Thread: Russia launches Ukraine invasion

^ yeah, there was some retired general on cnn this morning, talking about that. Think the term he used was "salivating" to be able to have a go at that column with a10s....

Originally Posted by nidhogg

Think the term he used was "salivating" to be able to have a go at that column with a10s....

Just seeing that column shows that Russia is not a threat to NATO at ALL. Now I understand why the US has only one armored division left. US air power would more than decimate the Russian conscript army and let's be frank the Russians sent in the airborne early on, and they have been totally wiped out now. Video on Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube can verify.

Russia pummels Ukraine's Kharkiv as 65-km convoy nears Kyiv

KYIV (AP) -- Russian shelling pounded the central square in Ukraine's second-largest city and other civilian targets Tuesday and a 65-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital, as Ukraine's embattled president accused Moscow of resorting to terror tactics to press Europe's largest ground war in generations.


With the Kremlin increasingly isolated by tough economic sanctions that have tanked the ruble currency, Russian troops advanced on Ukraine's two biggest cities. In strategic Kharkiv, an eastern city with a population of about 1.5 million, videos posted online showed explosions hitting the region's Soviet-era administrative building and residential areas. A maternity ward relocated to a shelter amid shelling.


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack on Kharkiv's main square "frank, undisguised terror," blaming a Russian missile and calling it a war crime. "Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget.... This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation."


As the fighting reached beyond military targets on Day 6 of a Russian invasion that has shaken the 21st century world order, reports emerged that Moscow has used cluster bombs on three populated areas. If confirmed, that would mean the war has reached a worrying new level.


The Kremlin denied Tuesday that it has used such munitions and insisted again that its forces only have struck military targets -- despite evidence documented by AP reporters of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals.


The Russian defense minister vowed Tuesday to press the offensive until it achieves its goals, after a first round of talks between Ukraine and Russia yielded no stop in the fighting. Both sides agreed to another meeting in coming days.


Throughout the country, many Ukrainian civilians spent another night huddled in shelters, basements or corridors. More than a half-million people have fled the country, and the U.N. human rights office said Tuesday that it has recorded the deaths of 136 civilians, including 13 children. The real toll is likely far higher.


"It is a nightmare, and it seizes you from the inside very strongly. This cannot be explained with words," said Kharkiv resident Ekaterina Babenko, taking shelter in a basement with neighbors for a fifth straight day. "We have small children, elderly people and frankly speaking it is very frightening."


A Ukrainian military official said Belarusian troops joined the war Tuesday in the Chernihiv region, without providing details. But Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he had no plans to join the fight.


With Western powers sending weapons to Ukraine and driving a global squeeze of Russia's economy, President Vladimir Putin's options diminished as he seeks to redraw the global map -- and pull Ukraine's western-leaning democracy back into Moscow's orbit.


"I believe Russia is trying to put pressure [on Ukraine] with this simple method," Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address, referring to stepped-up shelling. He did not offer details of the talks between Ukrainian and Russian envoys, but he said Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions "when one side is hitting another with rocket artillery."


As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in the capital, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million. The convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 25 kilometers from the center of the city and stretched about 65 kilometers, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.


"They want to break our nationhood, that's why the capital is constantly under threat," Zelenskyy said, saying that it was hit by three missile strikes on Monday and that hundreds of saboteurs were roaming the city.


Kharkiv, near the Russian border, is another key target. One after the other, explosions burst through a residential area of the city in one video verified by AP. In the background, a man pleaded with a woman to leave, and a woman cried.


Determined for life to go on despite the shelling, hospital workers transferred a Kharkiv maternity ward to a bomb shelter. Amid makeshift electrical sockets and mattresses piled up against the walls, pregnant women paced the crowded space, accompanied by the cries of dozens of newborns.


On the city's main square, the administration headquarters came under Russian shelling, regional administration chief Oleh Sinehubov said. Images posted online showed the building's facade and interior badly damaged by a powerful explosion that also blew up part of its roof. The state emergencies agency said that attack wounded six people, including a child.


Sinehubov said that at least 11 people were killed and scores of others were wounded during Monday's shelling of the city.


Russia's goals in hitting central Kharkiv were not immediately clear. Western officials speculated that it is trying to pull in Ukrainian forces to defend Kharkiv while a larger Russian force encircles Kyiv. They believe Putin's overall goal is to overthrow the Ukrainian government and install a friendly one.


In a worrying development, Human Rights Watch has said it documented a cluster bomb attack outside a hospital in Ukraine's east in recent days. Local residents have also reported the use of the munitions in Kharkiv and the village of Kiyanka near the northern city of Chernihiv, though there was no independent confirmation.


The International Criminal Court chief prosecutor has said he plans to open a Ukraine investigation and is monitoring the conflict.


Meanwhile, flames shot up from a military base northeast of Kyiv, in the suburb of Brovary, in footage shot from a car driving past. In another video verified by AP, a passenger pleads with the driver, "Misha, we need to drive quickly as they'll strike again."


And Ukrainian authorities released details and photos of an attack Sunday on a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, saying more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed along with some local residents. The attack could not be immediately confirmed.


The Russian military's movements have been stalled by fierce resistance on the ground and a surprising inability to dominate Ukraine's airspace.


In the face of that Ukrainian resistance and crippling Western sanctions, Putin has put Russia's nuclear forces on high alert -- including intercontinental ballistic missiles and long-range bombers -- in a stark warning to the West and a signal of his readiness to escalate the tensions to a terrifying new level. But a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had yet to see any appreciable change in Russia's nuclear posture.


Western nations have increased weapons shipments to Ukraine to help its forces defend themselves -- but have so far ruled out sending in troops.


Messages aimed at the advancing Russian soldiers popped up on billboards, bus stops and electronic traffic signs across the capital. Some used profanity to encourage Russians to leave. Others appealed to their humanity.


"Russian soldier -- Stop! Remember your family. Go home with a clean conscience," one read.


Fighting raged in other towns and cities. The strategic port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, is "hanging on," said Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovich. An oil depot was reported bombed in the eastern city of Sumy.


