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The Donbas: Where The Russian Military Went To Die...

A recent conversation with some ole military friends:
So billions of dollars, thousands of lives, an entire country reduced to rubble, the global economy in crisis, and food shortages in less fortunate places. The end result is one that could have been achieved without any of that. Russian control of Donbas and Crimea, which they largely had in the first place. Talk about a pointless tragedy. Maybe, Just Maybe, Zelensky and Ukraine aren't this "freedom-seeking" band of idealists our media is so eager to portray them as. They are every bit as oppressive and just as keen to commit "atrocities" as their Russian counterparts. Explain to me how the world is better off after fighting this prolonged war vs. simply negotiating the inevitable result in the first place.

Pretty much lol. It is more of a war between Weapons manufacturers over whose weapon is superior. In this war the Javelins, 155 mm M777 howitzers, and Turkish drones came out as victors while Russians now capturing territory lost a shit load of tanks, aircraft, and men. I would not call this a victory by any standards

If Russia's objective was to take control of Donbas, then its a victory. Capturing territory is victory. Does not matter how many casualties and equipment they lost. Even in world war 2, the Soviet Union lost many times of soldiers and equipment than the Germans. In Vietnam, the Vietnamese casualties against the US (in the Vietnam war) and China (during the 1979 Chinese invasion of Vietnam) were many times US and Chinese casualties, but they won because they were able to recapture their territories and the Soviet Union case was able to capture German territory in reverse. The only way this will be a victory for Ukraine is if they can re-capture Donbas territory captured by Russia. Donbas at least is a clear case of Russia's victory.
the Russian objective "now" is to cut Ukraine off from the black sea as the have from the sea of azov
 
the Russian objective "now" is to cut Ukraine off from the black sea as the have from the sea of azov
I do not think Russia can last much longer as an occupier even if it is next door...
remember the Vietnam / China war...

Britain says 'inconclusive fighting' continues in Ukraine's Donbas and Kherson​


Interview: Military Analyst Says Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine Is Now A 'War Of Attrition'​



Since April, the Kremlin has concentrated on capturing the Donbas, an industrial region of eastern Ukraine where Russia-backed separatists are in control. “Where Russian forces have advanced those advances have been incremental, Ukrainian forces have been able to conduct tactical withdrawals pretty consistently,” Kofman said.

His comments come as an assessmentby the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command on July 22 said that “due to significant losses of personnel and equipment, Russia probably no longer has the military capacity to realize its ambitions in Ukraine.”

Richard Moore, chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6, said on July 21 that Moscow’s forces would likely start an operational pause of some kind in Ukraine soon, adding that the Russian military would increasingly find it difficult to supply manpower and materiel over the next few weeks.

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This one is pretty wrong dude. Russia will sell gas to anyone willing to buy it. The EU sanctions prohibit the purchase of Russian gas and they are looking for ways to provide electricity for the coming winter..., including burning coal again.
Actually this one is wrong too. I did not understand gas and oil as a commodity. It is sold in commodity markets all over world just like wheat because you buy and sell it in futures quotes. In agriculture the futures contracts are usually for a year deliverable at intervals for wheat held in silos and shipped out say monthly. With watermelons they are shipped out in a very short period once per year when ripe. With natural gas it is the same thing and becasue Germany does not have storage for say a year of it it too must be delivered in intervals. The EU is trying to build up storage for this winter when they assume they will be cut off of interval deliveries -- the Russians know this so they are reneging on the contracts by making sure the EU cannot store up now

thanks for making me read up
 
Actually this one is wrong too. I did not understand gas and oil as a commodity. It is sold in commodity markets all over world just like wheat because you buy and sell it in futures quotes. In agriculture the futures contracts are usually for a year deliverable at intervals for wheat held in silos and shipped out say monthly. With watermelons they are shipped out in a very short period once per year when ripe. With natural gas it is the same thing and becasue Germany does not have storage for say a year of it it too must be delivered in intervals. The EU is trying to build up storage for this winter when they assume they will be cut off of interval deliveries -- the Russians know this so they are reneging on the contracts by making sure the EU cannot store up now

thanks for making me read up
your analysis helped my understanding as well... thank you...
-Peace
 
