“Ukraine – Russia”

Russia is firing ageing cruise missiles stripped of their nuclear warheads at Ukrainian targets because Vladimir Putin’s stocks are so depleted, the Ministry of Defence has suggested.

An intelligence update from the British MoD on Saturday said the desperate improvisation by the Russian president’s struggling forces are “unlikely to achieve reliable effects”.

The evidence cited is pictures of apparently shot down AS-15 Kent air-launched cruise missiles, which were said to have been designed in the 1980s as a nuclear delivery system.

The convoy was reportedly targeted by the Ukrainian HIMARS back in September, but footage from the ground appeared only now. pic.twitter.com/2S9blxL85X

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) November 25, 2022

The EU has accused the US of profiteering from the Ukraine war by selling guns and gas at ramped up prices.

Several high-ranking officials within the Bloc accused Joe Biden of capitalizing on the brutal Russian invasion by marking up the cost to import the vital products.

One senior official told Politico they believe America was standing to gain the most from the continuation of the fighting, nine months after soldiers first invaded.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended her policy towards Russia prior to the February invasion of Ukraine, saying she had run out of power to influence Vladimir Putin.

She said she had tried to convene European talks with the Russian president and French President Emmanuel Macron in the summer of 2021.

“But I didn’t have the power to get my way,” she told Spiegel news.

“Really everyone knew: in autumn she’ll be gone,” she said.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Residents of Ukraine’s bombed capital clutched empty bottles in search of water and crowded into cafés for power and warmth Thursday, switching defiantly into survival mode after new Russian missile strikes a day earlier plunged the city and much of the country into the dark.

In scenes hard to believe in a sophisticated city of 3 million, some Kyiv residents resorted to collecting rainwater from drainpipes, as repair teams labored to reconnect supplies.

Friends and family members exchanged messages to find out who had electricity and water back. Some had one but not the other. The previous day’s aerial onslaught on Ukraine’s power grid left many with neither.

PRAGUE/WARSAW, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Eastern Europe’s arms industry is churning out guns, artillery shells and other military supplies at a pace not seen since the Cold War as governments in the region lead efforts to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Allies have been supplying Kyiv with weapons and military equipment since Russia invaded its neighbour on Feb. 24, depleting their own inventories along the way.

The United States and Britain committed the most direct military aid to Ukraine between Jan. 24 and Oct. 3, a Kiel Institute for the World Economy tracker shows, with Poland in third place and the Czech Republic ninth.

After its withdrawal from Kherson, Russia’s back is against the wall in Ukraine. Ukraine’s successful offensive has prompted concerns that Russian president Vladimir Putin might contemplate what President Joe Biden deemed nuclear “Armageddon” last month. This month even China joined the West in strongly condemning this Russian threat. Will Putin nonetheless resort to nuclear weapons to stave off defeat?

In fact, Russia is sufficiently deterred from using any nuclear weapons, including strategic and tactical warheads, a dirty bomb, or a nuclear plant meltdown. Fears that Putin might resort to nuclear weapons appeared at earlier junctures in this conflict. In September, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan issued a stark warning to Moscow after Russia’s latest nuclear threats that was reiterated again this month when CIA director William Burns met with his Russian counterpart in Ankara, Turkey to convey the “consequences of the use of nuclear weapons.”

Moscow is trying to freeze out civilians, but Ukrainian soldiers will have some advantages fighting through the cold season.

KYIV — He helped beat Napoleon’s Grande Armée and Hitler’s Wehrmacht. General Winter was always supposed to be a good friend to Russian forces.

But this year, his loyalties are less certain.

President Vladimir Putin can no longer count on Russia’s old ally now that the Kremlin’s soldiers in Ukraine are the demoralized invaders, facing rasping sleet and snow, and temperatures that plunge to -20 Celsius, and lower.

#Ukraine: Rather rare footage of Ukrainian ground-launched Brimstone 1 missiles in use.

These were supplied by the UK and have seen use since May at least. pic.twitter.com/RoopPeLDWO

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) November 15, 2022

Germany has angrily dismissed claims by Boris Johnson that in the run-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine it said it would be better for Ukraine to fold than to become embroiled in a long war.

Johnson, interviewed by CNN, also claimed that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, was in denial about the threat of invasion, and that Italy, led at the time by Mario Draghi, said it could not help because it was so dependent on Russian hydrocarbons.

A spokesperson for the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, rejected the claims with a diplomatically phrased dig at Johnson.

#Ukraine: A direct hit on a Russian T-80BV by the Ukrainian 4th Tank Brigade in the East.

The tank received serious damage and was taken out of action. pic.twitter.com/88uDa8gQVa

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) November 23, 2022

Ukraine’s SBU security service and police have raided a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv as part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services”.

Located south of the city centre, the sprawling Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex – or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves – is the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox church that falls under the Moscow patriarchate, as well as being a Ukrainian cultural treasure and a Unesco World Heritage site.

The ever-professional CAR has released a fascinating report showing the Iranian origins of "Russian" drones used in Ukraine, as well as many Western components and parts shared with known Iranian models.
Highly recommended!https://t.co/OW5i6xr4eX

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) November 22, 2022