In the seaside resort town of Berdyansk, dozens of protesters chanted angrily in the main square against Russian occupiers, yelling at them to go home and singing the Ukrainian national anthem. They described the soldiers as exhausted young conscripts.


"Frightened kids, frightened looks. They want to eat," Konstantin Maloletka, who runs a small shop, said by telephone. He said the soldiers went into a supermarket and grabbed canned meat, vodka and cigarettes.


"They ate right in the store," he said. "It looked like they haven't been fed in recent days."


As far-reaching Western sanctions on Russian banks and other institutions took hold, the ruble plummeted, and Russia's Central Bank scrambled to shore it up, as did Putin, signing a decree restricting foreign currency.


But that did little to calm Russian fears. In Moscow, people lined up to withdraw cash as the sanctions threatened to drive up prices and reduce the standard of living for millions of ordinary Russians.


The economic sanctions, ordered by the U.S. and other allies, were just one contributor to Russia's growing status as a pariah country.


Russian airliners are banned from European airspace, Russian media is restricted in some countries, and some high-tech products can no longer be exported to the country. International sports bodies moved to exclude Russian athletes -- in the latest blow Tuesday, Russians were barred from international ice skating events.

Russia pummels Ukraine's Kharkiv as 65-km convoy nears Kyiv -
Nikkei Asia

Rapid escalation of Ukraine crisis fuels fear of confrontation between Russia and the West

Russia, careening toward economic crisis under the weight of devastating Western sanctions, has put its nuclear forces on alert as the Kremlin’s siege of Ukraine intensifies.


The United States and its NATO partners have sent thousands of troops and advanced weaponry to harden defenses in the alliance’s eastern flank while funneling billions of dollars worth of military hardware to Kyiv — moves met by the Kremlin with threats of “consequences.”


There is no deconfliction line — nor, according to U.S. officials, does Moscow seem interested in one.


The rapid escalation, observers say, has made the once-theoretical risk of direct confrontation between Russia and the West a tangible possibility with little hope of the tension subsiding, maybe for years to come.


“My worry is that there’s a miscalculation, a misunderstanding, an accident, a mistake” that touches off more widespread conflict, said Jim Townsend, who managed Europe and NATO policy at the Pentagon during the Obama administration.


“How long could we have this kind of risk? … I don’t see it ending.”

Russia’s advance through Ukraine has brought the Kremlin’s forces closer to NATO’s borders. Should those troops remain, in Ukraine and Belarus, the “contact line” would shift “significantly west,” said Sam Charap, a Russia expert with the RAND Corporation. “And that changes the strategic landscape.”

“Poland has relied on Belarus to serve the function of a buffer,” he added. “If that’s no longer there, that’s just a totally different ballgame.”


Russia’s moves compelled Western officials last week to activate the NATO Response Force and its Very High Readiness Joint Defense Force for the first time in the alliance’s history. The mobilization, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, is meant to deter a Russian attack and prevent the war in Ukraine from spilling over into any NATO-allied country.

President Biden has ruled out putting U.S. troops in Ukraine, but he has authorized the deployment of an additional 14,000 military personnel along with elite F-35 fighters and Apache attack helicopters to allied countries in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, a sign of how seriously the United States hopes to ward off the Russian threat.


Yet while gestures and statements such as Stoltenberg’s and Biden’s are designed to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from intentionally challenging the alliance’s resolve, some wonder whether the message is getting through.


Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis, said the Russian leader may be “ready and willing” to test the alliance’s commitment to its collective defense. She pointed out that NATO’s 40,000-member response force “pales in comparison to Russia’s military capabilities” in the region; the Kremlin currently has about 150,000 troops in and around Ukraine.


What the U.S. military is doing in response to Russian actions in Ukraine
Russian forces have a history of playing dangerous games in NATO border areas. Recently, Russian fighter jets have conducted low or near-pass flights over U.S. ships in the Black Sea and U.S. surveillance aircraft flying over the Mediterranean. The potential for such maneuvers to result in a collision or confrontation — and for that incident to then spiral into a greater fight — grows exponentially greater amid an active war.


Ukraine’s land borders with four NATO countries — Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania — have also emerged as potential hot spots. Observers are particularly concerned about the potential for humanitarian calamities as more than 500,000 refugees use those routes to flee the country.

Absent a peace deal, few expect that Ukrainians will lay down their arms even if Russia assumes formal control of their country. The resulting insurgency would make the business of occupation “rough” for Russia, Townsend said, noting that Russian soldiers patrolling the country’s borders will be operating “on a knife’s edge … because they’re expecting a Ukrainian insurgent behind every tree.”


But it would take a “really serious incident” to touch off a wider war, cautioned Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who said the casualty count would need to be so high or seem so deliberate that NATO could not dismiss it as a mistake.


Ukraine and its border territories are also not the only places that could precipitate the sort of direct conflict with Russia that the United States wants to avoid. The intensity of the Russian onslaught in Ukraine has prompted Finland and Sweden, which share borders with Russia in the Arctic Circle and have long adopted a neutral posture, to publicly contemplate joining NATO — a move that Russia warned last week would precipitate “military consequences.”


The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, meanwhile, exist in a constant state of geographical vulnerability to assault, due to shared and often snarled borders with Russia and Belarus. Certain roads crossing Estonia dip in and out of snippets of Russian territory; the Baltics as a whole, meanwhile, could effectively be cut off from the rest of Europe via the Suwalki Corridor, a 65-mile stretch of Lithuanian-Polish border that lies between Belarus and the tiny Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, on the Baltic Sea.


All NATO members, meanwhile, remain potentially vulnerable to cyberattacks, which Russia has proven in recent years to be adept at manipulating to its advantage. The NATO secretary general has said cyberattacks could trigger the alliance’s collective defense pact, but it remains unclear what type or magnitude of assault it would take to warrant such a response.

How likely Russia is to pick battles along new fronts may depend on how long Ukraine can keep up its resistance. The more Russia is worn out from the fight there, experts say, it becomes less likely Putin will want to pursue other ambitions where the long-term risk of failure is far greater.


