Along Ukraine’s northern border with Russia, fears of a new invasion
TYKHONOVYCHI, Ukraine — The deep trenches and scattered observation posts that marked Ukraine’s northern border with Russia were no match for the columns of tanks that rolled across on Feb. 24.
Now, having beaten the Russians back to their side — over weeks of battle, and at great cost — the border guards of Ukraine’s Chernihiv region are watching warily as their adversaries again mass troops and equipment.
The war here is different from elsewhere in the country, where Russian troops are firmly ensconced in Ukrainian territory. This is a cross-border war. Russian tanks lob shells at Ukrainian villages. Bullets fly across a tense no man’s land in sporadic gunfights.
“The border will never be the same,” said Serhiy Khomenko, 30, commander of a unit patrolling the border near the village where he grew up. “If before there was just a tank moat, now the whole thing will be mined.”
Read the full story here.
TYKHONOVYCHI, Ukraine — The deep trenches and scattered observation posts that marked Ukraine’s northern border with Russia were no match for the columns of tanks that rolled across on Feb. 24.
Now, having beaten the Russians back to their side — over weeks of battle, and at great cost — the border guards of Ukraine’s Chernihiv region are watching warily as their adversaries again mass troops and equipment.
The war here is different from elsewhere in the country, where Russian troops are firmly ensconced in Ukrainian territory. This is a cross-border war. Russian tanks lob shells at Ukrainian villages. Bullets fly across a tense no man’s land in sporadic gunfights.
“The border will never be the same,” said Serhiy Khomenko, 30, commander of a unit patrolling the border near the village where he grew up. “If before there was just a tank moat, now the whole thing will be mined.”
Read the full story here.
WHO members condemn Russia, warn its voting rights could be stripped
The World Health Assembly on Thursday voted in favor of a resolution that condemned Russian attacks on the health-care system in Ukraine before rejecting a parallel proposal presented by Moscow that Kyiv’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva had called a “subterfuge” that presented a “twisted alternative reality” of the conflict.
Ukraine’s successful resolution, which was backed by member states 88-12 with 53 abstentions, raises the possibility that Russia could be suspended from the assembly if attacks on hospitals and clinics continue. The assembly is the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, a United Nations global health agency with a sprawling mandate.
A counterproposal put forward by Russia and Syria, which suggested Kyiv bears the blame for some civilian deaths, was also rejected on Thursday, 15-66 with 70 abstentions.
Read the full story here.
The World Health Assembly on Thursday voted in favor of a resolution that condemned Russian attacks on the health-care system in Ukraine before rejecting a parallel proposal presented by Moscow that Kyiv’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva had called a “subterfuge” that presented a “twisted alternative reality” of the conflict.
Ukraine’s successful resolution, which was backed by member states 88-12 with 53 abstentions, raises the possibility that Russia could be suspended from the assembly if attacks on hospitals and clinics continue. The assembly is the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, a United Nations global health agency with a sprawling mandate.
A counterproposal put forward by Russia and Syria, which suggested Kyiv bears the blame for some civilian deaths, was also rejected on Thursday, 15-66 with 70 abstentions.
Read the full story here.
Analysis: History haunts the global elites at Davos
The World Economic Forum is known for its forward-looking optimism. But this year’s annual meeting of global political and financial elites was dominated by gloomy invocations of the past.
In his virtual address to delegates, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky summoned the legacies of Sarajevo in 1914 and Munich in 1938: The supposition behind the first reference was that actions in a seemingly faraway place — such as the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian archduke by a Serbian nationalist — can trigger a far wider, spiraling calamity, as we now see with the global disruptions and price surges that followed Russia’s invasions. The invocation of the latter was a warning not to appease Russia’s hegemonic designs.
The allusions kept coming.
Read the full story here.
The World Economic Forum is known for its forward-looking optimism. But this year’s annual meeting of global political and financial elites was dominated by gloomy invocations of the past.
