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Some 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began two years ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, acknowledging for the first time in the war a concrete figure for Ukraine’s toll. “This is a big loss for us,” Mr. Zelensky said at a news conference in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. But he declined to disclose the number of wounded or missing, saying that Russia could use the information to gauge the number of Ukraine’s active forces. It differs sharply from estimates by U.S. officials, who, this past summer, put the losses much higher, saying that close to 70,000 Ukrainians had been killed and 100,000 to 120,000 had been wounded. Russia’s military casualties, the officials said, were about twice as high.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, ” Mr, Zelensky, Zelensky’s Organizations: U.S Locations: Kyiv, Ukrainian, Russia, Ukraine’s

☆ A Child of Another War Who Makes Music for Ukrainians
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Carlotta Gall | More About Carlotta Gall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When the owner of an underground club in Kyiv reached out to Western musicians to play in Ukraine, long before the war, there were not so many takers. But an American from Boston, Mirza Ramic, accepted the invitation, spawning a lasting friendship with the club’s owner, Taras Khimchak. “I kept coming back,” Mr. Ramic, 40, said in an interview at the club, Mezzanine, where he was preparing for a performance during a recent tour of Ukraine. The country, he said “is one of the places that has welcomed me most and been the most supportive of my music.” And so especially after the Russian invasion two years ago, he added, “I wanted to come now, to show my support in these hard times.”

Persons: Mirza Ramic, Taras Khimchak, “, ” Mr, Ramic, ” Locations: Kyiv, Ukraine, Boston

☆ ‘We Are Accidentally Alive’: A Muslim Cleric Reflects on His War Experience
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Carlotta Gall | More About Carlotta Gall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An activist Muslim cleric in Ukraine with an arrest warrant over his head, Said Ismahilov had no doubt of the danger as Russian troops advanced on the capital, Kyiv, at the start of the war last year. He was then living in the tranquil Kyiv suburb of Bucha, which lay right in the path of the advancing Russian tank columns. Mr. Ismahilov pointed to the fields in front where he said farmers had doggedly harvested the wheat even in midst of a Russian rocket attack. At the time of the invasion, Mr. Ismahilov was one of the most senior Muslim clerics in Ukraine, but afterward, Mr. Ismahilov, 44, joined the Ukrainian territorial defense and served as the first Muslim chaplain in the Ukrainian military. He now also works as a combat medic with the medical charity ASAP Rescue Ukraine.

Persons: Said Ismahilov, “, ”, stretchers, Ismahilov Organizations: Muslim, Rescue Locations: Ukraine, Kyiv, Bucha, Russian, Ukrainian, Rescue Ukraine

☆ Ukrainian Accounts of Torture Point to Systematic Russian Policy, Expert Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Carlotta Gall | More About Carlotta Gall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Russian authorities have failed so far to send a directive to their soldiers and the military command informing them that torture and such types of detentions and interrogations are not acceptable,” she said. “They deny they do it, but show me the military directive where torture is prohibited.”Moscow had failed to respond even to her recent offer to visit and report on the conditions of Russian prisoners of war held in Ukraine, she added. Of hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia and released in exchanges, Ukrainian officials have said 90 percent suffered torture, including sexual violence, she said. Former prisoners of war held by Russia suffered a dangerous level of weight loss from starvation during their detention, she said. One former prisoner told her he had lost 40 kilograms — almost 90 pounds — during incarceration, and his hair had turned gray.

Persons: ”, “, Moscow, Edwards Locations: Ukraine, Australian, Izium, Russia

☆ On the Front Lines, Ukrainians Are Buoyed to Be on the Offensive
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Carlotta Gall | More About Carlotta Gall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 18 months of war, Ukrainian land has mostly changed hands in sudden bursts, with Russia snatching a mass of territory at the start and Ukraine recapturing chunks in dramatic counterattacks. Now 10 weeks into its most ambitious counteroffensive, with heavy casualties and equipment losses, questions have been growing about whether Ukraine can punch through Russian lines. Despite grueling fighting, Ukrainian forces along much of the 600-mile front are moving forward, and commanders and veteran soldiers say they are in better shape now than six or 12 months ago. Ukrainian officers are almost invariably upbeat in interviews. Even if the counteroffensive has yielded only mixed results so far, with Ukrainian troops slowed by dense Russian minefields and sustained firepower, they describe previous periods as being tougher than this one.

