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Ukrainian forces have reportedly blown up a bridge near the eastern city of Bakhmut, in a sign they may be planning to retreat from the area, which would give Russia a significant, symbolic boost ahead of the first anniversary of the war. Troops blew up the bridge on Monday, according to a local Donetsk region news site. Ukraine denies it intends to leave Bakhmut, despite six months of heavy fighting and reportedly dwindling stockpiles. It appears the Kremlin is concentrating maximum force on capturing Bakhmut before the one-year anniversary of the invasion on 24 February. Ukraine and its western allies...

Improved forecast echoes IMF prediction that Russia will overtake Germany and UK in 2023The Russian economy should pick up again in the middle of the year, the Central Bank announced on Friday, revising its latest forecasts upwards. The outlook is much better than many had anticipated. Speaking to reporters, Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said the better-than-expected GDP forecast is due to the upward revision of previous estimates and “Bigger budget outlays than reflected in our October forecast.”Signs of economic recovery in Russia emerged late last year, with GDP showing positive momentum in the third and fourth quarters, the...

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine will pass the one-year mark in the coming weeks with no end in sight to what is already the largest European conflict since World War II. Vladimir Putin initially envisaged a small, victorious war that would extinguish Ukrainian independence and force the country back into the Kremlin orbit. Instead, his armies have suffered a series of disastrous defeats that have shattered Russia’s reputation as a military superpower. Despite the difficulties encountered in Ukraine, Putin has little choice but to continue with his invasion. The Russian dictator knows that unless he is able to rescue the...

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, meanwhile, gleefully predicted that Europeans would be “freezing in their homes” because they hadn’t thought through the consequences of throwing their support behind Ukraine. “The cold is coming soon,” he said, menacingly, in June last year. But as the European Union enters the last month of the meteorological winter in 2023, signs are becoming clearer that its members have weathered an historic crisis – and not just because “General Frost” has proved a milder adversary than Medvedev predicted. Within eight months of Russian troops setting foot on Ukrainian soil, the bloc of 27 European states...

It would appear that Zelensky has lost favour with the west and is on the way out. His government is falling to pieces, numerous high-profile resignations are now frequent. It all started with the death of his internal affairs minister when the chopper carrying him with 9 others (presumed NATO) was shot down presumably by his own. The EU looks to be scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to ammunitions, all of the old stores have been bled dry. Apparently, the EU/Germany will not be handing over planes at this time. The German chancellor was recently reminded...

More than a million UK households will be offered money for them to cut their electricity use between 5pm and 6pm on Monday in a move that follows the National Grid bringing back mothballed coal plants today to ensure supply. Some people across Britain are to be offered up to £20 (~$24.76) to dramatically reduce their electricity usage between 5pm and 6pm on Monday evening in an attempt to curb the country’s electricity use in the face of potential shortages. It will be the first time such payments will be issued under the National Grid’s Demand Flexibility Service, which was...

Ukraine is considering retreating from Bakhmut (formerly Artemovsk), according to Ukrainian military personnel cited in The Washington Post, in order to save manpower and supplies in anticipation of a counteroffensive elsewhere.A Ukrainian commander, who chose to remain anonymous, commented on the possibility of withdrawal and told The Washington Post that "we have lost many friends in the defense of this city, so we do not want to surrender it now. But maybe a temporary withdrawal would save some of our people," adding that his unit suffered "great losses." Yuriy Skala, a Ukrainian commander of an intelligence battalion currently on the...

The acting head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushlin, said the republic's cities of Soledar and Artemovsk were about to be liberated MOSCOW, January 11./TASS/.The city of Soledar, the scene of intense fighting in the past few days, has been under the control by units of Russia's Wagner private military company, the company's Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was quoted as saying by his press service on Tuesday night. "Units of the Wagner private military company have taken the entire territory of Soledar under their control. The city center has been surrounded, and urban warfare is underway. The number of captives...

A giant aquarium containing a million litres of water in the lobby of the Radisson Blu in Berlin has burst, flooding the hotel and nearby streets. The "AquaDom" - home to 1,500 fish - is 15.85m high (52 ft) and was described as the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world. Two people were injured by falling glass after the blast. Police said there had been "incredible" damage. Video showed an empty tank with water pouring into the hotel lobby. Guests have been moved out of the hotel following the incident at 05:50 (04:50 GMT). A spokesman for Berlin's fire...

The Swedish government has called on Swedes to save electricity, citing the risk of power disconnections, saying the energy situation in the country has become “acute”. The government in Greta Thunberg’s homeland called on Swedes to save electricity on Friday, with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Minister of Energy and Industry Ebba Busch, and Minister of Labour and Integration Johan Pehrson holding a joint press conference on the state of energy security.

