Zelensky says Russia made no military gains in 2023, expresses faith in U.S.
KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — facing internal disputes at home and stalling aid from abroad — said Tuesday that military commanders have advised him that Ukraine will need to mobilize another half-million troops next year if it hopes to stop Russia’s continuing invasion.
Zelensky, answering wide-ranging questions at a year-end news conference, also acknowledged that his country is running out of artillery shells and conceded that his counteroffensive had not yielded the hoped-for results in pushing back the Russian forces occupying one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
But Zelensky also firmly brushed aside claims of battlefield setbacks, mirroring defiant statements in recent days by Russian President Vladimir Putin and signaling that positions in Kyiv and Moscow are hardening just as soldiers on the two sides dig in for winter on the sprawling front line.
Read the full story here.
KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — facing internal disputes at home and stalling aid from abroad — said Tuesday that military commanders have advised him that Ukraine will need to mobilize another half-million troops next year if it hopes to stop Russia’s continuing invasion.
Zelensky, answering wide-ranging questions at a year-end news conference, also acknowledged that his country is running out of artillery shells and conceded that his counteroffensive had not yielded the hoped-for results in pushing back the Russian forces occupying one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
But Zelensky also firmly brushed aside claims of battlefield setbacks, mirroring defiant statements in recent days by Russian President Vladimir Putin and signaling that positions in Kyiv and Moscow are hardening just as soldiers on the two sides dig in for winter on the sprawling front line.
Read the full story here.
With Western aid stalled, Ukrainian troops run low on artillery shells
KYIV — Ukrainian forces are suffering from a shortage of artillery shells on the front line, prompting some units to cancel planned assaults, soldiers said this week, and stoking fears over how long Kyiv’s troops will be able to hold their ground against continuing Russian attacks.
The ammunition shortage is deepening the already palpable anxiety in the Ukrainian capital, as U.S. and European aid stalls and winter sets in.
“Our gunners are given a limit of shells for each target,” said a member of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, which is fighting in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.
“The guys are tired — very tired,” he said. “They are still motivated — many people understand that they have no other choice.”
Read the full story here.
KYIV — Ukrainian forces are suffering from a shortage of artillery shells on the front line, prompting some units to cancel planned assaults, soldiers said this week, and stoking fears over how long Kyiv’s troops will be able to hold their ground against continuing Russian attacks.
The ammunition shortage is deepening the already palpable anxiety in the Ukrainian capital, as U.S. and European aid stalls and winter sets in.
“Our gunners are given a limit of shells for each target,” said a member of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, which is fighting in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.
“The guys are tired — very tired,” he said. “They are still motivated — many people understand that they have no other choice.”
Read the full story here.
Your holiday diamond may be funding Russia's war
About one-third of world’s diamonds come from Russia, earning the Kremlin at least a billion dollars a year as it wages war in Ukraine.
Possibly in anticipation of a European Union ban, Russia has started favoring trade hubs beyond Antwerp, Belgium, the historical capital of the global diamond trade. That brings the diamonds to the Indian city of Surat, where they are cut and polished. That brings out the brilliance of the stones and transforms their classification. Diamonds can enter as “Russian” and leave as “Indian” — and be sold in the United States and elsewhere.
Read the full story here.
About one-third of world’s diamonds come from Russia, earning the Kremlin at least a billion dollars a year as it wages war in Ukraine.
Possibly in anticipation of a European Union ban, Russia has started favoring trade hubs beyond Antwerp, Belgium, the historical capital of the global diamond trade. That brings the diamonds to the Indian city of Surat, where they are cut and polished. That brings out the brilliance of the stones and transforms their classification. Diamonds can enter as “Russian” and leave as “Indian” — and be sold in the United States and elsewhere.
Read the full story here.
For many Ukrainian artists, fighting Russia in war is tragic last act
ODESSA, Ukraine — If the air raid sirens blared, the theater manager warned, everyone would have to shelter — cast, crew and spectators. It didn’t matter if the dance had already started.
