The Forcible Annexation of Ukrainian Territories by the Ukranian Army and the Founders of the Soviet Union, as seen by the Kremlin
If it is Putin’s plan, it would be his biggest strategic miscalculation to date. In the summer, the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said there was little appetite to see him stay in power, and that he could even let down the Ukranian people.
The disarray of its forces on the ground was seen by the Kremlin, who acknowledged that it did not yet know what territory it would claim in southern Ukraine. Mr. Putin’s spokesman told reporters that they will continue to consult with the population in regards to the borders.
Putin, however, attempted to claim that the referendums reflected the will of “millions” of people, despite reports from the ground suggesting that voting took place essentially – and in some cases, literally – at gunpoint.
I would like the authorities in the West to listen to me. For everyone to remember. People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are becoming our citizens. During the annexation ceremony, the Russian president said that it would remain 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 speech echoed his major foreign policy aim: restoring Russia as a major global power charged with protecting the Russian speaking world from the continued threat posed by Western forces.
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 spokesman said that Mr. Putin will deliver a speech. He is likely to downplay his military’s struggles, as well as rising dissent. He will probably ignore worldwide denunciations of discredited referendums held in occupied Ukraine on joining Russia, where some were made to vote at gunpoint.
“The people were able to make a decision,” said Putin at the Kremlin signing ceremony. He said that the choice wouldn’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.”
Putin was joined by Moscow-backed separatist leaders and Kremlin-appointed officials from the four regions, as senior Russian lawmakers and dignitaries looked on.
A concert and a rally were planned outside the Kremlin with banners that said Russia and the newly integrated territories are together forever.
Russia claims that people in occupied regions ofUkraine chose to join the Russian Federation during staged referendums. The process was called a violation of international law by United Nations leaders.
“The United States will never, never, never recognize Russia’s claims on Ukraine sovereign territory,” Biden said. “This was a waste of time and money and the results were faked in Moscow.”
The decision was framed as a historical justice by Putin, due to the separation of Russian speakers from their homeland after the fall of the Soviet Union.
This month, Western powers again accused Russia of using fake votes to justify its annexation ofUkraine’s territory, often at the barrel of a gun.
But with the ability to target major Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Russia has shown that it can still cause immense damage and dislocation. It is one of the most dangerous phases since the Russian-Ukraine conflict began. Putin had said that tactical nuclear weapons are still on the table.
Formal ratification of the territories into the Russian Federation will now move to Russia’s parliament and constitutional court — whose approval is widely seen as a foregone conclusion.
Russian bombardments intensified in recent days as Moscow moved quickly with its latest annexation and ordered a mass deployment to bolster its forces. The Russian call-up has proven unpopular at home, prompting tens of thousands of Russian men to flee the country.
Meanwhile, Russian officials have openly warned that the newly incorporated territories would be entitled to protections under Russia’s nuclear umbrella.
In the midst of the Russian War, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has spoken out against Putin’s threats to destroy Russia, and what Putin has done about it
Fiona Hill, who has advised three US Presidents on national security about Russia, also thinks Putin may be attempting an end game. He entered the war in the same fashion as he exited it, but now he feels anUrge to leave quickly, because he was losing momentum. He is the one in charge and he is framing the entire terms of the negotiation. “
The military conscription Mr. Putin ordered on Sept. 21 to bolster his battered forces has set off nationwide turmoil and protest, bringing the war home to many Russians who had felt untouched by it. Men who were supposed to be ineligible were drafted because of their age or disability.
According to official data from the EU, Georgia and Kazakhstan, around 220,000 Russians have fled across their borders since the “partial mobilization” was announced. The EU said its numbers – nearly 66,000 – represented a more than 30% increase from the previous week.
The 40 km traffic tailbacks at the border with Georgia and the long lines at border crossing into Canada speak to the growing perception that Putin is losing his touch at reading Russia’s mood.
Stremousov has been critical of the decision-makers in Moscow and on the battlefield. Last week, he blamed the military setbacks in Kherson on “incompetent commanders” who have not been held accountable for their mistakes.
