“Ukraine – Russia”

In what appeared to some as a significant volte-face, the Kremlin signaled earlier this week that it is seeking substantive progress in ongoing peace talks with Ukraine.

During the latest round of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul, Kiev offered Moscow a fresh model for Ukrainian neutrality. Ukraine is willing to abandon its bid to join NATO in exchange for legally binding security guarantees from a large group of “guarantor nations,” including the United States, Canada, France, Britain, China, Germany, Israel, Turkey, Italy, and Poland. The Ukrainian negotiators likened the scheme to Article V of NATO’s charter, which relates to collective defense. But the analogy belies a striking contrast: Article V is a reciprocal security arrangement that requires every member to come to the defense of every other member, whereas Ukraine is calling for unilateral security guarantees from the world’s great powers without taking on any military commitments in turn.

In any war, there are units that distinguish themselves and others that become symbolic of failure. The 331st Guards Parachute Regiment had high hopes of being the first, but now represents the disintegration of Russia’s plan for a quick war.

The regiment’s commanding officer, Col Sergei Sukharev, was killed in Ukraine on 13 March, and was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation medal. At his funeral, deputy defence minister Gen Yuri Sadovenko said the colonel “lived for the future, for the future of our people, a future without Nazism”.

Hundreds of battle-hardened Syrian mercenaries are signing up to join Russian forces on the promise of earning $1,000-a-month, as Moscow continues to struggle to make significant gains in its war in Ukraine.

Syrian fighters have gained years of experience fighting in their country’s civil war, which has all but crushed both ISIS and the rebel resistance, but left the economy in tatters.

But now those who honed their skills during President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal 11-year-war cannot find work at home. Instead, they are choosing to become mercenaries, fighting for foreign countries in order to earn a living.

#Ukraine: Not much left of this Russian BMD-2 airborne IFV. As claimed, it was hit by a FGM-148 Javelin missile. pic.twitter.com/3GR2XOta3S

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 1, 2022

#Ukraine: A Ukrainian Skif ATGM in use against 2 TOS-1A thermobaric MRL, destroying them both.

It seems they were likely unloaded; if loaded there would be a massive explosion as the 24 thermobaric rockets detonated. Either way, a serious loss as these are very powerful systems. pic.twitter.com/jVokspMMKD

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 1, 2022

After Mikhail Benyash, a Russian lawyer, said he would be defending a group of national guardsmen who refused to join the war in Ukraine, he was inundated with calls from across the country.

“A lot of people don’t want to go and fight,” Benyash said by telephone from the southern city of Krasnodar, adding that about 1,000 people had been in touch with his team, as he pursues the first court case to officially reveal dissent inside the ranks of Russia’s security forces over the invasion.

Russia’s war effort is grinding to a halt because much of the military hardware they need is made in Ukraine, it emerged last night.

Kremlin forces have run out of vital weapons and cannot now replenish their stocks, UK defence sources revealed.

The revelations came as President Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces drove Russia out of dozens of towns around Kyiv and the north in one of the most extraordinary days since the start of the invasion.

Russian forces ‘leaving mines in dead Ukrainian bodies’ as they retreat, Zelenskyy says

Russian forces are leaving behind “a complete disaster” in their retreat from northern Ukraine, as they leave mines in everything from destroyed equipment to dead bodies, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Despite a Russian pledge this week to reduce “military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv”, Ukraine’s leader said residents must be prepared of further attacks.

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian soldiers examining an abandoned Russian cargo truck in Nova Basan, #Chernihiv Oblast. The truck is fully loaded with ammo, however, as the author says, this time it was at least booby-trapped by retreating Russians. pic.twitter.com/giEOAY1AWN

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 1, 2022

#Ukraine: Low Quality but very interesting video of the famous FGM-148 Javelin ATGM in action with Ukrainian SOF against a Russian tank- which is totally destroyed.

Notice that as the system is "fire and forget" the operator can immediately get into cover. pic.twitter.com/iIl0aS3VrR

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 1, 2022

When thousands of Canadians and other foreigners volunteered to join Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion, the embattled country welcomed the offers with open arms.

Ukraine’s embassy and consulates here actively encouraged the involvement of would-be fighters from Canada, unusual activity for diplomats.

