Vladimir Putin Russia Ukraine war

RIGA — Ukraine will enter into serious peace negotiations with Moscow only after Russian troops have been pushed back or retreated from all of the territory ...

The latest: European diplomats are set to meet again Thursday as they negotiate a proposal to phase out Russian oil imports. More than 5.7 million Ukrainian refugees have fled the country since the start of the invasion, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “More than 500,000 of our people have already been deported to Russia. They were forced to go there,” Zelensky said, according to Interfax. “Everything is taken away from them. “I do not care what happens to some leaders and where they end up. The Ukrainian regiment, which has been connected with a far-right ideology, wrote in a Telegram post that “a car was hit by Russians who used [an] anti-tank guided weapon.” “With today’s announcement, my Administration has nearly exhausted funding that can be used to send security assistance through drawdown authorities for Ukraine,” Biden said. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier Friday that Biden is poised to sign the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act next week. Kharkiv: Ukrainian forces defending this northeastern city have shifted to counterattacks against their Russian enemies, and as a result, are retaking territory. Ukrainian officials have raised concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use the occasion to declare a formal war with Ukraine. Guterres met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, who agreed to evacuate civilians from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. Although evacuations continued Friday, the two countries disputed the number of evacuees. “Today, for the first time, the Security Council spoke with one voice for peace in Ukraine,” Guterres said, referring to the council’s statement. Experts fear Russian President Vladimir Putin may use Victory Day on Monday as an excuse to formally declare war on Ukraine and ramp up the pace of shellings.

The Ukrainian military took the offensive as the two sides battle for control of the east. In the south, an evacuation convoy was dispatched to rescue ...

The pace of Russian missile strikes across Ukraine has been intensifying in recent days as Moscow tries to slow the flow of Western arms across the country. The latest operation to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol was underway on Friday morning, according to Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, who said details would be provided later. The war and the disruption of food exports have caused a surge in global food prices, with devastating consequences for poor countries. Russian forces in the east “aimed to organize a famine,” Mr. Haidai said. “I think there is quite a bit of credibility to the footage” on social media, he said. Nearly 500 people have managed to leave in recent days with the assistance of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general. But there was no pause in the fighting on Thursday, and that evening, Capt. Svyatoslav Palamar, the deputy commander of the Azov regiment inside the plant, accused Moscow in a video address of breaking its pledge. The Russian defense ministry also said that 50 civilians, including 11 children, had been evacuated from the ruins of the plant on Friday, and that the operation will continue tomorrow, according to Russian state media. The official, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk, said in a post on Telegram the evacuation was “extremely slow” because Russian troops violated a cease-fire. The Italian authorities, who have actively impounded villas and yachts belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs, said in a statement that it had impounded the ship, which is in the dry dock of the port of Marina di Carrara, on the northern coast of Tuscany, even though the person they had identified as its technical owner did not currently appear on a European sanctions list. The official, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk, said in a post on Telegram that the evacuation was “extremely slow” because Russian troops repeatedly violated a cease-fire. “I welcome this support and will continue to spare no effort to save lives, reduce suffering and find the path of peace.”

Having failed to take over Ukraine, what are President Putin's military prospects now? Three defence experts weigh in.

Putin has surrounded himself with loyalists who fear him and are as paranoid about threats to both him as a leader and to the regime more broadly. The point of refocusing to the east and south was to solidify and gain more territory to encircle Ukraine from all sides. The new offensive has gone so badly that she finds it hard to speculate what a victory for Putin could look like. The bombardment of a city that, as of today, is still putting up resistance has shattered 90 percent of its buildings and left 20,000 dead. For that reason, she believes, the Russians have made great fanfare domestically about “liberating” Mariupol, the strategic port that has been levelled by the worst carnage of the war. “He will insist that the US and NATO are willing to risk continued violence and economic downturn around the world just to humiliate Russia and limit its power in the international order,” she says. Additionally, Russia thus far has suffered from a regimented top-down style of command that does not allow leadership on the ground to be flexible. “It’s not clear if they have enough parts and skills to maintain them as they wear down,” Konaev says. It can move weaponry to the front lines faster than the Russians, even though what they need is coming from outside the country on the western flank. And what are his military prospects for the months to come? Formations, tanks and sophisticated hardware go on display to remind the world of Russia’s lasting power. Russia’s Victory Day parade is an annual extravagance in Red Square. Falling on May 9, it commemorates the Nazi surrender of World War II with a lavish spectacle meant to project might.

