The News Journal

One of the many excuses Vladimir Putin has given for invading the country next door is that Ukraine and Russia are “one nation”, which should be united under his benign rule. “Do you still think that?” asked Ukraine’s president, as his troops swept thousands of Russian invaders from Kharkiv province this week. Volodymyr Zelensky’s triumphant sarcasm was justified. The Kharkiv counter-offensive, which began on September 5th, marks the most dramatic Russian reversal since Mr Putin abandoned his effort to seize Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, at the end of March. Its significance is not just the liberation of 6,000 square kilometres of territory in a few days—more than Russia had gained in the previous five months. Nor is it Ukraine’s seizure of the tanks, guns and boxes of ammunition that the Russian soldiers left behind as they fled in disorder. Ukraine has also recaptured two transport hubs, Izyum and Kupyansk, which Russia needs if it is to complete its conquest of the Donbas region and ...

Ukraine says hundreds of graves have been found outside Izyum, days after the town was re-taken from Russia. Wooden crosses, most of them marked with numbers, were discovered in a forest outside the town by advancing Ukrainian forces. Authorities said they would start exhuming some of the graves on Friday. It is not yet clear what happened to the victims, but early accounts suggest some may have died from shelling and a lack of access to healthcare. There are also signs that some of the graves could belong to Ukrainian soldiers. Regional police head Volodymyr Tymoshko told the BBC more than 400 bodies were thought to have been buried at the site. Izyum, invaded in the early days of the war, was used by Russia as a key military hub to supply its forces from the east. In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the "necessary procedural actions" had begun in the area. "We want the world to know what is really happening and what the Russian occupation has led ...

Russia has blocked the adoption of a joint declaration by a United Nations conference on nuclear disarmament. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is reviewed by its 191 signatories every five years, aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Russia objected to a draft text citing "grave concern" over military activities around Ukraine's nuclear plants, in particular Zaporizhzhia. Participants in the last review in 2015 also failed to reach an agreement . The 2022 meeting, which had been due in 2020, was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The failure to agree a joint declaration followed a four-week conference in New York. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was "deeply disappointed" at the lack of agreement. "Russia obstructed progress by refusing to compromise on proposed text accepted by all other states," she said. The US representative, Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, said the US "deeply regrets this outcome, and ev...

Ukrainian officials have ridiculed Russia's accusation that its special services were behind the killing of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist, in a car-bomb attack. "We don't work in this way," said National Security and Defence Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov. A memorial service for Ms Dugina, 29, took place in Moscow on Tuesday. Ms Dugina, a commentator on a Russian nationalist TV channel, died when her car blew up on the outskirts of Moscow. Her influential father, Alexander Dugin, may have been the intended target of the attack. His expansionist ideas of a New Russia or "Novorossiya" on Ukrainian territory are said to have influenced President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014. President Putin condemned the "vile, cruel crime" and posthumously awarded Ms Dugina the Order of Courage. Read More : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62643274

Weeks of intense clashes between Russian forces and Ukrainian fighters have turned Severodonetsk and Lysychansk into “dead cities”, President Volodymyr Zelenkyy said. The two cities nestled in the Donbas industrial heartland of Ukraine are being bombarded by heavy Russian shelling and fierce street-to-street battles have broken out between invading troops and fighters loyal to Kyiv. Fourteen weeks into the invasion, Moscow is pushing to capture the cities so it can take full control of the Luhansk region and tout it as a war victory. A Ukrainian official on Tuesday said street fighting continued to rage in the flashpoint city of Severodonetsk and that the situation was changing “every hour”. Just days ago, Moscow seemed close to taking the strategic industrial hub but Ukrainian forces have managed to stand their ground. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/2022/06/07/weeks-of-fighting-in-ukraine-turn-severodonetsk-and-lysychansk-into-dead-cities/

Russia attacked Ukraine in the early hours of February 24, setting off the worst conflict in Europe in decades. As Russia extends its grip over the east, we look back on 100 days of fighting that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and reduced entire cities to rubble. Russian President Vladimir Putin announces a “special military operation” to “demilitarise” and “de-Nazify” the former Soviet state and protect Russian speakers there. A full-scale attack starts with air and missile strikes on several cities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledges to stay in Kyiv to lead the resistance. The West adopts unprecedented sanctions against Russia and offers Ukraine military aid. Read More : https://www.khaleejtimes.com/world/russia-ukraine-crisis-a-timeline-of-the-first-100-days

