Vladimir Putin’s Mission Over Crimea: Forcible Annexation of a Strategic Rail Hub and Gateway to Lysychansk

Putin’s order comes after he spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who has attempted to position himself as a broker between the Russian president and the West – where Putin said he was open to “serious dialogue” regarding Ukraine, but Kyiv must accept the “new territorial realities,” according to a Kremlin statement.

Following the capture over the weekend of Lyman, a strategic rail hub and gateway to the eastern Donbas region, Ukrainian forces showed no sign of stopping, pushing eastward toward the city of Lysychansk, which Russia seized three months ago after bloody fighting. Any loss of territory in the Donbas undermines Mr. Putin’s objectives for the war he launched in February, which has focused on seizing and incorporating the region.

Despite claims from the ground that voting took place at gunpoint and that millions of people voted, Putin tried to make the case that the referendums reflected the will of millions.

“I want the authorities in Kyiv and their real overlords in the West to hear me: the residents of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson are becoming our citizens,” Putin said. “Forever.”

The Russian president framed the annexation as an attempt to fix what he sees as a great historical mistake that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Putin’s logical option, Kortunov says, is to declare victory and get out on his own terms. But for this he needs a significant achievement on the ground. Russia cannot simply get to where it was on February 24, this year, say, okay, that’s fine. Our mission is accomplished. We leave and there should be something that the public can see as a victory.

Russia will now, despite the widespread international condemnation, forge ahead with its plans to fly its flag over some 100,000 square kilometers (38,600 square miles) of Ukrainian territory – the largest forcible annexation of land in Europe since 1945.

The Russian leader spoke in the chandeliered St. George’s Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace — the same place where he declared in March 2014 that the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea was part of Russia.

There are hundreds of Russian members of the parliament and regional governors in the audience for a speech by Putin.

This pressure from the West may finally be producing real results. Putin’s announced martial law in Ukrainian territories Russia now only partly controls, attacks on civilian targets deep in Ukraine’s interior, and a new, hardline commander in Ukraine, General Sergei Shurokin, nicknamed “General Armageddon” by colleagues, all suggest a growing frustration bordering on fear that the Russian people may begin noticing what has long been blindingly obvious: Putin is losing.

He said that there were a lot of military actions from the British Opium war in China in the 19th century to the Allied bombing of Germany in the Vietnam and Korean Wars.

He claimed that the United States was the only nation to have used nuclear weapons in war. “By the way, they created a precedent,” Mr. Putin added in an aside.

Russia fired cruise missiles and drones at several cities to intensify its air attacks against the country. The 25 administrative regions ofUkraine spent much of the day under an air raid warning.

The Kremlin and the Donbas: Where Do We Stand? Where Are We Going? What Have We Learned in Ukraine, How We Will Get There, Where We Are Going?

Friday’s events include a celebration on Red Square. Official ratification of the decrees will happen next week, said Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman.

The moves follow staged referendums held in occupied territory during a war in defiance of international law. Since the beginning of the war in February many of the provinces’ civilian populations have fled and people who did vote were sometimes held at gun point.

Cementing Russia’s hold over the two eastern regions, an area collectively known as the Donbas that Mr. Putin considers his primary prize, could allow the Kremlin to declare a victory at a time when hawks in Russia have criticized Russian forces for not doing enough to prevent recent breakneck gains by Ukrainian forces in the south and northeast of the country.

Putin’s recent heavy-handed conscription drive for 300,000 troops won’t reverse his battlefield losses any time soon, and is backfiring at home, running him up a dangerous political tab.

Mr. Putin is expected to deliver a “voluminous” speech, his spokesman said. He is likely to downplay his army’s struggles in Ukraine. He’ll probably ignore the worldwide condemnation of the sham referendums held in occupied Ukraine on joining Russia, where many were made to vote at their will.

“The people made their choice,” said Putin in a signing ceremony at the Kremlin’s St. George hall. He said the choice won’t be betrayed by Russia.

According to Hill, Putin wants his negotiations to be with Biden and allies rather than with the people of Ukraine. And that means recognizing what we have done on the ground in Ukraine.”

Outside the Kremlin, preparations were under way for an evening concert and rally with banners saying Russia and the newly integrated territories are “together forever.”

The move caps a week that saw the Kremlin choreograph referendums in Russian-occupied territories that purportedly delivered overwhelming majorities in favor of joining Russia.

The United States will never recognize Russia’s claims toUkraine, said Vice President Biden. This was a sham, and the results were manufactured in Moscow.

Putin, however, framed the decision as a historical justice following the breakup of the Soviet Union that had left Russian speakers separated from their homeland — and the West dictating world affairs according to its own rules.

This month, the Western powers alleged that Russia was using staged votes to justify its annexation of Ukraine’s territory.

Russia’s parliament and constitutional court are expected to approve this formality, making it likely that the territories will be made part of the Russian Federation.

The Russian government’s annexation has unfolded as it tries to send 300,000 more troops to bolster their military campaign in northeastern and south-centralUkraine, where the Ukrainians are currently engaged in an offensive.

Russian officials have warned that the newly incorporated territories would be eligible for protections under Russia’s nuclear umbrella.

Andrey Kortunov, who runs the Kremlin-backed Russian International Affairs Council in Moscow, sees it, too. “President Putin wants to end this whole thing as fast as possible,” he told CNN.

The total exodus was put up even higher by independent Russian media. They say more military age men have fled the country since conscription – 261,000 – than have so far fought in the war – an estimated 160,000 to 190,000.

CNN is unable to verify the Russian figures, but the 40 kilometers (around 25 miles) traffic tailbacks at the border with Georgia, and the long lines at crossings into Kazakhstan and Finland, speak to the backlash and the strengthening perception that Putin is losing his fabled touch at reading Russia’s mood.

Kortunov understands how upset the public is about the huge cost and loss of life in the war even though he does not know what goes on in the Kremlin. Why did we get into this mess? Why, you know, we lost so many people.”

He used the same playbook annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and now, like then, threatens potential nuclear strikes should Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, try to take the annexed territories back.

Western leaders are in a battle of brinksmanship with Putin. Last Sunday US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Washington would respond decisively if Russia deployed nuclear weapons against Ukraine and has made clear to Moscow the “catastrophic consequences” it would face.

Seismological Evidence of Putin’s Failure to Seize the Ukrainian Territory and How Russia Will Respond to a World War in the Nearby Sea

Both Danish and Swedish seismologists recorded explosive shockwaves from close to the seabed: the first, at around 2 a.m. local time, hitting 2.3 magnitude, then again, at around 7 p.m., registering 2.1.

Within hours, roiling patches of sea were discovered, the Danes and the Germans sent warships to secure the area, and Norway increased security around its oil and gas facilities.

The sabotage of the Nord Stream can be the last chance that Putin has to solve the gas issues. And it’s not going to be possible for Europe to continue to build up its gas reserves for the winter. Putin is throwing everything he has at this right now.

Russian naval vessels were seen by European security officials in the area in the days prior, Western intelligence sources have said. The NATO’s North Atlantic Council said the damage was a deliberate and reckless act of sabotage.

Nord Stream 2 was never operational, and Nord Stream 1 had been throttled back by Putin as Europe raced to replenish gas reserves ahead of winter, while dialling back demands for Russian supplies and searching for replacement providers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a plan to seize the country. The Russian invaders failed to capture Kyiv, which led to the demise of those plans.

No one knows what is happening in Putin’s mind. While Kortunov does not doubt that Putin will compromise beyond his own terms for peace, he does not believe he will do so on President Zelensky’s terms. He should be well prepared to use a degree of flexibility. But we don’t know what these degrees [are] likely to be.”

Volker expects Putin to pitch France and Germany first “to say, we need to end this war, we’re going to protect our territories at all costs, using any means necessary, and you need to put pressure on the Ukrainians to settle.”

The most worrying thing about Putin is that he does not seem to realize how small his space is, and that would be a major problem if he were to launch a nuclear attack.

