Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s Second Visit to Ukraine and the Future of the War in the War-Forming Regime in the Cold Cold Soviet Union

Russian President Vladimir Putin formally announced the Kremlin’s intention to annex nearly a fifth of Ukraine in blatant violation of international law.

The Kremlin reflected the disarray of its forces on the ground, where territory was rapidly changing hands, acknowledging that it did not yet know what new borders Russia would claim in southern Ukraine. The population of the regions will be consulted in regards to the borders, according to Mr. Putin’s spokesman.

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.

“I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me. It is for everyone to remember. People are becoming citizens in Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The Russian president said during the ceremony that it would be forever.

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.

“Putin’s many statements in recent years made clear he wanted to renew the Russian empire. This was a warning to me that this war was going to happen,” he said.

Despite the widespread condemnation of Russia’s plan to fly its flag over over 100,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, the country will not back down.

Russian forces in Ukraine were running out of troops on Monday while the Ukrainian military made gains in the South of the country and pressed their offensive in the east.

The biggest outflow was caused by Putin’s order to put 300,000 additional troops in place in September.

The Kerch Straight Bombing Campaign in Ukraine: Attacks on the Capital of Kiev, and Public Consultations in Zaporizhia, Ukraine

Editor’s Note: Michael Bociurkiw (@WorldAffairsPro) 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 is a regular contributor to CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

Fears of a reprisal by the Kremlin were never far away, even after the massive explosion that hit the hugely important and symbolic Kerch Straight bridge over the weekend.

Russia has since launched a series of air strikes on civilian infrastructure in an attempt to freeze Ukraine into submission during the winter. There are no signs that Ukrainians are backing down from their support of the bombing campaign.

The strikes on central KYiv and close to the government quarter are significant. Western governments should see it as a red line being crossed on this 229th day of the war.

There were no air raid sirens as of noon local time, with reports that three missiles and five drones were shot down. Normally at this time of the day, nearby restaurants are busy with customers and chatter of upcoming weddings.

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. Several people were killed and many were injured.

Volodymyr Zelensky was defiant in a video filmed outside his office on Monday, saying it appeared that many of the missile strikes were aimed at the country’s energy infrastructure. Denys Shmyhal, the Prime Minister of the Ukranian republic, said at least 11 important infrastructure facilities have been damaged and some provinces are without power.

When Russian forces neared the capital, many media outlets moved their operations to underground bomb shelters. A group of people are listening to patriotic Ukrainian songs on the platform in a metro station that is a shelter.

Millions of people will be spending most of the day in bomb shelters, and businesses have been asked to shift work online as much as possible because of the situation.

Just as many regions of Ukraine were starting to roar back to life, and with countless asylum seekers returning home, the attacks risk causing another blow to business confidence.

It would seem that in the last day or so, Vladimir Putin has created more enemies and added new ones, solidifying the strength of those he would seek to conquer. At home and abroad, there seems to be no limit to Putin’s appetite to wreak mayhem in pursuit of an ever more elusive victory.

Hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive, record-breaking infrastructure projects seems to be a penchant of dictators. Putin personally opened Europe’s longest bridge by driving a truck across it. The president of China decided in 2015 to connect the former Portuguese and British Territories with the world’s longest sea crossing bridge. The road bridge has been delayed for about two years.

What happened to Putin when he unleashed the first Ukrainian massacres, and what we should do next when Putin is out of the Russian army

The reaction among Ukrainians to the explosion was instantaneous: humorous memes lit up social media channels like a Christmas tree. Many shared their sense of jubilation via text messages.

Putin never sat still, he was consumed by his pride and self-interest. 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.

It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.

The new overall commander of Russia’s invasion was appointed due to growing setbacks. But there is little sign that Gen. Sergey Surovikin can lead his forces back onto the front foot before the end of the year, given the pace and cost of the Ukrainian counter-offensives.

What is crucially important now is for Washington and other allies to use urgent telephone diplomacy to urge China and India – which presumably still have some leverage over Putin – to resist the urge to use even more deadly weapons.