2 HOURS AGO
Ukrainian authorities said Russian bombardments targeting the south and east of the country had left one dead in southern Mykolaiv and one dead in eastern Bakhmut.
The death toll from a strike on a Mykolaiv bus stop on Friday climbed to seven after two men died in hospital, he added.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, three Russian S-300 missiles struck a school, mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram, adding that the main building was destroyed.

9 HOURS AGO
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Saturday for the evacuation of the eastern Donetsk region which has seen fierce clashes between his country's forces and the Russian military.
"There's already a governmental decision about obligatory evacuation from Donetsk region," he said in his daily address. "Please, follow evacuation. At this phase of the war, terror is a main weapon of Russia."

15 HOURS AGO
Ukrainian officials on Saturday denounced a call by Russia's embassy in Britain for fighters from the Azov regiment to face a "humiliating" execution.
The Russian tweet came as Moscow and Kyiv traded blame over a strike on a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian-controlled territory that killed around 50 people, reportedly including members of the Azov regiment.
"Azov militants deserve execution, but death not by firing squad but by hanging, because they’re not real soldiers. They deserve a humiliating death," Moscow's diplomatic mission wrote in an overnight Tweet.
The post -- which Twitter said violated its rules on "hateful conduct" -- was accompanied by a video purportedly showing a couple in Russian-held Mariupol claiming they had been shelled by Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal metal plant during the fierce battle for the city.
"Russia is a terrorist state. In the 21st century, only savages and terrorists can talk at the diplomatic level about the fact that people deserve to be executed by hanging. Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism," Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, wrote on Telegram.

19 HOURS AGO
The mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv -- close to where Ukrainian troops are seeking to stage a counter-offensive -- said Saturday that one person was killed when Russian rockets pounded two residential districts overnight.
Six others were wounded in the strikes, which left "windows and doors broken, and balconies destroyed", mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych wrote on Telegram.
In recent weeks Mykolaiv has been hit almost daily as Ukrainian troops seek to push into the neighboring Kherson region. Seven people were killed Friday in an attack near a bus stop.

ONE DAY AGO
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in their first contact since the Ukraine war.
Blinken said he told Lavrov that "the world will never recognize annexation" and that Russia would be hit by additional costs.
Blinken said he also pressed Lavrov on Russia honoring a Turkish-brokered proposal to ship grain out of Ukraine and on purported plans by Moscow to annex additional parts of Ukraine seized by Russian troops.
 

‘Explosive Cocktail’: The Russian Regions Recruiting Units for Ukraine War

Few people in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan had heard of Alik Kamaletdinov before May, when he wrote a viral VKontakte post calling on locals to sign up for a Bashkir battalion to take part in Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
More than 800 Bashkirs aged between 18 and 50 expressed interest in joining in just two days, according to Kamaletdinov.

“Our history inspired me,” Kamaletdinov, 46, told The Moscow Times in a message exchange on the social media site VKontakte, highlighting the story of a local cavalry unit that was formed during World War II.

As the conflict in Ukraine enters its sixth month and Russia suffers from an increasingly acute manpower shortage, units like the Bashkir battalion — made up of volunteers motivated by large salaries and provided with limited military training — appear to be part of the Kremlin’s attempt to find a piecemeal solution.

Kamaletdinov’s idea was such a success that representatives of a Bashkir paratrooper veterans group announced the formation of a second local battalion a month later.

At least 14 other regions — including the republic of Tatarstan, the Far Eastern Primorsky region, and the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg — have since followed Bashkortostan’s example and announced the formation of local units to be dispatched to Ukraine.
 