Still Oleksandra Vorobiova twirled, a blur of dark tracksuit and loose hair, as she practiced without an audience. For a moment, she forgot about the sign propped on a music stand, a red arrow pointing to the basement bomb shelter. She forgot about the 113 days that the National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet had closed after Russia invaded, how half the company’s dancers fled abroad, how others enlisted to serve in a war they wouldn’t survive.
She forgot about her beloved friend, Rostislav Yanchishen, who traded his ballet slippers for combat boots in February 2022 and became one of dozens of artists slaughtered in a war that will soon drag into its third year.
She forgot. But only for a moment.
Read the full story here.
ODESSA, Ukraine — If the air raid sirens blared, the theater manager warned, everyone would have to shelter — cast, crew and spectators. It didn’t matter if the dance had already started.
Still Oleksandra Vorobiova twirled, a blur of dark tracksuit and loose hair, as she practiced without an audience. For a moment, she forgot about the sign propped on a music stand, a red arrow pointing to the basement bomb shelter. She forgot about the 113 days that the National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet had closed after Russia invaded, how half the company’s dancers fled abroad, how others enlisted to serve in a war they wouldn’t survive.
She forgot about her beloved friend, Rostislav Yanchishen, who traded his ballet slippers for combat boots in February 2022 and became one of dozens of artists slaughtered in a war that will soon drag into its third year.
She forgot. But only for a moment.
Read the full story here.
Missing Russian dissident Navalny located in penal colony in Siberia
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was located in a penal colony in Russia’s far north, his team said Monday, after a span of nearly three weeks when the imprisoned dissident politician’s whereabouts were not known to his aides, lawyers and family.
“His lawyer visited him today. Alexey is doing well,” Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Yarmysh added that he is being kept in a prison in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenetsk region more than 1,000 miles northeast of Moscow, a region notorious for severe winters and the site of some of the harshest camps of the Soviet gulag system.
Read the full story here.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was located in a penal colony in Russia’s far north, his team said Monday, after a span of nearly three weeks when the imprisoned dissident politician’s whereabouts were not known to his aides, lawyers and family.
“His lawyer visited him today. Alexey is doing well,” Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Yarmysh added that he is being kept in a prison in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenetsk region more than 1,000 miles northeast of Moscow, a region notorious for severe winters and the site of some of the harshest camps of the Soviet gulag system.
Read the full story here.
Ukraine attacks Russian landing ship in Crimean port
Ukraine said Tuesday it had destroyed a large Russian landing ship docked in a Crimean port in an overnight attack — potentially striking a major blow against Russia’s already damaged Black Sea Fleet.
Russian officials confirmed the attack but said only that the ship and some surrounding buildings had been damaged. The Washington Post could not independently confirm the scale of the damage.
The Ukrainian air force said on its Telegram channel that it attacked the port of Feodosia around 2:30 a.m. local time. The port is in eastern Crimea, the contested peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014 and has occupied since. A video showing a fire followed by a massive explosion that could be seen from miles away was verified by social media intelligence firm Storyful as being shot at the right time and place to coincide with the attack.
Read the full story here.
Ukraine said Tuesday it had destroyed a large Russian landing ship docked in a Crimean port in an overnight attack — potentially striking a major blow against Russia’s already damaged Black Sea Fleet.
Russian officials confirmed the attack but said only that the ship and some surrounding buildings had been damaged. The Washington Post could not independently confirm the scale of the damage.
The Ukrainian air force said on its Telegram channel that it attacked the port of Feodosia around 2:30 a.m. local time. The port is in eastern Crimea, the contested peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014 and has occupied since. A video showing a fire followed by a massive explosion that could be seen from miles away was verified by social media intelligence firm Storyful as being shot at the right time and place to coincide with the attack.
Read the full story here.
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Ukraine’s top commander calls for mobilizing more soldiers
KYIV — Ukraine’s top general on Tuesday called for mobilizing more troops, a rare acknowledgment of heavy casualties after nearly two years of war with Russia.