The coming weeks are crucial to both the battlefield and in Europe, suggest experts. “As ever, where Putin goes next depends on how the rest of the world is responding,” Giles said. “Russia’s attitude is shaped by the failure of Western countries to confront and deter it.”

Vladimir Lukashenko: Is the Ukraine a co-aggressor or a dictator like Vladimir Putin? The Belarusian prime minister has warned against deployment of a joint regional force of troops

Defense systems have to be high tech in order to protect the country. The need to protect heatingsystems is urgent with winter just around the corner.

The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.

Lukashenko said there was no way that their troops would go to Ukraine unless the other side committed aggression against them. “But don’t forget Russia is our ally, legally, morally and politically,” he added.

“This won’t be just a thousand troops,” Mr. Lukashenko told senior military and security officials in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, after a meeting over the weekend with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in St. Petersburg.

In rambling remarks reported by the state news agency Belta, Mr. Lukashenko said that work had already started on the formation of what he called a “joint regional group of troops” to counter “possible aggression against our country” by NATO and Ukraine.

A dictator like Mr. Lukashenko has statements that can be unreliable when it comes to current or future events. He denied that his territory would be used to attack southern neighbor Ukraine just days before the Russian military attacked it.

The establishment of a joint force with Russia will reinforce the view in Ukraine that Belarus is clearly a “co-aggressor,” a label that Mr. Lukashenko has rejected but which took on new force on Monday after a barrage of Russian missile attacks on Kyiv and elsewhere, some of them launched from Belarusian territory, according to Ukrainian officials.

Mr. Lukashenko would probably try to resist deployment of his own troops because that would be very dangerous for him according to Artyom Shraibman. It would be disastrous in terms of politics.

Heavily dependent on Moscow for money, fuel and security assistance, all vital to his own survival after 28 years in power, Mr. Lukashenko is widely believed to be under growing Russian pressure to get more involved in the Ukraine war.

Not for the first time the war is in danger of going 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.

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.

The stakes of the war have been raised as winter approaches. Russia would like to keep it up. The recent successes of the Ukrainians have sent a message to the Kremlin. Giles said, “They are able to do things that shock us and we should get used to it.”

Monday’s attacks, and further strikes throughout the week, were evidence of Russian President Vladimir Putin lashing out after a series of setbacks in the war that have put him under pressure domestically.

The Russian Army is Trying to Get Out of Kyiv’s Controversy. Why Ukraine is Ready to Give up on NATO?

Oleksii Hromov, a senior Ukrainian military official, said last week that Kyiv’s forces have recaptured some 120 settlements since late September as they advance 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.

Russia said its forces would help to get the residents of Kherson out of the area. The announcement came shortly after the head of the Moscow-backed administration in Kherson appealed to the Kremlin for help moving residents out of harm’s way, in the latest indication that Russian forces were struggling in the face of Ukrainian advances.

The counter-offensives have changed the war’s trajectory and disproved the idea that while Ukraine could defend its territory, it had no ability to seize ground.

The Russians are trying to avoid a collapse in their frontline before winter sets in, said a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“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.”

Landing a major blow in Donbas would send another powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve on its gains before temperatures plummet on the battlefield, and the full impact of rising energy prices is felt around Europe.

There are many reasons why things can be done quickly in Ukraine. The winter energy crisis in Europe and the power disruptions in Ukraine are always going to be a test of resilience for the Western backers of the country.

The region would be stable if Ukraine joined NATO, said Valeriy Chaly, the former ambassador of Ukraine to the United States. This is what Ukraine’s government wants, though joining the alliance is highly unlikely in the near term.

After the Russian missile attacks on Monday and Tuesday, Ukrenergo, the national electricity company, says it has fixed the power supply to the east and central regions. But Ukrainian Prime Minister has warned that “there is a lot of work to do” to fix damaged equipment, and asked Ukrainians to reduce their energy usage 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.

