Vladimir Putin at the Grand Kremlin Palace: The fate of Russia and the fate of the Crimean peninsula after the 2014 Ukrainian-Pentenna annexation

The billionaire suggested that Russia annex the region of Crimea, which it invaded and annexed from Ukraine in 2014). He added that the water supply to Crimea was assured.

Donetsk and Luhansk are both in eastern Ukraine, and fighting against Moscow-backed breakaway republics in each region has been raging since 2014. In southernUkraine, there are Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which have been occupied by Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion.

Putin, however, attempted to claim that the referendums reflected the will of “millions” of people, despite reports from the ground suggesting that voting took place essentially – and in some cases, literally – at gunpoint.

Most countries are still not aware of the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine after a Kremlin backed referendum there in 2014; the ceremony that took place on Friday was similar.

The Russian president framed the annexation as an attempt to fix what he sees as a great historical mistake that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The major foreign policy aim of Putin was to restore Russia to being a major global power, protecting it from the continued threat posed by Western forces.

Russia will now, despite the widespread international condemnation, forge ahead with its plans to fly its flag over some 100,000 square kilometers (38,600 square miles) of Ukrainian territory – the largest forcible annexation of land in Europe since 1945.

The leader of the Russian nation spoke in St. George’s Hall at the Grand Kremlin Palace, the same place where he made the declaration that the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea was part of Russia.

There were many people in the audience for Mr. Putin’s speech, including many Russian members of Parliament and regional governors.

The Western elites are attempting to destroy Russia, said Mr. Putin. Mr. Putin said they wanted to see us as a colony. “It is critically important for them that all countries give up their sovereignty in favor of the United States.”

Putin’s visit to Ukraine as a referendum on Russian-Occupied Territorium: a tragedy for the Russian-American War, not the United States

He reeled off a litany of Western military actions stretching over centuries — from the British Opium War in China in the 19th century to Allied firebombings of Germany and the Vietnam and Korean Wars.

The United States, he said, was the only country to have used nuclear weapons in war. “By the way, they created a precedent,” Mr. Putin added in an aside.

The Russian air assaults against Ukrainian towns and cities were launched as the Kremlin planned the elaborate ceremony and they killed 25 civilians, a reminder of its determination to continue fighting.

There is a celebration on Red Square on Friday. Official ratification of the decrees will happen next week, said Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman.

The moves are a result of referendums held in occupied territory during a war. Many of the provinces’ civilians have fled fighting and people who did vote were at times held at gun point.

Russia has been in control of the two eastern regions, referred to as the Donbas, which it considers Mr. Putin’s primary prize.

Putin’s recent heavy-handed conscription drive for 300,000 troops won’t reverse his battlefield losses any time soon, and is backfiring at home, running him up a dangerous political tab.

Putin signed a document at the St. George hall in the Kremlin. He said that the choice wouldn’t be betrayed by Russia.

Even when seemingly indicating a willingness to negotiate, the Russian leader refused on Sunday to mention Ukraine itself as a relevant party and continued to couch his offer in the false pretext that it is Moscow that is defending itself with what he euphemistically calls a “special military operation.”

There were banners with “Russia and the newly integrated territories are together forever” written on them outside of the Kremlin.

It was a week in which the Kremlin had orchestrated referendums in Russian-occupied territories where overwhelming approval was supposedly given for joining Russia.

Biden said the United States wouldn’t recognize Russia’s claims on Ukraine’s territory. The results were manufactured in Moscow, and the referenda was a sham.

The decision was framed as a historical justice because of the break up of the Soviet Union which separated Russian speakers from their homeland.

The timing of the events is believed to be evidence of Kremlin desperation in their attempts to solidify their gains. The president of the Ukranian country accused Moscow of trying to get the people of annexed areas to join the military campaign.

Formal ratification of the territories into the Russian Federation will now move to Russia’s parliament and constitutional court — whose approval is widely seen as a foregone conclusion.

The Russian government’s annexation has unfolded as it works to deploy an additional 300,000 troops to bolster its military campaign amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has retaken territory in the south and northeast of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russian officials have openly warned that the newly incorporated territories would be entitled to protections under Russia’s nuclear umbrella.

Andrey Kortunov, who runs the Kremlin-backed Russian International Affairs Council in Moscow, sees it, too. He told CNN that President Putin wants to end it quickly.

Russian media said the total exodus was even higher. They say more military age men have fled the country since conscription – 261,000 – than have so far fought in the war – an estimated 160,000 to 190,000.

CNN is unable to verify the Russian figures, but the 40 kilometers (around 25 miles) traffic tailbacks at the border with Georgia, and the long lines at crossings into Kazakhstan and Finland, speak to the backlash and the strengthening perception that Putin is losing his fabled touch at reading Russia’s mood.

Kortunov understands the mood of the public about the huge costs and loss of life in the war and he doesn’t know what goes on in the Kremlin. Many people started asking questions, why did we get into this mess? We lost a lot of people.

He threatened nuclear strikes should the Western allies attempt to take back the annexed territories.

Western leaders are in a battle of brinksmanship with Putin. Jake Sullivan, a US national security adviser, told NBC’s ” Meet the Press” last Sunday that Washington would respond “decisively” if Russia deployed nuclear weapons against Ukrainians.

The Ruling War on Ukraine: Russia’s Threats from the Early 1900’s to the Early 2000’s, When Putin met the Germans and Russians

The Swedish seismologist recorded the first boom at 2 a.m., followed by the second at 7 p.m.

Within hours, roiling patches of sea were discovered, the Danes and the Germans sent warships to secure the area, and Norway increased security around its oil and gas facilities.

So far, at least four leaks in Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines 1 and 2 have been discovered, each at the surface resembling a boiling cauldron, the largest one kilometer across, and together spewing industrial quantities of toxic greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Russian naval vessels were seen by European security officials in the area in the days prior, Western intelligence sources have said. NATO’s North Atlantic Council has described the damage as a “deliberate, reckless and irresponsible act of sabotage.”

Nord Stream 2 was never operational, and Nord Stream 1 had been throttled back by Putin as Europe raced to replenish gas reserves ahead of winter, while dialling back demands for Russian supplies and searching for replacement providers.

Putin’s problems have only deepened in recent days with the surging Ukrainian counteroffensive that has seized key pockets of Russian-controlled territory, such as the transportation hub city of Lyman.

