“Some of the weapons sent to Ukraine by other countries have been unusable, and hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts paid up front have yet to be fulfilled.” “Ukraine has paid contractors hundreds of millions of dollars for weapons that have not been delivered, and some of the much-publicized arms donated by its allies have been so decrepit that […]
» Read more
(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) Ukraine’s military command claimed, as of June 15, to have retaken approximately 40 square miles of territory in the course of its counteroffensive, even as its soldiers encountered what U.S. military officials described as fierce resistance by Russian troops. The latter have reportedly managed to destroy at least four Leopard-2 tanks, 3 Leopard 2R engineering vehicles […]
» Read more
“Dense Russian defenses and a lack of air cover add to the challenges facing Ukrainian troops.” “… Ukraine’s ambitious offensive to take back Russian-occupied land is proving to be a hard slog against dense minefields, well-prepared defenses and Russia’s superior air power. After … mixed results, Ukrainian forces have mostly paused … assaults … [to] draw lessons from the past […]
» Read more
“Fierce battles have ensued in the south and east of Ukraine as Russian forces push back against a counteroffensive aimed at driving them from the region … [according to] Ukraine’s deputy defense minister [Hanna Malyar] …. [She] said Russian troops have employed antitank guided missiles and loitering munitions that stay airborne while identifying a target and then attack. Mines laid […]
» Read more
“Sources close to the Kremlin say stress of Ukraine war is turning some to drink State banquets serve luxury cognac costing more than £6,000 a bottle Some Russian admin staff are said to be starting the day with a bottle of vodka” Click here for: “Putin’s administration staff ‘are starting the day with a bottle of vodka and Security Council’s […]
» Read more
“As Ukraine accelerates its counteroffensive a… a rational person might conclude … 2023 must surely be the last year of Russia’s war against its neighbor. Russian military resources are depleted, Moscow’s long and bloody winter offensive in the Donbas has yielded meager results, and Russian society longs for the return of prewar stability. Logic dictates … the Kremlin has no […]
» Read more
“… Russia invaded Ukraine … to conquer the country and erase the independence … gained after the [Soviet] collapse …. Russia’s attempt to take [Kyiv] was thwarted … then its attempts to consolidate gains in the east and the south were disrupted. Russian troops were forced to withdraw from the Kharkiv region and Kherson. A brutal Russian air campaign against […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – Leyla Latypova, Vivianne Wandera – June 13, 2023) The family of Tanzanian-born Nemes Raymond Taremo first heard rumors that their beloved relative had been killed on the frontlines in faraway Ukraine in December last year. They received their last message from Taremo, 37, two months earlier — on Oct. 17 — shortly after he joined Russia’s Wagner […]
» Read more
“Ukrainian troops are probing Russian defenses … [in] a second summer of fighting … facing an enemy that has made mistakes and suffered setbacks …. But analysts say Moscow also has learned from those blunders and improved its weapons and skills. Russia has built heavily fortified defenses along the … 600-mile[] front line, honed … electronic weapons to reduce Ukraine’s […]
» Read more
“Attacks from Ukraine have killed at least a dozen Russian civilians and displaced thousands. But they have not fundamentally changed the calculus for Vladimir Putin.” “Abandoned cats and dogs roam vacant streets lined with blasted apartment buildings, rubble and crumpled cars in Shebekino, a Russian border town pounded by shelling from Ukraine. A hair salon still smoldered last week. Every […]
» Read more
“… Military aid has a well-deserved bad reputation. Large-scale [U.S.] attempts … to build partner militaries — from Afghanistan to Iraq to Vietnam — have cost billions … while failing to build effective partner forces. Yet the indirect approach[,] … done right, can deliver remarkable strategic effects, as … in Ukraine. While the bravery and resourcefulness of the Ukrainians surely […]
» Read more
“Brigades with Western arms make small gains against Russia’s defensive lines in occupied regions.” “… Russian forces have spent months preparing for attacks in occupied parts of the country’s south, where the Ukrainians would like to push through and cut the land bridge that connects Russia to Crimea …. Ukrainian officials have said little about … progress … but insist […]
» Read more
“Privately, U.S. and European officials concede that pushing all of Russia’s forces out of occupied Ukrainian land is highly unlikely.” “… [T]he new military drive will influence discussions of future support for Ukraine … [and] how to guarantee its future. … [U]nclear … is … what the United States, Europe and Ukraine view as a ‘successful’ counteroffensive. … Zelensky has […]
