Mediaboss Marketing

[1/5] Ukrainian servicemen of the 128th Mountain assault Brigade set up an 120mm mortar during a military training, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, May 15, 2023.... Read more

DNIPROPETROVSK REGION, Ukraine, May 15 (Reuters) - Ukrainian soldiers training for a counteroffensive against Russian forces said on Monday they felt ready to launch the assault which they hope will end the war.

Members of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade practiced setting up and packing away their mortars as the sun beat down on them in fields in the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk.

Learning to do it quickly is vital to their survival. "We are getting ready for the counteroffensive, so that we can finally end this war," said a 28-year-old serviceman who goes the call sign Dykyi, or 'wild' in Ukrainian.

"We have been preparing for about a month. And before that, weve been preparing for it all our lives."

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week Ukraine needed more time to prepare for the counteroffensive, intended to take back territory captured by Russia, and has been on a brief tour on European capitals this week drumming up support.

"We are expecting the offensive. By my calculations we are all ready to fulfil our tasks. But we are nevertheless constantly perfecting our craft," said Roman Khomych, the 45-year-old commander of the unit training with mortars.

Dykyi, who first joined the army in 2015 and returned after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, said he was motivated by the destruction caused by the war.

"It's extremely painful to watch our cities being destroyed. It's a sort of painful motivation to go and finish all this," he said.

The 128th Mountain Assault Brigade is an elite force that has been involved in combat with Russian or Russian-backed forces since 2014, when fighting began in eastern Ukraine.

Several soldiers said they had fought near the eastern city of Bakhmut in one of the fiercest battles of the war before being moved south.

"Our unit has been taking part in battle since the first days of the war... We are constantly involved in combat, and we will also take part in the counteroffensive," Khomych said.

The 128th Brigade are training with Soviet-calibre mortars, but Khomych said a bigger necessity than new mortars was Western-supplied armoured vehicles to protect troops better.

A potential goal for Ukrainian forces in the south is to retake a land corridor held by Russian troops that provides a land bridge to Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014 and is home to Russia's Black Sea fleet.

(This story has been corrected to remove attribution to Dykyi of comment about importance of speedin paragraph 4)

Reporting by Max Hunder, Editing by Timothy Heritage

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read more from the original source:
Ukrainian troops gird for counteroffensive they hope will end war - Reuters

Opinion

The western response has been blighted by stupidity. Sanctions hurt trade and have little effect on despotic leaders

Tue 16 May 2023 02.00 EDT

Volodymyr Zelenskiys visit to London yesterday on his surprise tour of European capitals suggests a last throw of the dice in his bid to drive the Russians from his country. He has justice on his side and is desperate for logistical support. He has shown he can use it well and deserves to get it.

As he did in his meeting with Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, he is also requesting additional economic sanctions on Russia. These are a different matter. Sanctions on Russia have failed utterly in their declared objective of deterring Vladimir Putins aggression. They failed to curb his initial incursions after 2014 and failed to restrain his barbaric conduct of the present war. They have not destroyed his economy or induced his cronies, let alone his people, to rise up against him. They may have curbed his trade with some current and former partners, but hardly by much. He can afford to play long.

Sanctions have served Putins cause, in helping persuade his people that this war is one of flagrant western aggression against Russia. In addition, the inflationary costs imposed on the west have been stark to the extent of weakening the western alliance behind Ukraine. Yet again the virtue signalling of liberal governments in the cause of something must be done has shot the west in the foot.

Last week, the Arab League agreed to readmit Syria to its ranks and invite its leader, Bashar al-Assad, to next weeks summit. It has accepted that a decade of western sanctions have failed to restrain, let alone topple, one of the cruellest dictators on the planet. Sanctions have impoverished Syrias poor, enriched its elite and dumped some 6 million refugees on Assads Arab neighbours. And yet, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE now seem likely to resume trade with Syria, leaving the US facing the prospect of having to sanction them, under its previous commitments.

Western powers must also recognise the failure of sanctions against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe, which allowed both to move into the Russo-Chinese orbit of influence. This is similar to the outcome of the futile sanctions against Iran. Meanwhile, after the USs weakening of oil sanctions, Venezuelas President Maduro is expecting to be welcomed back into the community.