While a year of war on Ukrainians draws to a close, Russia’s President Putin seems to be trying to create a stir by suggesting he is interested in peace talks despite the fact that there are no facts to support this.

Putin is supposed to tell Germany and France that they need to end the war, that they need to put pressure on the Ukrainians to settle and that they must protect their territories at all costs.

Putin knows he is in a corner, but doesn’t seem to realize how small a space he has, and that of course is what’s most worrying – would he really make good on his nuclear threats?

The fall of Lyman and the NATO offensive: Why Russia is going to war with the West, and why Vladimir Putin feels threatened by the West

The fall of Lyman wasn’t discussed on the political show “News of the Week” until after more than an hour of laudatory coverage of Russia’s annexation of most of the world view as illegal.

A day earlier, two powerful Putin supporters railed against the Kremlin and called for using harsher fighting methods because Lyman had fallen just as Moscow was declaring that the illegally annexed region it lies in would be Russian forever.

But the soldiers interviewed on the Sunday broadcast said they had been forced to retreat because they were fighting not only with Ukrainians, but with NATO soldiers.

These are not toys anymore. They are part of a systematic and clear offensive by NATO forces, according to a deputy commander of one Russian battalion. The soldier said his unit had been listening to discussions between soldiers from the two countries on their radios.

The broadcast was intended to convince Russians who are unsure about the war or feel angry that they will be blamed for the suffering of civilians if they join, because the West is trying to destroy Russia.

The idea that Russia is fighting a broader campaign was repeated in an interview with Aleksandr Dugin, a far-right thinker whose daughter, also a prominent nationalist commentator, was killed by a car bomb in August.

The elimination of threats to Russian security from there, which included the four regions of Ukraine, was one of the recommendations made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Dugin, like Mr. Putin, has accused Western countries of damaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which ruptured after underwater explosions last month in what both European and Russian leaders have called an act of sabotage.

“The West already accuses us of blowing up the gas pipeline ourselves,” he said. “We must understand the geopolitical confrontation, the war, our war with the West on the scale and extent on which it is unfolding. In other words, we must join this battle with a mortal enemy who does not hesitate to use any means, including exploding gas pipelines.”

At least for now, the nonstop campaign seems to be working. Many Russians feel threatened by the West, said Aleksandr Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who is from Russia.

At home, Putin is also facing growing criticism from Russians on both the left and the right, who are taking considerable risks given the draconian penalties they can face for speaking out against his “special military operation” in Ukraine.

In a Twitter poll, Musk suggested a path to “Ukraine-Russia Peace” that included re-doing elections “under UN supervision” in the regions of the country recently annexed illegally by Russia. Referendums that were considered to beshams by many of the world were followed by the land grab.

A majority of respondents on Twitter voted “No” in response to Musk’s poll. Musk seemed to blame a bot attack for the results.

Musk himself and one of his companies, SpaceX, became involved early on in the war in Ukraine, after SpaceX sent Starlink internet terminals, which can be operated from anywhere with power and a clear view of the sky, to the war-torn country.

The war in the region has left a trail of destruction and his latest musings were not received well by Ukrainian officials.

Zelensky started a Twitter poll of his own, asking his followers, “Which @elonmusk do you like more?” One of the options was to support or support Russia, and the former had gotten more than 80% of the vote by Monday afternoon.

After the initial thread, Musk said that he felt like there was little chance of victory for Ukraine, which just reclaimed swaths of territory in its northeast.

Musk’s foreign policy commentary came one day after Tesla announced lower-than-expected delivery and production numbers for the third quarter and days after the car company unveiled an underwhelming humanoid robot. It also comes as his legal battle with Twitter heats up over his attempt to back out of his proposed $44 billion deal to buy the company.

The referendum results were unexpected for Putin, who claimed that the regions would now be developed and helped strengthen the country as a whole.

While Russian state television hailed Putin’s inking of the annexation process, pro-Kremlin pundits delivered rare dispatches on the growing setbacks faced by Moscow’s troops on the ground.

Russian troops were forced to leave settlements they had previously held in the south of Ukraine as the Ukrainians continued their counteroffensive towards the Russian-occupied city of Kherson.

Moscow’s military commander is frustrated by the Zaporizhzhia crisis, and the prospects for further liberation of Ukrainian territories

In order to celebrate the news of the newly annexed territories, Putin invited all educators from 89 regions of Russia to a meeting to thank them on Teachers’ Day.

Amid the uncertainty, Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday also issued conflicting announcements over the management of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Putin signed a decree to claim the plant, the largest complex of its kind in Europe, as under Russian state control; meanwhile the head of Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company, said that he was taking charge.

While the map was displayed full-screen, Lieutenant General Konashenk didn’t mention the losses. However, he said that Russian military destroyed Ukrainian armor and killed Ukrainian forces in the area of several towns that are now understood to be under Ukrainian control – a tacit acknowledgment of Kyiv’s push.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the military for their “fast and powerful advances” in his Tuesday evening address, before celebrating that “dozens of settlements have already been liberated” this week.

He said that there were many reclaimed in Kherson region, such as Khreshchenivka and Zolota Balka.

Zelensky on Wednesday assembled his top military and security staff to consider plans for “further liberation of Ukrainian territories,” according to the readout of the meeting from the President’s office.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it was forced to cede Lyman or risk encirclement of its troops there, allowing Ukrainian forces to potentially use the city as a staging post to push troops further east.

When CNN asked the Kremlin how to interpret the language of the laws signed by Putin, the spokesman said, “I will.”

They join an army already degraded in quality and capability. The composition of Russia’s military force in Ukraine — as much of its prewar active duty personnel has been wounded or killed and its best equipment destroyed or captured — has radically altered over the course of the war. The Russian military leadership is not in a position to know how this undisciplined force will respond when confronted with rumors of Ukrainian assaults or cold fighting conditions. Recent experience suggests these troops might abandon their positions and equipment in panic, as demoralized forces did in the Kharkiv region in September.

“We have lost 17 settlements in the Kherson region because of huge US weapons deliveries and intelligence gathered through satellite” said Alexander Sladka, a leading Russian war correspondent, on state TV Tuesday.

The Russian troops do not have enough people to stop the enemy attacks. The recent Russian losses are connected to that. It’s a very difficult period of time on the front line at the moment.”

