Tag Archives: Russia-Ukraine

World

Brace for More Strikes Inside Russia

Leave a comment

Russian President Vladimir Putin should brace for more attacks inside of his country in the new year, Ukraine’s top military intelligence official warned in an interview that aired Wednesday.

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s chief military intelligence official, said there will be strikes “deeper and deeper” inside Russia in an interview with ABC News. But he didn’t clarify whether Ukraine would be behind the upcoming attacks.

His word of warning comes just weeks after blasts rang out on Russia’s Engels air base and Dyagilevo base in the Ryazan region, attacks which Russia and others widely attributed to Ukraine. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Budanov said he was “glad to see” the attack on Engels.

The series of blasts rattled some Russian officials, raising alarm about whether Ukraine has become emboldened to inflict damage inside Russia proper as Putin’s war nears its one year mark. It’s also raising questions about whether Russia is capable of thwarting Ukrainian strikes at all.

The prospect that Ukraine may be willing to expand its arsenal of attacks inside Russian territory in the coming days could mark a new arc in the war—with Ukraine taking more brazen actions against Russia and Russia on its backfoot.

Budanov’s warning comes as Russia grapples with a series of military failures inside Ukraine. An attack against a building in Russian-held Makiivka inside Ukraine that killed dozens of Russian soldiers has left the Kremlin scrambling to find a scapegoat, including Russian troops’ cellphone use. And following counteroffensives from Ukraine, Russian troops have withdrawn from multiple regions within Ukraine in recent months. Meanwhile, Russia’s military has been grappling with a host of internal problems, from logistics issues to infighting.

Both Russian and Ukrainian forces continue to wage assaults against one another. But Russian forces have begun shifting some of their forces away from Bakhmut, after failing to seize the city for months, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Ukrainian forces continue to work to strike Russian military logistics in Luhansk, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Ukrainian aviation on Wednesday carried out 17 strikes against the Russians, as well as four strikes against Russian anti-aircraft missile complexes, according to a brief from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Ukraine is working to bolster its ability to take on Russia in the new year in other ways. The country has launched a military psychological training program to train troops to intervene with their comrades when they freeze up due to combat stress, the military psychologist in charge of the program told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview. The hope is that the program will lead to more victories against Russia by building up more resilience amongst Ukrainian forces.

Budanov’s warnings about attacks within Russia may also be an attempt to prove a point to Russians that Ukraine has the moral high ground, according to Jay Truesdale, a former U.S. diplomat who has served in both Russia and Ukraine.

“What Ukraine would seek to demonstrate is that it is fighting a more just war—not only a war to defend its own sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also with means that are differentiated from Russia, which is attacking civilian targets,” Truesdale told The Daily Beast. “There is one consistent element among the attacks that have occurred on Russian soil or in Crimea—attributed to Ukraine by Russian government officials, Russian bloggers, or non-government Ukrainians—and that’s that they’ve targeted military facilities or facilities that could have a military purpose, such as supply depots. In other words, the common denominator is that these all could be considered legitimate military targets.”

Attacking inside of Russian territory could raise questions about whether Russia may escalate the war with nuclear weapons to respond. Russian authorities have warned that attacks against Russia will warrant harsh responses. After an attack on the Kerch bridge to Crimea, the peninsula which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Putin himself warned that Russia would not hold back.

“If attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, Russia’s responses will be harsh and, in terms of their scale, will correspond to the level of threats posed,” Putin said in October. “It is simply impossible to leave crimes of this kind unanswered.”

And while Russia began launching assaults against civilian infrastructure in October, cutting off civilians from water and heat, after several attacks and explosions in Crimea, Russia has still not resorted to nuclear weapons.

There are other signs that Russia may not be willing or capable of dramatic escalation. Russia’s military posture has become so degraded throughout the war in Ukraine that its ability to respond forcibly or in an escalatory way is diminishing by the day, said Truesdale, now CEO of Veracity Worldwide, a political risk consultancy. As of last month, Russia only maintained enough missiles in its arsenal to conduct three to five more waves of missiles strikes against Ukraine, according to Vadym Skibitsky, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

“It will be difficult for Putin to dramatically escalate even though such a step would be consistent with Russia’s military doctrine. The Kremlin has put itself in a difficult position by deploying so much of its high-powered weaponry to attack civilian infrastructure, thereby reducing resources available to escalate in a conventional sense,” Truesdale said.

