Difference between revisions of "War in Ukraine Latest News Updates"

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Ukraine, say, accepts Russian sovereignty over Crimea and parts of the Donbas. In turn, Putin accepts Ukrainian independence and its right to deepen ties with Europe. But it is not beyond the realms of plausibility that such a scenario could emerge from the wreckage of a bloody conflict.

So he’s the linchpin of the regime and the question is, does Putin have the repressive apparatus of a Saddam Hussein who basically killed the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south when he lost the Gulf War? Or is he kind of a regime that cannot fully repress any domestic opposition? I am still of the belief that while he’s pretty repressive and he’s switching more to a totalitarian state, he’s not there yet and he’s really literally at risk. Hein Goemans If Russia believes that it can still mobilise and has another trick up its sleeve, it won’t do it. Or they may try very risky strategies, as the Germans did in the first world war.

Princess of Wales returns home to Windsor after abdominal surgery

Hungary has signalled it is ready to compromise on EU funding for Ukraine - after Brussels reportedly prepared to sabotage its economy if it did not comply. Meanwhile, Moscow has claimed its forces have taken control of the village of Tabaivka in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region. “The united Western alliance which supports Ukraine in this war is getting less united and cohesive all the time. They change the narrative, and the discussion on the need for a ceasefire and negotiations has started,” he said. After shifting its focus to Ukraine’s east, Russia has captured nearly all of the Luhansk province and is likely to continue its efforts until it takes the rest of the Donetsk province – together, these two areas make up the Donbas region.

• "He [Putin] is probably counting on US and EU resolve to weaken," she told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, "as food shortages, inflation and energy prices get worse."









• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited the south-western frontline at Mykolaiv and the nearby city of Odesa on Saturday.









• And the question is why would Russia, why would Putin ever agree?









• So, I mean, if they push back the Russians all the way to the 1991 borders, the Ukrainians are gonna say, “We’re willing to settle,” and it would be genuine.

Ukraine will probably try to exploit the success it has had in re-establishing its control over the western Black Sea and its vital trade corridor to the Bosphorus. The Ukrainian General Staff says its forces have repelled Russian attacks near Avdiivka itself, as well as from settlements to the north west, south west, and directly west of the town. The town is sometimes described as the gateway to the city of Donetsk, which has been occupied by Russia and its proxy forces since 2014. Taking Avdiivka - which lies close by - would allow Russia to push the front line back, making it harder for the Ukrainian forces to retake the territory. Only aircraft deployed to protect energy facilities, or those carrying top Russian or foreign officials, will be allowed to fly with special permission in the designated zones, according to the Vedomosti daily newspaper. However, the continuous push for more weapons is countered by concerns in some Western circles of being drawn into a war with Russia.

All that happened this week in Russia-Ukraine war

The Baltic states and Poland would like this to happen quickly, but Estonia's prime minister, Kaja Kallas, admitted this week that "all the next sanctions will be more difficult". But Joe Biden has given different signals at different times. Calling Putin a "war criminal" back in March and seeming to hint at the need for regime change in Moscow, but also reluctant this week to send Ukraine rocket systems "that can strike into Russia". The following day, Italy's Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, speaking at the White House, said people in Europe wanted "to think about the possibility of bringing a ceasefire and starting again some credible negotiations". Russia’s battlefield losses are so huge that western officials doubt it has the capacity to mount an offensive on the same scale again.

• Says more than 8 million Ukrainians fled to Europe since the start of the invasion.









• From the very beginning of the war, President Putin has drawn parallels between the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II and the current military campaign against supposed "neo-Nazis" in Ukraine.









• Yet one could argue that Putin is more interested in gathering the lands of the Russian empire.









• There can be a revolt against Putin, which we think is unlikely.









• That objective has coexisted with an expectation that Putin’s government will probably never stop fighting, as losing the war could spell the end to his political power.

It would not be the first time Russia has employed such a strategy of attrition, turning an active conflict into a frozen one for lack of a better solution. In Syria, where it has been propping up President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has used a cycle of offensives followed by ceasefires to slowly split and crush the opposition. “Russia probably believes that it has the advantage for the time being and is advancing in the Donbas, albeit slowly,” Jamie Shea, a professor of strategy and security at the University of Exeter, told Al Jazeera. “I am fully convinced that the end of the war is not imminent,” he added, pointing to “one crucial factor”” Russia, he said, has “the political-strategic and operational-tactical initiative, while Ukraine and the Western alliance react”. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has warned it could last for years, while Western intelligence agencies have reportedly said Russia’s combat capabilities could be depleted in the coming months.

“There is now a burning imperative to forge an army capable of fighting alongside our allies and defeating Russia in battle,” Gen Sir Patrick Sanders said, writing to his charges about the challenges they face. Shortly before Russia invaded last February, less than a third of Ukrainians supported foreign boots on the ground in Ukraine. There seems to be some degree of sensitivity in Ukraine to Russia's claims it's waging a proxy war with the West over Ukraine.

Now, a collection of Western tank-type vehicles is slated to arrive on the front lines this spring, with training already underway in donor countries. The vehicles carry the hope of enabling battlefield wins for Ukrainian forces that will lead to some kind of war-ending scenario — if the weapons arrive in time. The city of Bakhmut, which has endured some of the heaviest fighting of the war, has been under Russian control for several months and, although Ukraine gained some ground in the surrounding areas over the summer, the battles continue. Balazs Orban, chief political aide to the prime minister, said Hungary sent a proposal to the EU over the weekend showing it was open to using the budget for the aid package if other "caveats" were added. Moscow has claimed its forces have taken control of the village of Tabaivka in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region.

• As a result, Russia essentially stopped flying fighter jets over Ukraine.









• Russia also intensified its bombing of cities on Tuesday, including in civilian areas.









• The second thing to keep in mind here is that you must believe that any deal you make will stick, so there won’t be drastic changes in the future which will give one side an advantage and they will renege on the deal.

Army captain who last year became a special adviser to Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander of the Ukrainian military. On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian forces attacked Ukraine without frozen ground to support their armored vehicles, which meant they had to stick to roads, where they stood out as easy targets. https://diigo.com/0vadun may act boldly if it winds up on the ropes and needs an exit strategy. Ukraine, Jensen suggested, might try a spectacular special operation to assassinate a Kremlin official, or Russia could decide to use — or simply test — nuclear weapons. While some Western governments will secretly balk at the ongoing costs of supporting Ukraine (the U.S. has already pledged over $40 billion in security assistance to Kyiv) many understand the high stakes, Barrons said. At some point, Ukraine will have to decide if there's a military solution to the conflict or if it has to look for another way out without conceding any kind of defeat, Barrons said.

That’s a view shared by many people in the American government. In fact, I was alerted to Professor Goemans’ work by a contact who works in the American government, and he was cited as something that his colleagues had been studying as they tried to see how this war might be brought to a close. Unfortunately, the Ukraine war, as you’ll hear, bears many of the hallmarks of a conflict that’s destined to go on for some time. I began our discussion by asking Hein Goemans to give me an outline of what war termination theory is all about.