The moment of truth will come if and when a NATO member decides to call upon their allies to help battle back any direct Russian aggression. The collective defense pact has been invoked only once in NATO’s history, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. It is untested when it comes to a war in Europe.


“The credibility of the alliance is on the line,” Townsend said. “If our credibility is found wanting, if NATO proves that it’s not quite able to do the things that we’ve talked about being able to do, then that is a win for Putin.”


Yet even if the 30 NATO member nations are able to maintain the unity that they have found in recent weeks to stave off further Russian aggression, it is almost impossible to avoid some spillover effects from the Ukrainian experience thus far, observers say.


While officials are downplaying the risk of Russia’s recent nuclear threats, nobody knows what kind of backlash the free-falling ruble could create in a nation of 144 million people, most of whom receive their information through pro-Kremlin media. There are also global implications for financial markets that are often an afterthought in national security discussions, such as the agricultural sector, where Ukraine and Russia together produce over a quarter of the world’s wheat supply.


“No matter what happens now, there’s going to be some forms of spillover, whether … general instability arising from refugee flows or broader global implications because of Ukraine’s key role in some of these export markets,” said Polyakova of the Center for European Policy Analysis, predicting there will be “more conflicts that the United States and Europe have to manage.”


“That’s the reality we’re looking at already,” she added, “regardless of what exactly the outcome in Ukraine is going to be.”


MSN

Western envoys, allies walk out on Lavrov speech to UN rights forum

GENEVA, March 1 (Reuters) - More than 100diplomats from some 40 Western countries and allies including Japan walked out of a speech by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the top U.N. human rights forum on Tuesday in protest over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.


The boycott by envoys from the European Union, the United States, Britain and others left only a few diplomats in the room including Russia's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, who is a former deputy to Lavrov. Envoys from Syria, China and Venezuela were among delegations that stayed.


Lavrov was addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council remotely, after cancelling his visit due to what the Russian mission said on Monday were EU states blocking his flight path.


Neutral Switzerland also imposed financial sanctions on Lavrov on Monday, a measure of the international revulsion over an invasion Russia describes as a "special military operation" aimed at dislodging "neo-Nazis" ruling Ukraine. read more


In his speech, Lavrov accused the EU of engaging in a "Russophobic frenzy" by supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine during Moscow's military campaign that began last Thursday.


A Russian armoured column bore down on Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Tuesday and invasion forces fired rocket barrages into the centre of Kharkiv, the country's second largest city, on the sixth day of Russia's assault on its neighbour. read more


'SHOW OF SUPPORT'


Among the diplomats who walked out, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod joined Ukraine's ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko behind a large Ukrainian blue and yellow flag.


"It is a remarkable show of support for Ukrainians who are fighting for their independence," Filipenko told reporters.


Filipenko said there had been "massive destruction to civilian infrastructure" in Kharkiv, adding: "The maternity wards are being attacked, civilian residential buildings are being bombed."


Russia denies targeting any civilian sites.


Canada's Joly said: "Minister Lavrov was giving his version, which is false, about what is happening in Ukraine and so that's why we wanted to show a very strong stance together."


Later on Tuesday Canada will petition the International Criminal Court over what Joly said were Russia's "crimes against humanity and war crimes". L8N2V44MO


She was referring to the Hague-based court where the office of the ICC prosecutor on Monday said it would seek court approval to open an investigation into alleged war crimes in Ukraine. read more


The U.S. envoy to the Human Rights Council, Michele Taylor, said in a statement: "This Russian war of aggression will have profound implications for human rights in Ukraine and Russia, and the leaders of Russia will be held accountable."

Western envoys, allies walk out on Lavrov speech to UN rights forum | Reuters

Zelensky’s Stunning Appeal to European Parliament Was So Heartbreaking That Even the Translator Got Emotional

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a passionate speech to the European Parliament in defiance of Russia’s ongoing invasion of his country. His words were so moving that the English translator could be heard chocking up.


Zelensky remotely gave his speech to Parliament on Tuesday as an extension of his call for Ukraine to be granted immediate membership with the European Union. In his address, Zelensky condemned Vladimir Putin as he invoked the Russian military convoy approaching Kyiv, plus the news that Russia has launched rocket attacks against civilian areas in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

“This is the price of freedom,” Zelensky said. “We’re fighting just for our land and for our freedom.”


The translator for the European Parliament became audibly emotional as he took Zelensky’s promise that “Every square today, no matter what it’s called, is going to be called Freedom Square, in every city of our country.”


“Nobody is gonna break us,” said Zelensky. “We are strong. We are Ukrainians.”


Zelensky continued to say Ukraine fights to be recognized as an “equal member of Europe,” even as he stressed that the country is now “fighting for survival” in the war with Russia.


“The European Union is going to be much stronger with us,” he said. “We have proven our strength…Do prove that you are with us. Do prove that you will not let us go. Do prove that you are indeed Europeans, and then life will win over death, and light will win over darkness. Glory be to Ukraine!”


Zelensky’s remarks were met with applause from the assembly.

WATCH HERE Volodymyr Zelensky Gives Speech to European Parliament

President Vladimir Putin banned Russians from leaving the country with more than $10,000 in foreign currency — the latest measure introduced to try and stem the worst of a looming economic crisis.

Russia Attacks Ukraine: As It's Happening - The Moscow Times

Originally Posted by misskit

President Vladimir Putin banned Russians from leaving the country with more than $10,000 in foreign currency — the latest measure introduced to try and stem the worst of a looming economic crisis.

Russia Attacks Ukraine: As It's Happening - The Moscow Times

It reminds me of the little Dutch boy trying to plug holes in the dyke

More on how long Ukraine may withstand Russian assault



A U.S. official tells CBS News that a tactical seizure of Ukraine is possible within the next 4-6 weeks, based on the assessments of what is currently taking place on the ground with the Russian military.


As David Martin has reported, it is expected to take one week before Kyiv is surrounded, and another 30 days could elapse before Ukraine's capital is seized. This U.S. official says it is not clear whether Russia would gradually strangle the city or engage in street-to-street fighting. These scenarios were laid out for members of Congress Monday as the initial battle to destroy the Ukrainian military and government. It is also not clear whether Russia would then decide to go west toward Lviv or as far west as the Polish border.