“If Ukraine conducts and then admits to a greater number of strikes on Russian territory, this could indicate a new chapter in the war. It would suggest Ukraine believes it has the means and the need to put more pressure on the Russian government,” Truesdale said, adding that, “If Ukraine begins to admit to conducting attacks on Russian territory, this may only be an acknowledgement of the multifaceted way in which Ukraine has been fighting.”

Read original article here

World

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Has Forever How the World Does Science

Leave a comment

Last week, 10 months after Russia invaded his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an uncertain trip to Washington, D.C. to ask the U.S. for additional aid to finally end the conflict—which continues to stoke fears over environmental catastrophe in the wake of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, as well as Russian threats over the use of nuclear weapons. Among other measures, Zelensky asked the U.S. to “strengthen tariffs” against Russia, and render the war financially unsustainable. This would particularly affect areas of science and technology research where Russia has traditionally excelled, including physics, space exploration and climate science.

But despite widespread Western support for Ukraine, it has proven difficult to disentangle U.S. scientific and technical collaborations with Russia. In many cases, resistance is coming from American scientists themselves, who argue that theirs and their colleagues’ work is too important and urgent to disrupt, particularly surrounding climate change research as global warming accelerates.

Days before Zelensky’s speech, an editorial published in Nature magazine urged that science not be treated like a “diplomatic pawn,” and the war “must not become a barrier to countries working together” on to tackle pressing scientific issues such as climate change. Physicist Michael Riordan from the University of California, Santa Cruz espoused a similar sentiment in The New York Times back in late August, proclaiming, “I’m a physicist who doesn’t want Russia to leave the world of science.”

Others see things differently. “During the Cold War, Russia was a science powerhouse,” Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academies of Sciences in the U.S., told The Daily Beast. “But since the fall of the Soviet Union Russian science has not been as strong. When you look at the big issues of the day, like gene editing, I just don’t see Russia as being in the forefront.”

At the same time as Russia’s scientific contributions have weakened, Ukraine has risen up as a leader in science in Eastern Europe and former Soviet states, particularly in areas of agriculture research and nuclear power.

When Russia first invaded Ukraine last February 24, Europe responded swiftly to cut ties with Russia, and that included science and tech endeavors. Germany announced that it was ending all scientific collaborations with Russia the very next day, and other European Union member nations soon followed with similar comprehensive bans. CERN, a multinational particle physics lab in Switzerland and home to the famed Large Hadron Collider, suspended Russian membership in early March, as did the European Space Agency and the Max Planck Institute. ESA’s actions were particularly consequential, as its joint Mars rover mission with Russia is now in complete limbo for the time being.

“When you look at the big issues of the day, like gene editing, I just don’t see Russia as being in the forefront.”

— Marcia McNutt, National Academies of Sciences

In contrast, the U.S. scientific community’s response has proceeded somewhat unevenly. The Biden administration remained silent on the status of U.S.-Russia collaborations until June. That month, they announced that the U.S. would start to “wind down,” all current federally funded research projects partnering with Russia, and prohibited new projects.

“Considering the war crimes and other atrocities Russia has perpetrated it was very important for us to make an unequivocal statement of support for Ukraine,” a government official who was involved in the discussions but has since moved to another job in the administration, told The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity.

“But at the same time,” the official said, “we acknowledge there is a strategic need to engage with Russia” in order to avert the kind of global destruction that loomed over the Cold War.

Since the beginning of the war Russia has targeted Ukraine’s scientific infrastructure. Ukraine’s Institute of Physics and Technology in Kharkiv has been heavily damaged by Russian bombs. At Chernobyl and other nuclear power plants and research facilities, Russian troops have looted or destroyed millions of dollars worth of high-tech equipment and computers. At least 20 Ukrainian universities have been completely destroyed.

To keep the war from sliding into a full destruction of Ukraine’s higher education institutions and a potential nuclear disaster, the Biden administration has refrained from cutting scientific ties to Russia completely—a policy formulated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which advises the president on all matters related to science and technology. The four month gap between the invasion and policy announcement was likely “a reflection of the nature of U.S. scientific enterprise” and the “decentralized research community,” in the U.S., the government official said.