ONE HOUR AGO
Ukraine has accused Russia of attacking civilian targets 60 times more often than military objects despite President Vladimir Putin's claims that the Russian military does not purposely target civilians in Ukraine.

Russia has carried out 17,300 strikes on civilian objects compared with 300 on military targets five months into its invasion of Ukraine, the country's national security and defense council's center for countering disinformation said late Sunday.

19 HOURS AGO
Attacks pounded northeastern Ukraine’s regions of Kharkiv and Sumy, near the front line with the Russian forces.

"Today a whole succession of explosions took place... a few buildings are reportedly damaged," Igor Terekhov the mayor of Ukraine's second city Kharkiv said.

Sumy regional chief Dmytro Zhyvytsky said that some 50 strikes on Saturday evening had left one person dead and two wounded.

The governor of the Donetsk region, where Moscow is focusing the brunt of its attacks, said that three civilians were killed and eight wounded in shelling Saturday.

19 HOURS AGO
Authorities in Ukraine's southern city of Mykolaiv said Sunday that widespread Russian bombardments overnight had left at least one person dead, as Moscow continued to pummel the sprawling front line.

"Mykolaiv was subjected to mass shelling today. Probably the strongest so far," the city's mayor Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on Telegram.

"Powerful explosions were heard after one in the morning and around five in the morning."

The governor of the region — where Ukrainian forces are looking to launch a major counter-offensive — said that according to preliminary information one person had been killed and two wounded in the strikes.
 
11 HOURS AGO
Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed head of Ukraine's occupied Kherson region, has been taken to Moscow's Sklifosovsky Hospital for treatment, the Kherson region's pro-Moscow administration confirmed Friday.

The Baza Telegram channel, which is believed to have links to Russia's security services, reported that Saldo was transferred to Moscow from a Crimean hospital on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma, with doctors believing he may have been poisoned.
Saldo's team meanwhile said his health deteriorated due to Covid-19 complications.

12 HOURS AGO
The Latvian Embassy in Russia has indefinitely suspended the issuance of visas to Russian citizens "due to the international situation," it said on its website.
The announcement comes a day after Finland's foreign minister presented a plan for limiting tourist visas issued to Russians after increasing tourism from its eastern neighbor spurred discontent due to the war in Ukraine.

As flights from Russia to the EU have been halted, Finland and the Baltic states have become transit countries for many Russians seeking to travel further into Europe.

13 HOURS AGO
Russian rock star Sergei Shnurov, actor Georgiy Bolonev, and Putin-linked catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin are believed to have visited eastern Ukraine's war-torn Luhansk region, the Stakhanov city administration said, attaching a photo of the three men in military camouflage.

The pro-Putin musician Shnurov and Prigozhin, who is widely reported to be in charge of the Wagner mercenary group, are among the latest high-profile names to have visited territories seized by Russian and separatist forces following February's invasion. Shnurov however denied the reports, claiming the photo is photoshopped.

14 HOURS AGO
A Russian army commander who nicknamed herself "she-wolf" and boasted of "enjoying killing Ukrainians every time" has been killed in Ukraine, The Times reported Friday.

Lieutenant Colonel Olga Kachura, 52, was killed in the eastern Donetsk region after a Ukrainian missile struck her car while she was inside it. Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly awarded her the Hero of Russia medal posthumously.

19 HOURS AGO
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said Friday it has formed a branch in the eastern Ukrainian separatist city of Donetsk with an area of responsibility extending into captured Ukrainian territories.

The unit’s creation was announced during Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin’s visit to Sievierodonetsk, a captured city in the neighboring separatist-held region of Luhansk.

21 HOURS AGO
Three cargo ships carrying 58,000 tons of Ukrainian grain left the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk early Friday under a landmark deal to lift Moscow's naval blockade in the Black Sea, Turkey's defense ministry, and Ukraine's infrastructure minister has said.

21 HOURS AGO
Overnight shelling has injured three people in Ukraine's second-biggest city of Kharkiv near the Russian border, the region's military administration head Oleg Synegubov said late Thursday.
 
