Laurel Chor | Lightrocket | Getty Images Ukraine’s air force said it was ready to repel a new missile attack by Russian forces, adding to the country’s president’s warning yesterday that civilians should prepare for a new wave of shelling. “The Ukrainians are ready to repel another air attack,” Ukrainian Air Force Command spokesman Yuriy Ikhnat said on Telegram on Tuesday. “Ukrainians experienced the worst in February-March, when hundreds of rockets flew over our heads every day, Russian aircraft flew in many areas and active air battles took place. Is it possible to scare us with something else?”, the statement said. Ikhnat said Russia did not have “so many high-precision long-range missiles” while the commander of Ukraine’s Air Force “assured us that we are ready, our missiles are loaded and we will strike back no matter how many missiles.” “Russia has begun. Ikhnat did not elaborate on the details of an imminent Russian attack or how many missiles it had left with analysts agreeing that it is difficult to gauge what weapons Moscow has left in its arsenal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Monday that Russia was preparing new missile attacks that could be even more devastating than the ones the country experienced last week that left about 6 million people without power. “We understand that the terrorists are planning new strikes. We know that for a fact,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Sunday. “And as long as they have missiles, unfortunately, they will not rest.” — Holly Elliott
Anxiety is growing in Moscow about the war and how it might end, analysts say
Russian President Vladimir Putin grimaces during the SCTO Summit in Yerevan, Armenia on November 23, Factor | News Getty Images | Getty Images Russian political analysts say anxiety is rising in Moscow as the country’s forces have faced months of fighting and military casualties and are beginning to think they might be defeated. That would be disastrous for Putin and the Kremlin, which has bankrolled Russia’s global capital to win the war against Ukraine, analysts said, noting growing concern in Moscow about the war’s progress. “Since September I see many changes [in Russia] and a lot of fears,” Tatiana Stanovaya, non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and founder and head of political analysis firm R.Politik, told CNBC. “For the first time since the war started, people are starting to look at the worst case scenario, that Russia can lose, and they don’t see or understand how Russia can come out of this conflict without being destroyed. People are very worried, they think what’s happening is a disaster,” he said on Monday. Read the full story here: ‘Defeat is not an option’: Russian analysts fear a ‘desperate’ Putin as Ukraine war drags on
NATO to increase aid to Kyiv, Putin says using winter as ‘weapon of war’
NATO allies will increase aid to Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin uses winter as a weapon of war because his forces are failing on the battlefield, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
“I think we’ve all seen these pictures taken from satellites where you see Europe in the light and then you see Ukraine in darkness … so there’s a huge task to rebuild all of that,” Stoltenberg said.
“President Putin is trying to use winter as a weapon of war,” he told reporters as NATO foreign ministers gathered in Bucharest for a two-day meeting, which he said would serve as a platform to mobilize more support for Ukraine.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during the plenary session of the third day of the 68th Annual Session of the Parliamentary Assembly at the Auditorium on the ground floor of the Melia Castilla Hotel, November 21, 2022, in Madrid, Spain.
Alberta Ortego | Europa Press | Getty Images
NATO foreign ministers will focus on increasing military aid to Ukraine, such as air defense systems and ammunition, even as diplomats acknowledge supply and capacity issues, but will also discuss non-lethal aid.
Some of that non-lethal aid – goods such as fuel, medical supplies, winter equipment and drone interference – has been delivered through a NATO aid package that allies can contribute to and which Stoltenberg aims to increase.
Stoltenberg’s comments were echoed by several ministers of the 30-member alliance, also joined by Finland and Sweden, as they seek to secure full membership pending ratifications by Turkey and Hungary.
