“Ukraine – Russia”

SEYMOUR Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist with decades of experience assessing intelligence for its credibility and accuracy, has published a detailed account of how the CIA, in collaboration with Norwegian partners in Nato, planned and executed the sabotaging of the Russian gas pipelines collectively known as Nord Stream 1 and 2.

The revelations have largely been met with silence in the MSM. A White House spokesman called the account ‘utterly false’. The Norwegian government said that one of the ships Hersh refers to as having participated in the operation was not in the position he stated it was.

OTTAWA – Canada will send another four battle tanks and thousands of rounds of ammunition to Ukraine, while also sanctioning more Russian businesses and individuals, as the full scale invasion marks a grim anniversary.

What is the U.S.’s long-term plan to deal with Russia?

President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Ukrainian premier Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv earlier this week was an unmistakable sign of solidarity with Ukraine on the one-year anniversary of Russian kingpin Vladimir Putin’s reckless, unjust invasion. To the extent Biden’s aim was to send such a symbolic message to Moscow and its allies, he succeeded.

I keep thinking back to something I heard on Russian state TV three years ago.

At the time Russians were being urged to support changes to the constitution that would enable Vladimir Putin to stay in power for another 16 years.

To persuade the public, the news anchor portrayed President Putin as a sea captain steering the good ship Russia through stormy waters of global unrest.

“Russia is an oasis of stability, a safe harbour,” he continued. “If it wasn’t for Putin what would have become of us?”

Watch: Russian MP could be punished for hanging noodles on his ears during Putin speech

A “peace rally” due to take place in Berlin this weekend condemning western weapons exports to Ukraine has been criticised by the leadership of the leftwing party Die Linke for failing to distance itself from far-right groups that have announced their attendance.

Police expect about 10,000 people to take part in Saturday’s rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate, which is co-organised by a renegade former leader of Die Linke, Sahra Wagenknecht.

A counter-protest supported by politicians and public intellectuals including the Nobel literature prize-winner Herta Müller has been registered in Berlin for Friday afternoon.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine found a way to hit deep behind enemy lines with a series of mysterious explosions in Russian-held territory early Wednesday, even as Ukrainians themselves were warned that Moscow appears poised to unleash a new barrage of attacks.

Half a year after the southern port city of Mariupol fell to a fierce Russian siege, nearly a dozen explosions were reported there overnight into Wednesday. Russian-occupied areas of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions were also hit, according to reports and video.

#Ukraine: A Russian T-64BV tank was destroyed by the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade using a FGM-148 Javelin near Avdiivka, #Donetsk Oblast.

A Russian MT-LB armored personnel carrier was also destroyed nearby. pic.twitter.com/6YSlxYwumF

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

One year on, senior officials are pessimistic

Vladimir Putin’s armies launched their fateful attack on Ukraine a year ago today. Tanks and troops poured across the frontier in what most Western governments feared would be a lightning thrust of fratricidal violence that would throttle Ukrainian independence. Then came the resistance, Russia not only held at bay but, miraculously, thrown back. As the world looks on, expectantly, waiting for the next decisive crash of momentum, a grim pessimism has again taken hold: 2022 might have been a year of heroism, but many fear 2023 might be the year the war settles into something far more conventional — and worrying.

Few people better understand the West’s fraught relationship with Russia than Fiona Hill. Born in Bishop Auckland, she went on to study History and Russian at St Andrews before a scholarship at Harvard took her to America. From there, Hill rose rapidly through the ranks to become one of the world’s foremost experts on Putin’s Russia, brought into the administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and, finally, Donald Trump.

#Ukraine: Two Russian T-80BV tanks and an uncommon BMP-1AM Basurmanin infantry fighting vehicle were damaged and abandoned with another AFV destroyed by the Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized Brigade near Vuhledar, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/hSgQ5ygW4Y

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

The Ukraine defence has persisted in large part due to a massive influx of foreign military aid, in which Canada has ranked as a rather respectable contributor. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Canada is now the fifth largest donor of Ukrainian military aid.