The situation is dynamic, so this remains an estimate on what is militarily possible. This U.S. official also could not say when the sanctions that have been rolled out so far will have a practical impact on the Russian military. The low morale and shortages of food and fuel are not a result of the sanctions now in place. At some point, however, the Russian military will be impacted by the sanctions.


Given the durability of the Ukrainian resistance and its long history of pushing Russia back, the U.S. and Western powers do not believe that this will be a short war. The U.K. foreign secretary estimated it would be a 10-year war. Lawmakers at the Capitol were told Monday it is likely to last 10, 15 or 20 years — and that ultimately, Russia will lose.

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates...pdate-8de46653

Originally Posted by misskit

Western envoys, allies walk out on Lavrov speech to UN rights forum

I'm surprised they even bothered walking in.
At the end of the day he's just a ventriloquist's dummy with Putin's arm up his arse.

The only person who takes him seriously is Hoohoo.

Russia says it has captured biggest Ukrainian city yet

WASHINGTON/KYIV (Reuters) – Russia said it had seized its biggest city yet in Ukraine on Wednesday, while stepping up its lethal bombardment of the main cities that its invasion force has so far failed to tame in the face of strong Ukrainian resistance.


With Moscow having failed in its aim to swiftly overthrow Ukraine’s government after nearly a week, Western countries are worried that it is switching to new, far more violent tactics to blast its way into cities it had expected to easily take.


Apple, Exxon, Boeing and other firms joined an exodus of companies around the world from the Russian market, which has left Moscow financially and diplomatically isolated since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion last week.


“He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead, he met a wall of strength he could never anticipated or imagined: he met Ukrainian people,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in his annual State of the Union address to Congress.


U.S. lawmakers stood, applauded and roared, many waving Ukrainian flags and wearing the country’s blue and yellow colours.


Russia said it had sent delegates for a second round of peace talks in Belarus near the border, but Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia needed to stop bombing Ukrainian cities if it wanted to negotiate peace.


Moscow said on Wednesday it had captured Kherson, a provincial capital of around a quarter of a million people on the southern front. There was no immediate word from Ukraine but the regional governor had said overnight that it was surrounded, under fire, and Russian troops were looting shops and pharmacies.


It would be the biggest city to fall so far, with a strategic position astride the Dnieper River that divides Ukraine down the middle.


Also in the south, Russia is putting intense pressure on the port of Mariupol, which it says it has surrounded in a ring around the entire coast of the Sea of Azov. The city‘s mayor said Mariupol had been under intense shelling since late Tuesday and was unable to evacuate its wounded.


But on the other two main fronts in the east and north, Russia so far has little to show for its advance, with Ukraine’s two biggest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, holding out in the face of increasingly intense bombardment.


“We are going to see… his brutality increase,” British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said of Putin in a radio interview. “He doesn’t get his way, he surrounds cities, he ruthlessly bombards them at night … and he will then eventually try and break them and move into the cities.”


Kharkiv in particular has come under intense shelling over the past two days, with more pictures overnight showing devastation in the city centre.


The roof of a police building in the centre of Kharkiv could be seen collapsing as it was engulfed in flames, in footage verified by Reuters. Firefighters fought the blaze on streets strewn with debris. Windows had been blasted out of the nearby buildings.


The regional governor said at least 21 people had been killed by shelling in the past 24 hours. Emergency services said four more people were killed on Wednesday morning.


In Kyiv, the capital of 3 million people where residents have been sheltering at night in the underground metro, Russia blasted the main television tower near a Holocaust memorial on Tuesday, killing bystanders.


Zelenskiy, in his latest update to his nation, said that attack proved that the Russians “don’t know a thing about Kyiv, about our history. But they all have orders to erase our history, erase our country, erase us all.”


Earlier, a tired and unshaven Zelenskiy, wearing green battle fatigues in a heavily guarded government compound, told Reuters and CNN in an interview that the bombing must stop for talks to end the war.


“It’s necessary to at least stop bombing people, just stop the bombing and then sit down at the negotiating table.”


Russia‘s main advance on the capital – a huge armoured column stretched for miles along the road to Kyiv – has been largely frozen in place for days. A senior U.S. defense official on Tuesday cited logistics problems, including shortages of food and fuel, and signs of flagging morale among Russia‘s troops.


“While Russian forces have reportedly moved into the centre of Kherson in the south, overall gains across axes have been limited in the past 24 hours,” Britain’s ministry of defence said in an intelligence update on Wednesday morning.


“This is probably due to a combination of ongoing logistical difficulties and strong Ukrainian resistance,” it added. Meanwhile, it said, Russia was carrying out intensive air and artillery strikes, especially on Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mariupol and the eastern city of Chernihiv.


Close to 700,000 Ukrainians have fled the country in less than a week, the fastest displacement of people in Europe for decades.


WEAPONS AND SANCTIONS


The United Nations General Assembly is set to reprimand Russia on Wednesday and demand Moscow withdraw its military forces.


The leading Russian opposition figure, Alexey Navalny, said from jail that Russians should protest daily against the war, according to a tweet from a spokesperson.


Putin ordered the “special military operation” last Thursday in a bid to disarm Ukraine and capture “neo-Nazis” he falsely says are running the country of 44 million people. Ukraine seeks closer ties with the West, which Russia calls a threat.


Vastly outmatched by Russia‘s military, Ukraine’s air force is still flying and its air defences are still deemed to be viable – a fact that is baffling military experts.


Washington and its NATO allies have rejected Ukraine’s request to impose a no-fly zone over the country, arguing this would lead to direct confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia. But they have been funnelling in weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, to help Ukrainians fight.


Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said the country was set to receive Stinger and Javelin missiles from abroad, as well as another shipment of Turkish drones.


The West’s main strategy is shutting off Russia‘s economy from the global financial system, pushing international companies to halt sales, cut ties, and dump tens of billions of dollars’ worth of investments.