In his first news conference since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny also conceded that Ukrainian troops have largely withdrawn from the eastern Ukrainian town of Marinka. The loss of the small settlement, now in ruins, is unlikely to have a significant impact on the larger battlefield but is nonetheless a sign that Russian forces have seized the initiative after Ukraine’s disappointing counteroffensive stalled with the coming of winter.
Read the full story here.
KYIV — Ukraine’s top general on Tuesday called for mobilizing more troops, a rare acknowledgment of heavy casualties after nearly two years of war with Russia.
In his first news conference since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny also conceded that Ukrainian troops have largely withdrawn from the eastern Ukrainian town of Marinka. The loss of the small settlement, now in ruins, is unlikely to have a significant impact on the larger battlefield but is nonetheless a sign that Russian forces have seized the initiative after Ukraine’s disappointing counteroffensive stalled with the coming of winter.
Read the full story here.
Ukraine gets modest U.S. weapons package, until Congress can agree to more
KYIV — A modest new U.S. weapons package for Ukraine — what is likely be the last one until Congress approves new funding — was met with tepid gratitude in Kyiv on Thursday.
The $250 million package, which includes artillery shells, air defense equipment, antiaircraft and antitank missiles and small arms ammunition for the fight against Russia, will address some battlefield shortfalls but still leaves Ukraine facing an uncertain future and without critical financial support entering the new year.
President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked President Biden in a post on X, formerly Twitter, for the weapons that “will cover Ukraine’s most pressing needs.”
“U.S. leadership in the coalition of over 50 countries providing Ukraine with military aid is critical to countering terror and aggression not only in Ukraine but around the world,” he added.
Read the full story here.
KYIV — A modest new U.S. weapons package for Ukraine — what is likely be the last one until Congress approves new funding — was met with tepid gratitude in Kyiv on Thursday.
The $250 million package, which includes artillery shells, air defense equipment, antiaircraft and antitank missiles and small arms ammunition for the fight against Russia, will address some battlefield shortfalls but still leaves Ukraine facing an uncertain future and without critical financial support entering the new year.
President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked President Biden in a post on X, formerly Twitter, for the weapons that “will cover Ukraine’s most pressing needs.”
“U.S. leadership in the coalition of over 50 countries providing Ukraine with military aid is critical to countering terror and aggression not only in Ukraine but around the world,” he added.
Read the full story here.
Russia’s military wives emerge as wild card to Putin’s triumphal mood
RIGA, Latvia — The loved ones of the drafted Russian soldiers forced to fight in Ukraine indefinitely have tried everything: They appealed to the Defense Ministry, wrote letters to President Vladimir Putin, met with many officials and even protested publicly. Their questions to Putin’s annual “direct line” call-in show for Russians last week were ignored.
They mounted car sticker campaigns calling for the return of their husbands and sons, and crafted Christmas tree ornaments with the words, “Bring Papa home.” They posted impassioned video messages on social media.
The Kremlin has rebuffed them. Yet they have emerged as the only wild card in Putin’s highly stage-managed election campaign that will allow him to rule until at least 2030.
Read the full story here.
RIGA, Latvia — The loved ones of the drafted Russian soldiers forced to fight in Ukraine indefinitely have tried everything: They appealed to the Defense Ministry, wrote letters to President Vladimir Putin, met with many officials and even protested publicly. Their questions to Putin’s annual “direct line” call-in show for Russians last week were ignored.
They mounted car sticker campaigns calling for the return of their husbands and sons, and crafted Christmas tree ornaments with the words, “Bring Papa home.” They posted impassioned video messages on social media.
The Kremlin has rebuffed them. Yet they have emerged as the only wild card in Putin’s highly stage-managed election campaign that will allow him to rule until at least 2030.
Read the full story here.