The US officially announced a new military aid package for Ukraine on Wednesday worth $700 million, including long-range rocket systems. “This new package will arm [Ukraine] with new capabilities and advanced weaponry, including HIMARS with battlefield munitions, to defend their territory from Russian advances,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement. “We will continue to lead the world in providing historic assistance to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom,” he added. Senior Biden administration officials told reporters on Tuesday that Ukraine pledged not to strike inside Russia with the advanced rocket systems from the US. According to the officials, the new rocket systems will be able to hit targets up to 48 miles away. The Pentagon said the latest aid was part of the eleventh drawdown of equipment from US Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/06/01/US-announces-new-military-aid-package-for-Ukra...

Finland and Sweden’s expected applications to join Nato will prove “hugely symbolic” by dividing Europe into separate security zones, leading analysts have said. Russia will now be confronted with hostile states stretching from the Arctic down to the Black Sea and potentially leading to future confrontation, strategy experts have told The National . But the inclusion of the two Nordic countries will significantly boost the alliance’s military strength, with both possessing highly capable militaries and “very, very good soldiers”, said Ed Arnold of the Rusi think tank. “This is a very political time for the alliance, showing that it's still relevant, gaining new members who are strong in defence and security,” he added. “This is not just a military decision, it's a hugely symbolic political move.” With Russia haemorrhaging troops and equipment during the Ukraine invasion, Moscow is unlikely to be able to retaliate in the short term. This is because Russia has withdrawn forces f...

 Ukrainian forces have repelled attacks in the country’s east as Russia continues its build-up of troops, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday. Fighting in the Donbas region is intensifying as Russian forces seek to break through Ukrainian defences, MoD intelligence assessments found. In the important city of Mariupol, which has been under attack since the war broke out, Ukrainian forces were holding out as Russia offered a third surrender deadline and a humanitarian corridor was tentatively agreed on. “Russian shelling and strikes on the Donbas line of control continue to increase, with the Ukrainians repelling numerous attempted advances by Russian forces,” the MoD said. “Russia's ability to progress continues to be impacted by the environmental, logistical and technical challenges that have beset them so far, combined with the resilience of the highly-motivated Ukrainian armed forces. “Russia's inability to stamp out resistance in Mariupol and their indiscriminate at...

 Ukraine and its allies are bracing for an urgent Russian onslaught in the eastern Donbas region to deliver a military and propaganda triumph for the Kremlin in time for a prestigious annual parade on May 9. The Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, marking the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, are a symbolic annual show of national pride and are typically attended by President Vladimir Putin in Red Square. This year’s parade will come in the shadow of a Russian offensive in Ukraine which, after seven weeks of fighting, has so far failed to deliver the kind of swift victories that analysts believe Mr Putin was seeking. Amid reports of heavy losses and low morale among Russian troops, the invasion suffered another embarrassing setback on Thursday when Russia admitted the sinking of its flagship missile cruiser Moskva . Ukraine says Russia has turned its attention to the Donbas in an offensive that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an overnight address was bein...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that 14,000 people had died in fighting in Ukraine’s east since 2014. Before Russia’s February 24 invasion, Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukraine in the Donbas region since 2014, the same year the Kremlin seized Crimea. Mr Zelenskyy said that the world’s lack of response to that conflict implied to Russia that “they can afford this large-scale war". He said the Donbas has been a focus for Russia and now “troops are destroying it as if they wanted only stones left, without any people at all". “These 50 days showed me world leaders in a different way," Mr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Instagram. "The countries are different. I have seen great generosity from those who are not rich themselves. I have seen extraordinary determination by those who world leaders usually didn’t take seriously. "I have seen that the democratic world has indeed those whose will is enough to defend f...

