Archive for the ‘Ukraine’ Category

Ukraine Targets Russian Oil Plants, Aiming to Disrupt Military Operations – The New York Times

Ukraine hit an oil depot in Russia in a drone attack on Friday, officials on both sides said, the latest in a series of recent assaults targeting Russian oil facilities as Kyiv increasingly seeks to strike critical infrastructure behind Russian lines.

Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, said oil tanks in the town of Klintsy had caught fire after a drone dropped munitions on the depot. The drone, he added, was brought down by electronic jamming. A Ukrainian intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, said Ukraine was behind the assault.

Fridays attack was the fourth on a Russian oil facility in the past three weeks, in what experts say is an effort by Ukraine to deliver setbacks to Russias military capabilities by targeting the facilities that supply fuel to tanks, fighter jets and other critical military equipment.

Strikes on oil depots and oil storage facilities disrupt logistics routes and slow down combat operations, said Olena Lapenko, an energy security expert at DiXi Group, a Ukrainian think tank. Disruption of these supplies, which are like blood for the human body, is part of a wider strategy to counter Russia on the battlefield.

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Ukraine Targets Russian Oil Plants, Aiming to Disrupt Military Operations - The New York Times

Poland’s Tusk Arrives in Ukraine to Reset Frayed Ties – TIME

KYIV, Ukraine Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived in Ukraine's capital Monday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on how Poland can keep supporting the country's almost two-year war with Russia and resolve a dispute between the neighboring nations over grain shipments and trucking.

Tusk, who returned to power in Poland last month and is keen to show that a change in government won't bring a change in Ukraine policy, was also due to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

There are some conflicts of interest, we know it well and we will talk about them, but not only in the spirit of friendship, which is obvious, but with the attitude to solve these problems as soon as possible, not to maintain or multiply them, Tusk said, according to comments posted on X, formerly Twitter, by his office.

For me, it is very important to build the feeling that Poland is the most reliable, most stable ally of Ukraine in this deadly clash with evil, Tusk said.

His visit took place the day after Moscow-installed officials in eastern Ukraine reported that Ukrainian shellingkilled at least 27 peopleon the outskirts of a Russian-occupied city. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the shelling outside Donetsk a monstrous terrorist act, and the Russia-backed local authorities declared a day of mourning.

The Ukrainian military, however, denied it had anything to do with the attack.

It was not immediately possible to verify either side's claims.

Ukraines allies have in recent weeks sought to reassure the country that they are committed to its long-term defense against the Kremlins forces amidconcerns that Western supportcould be sagging.British Prime Minister Rishi SunakandFrances new foreign ministeralso traveled to Kyiv recently.

Located on NATOs eastern flank, Poland has been one of Ukraine's strongest allies in its fight to defeat Russia. The government in Warsaw has provided weapons and humanitarian aid, and opened its borders to Ukrainian refugees since Moscow's troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Butrelations soured last yearas economic competition from Ukrainian food producers and truckers angered Poles who said their livelihoods were under threat.

Polish farmers and truckers blockaded border crossings, causing backups and threatening theflow of some aidgoing into Ukraine.

Polish farmers complained that imports of Ukrainian foods had caused prices to fall, hurting their incomes, while truckers said they were being undercut by their Ukrainian counterparts. The issuesurfaced during the waras Ukrainian ports were blocked and food producers turned to road routes through Europe to get their products to market.

At one point, Poland and some other European nations banned Ukrainian grain imports because of the trade dispute.

Poland's farmers and trucks have ended their protests for now, but Tusk is seeking ways of addressing their concerns. He has said that his country wants to help Ukraine economically but not at the expense of Polish businesses. He has suggested that Ukraine needs to better regulate its trucking industry.

Tusk was also scheduled to honor Ukrainian fighters and attend observances of the Day of Ukraines Unity, which marks Ukraines long struggle to be independent from both its eastern and western neighbors.

In other war-related developments, Ukraines air force said it intercepted all eight Shahed drones that Russia launch overnight over southern and central regions of Ukraine.

Debris from three drones shot down over the central Dnipropetrovsk region started a fire at an unnamed business but no human casualties were reported.

Meanwhile, major Ukrainian digital banking platform Monobank said it came under a massive denial-of-service (DoS) attack by unidentified hackers.

