Putin’s Plan to Forcibly Annex the Crimean Peninsula of Kiev and the Prospects for a Victory in the War of Crimea

Putin last month delivered a speech announcing the partial mobilization of some 300,000 reservists following successful Ukrainian counterattacks, raising the specter of nuclear weapons if he deemed the “territorial integrity” of Russia to be jeopardized. The Russian president recently announced the annexation of Ukrainian regions in defiance of international law.

The process to give legitimacy to the annexation of the DONETSK and LUHANsk provinces in easternUkraine is part of the moves.

Reports from the ground suggested that voting took place at gunpoint in some cases, and Putin tried to claim that the referendums reflected the will of millions of people.

“I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me. Everyone is asked to remember. The people in Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhjia are becoming citizens. Forever,” the Russian president said during the annexation ceremony Friday.

The Russians said the annexation was an attempt to fix a historical mistake they saw after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia does not want to go the way of the Soviets or the Romanovs. Which might explain his recent desperate moves: the mobilization of 300,000 additional troops – a measure that he had long sought to avoid – and his nuclear weapons saber-rattling.

Russia will now, despite the widespread international condemnation, forge ahead with its plans to fly its flag over some 100,000 square kilometers (38,600 square miles) of Ukrainian territory – the largest forcible annexation of land in Europe since 1945.

The Russian leader spoke in the chandeliered St. George’s Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace — the same place where he declared in March 2014 that the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea was part of Russia.

Many of Mr. Putin’s cabinet ministers and the four Russian leaders of the occupied Ukrainian regions sat in the audience.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has become so efficient at creating new enemies and increasing the number of them, that the ranks of the people he would seek to conquer have grown even bigger. At home and abroad, there seems to be no limit to Putin’s appetite to wreak havoc in pursuit of an elusive victory.

He talked about a lot of military actions that happened in Western societies, from the British opium war in China in the 19th century to Allied firebombings of Germany and the Vietnam and Korean Wars.

The United States, he said, was the only country to have used nuclear weapons in war. “By the way, they created a precedent,” Mr. Putin added in an aside.

The Kremlin: The War of Defiance, Russia’s Outrage and the War of the Rebellion. Is Putin still figuring it out?

As the Kremlin prepared for the ceremony, Russia bombedUkrainian towns and cities and officials said 25 people were killed.

There will be a celebration on Red Square. Official ratification of the decrees will happen next week, said Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman.

During the war of defiance, there were staged referendums held in occupied territory. Since the beginning of the war, many of the civilian populations in the provinces have fled, and people who did vote were sometimes held at gun point.

The capture of the two eastern regions by Russia could allow the Kremlin to declare victory at a time when they have not done enough to prevent the gains by the Ukrainians.

The recent draft of hundreds of thousands of civilians into military service has encountered opposition in Russia, which will be a huge hurdle for Mr. Putin to reestablish his control over the war.

According to Hill, Putin wants his negotiations to be with Biden and allies, not Ukraine: “He’s basically saying now you will have to negotiate with me and sue for peace. And that means recognizing what we have done on the ground in Ukraine.”

Fiona Hill, who has advised three US Presidents on national security about Russia, also thinks Putin may be attempting an end game. “He feels a sense of acute urgency that he was losing momentum, and he’s now trying to exit the war in the same way that he entered it. With him being the person in charge and him framing the whole terms of any kind of negotiation. “

Above all, many of the best and brightest in virtually every field have now fled Russia. This includes writers, artists and journalists as well as some of the most creative technologists, scientists and engineers.

CNN is unable to verify the Russian figures, but the 40 kilometers (around 25 miles) traffic tailbacks at the border with Georgia, and the long lines at crossings into Kazakhstan and Finland, speak to the backlash and the strengthening perception that Putin is losing his fabled touch at reading Russia’s mood.

Kortunov understands the public’s feelings about the large costs and loss of life in the war, but he isn’t sure what goes on in the Kremlin. “Many people would start asking questions, why did we get into this mess? Why, you know, we lost so many people.”

He used the same playbook annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and now, like then, threatens potential nuclear strikes should Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, try to take the annexed territories back.

Western leaders are in a battle of brinksmanship with Putin. Last Sunday US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Washington would respond decisively if Russia deployed nuclear weapons against Ukraine and has made clear to Moscow the “catastrophic consequences” it would face.

Observational Evidence that Putin is Not Ready to Give Up on His Violation of the Oslo Constraints: The Case for Nuclear Security

Both Danish and Swedish seismologists recorded explosive shockwaves from close to the seabed: the first, at around 2 a.m. local time, hitting 2.3 magnitude, then again, at around 7 p.m., registering 2.1.

The Danes and Germans sent warships to secure the area after patches of sea were discovered, and Norway increased security at its oil and gas facilities.

Russia denies responsibility and has launched its own investigation. John Brennan, who once was the CIA’s boss, said that Russia has the skills to damage these pipelines in a way that will be easy to carry out.

Russian naval vessels were seen by European security officials in the area in the days prior, Western intelligence sources have said. NATO’s North Atlantic Council has described the damage as a “deliberate, reckless and irresponsible act of sabotage.”

Nord Stream 2 was never operational, and Nord Stream 1 had been throttled back by Putin as Europe raced to replenish gas reserves ahead of winter, while dialling back demands for Russian supplies and searching for replacement providers.

The signs seem to suggest that Putin has been unaware how the world would respond to his brutality. France will increase its military aid to Kyiv as a result of the attacks. The live streaming of Russian missiles over the heads and explosions of Ukrainian civilians may serve to reinforce the opinion of the public that there is a war going on. And if anything, the turning of fire on civilians hints at Russian – rather than Ukrainian – weakness, since it suggests Putin is unable to respond in the field to humiliating defeats for his forces.

No one knows what Putin is thinking. Kortunov doubts Putin will be willing to compromise beyond his own terms for peace, “not on the terms that are offered by President Zelensky, not on the terms which are offered by the West… .[though] He should be ready to engage in flexibility. We do not know what these degrees will be.

Before Putin pitches France and Germany, he expects them to use any means necessary to get the Ukrainians to end the war.

We continue to watch his nuclear capabilities, Kate, the best we can. And what I can tell you today is that we just don’t see any indications that Mr. Putin has made a decision to use weapons of mass destruction or even nuclear weapons. Kirby said they have seen nothing that would give them cause to change their deterrent posture.

The first casualty in war: Russian scalars fleeing from Moscow after their demoralized troops took back the city of Kramorsk

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces on Sunday hunted Russian stragglers in the key city of Lyman, which was taken back from Russia after its demoralized troops, according to a major Russian newspaper, fled with “empty eyes,” and despite Moscow’s baseless claim it had annexed the region surrounding the city.

A day earlier, two powerful Putin supporters railed against the Kremlin and called for using harsher fighting methods because Lyman had fallen just as Moscow was declaring that the illegally annexed region it lies in would be Russian forever.

In an unusually candid article published Sunday, the prominent Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that in the last few days of their occupation, Russian forces in Lyman had been plagued by desertion, poor planning and the delayed arrival of reserves.

The timing didn’t help. Putin lost Lyman just as he was publicly declaring that the Donetsk region – in which Lyman sits – was now annexed by Russia.

The soldiers said they were forced to retreat because they were also fighting with NATO soldiers.

The US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War noted that Russian battlefield setbacks, coupled with the unease in Russian society over mobilization, “was fundamentally changing the Russian information space.” That has included robust criticism not just from hawkish men of power such as Kadyrov, but from pro-war milbloggers who have often provided a granular picture of battlefield realities for Russian forces.

Truth, the saying goes, is the first casualty in war. Nowhere is that more true than in Russia, where the Kremlin has engaged in a campaign of false advertising to sell its invasion of Ukraine to the public.

The idea that Russia is fighting a broader campaign was repeated in an interview with the father of a woman killed in a car bomb.

Victory will surely depend on the West maintaining a united front against Russia. Zelensky and his envoys abroad have done a great job of warning Western leaders about the repercussions of supporting Ukraine if they don’t push Putin back.

Mr. Putin and Mr. Dugin think that western countries are to blame for the explosion of the gas line, which is known as theNord Stream.

“The West already accuses us of blowing up the gas pipeline ourselves,” he said. “We must understand the geopolitical confrontation, the war, our war with the West on the scale and extent on which it is unfolding. We have to join this battle with a mortal enemy that is going to use all of the tools at his disposal, including exploding gas pipes.

Russia will keep doing this because it works. US President Joe Biden and other Western leaders constantly assure Russia that they works by explicitly talking about the fear of escalation, which Russia wants to stoke.

At home, Putin is also facing growing criticism from Russians on both the left and the right, who are taking considerable risks given the draconian penalties they can face for speaking out against his “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Analysts inside and outside the government who have tried to game out Mr. Putin’s threats have come to doubt how useful such arms — delivered in an artillery shell or thrown in the back of a truck — would be in advancing his objectives.

Many U.S. officials say that Mr. Putin would use the primary utility to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Some of the most sensitive discussions in the administration are described by the officials on the condition of anonymity.

The Russian mix of missiles could wreak havoc on the civilian population if they continued with the tactic of using swarms of missiles.

The Battle of the London Bridge: David v. Goliath and the Other Demonstration (Invited Talk)

A formerCNN producer and correspondent is a world affairs columnist. She is a columnist for The Washington Post, an opinion contributor to CNN and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are of her own. View more opinion on CNN.

Two groups of demonstrators were in London on Sunday. There were two flags, one Ukrainian and one Iranian. When they met, they cheered each other, and chanted, “All together we will win.”

Nobody knows what happens next. Nobody knows how this ends. The world is in the midst of a fight for freedom and self-determination for the people of Iran and Ukrainians. History is waiting to be written.

The battles between David v. Goliath are almost unimaginable to the rest of us, inspiring equally brave support in places like Afghanistan.

The birth of Zhina: the birth of the domino effect, the repression, and the conflict in the world of autocrats

The death of a young woman last month in Iran started the domino effect. Known as “Zhina,” she died in the custody of morality police who detained her for breaking the relentlessly, violently enforced rules requiring women to dress modestly.

Iranian women have been dancing around fires in the night, tossing their headscarves into the flames, in defiance of the regime.

It’s why women are climbing on cars, waving their hijab in the air, like a flag of freedom, and gathering crowds of supporters in city streets, and in universities, where security forces are opening fire to try and silence them.

After all, it was less than a decade ago that Russian President Vladimir Putin entered the war in Syria to save the dictator.

As the war in Ukraine nears eight months, there were a number of attacks. Kyiv also reported holding the line in continued fierce fighting around Bakhmut, where Russian forces have claimed some gains amid a seven-week Ukrainian counteroffensive that has led Russian troops to retreat in some other areas.

The repressive regimes in Moscow and Tehran are now isolated, pariahs among much of the world, openly supported for the most part by a smattering of autocrats.

Much of the weaponry for these attacks that arewreaking havoc on the lives of Ukrainians is coming from Iran, which supplied Russia with hundreds of deadly drones.

