“Ukraine – Russia”

Ukraine is reported to have rejected a consignment of Germany’s Leopard 1 tanks – on the grounds that they are technically flawed, and that Ukrainian engineers lack the skills and training to fix them.

Embarrassingly for Germany, this is the second time that Ukraine has turned its collective nose up at a delivery of German armour. When the first ten tanks – the advance guard of a total of 110 Leopard 1s that Berlin has agreed to supply to Kyiv – arrived in Ukraine, they too were found to be unsuitable for deployment on the front line. This despite the desperate need for armour to break through Russia’s defence lines resisting Ukraine’s vaunted counter offensive striking south towards the Sea of Azov.

Ukraine on Tuesday pushed back against a New York Times investigation, which said evidence suggested that Kyiv accidentally bombed a local market in its own town of Kostiantynivka killing 15 people.

According to the New York Times‘ report published Monday, a combination of witnesses, findings in Kostyantynivka and open-source investigation of video footage and local anonymous Telegram channels indicated the September 6 attack was actually a tragic accident, caused by a Ukrainian BUK missile system firing toward Russian forces from the Ukrainian-controlled nearby town of Druzhkivka.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Canada later this week after his visit to the United Nations and the U.S., sources told CBC News.

Zelenskyy will visit Ottawa and Toronto during his Canadian trip, sources said.

Zelenskyy is expected to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday to rally support for continued help to repel Russia’s invasion.

Twice last week, Crimea’s night skies lit up with the fiery destruction of valuable Russian military equipment.

In the early hours of Wednesday, cruise missiles struck the Sevmorzavod shipyard, home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Clips of the aftermath showed the skies over Sevastopol illuminated by a burning landing ship and attack submarine.

The following morning at Yevpatoriya, in the west of the Russian-occupied peninsula, footage circulated on social media showed another fireball. This time the target was said to be one of Russia’s sophisticated S-400 Triumf air defence batteries.

#Ukraine: The destruction of an abandoned Russian BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle by a FPV loitering munition of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade in #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/4aLXbmEuXd

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 18, 2023

Human rights lawyers believe Kremlin is ‘intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare’

War crimes investigators say they aim to bring the first international prosecution for starvation following Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian food supplies and farming.

The targeting of Ukraine’s agriculture, its farmland and grains stocks, and even civilians searching for food, amounts to a weaponisation of starvation and a clear war crime, investigators argue.

#Ukraine: A Russian 2S9 Nona 120mm self-propelled mortar was destroyed and another one was taken out of action by two GMLRS strikes of the Ukrainian army near Makiivka, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/FByKkv7gRV

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 18, 2023

When Russia invaded Ukraine 19 months ago, western socialists had an opportunity to prove that their commitments to “anti-imperialism” were authentic and principled. Instead, many of these leftists rallied behind Moscow and, in the process, spotlighted their own moral bankruptcy and disdain for eastern European lives.

This behaviour, however disappointing, was utterly predictable when put into historical context.

The chance of a serious disaster at the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in Ukraine has risen to one in five, a leading engineer at the Soviet-era facility has warned.

A recent exodus of top staff and the power station’s use as a military base by Chechen troops are among the reasons why a “Fukushima scenario” could happen at any time, according to one of the ten most senior engineers at the plant near Zaporizhzhia, which had a prewar workforce of 11,000.

The shortage of expertise is so acute that janitors, secretaries and “blue-collar” workers are posing as engineers in lab coats to dupe international observers into believing that the Russians have the necessary staff to avert disaster, according to sources with knowledge of conditions inside the facility.

This week saw spectacular Ukrainian attacks on the Crimean Peninsula, hitting Russian warships and missiles.

Estimates of the damage done ran into billions of pounds and raised the question: is Ukraine getting ready to retake Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014?

Crimea is a Russian fortress, so it is important not to get carried away.

“The strategy has two main goals,” says Oleksandr Musiienko, from Kyiv’s Centre for Military and Legal Studies.

Damage from Ukraine's recent strike on Russian air defenses in Crimea is visible in new high resolution satellite imagery. pic.twitter.com/is2lF3TonU

— Brady Africk (@bradyafr) September 14, 2023

A large nation does not engage in the same pattern of behavior for centuries for no reason.

Russia has changed little over the past 400 years. Yes, Russians now drive cars instead of oxcarts, but from a political, cultural, military, and geopolitical standpoint, Russia and how it behaves has changed remarkably little. In fact, the run-up to and trajectory of the war in Ukraine is very much a repeat of Russian history. Yet Western governments have completely ignored this, and their obliviousness is proving costly.

Ukraine targeted Russian navy vessels and port infrastructure in Sevastopol in its biggest attack yet on the home of the Kremlin’s Black Sea fleet.

Russia said at least 24 people were injured in the early-morning strike. Ukraine said it launched ten cruise missiles at the Sevmorzavod shipyard — often used to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities — and three maritime drones at Russian ships in the Black Sea. Video posted online showed flames engulfing the naval facility in the Crimean port.

#Ukraine: Tonight in Crimea the Sevastopol Shipyard was hit with multiple Ukrainian strikes. At the time two Russian watercraft were undergoing repairs in drydocks- Pr. 775 "Minsk" landing ship and Pr. 636.3 "Rostov na Donu" submarine.

Both suffered damage to an unknown degree. pic.twitter.com/yIR55dGyyp

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 13, 2023

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un offered President Putin his full support for what he called Russia’s “sacred fight” against the West as the two leaders met.

The pair finally met and shook hands at Russia’s remote Vostochny Cosmodrome, some 900 miles from where the Russian president was attending an economic forum at the port of Vladivostok. The North Korean leader had been travelling from the beginning of the week for the meeting.

#Ukraine: A Russian T-90M tank with "special" sandbag addon armour was hit by a FPV loitering munition of the Ukrainian 11th National Guard Brigade East of Oleshky, #Kherson Oblast- leading to the detonation of ammunition onboard and a turret toss. pic.twitter.com/g86gR4QHrw

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 13, 2023

Konstantin Dobrovolski was out in the woods like he was most days in early autumn before the inevitable advance of arctic winter.

Armed with little more than a map, a shovel and an old metal detector, Dobrovolski has scoured the hostile landscape of Russia’s far north for the last 33 years in search of the long-forgotten remains of Soviet second world war soldiers.

“Just today we found the remains of five soldiers, some bones and old medals,” he said, speaking to the Guardian during a research trip outside the Arctic town of Murmansk. “We have to hurry before the ground freezes again.”

Get your soldier certificate. Join Ukraine’s International Legion. Earn €3,400 a month.

So offers a private tactical and security training company in Spain.

According to Euronews, G.O.A. Tactical, based in Lleida, is recruiting soldiers for Ukraine.

#Ukraine: A concealed Russian tank (presumably a T-80BV) was destroyed by three FPV loitering munitions of the Ukrainian army in #Luhansk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/bhUGN780X0

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 11, 2023