In the cause of seeking to make the world a better place, the west currently has sanctions in place that affect about 50 nations. These nations generally share two characteristics: their peoples are already overwhelmingly poor and their rulers are overwhelmingly secure. In many cases, they have benefited from a besieged political economy, from which potential opponents flee into exile.

Sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine were exceptional only in being directed at a substantial trading nation rather than a poor one. They invited Russia to hit back in restricting gas and oil flows, the loss of revenue being partly compensated by the soaring price of both. The inflationary cost of living in western economies has been marked, destabilising one government after another. And yet Putin remains unchallenged in his Kremlin castle. None of this appears to have been predicted by policymakers.

Economic sanctions are an ill-considered, ineffective and regressive weapon of economic conflict. Yet there are new reports that the G7 and the EU are considering a further long-term ban on Russian gas exports. At a time when a collapse in global trade is the greatest threat to world prosperity, western governments are apparently intent on furthering that collapse. They appear to want humanitarian catastrophe. Ukraines fate will be resolved by war and diplomacy, not sanctions. Western diplomacy has been blighted by stupidity. The worlds poor and oppressed people are those who suffer most.

{{topLeft}}

{{bottomLeft}}

{{topRight}}

{{bottomRight}}

{{.}}

Continued here:
Sunak must be firm. Ukraines fate will be decided by war and diplomacy not by sanctions - The Guardian

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) Leaders from across the continent were heading toward Iceland early Tuesday for a rare summit of the 46-nation Council of Europe that will once more step up support for member state Ukraine and condemn expelled Russia for inflicting war on its neighbor.

And after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stocked up on promises of military hardware throughout a long weekend of diplomatic hobnobbing with the continents major leaders, the two-day summit of Europes main human rights body will be centering on providing legal and judicial means to go after the Kremlin.

By Wednesdays conclusion, leaders at the summit want to have the outlines of a system in place that will set up a register of all the damage already caused by Russian forces, so Moscow can be held liable for compensation to the victims later. They are hoping that the United States, which has observer status at the summit, will also back that initiative.

The register is just one of a number of international initiatives set up to ensure accountability for the crimes inflicted in Ukraine, said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The Council also wants to make sure that Russia can be held accountable for what it sees as a plethora of crimes committed during the invasion.

I will very strongly support the creation of a dedicated tribunal to bring Russias crime of aggression to trial, said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Plans for such a court in The Hague have yet to bear fruit.

In Kyiv, the words of support were no match for Moscows military might, as Russia launched an intense air attack on the capital using a combination of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.

In the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, diplomacy was seeking a counterweight, with keynote speeches by Sunak, von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Zelenskyy headed home Tuesday after a fruitful three-day tour through Europe where leaders promised him an arsenal of missiles, tanks and drones to replenish Ukraines weapons supplies ahead of a long-anticipated spring offensive.

There will be no escaping the plight of Ukraine during the two-day summit of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe. Since its inception in 1949 it has been a guardian, with fluctuating success, of human rights, democracy and the rule of law on the continent. Rarely has the need been higher than in todays world.

The summit will also want to focus on the plight of children that have been moved from Ukraine to Russia during the invasion. In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. Another official has also been indicted.

Since the start of the war, the Russians have been accused of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories to raise them as their own. Thousands of children have been seized from schools and orphanages during Russias occupation of eastern Ukraine and it is not known where they are now.

___

Casert reported from Brussels

___

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Continued here:
Council of Europe summit in Iceland seeks to hold Russia to account for Ukraine war - The Associated Press

KYIV/LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - Ukraine on Monday hailed its first substantial battlefield advances in six months as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won pledges for new long-range drones in Britain to add to a haul of Western arms for a counteroffensive against Russian invaders.

Since last week, the Ukrainian military has started to push Russian forces back in and around the embattled city of Bakhmut, its first significant offensive operations since its troops recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November.

