“Ukraine – Russia”

LUKYANIVKA, Ukraine, March 29 (Reuters) – The burnt wreckage of two Russian tanks with blown off turrets and several armoured personnel carriers attest the ferocity of last week’s clashes in Lukyanivka village just outside Kyiv. The charred corpse of a Russian soldier lies in a field nearby.

“There were mortars so strong that it was scary even in the cellar,” local resident Valeriy Hudym told Reuters on Sunday, two days after Ukrainian soldiers seized back control of Lukyanivka in a five-hour battle with the Russians.

U.S. intelligence officials say that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advisors are misinforming him about how his military is performing in its invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity on Wednesday said there is tension between the Russian leader and his senior defense officials who are “afraid to tell him the truth” and Putin feels misled about the military in Ukraine, according to the Associated Press.

Germany moved closer to gas rationing on Wednesday, after activating an emergency plan designed to help it cope with any disruption in supplies from Russia.

Amid fears of a looming showdown with Vladimir Putin over gas flows, Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, convened a crisis team and warned consumers and businesses to reduce consumption, telling them “every kilowatt hour counts”.

Europe’s largest economy is also one of the EU members most reliant on supplies from Kremlin-controlled reserves, making it particularly vulnerable if the taps are turned off.

The governor of Ukraine’s Chernihiv region says there is no let-up in attacks by Russia, despite its pledge to reduce military activity there.

The governor, Viacheslav Chaus, told the BBC that he did not believe Russia’s promise.

“We’ve already seen that there wasn’t even a single time when their military forces kept their word,” he added.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators made no “breakthroughs” in Tuesday’s peace talks, the Kremlin has said.

#Ukraine: A totally destroyed Russian T-80U; footage is new but we cannot verify precisely when it was hit.

If you look closely, you can observe that the turret is leaning against the trees in the forest. pic.twitter.com/bq0PRvBSSo

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 30, 2022

The T-80 is a new tank for the Russians, getting its butt kicked by a guy with a shoulder fired missile.

With events developing rapidly in the Ukraine war, some of the more interesting questions revolve around what has not happened. Why did Russia think Ukraine would not seriously resist? Why did Russia not coordinate its forces better? And why did Russia not use its vaunted cyberattack capabilities against Ukraine and its Western backers?

It is possible that Russia is not as capable as we feared. However, that does not mean we should neglect better preparation and defenses.

The war in Ukraine is unlikely to cause mass starvation

The blue-and-gold flag of Ukraine evokes the country’s landscape. The blue stands for the sky and the gold represents a field of ripening wheat. It’s a reminder of Ukraine’s reputation as the bread basket of Europe.

And that prompts a pressing question for the rest of the world: what is this invasion doing to global food supplies? Nothing good, that’s for sure, but some of the figures quoted in the media are downright terrifying.

Ukrainian authorities are investigating video footage which has been claimed to show Ukrainian soldiers shooting Russian prisoners of war in the legs.

The grainy video has been circulating on social media after first appearing in the early hours of Sunday morning (27 March). Since then, it’s been widely reposted by pro-Russian accounts on various platforms.

Ukrainian armed forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Russia was “filming and distributing staged videos” in order to discredit Ukraine’s treatment of Russian prisoners.

Ukraine Soldiers torturing and shot and beating russian soldiers after they were taken into prisoners… This is a war crime because they are war prisoners…@POTUS @ZelenskyyUa #war #Biden #USA #Russia pic.twitter.com/OovksydnLw

— Memes (@squirrel_tweets) March 27, 2022

The number of Russians killed in the 20th century is staggering.

The number of Russian combat deaths in Ukraine is striking, perhaps already exceeding the total dead in 10 years of war in Afghanistan from 1979-89. A NATO official has estimated that 7,000-15,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine and that there are up to 40,000 casualties.This has prompted many observers to hope that this could signal the end of Russia’s assault. After all, why would Russians persist when they’re getting their butts kicked on the battlefield?