Vladimir Putin’s latest tweet about the seized russian city of Kochatorsk after a Russian attack on the Kremlin

Russian troops fled with empty eyes after Ukrainian forces captured them in the city of Kochatorsk, a major Russian newspaper reported on Sunday.

It came two days after an eruption damaged a crucial bridge and dealt a blow to the Kremlin. A wounded Vladimir Putin, who has also seen weeks of Russian losses on the battlefield, had been under pressure to respond with force following the explosion, which Putin on Sunday blamed on Kyiv and described as an act of terror.

In an unusually candid article published Sunday, the prominent Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that in the last few days of their occupation, Russian forces in Lyman had been plagued by desertion, poor planning and the delayed arrival of reserves.

Musk suggested in his election suggestion that the elections in the annexed regions of the country be supervised by the UN. The land grab, covering nearly a fifth of Ukraine, followed referendums that have been widely dismissed as “shams” by much of the world.

A majority of respondents on Twitter voted “No” in response to Musk’s poll. In a follow-up posting, Musk appeared to blame the results on a bot attack.

Early on in the war in Ukraine, Musk and one of his companies, also called SpaceX, got involved because they sent Starlink internet terminals that could be accessed anywhere with power and a clear view of the sky.

But his latest musings were not well-received by Ukrainian officials, after a months-long war that has left a trail of untold devastation in the region.

Zelensky asked his followers, “Whichelonmusk do you like more?” The two options were either One who supports Russia or One who supports Ukraine. The former received more than 80% of the vote by Monday afternoon.

Musk continued to tweet out defenses for his initial Twitter thread, seeming to suggest that there was little chance of victory for Ukraine, which recently began swiftly reclaiming territory in its northeast, including the strategically important transport hub of Lyman.

Musk’s foreign policy commentary came one day after Tesla announced lower-than-expected delivery and production numbers for the third quarter and days after the car company unveiled an underwhelming humanoid robot. It also comes as his fight to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the company escalates.

Putin’s annexation of the Ukrainian War-Torn Regions and the Organization of a Nuclear Security Mission in the Russian Federation

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he expects the situation to stabilize in four war-torn regions of Ukraine after signing legislation to annex them on Wednesday, despite the fact that Russia’s military does not fully control those areas.

Pro-Kremlin pundits delivered rare dispatches on the growing setbacks faced by Moscow’s troops while Russian state television hailed Putin’s inking of the annexation process.

Russian forces appear to be buckling under growing pressure as Ukraine continues to regain territory in the south, where Russian soldiers have been forced to retreat from previously-held settlements as Kyiv progresses with its counteroffensive towards the Russian-occupied city of Kherson.

In order to celebrate the news, Putin invited teachers from all of the Russian regions to a televised meeting to wish them Happy Teachers’ Day, a number which includes the newly annexed territories.

On Wednesday, Russia andUkraine had conflicting announcements over the management of the nuclear power plant. The head of the Ukranian nuclear energy company said that he was taking charge of the plant, after Putin signed a decree to claim it.

The assault damaged civilian infrastructure and killed many people, cutting power in some parts of the country. They were “an indication of the nature of the threat from Russia,” Giles said. “For many months now, the Russian objective has been to destroy Ukraine rather than possess it.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the military for their “fast and powerful advances” in his Tuesday evening address, before celebrating that “dozens of settlements have already been liberated” this week.

He said that the region of Kherson had all been won back.

Zelensky on Wednesday assembled his top military and security staff to consider plans for “further liberation of Ukrainian territories,” according to the readout of the meeting from the President’s office.

When pressed to clarify by CNN, Peskov added: “You should read the decree; there is a legal wording there. On the whole, of course, we are talking about the territory in which the military-civilian administration operated at the time of its adoption [as part of the Russian Federation].”

Russia lost Kherson city, the only regional capital it had captured, in November in a major blow to president Putin. Russian forces have set up a base near Kherson and frequently used it to shell the city.

“In the Kherson region, we have lost 17 settlements,” Alexander Sladkov, a leading Russian war correspondent, conceded on state TV Tuesday, before placing the blame on “fat” US weapons deliveries and “intelligence gathered via satellite reconnaissance.”

“The Russian troops do not have enough manpower to stop the enemy attacks,” Kots said in a video. “The recent Russian losses are directly connected to that. It is a difficult period of time on the front line.

Kots confirmed that Russian forces were trying to fortify their defense at the line connecting the occupied cities of Kreminna and Svatova. Yuriy Podolyaka, a pro-Russian military blogger said on Monday that Russian troops had withdrawn to the Zherebets River, which runs just west of Kreminna and Svatova.

The First Day of the Special Operation on the Frontline: Why Do We Live in the Difficult Moments of War? When Did Russia Go to War?

“They don’t have problems with the intelligence data or high-precision weapons which they are constantly using. We are waiting for our Reserves to become fit and join the battle.

Meanwhile, state media reporter Evgeniy Poddubnyy, a correspondent for Russia 24, said Tuesday that “we’re going through the hardest time on the frontline” and that “for the time being it will become even harder.”

“This doesn’t mean that we’ve collapsed like a house of cards. These mistakes aren’t huge strategic failures. We’re still learning. I know this is hard to hear in our eighth month of the special operation. But we are reporters. We are waiting for reinforcements.

It is as painful as being hit on your melon. We’ve suffered losses. But it’s war. In war, there are these kinds of things. Reinforcements are going to be with their equipment. I don’t lie or engage in propaganda. I’m just a regular reporter who is describing what is happening.”

In less than one month, Sladko has admitted that Russian forces had suffered heavy losses on a Tuesday. Sladkov said at the beginning of the interview that he only told the truth on Tuesdays, and for other days he just made everything up.

The Cost of Chaos: The CNN Perspective on Putin, the Kremlin, the West, and the U.S. Response to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, vice president at New America, and a professor at Arizona State University. Bergen is the author of “The Cost of Chaos: The Trump Administration and the World.” His views in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Putin lost Lyman just as he was publicly declaring that the Donetsk region – in which Lyman sits – was now annexed by Russia.

The most important thing for the West right now is to show unity and resolve, against a man who probes for weakness and tends to exploit divisions. Western governments also need to realize that rhetoric and sanctions have little if no impact on Putin’s actions. Even if it meant sending military experts closer to the battlefield to speed up integration of high technology weapons, they would still need to continue to arm Ukrainians and provide urgent training.

(Indeed, his revisionist account defines his rationale for the war in Ukraine, which he asserts has historically always been part of Russia – even though Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.)

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was covered in a new book titled “Afghan Crucible.” According to the author, the Soviets planned to set up a puppet government and leave the country as soon as possible.

During the war in Afghanistan, the US initially wasn’t willing to escalate its support for the Afghan resistance because they were afraid of a larger conflict with the Soviet Union. It took until 1986 for the CIA to arm the Afghans with highly effective anti-aircraft Stinger missiles, which ended the Soviets’ total air superiority, eventually forcing them to withdraw from Afghanistan three years later.

The US and the western alliance have to be thinking about the future, as well as those who can succeed him, such as Putin and those in the Kremlin. The key question here is: How long will the commitment to the fight persist?

But the US put those fears to rest relatively quickly, and American-supplied anti-tank Javelin missiles and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), GPS-guided missiles, have helped the Ukrainians to push back against the Russians.

Vladimir Putin and the Russo-Japanese War in 1917 and 1991: a tragic example of the delusions and illusions of the Kremlin

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was caused by the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan two years earlier.

Looking further back into the history books, he must also know that the Russian loss in the Russo-Japanese war in 1905 weakened the Romanov monarchy. Czar Nicholas II was feckless during the First World War and led to the Russian Revolution. Subsequently, much of the Romanov family was killed by a Bolshevik firing squad.

On February 22 of this year, just two days before the invasion of Russia, former US President Donald Trump told the world that the Russian autocrat was a genius for declaring the two areas of eastern Ukraine independent.

It was obvious to me from the beginning. “I tried to explain to people this war will lead to the collapse of Russia… it will be a great tragedy not only for Ukrainians but also for Russia.”

