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☆ Russia is losing in Ukraine and 'will continue to fail in all its war aims,' the UK's armed forces chief says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The head of the UK's armed forces said on Wednesday that Russia is losing in Ukraine. In November, Russian forces retreated from Kherson — the first major Ukrainian city that Russia captured. The war saw Russia increasingly isolated, condemned in the UN, and booted from the UN Human Rights Council. Russia's war in Ukraine pushed a number of countries to abandon longstanding stances of neutrality. Russia, however, recently rejected a call from Ukrainian leadership to withdraw its forces, signaling that fighting will continue.

☆ Defenses Carved Into the Earth
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Marco Hernandez | Josh Holder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +16 min

This satellite image shows newly built Russian fortifications near one of the deadliest frontlines of the war in Ukraine. This satellite image shows newly built Russian fortifications near one of the deadliest frontlines of the war in Ukraine. An illustration of the main defensive structures built by Russians in Ukraine: an anti-vehicle trench, dragon’s teeth and pillboxes. Russian defensive fortifications built in November Fedorivka Russia has built multiple defensive lines behind the frontline on the outskirts of Popasna. A map showing defensive structures built by the Russians in Kherson Oblast.

☆ Russian security teams are scrambling to hunt down Ukrainian spies as locals in captured towns direct fire and gather critical intel
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Behind enemy lines, Ukrainian civilians are helping their country target Russian positions. In Kherson, local activists used Telegram to send photos and coordinates for Russian troops. In occupied Kherson, a man who performed at weddings before the war said he had pivoted to planting explosives under Russian soldiers' vehicles. Ukrainian forces can act on the intel in under 15 minutes, putting fire on Russian positions. Russian forces have felt the effects, and these everyday spies are becoming a priority for Russia.

☆ Kremlin slaps down Zelenskyy's call for a troop withdrawal, saying Ukraine must face 'realities' as Russia claims lands its forces don't even control
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Kremlin rejected Zelenskyy's call for Russian troops to withdraw from Ukraine. Peskov said Ukraine needed to accept "the realities" that have developed over the course of the war. He was referencing Moscow's claims over Ukrainian territory, which Russian forces don't even fully control. In November, Russian troops retreated from Kherson, the first major city Russia's military seized after the invasion. In short, Russia is calling on Ukraine to accept "realities" even as Moscow's rhetoric on the war is consistently at odds with the situation on the ground.

☆ UN aid chief to visit Kherson on Ukraine trip amid power outages
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, Dec 12 (Reuters) - U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths arrived in Ukraine on a four-day trip on Monday as officials raced to repair energy facilities hit by Russian air strikes that have caused winter power outages. The under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator will visit the southern city of Mykolaiv as well as the frontline city of Kherson, which was liberated last month, the United Nations said. "Griffiths will see the impact of the humanitarian response and new challenges that have arisen as infrastructure damage mounts amid freezing winter temperatures," it said. It said in a statement that nearly 18 million people – around 40% of Ukraine's population – need humanitarian aid. Reporting by Tom Balmforth; editing by Timothy HeritageOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia’s army is so ineffective it will probably not be able to take much territory in Ukraine for ‘the next several months’, UK intel says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The UK MOD said Russia looked unlikely to make any big gains in Ukraine for months. It's highly unlikely that Russia can generate an effective striking force in the coming months, it said. Ukraine, meanwhile, predicted an increase in its offensive moves once the ground freezes. The British defense ministry said in an intelligence update on Monday that "Russian ground forces are unlikely to make operationally significant advances within the next several months." On December 3, Avril Haines, the US National Intelligence Director, said that winter conditions are expected to slow the war, and that there was already a "reduced tempo."

☆ Russian forces retreating from Kherson left behind booby traps — including a grenade in a washing machine and a street sign that directed people into a minefield
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russia occupied the Ukrainian city of Kherson for eight months before retreating in November. But Russian troops left traps behind that Ukrainian demining squads are trying to disarm. Kherson, a regional capital, was the first major Ukrainian city seized by Russian forces after the invasion in February. The southern port city was occupied from March until November, when Russian officials announced a retreat and Ukrainian forces returned. Since the retreat, which revealed stories of potential war crimes and Ukrainian resistance, Russian forces have continued shelling the Kherson region.

☆ Putin canceled his annual press conference, ducking a likely barrage of questions about failures in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Vladimir Putin won't face reporters this year at his annual press conference, state media said. The Kremlin has held a major press conference every December for the last 10 years. It remains illegal in Russia to describe the conflict in Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a "special military operation," as a war. During the press conference, Putin was likely to have faced extensive questioning about the conflict. At last year's event, as Russian troops massed along Ukraine's border, questions about an impending invasion of Ukraine dominated — something that Putin refused to rule out.