Zelenskiy says Mariupol being 'tortured to death', as UN security council omits words 'war' and 'invasion' from its first statement.

Russia would continue to react “harshly and decisively” to all sanctions imposed by the UK,the ministry said in a statement. A yacht reportedly belonging to Putin was seized by Italian officials. US defense department spokesperson John Kirby deflected questions about whether the Pentagon provided information to Ukraine that helped military leaders target Russian generals. The latest US military aid package to Ukraine, announced by president Joe Biden, is worth $150m, secretary of state Antony Blinken confirmed. On peace talks, Zelenskiy saidhe was “elected as president of Ukraine and not a mini-Ukraine”,and that Russia must first fall back to the territory it held before its invasion on 23 February if talks are to succeed. Three evacuation buses left the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol , according to Russian media reports.

The attempt to appease the aggressor on the eve of the Great Patriotic War turned out to be a mistake that cost our people dearly: Russian President.

Ukraine and the West dismiss the fascism claim as nonsense and say Putin is waging an unprovoked war of aggression. Russia's invasion has killed thousands of people and displaced nearly 10 million. Last year, Putin jabbed at Western exceptionalism and what he said was the rise of neo-Nazism and Russophobia - trends he has returned to again and again when addressing the issue of Ukraine. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two, more than any other country, and Putin has railed in recent years at what Moscow sees as attempts in the West to revise the history of the war to belittle the Soviet victory. "The attempt to appease the aggressor on the eve of the Great Patriotic War turned out to be a mistake that cost our people dearly," Putin said on Feb. 24 when he announced what he called a special military operation in Ukraine. It is packed with technology but specific details are Russian state secrets.

At the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin obliquely raised the possibility of a nuclear strike against anyone who ...

If it led to global condemnation, experts said this could reduce the chances of others using nuclear weapons. NATO has long said the current design aims to counter missiles from Iran, Syria and rogue actors in the Middle East. "He is trying to scare the West." And we must not underestimate it," he said last week, prompting the U.S. State Department to call his remarks "the height of irresponsibility". He knows that extraordinary retaliation and universal opprobrium would follow, with no remotely comparable strategic upsides to justify them," he added. If Russia were to use nuclear weapons, experts saw a range of possibilities, from a detonation over the Black Sea or an uninhabited part of Ukraine to demonstrate its capabilities to a strike against a Ukrainian military target or on a city. "What I would suggest instead is that the United States and NATO respond with overwhelming conventional military, political and diplomatic force to further isolate Russia and to seek to end the conflict without escalation to all-out nuclear war," said Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association, a nonprofit group that seeks to educate the public about arms control. "I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. The main aim of Russia's elliptical threats of a nuclear strike seems to be to deter Washington and its NATO allies from direct involvement in the war, experts and Western diplomats said. Biden's comment appeared to reflect a widespread view among U.S. experts and Western officials that the chances of Russia using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war are extremely low. In a speech announcing the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Putin gave a veiled but unmistakable warning that if the West intervened in what he has called a "special military operation" he could use nuclear weapons in response. While Washington has not seen any actions suggesting Russian nuclear forces are on high alert, experts and Western officials warned against dismissing the comments as bluster given the risk Putin could use nuclear arms if he felt cornered in Ukraine or if NATO entered the war.

At the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin obliquely raised the possibility of a nuclear strike against anyone who ...