— Reuters
Russia appears to have abandoned a significant part of its ‘military doctrine’, UK says
A convoy of pro-Russian troops in Mariupol, Ukraine, on May 16, 2022. Alexander Ermochenko Reuters Over the past three months, Russian forces in Ukraine have likely stopped deploying as Battalion Tactical Groups (BTGs), according to the latest military intelligence update from Britain’s Ministry of Defence. He said “the BTG concept has played an important role in Russian military doctrine over the past ten years and has seen battalions integrated with a full range of supporting subunits, including armour, reconnaissance and (in a departure from usual Western practice) artillery.” However, he noted that several inherent weaknesses of the BTG concept have been exposed in the high-intensity, large-scale combat of the Ukraine war so far. “BTGs’ relatively small combat infantry allocation often proved insufficient” and “decentralized artillery distribution did not allow Russia to fully utilize its gun count advantage.” In addition, few BTG commanders have been empowered to flexibly exploit opportunities in the way the BTG model was designed to promote, the ministry noted. — Holly Elliott
Russia could mobilize men in occupied southern Ukraine
A damaged van used by Russian forces, in Kherson, Ukraine, on November 24, 2022. Chris McGrath | News Getty Images | Getty Images Speculation is mounting that Russia could try to mobilize men into the occupied part of Kherson in southern Ukraine in December. The National Resistance Center, part of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces in support of Ukrainian resistance efforts, said on its website that “Russians are bringing in police officers to carry out the mobilization of men in the southern, temporarily occupied territories.” It said riot police units from Dagestan arrived on the left bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region, along with military commissariat officials from the pro-Russian so-called “people’s republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. to carry out the mobilization. “The newly arrived occupiers do not hide that in December the staff will be involved in the illegal recruitment of local residents with Russian passports. However, it is not exclusive that all men will fall into the “conscription”, and not only the holders of enemy passports. Russian forces withdrew from the west bank of the Dnipro River to the east (or “left”) bank earlier in November. They have set up defensive lines and fortifications on that side of the river. Russia has already attempted to “Russify” the occupied territories, handing out Russian passports and promoting the Russian language and culture while suppressing that of Ukraine. The National Resistance Center called on residents in the “TOT” or “temporarily occupied” areas to leave the area “and not become a resource of the enemy”. — Holly Elliott
Blinken could announce aid for Ukraine’s electricity transmission
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at Henri Coanda Airport, Bucharest, November 29, 2022, ahead of a NATO meeting. Daniel Mihailescu Afp | Getty Images US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will announce on Tuesday new aid to help restore Ukraine’s power transmission capacity in the face of Russian attacks targeting the country’s energy grid, a senior State Department official said. Blinken arrived in Romania on Monday afternoon ahead of meetings with NATO allies and foreign ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies. Ukraine’s foreign minister told some NATO diplomats visiting Kyiv earlier in the day that transformers were the biggest component of the country’s electricity infrastructure that needed to be restored. — Reuters
Kherson region was bombed 258 times last week, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia continues to pound the southern region of Kherson, part of which Russian forces withdrew several weeks ago. “On this day, as every day, the occupiers bombed Kherson and the communities in the region again. In just one week, the enemy bombed 30 settlements of our Kherson region 258 times,” Zelensky said in his night speech on Monday. Russian forces had also destroyed a pumping station supplying water to Mykolaiv, he added. “Ukraine will never be a place of destruction. Ukraine will never accept orders from these “comrades” from Moscow. We will do everything to restore every object, every house, every business destroyed by the invaders,” he said Zelensky. Destroyed Russian vehicles and tanks in Mykhailivska Square on November 19, 2022, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians are facing severe power outages after recent waves of Russian missile and drone strikes reportedly left almost half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure disabled and in need of repair as temperatures plummet. Jeff J Mitchell | News Getty Images | Getty Images Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for weeks, causing widespread blackouts and shortages of power, water and heat, leaving millions of people in dire straits as temperatures plummet. Temperatures in…
title: “Latest News On Russia And The War In Ukraine " ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-26” author: “Neely Cirrincione”
Oleksii Kuleba, head of the Kyiv regional military administration, warned residents that the air alert remained in effect and that citizens should evacuate. “The air alert continues. The danger remains. Stay in shelters,” he said. It is unknown which structures were targeted by the drone strikes, but Kuleba said “Russia is continuing the energy terror of the country.” Civilians take shelter inside a metro station during an air raid alert in central Kyiv on December 13, 2022, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Dimitar Dilkoff | Afp | Getty Images In other news, Belarus’ early military exercises that began on Tuesday raised concerns about an escalation of the war in Ukraine, although Ukraine’s armed forces said they had yet to see any signs of “the formation of hostile offensive groups” along the Belarus-Ukraine border. . Ukrainian and Polish military officials discussed the “security situation on the Ukraine-Belarus border” after reviewing the combat readiness of troops in Belarus, according to NBC News, and agreed to coordinate joint action in the coming days. Belarus borders Ukraine to the north and Poland to the east. While Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly said his country will not join the war, Belarus is an ally of Russia and has allowed it to launch attacks on Ukraine from its soil.