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.
The fighting comes at a pivotal moment in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war. Putin this week used his most aggressive anti-Western rhetoric so far, when facing Ukrainian gains on the battlefield he frames as a US-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia.
The destruction of Nord Stream 1 by Russian naval vessels is going to cost Russia and Europe allies a great deal, and if they do, Putin will try to stop it
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 gas issues are not going to go away, according to Hill, so Putin could have a last chance to sabotage theNord Stream. And it’s not going to be possible for Europe to continue to build up its gas reserves for the winter. So what Putin is doing is throwing absolutely everything at this right now.”
Western intelligence sources have claimed that Russian naval vessels were in the area in the days prior. NATO’s North Atlantic Council has described the damage as a “deliberate, reckless and irresponsible act of sabotage.”
Nord Stream 1 was stopped when Europe was pressed to replenish its gas reserves ahead of winter and as a result it was never operational.
The reason for this is that Ukraine gained traction on the battlefield, which gave Putin more leverage and made him try to adapt to the situation and get as much advantage as possible.
Having failed in the face of Western military unity backing Ukraine, Putin appears set to test Western resolve diplomatically, by trying to divide Western allies over terms for peace.
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.”
Putin is aware of his situation, but he hasn’t realized how small his space is, and it’s worrying because he might use his nuclear threat against other countries.
The Retorsion of Lyman, Chechnya and Ukraine, and the Emergency Situation of Sevastopol (Kadyrov)
Russia said it would help evacuate residents in Kherson who were caught up in the fighting in the southern Ukrainian region.
The army of the Ukranian army made gains in Luhansk in the east, with forces approaching the region from multiple directions, and captured the important city of Lyman, which the Russian army used to funnel troops to.
The leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, blamed the retreat, without evidence, on one general being “covered up for by higher-up leaders in the General Staff.” He called for “more drastic measures.”
On the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, an emergency situation was announced by the governor of the city of Sevastopol. Smoke and detonations could be seen from a distance by beachgoers in the resort. Authorities said a plane rolled off the runway at the Belbek airfield and ammunition that was reportedly on board caught fire.
The leader of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his military have vowed to fight on to liberate the areas Putin claimed to have annexed Friday.
The death of 24 civilians in a Russian shelling attack on a Zaporizhia nuclear power plant during the September 11 attack in Kharkiv
The governor of the Kharkiv region claimed that 24 civilians were killed in an attack this week on a convoy trying to flee. He called it “сruelty that can’t be justified.” 13 children and a pregnant woman are among the dead.
The Security Service of Ukraine, the secret police force known by the acronym SBU, posted photographs of the attacked convoy. At least one truck appeared to have been destroyed, with bodies still in its bed. The car in front of the convoy was ablaze. Bodies lay on the side of the road or still inside vehicles, which appeared pockmarked with bullet holes.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog is heading to Ukraine this week to talk about the situation in Zaporizhzhia facility after Putin signed a decree on taking it over. It’s a criminal act, and Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said it was null and void. The state nuclear operator, Energoatom, said it would continue to operate the plant.
Russia did not publicly comment on the report. The Director-General of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was held for questioning by Russia, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The power plant has been caught in the crossfire multiple times. Ukrainian technicians continued running it after Russian troops seized the power station, and its last reactor was shut down in September as a precautionary measure amid ongoing shelling nearby.
In other fighting reported Saturday, four people were killed by Russian shelling Friday in the Donetsk region, governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said. The Russians struck the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv twice overnight, once with drones and the second with missiles, according to regional Gov. Vitaliy Kim.
The State of Ukraine: From Biden to Putin, Putin, and the United States to the Final Days of the November 11-29 War in Ukraine
President Joe Biden signed a bill on Friday that will give more than $12.3 billion in military and economic aid for the war in Ukraine.
The Russian-appointed deputy leader in the occupied Kherson region explained Ukraine’s rapid advance in recent days by saying that the Russian military was “regrouping.”