These are two regimes that, while very different in their ideologies, have much in common in their tactics of repression and their willingness to project power abroad.

Niloofarhamedi was the first to report what happened to Mahsa Amini. Journalism is a deadly profession in Russia. So is criticizing Putin. Putin wanted to keep Navalny in a colony after trying and failing to kill him.

There is more to the low probability of the Iranian regime falling than what people think. It would be transformative for their countries and their lives, heavily influenced by Tehran. Iran has a constitution that calls for spreading its revolution.

The world of autocrats was looking unstoppable even with the presence of Putin and Xi. There were riots against Covid-19 restrictions in the Western democracies. Putin was getting ready for victory. Xi was hosting the Olympics, basking in attention, and preparing to solidify his control of China.

Mr. Zlatev and his new business partner, a local osteopath, took their first crack at international arms dealing. Contract documents and other records obtained by The New York Times show that the deal relied on layers of middlemen and transit across seven countries. And it exists in a legal gray area, designed to skirt the arms-export rules of other countries.

The pair wrote to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense that time is of the essence. The plan was to sell weapons to Ukranian.

Biden will announce an additional $1.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine during the visit, with the coveted Patriot missile systems as part of that package, a US official told CNN’s Phil Mattingly. Washington also plans to send Ukraine precision bomb kits to convert less sophisticated munitions into “smart bombs” that could help it target Russian defensive lines, sources told CNN’s Pentagon team. Zelensky’s visit also comes as Congress is poised to sign off on another $45 billion in aid for Ukraine and NATO allies, deepening the commitment that has helped Kyiv’s forces inflict an unexpectedly bloody price on Putin’s forces.

Russian officials on Sunday blamed Ukrainians for a rocket attack on the mayor’s office in the city of Donetsk, which has been controlled by the rebels.

According to officials, the United States did not participate in the attack. American officials also said they were not aware of the operation ahead of time and would have opposed the killing had they been consulted. American officials reprimanded the Ukrainian officials after the assassination, they said.

His comment addressed a rare point of contention amid the ceremony. While Ukraine is desperate for weapons to take the fight harder to Russia, his country’s fate is not the only thing that Biden must consider.

“He’s not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming.”

The US government has said that they have not found any sign that Russia is readying any of its tactical nuclear weapons, which can be small enough to target soldier formations or big enough to destroy a city.

The Cost of Chaos: What Putin is Trying to Tell Us about the Cold War and the Russia-Afghan War, and Why He Hasn’t

Biden is attempting to figure out what is Putins off ramp. “Where does he find a way out? Where does he end up if he loses face but also significant power within Russia? Biden said.

In his speech at American University in 1963, Kennedy spoke about the dangers of weapons that can end the world and lessons learned from the Cuban missile crisis.

Kennedy said that nuclear powers must avoid confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war.

The nuclear age would only show the fact that our policy was bankrupt and we wanted to throw the world off balance.

The entire strategic logic between maintaining nuclear weapons for self-defense is that they are too terrible to be used, and any nation that did would be writing their own death warrant.

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily (use) a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” Biden said at the fundraiser.

Editor’s Note: Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a vice president at New America, and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. Bergen is the author of “The Cost of Chaos: The Trump Administration and the World.” The views expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more than one opinion on it.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens flee partial mobilizer, and even his allies express concern, with an increasingly isolated Putin taking to making speeches showing his distorted view of history.

(Indeed, his revisionist account defines his rationale for the war in Ukraine, which he asserts has historically always been part of Russia – even though Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.)

In a new book about the Soviets invading Afghanistan in 1979 they said they were going to put a puppet government in and get out of the country as soon as possible.

The US initially shied away from expanding its support of the Afghan resistance, fearing a larger conflict with the Soviet Union. The Soviets were forced to withdraw from Afghanistan in 3 years after the CIA handed over anti-aircraft missiles to the Afghans.

If there is not more progress on the battlefield with billions of dollars worth of military kit, Western backers will be uneasy. capitulation to Russia is a political death sentence.

While the US put those fears to rest quickly, American-supplied HIMARS and the anti-tank Javelin missiles have aided the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russians.

The Russian Revolution During the First World War, Vladimir Putin’s Talk to the State Television and to the Russian High-Power Politburst

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was caused by the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan two years earlier.

Looking further back into the history books, he must also know that the Russian loss in the Russo-Japanese war in 1905 weakened the Romanov monarchy. The Russian Revolution was sparked by Czar Nicholas II’s leadership in the First World War. Subsequently, much of the Romanov family was killed by a Bolshevik firing squad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his citizens they could forget about the conflict in Ukraine and that the campaign was not a war. Draftees, he promised falsely, would not fight, and military operations would be left to the professionals. The talking points that Putin’s Ministry of Defense gave out were parroted by Russian state television.

“Of course, it could be a lengthy process,” Putin said of the more than 9-month-old war that began with Russia’s invasion Feb. 24 and has displaced millions from their homes, and killed and wounded tens of thousands. He promised to “fight for our interests and protect ourselves using all means available,” despite the fact that the length of it was long. He reiterated his claim that he had no choice but to send in troops, saying that for years, the West responded to Russia’s security demands with “only spit in the face.”

The Russian empire may have been dissolved in two waves, first as the First World War came to a close in 1917 and again in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.

A former top military leader in the Russian army and member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party said that they need to stop lying. We brought this up many times before. It isn’t getting through to individual senior figures.

The Ministry of Defense was lying about Ukrainian cross-border strikes in Russian regions, according to Kartapolov.

Near the border with Ukraine, Valuyki is in Russia’s Belgorod region. In regards to striking Russian targets across the border, Kyiv has adopted a neither-confirm-nor-deny stance.

Stremousov said that there was no need to cast a shadow over the ministry because incompetent commanders had not bothered to fix the problems. “Indeed, many say that the Minister of Defense [Sergei Shoigu], who allowed this situation to happen, could, as an officer, shoot himself. The word officer is not well known for a lot of people.

Kadyrov has been more willing to blame Russian commanders after Russia retreated from the strategically important Ukrainian city of Lyman.

Kadyrov blamed the commander of Russia’s Central Military District for the debacle, accusing him of moving his headquarters away from his subordinates and not adequately providing for his troops.

“The Russian information space has significantly deviated from the narratives preferred by the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) that things are generally under control,” ISW noted in its recent analysis.

Kadyrov – who recently announced that he had been promoted by Putin to the rank of colonel general – has been one of the most prominent voices arguing for the draconian methods of the past. He said in a recent Telegram post that if he had his way he would give the government wartime powers in Russia.

“Yes, if it were my will, I would declare martial law throughout the country and use any weapon, because today we are at war with the whole NATO bloc,” Kadyrov said in a post that also seemed to echo Putin’s not-so-subtle threats that Russia might contemplate the use of nuclear weapons.

Kiev’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – the first country’s nuclear power system to be shut down after the invasion of Ukraine

With that deal, which came to light only later, a disaster that could have killed tens of millions of Americans and untold numbers of Soviet citizens was averted.

On a day when the peace prize was given to human rights activists in Russia and other countries, it was seen as a rebuke to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials said the rockets damaged power lines, gas pipes, and a raft of civilian businesses at the location of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The nuclear plant, which is Europe’s largest, has been accused of being fired at by Russia and Ukraine. It’s run by its pre-occupation Ukrainian staff under Russian oversight.

Multiple explosions rocked Kyiv and several other Ukrainian cities reported blasts and power outages on Monday morning, as Russia lashed out with a massive wave of violent airstrikes that carried echoes of the initial days of its invasion.

Russia launched a number of missiles at targets across Ukraine on Monday, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces ofUkraine.

The subway system in the city was shut down for several hours on Monday. The air raid alert was lifted at midday as rescue workers tried to pull people from the rubble caused by the strikes.

Demys Shmygal, Ukraine’s Prime Minister, said Monday that as of 11 a.m. local time, a total of 11 “crucial infrastructure facilities” in eight regions had been damaged.

The operator said that there is a deficit in the nation’s power system caused by months of strikes. The Ukrainian authorities are balancing the national power grid and leaving many households without electricity.

The Kremlov-Putin attacks on a bridge between Russia and Crimea: Ukraine’s special operations and the sovereignty of the people in the country

Putin held an operational meeting of his Security Council on Monday, a day after he called the explosions on the Crimea bridge a “terrorist attack” and said the organizers and executors were “Ukrainian special services.”

These attacks began at the outset of the war and have only increased in scope and virulence since Ukrainian forces last month attacked a bridge – one particularly close to Putin’s heart – between mainland Russia and Crimea, which the Russians annexed in 2014.

Sergey Aksyonov, the man who was appointed by Russia to be the head of annexed Crimea, claimed Monday that his country has changed its approach to its special military operation in Ukraine.

If the actions to destroy the enemy’s infrastructure had been taken every single day, the Kyiv regime would have been defeated, he said.

“They are trying to annihilate us and wipe us off the face of the earth,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram on Monday as the scale of the attacks became clear. That is it in a nutshell. They are trying to slaughter our people who are sleeping in their homes in Zaporizhzhia. They are attempting to kill people on their way to work.

NATO leaders have vowed to stand behind Ukraine regardless of how long the war takes, but several European countries – particularly those that relied heavily on Russian energy – are staring down a crippling cost-of-living crisis which, without signs of Ukrainian progress on the battlefield, could endanger public support.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that Russian President Putin is terrorizing innocent civilians. “[The Netherlands] condemns these heinous acts. Putin doesn’t seem to understand the will of the Ukrainian people.

The UN Secretary-General denounced the attacks and said that civilians were paying the highest price in the war.

Heavy damage to Ukrainian infrastructure caused by a weekend missile strike on Ukraine’s National Railway in Dnipro (Kirchenko)

According to the German Chancellor’s Office, the G7 group of nations will have an emergency meeting via video conference, and Zelensky said on social media that he would address that meeting.

Within Ukraine, the economy continues to stumble from the impact of war and persistent missile and drone attacks on critical power infrastructure – including at least 76 strikes on Friday. As winter bites, millions of Ukrainians are enduring long periods without heat, electricity and water. IfUkrainians are able to defeating Russia, many say they will be able to endure hardship for another two to five years.

President Zelensky was in a video filmed outside his office on Monday in which he said many of the missile strikes were aimed at the country’s energy infrastructure. At least 11 important infrastructure facilities in eight regions and the capital have been damaged.

In Kyiv, Ukraine Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko says that at least two museums and the National Philharmonic concert halls sustained heavy damage. A nearby strike damaged the country’s main passenger terminal, delaying trains during this morning’s rush hour, according to Ukraine’s National Railway.

Explosions rocked civilian areas of Dnipro, a major southern city. One site hit was a bus stop, nestled between high rise apartment buildings. A missile slammed just a few feet in front of a bus on its morning route to pick up commuters, destroying the bus and blowing out the windows in the nearby apartments.