Persons: ” Col, Dmytro Lysiuk Organizations: 128th Mountain Assault Brigade Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Ukrainian

A battered worker’s van whizzed back and forth along a village road near the front line in southern Ukraine, searching. It screeched to a halt, and three men unloaded heavy equipment and disappeared into the undergrowth. What they were looking for, dug in and hidden under the trees, were three hulking British-made armored vehicles known as Mastiffs. Supplied to the Ukrainian Army for its attempt to retake Russian-occupied territory in southern Ukraine, the Mastiffs were in need of a service. Behind the thousands of Ukrainian troops assembled along the 100-mile front line for the counteroffensive is a small army of mechanics, engineers and weapon technicians responsible for keeping Ukraine’s growing fleet of Western-made tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment in working order.

Persons: van, ” Serhii Ivanov Organizations: Ukrainian Army, Huskies, Wolfhounds Locations: Ukraine, Russian

The images a reconnaissance drone sent back to Ukrainian forces provided a vivid portrait of the Russian side of the war zone. Damaged houses gave way to cratered fields on Ukraine’s southern steppe. A jagged Russian trench along a tree line had been blasted by American-supplied cluster munitions barely a week earlier, according to Lt. Ashot Arutiunian, the commander of the unit that recorded the images. This was on a recent morning, with Ukrainian artillery firing relentlessly, the deep rumbling explosions of the impact resonating in the distance. Mixed in were the louder explosions of Russian shells landing on Ukrainian positions.

Persons: Ashot Arutiunian Locations: Ukrainian, Russian, American

Most of the fighting has been hidden from the view of the news media since the start of operations in early June. Ukraine’s new brigades, trained and equipped according to NATO standards, have a different look and feel from many other Ukrainian units. These marines now carry American M4 assault rifles and drive Humvees, which they repainted, changing the desert brown of the vehicles so often seen in Afghanistan and Iraq to a deep green for better cover in Ukraine’s lush countryside. He watched as men from his unit loaded two laser-guided rockets into a launcher on the back of a Humvee for a firing mission. “It’s a great new system and we have new vehicles too,” he added.

Persons: ”, Ukrop, “ It’s Organizations: The New York Times, NATO, 38th Marine Brigade Locations: Afghanistan, Iraq, “

A commotion sounded at the entrance of the building, and a shout went up. Soldiers carried in two men on stretchers, one his lined face taut in a grimace, a third, with bloodstained pants, following behind. Within seconds the men were lifted onto operating tables and medics swarmed in, cutting off bloody clothes, hooking up drips, talking to the men in low voices. “Brother, you will make it,” the third soldier, Batya, called out to his friend with a chest wound. “Hold on, we have more to do.”Wounded just 40 minutes earlier on Ukraine’s southern front in the Zaporizhzhia region, the soldiers from the 110th Brigade had arrived at a stabilization point, one of a dozen medical stations set up by the Ukrainian Army within a few miles of the front line to ensure critical, lifesaving care.

Persons: “ Organizations: 110th Brigade, Ukrainian Army Locations: Zaporizhzhia

☆ Amid the Counterattack’s Deadly Slog, a Glimmer of Success for Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Carlotta Gall | More About Carlotta Gall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For 10 days, Ukrainian marines fought street by street and house by house to recapture the southeastern village of Staromaiorske, navigating artillery fire, airstrikes and hundreds of Russian troops. The Russians put up a ferocious defense but that ended on Thursday when they folded and the Ukrainians claimed victory. The recapture of Staromaiorske, a small village that is nonetheless critical to Ukraine’s southern strategy, was such a welcome development for Ukraine that President Volodymyr Zelensky announced it himself. The counteroffensive has largely been a brutal lesson for Ukrainian troops, who have struggled to seize back territory across the southern region of Zaporizhzhia. In two months, Ukrainian troops have advanced less than 10 miles at any point along the region’s 100-mile front.

Persons: ”, Volodymyr Zelensky Organizations: 35th Marine Brigade Locations: Staromaiorske, Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia

Ukraine has launched the main thrust of its counteroffensive, throwing in thousands of troops held in reserve, many of them Western-trained and equipped, two Pentagon officials said on Wednesday, hours after Russian officials reported major Ukrainian attacks in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. A spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said the Ukrainians had mounted a “massive” assault with three battalions, reinforced with tanks, south of the town of Orikhiv, and then another a few miles farther south near the village of Robotyne, according to the state news agency Tass. Both were repelled, the ministry said. Other American officials cautioned that the latest Ukrainian attack might be preparatory operations for the main thrust or perhaps just reinforcements to replenish war-weary units. The challenge for the Ukrainians, since they began their counteroffensive in early June, has been to blast open a gap in the deep Russian defense network, and then try to pour through a much larger force.

Persons: Igor Konashenkov Organizations: Pentagon, Russia’s Defense Ministry Locations: Ukraine, Orikhiv, Robotyne

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