The date is September 28: The officials who are backed by Moscow appealed to the regions to join the Federation. Putin’s approval rating fell 6 points to 77% in a poll by the Levada Center. The U.S. Defense department announced additional aid to the Ukrainians.
The leaders of nine European countries issued a joint statement in support of Ukrainian joining NATO. Pope Francis advocated for an end to the war.
Past recaps can be found here. You can find more of NPR’s coverage here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.
According to the president of theUkrainian, the country has taken back the village of Lyman, while the Ukrainian military said it has regained control of the nearby villages of Drobysheve and Torske.
Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense for the US, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that he thinks that Kherson is making progress thanks to the weapons supplied by Washington.
“What we’re seeing now is a kind of change in the battlefield dynamics,” Austin said. They have done really well in the area and have moved to take advantage of opportunities. The fight in the Kherson region is a bit slower, but they are making progress.
Vladimir Putin’s comments on the results of Ukrainian referendums on February 8th and February 20th: “We hope that Ukraine will succeed in destroying Ukraine without possessing it”
It was widely panned that the contests did not meet international standards for free and fair elections. According to reports from the ground, voting took place at multiple times at different locations.
Putin said he was “pleased” and “surprised” by the referendums’ results and claimed that the regions will now be stabilized and developed while “helping strengthen the country as a whole.”
EU member states began summoning Russian ambassadors in a coordinated manner on Friday to “convey strong condemnation of these actions” and demand the “immediate halt to steps undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity and violating UN Charter and international law,” a spokesman for the bloc said.
Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia may have left a contingent of soldiers behind disguised as civilians to engage the Ukrainians in street battles or stage sabotage operations.
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.
However, pro-Russian media has been uncommonly critical of the war effort in recent days, delivering gloomy reports that Russia’s campaign is suffering an operational crisis while Ukraine takes advantage on the battlefield.
In a bid to celebrate the news, Putin took the opportunity in a televised meeting for Teachers’ Day to congratulate educators from “all 89 regions of Russia,” a number that includes the newly annexed territories.
Ukraine’s national electricity company, Ukrenergo, says it has stabilized the power supply to Kyiv and central regions of Ukraine after much of the country’s electricity supply was disrupted by Russian missile attacks on Monday and Tuesday. 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.
The assault knocked out power to parts of the country and killed many people in the process. Giles said they were an indication of the threat from Russia. “For many months now, the Russian objective has been to destroy Ukraine rather than possess it.”
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, praised the military for their rapid and powerful advances in Tuesday’s address, and later celebrated that dozens of settlements have already been liberated.
He said that all the areas in the Kherson region have been reclaimed.
Zelensky convened his military and security staff for a meeting to discuss the next steps for the liberation of Ukrainian territories.
CNN asked the Kremlin how to interpret the language of the law signed by Putin, which refers to the borders of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas as being in the Russian Federation.
“The Russian army is conducting maneuvers,” Kirill Stremousov told Russian state news RIA Novosti. “The regrouping of the front in the current conditions allows us to gather strength and strike.”
The Russian Defense Ministry used the phrase “regrouping” in response to the Ukrainian offensive that took the city of Izium in the Kharkiv region.
“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.”
Alexander Kots, a correspondent for pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, who is embedded with Russian forces in the occupied eastern city of Svatove, told his Telegram followers Wednesday that the military lacks the manpower necessary to hold off a further Ukrainian advance into the Luhansk region.
They don’t have a problem with the intelligence data or high-precision weapons. We are waiting for our reserves to become fit and join the battle.
The correspondent for Russia 24 said on Tuesday that the frontline was going through the hardest time they had seen in years and that for the time being it would become even harder.
This doesn’t mean we’ve lost our minds. These mistakes are not huge strategic failures. We are 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.
He said that they lacked enough troops at the moment but they were enough to protect the territory that they were already protecting. “In straightening out our front line, we’ve had to retreat from these settlements.”