“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Jeremy Fleming, a UK’s spy chief, said in a rare speech on Tuesday.

The I SW believes that Putin may not have the options to disrupt ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives because of Russia’s limited supply of precision weapons.

The situation will be determined by how much weaponry and manpower both sides have left, as well as how the momentum will shift in the coming weeks. Ukraine wants more equipment from the West to repel future attacks, even though it said it had destroyed 18 cruise missiles in the past two days.

The Russians do not have the supplies of precision missiles to maintain a high-tempo missile assault into the future, so the volley of missile strikes is going to be a feature reserved for shows of extreme outrage.

The impact of such an intervention in terms of pure manpower would be limited; Belarus has around 45,000 active duty troops, which would not significantly bolster Russia’s reserves. But it would threaten another assault on Ukraine’s northern flank below the Belarusian border.

The reopening of the northern front would be a new challenge for Ukraine according to Giles. 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.

“We see it not just as a moral duty to help Ukraine to survive and win the war,” he said. There is an opportunity to discuss democracy and the values of freedom. Ukrainians are showing us that the values are worth fighting for.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that NATO defense ministers would be discussing ways to stop missile attacks.

“These air defense systems are making a difference because many of the incoming missiles [this week] were actually shot down by the Ukrainian air defense systems provided by NATO Allies,” he said.

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.

They are joining an army degraded in quality and capability. Over the course of the war in Ukraine, the composition of the Russian military force has changed due to the wounding or killings of many of its prewar active duty personnel. The Russian military leadership is unlikely to know with confidence how this undisciplined composite force will react when confronted with cold, exhausting combat conditions or rumors of Ukrainian assaults. Recent experience suggests these troops might abandon their positions and equipment in panic, as demoralized forces did in the Kharkiv region in September.

Ukrainian officials have warned for some time of a renewed Russian offensive and have asked for more powerful weaponry from Western allies to counter the threat.

Nuclear deterrence will be held by NATO on Monday. NATO warned Russia not to use nuclear weapons in the course of the ‘Steadfast Noon’ drills.

State of Ukraine: Security, Security and Security in the Light of Moscow’s First Order Proclamation of a Martial Law in Ukraine

Russian agents detained eight people on Oct. 12 suspected of carrying out a large explosion on a bridge to Crimea, including Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian citizens.

Russia’s move to annex parts of Ukraine was condemned by the UN General Assembly. Four countries voted along with Russia, but only 141 voted in favor of the Ukrainian resolution, while 35 abstained.

Two men shot at Russian troops preparing to deploy to Ukraine, killing 11 people and wounding 15 before being killed themselves, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Oct. 15.

The first convoys of Russian service members were expected to come to Belarus in October, as part of a “regional grouping” of forces that were supposed to protect the country from threats from the west.

You can read past recaps here. You can find more of NPR’s coverage here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.

Moscow’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, appeared to be taking precautions to offer reassurances. “At present, no measures are being introduced to limit the normal rhythm of the city’s life,” Mr. Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel.

And despite the new power granted them by Mr. Putin, the regional governors of Kursk, Krasnodar and Voronezh said no entry or exit restrictions would be imposed.

But many Russians are sure to see a warning message in the martial law imposed in Ukraine, the first time that Moscow has declared martial law since World War II, analysts say.

Ms. Stanovaya said people were worried that the borders would be closed and strong men who were close to Mr. Putin would do what they wanted.

On Tuesday, the newly appointed commander of the Russian invasion, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, acknowledged that his army’s position in Kherson was “already quite difficult” and appeared to suggest that a tactical retreat might be necessary. General Surovikin said he was ready to make “difficult decisions” about military deployments, but did not say more about what those might be.

Russia has a large military presence in Syria, which it uses to strengthen the government. But the change could herald shifts in the balance of power in one of the world’s most complicated conflict zones, and may lead Israel — Syria’s enemy — to rethink its stance toward the Ukraine conflict.

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 formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. His own opinions are expressed in this commentary. View more opinion at CNN.