Ukrainian troops are focused primarily on pushing Russian forces eastwards, having crossed the Oskil River in late September, with Moscow likely preparing to defend the cities of Starobilsk and Svatove in the Luhansk region, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The Russian Front Line is Hard: When are we going to end up? And when will we find out what is happening? A regular reporter for Russia 24

Intelligence data and high-precision weapons don’t have any problems with them. We are waiting for our reserves to become fit so we can join the battle.

Meanwhile, a correspondent for Russia 24 said that the frontline is going to become even harder for the time being.

“This doesn’t mean that we’ve collapsed like a house of cards. These mistakes are not huge strategic failures. We’re still learning. I know this is hard to hear in our eighth month of the special operation. We are reporters. We are waiting for reinforcements.

He added: “It’s as painful as getting thumped on your melon. We have suffered losses. But it’s war. And these kinds of things happen in war. [Reinforcements] are coming, along with their equipment. I don’t lie or engage in propaganda. I’m just a regular reporter who is describing what is happening.”

Sladkov’s admission on State TV was his second in less than a month, after he previously admitted that Russian forces had endured heavy losses on September 13, a Tuesday. At the beginning of this Tuesday’s interview, Sladkov quipped: “I only tell the truth on Tuesdays, and for other days I just make everything up.”

The cost of chaos: Peter Bergen’s opinion on the history of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the role of the Soviet Union in the war in Ukraine

Peter Bergen is a professor at Arizona State University and is a national security analyst for CNN. The Cost of Chaos is the author’s second book. The views he expresses in this commentary are of his own. View more opinion on CNN.

With even his allies expressing concern, and hundreds of thousands of citizens fleeing partial mobilization, an increasingly isolated Putin has once again taken to making rambling speeches offering his distorted view of history.

His revisionist account says his rationale for the war in Ukraine is that Russia has always been a part of it, even though Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union thirty years ago.

When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, they planned to install a puppet government and get out of the country as soon as it was feasible, as explained in a recent, authoritative book about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, “Afghan Crucible” by historian Elisabeth Leake.

US support for the Afghan resistance was initially reluctant because of fears that there would be a larger conflict with the Soviet Union. The soviets were forced to withdraw from Afghanistan 3 years later after it took the CIA until 1986 to give the Afghans anti-aircraft missiles.

The Russian fortunes on the battlefield are going to get a lot of help in the form of American weapons. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the US was also initially leery of deeper involvement, fearing a wider conflict with the Russians.

The Ukrainians have been aided in their effort to topple the Russians by the US-supplied anti-tank Javelin missiles and HIMARS.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was caused by the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.

The Romanov monarchy was weakened by the loss in 1905 of the Russians in the Japanese war. The Russian Revolution started in 1917 when Czar Nicholas II fecklessly led the country during the First World War. Subsequently, much of the Romanov family was killed by a Bolshevik firing squad.

On February 22 – just two days before Russia’s invasion – former US President Donald Trump, who has always fawned over Putin, publicly said that the Russian autocrat was “genius” and “savvy” for declaring two regions of eastern Ukraine independent and moving his troops there in a prelude to full-blown invasion.

More than 9 months have passed since Russia’s invasion of Syria and Putin said it could be a lengthy process. He vowed to keep fighting for our interests and to protect ourselves using all means available. He said that the West had only “spit in the face” of Russia’s security demands for years, and that he had no choice but to send in troops.

Freedman writes that Putin is “a tragic example of how the delusions and illusions of one individual can be allowed to shape events without any critical challenge. They are able to command their subordinates to follow foolish orders because they put their cronies into key positions.

Putin’s gamble may lead to a third dissolution of the Russian empire, which happened first in 1917 as the First World War wound down, and again in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The meeting itself isn’t out of the ordinary – Putin regularly holds operational meetings with the Security Council, usually on a weekly basis, according to TASS. However, it comes just days after a major humiliation for the Russian President, when an explosion severely damaged parts of the road and rail bridge between annexed Crimea and the Russian Federation early Saturday.

And while the agenda has not been made public, the meeting comes at a strategic crossroads for the Kremlin, which must make a series of unenviable choices after Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has faltered after a month of military setbacks.

The Kremlin has ruled out using nuclear weapons on retaliation for the blast on the Svatov bridge in Rushin

Some road traffic and train traffic has resumed on the estimated $3.7 billion bridge. The Russian deputy prime minister said on Saturday that repair work on the bridge would be done around the clock, with a survey of the damage to be completed in a day.

The first passenger services resumed travel across the bridge on Saturday, traveling from the Crimean Peninsula to Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia, Russia’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

Car traffic on the bridge has also restarted in two lanes, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Marat Khusnullin said on Sunday. He said in a Telegram post that traffic had begun along two lanes of the bridge, with one lane used for cars traveling in alternate directions. Since the blast, trucks, vans and buses have been traveling by ferry.

Recent days have meanwhile shown that sites beyond the current theater of ground fighting are far from immune to attacks. It is not clear how the attack was carried out but the fact that a target deep in Russian territory could be successfully hit indicated a serious Ukrainian threat towards key Russian assets.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday dismissed the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons in retaliation for the explosion on the bridge, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported.

Photographs of Ukrainian soldiers outside the village of Luhansk, less than 12 miles from the important post of Svatove, were acknowledged.

Biden warned that we are in danger of using a nuclear weapon for the first time since the Cuban missile crisis if things don’t change.

Ukrainian missile attacks on Monday night in Kyiv: Russian attack on a counter-offensive. Ukraine tries to kill, but Putin doesn’t seem to care

Near the battlefields in the northeast, east and south where a powerful Ukrainian counter-offensive has freed towns and pushed Russian troops back recently, Monday’s explosions echoed across the rest of the country.

Moscow fired at least 84 cruise missiles toward Ukraine on Monday, the Ukrainian military said, 43 of which were neutralized by missile defense systems. Twenty-four Russian attack drones were also used in the salvo, 13 of which were destroyed.

The subway system was shut down for several hours on Monday. But the air raid alert in the city was lifted at midday, as rescue workers sought to pull people from the rubble caused by the strikes.

The Prime Minister said that there were 11 crucial infrastructure facilities that had been damaged in eight regions.

As of Monday afternoon, the electricity supply had been cut in Lviv, Poltava, Sumy, and Ternopil, said the Ukrainian State Emergency Services. Electricity was “partially disrupted” in the rest of the country.