He added: “It’s as painful as getting thumped on your melon. We’ve suffered losses. It is war. And these kinds of things happen in war. [Reinforcements] are coming, along with their equipment. I don’t lie or engage in propaganda. I am just a reporter who describes what is happening.
Sladkov’s admission on State TV was his second in less than a month, after he previously admitted that Russian forces had endured heavy losses on September 13, a Tuesday. At the beginning of this Tuesday’s interview, Sladkov quipped: “I only tell the truth on Tuesdays, and for other days I just make everything up.”
Kiev’s invasion of Zaporizhia by Ukrainian troops and a “Russian army” to Ukraine’s nuclear power plant
KYIV — Seven Russian rockets slammed into residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia before dawn Thursday, killing two people and trapping at least five in the city close to Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, the governor of the mostly Russian-occupied region said.
Just hours earlier, the president of the country announced that the military had reclaimed three more villages in the region that was annexed by Russia.
The governor wrote on his Telegram channel that a three-year-old girl was taken to a hospital after being rescued from a multi-story building.
Zaporizhzhia is a region that Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed on Wednesday, but is home to a nuclear plant that is under Russian occupation. The city of the same name remains under Ukrainian control.
The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency is going to talk to Ukrainian officials about the move by Russia. He will discuss the situation around the facility and how to protect staff who have been damaged by fighting, including the director who was kidnapped by Russians.
Meanwhile, leaders from more than 40 countries are meeting in Prague on Thursday to launch a “European Political Community” aimed at boosting security and prosperity across the continent, a day after the Kremlin held the door open for further land grabs in Ukraine.
The Kremlin could not say if it planned to organize more “referendums” in Ukraine that the Ukrainian government or the West have dismissed as illegitimate.
The Defense Intelligence agency said that Ukrainian forces had entered Kherson. “Kherson is returning under Ukrainian control and the Ukrainian military is entering the city,” the agency wrote in a Facebook post.
The deputy head of the Ukrainian regional government, Yurii Sobolevskyi, said military hospitals were full of wounded Russian soldiers and that Russian military medics lacked supplies. Once they are stabilized, Russian soldiers are being sent to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russian soldiers left behind the bodies of their colleagues when they left the city of Lyman over the weekend. Some were still lying by the side of the road leading into the city on Wednesday.
During the occupation, it sustained heavy damage as Ukrainian soldiers fought to take it back. A 71-year-old man who didn’t want to be identified, was among about 100 people who lined up for aid.
The Crimean Bridge is back: the first passenger flows have been reopened on the Crimean peninsula since the Dec. 24 attack by the Kremlin
The war needs to come to an end, so the pharmacy, shops and hospitals should start working again. We don’t have anything at this time. Everything is destroyed and pillaged.
In his nightly address, a defiant Zelenskyy switched to speaking Russian to tell the Moscow leadership that it has already lost the war that it launched Feb. 24.
The meeting itself isn’t out of the ordinary – Putin regularly holds operational meetings with the Security Council, usually on a weekly basis, according to TASS. However, it comes just days after a major humiliation for the Russian President, when an explosion severely damaged parts of the road and rail bridge between annexed Crimea and the Russian Federation early Saturday.
And while the agenda has not been made public, the meeting comes at a strategic crossroads for the Kremlin, which must make a series of unenviable choices after Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has faltered after a month of military setbacks.
Road and train traffic have resumed on the bridge. On Saturday, Russian deputy prime minister said that repairing the bridge would be done around the clock, with a damage survey done within a day and divers scheduled to check 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.
The bridge has been reopened to car traffic in two lanes, according to the deputy prime minister. “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. Heavy trucks, vans and buses have been traveling by ferry since the blast.
The strikes began two days after the explosion that damaged the Kerch bridge, the only crossing between the annexed Crimean peninsula and Russia. That blast, used by the Kremlin as a justification for Monday’s attack, inflicted a serious blow to the Russian mind and made them rethink their strategy.