Freedman writes that Putin is “a tragic example of how the delusions and illusions of one individual can be allowed to shape events without any critical challenge. The autocrats that put their cronies into key positions are able to command their subordinates to follow foolish orders.

The first and second dissolution of the Russian empire took place in 1917 and 1991, respectively, after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold an operational meeting of his Security Council on Monday, just two days after a massive explosion on a key strategic bridge linking Crimea and Russia.

The meeting is being kept secret because it comes at a crucial juncture for the Kremlin, which has to make a series of hard choices after a month of setbacks in its military campaign in Ukraine.

The Putin-Bridge attack on the Crimean Bridge: a threat to the use of nuclear weapons, or at the death of an autocrat?

The bridge that handles road traffic, train traffic and other things is estimated at over three billion dollars. On Saturday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said repair works on the bridge would be carried out around the clock, with a damage survey to be completed within a day and divers scheduled to check all the supports of the bridge.

The first passenger services resumed travel across the bridge on Saturday, traveling from the Crimean Peninsula to Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia, Russia’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

Car traffic on the bridge has also restarted in two lanes, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Marat Khusnullin said on Sunday. “Traffic has already been launched along two lanes on the Crimean bridge,” he wrote in a Telegram post, adding that earlier, one lane was being used for cars traveling in alternate directions, slowing down traffic. Since the blast, trucks, vans, and buses have been traveling by ferry.

For Putin, the symbolism of the only bridge connecting mainland Russia and his home city of Crimea is very significant. That the attack took place a day after his 70th birthday (the timing prompted creative social media denizens to create a split-screen video of Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President”) can be taken as an added blow to an aging autocrat whose ability to withstand shame and humiliation is probably nil.

Peskov was asked by RIA whether the attack on the bridge could trigger an activation of Russia’s nuclear doctrine because it was “aimed at destroying critical civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation.”

Hayday acknowledged photographs of Ukrainian troops outside the Luhansk village of Stelmakhivka, less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of the crucial post of Svatove.

“First time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat of the use (of a) nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path they are going,” Biden warned during remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in New York on Friday.

Kiev air raids and air strikes on Tuesday morning triggered by Ukraine’s military missile attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine, and the Ukrainian capital Lviv

A wave of missiles, rockets and drones has struck dozens of locations across Ukraine since Monday, according to officials, targeting civilian infrastructure in several major cities, including Kyiv, located hundreds of miles from the front lines in the east and south.

The Ukrainian military said that the majority of cruise missiles fired at Ukraine on Thursday were intercepted, with its defense forces shooting down 54 of 69, according to preliminary data. Klitschko said 16 missiles were destroyed by Ukraine’s air defenses over Kyiv.

“The terrorist country continues bringing the Russian world in the form of shelling of the civilian population. He is Kherson. In the morning, on Saturday, on the eve of Christmas, in the central part of the city,” he said.

For several hours on Monday morning Kyiv’s subway system was suspended, with underground stations serving as bunkers. But the air raid alert in the city was lifted at midday, as rescue workers sought to pull people from the rubble caused by the strikes.

The Prime Minister stated that as of 11 a.m. local time a total of 11crucial infrastructure facilities had been damaged.

In western Ukraine, Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said 90% of the city was without power, cautioning that the city’s waterworks could also to stop working with electricity down.

The consequences of Russian aggression in Ukraine on the international community: the case of the XIX invasion of Crimea and the G7 emergency meeting

Sergey Aksyonov, who was appointed by the Russian government and is now head of annexed Crimea, claimed on Monday that his country’s approaches to its special military operation in Ukraine have changed.

He said that if the actions to destroy the infrastructure were taken every day, they would have been able to defeat the Kyiv regime.

“Senseless barbarism.” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said those were the only words that came to mind watching Moscow launch a fresh wave of attacks on Ukrainian cities ahead of the New Year, adding there could be “no neutrality” in the face of such aggression.

Through the first ten months of war, NATO has stayed largely united in supporting Ukraine’s resistance, with Western nations dispatching billions of dollars worth of weapons and other aid to Kyiv.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that Putin is causing a lot of harm to innocent civilians. The Netherlands condemns the heinous acts. Putin does not seem to understand that the will of the Ukrainian people is unbreakable.”

The UN Secretary-General called the attacks “unfortunate and unacceptable”, noting that civilians are paying the highest price.

The G7 group of nations will hold an emergency meeting via video conference on Tuesday, the office of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed to CNN, and Zelensky said on Twitter that he would address that meeting.

CNN Live – Michael Bociurkiw’s perspective on Ukraine in the aftermath of the Kerch Straight Explosion on Monday and Tuesday

Michael Bociurkiw is a global affairs analyst. He is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is a commentator on CNN Opinion. The opinions he gives in this commentary are his. CNN has more opinion.

Even amid irrepressible jubilation here in Ukraine in the aftermath of a massive explosion that hit the hugely strategic and symbolic Kerch Straight bridge over the weekend, fears of retaliation by the Kremlin were never far away.

The strikes happened as people headed to work and children were dropping off at school. A friend of mine sent me a text telling me she just left the bridge span before it was struck.

As of midday local time, the area around my office in Odesa remained eerily quiet in between air raid sirens, with reports that three missiles and five kamikaze drones were shot down. (Normally at this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be heaving with customers, and chatter of plans for upcoming weddings and parties).

Monday’s attacks also came just a few hours after Zaporizhzhia, a southeastern city close to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, was hit by multiple strikes on apartment buildings, mostly while people slept. At least 17 people died and many others were wounded.

Ukraine’s Energy Minister said that 30% of energy infrastructure in the country was hit by Russian missiles on Monday and Tuesday. The minister told CNN that this was the “first time from the beginning of the war” that Russia has “dramatically targeted” energy infrastructure.

In scenes reminiscent of the early days of the war when Russian forces neared the capital, some Kyiv media outlets temporarily moved their operations to underground bomb shelters. A group of people took cover at a metro station while the small group sang patriotic Ukrainian songs.

Indeed, millions of people in cities across Ukraine will be spending most of the day in bomb shelters, at the urging of officials, while businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible.

Just as many regions of Ukraine were starting to roar back to life, and with countless asylum seekers returning home, the attacks risk causing another blow to business confidence.

The 2018 Ukrainian Bridge Explosion: The Last Days of Putin’s Invasion and the Rise of U.S. Military Intelligence

A penchant of dictators is hardwiring newly claimed territories with record-breaking infrastructure projects. In the year of 2018, Putin drove a truck across the longest bridge in Europe. After Beijing reclaimed Hong Kong and Macau, it became apparent that the world’s longest sea crossing bridge would have to be built. The $20 billion, 34-mile road bridge opened after about two years of delays.

The explosion lit up the social media channels of Ukrainians. Many shared their sense of jubilation via text messages.

Sitting still was never an option for Putin. He responded by unleashing more death and destruction with the force that he knows will come naturally to someone who has been in the KGB.

It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.

Before Monday’s strikes, the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, had told Ukrainian journalist Roman Kravets in late August that, “by the end of the year at the minimum we have to enter Crimea” – suggesting a plan to push back Russian forces to pre-2014 lines, which is massively supported by Ukrainians I’ve spoken to.

What is crucially important now is for Washington and other allies to use urgent telephone diplomacy to urge China and India – which presumably still have some leverage over Putin – to resist the urge to use even more deadly weapons.

It is necessary for high tech defense systems to protect important energy infrastructure around the country. There is an urgent need to protect heating systems.

The Kherson region: what the EU needs to intervene in the coming Russian-Putnam war against Ukraine and the crisis in Europe

Turkey and the Gulf states which have a lot of Russians in them need to be pressured to come on board in order for the west to impose more sanctions on Russia.

It is impossible to continue Putin’s violence without these measures, and a humanitarian crisis will be created throughout Europe. A weak reaction will be taken as a sign in the Kremlin that it can continue to weaponize energy, migration and food.

On Monday, state television not only reported on the suffering, but also flaunted it. It showed smoke and destruction in central Kyiv, along with empty shelves and a long-range forecast of freezing temperatures there.

Russia said its forces would help in the removal of residents of Kherson from the area that is occupied by the Ukrainians.