☆ Trust between the West and Russia has been destroyed, NATO chief says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The West has tried to build bridges with Russia since the end of the Cold War but any trust that was established in recent years has been destroyed with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, NATO Director-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday. "NATO strived for decades to develop a better, more constructive relationship with Russia," he told CNBC's Hadley Gamble in Brussels. Stoltenberg said a level of trust that had been established during a rapprochement between Western nations and Russia in recent decades had been destroyed by Moscow's decision to invade Ukraine. "Even if the fighting ends, we will not return to some kind of normal, friendly, relationship with Russia. "I think the war has had long-lasting consequences for the relationship with Russia."

☆ A brutal Russian paramilitary group active in Ukraine called for border intelligence on nearby NATO states: report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A Russian paramilitary group asked for intel on Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, The Guardian reported. The call raised concerns about "rogue actions" in NATO states, a source told the paper. Task Force Rusich, which has close ties to the Wagner Group paramilitary group and has been highly active in Ukraine, posted the appeal on its official Telegram channel on December 7, the paper reported. All three countries mentioned by Rusich's post are NATO member states, raising concerns over moves that could escalate the war. The group, known for its brutality, openly advocated torture of prisoners in September, The Guardian reported at the time.

☆ Russian Drone Strikes Leave Most of Ukraine’s Odessa Region Without Power
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Ian Lovett | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

KHERSON, Ukraine—Most of Ukraine’s southern Odessa region was without power following the latest in a series of Russian drone strikes on the country’s electric grid. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 1.5 million people in the region were without power. Only critical infrastructure was connected to the power grid, he said, adding that restoring service could take longer than after previous attacks.

☆ How Russian snipers are being fooled by a fleet of aging farm pickup trucks from Britain
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The UK right-hand drive models confuse Russian snipers and have helped save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. This slight difference to other trucks and vehicles on the frontline has saved the lives of many Ukrainian soldiers, Oleksii told Insider. According to Oleksii Russian snipers mistakenly aimed for the passenger seat, thinking they were shooting at the drivers. The Car4Ukraine team. Car4UkraineThe little things, or the little people, are the ones that can make a difference against Russia's "huge stupid army," Oleksii told Insider.

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Russia and Ukraine are not currently engaged in talks to end the fighting, which is raging in the east and south and reached Kyiv again on Wednesday. Zelenskiy said this week Russia should start withdrawing by Christmas as a step to end the conflict, Europe's biggest since World War Two. Moscow rejected the proposal outright, saying Ukraine must accept the loss of territory to Russia before any progress can be made. [1/5] Rescuers and police officers examine parts of the drone at the site of a building destroyed by a Russian drone attack, as their attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine December 14, 2022. DRONES STRIKE KYIVViolence returned to Kyiv, with the first major drone attack on Ukraine's capital in weeks.

☆ Free for a month, Ukraine's Kherson still toils to clear Russian traps
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

An elderly woman looks at damaged caused by overnight Russian shelling of a residential building on Dec. 1, 2022 in Kherson, Ukraine. Sunday marks exactly one month since Russia's troops withdrew from Kherson and its vicinity after an eight-month occupation, sparking jubilation across Ukraine. The regional administration said Saturday that shelling over the past month has killed 41 people, including a child, in Kherson, and 96 were hospitalized. When aid trucks arrived a month ago, war-weary and desperate residents flocked to the central Svoboda (Freedom) Square for food and supplies. Longer-term questions remain: Kherson sits in an agricultural region that produces crops as diverse as wheat, tomatoes, and watermelon — a regional symbol.

The visit by a team from Global Rights Compliance, an international legal practice headquartered in The Hague, has not previously been reported. More than 50,000 alleged incidents of international crimes have been reported by Ukraine's prosecutor general since Russia's full-scale invasion. Widespread or systematic sexual violence could amount to crimes against humanity, generally seen as more serious, legal specialists said. He added that more than half said they had been subjected to various forms of sexual violence. UNIQUE CHALLENGESElderfield said sexual violence was not always given the prominence it should have in national and international investigations.

☆ Ukraine attacks occupied Melitopol, Russian side says two killed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Nick Starkov | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KYIV, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Ukraine attacked occupied Melitopol in the country's southeast on Saturday evening, the Russian-installed and exiled Ukrainian authorities of the strategically located city said. The pro-Moscow authorities said a missile attack killed two people and injured 10, while the exiled mayor said scores of "invaders" were killed. He said a "recreation centre" where people were dining was destroyed in the Ukrainian attack with HIMARS missiles. "All logistics linking the Russian forces on the eastern part of the Kherson region and all the way to the Russian border near Mariupol is carried out through it," Arestovych said in a video interview on social media. Ukrainian forces gain a direct route to Crimea."