In his virtual address to delegates, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky summoned the legacies of Sarajevo in 1914 and Munich in 1938: The supposition behind the first reference was that actions in a seemingly faraway place — such as the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian archduke by a Serbian nationalist — can trigger a far wider, spiraling calamity, as we now see with the global disruptions and price surges that followed Russia’s invasions. The invocation of the latter was a warning not to appease Russia’s hegemonic designs.
The allusions kept coming.
Read the full story here.
Outgunned, undermanned: Ukrainian volunteers in the east feel abandoned
DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine — Stuck in their trenches, the Ukrainian volunteers lived off a potato per day as Russian forces pounded them with artillery and Grad rockets on a key eastern front line. Outnumbered, untrained and clutching only light weapons, the men prayed for the barrage to end — and for their own tanks to stop targeting the Russians.
“They [Russians] already know where we are, and when the Ukrainian tank shoots from our side it gives away our position,” said Serhi Lapko, their company commander, recalling the recent battle. “And they start firing back with everything — Grads, mortars.”
“And you just pray to survive.”
Read the full story here.
DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine — Stuck in their trenches, the Ukrainian volunteers lived off a potato per day as Russian forces pounded them with artillery and Grad rockets on a key eastern front line. Outnumbered, untrained and clutching only light weapons, the men prayed for the barrage to end — and for their own tanks to stop targeting the Russians.
“They [Russians] already know where we are, and when the Ukrainian tank shoots from our side it gives away our position,” said Serhi Lapko, their company commander, recalling the recent battle. “And they start firing back with everything — Grads, mortars.”
“And you just pray to survive.”
Read the full story here.
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Here is the latest from Ukraine.
- President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 25 responded to comments from former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger suggesting that Ukraine cede land to Russia.
- The Pentagon estimates that as the war enters its fourth month, Russian forces have lost about 1,000 tanks, which are either destroyed or inoperable; about 350 artillery pieces; three dozen fighter-bomber aircraft; and more than 50 helicopters.
- Russia’s economy is growing dependent on poor substitutes under the weight of Western sanctions, with shortages stirring memories from the Soviet Union.
- The Kremlin announced a plan to raise Russia’s pension and minimum wage by 10 percent to tackle rising living costs. Putin also noted that the ruble has strengthened significantly against the dollar in recent months.
- As Finland looks to join NATO, Prime Minister Sanna Marin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and visited the capital’s destroyed suburbs.
More live updates here.
- President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 25 responded to comments from former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger suggesting that Ukraine cede land to Russia.
- The Pentagon estimates that as the war enters its fourth month, Russian forces have lost about 1,000 tanks, which are either destroyed or inoperable; about 350 artillery pieces; three dozen fighter-bomber aircraft; and more than 50 helicopters.
- Russia’s economy is growing dependent on poor substitutes under the weight of Western sanctions, with shortages stirring memories from the Soviet Union.
- The Kremlin announced a plan to raise Russia’s pension and minimum wage by 10 percent to tackle rising living costs. Putin also noted that the ruble has strengthened significantly against the dollar in recent months.
- As Finland looks to join NATO, Prime Minister Sanna Marin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and visited the capital’s destroyed suburbs.
More live updates here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine:
— As Russian forces push reinforcements to the front lines, Ukrainians could face a “very difficult month ahead,” a presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych warned. Ukrainian troops have been outpaced by Russia after the Kremlin withdrew forces from the Kyiv region last month to focus on the country’s east, he said.
— Russian troops appear to have seized the northeastern part of Severodonetsk in part of a larger effort to cut off Ukrainian fighters from reinforcements and the resupply of Western weapons, a senior U.S. defense official said.
— Russia’s military has paid for those modest gains though, the official added. Its forces have lost about 1,000 tanks, some 350 artillery pieces, and dozens of fighter-bomber aircraft and helicopters, the Pentagon estimates.
— Russian shelling in the Kharkiv area killed nine civilians — including a 5-month-old baby — and wounded 19, according to Oleh Synyehubov, the head of Kharkiv’s regional administration.