“Here, as reported, we have no doubts that this is a terrorist attack aimed at the destruction of the critical infrastructure of Russian Federation. Putin said during a meeting with Alexander Bastrykin that the secret service of Ukrainians is authors, and they are also the masterminds.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday dismissed the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons in retaliation for the explosion on the bridge, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported.
U.S. President Joe Biden and the Ukraine Crisis after the Bridge-Breaking Event on Monday, February 17. The Kremlin and a Nuclear Power Plant in Zaporizhia
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.
But with a sudden and successful Ukrainian offensive comes concerns Putin will escalate Russia’s war in Ukraine, with US President Joe Biden expressing fears of the possible use of weapons of mass destruction.
The use of a nuclear weapon has been a threat since the Cuban missile crisis, Biden warned during a speech in New York on Friday.
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 regular contributor to CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.
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 early days of Russia’s incursion in February echoed the early days of the Ukrainian conflict, which for months seemed to be descending into a slow and painful grind in the Donbas and has erupted once again as winter nears.
The strikes occurred as people headed to work and while kids were being dropped off at schools. A friend in Kyiv texted me that she had just exited a bridge span 10 minutes before it was struck.
There were reports that three missiles and five drones were shot down in the area around my office as of midday, but no air raid sirens could be heard in the area. Normally, nearby restaurants would be filled with customers and chatter of plans for weddings and parties at this time of the day.
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. Several dozens were injured and at least 17 people were killed.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, along with power lines and gas pipelines, have been damaged by the rockets at Nikopol. Russia and Ukraine have for months accused each other of firing at and around the nuclear plant, which is Europe’s largest. It’s run by its pre-occupation Ukrainian staff under Russian oversight.
The war in the early days of the conflict was similar to the one we are in today, as some media outlets moved their operations underground. In one metro station serving as a shelter, large numbers of people took cover on platforms as a small group sang patriotic Ukrainian songs.
At the recommendation of officials, many people are going to spend most of the day in bomb shelters, while businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible.
With so many asylum seekers returning to their homes, the attacks are likely to cause another blow to business confidence.
Putin’s 2018 Christmas Bridge Opens: How Putin and the Pentagon Will Embrace Crime and Security in a New Middle Eastern Sea Crossing
Hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive, record-breaking infrastructure projects seems to be a penchant of dictators. In 2018, Putin personally opened the bridge by driving a truck across it. After Beijing reclaimed Macau, it was one of their first actions to connect it with the world’s longest sea crossing bridge. The $20 billion, 34-mile road bridge opened after about two years of delays.
The explosion caused a response on social media that was similar to a Christmas tree. Many shared their joy through text messages.
For Putin, consumed by pride and self-interest, sitting still was never an option. He was the only one who knows how to unleash more death and destruction, and it came natural to him.
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.
Major General Kyrylo Budanov, the CEO of the Main Intelligence department at the Defense ministry, supposedly told a journalist in August that by the end of the year at the minimum, they would have to enter the peninsula.
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.
If these measures are not put in place, we will be able to continue with Putin’s violence and humanitarian crisis will spread throughout Europe. The weak reaction will be seen by the Kremlin as a sign that it can keep weaponizing energy, migration and food.
Russian evictions in the Kherson region: What can the US and Ukrainian military tell us about the outcome of the first Russian invasion of Ukraine?
The country needs defense systems to protect its important energy infrastructure. There is an urgent need to protect heating systems.
The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.
In a video address, Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-installed administrator, called on residents from districts surrounding the regional capital of Kherson to evacuate across the Dnipro river — a key defense line — as Ukrainian forces continue to gain ground in Ukraine’s south.
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.
“We suggested that all residents of the Kherson region, if there is such a wish, to protect themselves from the consequences of missile strikes, should go to other regions … to take their children and leave.”
However, Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Kherson region’s military administration, said that the civilian transports were not an “evacuation.”
For the first time in the war, it is headed towards an unpredictable phase. Keir Giles is a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House and he said that this would be the third, fourth or fifth war they had been observing.