ONE DAY AGO
A U.S. official accused Moscow Thursday of preparing to plant fake evidence to make it look like the recent mass killing of Ukrainian prisoners in an attack on a Russian-controlled prison was caused by Ukraine.
The U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said that intelligence reports show Russia will doctor the scene at the prison ahead of the possible visits by outside investigators.

"We expect that Russian officials are planning to falsify evidence in order to attribute the attack on Olenivka Prison on 29 July to the Ukrainian Armed Forces," the official told AFP, without sharing the evidence.
"We anticipate that Russian officials will try to frame [Ukraine's military]...in anticipation of journalists and potential investigators visiting the site of the attack," the official said.

AUG. 4, 2022 - 6:34 AM
The regional governor said that the Russian shelling of a bus stop Thursday in the frontline east Ukraine town of Toretsk killed eight people and left four wounded. "According to preliminary information, there was artillery fire. They hit a public transport stop, where there was a crowd of people at that time," Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Ukraine-run Donetsk region administration, wrote on Telegram.

AUG. 4, 2022 - 6:05 AM
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was "disgusting" for former European leaders to work for Russia, in an apparent reference to former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's comments that Moscow wanted a "negotiated solution" to the war. The war-torn country's leader spoke out in his daily address on Wednesday, after the publication of an interview in German media in which Schroeder called for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin Wants to Resume Ukraine Talks, Ex-German Chancellor Schroeder Says​


"The good news is that the Kremlin wants a negotiated settlement," the 78-year-old, the immediate predecessor of Angela Merkel, was quoted as saying after he confirmed meeting Putin in Moscow last week.
Schroeder has also called on Berlin to reconsider its position on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which stands completed but was blocked by the German government in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine.
"It is simply disgusting when former leaders of powerful states with European values work for Russia, which is fighting against these values," Zelensky said in the video address, without referring to Schroeder directly.

AUG. 4, 2022 - 4:24 AM
Amnesty International has accused Ukraine of endangering civilians by establishing military bases in and launching attacks from populated areas. “We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas,” Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said in the statement.

“Being defensive does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law.”
The rights body noted that such violations “in no way justify” attacks by Russia that have killed and injured civilians in cities like Vinnytsia and Kremenchuk. Ukraine's foreign minister criticized the Amnesty report as "unfair."

"This behavior of Amnesty International is not about finding and reporting the truth to the world, it is about creating a false equivalence — between the offender and the victim, between the country that destroys hundreds and thousands of civilians, cities, territories, and a country that is desperately defending itself," Dmytro Kuleba said in a video posted on Facebook.

AUG. 4, 2022 - 12:37 AM
Ukrainian forces said Thursday they had repelled Russian offensives in four simultaneous directions of Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Bakhmut, and Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. Russian forces carried out strikes on dozens of settlements in southern Ukraine's Mykolaiv region and the eastern Kharkiv region on the Russian border on Thursday morning, the Ukrainian general staff said in a briefing.
 
14 HOURS AGO
A Russian army commander who nicknamed herself "she-wolf" and boasted of "enjoying killing Ukrainians every time" has been killed in Ukraine, The Times reported Friday.

Lieutenant Colonel Olga Kachura, 52, was killed in the eastern Donetsk region after a Ukrainian missile struck her car while she was inside it. Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly awarded her the Hero of Russia medal posthumously.
One less war crimes trial to worry about.
 
8 HOURS AGO
A senior Pentagon official estimated Monday that as many as 80,000 Russians have been killed or wounded in Ukraine since the war began in late February. "The Russians have probably taken 70 or 80,000 casualties in less than six months," Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl said. Kahl also said Russian forces have also lost "three or four thousand" armored vehicles and could be running low on available precision-guided missiles, including air and sea-launched cruise missiles, after firing a large number on Ukraine targets since launching the invasion on Feb. 24. Those losses are "pretty remarkable considering the Russians have achieved none of Vladimir Putin's objectives at the beginning of the war," he told reporters, referring to the Russian president.