The Importance of the War Crimea for Putin and the Security and Development of Middle-Energy Intelligence Efforts

The first missile to have landed in Poland – a NATO member – on Tuesday may well have been a Ukrainian anti-aircraft rocket intercepting an incoming Russian missile a short distance from one of Ukraine’s largest cities, Lviv, as suspected by Polish and NATO leaders. (President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, has insisted the missile was not Ukrainian)

Whatever the exact circumstances of the missile, one thing is clear. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that Russia bears ultimate responsibility for its conduct of the illegal war against Ukraine.

He has planted mines in vast swaths of territory in Kherson that his forces have recently removed, just like the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia in the 1970s. Cambodian de-mining experts were called in to assist with the daunting task of cleaning up mines in Ukraine in the year 2022. At the same time, Russian armies have also left behind evidence of unspeakable atrocities and torture, also reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge.

That said, a growing number of Russian soldiers have rebelled at what they have been asked to do and refused to fight. Amid plummeting morale, the UK’s Defense Ministry believes Russian troops may be prepared to shoot retreating or deserting soldiers.

In just two months, the hotline and Telegram channel have taken off, booking over 3,500 calls, as a Ukrainian military intelligence project intended to assist Russian soldiers eager to defect has taken off.

Putin has also tried, though he has been stymied at most turns, to establish black market networks abroad to source what he needs to fuel his war machine – much as Kim Jong-un has done in North Korea. The United States has recently begun to sanction and uncover the networks of shadow companies and individuals located in hubs from Taiwan to Armenia, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France and Luxembourg to source high-tech goods for Russia.

Diplomatically, Putin finds himself increasingly isolated on the world stage. Only the head of state was able to stay away from the session of G20, called the “G19.” After his removal from the G7 following his seizure of Crimea, inclusion seems to be a distant dream for Putin. Russia’s ban on 100 Canadians including Jim Carrey made a comparison with North Korea more striking.

Putin said that it was a good way to clean up Russian society from spies and traitors. Russian officials have suggested stripping those who left the country of their passports. Yet there are questions whether Russia can thrive without many of its best and brightest.

One leading Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, who has settled in Berlin after fleeing in March, told me last week that while he hoped this is not the case, he is prepared to accept the reality – like many of his countrymen, he may never be able to return to his homeland, to which he remains deeply attached.

Petrovich Viatrovych, the Russian kingpin of the Russian empire, and the fate of the Kyiv House of Teachers

The attempt by the West to diminish the country’s ability to pursue this war because of its dependence on Russian oil and natural gas is being overshadowed. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission told the G20 that they have realised that it was an unsustainable dependency and want reliable and forward looking connections.

Moreover, Putin’s dream that this conflict, along with the enormous burden it has proven to be on Western countries, would only drive further wedges into the Western alliance are proving unfulfilled. The news that a long-stalled French and German project for a next-generation jet fighter was about to start moving forward began to spread on Monday.

Putin seems to have forgotten that vengeance isn’t an appropriate way to act on or off the battlefield, and is likely to cause damage to Russia, possibly irreversibly.

He continued to hold that attempts by countries to change and destroy world history were becoming increasingly aggressive, and that would lead to a split of society and a decline in Russia’s influence.

The Russian empire began to expand with the people of Ukraine. Many Russians do not think their empire can survive without the assistance of Ukraine. Volodymyr Viatrovych, a member of the parliament and a prominent historian, said that they keep returning because of that.

The Russians attacked the suburb of Bucha in the first days of the war. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Viatrovych immediately sent his wife and son to western Ukraine for safety.

He then drove to Kyiv for an emergency session of parliament, which declared martial law. He was given a rifle by 2 p.m. that day to join the security forces.

The offices for the Kyiv House of Teachers were located in the old building in the center of Ukrainian capital, which was declared independence from Russia in 1918.

Two months ago, there was a reminder of that history. That’s when a Russian missile slammed into the street outside the Kyiv House of Teachers.

