Wars 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Old School]

The Russian army managed to advance on a large part of the front on the Kupiansk-Svatovo-Seversk axis, capturing important Ukrainian strongholds.
The Ukrainian army is facing a domino effect of collapse that will force it to retreat to a depth of km behind the Oskol River.



FAB-1500 bombs against Ukrainian positions in Seversk

 

[Saif]

G7 leaders agree $50bn deal

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies yesterday agreed an outline deal to provide $50 billion of loans for Ukraine using interest from Russian sovereign assets frozen after Moscow launched its invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

www.thedailystar.net

Ukraine support plan
G7 leaders agree $50bn deal

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies yesterday agreed an outline deal to provide $50 billion of loans for Ukraine using interest from Russian sovereign assets frozen after Moscow launched its invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

The political agreement was the centrepiece of the opening day in southern Italy of the annual summit of G7 leaders, attended for a second successive year by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Ukrainian leader was scheduled to sign a new, long-term security accord with US President Joe Biden later yesterday, as well as one with fellow G7 member Japan.

Many of the G7 leaders are struggling at home but determined to make a difference on the world stage as they also seek to counter China's economic ambitions.

"There is a lot of work to be done, but I am sure that in these two days we will be able to have discussions that will lead to concrete and measurable results," Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told her G7 guests as their talks started in a luxury hotel resort in the southern region of Puglia.

The G7 plan for Ukraine is based on a multi-year loan using profits from some $300 billion of impounded Russian funds.

From left, President of the European Council Charles Michel, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen pose for a group photo at Borgo Egnazia resort during the G7 Summit hosted by Italy in Apulia region, Savelletri yesterday. Photo: AFP
The technical details will be finalised in the coming weeks, a G7 diplomatic source told Reuters. The source, who asked not to be named, said the additional funding would arrive by the end of this year.

A senior US official said the United States had agreed to provide up to $50 billion itself, but that amount could decline significantly as other countries announced their participation.

The aim of the deal was to ensure it can run for years regardless of who is in power in each G7 state - a nod to concerns that US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump might be much less sympathetic to Kyiv if he beats Biden in November, according to a person close to the talks.

While Meloni is flying high after triumphing in weekend European elections, the leaders of the other six nations - the United States, Japan, France, Germany, Britain and Canada - face major domestic woes that risk undermining their authority.​

 

[Saif]

Putin demands more Ukrainian land to end war; Kyiv rejects ‘ultimatum’

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Russia would end the war in Ukraine only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow, demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender. On the eve of a conference in Switzerland to which Ru

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Putin demands more Ukrainian land to end war; Kyiv rejects 'ultimatum'
Published :
Jun 14, 2024 21:42
Updated :
Jun 14, 2024 21:42

Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the leadership of the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow, Russia June 14, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Russia would end the war in Ukraine only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow, demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender.

On the eve of a conference in Switzerland to which Russia has not been invited, Putin set out maximalist conditions wholly at odds with the terms demanded by Ukraine, apparently reflecting Moscow's growing confidence that its forces have the upper hand in the war.

He restated his demand for Ukraine's demilitarisation, unchanged from the day he sent in his troops on Feb 24, 2022, and said an end to Western sanctions must also be part of a peace deal.

He also repeated his call for Ukraine's "denazification", based on what Kyiv calls an unfounded slur against its leadership.

Ukraine said the conditions were "absurd".

"He is offering for Ukraine to admit defeat. He is offering for Ukraine to legally give up its territories to Russia. He is offering for Ukraine to sign away its geopolitical sovereignty," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Italy's SkyTG24 news channel: "These are ultimatum messages that are no different from messages from the past."

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels: "He (Putin) is not in any position to dictate to Ukraine what they must do to bring about peace."

The timing of Putin's speech was clearly intended to preempt the Swiss summit, billed as a "peace conference" despite Russia's exclusion, where Zelenskiy seeks a show of international support for Kyiv's terms to end the war.

"The conditions are very simple," Putin said, listing them as the full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the entire territory of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Russia claimed the four regions, which its forces control only partially, as part of its own territory in 2022, an act rejected by most countries at the United Nations as illegal.

Moscow also seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014.

"As soon as they declare in Kyiv that they are ready for such a decision and begin a real withdrawal of troops from these regions, and also officially announce the abandonment of their plans to join NATO - on our side, immediately, literally at the same minute, an order will follow to cease fire and begin negotiations," Putin said.

"I repeat, we will do this immediately. Naturally, we will simultaneously guarantee the unhindered and safe withdrawal of Ukrainian units and formations."

Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory in the third year of the war. Ukraine says peace can only be based on the full withdrawal of Russian forces and the restoration of its territorial integrity.