8 HOURS AGO
Ukraine's security service on Monday said it had arrested Russian agents who were planning to assassinate the defense minister and the military intelligence chief. The service said on Telegram, that the SBU "arrested killers from the Russian special services who were plotting the assassinations" of Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and military intelligence boss Kyrylo Budanov. It published a video showing an armed group subduing and handcuffing two men in civilian clothing who were approaching a car.

8 HOURS AGO
Russia said Monday it was suspending U.S. on-site inspections under a strategic arms reduction treaty with Washington, pointing to Western sanctions and coronavirus infections. The Russian Foreign Ministry said facilities subject to inspections under the New START treaty would be "temporarily" exempt from such inspections. The announcement comes as ties between Russia and the United States unravel over Moscow's intervention in Ukraine and debilitating Western sanctions. New START is the last remaining arms reduction pact between the former Cold War rivals and caps to 1,550 the number of nuclear warheads that can be deployed by Moscow and Washington. "Russia is now forced to resort to this measure as a result of Washington's persistent desire to implicitly achieve a restart of inspections on conditions that do not take into account existing realities," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Moscow also accused Washington of seeking "to create unilateral advantages" and deprive Russia of "the right to carry out inspections on American soil."

8 HOURS AGO
A Ukrainian court has jailed a Russian tank crewman for 10 years for firing on a multistoried apartment block, the security services (SBU) announced Monday. Sergeant Mikhail Kulikov fired at the building in the northern city of Chernihiv at the start of Russia's invasion, in late February. The Chernigiv court convicted him of a war crime. Kulikov "crossed the Ukrainian border from Belarus," on Feb. 24, the day the Russian invasion began, said the SBU, adding that he fired on villages as he proceeded to Chernigiv. "On Feb. 26, following his commander's order, he fired at 11-story residential building housing civilians," the statement said, adding that some flats were destroyed.

10 HOURS AGO
The Pentagon announced Monday $1 billion in fresh military aid for Ukraine, including additional Himars system missiles that have helped Kyiv's forces attack Russian troops far behind the front lines. The package also includes more surface-to-air missiles for defense against Russian aircraft and rockets, more Javelin anti-armor rockets, and other ammunition, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Defense.

12 HOURS AGO
The White House called on Russia on Monday to cease all military operations around nuclear facilities in Ukraine. "Fighting near a nuclear plant is dangerous," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One during a flight to Kentucky, where President Joe Biden is to tour flood-damaged areas. "And we continue to call on Russia to cease all military operations at or near Ukrainian nuclear facilities and return full control to Ukraine," Jean-Pierre said. Zaporizhzhia — Europe's largest atomic power complex — was occupied by Russia early in its invasion and recent fighting there has raised fears of a nuclear accident.
 
14 HOURS AGO
An investigation by Britain's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has found that Russia’s arsenal of modern military systems relies on Western-made microchips that it cannot produce itself. Russia has continued to import microchips from the West since it invaded Ukraine despite Western sanctions, with over 15,000 shipments of Western electronic components arriving in Russia since the war began, Reuters reported. Cutting off Russia's supply of these microchips would significantly limit Moscow's military capabilities, RUSI said.

15 HOURS AGO
Kyiv on Monday called for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around a nuclear power station in east Ukraine where recent fighting with Russian forces has raised fears of a nuclear accident. Zaporizhzhia — Europe's largest atomic power complex — was occupied by Russia early in its invasion. In recent days, it has been the scene of strikes that have damaged several structures, forcing the shutdown of a reactor. "What needs to be done is to remove occupying forces from the station and to create a de-militarised zone on the territory of the station," said Petro Kotin, president of Ukraine's nuclear energy company, Energoatom.

