“Ukraine – Russia”

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — She stood in just her bathrobe in the freezing basement of the Mariupol theater, coated in white plaster dust shaken loose by the explosion. Her husband tugged at her to leave and begged her to cover her eyes.

But she couldn’t help it — Oksana Syomina looked. And to this day, she wishes she hadn’t. Bodies were strewn everywhere, including those of children. By the main exit, a little girl lay still on the floor.

Syomina had to step on the dead to escape the building that had served as the Ukrainian city’s main bomb shelter for more than a week. The wounded screamed, as did those trying to find loved ones. Syomina, her husband and about 30 others ran blindly toward the sea and up the shore for almost five miles (eight kilometers) without stopping, the theater in ruins behind them.

Nothing like a coherent strategy emerged from 20 years of Nato’s war in Afghanistan; at best there were long lists of aspirations with no clear objectives or assessments of the resources needed to achieve them. But, two months after the Russian invasion, it looks very much as if the US and Nato are beginning to develop a coherent plan for Ukraine. Military strategy has been described as a synthesis of ends, ways and means. Last week, senior US and UK officials clarified the objectives – the ends.

Russia is stepping up airstrikes on key Ukrainian supply lines delivering billions of pounds worth of western arms to the country, including on railway lines and warehousing.

With Moscow and Kyiv-locked in a race to shape the conditions for the current phase of the war in Ukraine, the rapid and growing flow of weapons supplied by Ukraine’s western backers has become an increased focus for both sides.

On Tuesday Russian airstrikes hit six train stations in central and western Ukraine as the Kremlin stepped up its targeting of key infrastructure, including electrical and water supply substations.

#Ukraine: Apparently, the Ukrainian army received Milkor M32A1 40mm multi-shot grenade launchers – and they are already being utilized in combat. The delivery was not announced previously, but likely they were supplied within recent military aid packages from the US. pic.twitter.com/s3SHYza1cc

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 4, 2022

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian 25th Airborne Brigade struck two Russian T-72B-pattern tanks and BMP-2 IFV with artillery fire, causing serious damage. pic.twitter.com/4kSRxnNjZF

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 4, 2022

The EU has proposed some of its toughest measures yet against Russia, including a total ban on oil imports and sanctions on war crimes suspects.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the package was aimed at maximising pressure on Russia while minimising damage to Europe.

Russian crude oil would be phased out within six months, she said.

Military officers involved in suspected war crimes in Bucha and Mariupol would also face new sanctions.

… The Russian-state-owned energy company Gazprom says it has cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria and will not restart these until payments are made in roubles.

Many other EU countries are set to face the same issue around mid-May when payments are due.

Payments in roubles would shore up the Russian currency and benefit its economy.

“Phony War”

The German public is divided on the issue of military support for Ukraine. Many fear the delivery of tanks and training of Ukrainian soldiers in Germany may drag the country into the war.

After mounting pressure from the German public and its allies, the German government announced last week that it would send tanks to Ukraine. A day later, on April 28, the ruling coalition of center-left Social Democrats, Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats joined forces with the main opposition, the center-right Christian Democrats, to approve the delivery by a large majority in the federal parliament, the Bundestag.

However, the latest opinion polls show a rift in the German electorate as to whether or not to support that move.

Russia’s foreign ministry accused Israel on Tuesday of supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, further escalating a row which began when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins.

Israel lambasted Lavrov on Monday, saying his claim – made when talking about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy who is Jewish – was an “unforgivable” falsehood that debased the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.

Pope says he wants to go to Moscow to meet Putin over Ukraine – paper

VATICAN CITY, May 3 (Reuters) – Pope Francis said in an interview published on Tuesday that he asked for a meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to stop the war in Ukraine but had not received a reply.

The pope also told Italy’s Corriere Della Sera newspaper that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has given the war his full-throated backing, “cannot become Putin’s altar boy”.

#Ukraine: Reconnaissance drone footage of a Ukrainian T-64BV reportedly being hit by a Russian tank near Izium, #Kharkiv Oblast. Only two crew members managed to leave the vehicle. pic.twitter.com/HUtxbJ7Hd9

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 2, 2022

A FRIEND in Moscow, passing by a university library, found boxes full of books being removed. They were from the English literature department, with classic authors and titles facing the chop.

Among them were JD Salinger and Somerset Maugham, and virtually all of the books had long been available in Russia, even during the latter days of the USSR.

This is, undoubtedly, cancel culture. Finding themselves in a war against the West, with the Anglo-Saxon powers constituting the most vocal supporters of Zelensky’s Ukraine, classic English-language literature is an obvious target.

“Ukraine and its allies, including London, are threatening Russia for the last 1,000 years, to move Nato to our borders, to cancel our culture – they have bullied us for many, many years.”

That is what Yevgeny Popov, a member of the Russian Duma (parliament) and an influential TV host in Russia, told the BBC’s Ukrainecast on 19 April. “Of course Nato plans for Ukraine are a direct threat to Russian citizens.”

His views were both surprising and enlightening as to the very different narrative put out by the Kremlin, compared to the way it’s viewed in the West. To European and Western ears, these pronouncements sound almost unfathomable, even amounting to a blatant disregard for carefully documented evidence. Yet these are just some of the beliefs held not only by Kremlin supporters in Russia and across the wider population there but also in several other parts of the world.

Research has found the president’s ally may be behind pro-Kremlin propaganda on a bizarre variety of platforms

A Russian troll factory has spread lies about the war in Ukraine across social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, according to research commissioned by the government.

Boris Johnson and other world leaders have been targeted as part of a Kremlin disinformation campaign which, it is suspected, has been orchestrated by a close ally of President Putin.

The troll factory was trying to manipulate international public opinion in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, researchers found.

Ukraine’s fighter pilots are vastly outnumbered by the Russians, and have become legendary – thanks in part to the story of an alleged flying ace called the”Ghost of Kyiv”.

This hero is said to have downed as many as 40 enemy planes – an incredible feat in an arena where Russia controls the skies.

But now the Ukraine Air Force Command has warned on Facebook that the “Ghost of Kyiv is a superhero-legend whose character was created by Ukrainians!”.