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Its towering smokestacks once puffed out clouds of steam. In gigantic machine rooms, turbines whirled around the clock. In the Soviet era, the Kurakhove Heating and Power Plant gave rise to the town around it in Ukraine’s east, driving the local economy and sustaining the community with wages and heating for homes. “Our plant is the heart of our city,” said Halyna Liubchenko, a retiree whose husband worked his entire career in nearby coal mines that fed the facility. That heart is barely beating now, partly destroyed by artillery.

Persons: ”, Halyna Liubchenko Organizations: Power Locations: Soviet, Ukraine’s, Ukraine’s Donbas

The commander of the Russian air force Sergey Surovikin and the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin have not been seen in public in days as questions swirl about the role Surovikin may have played in Prigozhin’s short-lived mutiny. The Russian air force commander Sergey Surovikin (left) and the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin APWhy is everyone talking about Surovikin? Prigozhin meanwhile, played the central role in the short-lived insurrection – it was he who ordered Wagner troops to take over two military bases and then march on Moscow. Putin assembled Russian security personnel in Moscow Tuesday, telling them they “virtually stopped a civil war” in responding to the insurrection. Prigozhin was last spotted leaving the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don Saturday, after abruptly calling off his troops’ march on Moscow.

Persons: Sergey Surovikin, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin, Surovikin, “ Surovikin, ”, Alexey Venediktov –, –, Sergey Markov, Surovikin’s, “, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s, Putin, Dmitry Peskov, Prigozhin, Sergei Shoigu, Valery Gerasimov, Don Saturday, Alexander Lukashenko, Lukashenko, Peskov, ” Peskov, Mikhail Gorbachev, , Joe Biden, Josep Borrell Organizations: CNN, Moscow Times, Russian Telegram, Baza, Yevgeny Prigozhin AP, New York Times, PMC Wagner, Russian Ministry of Defense, Kremlin, Street, Belarusian, General Staff, Defense, Ministry, Washington DC, Jamestown Foundation, Russian Aerospace Forces, Human Rights Watch, Union’s, Foreign Affairs Locations: Kremlin, Russian, Moscow, Rostov, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Minsk, St . Petersburg, Ukraine’s, Afghanistan, Syria, Idlib, ”, Brussels, Dagestan, Derbent

☆ Putin Turned to Belarus Leader Lukashenko to Broker Truce Deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The deal brokered by Alexander Lukashenko to halt an armed rebellion in Russia wasn’t the first time the Belarusian leader has cast himself as a peace maker on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Saturday, Lukashenko helped defuse a crisis as forces from the Wagner paramilitary group moved toward Moscow. “The two presidents really agreed that President Lukashenko would mediate efforts to resolve the situation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a press call late Saturday evening, noting that Putin “thanked his Belarusian counterpart for the work done.”Relations between the two leaders stretch back years. In 2014 and 2015, Lukashenko allowed the Belarusian capital, Minsk, to host a series of international talks which sought to end the war in Ukraine’s Donbas region that was being fought between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian army. The agreements, which would become known as the Minsk accords, subsequently went nowhere, because Kyiv believed that they could give Moscow too much say in Ukraine’s future.

Persons: Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko, Wagner, Dmitry Peskov, Putin “ Organizations: Russia wasn’t Locations: Russia, Moscow, Minsk, Ukraine’s Donbas, Russian, Ukrainian

☆ Putin has only himself to blame as infighting engulfs Kremlin insiders
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Nathan Hodge | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Vladimir Putin, meet the Law of Unintended Consequences. In the years leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a St. Petersburg-based businessman named Yevgeny Prigozhin emerged as a canny political entrepreneur. After all, mercenary activity was technically barred by Russian law, and Putin could always maintain that interference in US elections was merely the work of “patriotic” hackers. Prigozhin’s feud with the leadership of the Russian military is longstanding, and many observers suggested that this was part of the intricate game of court politics under Putin. After Prigozhin’s forces seized Rostov-on-Don, a video surfaced that showed Prigozhin in a tense conversation with two Russian military commanders.