The glass ceiling in the hall that was declared independence in 1918 was shattered by the blast. The windows are boarded up. Shards of glass still cover the floor.

“Sure, there are parallels to a century ago,” said Steshuk Oleh, director of the House of Teachers. “This building was also damaged in the fighting back then. And now it has been damaged again. Don’t worry. We will rebuild everything.”

Ukraine is ongoing fight to free itself from Russia, writes Andrew Weiss, a former Russian ambassador to the United Nations

According to Andrew Weiss, with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the reason why Ukrainians are fighting is because of the Kremlin’s crushing of protests during the Soviet era.

He said that all the wrongs of the last hundred plus years need to be fixed inUkraine, since they have experienced hardship in the 20th century.

Ukrainians thought this matter was finally resolved in December 1991, when they held a referendum on independence. Ninety-two percent voted in favor of going their own way. The Soviet Union collapsed later that month.

“I have said it before, but I want to say it again: Russia can be the only real guarantor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” Putin said earlier this month.

Weiss said Ukraine is now “mobilizing all of its citizens to make good on the things that people 100 years ago could only aspire to. That country will have an identity largely built on opposition to Russia and a national narrative of survival and overcoming.

Because “if he’s losing a war, especially a war of his own making, he doesn’t survive,” he said. “The outcome may signal the end, not just of Putin’s era, but the era of the empire. It is the 21st century. Empires have to go.

When he entered politics in Russia fifteen years ago, he challenged Putin’s hold on power. When it became clear his safety was at risk, he left Russia, and now lives in New York.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/16/1142176312/ukraine-ongoing-fight-to-free-itself-from-russia

Ruling out Russian troops in a Cold War: The “Russian nightmare” of the post-Soviet era as seen by the media

Many military analysts warn the war is unlikely to produce a clear resolution on the battlefield. They say it’s likely to require negotiations and compromises.

That’s not a popular opinion in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and many citizens say they want all Russian troops driven out of the country. Zelenskyy recently told Time magazine, “We are dealing with a powerful state that is pathologically unwilling to let Ukraine go.”

“Being a buffer zone or gray zone is not good from a geopolitical point of view,” he said. “If you are a gray zone between two security blocs, two military blocs, everybody wants to make a step. This has happened with Ukraine.”

Putin claimed that his forces were embarking on a small “military operation” that would end in a few weeks.

Yet the war has also fundamentally upended Russian life — rupturing a post-Soviet period in which the country pursued, if not always democratic reforms, then at least financial integration and dialogue with the West.

War against Ukraine has left Russia isolated and struggling with more tumultaneous-ahedrodynamics

Draconian laws passed since February have outlawed criticism of the military or leadership. A leading independent monitoring group claims that over 20,000 people have been arrested for demonstrating against the war.

Long prison sentences have been meted out to high profile opposition voices on charges of questioning the conduct or strategy of the Russian army.

Organizations and individuals are added to a growing list of “foreign agents” and “non-desirable” organizations intended to damage their reputation among the Russian public.

Russia’s most revered human rights group was forced to stop activities because of alleged violations of the foreign agents law.

Russia’s anti-LGBT laws have been vastly expanded by the state, who argue the war in Ukraine shows a wider attack on traditional values.

For now, repressions remain targeted. Some of the new laws are still unenforced. The measures are intended to crush wider dissent should the moment arise.

New fake news laws resulted in the shuttering of leading independent media outlets and the relocation of a few vibrant, online investigative businesses to other countries.

Restrictions extend to internet users as well. In March, American social media giants were banned. Since the start of the conflict, more than 100,000 websites have been blocked by the Russian internet regulator.

Technical workarounds such as VPNs and Telegram still offer access to Russians seeking independent sources of information. Older Russians prefer state media propaganda as it spreads conspiracy on TV talk shows.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/31/1145981036/war-against-ukraine-has-left-russia-isolated-and-struggling-with-more-tumult-ahe

Russia’s Invasion into the Cold War: What Has It Learned in Two Years of Putin’s Belated Plunge?

