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Poland to be 1st NATO member to give Ukraine fighter jets
Poland said Thursday it plans to give Ukraine about a dozen MiG-29 fighter jets, which would make it the first NATO member to fulfill Kyiv's increasingly urgent requests for warplanes to defend itself against the Russian invasion.
Warsaw will hand over four of the Soviet-made warplanes "within the next few days," President Andrzej Duda said, and the rest needed servicing but would be supplied later. The Polish word he used to describe the total number can mean between 11 and 19.
"They are in the last years of their functioning, but they are in good working condition," Duda said.
He did not say whether other countries would follow suit, although Slovakia has said it would send its own disused MiGs to Ukraine. Poland also was the first NATO nation to provide Ukraine with German-made Leopard 2 tanks.
On Wednesday, Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller said some other countries also had pledged MiGs to Kyiv, but did not identify them. Both Poland and Slovakia had indicated they were ready to hand over their planes, but only as part of a wider international coalition doing the same.
The government in neighboring NATO member Germany appeared caught off guard by Duda's announcement.
"So far, everyone has agreed that it's not the time to send fighter jets," German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters. "I don't have any confirmation from Poland yet that this has happened."
The White House called Poland's move a sovereign decision and lauded the Poles for continuing to "punch above their weight" in assisting Kyiv, but it stressed the move would have no bearing on President Joe Biden, who has resisted calls to provide U.S. F-16s to Ukraine.
"There's no change in our view with respect to fighter aircraft at this time," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. "That is our sovereign decision. That is where we are, other nations can speak to their own" decisions.
The White House said Poland notified the U.S. of its decision to provide MiGs before Duda announced the move.
Before Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine had several dozen MiG-29s it inherited in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, but it's unclear how many remain in service after more than a year of fighting.
The debate over whether to provide non-NATO member Ukraine with fighter jets started last year, but NATO allies expressed concern about escalating the alliance's role in the war. The hesitation continued even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made increasingly vocal pleas for Western supporters to share their warplanes.
Duda made the announcement during a joint news conference in Warsaw with the visiting Czech President Petr Pavel.
Duda said Poland's air force would replace the planes it gives to Ukraine with South Korea-made FA-50 fighters and American-made F-35s.
Poland has provided Ukraine with crucial support during the war. It is hosting thousands of American troops and has taken in more Ukrainians than any other nation during the refugee exodus sparked by the Russian invasion.
The central European nation experienced Russian invasions and occupations for centuries and still fears Russia despite being a NATO member.
Putin, Assad discuss rebuilding Syria, regional issues
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Syrian leader Bashar Assad in the Kremlin on Wednesday for talks that focused on rebuilding Syria after a devastating civil war and efforts to stabilize the region.
Welcoming Assad at the start of the meeting, which took place on the anniversary of Syria's 12-year uprising-turned-civil war, Putin emphasized the Russian military's "decisive contribution" to stabilizing the country.
Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, teaming up with Iran to allow Assad's government to fight armed opposition groups and reclaim control over most of the country. While Russia now concentrates the bulk of its military resources in Ukraine, Moscow has maintained its military foothold in Syria and kept warplanes and troops at its bases there.
Assad thanked Putin for backing Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity, noting that the Kremlin's support has remained strong despite the fighting in Ukraine.
"Even though Russia now is also conducting the special operation, its position has remained unchanged," Assad said, using the Kremlin's "special military operation" term for the Russian action in Ukraine and voicing support for Moscow's effort.
The two rounds of talks between the leaders, the first one involving senior officials from both countries and then a one-on-one encounter over lunch, lasted for more than three hours. The Russian and Syrian defense ministers also met separately to discuss military cooperation.
Assad's office said on Twitter that the two leaders discussed "joint cooperation in various forms and developments on the regional and international arenas." It noted that Assad "renewed Syria's position in support of Russia's right to defend its national security."
Moscow has provided robust political support to Assad at the United Nations and actively mediated to help repair his government's ties with regional powers.
Some Arab countries that had called in the past for the downfall of Assad have sent aid following the catastrophic Feb. 6 earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria killing more than 50,000 including over 6,000 in Syria.
International sympathy following the quake appeared to have sped up the regional rapprochement, with some calling for dialogue with Syria and for bringing the country back to the 22-member Arab League more than a decade after its membership was suspended over the crackdown in the early months of the uprising that turned into war.
As part of the ongoing rapprochement, the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan recently made their first visit to Damascus since the conflict began in March 2011 and met with Assad.