Though wary of making precise predictions, American and Ukrainian officials say the fighting is likely to continue for months more despite the fact that the war has favored Ukraine recently. And a number of variables could become particularly pertinent in shifting the trajectory of the conflict: more difficult fighting conditions in December, the extent to which President Vladimir V. Putin is willing to escalate the fight, whether Europe’s unity can be maintained this winter as energy prices soar and the potentially changing political environment in the United States that could result in a decrease of military support to Ukraine.
Giles said the prospect of anything that could be described as a Ukrainian victory is now much more plausible. “The response from Russia is likely to escalate further.”
A series of attacks, and further strikes throughout the week, was evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin was angry at the setbacks in the war and that he was under pressure domestically.
The counter-offensives have shifted the war’s direction and disproved the claims made by the West and Russia during the summer thatUkraine had not the ability to seize ground.
There have been unconfirmed videos and photos of the raising of the Ukrainian flag atop the Kherson city administration building and police headquarters. Several videos show Ukrainians tearing down Russian billboards that say “Russia is Here forever.”
“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 the Russians can get to Christmas with the frontline looking decent, it will be a huge success.
If the Russians were to win a major blow in the war in Donbas they would send a powerful signal, and Ukrainians will be eager to take advantage of the hot weather and the rising energy prices to their advantage.
There are a lot of reasons why things can be done quickly in Ukraine. “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.”
While estimating the military reserves of either army is difficult and Western assessments suggest Moscow might not have the ability to keep it up, experts think that Russia’s bombardment will not form a recurrent pattern.
Jeremy Fleming said in a speech on Tuesday that Russian commanders on the ground knew that their supplies were running out.
“Russia’s use of its limited supply of precision weapons in this role may deprive Putin of options to disrupt ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives,” the ISW assessed.
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 that it intercepts 18 cruise missiles on Tuesday and dozens more on Monday, but it is urging the allies to have more equipment to defend against 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.
Any further Belarusian involvement in the war could also have a psychological impact, Puri suggested. “Everyone’s mind in Ukraine and in the West has been oriented towards fighting one army,” he said. Inside Russia, Belarus joining the invasion “would play into Putin’s narrative that this war is about reuniting the lands of ancient Rus states.”
Giles said the reopening of the northern front would be a new challenge for Ukranian. Should Putin focus on regaining the territory in the Kharkiv oblast, it would be possible to give Russia a new route into the area.
Zelensky wants to drive home the gains in the short-term, so he’ll be looking for more supplies. More than half of the missiles and drones launched at Ukraine in a second wave of strikes on Tuesday were brought down, according to the leader, who has sought to highlight the successful intercepting of Russian missiles.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that more missile defenses were needed for Ukraine to stop attacks.
“These air defense systems are making a difference because many of the incoming missiles [this week] were actually shot down by the Ukrainian air defense systems provided by NATO Allies,” he said.
Ukraine “badly needed” modern systems such as the IRIS-T that arrived this week from Germany and the NASAMS expected from the United States, Bronk said.
Sergey Surovikin, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the war of Ukraine, and his experience as a journalist
“There are many things Russia can do to make the war personal, not just for people of Ukraine but around Europe, to try to force pressure on governments to remove their support for Ukraine,” Giles said.
After Ukraine recently recaptured more territory than Russia’s army took in the last six months, Russia’s Ministry of Defense last Saturday named Sergey Surovikin as its new overall commander for operations in the war.
The commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces was instrumental in the operation in Syria, which caused widespread damage to the rebel-held areas.
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.”
The Russian president held a meeting with service personnel who took part in operations in Syria at the Kremlin.
Irisov then began what he hoped would be the start of a career as an international journalist, as a military reporter with Russian state news agency TASS. He said that at the time it was the only main information agency that tried to cover the news in an impartial manner with some freedom of speech.
“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.
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.”
The 20-year-old General of the Air Force in Syria, identified as a “tough nationalist” and the commander of the Idlib offensive
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.
The “straight” and “direct” general made a lot of people angry, because he tried to implement his infantry experience into the air force.