Culturally, the science community has always been more immune from international schisms that characterize many other fields of work. For many scientists, there’s resistance to having to cut off access and partnerships with groups because of a war. One of CERN’s mottos, for example, is “science for peace.”

“There’s ample evidence that many Russian scientists want no part of Putin’s war. We want to ensure that those individuals have a clear pathway to engage with us or leave Russia if they so choose,” the official said.

“Many of the people that we talk with know each other, or work with each other in one form or another for years or decades. They are friends.”

— Raymond Jeanloz, University of California, Berkeley

“Within the scientific community there are mixed feelings and a variety of views about what is the appropriate response,” Raymond Jeanloz, a professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, told The Daily Beast. “Many of the people that we talk with know each other, or work with each other in one form or another for years or decades. They are friends.” Jeanloz is also the chair of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control at the National Academy of Sciences, a private, non-profit, non-governmental organization funded primarily by federal grants. Its research is used to inform the OSTP.

A prevalent opinion is that it is not fair to judge individual scientists based on the actions of their government. Indeed several thousand Russian scientists signed a letter denouncing the invasion soon after it happened.

But Russian science is inextricably tied to the Russian government. The majority of the country’s scientists are at least partially funded by the Russian government.

And in September, the election for leadership of the Russian Academy of Sciences showed evidence of state meddling: The incumbent president withdrew his candidacy the day before the election, in what he called a “forced decision.” Gennady Krasnikov, the head of Mikron, Russia’s largest chipmaker, was elected instead.

The Biden administration imposed sanctions on Mikron back in April, in a broad panel of sanctions against the aerospace, marine and electronics sectors in Russia. Another round of sanctions in August targeted the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, or Skoltech, founded in 2011 as a partnership with the Massachusetts Institutes of Technology to build out a Russian version of Silicon Valley. MIT announced it was shutting down the $3 billion partnership back in February—the day after the invasion.

On Earth—and Above It

Climate change research is an area where Russia’s contributions will be difficult, if not impossible to replace. The vast majority of the world’s permafrost, which scientists track to measure the rate of global warming, is in Russia. Russia currently chairs the Arctic Council, a consortium of eight nations that promotes cooperation on climate change research. At dozens of research stations in Russia, international teams of scientists collect permafrost samples by drilling boreholes in the earth.

Soon after the invasion started, the seven other members of the Arctic Council, which includes the U.S., halted their participation in the council. They have since resumed research without Russia. Some of the research has been transferred to Canada and Greenland, which are home to permafrost reserves of their own. But that still paints an incomplete picture, and may not accurately reflect what is happening to permafrost in Russia—a big problem when one degree of change can throw off the entire model.

“It’s the difference between ice and water,” said Brendan Kelly, a professor of marine biology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and a member of the International Arctic Research Center. “Not being able to involve [Russia] is a significant detriment. It will be a big loss to us as we are trying to understand on a pan-Arctic scale what is happening in the Arctic.”

“Not being able to involve [Russia] is a significant detriment. It will be a big loss to us as we are trying to understand on a pan-Arctic scale what is happening in the Arctic.”

— Brendan Kelly, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

Russians have been massive contributors to climate knowledge, Kelly said. But at the same time, they “haven’t been the best team player in terms of data sharing.” That has been an issue going back decades, according to Kelly.

In other areas of science, a clean breakup is near-impossible. Perhaps the quintessential example is the International Space Station—a collaboration between the U.S., Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency, the first piece of which launched in 1998. The ISS literally cannot operate without both Russia and the U.S., which supply propulsion and power, respectively. Scientists on the station conduct experiments primarily to see how things function in microgravity, to prepare for long-term space flight. For decades, it has been lauded as an example of international cooperation, between parties that don’t always share the same goals in other areas of geopolitics. And the lives of the astronauts on board the ISS has always required both countries’ space programs to insulate themselves from deteriorating relations in other areas.

But that insulation has eroded as the invasion has progressed. In July, Russian cosmonauts on the ISS staged a picture in which they held up Russian and anti-Ukranian flags in an episode of propaganda that drew “strong rebuke,” from NASA. That month Russia announced that it planned to withdraw from the ISS in order to focus on building its own structure, but later walked that back and confirmed its participation until 2028 (a few years before the station’s formal shutdown in 2031.)