☆ Ukrainian air strikes hit Russian barracks in occupied Melitopol with US-supplied HIMARS, reports say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ukraine launched a missile attack on the occupied city of Melitopol, Ukrainian and pro-Kremlin authorities said. Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russia-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia region, also said that HIMARS struck Melitopol, per the Kyiv Post. The Moscow-appointed Zaporizhzhia governor said that the missiles struck and destroyed a "recreation center" where people were dining. According to The Guardian, the missiles struck a former resort and hotel complex next to a church which was reportedly being used as Russian barracks. Russian state media also reported that 20 missiles hit the Donetsk People's Republic on Sunday morning, according to CNN.

☆ Russia Launches New Drone Attacks as Partnership With Iran Deepens
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Thomas Grove | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Russia launched fresh attacks with Iranian-made drones early Saturday over Ukraine, where the country’s southern command said it shot down 10 of the unmanned aerial systems, an indication that Moscow has replenished its supply of the drones as the two countries move toward what the U.S. has called a full defense partnership. Ukraine’s southern command said it shot down four Shahed-136 drones in the Kherson region, four more in the Mykolaiv region and two in the Odessa region.

☆ Russia and Iran exploring joint production of lethal drones, says US
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia and Iran are exploring the joint production of lethal drones, NBC News reported. Russia launched fresh attacks on Ukraine on Saturday using Iranian-made drones, per reports. The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia launched new attacks on Ukraine on Saturday morning using Iranian-made drones. Russia attacks Ukraine with drones ReutersThe UK's ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said on Friday that Iran had transferred hundreds of drones to Russia since August, per The Guardian. On Tuesday, an unnamed Western official said that Moscow appeared to be running out of Iranian-made drones, but ABC News reported that it anticipated a "resupply."

☆ Russian attacks grind on in eastern Ukraine as Bakhmut is 'destroyed'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

An aerial view of Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. Zelenskyy said the situation "remains very difficult" in several frontline cities in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. "The occupiers actually destroyed Bakhmut, another Donbas city that the Russian army turned into burnt ruins." He said Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attacks in Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk. Taking Bakhmut would rupture Ukraine's supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.

☆ Russian-installed Kherson official says withdrawing hryvnia from circulation in January
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 10 (Reuters) - The Russian-installed administration of Ukraine's Kherson region said on Saturday that it had begun changing locally circulated Ukrainian hryvnia currency into Russian roubles, with hryvnia circulation in Moscow-controlled areas of the region to end on Jan. 1. Previously, the Russian-installed administration had said that both the rouble and hryvnia would be accepted in Kherson region. Russian forces took control of most of Kherson region in the early days of Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine, and declared it annexed to Russia in September after a referendum condemned by Ukraine and Western countries. Less than two months later, Russian forces withdrew from Kherson city under pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive, while continuing to hold most of the region's territory. Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia installed rocket launchers at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Kyiv says; Moscow likely receiving more Iranian drones
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Residential homes were hit as Russian shelled the Kherson region 68 times in the last day, regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said. Kyiv is accusing Russia of installing rocket launchers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, with Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom saying that Grad rocket launchers have been placed close to one of the plant's six nuclear reactors. Energoatom said the move is "violating all conditions for nuclear and radiation safety." While all the nuclear reactors have been shut down, significantly reducing the risk of disaster, dangerous radiation leaks are still a threat. Meanwhile, the U.S. and U.K. are set to impose more sanctions on Russia.

☆ Putin says Ukraine fight is taking longer than expected
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

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. Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Dec. 7, 2022. In response to an increasing influx of advanced Western weapons, economic, political and humanitarian aid to Kyiv and what he saw as Western leaders’ inflammatory statements, Putin has periodically hinted at his potential use of nuclear weapons. When a member of the Human Rights Council asked him Wednesday to pledge that Russia would not be the first to use such weapons, Putin demurred. He said Russia would not be able to use nuclear weapons at all if it agreed not to use them first and then came under a nuclear strike.

☆ Kremlin appears to scale back its ambitions in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Kevin Liffey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Kremlin has never fully defined the goals of its invasion, which it said was partly intended to protect Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine. But it no longer speaks of trying to force a change of government in Kyiv as Ukraine has steadily reversed early Russian territorial gains. None of these are fully under Russian control, and Peskov implied that in Zaporizhzhia's case, Russia had given up on capturing the remainder. Asked whether Moscow planned to incorporate any more regions beyond those four, Peskov said:"There is no question of that. Ukrainian forces control around 40% of Donetsk province and have retaken a sliver of Luhansk.

☆ Kremlin: Russia plans to 'liberate' parts of Ukraine that Moscow annexed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Summary This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine. MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Thursday that its forces are still set on seizing parts of eastern and southern Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own. However, the Kremlin has not fully defined the goals of its military campaign, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to set a limit on the Ukrainian territory that Russia now sought to incorporate as its own. None of the provinces were fully under Russian control, and Moscow left unclear was how much of them it was annexing. Asked on Thursday whether Russia planned to incorporate any more territories beyond the four regions, Peskov said:"There is no question of that.

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