The head of annexed Ukraine, Sergey Aksyonov, claimed on Monday that Russian approaches to what it calls its special military operation have changed.

If actions to destroy the enemy’s infrastructure had been taken every day during the special military operation, we would have finished everything in May, he said.

Still, there remain hardliners like Pavel Gubarev, Russia’s puppet leader in Donetsk, who voiced his real intention toward Ukrainians: “We aren’t coming to kill you, but to convince you. But if you don’t want to be convinced, we’ll kill you. We’ll kill as many as we have to: 1 million, 5 million, or exterminate all of you.”

NATO leaders have vowed to stay behind Ukraine regardless of how long it takes, but with no signs of progress on the battlefield, several European countries are staring down a cost-of-living crisis that could endanger public support.

“Again, Putin is massively terrorizing innocent civilians in Kyiv and other cities,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. “[The Netherlands] condemns these heinous acts. Putin does not seem to understand that the will of the Ukrainian people is unbreakable.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the attacks “another unacceptable escalation of the war and, as always, civilians are paying the highest price.”

Ukranian energy attack on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine: air strikes, bomb shelters, and the emergency meeting of the G7

The G7 group of nations will hold an emergency meeting via video conference on Tuesday, the office of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed to CNN, and Zelensky said on Twitter that he would address that meeting.

The author, Michael Bociurkiw, is a global affairs analyst. He is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He frequently contributes to CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion on it.

There was fear of reprisals by the Kremlin even as the jubilation of the blast that hit the bridge here in Ukranian subsided.

The Moscow-appointed mayor said the Ukrainians bombarded the center of the city at 7 a.m.

The area around my office in Odesa was quiet as air raid sirens went off, with reports that missiles and drones were shot down. Typically at this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be full with customers and chatter of upcoming weddings and parties.

Monday’s attacks also came just a few hours after Zaporizhzhia, a southeastern city close to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, was hit by multiple strikes on apartment buildings, mostly while people slept. At least 17 people were killed and several dozens injured.

This week’s air strikes may point towards that endeavor; Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko told CNN that around 30% of energy infrastructure in Ukraine was hit by Russian missiles on Monday and Tuesday. The minister told CNN that it had been the first time in the war that Russia has specifically targeted energy infrastructure.

Some media outlets in the city moved their operations to underground bomb shelters as a sign of respect to the capital. In one metro station serving as a shelter, large numbers of people took cover on platforms as a small group sang patriotic Ukrainian songs.

Indeed, millions of people in cities across Ukraine will be spending most of the day in bomb shelters, at the urging of officials, while businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible.

The attacks risk making businesses less confident since many asylum seekers are returning home.

Vladimir Putin and the 2018 Kerch Bridge: Implications for Security, Security, and Humanitarianism for China, India, and the United States

Hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive, record-breaking infrastructure projects seems to be a penchant of dictators. In 2018, Putin personally opened the Kerch bridge – Europe’s longest – by driving a truck across it. After Beijing reclaimed Macau and Hong Kong, the president of China decided to connect the British territories with the longest sea crossing bridge in the world. The road bridge was opened after two years of delays.

The humor from the explosion was so popular that social media channels were lit up with Christmas trees. People shared their joy through text messages.

For Putin, consumed by pride and self-interest, sitting still was never an option. He responded in the only way he knows how, by unleashing more death and destruction, with the force that probably comes natural to a former KGB operative.

Putin has been placed on thin ice due to mounting criticism at home, and it was an act of desperation.

In August, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, the Chief of Main Intelligence Directorate at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, told a journalist that by the end of the year, we need to enter the peninsula.

Washington and other allies need to use urgent telephone diplomacy to persuade China and India to refrain from using more deadly weapons, as they still have leverage over Putin.

If we don’t have these measures in place it will allow Putin to continue his unnecessary violence and cause a humanitarian crisis throughout Europe. The Kremlin will take a weak reaction as a sign that they can weaponize energy, migration and food.

Reclaiming Settlements in the Kherson Reclamation Campaign: A Brief Report from the Kiev War of September 23 – 27 December 2015, by Alexander Vlasov

Furthermore, high tech defense systems are needed to protect Kyiv and crucial energy infrastructure around the country. With winter just around the corner, the need to protect heating systems is urgent.

For the west to have sufficient impact in further isolating Russia with travel restrictions, Turkey and Gulf states need to come on board.

The reaction to these attacks must not be taken as a sign that we should attack Russians. Instead, now is the time for renewed pressure for a cease-fire.

All notions of right and wrong are irrelevant in the age of nuclear weapons, which allow for self-defense, justice and punishment, as well as recovery of international borders. It is immaterial who was the aggressor, who committed crimes against civilians, or who acted in self-defense.

In an asymmetrical exchange of nuclear missiles in which hundreds of millions could die, it does not really matter who was right and who was wrong. No historian will survive to tell the story.

President Biden should send his diplomats to give Putin some time to think. The President ofUkraine must be pressured into agreeing to an immediate cease-fire.

With the cold months nearing and likely bringing a slowdown in ground combat, experts say the next weeks of the war are now expected to be vital, and another potential spike in intensity looms over Ukraine as each side seeks to strike another blow.

For the first time, the war is about to move into a new phase. “This is now the third, fourth, possibly fifth different war that we’ve been observing,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.

But the simple calculus remains unchanged; a conflict that many experts thought would be over within days or weeks has instead become a grueling war that Ukraine may be able to win, so any deal that diminishes the country’s borders or represents some form of victory for Putin would be unacceptable to Kyiv.

In late September, the military official Oleksii Hromov said that 120 settlements had been reclaimed in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions. On Wednesday, Ukraine said it had liberated more five settlements in its slow but steady push in Kherson.

Since the end of the summer, the ground war in eastern and southern Ukraine has been defined by a series of decisive counter-attacks that have pushed back Russian forces and crystallized Western optimism that Kyiv can win the war.

Russia will wait it out if it isn’t available, said Dougherty. They have a smaller front to defend after being pushed back in the Fall offensive.

“If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking roughly as it is, that’s a huge success for the Russians given how botched this has been since February.”

A blow to the Donbas would send another powerful signal and will causeUkraine to improve on its gains before the temperatures plummet on the battlefield.