Russia's oil exports have plunged amid the latest round of western sanctions. According to data from Kpler, Russian seaborne oil shipments fell 16% on Tuesday. Russia's central bank has called the sanctions "new economic shocks" that could derail the economy. Russia's oil exports have plunged amid the European Union's price cap on Russian crude and the latest round of sanctions, squeezing revenues for Moscow's wartime economy. According to data from the analytics firm Kpler, Russia's seaborne oil shipments fell by 16%, or about half a million barrels per day on Tuesday this week. TankerTrackers.com, another analytics site, recorded an even...

In search of cleaner country air a Polish family swapped the busy city streets of Krakow for this - the village of Olpiny, nestled in the Carpathian foothills. The Tkacuks family made the leap back in 2018. But now, with the war in Ukraine and the cutting off of Russian gas supplies, Julia Tkaczuk's quest to bring her three children up in a less polluted environment is proving harder than thought. Local authorities have postponed a ban on the dirtiest stoves for heating, and last month air pollution in the village exceeded the norms by fourfold. "There was just such...

The Swiss government announced its plan to deal with expected energy shortfalls this winter, and it sounds like a lot of fun — provided you’re a shut-in who likes reading by candlelight under multiple blankets. The alpine country — one of the wealthiest in the world — will severely restrict electric vehicles from its roads, according to a Daily Mail report. If the country runs out of power, EVs won’t be allowed out for anything but “essential” travel. But the restrictions don’t end there. The contingency plan calls for three levels of energy rationing. Under the least extreme, most buildings...

At the peak of his power, Russian President Vladimir Putin thought he could use his energy weapon to impose his will across Europe. Now Moldova — with a population of only 2.5 million — is emerging as the last truly vulnerable energy target in his flailing campaign to destabilize governments in the neighborhood taking a pro-EU trajectory. But no matter how hard Putin tries to turn the energy screws to topple the administration, Moldova’s government is doggedly resisting. Only last week Russian missile strikes triggered blackouts in half the country and last month Gazprom slashed gas supplies by a third,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday offered to resume gas supplies to Europe through the intact part of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. "The ball is in the EU's court. If they want to, then the taps can be turned on and that's it," he said in a speech at an energy forum in Moscow. Germany, however,,said it would not take Russian gas via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that has become a flashpoint in the Ukraine crisis. Asked if Berlin would rule out the use of Nord Stream 2, German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said, "Yes."

The country has been put on notice that the chances of gas shortages this winter have risen markedly, prompting a contingency plan to prioritise heating. National Grid's Electricity System Operator (ESO) warned that planned three-hour power blackouts could be imposed in some areas, in the "unlikely" event supplies of gas fall short of demand. It revealed the measure in an update on the UK's state of energy readiness for the cold months ahead but it said that the risk of temporary power cuts could be avoided with help from the public. The report showed, under a base case scenario, that...

Kati Pannwitz spends her evenings at home alone in a darkened and unheated apartment, watching old movies while worrying about the new reality of life in a country that is being drawn ever closer to the war in Ukraine. Surging inflation and fears about an energy crisis are hitting home for Pannwitz, 34, taking a heavy toll on her finances and the futures of both her and her 17-year-old son. No more vacations, no more trips abroad, no more going out, no more saving and an outlook that has grown increasingly bleak for Pannwitz — and millions of fellow Germans...

People who heat their homes above a certain temperature in Switzerland during the Winter face fines and potentially up to three years in prison if energy rationing measures are put in place. Under proposed legislation in the home of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Swiss lawmakers are preparing to set legal limits on the use of heating during the winter should the country face energy shortages. Under the plans, gas-heated buildings would be capped at 19C (66.2F) and water heating up to 60C (140F). Saunas and swimming pools would also be forced by government diktat to remain cold.

... The stand-off with Russia has forced countries like Germany to find supplies elsewhere, and its stores have increased from less than half full in June to 84% full today. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told journalists Germany would get through the winter, adding that Russia was "no longer a reliable energy partner". He said the government would make one-off payments to pensioners, people on benefits and students. There would also be caps on energy bills. Some 9,000 energy-intensive businesses would receive tax breaks to the tune of €1.7bn. A windfall tax on energy company profits would also be used to...

Russia won’t immediately resume exports of natural gas to Europe through its Nord Stream 1 pipeline, worsening a shortage that threatens to tip the continent into an energy crisis this winter. On Friday, Russian state energy giant Gazprom said it would not resume flows through the pipeline on Saturday as planned because it had detected an oil leak at its Portovaya compressor station. The pipeline has been shut since Wednesday for maintenance. It didn’t give a timeline of when exports might resume.