“Ukraine – Russia”

Five hundred days on, both sides are caught in the same paradox

At an otherwise newsy event last month, Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato chief, made a low-key administrative announcement: “We are working on a multi-year package with substantial funding…”

Not the stuff of headlines, but a rather sobering admission that, as the war approaches its 500th day tomorrow, there is no end in sight. Not this year, or next year or the year after. That should be deeply concerning, especially because, contrary to received wisdom, all those who really matter — the Ukrainians, Russians and the Americans — are actually trying very hard to end it.

#Ukraine: In #Zaporizhzhia Oblast, the Ukrainian 102nd TDF Brigade hit a Russian staging point with drone-dropped munitions- destroying two BTR-82A APC that were hidden inside. pic.twitter.com/wRkohgsSGF

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 6, 2023

Five large objects have been photographed on the roof of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, increasing fears that Russia may be preparing to blow it up.

Satellite images of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, taken by San Francisco-based Planet Labs on 5th July, showed that packages had been placed on the roof of Reactor No. 4.

None of the objects can be identified but this week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was planning on blowing up the plant and then blaming it on Ukraine.

For more than six months, President Biden and his aides have been wrestling with one of the most vexing questions in the war in Ukraine: whether to risk letting Ukrainian forces run out of the artillery rounds they desperately need to fight Russia, or agree to ship them cluster munitions — widely banned weapons known to cause grievous injury to civilians, especially children.

On Thursday, Mr. Biden appeared on the verge of providing the cluster munitions to Ukraine, a step that would sharply separate him from many of his closest allies, who have signed an international treaty banning the use, stockpiling or transfer of such weapons.

#Ukraine: A Russian T-72B3 tank with KMT-7 mine roller was disabled by an AT mine in the vicinity of Marinka, #Donetsk Oblast, and was then struck with an ATGM by Ukrainian Forces. pic.twitter.com/H489AeGSVB

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 6, 2023

Yevgeny Prigozhin is still in Russia, the Belarusian president has claimed as bizarre photographs emerge of the Wagner mercenary leader disguised in wigs.

“He is not on the territory of Belarus,” President Lukashenko told a news conference on Thursday, saying that Prigozhin was in St Petersburg, Russia’s second city, or even Moscow.

#Ukraine: An uncommon 2B26 Grad 122mm multiple rocket launcher on a KaMAZ-5350 chassis was destroyed by a GMLRS strike of the Ukrainian army in #Zaporizhzhia Oblast. pic.twitter.com/XLkS03c8aC

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 6, 2023

NIKOPOL, Ukraine — The vast windows of Yevhen Yevtushenko’s Soviet-era office overlook Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Its round cooling towers stand less than 10 kilometers away, across a broad stretch of the Dnieper River that is now almost dry after a disastrous dam breach downstream.

A tough-looking man with a bushy beard, an air of mild irritation, and a pistol strung on his belt, Yevtushenko, who heads the Nikopol District Military Administration, offered his assessment of the chances of a nuclear disaster. “I do think it is very probable,” he told RFE/RL on July 3.

Nuclear Falseflag on Zaporozhye NPP Heats Up + Major Wagner Updates and More

The situation can only be considered urgent as Ukraine has now made their full intentions crystal clear. If before we suspected with high confidence, now it is plain fact. They intend to destroy the ZNPP plant as a last ditch attempt to ‘activate NATO’ by blaming Russia.

A completely coordinated campaign over the last few days has affirmed this. Not only was Budanov’s maiden speech after reappearing from his Kalibrated cranial trepanation centered on Russia’s alleged ‘mining of the ZNPP’ basement, but now several new instances of highly coordinated messaging have been released by Ukraine and its Western controllers.