The head of the company that operated in Syria has strong connections with the Russian government, according to the man.
According to Russian media accounts, in 2004, he berated a subordinate so much that he took his own life.
A book written by a Washington DC based think tank says that during the failed coup attempt against the former soviet President in August 1991, three protesters are said to have been killed by soldiers under his command.
In a 2020 report, Human Rights Watch named him as “someone who may bear command responsibility” for the dozens of air and ground attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure in violation of the laws of war” during the 2019-2020 Idlib offensive in Syria. 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.
After a ceremony to honor military personnel who fought in Syria on December 28, 2017, the Prime Minister and the President met for a toast.
The European Union imposed financial sanctions against the head of theAerospace force in February for their support of actions that undermine and threaten territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and the stability or security of the country.
But Clark, from the ISW, suggests the general’s promotion is “more of a framing thing to inject new blood into the Russian command system” and “put on this tough nationalist face.”
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.
Dvornikov was also seen at the time as the commander “that was going to turn things around in Ukraine and get the job done,” he added. Russian commands and control at this point in the war are not likely to be changed by an individual commander.
He used to lead one of the groups of Russian forces in Syria and he earned the title of the “butcher of Aleppo” for his brutality.
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 the Russian war effort because there aren’t many other senior Russian officers.
The Russian Counteroffensive in Donetsk, Ukraine, as reported by Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy
The important areas are the neighborhoods in Donbas. Soledar and Bakhmut, where extremely heavy fighting continues,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Sunday.
Western intelligence officials said that Russia included convicts with long sentences for serious crimes in its front-line troops in exchange for their pay and the promise of amnesty.
The rocket attack on the municipal mayor’s building in Donetsk seriously damaged it. There was a partially collapsed ceiling as well as rows of blown out windows in the building. Cars nearby were burned out. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Kyiv did not comment on the attack.
Kremlin-backed separatist authorities have accused Ukraine of numerous strikes on infrastructure and residential targets in the occupied regions using U.S.-supplied long-range HIMARS rockets.
Zelenskyy’s office said Moscow was shelling towns and villages along the front line in the east Sunday, and that “active hostilities” continued in the southern Kherson region.
Russia opened an investigation into the killing of 11 people and wounding of 15 others by two men from a former Soviet republic who were training in a military firing range before committing suicide. The Russian Defense Ministry called the incident a terrorist attack.
France has pledged air-defense missiles and has more military training for Ukraine than was previously known. Up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be embedded with military units in France, rotating through for several weeks of combat training, specialized training in logistics and other needs, and training on equipment supplied by France, the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in an interview published in Le Parisien.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, suggested similar schemes are a “pretext for deporting Ukrainian citizens to Russian territory as they populate occupied areas with Russian citizens.”
It was said that a number of children from a southern region occupied by Moscow had been put in rest homes and children’s camps during the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The original remarks made by Russia’s deputy prime minister were reported on Friday.
Russian authorities have previously admitted to placing children from Russian-held areas of Ukraine, who they said were orphans, for adoption with Russian families, in a potential breach of an international treaty on genocide prevention.
Russians who have ordered civilians to leave fear that those left behind might try to sabotage the Russian military, Ukrainian officials said. The Kremlin-appointed governor of the region has warned that any civilians still there could be treated as hostile.
Is Vladimir Putin worried about the outcome of the Kiev conflict? Moscow’s resolve to the crisis in Dnipro River, Ukraine, according to a social media user
According to an international wanted list, Girkin is accused of being involved in the downing of the Kuala Lumpur-bound flight. He remains a high-profile suspect and a verdict is expected in November.
Recently, Girkin’s social media posts have lashed out at Moscow’s battlefield failures. The Defense Intelligence Agency of Ukraine will give a $100,000 reward for his capture.
The Russian government began to evacuate civilians from the occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson on Wednesday, in a sign of the vulnerability of Moscow’s hold over the territory.