On Wednesday, Assad also thanked Putin for sending rescue teams and engaging its military based in Syria to conduct salvage efforts and help deal with the quake's aftermath.
Prior to the earthquake, Russia had been mediating talks between Turkey and Syria.
Turkey has backed armed opposition groups in Syria that have sought to overturn Assad's government during the civil war, which has killed nearly 500,000 people and displaced half of the country's prewar population. Syria has demanded that Turkey withdraws from an enclave it controls in northwestern Syria in order for Damascus to normalize its relations with Ankara.
In December, Moscow hosted surprise talks between the Syrian and Turkish defense ministers. Arab media reported that one of the main topics that Assad will discuss with Putin during their meeting on Wednesday is reconciliation between Syria and Turkey.
Asked before Putin's talks with Assad if they could play a role in restoring Syria's ties with Turkey, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that "the issue of the Syrian-Turkish relations will undoubtedly be part of the talks' agenda."
Even though Turkey has backed Syrian opposition fighters in the north, Ankara and Damascus share dismay over the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria's northeast. Turkey-backed opposition fighters have clashed with the SDF in the past, accusing them of being an arm of Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The PKK has for decades waged an insurgency within Turkey against the government in Ankara.
Assad's government has cast the SDF as a secessionist force that has been pilfering the country's wealth while controlling Syria's major oil fields.
Assad's office said in a statement after the talks that Putin and Assad talked about "regional initiatives supported by Moscow." It said Assad emphasized that Syria supports dialogue "if it leads to achieving the interests of the Syrian people and the unity and integrity of the Syrian territory and leads to clear results, the first of which is the continuation of the fight against terrorism and the exit of illegal foreign forces present on its territory." The statement didn't elaborate.
The Syrian, Turkish and Russian deputy foreign ministers and a senior Iranian envoy were expected to hold talks Wednesday and Thursday in Moscow to discuss "counterterrorism efforts" in Syria, although Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Ayman Sousan was quoted by pro-government media as saying that the meeting "is still under discussion."
US, Russian military chiefs resume contact to discuss drone
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to his Russian counterpart on Wednesday about the destruction of a U.S. drone over the Black Sea after an encounter with Russian fighter jets, which brought the two countries closest to direct conflict since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
It was the first call between Austin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu since October. And Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had a similar call with his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces.
"We take any potential for escalation very seriously. And that's why I believe it's important to keep the lines of communication open," Austin said at a Pentagon press briefing. "I think it's really key that we're able to pick up the phone and engage each other. And I think that that will help to prevent miscalculation going forward."
The U.S. military said it ditched the Air Force MQ-9 Reaper in the sea after a Russian fighter jet poured fuel on the surveillance drone and then struck its propeller while it was flying in international airspace. Russia has denied that it caused the accident. The U.S. has said it was working on declassifying surveillance footage from the drone that would show Tuesday's crash.
That the top U.S. and Russian defense and military leaders were talking so soon after the incident underscored the seriousness of the encounter over the Black Sea and that both sides recognized the need to tamp down the risks of escalation. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, contact between U.S. and Russian military leaders has been limited, with Russian officials refusing to take U.S. military calls in the early months of the war.
There are still questions as to whether Russia meant to down the drone, even though the moments that led up to its crash were "intentional," said Milley, who stood alongside Austin at the briefing.
"We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional," Milley said.
However, he told reporters that it was still unclear whether the collision itself was intentional. And he pushed back against Russia's contention that the fighter jets did not come in contact with the drone.
"We have absolute evidence of the contact," Milley said. "It's very aggressive. ... We have video evidence and all that."
Milley and Austin also left open the possibility that the U.S. could try to recover portions of the downed $32 million drone, which Milley said crashed into waters that were 4,000 to 5,000 feet (1,200 to 1,500 meters) deep.
Other U.S. officials said the U.S. doesn't have military ships in the region, and won't likely seek to recover wreckage. The Black Sea has been closed since early 2022 to military vessels that do not have a home port along its shores.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public, said Russia has already sent ships to the area and attempted to recover pieces of the drone.
Milley downplayed the significance of any potential recovery by Russia.
"It probably broke up. There's probably not a lot to recover," he said. "As far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence, etc. ... we would take — and we did take — mitigating measures. So we're quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value."
