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American officials say they fear that Ukraine has become casualty adverse, one reason it has been cautious about pressing ahead with the counteroffensive. The number of dead and wounded reflects the amount of lethal munitions being expended by both sides. When close combat does occur, it resembles the battles of World War I: brutal and often taking place in trenches. Unlike the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where American forces strictly adhered to evacuating casualties within an hour to a well-stocked medical facility, there is no such capability in Ukraine. In some cases, the wounded and dead are left on the battlefield, because medics are unable to reach them.

Locations: Ukraine, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq

In the early weeks of the war in Ukraine, with the invading Russian Army bearing down on Kyiv, the Ukrainian government needed weapons, and quickly. On the other end of the line was Serhiy Pashinsky, a chain-smoking former lawmaker who had overseen military spending for years. He had spent much of that under investigation on suspicion of corruption or denying accusations of self-dealing. Now, he was living in virtual political exile at his country estate, sidelined by President Volodymyr Zelensky and his promise to root out corruption. “Go out on the streets and ask whether Pashinsky is a criminal,” Mr. Zelensky said on national television in 2019.

Persons: Serhiy Pashinsky, Volodymyr Zelensky, “, Pashinsky, Mr, Zelensky Organizations: Russian Army, of Defense Locations: Ukraine, Kyiv

OUTSIDE AVDIIVKA, Ukraine — The headquarters of one of the battalions in Ukraine’s 53rd Mechanized Brigade smells of fresh cut pine trees. The scents are from the wooden support beams in the labyrinth of trenches that make up most of the unit’s rudimentary base outside the embattled town of Avdiivka. As the war enters its 17th month, the fighting has developed a noticeable rhythm. Russia and Ukraine are locked in a deadly back and forth of attacks and counterattacks. Russian artillery no longer has the clear advantage and Ukrainian forces are struggling with staunch Russian defenses, grinding on in their southern offensive, slowed because of dense minefields.

Organizations: Ukraine’s 53rd, Brigade Locations: AVDIIVKA, Ukraine, Ukraine’s, Avdiivka, Russia

Leave the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium and turn west onto rougher roads, where dead trees and twisted power lines give way to a string of shattered villages. These enclaves, once the backbone of Ukraine’s agricultural eastern steppe, were reduced to ruin as the war passed over them like a flood tide. Despite being recaptured by Ukraine’s military last fall, the villages of Sulyhivka, Virnopillia and Kamianka are now at risk of being lost — not to artillery or pitched battles, but to overgrown weeds, wildflowers and minefields. They are another kind of casualty in a war that has claimed many.

Locations: Ukrainian, Izium, Sulyhivka

Like many other soldiers, Pavlo Vyshebaba, 37, a platoon commander with the 68th Brigade, had long been collecting donations to procure supplies for his unit, in his case using his poetry as an appeal. But donations, which once flooded in via the web, have been lagging lately as the war drags on. Mr. Vyshebaba recently took two weeks off from the war to give readings around the country in a push to ramp up contributions in person. “I saw that the fund-raising on the internet at the beginning of 2023 stopped being effective, that maybe my audience was exhausted and we didn’t have victories for a long time,” he said. “But we still needed all this stuff.”

Persons: Pavlo Vyshebaba, Vyshebaba, “, ” Organizations: 68th Brigade Locations: Kyiv, Ukraine

☆ Allies React Cautiously to Prospect of U.S. Cluster Weapons for Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Cassandra Vinograd | Thomas Gibbons-Neff | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

The United States appears to be on the verge of providing Ukraine with cluster munitions, a senior Biden administration official said. What are cluster munitions? “There’s just not a responsible way to use cluster munitions,” said Brian Castner, the weapons expert on Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Team. The New York Times has documented Russia’s extensive use of cluster munitions in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022. The Convention on Cluster Munitions also limits the ability of nations that have signed on to cooperate militarily with countries that employ them.