If it led to global condemnation, experts said this could reduce the chances of others using nuclear weapons. NATO has long said the current design aims to counter missiles from Iran, Syria and rogue actors in the Middle East. “He is trying to scare the West.” And we must not underestimate it,” he said last week, prompting the U.S. State Department to call his remarks “the height of irresponsibility.” He knows that extraordinary retaliation and universal opprobrium would follow, with no remotely comparable strategic upsides to justify them,” he added. If Russia were to use nuclear weapons, experts saw a range of possibilities, from a detonation over the Black Sea or an uninhabited part of Ukraine to demonstrate its capabilities to a strike against a Ukrainian military target or on a city. The main aim of Russia’s elliptical threats of a nuclear strike seems to be to deter Washington and its NATO allies from direct involvement in the war, experts and Western diplomats said. “I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Biden’s comment appeared to reflect a widespread view among U.S. experts and Western officials that the chances of Russia using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war are extremely low. While Washington has not seen any actions suggesting Russian nuclear forces are on high alert, experts and Western officials warned against dismissing the comments as bluster given the risk Putin could use nuclear arms if he felt cornered in Ukraine or if NATO entered the war. In a speech announcing the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Putin gave a veiled but unmistakable warning that if the West intervened in what he has called a “special military operation” he could use nuclear weapons in response. At the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin obliquely raised the possibility of a nuclear strike against anyone who intervened in the conflict.

The Pentagon is sending rockets and equipment designed for Donbas, while Zelensky's conditions include the restoration of preinvasion borders.

Kharkiv: Ukrainian forces defending this northeastern city have shifted to counterattacks against their Russian enemies, and as a result, are retaking territory. Ukrainian officials have raised concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use the occasion to declare a formal war with Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged President Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to hold off on imposing sanctions on the 55-year-old billionaire so he could continue acting as a mediator. Guterres met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, who agreed to evacuate civilians from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. Although evacuations continued Friday, the two countries disputed the number of evacuees. That understanding fell apart after Russia continued bombing the mill. “Today, for the first time, the Security Council spoke with one voice for peace in Ukraine,” Guterres said, referring to the council’s statement. He declined to discuss the extent of the intelligence assistance the U.S. provides Ukraine, but called it “lawful and limited.” By protecting the locations and identities of users, VPNs are now granting millions of Russians access to blocked material. RIGA, Latvia — When Russian authorities blocked hundreds of Internet sites in March, Konstantin decided to act. Experts fear Russian President Vladimir Putin could use the Victory Day celebrations to formally declare war on Ukraine and ramp up the pace of shellings. Azovstal has served as a last holdout for Ukrainian fighters in the city, with civilians sheltering alongside them. Fifty civilians were evacuated from the plant Friday despite Russian cease-fire violations, Kyiv said.

Russia's actually declaring war would represent a major shift in how Russian President Vladimir Putin and his colleagues publicly address the conflict. We asked ...

A declaration of war would help Putin prolong an already costly war. Both the United Nations Charter and the International Criminal Court seek to outlaw and punish wars of aggression – meaning, conflicts waged without the justification of self-defense. Russia also faces difficulties in both securing additional financial resources, as well as soldiers. Countries avoid declaring war for a variety of reasons. Other countries may find it harder to remain neutral. The Ukraine war is less than three months old and Russia has lost more soldiers now than during the 10-year Afghanistan war that it started in 1979. A formal war would also make it harder for Russia supporters like China to deny that Russia has invaded Ukraine and is at war. Under international law, engaging in a war of aggression against a sovereign country is one of the more significant crimes a country can commit. Research has found that public support does depend on how costly the war appears to be – though this is less true for people who are nationalistic and likely to support a war under any conditions. One key reason Putin might declare war on Victory Day is that Putin has falsely sold this war to the Russian military and people as a war against Nazis. Putin has incorrectly argued that Nazis run Ukraine, and Russia is intervening to “ denazify” the country by removing them from power. This annual celebration is now another a way to convince Russian people that the high costs of war – both financial and the number of lives lost – are justified. Instead of being confronted with Russian military setbacks, Putin can use Victory Day as a call to arms and potentially to rally Russian people to support a larger, and more prolonged, war.

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to ...

Decode the geostrategy, diplomacy, and ideologies of the world’s unending wars. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos, and videos. Russia is going to celebrate the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany on Monday

A Ukrainian commander at the Azovstal steel plant said there are "bloody battles" unfolding with Russian forces inside the complex after they breached the ...

Our donation of a further 287 generators will ensure more essential services in Ukraine can keep running,” Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said. The generators will be delivered to a Polish government hub. In a statement, the British government said it will deliver an extra 287 generators that will help to run relief centers, hospitals, phone masts and water pumping stations.