More live updates here.
— As Russian forces push reinforcements to the front lines, Ukrainians could face a “very difficult month ahead,” a presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych warned. Ukrainian troops have been outpaced by Russia after the Kremlin withdrew forces from the Kyiv region last month to focus on the country’s east, he said.
— Russian troops appear to have seized the northeastern part of Severodonetsk in part of a larger effort to cut off Ukrainian fighters from reinforcements and the resupply of Western weapons, a senior U.S. defense official said.
— Russia’s military has paid for those modest gains though, the official added. Its forces have lost about 1,000 tanks, some 350 artillery pieces, and dozens of fighter-bomber aircraft and helicopters, the Pentagon estimates.
— Russian shelling in the Kharkiv area killed nine civilians — including a 5-month-old baby — and wounded 19, according to Oleh Synyehubov, the head of Kharkiv’s regional administration.
More live updates here.
At the United Nations, what about the war in Ukraine?
When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his invasion of Ukraine in February, diplomats gathered at the U.N. Security Council responded by evoking lofty principles of global order and solemnly urging him to stand down.
Ukraine’s representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, hurriedly revised remarks he had planned to make to the council. Glaring across the chamber at his Russian counterpart, Kyslytsya demanded the official, diplomat Vasily Nebenzya, phone his superiors in Moscow to appeal for an end to the offensive.
“There is no purgatory for war criminals,” he told Nebenzya with a withering look replayed repeatedly around the world. “They go straight to hell, ambassador.”
Diplomatic observers believe the failure of the United Nations, with its mandate to keep the global peace, to do more to halt the fighting in Ukraine is rooted in rules embedded at the body’s founding.
Read the full story here.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his invasion of Ukraine in February, diplomats gathered at the U.N. Security Council responded by evoking lofty principles of global order and solemnly urging him to stand down.
Ukraine’s representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, hurriedly revised remarks he had planned to make to the council. Glaring across the chamber at his Russian counterpart, Kyslytsya demanded the official, diplomat Vasily Nebenzya, phone his superiors in Moscow to appeal for an end to the offensive.
“There is no purgatory for war criminals,” he told Nebenzya with a withering look replayed repeatedly around the world. “They go straight to hell, ambassador.”
Diplomatic observers believe the failure of the United Nations, with its mandate to keep the global peace, to do more to halt the fighting in Ukraine is rooted in rules embedded at the body’s founding.
Read the full story here.
Kharkiv residents emerge from underground to find their city in ruins
KHARKIV, Ukraine – Yulia Yuliantseva’s journey home took longer than her flight to safety, yet each step was accompanied by many of the same fears.
Nearly three months ago, she and her 12-year-old son, Mattvii, fled their apartment in Kharkiv and ran through the snow to the nearest subway station — she in flip-flops, her son in stocking feet — as Russian forces pounded the city with rockets and heavy artillery.
Though no part of the city was spared, Yuliantseva’s neighborhood of Saltivka, in the northeastern part of the city, was among the hardest hit. Thousands of her neighbors sheltered with her in the Studentska station.
This week, as Yuliantseva and her son packed to go after nearly three months in their makeshift bomb shelter, mixed emotions flooded over them.
Read the full story here.
KHARKIV, Ukraine – Yulia Yuliantseva’s journey home took longer than her flight to safety, yet each step was accompanied by many of the same fears.
Nearly three months ago, she and her 12-year-old son, Mattvii, fled their apartment in Kharkiv and ran through the snow to the nearest subway station — she in flip-flops, her son in stocking feet — as Russian forces pounded the city with rockets and heavy artillery.
Though no part of the city was spared, Yuliantseva’s neighborhood of Saltivka, in the northeastern part of the city, was among the hardest hit. Thousands of her neighbors sheltered with her in the Studentska station.
This week, as Yuliantseva and her son packed to go after nearly three months in their makeshift bomb shelter, mixed emotions flooded over them.