16 HOURS AGO
The head of the Moscow-backed administration in eastern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region has signed a decree to hold a referendum on the so-called “reunification” with Russia, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday. “Based on the principle of free choice, taking the opinion of every resident of our region as the main value, we declare our intention to hold a referendum on the entry of the Zaporizhzhia region into the Russian Federation as a full-fledged subject,” Yevgeny Balitsky said during a conference in Melitopol.

17 HOURS AGO
The Kremlin on Monday accused Ukrainian forces of firing on the Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant, warning against potential "catastrophic consequences" for Europe.
"The shelling of the territory of the nuclear plant by the Ukrainian armed forces is a potentially extremely dangerous activity... fraught with catastrophic consequences for a vast area, including the territory of Europe," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
 

Kremlin Accuses Kyiv of Nuclear Plant Shelling, Warns of ‘Catastrophic Consequences​

READ MORE

Peskov also said that it is “local residents” in occupied Ukraine who seek to hold referendums on joining Russia after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened to cut off the prospect of peace talks if what he termed “pseudo-referenda” took place. “It's not us holding a referendum,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “[Zelensky] needs to ask his citizens why a lot of them don't want to live in his country,” Peskov said.

19 HOURS AGO
American actress Jessica Chastain visited Kyiv on Sunday in a show of support for Ukraine, meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky and visiting hospitalized children from the Kherson and Chernihiv regions.

20 HOURS AGO
Two ships carrying 60,000 tons of grain bound for Italy and Turkey set off from Ukraine's ports of Yuzhne and Chornomorsk on Monday morning, Turkey's defense ministry said. Four vessels that departed Sunday will anchor in Istanbul and undergo an inspection Tuesday, it added.

21 HOURS AGO
Ukrainian shelling with U.S.-supplied missile systems caused a fire on the Antonovskiy bridge in southern Ukraine's Russian-controlled Kherson region, Moscow-backed authorities said early Monday, adding that the damage was "not critical." The Antonivsky bridge is one of two key crossing points into the western bank of the Dnipro River that has been closed to traffic for more than a week and has been a crucial target for Ukraine's attacks in recent weeks. Ukraine's territorial defense forces confirmed the attack at a national telethon late Sunday.


22 HOURS AGO

More Ukraine Grain Sets Sail as New Strike Hits Nuclear Site​

READ MORE

22 HOURS AGO
At least two dozen Russian regions have formed 40 volunteer units comprised of thousands of local residents to be deployed in Ukraine, Russia's Kommersant daily reported Monday. Asked if region-specific military units would be problematic after Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine ends, Kommersant quoted an unnamed federal official as saying: "It's the principle of the lesser evil. The fight will continue for a long time and in different directions."

22 HOURS AGO
Russian occupation officials in the occupied Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson may be accelerating preparations for referenda to annex captured territories, local Ukrainian authorities said Sunday. Kherson administration adviser Serhiy Khlan attributed the accelerated timeline to Ukrainian attacks on Russian logistics targets with U.S.-supplied Himars multiple rocket launchers. Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the Zaporizhzhia region's city of Melitopol, said occupation authorities have scuttled plans for in-person voting in favor of house-to-house surveys. "The Kremlin may order different types of voting in different occupied locations depending on perceived local support, perceived risk of partisan attacks, and bureaucratic capacity," the Institute for the Study of War said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia would "close the possibility of talks with Ukraine and the free world" if it carries out plans to hold what he referred to as "pseudo-referenda."

ONE DAY AGO
Amnesty International said Sunday it "deeply regrets the distress and anger" caused after it alleged Ukrainian forces were flouting international law by exposing civilians to Russian fire. The rights group said "We fully stand by our findings," but stressed that "nothing we documented Ukrainian forces doing in any way justifies Russian violations."
 
11 HOURS AGO
The first UN-chartered vessel set to transport grain from Ukraine under a deal to relieve a global food crisis was loaded with 23,000 tonnes of wheat on Sunday and is ready to depart, Kyiv announced.