And in September, NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, collaborated to send astronaut Frank Rubio and two cosmonauts to ISS on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, launched from Kazakhstan.

Good Substitutions

Ultimately, there is no easy action that can satisfy all parties involved. “Obviously the war is obscene,” Kelly added. “It’s a devastating humanitarian crisis. But we also have a crisis with the climate, and not being able to advance our understanding of where the climate is headed is going to cost human lives and human wellbeing in the long run. I don’t know how to divide the baby here. It’s not an easy call.”

As of now, the total destruction in Ukraine is vast. Nearly 7,000 Ukrainian civilians have died since the start of the war, according to the U.N. And Ukraine’s scientific infrastructure and nuclear power plants continue to be under threat from Russian forces.

“I don’t know how to divide the baby here. It’s not an easy call.”

— Brendan Kelly, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

While many American scientists are hoping the conflict ends soon and they can return to somewhat normalized relations with their Russian counterparts, others consider the war to be an inflection point that could—and should—encourage the West to rethink its scientific partnerships across the board.

Some even think Ukraine itself could help fill the void left behind by Russia. To that end, the NAS has set up a sort of exchange program setting up displaced Ukrainian scientists with positions in Western universities and research institutions.

“Ukraine needs its researchers in order to rebuild. Russia has experienced significantly less damage from this war,” McNutt said. We’re not talking about needing to rebuild Russia.”

Read original article here

World

Focus on New Delhi’s role as Jaishankar heads to Moscow

Leave a comment

AMID THE Russia-Ukraine conflict, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is headed to Moscow on Monday for a bilateral visit.

Most of his meetings are scheduled on Tuesday, including a bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry, Denis Manturov. There is no word yet on a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but it cannot be ruled out.

Jaishankar’s visit assumes significance as it comes days before the G-20 summit in Bali, scheduled for November 15-16. This will be the first time since the war broke out in Ukraine that Putin and the western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, will be in the same room.

Jaishankar’s trip is being seen as a key moment, where Delhi is being billed as a potential negotiator between the two sides. He had last visited Moscow in July 2021.

It is learnt that India has intervened quietly in the past few months, when there has been a deadlock. In July, India had weighed in with Russia on the grain shipment from ports in the Black Sea.

Much of these messages have been delivered quietly, and Delhi is positioning itself as a player with credibility on both sides. But, that has not always worked.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had offered assistance on peace talks in a call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month. But, Zelenskyy spurned the offer, according to the report.

The report said that according to a statement released by Zelensky’s office, “Zelensky told him Ukraine would not conduct any negotiations with Putin but said Ukraine was committed to peaceful settlement through dialogue”. The statement noted that Russia had deliberately undermined efforts at dialogue, it said.

But, as the winter approaches in the conflict zone, there is a sense that both sides would want a ceasefire before early next year, when they can regroup and resume the conflict. Many view this as a potential opportunity for a ceasefire, and Delhi could be a broker between the two sides.

For Delhi, the bilateral aspect is key. This is the first winter in the last three years, when Russian military supply lines are under strain due to the ongoing eight-month-old war in Ukraine, and, simultaneously, Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a border standoff in eastern Ladakh.

For India, which is dependent on Russia for its defence supplies, this is the most important pillar of the relationship.

The new element is the energy relationship, as Russia is reported to have become India’s largest supplier of crude oil in October 2022 as refiners stepped up the purchase of discounted seaborne oil. This has added a new element in the ties with Moscow, which has not gone down well with Ukraine as well as the Western partners.

Jaishankar’s visit is expected to look at this aspect as well, and officials said this will be part of his conversation with Manturov, his counterpart for the India Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation, the IRIGC-TEC.

“Issues pertaining to bilateral economic cooperation obviously, in various domains, will be discussed,” MEA’s official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday, ahead of the visit.

What is also significant is that it is Modi’s turn to visit Russia this year, and if a possible visit takes place next month, Jaishankar will be there to lay the groundwork.

In the run-up to Jaishankar’s visit, Putin has been effusive about Modi and India. He had praised India by calling its citizens “talented” and “driven”, a week after he showered praises on Modi and called him a “true patriot”.



Read original article here

World

Vladimir Putin Just Seized One-Fifth of Ukraine But Biden’s Still Betting Sanctions Can Stop Him

Leave a comment

Faced with mounting economic costs from sanctions on the Russian government and increasingly explicit nuclear threats from the Kremlin, the Biden administration still believes that a war of attrition is the only way to beat Vladimir Putin.

