“Ukraine – Russia”

A plan by the Italian government to reduce the heating in homes this winter to slash dependency on Russian gas has been mocked by Moscow as “economic suicide”.

Rome said it wanted radiators in Italian homes used for two weeks less this winter and, when turned on, to be set 1C lower, with daily usage also reduced by an hour.

Heating in urban blocks of flats is controlled by city authorities, which are likely to heed the government ruling. Households with independent heating will be asked to comply on a voluntary basis.

Kyiv advances 12 miles, as sources on both sides indicate army is trying to reach the strategic junction of Kupiansk

Ukrainian forces have broken through Russian lines with a “tank fist” as they advanced 12 miles on a lightning offensive in Kharkiv region.

The Ukrainian military continued to maintain an official silence about the progress of the battle south of Kharkiv, but multiple unofficial sources on both sides indicated that Ukrainian forces were trying to reach the strategic junction of Kupiansk.

That would leave thousands of Russian troops based in Izyum trapped against the Oskol river, a tributary of the Siversky Donets, with only three vulnerable bridges across which to evacuate.

#Ukraine: A Russian convoy was destroyed by the Ukrainian forces on the road to Shevchenkove, #Kharkiv Oblast – at least one cargo truck and two BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles were lost there by the Russian army. pic.twitter.com/RJlPrpI6ez

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 8, 2022

A severed ear. An order to “destroy everything you see.” Houses looted or pulverized by Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Twenty-one-year-old Russian soldier Stanislav Shmatov had no idea the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was recording his conversations when he contacted family back in Russia this spring from northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.

Like other Russian military personnel in Ukraine in the first months after the February 24 invasion, he spoke freely.

Vladimir Putin’s ‘energy blackmail’ over Europe could lead to ‘civil unrest’ this winter, the NATO Secretary General has warned.

Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged that winter ‘will be hard’ as ‘families and businesses feel the crunch of soaring energy prices and costs of living’ in the coming months.

Writing in the Financial Times, the boss of the Western security alliance said that it is worth paying the price to support Ukraine.

OH my yes. Poor people should make sure the NATO chief is well fed, warm and cozy.

Military pro-war bloggers with frontline contacts offer rare insight into Russia’s performance on ground

“The war in Ukraine will continue until the complete defeat of Russia,” Igor Girkin, a far-right nationalist, grumbled in a video address to his 430,000 followers on Telegram on Monday. “We have already lost, the rest is just a matter of time.”

Girkin, a former Russian intelligence colonel who became a commander of the pro-Russian separatist forces in 2014, is arguably the most prominent voice within an increasingly loud and angry group of ultra-nationalist and pro-war bloggers who have taken to berating the Kremlin for its failure to achieve its tactical objectives as the fighting in Ukraine has entered its seventh month.

#Ukraine: The complete annihilation of a Russian tank (apparently, T-80BVM). Little is left.
The location and date of the footage is currently unknown. pic.twitter.com/aehPC6pGMY

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 8, 2022

The Ukrainian Government has revealed to UnHerd the criteria for inclusion on its blacklist of Russian propagandists.

In July, the Centre for Countering Disinformation — a branch of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine — published a list of individuals who they deemed to be “promoting Russian propaganda.” As UnHerd reported at the time, the list included several high-profile Western intellectuals and politicians: Republican Senator Rand Paul, former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, military and geopolitical analyst Edward N. Luttwak, realist political scientist John Mearsheimer and heterodox journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Ukraine should be dumping all over the deceitful likes of Justin Trudeau who uses the conflict as cover to implement his economy destroying Green-scam agenda.

Nothing will end Canadian public support for Ukraine faster than having their good will taken advantage of & their standard of living destroyed for Trudeau’s lie.

Vladimir Putin has condemned Western sanctions imposed because of Russia’s war in Ukraine as a fever that poses a threat to the entire world.

In a speech to an economic forum in Vladivostok, he said Russia was coping with the West’s economic “aggression”.

But the Russian president warned the quality of life for Europeans was being sacrificed to sanctions while poorer countries were losing access to food.

He also said Europe was cheating poor countries out of Ukraine’s grain.

Russia has cut the amount of gas it sends to Europe by shutting the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline for the second time in recent months, saying the closure is necessary to allow repairs.

The reduction in Russian gas exports has sent global prices soaring, but Moscow has denied using energy as a political weapon.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline stretches 1,200km (745 miles) under the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to north-eastern Germany.

It opened in 2011, and can send a maximum of 170m cubic metres of gas per day from Russia to Germany.

WASHINGTON — Russia is buying millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea, according to newly declassified American intelligence, a sign that global sanctions have severely restricted its supply chains and forced Moscow to turn to pariah states for military supplies.

The disclosure comes days after Russia received initial shipments of Iranian-made drones, some of which American officials said had mechanical problems. U.S. government officials said Russia’s decision to turn to Iran, and now North Korea, was a sign that sanctions and export controls imposed by the United States and Europe were hurting Moscow’s ability to obtain supplies for its army.