The MV Brave Commander will "head to Africa" and "Ethiopia will be the last country where the 23,000-tonne cargo of wheat will be delivered", Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said at the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi in Yuzhne city to oversee the ship's loading.

"I hope that other ships chartered by the (UN's) World Food Programme will come to our ports. I hope there will soon be two, three more ships," Kubrakov added.

11 HOURS AGO
The risk of disaster at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russian troops is "increasing every day", the mayor of the city where the facility is located said Sunday.

"What is happening there is outright nuclear terrorism, and it can end unpredictably at any moment," Energodar mayor Dmytro Orlov told AFP.

13 HOURS AGO
Ukraine on Sunday said Russian troops who have crossed the Dnipro river during their offensive in the southern Kherson region were facing growing difficulties after strategic bridges were damaged.

Moscow's forces seized the southern city of Kherson on the Dnipro early in their invasion of Ukraine, the only regional capital they have conquered so far.

Their westward offensive in the region has made some progress, but the three bridges they control in the area — two for road traffic and another carrying a railway — have been bombarded repeatedly in recent weeks.

The most important crossing is the Antonivski bridge in Kherson's suburbs, which has been targeted by missiles since late July.

Regional lawmaker Sergiy Khlan told Ukrainian television that the only way for Russian soldiers to cross the river were pontoons near the Antonivski bridge that "cannot totally meet their needs".

Russia is moving its command centers to the left bank of the river knowing that they would not be able to evacuate them in time if fighting escalated, he added.

ONE DAY AGO
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#Slovakia helping to protect innocent Ukrainian lives! Happy to confirm, that first 4 Zuzana #Howitzers are in the hands of #Ukrainian armed forces ready to be deployed in defence against the Russian aggressors. #slavaukraini

ONE DAY AGO
Kyiv and Moscow accused each other on Saturday of striking the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine, which has been shelled repeatedly in the past week.

Zaporizhzhia is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe.
The plant has been under Russian control since March, and Ukraine has accused Moscow of basing hundreds of soldiers and storing arms there.

"Limit your presence on the streets of Energodar! We have received information about new provocations by the (Russian) occupiers," Ukraine's nuclear agency Energoatom said as it shared a message on Telegram from a local chief in Energodar city, where the plant is located.
"According to residents, there is new shelling in the direction of the nuclear plant... the time between the start and arrival of the shelling is 3-5 seconds," the message said.

But pro-Moscow officials in the occupied areas in Zaporizhzhia region blamed Ukrainian forces for the shelling.

"Energodar and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant are again under fire by (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky's militants," said Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Moscow-installed administration.

The missiles fell "in the areas located on the banks of the Dnipro river and in the plant", he said, without reporting any casualties or damage.

Areas occupied by Russia and those under Ukraine's control are divided by the Dnipro river.
 
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The UK promised, UK delivered! More M270 MLRS arrived in Ukraine. Thanks to @BWallaceMP and all the people! Your support is amazing and so important for Ukraine. Our #UAarmy will skillfully use this "replenishment" on the battlefield. P.S. More “gifts” will arrive soon.
 
It is "ASS KICKING TIME"...

The Donbas: Where The Russian Military Went To Die...​

-Peace

ONE DAY AGO
The U.S. Defense Department on Friday announced a new $775 million package of defense equipment and ammunition for Ukraine, including various types of missiles, artillery, and mine-clearing systems.

The package includes more precision-guided missiles for the Himars systems that have permitted Ukrainian forces to strike Russian command centers and munitions depots far behind the front lines and more anti-armor weapons including TOW missiles and Javelin systems.

It also includes Scan Eagle surveillance drones, high-speed anti-radiation (HARM) missiles that hone in on ground-based radar systems, and 105mm howitzers along with 36,000 artillery rounds for them.

"We want to make sure that Ukraine has a steady stream of ammunition to meet its needs, and that's what we're doing with this package," a senior U.S. defense official told reporters.