War and missile attacks on critical power infrastructure in Ukranian have hampered the economy, with at least 76 strikes on Friday. Millions of Ukrainians are living without heat, electricity and water during the winter. (However, indicative of the resiliency that Ukrainians have displayed since the start of the war, many say they are prepared to endure such hardship for another two to five years if it means defeating Russia).

Ukraine’s national electricity company, Ukrenergo, says it has stabilized the power supply to Kyiv and central regions of Ukraine after much of the country’s electricity supply was disrupted by Russian missile attacks on Monday and Tuesday. Ukrainian Prime Minister warned that there’s a lot of work to be done to fix damaged equipment, and asked Ukrainians to conserve energy during peak hours.

Experts believe it remains unlikely that Russia’s aerial bombardment will form a recurrent pattern; while estimating the military reserves of either army is a murky endeavor, Western assessments suggest Moscow may not have the capacity to keep it up.

Russian commanders on the ground know their supplies are running out, Jeremy Fleming, the UK’s spy chief, said in a speech on Tuesday.

Russia has a limited supply of precision weaponry, which may make it difficult for Putin to disrupt Ukrainian counter-offensives.

Exactly how much weaponry and manpower each side has left in reserve will be crucial to determining how the momentum will shift in the coming weeks. Ukraine said it intercepted 18 cruise missiles on Tuesday and dozens more on Monday, but it is urging its Western allies for more equipment to repel any future attacks.

“The barrage of missile strikes is going to be an occasional feature reserved for shows of extreme outrage, because the Russians don’t have the stocks of precision munitions to maintain that kind of high-tempo missile assault into the future,” Puri said.

The psychological impact of further Belarusian involvement in the war is thought to be possible. “Everyone’s mind in Ukraine and in the West has been oriented towards fighting one army,” he said. Inside Russia, Belarus joining the invasion “would play into Putin’s narrative that this war is about reuniting the lands of ancient Rus states.”

“The reopening of a northern front would be another new challenge for Ukraine,” Giles said. It would provide Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast (region), which has been recaptured by Ukraine, should Putin prioritize an effort to reclaim that territory, he said.

By flipping the narrative of the conflict over the past two months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has achieved one of his own key objectives: showing Ukraine’s Western allies that their military aid can help Kyiv win the war.

Ahead of a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine needed more systems to stop missile attacks.

Ukraine “badly needed” modern systems such as the IRIS-T that arrived this week from Germany and the NASAMS expected from the United States, Bronk said.

What Do We Need to Know About Vladimir Putin and the Security of the Middle East, or Why Does He Need to Stay in Ukraine? A View from the Cipher Brief

That’s not to say mobilized forces will be of no use. It is possible that the burden on parts of Russia’s exhausted professional army could be alleviated if drivers or refuelers are used in support roles. They could also fill out depleted units along the line of contact, cordon some areas and man checkpoints in the rear. They are not likely to be a capable fighting force. There are signs of discipline problems among the soldiers that have been mobilized.

Mr. Putin could wage war against Ukraine in that case. The attacks of the past week — particularly striking critical civilian infrastructure — could be expanded across Ukraine if missile supplies hold out, while Russia could directly target the Ukrainian leadership with strikes or special operations.

Even President Volodymyr can do it. Zelenskyy reached some conclusion that maybe we should, to stop the punishment, we should negotiate. I don’t believe he’s able to do that because of the conviction of the Ukrainian people.

Petraeus spoke at an annual conference in Sea Island, Ga., run by The Cipher Brief, which brings together members of the national security community — current and former — to stand back and look at the big picture on global security.

A top Ukrainian official, Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to President Zelenskyy, told the conference the conflict needs to end with a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield.

But Paul Kolbe, a former CIA officer who runs the Intelligence Project at Harvard’s Kennedy School, says the Russian leader is not looking for a way out of the conflict. He says it’s the opposite. “Putin’s muscle memory when he runs into an obstacle is to escalate,” said Kolbe. “There’s a lot of tricks he can still pull out to try to undermine morale in Ukraine and in the West.”

This is a big deal. Dmitri Alperovitch, who runs a think tank, says Putin is betting his presidency on staying in Ukraine.

“That is essentially a metaphorical burning of bridges,” said Alperovitch. The war is likely to continue as long as he has the resources to fight and as long as he’s in power.

Meanwhile, the fast approaching winter will likely slow the pace of the war, but is not expected to halt the fighting. David Petraeus thinks the harsh weather favors the Ukrainians on the battlefield. If the Ukrainians knocked on the door they could be taken in and warmed up and get a bowl of soup from their fellow citizens. And of course, they’re welcomed as liberators, whereas the Russian occupiers, the Ukrainians are trying to kill them,” he said.

No one at the Georgia conference suggested there was an end to the war. The former CIA official doesn’t think that there will be talks in the near future, because most wars end with a negotiated solution.

This war began with a Russian invasion in 2014, he noted, and is now as intense as it’s ever been. Greg Myre is an NPR journalist. Follow him @gregmyre1.

Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He was a CBS News correspondent in Europe and Asia. His views are his own in this commentary. View more opinion at CNN.

First, he’s seeking to distract his nation from the blindingly obvious, namely that he is losing badly on the battlefield and utterly failing to achieve even the vastly scaled back objectives of his invasion.

European Union leaders have a fight to win: Putin, Macron, Scholz and the European Union ‘prolongs the war’

This ability to keep going depends on a number of variables from the availability of critical and affordable energy supplies for the coming winter, to the popular will across a broad range of nations with often conflicting priorities.

In the early hours of Friday in Brussels, European Union powers agreed a roadmap to control energy prices that have been surging on the heels of embargoes on Russian imports and the Kremlin cutting natural gas supplies at a whim.

These include an emergency cap on the benchmark European gas trading hub – the Dutch Title Transfer Facility – and permission for EU gas companies to create a cartel to buy gas on the international market.

He conceded there was only aclear mandate for the European Commission to begin work on a gas cap mechanism at the summit, as he claimed that he had maintained European unity.

Still, divisions remain, with Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, skeptical of any price caps. Germany fears that caps would encourage higher consumption, which would increase the burden on restricted supplies.

These divisions are part of Putin’s dream. Europe has a lot of Manifold forces that could prove important in achieving success from the Russian viewpoint.