Saldo claimed cities throughout Kherson, one of four Ukrainian regions Russia claimed to have annexed in violation of international law, were being hammered by dangerous airstrikes.

Stremousov insisted that Saldo was only asking for authorities to help organize the departure of people from the Kherson region for a short stay in other regions of the Russian Federation.

If there is a desire to protect themselves from the consequences of missile strikes, then all of the residents of the Kherson region should go to other parts of the country.

However, Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Kherson region’s military administration, said that the civilian transports were not an “evacuation.”

The winter could decide who will win the most titanic battles of forces in Europe since the Second World War as both Russia and Ukrainians are doing their best to turn the screws. It’s worth a deep look at what’s in play right now.

Not for the first time, the war is in dire need of a new phase. Keir Giles, a senior consultant at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia programme, says this is the third, fourth or fifth war that they have been observing.

Even though many people thought the conflict would be over within a few days or weeks, it turned out to be a complicated war that could only be won by Ukraine, so any deal that weakens the country is not acceptable to Kyiv.

Oleksii Hromov, a senior Ukrainian military official, said last week that Kyiv’s forces have recaptured some 120 settlements since late September as they advance in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions. On Wednesday, Ukraine said it had liberated more five settlements in its slow but steady push in Kherson.

These counter-offensives have shifted the momentum of the war and disproved a suggestion, built up in the West and in Russia during the summer, that while Ukraine could stoutly defend territory, it lacked the ability to seize ground.

“The Russians are playing for the whistle – (hoping to) avoid a collapse in their frontline before the winter sets in,” Samir Puri, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the author of “Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine,” told CNN.

“If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking roughly as it is, that’s a huge success for the Russians given how botched this has been since February.”

With a big blow in the hands of the rebels in the Donbass area,Ukraine would be eager to improve on their gains before the temperatures plummet on the battlefield, and the full impact of rising energy prices is felt around Europe.

Giles said that there were many reasons why Ukraine could get things done quickly. “The winter energy crisis in Europe, and energy infrastructure and power being destroyed in Ukraine itself, is always going to be a test of resilience for Ukraine and its Western backers.”

Ukrenergo said it has been able to increase electricity supply to the central areas of the country after Russian missile attacks on Monday. But Ukrainian Prime Minister has warned that “there is a lot of work to do” to fix damaged equipment, and asked Ukrainians to reduce their energy usage during peak hours.

Experts believe it remains unlikely that Russia’s aerial bombardment will form a recurrent pattern; while estimating the military reserves of either army is a murky endeavor, Western assessments suggest Moscow may not have the capacity to keep it up.

Jeremy Fleming, the head of GCHQ, said that sentiment last month. “We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” said Fleming.

The I SW said in its daily update on the conflict that the strikes waste some of Russia’s dwindling precision weapons against civilian targets, as opposed to military targets.

Exactly how much weaponry and manpower each side has left in reserve will be crucial to determining how the momentum will shift in the coming weeks. Ukraine said it intercepted 18 cruise missiles on Tuesday and dozens more on Monday, but it is urging its Western allies for more equipment to repel any future attacks.

“The barrage of missile strikes is going to be an occasional feature reserved for shows of extreme outrage, because the Russians don’t have the stocks of precision munitions to maintain that kind of high-tempo missile assault into the future,” Puri said.

Some assistance for Putin may be on the way. An announcement by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that Belarus and Russia will “deploy a joint regional group of troops” raised fears of deepened military cooperation between the close allies and that Belarusian troops could formally join Russia in its invasion. Belarus has been complaining of alleged Ukrainian threats to its security in recent days, which observers say could be a prelude to some level of involvement.

Giles believes that the reopening of a northern front would be a new challenge forUkraine. It would provide Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast (region), which has been recaptured by Ukraine, should Putin prioritize an effort to reclaim that territory, he said.

The speech was just one of the hundreds Mr. Zelensky has given this year in a relentless campaign not only to steel his country to fight Russia’s army but to galvanize support for Ukraine abroad.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Ukraine needed “more” systems to better halt missile attacks, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

The IRIS-T arrived from Germany and the NASAMS from the United States this week, Bronk said.

Sergey Surovikin, commander in charge of Russian forces operations in Syria, tells Putin he never wanted to be bullied by Putin

“I personally ​have know​n Sergei very well for almost 15 years. The news that a real general and warrior, experienced, headstrong and foresighted commander will be appointed as the new Secretary of State was announced last Saturday by Kadyrov. The army group is now in the safe hands, he said.

Notably, he previously played an instrumental role in Russia’s operations in Syria – during which Russian combat aircraft caused widespread devastation in rebel-held areas – as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

He said Surovikin was “very close to Putin’s regime” and “never had any political ambitions, so always executed a plan exactly as ​the government wanted.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Russian Armed Forces service personnel who took part in operations in Syria, including Sergey Surovikin, at the Kremlin on December 28, 2017.

Surovikin personally signed Irisov’s resignation papers from the air force, he says. What impact the general will have is not yet clear, as he was put in charge of operations in Putin’s brutal war inUkraine.

“Everything changed” on February 24, 2022, when Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began and TASS received orders from the FSB security service and defense ministry “that everyone will be prosecuted if they don’t execute the propaganda scheme,” Irisov said.

He knew exactly what he needed to do when he was being bullied by Putin, says Yevhen Hlibovytsky, a former political journalist.

While serving at Latakia air base in Syria in 2019 and 2020, the 31-year-old says he worked on aviation safety and air traffic control, coordinating flights with Damascus’ civilian airlines. He ​says he saw Surovikin several times during some missions and spoke to high-ranking officers under him.

“He made a lot of people very angry – they hated him,” Irisov said, describing how the “direct” and “straight” general was disliked at headquarters because of the way he tried to implement his infantry experience into the air force.

TheWagner group, which has operated in Syria, had strong connections with the Surovikin.

In 2004, according to Russian media accounts and at least two think tanks, he berated a subordinate so severely that the subordinate took his own life.

The think tank that authored the book says that during the attempted coup against Gorbachev, soldiers under his command killed three people and he spent at least six months in prison.

He was named as someone who may bear command responsibility for the dozens of air and ground attacks on civilians in violation of the laws of war by Human Rights Watch. ​The attacks killed at least 1,600 ​civilians and forced the displacement of an estimated 1.4 million people, according to HRW​​, which cites UN figures.

Vladimir Putin’s role as a commander of the Aerospace Forces: What can he do to undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine?

Speaking after an awards ceremony for “Heroes of Russia” at the Kremlin, he addressed a group of soldiers receiving the awards, clutching a glass of champagne.

In February this year, Surovikin was sanctioned by the European Union in his capacity as head of the Aerospace Forces “for actively supporting and implementing actions and policies that undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine as well as the stability or security in Ukraine.”

Clark says that it is highly probable that Putin is involved in decision-making at a very tactical level, and in some cases circumventing the senior Russian military officers to interact directly on the battlefield.

His appointment “got widespread praise from various Russian military bloggers as well as Yevgeny (Prigozhin), who’s the financier of the Wagner Group,” Clark said.

“Similarly, he before then was a commander of one of the groupings of Russian forces and had sort of a master reputation in Syria much like Surovikin for brutality, earning this sort of name of the ‘butcher of Aleppo,’” Clark said.

At that time, Dvornikov was the commander that was going to turn things around in Ukranian, he said. “But an individual commander is not going to be able to change how tangled Russian command and control is at this point in the war, or the low morale of Russian forces.”

According to Clark, “there isn’t a good Kremlin option if Surovikin doesn’t perform or if Putin decides that he is also not up to the task. It will lead to a further degradation of Russian war effort, because there aren’t many other senior Russian officers.

That’s not to say mobilized forces will be of no use. Russia has exhausted its professional army, and support roles like drivers and refuelers could ease the burden on them. They could create a man checkpoint along the line of contact, cordon some places, and fill out units with exhausted units. They are not likely to become a fighting force. There are signs of discipline problems in the Russian garrisons.