title: “Latest News On Russia And The War In Ukraine " ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-26” author: “Lauren Davis”
Ukrainian Government Press Service | Reuters The European Union has announced it has approved a new package of sanctions aimed at increasing pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine. The package, the details of which have not been disclosed, was approved after days of discussions during a meeting of ambassadors of the 27-nation bloc. The Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council, said the package would be confirmed in writing on Friday. The details will then be published in the block’s legal archives. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, last week proposed travel bans and asset freezes on nearly 200 more Russian officials and military officers as part of the new round of measures. Targets of the latest proposed sanctions included government ministers, lawmakers, regional governors and political parties. — Associated Press
Four vessels depart from Ukrainian ports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative
The Maltese-flagged bulk carrier Zante en route to Belgium transits the Bosphorus carrying 47,270 metric tons of rapeseed oil from Ukraine after being detained at the Bosphorus entrance due to Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea agreement on November 2, 2022 in Constantinople. Turkey. Chris McGrath | Getty Images Four ships carrying wheat and vegetable oil have left Ukrainian ports, the agency that manages the country’s agricultural exports has announced. The ships are destined for India and Turkey. The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal brokered in July between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, saw three key Ukrainian ports reopen after a Russian naval blockade halted exports for months. More than 13.9 million tons of grain and other products have left Ukraine since the deal came into effect. The agreement between the signatories is set to expire in about three months. — Amanda Macias
Grain deal with Ukraine unlikely to be extended in near future, says UN aid chief
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Coordinator Martin Griffiths speaks during an interview with Reuters amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 15, 2022. Stringer | Reuters UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said it was unlikely the Black Sea grain deal would be extended in the short term to include more Ukrainian ports or reduce inspection times. Kyiv has called for an extension of the deal with Moscow brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that allows Ukraine, a major global grain exporter, to ship food from three of its Black Sea ports despite the Russian incursion. “I don’t see anything like this happening in the next, short term,” the UN’s undersecretary for humanitarian affairs and emergency aid coordinator told Reuters in an interview in the Ukrainian capital. “I think it would be great if it could scale, the more grains that get out into the world, the better from our point of view, from the world’s point of view. But I don’t think that’s immediately likely.” — Reuters
The Ukrainians find refuge in the front line of Bakhmut
Ukrainians take refuge from Russian attacks in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Ukrainian citizens cross a bridge in Bakhmut, Ukraine on December 15, 2022. Diego Herrera Carcedo | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Ukrainians take shelter from shelling in a basement in Bakhmut, Ukraine on December 15, 2022. Diego Herrera Carcedo | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Ukrainians take shelter from shelling in a basement in Bakhmut, Ukraine on December 15, 2022. Diego Herrera Carcedo | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images A Ukrainian man prepares firewood for the winter as civilians take shelter from shelling in a basement in Bakhmut, Ukraine on December 15, 2022. Diego Herrera Carcedo | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Ukrainians take shelter from shelling in a basement in Bakhmut, Ukraine on December 15, 2022. Diego Herrera Carcedo | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images — Diego Herrera Carcedo | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
US Treasury Sanctions 18 Entities Linked to Russia’s Financial Sector
Clients of Russia’s VTB bank gather at its headquarters to meet with the bank’s representatives and demand compensation for their investments, lost due to recent Western sanctions imposed on Russia, in Moscow, Russia on July 22, 2022. Evgenia Novozhenina Reuters The US Treasury Department announced that it has sanctioned a bank owned by a Russian billionaire, along with 17 subsidiaries of Russia’s second-largest bank VTB. The ministry made the move alongside designations issued by the State Department against a prominent Russian oligarch, his associates and more than 40 others with ties to the Russian government. The efforts are aimed at limiting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ability to finance Moscow’s war with Ukraine. Access to all real estate and interests in US soil belonging to any of the sanctions has been blocked. — Chelsea Cox
Kyiv has been hit by new drone attacks from Russia