U.S. officials have refused to detail what steps were taken to protect sensitive technology on the drone or the video it collected during its surveillance mission. But officials have long acknowledged that the U.S. can remotely remove sensitive information from high-tech drones and make systems inoperable so they aren't of much value.
Milley and Austin also said the incident would not stop the U.S. from flying wherever international law allows.
Details of Milley's call with Gerasimov would be kept private, Joint Staff spokesman Army Col. Dave Butler said in a statement. Gerasimov was named the new commander of the Russian forces in Ukraine in January and its previous commander demoted in an apparent sign of Russian President Vladimir Putin's dissatisfaction with the state of the war, which has been stalemated.
If the call between Austin and Shoigu was de-escalatory in private, it was not apparent from Russia's public statements.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters earlier Wednesday that Russia has declared certain areas of the Black Sea off-limits to any aerial traffic during the conflict and suggested the U.S. was trying to provoke an escalation through the flights. The drone crashed near Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014 and illegally annexed.
"Any incidents that could provoke confrontation between the two great powers, the two largest nuclear powers, raise very serious risks," Lavrov said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Shoigu, in the call with Austin, noted that the flights of U.S. drones near Crimea were "provocative" and risked escalating tensions in the Black Sea. He said Russia would respond "in kind to all provocations" in the future, but also noted that the two nuclear powers must act responsibly and maintain channels of communication.
Asked about the call, Austin declined to provide any details.
Austin and Shoigu first spoke about Russia's invasion of Ukraine in May 2022. At the time it was the highest level U.S.-Russian contact of the war.
In October, they spoke twice in three days as the threat of an escalation was high. Shoigu had accused Ukraine of planning to use a dirty bomb, a claim that was strongly rejected by U.S. and Western allies, who accused Russia of seeking a false pretext to justify further escalation, potentially including the use of a tactical nuclear weapon.
Erdogan hints Turkey may ratify Finland's NATO membership
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested Wednesday that his country could soon ratify Finland’s application to join NATO, allowing for the possibility of the country joining the military alliance separately from Sweden.
Alarmed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Finland and Sweden abandoned decades of nonalignment and applied to join the alliance. All 30 NATO members have approved their applications, and 28 have ratified their accession. Only Turkey and Hungary have failed to do so.
Turkey’s government accuses Sweden of being too soft on groups that it deems to be terror organizations and existential threats, including Kurdish groups. Ankara has said, however, that it has fewer problems with Finland's membership.
Asked by reporters whether Turkey could ratify Finland’s membership following a visit by Finnish President Sauli Niinisto later in the week, Erdogan responded: “God willing, if it is for the best.”
“Whatever the process is, the process will function. We will do our part. We will keep our promise. We will meet with the president on Friday and fulfill the promise we made,” he said.
Turkish officials have been angered by a series of separate demonstrations in Sweden, including a protest by an anti-Islam activist who burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy.
Niinisto is scheduled to arrive in Turkey along with Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto on Thursday, when the two officials will tour areas affected by a devastating earthquake that hit parts of Turkey and Syria last month.
Niinisto and Erdogan are scheduled to meet in Istanbul on Friday.
Turkey floods kill 10 in earthquake-affected provinces
Floods caused by torrential rains hit two provinces that were devastated by last month’s earthquake, killing at least 10 people and increasing the misery for thousands who were left homeless, officials and media reports said Wednesday. At least five other people were reported missing.
One person was killed in the town of Tut in southeastern Adiyaman province, where surging waters swept away a container home sheltering a family of earthquake survivors, Gov. Numan Hatipoglu said.
The governor of neighboring Sanliurfa province, Salih Ayhan told HaberTurk television that four people were killed by the floods in his region. Later, rescuers found the bodies of five Syrian nationals inside a flooded basement apartment in Sanliurfa, the private DHA news agency reported.
Television footage from Sanliurfa showed flood waters surging along a street and sweeping away cars as well as a man being rescued from an underpass.
Several people were evacuated from a drenched campsite in where earthquake survivors were sheltering in tents. Patients were also evacuated from a hospital, HaberTurk reported.
Turkey's disaster management agency said more than a dozen professional divers were involved in the rescue efforts in each of the two provinces.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck parts of Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6, killing more than 52,000 people — the vast majority in Turkey. More than 200,000 buildings in Turkey either collapsed or were severely damaged.
German arms industry seeks clarity on Ukraine weapons orders
Germany’s defense industry says it stands ready to ramp up its output, including the kinds of arms and ammunition needed by Ukraine, but needs clarity about what governments want before investing in further production capacity.
