“Ukraine – Russia”

A rare drone attack in Moscow has damaged several buildings in the Russian capital after another night of strikes on targets in Ukraine.

Despite being hundreds of miles from the front lines in Ukraine, residents in Moscow awoke this morning to the sound of explosions and air defence missile systems shot down several drones approaching the capital, according to Russian officials.

Rich Russians react angrily to military drones striking their neighborhood in Moscow this morning.

Many Russians are asking themselves “what have we done to deserve this?”

They are still clueless pic.twitter.com/dLK54lx9mg

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 30, 2023

Thousands of untrained troops are contacting a Ukrainian hotline for deserters and being guided to safety

On the morning of May 9, as President Vladimir Putin’s generals polished their medals for the Victory Day parade in Moscow, a Russian soldier called Ruslan cowered in a trench outside Bakhmut, surrounded by death.

Above him a Ukrainian drone hovered, while behind him Russian mortars prepared to strike if he dared fall back. His options were to fight, flee or surrender, and only one did not lead to oblivion.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied Ukraine has any designs on Vladimir Putin’s life but last week the deputy head of Ukrainian military intelligence was much less circumspect. Vadym Skibitsky told the German newspaper Die Welt that the Russian president was at the top of its death list “because he co-ordinates and decides what happens”. A British intelligence source cautioned: “I wouldn’t assume it’s just bravado.” The cross-border raid into Russia a few days earlier — carried out by Russian pro-Kyiv forces but probably organised by Ukrainian military intelligence — was proof of their ambition and capabilities. He added: “They are willing to cross a lot of red lines.”

Under enemy fire, we enter the enemy's position. This is how we take control of the "green" and knock out the enemy from it.
This is four minutes of live combat with GoPro fighters of the 1st Assault Battalion. Only a small episode of one of the assault operations near #Bakhmut. pic.twitter.com/CLlE4dA8ZE

— Ukraine Front Lines (@EuromaidanPR) May 23, 2023

Zhenia’s unit of volunteers were outnumbered by five to one when the order came through to lay down their weapons and surrender to the invaders.

It was the beginning of a seven-month ordeal in Russian captivity, including physical and psychological torture.

Prisoners of war like Zhenia were supposed to be exempt from returning to battle under planned legislation, but just five months after his release, the 41-year-old is about to rejoin his brothers-in-arms in one of the hottest areas of the conflict.

Canadian military instructors say goodbye to Ukrainian Defenders returning home from training.

Thankful to @CanadianForces for giving our Heroes the skills and means to make Ukraine free again!

📹: _le.mark_ pic.twitter.com/NFEeaRcM7i

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) May 27, 2023

Blindingly fast and manoeuvrable, this new breed of weapon poses a tough challenge to defend – and they’re only just getting started

It was supposed to be the missile that no one could stop. The hypersonic “dagger” that Vladimir Putin could slip into Ukraine – and Nato’s – chest, like an assassin wielding a blade so fast that the lethal blow is just a blur. Dead before you know it.

But then this week Ukraine claimed to have destroyed half a dozen KH-47M2 Kinzhal “Dagger” missiles using anti-missile systems widely assumed to be Patriot batteries loaned to the country by America. Suddenly the assassin’s blade was apparently being parried, deflected and destroyed.

Russian most modern working tank T-90M tried to hide underground from Ukrainian drones but failed. 54th Brigade of Ukraine. Soledar-Siversk direction. https://t.co/NJuT62UH5o pic.twitter.com/Kvu6xlIzoH

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) May 26, 2023

MOSCOW — Parishioners have denounced Russian priests who advocated peace instead of victory in the war on Ukraine. Teachers lost their jobs after children tattled that they opposed the war. Neighbors who bore some trivial grudge for years have snitched on longtime foes. Workers rat on one another to their bosses or directly to the police or the Federal Security Service.

#Ukraine: A Russian D-20 152mm towed howitzer was destroyed by the Ukrainian army with a direct M982 Excalibur hit on the left bank of the Dnipro River, #Kherson Oblast. pic.twitter.com/ecIDxIzEli

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 27, 2023

Russia has summoned the ambassadors of Germany, Denmark and Sweden to protest a “complete lack of results” in a joint investigation into the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions last year.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused the three countries of dragging their feet and refusing to engage with Moscow.

