“Ukraine – Russia”

The burnt-up wreckage of a Russian tank lies in the dirt, while in an accompanying photo next to it, a Ukrainian soldier carries the armaments said to have caused the destruction.

The images posted to Twitter by the Ukrainian Armed Forces are labelled with a triumphant caption, declaring that this was the result of “hits from Javelins on [Russian] military equipment”.

… Mr Herbst said that the administration’s mention of Stingers as part of the aid package to Ukraine is a “sign of weakness”.

“They do need more Stingers, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “But they need higher altitude anti-aircraft weapons as well…that’s a serious omission.”

#Ukraine: Apparent new footage of an obliterated Russian convoy, approximately 12x trucks, 2x T-80BV(M), and an apparent BMP, although ID is very difficult.

Location is unknown but we don't recognise the wreckage at this time. pic.twitter.com/WnYlYfloRn

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 17, 2022

A Russian missile attack near Lviv airport has raised fears of Vladimir Putin’s war spreading to western Ukraine, as Russia claimed to be “tightening the noose” around the south-eastern port city of Mariupol.

A facility for repairing military aircraft by Lviv’s international airport – only 43 miles from Poland’s border – was hit by two cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea on Friday morning.

Ukrainian officials said they had shot down a further four missiles launched in the attack, the second on facilities near the historic city in recent days.

#Ukraine: In #Kharkiv Oblast, the Russian Army lost a MT-LBVMK and a 2S3 Akatsiya 152mm SPG, apparently in good condition. pic.twitter.com/kzrZQEKRxz

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 17, 2022

Even the worst war comes to an end. Sometimes, as in 1945, the only outcome is a fight to the death. Mostly, though, wars end in a deal which doesn’t satisfy anyone entirely, but at least brings the bloodshed to an end.

And often, even after the worst and most bitter conflicts, the two sides gradually resume their old, less hostile relationship.

If we’re lucky, we’re beginning to see the start of this process happening now between Russia and Ukraine.

On Monday, United Nations secretary general António Guterres warned that, “Raising the alert level of Russian nuclear forces is a bone-chilling development. The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility.”

As hyperbolic as that claim may seem, the circumstances that would spur the Russians to use a tactical nuclear weapon are starting to fall into place. As laid out yesterday, the war is going badly for the Russians. Advances are moving slowly, when they’re moving at all, and casualties are mounting. The Russian economy is collapsing. Something’s going to break; it’s just a question of what breaks first.

Chilling drone footage appears to show Russian soldiers gunning down an unarmed Ukrainian motorist with his hands up — as a woman and child watched.

The footage, obtained by German broadcaster ZDF, shows a number of cars making sudden U-turns after seeing soldiers emerging from a tank parked on the edge of a highway heading to the heart of the capital, Kyiv.

Shocking footage from German TV showing Russian soldiers shooting and killing a Ukrainian civilian on March 7th near Kyiv.

These are war crimes that must be prosecuted. pic.twitter.com/I4gJCHuKY1

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 15, 2022

Vladimir Putin today sent a chilling warning to the West and oligarchs telling ‘scum’ traitors that Russians will ‘spit them out like a midge that flew into their mouths’ – as he claimed Western ‘attempts to have global dominance’ is coming to an end.

The Russian President, speaking in a bombastic televised address from the Kremlin nearly three weeks into Moscow’s invasion, warned the West would use ‘those who earn their money here, but live over there’ as a ‘fifth column’ to ‘divide our society’.

‘I do not judge those with villas in Miami or the French Riviera. Or who can’t get by without oysters or foie gras or so-called ‘gender freedoms.’ The problem is they mentally exist there, and not here, with our people, with Russia,’ he said. ‘The West will try to bet on the so-called fifth column, on traitors… to divide our society.. to provoke civil confrontation… to strive to achieve its aim. And there is one aim – the destruction of Russia.’

#Ukraine: Footage of urban combat in #Mariupol. A T-64BV tank belonging to the DNR forces was destroyed after being hit four times with RPG/ATGM. pic.twitter.com/kqMOrFHb2B

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 16, 2022

#Ukraine: Another Russian Attack Helicopter was destroyed by Ukrainian Air Defenses; this time a Ka-52 with tail number of RF-13411. pic.twitter.com/xeRhgB3mrv

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 16, 2022

When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last month, 27-year-old Nigerian Ottah Abraham was outraged.

He picked up his phone and tweeted: “I want to join the team.”

He was some 8,700km (5,400 miles) away from the front line, in a small apartment in Nigeria’s main city, Lagos.

The philosophy graduate is one of several hundred Africans, from countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Algeria, who say they are willing to take up arms in the battle against Russia, partly to escape the bleak prospects faced by many young men at home.

Andrii Pastushenko, 39, is a dairy farmer who lives 20km away from Kherson in the south of Ukraine, a city that has been under control of the Russian military.