The head of the department of transportation for the Dnipro city council stood by the crash as he said it happened at rush hour. He added that the bus driver and four passengers had been taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

Viktor Shevchenko’s window wasn’t open in the night of the Ukrainian attack on the 11th anniversary of the Vlasov attack

All our transportation is only for civilian purposes, so it’s hard for me to find any logic to their work.

81-year-old Viktor Shevchenko looked out from what once were the windows of his first floor balcony, just next to the bus stop. Shattered glass covered the ground below. He went to his kitchen to make breakfast just minutes before the blast, but he had been watering the plants on his balcony.

“The explosion blew open all of my cabinets, and nearly knocked me to the ground,” he said. “If I had been there five minutes before, I’d have been on the balcony with a lot of glass.”

In brazen drone attacks, two strategic Russian air bases more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the Ukraine border were struck Monday. Moscow blamed Ukraine, which didn’t claim responsibility.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen region, a loyalist to Putin, wrote that Russia hadn’t started yet.

The wake of the Kerch bridge: how the Kremlin attacks affected Odesa, Kiev, a Ukrainian city close to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe

A global affairs analyst is Michael Bociurkiw. He has been employed by both the Atlantic Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He contributes to CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has a lot of opinion.

Even with jubilant celebrations here in Ukraine in the wake of the huge explosion that struck the historic Kerch Straight bridge, fears of a reprisal by the Kremlin were never far away.

As of midday local time, the area around my office in Odesa remained eerily quiet in between air raid sirens, with reports that three missiles and five kamikaze drones were shot down. (Normally at this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be heaving with customers, and chatter of plans for upcoming weddings and parties).

The attacks on Monday came a few hours after Zaporizhzhia, a southeastern city close to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe was hit by multiple strikes on apartment buildings. There are at least 17 dead and many injured.

The residents of the northeast city of Kharkiv stocked up on canned food, gas, and drinking water because they have seen more bombardment than the people in the other part of the country. The Typsy Cherry is a local bar. “The mood was cheerful,” its owner, Vladyslav Pyvovar, told The Times. “People drank, had fun and wondered when the electricity will resume.” (Power came back hours later.)

Indeed, millions of people in cities across Ukraine will be spending most of the day in bomb shelters, at the urging of officials, while businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible.

As many regions of Ukraine were beginning to grow again, the attacks could cause another blow to business confidence.

In the days that followed the bridge explosion, Putin said that acts of terrorism on the territory of Russia would be harsh.

A penchant of dictators to hardwire new territory with big infrastructure projects seems to be the case. In 2018, Putin personally opened the Kerch bridge – Europe’s longest – by driving a truck across it. When Beijing reclaimed Macau and Hong Kong, the president of the Chinese state decided to connect them with the world’s longest sea crossing bridge. The $20 billion, 34-mile road bridge opened after about two years of delays.

Ukraine’s Red Line: A Red Line to Cross on the 29th Day of the December 21st. Vladimir Putin’s Violations in Crimea

The reaction among Ukrainians to the explosion was instantaneous: humorous memes lit up social media channels like a Christmas tree. Many people shared their feelings with text messages.

The message was clear for the world to see. Putin does not intend to be humiliated. He won’t admit defeat. And he is quite prepared to inflict civilian carnage and indiscriminate terror in response to his string of battlefield reversals.

It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.

Before Monday’s strikes, the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, had told Ukrainian journalist Roman Kravets in late August that, “by the end of the year at the minimum we have to enter Crimea” – suggesting a plan to push back Russian forces to pre-2014 lines, which is massively supported by Ukrainians I’ve spoken to.

The strikes are very significant and close to the government quarter. Western governments should see it as a red line being crossed on this 229th day of the war.

What is important now is that Washington and its allies use urgent telephone diplomacy to urge China and India to resist the urge to use even more deadly weapons.

Without these measures, the humanitarian crisis that will reverberate throughout Europe will be only worsened by Putin’s violence. A weak reaction from the Kremlin will be seen as proof that it can weaponize energy, migration and food.

Do Russians Think the Patriot System is Provocative? President Zelenskyy’s Decelerating Letter to the United States

Furthermore, high tech defense systems are needed to protect Kyiv and crucial energy infrastructure around the country. It’s important to protect heating systems during the winter.

The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.

On December 11, President Zelenskyy had a telephone call with President Biden, as well as the leaders of France and Turkey, in what appears to be a stepping up of diplomacy over the 9 month long Russian invasion.

“(Biden) will reinforce the fundamental message on this trip to President Zelensky directly – to the Ukrainian people, the American people and the world publicly – that the United States will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” a senior administration official said.

Asked Thursday about Russian warnings that the Patriot system would be “provocative,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said those comments would not influence US aid to Ukraine.

As of a Department of Defense briefing in late September, the US had yet to deliver NASAMS to Ukraine. At the time, Brig. Two systems are expected to be delivered in the next two months, while six will arrive at an unknown time, according to Gen. Patrick Ryder.

Yes. An aid package of $45 billion is in the works, but is part of a consistent drumbeat from the Biden administration. The message is simple, that aid will not stop and that Ukraine is receiving the same amount of assistance as Washington can provide.

Putin’s strategy for defending Ukraine on the battlefield and beyond: The response of civilians and Russian forces to Monday’s attacks in Ukraine

“It’s clear that he’s feeling the pressure both at home and overseas, and how he reacts to that only he can say,” Kirby told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

The people who were in the subways when it was attacked have been back to their normal lives and are afraid of new strikes.

The targets on Monday had little military value, which suggests that Putin is trying to find new targets because of his inability to destroy Ukraine on the battlefield.

The bombing of power installations, in particular, Monday appeared to be an unsubtle hint of the misery the Russian President could inflict as winter sets in, even as his forces retreat in the face of Ukrainian troops using Western arms.

The recent Russian airstrike barrages and ongoing assault on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure have turned up pressure on the U.S. and its allies to do more.

Kirby couldn’t say if the strategy of the Putin government was shifting from a losing battlefield war to a campaign to brutalize civilian opinion and wreak havoc on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, but he said it was already in the works.

It is probably something they had been scheming about for a long time. Kirby said that the explosion on the bridge was not to say that the planning had been accelerated.

The French President pointed out that there could be a new pivot in the conflict following Monday’s rush-hour attacks in Ukraine.

“He was telegraphing about where he is going to go as we get into the winter. Vindman said that he would attempt to force the Ukrainian population to give up territory by going after the infrastructure.

Imagine if we had modern equipment, we could increase the number of the drones and missiles downed and not kill innocent civilians or wound Ukrainians.

Any prolonged campaign by Putin against civilians would be aimed at breaking Ukrainian morale and possibly unleashing a new flood of refugees into Western Europe that might open divisions among NATO allies that are supporting Ukraine.

Above all, Putin still does not appear to have learned that revenge is not an appropriate way to act on or off the battlefield and in the final analysis is most likely to isolate and weaken Russia, perhaps irreversibly.

What will the Russian invasion of Ukraine tell us about the present situation in the age of the Internet and the kinematics of the West?

Olena Gnes, a mother of three who is documented the war on YouTube, told Anderson Cooper that she was angry at the return of fear and violence to the lives of Ukrainians.

“This is just another terror to provoke maybe panic, to scare you guys in other countries or to show to his own people that he is still a bloody tyrant, he is still powerful and look what fireworks we can arrange,” she said.

There needs to be a check on the reaction to these attacks which is to strike back at the barbarian Russians. Instead, now is the time for renewed pressure for a cease-fire.

In the age of nuclear weapons, all accepted modes of just war — self-defense, justice and punishment for wrongdoers, recovery of international borders; in essence, all notions of right and wrong — are irrelevant. It doesn’t matter who acted in self-defense, the person committed crimes against civilians and was just acting in self-defense.

In an asymmetrical exchange of nuclear missiles in which hundreds of millions could die, it does not really matter who was right and who was wrong. No historians will survive to tell the story.

President Biden should publicly muse about alternatives and dispatch his diplomats immediately to Russia to give Vladimir Putin off ramps. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine must be pressured to agree on a cease-fire.

WARSAW — President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus announced on Monday that Russian troops would return to his country in large numbers, a replay of the military buildup there that preceded Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.

A thousand troops won’t be enough for Mr. Lukashenko, he told military and security officials in Minsk.

In rambling remarks reported by the state news agency Belta, Mr. Lukashenko said that work had already started on the formation of what he called a “joint regional group of troops” to counter “possible aggression against our country” by NATO and Ukraine.

Any psychological impact could be seen from further participation in the war. He said everyone in Ukranian and the West has been focused on fighting one army. Inside Russia, Belarus joining the invasion “would play into Putin’s narrative that this war is about reuniting the lands of ancient Rus states.”

Artyom Shraibman, a political analyst from Poland, said that Mr. Lukashenko might try to resist the deployment of his own troops in the event of a war. It would be catastrophic politically.”

Andrei Sannikov, who served as deputy foreign minister under Mr. Lukashenko during his early period in power but fled into exile after being jailed, said Mr. Lukashenko was “running scared,” caught between pressure from Russia to help its demoralized forces in Ukraine and the knowledge that sending in Belarusian troops would be hugely unpopular, even among his loyalists.

The suffering of Ukraine in the run-and-forbidd: Air defense systems, missiles, energy, and air-defense is a question for the United States

State television reported on the suffering on Monday and also showed it. There was smoke and bloodshed in central Kyiv, with empty store shelves and a forecast of months of freezing temperatures there.

Over nearly 10 months of conflict, Ukraine has proved successful at keeping Russia from achieving air superiority over its airspace — denying the Russians key firepower and intelligence capabilities.

As Ukraine races to shore up its missile defenses in the wake of the assault, the math for Moscow is simple: A percentage of projectiles are bound to get through.

“The barrage of missile strikes is going to be an occasional feature reserved for shows of extreme outrage, because the Russians don’t have the stocks of precision munitions to maintain that kind of high-tempo missile assault into the future,” Puri said.

The Pentagon’s view at the time was that of its weapons stocks, Russia was “running the lowest on cruise missiles, particularly air-launched cruise missiles,” but that Moscow still had more than 50% of its pre-war inventory.

Some of that inventory was dispatched this week. Western officials say that Russia has used older and less precise KH-22 missiles, which it still has large inventories of. They are designed to take out aircraft carriers. A shopping mall in Kremenuk had dozens of casualties in June, and it was the fault of a KH-22.

The Russians have been making the S300 an offensive weapon, adapting it as an air defense missile. These have wrought devastation in Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv, among other places, and their speed makes them difficult to intercept. But they are hardly accurate.

He told CNN’s Richard Quest that this was the “first time from the beginning of the war” that Russia has “dramatically targeted” energy infrastructure.

Now, Ukraine is trying to defend a power grid that reaches every part of the country. The analyst at theCNAS said that there are more sites to protect.

