The News Journal

 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...

  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...

 Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to be using nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles against Ukrainian targets to detract from his army’s lack of progress almost a month into the war, Britain has said. Moscow this week claimed its first use of the hypersonic Kinzhal, or Dagger, a domestically made weapon which it says has a range of more than 2,000 kilometres. The weapons – which are launched from the air, most likely by a MiG-31 warplane – were used to destroy a large underground arms depot in western Ukraine. Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Mr Putin had resorted to unprecedented tactics in a desperate bid to draw attention from his dismal operation. On Tuesday, day 27 of the invasion, Russian troops were continuing their battle to capture Kyiv. Gen Lord Richard Dannatt, former head of the British armed forces, said invading troops fighting to take the capital were “hunkering down” and on the defensive while coming up against heavy resistance from Ukrainian soldiers and ...