Ukrainian military experts show downed drones allegedly used by Russia to strike critical infrastructure and other targets in Ukraine during a news conference in Kyiv. Military personnel show the fragments of unmanned aerial vehicles used by the Russian Federation against Ukraine to journalists during a press conference of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Forces at the Military Media Center in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 15, 2022. Vladimir Shtanko Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Col. Oleksandr Zaruba, a representative of the Research Center for Trophy and Prospective Weapons and Military Equipment speaks during a press conference of the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine at the Military Media Center in Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec. 15, 2022. Vladimir Shtanko Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Military personnel show the fragments of unmanned aerial vehicles used by the Russian Federation against Ukraine to journalists during a press conference of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Forces at the Military Media Center in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 15, 2022. Vladimir Shtanko Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Ukraine announced on Wednesday that it had shot down more than a dozen drones in Moscow’s latest attack on Kyiv. A view of an administrative building destroyed by a Russian kamikaze drone attack is seen in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 14, 2022. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images A municipal employee walks at the site of a Russian kamikaze drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 14, 2022. Air defense forces have already shot down 13 kamikaze drones over Kyiv, as the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration Serhii Popko posted on Telegram. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
US ambassador thanks counterparts for brokering release of US citizen in latest Ukraine prisoner swap with Russia
US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink welcomed the release of an American citizen from Russian custody following another prisoner exchange between Moscow and Kiev. “Great to see an American citizen freed from Russian controlled territory,” Brink tweeted. “I thank Andriy Yermak and our Ukrainian partners for their continued efforts to secure the freedom of US citizens held by Russian forces,” he continued. Sixty-four Ukrainian soldiers, captured in the Russian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and US citizen Swedi Murekezi were included in the swap, Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, told Telegram on Wednesday. — Amanda Macias
Russia is preparing for a long war, says the Ukrainian military
Ukrainian military personnel drive a tank on a road in eastern Ukraine on November 24, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Anatoly Stepanov | Afp | Getty Images Russia is digging for a long war in Ukraine and still wants to conquer the entire country, a senior Ukrainian military official said. Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov told a military briefing that while he did not expect Moscow to launch an attack from Belarus, Russia was training new troops on the neighbor’s territory and had moved military aircraft there. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar, in the same briefing, warned against complacency following recent Russian military setbacks. Ukrainian officials have portrayed the Kremlin as desperate to reverse recent military setbacks – which included a retreat from the southern city of Kherson after months of occupation – and secure victories to justify the war to the Russian public. The Kremlin has never fully defined the goals of its February 24 invasion, which it said was aimed in part at protecting Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine. — Reuters
Backlog of 92 ships waiting to transport crops from Ukraine
Ships, including those carrying grain from Ukraine and awaiting inspections, are seen anchored off the coast of Istanbul on November 2, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey. Chris McGrath | Getty Images The agency responsible for exporting Ukrainian crops said 92 ships were waiting to be loaded with cargo. Sixty-eight laden ships are also awaiting inspection in Turkish territorial waters, the UN-led Joint Coordination Center said. The Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement brokered in July between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, led to the reopening of three key Ukrainian ports after a Russian naval blockade halted exports for months. Since the agreement entered into force, more than 550 ships carrying 13.9 million metric tons of grain and other agricultural products have departed for destinations around the world. Kyiv claimed that Moscow suspended inspections and delayed ship departures. — Amanda Macias
The UN is hoping for a breakthrough in Russian fertilizer exports
A photo taken on October 31, 2022 shows a cargo ship loaded with grain being inspected at the anchorage area of the southern entrance of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Ozan Kose | AFP | Getty Images A senior UN official expressed…