Over the past nine months, the Ukrainians have also had plenty of practice in using their limited air defenses, mainly BUK and S-300 systems. But Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force Command, said Tuesday said of these systems: “This equipment does not last forever, there may be losses in combat operations.”

Estimating the proportion of Shahed drones that will be eliminated is more difficult since so many are being used. Zelensky said he got a message about the use of Iranian Shaheds every 10 minutes. He said the majority of them would be shot down.

The Ukraine Air Defense Mission at Brussels Meets Ukraine’s Observational Bases: IRIS-T, NASAMS, NATO, and Striking Donetsk

At Wednesday’s meeting, Ukraine’s wish-list had missiles for their existing systems as well as a transition to Western-origin layered air defense system.

The system is one of the most capable long-range weapons to defend against incoming missiles and aircraft. Because of its long-range and high-altitude capability, it can potentially shoot down Russian missiles and aircraft far from their intended targets inside Ukraine.

Western systems are starting to arrive in other countries. Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov said Tuesday that a new era of air defense has begun with the arrival of the first IRIS-T from Germany and two units of the NASAM expected soon.

This is just the beginning. And we need more,” Reznikov said Wednesday before tweeting as he met with Ukraine’s donors at the Brussels meeting:” Item #1 on today’s agenda is strengthening (Ukraine’s) air defense. Feeling optimistic.”

Ukraine “badly needed” modern systems such as the IRIS-T that arrived this week from Germany and the NASAMS expected from the United States, Bronk said.

Ukraine’s senior military commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, tweeted Tuesday his thanks to Poland as “brothers in arms” for training an air defense battalion that had destroyed nine of 11 Shaheeds.

He said “Ukrainian sky defenders” had shot down 10 of the 15 drones, but the damage was still “critical” and he suggested it will take a few days to restore electricity supply in the region.

The foreign ministry of Russia condemned what it termed “monstrous crimes” in the “regime in Kyiv” after US President Joe Biden promised more military support to the Ukranians during Zelensky’s summit.

Striking Donetsk. Ukraine has launched a serious attack in the Donetsk region, the area controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014, according to a Russian-installed mayor there.

Ukraine’s Road to War with Ukraine: How the Kremlin and the West are trying to Embrace the First Russian War of the Cold War

The war is entering a new phase, not for the first time. “This is now the third, fourth, possibly fifth different war that we’ve been observing,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.

As winter approaches, the stakes of the war have been raised once more. “There’s no doubt Russia would like to keep it up,” Giles said. The successes of recent weeks have sent a message to the Kremlin. “They are able to do things that take us by surprise, so let’s get used to it,” Giles said.

The country’s flag was hoisted above a building in the southern Kherson region last month. Since the counter-offensive began, Ukrainian officials claim they have liberated hundreds of settlements.

Anticipation is mounting for a possible battle for Kherson, a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine. Kremlin-installed officials have been evacuating civilians in preparation for a potential Ukrainian counteroffensive.

These counter-offensives have shifted the momentum of the war and disproved a suggestion, built up in the West and in Russia during the summer, that while Ukraine could stoutly defend territory, it lacked the ability to seize ground.

“The Russians are playing for the whistle – (hoping to) avoid a collapse in their frontline before the winter sets in,” Samir Puri, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the author of “Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine,” told CNN.

“If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking roughly as it is, that’s a huge success for the Russians given how botched this has been since February.”

Ukrainian troops are focused primarily on pushing Russian forces eastwards, having crossed the Oskil River in late September, with Moscow likely preparing to defend the cities of Starobilsk and Svatove in the Luhansk region, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

If Ukraine wins a big win in the war in Donbas they’ll be eager to improve their game, and the full impact of rising energy prices will be felt around Europe.

“There are so many reasons why there is an incentive for Ukraine to get things done quickly,” Giles said. The Winter energy crisis in Europe, and energy infrastructure and power being destroyed in Ukraine, is always going to be a test of resilience for Ukraine and its Western backers.

The national electricity company in Ukraine, Ukrenergo, said it had been able to put the power on in the city after Russian missile attacks disrupted the electricity supply in parts of the country. But Ukrainian Prime Minister has warned that “there is a lot of work to do” to fix damaged equipment, and asked Ukrainians to reduce their energy usage during peak hours.

Russian commanders on the ground know their supplies are running out and Jeremy Fleming, the UK’s spy chief, said that in a rare speech on Tuesday.

That conclusion was also reached by the ISW, which said in its daily update on the conflict Monday that the strikes “wasted some of Russia’s dwindling precision weapons against civilian targets, as opposed to militarily significant targets.”

Exactly how much weaponry and manpower each side has left in reserve will be crucial to determining how the momentum will shift in the coming weeks. It said it was able to intercept 18 cruise missiles on Tuesday and dozens more the following day, but it is urging its Western allies to have even more equipment to protect it.

The impact of such an intervention in terms of pure manpower is very limited; Belarus has only a few thousand active duty troops. It would threaten an assault on the northern flank of the country.

“The reopening of a northern front would be another new challenge for Ukraine,” Giles said. It would provide Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast (region), which has been recaptured by Ukraine, should Putin prioritize an effort to reclaim that territory, he said.

Over the course of the 10-month invasion, Zelensky has emerged as the international personification of Ukrainian resistance and has spent much of the year appealing to nations for support. He has stayed in his country for the duration of the war as a reflection of his desire to stand by his country and face the unpredictable security situation outside its borders.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Ukraine needed “more” systems to better halt missile attacks, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

Russian Defense Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressing a gun-fire incident in Soledar and Bakhmut, Ukraine

That’s not to say mobilized forces will be of no use. They might be used in support roles in order to ease the burden on the rest of Russia’s professional army. They could also fill out depleted units along the line of contact, cordon some areas and man checkpoints in the rear. They are, however, unlikely to become a capable fighting force. Already there are signs of discipline problems among mobilized soldiers in Russian garrisons.

Meanwhile, Russia opened an investigation into a shooting in that region Saturday in which two men from a former Soviet republic who were training at a military firing range killed 11 and wounded 15 during target practice, before being slain themselves. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that the incident was a terrorist attack.

“neighboring towns are the key hotspots on the front line.” Soledar and Bakhmut, where extremely heavy fighting continues,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Sunday.

Zelenskyy accused Russia of including convicts “with long sentences for serious crimes” in its front-line troops in return for pay and amnesty — something Western intelligence officials have also asserted.

Zelenskyy’s office said Moscow was shelling towns and villages along the front line in the east Sunday, and that “active hostilities” continued in the southern Kherson region.

France is promising air defense missiles and stepped up military training for Ukraine in a bid to refute myths about lagging behind in support of that country. Up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be embedded with military units in France, rotating through for several weeks of combat training, specialized training in logistics and other needs, and training on equipment supplied by France, the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in an interview published in Le Parisien.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, accused Moscow of conducting ” massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians,” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing.

It referenced statements made this week by Russian authorities that claimed that “several thousand” children from a southern region occupied by Moscow had been placed in rest homes and children’s camps amid the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The original remarks by Russia’s deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, were reported by RIA Novosti on Friday.

Russian authorities had admitted to placing children from Russia-held areas of Ukraine who were orphans for adoption with Russian families, in a potential violation of an international treaty on genocide prevention.

pro-Kremlin fighters have been accused by the Ukrainian military of violating international humanitarian law by expelling civilians in occupied territories to house officers in their homes. It said the evictions were happening in Rubizhne, in the eastern Luhansk region. It didn’t provide evidence for its claim.

— A Russian commander wanted for his role in the downing of a Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine in 2014 has been deployed to the front, according to social media posts by pro-Kremlin commentators. Posts by Maksim Fomin and others said Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, has been given responsibility for an unspecified Russian front-line unit.

Girkin has been on an international wanted list over his alleged involvement in the downing of Kuala Lumpur-bound flight MH17, which killed 298 people. He remains the most high-profile suspect in a related murder trial in a Dutch court.

Recently, Girkin’s social media posts have lashed out at Moscow’s battlefield failures. Someone will get $100,000 if they catch him, the Ukrainian defense intelligence agency said Sunday.

State of Ukraine: State of the situation in the middle of the Russian-Putin-Russian war, a report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

A Iran expert at the Washington based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said that the partnership of convenience was between the two dictatorships.

Both countries are deep in crisis, struggling economically and politically. Iran is attempting to quell street protests that pose the most serious challenge in years to the government, while Russia is trying to manage rising dissension over a faltering war effort and an unpopular draft.

Nuclear deterrence exercises are being held by NATO. NATO has warned Russia not to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine but says the “Steadfast Noon” drills are a routine, annual training activity.

Russian agents have arrested eight people suspected of involvement in a large explosion on a bridge in the south of the peninsula.

Two men shot at Russian troops preparing to deploy to Ukraine, killing 11 people and wounding 15 before being killed themselves, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Oct. 15.

The first convoy of Russian troops arrived in the former Soviet republic in October, as part of a plan to protect it from threats at the border with Ukraine and the West.

You can read past recaps here. You can find more in-depth stories here. For updates throughout the day, please listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine.

The mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, seemed to have taken pains to offer reassurances. Mr. Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel that no measures were being taken to restrict the life of the city.

And despite the new power granted them by Mr. Putin, the regional governors of Kursk, Krasnodar and Voronezh said no entry or exit restrictions would be imposed.

But many Russians are sure to see a warning message in the martial law imposed in Ukraine, the first time that Moscow has declared martial law since World War II, analysts say.

“People are worried that they will soon close the borders, and the siloviki” — the strong men close to Mr. Putin in the Kremlin — “will do what they want,” Ms. Stanovaya said.

On Tuesday, the new commander of the Russian invasion acknowledged that the situation in Kherson was a difficult one and that he might have to retreat. The general said he was willing to make difficult decisions, but he didn’t say what those might be.

Senior officials in the Middle East tell me that Russia has recently redeployed critical military hardware and troops from Syria, in a sign that the invasion of Ukraine has diminished Moscow’s influence.

Fox News Comes Into Victims: Kevin McCarthy, the Boundaries, and the Case against Ukrainian Independence in the November 2016 Russian-Russia War

Dean Obeidallah is the host of a daily show on SiriusXM radio and is a columnist for The Daily Beast. Follow him on social media, then follow him back. The opinions expressed in this commentary are of his own. On CNN, you can view more opinions.

The GOP Senate candidate in Ohio later flip-flopped, saying that he wanted “the Ukrainians to be successful.” But as The Washington Post detailed on Sunday, Vance’s original remark is causing Ukrainian Americans who are lifelong Republicans to support his Democratic opponent, Tim Ryan, in that too-close-to-call Senate race.

Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko is among the officials who has been pushing the US to provide the munitions. “It is extremely important, first of all because it will really change the situation on the battlefield,” he told CNN. The war will be finished faster by Ukraine, as a result of these.

Kevin McCarthy is going to be the leader of the pro-Putin wing of my party, and that is stunning. Cheney commented on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“He knows better, but the fact that he’s willing to go down the path of suggesting that America will no longer stand for freedom, I think, tells you he’s willing to sacrifice everything for his own political gain.”