» Read more
“… Putin’s war against Ukraine has become the defining event of his years in power. Even if he rules for another quarter century, Russia’s president will forever be considered a war criminal. But the consequences of the war are even more far-reaching: it promises to leave a stain on Russian society and politics that will remain even after Putin is […]
» Read more
“… [T]his latest incident should be understood as yet another horrific atrocity in a long history of Russian colonial violence. … [D]ays before the destruction of the dam, a prominent Russian propagandist called for the destruction of ‘every living thing’ in one of Ukraine’s eastern regions in order to ‘punish and deter’ Ukrainians for resisting Russian occupation. This state news […]
» Read more
“With the debt ceiling done, attention turns to the challenges piling up internationally.” “Senior U.S. officials are convinced that future support for the Ukraine war — and … Biden’s global reputation — hinges on the success of Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Succeed and Western military and economic aid will flow. Stumble or fail to meet expectations, and that support will likely dry […]
» Read more
“Advancing Ukrainian troops must break through an elaborate network of Russian defences running hundreds of miles across the country … built in anticipation of Kyiv’s offensive. … [S]atellite imagery … has revealed the array of minefields, anti-tank ditches, and trenches lying ahead of … Ukrainian troops attempting to push south. The defences … [reportedly] are constructed in a ‘three-line system,’ […]
» Read more
“If Kyiv … regains significant territory, as … in the fall of 2022, it will have to decide what to do with people in those areas who worked with or otherwise assisted Russian occupation authorities and forces in their repression of local populations and propaganda. … Russia has been actively relying on collaborators to establish … control over … occupied […]
» Read more
“…. Ukrainian forces have a real chance at achieving victory …. The path to victory is anything but straightforward. But one way or another, it likely passes through Crimea. … Crimea represents a point of maximum leverage[] … [and] is exactly where Ukraine needs to make battlefield gains to bring this war to a successful conclusion. … A Ukrainian advance […]
» Read more
“… Ukrainian forces managed to overrun some Russian forces in the east around Bakhmut. … Russian forces, armed with anti-tank missiles, grenades and mortars, have put up ‘stiff resistance’ … dug into defensive lines … several layers deep in some areas and marked by minefields … [inflicting] a heavy toll on Ukrainian armored vehicles. … Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna […]
» Read more
“Ukraine’s domestic security service[, The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU),] said on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian ‘sabotage group’ blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine. … [The explosion] unleashed mass flooding, forcing thousands of residents to flee and wreaking environmental havoc. [The SBU] posted a one-and-a-half minute audio clip on […]
» Read more
“[After militant incursions into Russian territory,] [c]ombined with … Moscow drone attack[s], it’s now clear … Russia’s war has come home to roost … The Ukrainians have also been stepping up their drone attacks on oil refineries, airfields, and other critical sites deep inside Russia. … [T]he Russians seem to be unraveling. … [such as with] the bitter conflict between […]
» Read more
“Even some who support the invasion and want to intensify the fight against Ukraine have become deflated about Russia’s prospects.” “… [D]eepening gloom … grip[s] Russia’s elite about … Putin’s war in Ukraine, with even the most optimistic seeing a ‘frozen’ conflict as the best available outcome …. Many within the political and business elite [reportedly] are tired of the […]
» Read more
“1. Avoid [bothsidesing] this manmade humanitarian and ecological catastrophe …. 2. Russian spokespersons claiming … Ukraine did something … is not … [describing] the real world. … * * * 5. [If citing Russian propaganda, include considerations of what has been said inside Russia itself.] … Russian propagandists have … long argu[ed] [in favor of blowing up] Ukrainian dams … […]
» Read more
“The United States learned of a Ukrainian plan to attack the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines three months before they were damaged … The Washington Post reported … citing [online] leaked information …. [washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/06/nord-stream-pipeline-explosion-ukraine-russia/] The CIA [reportedly] learned last June, through a European spy agency, that a six-person team of Ukrainian special operations forces intended to blow up the Russia-to-Germany […]
» Read more
