernovo border checkpoint in Ukraine’s north. Two days later an explosion struck close to the office of Yevgeny Balitsky, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian official in Melitopol.

The increase in partisan warfare, particularly in the country’s south around Kherson, follows warnings at the outset of Russia’s war against Ukraine that any area under occupation was likely to see the emergence of guerrilla warfare.

Proposed powers to sell, redistribute Russian assets may violate international law, says legal expert

If the House of Commons passes the budget implementation bill as expected this month, the Canadian government could have new powers to seize and sell sanctioned Russian assets to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine, setting up a potential violation of international law.

Chapter 2 of the United Nations Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, adopted by the International Law Commission in 2001 and submitted to the General Assembly, lays out rules for countermeasures member states may take to hold another member — Russia in this instance — accountable for its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Isn’t that swell?

Can a dating app fight Russian propaganda?

If you are impatient with the calibre of potential partners in your city, Tinder has a feature for you. For £18 a month, you can “passport” to another place; that is, you can set your location to anywhere in the world. Tel Aviv, Jeddah, Moscow, Kyiv. Tinder’s blandness, combined with the fact that matchmaking is a universally smiled-upon process, has allowed it to operate as a politically-neutral entity — even in sexually repressive or war-torn regimes.

In late March, roughly a month into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an unnamed Nato official told NBC News that the conflict was turning into a meat grinder for both sides. ‘If we’re not in a stalemate, we are rapidly approaching one,’ the Nato official said at the time. ‘The reality is that neither side has a superiority over the other.’

Sure enough, a month and a half later, the Pentagon’s top intelligence official testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that ‘stalemate’ is exactly what is occurring. ‘The Russians aren’t winning, and the Ukrainians aren’t winning, and we’re at a bit of a stalemate here,’ Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said on May 10.

Standing in front of a statue of a gruff-looking Soviet general, Peter Obukhov explained his plan to purge Russian names from the city of Odesa. “The things written here are unacceptable. You can see the word ‘Kremlin’. And there’s Lenin’s face as well,” he said, pointing to an inscription beneath the monument to Rodion Malinovsky.

Obukhov is a deputy in Odesa’s city parliament. He said he did not want to pull down Malinovsky’s statue, a fate that has befallen Lenin sculptures all across Ukraine. The Soviet defence minister was born in Odesa and liberated the city from the Nazis during the second world war. “I would rewrite the sign and get rid of the communist symbols. We need the truth,” Obukhov said.

Russia launched airstrikes on Kyiv for the first time in five weeks on Sunday, claiming it had destroyed western-supplied tanks – while the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, warned more targets would be struck if weapons deliveries continued.

Several explosions were heard around the eastern Kyiv suburbs of Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi early on Sunday morning, wounding one person. The strikes represented a change of tack on the part of the invading forces.

Russia’s ministry of defence said the strikes had destroyed T-72 tanks that had been provided to Ukraine by European countries that were being stored in the buildings of a car repair business, although the claim could not immediately be verified.

#Ukraine: Clearer footage just released by the Ukrainian 128th Mountain Assault Brigade shows what was shot down was a Russian Ka-52 attack helicopter- they claim that a MANPADS was used.

Given the low altitude & very rapid explosion, we can state that both the crew were killed. https://t.co/exCn9nvNZ5 pic.twitter.com/EkBKBvd3aY

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 5, 2022

I hope the Ukraine kicks butt, I hope they win. I support supplying military aid and helping their refugees but I wonder if they are are being sacrificed for ulterior motives. It is unseemly that Freeland throws herself at Russian oligarchs while our allies continue to buy Russian oil and gas. Now we have Macron warning we mustn’t “humiliate” Putin. The French are such sophisticated surrenderists we yobs from the hinterlands should heed his counsel.

You’re either at war or you’re not. Ukraine seems more like a live expo for weapons manufacturers. Is there an end in sight? Under what terms?

Ukraine on Saturday announced the deaths of four foreign military volunteers who joined the fight against the Russian invasion, three of whom were from the EU.

“We wish to remember and honor our fallen brothers, who travelled to Ukraine to join the bravest of the brave and fight shoulder to shoulder with the defenders of Ukraine,” the International Legion of Defense of Ukraine said in a statement.

ZHYTOMYR, Ukraine (AP) — As soon as they had finished burying a veteran colonel killed by Russian shelling, the cemetery workers readied the next hole. Inevitably, given how quickly death is felling Ukrainian troops on the front lines, the empty grave won’t stay that way for long.

Col. Oleksandr Makhachek left behind a widow, Elena, and their daughters Olena and Myroslava-Oleksandra. In the first 100 days of war, his grave was the 40th dug in the military cemetery in Zhytomyr, 90 miles (140 kilometers) west of the capital, Kyiv.

“I don’t want to go [back to Ukraine] to kill and be killed,” says Sergey – not his real name – who spent five weeks fighting in Ukraine earlier this year.

He is now home in Russia, having taken legal advice to avoid being sent back to the front line. Sergey is just one of hundreds of Russian soldiers understood to have been seeking such advice.

Sergey says he is traumatised by his experience in Ukraine.

More than 1,400 cases of treason and collaboration with the Russian army have been brought against citizens

On the third day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the mayor of the city of Kupyansk received a call from a Russian army commander suggesting they talk.

Russian forces were already on the outskirts of the city, in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. Mayor Gennady Matsegora released a video address explaining that he had accepted a Russian offer.

“I took the decision to take part in negotiations to avoid loss of life,” he said. Matsegora handed over the city to Russian control without a fight. Later, he allegedly provided Russian soldiers with transportation, housing, fuel and food.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The question was posed in a private briefing to U.S. intelligence officials weeks before Russia launched its invasion in late February: Was Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made in the mold of Britain’s Winston Churchill or Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani?

In other words, would Zelenskyy lead a historic resistance or flee while his government collapsed?

Ultimately, U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated Zelenskyy and Ukraine while overestimating Russia and its president, even as they accurately predicted Vladimir Putin would order an invasion.

The biggest shock is how poor Putin’s army has performed. Hitler’s ambitions with Italian fervor for battle.

The United States and Germany this week pledged to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons Kyiv has long desired for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery, as Russian forces close in on capturing a key city in the east.

Despite multiple countries sending arms to Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February, Kyiv has complained that it is still outgunned as it pleaded for more heavy weapons.

Here is a look at the weaponry that has either been promised or sent so far. This is not a complete list given some nations keep their donations secret.

Even a ceasefire won’t thwart his masterplan

A hundred days ago, Putin did what he was always going to do: press the red button on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While US and British Intelligence warned an attack was imminent, much of the world was shocked by the sudden, merciless violence set in motion as Russian military forces entered from the north, east, south, and from across Black Sea.

The perverse effects of sanctions means rising fuel and food costs for the rest of the world – and fears are growing of a humanitarian catastrophe. Sooner or later, a deal must be made

… The first set of economic measures were introduced immediately after the invasion, when it was assumed Ukraine would capitulate within days. That didn’t happen, with the result that sanctions – while still incomplete – have gradually been intensified.

There is, though, no immediate sign of Russia pulling out of Ukraine and that’s hardly surprising, because the sanctions have had the perverse effect of driving up the cost of Russia’s oil and gas exports, massively boosting its trade balance and financing its war effort. In the first four months of 2022, Putin could boast a current account surplus of $96bn (£76bn) – more than treble the figure for the same period of 2021.

“A deal must be made” seems to be a rising chorus.