A Republican who wants to give McCarthy more power if the GOP takes over the House in the upcoming elections blamed Ukraine for the war after Russia’s attack.

Conservative Fox News stars, including Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson have been laying the groundwork with members of the Republican base in hopes of an end to US assistance for Ukraine.

In the months before Putin attacked Ukraine, Carlson did what he could to paint the country in a negative light. Carlson made a false claim that Ukraine was not a democracy and compared Zelensky to the Biden administration.

In the week that followed, he criticized Vice President Mike Pence for referring to the United States as “the arsenic of democracy” and suggested our military is too full to help other countries. Jim Banks of Indiana, a GOP lawmaker, said that we can not put the country first by giving money to other countries to solve their problems.

As Biden suggested, McCarthy and some of his fellow Republicans may or may not get it. But there’s one person who fully gets it: Vladmir Putin. Few people will have greater cause for celebration if the GOP wins back control of the House.

Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

First, he’s seeking to distract his nation from the blindingly obvious, namely that he is losing badly on the battlefield and utterly failing to achieve even the vastly scaled back objectives of his invasion.

Putin, Macron, and Scholz: The EU’s best ally will continue to fight the Kremlin’s agenda in the coming winter

This ability to keep going depends on a host of variables – ranging from the availability of critical and affordable energy supplies for the coming winter, to the popular will across a broad range of nations with often conflicting priorities.

In the pre-dawn hours of Friday inBrussels, EU powers agreed on a plan to control the price of gas and oil after embargoes on Russian imports and the Kremlin’s sudden reduction of supplies.

These include an emergency cap on the benchmark European gas trading hub and permission for EU gas companies to create a monopoly on the international market.

After leaving the European unity summit, which he characterized as maintaining it, the French President conceded that there was only a “clear mandate” for the European Commission to start working on a gas cap mechanism.

Germany, the biggest economy in Europe, is skeptical of price caps. The energy minister needs to find out how the caps will encourage higher consumption and how that will impact restricted supplies.

Putin has a fondest dream and these are part of it. Manifold forces in Europe could prove central to achieving success from the Kremlin’s viewpoint, which amounts to the continent failing to agree on essentials.

Germany and France are already at loggerheads on many of these issues. Though in an effort to reach some accommodation, Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have scheduled a conference call for Wednesday.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/putin-prolonge-war-ukraine-winter-andelman/index.html

The Case for an End of the Cold War: A U.S.-Russia Campaign Against Putin’s Implications for the Presidency in Italy

And now a new government has taken power in Italy. The new prime minister has tried to downplay the post-fascist aura of her party. One of her far-right coalition partners meanwhile, has expressed deep appreciation for Putin.

In the audio tape, Berlusconi said that he had handed Putin bottles of Lambrusco wine, adding that he knew him as a peaceful and sensible person.

Matteo Salvini, who was named deputy prime minister on Saturday, said during the campaign that he didn’t want the sanctions against Russia to hurt people more than those who were hit by them.

Despite being united in their opposition to liberal policies of the EU, Poland and Hungary have differing opinions about what should happen to Ukraine. Poland was not happy with the sentiment of Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban.

This is difficult. The GOP-led House of Representatives can not give the Biden administration a blank cheque, warned Kevin McCarthy, the likely new Speaker.

On Monday, the influential 30-member Congressional progressive caucus called on Biden to start talks with Russia about ending the conflict while its troops are still occupying a large portion of the country.

Hours later, caucus chair Mia Jacob, facing a firestorm of criticism, emailed reporters with a statement “clarifying” their remarks in support of Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to renew America’s support.

Ruling Down the Cold War: The Economic Costs of Grain Exports to the Horn of the Mid-Atlantic And The Crimes Of The Russian Navy

The Ukrainian military has made gains in cutting supply lines and targeting Russian fuel depots in the northeast and south in its counteroffensives.

At the same time, the West is turning up the pressure on Russia. The State Department released a detailed report last week about the effects of sanctions on the Russian military industrial complex.

The lack of necessary semi-conductors led to Russian production of hypersonic missiles being halted. Aircraft are being cannibalized for spare parts, plants producing anti-aircraft systems have shut down, and “Russia has reverted to Soviet-era defense stocks” for replenishment. The Soviet era ended more than 30 years ago.

A day before this report, the US announced seizure of all property of a top Russian procurement agent Yury Orekhov and his agencies “responsible for procuring US-origin technologies for Russian end-users…including advanced semiconductors and microprocessors.”

The Justice Department also announced charges against individuals and companies seeking to smuggle high-tech equipment into Russia in violation of sanctions.

Russia said on Wednesday that it was rejoining a deal that allows the shipment of grain from Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea, easing days of uncertainty over the fate of an agreement that had offered hope to countries facing severe food shortages — and appearing to restore one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries.

Analysts said that Moscow was trying to use its participation in the agreement as leverage. On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had received written guarantees from Ukraine that the waters and ports used by the grain ships would not be used “for military operations against the Russian Federation.”

“The Russian Federation believes that the guarantees received at the moment seem sufficient and is resuming the implementation of the agreement,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine is a major exporter of grain and other agricultural products, but after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February, Russia’s Navy used its dominance in the Black Sea to block Ukraine’s exports. Grain prices went up in part due to hurting Ukraine’s economy. That made food purchases much more difficult for dozens of countries — including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan — that are already facing food shortages, and in some cases famine.

The United Nations coordinator for the initiative praised Russia’s decision and thanked Turkey for its facilitation.

Moscow has also said that it wants to facilitate its own exports of grain and fertilizer and address the concerns of its trading partners who fear that, by dealing with Russia, they could violate Western sanctions. It was not immediately clear whether that Russian demand had been addressed.

The strengthening relationship between Moscow and Tehran has drawn the attention of Iran’s rivals and foes in the Middle East, of NATO members and of nations that are still – at least in theory – interested in restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which aimed to delay Iran’s ability to build an atomic bomb.

Yuval Noah Harari argued that a victory by Russia would reopen the door to wars of aggression, something most nations have rejected since the Second World War.

For that reason, Ukraine received massive support from the West, led by the United States. The war inUkraine brought in new applications for NATO membership from countries that were committed to neutrality. It helped remind people in eastern European states that they should follow their dreams and move toward Europe and the West.

There are repercussions to what happens far from the battlefields. When oil-producing nations, led by Saudi Arabia, decided last month to slash production, the US accused the Saudis of helping Russia fund the war by boosting its oil revenues. (An accusation the Saudis deny).

Syria’s airspace, bordering Israel, is controlled by Russian forces, which have allowed Israel to strike Iranian weapon flows to Hezbollah, a militia sworn to Israel’s destruction. Gantz has offered to help Ukraine develop defensive systems and it will reportedly provide new military communications systems, but no missile shields.

Everyone, everywhere, is being affected by the war in Ukraine. fuel prices have shot up because of the conflict and caused an explosion of inflation.

Higher prices affect many other things. When they come with such powerful momentum, they pack a political punch. Inflation, worsened by the war, has put incumbent political leaders on the defensive in countless countries.

Violence in the Crimea: Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. In the Light of Recent Ukraini and Russian Drone Observations

And it’s not all on the fringes. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader who could become speaker of the House after next week’s US elections, suggested the GOP might choose to reduce aid to Ukraine. Progressive Democrats released and withdrew a letter calling for negotiations. Evelyn Farkas, a former Pentagon official during the Obama administration, said they’re all bringing “a big smile to Putin’s face.”

Some videos filmed by Ukrainian drones showing Russian infantry being struck by shelling in poorly prepared positions and reports in Russian news media of soldiers telling relatives about high casualty rates have supported the assertions. The videos have not been independently verified and their exact location on the front line could not be determined.

Russian forces are staging up to 80 assaults per day, General Zaluzhnyi said in the statement, which described a telephone conversation with an American general, Christopher G. Cavoli, the supreme allied commander in Europe.

“We discussed the situation at the front,” General Zaluzhnyi wrote. Ukrainian forces, he said he had told his U.S. colleague, were beating back the attacks, “thanks to the courage and skills of our warriors.”

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based analytical group, said the increase in infantry in the east had not caused Russia to gain new ground.

The assessment said that the Russian Army was grabbing fresh personnel on marginal gains by massing sufficient soldiers to ensure success in trying to get a quick advance. The attacks have been directed at several towns and villages.

With Russian and Ukrainian forces apparently preparing for battle in Kherson, and conflicting signals over what may be coming, the remaining residents of the city have been stocking up on food and fuel to survive combat.

The results of the American’s election this week will be watched by the Ukranian government, as some Republicans warned that funding for the country could be limited if it wins control of the House of Representatives.

Ukraine firefights in the Dnipro river as Russian forces trade fire in Kherson during the end of the Russian occupation of Kherson

Also Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Sweden has to meet certain conditions in order to join NATO.

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday is scheduled to discuss an International Atomic Energy Agency report, in which Ukraine is expected to be on the agenda.

A top Ukrainian official said the attacks on the country’s energy grid amount to genocide. The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General made a comment to the BBC last month.

The package of new military assistance to Ukraine was announced amid a Russian assault on the country’s critical infrastructure as the long, cold winter season sets in.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian and Russian forces traded fire on Monday from across the broad expanse of the Dnipro River that now divides them after Russia’s retreat from the southern city of Kherson, reshaping the battlefield with a victory that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, declared marked “the beginning of the end of the war.”

There is a new front line in southern Ukraine, called Dnipro, and officials warned of continued danger from fighting in regions that have already suffered Russian occupation.

The southern district of the city near the destroyed Antonivsky Bridge became a target for fire during the afternoon as many worried that Russia would retaliate for the city’s loss by bombing the eastern bank.

Mortar shells struck near the bridge, sending up puffs of smoke. Near the riverfront, incoming rounds rang out with thunderous, metallic booms. It was not immediately possible to assess what had been hit.

Victims of Russian firepower in Kherson city: Three fatalities in Novoraysk, a village northwest of the Kherson river

The mines are a significant danger. Four people, including an 11-year-old, were killed when a family driving in the village of Novoraysk, outside the city, ran over a mine, Mr. Yanushevich said. Another mine injured six railway workers who were trying to restore service after lines were damaged. And there were at least four more children reportedly injured by mines across the region, Ukrainian officials said in statements.

The deaths underscored the threats still remaining on the ground, even as Mr. Zelensky made a surprise visit to Kherson, a tangible sign of Ukraine’s soaring morale.

Hundreds of ecstatic residents celebrated after Mr. Zelensky said in a short appearance in the citys main square that they are coming to all of the country.

Russian forces continued to fire from across the river on towns and villages newly recaptured by Ukrainian forces, according to the Ukrainian military’s southern command. The town of Beryslav is north of a critical dam and was hit by two Russian missiles. It was not immediately known if there were any casualties.