The newest tranche of sanctions punishing Russia for its illegal annexation of four Ukrainian provinces won’t turn the tide in the war, administration officials said on Friday, but are the safest way to continue backing the Ukrainian resistance without risking direct American involvement.

“The sanctions element of our strategy, the economic pressure that we are placing on Russia, and the denial of their ability to gather what they need to be able to regenerate their war machine, this has been a critical element to how we have prosecuted our strategy so far,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters in the White House briefing room. “The impacts of it will continue to be felt month on month as we go forward and put us in a stronger position, and Russia in a more disadvantaged position.”

Sullivan’s remarks came hours after the Commerce, State and Treasury departments announced new economic, diplomatic and financial actions against Russia and its leadership in response to Putin’s announcement on Friday morning that four Ukrainian provinces are now Russian territory.

“People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are becoming our citizens. Forever,” Putin said in a speech from the Kremlin on Friday morning, naming the four Ukrainian provinces, which make up nearly one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory. The annexation—which is illegal under international law and was met with a range of sanctions, visa restrictions and other economic measures by allied governments around the world—was widely expected by U.S. officials in the months leading up to Putin’s announcement, though the debate over the Biden administration’s response was a matter of internal dispute.

“That’s a B.S. answer. There is no more apt time to support fast-tracking NATO membership than when half the country has been stolen.”

“What is a proportionate response to the illegal seizure of one-fifth of an ally’s territory?” one senior U.S. official told The Daily Beast before a series of sham elections in the occupied provinces that were used to justify Putin’s annexation address. “Russia waited seven years after annexing Crimea to mount another pretext-less invasion of Ukraine—without a proportionate response, whatever that looks like, there is no disincentive to discourage them from another invasion seven years from now.”

In the first hours after the annexation, the administration’s counteroffensive was focused primarily on the economic front: sanctions against the head of Russia’s central bank, more than two hundred members of Russia’s Federal Assembly, and on companies that feed Russia’s military supply chains.

“These sanctions will impose costs on individuals and entities—inside and outside of Russia—that provide political or economic support to illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “We will rally the international community to both denounce these moves and to hold Russia accountable.”

Despite those measures, the debate over a proportionate response continues, with some senior State Department officials pushing for the U.S. to more aggressively back Ukraine’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a proposal Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for and which Sullivan sidestepped.

“The best way for us to support Ukraine is through practical on-the-ground support in Ukraine,” Sullivan said, adding that the question of hastening Ukraine’s entry into NATO’s mutual-defense pact “should be taken up at a different time.”

“That’s a B.S. answer,” one senior U.S. diplomat told The Daily Beast when sent a transcript of Sullivan’s remarks. “There is no more apt time to support fast-tracking NATO membership than when half the country has been stolen.”

The U.S. support for Ukraine’s resistance is not entirely in the form of punitive measures taken against the Kremlin, of course. Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced an additional $1.1 billion in additional security assistance for the country, which includes artillery rocket systems, armored vehicles, drones and body armor, and Biden on Friday signed a stopgap spending bill that included nearly $12 billion in additional aid for Ukraine.

But while limited military assistance for Ukraine has helped Kyiv make major gains in Eastern Ukraine against Russian forces, one national security official said, the White House and National Security Council are constantly aware that backing Putin into too tight a corner risks provoking increasingly desperate counter-responses.

“There are two apex priorities: 1) support Ukraine’s attempts to expel Russian forces and reclaim its occupied territory; and 2) do not do so in a way that sparks World War III,” the official said. “Those two priorities are not in definitional conflict, but the margin is narrowing.”

One need only look at the apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, the official said, as an indicator of how far Putin may go as the invasion falters and inexperienced Russian conscripts replace tens of thousands of dead soldiers on the front. The pipelines, which were discovered on Monday to have massive leaks of methane gas following underwater explosions, supplied nearly 20 percent of Europe’s natural gas before the invasion.

The threat of continued implausibly deniable sabotage is far from the topmost concern, however. That would be Putin’s increasingly explicit threats of nuclear war in the event that Russian territory—which now includes much of Eastern Ukraine, at least in the Kremlin’s eyes—is threatened.

