“Ukraine – Russia”

The Russians have taken Avdiivka, and President Joe Biden faces a tough choice: he either closes the Mexican border or loses Ukraine. The $61 billion supplemental aid package for Ukraine, which may be the minimum required to block further Russian advances, remains held up by Congress, which is unlikely to pass it anytime soon unless the administration returns to the tough border policies of former President Donald Trump. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson responded to Democrat machinations to force a vote last week by putting the House of Representatives in recess.

LYMAN, Ukraine (AP) – When the Russian army mounted a full-scale invasion two years ago, Ukrainian men zealously rushed to recruitment centers across the country to enlist, ready to die in defense of their nation.

Ukrainian soldiers may be manning the front lines, but more Europeans seem to be manning their nearest café tables and shrugging off expectations that Ukraine can prevail over Russia, a new poll finds.

The survey, conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations and released just ahead of the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, finds that 10 percent of Europeans, on average, believe Ukraine will emerge the winner in the conflict. The prevailing view, in all 12 surveyed member states, is that a “compromise settlement” will end the war.

Russia has arrested an American–Russian dual citizen on treason charges after she allegedly donated about $50 to a Ukrainian charity.

Video released by Russia’s federal security services showed a 33-year-old woman, identified by the First Department, a collective of lawyers, as Ksenia Khavana, being handcuffed and escorted out of a building in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg with a cream-coloured hat pulled down over her eyes. The video then cuts to a shot of the woman standing inside a glass courtroom cage.

Canada will donate more than 800 drones to Ukraine as part of an additional aid package to the country, Defence Minister Bill Blair announced on Monday.

The drones, worth an estimated $95 million, are paid for by the $500 million package unveiled by the prime minister during his visit to Kyiv last June. Since February, 2022, Canada has spent $9.7 billion supporting Ukraine, including $2.4 billion on military aid.

MUNICH — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants Donald Trump to come and see the war against Russia with his own eyes.

“If Mr. Trump will come I am ready even to go with him to the front line,” Zelenskyy said Saturday morning at the Munich Security Conference.

Trump is leading in the polls to run as the Republican Party’s nominee in this November’s U.S. presidential election and has pledged repeatedly to stop aid to Ukraine and force Kyiv to the negotiating table with Russia.

I’d like to see this.

“In order to preserve life and encirclement, I have withdrawn our units from Avdiivka.”

When he was appointed this month, Ukraine’s new head of the armed forces, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said he would “rather retreat than sacrifice lives”, and that is what he has finally done with this eastern city.

Despite Russians suffering enormous losses, four months of relentless attacks have left Ukrainian troops there outnumbered, outgunned, and with dwindling ammunition.

It is Moscow’s biggest victory since Ukraine’s failed counter-offensive last year.

In today’s world, the battlefield has become transparent, the warheads much more precise and the weapons very cheap.

With each passing day, the battlefield in Ukraine is becoming more and more like the trenches of World War I. Artillery rains on static front lines, troops live in squalid, sodden hovels and the mine-strewn landscape is cratered with shell holes.

Forward progress is measured in meters, and retaken villages become less consequential, quickly forgotten as the days pass.

A big Russian amphibious ship, the Caesar Kunikov, has sunk off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.

Powerful explosions were heard early on Wednesday, according to local social media, which suggested the landing ship was hit south of the town of Yalta.

Ukraine’s intelligence directorate released video of what it said were Magura V5 sea drones striking the ship.

Ukraine has repeatedly hit Russia’s Black Sea fleet in occupied Crimea.

BREAKING:

Ukraine releases video proving it used a naval drone swarm to strike and sink the 112 meter long Russian Ropucha-class landing ship Caesar Kunikov this morning.

The ship capsized after several hits and quickly sunk

The crew was around 50 men pic.twitter.com/OM7AIPHSeS

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 14, 2024