“Ukraine – Russia”

Ukraine’s president says Russia is planning a protracted campaign of drone attacks in a bid to demoralise Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky said he had received intelligence reports suggesting that Moscow would launch the attacks using Iranian-made Shahed drones.

It comes after Ukraine carried out a strike that it said killed hundreds of Russian troops in the Donbas region.

In a rare admission of battlefield losses, Russia said the attack killed 63 of its troops.

#Ukraine: Another Russian Orlan-10 drone fell to the ground near the positions of the Ukrainian 231st TDF Battalion, presumably in the East, and was recovered. pic.twitter.com/M53XHA8vd5

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) December 31, 2022

Western countries must be prepared to provide long-term support to Ukraine as Russia shows no signs of relenting, Nato’s secretary general has said.

Jens Stoltenberg told the BBC that military support would ensure the survival of Ukraine as a sovereign country and force Russia to sit down and negotiate an end to the war.

Russia’s leader accuses the West of using Ukraine to destroy his country.

Russian missiles and drones have hit Ukraine on New Year’s Eve and Day.

#Ukraine: Extremely rare footage of a Msta-S 152mm SPH in use with the Ukrainian army – captured from Russian forces and now is being used against them.

Ukraine originally possessed 40 of these howitzers – to date almost none of them are operational due to a lack of spare parts. pic.twitter.com/pW5FzEFV3r

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) January 1, 2023

A Ukrainian Himars attack on a town in Russia-held eastern Ukraine flattened completely destroyed a vast building holding several hundred Russian mobilised men inside.

Early estimates from Kyiv and from pro-Russian sources suggest the New Year’s Eve attack on the barracks in Makiivka could be Russia’s single biggest loss of life since the start of the invasion last February.

The Ukrainian military on Monday mocked Russia over the attack on a former school building in Makiivka, a suburb of Donetsk, attributing it to “smoking in inappropriate places” and claiming that it killed “about 400” people.

🚀🔥☠️ What's left of the Technical University #19 in Makiivka. It's completely leveled. ~600 invaders resided there. Just a couple of HIMARS missiles landed. Problem is, they've stored ammo in the basement… 🙀 pic.twitter.com/B0WaKnFY7a

— Smart Ukrainian Cat 🌪️ 🙀 (@SmartUACat) January 1, 2023

Far from restoring Russia’s greatness, the president’s war has reduced it to a third-rate power

Deep in the recesses of the Kremlin, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has been poring over maps of Ukraine.

We cannot, of course, know what drives this reclusive, ever more paranoid despot. His spectral presence haunts the nightmares of millions, but his own personality is a void — humanity’s black hole.

I am a Ukrainian soldier, but my service, despite what many might imagine, does not consist of sitting in a trench or sleeping in a dugout. I am not under mass artillery strikes. In ten months of war I have not once opened fire at the enemy.

My job is guarding the northern border. For more than two months, my squad and I have been working with crews manning anti-aircraft installations defending against rocket attacks and Iranian kamikaze drones.

Suspicions that places of worship are being used to hide Kremlin collaborators have returned with a vengeance

At the foot of a steep wooded hill on the banks of the Siversky Donets river, a white stone statue of the Virgin Mary guards an artillery-scorched wasteland.

The bridge is broken, the homes and shops on the opposite bank reduced to matchwood and rubble.

The white walls of the monastery to her left bear deep shrapnel wounds. She herself is untouched except for her hands, which were blown off by an early salvo of Russian artillery in March.

It was, the monks here decided, a sign.

Savelia Curniski has guided thousands of Canadian tourists through Ukraine, including many from Saskatchewan who are of Ukrainian descent.

Curniski’s grandparents came to Canada from Ukraine in 1904, and she is among the more than 12 percent of Saskatchewanians of Ukrainian descent.

She had great enthusiasm for connecting with her roots, and for helping others do so as well, when she started giving tours in the 1990s. But in 2004, an encounter at a truck stop in Ukraine changed her life and took her tours in a very different direction.

Three days before Christmas, Iryna Hazhev is sitting in a restaurant on the outskirts of Lviv, in Western Ukraine. The 24-year-old, a captain in a mortar battery of the 24th Mechanized Brigade, is on a break from deployment. She wears her military uniform but is giving herself the liberty of some civilian flourishes, including gold loop earrings and blue nail polish. She seems relaxed – or as relaxed as can be for a soldier about to be sent to Bakhmut, in the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine, the site of some of the war’s fiercest fighting.

#Ukraine: Another Russian cruise missile (Kh-101/Kh-55) was shot down by Ukrainian 9K38 Igla MANPADS operators today. Two 9M39 missiles are fired, with one striking the target. pic.twitter.com/5MS92CFiTx

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) December 29, 2022

A new opinion poll has revealed, among other things, that a substantial majority of German citizens think that Ukrainians should immediately begin negotiations with Russia to finally bring an end to the war, which has just entered its eleventh month, and which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.

The survey, carried out by UK market research and data analytics firm YouGov on behalf of Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), has shown that 55% of German are in favor of Ukraine beginning peace talks with Russia now, with just 27% saying it is not the appropriate time for peace talks, the radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk reports.

Although the wish for peace talks prevails among voters of every political party represented in the Bundestag, Germany’s lawmaking body, the connection with a voter’s preferred party is certainly worth noting. 

Two days ago was a good day, Nazarii Kishak boasts as his pickup truck slides through muddy ravines towards military lines on the outskirts of Vuhledar, a bitterly contested hilltop town in eastern Ukraine. His men, part of the 48th Separate Rifle battalion, within the 72nd Motorised Brigade, managed to kill 11 Russians.

“A day without dead Russians isn’t a complete day,” says the 30-year-old commander. “We killed around 400 Russian troops over four days last month and destroyed half of their vehicles. We were in immediate contact with the enemy using anti-tank guided missiles, machine-guns, grenade launchers and drone strikes.”

The Ukrainian president gave ammunition to his detractors.

After remaining in-country to lead his war-torn nation through the most destructive conflict of the 21st century, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made his first foreign visit to the United States to make his case in a joint address to Congress.

Zelensky articulated Ukraine’s role in the “restoration of international legal order” and protecting “global security and democracy.” Immediately following his visit, the House passed over $45 billion in aid. However, Zelensky’s trip to Washington failed to move the critics that could potentially jeopardize future aid to his country. Thus, while mostly a short-term success, Zelensky’s charm offensive fell on deaf ears for the people he needed to persuade most.

Ukraine is aiming to hold a peace summit by the end of February – preferably at the United Nations with its secretary general, António Guterres, as a possible mediator – according to its foreign minister.

But Dmytro Kuleba said that Russia could only be invited if the country faced a war crimes tribunal first.

Kuleba also said he was “absolutely satisfied” with the results of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to the US last week, and he revealed that the US government had made a special plan to get the Patriot air defence system, which can shoot down enemy missiles, ready to be operational in the country in less than six months. Usually, the training takes up to a year.

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade destroyed a Russian BMP with a Stugna-P ATGM in the East. pic.twitter.com/68SlZ5z6mf

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) December 24, 2022