“Elena Kolbasnikova, a Ukrainian national who lives in the western German city of Cologne and has spoken out in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, argues that she has a right to freedom of speech.” “A Ukrainian national … liv[ing] in Cologne … hop[ing] to get a Russian passport …, Elena Kolbasnikova was looking at a [German] prison sentence … […]
» Read more
“Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk — known in the 1990s as the communist ‘red belt’ — are now a support belt for Putin’s ‘special operation.’” “In Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, 1,150 apartments in a single district were damaged last week in recent incursions and shelling. It might seem that the arrival of hostilities on Russian territory should prompt Russians […]
» Read more
“… Russia’s budget is murky — especially its military one. … However … consult[ing] … various experts[] … our own analysis … come[s] up with … 3% of GDP. … Three reasons explain why Russia is spending so little. The first is political. Many within the Russian government would like to continue to portray the war … as a ‘special […]
» Read more
“Moscow’s forces have spent months creating lines of physical defenses to impede Kyiv’s expected offensive.” “… Satellite images show that the Russians have constructed an elaborate network of obstacles—including antitank trenches, concrete barriers known as dragon’s teeth and layers of advanced minefields—in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv is expected to attack. For Ukraine’s long-awaited offensive to be successful, its troops will […]
» Read more
Discussion published by Lawrence Langer on Sunday, June 4, 2023 Russian History invites essays on the implications of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine for Russian history. Articles should address a significant problem in the study of Russian History, the state of the field and the historiography concerning this issue, and the significance of the topic for an understanding of Russian history […]
» Read more
(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) Fighting flared up this week between Russian and Ukrainian forces, with the former bombarding Kyiv with missiles and drones and the latter reportedly sending pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters to stage incursions into Russia’s Belgorod region, according to FT and Bloomberg. Ukrainian forces regained control over 51 square miles of their land in the past month, while Russia […]
» Read more
“The Ukrainian military on Sunday renewed its plea for operational silence around a long-awaited counteroffensive …. Anticipation has mounted around what is expected to be a broad attack by Ukrainian forces to retake Russian-occupied territory in the east and south. … Kyiv’s Western allies in recent months have provided weapons, armour and ammunition for the counteroffensive, which military experts have […]
» Read more
“The War in Ukraine Hinges on One Man’s Thoughts and Feelings.” “Shortly after the West rebuked Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine and imposed financial sanctions … Putin … put[] … nuclear forces on high alert. The Kremlin has issued many more nuclear threats, some oblique … some explicit …. Even before the war … Russia … reversed its […]
» Read more
“Despite warnings that arming Ukraine will start a world war, President Biden continues to push the Russian leader’s limits — a strategy that brings risk and reward.” “… A key reason for brushing aside Putin’s threats, U.S. officials say, is a dynamic that has held since the opening days of the war: Russia’s president has not followed through on promises […]
» Read more
“In Moscow, it can be easy to ignore the devastating but faraway war in Ukraine. But that changes quickly when drones and anti-aircraft missiles start exploding in the skies overhead one morning.” “It’s been frustrating to report from Russia over the past 16 months, when the story has largely been one of prevailing calm, quiet, and outright normalcy, even as […]
» Read more
“… [T]here is a long-standing NATO policy … that countries aspiring to join NATO must first resolve their territorial disputes. … [L]et’s assume … that Ukraine’s counteroffensive plays out … with a Russian defeat. … [and] that Russia withdraws … from Ukrainian territory, including Crimea …. NATO will then have to deal with the Ukraine question … [with] three broad […]
» Read more
“Airstrikes on Kyiv were an attempt to undermine morale. Instead, they will have strengthened it.” “Putin is in a panic over the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, which may already be in its preliminary ‘battlefield-shaping’ stage. He doesn’t know … when the offensive will be launched, where it will strike or whether it will succeed. … [H]e does know … that if […]
» Read more