Persons: Laura Cooper, “ There’s, ”, Brian Castner, Castner, “, Ukraine —, Jerry Redfern, Mary Wareham, Cooper, Biden, Gabriela Rosa Hernández, David Guttenfelder, Oleksandr Kubrakov, ” Eric Schmitt, John Ismay, Gaya Gupta Organizations: Biden, Washington, U.S, Pentagon, National Public Radio, United Nations, Amnesty, Cluster Munitions, Getty, The New York Times, The Times, Human Rights Watch, NATO, Ukraine, Munitions, Arms Control, Ukraine’s, Brigade, ., Munich Security Locations: States, Ukraine, Kyiv, Russia, Eurasia, Tibnin, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Balkans, Laos, U.S, United, United States, LightRocket, Russian, Kramatorsk, Ukrainian

☆ ‘Dig, Dig, Dig’: A Russian Soldier’s Story
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Thomas Gibbons-Neff | Natalia Yermak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

The Russian soldier was captured only days after arriving on the front line in eastern Ukraine. It takes into account the International Committee of the Red Cross’s guidance regarding publishing information about prisoners of war. After two months in prison, a man in a “green suit” from the Russian Ministry of Defense arrived, looking for recruits. They were just forced to dig, dig, dig, dig, and that was it. We were looking for a place to dig somewhere.”Merk said that when the Ukrainian attack began, there were nine soldiers digging alongside him.

Persons: Merk, “, Wagner, ’, ” Merk, ‘, ‘ You’re, Oleg Matsnev, Riley Mellen, Dmitriy Khavin, Anatoly Kurmanaev Organizations: New York Times, Kremlin, Times, United Nations, Storm, Committee, Russian Ministry of Defense, Defense Service Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Bakhmut, Ukrainian, Kramatorsk, ’

The Ukrainian soldiers thought the Russians would quickly retreat from Neskuchne, a tiny village in southern Ukraine, especially after a concerted artillery barrage and a rocket strike on their headquarters. Instead, the Russians dug in, fighting for two days before giving up the village last month, leaving their dead decaying on the roadside and piles of expended ammunition around their makeshift defenses. The Russian defeat, on June 9, was Ukraine’s first win in a prolonged counteroffensive that is well into its fourth week but moving at a slower pace than expected. In that respect, the battle for Neskuchne served as an early warning that Kyiv’s and the Western allies’ hopes for a quick victory were unrealistic and that every mile of their drive into Russian-occupied territory would be grueling and contested.

Persons: Ukraine’s, Neskuchne, ’ Locations: Neskuchne, Ukraine

5 miles from the front line Russian defensive line Anti-tank trap Trenches Beyond natural obstacles, miles of Russian defenses — trenches, tank traps and mines — only allow Ukraine’s troops to make incremental progress at best. 10 miles from the front line Russian defensive line If Ukraine can get 15 miles from the front line, to the city of Tokmak, urban warfare will pose its own challenges. 5 miles from the front line Russian defensive line Anti-tank trap Trenches Beyond natural obstacles, miles of Russian defenses — trenches, tank traps and mines — only allow Ukraine’s troops to make incremental progress, at best. 10 miles from the front line Russian defensive line If Ukraine can get 15 miles from the front line, to the city of Tokmak, urban warfare will pose its own challenges. 5 miles from the front line Russian defensive line Anti-tank trap Trenches Beyond natural obstacles, miles of Russian defenses — trenches, tank traps and mines — only allow Ukraine’s troops to make incremental progress, at best.

Persons: Wagner, hasn’t, it’s, Volodymyr Zelensky Organizations: Infantry, Vehicle, ORIKHIV, Tanks, Supplies Tank, Ukrainian Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Territory, Tokmak, Ukrainian, Ukraine’s, Russian, Crimea

☆ With Wagner’s Future in Doubt, Ukraine Could Capitalize on Chaos
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-25 | by ( Julian E. Barnes | Thomas Gibbons-Neff | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To some Ukrainian forces, soldiers from the Wagner Group were the best-equipped fighters they had seen since Russia invaded last year. To others, it was their training that distinguished them: Ukrainian soldiers recalled battlefield stories of aggressive tactics or a sniper downing a drone with a single shot. For now, the uncertain status of Wagner is bound to be a relief for Ukrainian soldiers. Though the front lines in Ukraine are likely to remain unchanged in the short term, depending on how events unfold in Russia, the Ukrainian military may be able to capitalize on the chaos and weakening morale to try to make some gains, according to independent analysts and American officials. Still, it is too soon to determine the long-term implications of the feud between Mr. Prigozhin and the Russian military establishment, American officials said.