Mr. Putin could retaliate more harshly against the people of Ukraine. The attacks of the past week — particularly striking critical civilian infrastructure — could be expanded across Ukraine if missile supplies hold out, while Russia could directly target the Ukrainian leadership with strikes or special operations.

Vladimir Sobyanin: Russian Prime Minister after World War II and the War Between Russia and the Middle East, CNN’s A Red Line in the Sand

The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, seemed to be taking some pains to offer reassurances. “At present, no measures are being introduced to limit the normal rhythm of the city’s life,” Mr. Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel.

The new power that Mr. Putin has granted them was not enough to ban entry or exit restrictions.

Many Russians are likely to see a warning message after Moscow declared martial law in Europe for the first time since World War II.

The people are worried that the borders will be closed, as well as the siloviki, the strong men close to Mr. Putin.

In a signal that the faltering invasion of Ukraine has eroded Moscow’s influence elsewhere, Russia has recently redeployed critical military hardware and troops from Syria, according to three senior officials based in the Middle East.

The author of A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happened is a contributor to CNN. He was a reporter for The New York Times and CBS News. The views he expresses are his own. CNN has more opinion.

First, he’s seeking to distract his nation from the blindingly obvious, namely that he is losing badly on the battlefield and utterly failing to achieve even the vastly scaled back objectives of his invasion.

Putin Prolonges War on the Europys: Negotiations between Europe, the Kremlin and the Continuum

The ability to keep going depends on a number of variables, including availability of vital and affordable energy supplies for the coming winter, popular will across a broad range of nations with often conflicting priorities, and much more.

In the early hours of Friday in Brussels, European Union powers agreed a plan to control energy prices that have been surging on the heels of embargoes on Russian imports.

These include an emergency cap on the benchmark European gas trading hub – the Dutch Title Transfer Facility – and permission for EU gas companies to create a cartel to buy gas on the international market.

The French President said there was only a clear mandate for the European Commission to start work on a gas cap mechanism after he left the summit.

Still, divisions remain, with Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, skeptical of any price caps. Now energy ministers must work out details with a Germany concerned such caps would encourage higher consumption – a further burden on restricted supplies.

These divisions are all part of Putin’s fondest dream. Manifold forces in Europe could prove central to achieving success from the Kremlin’s viewpoint, which amounts to the continent failing to agree on essentials.

Germany and France are already at loggerheads on many of these issues. There is a conference call scheduled for Wednesday by the leaders of France and Germany.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/putin-prolonge-war-ukraine-winter-andelman/index.html

Italy’s new prime minister: Putin’s legacy in Washington and the challenges of the Kremlin-Boroccus crisis

There is a new government in Italy. She is the first woman to be prime minister in Italy, and she has tried to distance herself from the post-fascist aura of her party. One of her far-right coalition partners meanwhile, has expressed deep appreciation for Putin.

Berlusconi, in a secretly recorded audio tape, said he’d returned Putin’s gesture with bottles of Lambrusco wine, adding that “I knew him as a peaceful and sensible person,” in the LaPresse audio clip.

The other leading member of the ruling Italian coalition, Matteo Salvini, named Saturday as deputy prime minister, said during the campaign, “I would not want the sanctions [on Russia] to harm those who impose them more than those who are hit by them.”

At the same time, Poland and Hungary, longtime ultra-right-wing soulmates united against liberal policies of the EU that seemed calculated to reduce their influence, have now disagreed over Ukraine. Poland is not happy with the pro-Putin sympathies of Hungary’s populist leader.

Similar forces seem to be at work in Washington where House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, poised to become Speaker of the House if Republicans take control after next month’s elections, told an interviewer, “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine. They just won’t do it.”

Meanwhile on Monday, the influential 30-member Congressional progressive caucus called on Biden to open talks with Russia on ending the conflict while its troops are still occupying vast stretches of the country and its missiles and drones are striking deep into the interior.

Mia Jacob, the chair of the caucus, responded to the criticism with a clarification. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Dmytro Kuleba to thank him for renewing America’s support.

Indeed, while the US has proffered more than $60 billion in aid since Biden took office, when Congress authorized $40 billion for Ukraine last May, only Republicans voted against the latest aid package.

This support has been the main factor in their success against the weakened, undersupplied and poorly prepared Russian military.

The West continues to try and crimp Russian energy profits, by capping the amount countries will pay for Russian oil and limiting seaborne oil imports. There are signs the efforts are already cutting into profits.

The lack of necessary semi-conductors has caused the demise of Russian production of hypersonic missiles. Plants that produce anti-aircraft systems have stopped making them, and Russia has reverted to soviet-era defense stocks for replenishment. The Soviet era ended more than 30 years ago.

A day before this report the US announced the seizure of all property of a top Russian procurement agent and his agencies, who were responsible for procuring US-origin technology for Russian end- users.

The Justice Department charged companies and individuals for trying to smuggle high tech equipment into Russia in violation of sanctions.

The Kremlin’s War with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine: Implications for Defiant Arms Production in the Second World War

Ukraine has traditionally celebrated Christmas on January 7 in line with Orthodox Christian customs, which acknowledge the birth of Jesus according to the Julian calendar.

In the year of this year, the Orthodox Church in Russia lost control over churches in the country after the Orthodox Church of Constantinople endorsed the establishment of an independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has become closely entwined with the Russian state under Russian President Vladimir Putin, responded by cutting ties with Bartholomew.

Patriarch Kirill has been an avid supporter of the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine — including telling Russian soldiers that dying for the cause would “wash away all sins.” His support of the Russian military divided the Orthodox faithful.

Nine months in, Russian hopes of a swift seizure have been well and truly dashed, its army largely on the defensive across more than 600 miles of battle lines strung along the eastern and southern reaches of Ukraine.

The reality is that there is very little value in truces, even if they are linked to negotiations. Russia is now back increasingly to the wall due to a truce.

A premature truce allows both parties to re-arm, and that’s the only thing that makes SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA is SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA

The experts say that Russia is starting to rearm. One facet of the war that was determinative was ammunition availability. “If you burn through 9 million rounds, you cannot make them in a month. So the issue is what is the ammunition production rate and what can be mobilized?” He said that he added.

The staple of the exchanges so far alongUkrainian front lines have gone from two to three in some factories, as shown by the information cited by Kofman. He said that it suggests that they wouldn’t go to double and triple shifts if they had component parts.

Zelensky’s bet: Predictions for the next war for the United States and its allies, and where to draw them?

If peace can be achieved when there is an opportunity to negotiate, seize it. Seize the moment,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff said recently.

This week, the Russians appeared to reject the peace solution that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered as the war enters its 10th month.

“Putin’s discussions of negotiations have focused on putative discussions with the West rather than with Ukraine, and reflect his continual accusations that Ukraine is merely a Western pawn with no real agency,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank wrote in its daily assessment of the war on Monday.

“As well as giving the Russians time to regroup and rearm, importantly it would relieve the pressure on their forces at the moment,” General Mick Ryan, a fellow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told me in an email exchange. They’ve been working hard for nine months. Their forces are exhausted.

He explained that they pulled back beyond the 80 kilometer range. In many cases, it’s inside Russian territory where the Ukrainians have given assurances to the US that it wouldn’t target with American rocket systems.

He said that the Russians are willing to trade soldiers and shells. The Russians expect NATO and the Western allies won’t be willing to make those trades over time. Eventually it will push them to negotiate. That is Putin’s bet, and I think it’s true.

They will get tired of this war at some point. And the Russian mindset may become “we may not have everything we wanted. We will annex the part of the Donbas we don’t already own and then we will keep our hold on the peninsula. And I think that’s kind of their bet right now.”

At the same time, a truce would also allow the West to rebuild rapidly depleting arsenals that have been drained by materiel sent to Ukraine, even upgrade what’s been supplied.

But were the war to resume months or years from now, there’s a real question as to whether the US and its allies would be prepared to return to a conflict that many are beginning to wish was already over.

Russian Prime Minister Receipts Russian Warfare for the Seizing of New Territories During Russia’s Cold War

The Russian President acknowledged that his military operation inUkraine is taking more time than he had estimated and that it has succeeded in seizing new territory.