We counted 13 bodies on a nightmarish stretch of road not much more than 200 yards long, between Mria and Myla, villages whose Ukrainian names translate as Dream and Sweetheart.

Two of the dead are confirmed as Ukrainian civilians who were killed by the Russians. The others have not been identified yet – they lie where they were killed – but only two are wearing recognisable Ukrainian military uniforms.

Our BBC team was able to get to the area, on the main E-40 highway as it approaches Kyiv, because Ukrainian forces had captured the sector only 10 hours earlier.

April 1 (Reuters) – Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out an air strike against a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod on Friday, an incident the Kremlin said set an unfavourable tone for peace talks with Kyiv.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he could not confirm or deny reports of Ukrainian involvement in the strike as he did not have military information. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry and the general staff did not respond to requests for comment.

#Ukraine: Early today, 2 Ukrainian Mi-24 attack helicopters flew at extremely low level over the border with Russia & struck the large oil facility in the city of #Belgorod with multiple S-8 series unguided rockets, causing a major fire. Here is the strike/escape in slo-mo. pic.twitter.com/oGs5eayc1c

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 1, 2022

Ukraine war: Russian forces regrouping for attack – Nato

Russian forces in Ukraine are regrouping to double down on their attacks in the east of the country, according to Nato’s secretary general.

“Russia is trying to regroup, resupply and reinforce,” Jens Stoltenberg said.

The UK said Russia was bringing in between 1,200 and 2,000 troops from Georgia as reinforcements.

Moscow said on Tuesday that it would reduce military activity in northern Ukraine and focus on “liberating” the Donbas region in the south-east.

Mr Stoltenberg said Russia’s aim of pursuing a military outcome had not changed.

#Ukraine: A retreating Russian convoy in #Chernihiv Oblast was ambushed by Ukrainian forces, apparently striking an MT-LB with RPG and small arms fire. pic.twitter.com/mAPO4fBkEy

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 1, 2022

Has Putin’s invasion of Ukraine punctured populism in western democracies? Last week I looked for evidence in recent polling, but there was no clear pattern. While support for some populists is down, support for others is up.

However, my focus was on Right-wing populism alone. I didn’t consider the populists at the other extreme of the political spectrum — or, if you prefer, the other side of the horseshoe. In some European countries, the parties of the anti-establishment Left are a significant presence. Many of them are characterised by a foreign policy platform that, if not explicitly pro-Putin, is anti-NATO.

Why won’t we talk about the heroism of the Ukrainian people?

There is something strange and unsettling about the media coverage of the war in Ukraine. We talk about the war constantly but we never see it. Sure, we see parts of it. We see shaky mobile-phone footage of Russian missiles hitting buildings. We see burnt-out tanks. And of course we see columns of refugees. We see mothers puffy-faced from crying and children clasping battered dolls. We see that kind of thing – the terrible residue of war – all the time. But the actual war? It seems oddly absent. It’s almost as if the war is just the mise-en-scene, the backdrop to the stories the media really want to tell about the suffering of women and children, and the goodness of us in the West who are taking them in.

The top U.S. general in Europe believes one of the reasons Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine is because he thought he might have been able to exploit potential divisions in NATO caused by the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan.

Gen. Tod Wolters, the Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, made the comments in front of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, after Rep. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, asked why Putin decided to invade on Feb. 24 rather than some other time since 2014.

A female Russian sniper with 40 kills to her name was captured after being abandoned on the battlefield, it was reported.

Irina Starikova — whose call sign is Bagira — is said to have told her captors she was left to die after being wounded in a battle with Ukrainian troops.

According to the Peacemaker center, which researches crimes committed by Russian separatists in the Ukraine war, she is 41-years-old.

While the usual foreign-policy wizards and oracles in Washington, London and Brussels were busy reading the tea leaves of the Kremlin’s promised measures to “increase mutual trust” at this week’s so-called peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials at the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was cutting to the chase.

There are several historical referents we should keep in mind about the Ukraine war.

First, no-fly zones. Lots of Westerners are calling for NATO aircraft to establish a no-fly zone above Ukraine to stop Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities.

That is a terrible idea. Russian planes can still launch missiles from the nearby airspace of Russia and Belarus. No nation in history has declared a no-fly zone against an adversarial nuclear power.