“It has been noted that these countries are not interested in establishing the true circumstances of this sabotage. On the contrary, they are delaying their efforts and trying to conceal the tracks and the true perpetrators of the crime behind which we believe are well-known countries,” it said.

There’s absolutely no panic among the russians in Bilhorod (not Belgorod).
– Tell governor Gladkov that he’s a f…got, we’re being bombed here! What are you getting paid for?- calmly says the local woman while the men are opening the bomb shelter. pic.twitter.com/HbmjeOlVs4

— Operator Starsky (@StarskyUA) May 22, 2023

Russia has started moving nuclear weapons into Belarusian territory, President Lukashenko has said after the countries struck a deal today.

“The transfer of nuclear munitions has begun,” the Belarusian leader said in a video shared online, adding that it was “possible” the weapons had already arrived.

Moscow announced that it was sending tactical nuclear weapons to its neighbour in response to what it called a “sharp escalation” on its western border. An aide to President Zelensky of Ukraine said a counter-offensive against Russian forces had already begun.

Best news for today! Prisoner exchange went well, and 106 Ukrainian POWs returned home! #RussiaisATerroistState pic.twitter.com/RJTOdhX5IR

— Anna Filippova (@AnnaFil_Ukraine) May 25, 2023

This week, near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, I spent time with commanders and soldiers who have been fighting the Russian invaders in the shattered city, sometimes for months on end. This has been one of the longest battles anywhere in the world since 1945 and by far the most brutal in this war, with Russians and Ukrainians often fighting at close quarters, artillery hammering the city into Stalingrad-like rubble and a level of slaughter unequalled anywhere else in Putin’s vicious war.

The extent of the damage (if any) is unclear, but judging by the footage of the USV that was destroyed, it carried a serious explosive charge.pic.twitter.com/0yPJwE1Qdl

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 25, 2023

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the Russian private army Wagner says his force lost more than 20,000 fighters in the drawn-out battle for Bakhmut, with about 20% of the 50,000 Russian convicts he recruited to fight in the 15-month war dying in the eastern Ukrainian city.

The figure was in stark contrast with widely disputed claims from Moscow that it lost just over 6,000 troops in the war, and is higher than the official estimate of the Soviet losses in the Afghanistan war of 15,000 troops between 1979-89. Ukraine hasn’t said how many of its soldiers have died since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

#Ukraine: Two Russian 2S19 Msta-S 152mm self-propelled howitzers, parked back to back, were destroyed by the Ukrainian army using two M982 Excalibur 155mm high-precision projectiles – both landed practically on the same point. pic.twitter.com/1RIS3ZH4Y6

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 23, 2023

In a cramped crew room, in a building just next to the runway of the Amari airbase in Estonia, the television is showing old episodes of Friends.

Feet up on the table, coffee mugs in hand, a bit of casual banter crisscrosses the room. On the TV screen, Rachel is just back from the hairdressers, Ross is upset about something. Then an airman pops his head around the doorway and announces calmly: “Zombie heading north out of Kaliningrad.”

Troops entered Russia from Ukraine on Monday, hitting checkpoints on the border with tank fire and pushing eight kilometres past the frontier into three villages.

Ukrainian military intelligence, the GUR, said that the Freedom of Russia Legion, a group of Ukraine-backed Russian partisans, were conducting an operation in the Belgorod region to create a “security strip” to protect Ukrainian civilians. It was being carried out exclusively by Russian citizens, a GUR spokesman told Suspilne, Ukraine’s public broadcaster.

#Ukraine: Near Vuhledar, #Donetsk Oblast a damaged Russian T-80BVM tank was finished off by an improvised munition dropped from a Ukrainian drone right through an opened hatch- resulting in the catastrophic detonation of the ammo onboard. pic.twitter.com/fYLnyfTjcV

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 22, 2023

As the Russian president congratulated his army and Wagner mercenaries, Volodymyr Zelensky denied the city had been captured

Vladimir Putin has claimed his first battlefield victory in a year with the capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

The Russian president congratulated Wagner troops as well as the regular Russian army for seizing the ruined city, which has been the site of the longest and bloodiest battle of the entire war.

Ukraine has denied that Bakhmut has fallen but Russian propagandists have started celebrating “one of the greatest battle victories in the 21st century”.

#Ukraine: A Ukrainian Zil-131 with a ZU-23-2 23mm autocannon was destroyed by two Russian FPV loitering munitions in #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/BrK9ZnOVUJ

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) May 21, 2023