Read the full story here.
Ex-leaders call for global anti-corruption court to tackle Putin, more
The American general slated to become NATO’s next supreme allied commander warned Thursday that Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain exports could enable terrorist networks in other parts of the world and may require U.S. military intervention to ensure global markets don’t become destabilized.
Gen. Christopher Cavoli, commander of all U.S. Army forces in Europe and Africa, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that groups including the Islamic State, al-Shabab and Boko Haram stand to benefit from food shortages resulting from the war. Those groups, he said, “feed on weak governance and food insecurity and corruption and poverty.”
Ukraine is the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil, the fourth largest exporter of corn, and the fifth largest exporter of wheat. Western officials have accused Moscow of using food as a form of blackmail.
Read the full story here.
The American general slated to become NATO’s next supreme allied commander warned Thursday that Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain exports could enable terrorist networks in other parts of the world and may require U.S. military intervention to ensure global markets don’t become destabilized.
Gen. Christopher Cavoli, commander of all U.S. Army forces in Europe and Africa, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that groups including the Islamic State, al-Shabab and Boko Haram stand to benefit from food shortages resulting from the war. Those groups, he said, “feed on weak governance and food insecurity and corruption and poverty.”
Ukraine is the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil, the fourth largest exporter of corn, and the fifth largest exporter of wheat. Western officials have accused Moscow of using food as a form of blackmail.
Read the full story here.
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Russia has incited genocide in Ukraine, independent experts conclude
Russia is responsible for inciting genocide and perpetrating atrocities that show an “intent to destroy” the Ukrainian people, a new legal analysis signed by more than 30 independent experts concluded.
The report, published Friday by the Washington-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, also concludes that there is “serious risk of genocide in Ukraine,” and that states have a legal obligation to prevent genocide from occurring.
It cited denials from high-level Russian officials and state media commentators of the existence of a distinct Ukrainian identity, and dehumanizing claims that Ukrainians are Nazis and “are therefore deserving of punishment.” The report also points to Russian authorities’ rewarding soldiers suspected of mass killings in Ukraine, among other evidence.
Read the full story here.
Russia is responsible for inciting genocide and perpetrating atrocities that show an “intent to destroy” the Ukrainian people, a new legal analysis signed by more than 30 independent experts concluded.
The report, published Friday by the Washington-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, also concludes that there is “serious risk of genocide in Ukraine,” and that states have a legal obligation to prevent genocide from occurring.
It cited denials from high-level Russian officials and state media commentators of the existence of a distinct Ukrainian identity, and dehumanizing claims that Ukrainians are Nazis and “are therefore deserving of punishment.” The report also points to Russian authorities’ rewarding soldiers suspected of mass killings in Ukraine, among other evidence.
Read the full story here.
U.S. is preparing to send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine
The Biden administration is preparing to send advanced long-range rocket systems to Ukraine as the country suffers losses in the east from advancing Russian forces, said U.S. administration and congressional staffers.
The move, which could be announced as early as next week, involves the provision of the Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS, a U.S. weapon capable of firing a torrent of rockets many miles farther than current Ukrainian capabilities.
The rocket system has been a top request from Ukrainian officials who say it is necessary to curb the advance of Russian forces, which claimed full control of the strategic eastern city of Lyman on Friday, handing Moscow another victory in its offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Read the full story here.
The Biden administration is preparing to send advanced long-range rocket systems to Ukraine as the country suffers losses in the east from advancing Russian forces, said U.S. administration and congressional staffers.
The move, which could be announced as early as next week, involves the provision of the Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS, a U.S. weapon capable of firing a torrent of rockets many miles farther than current Ukrainian capabilities.
The rocket system has been a top request from Ukrainian officials who say it is necessary to curb the advance of Russian forces, which claimed full control of the strategic eastern city of Lyman on Friday, handing Moscow another victory in its offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Read the full story here.
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Here is the latest from Ukraine.