On Monday, 10 Russian soldiers came and set up a base on the farm, leaving their tanks in barns, with more soldiers arriving later. But after overnight shelling by Ukraine’s military at Kherson airport, the Russian troops left on Wednesday morning.

“They quickly packed up this morning, taking two cars and food from the farm and saying they were ‘nationalising’ them,” he said, adding that they did not pay for either but said “See you soon”.

AMSTERDAM, March 16 (Reuters) – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Russia on Wednesday to stop the military actions it started in Ukraine on Feb. 24.

“The Russian Federation shall immediately suspend the military operations that it commenced on Feb 24, 2022 in the territory of Ukraine,” the judges said.

The judges added Russia must also ensure that other forces under its control or supported by Moscow should not continue the military operation.

The risk of Canadian weapons shipments being lost, stolen or otherwise misused is growing as the war in Ukraine enters a chaotic and uncertain new phase.

And with shipments of Canadian weapons still due to arrive in Ukraine, some are warning that parts of those shipments could end up on the black market or be turned against the Ukrainian people by the Russian military or local paramilitary groups.

“There is the real threat that the Ukrainian government can potentially not control all of these weapons,” said Kelsey Gallagher, a researcher with Project Ploughshares, a Canadian non-government disarmament group.

Ratings agencies say Russia is on the verge of defaulting on government bonds following its invasion of Ukraine, with billions of dollars owed to foreigners. That prospect recalls memories of a 1998 default by Moscow that helped fuel financial disruption worldwide.

The possibility has become more than market speculation after the head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, conceded that a Russian default is no longer an ”improbable event.”

I could be wrong but this default sounds like another golden opportunity for the poor to bail-out the rich. Gosh it’s great to be alive!

The Western elite is preventing us from going after the assets of Russia’s hyper-rich

The Ukrainian crisis has revived an old debate: how to effectively sanction a state like Russia? Let’s say it straight away: it is time to imagine a new type of sanction focused on the oligarchs who have prospered thanks to the regime in question. This will require the establishment of an international financial register, which will not be to the liking of western fortunes, whose interests are much more closely linked to those of the Russian and Chinese oligarchs than is sometimes claimed. However, it is at this price that western countries will succeed in winning the political and moral battle against the autocracies and in demonstrating to the world that the resounding speeches on democracy and justice are not simply empty words.

If in total Muslims are 15-18%, among young people of conscription age we speak of 30-40% of his army. Russia’s future is there.

“The only way for Russia to escape geopolitical demise is to become an Islamic state,” said Guidar Djemal, Russia’s most famous Muslim who passed away five years ago. The news coming from the Ukrainian front seems to prove him right.

At a funeral in the Kurchaloyevsky district of Chechnya, a Muslim cleric announced that the families of Abdulbek Taramov and Tamirlan Isaev would each receive one million rubles (7,000 euros) and a cow. A few days earlier, an Islamic scholar from the Chechen capital of Grozny, Salakh Mezhiev, had declared the Russian invasion a ‘jihad’. The Washington Post wrote on one of the most important but least told aspects of the war in Ukraine: the role of Islam.

35% favor U.S. military action even if it risks nuclear conflict with Russia

Three weeks into Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, nearly half of Americans (47%) approve of the Biden administration’s handling of the Russian invasion, while about four-in-ten (39%) disapprove; 13% say they are not sure.

Roughly a third of Americans (32%) say that the United States is providing about the right amount of support to Ukraine as it fights to hold off the Russian invasion. A larger share – 42% – say the U.S. should be providing more support to Ukraine, while just 7% say it is providing too much support. About one-in-five (19%) say they are not sure.

[ 🇷🇺 RUSSIE | 🇺🇦 UKRAINE ]

🔸📍Kharkiv, aujourd’hui.

pic.twitter.com/OIzB0XJ6QC

— (Little) Think Tank (@L_ThinkTank) March 15, 2022

Ukraine’s president invoked the horror of the 2001 terror attacks on the US as he pleaded for more military aid in a historic address to the US Congress.

Volodymyr Zelensky said via video link that Ukraine was enduring a 9/11 every day as it battled Russian forces.

He again urged the US and Nato allies to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying: “I need to protect the sky.”

President Biden is later set to sign off an extra $800m (£612m) in military aid to Ukraine.

#Ukraine: A Russian convoy transporting 122mm rockets for BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers was attacked by the Ukrainian forces. As a result, two cargo trucks were obliterated. pic.twitter.com/SiJUqANLuP

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 16, 2022

As a result of the Russian missile attack this morning in Kiev, hopefully the war will stop soon and the world will return to peace#Russia #Ukraine #Kyiv #Odessa #Kharkiv pic.twitter.com/D0ylppVFFX

— Goes TDI (@GoesTDI) March 16, 2022