“Ukraine – Russia”

They play Russian ballads about crime and punishment to drown out the screams when they take prisoners for interrogation in the torture cell. You might come back with fewer teeth, some broken ribs, or you might not come back at all.

That is life in captivity for Ukraine’s fighters, where they face treatment that former inmates say breaches the Geneva Conventions, including regular violence, torture and the withholding of sleep and food.

'This is a war that no Russian wants to fight.'

Con Coughlin, Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor at the Daily Telegraph, says 'the whole Putin era is starting to collapse' as more than 730 protesters were detained across Russia.

💻 GB News on YouTube https://t.co/KHMl3BS8eC pic.twitter.com/9JA6ri1VAF

— GB News (@GBNEWS) September 25, 2022

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has said he’s ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory, raising the fear he might use a small, or “tactical” nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden has warned him that doing so would be the most serious military escalation since World War II.

Who knows? I was convinced Putin would not invade as he seemed to be winning just by posturing.

During the Cold War Soviet subs being stalked by US hunter killers would make a sudden turn and head straight for the American sub, the maneuver was known as the “Crazy Ivan”.

We may have a Crazy Putin.

When the Russian leader is finally deposed, it could be the far-Right, not liberals, who replace him

It has not been a good week to be a Russian nationalist. First there was the collapse of the army around Kharkiv in the face of a Ukrainian offensive. Then the release of Azov regiment prisoners in exchange for one of Vladimir Putin’s personal friends.

“Finally,” exclaimed Igor Girkin, one of the most prominent nationalist Russian commentators on the war, on hearing Vladimir Putin’s order for mobilisation on Wednesday. “The leadership of the Russian Federation have come to an understanding of the total (full victory or full defeat) nature of the war in the so-called Ukraine.”

Russian soldiers who refuse to fight in Ukraine will face 10-year prison sentences under a new law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.

Putin launched the Ukraine “special military operation” on February 24, with Kremlin leaders hoping for a quick victory. However, Russian troops were met with a stronger-than-expected response from its Eastern European neighbor. Putin’s military has faced a plethora of issues, including trouble recruiting motivated soldiers—allowing Ukraine in recent weeks to launch counteroffensives to take back occupied territory.

#Ukraine: Two Russian T-90A tanks got a little stuck after a failed counter-attack in #Kharkiv Oblast.pic.twitter.com/atFSLJArfa

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

On September 15, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping convened a joint strategy meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan at the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which they formed back in July 2001. The Islamic Republic of Iran was accepted at this meeting as a full member of the alliance, which already includes India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, while Belarus may soon follow. The alliance boasts over 42 percent of the world’s population (as compared to only 12 percent for NATO) and 30 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) by purchasing power parity. Putin previously stated the meeting would have special significance because they will discuss how Russia and China can better support each other with regard to Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine and China’s plan to reunify with Taiwan by force, if necessary, within the next year or two.

The Russian president has rejected requests from commanders in the field that they be allowed to retreat from Kherson, a vital city in Ukraine’s south.

WASHINGTON — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has thrust himself more directly into strategic planning for the war in Ukraine in recent weeks, American officials said, including rejecting requests from his commanders on the ground that they be allowed to retreat from the vital southern city of Kherson.

A withdrawal from Kherson would allow the Russian military to pull back across the Dnipro River in an orderly way, preserving its equipment and saving the lives of soldiers.

The word “hawk” and the name Bob Rae are seldom found in the same sentence — except when it comes to Ukraine.

Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations said recently that the federal government should give Ukraine every weapon it asks for.

Ever since the onset of major hostilities last winter, Rae — the former interim Liberal leader and former NDP premier of Ontario — has been one of the leading Canadian critics of the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian state TV claims Ukrainians are selling US-donated weapons on the dark web. The BBC investigated one such marketplace, spoke undercover to those apparently selling weapons, and gathered evidence that suggests the adverts for weapons are fake.

“Ukrops [a derogatory Russian slang term used to refer to Ukrainians] are selling Javelins on the darknet. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine resells equipment and weapons supplied by Nato.” This message about anti-tank weapons was posted on Twitter and Telegram on 2 June by pro-Kremlin English-language account ASB Military News.

The account has been recently suspended by Twitter but still exists on Telegram, where it has more than 100,000 subscribers.

Long lines of vehicles continue to form at Russia’s border crossings on the second full day of Vladimir Putin’s military mobilisation, with some men waiting over 24 hours as western leaders disagree over whether Europe should welcome those fleeing the call-up to fight in Ukraine.

The Russian president’s decision to announce the first mobilisation since the second world war has led to a rush among men of military age to leave the country, likely sparking a new, possibly unprecedented brain drain in the coming days and weeks.

Witnesses on the border with Georgia, a popular route used by Russians to leave the country, said that some men resorted to using bicycles and scooters to skip the miles-long queue of traffic jams.

The first prime minister of Vladimir Putin’s presidency believes his decree to partially mobilize the Russian population will ultimately lead to his ouster.

Mikhail Kasyanov told Newsweek that protests across the country would gather pace in the coming months because Putin’s decree will alienate him from those who had backed him until now.

Since the start of Putin’s full-scale invasion on February 24, the Kremlin had repeatedly assured the Russian population that its forces would only need professional troops to prevail. But now the conflict viewed on state television at home has taken on a new dynamic.

Growing protests against military mobilization in St Petersburg, Moscow, Yekaterinburg and many other Russian cities tonight.

Russians prefer watching the war on TV. Getting HIMARSed in person in Kherson isn’t attractive at all. pic.twitter.com/nmHbUad6wk

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 21, 2022

A cache of nearly 160,000 files from Russia’s powerful internet regulator provides a rare glimpse inside Vladimir V. Putin’s digital crackdown.

Four days into the war in Ukraine, Russia’s expansive surveillance and censorship apparatus was already hard at work.

Roughly 800 miles east of Moscow, authorities in the Republic of Bashkortostan, one of Russia’s 85 regions, were busy tabulating the mood of comments in social media messages. They marked down YouTube posts that they said criticized the Russian government.

Alexander, 33, found out about Vladimir Putin’s decision to order a partial mobilisation during an emotional call from his wife.

“Sasha, they can take you,” she told him shortly after he’d arrived at his office in downtown Moscow.

While Alexander had served in the army as a conscript nearly 15 years ago, he never saw combat. That puts him comparatively low in the mobilisation draft, Russia’s first since the second world war.

#Ukraine: Another Russian BMP-2 IFV was hit by Ukrainian drone-dropped munitions, penetrating the thin top armour.pic.twitter.com/6cGcJimxZ0

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 21, 2022

Blaming the West or NATO for this dreadful conflict is shameful.

Russia has now escalated its war of aggression in Ukraine.

In a scratchy, delayed speech delivered on Wednesday morning, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a ‘partial mobilisation’, which will initially swell the ranks of Russia’s depleted infantry with 300,000 reservists. And, predictably, he waved his nuclear weapons at those who threaten ‘the territorial integrity of our Motherland’.