The land gains have been described as a significant result for Russia by Putin in a televised meeting in Russia with members of his Human Rights Council. He mentioned that Peter the Great fought to get access to the water in one of his references to a Russian leader.

“If it doesn’t use it first under any circumstances, it means that it won’t be the second to use it, either, because the possibility of using it in case of a nuclear strike on our territory will be sharply limited,” he said.

Putin rejected Western criticism that his previous nuclear weapons comments amounted to saber-rattling, claiming they were “not a factor provoking an escalation of conflicts, but a factor of deterrence.”

“We haven’t gone mad. Putin said they are fully aware of what nuclear weapons are. He added, without elaborating: “We have them, and they are more advanced and state-of-the-art than what any other nuclear power has.”

The Russian leader didn’t address Russia’s battlefield setbacks or its attempts to cement control over the seized regions but he did acknowledge problems with supplies and treatment of wounded soldiers.

In the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, the governor posted photos of new concrete anti-tank barriers — known as “dragon’s teeth” — in open fields. On Tuesday, the governor had said a fire broke out at an airport in the region after a drone strike. In Belgorod, officials were organizing self-defense units and workers were expanding anti-tank barriers. Belgorod has seen numerous fires and explosions, apparently from cross-border attacks, and its governor reported Wednesday that Russia’s air defenses have shot down incoming rockets.

In brazen drone attacks, two strategic Russian air bases more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the Ukraine border were struck Monday. Ukraine didn’t blame Moscow.

Moscow bombed civilian infrastructure and residential buildings with multiple missiles, tank and mortars, damaging the power grid. The private Ukrainian power utility Ukrenergo said that the temperatures in eastern areas where it was repairing had dropped to as low as minus 17 degrees Celsius.

He listed a series of events he blames on the Ukrainians: “Who hit the Crimean bridge? Who blew up the power lines?

It is thought that the reference to the airfield in theKursk region is to Russia’s announcement that it was targeted in a drone attack. There were explosions in Kursk, which is deep in Russia, but there was no comment from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. The targets are far from the country’s declared drones.

Water and the Russian Orthodox Church in the Donbass: a response to US President Zelenskyy’s criticism of the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow

He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. “No one has said a word about it anywhere. At all! He said that there was complete silence.

Local Russian authorities said they have seen frequent shelling of the city this week.

Ukrainian authorities have stepped up raids on churches accused of links to Moscow, and they are looking to see if President Zelenskyy follows through on his threat to ban the Russian Orthodox Church in the country.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is in Paris for a dinner with the prime minister of Norway.

France is going to co-host a conference with Ukraine in order to support them through the winter with a video address by the Ukrainian President.

Fans, friends and family are celebrating the basketball player’s return to the US after she was released from a Russian prison. Some Republicans have been complaining about the prisoner swap and other US citizens still being held by Russia.

New measures targeting Russian oil revenue took effect Dec. 5. They include a price cap and a European Union embargo on most Russian oil imports and a Russian oil price cap.

Zelenskyych said that the city of Bakhmut had been turned into burned ruins. Russia is attempting to advance on the city in the eastern Donbas region.

First Russian-Invasion Report on the State of Ukraine – Past, Present, and Future: Energy Security Project in the Kherson and Western Ukraine

President Zelenskyy had a phone call with President Biden on Dec. 11, as well as the leaders of France and Turkey, in an apparent stepping up of diplomacy over the 9 1/2-month-long Russian invasion.

Here you can read past recaps. More of NPR’s coverage can be found here. Listen and subscribe to the State of Ukraine radio show for continuous updates throughout the day.

In the wake of heavy fighting in the east of the country, the Ukrainian forces have unleashed the biggest attack on the occupied areas since the year of 2014, according to a Russia-installed official.

He said a key intersection in the city had fallen under fire and 40 rockets had been fired at civilians.

“One of (the victims) was a volunteer, a member of the rapid response team of the international organization. During the shelling, they were on the street, they were fatally wounded by fragments of enemy shells,” he added.

The region head of the Kherson military administration, Yanushevych, said that the city was completely disconnected from power supplies.

A critical infrastructure facility was hit by the enemy. In a Telegram video on Thursday,Yanushevych said that Shell fragments damaged residential buildings and the place where the medical aid and humanitarian aid distribution point is located.

Meanwhile, further west Kyiv received machinery and generators from the United States to help strengthen the Ukrainian capital’s power infrastructure amid the widespread energy deficits.

Four excavators and more than 90 generators were delivered by the Energy Security Project. All equipment was free of charge.

The events of Novikov and Kiev: the fate of democracy and the reconstruction of the Kyiv House of Teachers under the Zelensky threat

The Ukrainian side should take into account the realities that have evolved over the years, said the Kremlin in their response to Zelensky’s proposal.

“And these realities indicate that the Russian Federation has new subjects,” he said, referring to four areas Russia has claimed to have annexed, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

Putin has worked to install pro-Russian leaders in Ukraine. Ukrainians pushed back with massive street protests in 2004. Ten years later, Ukraine’s president fled to Russia.

He then drove to Kyiv for an emergency session of parliament, which declared martial law. By 2 p.m. that day, he received a rifle so he could join the security forces defending the capital.

It was a day of high drama in a war that’s still playing out. As an historian, Viatrovych sees the actions of Putin as part of a pattern of behavior by Russian leaders.

Ukraine first declared independence from Russia in 1918, doing so in an elegant, whitewashed building in the center of Kyiv that still stands and now serves as the offices for the Kyiv House of Teachers.

A reminder of that history came just two months ago, on Oct. 10. That’s when a Russian missile slammed into the street outside the Kyiv House of Teachers.

The blast blew out the windows, as well as parts of the glass ceiling in the hall where independence was declared in 1918. There are boarded up windows. Shards of glass still cover the floor.

“There are, of course, parallels to a century ago,” said Steshuk Oleh, the director of the House of Teachers. “This building was also damaged in the fighting back then. It has been damaged again. But don’t worry. We will rebuild everything.”

How Ukrainians Left Crime in the Soviet Era: The Ruling of the Cold Soviet Union and the Rise of the 21st Century

Andrew Weiss notes that during the soviet era, Kremlin leaders crushed Ukrainian rebellions, which helped explain why Ukrainians are fighting in the present day.

This is the time where wrongs of the last hundred plus years need to be corrected, he said, noting that there were many hardship in the 20th century.

Ukrainians thought this matter was finally resolved in December 1991, when they held a referendum on independence. A majority of people voted to go their own way. The Soviet Union collapsed later that month.

“I want to reiterate that Russia is the guarantor of the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Putin said earlier this month.

Weiss said that Ukrainians are becoming more involved in making good on things that they could only dream about a century ago. That’s a country that will have an identity that’s largely founded in opposition to Russia, and in a national narrative of survival and overcoming.”

Because “if he’s losing a war, especially a war of his own making, he doesn’t survive,” he said. “The outcome may signal the end, not just of Putin’s era, but the era of the empire. It’s the 21st century. Empires have to go.

Fifteen years ago Kasparov was living in Russia and challengingPutin’s hold on power. He left Russia and now lives in New York due to his safety being at risk.

Are the Russian troops in Ukraine willing to leave the war? The Syrian crisis in Ukraine is likely to be a gray zone for security and military blocs

The war is unlikely to yield a clear solution on the battlefield according to many military analysts. They say it’s likely to require negotiations and compromises.

That’s not seen as a popular opinion in the country. President Zelenskyy and many people want all the Russian troops out of the country. Zelenskyy recently told Time magazine, “We are dealing with a powerful state that is pathologically unwilling to let Ukraine go.”

Valeriy Chaly, Ukraine’s former ambassador to the United States, said the region would be more stable if Ukraine wins the war and joins NATO. This is what Ukraine’s government wants, though joining the alliance is highly unlikely in the near term.

He said that being a buffer zone was not good for a strategic point of view. “If you are a gray zone between two security blocs, two military blocs, everybody wants to make a step. This has happened to someone else.