Russia shatters Ukraine holiday season with massive missile barrage
KYIV — Russia fired more than 100 missiles at Ukraine on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, striking multiple residential buildings, a shopping center and other civilian infrastructure in the biggest barrage so far in an otherwise quiet winter.
The scale of the attack confirmed what many in Ukraine have feared for months — that Russia was conserving its missile stocks throughout the fall for massive strikes in the winter. Officials in Kyiv have also warned that stalled U.S. security assistance, which includes ammunition for U.S.-made air-defense systems, could embolden the Russians and place Ukrainian cities in peril.
Britain’s Defense Minister Grant Shapps said his country was sending hundreds of air-defense missiles to Ukraine to ensure it “has what it needs to defend itself from Putin’s barbaric bombardment.”
Read the full story here.
KYIV — Russia fired more than 100 missiles at Ukraine on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, striking multiple residential buildings, a shopping center and other civilian infrastructure in the biggest barrage so far in an otherwise quiet winter.
The scale of the attack confirmed what many in Ukraine have feared for months — that Russia was conserving its missile stocks throughout the fall for massive strikes in the winter. Officials in Kyiv have also warned that stalled U.S. security assistance, which includes ammunition for U.S.-made air-defense systems, could embolden the Russians and place Ukrainian cities in peril.
Britain’s Defense Minister Grant Shapps said his country was sending hundreds of air-defense missiles to Ukraine to ensure it “has what it needs to defend itself from Putin’s barbaric bombardment.”
Read the full story here.
Ahead of New Year holiday, Russia sentences more people to prison
As Russians prepare for their own holiday season, the government’s crackdown on political activists and citizens who have voiced their opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, does not appear to be taking a break.
On Friday, a court in Siberia sentenced a former head of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s local headquarters to nine years in a penal colony. And on Thursday, two Russian poets who publicly staged antiwar poetry readings in a central Moscow square, were sentenced to seven years and five-and-a-half years in prison respectively.
The latest convictions and sentences follow the news that well-known dissident Alexei Navalny finally resurfaced at a penal colony above the Arctic Circle, after his whereabouts remained unknown for almost three weeks, sending panic through his supporters and opposition circles.
Read the full story here.
As Russians prepare for their own holiday season, the government’s crackdown on political activists and citizens who have voiced their opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, does not appear to be taking a break.
On Friday, a court in Siberia sentenced a former head of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s local headquarters to nine years in a penal colony. And on Thursday, two Russian poets who publicly staged antiwar poetry readings in a central Moscow square, were sentenced to seven years and five-and-a-half years in prison respectively.
The latest convictions and sentences follow the news that well-known dissident Alexei Navalny finally resurfaced at a penal colony above the Arctic Circle, after his whereabouts remained unknown for almost three weeks, sending panic through his supporters and opposition circles.
Read the full story here.
Russia blames Ukraine for deadly strikes in city near border
A combined rocket and missile attack on Belgorod, a city in Russia near the Ukrainian border, has killed at least 14 people and injured more than 100, Russian authorities said Saturday, blaming the assault on Ukraine’s military and vowing to retaliate for the deaths.
“This crime will not go unpunished,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement, calling the strikes “indiscriminate.”
The attack, if confirmed, would be one of the deadliest inside Russia since it invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago. It came as Ukraine was still reeling from the massive drone and missile barrage Russia unleashed on civilian targets and infrastructure on Friday.
Read the full story here.
A combined rocket and missile attack on Belgorod, a city in Russia near the Ukrainian border, has killed at least 14 people and injured more than 100, Russian authorities said Saturday, blaming the assault on Ukraine’s military and vowing to retaliate for the deaths.
“This crime will not go unpunished,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement, calling the strikes “indiscriminate.”
The attack, if confirmed, would be one of the deadliest inside Russia since it invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago. It came as Ukraine was still reeling from the massive drone and missile barrage Russia unleashed on civilian targets and infrastructure on Friday.
Read the full story here.