“Occupants rob local people and exchange stuff for homemade vodka,” said one resident, who used a secure messaging app from Oleshky, a town across the river. “Then they get drunk and even more aggressive. We are so scared here.” She wanted her name kept out of her mouth for security.

Ivan said in a text message that Russians roam around and 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609-. He asked that his name not be used out of concern for his safety in Skadovsk, which is south of Kherson city. “We try to connect with the owners and to arrange for someone local to stay in their place. So that it is not abandoned and Russians don’t take it.”

The Biden-Xi Meeting: The Perfect Moment for a Global Democracy to Reverse the Flock of Autocracy, War in Ukraine, and Human Rights

Judging by the statements from the White House and the Chinese government, that’s precisely what happened. The two sides discussed sources of disagreement, including Taiwan’s autonomy, the war in Ukraine and China’s human rights record. Climate change, global health and economic stability were topics of potential cooperation.

After years of turmoil and anxiety, there are signs that the democratic world may just be starting to reverse the tide of autocracy, or at least its most dangerous elements. It is too early to know how strong the global democratic push will be.

That’s not the only reason, however, why this was the perfect moment — from the standpoint of the United States and for democracy — for this meeting to occur: There’s much more to this geopolitical moment than who controls the US House of Representatives and Senate.

As Biden and Xi were meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an emotional, triumphant return to the devastated, now liberated city of Kherson, the one provincial capital that Russian invaders had conquered.

Biden rallied allies in a muscular push to support the country as the Ukrainians defended their country, which turned into a disaster for Putin.

By the time Xi and Putin met again in September, China had done little to support Russia militarily, and Putin admitted that Xi had “questions and concerns” about Ukraine. More recently, after the Russian President thinly threatened to use nuclear weapons, Xi rebuked him.

Tellingly, Putin chose not to attend the G20 summit in Bali, avoiding confrontations with world leaders as he increasingly becomes a pariah on the global stage.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/opinions/biden-xi-meeting-democracy-ghitis/index.html

Russia’s role in the Russian-Russian war on Ukraine: The case of a missile attack by a Russian soldier, and its implication for I want to live

To be sure, Biden is not the only leader with a strong hand. After securing his third term as China’s leader, Xi can now rule for as long as he likes. He doesn’t have to worry about elections, about a critical press or a vociferous opposition party. He is essentially the absolute ruler of a mighty country for many years to come.

And yet Xi faces a mountain of daunting problems. China is unwilling to reveal economic data because of the slowing economy. The China’s Covid-19 vaccine is a disappointment. And partly because of that, China is imposing draconian lockdowns as the rest of the world gradually returns to normalcy after the pandemic.

Also crucial in the epochal competition between the two systems is showing that democracy works, defeating efforts of autocratic countries such as China and Russia to discredit it and proving that unprovoked wars of aggression, aimed at suppressing democracy and conquering territory, will not succeed.

Now Poland is facing the repercussions from these attacks – and it’s not the only bordering country. The Polish incident drew less attention than the Russian one because it was not a NATO member.

One thing is clear, whatever the circumstances of the missile. “Russia bears ultimate responsibility, as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Wednesday.

That said, a growing number of Russian soldiers have rebelled at what they have been asked to do and refused to fight. The Defense Ministry of the UK is concerned that Russian troops may be prepared to shoot soldiers who are on the move.

Indeed a hotline and Telegram channel, launched as a Ukrainian military intelligence project called “I want to live,” designed to assist Russian soldiers eager to defect, has taken off, reportedly booking some 3,500 calls in its first two months of activity.

The Russian-German Joint Air Forces Project: A Challenge for the Interaction Between NATO and Russia, and its Impact on the Future of the Combat Air System

After fleeing in March, a leading Russian journalist, who has settled in Berlin, told me he is prepared to accept the reality that he might never be able to return to his homeland.

Rumbling in the background is the West’s attempt to diversify away from Russian oil and natural gas in an effort to deprive the country of material resources to pursue this war. “We have understood and learnt our lesson that it was an unhealthy and unsustainable dependency, and we want reliable and forward-looking connections,” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission told the G20 on Tuesday.

Moreover, Putin’s dream that this conflict, along with the enormous burden it has proven to be on Western countries, would only drive further wedges into the Western alliance are proving unfulfilled. The long-stalled joint French-German project for a jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System began to move forward as word spread on Monday.

“Russians use all these cluster munitions, they don’t care,” the official said. Russians fight with their civilians with clusters while we fight with our troops.

Senior Biden administration officials have been receiving this request for months, and have not completely rejected it, according to a new report from CNN.

It is possible for cluster bombs to fail to explode on impact and pose a long-term risk to anyone who comes in contact with them. They also create bloody carnage by creating dozens of submunitions that go off across a large area, which makes it hard to hit them.

If the stockpiles begin to run low, the option remains on the table, but not as a last resort. The proposal is still being considered because Congress has made it difficult to transfer cluster munitions in the US.

They apply to those that have a greater than one percent unexploded ordnance rate which could pose a risk to civilians. President Joe Biden could override that restriction, but the administration has indicated to the Ukrainians that that is unlikely in the near term.

“The ability of Ukraine to make gains in current and upcoming phases of conflict is in no way dependent on or linked to their procuring said munitions,” a congressional aide told CNN.

The Defense Ministry told CNN that, while it doesn’t comment on requests for specific weapons systems or ammunition, it does wait before making any public announcements.

The M30A1 alternate warhead replaced the dual purpose improved conventional munitions that were known as DPICMs. The M30A1 doesn’t damage the ground or leave unexploded weapons on the ground. Ukrainian officials say that the M30A1 could save the Ukrainian military more than the DPICMs the US has in storage.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and the “distribution” between the Northern Sea of Azov and Belgorod

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Wednesday that his “special military operation” in Ukraine is taking longer than expected but said it has succeeded in seizing new territory and added that his country’s nuclear weapons are deterring escalation of the conflict.

Speaking in a televised meeting in Russia with members of his Human Rights Council, Putin described the land gains as “a significant result for Russia,” noting that the Sea of Azov “has become Russia’s internal sea.” In one of his frequent historic references to a Russian leader he admires, he added that “Peter the Great fought to get access” to that body of water.

“If it doesn’t use it first under any circumstances, then that means that it won’t be the second if there is a nuclear strike on our territory,” he said.

Putin rejected Western criticism that his previous nuclear weapons comments amounted to saber-rattling, claiming they were “not a factor provoking an escalation of conflicts, but a factor of deterrence.”

“We haven’t gone mad. We are fully aware of what nuclear weapons are,” Putin said. He said they are more advanced and state-of-the-art than any other nuclear power.

In his televised remarks, the Russian leader didn’t address Russia’s battlefield setbacks or its attempts to cement control over the seized regions but acknowledged problems with supplies, treatment of wounded soldiers and limited desertions.

Photos of the new concrete anti-tank barriers known as the “dragon’s teeth” were posted by the governor of the Kursk region. On Tuesday, the governor had said a fire broke out at an airport in the region after a drone strike. In Belgorod, workers were putting up anti-tank barriers and officials were organizing self-defense units. The governor of Belgorod said Russia’s air defenses shot down rockets that came in from cross-border attacks.

Moscow responded with strikes by artillery, multiple rocket launchers, missiles, tanks and mortars at residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, worsening damage to the power grid. Ukrenergo said the eastern parts of its territory where it was making repairs had temperatures that were as low as minus 17 degrees Celsius.

In September, Putin ordered 300,000 reservists to be deployed to bolster Ukrainian forces. About 1.5 million people have been sent to combat zones so far, and most of them are still in training. There is no need for the defense ministry and the country to do something like that, according to Putin.

He addressed a group of soldiers with a glass of champagne after winning an award for “Heroes of Russia”.

At the awards ceremony, Putin continued to list alleged aggressions: “Who is not supplying water to Donetsk? It is genocide if the city of million does not have water.

The reference to Kursk appears to reference Russia’s announcement that an airfield in the Kursk region, which neighbors Ukraine, was targeted in a drone attack. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has offered no comment on recent explosions, including in Kursk, which are deep within Russia. The country has declared its drones to be well beyond the reach of the targets.

Putin says water is not the answer to Ukraine’s energy problems: a Kremlin reception report on shelling of Donetsk

He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. Nobody has said anything about it. At all! He said that there would be complete silence.

Russian authorities reported shelling of the city this week, even though Putin said he had annexed the city.

Putin made rare public comments addressing the Russian military’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure Thursday at a Kremlin reception.

Last week, Putin drove a car across the bridge that he officially opened in the fall of 2018, while he was shown some repairs.

In his Moscow appearance Thursday, he asked “Who is not giving water to Donetsk?”. The act of not supplying water to a million people is genocide.

“The pace of restoration [to household consumers] is slowed down by difficult weather conditions,” it said, with the damage “made worse by the freezing and rupture of wires in distribution networks.”

There were people at a recreation center that was completely destroyed by the missile attack on Melitopol.

The Russian military has taken over local houses, schools and kindergartens. Federov said in November that military equipment is located in residential areas.

An explosion at a military barracks in Sovietske killed at least two people and injured at least one other person, according to an unofficial media portal.

The air defense system worked in Simferopol, said Sergey Aksenov, who was the Russian-appointed head of the peninsula. All services are working as usual.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that Russian drone strikes on the southern port city of Odesa left more than 1.5 million people in that region without power Saturday night, the latest attacks in an ongoing series of assaults on Ukrainian energy infrastructure by the Kremlin.

“In general, both emergency and stabilization power outages continue in various regions,” Zelensky said. The power system is far from a normal state and now it is.

U.S. President Volodymyr Zelensky discusses the 2001 attack on Pearl Harbor, the Black Sky, and the Ukraine’s future

Zelensky said that this was the true attitude of Russia toward Odesa, towards Odesa residents.

The repeated assaults on the plants and equipment that Ukrainians rely on for heat and light have drawn condemnation from world leaders, and thrust Ukraine into a grim cycle in which crews hurry to restore power only to have it knocked out again.

He said the power system is far from normal and urged people to use less power to cut strain on the grid.

When planes attacked Pearl Harbor, the sky was black. Zelensky said to just remember. Remember the day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities into battlefields. You couldn’t stop innocent people from being attacked in the way that nobody else expected. Our country experiences the same things every day.

Ukrainian authorities have been stepping up raids on churches accused of links with Moscow, and many are watching to see if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy follows through on his threat of a ban on the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosts European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store for a working dinner Monday in Paris.

Also in France, on Tuesday, the country is set to co-host a conference with Ukraine in support of Ukrainians through the winter, with a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The U.S. Navy’s Patriot air defense system is set to be sent to Ukraine in a few weeks after the release of Viktor Bout

After months of negotiations, the U.S. basketball star was freed from a Russian jail on December 8. She was released in exchange for the handover of Viktor Bout. Griner and her husband are in the U.S. A person is reported to be a member of an ultranationalist party.

The new measures to target Russian oil revenue went into effect December 5. They include a price cap and an embargo on most Russian oil imports.

