Amid horrors of amputation and dwindling medical supplies, Azov battalion reject their portrayal as far-Right radicals and demand urgent aid
It is a scene reminiscent of the horrors of the First World War – unshaven soldiers in filthy uniforms, their arms and legs ending in bandaged stumps.
The images, though, are not from the trenches of Ypres or Flanders, but from Ukraine a century later, showing wounded fighters trapped in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant.
They cannot accept that war in Europe is now a reality
In Germany, this was a Victory in Europe Day like no other. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Berlin’s entire postwar consensus has crumbled. Previously settled policies and cherished beliefs have dissolved in this new reality: the brutal return of war to Europe. All these confusions were displayed for the world to see on Sunday.
There has been a sustained cyber-conflict over Ukraine which could still escalate, a senior US intelligence official has told the BBC.
Despite warnings, major cyber-attacks on the West have so far not materialised.
But Russia shouldn’t be underestimated, Rob Joyce, director of cyber-security at the National Security Agency said.
Meanwhile independent hackers targeting Russia in support of Ukraine could also spark escalation, he warned.
Russia is expected to make almost $321 billion from its energy exports this year — over a third more, according to Bloomberg, than last year.
Twenty-seven European Union member states, despite adopting five packages of sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, have nevertheless spent at least around 35 billion euros — around $38 billion — in payments to Russia for its oil and gas since the invasion, according to the EU’s foreign-policy chief, Josep Borrell.
Ukraine – the next Afghanistan.
“I watched this clip (from Chinese media!) that’s circulating on Twitter hours ago and thought nothing beyond, “Whoa, cooooool.”
Americans are now entering uncharted, revolutionary territory. They may witness things over the next five months that once would have seemed unimaginable.
Until the Ukrainian conflict, we had never witnessed a major land war inside Europe directly involving a nuclear power.
There is “credible” information that Russian prisoners of war have been mistreated by Ukrainian forces since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February, a United Nations official said.
The evidence suggests that Russia is not the only country willing to break international norms during war, as the U.N. reports that Ukrainian forces have subjected Russians under their watch to treatment that violates international law, Matilda Bogner, head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said Tuesday.
Ukraine prosecutors ready to launch first war crimes trials of Russia conflict
Three Russian prisoners of war accused of targeting or murdering civilians, and a soldier who allegedly killed a man before raping his wife, are set to be in the dock in the first war crimes trials of the Ukraine conflict, the Ukrainian prosecutor general has revealed.
More than 10,700 crimes have been registered since the war began by the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general, led by Iryna Venediktova, and a handful of cases have now been filed or are ready to be submitted in what marks a watershed moment two months into the war.
When Leonid Pliats and his boss were shot in the back by Russian soldiers, the killing was captured on CCTV cameras in clear and terrible detail. The footage, which was obtained by the BBC, is now being investigated by Ukrainian prosecutors as a suspected war crime.
It was the height of the fighting around Kyiv and the main roads into the capital were a battlefield, including around the bicycle shop where Leonid worked as a security guard.
But this was no firefight: the video clearly shows heavily armed Russian soldiers shooting the two unarmed Ukrainians and then looting the business.
Finland must apply to join Nato without delay in the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, its president and prime minister have said, confirming a historic change in the Nordic country’s security policy after decades of military non-alignment.
Sauli Niinistö and Sanna Marin made the call in a joint statement, adding: “We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”
Nato membership would strengthen Finland’s security, the two leaders said, and as a member of Nato: “Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance. Finland must apply for Nato membership as a matter of urgency.”
Update – Finland Nato: Russia threatens to retaliate over membership move
Russia has said it will be forced to take “retaliatory steps” over its neighbour Finland’s move to join Nato.
A foreign ministry statement said the move would seriously damage bilateral relations, as well as security and stability in northern Europe.
Earlier, Finland’s president and PM called for the country to apply for Nato membership “without delay”.
A Ukrainian village councillor has been arrested by elite special forces after she was accused of being a Russian collaborator.
Nadiya Antonova, from Kutuzivka near Kharkiv, was swarmed by Alpha Force troops and secret intelligence agents who led her away in handcuffs – and she now faces life behind bars.
The secretary of the local council is accused of betraying her country’s defenders by giving away the identities of police, soldiers and counter-terrorism specialists to Putin’s invaders.
Most “Theatrical” war ever!
A complacent West underestimates just how low the Kremlin could go.
Too many among Britain’s political and media class are in danger of taking Russia’s defeat for granted.
UK defence secretary Ben Wallace said this week that the Kremlin’s operational capability in Ukraine ‘falters further every day’. Even Michael Clarke, a sober military expert, has insisted that Putin now faces ‘only different kinds of defeat’.
This may well be true. But there is a risk of complacency about what lies ahead.
#Ukraine: Russian forces sustained remarkable losses from the failed bridging attempt over the Siverskyi Donets River.
We count 6x T-72B-series MBT, 14x BMP-1/2 variants, 7x MT-LB, a tugboat & 5+ other armoured vehicles destroyed/abandoned/damaged. Note precise ID is very hard. https://t.co/py48JvXWUG pic.twitter.com/cqX60F0KPT
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 11, 2022
Vladimir Putin is preparing for a long war in Ukraine, with even victory in the east potentially not ending the conflict, US intelligence has warned.
The warning comes as fierce fighting continues in the east, where Russia is trying to take territory.
Moscow refocused its troops on capturing the Donbas region after Ukraine resisted attempts to take its capital, Kyiv.
But despite this, its forces remain in a stalemate, US intelligence said.
She added that the Russian president was “probably” counting on US and EU support for Ukraine to weaken as inflation, food shortages and energy prices got worse.
And just in time from the CBC – prepare for the forever war!
Can the West continue arming Ukraine at the current rate?
If the West is in it for the long haul, defence contractors have work and hiring to do
I cannot support a war in which each side continues to trade in oil and gas “so as to not upset the economy” or others exploit the conflict to further their green-scam agenda.
I feel we are being played, told to accept uninterrupted commerce between so-called “belligerents” as the new normal.
Every war has it’s profiteers, typically they exploit their own and are not in cahoots with the “sworn enemy of whatever.”
“Viva GazProm” just doesn’t sound right.
Indian influencer ER Yamini has never tweeted in her life – she prefers to cultivate her big fan bases on Instagram and YouTube.
But in early March, a Twitter account using her picture tweeted: “#IStandWithPutin. True Friendship” accompanied by a video showing two men hugging – one representing India, the other, Russia.
Yamini says she doesn’t support either country in the Russia-Ukraine war, and worries about her fans.
Airpower should have been one of Russia’s greatest advantages over Ukraine. With almost 4,000 combat aircraft and extensive experience bombing targets in Syria, Georgia, and Chechnya, Russia’s air force was expected to play a vital role in the invasion, allowing the Russian army to plunge deep into Ukraine, seize Kyiv, and destroy the Ukrainian military. But more than two months into the war, Vladimir Putin’s air force is still fighting for control of the skies.
The Russian air force’s failure is perhaps the most important, but least discussed, story of the military conflict so far. Ukrainian forces showed surprising strength in the air war, and adapted as the fighting progressed. But either side of this war could still gain air supremacy—and fundamentally change the course of the conflict.
NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE, France, May 10 (Reuters) – The Russian military’s failure to seize the Ukrainian capital was inevitable because in the preceding years they had never directly faced a powerful enemy, according to a former mercenary with the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group who fought alongside the Russian army.
Marat Gabidullin took part in Wagner Group missions on the Kremlin’s behalf in Syria and in a previous conflict in Ukraine, before deciding to go public about his experience inside the secretive private military company.