Russia is working to subvert French support for Ukraine, documents show
STRASBOURG, France — From the top floor of the house he shares here with a senior Russian diplomat — to whom he rents the apartment below — the man who helped bankroll the French presidential bid of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen has been working on plans to propel pro-Moscow politicians to power.
“We have to change all the governments … All the governments in Western Europe will be changed,” Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a former member of the European Parliament for Le Pen’s party, said in an interview. “We have to control this. Take the leadership of this.”
Read the full story here.
STRASBOURG, France — From the top floor of the house he shares here with a senior Russian diplomat — to whom he rents the apartment below — the man who helped bankroll the French presidential bid of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen has been working on plans to propel pro-Moscow politicians to power.
“We have to change all the governments … All the governments in Western Europe will be changed,” Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a former member of the European Parliament for Le Pen’s party, said in an interview. “We have to control this. Take the leadership of this.”
Read the full story here.
Russia unleashes missile barrage at Ukraine as holiday airstrikes persist
KHARKIV — Russia bombarded Ukrainian cities with an overnight assault of drones and missiles on Tuesday, extending a vicious wave of holiday-season strikes on population centers by Moscow and Kyiv that has left dozens of civilians dead and suggests a brutal new stage of the war that is being felt well beyond the stagnating front lines.
In Kyiv, there were loud explosions shortly after 7 a.m. Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said on Telegram that one woman died and 49 people were injured after a fire broke out in a high-rise building “as the result of the missile attack” and that electricity and water were cut off in some areas of the capital.
Klitschko said that “civilian infrastructure” in two regions of the capital had been damaged and that fires broke out in numerous locations, including a warehouse in Kyiv’s Podil district.
Read the full story here.
KHARKIV — Russia bombarded Ukrainian cities with an overnight assault of drones and missiles on Tuesday, extending a vicious wave of holiday-season strikes on population centers by Moscow and Kyiv that has left dozens of civilians dead and suggests a brutal new stage of the war that is being felt well beyond the stagnating front lines.
In Kyiv, there were loud explosions shortly after 7 a.m. Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said on Telegram that one woman died and 49 people were injured after a fire broke out in a high-rise building “as the result of the missile attack” and that electricity and water were cut off in some areas of the capital.
Klitschko said that “civilian infrastructure” in two regions of the capital had been damaged and that fires broke out in numerous locations, including a warehouse in Kyiv’s Podil district.
Read the full story here.
In Kharkiv, ambulance crews await shelling — and a new year of war
At a medic base an hour’s drive from the Russian border, Iryna Peshykova waited for the new year to arrive — and with it, more explosions, more carnage.
The ambulance out back was already running, ready to go as the clock ticked closer to midnight, bringing her country into a third year of war with no end in sight. It was New Year’s Eve and Peshykova, 40, knew that she’d be among the first to bear witness to the fallout.
She’d seen Russia bombard Ukraine — firing more than 150 missiles and drones on Friday in one of the largest attacks since invading in February 2022.
The tit for tat shelling foreshadowed a long winter to come as the counteroffensive ground to a halt and soldiers dug into front lines that barely budged. Like in the trenches, morale at the medic base was low. The group was the first to confront the human damage done by missiles in Kharkiv, hoping victims would survive the race to the hospital.
Read the full story here.
At a medic base an hour’s drive from the Russian border, Iryna Peshykova waited for the new year to arrive — and with it, more explosions, more carnage.
The ambulance out back was already running, ready to go as the clock ticked closer to midnight, bringing her country into a third year of war with no end in sight. It was New Year’s Eve and Peshykova, 40, knew that she’d be among the first to bear witness to the fallout.
She’d seen Russia bombard Ukraine — firing more than 150 missiles and drones on Friday in one of the largest attacks since invading in February 2022.
The tit for tat shelling foreshadowed a long winter to come as the counteroffensive ground to a halt and soldiers dug into front lines that barely budged. Like in the trenches, morale at the medic base was low. The group was the first to confront the human damage done by missiles in Kharkiv, hoping victims would survive the race to the hospital.
Read the full story here.