Zelensky, Putin, Trump: What Happened When Ukraine Stopped Petrovich Poroshenko in March 2019? A Story about Velodomyr

When I was in Paris, I witnessed how Zelensky and Putin got to the lysée Palace in different ways. (The host, French President Emmanuel Macron, hugged Putin but chose only to shake hands with Zelensky).

Beyond the man himself, there is Zelensky the brand. It’s almost impossible these days to dissociate the Ukrainian leader from his olive green t-shirts; worn when meeting everyone from Vogue journalists to military commanders and world leaders.

Zelensky’s upbringing in the rough and tumble neighborhoods of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine shaped him into a scrappy kid who learned how to respond to bullies.

This, after all, is the leader who when offered evacuation by the US as Russia launched its full-scale invasion, quipped: “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

Zelensky stood up to another bully in 2019: US president Donald Trump, who tried to bamboozle a neophyte politician in the quid pro quo scandal.

Amid the fog of war, it all seems a long, long way since the heady campaign celebration in a repurposed Kyiv nightclub where a fresh-faced Zelensky thanked his supporters for a landslide victory. He looked in a state of disbelief as he stood on stage and saw that he had defeated Petro Poroshenko.

The war appears to have turned his ratings around. Zelensky’s ratings approval surged to 90 percent within days of the invasion, and remain high today. Even Americans early in the war rated Zelensky highly for his handling of international affairs – ahead of US President Joe Biden.

His bubble includes many people from his previous professional life as a TV comedian in the theatrical group Kvartal 95. Even in the midst of war, a press conference held on the platform of a Kyiv metro station in April featured a good amount of lighting and good camera angles.

As for his skills as comforter in chief, I remember well the solace his nightly televised addresses brought in the midst of air raid sirens and explosions in Lviv.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/opinions/volodomyr-zelensky-profile-ukraine-russia-bociurkiw/index.html

Understanding the world is not the enemy: Russian prime minister Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the refugee center in London

Zelensky is showing confidence and competence in a modern way, by wearing shirts and hoodies, with a younger, global audience recognizing it as such, according to a fashion historian.

She said he is more comfortable in front of a camera than Putin is. Both of them want to be seen as personable but Zelensky is doing a better job of balancing authority with accessibility.

Journeying to where her husband can’t, Zelenska has shown herself to be an effective communicator in international fora – projecting empathy, style and smarts. During her visit to the refugee center in London, she met with King Charles. (Curiously, TIME magazine did not include Zelenska on the cover montage and gave only a passing reference in the supporting text).

Zelensky is at his back and there are some signs that his influence may be waning. Zelensky called on the G7 to impose a $30 price cap on Russian crude in order to cause more pain for the Kremlin, despite the fact that $60 a barrel price cap was imposed last week.

Zelensky said during a recent nightly video address that the world is not the enemy and that when the world is united, then it is the enemy who determines how things happen.

Kyiv and its Western allies are “set for a long confrontation with Russia” following President Volodymyr Zelensky’s momentous visit to Washington, Moscow said as the war in Ukraine approaches 10 months.

Russia’s foreign ministry condemned what it called themonstrous crimes of the “regime in Kyiv,” after US President Joe Biden promised more military support to Ukraine at the White House on Wednesday.

“As the leadership of our country has stated, the tasks set within the framework of the special military operation will be fulfilled, taking into account the situation on the ground and the actual realities,” Zakharova added, referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Her comments came after Zelensky delivered a historic speech from the US Capitol, expressing gratitude for American aid in fighting Russian aggression since the war began – and asking for more.

Kyiv has repeatedly asked for the US Army’s Patriot – an acronym for Phased Array Tracking Radar for intercept on Target – system, as it is considered one of the most capable long-range air defense systems on the market.

However, the Kremlin denounced the transaction and said the US supplying Ukraine with Patriot missile systems will prolong the Ukrainian people’s “suffering.”

“For me, as president, a just peace is no compromises as to the sovereignty, freedom and territorial integrity of our country, the payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression,” Zelensky said during his joint press conference with Biden at the White House.

The meeting showed the US is engaged in a proxy war against Russia that is directed against the last Ukrainian, according to Peskov.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukrainians to have “patience and faith” in a defiant Christmas address after a deadly wave of Russian strikes pounded the southern city of Kherson.

He urged the nation to stand firm in the face of a grim winter of energy blackouts, the absence of loved ones and the ever-present threat of Russian attacks.

There are not many chairs around it. Our houses and streets aren’t as bright. And Christmas bells can ring not so loudly and inspiringly. Through air raid sirens or gunshots.

He said that the country would sing Christmas carols louder than a power generator and hear the greetings of his relatives, even if communication services and the internet were down.

“And even in total darkness – we will find each other – to hug each other tightly. We will give each other a big hug if there is no heat.

Zelensky said, “We will celebrate our holidays!” As always. We will smile and be happy. As always. The difference is one. We will not wait for a miracle. After all, we create it ourselves.”

The Kherson conflict ended in a diplomatic way: Putin’s foreign minister vowed to end it with the United Nations and his message to Putin

Yanushevych said Sunday that a total of 16 people had been killed in 71 Russian attacks across the wider Kherson region on Saturday, including three state emergency workers who were killed during demining operations. There were 64 injuries that ranged in severity.

He wrote on Telegram that these are not military facilities. “This is not a war according to the rules defined. It’s killing for the sake of intimidation and fun.

As has been the case throughout the conflict, a cautiously conciliatory tone was quickly contradicted by a heavyhanded message from one of his officials.

Sergey Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister, said Monday that Ukraine must fulfill Russia’s demands for the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukrainian-controlled territories, repeating Moscow’s well-worn and false accusation of Nazism against Ukraine, which it has used in an attempt to justify its invasion.

Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to President Zelensky, told CNN Tuesday that Putin’s comments were likely an effort to buy time in the conflict.

So it makes little sense for Ukraine or the West to even entertain the possibility of a deal that carves up its land or rewards Putin for his invasion.

But Zelensky and his officials have said throughout that they will continue to sound out the possibility of negotiations, without raising any hopes that they would achieve a truce.

“Every war ends in a diplomatic way,” Kuleba told the AP on Monday. “Every war ends as a result of the actions taken on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”

The Foreign Minister said the UN would be the most natural broker for those talks. “The United Nations could be the best venue for holding this summit, because this is not about making a favor to a certain country,” he said. “This is really about bringing everyone on board.”

The steps includes a path to nuclear safety, food security, a special tribunal for alleged Russian war crimes, and a final peace treaty with Moscow. He wants the G20 leaders to make Russia abandon nuclear threats and implement a price cap on energy imports from Moscow.

Zelensky’s United States War of Independence in the Light of Russian December 11, 1918 Sirens Orbifold Symmetry Breaking

Both sides are dug into what could become a long and grinding conflict if a decisive swing on the battlefield in the New Year happens.

Zelensky traveled to the US for the first time in ten months to show his intent to keep his allied against the conflict and unite their support.

Authorities have been cautioning for days that Russia was preparing to launch an all-out assault on the power grid to close out 2022, plummeting the country into darkness as Ukrainians attempt to ring in the New Year and celebrate the Christmas holidays, which for the country’s Orthodox Christians falls on January 7.

Halyna Hladca stocked up on water and made breakfast for her family when the sirens sounded so they would have something to eat. After nearly two hours, they heard the sounds of explosions. “It seemed to me that they were really close to our area but it turned out to be air defense,” she told CNN. We will have a good time at the new year with the family.

Hryn said after the sirens went off, life in the capital went back to normal, with his neighbors trying to get to the cinema for the new movie on time. Parents took their children to school and people went to work, while others continued with holiday plans in defiance.

War Against Ukraine Has Left Russia Isolated And Stuck With More Tortuttle Ahedrahe: Five Years After the First Russian Operation

Three people, including a teenage girl, were injured and two people were pulled from a damaged home on Thursday. The city military administration said that there was damage to homes, a playground and an industrial facility in the capital.

At the time, Putin said he was launching a “special military operation” that would end in a matter of weeks.