The weekend summit in Switzerland, which will be attended by representatives of more than 90 nations and organisations, is expected to shy away from territorial issues and focus instead on matters such as food security and nuclear safety in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has said the gathering will prove "futile" without Russia being represented.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

[Lulldapull]

Gents, jiss ka dar thaa vohi ho ra hae. UCV’s are out now. Nobody wanna sit in a tank or APC and commit suicide. AI is rapidly taking over. I bet anyone money that within the decade all the worlds advanced military’s goin be totally transformed big time:

 

[Deleted due to Error (Muji Iqbal)]

I hope Russia wins, because there needs to be alternatives to USA.

I also heard Putin is threatening to make the war go nuclear. lol.

 

[Saif]

Ukraine seeks path to peace at Swiss summit

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped to find paths to a ‘just peace’ as soon as possible, as a first international summit on pathways to end...

www.newagebd.net

Ukraine seeks path to peace at Swiss summit
Agence France-Presse . Burgenstock 16 June, 2024, 00:44

Volodymyr Zelensky | AFP file photo

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped to find paths to a 'just peace' as soon as possible, as a first international summit on pathways to end Russia's war in Ukraine opened Saturday.

More than 50 world leaders were joining Zelensky at the Burgenstock resort in Switzerland for a two-day peace summit—though with Moscow rejecting the event, it only has the modest ambitions of laying the groundwork for ending the conflict, now in its third year.

'I believe that we will witness history being made here at the summit. May a just peace be established as soon as possible,' Zelensky said as the event began.

The summit is aimed at trying to agree a basic international platform for eventual peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow.

Swiss president Viola Amherd said future summits were envisioned, eventually involving Russia.

'We will not be able to negotiate or even proclaim peace for Ukraine here on the Burgenstock, but we wish to inspire a process for a just and lasting peace, and we wish to take concrete steps in this direction,' she said.

However, in a combative speech Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the conference and demanded that Kyiv effectively surrender before any actual peace negotiations.

Zelensky said Saturday the only person who wanted the war 'was Putin. But in any case, the world is stronger'.

NATO and the United States also immediately rejected Putin's hardline conditions.

The conference, convening 100 countries and global institutions, comes at a perilous moment for exhausted Ukrainians and outgunned soldiers, more than two years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are attending, as is the European Union chief and the leaders of Colombia, Chile, Finland, Ghana, Kenya and Poland.

US president Joe Biden sent his vice president Kamala Harris, who announced more than $1.5 billion in new aid for Ukraine, mainly for its energy sector and in humanitarian assistance.

Argentinian President Javier Milei and the presidents of Fiji and Ecuador were among the early arrivals.

Russia's BRICS allies Brazil and South Africa are only sending an envoy, and India will be represented at the ministerial level.

China is absent, insisting it will not take part without Moscow's presence.

After almost a year of stalemate, Ukraine was forced to abandon dozens of frontline settlements this spring, with Russian troops holding a significant advantage in manpower and resources.

Near Ukraine's embattled eastern front, hopes for any major breakthrough are nearly nil.

Ukrainian shelling on the Russian border town of Shebekino killed five people and wounded several, the governor of the region of Belgorod said on Saturday.

Since Russia launched its military offensive on Ukraine in 2022, Belgorod has faced waves of attacks, which Kyiv say are retaliation for Moscow's large-scale assault.

'Four bodies were recovered from the rubble' of a partially collapsed house in Shebekino, said governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who added that another woman had died in hospital.

Russia's emergency services published footage of a crane and rescuers sifting through the rubble of a destroyed five-storey building in the night.

Six civilians were wounded in the late evening shelling, the governor said.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

[Saif]

Ukrainian families cross Europe to plead for prisoners held by Russia

Svitlana Bilous travelled half way across Europe - from her home in Ukraine to a Swiss mountaintop resort - to stand on the sidelines of an international summit to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine and tell the world about her missing husband. During the day’s events, she will join s

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Ukrainian families cross Europe to plead for prisoners held by Russia
Published :
Jun 15, 2024 17:04
Updated :
Jun 15, 2024 17:04

Svitlana Bilous, a 34-year-old civic activist and the wife of a Ukrainian soldier missing in action, and Illia Illiashenko, a Ukrainian former prisoner of war who was captured by Russian forces in Mariupol in 2022, look at posters before their bus tour to Switzerland to advocate for Ukrainian soldiers in Russian captivity, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 12, 2024. Photo : Reuters/Charlotte Bruneau

Svitlana Bilous travelled half way across Europe - from her home in Ukraine to a Swiss mountaintop resort - to stand on the sidelines of an international summit to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine and tell the world about her missing husband.

During the day's events, she will join scores of other relatives of Ukrainian soldiers waving banners and shouting slogans and trying to raise awareness of the troops who have disappeared on the battlefield.

Many do not know if their loved ones have been killed or taken by Russia as prisoners of war.