SITREP 7/4/23: Final Hour of Zelensky’s Terror Ploy

The most exigent matter on the table is once again the brewing Zaporozhye plant showdown. It’s now believed by some that Zelensky is planning to carry out the ZNPP falseflag in the next few days on the eve of the big NATO summit in Vilnius, which is on July 12. The purpose would be to galvanize the NATO members and shape the entire policy discussion of the summit around Ukraine and the “nuclear disaster”.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, has vowed that his fighters will soon enjoy “new victories,” as Russia said it had shot down suspected Ukrainian drones near Moscow.

Prigozhin’s comments were his first for a week and came as his approval ratings plummeted among Russians because of his aborted mutiny against Moscow on June 24.

#Ukraine: A Russian 2S1 Gvozdika 122mm self-propelled howitzer was destroyed by counter-battery fire from the Ukrainian 45th Artillery Brigade in the vicinity of Bakhmut, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/n7lPpTslAA

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 4, 2023

Hunted tirelessly by Putin’s men, their work is dangerous and secret. Now is their time to speak

Sidling through the door of the Russian military recruitment centre in occupied Donetsk, Dmitri was glad to have the summer sun to blame for the nervous sweat on the back of his neck.

He was barely old enough to vote, yet this was already the second time Dmitri would swear allegiance to a flag. His handler in Ukrainian military intelligence was waiting with bated breath to discover whether their ruse would dupe President Putin’s forces.

#Ukraine: A Ukrainian Leopard 2A6 tank was destroyed by Russian forces during fighting in #Zaporizhzhia Oblast. pic.twitter.com/XmcUbVkaUu

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 3, 2023

Nearly a year-and-a-half since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the majority of Canadians fear the conflict could go nuclear — but want a Western-backed Ukraine to press on against Russian aggression.

New numbers released last week in a Maru Public Opinion poll suggests 63 per cent of Canadians are watching news of the war closely, with 43 per cent of respondents believing the conflict is deadlocked.

A week on from the dramatic mutiny by Wagner forces, residents in Rostov-on-Don – the city the mercenary troops seized – have been reflecting on the events that rocked Russia.

In just 24 hours, leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged an insurrection, sending troops into the city of a million people and further on towards Moscow.

Due to the current laws against criticising the so-called “special military operation” in Russia, the BBC has chosen to protect the identities of the citizens who spoke to us.

Germany’s Catholic Church is in shock following this week’s report on the record number of people leaving it: Altogether 522,821 Catholics left their church in 2022, according to the German Bishops’ Conference. That’s an increase of more than 45% over 2021 and a figure that fits with the mounting criticism of the church’s sluggish reform process, over which many bishops don’t see eye to eye. And there’s no sign that the membership decline is going to slow, let alone reverse.

Ukraine will only negotiate a peace deal with Russia once the Kremlin’s armies have fully retreated from Donbas and Crimea, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

His comments scotched suggestions that Ukraine may look for peace talks if its counteroffensive pushes Russian forces back to the border of occupied Crimea.

“The borders of February 24 2022 are not our borders. That was the contact line between us and the occupiers,” Mr Zelensky said in comments made as Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s prime minister, visited Kyiv.

#Ukraine: Ukrainian forces used two FPV loitering munitions to destroy a Russian BTR APC in Marinka, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/XYKHa6ZoVl

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 1, 2023

In Kreminna’s Forest of Surprises, combat is almost face-to-face

I’m running. Shells explode around me. Sometimes they roar like thunder; sometimes they whistle on approach. Large parts of the forest are on fire. Smoke rolls by like dry ice.

“Run. Run. Run,” says Dima. I follow him over the fallen trunks of trees felled by artillery; over shell craters that have become pools; through the deep grooves of old vehicle tracks. I’m slowing down now. My ill-fitting helmet is slick with sweat. Droplets sting my eyes.

#Ukraine: On the left bank of the Dnipro River, just outside Oleshky, #Kherson Oblast, a Russian Tigr-M infantry mobility vehicle was destroyed by Ukrainian forces. pic.twitter.com/GuqK4aT07M

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 1, 2023