The attack was successfully repelled, the bank said, with no major consequences. Monobank is one of Ukraine's biggest banks.

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This story has been corrected to show that Denys Shmyhal is Ukraine's prime minister, not defense minister.

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Monika Scislowska contributed from Warsaw, Poland.

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Poland's Tusk Arrives in Ukraine to Reset Frayed Ties - TIME

Russian presidential hopeful calling for peace in Ukraine meets with soldiers’ wives – Yahoo News

MOSCOW (AP) A Russian presidential hopeful opposing Moscow's military action in Ukraine met Thursday with a group of soldiers' wives who are demanding that their husbands be discharged from the front line.

Longtime Kremlin critic Boris Nadezhdin, who serves as a local legislator in a town near Moscow, is collecting signatures to qualify for the race to challenge President Vladimir Putin in the March 15-17 vote.

Speaking at a meeting with wives and other relatives of Russian servicemen who were mobilized to fight in Ukraine, Nadezhdin, 60, criticized the government's decision to keep them in the ranks as long as the fighting continues.

We want them to treat people who are doing their duty in a decent way, he said.

Wives of some of the reservists who were called up for service in the fall of 2022 have campaigned for their husbands to be discharged from duty and replaced with contract soldiers.

Maria Andreyeva, whose brother is fighting in Ukraine and who took part in the meeting, said that we have been depressed for a long time and are looking for ways to spur ourselves. She said she and the other women have been filing petitions, picketing government buildings and taking other action.

Their demands have been stonewalled by the government-controlled media, and some pro-Kremlin politicians have sought to cast them as Western stooges accusations the women angrily rejected.

The mobilization of 300,000 reservists that Putin ordered in 2022 amid military setbacks in Ukraine was widely unpopular and prompted hundreds of thousands to flee abroad to avoid being drafted.

Aware of the public backlash, the military since then has increasingly sought to bolster the forces in Ukraine by enlisting more volunteers. The authorities claimed that about 500,000 signed contracts with the Defense Ministry last year.

During Thursday's meeting, Nadezhdin, a member of the local council in the town of Dolgoprudny just outside Moscow, reaffirmed his call for a quick end to the fighting in Ukraine.

The country wants peace, its crystal clear, Nadezhdin said. "The country wants this to end. People want to bring back those who are there. We told the truth and its very important how the government reacts to this meeting.

He spoke with optimism about his presidential bid, arguing that his calls for peace are getting increasing traction and he has received donations from thousands of people.

I will keep moving for as long as I feel public support, he said. Millions of people are supporting me.

Under Russian law, independent candidates like Nadezhdin must gather at least 300,000 signatures from 40 regions or more.

Another presidential hopeful who called for peace in Ukraine, former regional legislator Yekaterina Duntsova, was barred from the race last month after the Central Election Commission refused to accept her nomination, citing technical errors in her paperwork.

The election commission already has approved three candidates for the ballot who were nominated by parties represented in parliament and therefore weren't required to collect signatures: Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party, Leonid Slutsky of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and Vladislav Davankov of the New People Party.

All three parties have been largely supportive of the Kremlin's policies. Kharitonov had run against Putin in 2004, finishing a distant second.

The tight control over Russias political system that Putin has established during 24 years in power makes his reelection in March all but assured. Prominent critics who could challenge him on the ballot are either in jail or living abroad, and most independent media have been banned.

Under constitutional reforms he orchestrated, Putin is eligible to seek two more six-year terms after his current term expires this year, potentially allowing him to remain in power until 2036.

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Russian presidential hopeful calling for peace in Ukraine meets with soldiers' wives - Yahoo News

‘If They Really Want to Take Taiwan Back, What Can We Do?’ – POLITICO

We really dont want a war between China and Taiwan. ... a war would destroy everything, added Lu. There would be many people dead, and we would also lose our home.

The question for voters is: which party, which platform, leads to peace now? And to that end, how important is Taiwanese sovereignty?

The fundamental split here politically between the two big parties is [based on their] ideas on sovereignty, national identity and relations with China, said Courtney Donovan Smith, a political analyst who focuses on Taiwan. Its not a traditional left-right split.

Another of the fundamental issues of the ongoing campaign is whether to give the incumbent DPP another term after eight years in power, or to give the opposition KMT another chance to govern.