The Russian government would provide housing vouchers to locals who wished to move further from the fighting as anywayanydayted by Saldo.
“We will not surrender the city, and we will fight to the end,” he said, adding that residents whose homes might be damaged from shelling could receive compensation from the Russian government.
The decision to withdraw to the eastern part of the Dnipro River would allow for Russia’s combat capability to be preserved, but it was not without difficulty, according to his remarks.
Russia’s focus is now on saving lives, and since taking over from Ukranian, have overseen the mass bombardment of Ukrainian cities.
“We will operate with the goal of maximizing the safety of civilian population and our soldiers. “That’s our priority, that’s what we’re working on,” he said to the Zvezda channel, which is funded by the Defense Ministry.
They are in Washington. The Ukrainian military has a window of opportunity to make gains against Russia’s army over the next six weeks, according to American intelligence assessments, if it can continue its push in the south and the northeast before muddy ground and cloud cover force the opposing armies to pause and regroup.
The exiled leader of the Kherson region of the Ukrainian military blamed Russian troops, despite the state media’s claim that Ukrainian shelling had damaged power lines.
The Russian forces have also placed mines around water towers in Beryslav, Mr. Yanushevych said, referring to a town less than 50 miles from Kherson city and just north of a critical dam near the front lines of the fighting.
Some 250,000 people lived in the city before the war. Ukrainian activists estimate that 30,000 to 60,000 people remain, but it is impossible to know how accurate such guesses are.
When Russian forces stormed across the Antonivsky Bridge over the Dnipro River in March and into Kherson city, a major port and a former shipbuilding center, it marked their biggest success of the early days of the war. Mr. Putin tried to use the Kherson region as a bridgehead to drive west to Odesa, but it didn’t work out.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday that remaining troops have been transferred out of Kherson to the east bank of the Dnipro River early Friday with “not a single piece of military equipment or weapons” left on the other side.
The agency also urged Russian soldiers abandoned by their military leadership and still in Kherson to surrender — offering to guarantee their rights would be protected under a program called “I Want to Live.”
“Your commanders ordered you to dress in civilian clothes and try to flee Kherson independently. You won’t succeed, according to the Ukrainian statement.
Earlier this week, the commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, proposed plans to withdraw from Kherson during a report to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on national television.
The defense minister of Ukraine told the media that it would take at least one week for Russian forces to leave the city and that Moscow still has 40,000 troops in the region.
Despite abandoning Kherson to Ukrainian forces, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted Russia still maintains a legal hold over the territory. “Here there can be no changes,” Peskov said.
BLAHODATNE, Ukraine — Ukraine’s troops entered the key city of Kherson on Friday, its military said, as jubilant residents waved Ukrainian flags after a major Russian retreat.
After Russia said the withdrawal of its forces across the Dnipro River had been completed, videos were shared on social media that showed people cheering and waiting for the arrival of a contingent of Ukrainian troops.
As he spoke, he saw soldiers move through the towns and villages in the region who had been there for nine months.
On the last hours of the Russian occupation in Kherson, the city of Perseus, Thursday-morning, October 21 – 2
Russian troops and equipment were not found by the commander of the Ukrainian drones in his zone located north of Kherson city.
He said that the Russians left all the villages. We looked at a lot of villages with our drones but didn’t see a single car. We don’t see how they are leaving. They retreat quietly, at night.”
The apparent final hours of the Russian occupation overnight Thursday to Friday featured several explosions and were chaotic and disorienting, according to residents of Kherson reached by telephone on Friday morning.
Serhiy, an old man who asked not to be published for security reasons, said in a series of texts that conditions in the city had deteriorated overnight.
“At night, a building burned in the very center, but it was not possible even to call the fire department,” he wrote. “There was no phone signal, no electricity, no heating and no water.”
There was no visible military presence in the city on Friday and four residents said they saw Russian soldiers dressed in civilian clothes moving around parts of the city.
It was said that Russian forces were setting up defensive positions on the east bank of the Dnipro and shelling Ukrainians across the river.