Ukraine became the world’s third largest importer of arms in 2022 after Russia’s invasion triggered a big flow of military aid to Kyiv from the United States and Europe, according to Swedish think tank SIPRI.
Some of those arms were transferred from Western military stocks to Ukraine, while in other cases Kyiv has purchased equipment with its own money or funds provided by allies. But there are concerns particularly over the rate at which Ukraine is using ammunition, straining the capacity of Western defense companies to keep both the Ukrainian military and their own resupplied.
“What’s important for us as an industry is to get predictability," the head of Germany’s arms manufacturing association said in an interview this week with The Associated Press.
Also Read: Germany warns of ‘consequences’ if China sends arms to Russia
“That means we have to be clearly told which products are needed within which time,” said Hans Christoph Atzpodien, managing director of the Federation of German Security and Defense Industries.
“And we are prepared,” he added. “The industry is much more flexible than it is given credit for.”
The association's members, which include major arms manufacturers such as Rheinmetall, can further boost production, such as by reactivating mothballed facilities and machines, and hiring more staff, he said.
“Of course we also need a firm basis in the form of orders, so that the investments can be carried out,” said Atzpodien, adding that proposals to bundle purchases at the European rather than the national level could help — provided this doesn't slow down the procurement process.
Likewise, German arms manufacturers are keen to see European countries harmonize their export rules to avoid being disadvantaged compared with competitors in some neighboring countries, he said.
After initially hesitating to send lethal weapons to Ukraine, Germany has become one of Kyiv's biggest arms suppliers. The shift has already seen Berlin provide Ukraine with dozens of self-propelled Gepard anti-aircraft guns, Iris-T missile systems, howitzers and millions of rounds of ammunition, but left some Germans deeply uneasy about the possibility of being dragged into a conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.
Still, Atzpodien said the final decision on where German-made arms can go should remain a matter for the government.
“As companies we agree that German weapons must never fall into the wrong hands," he said.
The German government declined to comment Monday on reports that Rheinmetall is in talks with Ukraine about building a tank factory in the country. The company's Leopard 2 tanks are urgently sought by Ukraine, which was recently promised several dozen from Western stocks, but officials wouldn't say whether this requires government approval.
Germany's own arms procurement has come under scrutiny after Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged last year to increase defense spending to NATO’s target of 2% of GDP and create a 100-billion-euro ($107 billion) special fund.
On Tuesday, parliament’s commissioner for the military lamented the slow pace of Germany’s drive to modernize its armed forces. She noted that none of the 100 billion-euro special fund was actually spent last year, though some major orders were placed.
“It is also important to quickly replace equipment that was given to Ukraine” and to speed up maintenance of existing equipment, Eva Hoegl said as she presented her annual report.
“The Bundeswehr has too little of everything, and even less since Feb. 24 (2022),” she said. “We have too few tanks to be able to train sufficiently, to exercise … boats and ships are lacking, aircraft are lacking.”
Along with the cash coming its way because of the war in Ukraine — Germany's defense minister is also seeking to raise his budget by 10 billion euros a year — the German arms industry is hoping the conflict will mark a turning point in the way military spending is classified in Europe.
Some banks and investors in the European Union won't do business with the defense sector because of concerns that it is engaged in unsustainable activity that does more harm than good in the long run, much like fossil fuel producers.
Russia's attack on Ukraine had shown the value of military security, said Atzpodien.
“Our demand is that products we deliver to the German military or other NATO armed forces, for example, are recognized in such a way by the EU that they support sustainability,” he said. “A signal like that would be important so that actors on the financial markets can adjust to it accordingly.”
German arms manufacturers have already come up with a slogan to push their case, he added: “Security is the key to sustainability.”
UK leader in doghouse after letting pet roam free in park
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his family were spoken to by a police officer after letting their dog off the leash in London’s Hyde Park, police said Tuesday.
It comes after a video was shared on TikTok appearing to show the prime minister and his family allowing their Labrador, Nova, to roam freely in an area where rules say dogs must be kept on a leash.
It was unclear when the video was filmed.
“We are aware of a video showing a dog being walked off the lead in Hyde Park,” the Metropolitan Police force said in a statement. “An officer, who was present at the time, spoke to a woman and reminded her of the rules. The dog was put back on the lead.”
Police said they would take no further action.
Sunak has had two minor brushes with the law during his political career. In January, he was fined by police for taking off his seat belt to film a social media video in a moving car.