Persons: CNN — Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Prigozhin, Putin, Wagner, Stringer, ”, ” Putin, Tsar Nicholas II, Petersburg –, Defense Yunus, Bek, “, Shoigu Organizations: CNN, Southern Military District, Reuters, Saturday, Bolsheviks, Defense Locations: Ukraine, St, Petersburg, Russian, Ukraine’s, Moscow, Syria, Rostov, Russia, Petrograd – today’s St, “

☆ Eyeball to eyeball: Estonia stares down Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Jill Dougherty | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

It sits high on the western bank of the Narva River, its 13th-century castle proudly flying the blue, black and white flag of Estonia. We think we know roughly what makes them tick.”Like parts of Ukraine, Estonia was illegally annexed and occupied by the Soviet Union. Estonians at the conference were adamant: Unless Russia is utterly defeated in Ukraine, there is no reason to expect Putin will change his strategic objective. Jill Dougherty/CNNSeveral Russians at the conference said they feel personally responsible for the horrors Russia is unleashing on Ukraine. What’s more, Vladimir Putin is winning support for the war from so-called “swing states” and nations in the Global South.

The novelist is an outspoken champion of Russia's war in Ukraine and has boasted of taking part in military combat there. He was the third prominent pro-war figure to be targeted by a bomb since Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. [1/2] A view shows a destroyed vehicle, which transported Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin allegedly wounded in a car bombing in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Russia, May 6, 2023. On Wednesday, Russia accused Ukraine of trying to kill President Vladimir Putin with a night-time drone attack on the Kremlin. TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as declining to comment on Saturday's car bomb in the absence of information from investigators.

☆ Russia Pounds Cities Across the Country, Ukraine Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Jeffrey Gettleman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russian forces pounded Ukrainian cities with missiles, mortars, artillery fire and airstrikes over the weekend, killing at least one person and taking out homes and critical infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said Sunday. “Fierce battles for the city of Bakhmut continue,” according to a Sunday morning update from the Ukrainian military’s General Staff. But the update emphasized that Bakhmut was hardly the only target and that Russian forces had rained down dozens of airstrikes and many other artillery attacks across the country. The violence comes as Ukraine is preparing for an anticipated counteroffensive that could focus on seizing back territory in the east and south of the country. For Russia’s part, President Vladimir V. Putin has made the seizure of the entire Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine, a priority for Moscow’s forces.

☆ Europe Is Rushing Arms to Ukraine but Running Out of Ammo
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Bojan Pancevski | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The artillery-heavy fight for control of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas area has been burning through ammunition stocks. Europe, home to some of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers, is struggling to produce enough ammunition for Ukraine and for itself, jeopardizing NATO’s defense capacity and its support for Kyiv, officials and industry leaders say. A lack of production capacity, a dearth of specialized workers, supply-chain bottlenecks, high costs of financing and even environmental regulations are putting a brake on efforts to increase output, presenting the West and Ukraine with a fresh challenge for next year.

☆ Ukraine-Russia war sees U.S. mull Patriot missile defense battery for Kyiv. It's not enough.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Pavel K. Baev | Pavel K. Baev Is A Research Professor At The Peace Research Institute Oslo | Prio | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

The feeble Russian response to Ukraine’s recent drone attacks suggests the West has room to maneuver. The drone attacks also point to how the West can do more to turn the tide of war in Ukraine’s favor. But the Patriot deployment would take months even in the best circumstances, and the war gives no respite. And the feeble Russian response to Ukraine’s recent drone attacks suggests the West has room to maneuver. A U.S. Army Patriot Missile System operates at a joint exercise with NATO allied and partner forces, in Zadar, Croatia, on May 17, 2021.

Putin knew a war would be unpopular and had kept all of his previous military interventions limited before the current invasion of Ukraine. Right now, the Russian military is in no condition to fight NATO, and it is unclear to what extent the partial mobilization will solve Russia’s military problems. Moreover, the finger on the nuclear button is still that of Vladimir Putin rather than Patrushev or other hardliners. At the same time, the Ukrainians, the most likely victims of any tactical Russian nuclear strike, remain committed to fighting despite the risk. The fight is not only about Ukraine alone: For Putin and the hardliners alike, it’s about the West.

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