LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) – More than 450 foreign-made components have been found in Russian weapons recovered in Ukraine, evidence that Moscow acquired critical technology from companies in the United States, Europe and Asia in the years before the invasion, according to a new report by Royal United Services Institute defence think tank.
Horrific video and photos have emerged that appear to show the head of a Ukrainian prisoner of war stuck on a pole outside a house in the eastern Ukrainian city of Popasna, which was captured by Russian forces in May and is close to the current frontline in the Donbas.
The Ukrainian governor of Luhansk province, Serhiy Haidai, posted the gruesome photo on his Telegram channel. It has since been widely shared on social media. Ukrainians have accused Russian troops of barbaric medieval behaviour and likened the image to Lord of the Rings.
#Ukraine: A Russian infantry fighting vehicle filmed being hit with an unknown top-attack munition. Though it looks somewhat similar to previously seen SMArt submunitions, some aspects as speed and angle are different here. Possibly we are seeing something not documented before. pic.twitter.com/uS3eb0aAfp
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 29, 2022
A woman walks towards the camera, her hips sashaying as she sweeps her hands up from her waist and over her breasts, bending low in front of the lens to fill its view with her cleavage.
In another video, the camera gazes down a man’s bare chest, warm candlelight exaggerating the grooves of his abdominal muscles and a bulge in his trousers.
Ukrainian partisans appear to have launched a campaign of assassinations of pro-Russian officials in occupied Kherson ahead of a planned offensive to recapture the region.
On Saturday, Vitaly Gur, the Moscow-installed deputy head of the town of Nova Kakhovka, near Kherson, was shot as he stepped out of his apartment block. He died on his way to hospital in Crimea, according to Russian media.
#Ukraine: A Ukrainian soldier firing a captured modern Russian RPO PDM-A "Shmel-M" rocket-assisted flamethrower at Russian positions.
Though it may look like the projectile falls few meters away, which is in fact a special liner which designed to increase the range of fire. pic.twitter.com/OiYSnYfKdI
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 7, 2022
Matt Roe was devastated when he discovered a medical condition would prevent him joining the Australian military.
“It took me years to get over it … if I ever did,” the South Australian landscaper says.
“It’s all I ever wanted to do.”
But now Roe, 36, has found a different – though potentially illegal – way to become involved in a military campaign, by leaving Australia to join the Georgian National Legion, a unit formed to support Ukraine’s struggle against the Russian invasion.
#Ukraine: The catastrophic explosion of a Russian tank (reportedly a T-90) again due to internal ammo detonation. pic.twitter.com/OKUX2BHICd
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 6, 2022
In a war being fought largely in World War II era trenches, with Soviet ammunition, the vast influx of modern NATO weapons and military supplies from the West into Ukraine has proven to be among the largest determinants of whether territory is lost, or gained, along Ukraine’s embattled border region with Russia.
The bulk of these weapons and military supplies make their way to the border of Poland, where U.S. and NATO allies quickly ferry it across the border and into the hands of Ukrainian officials. That’s where U.S. oversight ends.
LVIV, Ukraine — In early May, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise visit to Kyiv to announce that Canada would be re-opening its embassy in the city. However, it was recently revealed that the embassy remains closed and, worse yet, that the federal government callously abandoned Ukrainian embassy workers in the lead up to Russia’s invasion, putting them at risk of torture and death.
A Russian army commander who called herself the “she-wolf” after boasting that she enjoyed killing Ukrainians has died in a missile strike.
Lieutenant Colonel Olga “Korsa” Kachura is Moscow’s first female army chief to die since the invasion started in February. Kachura, 52, was killed instantly after a rocket struck her car in the city of Horlivka, Donetsk.
President Putin is desperately redeploying thousands of Russian troops to southern Ukraine to stave off a humiliating defeat, moving troops from the Donbas to bolster a force that has been split precariously across two banks of the wide Dnipro river.
The reinforcements bring the total Russian force in the area to more than 25,000 troops, a Ukrainian reconnaissance and intelligence team told The Times, adding that nine Russian battle groups, each between 500 and 800 men, had been moved there from Donbas and Crimea.
#Ukraine: Ukrainian counter-battery fire hit a 9P140 MRL of the 220 mm BM-27 Uragan system, destroying it and sending rockets flying wildly. Thanks @serhiyprytula. pic.twitter.com/WtjP3yURTm
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 4, 2022
Ukrainian forces have been accused by Amnesty International of endangering civilians by basing themselves in residential buildings, schools, and hospitals, sparking a strong response from Kyiv.
Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said the group’s researchers documented “a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas” as it released its report on August. 4.
The report, which the Kremlin and Russian media have already quoted extensively, is an attempt to “shift responsibility from the aggressor to the victim,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
#Ukraine: What appears to be the second documented use of a mysterious top-attack munition by Ukrainian forces- here seen targeting a vehicle reportedly carrying Russian officers.
The second car can be seen doing a little flip. pic.twitter.com/XzVWtE2pze
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 4, 2022
Canada is in discussions with arms companies to obtain further equipment for Ukraine but it’s unclear whether a critical deal to purchase 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition for that country will proceed.
Canadian officials have been talking with their counterparts in South Korea to acquire the 155-millimetre artillery ammunition, this newspaper reported in late May. Canada would then provide those 100,000 rounds of ammunition to Ukraine, which has been warning for the last month that it is running out of artillery shells.
They’ll find a way. They need this war to further the Green-scam, look how quickly principles were set aside and the turbines released to prevent Germany dropping out.
Tensions flared at the House of Commons foreign affairs committee on Thursday as Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly was grilled over a report that Canada “abandoned” Ukrainian embassy staff as the Russian invasion loomed.
The report, which was published by the Globe and Mail on Tuesday, cited three sources who alleged that Global Affairs Canada received intelligence confirming Russia’s intention to wage war against Ukraine — and that Ukrainian staff at Western embassies were among those on likely Russian hit lists.
OTTAWA — Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada will today make clear her country’s disappointment over Canada’s decision to allow pipeline equipment that was in Montreal for repairs to be returned to a state-controlled energy giant in Russia despite war-related sanctions.
Defence Minister Anita Anand says Canadian Forces members will train Ukrainian soldiers in the United Kingdom in an effort to bolster their fight against the Russian invasion.
In a press conference on Thursday, Anand called the invasion a “direct” attack on the rules-based international order and one that is extracting a heavy cost on Ukrainians fighting for their freedom.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says she and her department were unaware of intelligence reports delivered weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which diplomats in Kyiv were told Ukrainians who worked for the Canadian embassy there were likely on lists of people Moscow intended to detain or kill.