Biden called the leaks a “deliberate act of sabotage,” although he later hedged on directly blaming the Russian government for an attack on the pipeline. “At the appropriate moment when things calm down, we’re gonna send the divers down to find out exactly what happened.”

Read original article here

Entertainment

Pink Floyd Founder Cancels Poland Gigs After Blaming Ukrainian ‘Nationalists’ for War

Leave a comment

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has pulled out of shows in Poland after facing backlash for his attacks on Ukraine in an open letter to the country’s first lady. “Roger Waters’ manager decided to withdraw … without giving any reason,” an official with the Tauron Arena Krakow said about Waters’ two concerts, which were scheduled for April. Earlier this month, Waters penned a letter to Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, insisting that “extreme nationalists” in her country have set it on a “path to this disastrous war” and slamming “Washington DC” for getting involved. Krakow officials were set to cast votes next week on whether the artist should be “persona non grata” in light of his comments on Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

Read it at AP

Read original article here

US

Russia Launches Deadly Missile Attack on Kyiv as G7 Leaders Watch from Germany

Leave a comment

Russian missiles descended upon Kyiv early Sunday, killing one person and injuring four—including a 7-year-old girl—in the largest attack on the Ukrainian capital in weeks. The missiles hurled toward the city around dawn, according to The Wall Street Journal, with one hitting a residential building, resulting in the casualties. Another landed in an empty kindergarten playground, while Ukrainian forces managed to strike down one on Kyiv’s outskirts. The attack came as G7 leaders met in Germany to discuss further punishments against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden said the attacks were further indicative of Russia’s “barbarism” throughout the war.

Read it at The Wall Street Journal

Read original article here

World

U.S. Targeting Intelligence Is Helping Ukraine Find Russian Generals to Kill, Officials Say

Leave a comment

It turns out that one reason Ukraine has killed a dozen Russian generals already while trying to repel Russia’s invasion is that the United States is providing it with real-time targeting intel to do just that, U.S. officials told The New York Times. “The United States has focused on providing the location and other details about the Russian military’s mobile headquarters, which relocate frequently,” the paper reported. The officials wouldn’t say how many generals they helped Ukraine target, doing so in secret to this point “out of fear it will be seen as an escalation and provoke President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia into a wider war,” according to the Times, but they did say that they were not involved in the killing of Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s highest-ranking uniformed officer, telling the paper that “The United States prohibits itself from providing intelligence about the most senior Russian leaders.” One drone that the U.S. is now providing, the story notes, “can be used to identify and kill individual soldiers, and could take out a general sitting in a vehicle or giving orders on a front line.” The officials quoted in the story all spoke anonymously, while a Pentagon spokesman said that “we will not speak to the details of that information” while acknowledging that the U.S. is presenting “Ukraine with information and intelligence that they can use to defend themselves.”

Read it at The New York Times

Read original article here

World

Former MSNBC Analyst Malcolm Nance Malcolm Nance Leaves Network To Join the Fight in Ukraine

Leave a comment

Newly departed MSNBC foreign policy analyst Malcolm Nance revealed Monday evening that he is on the ground in Ukraine fighting the invading Russian forces.

Nance, a retired Naval intelligence officer, told Joy Reid on The ReidOut that he had joined the country’s international legion about a month ago.

“The more I saw of the war going on, the more I thought, ‘I’m done talking, all right? It’s time to take action here,’” said Nance, suited up in a flak jacket and carrying an assault rifle. “I am here to help this country fight … what essentially is a war of extermination. This is an existential war and Russia has brought it to these people and they are mass murdering civilians, and there are people here like me who are here to do something about it.”

Nance, the executive director of a think tank called the Terror Asymmetrics Project, was asked if the fact that he is a foreigner “poses any special danger” to others there like himself.

“No, it doesn’t, because the war that’s being waged here is being waged against everybody,” Nance said. “[The Russians] are not going around hunting for American flag patches or to see who’s Black, who’s Asian, who’s Latino.”

Speaking to The Daily Beast on Monday evening from a secure outpost in Ukraine, Nance said he was “touched” when he first met his platoon.

