“Ukraine – Russia”

Six weeks into a major counteroffensive that Ukrainian military commanders and political leaders hope will decisively change the course of the 17-month Russian invasion, this is where things stand:

About 1,500 meters of recaptured territory south of Orikhiv, in the Zaporizhzhya region; less than that south of Hulyaypole. South of the Donetsk region town of Velyka Novosilka, advances are greater: 8-9 kilometers from where the front line was prior to June 5. To the northeast, Ukrainian forces have clawed back a few hundred meters of high ground north and south of Bakhmut.

So, what does Ukraine have to show for its efforts?

17.07.23 our company using 6 FPV drones found and destroyed Russian BMP-1, BMP-2 and BTR-82A.

We have spent 2100$. Can anyone count how much Russian forces have lost?

Here is a video of destruction of a immobile BMP-2. pic.twitter.com/59YJXWLXXJ

— Kriegsforscher (@OSINTua) July 19, 2023

She devotes two hours each day to flirting with a man she hates, hoping it will hasten his demise. In return, he sends his musings on women’s underwear, videos of him interrogating her captured countrymen and pictures of their corpses.

Occasionally though, Angelina — not her real name — receives something more useful. A photo of a military passport, revealing clues about a unit. A video of an amorous soldier driving and singing, giving away his location. Or shocked appeals for sympathy after the death of a comrade, demonstrating an accurate Ukrainian strike.

The head of MI6 has called on Russians to “join hands with us” by defecting and spying for Britain.

Sir Richard Moore, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, who is codenamed C, said: “You know the right address — come and talk to us.”

Moore, who said President Putin could regain stability in Moscow only by withdrawing troops from Ukraine, added that many Russians were appalled by their armed forces “pulverising” cities there.

The strategist told UnHerd that the Ukraine war could end sooner than expected

US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are ready to do a deal, according to the historian, military strategist and advisor to the US government Edward Luttwak. The comments were made in a discussion this week with UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers, during which Luttwak argued that “a shift in the overall situation” has resulted in both leaders being more willing to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.

Joe’s re-election campaign looms…

World War II has been an ideological battlefield in today’s war in Ukraine, and it is cropping up on the actual battlefield as well.

Clambering over boulders, past old tires and shellfish-encrusted scrap metal, Oleksandr Shkalikov ventured onto the dry bed of a vast reservoir.

Out in this wasteland rested a haunting reminder of long-ago battles on this same swath of southern Ukraine: a swastika, chipped into a rock, had emerged from the receding water. The year “1942’’ was written next to it.

“History is repeating itself,” Mr. Shkalikov, a tank driver on leave from the Ukrainian army, said of the World War II-era carving. He noted the timing: The Swastika had become visible because of more recent act of war, the explosion at the Kakhovka dam in June that drained a reservoir the size of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

#Ukraine: A Russian 2S4 Tyulpan 240mm self-propelled mortar was destroyed by Ukrainian forces in Verkhnokamyanka, #Luhansk Oblast- including with multiple FPV loitering munitions. pic.twitter.com/svPwMihGfF

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 17, 2023

Russia on Monday pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a U.N.-brokered accord that has made it possible for Ukraine to export tens of millions of tons of grains and oilseeds over the past year even as the war rages on.

The deal was vital to keeping food flowing from Ukraine — a major breadbasket — to the wider world. But Russia, claiming that its own food and fertilizer exports were being hurt by “hidden” Western sanctions, had already effectively strangled the deal before finally killing it off.

Hours later, the Kremlin warned that it could no longer guarantee the safety of shipping in the northwestern Black Sea.

In every big-city cemetery, the ‘Heroes Alley’ of fallen soldiers now holds several hundred graves

At a small army field clinic outside Bakhmut, I watched as the body of a dead soldier was carried in. Two more soldiers followed, this time seriously injured — and this was what troops described as a “quiet day.” Ukraine doesn’t talk about its military deaths much and refuses to reveal any figures. There’s little in the way of victim culture here; the emphasis is on how brave its troops are, not how many have perished. Most people know someone who’s died in action, but treat the collective trauma as something to worry about when the war is over. In the meantime, there’s vodka.

In the first two weeks of Ukraine’s grueling counteroffensive, as much as 20 percent of the weaponry it sent to the battlefield was damaged or destroyed, according to American and European officials. The toll includes some of the formidable Western fighting machines — tanks and armored personnel carriers — the Ukrainians were counting on to beat back the Russians.

The startling rate of losses dropped to about 10 percent in the ensuing weeks, the officials said, preserving more of the troops and machines needed for the major offensive push that the Ukrainians say is still to come.

#Ukraine: A Russian Uragan 9P140 220mm and a 9P138 Grad-1 122mm multiple rocket launcher were destroyed by Ukrainian GMRLS strikes in #Zaporizhzhia Oblast. pic.twitter.com/vq7POs0n9f

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

The war for Ukraine is now more than 500 days old. To some Canadian volunteers who have been on the ground delivering aid for most of that time, Western fatigue with the conflict is becoming almost as dangerous an enemy as the invading Russian army.

Sunday marked Paul Hughes’ 500th day in Ukraine, a stretch that began when the Canadian military veteran arrived on the ninth day of the invasion. He planned to fight the Russians with a gun in his hand. His role quickly morphed into what he calls an “underground” humanitarian operation. He now delivers food, medicines and other goods to cities on and near the front line, using minivans that display large Canadian flags on their hoods.

A Russian soldier convicted of insubordination was among a group of conscripts who accused their superiors of locking them up in a cellar in eastern Ukraine after they refused to fight, subjecting them to unsanitary living conditions and an insufficient diet, according to a report by an independent Russian news outlet.

The conviction of soldier Yevgeny Frolov in the far-eastern city of Spassk-Dalny on July 13 came days after new video footage emerged purporting to show Russian soldiers in Ukraine placed in captivity for refusing to go to the front line with insufficient equipment and support.

#Ukraine: A Russian 2S4 Tyulpan 240mm self-propelled mortar was destroyed by a GMLRS strike of the Ukrainian army near Zaitseve, #Donetsk Oblast – filmed by a 🇵🇱 WB FlyEye recon UAV. pic.twitter.com/iICkJrZPa1

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 16, 2023

Sitting in his clunky, Soviet-designed helicopter, Major Maksym of the Ukrainian air force could offer only one explanation for why he and his colleagues keep flying despite being outgunned and outnumbered by their Russian adversaries: “We have iron arses.”

A field of sunflowers swayed in the breeze outside the cabin door as he elaborated: “We have only courage, morale and experience to help us, but that’s it.”

#Ukraine: A Ukrainian M2A2 Bradley ODS-SA infantry fighting vehicle driving after suffering significant damage – it was allegedly hit by a tank projectile tearing off a side armor panel and breaking a hole into the hull. pic.twitter.com/YuAJz8Flww

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 14, 2023

For decades, it has been goading Russia into a conflict it never intended to fight.

At the Vilnius summit this week, NATO leaders have been telling anyone who will listen that Ukraine’s future lies within NATO. As US president Joe Biden put it to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine is going to become a NATO member.

Are we going to war? Because Joe Biden just mobilized several thousand more U.S. armed forces reserves to defend NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). As the Biden administration has consistently escalated the tragic situation in Ukraine, it’s an ominous move.