Sorry, but here’s the sad reality: The Russians always persist when they’re getting their butts kicked on the battlefield, whether by the Kaiser or Hitler or retreating from the Mujahedin. It’s a way of life for them; or a way of death. They know death unlike any other people.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will meet again on Tuesday to discuss the outline of an emerging deal that would keep most of Ukraine intact in exchange for Ukrainian neutrality and a pledge not to seek NATO membership.

Video has gone viral of apparently angry Russian soldiers complaining that they were ill-equipped and ordered to go into a region of Ukraine with no clear planning from Moscow.

The clip shows the troops in a military vehicle describing how they were members of the armed forces from Donbas, the eastern Ukrainian region at the center of a conflict with Kyiv-backed forces since 2014.

During the one minute 40-second video, the troops outline how they were heading to the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine.

LVIV, Ukraine — Russian and Ukrainian negotiators opened a new round of talks Tuesday to try to halt the war between their nations, with Moscow saying that it would reduce attacks on northern Ukraine in what it characterized, in part, as a gesture of goodwill.

The statement by Russian defense officials that they would curb assaults around Kyiv and the hard-hit city of Chernihiv came as Ukrainian troops continued to mount stiff resistance in those areas. Russian forces have been bogged down outside the capital for weeks, unable to break through into the heart of the city. In a sign that a reduction in attacks might already have begun, no new missile attacks were reported overnight in Kyiv.

First signs that some Russian troops are indeed retreating from the Kyiv direction. Large numbers of BMDs with Russian and VDV flags were spotted today on their way from the Ukrainian border to Belarus’ Rechitsa and Gomel where they were loaded onto railway platforms. pic.twitter.com/6B5qTsgFRq

— Tadeusz Giczan 🇺🇦 (@TadeuszGiczan) March 29, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s main spokesman has said that sanctions on trade and oligarchs were akin to “total war” against Russia, and that the west has pushed the Kremlin “into the corner” with Nato expansion, as officials prepare for the resumption of peace talks with Ukraine on Tuesday.

Dmitry Peskov said in an interview on American television that the punitive sanctions levelled against Russia were “quite unfriendly” and made the country feel as it were at war with the US and its western allies.

The interview came amid more claims from UK and Ukrainian military intelligence that Russia’s war effort is in serious trouble.

As the Russian and Ukrainian sides were due to meet in Turkey for a new round of negotiations, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia was expected to bolster its flagging war effort by sending more than 1,000 mercenaries from the private Wagner military group into eastern Ukraine as the Kremlin continues to suffer heavy losses.

UK seizes first superyacht in British waters

The UK has seized its first superyacht in British waters as part of sanctions against Russia.

The £38m yacht, named Phi, is owned by an unnamed Russian businessman, but the government said its ownership is “deliberately well hidden”.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said the move was “a clear and stark warning to Putin and his cronies”.

The UK has already introduced a raft of sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

#Ukraine: A Russian T-80U, previously unseen, appears to have won the turret throw contest in this round.

Precise location unknown. pic.twitter.com/UtN7VSjdKj

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 28, 2022

#Ukraine: Video showing a claimed Russian Mi-24/35 being shot down or crashing. Whilst the footage is unseen, we cannot verify location or operator. pic.twitter.com/sr703RqYAL

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 28, 2022

Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin may or may not have Vladimir Putin’s ear, but his philosophy of Eurasianism is worth understanding.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is said to have been motivated by various strategic calculations: fear of NATO expansion, concern over Ukraine’s westward drift, and Moscow’s confidence in its own oil heft and economic reserves. But this analysis risks overlooking the civilizational aspect of Vladimir Putin’s fateful decision. For the current conflict involves not only Ukraine but also a broader showdown between East and West. Instead of the Soviet Union, the U.S. is facing a Eurasian continent, with Russia as its soul. In geographic space, Eurasia covers the former Soviet empire, excluding the Baltic states, as well as Mongolia and parts of northwest China. And within this territory resides a great civilization—a Russian civilization—that represents the one true alternative to the decadent, globalized West.