Russian forces turned the city of Bakhmut into burned ruins, Zelenskyy said. Russia is attempting to advance on the city in the eastern Donbas region.

The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine that could be announced as soon as this week, according to two US officials and a senior administration official.

The Pentagon plan has to be approved by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before it can be forwarded to President Joe Biden. The three officials told CNN that approval is expected.

It is not clear how many missile batteries will be sent, but a typical battery has a radar set that listens for targets, computers, power generating equipment, and an engagement control station that can hold up to eight missiles.

Once the plans are finalized, the Patriots are expected to ship quickly in the coming days and Ukrainians will be trained to use them at a US Army base in Grafenwoehr, Germany, officials said.

Ukraine has repeatedly asked for the US Army’s Patriot – an acronym for Phased Array Tracking Radar for intercept on Target – system, as it is considered one of the most capable long-range air defense systems on the market. A senior adminstration official told CNN that the reality of what is happening on the ground in Ukraine swayed them to fulfill the request for the first 10 months.

Unlike smaller air defense systems, there are many personnel required to operate the missile batteries. The training for the missiles takes months and the United States will have to carry out this training under the constant attack from Russia.

The US provided a large quantity of rockets and shells to Kyiv, but experts don’t think there are enough of those in the Pentagon’s collection to be used for transfers to Ukraine.

Washington. Two U.S. officials said on Tuesday that the United States is expected to approve sending an air defense system to help defend against Russian missile and drones attacks in eastern Europe.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III could approve a directive as early as this week to transfer one Patriot battery already overseas to Ukraine, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. President Biden would need to approve final approval.

White House, Pentagon and State Department officials declined to comment on details of the transfer of a Patriot battery, which, if approved, would amount to one of the most sophisticated weapons the U.S. has provided Ukraine.

Zelensky listed financing for weapons as one of his requests in a speech to the Group of 7 nations on Monday.

The largest shelling attack on Donetsk by Ukrainian forces since 2014, according to a Moscow-appointed mayor and the US Energy Security Project

In the wake of the fighting in the east of the country, the Ukrainian forces unleashed the largest attack on the occupied regions since 2014, according to a Russia-installed official.

“At exactly 7 a.m. the (Ukrainians) subjected the center of Donetsk (city) to the most massive strike since 2014,” the Moscow-appointed mayor, Aleksey Kulemzin, posted on Telegram.

He said that a key in the city center had come under fire, and that forty rockets were fired at civilians.

In the city of Kherson, an area that was liberated by Ukrainian forces in November, there were a number of dead and injured due to shelling and rocket attacks. Shelling also set a multi-storey apartment building ablaze, and the body of a man was found in one apartment, the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office said. Basic services are not available in the city.

A member of the rapid response team was one of the victims. During the shelling, they were on the street, they were fatally wounded by fragments of enemy shells,” he added.

The head of Kherson’s military administration said that the city was disconnected from power supplies after the strikes.

The US gave machinery and generators to help strengthen the Ukrainian capital’s power infrastructure, as it is suffering from a widespread energy deficit.

The Energy Security Project, run by USAID, delivered four excavators and over 130 generators, Klitschko said on Telegram. All equipment was free of charge.

On the prospects of withdrawing troops from Ukraine during Christmas, a Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told CNN

This week, the Kremlin also appeared to rebuff Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace solution that involved asking Russia to start withdrawing troops from Ukraine this Christmas – as the war approaches the 10-month mark.

The realities that have developed over time need to be taken into account by the Ukrainian side, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov.

The Russian Federation has new subjects, according to the realities, which include the areas of Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

Zakharova stated that many experts questioned the rationality of such a step, which would lead to an escalation of the conflict and increase the risk of directly dragging the US army into combat.

Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, former commander of US Army Europe, told CNN that there is likely some unrealistic expectations about what a Patriot battery will be able to do for Ukraine. It won’t, for example, be available to use immediately after the US agrees to provide it — it takes months to train troops on how to use the complex system, Hertling said, adding that training US troops to serve as maintainers or repairmen takes around a year. The blanket cover will not be able to be provided for the entire country.

“I find it ironic and very telling that officials from a country that brutally attacked its neighbor in an illegal and unprovoked invasion … that they would choose to use words like provocative to describe defensive systems that are meant to save lives and protect civilians,” Ryder told reporters.

The installation of a Yars missile into a Kaluga region silo was shown by the defense ministry to the Kozelsky missile formation commander.

Appearing this week on Russian state TV, Commander Alexander Khodakovsky of the Russian militia in the Donetsk region suggested Russia could not defeat the NATO alliance in a conventional war.

In an interview with The Economist published Thursday, Zelensky also rejected the idea recently suggested by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Ukraine seek to reclaim only land seized by Russia since February 2022 and not areas like Donbas and Crimea, which have been under Russian control since 2014.

We don’t have any NATO troops on the ground. We don’t have NATO planes in the air over Ukraine. But we are supporting Ukraine in their right to defend themselves,” he said.

Old guns. A US military official said this week that Russian forces have had to use 40-year-old guns because their supplies of new weaponry are quickly running out.

The official said that when you load the bullets they cross your fingers that they will fire or explode.

Russia’s military base is being taxed: a case study of the Kryvyi Rih region in Ukraine’s southern hemisphere

The effect of months of military aid. It’s a completely different scale, but CNN reported last month the US is running low on some weapons systems and munitions it provides to Ukraine. The US aid debate will likely get louder after Republicans win control of the House of Representatives next month and promise to more scrutinize US aid for Ukraine.

In the trenches. CNN’s Will Ripley filed a video report about fortifications being built along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, where there is growing concern that Russia could once again assemble troops. Ripley is talking to a sewing machine repairman.

At least two people were killed when a Russian missile hit a three-storey residential building in the central city of Kryvyi Rih. According to the deputy head of the presidential administration, there could be people under the rubble.

The southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia was hit by more than a dozen missile strikes, according to Oleksandr Starukh, chief of the regional military administration, but it was unclear what had been targeted.

The Engels air base, which is home to Russia’s long-range, nuclear-capable bombers, was targeted in a drone attack in early December, according to the Kremlin, slightly damaging two planes. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

An MiG-31K, a supersonic aircraft capable of carrying a Kinzal hypersonic missile, was also seen in the sky over Belarus during the air attacks on Friday in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. But it was not clear from their statement whether a Kinzal was used in the attacks.

“We know that their defense industrial base is being taxed,” Kirby said of Russia. “We know they’re having trouble keeping up with that pace. We know that Russian President Vladimir Putin has trouble with the replenishment of precision guided munitions.

Zelensky’s legacy during the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election: From the Coulombine to the Orientifold, from Vogue to Trump

In Paris at the time, I witnessed how Zelensky pulled up to the Élysée Palace in a modest Renault, while Putin motored in with an ostentatious armored limousine. (The host, French President Emmanuel Macron, hugged Putin but chose only to shake hands with Zelensky).

Beyond the man himself, there is Zelensky the brand. It is almost impossible to deny the Ukrainian leader from wearing olive green t-shirts when he meets a lot of people from Vogue to military commanders.

Zelensky was shaped into a fighter by his upbringing in the rough and tumble neighborhoods of central Ukranian.

“After the full-scale invasion, once he got into a position of being bullied by someone like Vladimir Putin he knew exactly what he needed to do because it was just his gut feeling,” Yevhen Hlibovytsky, former political journalist and founder of the Kyiv-based think tank and consultancy, pro.mova, told me.

The leader when offered an exit from the US when Russia invaded quipped, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

It is perhaps easy to forget that Zelensky honed his political muscles earlier in his career standing up to another bully in 2019 – then-US President Donald Trump, who tried to bamboozle the novice politician in the quid pro quo scandal.

Amid the fog of war, it all seems a long, long way since the heady campaign celebration in a repurposed Kyiv nightclub where a fresh-faced Zelensky thanked his supporters for a landslide victory. He looked in disbelief as he stood on the stage with the confetti and defeated Petro Poroshenko.

The war appears to have turned his ratings around. After the invasion, Zelensky’s rating leaped to 90% and remain high to this day. Zelensky was highly rated by Americans early in the war for his handling of international affairs.

A lot of the people in his bubble are from his previous profession as a TV comedian. Even in the midst of the war, a press conference held on the platform of a Kyiv metro station in April featured perfect lighting and curated camera angles to emphasize a wartime setting.

As for his skills as comforter in chief, I remember well the solace his nightly televised addresses brought in the midst of air raid sirens and explosions in Lviv.

Zelensky: Making the Most of a 10 Month War for the United States: Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of World Warfare

Chrisman-Campbell stated that Zelensky is projecting his confidence and competence to a younger, global audience by wearing T-shirts and hoodies.

“He is probably more comfortable than Putin on camera, too, both as an actor and as a digital native,” she added. Zelensky is doing a better job balancing authority with accessibility, and I believe they want to come across as personable.

Zelenska shows herself to be a good international forateller and has shown herself to be smart. She had a meeting with King Charles at a refugee assistance center at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family in London. (Curiously, TIME magazine did not include Zelenska on the cover montage and gave only a passing reference in the supporting text).

There have been concerns among some Western nations about what Zelensky might do in the long-term.

Zelensky said in his video address that the world, not the aggressor, determines how events develop.

He got both ten months later. When Zelensky touched down in Washington in a US military plane, the 10-day rush by American and Ukrainian officials to arrange a risky visit meant to rally support for Ukraine had come to an end.

The visit by the Ukrainian leader to Washington, expected to last only a matter of hours, nonetheless amounts to a remarkable moment 10 months since Russia’s war in Ukraine began.

The US set to work on executing the parameters that Zelensky determined met his needs and he was very keen to visit the US. On Sunday, the trip was confirmed.

Russia will do what it does and we’ll do what we do. For us and Zelensky to not be discouraged from traveling as he sees fit to advance his people’s interests is what the official said.

Zelensky remembered an visit he made to Washington in the early 1930s when another leader of a country ravaged by bombs was looking for US help to defeat the Soviets. Pelosi, likely presiding over her final great congressional occasion, recalled how her father was in the House, as a Maryland congressman, when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed Congress on December 26, 1941. Zelensky presented himself as the symbol of defiance, as he borrowed one of the great statesman’s greatest lines.

His visit is taking place under extraordinary security. Pelosi wouldn’t confirm early reports that she’d welcome Zelensky to the US Capitol in an “unexpected coda” to her speakership. We just don’t know.”

According to a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, Zelensky’s visit shows that a decision must be made about US support before Russia can regroup.

His visit to Congress will also play into an increasingly important debate on Capitol Hill over Ukraine aid with Republicans set to take over the House majority in the new year. Some members of the pro-Donald Trump camp have warned that billions of dollars in US cash sent to the Ukranian government should instead be used to help the US southern border with a surge of new immigrants expected within days.

Zelensky’s “I Have a Dream Speech”: From Hitler to the United States, and their Implications for the Cold War

Zelensky evoked Mount Rushmore and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” in a virtual address to Congress. He mentioned the two days of infamy in modern history when Americans were scared of flying objects.

