“Ukraine – Russia”

The Biden administration is quietly preparing for the possibility that if Ukraine’s spring counteroffensive falls short of expectations, critics at home and allies abroad will argue that America has come up short, too.

Ukraine’s ever-imminent counteroffensive will attempt to retake Russian-seized territory most likely in the east and south, though for operational reasons no senior officials from Kyiv have detailed specifics.

#Ukraine: A Russian BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle was destroyed by two ATGM strikes from Ukrainian forces in the vicinity of Vodyane, #Donetsk Oblast.

Another damaged BMP-2 nearby was also destroyed by an ATGM. pic.twitter.com/ZjwEQXORRq

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 24, 2023

Oleksiy Danilov says it is not up to France to negotiate on behalf of Kyiv ‘behind the Ukrainian people’s backs’

Emmanuel Macron must be prepared to give away Bordeaux if he wants to negotiate on Ukraine’s behalf, one of Volodymyr Zelensky’s top advisers has said in a swipe at the French president’s plans for a peace agreement.

Oleksiy Danilov, Mr Zelensky’s national security adviser, called on the French president to halt his attempts to draw up peace deal terms with the help of China.

In an interview with the Telegraph, he said Mr Macron was “deeply wrong” if he believed he could go behind the Ukrainian people’s backs and potentially negotiate away territory like Crimea.

The way things are going in France there may be a Caliphate of Bordeaux.

#Ukraine: Presumably one of the first videos showing US-delivered 🇺🇸 guided bombs with JDAM-ER kits in action in Bakhmut, #Donetsk Oblast.

Four GBU-62 were dropped on what is claimed to be an ammo storage point and Russian military staging area. pic.twitter.com/xExafWGAx0

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 25, 2023

Russia is advising citizens to avoid travel to Canada, citing what it calls numerous cases of discrimination against Russians, including physical violence, its foreign ministry said on Saturday.

Canada is one of the most vocal backers of Ukraine in the war against Moscow’s forces and has imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian officials and companies as well as wide-scale trade bans.

Western allies this week delivered some of the most powerful weapons that Ukraine says it will need for a looming counteroffensive against Russia: a Patriot air-defense system from Germany and the Netherlands. Fighter jets from Slovakia. More 155-millimeter artillery from the United States.

And on Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III announced that Ukrainians would soon begin training, for the first time, on American M1 Abrams tanks — an important step to getting the sophisticated weapon to the battlefield.

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian 25th Airborne Brigade destroyed a Russian BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle in #Luhansk Oblast using grenades dropped from a drone equipped with thermal optics. A BMP-1 was also taken out of action. pic.twitter.com/Z8kI3XQ3O0

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 20, 2023

For over a year, a massive An-124 Ruslan cargo plane has been sitting on the tarmac of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. The jet, with serial numbers RA-82078, had landed there on February 27, 2022 carrying a cargo of Covid-19 rapid tests—just four days after Russia launched its massive invasion of Ukraine. That same day, Canada’s transport minister closed Canadian airspace to all Russian-operated aircraft, keeping the An-124 grounded.

When a little black kitten was born at a frontline base in Kharkiv, the soldiers adopted it as their mascot, calling it “Stinger” after the feared shoulder-held missile that helped to defeat the Soviet army in Afghanistan. “It’s the only air defence we have here,” one of the men, codenamed “Hollywood”, explained.

Three decades on, Russian aircraft are equipped with new technology that scrambles the Stinger’s heat-seeking targeting system. “Now we have to fire two and hope that the second one will make it,” Hollywood said.

#Ukraine: A Russian BMP infantry fighting vehicle was destroyed by an ATGM of the 59th Ukrainian Motorized Brigade in Pisky, #Donetsk Oblast.

A second IFV can be seen immediately retreating. pic.twitter.com/fBuA78OwNl

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 20, 2023

An estimated 20 percent of Russia prisoner recruits are H.I.V. positive. To some, the front lines seemed less risky than prisons where they said they were denied effective treatments.

In Russian prisons, they said they were deprived of effective treatments for their H.I.V. On the battlefield in Ukraine, they were offered hope, with the promise of anti-viral medications if they agreed to fight.

It was a recruiting pitch that worked for many Russian prisoners.

About 20 percent of recruits in Russian prisoner units are H.I.V. positive, Ukrainian authorities estimate based on infection rates in captured soldiers. Serving on the front lines seemed less risky than staying in prison, the detainees said in interviews with The New York Times.

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian 59th Brigade destroyed a Russian T-72B tank with an ATGM strike in #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/lcoxfKqAAq

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 21, 2023

BERLIN — When 13,000 demonstrators gathered at the Brandenburg Gate on Feb. 25 to call for an end to weapons supplies to Ukraine, the protest was led by Sahra Wagenknecht, a member of parliament for Germany’s far-left Die Linke party and a firebrand with national ambitions. Wagenknecht decried the prospect that German tanks, soon to be delivered to Ukraine, could once again be used to shoot at “Russian women and men.”

Seems the Germans know how to organize their own.

Fleeing millennials have caused manpower shortages

Last June, a trio of uniformed Russian teens clutching a Soviet-era banner goose-stepped past a memorial to victims of Nazi fascism. Next to them, a dozen younger children stood awkwardly to attention as they watched soldiers and local politicians coat the memorial in fresh flowers. “The history of our country will never be forgotten,” announced a local functionary. “Never forget that you are citizens of a mighty nation!”

‘Ghost’ vessels map wind farms and communication cables in preparation for full-scale conflict with West

Russian spy ships are mapping wind farms and communication cables in the North Sea as part of plans to sabotage Europe’s energy infrastructure, an investigation has found.

A number of European intelligence agencies are closely monitoring the threat posed by the fleet of Russian boats, which are often disguised as fishing trawlers or research vessels, operating in the area.

#Ukraine: A Russian MT-12 Rapira 100mm anti-tank gun along with a Ural ammo truck were destroyed by the Ukrainian 40th Artillery Brigade in cooperation with the 10th Mountain Brigade near Bilohorivka, #Donetsk Oblast.

Two more MT-12 were also damaged by artillery fire. pic.twitter.com/oEx3ULdcnO

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 19, 2023

Talk of a game-changing ‘spring offensive’ and retaking Crimea is wishful

The recent Pentagon leaks have confirmed what many already suspected — that Ukraine is facing a much more uphill struggle than the Western narrative would have us believe. They have revealed, in particular, severe “deficiencies” in Ukraine’s munition supplies. The country’s units are burning through artillery ammunition at such a lightning-fast pace — some 7,700 shells per day, or roughly one every six seconds, according to a Ukrainian source — that they are outrunning Western manufacturing capacity and have even begun to ration shells. Meanwhile, the Russian military is said to be firing about 20,000 artillery rounds a day — three times as much.