- President Biden accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “trying to wipe out the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people” in a speech to the U.S. Naval Academy’s graduating class on Friday.
- Russian forces control more than 95 percent of the Luhansk oblast, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
- The port of Mariupol will reopen to incoming ships by the end of the month, a Russia-backed separatist leader said Friday.
- While Russian forces have made some gains in their attempt to entrap key areas in eastern Ukraine, several decisions revealed “tactical failures,” Britain’s Defense Ministry said Friday. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for sending more weapons to Ukraine, including multiple launch rocket systems.
More live updates here.
- President Biden accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “trying to wipe out the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people” in a speech to the U.S. Naval Academy’s graduating class on Friday.
- Russian forces control more than 95 percent of the Luhansk oblast, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
- The port of Mariupol will reopen to incoming ships by the end of the month, a Russia-backed separatist leader said Friday.
- While Russian forces have made some gains in their attempt to entrap key areas in eastern Ukraine, several decisions revealed “tactical failures,” Britain’s Defense Ministry said Friday. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for sending more weapons to Ukraine, including multiple launch rocket systems.
More live updates here.
Here's the latest on key battlegrounds in Ukraine:
Severodonetsk: Serhiy Haidai, the Luhansk regional governor, said in a Friday interview with local media that Russian forces have not yet encircled Severodonetsk. But they have gained control of a hotel just inside a main ring road near the city’s bus station and are clashing with Ukrainian troops on the city outskirts, officials said.
Lyman: Russia-backed separatist forces claimed full control of this strategically important city near a major highway in Luhansk. Ukrainian defense authorities said they are still fighting for control in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the city.
Kharkiv: As life inside bombed-out Kharkiv gradually returns to normal, the ISW said fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the city’s northeast is static.
Mariupol: A port in this southern Ukrainian city will reopen at the end of May to receive inbound ships, according to a Russia-backed separatist leader.
More live updates here.
Severodonetsk: Serhiy Haidai, the Luhansk regional governor, said in a Friday interview with local media that Russian forces have not yet encircled Severodonetsk. But they have gained control of a hotel just inside a main ring road near the city’s bus station and are clashing with Ukrainian troops on the city outskirts, officials said.
Lyman: Russia-backed separatist forces claimed full control of this strategically important city near a major highway in Luhansk. Ukrainian defense authorities said they are still fighting for control in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the city.
Kharkiv: As life inside bombed-out Kharkiv gradually returns to normal, the ISW said fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the city’s northeast is static.
Mariupol: A port in this southern Ukrainian city will reopen at the end of May to receive inbound ships, according to a Russia-backed separatist leader.
More live updates here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday pledged to continue fighting for the eastern region of Donbas, where Russian forces have taken more territory in recent days. The Kremlin has claimed the strategically important city of Lyman and a regional governor said that a retreat was possible to avoid being encircled in Severodonetsk, where fighting continues on the city’s outskirts.
- The Pentagon compared the Donbas clashes to a “knife fight” and noted that control of territory there shifted rapidly. Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said Friday that Russia has improved its control of its supply lines.
- In a Friday virtual meeting with foreign allies, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed the importance of working closely to counteract Western sanctions. The country’s finance minister said perhaps $120 billion in budget stimulus would be needed to sustain the war effort, according to Reuters.
More live updates here.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday pledged to continue fighting for the eastern region of Donbas, where Russian forces have taken more territory in recent days. The Kremlin has claimed the strategically important city of Lyman and a regional governor said that a retreat was possible to avoid being encircled in Severodonetsk, where fighting continues on the city’s outskirts.
- The Pentagon compared the Donbas clashes to a “knife fight” and noted that control of territory there shifted rapidly. Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said Friday that Russia has improved its control of its supply lines.
- In a Friday virtual meeting with foreign allies, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed the importance of working closely to counteract Western sanctions. The country’s finance minister said perhaps $120 billion in budget stimulus would be needed to sustain the war effort, according to Reuters.
More live updates here.