But we don't know if there are foreigners there, covertly working with the Ukrainian army, particularly in light of the calls from Ukraine's president for foreigners to go and help. We hear from metro stations turned refuges that people are coming together to help each other. But when curfews remain in force for 36 hours, food and water starts running short. These are unpredictable, unfathomable times but I would still like to believe the answer is no - no to the bombing of Britain or any other country. Article 5 of Nato's constitution states that "an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all allies."
- There’s a lot of sanctions, and the US and its partners have only increased the pressure since.
- By the numbers, the Russian military budget is about ten times that of Ukraine.
- Rumblings of discontent over continuing Ukraine aid have been heard in some Republican quarters for months now, as well as in Eastern Europe.
- The head of the British Army said UK citizens should be "trained and equipped" to fight in a potential war with Russia, describing those living today as the "pre-war generation".
- What was meant to be a quick operation is now a protracted war that Western leaders are determined Ukraine should win.
A succession of Western leaders, including President Joe Biden, have made the complex journey to Kyiv. A year into the war, he talks of Russia fighting to defend its "historical frontiers" and "rebuilding peaceful life in Donbas and Novorossiya", spelling out that Ukraine's southern territories are part of his project, just as much as the east. A month into the invasion and his campaign goals were dramatically scaled back after a retreat from Kyiv and Chernihiv. The main goal became the "liberation of Donbas" - broadly referring to Ukraine's two industrial regions in the east of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Extent of destruction seen in Kharkiv and Kyiv
“They’re causing tremendous damage to civilian infrastructure,” said Rachel Denber, the deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch. “ https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-is-a-vacuum-bomb-ukraine.html ’re taking many, many civilian lives.” Denber pointed to the use of weapons in heavily populated areas, including those that are explicitly banned, like cluster munitions. Human Rights Watch documented their use in three residential areas in Kharkiv on February 28. “You put that in a city like Kharkiv, and if it’s a populated area, no matter what you were aiming at, no matter what the target, it’s going to hurt civilians,” she said. Russia’s invasion has the potential to set up a clash of nuclear world powers. The collective West (and specifically NATO) can count on its likely ability to contain an aggressive Russia, at least in the long run.
The plane was destroyed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the area of Liptsy, Kharkov [Kharkiv] Region, with an anti-aircraft missile system. The radar equipment of the Russian Aerospace Forces observed the launch of two Ukrainian missiles. On board the plane were six crew members, 65 Ukrainian military personnel for the exchange and three Russian military personnel accompanying them. Ukraine on Wednesday suggested Russia failed to inform it of the need to create a safe airspace after a military aircraft was downed, reportedly while carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war ahead of an exchange.
Kremlin says it'll agree to international investigation — if Kyiv admits plane attack was a crime
And once again, many analysts are warning of dire consequences for the aggressor. On February 11, British Minister of State for Europe James Cleverly predicted that a wider war in Ukraine “would be a quagmire” for Russia. In a rational cost-benefit analysis, the thinking goes, the price of a full-scale war in Ukraine would be punishingly high for the Kremlin and would entail significant bloodshed.
In turn, Putin accepts Ukrainian independence and its right to deepen ties with Europe. But it is not beyond the realms of plausibility that such a scenario could emerge from the wreckage of a bloody conflict. Russia has Europe’s largest conventional military, which it is more than ready to use. The EU’s defense policy—in contrast to NATO’s—is far from being able to provide security for its members. Thus will military reassurance, especially of the EU’s eastern members, be key. Responding to a revanchist Russia with sanctions and with the rhetorical proclamation of a rules-based international order will not be sufficient.
Russia prioritising military spending over public infrastructure
Russian energy company Novatek is likely to resume large-scale operations at its Ust-Luga processing complex and Baltic Sea terminal within weeks, following a suspected drone attack seen disrupting naphtha flows to Asia, analysts said on Monday. Ukrainian armed forces operating in the region denied they had carried out the attack, stating Sunday that they "did not conduct any combat operations with means of destruction." It's not the first time Poland, Ukraine's western neighbor, has launched military aircraft in response to a perceived threat from Russian attacks on Ukraine. Ukraine's air force said it destroyed 21 out of 41 Russian missiles launched at the country overnight in attacks that left five dead and dozens wounded. If Russian troops moved fast enough to outflank Ukraine's ground forces, they could capture prisoners and seize weapons and equipment, said Scott Boston, a defense analyst with the Rand Corp. think tank.
- The Russian president has even shown his willingness to bring Belarus into the nuclear equation.
- And if the Ukrainians are prepared to fight the city street by street then the Russians won't be able to have the relatively bloodless takeover they are aiming for.
- The latest strikes come after a wave of strikes on Monday following a large-scale attack on the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk on Sunday.
- "Hotspots are hotter than for a long time, fault-lines increasingly tense and war seems to be proliferating. But the alarm being raised by generals and spooks is a bit of a red herring and, let's face it, they're keen to make the case for bigger budgets and bigger roles.
Less than two weeks into Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the country's people and armed forces continue to mount a staunch — and undeniably brave — resistance against Russian forces. As in Syria, victory does not have to result in a sustainable settlement. It could involve the installation of a compliant government in Kyiv or the partition of the country. Alternatively, the defeat of the Ukrainian military and the negotiation of a Ukrainian surrender could effectively transform Ukraine into a failed state. Russia could also employ devastating cyberattacks and disinformation tools, backed by the threat of force, to cripple the country and induce regime change. With any of these outcomes, Ukraine will have been effectively detached from the West.
- The plane was destroyed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the area of Liptsy, Kharkov [Kharkiv] Region, with an anti-aircraft missile system.
- A war in Ukraine would revive NATO not as a democracy-building enterprise or as a tool for out-of-area expeditions like the war in Afghanistan but as the unsurpassed defensive military alliance that it was designed to be.
- The permanent state of escalation between Russia and Europe may stay cold from a military perspective.
- Sitting in Kyiv, many thought that the sight of Russian troops in the heart of this capital was just a matter of time - they counted it in hours.
- Nearly 40% of the natural gas used by the European Union comes from Russia.
It also said that Russia usually provides information on the route and transport that's to be used for a swap, to make sure it's safe. They came from the General Staff and from Ukrainian Military Intelligence, and together amount to acknowledgement that Ukraine may have shot the plane down - though neither said so directly. But dismissing such talk doesn't mean dismissing the chance that Ukraine has made a terrible mistake.
- The danger, however, with sanctions is they push Moscow further away from the West and towards the East, meaning Mr Putin may develop yet closer relations with Beijing.
- China intervenes, putting pressure on Moscow to compromise, warning that it will not buy Russian oil and gas unless it de-escalates.
- President Putin warned in December that the war "could be a lengthy process", but then added later that Russia's goal was "not to spin the flywheel of military conflict", but to end it.
- It also said that it monitored the launch points of missiles and their delivery logistics, especially through military aircraft, to reduce to threat of attack.
This war is often called President Putin's war - it's widely believed he is the one driving it and no one is clear how far he is able and willing to go to try to control a neighbour he says shouldn't exist as a country. History tells us military coups and invasions have conquered by taking over television stations and presidential palaces. With every day, more of the combat troops and heavy weaponry marshalled along Ukraine's borders move forward in all directions, but not as fast or as far as many expected. There's a great community spirit - everyone is pitching in, including international and local organisations. But the concern is if this goes on too long that even finding food will be hard. When the curfew lifts, and air raids sirens go silent, people nervously rush to the shops - if the shops are open, and the shelves still have supplies.