Persons: Yevgeny V, Wagner, Prigozhin Organizations: Wagner Group Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Ukrainian

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — The team of soldiers had been out of their Ukrainian armored personnel carrier for only a matter of minutes when the tree line in front of them erupted in Russian gunfire. The dozen or so soldiers, sent to reinforce a trench, found themselves pinned down for hours. “Never seen that much fire, from so many positions,” a soldier recounted in a mission report obtained by The New York Times. One soldier fighting for Ukraine was killed and nine were wounded in the battle, which took place in March near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. It was a deadly demonstration that the Russian military was learning from its mistakes and adapting to Ukrainian tactics, having grossly underestimated them initially.

Persons: ” Organizations: The New York Times Locations: KRAMATORSK, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Bakhmut

☆ ‘It Doesn’t Count as a War Crime if You Had Fun’: Inside the Minds of Some Russian Soldiers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Thomas Gibbons-Neff | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The practice of defacing military positions and occupied homes with graffiti is not uncommon. Many scribbles focused on genitalia, specific military units, bad officers and the desire to go home. Much of the writing in the bar in Velyka Komyshuvakha struck a decidedly different tone. “Behind us the house is burning — well let it burn — one more-one less,” one phrase on the wall said. “It was awful,” said Svitlana Mazurenko, one of the 70 or so current residents of Velyka Komyshuvakha, which once had around 500 people before many fled.

Persons: Komyshuvakha, ”, Svitlana Mazurenko Organizations: United, Kremlin Locations: United States, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Velyka

A major dam on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine was destroyed early Tuesday, sending torrents of water cascading through the breach, flooding a war zone downstream, putting tens of thousands of residents at risk and raising the possibility of long-lasting environmental and humanitarian disasters. Ukraine and Russia quickly blamed each other for the calamity. But some top European officials denounced Russia. Engineering and munitions experts said a deliberate explosion inside the dam had most likely caused its collapse. The dam’s destruction was a “monumental humanitarian, economic and ecological catastrophe,” and “yet another example of the horrific price of war on people,” said António Guterres, the United Nations’ secretary general.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Dmitry S, Peskov, ”, António Guterres Organizations: Engineering, United Nations Locations: Dnipro, Ukraine, Russia, Nova

Ukrainian forces have stepped up artillery strikes and ground assaults in a flurry of military activity that American officials suggested on Monday could signal that Kyiv’s long-planned counteroffensive against Russia had begun. The fighting, which began on Sunday, was raging along several points on the front line, but farther to the east of where many analysts had expected Ukraine’s counteroffensive to launch. The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Monday that a major Ukrainian operation had begun at five locations in the eastern Donetsk region and that it had repelled the assaults and inflicted casualties on Ukrainian forces. Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense, Hanna Malyar, said on the Telegram messaging app that Kyiv’s forces in some areas were “moving to offensive actions” in the war that began when Russia invaded its neighbor 15 months ago. But she stopped short of saying it was a decisive new phase in the war.

Persons: Hanna Malyar Organizations: Russian Ministry of Defense Locations: Russia, Azov, Crimea, Donetsk

☆ Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Thomas Gibbons-Neff | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Ukraine has worked for years through legislation and military restructuring to contain a fringe far-right movement whose members proudly wear symbols steeped in Nazi history and espouse views hostile to leftists, L.G.B.T.Q. But some members of these groups have been fighting Russia since the Kremlin illegally annexed part of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014 and are now part of the broader military structure. Some are regarded as national heroes, even as the far-right remains marginalized politically. In the short term, that threatens to reinforce Mr. Putin’s propaganda and giving fuel to his false claims that Ukraine must be “de-Nazified” — a position that ignores the fact that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish. More broadly, Ukraine’s ambivalence about these symbols, and sometimes even its acceptance of them, risks giving new, mainstream life to icons that the West has spent more than a half-century trying to eliminate.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, they’re, ”, Michael Colborne Organizations: Kremlin, Sun, Ukrainian Defense Ministry Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Crimea

