“Ukraine – Russia”

A flood of anti-tank missiles sent to Ukraine has potentially changed the course of the war, putting pressure on Russia to find enough capable troops for the grueling urban combat that is now more likely.

For some military analysts, the number of latest generation anti-tank missiles shipped to Ukraine in recent weeks is breathtaking, giving Ukraine’s soldiers an arsenal of these weapons that may be unprecedented in a major modern war.

Russians are not entirely without success…

#Ukraine: The Russian VDV troops showed the weapons recently captured from the Ukrainian forces near #Kyiv. This includes 8 FGM-148 "Javelin", a single NLAW and 5 Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank launchers, supplied from the West. 9K310 Igla-1 and 9K38 Igla MANPADS also can be seen. pic.twitter.com/Wds1HSH7EY

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 15, 2022

#Ukraine: The Russian army continues to use "Krasnopol" 152mm laser-guided artillery shells – this time two Ukrainian BMP IFVs were hit, which led to the detonation of ammunition inside. pic.twitter.com/rMFRTnwWxI

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 15, 2022

Russia has empowered dangerous factions in Zelenskyy’s army

Like any war, but perhaps more than most, the war in Ukraine has seen a bewildering barrage of claims and counter-claims made by the online supporters of each side. Truth, partial truths and outright lies compete for dominance in the media narrative. Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia invaded Ukraine to “de-Nazify” the country is surely one of the clearest examples. The Russian claim that the Maidan revolution of 2014 was a “fascist coup” and that Ukraine is a Nazi state has been used for years by Putin and his supporters to justify his occupation of Crimea and support for Russian-speaking separatists in the country’s east, winning many online adherents.

A cameraman and a journalist working for Fox News have been killed in Ukraine, staff at the US network say.

Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and Oleksandra Kuvshinova, 24, were killed when their vehicle was struck by incoming fire in Horenka, on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Their colleague, Benjamin Hall, 39, was wounded in the incident and remains in hospital.

After three weeks of brutal fighting, Ukraine has acknowledged that joining NATO is off the table.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that he “realized” his country would not become a member of the defensive alliance.

“Ukraine realized that it would not become a member of NATO,” Zelensky said, according to an English translation from Ukrainian news outlet Trukha. “We understand this. We are adequate people. For years, we’ve heard the opposite — open doors. However, it is not.”

A Russian journalist who burst on to a live TV news programme to protest against the war in Ukraine has been reported missing overnight.

Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at state-controlled Channel 1, was detained after she ran on to the set on Monday holding an anti-war sign.

The sign, clearly visible for a few seconds, read: “No war, stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here.”

Her whereabouts are now unknown.

Ukraine’s president Zelenskyy likely to ask for more than Canada or NATO can give

OTTAWA – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address parliamentarians in Ottawa on Tuesday, but his major request is likely more than Canada or other Western nations can give.

… Zelenskyy is set to speak to MPs through a videoconference link at 11:15 Tuesday morning. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the opposition leaders are expected to speak as well.

THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT – Leger

• Canadians and Americans are uncertain about the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
• Overall, Canadians and Americans are concerned that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will escalate.
  • 74% of Canadians and 66% of Americans think the conflict has the potential to develop into a world war.
  • 64% of Canadians and 57% of Americans think the conflict could last for many years.
  • 47% of Canadians and 41% of Americans think Putin and Russia will use nuclear weapons if the conflict does not go the way Russia wants.
• Canadians and Americans are divided on imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine: 47% and 44% respectively agree that one should be established, even if it risks escalating the conflict.

The moral defeatism of the West stands in stark contrast to the valiance of Ukraine.

Of the millions of words uttered about the war in Ukraine, the most pertinent came from Olexander Scherba. He’s a Ukrainian diplomat. He was the Ukrainian ambassador to Austria from 2014 to 2021. And like other members of Ukraine’s political class, he has been doing the media rounds this past fortnight, eloquently making the case for his nation’s right to resist the Russian onslaught. A few days ago he took to Twitter to express irritation. ‘Every time I give an interview to Western media I get a feeling that they want us to give up’, he said. Then he posed a question that ought to make our commentariat engage in some serious self-reflection. What’s behind this moral defeatism infecting the media elites, he wondered? ‘[Is] it because they know they wouldn’t be fighting like us if they were in our shoes?’

Putin doesn’t need a reason to kill

Why did Smerdyakov kill cats? Just because. The lackey is one of the most washed-out faces in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. He is inconspicuous, elusive, slippery, always hiding, always doing things on the sly. And yet behind this mask of anonymity there lies something frightening: a compulsion to do evil for its own sake. When Smerdyakov is introduced, we learn of him that “as a child he was fond of hanging cats and then burying them with ceremony”.

Russian soldiers have shot people dead in the street as they took over Ukrainian villages, according to fleeing residents.

Soldiers shot randomly at buildings, threw grenades down roads and went from house to house confiscating phones and laptops, witnesses said.

Online groups created for family members or friends looking for information about people in affected areas are receiving hundreds or even thousands of requests a day.

#Ukraine: Russian Ka-52 helicopters hitting at least one 2S1 Gvozdika SPG of the Ukrainian Army. pic.twitter.com/ZphuIJyq1i

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 14, 2022

#Ukraine: Ukrainian farmers found themselves another two MT-LB, it seems. (We also see a burned out truck) pic.twitter.com/XOaxrdga2a

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 14, 2022

Since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine two and a half weeks ago, more than 330 companies have announced that they are suspending or terminating their operations in Russia, according to a list compiled by Yale University professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. While Russia’s aggression was certain to provoke some reduction of trade, the unprecedented scale and speed of the boycott has surprised even the most seasoned analysts. Boycotters include many with significant financial stakes in Russia, and some were pioneers of Western investment in Soviet Russia and corporate emblems of the end of the Cold War.

Putin is building his Russian fantasy atop Ukrainian corpses.

“What’s really happening in Ukraine?” This question has hit my inbox ever since Russia moved troops to the Ukrainian border. Friends look to me because much of my career has centered on Ukraine: I was a U.S. Army Russian linguist, spent four years as an Evangelical missionary in Ukraine, studied Ukrainian history in graduate school, and served in U.S. Embassy Kyiv for two years. I was there for the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity, and Russia’s 2014 invasion.

So what’s really happening? Putin is a throwback to a bloodier era in Europe when autocrats settled historical grievances by force. Except for Milosevic trying to build Greater Serbia via ethnic cleansing, such wars have been extinct since 1945.