“Ukraine – Russia”

What is the U.S.’s long-term plan to deal with Russia?

President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Ukrainian premier Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv earlier this week was an unmistakable sign of solidarity with Ukraine on the one-year anniversary of Russian kingpin Vladimir Putin’s reckless, unjust invasion. To the extent Biden’s aim was to send such a symbolic message to Moscow and its allies, he succeeded.

I keep thinking back to something I heard on Russian state TV three years ago.

At the time Russians were being urged to support changes to the constitution that would enable Vladimir Putin to stay in power for another 16 years.

To persuade the public, the news anchor portrayed President Putin as a sea captain steering the good ship Russia through stormy waters of global unrest.

“Russia is an oasis of stability, a safe harbour,” he continued. “If it wasn’t for Putin what would have become of us?”

Watch: Russian MP could be punished for hanging noodles on his ears during Putin speech

A “peace rally” due to take place in Berlin this weekend condemning western weapons exports to Ukraine has been criticised by the leadership of the leftwing party Die Linke for failing to distance itself from far-right groups that have announced their attendance.

Police expect about 10,000 people to take part in Saturday’s rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate, which is co-organised by a renegade former leader of Die Linke, Sahra Wagenknecht.

A counter-protest supported by politicians and public intellectuals including the Nobel literature prize-winner Herta Müller has been registered in Berlin for Friday afternoon.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine found a way to hit deep behind enemy lines with a series of mysterious explosions in Russian-held territory early Wednesday, even as Ukrainians themselves were warned that Moscow appears poised to unleash a new barrage of attacks.

Half a year after the southern port city of Mariupol fell to a fierce Russian siege, nearly a dozen explosions were reported there overnight into Wednesday. Russian-occupied areas of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions were also hit, according to reports and video.

#Ukraine: A Russian T-64BV tank was destroyed by the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade using a FGM-148 Javelin near Avdiivka, #Donetsk Oblast.

A Russian MT-LB armored personnel carrier was also destroyed nearby. pic.twitter.com/6YSlxYwumF

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) February 23, 2023

One year on, senior officials are pessimistic

Vladimir Putin’s armies launched their fateful attack on Ukraine a year ago today. Tanks and troops poured across the frontier in what most Western governments feared would be a lightning thrust of fratricidal violence that would throttle Ukrainian independence. Then came the resistance, Russia not only held at bay but, miraculously, thrown back. As the world looks on, expectantly, waiting for the next decisive crash of momentum, a grim pessimism has again taken hold: 2022 might have been a year of heroism, but many fear 2023 might be the year the war settles into something far more conventional — and worrying.

Few people better understand the West’s fraught relationship with Russia than Fiona Hill. Born in Bishop Auckland, she went on to study History and Russian at St Andrews before a scholarship at Harvard took her to America. From there, Hill rose rapidly through the ranks to become one of the world’s foremost experts on Putin’s Russia, brought into the administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and, finally, Donald Trump.

#Ukraine: Two Russian T-80BV tanks and an uncommon BMP-1AM Basurmanin infantry fighting vehicle were damaged and abandoned with another AFV destroyed by the Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized Brigade near Vuhledar, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/hSgQ5ygW4Y

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) February 22, 2023

The Ukraine defence has persisted in large part due to a massive influx of foreign military aid, in which Canada has ranked as a rather respectable contributor. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Canada is now the fifth largest donor of Ukrainian military aid.

The pilot usually smears lip balm on the rotors of her drone before launch. If none is available, she uses bacon grease instead. Both methods prevent the drone from freezing in flight and plunging to the ground: lessons from the front, not found in any flight manual, that she has learnt in the extreme sub-zero temperatures of the winter war, where Leyla plies her trade hunting Russian troops.

Unable to explain setbacks in Ukraine, the Kremlin appeals to past victories.

MOSCOW — Every year, during the anniversary of the battle that turned back the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union, the city of Volgograd is briefly renamed Stalingrad, its Soviet-era name.

During this year’s commemoration, however, authorities went further. They unveiled a bust of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and paraded soldiers dressed as secret police in a bid to emphasize the parallels between Russia’s past and its present.

The establishment media praised President Joe Biden for returning to Ukraine on Monday after visiting the nation six times in eight years while vice president.

Despite the Biden family business scandal that involves Ukraine, the media cheered Biden’s return to the nation waging war against Russia, a conflict based on decades of territorial claims.

The first destroyed Russian smoke machine TDA-3 (Appeared in the Russian army in 2016)
+ illustrative video of how it workshttps://t.co/upCyCS5S69 pic.twitter.com/rrEjXucGUl

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) February 20, 2023