Germany and France are at odds on a lot of these issues. Though in an effort to reach some accommodation, Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have scheduled a conference call for Wednesday.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/putin-prolonge-war-ukraine-winter-andelman/index.html

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: After the Italy-Russia War and the European Union Re-joints the United States and the EU

The new government took power in Italy. Italy has a first woman prime minister in Giorgia Meloni, who tried to brush aside the post-fascist aura of her party. She has a far-right coalition partner who has great admiration for Putin.

Berlusconi was at a gathering of his party loyalists and described to them the 20 bottles of Vodka Putin sent him together with a very sweet letter on his 86th birthday.

The deputy prime minister of the Italian coalition said during the campaign he did not want the Russian sanctions to harm those who impose them more than those who are hit by them.

At the same time, Poland and Hungary, longtime ultra-right-wing soulmates united against liberal policies of the EU that seemed calculated to reduce their influence, have now disagreed over Ukraine. Poland has taken deep offense at the pro-Putin sentiments of Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban.

Kevin McCarthy is the leader of the House and if Republicans take control, he will be Speaker. McCarthy said in an interview that he thinks people will sit in a recession and not write a blank check. They will not do it.

The Congressional progressive caucus called on Vice President Biden to open talks with Russia to end the conflict while its soldiers are still in the country and its missiles are hitting deep into the interior.

Hours later, Mia Jacob apologized in an email to reporters after facing criticism for her comments. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to renew America’s support.

Since Biden took office, more than $60 billion in aid has been given by the US, but just one Republican voted against the latest aid package.

The support in terms of weaponry, materiel, and now training for Ukrainian forces has been the basis of their success against the weakened, underprepared Russian military.

The west is trying to get the attention of Russia. Last Thursday, the State Department released a detailed report on the impact of sanctions and export controls strangling the Russian military-industrial complex.

Russian production of hypersonic missiles has all but ceased “due to the lack of necessary semi-conductors,” said the report. Aircraft are being cannibalized for spare parts, plants producing anti-aircraft systems have shut down, and “Russia has reverted to Soviet-era defense stocks” for replenishment. The Soviet era ended more than 30 years ago.

A day before the report, the US announced it had seized property of a top Russian procurement agent and his agencies that were responsible for procuring US-origin technologies for Russian end- users.

The Justice Department also announced charges against individuals and companies seeking to smuggle high-tech equipment into Russia in violation of sanctions.

Negotiations in a Cold War between the Ukraine Army and the Kremlin-Bosn-Bell-Simons

Nine months after Russian hopes of a quick seizure were dashed, the army is mainly on the defensive across more than 600 miles of battle lines.

The reality is that truces are not really worth much, even if they are linked to negotiations. A truce gives Russia, its back increasingly to the wall militarily, vitally needed breathing room.

“And because Russia is the most disadvantaged now, it will benefit Russia the most and then renew the war. So all a truce buys you is a continuation of war. It wouldn’t resolve any of the underlying issues of the war,” he added.

Experts say that Russia is beginning to rearm. “Ammunition availability” was one of the “most determinative aspects of this war,” said Kofman. You cannot make them in a month if you burn 9 million rounds. So the issue is what is the ammunition production rate and what can be mobilized?” he added.

Kofman cited information that shows that the manufacturing of bombs has gone from two to three a day in a few factories, and that some have shifted from two to three a day. This suggests that “they have the component parts or otherwise they wouldn’t be going to double and triple shifts,” he said.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/24/opinions/russia-ukraine-truce-negotiations-war-andelman/index.html

The Kremlin, Putin, and the Russian Army: How much will they lose by the end of the Ukrainian War? An analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies

“When there’s an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved, seize it. Seize the moment,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff said recently.

This week, the Kremlin also appeared to rebuff Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace solution that involved asking Russia to start withdrawing troops from Ukraine this Christmas – as the war approaches the 10-month mark.

“Putin’s discussions of negotiations have focused on putative discussions with the West rather than with Ukraine, and reflect his continual accusations that Ukraine is merely a Western pawn with no real agency,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank wrote in its daily assessment of the war on Monday.

General Mick Ryan, a fellow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that it would relieve the pressure on their forces by giving the Russians time to regroup. “They have been at it hard for nine months. Their forces are tired.

The images showed that “in total, at least 52 Russian ammunition depots have been hit by the Ukrainian military since the end of March 2022.” It’s a good chunk of the 100 to 200 Russian depots that analysts believe are on the Ukrainian front, according to the report.

And, he added, the Russians are “willing to trade mobilized soldiers and artillery shells.” The Russians are expecting that “over time, NATO and the Western allies and Ukrainians won’t be willing to continue to make those trades. Eventually, it will push them to negotiate. I believe that is a bet by Putin.

He said at some point they will get tired of this war. The Russian mindset could turn into ” we may not have everything we wanted”. We will hold onto Crimea, and we will annex a large chunk of the Donbas into Russia. And I think that’s kind of their bet right now.”

At the same time, a truce would also allow the West to rebuild rapidly depleting arsenals that have been drained by materiel sent to Ukraine, even upgrade what’s been supplied.

There is a real question as to whether the US and its allies are prepared to return to a conflict that many are beginning to wish was over.

Russian Defense of the “Sea of Azov” and “Belgorod”: a televised overview of Russia’s actions in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine — 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.

Speaking in a televised meeting in Russia with members of his Human Rights Council, Putin described the land gains as “a significant result for Russia,” noting that the Sea of Azov “has become Russia’s internal sea.” He mentioned that “Peter the Great fought to get access to that body of water”, one of the many historic references he’s made to a Russian leader.

“If it doesn’t use it first under any circumstances, it means that it won’t be the second to use it, either, because the possibility of using it in case of a nuclear strike on our territory will be sharply limited,” he said.

There were accusations that his previous nuclear weapons comments were a factor of provoking an escalating of conflicts, but he denied it.

We haven’t been angry. We are fully aware of what nuclear weapons are,” Putin said. He added, without elaborating: “We have them, and they are more advanced and state-of-the-art than what any other nuclear power has.”

In his televised remarks, the Russian leader didn’t address Russia’s battlefield setbacks or its attempts to cement control over the seized regions but acknowledged problems with supplies, treatment of wounded soldiers and limited desertions.