"The advance of our troops along the Bakhmut direction is the first success of offensive actions in the defence of Bakhmut," Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of Ground Forces, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

"The last few days have shown that we can move forward and destroy the enemy even in such extremely difficult conditions," he said. "We are fighting with fewer resources than the enemy. At the same time, we are able to ruin its plans."

In its evening battlefield update on Monday, Ukraine's army General Staff said Russian forces were pressing efforts backed by heavy shelling to gain ground but had failed to advance around the village of Ivanivske on the city's western fringes.

The battle for Bakhmut has become the longest and bloodiest of the war and has totemic significance for Russia, which has no other prizes to show for a winter campaign that cost thousands of lives.

Over the past half year, Kyiv has dug in on the defensive while Moscow mounted its campaign, sending hundreds of thousands of fresh reservists and mercenaries into Europe's bloodiest ground combat since World War Two.

Kyiv is now preparing a counteroffensive using hundreds of new tanks and armored vehicles sent by Western countries since the start of 2023, aiming to recapture the sixth of Ukraine's territory Moscow claims to have annexed.

Zelenskiy met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London on Monday, the latest stop in a tour that brought him to Rome, Berlin and Paris over the past three days, pocketing major new pledges of weapons along the way.

Britain, which last week became the first Western country to offer Ukraine long-range cruise missiles, followed that up during Zelenskiy's visit by promising drones that could strike at a range of 200 km (125 miles).

Sunak's government said it would soon start training Ukrainian pilots to fly fighter jets. French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with France's TF1 television that France was open to training Ukrainian pilots but he and Zelenskiy had not discussed delivering warplanes.

"I have not talked about airplanes. I have talked about missiles. I have talked about training," Macron said.

Zelenskiy described the new weapons pledged by the Europeans as "important and powerful."

In a video address from a train taking him back to Kyiv, he said, "We are returning home with new military help. Newer and more powerful weapons for the front, more protection for our people. Greater political support..."

Sunak said the war was at a "pivotal moment" and Britain would remain steadfast. "It is important for the Kremlin to also know that we are not going away. We are here for the long term."

The Kremlin said it did not believe the added hardware would change the course of what it calls a "special military operation" to eliminate security threats posed by Kyiv's pursuit of ties with the West. Kyiv and Western backers call Russia's actions an unprovoked land grab.

Ukrainian forces drove Russian troops back from Kyiv a year ago, and recaptured ground in the second half of 2022, but have since endured a punishing Russian assault while waiting for arms to arrive.

Ukrainian officials are generally mum about details of offensives that are under way, but have reported substantial territorial gains on both the northern and southern outskirts of Bakhmut over the past week.

Moscow has acknowledged retreating north of the city, and the head of the Wagner private army fighting inside Bakhmut has said Russia's regular forces have fled positions on the northern and southern flanks.

Ukrainian officials portray the fighting in that area as localized advances, not the major counteroffensive yet to get under way.

A respected Russian news outlet's report on Saturday that four Russian military aircraft were shot down near the borders of Belarus and Ukraine was inadvertently confirmed by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday.

"Three days after the events near us - I mean in the Bryansk region, when four aircraft were shot down, we are forced to respond. Since then, we, our troops, have been on high alert," Lukashenko was quoted as saying at an air force command base, according to the Pul Pervovo Telegram channel, a state outlet that reports on Lukashenko's activities.

There was no official response from Ukraine. But Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelenskiy, on Saturday called the incident "justice ... and instant karma."

Belarus is a close ally of Russia, which used it as a launch pad for the invasion, though Lukashenko has insisted Belarus is not a party to the war and has not sent troops to fight alongside Russian forces.

Writing by Peter Graff; editing by Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

More here:
Ukraine hails gains in Bakhmut as Zelenskiy wins more weapons in Europe - Reuters.com

14 May 2023

Victory Day commemorations in Berlin saw many turn out in the German capital with differing views

Russian communities across Europe have been polarised by the Ukraine war - and that threatened to spill over in Berlin this month when they marked the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Given how much Vladimir Putin uses the Soviet victory over fascism in 1945 to justify Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there was no avoiding the war here in the German capital.