Yet the war has also fundamentally upended Russian life — rupturing a post-Soviet period in which the country pursued, if not always democratic reforms, then at least financial integration and dialogue with the West.

Draconian laws passed since February have outlawed criticism of the military or leadership. According to the leading independent monitoring group, around 20,000 people have been arrested and 45% of them are women.

Lengthy prison sentences have been meted out to high profile opposition voices on charges of “discrediting” the Russian army by questioning its conduct or strategy.

There are growing lists of organizations and people who are considered “non-desirable” by the Russian public.

The most revered of Russia’s human rights groups, which was co-recipient of the prize, stopped its activities due to the foreign agents law.

Russia’s anti-LGBT laws have been vastly expanded by the state, who argue that the war in Ukraine shows a wider attack on traditional values.

Dissidents remain out there for now. Some of the new laws are still unenforced. The measures are intended to be used to crush dissent in the future.

New “fake news” laws that criminalized conflicting with the official government line forced leading independent media outlets to shut down or relocate abroad.

internet users have restrictions as well In March, American social media giants were banned. The conflict has blocked more than 100,000 websites, according to the internet regulators in the Kremlin.

Technical workarounds such as VPNs and Telegram still offer access to Russians seeking independent sources of information. Older Russians love state media because it makes them feel good and it makes them angry on TV talk shows.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/31/1145981036/war-against-ukraine-has-left-russia-isolated-and-struggling-with-more-tumult-ahe

War against Ukraine: Putin’s legacy has left Russia isolated and struggling with more turbulent-ahedral-isotopes

Thousands of perceived government opponents left the war’s early days due to concerns of persecution.

Some countries that have taken in the Russian exodus expect their economies to grow, even as Russians remain a sensitive matter for some former Soviet republics.

In the initial days of the invasion, Russia’s ruble currency cratered and its banking and trading markets looked shaky. Hundreds of global corporate brands, such as McDonald’s and ExxonMobil, reduced, suspended or closed their Russian operations entirely.

Europe will blink first, President Putin is betting that the Europeans will get upset about rising energy costs at home and pull back on their support for Ukraine. He decided to ban oil exports to countries that abide by the price cap, which is likely to cause more pain in Europe.

There is no change in the government’s tone when it comes to Russia’s military campaign. Russia’s Defense Ministry keeps track of success on the ground with daily briefings. Putin, too, repeatedly assures that everything is “going according to plan.”

The length of the war suggests that Russia underestimated the willingness of Ukrainians to resist.

The true number of Russian losses is shrouded in mystery at home, and remains a highly taboo subject. Western estimates place those figures much higher.

NATO looks poised to expand towards Russia’s borders, with the addition of long-neutral states, with the backfired aim of Russia’s invasion.

In Soviet times it would have been unthinkable for Russia to have been criticized out of concern for their own sovereignty. China and India bought discounted Russian oil but refrained from supporting Russia’s military campaign.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/31/1145981036/war-against-ukraine-has-left-russia-isolated-and-struggling-with-more-tumult-ahe

State of the Nation Address in Kyiv during a 10-Month War: Ukraine’s Armed Forces Commander-in-chief Valery Zelensky

A state of the nation address, originally scheduled for April, was repeatedly delayed and won’t happen until next year. The yearly “direct line”, where Putin gives questions to ordinary Russians in a media event, is no longer happening.

An annual December “big press conference” – a semi-staged affair that allows the Russian leader to handle fawning questions from mostly pro-Kremlin media – was similarly tabled until 2023.

The Kremlin has given no reason for the delays. Many suspect it might be that, after 10 months of war and no sign of victory in sight, the Russian leader has finally run out of good news to share.

The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny, said his air defenses successfully intercepted a total of 12 incoming attacks, six of which were in Kyiv. The total number of incoming attacks was unclear.

Emergency services went to several locations around the city. Videos posted to social media show severed limbs and bloodied faces, as well as a residential street.

The Defense Ministry of Russia has announced that some Russian prisoners of war will be coming home.

KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a rousing New Year’s Eve address on Saturday night, recalling a year that he said truly “began on Feb. 24” with fear over Russia’s invasion but ended with his country hopeful for victory.

During the war, Mr. Zelensky said he stood in darkness with a Ukrainian flag rippling gently in the breeze behind him.

“This year has struck our hearts,” he said, according to a translated transcript posted on his official website. We cried out all the tears. All the prayers have been yelled. 311 days. We have something to say about every minute.”

Russian Defense Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered a cease-fire in Ukraine to allow Orthodox Christians to go to church on Christmas (Saturday, Nov. 21)

All Ukrainians — those working, attending schools or “just learning to walk” — are participating in Ukraine’s defense, Mr. Zelensky said. And although 2022 could be called a year of losses, he said that was not the right way to think of it.

Mr. Zelensky said the world has rallied around Ukrainians and that they can find it in the top of search results.

America has done this before. The Cuban Missile crisis, the most dangerous nuclear confrontation thusfar, caused the Soviet Union to accept an outcome that favored the West in a matter of days. Had “red lines” thinking been in vogue, America might well have accepted an inferior compromise that weakened its security and credibility.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his defense minister to implement a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine for 36 hours this week to allow Orthodox Christians to attend Christmas services, according to a Kremlin statement Thursday. But the proposal was swiftly dismissed as “hypocrisy” by Ukrainian officials.

According to the Kremlin’s press service, Putin made the announcement in response to an earlier call by the leader of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, for guns to go silent over the Orthodox holiday.

Orthodox believers should be allowed to go to church on Christmas. They declare a truce and then reload their rockets at the same time. Bastards,” wrote Boris Filatov, the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, in a Telegram post.

President Biden told reporters in Washington he was unwilling to respond to anything Putin said. I found it interesting. He was capable of attacking hospitals and churches on New Year’s. And, I mean, I think he’s trying to find some oxygen.”

State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters, “Our concern … is that the Russians would seek to use any temporary pause in fighting to rest, to refit, to regroup and ultimately to to re-attack. And so in that sense, it can’t be considered a cease-fire if the intent is to train their fire with even more vengeance, with even more ferocity, with even more lethality against the people of Ukraine. Russia would withdraw from Ukrainian territory if it were serious about peace and ending this war. That is what leads to an end to this war.

The White House announced Thursday that the U.S. will send Bradley infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine, and Germany will send Marder infantry fighting vehicles plus an additional Patriot air defense battery.

The Russian Embassy hasn’t seen a cease-fire in nearly a year of war: Ukraine’s problems in the past and in the future

In a call with Putin earlier in the day, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked the Russian leader to implement a unilateral cease-fire to support efforts to end the war.

The Ukrainian officials were skeptical about the temporary ceasefire because Moscow wanted to gather reserves and equipment.

During his nightly address on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia aims to use Orthodox Christmas “as a cover” to resupply and stop Ukrainian advances in the eastern Donbas region.

Mykhailo Podolyak, the Ukrainian presidential adviser, responded to Putin’s move by saying that Russia should leave occupied territories in Ukraine before a “temporary truce”.

Ned Price, US State Department spokesman, characterized it as cynical and that the US had little faith in the intentions behind Russia’s proposed ceasefire.

The German Foreign Minister believes that the promise of a ceasefire won’t bring freedom or security to the people living under the war in Moscow.

In the southern region of Kherson, Pavlo Skotarenko doesn’t expect much to change. “They shell us every day, people die in Kherson every day. He said that this temporary measure won’t change anything.

From the frontlines in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, a Ukrainian soldier told CNN that the temporary ceasefire announcement looked like an effort to clean up Russia’s image.

The soldier who goes by the name of archer told CNN that he doesn’t think this is done for a military purpose.

“Perhaps this is done to make the image of the whole of Russia a little more human, because so many atrocities are constantly emerging, and this could earn them few points of support from the people,” the soldier said.

Halyna Hladka said that she saw the temporary ceasefire as an attempt by Russians to win time.

Russia has shown an active use of faith in a number of different ways. And besides, in almost a year of war, Russia has not behaved itself as a country capable of adhering to promises,” she said.