Last year, when he was Treasury chief, he was fined 50 pounds for breaching pandemic lockdown rules by briefly attending a party inside government offices. He was one of dozens of officials fined over the “partygate” scandal, including then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
US: Russian fighter jet hits American drone over Black Sea
A Russian fighter jet on Tuesday struck the propeller of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea, causing American forces to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle in international waters, the U.S. military said, an incident that highlighted soaring U.S.-Russian tensions over Moscow's war in Ukraine.
White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident by national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
The U.S. European Command said in a statement that two Russian Su-27 fighter jets “conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of a U.S. MQ-9 drone that was operating within international airspace over the Black Sea.
It said one of the Russian fighters “struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters.” Prior to that, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 several times before the collision in “a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” the U.S. European Command said in a statement from Stuttgart, Germany
“This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional,” it added.
There was no immediate reaction from Moscow, which has repeatedly voiced concern about U.S. intelligence flights close to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Amid the continuing fighting in Ukraine, A Russian missile struck an apartment building in the center of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, killing at least one person and wounding nine others in one of Ukraine’s major city strongholds in its eastern Donetsk region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video showing gaping holes in the façade of the low-rise building that bore the brunt of the strike.
The Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office and regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko also reported on the attack, posting photos of the building with mounds of rubble in front of it. The impact damaged nine apartment blocks, a kindergarten, a local bank branch and two cars, Kyrylenko said.
The war, which erupted after Russia’s launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has brought heavy civilian casualties. Tuesday’s victims were among at least seven civilians killed and 30 wounded in 24 hours, Ukraine authorities said.
They included a 55-year-old woman killed when a Russian shell hit her car Tuesday in a border town in northeastern Ukraine.
“Russian troops are striking residential buildings, schools and hospitals, leaving cities on fire and in ruins,” Kyrylenko, the regional governor, said on Ukrainian television. “The Russians mark each meter (yard) of their advance in the region not only with their own blood, but also with the (lost) lives of civilians.”
Kramatorsk houses the local Ukrainian army headquarters. Ukrainian authorities say it has been regularly targeted by Russian shelling and other attacks in the past.
A missile strike on the city’s train station last April, which Kyiv and much of the international community blamed on Moscow, killed dozens of people and wounded more than 100.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking Tuesday during a meeting with workers at a helicopter factory in southern Siberia, once again cast the conflict in Ukraine as an existential one for Russia, charging that unlike the West — which, he said, is seeking to advance its geopolitical clout — it’s fighting for its existence as a state.
“For us, it’s not a geopolitical task," Putin said, "it’s the task of survival of Russian statehood and the creation of conditions for the future development of our country.”
Ukrainian forces have also dug in, especially in the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut where Kyiv's troops have been fending off Russian attacks for seven months and which has become a symbol of Ukraine's resistance, as well as a focal point of the war.
Zelenskyy discussed the situation in Bakhmut with the top military brass and they were unanimous in their determination to face down the Russian onslaught, according to the presidential office.
“The defensive operation in (Bakhmut) is of paramount strategic importance to deterring the enemy. It is key for the stability of the defense of the entire frontline,” Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said.
Putin emphasized that his country’s industries have survived the blow of Western sanctions. But he acknowledged those sanctions could bring longer-term problems for the Russian economy.
Russia had welcomed a Chinese peace proposal to end the fighting, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Kyiv's refusal to have talks leaves Moscow with only military options.
Beijing has said it has a “no limits friendship” with Russia and has refused to criticize Moscow’s invasion, or even refer to it as an invasion.
“We must achieve our goals,” Peskov told reporters. “Given the current stance of the Kyiv regime, now it’s only possible by military means.”
However, Moscow’s pursuit of its goals in Ukraine has been slowed by poor war management and short resources after being beaten back at the end of last year in a Ukrainian counteroffensive, military analysts say.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that Russia’s artillery ammunition shortages “have likely worsened to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front.”
That shortcoming, it said, has “almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action.”
In other developments:
— The Russian parliament’s lower house on Tuesday gave final endorsement to a bill that extends punishment for showing disrespect toward participants in the “special military operation,” which is how the Kremlin officially describes its war in Ukraine. The change makes it punishable to spread allegedly fake information not only about the military, but also members of volunteer units, in an apparent reference to the Wagner Group military contractor. Those convicted of spreading such information face a prison term of up to 15 years. The bill is set to be approved by the upper house before President Vladimir Putin signs it into law.