The Taiwan Peoples Party (TPP) is also contesting the presidency as a third choice, arguing that the two other parties are polar extremes that need a dose of moderation. Polling conducted before a nationwide blackout on political surveys indicates the race is close all three parties have a theoretical pathway to victory in the presidential race.

But whichever party is the victor, in many senses, Taiwans future will also depend on the United States and just how committed it will remain to the defense of its ally.

Angelica Oung, a Taiwanese American clean energy advocate, used to confidently tell her friends that the United States would step in to defend Taiwan if violence was ever used to cross the Taiwan Strait.

It was a core American interest to do so, she reasoned.

But lately, shes been struggling with her confidence in this matter. American foreign policy in Eastern Europe is having an effect thousands and thousands of miles away.

I look at whats been happening to American support for Ukraine, and its been eroding rather rapidly, she said, in a Taipei cafe specializing in domestically grown coffee.

Congress recently rejected a Biden administration proposal to send more than $100 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The legislation failed a procedural vote in the Senate, with Republicans pressing for unrelated border and immigration policy changes to be included.

The White House warned that aid to Ukraine would end, without the approval of additional money by Congress, at the end of 2023.

When a Taiwanese person comes to me [and] says, You see what they did to Ukraine? They encouraged them to stand up and fight Russia. And then when things dont go well, theyre abandoned. I find it very difficult to have a good comeback to that, Oung said.

President Joe Biden shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Dec. 12, 2023. The White House warned that aid to Ukraine would end without the approval of additional money by Congress, at the end of 2023. | Evan Vucci/AP

Now she finds herself disappointed in the U.S. government, worrying that letting down Ukraine is a prelude to what may happen in Taiwan.

For much of her life she has straddled the two countries, traveling between Taiwan and the United States. Oung was living in Los Angeles when the Covid pandemic broke out, and decided to move to Taiwan where she felt the public health measures were taken more seriously. When she settled in, she was surprised about the political priorities of her fellow Taiwanese voters.

I just found it frankly perplexing that the Taiwanese werent seriously alarmed about the prospect of an invasion, because its very obvious from what [Chinese leader] Xi [Jinping] was saying, that he had the desire to reunify Taiwan and China by force, if necessary, she explained.

But over time, she found her perspective cooling. Its hard to maintain the same level of alarm for years at a time, she told me, and while she still sees national security as a top priority, she understands why people are not operating constantly at the highest levels of alertness.

For Huang Po Chang, a shop owner in Xingang, a small town in southwest Taiwan, the issues that determine his vote are the same pocketbook issues that trouble people all over the world.

The fundamental differences between the TPP and KMT political parties are their views on China. But Huang says hes much more concerned about rising housing prices, slowing economic growth, opportunities for young people and medical care not nearly as much about geopolitics.

Thats not the most important thing in my mind, because Ive been living in Taiwan for 40 years, and constantly notice China, but thats not what I pay attention to a lot in my daily life, he said.

He puts the chance of a violent conflict at about 1 in 10, citing the familial and economic connections between China and Taiwan as reasons why peace is the most likely long-term outcome.

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'If They Really Want to Take Taiwan Back, What Can We Do?' - POLITICO

Sunak Pledges $3 Billion in Military Aid to Ukraine – The New York Times

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain visited Kyiv on Friday to announce that he would send more than $3 billion in military assistance to Ukraine in the next financial year, his countrys largest annual commitment since the start of Russias full-scale invasion.

In addition to the new aid package, Mr. Sunak and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine signed a bilateral security agreement for the next 10 years. The pact offers reassurance amid concerns about a potential shortfall in Western support for Ukraine while badly needed military and financial aid packages remain blocked in the United States and the European Union because of political infighting.

For two years, Ukraine has fought with great courage to repel a brutal Russian invasion. They are still fighting, unfaltering in their determination to defend their country, Mr. Sunak said in a statement. I am here today with one message: The U.K. will also not falter. We will stand with Ukraine, in their darkest hours and in the better times to come.

The British aid for the coming year represents an increase of 200 million pounds, about $255 million, compared with the countrys annual commitment for the past two years. Much of the increase will go toward the production and procurement of thousands of military drones that are crucial for Ukraine. Britain will also deliver long-range missiles, air defenses and artillery ammunition.

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Sunak Pledges $3 Billion in Military Aid to Ukraine - The New York Times