“The international legion is one of the best-kept secrets in the country. That’s the story. They were higher-level people than I am. Most journalists have never seen an actual member or been following freelancers all over the battlefield. I really can’t tell you how diverse a group it really is. It is literally a multinational force of men and women who are here to defend Ukraine,” the U.S. Navy veteran told The Daily Beast. “I was very touched when I met the first platoon and saw they were here for the right reasons.”

“They were not here just to get guns,” he noted.

An MSNBC spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Nance is no longer an analyst for the network now that he has joined the international legion.

At one point during the MSNBC interview, Nance made a direct appeal to President Joe Biden for “heavy weapons.”

“Russia has one advantage on the battlefield and that is long range artillery,” said Nance.

“Let me say something to the president of the United States: Give [Ukraine] counter battery long range artillery—multiple rocket launch systems… to out-range the artillery. If you do that, you stop the attacks on civilians because that’s what they’re doing with the artillery.”

During his time in the Navy, Nance, who also speaks fluent Arabic, served as an intelligence collections operator and later wrote the book Defeating ISIS: Who They Are, How They Fight, What They Believe, which examined the influence of the terrorist group.

Read original article here

US

Moskva, the Russian Warship That Was Told to ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ by Ukrainian Soldiers, Is Badly Damaged

Leave a comment

A Russian navy cruiser that was infamously cursed out by a brave Ukrainian soldier at the start of the war has been “badly damaged,” according to the Russian defense ministry. But just how Russia’s most powerful battleship—the Slava-class cruiser Moskva—was crippled remains unclear. Russia has claimed ammunition on the ship blew up, forcing the crew to evacuate, while a Ukrainian official previously pinned the damage on two missiles. The cruiser, part of Russia’s fleet in the Black Sea, was at the center of a now-infamous moment of heroism by Ukrainian border guards on Snake Island who bravely told the warship to “Go fuck yourself” when it told them to surrender in February. A recording of the soldier’s words instantly went viral.

Read it at Reuters

Read original article here

World

Russia-Ukraine: What to know as Russia attacks Ukraine

Leave a comment

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Russian troops launched a broad assault on Ukraine from three sides Thursday, an attack that brought explosions before dawn to the country’s capital, Kyiv, and other cities.

Ukraine’s leadership said at least 40 people had been killed so far in what it called a “full-scale war” targeting the country from the east, north and south. It said Russia’s intent was to destroy the state of Ukraine, a Western-looking democracy intent on moving out of Moscow’s orbit.

As civilians piled into trains and cars to flee, NATO and European leaders rushed to respond, if not directly in Ukraine, with strong financial sanctions against Russia and moves to strengthen their own borders.

Here are the things to know about the conflict over Ukraine and the security crisis in Eastern Europe:

PUTIN MAKES HIS MOVE

In a televised address as the attack began, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists have been fighting for almost eight years.

The U.S. had predicted Putin would falsely claim that the rebel-held regions were under attack to justify an invasion.

The Russian leader warned other countries that any attempt to interfere in Ukraine would “lead to consequences you have never seen in history” — a dark threat implying Russia was prepared to use its nuclear weapons.

Putin accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russia’s demands to block Ukraine from ever joining NATO and offer Moscow security guarantees.

Putin said Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine but plans to “demilitarize” it. Soon after his address, explosions were heard in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa. Russia said it was attacking military targets.

He urged Ukrainian servicemen to “immediately put down arms and go home.”

Ukraine’s border guard agency said the Russian military attacked from neighboring Belarus, unleashing a barrage of artillery. The agency said Ukrainian border guards fired back. Russian troops had been in Belarus, a Moscow ally, for what Russian and Belarusian officials had described as joint military drills.

THE WEST REACTS QUICKLY

World leaders decried the start of an invasion that could cause massive casualties, topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government and threaten the post-Cold War balance.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called Russia’s attack “a brutal act of war” and said Moscow had shattered peace on the European continent.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin “has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering.”

In Lithuania, a small Baltic nation and NATO member that borders Russia’s Kaliningrad region to the southwest, Belarus to the east, Latvia to the north and Poland to the south. President Gitanas Nauseda signed a decree declaring a state of emergency. The country’s parliament was expected to approve the measure later in the day.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Putin has “unleashed war in our European continent” and Britain “cannot and will not just look away.”

“Our mission is clear: diplomatically, politically, economically and eventually militarily, this hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure,” Johnson said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sharply condemned Russia’s attack, calling it “a terrible day for Ukraine and a dark day for Europe.”