In the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, the governor posted photos of new concrete anti-tank barriers — known as “dragon’s teeth” — in open fields. The governor said that a fire broke out at an airport in the area after a drone strike. In Belgorod, officials were organizing self-defense units while workers were expanding anti-tank barriers. Belgorod has seen numerous fires and explosions, apparently from cross-border attacks, and its governor reported Wednesday that Russia’s air defenses have shot down incoming rockets.

Two strategic Russian air bases more than 300 miles from the Ukraine border were hit by drones on Monday. Moscow blamed Ukraine but it didn’t say who was responsible.

Moscow responded with strikes by artillery, multiple rocket launchers, missiles, tanks and mortars at residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, worsening damage to the power grid. Ukrenergo said that the eastern areas where it was repairing had temperatures as low as minus 17 degrees Celsius.

Ukrainian forces have unleashed the biggest attack on the occupied Donetsk region since 2014, according to a Russia-installed official, in the wake of heavy fighting in the east of the country.

He said a key in the city had come under fire and forty rockets had been fired at civilians in the city.

The regional head of the Kherson military administration said that the city was hit 86 times in the past 24 hours.

“One of (the victims) was a volunteer, a member of the rapid response team of the international organization. They were on the street and died from being wounded by pieces of enemy shells.

The consequences of Zelensky’s actions as a leader of Russian war-fare in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

The Kherson military administration says the city was left completely disconnected from power supplies after the strikes.

“The enemy hit a critical infrastructure facility. The medical aid and humanitarian aid distribution point was damaged by shell fragments, according to a Telegram video on Thursday.

Some machinery and generators from the United States were sent to bolster the Ukrainian capital’s power infrastructure.

The Energy Security Project, run by USAID, delivered four excavators and over 130 generators, Klitschko said on Telegram. All equipment was not required to use.

“The Ukrainian side needs to take into account the realities that have developed over all this time,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday in response to Zelensky’s three-step proposal.

“And these realities indicate that the Russian Federation has new subjects,” he said, referring to four areas Russia has claimed to have annexed, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

In Paris, I watched Zelensky pull up to the lysée Palace in a small car, while Putin drove in with an armored limo. (The host, French President Emmanuel Macron, hugged Putin but chose only to shake hands with Zelensky).

In the days leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion, Zelensky was in a steep, downward trajectory in popularity ratings from the all-time high in the first days of his administration.

In a new book looking at the Ukrainian president’s speeches, the Economist’s Eastern European editor, Arkady Ostrovsky, describes Zelensky as “an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances.”

“After the full-scale invasion, once he got into a position of being bullied by someone like Vladimir Putin he knew exactly what he needed to do because it was just his gut feeling,” Yevhen Hlibovytsky, former political journalist and founder of the Kyiv-based think tank and consultancy, pro.mova, told me.

As Russia began it’s invasion of the US, the leader joked: “I need bullets, not a ride.”

Zelensky was able to stand up to a bully in the form of Donald Trump when Zelensky was still in his early 30s.

It’s been a long time since Zelensky thanked his supporters in a Kyiv nightclub for his victory, but it’s hard to believe. Standing on stage among the fluttering confetti, he looked in a state of disbelief at having defeated incumbent veteran politician Petro Poroshenko.

His ratings appear to have improved because of the war. Zelensky had his ratings approval go to 90% just a few days after the invasion. Zelensky was viewed by Americans highly for his handling of international affairs, ahead of US President Joe Biden.

His bubble includes many people from his previous professional life as a TV comedian in the theatrical group Kvartal 95. Even in the midst of the war, a press conference held on the platform of a Kyiv metro station in April featured perfect lighting and curated camera angles to emphasize a wartime setting.

As for his skills as comforter in chief, I remember well the solace his nightly televised addresses brought in the midst of air raid sirens and explosions in Lviv.

Zelenski: The Road to Empathy, Smarts, and Respect: From Fashion to Politics in the 21st Century to the Rise of the Cold War

“By wearing T-shirts and hoodies, the youthful, egalitarian uniform of Silicon Valley, rather than suits, Zelensky is projecting confidence and competence in a modern way, to a younger, global audience that recognizes it as such,” Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, a fashion historian and author of “Red, White, and Blue on the Runway: The 1968 White House Fashion Show and the Politics of American Style,” told NPR.

“He is probably more comfortable than Putin on camera, too, both as an actor and as a digital native,” she added. “I believe both of them want to come across as relatable, not aloof or untouchable, although Zelensky is definitely doing a better job balancing authority with accessibility.”

Journeying to where her husband can’t, Zelenska has shown herself to be an effective communicator in international fora – projecting empathy, style and smarts. She met King Charles at a refugee assistance center during her visit to the Holy Family Cathedral in London. Time magazine did not include Zelenska on the cover, but it did refer to her in the supporting text.

There are signs that Zelensky’s international influence is waning despite the strong tailwinds. For example, last week, in what analysts called a pivotal moment in geopolitics, the G7 imposed a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian crude – despite pleas from Zelensky that it should have been set at $30 in order to inflict more pain on the Kremlin.

Zelensky stated in a recent nightly video address: “When the world is united, it is the world, not the attacker, that determines how events develop.”

Zelensky’s historic address strengthened the Democrats and Republicans who understand what was at stake in this fight against Putin and Russia and now with their ally, Iran as well.

The speech connected the struggle of Ukrainian people to our revolution, to our own feelings that we want to be warm in our homes to celebrate Christmas and to get us to think about all the families in Ukranian that will be on the front lines in the wintertime.

“I hope that they will send more than one,” she added. There has been some reluctance in the past by the US and NATO to provide advanced equipment, but she said that they have seen how effective Ukrainian military is.

Clinton, who previously met Russian President Vladimir Putin as US secretary of state, said the leader was “probably impossible to actually predict,” as the war turns in Ukraine’s favor and his popularity fades at home.

“I think around now, what [Putin] is considering is how to throw more bodies, and that’s what they will be – bodies of Russian conscripts – into the fight in Ukraine,” Clinton said.

As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned from Washington, D.C. — having secured billions of dollars in U.S. aid and multiple standing ovations in Congress — the Kremlin was quick to criticize the trip.

During his visit, the US president unveiled a package of aid for Ukraine that includes a system to counter air attacks from Russia.

Contrary to rumors, Zelenskyy andUkraine have made clear that they want a “just peace” and the United States has done nothing to help the country fight Russian aggression.