Many German-based Russians clearly believe the president's reasons for the war, with some views in Berlin virtually indistinguishable from the narratives promoted by Russian state TV - but others are just as vocal in opposing it.

The commemorations in Berlin started on 8 May, as Germany marked the 78th anniversary of its liberation from fascism, and groups of Russians visited the Soviet war memorial in Treptower Park.

One, Alexander, who is originally from Russia but has lived in Germany for more than 20 years, said he believed Russian forces were "defending Donbas, Crimea, Kherson, and Odesa against fascists" - listing places in south-eastern Ukraine.

Alexander shows personal items decorated with portraits of Putin, he says he believes Russia is fighting fascism in Ukraine

"They belong to Russia! Russia is taking back what belongs to it," added Anna, another Russian living in Germany.

Alexander then showed me a cigarette holder and a tobacco box he had decorated by taping portraits of President Putin to them.

But the events that matter most to Russian speakers were held the following day, 9 May - marked in Russia as Victory Day.

They kicked off with the Russian ambassador laying flowers to the imposing statue of a Soviet soldier in Treptower Park. Again, the event mostly attracted supporters of the Kremlin's policies and rhetoric.

One of them, a young Russian called Yevgenia, told me that "the collective West, particularly America" were fanning the flames of neo-Nazism in Ukraine.

Yevgenia was sporting the St George's Ribbon - a Kremlin-backed symbol often used by Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. Like many at the rally, she and her friend held aloft a Soviet flag, as Russian flags were banned.

Yevgenia (right) wears a St George's Ribbon - a Kremlin-backed symbol used by Russian troops in the Ukraine war

But not everyone supported such views.

The monument to the grieving mother at the other end of Treptower Park was the meeting point for those who wanted to honour the victims of fascism without supporting Mr Putin's claims that he is fighting "fascists" in Ukraine.

And many of the people who gathered there were Russians. One of them, Kirill, told me he fled Russia last October to avoid being drafted into the army and being sent to fight in Ukraine.

"I do not want to become a murderer for Putin. I do not believe the lies I'm told by TV," he said.

"I was very afraid, but I attended anti-war rallies. I did all I could do," Kirill told me, standing alongside a poster about political prisoners in Russia.

Kirill, with a poster of political prisoners in Russia, says he left the country to avoid being drafted into the Russian army

Kirill fled Russia after being arrested, fined and beaten for attending anti-war rallies in St Petersburg.

Another young Russian in this corner of Treptower Park, an activist called Alexandra, thought President Putin had turned Victory Day into a propaganda tool. "It is an absolute sacrilege for us," she told me.

Her friend Ekaterina chimed in: "It is important for me to show that not everyone from Russia supports what is happening in Ukraine or what this day has turned into.

"The way it is marked now is a one big reason why this war started on 24 February last year."

At another important event held by Russians in Berlin on Victory Day, dozens gathered at the Brandenburg Gate for what is known as the march of the Immortal Regiment.

Even though such marches are encouraged by the Kremlin, the one held in Berlin seemed less overly political than the events in Treptower Park, with dozens of Russians solemnly carrying photographs of their ancestors who fought in World War Two.

A group of anti-war Russians demonstrated against Victory Day being turned into a propaganda tool - but their event was outnumbered by the rally sporting Kremlin-encouraged symbols such as St George's ribbons or Soviet flags.

Kristina attends a demonstration with a sign criticising the West's supply of weapons to Ukraine

But what do Germans think of all this?

I was able to find the whole spectrum of opinions among them. Many came to Treptower Park on 8-9 May to offer thanks for the Soviet army liberating Germany from fascism, and were less concerned with the present.

"What Putin is doing in Ukraine now doesn't change the fact that [Russia did liberate Germany]," one of them, Wolfgang, told me.

Another German demonstrator, Kristina, was against weapons deliveries to what she described as the "fascist regime" in Ukraine.

But a young man, Janek, said it was "shameful" that President Putin was using the defeat of Nazism as a foreign policy tool.

"They say they want to free Ukrainians from the Nazis there - but it's just not true, it's propaganda," he said.

Go here to see the original:
Ukraine war: Russians in Germany split over Putin's invasion - BBC