Exxon Mobil’s announcement that it was quitting Russia followed similar declarations by BP and Shell, leaving France’s Total as one of the last big Western oil majors yet to announce a pull-out.


Apple Inc AAPL.O stopped sales in Russia. Boeing BA.N said it was suspending parts, maintenance and technical support for Russian airlines.

Russia says it has captured biggest Ukrainian city yet | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

Originally Posted by misskit

Given the durability of the Ukrainian resistance and its long history of pushing Russia back, the U.S. and Western powers do not believe that this will be a short war. The U.K. foreign secretary estimated it would be a 10-year war. Lawmakers at the Capitol were told Monday it is likely to last 10, 15 or 20 years — and that ultimately, Russia will lose.

????

My thoughts were more like ceasefire, negotiations, russian withdrawel in less than 3 months

Hopefully, they are not just saving their aircraft for something worse.


What happened to Russia's Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, U.S. intelligence had predicted a blistering assault by Moscow that would quickly mobilize the vast Russian air power that its military assembled in order to dominate Ukraine's skies.


But the first six days have confounded those expectations and instead seen Moscow act far more delicately with its air power, so much so that U.S. officials can't exactly explain what's driving Russia's apparent risk-averse behavior.


"They're not necessarily willing to take high risks with their own aircraft and their own pilots," a senior U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.


Vastly outmatched by Russia's military, in terms of raw numbers and firepower, Ukraine's own air force is still flying and its air defenses are still deemed to be viable - a fact that is baffling military experts.


After the opening salvos of the war on Feb. 24, analysts expected the Russian military to try to immediately destroy Ukraine's air force and air defenses.


That would have been "the logical and widely anticipated next step, as seen in almost every military conflict since 1938," wrote the RUSI think-tank in London, in an article called "The Mysterious Case of the Missing Russian Air Force."


Instead, Ukrainian air force fighter jets are still carrying out low-level, defensive counter-air and ground-attack sorties. Russia is still flying through contested airspace.


Ukrainian troops with surface-to-air rockets are able to threaten Russian aircraft and create risk to Russian pilots trying to support ground forces.


"There's a lot of stuff they're doing that's perplexing," said Rob Lee, a Russian military specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.


He thought the beginning of the war would be "maximum use of force."


"Because every day it goes on there's a cost and the risk goes up. And they're not doing that and it just is really hard to explain for any realistic reason."

The confusion over how Russia has used its air force comes as President Joe Biden's administration rejects calls by Kyiv for a no-fly zone that could draw the United States directly into a conflict with Russia, whose plans for its air force are unclear.


Military experts have seen evidence of a lack of Russian air force coordination with ground troop formations, with multiple Russian columns of troops sent forward beyond the reach of their own air defense cover.


That leaves Russian soldiers vulnerable to attack from Ukrainian forces, including those newly equipped with Turkish drones and U.S. and British anti-tank missiles. David Deptula, a retired U.S. Air Force three-star general who once commanded the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, said he was surprised that Russia didn't work harder to establish air dominance from the start.


"The Russians are discovering that coordinating multi-domain operations is not easy," Deptula told Reuters. "And that they are not as good as they presumed they were."


While the Russians have been under-performing, Ukraine's military has been exceeding expectations so far.


Ukraine's experience from the last eight years of fighting with Russian-backed separatist forces in the east was dominated by static World War One-style trench warfare.


By contrast Russia's forces got combat experience in Syria, where they intervened on the side of President Bashar al-Assad, and demonstrated some ability to synchronize ground maneuvers with air and drone attacks.


Ukraine's ability to keep flying air force jets is a visible demonstration of the country's resilience in the face of attack and has been a morale booster, both to its own military and Ukraine's people, experts say.


It has also led to mythologizing of the Ukrainian air force, including a tale about a Ukrainian jet fighter that purportedly single-handedly downed six Russian aircrafts, dubbed online as "The Ghost of Kyiv."


A Reuters Fact Check showed how a clip Fact Check-Animation miscaptioned as if to show video of Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down Russian plane | Reuters from the videogame Digital Combat Simulator was miscaptioned online to claim it was an actual Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian plane.


Biden led a standing ovation in support of Ukrainians in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, praising their determination and mocking Putin for thinking he could just "roll into Ukraine" unopposed.


"Instead he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people," Biden said.


The United States estimates that Russia is using just over 75 aircraft in its Ukraine invasion, the senior U.S. official said.


Ahead of the invasion, officials had estimated that Russia had potentially readied hundreds of the thousands of aircraft in its air force for a Ukraine mission. However, the senior U.S. official on Tuesday declined to estimate how many Russian combat aircraft, including attack helicopters, might still be available and outside Ukraine.


Both sides are taking losses.


"We do have indications that they've lost some (aircraft), but so have the Ukrainians," the official said.


"The airspace is actively contested every day."

What happened to Russia's Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

I am hoping that the rush to get military hardware into Ukraine will leave enough space for rations, especially for the capital, which is soon to be surrounded by Putins War.

^ Word is they are struggling to get anything of much significance in via Poland, had a few ex-UK Gens on the radio today suggesting logistics is an issue on both sides atm.

Some 2,000 Ukrainian civilians die during seven days of war - Emergency Service

During the seven days of the war, more than 2,000 Ukrainians have been killed, not counting the defenders, the State Emergency Service has reported.


"During the seven days of the war, Russia destroyed hundreds of transport infrastructure facilities, residential buildings, hospitals and kindergartens. During this time, more than 2,000 Ukrainians have already died, not counting our defenders," the State Emergency Service reported on Facebook on Wednesday.


According to the State Emergency Service, it was possible to save the lives of more than 150 people, to eliminate more than 400 fires that arose after enemy shelling, and to evacuate more than 500 people. Pyrotechnists neutralized 416 explosive objects.


When performing tasks, 10 rescuers were killed and 13 were injured.


The State Emergency Service also announced that on Wednesday the process of transferring seven units of modern fire and rescue equipment to Ukraine, which will immediately go into service with rescuers, is being completed.

https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/805489.html

Russia reveals number of troops killed and injured in Ukraine

Some 498 Russian servicemen have been killed and nearly 1,600 wounded during the ongoing assault on Ukraine, Russia’s military claimed on Wednesday.