— Iceland’s prime minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir, made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Tuesday. She laid flowers at a ceremony for Ukrainian volunteers who have been killed in fighting since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and Russia-backed separatists started an insurgency in the eastern Donbas region. Jakobsdottir was expected to meet with President Zelenskyy during her visit.
Ukraine: Objects of war become new normal in Kyiv scenery
There are sandbags around the statues and anti-tank obstacles by the side of the streets, trenches in the nearby forests and land mine warnings in the woods. Signs painted on walls point to the nearest shelter, while air raid sirens occasionally wail across the city, which still sometimes comes under missile attack.
But against this backdrop of war, residents of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, are living their lives as normally as they can while Russia’s invasion of their country continues into its second year.
Although many fled in the opening stages of the war, residents have gradually returned to their homes as Russian forces were pushed back from north of the city last year, and the conflict became centered mainly in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.
Also Read: 5 dead in Ukraine after Russian missile barrage
Shops, restaurants and bars are open — even if customers have to wrap up their evenings early and rush home in time for the 11 p.m. curfew. Nobody pays attention to the angular steel anti-tank hedgehogs by the side of the road, or the occasional pile of sandbags.
Russian advance stalls in Ukraine’s Bakhmut, think tank says
Russia’s advance seems to have stalled in Moscow's campaign to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a leading think tank said in an assessment of the longest ground battle of the war.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said there were no confirmed advances by Russian forces in Bakhmut. Russian forces and units from the Kremlin-controlled paramilitary Wagner Group continued to launch ground attacks in the city, but there was no evidence that they were able to make any progress, ISW said late Saturday.
The report cited the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Eastern Group, Serhii Cherevaty, who said that fighting in the Bakhmut area had been more intense this week than the previous one. According to Cherevaty, there were 23 clashes in the city over the previous 24 hours.
The ISW’s report comes following claims of Russian progress earlier this week. The U.K. Defense Ministry said Saturday that paramilitary units from the Kremlin-controlled Wagner Group had seized most of eastern Bakhmut, with a river flowing through the city now marking the front line of the fighting. The assessment highlighted that Russia’s assault will be difficult to sustain without more significant personnel losses.
Also Read: Ukraine rebounds from Russian barrage, restores power supply
The mining city of Bakhmut is located in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, one of four regions of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last year. Russia’s military opened the campaign to take control of Bakhmut in August, and both sides have experienced staggering casualties. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed not to retreat.
In its latest report Sunday, the U.K. Defense Ministry said Sunday that the impact of the heavy casualties Russia is continuing to suffer in Ukraine varies dramatically across the country. The ministry's intelligence update said that the major cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg remain “relatively unscathed,” particularly among members of Russia's elite. In contrast, in many of Russia’s eastern regions, the death rate as a percentage of the population is “30-40 times higher than in Moscow.”
The report highlighted that ethnic minorities often take the biggest hit. In the southern Astrakhan region, for example, about “75% of casualties come from the minority Kazakh and Tartar populations.”
Russia’s mounting casualties are reflected in a loss of government control over the country’s information sphere, ISW said. The think tank said that Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova confirmed “infighting in the Kremlin inner circle” and that the Kremlin has effectively ceded control over the country’s information space, with Putin unable to readily regain control.
The ISW sees Zakharova’s comments, made at a forum on the “practical and technological aspects of information and cognitive warfare in modern realities” in Moscow, as “noteworthy” and in line with the think tank’s long standing assessments about the “deteriorating Kremlin regime and information space control dynamics.”
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian attacks over the previous day killed at least five people and wounded another seven across Ukraine’s Donetsk and Kherson regions, local Ukrainian authorities reported on Sunday morning.
Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said that two people were killed in the region, one in the city of Kostyantynivka and one in the village of Tonenke. Four further civilians were wounded.
Local officials in the southern Kherson province confirmed that Russian forces fired 29 times on Ukrainian-controlled territory in the region on Saturday, with residential areas of the regional capital, Kherson, coming under fire three times. Three people died in the province and a further three were wounded.
In Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv province, the Kharkiv, Chuhuiv and Kupiansk districts came under fire, but no civilian casualties were reported.
The head of Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv province Gov. Vitali Kim said Sunday morning that the town of Ochakiv, set at the mouth of the Dnieper River, came under artillery fire in the early hours of Sunday. Cars were set ablaze, while private houses and high-rise buildings sustained damage. No casualties were reported.