Thousands of perceived government opponents — many of them political activists, civil society workers and journalists — left in the war’s early days amid concerns of persecution.

Meanwhile, some countries that have absorbed the Russian exodus predict their economies will grow, even as the swelling presence of Russians remains a sensitive issue to former Soviet republics in particular.

Helped by Russian price controls, the ruble regained value. McDonald’s and several other brands ultimately relaunched under new names and Russian ownership. By year’s end, the government reported the economy had declined by 2.5%, far less than most economists predicted.

The West tries to limit how much countries pay for Russian oil and limit the amount of seaborne oil that is imported. There are indications the efforts are cutting into profits.

Ultimately, President Putin is betting that when it comes to sanctions, Europe will blink first — pulling back on its support to Ukraine as Europeans grow angry over soaring energy costs at home. He announced a five-month ban on oil exports to countries that abide by the price cap, a move likely to make the pain more acute in Europe.

The economic damage has already put an end to Putin’s two-decades strong reputation for providing “stability” — once a key basis for his support among Russians who remember the chaotic years that followed the collapse of the USSR.

There’s no outward change in the government’s tone when it comes to Russia’s military campaign. Daily briefings are provided by the Defense Ministry of Russia. Putin assures everyone that things are going according to plan.

Yet the sheer length of the war — with no immediate Russian victory in sight — suggests Russia vastly underestimated Ukrainians’ willingness to resist.

The true number of Russian losses – officially at just under 6,000 men – remains a highly taboo subject at home. Western estimates place the figures much higher.

Indeed, Russia’s invasion has — thus far — backfired in its primary aims: NATO looks set to expand towards Russia’s borders, with the addition of long-neutral states Finland and Sweden.

It would have been unthinkable in Soviet times for long-time allies in Central Asia to criticize Russia’s actions because they were worried about their own sovereignty. India and China have been buying discounted Russian oil, but haven’t given full support to Russia’s military campaign.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/31/1145981036/war-against-ukraine-has-left-russia-isolated-and-struggling-with-more-tumult-ahe

Ukrainian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and a key figure in the security and defence of the country: “I don’t want war”

A state of the nation address, originally scheduled for April, was repeatedly delayed and won’t happen until next year. The “direct line”, in which Putin fields questions from ordinary Russians, was not held this year.

An annual December “big press conference” thatallows the Russian leader to handle fawning questions from mostly pro-Kremlin media was also tabled until 2023.

The Kremlin has given no reason for the delays. Many suspect it might be that, after 10 months of war and no sign of victory in sight, the Russian leader has finally run out of good news to share.

The military spokesman said there are signs that Russia is preparing for a renewed offensive in southern Ukraine.

In an interview on Tuesday, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine stated that these would be defining months in the war.

“During the week, military representatives from the two countries will practice joint planning of the use of troops based on the prior experience of armed conflicts in recent years,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise Europe tour, meeting leaders in London, Paris and Brussels, and reiterating his call for allies to send fighter jets to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova attended President Biden’s State of the Union speech, for the second year in a row, but the war in Ukraine received far less attention in the address this time.

There’s “strong indication” Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the go-ahead to supply anti-aircraft weapons to separatists in Ukraine, according to the international team investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.

“We are peaceful people. The authoritarian leader Lukashenko, who has close ties with the Russian President, said at a press conference that they don’t want war.

CNN observations of the Belarusian fortification of the border area and the “provocation” from the Ukrainians to the border of the Ukrainian peninsula

The CNN team were 100 meters (328 feet) away from the Ukrainian side, where they saw the Belarusian government’s fortification of the border area with barbed wire in a carefully orchestrated and tightly controlled press tour.

It has only been permissible to enter Ukrainians who are looking to return to their home country when the border is closed, as a fear that they could be used for another invasion by Russia.

The CNN team could see a Ukrainian flag on Ukraine’s side of the border crossing and a red and white flag which is associated with the Belarusian opposition – a move Belarusian authorities called a “provocation.”