The British leader traveled to the United States on a boat that dodged bombs in the ocean and then took a plane from the coast of Virginia to Washington, where he met President Roosevelt before a press conference.

Over days of brainstorming and meetings – fueled by Churchill’s regime of sherry with breakfast, Scotch and sodas for lunch, champagne in the evening and a tipple of 90-year-old brandy before bed – the two leaders plotted the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and laid the foundation of the Western alliance that Biden has reinvigorated in his support for Ukraine.

During his visit to the United States, during the 70th anniversary of World War II, the leader of the Allies said that it was the key to defeating Hitler and that he was far from his country and his family.

The Ukrainian leader is likely to be influenced by historical parallels. He spoke to British members of parliament in March and described one of their most famous speeches from the war.

In fact, repetition of the narrative that any one of a wide range of events that Russia would dislike will ensure “guaranteed escalation to the Third World War” has been highly effective in shaping US and Western behavior.

In doing so, the West has played along with the Kremlin’s pretense that it is not at war, only waging a “special military operation.” It has prevented Russia from having to deal with the consequences of its own aggression.

But Moscow is struggling to equip and rally its conventional forces, and, with the exception of its nuclear forces, appears to be running out of new cards to play. China and India have joined the West in open statements against the use of nuclear force, which has made that option even less likely.

If that is not the message the US and the West want other countries to receive, then there should be other ways to try to intimidate Moscow through the use of missiles.

There are two main deliverables, the first one being the Patriot missile systems. Complex, accurate, and expensive, they have been described as the US’s “gold standard” of air defense. NATO preciously guards them, and they require the personnel who operate them – almost 100 in a battalion for each weapon – to be properly trained.

More precision weapons are vital: they ensure Ukraine hits its targets, and not any civilians remaining nearby. It means Russia does not use hundreds or thousands of shells to bombardUkraine, as it seems to burn through them.

The Patriot System: How Do the US and Ukraine Operate together in a War on the Cold War? Commentary on U.S. Sentinel Countermeasures

The remnants of Donald Trump’s party have questioned how much help the US should give to eastern Europe.

Realistically, the bill for the slow defeat of Russia in this dark and lengthy conflict is relatively light for Washington, given its near trillion-dollar annual defense budget.

“It increases accuracy, it increases the kill rate, so it really does exactly what you want it to do which is protection on the ground on very specific targets,” retired Maj. Gen. James “Spider” Marks previously told CNN of the system’s capabilities.

The Patriot’s radar system combines “surveillance, tracking, and engagement functions in one unit,” a description from the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) says, which makes it stand out among other air defense systems. The system’s engagements with incoming aerial threats are “nearly autonomous” aside from needing a “final launch decision” from the humans operating it.

Hertling said that the systems didn’t pick up and move around the battlefield. “You put them in place somewhere that defends your most strategic target, like a city, like Kyiv. If anyone thinks this is going to be a system that is spread across a 500-mile border between Ukraine and Russia, they just don’t know how the system operates.”

According to a recent report by CSIS, the missile rounds for the Patriot come in at $4 million each. Rounds that expensive likely won’t be used to shoot down every missile Russia launches toward Ukraine, Hertling said.

And in Ukraine’s case, Hertling says offensive operations are far more important than the Patriot system. CNN first reported last month that the US was considering a dramatic increase in the training provided to Ukrainian forces by instructing as many as 2,500 troops a month at a US base in Germany. The Pentagon said that combined arms training of battalion-sized elements would begin in January.

The doctrine of thePatriots includes a defensive, anti-ballistic and anti-aircraft weapon system. It is not possible to win wars with defensive capabilities. You win wars with offensive capabilities.

The Patriot Missile System and Ukrainian Security: Are Ukrainians Willing to Join the Three-Five Years in the War?

“It becomes a real humanitarian problem when you’re trying to cut off the whole country’s electrical grid and/or water,” said Jeffrey Edmonds, an Army veteran who is currently a Russia analyst at the Center for a New American Security. I think it’s necessary to help Ukrainians sustain themselves in the fight.

That will help defend a single city, like Kyiv, against some threats. Mark Cancian is a retired marine corps colonel and adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Even on a compressed schedule, the training requirements mean that the Patriot system is unlikely to be operational until late winter or early spring, perhaps in February or March.

Cancian warned that the push to get the system up and running as soon as possible could be harmful to its effectiveness in the worst case scenario, where Russians would destroy it. That in turn could damage the political will to send future assistance to Ukraine, he said.

“If the Ukrainians had a year or two to assimilate the system, that wouldn’t be any problem. The problem is they don’t have a year or two. They want to do this in a couple weeks,” Cancian said.

The aid package announced on Wednesday also contains tens of thousands of GRAD rockets, additional tank rounds, and other weapons.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/21/1144662505/us-ukraine-patriot-missile-system

The War Between Ukraine and the US: Volodymyr Zelensky’s First State Address to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday

The Stimson Center analyst called the announcement a “sign that there is serious concern about the Ukrainian air defense capability.”

Prior to October, Ukrainian air defenses had focused on protecting troops in the south and east, along with key government buildings and military sites.

“That’s a terrible choice to face, between the natural urge to protect your civilians from these brutal attacks and trying to ensure that you have the long-term military wherewithal to continue to resist the Russian war effort,” Greico said.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress “extraordinary,” saying the country’s fight against Russian aggression has “proven that they are a really good investment for the United States.”

The speech connected the struggle of Ukrainian people to the revolution in our country, to our own feelings of warmth that we want to bring for our families and to the fact that there are many families who are stuck on the front lines.

Clinton, who previously met Russian President Vladimir Putin as US secretary of state, said the leader was “probably impossible to actually predict,” as the war turns in Ukraine’s favor and his popularity fades at home.

Clinton believed that the bodies of Russian conscripts would be used in the fight in Ukraine.

Zelensky wore a green sweatshirt and a blue and yellow striped tie as he visited the US for the first time.

Yet as Zelensky departed Washington for a lengthy and similarly risky return trip to Ukraine, it wasn’t clear that a pathway to ending the conflict was any clearer.

Emerging from their talks, both men made clear they see the war entering a new phase. As Russia sends more troops to the frontlines and wages a brutal air campaign against civilian targets, fears of a stalemate are growing.

The road to ending the war would not involve making concessions to Russia, said Zelensky at a time when he was using bellicose rhetoric.

He doesn’t see a road to peace that involves Ukraine giving up territory or sovereignty.

Peskov added that “there were no real calls for peace.” But during his address to the US Congress on Wednesday, Zelensky did stress that “we need peace,” reiterating the 10-point plan devised by Ukraine.

For his part, Biden said it was up to Zelensky to “decide how he wants to the war to end,” a long-held view that leaves plenty of questions unanswered.

Zelensky peppered his address to lawmakers with references to American history, from the critical Battle of Saratoga during the American Revolutionary War to the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

He telegraphed ahead of the speech that he would deliver his address in English. His army green shirt, cargo pants and boots seemed designed to remind his audience he was a wartime leader.

Zelensky: Towards a unified understanding of the American people in a country with a border conflict. And what he had to say about Ukraine

Over the course of the conflict, Zelensky has demonstrated an acute ability to appeal to his audience, be they national legislatures or the audience of the Grammys.

On Wednesday, he sought to harness Americans’ emotional response to his country’s suffering, evoking dark winter nights as Russia seeks to interrupt Ukraine’s power supply.

We are going to celebrate Christmas in two days. Maybe candlelit. He said there would be no electricity because it wasn’t more romantic.

But he also seemed aware that many Americans – including some Republicans in Congress – have wondered aloud why billions of US dollars are needed for a conflict thousands of miles away. He wanted to make the cause more than just his homeland.

Zelensky’s candid request for more patriotism was a glimpse into one of the most complex relationships in the world.

That hasn’t always sat well with Biden or his team. Biden appeared intent on trying to translate physical proximity into better understandings of his counterpart, as he has with other foreign leaders.

“It is all about looking someone in the eye. I mean it very sincerely. He said he didn’t think there was any substitute for sitting down with a friend and looking them in the eye.

The War of Zelensky to the U.S. Senate and to the Ukrainians During the Blitzkrieg, Sen. Kamala Harris (R-Texas)

This story was adapted from the December 22 edition of CNN’s Meanwhile in America, the daily email about US politics for global readers. Click here to subscribe to the past editions.

The comic actor-turned-wartime hero effectively put the fate of millions of Ukrainians in the hands of American lawmakers, taxpayers and families at a time when there is growing skepticism among the incoming Republican House majority about the cost of US involvement.

Zelensky gave Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris a Ukrainian flag he retrieved from the hottest battle front at Bakhmut on Tuesday during his speech in the House chamber.

“Our heroes … asked me to bring this flag to you, to the US Congress, to members of the House of Representatives and senators whose decisions can save millions of people,” he said.

The bigger point was that the fight was not just about a dispute over a relic of the Soviet empire. He fought to hold back tyranny and save global democracy.

— To Putin, who thought he would topple Zelensky and his nation in a February blitzkrieg, he sent a signal of heroic resistance embraced by the US – after flying to Washington on an US Air Force jet, seeking to show Russians are now fighting a war that can never be won.

— To Americans, Zelensky professed deep thanks for tens of billions of dollars in weapons and aid offered and to come. Implicitly, he argued they couldn’t abandon this gritty, independence hero without also suppressing something of their own patriotic national identify.

The Ukrainian leader’s hero’s welcome suggested to the incoming House Republican majority that they would be shamed if they abandoned him.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/22/world/volodymyr-zelensky-grit-defiance/index.html

Zelensky: The Cold War in the Cold War – Why don’t we just give everything to Ukraine? A United Standstill for the American Army and the United States

Zelensky shows that the West is united and that Biden means it, as Europeans are going through their own hard winter of high electricity and heating prices after cutting off from Russian energy.

Zelensky pointed out that despite the US’s largesse and upcoming arrival of high tech weapons, it was still outmanned and outgunned.

The president has limited the potency of the weapons he sends into the battle, balancing the need to defend a European democracy with the desire not to trigger a disastrous direct clash with Russia and to avoid crossing often invisible red lines whose locations are known only to Putin.

Why don’t we just give everything to Ukraine? Biden explained to the White House that pushing a large force into Ukraine could lead to fracturing of the US-UK alliance.

It isn’t certain that America’s politicians will be able to fund their own government next year because of partisan fury in Washington.

Several Republican members who expressed reservations about aid to Ukraine did not applaud when Zelensky was introduced.

Following President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington, Moscow said there is a long confrontation with Russia.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that no matter how much military support the West provides to the Ukrainian government, “they will achieve nothing.”

The situation on the ground and actual realities of the war will be taken into account when fulfilling tasks set within the framework of the special military operation.

Peskov stated that the meeting showed the US is involved in indirect fighting with Russia down to the last Ukrainian.