The Defense Ministry refuted reports that there have been “countless” casualties, branding the claims as deliberate disinformation originating from the adversary.


According to Russian military estimates, Ukrainian army units and far-right paramilitaries have reportedly lost at least 2,870 soldiers, while a further 3,700 have sustained various wounds. Some 572 Ukrainian servicemen have been taken prisoner, the ministry added.

Russian units involved in the offensive are comprised solely of professional soldiers, the military has said, refuting allegations that the invasion force consisted largely of “conscripts.”

The official casualty figures announced by Moscow differ drastically from the claims voiced by Kiev, which said more than 5,800 Russian soldiers had perished since the invasion began.


Moscow launched its offensive against its neighbor last week, claiming it was the only option left to protect the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in the country’s east. The “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine were among the other expressed goals of the operation.


Kiev has denied harboring plans to re-take the republics by force, branding Russia’s assault unprovoked. Donetsk and Lugansk split from Ukraine in 2014, following the Maidan events that ousted its democratically elected government. Ahead of the invasion, Russia had formally recognized the two republics as independent states.

https://www.rt.com/russia/551084-mil...es-in-ukraine/

Some Russian Troops are Surrendering or Sabotaging Vehicles, Pentagon Official Says

WASHINGTON — Plagued by poor morale as well as fuel and food shortages, some Russian troops in Ukraine have surrendered en masse or sabotaged their own vehicles to avoid fighting, a senior Pentagon official said Tuesday.


Some entire Russian units have laid down their arms without a fight after confronting a surprisingly stiff Ukrainian defense, the official said. A significant number of the Russian troops are young conscripts who are poorly trained and ill-prepared for the all-out assault. And in some cases, Russian troops have deliberately punched holes in their vehicles’ gas tanks, presumably to avoid combat, the official said.


The Pentagon official declined to say how the military made these assessments — presumably a mosaic of intelligence including statements from captured Russian soldiers and communications intercepts — or how widespread these setbacks may be across the sprawling battlefield. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational developments.

But taken together, these factors may help explain why Russian forces, including an ominous 40-mile convoy of tanks and armored vehicles near Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, have come to a near crawl in recent days, U.S. officials said.


Besides dealing with shortages of fuel, food and spare parts, the Pentagon official said, Russian commanders leading that armored column toward Kyiv may also be “regrouping and rethinking” their battle plans, making adjustments on the fly to gain momentum for what U.S. intelligence and military officials say is an inevitable push in the next several days to encircle and ultimately capture the capital.


“They have a lot of power available to them,” said the Pentagon official, adding that 80% of the more than 150,000 Russian troops amassed on Ukraine’s borders have now joined the fight.


But U.S. analysts have been struck by the “risk-averse behavior” of such a large force, the Pentagon official said. Russia launched an amphibious landing to seize Mariupol, a pivotal port city on the Sea of Azov, but landed forces around 40 miles from the city. That allowed the Russians extra time and space to mount an invasion, but also gave the city’s defenders time to prepare. Overnight, Russian troops surrounded Mariupol.


Russia’s vaunted air force has yet to gain air superiority over Ukraine, with Russian warplanes thwarted by Ukrainian fighter jets and a surprisingly resilient and potent array of air defenses, from shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to much larger surface-to-air weapons, the Pentagon official said.


For Russian forces coming out of Belarus, logistics problems have proved stubborn, a European official said Tuesday.


Before the invasion, U.S. and British intelligence had raised questions about the supply chain for the Russian troops in Belarus. During military exercises there, some of the soldiers were getting inadequate supplies of food and fuel, according to independent analysts. But U.S. officials told allies that the Russians had fixed those problems by mid-February, which was one reason that U.S. warnings about the invasion intensified in the middle of last month, according to the European official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational developments.


But the challenges that Russian forces have faced show that their supply chain troubles have not been completely resolved, the European official said.


The logistics failures may help explain the presence of the long, slow-moving convoy of military equipment that is coming toward Kyiv, a tactical failure that is presenting a key target for the Ukrainian military, the European official said.


Russian officials, the European official said, expected to have secured air supremacy, at least around Kyiv. But the fact that Ukrainian air defense systems were still operating has put both Russian aircraft and the convoy of equipment in danger.

Some Russian Troops are Surrendering or Sabotaging Vehicles, Pentagon Official Says

Russia steps up attacks on key Ukrainian cities, Biden warns Putin will pay a 'high price'


Kharkiv faced fresh shelling and an overnight attack from paratroopers. In the south, Kherson was the subject of fierce fighting and a dispute over who was in control.

VINNYTSIA, Ukraine — Russia stepped up its assault on key Ukrainian cities Wednesday, as the seventh day of Moscow's invasion threatened to bring even greater violence and destruction to civilian areas across the country.


Russia intensified its offensive on four strategic cities: Kharkiv, Mariupol, Kherson and Kyiv, with a mileslong military convoy continuing to threaten Ukraine’s capital, though it appears to be stalled, a senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday.


Its second-largest city, Kharkiv, faced fresh shelling and an overnight attack from paratroopers. In the south, the port city of Kherson was the subject of fierce fighting and a dispute over who was in control.


Ihor Kolykhaev, the mayor of Kherson, said his city was encircled Wednesday and pleaded for an open corridor to move in supplies, such as food and medicine. He said an open route was also necessary so that they could transport out the wounded and dead.


"Without all that the city will not survive," the mayor said.


President Joe Biden warned during his State of the Union address on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would pay a “high price” for his actions and declared that the Russian leader was "now isolated from the world more than ever."


Facing economic pain at home and fierce resistance on the ground in Ukraine, the Kremlin appeared to intensify its crackdown on dissent in a bid to limit news coverage of an invasion that was not proceeding as planned.