☆ Car Bombing in Russian-Occupied Ukraine Shows Reach of War
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Thomas Gibbons-Neff | Anatoly Kurmanaev | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A car bomb killed at least one person on Friday night in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials, highlighting the war’s reach far beyond the front lines as Ukrainian partisans aim to undermine their occupiers. The blast occurred in Mykhailivka, a town in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian occupation official in the Zaporizhzhia region, confirmed the attack in a Telegram post, saying the bomb killed a “local businessman” named Sergei Didovoduk and injured two others. The attack comes as Ukrainian forces are preparing for a highly anticipated counteroffensive that analysts believe will take place in southern Ukraine. Kyiv’s troops will probably aim to sever the land routes that connect Russia to Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, according to analysts and Western officials.

Persons: ”, Ivan Fedorov, Vladimir Rogov, Sergei Didovoduk Organizations: Kremlin, Western Locations: Ukraine, Mykhailivka, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian, Russian, Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia, Russia, Crimea, Moscow

☆ As Kyiv Reckons With Deaths by a Shelter, Russia Evacuates Border Towns
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Thomas Gibbons-Neff | Natalia Yermak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If scenes of flight and destruction are relatively novel for Russians, such bombardment have become painfully familiar for many Ukrainians. For the residents of the eastern Kyiv district near the clinic, living in a cluster of Soviet-style apartment blocks amid small shops, going to the children’s clinic shelter had been part of a weekslong routine, as Russia launched drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at the capital for much of May. 3 clinic to take shelter in its basement early Thursday morning. As they huddled, knocked and waited for entry, Ukrainian air defenses, bolstered by Western-supplied weapons such as the Patriot missile, only partially intercepted a Russian ballistic missile, knocking it off course but not destroying its warhead, the police officer said. The explosion shattered windows in nearby buildings and blasted doors off their hinges in the clinic, creating a crater roughly 13 feet wide.

Persons: ”, Sukhomlyn, “, ” Anatoly Kurmanaev, Michael Schwirtz Organizations: Patriot Locations: Kyiv, Russia, Russian

☆ Why Bakhmut? It’s a Question as Old as War.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Thomas Gibbons-Neff | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just weeks before President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visited the city of Bakhmut in December, a soldier with the military call sign “Bear” stared out from the window of a ruined sixth-floor apartment overlooking the city’s eastern reaches. To the south, Russian incendiary munitions floated downward, the thin arc of white flames igniting small fires on the ground but little else. There was nothing left to burn, the area already shelled to what seemed like oblivion. “Bakhmut,” I wrote in my journal, “is in rough shape.”That was one long night of hundreds, as Bakhmut became the focal point of some of the fiercest fighting of the war — the object of acute desire for Russia and of a tenacious defense by Ukraine. “Seems all the vultures are here,” one soldier messaged me as throngs of journalists showed up when the city seemed on the brink of falling in March.

It takes just over a minute to microwave the mini pizza that Andriy Shved sells in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. But despite the risks that come with any order, the oblong cheese, meat and dill pie is a top seller among the Ukrainian soldiers and residents who make up the dwindling customer base. Mr. Shved thinks his food stall is the last one open in the battered city, a pivotal battleground in the nearly 10-month old war. Then, in the afternoon, it’s from 2 until 4,” sighed Mr. Shved, 41. On Wednesday night, in a high-profile appearance before the U.S. Congress, President Volodymyr Zelensky presented House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a Ukrainian flag signed by soldiers fighting in Bakhmut.

Since the early days of the invasion, Mr. Putin has conceded, privately, that the war has not gone as planned. “I think he is sincerely willing” to compromise with Russia, Mr. Putin said of Mr. Zelensky in 2019. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. “I think this war is Putin’s grave.” Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, a Russian prisoner of war held by Ukraine, in October.

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