The Kremlin has also been selling that line to the Russian public, who is largely buying it, says Sergey Radchenko, a Russian history professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Moscow had warned last week that it would see the reported delivery of Patriot missiles to Ukraine as “another provocative move by the U.S.” Does Sloat worry this could provoke a Russian escalation?

“Patriots are a defensive weapons system that will help Ukraine defend itself as Russia sends missile after missile and drone after drone to try and destroy Ukrainian infrastructure and kill Ukrainian civilians,” she said. “If Russia doesn’t want their missiles shot down, Russia should stop sending them into Ukraine.”

The Russian leader has been accused of making the use of the term “war” to describe the conflict illegal in his country since he signed a law making it a crime to spread fake information about the invasion.

“Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin told reporters in Moscow, after attending a State Council meeting on youth policy. We will continue to strive for this.

Nikita Yuferev, who fled Russia because of his antiwar stance, said on Thursday that he had asked the Russian authorities to prosecute Putin for spreading fake information about the army.

Yuferev said there was no decree to end the military operation. “Several thousand people have already been condemned for such words about the war.”

According to an initial assessment by the US, Putin’s remark was likely a slip of the tongue. The officials will be watching closely to see what the Kremlin says about it in the coming days.

In his address to Congress, Zelensky briefly discussed a 10-point peace formula and summit that he told Biden about during an earlier meeting at the White House. The Ukrainian leader said Biden was supportive of peace initiatives.

Putin, Shoigu and Zelenskyy in Ukraine: Toward a peace summit around the anniversary of the Russian war. Putin and the United Nations

Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday declared the Kremlin would make a substantial investment in many areas of the military. The initiatives include increasing the size of the armed forces, accelerating weapons programs and deploying a new generation of hypersonic missiles to prepare Russia for what Putin called “inevitable clashes” with its adversaries.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s foreign minister on Monday said that his government is aiming to have a peace summit by the end of February, preferably at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as a possible mediator, around the anniversary of Russia’s war.

Asked about whether they would invite Russia to the summit, he said that Moscow would first need to face prosecution for war crimes at an international court.

Kuleba also said he was “absolutely satisfied” with the results of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the U.S. last week, and he revealed that the U.S. government had made a special plan to get the Patriot missile battery ready to be operational in the country in less than six months. Usually, the training takes up to a year.

Kuleba said during the interview at the Foreign Ministry that Ukraine will do whatever it can to win the war in 2023, adding that diplomacy always plays an important role.

The UN would be the most natural broker of those talks according to the Foreign Minister. He said that the United Nations could be a good location for the summit, as it isn’t about making a favor to a certain country. This is really about making everyone feel part of the team.

Kuleba said that he has proved himself to be an efficient mediator and an efficient negotiation as well as a man of principle and integrity. We would love for him to participate in the activity.

Zelenskyy’s first trip to the U.S. since the start of the war: urging Russia to leave the UN Security Council

“They regularly say that they are ready for negotiations, which is not true, because everything they do on the battlefield proves the opposite,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s visit to the US was his first foreign trip since the start of the war. Kuleba praised Washington’s efforts and underlined the significance of the visit.

“This shows how both the United States are important for Ukraine, but also how Ukraine is important for the United States,” said Kuleba, who was part of the delegation to the U.S.

He said that the U.S. government developed a program for the missile battery to complete the training faster than usual “without any damage to the quality of the use of this weapon on the battlefield.”

While Kuleba didn’t mention a specific time frame, he said only that it will be “very much less than six months.” And he added that the training will be done “outside” Ukraine.

During Russia’s ground and air war in Ukraine, Kuleba has been second only to Zelenskyy in carrying Ukraine’s message and needs to an international audience, whether through Twitter posts or meetings with friendly foreign officials.

On Monday, Ukraine called on U.N. member states to deprive Russia of its status as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and to exclude it from the world body. Kuleba said they were prepared to uncover the fraud in order to deprive Russia of its status.

The Foreign Ministry says that the legal procedure for getting into the UN Security Council was never followed by the Russian.

Zelensky’s urging on India to revert to diplomacy and dialogue in the presence of the G20 summit: A phone call with Modi

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he was relying on India’s help to implement a “peace formula” during a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

New Delhi is trying to boost its trade with Moscow as the Russian government wages an unprovoked war against it, despite Western sanctions.

In a statement following the call, the Indian government said Modi had repeated his calls “for an immediate cessation of hostilities” and to “revert to dialogue and diplomacy.”

Zelensky presented a 10-point peace formula to world leaders at the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November. India will hold on to the presidency of the G20 until next year.

The main priorities of India’s G20 Presidency are giving a voice to the concerns of developing nations regarding issues like food and energy security, according to a New Delhi statement.

Modi urged Putin to move onto a path of peace after Russia invaded Ukraine, reminding the Russian leader of the importance of democracy, diplomacy and dialogue.

Modi was also thought to be a key player in the G20’s decision to issue a joint declaration condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine “in the strongest terms.”

India, a nation of 1.3 billion, has repeatedly said its decision to increase purchases of Russian energy is to protect its own interests as a country where income levels are not high.

Russia sent India a list of more than 500 products for potential delivery last month, according to Reuters, including parts of cars, aircraft and trains.

The Russian War on the Warpath: How the Ukrainians and the West are going to end their War in a diplomatic way, according to Lavrov

The conciliatory tone from Putin was quickly changed by a heavy-handed message from one of his key officials.

Moscow has accused Ukrainians of being Nazism and Sergey Lavrov said Monday that they must fulfill Russia’s demands for demilitarization and denazification of Ukrainian-controlled territories.

Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to President Zelensky, told CNN Tuesday that Putin’s comments were likely an effort to buy time in the conflict.

It makes no sense for the Ukrainians or the west to consider a deal with Putin that would see them carve up the land they are currently in.

Zelensky and his officials have made it clear throughout that they are not going to try and achieve a truce.

“Every war ends in a diplomatic way,” Kuleba told the AP on Monday. Every war ends because of the actions taken by the enemy on the battlefield.

The steps includes a path to nuclear safety, food security, a special tribunal for alleged Russian war crimes, and a final peace treaty with Moscow. He also urged G20 leaders to use all their power to “make Russia abandon nuclear threats” and implement a price cap on energy imported from Moscow.

There is a chance that a decisive swing on the battlefield in the New Year will force a change in the war strategy, but both sides are already preparing for the conflict to last a long time.