ONE DAY AGO
European gas prices soared to a new record high at the close of trading on Friday after Russia's Gazprom announced that the Nord Stream pipeline would be closed for maintenance at the end of the month.

The Dutch TTF Gas Futures contract jumped to a closing high of 257.40 euros ($258.30) amid fears of winter energy shortages after Gazprom said deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline would be halted from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 due to maintenance work.

'Maintenance' to Halt Nord Stream Gas for 3 Days – Gazprom READ MORE

ONE DAY AGO
Ukraine's forces have brought the Russian advance to a halt in recent weeks and the Russian military's positions on the ground have weakened, a senior U.S. defense official said Friday.

"You are seeing a complete and total lack of progress by the Russians on the battlefield," the official said, speaking to reporters on grounds of anonymity.
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AUG. 19, 2022 - 9:22 AM
Russia's President Vladimir Putin in a call with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron accused Ukraine of attacking the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, warning of a potential "catastrophe," the Kremlin said Friday.

Putin "stressed that the systematic shelling by the Ukrainian military of the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant creates the danger of a large-scale catastrophe," the Kremlin said in a statement, adding that both leaders called for an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection of the plant "as soon as possible."

The Russian president also told Macron that Moscow was facing "obstacles" in the export of its agricultural products under a deal signed last month in Istanbul, according to the Kremlin statement. "There are still obstacles to the mentioned Russian exports," the Kremlin said, referring to the export of "Russian food products and fertilizer."

Putin, Macron Call for IAEA Inspection of Ukraine Nuclear Plant READ MORE​


AUG. 19, 2022 - 7:18 AM
UN chief Antonio Guterres has asked that the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station not be cut off from Ukraine's grid, following Ukrainian reports that Moscow is planning to do so.
"Obviously the electricity from Zaporizhzhia is Ukrainian electricity... This principle must be fully respected," the UN Secretary-General said during a visit to the port of Odesa in southern Ukraine.

AUG. 19, 2022 - 4:23 AM
Ukrainian strikes on Russian-annexed Crimea are approved by the United States, which views such strikes as part of Ukraine’s self-defense, an unnamed Biden administration official told Politico this week. “Crimea is Ukraine,” they were quoted as saying after a string of mysterious explosions on airbases and a railway junction on the Black Sea peninsula in recent days.

Kyiv has not publicly acknowledged carrying out the attacks attributed to it by news outlets. “We don't select targets, of course, and everything we've provided is for self-defense purposes. Any target they choose to pursue on sovereign Ukrainian soil is by definition self-defense,” the Biden administration source was quoted as saying. The comments come months after the Biden administration pledged to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems provided that they would not hit targets inside Russian territory.

AUG. 19, 2022 - 1:29 AM
Russian attacks on four towns in southeastern Ukraine's Donetsk region Thursday have killed six and injured 10 civilians, Pavlo Kyrylenko, who heads the Donetsk region's Ukrainian administration, said early Friday.
Pro-Moscow authorities in the Donetsk region reported six deaths and 23 injuries in Ukrainian attacks that day.
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AUG. 18, 2022 - 11:40 PM
Ukraine’s second-biggest city of Kharkiv was shelled early Friday after previous strikes killed 17 people and wounded 42 others, local authorities have said. At least one person was injured in an early morning attack on three Kharkiv districts, mayor Oleh Terekhov said in a Telegram post.

AUG. 18, 2022 - 2:09 PM
Two Russian villages were evacuated on Thursday after a fire broke out at an ammunition depot near the border with Ukraine, local authorities said. The blaze comes days after explosions at a military base and munitions depot in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow, which Russia called an act of "sabotage" by Kyiv.

"An ammunition depot caught fire near the village of Timonovo," less than 50 kilometers from the Ukrainian border in Belgorod province, the region's governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement. No casualties were reported, but residents of Timonovo and the nearby village of Soloti were "moved to a safe distance," he said, adding that authorities were investigating the cause of the fire.
 
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