Russia is not invited to the summit in Buergenstock near Lucerne, at which Ukraine will present its plan to end the war that started with Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The families want the other world powers there to find ways to press Moscow to hand over information, improve the conditions of any captives and, as soon as possible, send them home.

"I must do everything in my power to get my husband back," Bilous, 34, from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, told Reuters as officials arrived ahead of the summit

Since Anatoliy went missing in April last year, she has only heard that he is alive but had no direct contact with him. Every day she carries the shoulder patch from his uniform and prays for his return.

"I always carry his chevron with me with his callsign, Fox, always," Svitlana told Reuters, adding that she wanted Russia to adhere to the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.

"We want specific actions regarding the return of prisoners of war (and) admission of the International Committee of the Red Cross to all places of detention," she said.

Ukrainian officials said in February about 8,000 people - civilians and soldiers - are in Russian hands.

The ICRC says it is trying to get information on the fate of 28,000 people - soldiers and civilians on both sides - who have lost contact with their families.

The banners carried by Bilous and fellow protesters read "Stop Russia torturing and killing Ukrainian PoWs" and "Russia is hiding Ukrainian PoWs".

Russia has repeatedly denied carrying out war crimes in Ukraine, including the torture of PoWs.

It says its forces are careful to comply with international law. Cases where Russian soldiers are alleged to have committed serious crimes in Ukraine have been and continue to be prosecuted by Russian courts, it says.

In Buergenstock, returned Ukrainian prisoner of war Illia Illiashenko will address a side event organised by the Ukrainian Society of Switzerland.

Illiashenko, a sergeant in the coastal troops of Ukraine's border guard was captured during fighting in his home town of Mariupol, and held in three different camps.

The 21-year-old, who used the call-sign Smurf - was held for 10 months before being returned in a prisoner exchange.

"There is constant physical and psychological pressure in Russian captivity. They try to break your personality, you as a human. And they do it with effective methods," said Illiashenko, who was beaten and burned while in captivity.

He hoped the summit would improve the situation of his comrades who are still being held and who he hopes to see again soon.

Russia and Ukraine are both signatories to the Geneva Conventions covering the treatment of prisoners.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

[Saif]

Russian official says Ukraine pouring troops into contested Kharkiv region

A Russian official said on Monday that fighting was gripping parts of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region which Moscow has been trying to seize and added that Ukraine’s military was pouring men and equipment into the contested area. Ukrainian President Voldodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv&

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Russian official says Ukraine pouring troops into contested Kharkiv region
Published :
Jun 18, 2024 09:34
Updated :
Jun 18, 2024 09:34

Rescuers work at a site of a private house destroyed during a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine June 10, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi/ File Photo

A Russian official said on Monday that fighting was gripping parts of Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region which Moscow has been trying to seize and added that Ukraine's military was pouring men and equipment into the contested area.

Ukrainian President Voldodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv's forces were gradually pushing Russian troops out of the contested area. His top commander predicted that Moscow would try to press forward pending the arrival in Ukraine of sophisticated Western equipment, including U.S-made F-16 fighter jets.

Russian forces crossed into parts of Kharkiv region last month and officials say they have seized about a dozen villages.

Vitaly Ganchev, Russia-appointed governor of the areas of Kharkiv region controlled by Moscow, said Russian forces were beating back Ukraine's latest counter-attacks in areas near Vovchansk, five kilometres (three miles) inside the border.

"There is fighting still going on in the Kharkiv sector. The fiercest clashes are in Vovchansk and near Lyptsy," Ganchev told Russian news agencies.

"The enemy is sending reserves and trying to counter-attack but is meeting a fierce response from our armed forces."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the incursion sought to create a "buffer zone" to prevent Ukraine from shelling border areas, including Belgorod region, opposite Kharkiv.

Over the past week, Ukrainian officials have said the Russian advance is firmly under control.

Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said Ukrainian troops were "gradually pushing the occupiers out of the Kharkiv region". The military's General Staff reported 10 Russian attacks were repelled near Vovchansk and Lyptsi.

Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksander Syrskyi, said on Telegram that Moscow's commanders "were building intensity and expanding the geography of military activity.

"The enemy clearly understands that the gradual arrival of weapons and equipment from our partners, the arrival of the first F-16s, strengthens our air defences," he wrote. "Time is one our side and their chances of success will diminish."

Ukrainian military bloggers said Kyiv's forces were holding positions around Vovchansk and trying to break through Russian lines to consolidate units around the town.

Russian forces seized much of Kharkiv region in the early weeks of the February 2022 invasion, but Ukraine recaptured large swathes of territory later that year.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, 30 km (18 miles) from the border, stayed out of Russian hands, and months of Russian attacks have eased, Ukrainian officials say, thanks to the arrival of new weaponry.​