Russia steps up attacks on key Ukrainian cities, Biden warns Putin will pay a '''high price'''

Slovakia ,Latvia and Czechs to jail Putin supporters,

Of course your safe here a home for those who refuse to condemn child murderers and attack spelling etc

Jail Time for Czechs Agreeing With Russian Intervention – Consortium News

At least some find fascism unaccpetable like the destruction of the Bai Yar monument.

Jail Time for Czechs Agreeing With Russian Intervention

The supreme state prosecutor's office of the Czech Republic has warned Czech citizens that they can be imprisoned for agreeing with Russia's military operation in Ukraine, reports Joe Lauria. Similar Laws in Slovakia & Latvia By Joe Lauria Special to Consortium New The Supreme Stat

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The supreme state prosecutor’s office of the Czech Republic has warned Czech citizens that they can be imprisoned for agreeing with Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, reports Joe Lauria.

Czech Ministry of Justice, Prague. (Packa/Wikipedia)

Similar Laws in Slovakia & Latvia
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium New


The Supreme State Prosecutor of the Czech Republic has warned its citizens that they can wind up in jail if they utter agreement with Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.
“The Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office considers it necessary to inform citizens that the current situation associated with the Russian Federation’s attack on Ukraine may have implications for their freedom of expression,” began a statement from the office, dated Feb. 26.
“If someone publicly (including demonstrations, the Internet or social networks) agreed (accepted or supported the Russian Federation’s attacks on Ukraine) or expressed support or praised the leaders of the Russian Federation in this regard, they could also face criminal liability under certain conditions,” the statement says.
The laws the statement cites include prohibition against “approving of a criminal offense” and “denying, questioning, approving and justifying genocide.” The Czech Republic is a member of both the European Union and NATO.

Radio Prague International reported that police have begun to monitor online communications to look for offenders.

“The chief public prosecutor, Igor Stríž, has warned that public support for the Russian aggression against Ukraine expressed at demonstrations or on social networks can currently be considered a criminal offense. He warned citizens to respect freedom of speech and not to exceed its limits. Under Czech law support for crimes against humanity or genocide are punishable by up to three years in jail. At the same time, St?íž added that the legal assessment of such acts is very complicated.
Police Presidium spokesman Ondrej Moravcík confirmed that the police will monitor potential excesses not only at public gatherings, but also in cyberspace.”

The Czech news site TN-CZ reported that:

“Czech police are already investigating dozens of complaints from people who reported that someone had publicly approved and supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On Saturday, Attorney General Igor Stríž warned that he could face up to three years in prison for supporting Russian aggression, for example on demonstrations or social networks.”

According to the Ukrainian embassy in Prague, two people have already been arrested under these statutes for supporting Russia. It tweeted, according to Google’s translation:

“Czech law enforcement warns that public approval of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could be classified as a ‘crime of denial, questioning, approval and justification of GENOCIDE. There are already two first cases of detainees incriminated in this paragraph of the Criminal Code.”

ebruary 27, 2022

Slovakia and Latvia Too
Slovakian television network RTV-Spravy reported:

“In connection with the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, the police warn that in some cases, imprisonment for 10 to 25 years to life may be threatened for the promotion of the war. The National Criminal Agency (NAKA) will adequately address the search for such crime on the Internet. … “Whoever in a crisis situation intends to incite peace in any way, promotes war or otherwise supports war propaganda, is punished by imprisonment for ten to 25 years or imprisonment for life,” the police pointed to § 417 of the Criminal Code.”

In Latvia, news site Par Drasibu reported:
“This war also resonates in Latvia and the attempts of local supporters of the war to justify Russia’s aggression against Ukraine are also visible. In this regard, citizens are urged to report to the State Police and the State Security Service all statements and individuals who call for, support and justify Russian aggression in Ukraine.”

Of course these little places will be the first victims while folks in west worry about fuel prices.

Originally Posted by david44

He warned citizens to respect freedom of speech and not to exceed its limits

Facism on the march

I thought this was exclusive to muslims pissed about some Muhammed cartoons

Without air supremacy the Ukranian Army and many volunteers, young brave men without military training will be needlessly sacrificed, they are taking a knife to a gun fight or actually a Kalashnikov and few day ammo against artillery, tanks, thermobaric weapons, cruise missiles and possibly depleted uranium.

I see few good outcomes.

All Democracy support of ultimatum like 1939 requiring , if iNdian refuses remove them too from Swift weapons, Aviation, humanitarian aid etc, I'm sure once a few Tatas deported they'll wobble Langleywards.


Minimum immediate needs
1 Immediate cease fire. OCSE and neutral non European UNHCR and Peace keeping Paramilitary Force
2 Care for injured, children, refugees , orphans, displace elderly top priority
3 Restore damage, Secure all Nuclear, chemical and water resources
4 Prisoner exchanges
5 All combatants to return to status quo January 2022
6 UN to provide binding arbitration to the Donbas and Crimea issue that all sides agree to honour by binding International Treaty in advance

Sadly more likely
Like all bloody wars there will be in addition to crippling, death, permanent physical and psycological damage, disease , hunger, homes , businesses , futures ruined .

Biden and Boris have said they won't start war with Russia, I cannot imagine Germans doing anything that costs a sausage ,perhaps Macron tempted to try to do something diplomatic going alone in an election cycle.
If and he is a remarkable politician ruthless , intelligent and ambitious he can engineer peace talks it'll secure his position and legacy.Even a failed attempt will play well with domestic electorate.

Mood darkens in Moscow as Putin presses Ukraine war, but West still largely blamed

For some Russians, the fighting in Ukraine is a distant distraction. But for millions of others, the war next door is already touching many aspects of daily life.


While no meaningful comparison can be drawn between the desperate wartime reality that Ukrainians now face and the reverberations being felt in Russia, the country’s abrupt transformation into an international pariah has already wrought changes that might have seemed unimaginable even a week ago.


The Russian ruble has tumbled to record lows. Long lines form at banks and ATMs. Aspirations to live, study or work abroad are suddenly imperiled. Stock trading has been suspended. International flights are almost impossible to come by. Retail clerks are rushing to replace price tags on imported goods. Parents of military-age sons are shaken and scared.


