“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.
When Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in late February, the Russian president vowed his forces would not occupy the neighboring country. But as the invasion reached its 100th day Friday, Russia seemed increasingly unlikely to relinquish the territory it has taken in the war.
The ruble is now an official currency in the southern Kherson region, alongside the Ukrainian hryvnia. Residents there and in Russia-controlled parts of the Zaporizhzhia region are getting offered Russian passports. The Kremlin-installed administrations in both regions have talked about plans to become part of Russia.
And – Oil Execs Cash Out Like Crazy While Gas Prices Soak Americans
Gas prices have skyrocketed to record highs, forcing some families to choose between filling their tank and putting food on the table. But for the oil execs whose stock holdings have soared, these are happy days—and some of them are cashing in their shares at unusually high rates.
I swear the purpose of this war was to condition us to accept the uninterrupted flow of commerce between belligerents. What next? War profiteering is declared patriotic? A win for the elites.
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.
Germany has been forced to admit it was a terrible mistake to become so dependent on Russian oil and gas. So why did it happen?
On Sunday 1 February 1970, senior politicians and gas executives from Russia and Germany gathered at the upmarket Hotel Kaiserhof in Essen. They were there to celebrate the signing of a contract for the first major Russia-Germany gas pipeline, which was to run from Siberia to the West German border at Marktredwitz in Bavaria. The contract was the result of nine months of intense bargaining over the price of the gas, the cost of 1.2m tonnes of German pipes to be sold to Russia, and the credit terms offered to Moscow by a consortium of 17 German banks. Aware of the risk of Russia defaulting, the German banks’ chief financial negotiator, Friedrich Wilhelm Christians, took the precaution of asking for a loan from the federal government, explaining: “I don’t do any somersaults without a net, especially not on a trapeze.”
Vladimir Putin’s health is a subject of intense conversation inside the Biden administration after the intelligence community produced its fourth comprehensive assessment at the end of May. The classified U.S. report says Putin seems to have re-emerged after undergoing treatment in April for advanced cancer, three U.S. intelligence leaders who have read the reports tell Newsweek.
Weapons sent to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February will end up on the global hidden economy and in the hands of criminals, the head of Interpol has said.
Jürgen Stock says once the conflict ends, a wave of guns and heavy arms will flood the international market and he urged Interpol’s member states, especially those supplying weapons, to cooperate on arms tracing.
“Once the guns fall silent [in Ukraine], the illegal weapons will come. We know this from many other theatres of conflict. The criminals are even now, as we speak, focusing on them,” Stock said.
#Ukraine: What happens when pre-WW2 weapons meet inventive people: Ukrainian forces training with a vintage DP-27 light machine gun that has had optics and a suppressor added. pic.twitter.com/WQjlLNMmA4
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 2, 2022
The US will send Ukraine more advanced rocket systems to help it defend itself, President Biden has announced.
The weapons, long requested by Ukraine, are to help it strike enemy forces more precisely from a longer distance.
Until now, the US had refused the request out of fear the weapons could be used against targets in Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the US was “directly and intentionally adding fuel to the fire” with its weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
Himars: what are the advanced rockets US is sending Ukraine?
Joe Biden has announced the US will send advanced missile systems to Ukraine. The new weapon is the Himars multiple launch rocket system, or MLRS: a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision-guided missiles.
Both Ukraine and Russia already operate MLRS, but Himars has superior range and precision.
#Ukraine: One of the most professionally edited videos so far from the Ukrainian side- the 45th Artillery Brigade tracking and taking out Russian vehicles (BMP/BTR and a Truck) in #Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Evidently, the assistance of DJI Matrice 300 RTK drone is invaluable. pic.twitter.com/vOjfW6fBl5
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 31, 2022
A Ukrainian refugee in the UK says she recognises items apparently looted from her house sitting on top of a Russian tank in a recent photo.
Alina Koreniuk says the box in the photo contains a new boiler she planned to install before the war started.
She and her children left Ukraine on 8 April and are staying with a British couple in Nottinghamshire.
Another major piece of Ottawa’s military aid to Ukraine has arrived in the country.
Whether it’s what the beleaguered nation’s armed forces most need from Canada — or nearly enough of a contribution — is another question, experts say.
Peter Arnett’s celebrated quote — “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it” — was a fabrication during the Vietnam War but has a macabre application to Ukraine. American fecklessness and Russian rapacity together will leave a grease spot where Ukraine used to be. It was all tragically, idiotically unnecessary.
Austria and Germany have ruled out any European Union embargo on Russian gas imports after a Brussels summit agreed a partial oil ban last night.
Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are already pushing to step up Russian energy sanctions to keep the pressure on President Putin, but the EU appears to have hit the political limit on gas imports.
Setting the scene for a new clash over sanctions, Karl Nehammer, the Austrian chancellor, said that there could be no question of suspending gas imports because of the effect on major European economies, such as Germany’s.
I guess the next step is to ship Ukraine half a rifle or half a grenade etc.