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said: “This Russian invasion stands to put at risk the basic principle of international order that forbids one-sided action of force in an attempt to change the status quo.”

UKRAINE’S PRESIDENT URGES CALM

Residents of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, could be heard shouting in the streets when the first explosions sounded. Cars nonetheless circulated in the streets during the early morning commute.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a video statement declaring martial law. He told Ukrainians that the United States was gathering international support to respond to Russia. He urged residents to remain calm and to stay at home.

Zelenskyy had repeatedly appealed to Putin in recent days to pursue a diplomatic path instead of taking military action. He urged world leaders Thursday to provide defense assistance and help protect Ukraine’s airspace from Russia

Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential adviser, said fighting was taking place Thursday along practically the entire perimeter of the country’s border.

WORLD MARKETS FALL

World stock markets plunged and oil prices surged by nearly $6 per barrel after Putin launched Russian military action in Ukraine.

Market benchmarks tumbled in Europe and Asia and U.S. futures were sharply lower. Brent crude oil jumped to over $100 per barrel Thursday on unease about possible disruption of Russian supplies.

The ruble sank 7.5% to more than $87 to the U.S. dollar. Earlier, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index fell 1.8% to an eight-month low after the Kremlin said rebels in eastern Ukraine asked for military assistance.

PUTIN’S DECLARATION OVERTAKES EMERGENCY U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL SESSION

At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council called by Ukraine that opened just before Putin’s announcement, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Putin: “Stop your troops from attacking Ukraine. Give peace a chance. Too many people have already died.”

Guterres later pleaded with Putin, “In the name of humanity, bring your troops back to Russia.”

WHEN WILL THE WEST IMPOSE MORE SANCTIONS?

Ukraine’s forces are no match for Moscow’s military might, so Kyiv is counting on other countries to hit Russia hard — with sanctions.

Biden on Wednesday allowed sanctions to move forward against the company that built the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and against the company’s CEO.

Biden waived sanctions last year when the project was almost completed, in return for an agreement from Germany to take action against Russia if it used gas as a weapon or attacked Ukraine. Germany said Tuesday it was indefinitely suspending the pipeline.

Biden said more sanctions would be announced on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the European Union planned the “strongest, the harshest package” ever, to be considered at a summit on Thursday, according to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

“A major nuclear power has attacked a neighbor country and is threatening reprisals of any other states that may come to the rescue,” Borrell said.

“This is not only the greatest violation of international law, it’s a violation of the basic principles of human co-existence. It’s costing many lives with unknown consequences ahead of us. The European Union will respond in the strongest possible terms.”

WHAT SANCTIONS WERE UNDER U.S. CONSIDERATION IF RUSSIA INVADED?

The Biden administration had made clear it was holding tough financial penalties in reserve in case of just such a Russian invasion.

The U.S. hasn’t specified just what measures it will take now, although administration officials have made clear that all-out sanctions against Russia’s major banks are among the likely options. So are export limits that would deny Russia U.S. high tech for its industries and military.

Another tough measure under consideration would effectively shut Russia out of much of the global financial system.

___

CHINA’S SUPPORT FOR RUSSIA

China’s customs agency on Thursday approved imports of wheat from all regions of Russia, a move that could help to reduce the impact of possible Western sanctions.

China’s populous market is a growth area for other farm goods suppliers, but Beijing had barred imports until now from Russia’s main wheat-growing areas due to concern about possible fungus and other contamination.

Russia is one of the biggest wheat producers, but its exports would be vulnerable if its foreign markets block shipments in response to its attack on Ukraine.

Thursday’s announcement said Russia would “take all measures” to prevent contamination by wheat smut fungus and would suspend exports to China if it was found.

UKRAINE SEES MORE CYBERATTACKS

The websites of Ukraine’s defense, foreign and interior ministries were unreachable or painfully slow to load Thursday morning after a punishing wave of distributed-denial-of-service attacks as Russia struck at its neighbor.

In addition to DDoS attacks on Wednesday, cybersecurity researchers said unidentified attackers had infected hundreds of computers with destructive malware, some in neighboring Latvia and Lithuania.

Officials have long expected cyberattacks to precede and accompany any Russian military incursion.

___

Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the tensions between Russia and Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Read original article here