Millions of Russians with friends and relatives in Ukraine are heartsick, while others cling to the belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing only what is necessary to protect the motherland against a perfidious West. Many people had accepted months of Kremlin assurances that there were no plans to attack Ukraine.


“I didn’t believe until the very end that a war was possible in the 21st century,” said Maria Zherdeva, a 23-year-old research assistant who lives in Moscow. “I just couldn’t take in that that was the new reality — that we’d talk about the beginning of a war while having drinks at a bar.”


The sea change that has taken place since hostilities erupted last week can perhaps most readily be seen in Russia’s cosmopolitan capital, Moscow, a city utterly transformed since the dour, cabbage-scented days of the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991.


In recent decades, Western-style trappings such as smartphones, posh shopping malls and easy, inexpensive travel outside Russia have come to be largely taken for granted, at least among a substantial middle class. But those lifestyle changes are now under threat, and that realization is growing daily.


Putin’s government has gone to enormous lengths to conceal the scope and ferocity — not to mention strategic stumbles — of its ongoing large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which was in its sixth day Tuesday.


In the narrative put forth by Russian state-run media, it’s not a war, it’s a special military operation. And it’s not an unprovoked attack on a neighbor; it is a necessary measure of defense against an aggressive, predatory North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United States.


No mention is made of fierce Ukrainian resistance to a Russian military presence that Putin maintains is a natural consequence of two “brotherly” countries being one and inseparable.


“I think that so far, it’s been possible for the Kremlin to keep a very considerable degree of control over the media space, partly due to independent media outlets being closed or under tough pressure,” said Nikolai Petrov, a senior research fellow at the British think tank Chatham House. “Look how it’s presented — there is a kind of silence.”


He and other analysts point out that even among Russians who have misgivings about this war, there is widespread acceptance of Putin's insistence that the conflict was whipped up by the West.


But access to social media, even if curtailed, is giving many Russians, particularly younger ones, an unvarnished glimpse of what is taking place in Ukraine. Word-of-mouth accounts are spreading among the families of young Russian conscripts. People talk by phone and via messaging apps with loved ones in Ukraine, hearing harrowing tales of hardship under Russian bombardment of major cities.


And many Russians are experiencing the direct effects of the Western sanctions. That can be something as simple as suddenly being unable to use Apple Pay or Google Pay in the Moscow metro, which resulted in passenger traffic jams at some stations on Tuesday.

At least in some circles, there is a notable darkening of the mood.


“I see a rise in anxiety,” said Elena Lebedeva, a 57-year-old Moscow psychiatrist. “Patients call me and they cry. They are afraid and anxious.”


Lebedeva can understand that anxiety better than most. She has lived in the Russian capital for four decades since coming to the city for her medical studies, but she’s originally from the Ukrainian city of Lutsk and has relatives who are currently spending nights huddled in air-raid shelters.


“I still have very close friends and classmates in western Ukraine,” she said. “My parents’ graves are there. I’m very upset, as I don’t know when I will be able to go there again.”


The reality of isolation from the wider world is also setting in.


The European Union has closed its airspace to Russia, banning all Russian aircraft from taking off, landing or overflying EU territory. The U.S. imposed a similar ban Tuesday. Russia is all but cut off from the international banking system. Multiple Russian financial institutions have been blocked from Visa and MasterCard networks.


With many sports and artistic institutions curtailing or severing Russian ties, even the realm of popular culture is not immune. On Tuesday, Paramount Pictures announced it would suspend the theatrical release in Russia of the forthcoming films “The Lost City" and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.” Disney, Sony and Warner Bros. had made similar announcements regarding the pausing of their own releases, citing the Ukraine crisis.


Some financial effects of the sanctions will take time to be felt, but others have dealt more of a sudden shock. With its reserves for the most part frozen, Russia’s central bank more than doubled its key interest rate to 20%. The ruble’s loss of about a quarter of its value means life savings and pensions in rubles overnight can buy far less in dollar terms.


Nearly a quarter of the country’s population is younger than 18, and a generation of Russians has no firsthand recollection of Soviet days when travel abroad was almost impossible for ordinary people. Now many fear those days have returned.


“I feel totally insecure about my future,” said Zherdeva, the research assistant. “I cannot continue with my life; I keep thinking that I urgently need to leave the country. This realization that I need an urgent escape from here is scary.”


As a result of the attack on Ukraine, a small but determined antiwar protest movement emerged. The rights group OVD-Info, which monitors arrests, has reported about 6,500 detentions in more than a dozen Russian cities since the invasion began.


In Moscow, there is a heavy security presence at sites such as the Ukrainian Embassy, where bouquets piled up in the initial days of fighting, and a monument to the famed Romantic poet Alexander Pushkin, a traditional gathering place for protest events.


This war appears less popular than the 2014 seizure of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula — which was denounced outside Russia, but well received domestically — but even so, many analysts say the Russian leader still has a firm grip on the levers of state power.


Moreover, the outcome is still unknown. Concession by Ukraine to even some of Putin's demands could be painted as victory, even if Russian forces were unable to carry out the swift decapitation-style strike that Western intelligence agencies believe Putin's generals hoped for.


Still, parents of conscription-age young men are increasingly aware of the reality that their sons may be caught up in the carnage. Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations this week read out poignant text messages from a soldier who was killed, telling his mother that he hadn’t even known he was going to war.


That prospect “worries me sick,” said Tamara Panich, a 45-year-old Moscow homemaker who is the mother of an 18-year-old son. For now, he has a university deferment, but she fears it might not last.


“I am a pacifist and believe that the army should be only professional, for people who sign a contract, who choose a military career and like such work,” she said.


In previous bloody wars such as the ones in Afghanistan and Chechnya, bereaved military families made it hard for successive Soviet and Russian governments to conceal the fighting’s true toll.


Petrov, the Chatham House researcher, cited a grim workaround being used by the military to erase a prime symbol of individual and collective battlefield losses.


“They don’t really send them home in body bags now,” he said. “They cremate them.”

Mood darkens in Moscow as Putin presses Ukraine war, but West still largely blamed