  President Vladimir Putin’s ambition to take control of Ukraine and make it part of Russia looks doomed after a string of atrocities, a former British ambassador to Moscow has said. The trail of death, torture and destruction which Russian soldiers left behind when retreating from towns and cities around Kyiv shocked the world and drew international condemnation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Mr Putin of genocide after a mass grave containing at least 57 bodies was found in Bucha, a city 16 miles north-west of the capital. The remains of five men showing signs of torture were also discovered in the basement of a children’s health centre, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said. “Torture chamber was discovered in a children's sanatorium in Bucha by prosecutors and Kyiv Regional police officers,” prosecutor Iryna Venediktova said on Twitter. Tanya Nedashkivs'ka, 57, mourns the death of her husband, killed in Bucha, a city northwest of Kyiv, on Monday.  Hum...

 EU leaders failed on Friday to agree a short-term solution to the energy market crunch made worse by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but did offer a compromise for Spain, where increasing fuel prices prompted 12 days of blockades by lorry drivers. A debate on whether to cap energy prices, pitting some southern countries against Germany and the Netherlands, pushed the second day of an EU summit into the evening. Lorry drivers take to the streets of Madrid in Spain to protest against the high price of fuel. In the end, they settled on a trade-off and left a number of matters unresolved. he war in Ukraine has pushed energy prices to record highs and prompted the EU to seek to cut Russian gas use by two-thirds this year by finding alternative supplies and increasing use of renewable energy. While the Mediterranean rim states pressed for a cap on wholesale gas prices to protect poorer households, opponents said this would mean public cash subsidising fossil fuels. The leaders charged the...

 Millions of tonnes of Ukraine wheat desperately needed in the Middle East are going to waste in warehouses caught up in the fighting around Kyiv, The National can report. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made it a key national priority that a seeding programme will start in the coming days to ensure grain is growing despite the Russian invasion. An agricultural worker drives a tractor on a wheat field near the village of Husachivkam, near Kyiv, in April 2020.  Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said the consequence of President Vladimir Putin’s “aggression” would extend far beyond Ukraine, which was the “granary of the world” providing half of the World Food Programme’s wheat. “As humanitarian needs are already at an all-time high, the Kremlin-made war threatens food security across the world,” she tweeted on Tuesday. Global stocks are 31 per cent below the five-year average due to a poor harvest and the pandemic. Prices that were already very high hav...

 Iran is considering joining Russia's financial messaging system to bypass the Swift interbank system, after a number of Russian banks were cut off from the international payment messaging platform as part of western sanctions imposed on Moscow due to its military offensive in Ukraine. Russia's Financial Message Transfer System (SPFS) was created in response to the risks of a possible disconnection of Russian banks from Swift, and talks are now underway to integrate Iran into the system, Moscow state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported on Thursday. In early March, the EU confirmed that it was excluding seven Russian banks from the Swift system. Iran was blocked from Swift in 2012 as part of measures aimed at containing its nuclear programme. "We are making efforts in this direction (connecting Iranian banks to the SPFS) [for] the future," Kazem Jalali, ambassador of Iran to Russia, was quoted by the agency as saying. On February 26, the US, along with the European Co...

 Russia will seek payment in roubles for gas sales from "unfriendly" countries, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. The announcement sent European gas prices soaring on concerns that the move would exacerbate the region's energy crisis. European countries' dependence on Russian gas to heat their homes and power their economies has been thrown into the spotlight since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, and the imposition of western sanctions to isolate Russia economically. Russian President Vladimir Putin at an online Cabinet meeting on March 23. Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP With the financial noose tightening and the EU split on whether to impose sanctions on Russia's energy sector, Mr Putin hit back with a clear message: if you want our gas, buy our currency. "Russia will continue, of course, to supply natural gas in accordance with volumes and prices ... fixed in previously concluded contracts," he said in a televised meeting...

 Oil prices rallied overnight as markets await the outcome of EU discussions on banning Russian energy imports and weather conditions disrupt Moscow's oil supplies. Brent, the global benchmark for two thirds of the world's oil, was 0.17 per cent higher, trading at $121.8 a barrel at 7.29am on Thursday, while West Texas Intermediate, the gauge that tracks US crude, was down 0.41 per cent at $114.5 a barrel. "Russia confirmed that oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium will fall by around a million barrels a day for up to two months as a result of storm damage. This comes at a time of significant tightness in the market and could contribute to further increases in the price in the coming weeks," said Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at Oanda. A gas torch is seen next to the Lukoil company sign on an oil platform in the Caspian Sea. Oil prices increased after Russia confirmed that oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium will fall by around a million ...