“The attacks may be part of the highly anticipated counter-offensive.” “Ukraine’s armed forces are turning up the heat. In the past two weeks our analysis … has detected 907 fires likely to be war-related in Russian-held territory in Ukraine. … more than four times as many as in the two weeks before …. The last time something like this happened […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – May 30, 2023) Russian officials and pro-Kremlin voices were split over Tuesday’s unprecedented drone attack on Moscow and its surrounding areas, with some downplaying the attack and others sharply criticizing the country’s defense capabilities. President Vladimir Putin called the incident a provocation by Kyiv but appeared calm in televised comments, saying that Moscow’s air defense systems “worked […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – Brawley Benson – May 31, 2023) When Ukrainian forces launch their long-awaited counteroffensive this summer, they will be up against multiple lines of Russian fortifications stretching hundreds of miles from the Black Sea to Ukraine’s northern border. The military hazards include trenches and anti-tank obstacles, but Russian soldiers have also been busy laying thousands of landmines. “What […]
» Read more
“Kremlin officials said Ukraine’s allies should have condemned the strike, and argued again that its real war was with the West.” “A day after a drone strike on Moscow, Kremlin officials jumped on the refusal of Ukrainian allies to denounce the attack as proof that Russia’s real war was with the West. … While none of Ukraine’s allies went so […]
» Read more
“Consistent with Russian military doctrine, the Russian military has used uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) extensively in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations in Ukraine. … [giving drones] prominent roles in artillery, counter-battery, and precision strikes missions. … ISR drones play a central role in much of the Russian … targeting process, [but] it appears … the rate of response is […]
» Read more
“… [F]ighting in Ukraine is unlikely to subside any time soon; in Washington and Europe, officials are laying plans to add … to Kyiv’s defense capabilities over the next decade, assuming Russia’s aggressive designs will persist. [] Putin has … put Russia’s defense industry on a wartime production footing[] … [and] has indicated … he is willing to call up […]
» Read more
“… [T]he commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces ratcheted up speculation that a long-awaited [Ukrainian] counteroffensive … could be imminent. ‘The time has come to take back what is ours,’ said … Gen. Valerii Zaluzhyni [in an online video posted to Telegram] …. following weeks of speculation …. Zaluzhyni’s post made no explicit mention of an impending military operation […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – Kirill Ponomarev – May 28, 2023) When animation artist Varvara returned to Russia earlier this year for the first time since fleeing abroad after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the main emotion she felt was surprise. Not by how much had changed in her homeland after over a year of war — but by how little. […]
» Read more
“Ukraine wants long-range missiles to regain Crimea and end the war. Why won’t Washington supply them?” “… Despite repeated pleas, the United States has not given Kyiv land-based missiles capable of hitting Russia. … Sustained Ukrainian attacks inside Russia’s territory could violate Putin’s red lines in a way that previous strikes haven’t. So could repeatedly hitting Crimea, the peninsula that […]
» Read more
“Vladimir V. Putin of Russia looks like a commander in absentia, treating the war in Ukraine as unfortunate but distant. His options have narrowed, but he is still betting on outlasting his foes.” “… [F]ighters stormed across the border into southwestern Russia … prompting two days of the heaviest fighting on Russian territory in 15 months …. Yet … Putin, […]
» Read more
“[S]enior [Putin] ally [Medvedev] … said … Friday the conflict in Ukraine could last for decades and that negotiations … were impossible as long as … Zelenskiy was in power. … ‘This conflict will last for a very long time. For decades, probably. This is a new reality,’ Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev was quoted as saying by […]
» Read more
“… Friday … the intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry claimed … Russian forces would strike the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, and then report a radioactive leak … to trigger an international probe that would pause … hostilities and give … Russian forces … [needed] respite … to regroup ahead of [an anticipated Ukrainian] counteroffensive. In […]
» Read more
( Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) Two Russian rebel groups linked to the Ukrainian military raided a number of settlements in western Russia this week before being expelled. The rebels used U.S.-made vehicles in the raids, prompting U.S. officials to remind Kyiv that Washington doesn’t condone the use of U.S.-delivered equipment in attacks inside Russia. The U.S. intelligence community believes at […]
» Read more