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Ukraine has opened a new front in its battle to drive out the Russian invader - in Russia. But it is oddly coy about admitting that it has sent troops, fired artillery, and flown drones into its neighbor’s territory. The operations of Russian citizens, carrying Ukrainian military ID, wearing Ukrainian uniforms and attacking from Ukraine, remain officially opaque. It is Kyiv’s contribution to what’s become known as “hybrid warfare” in the “grey zone” of contemporary conflict. The two terms provoked books and a tsunami of excited opinion from an army of pundits when Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014. Back...

The former commanding US general in Europe, Ben Hodges, has told DW that the West should provide Kyiv with fighter jets. He said that providing Ukraine with the planes could lead to a victory for Kyiv within the year. The former commanding general of the United States Army in Europe, Ben Hodges, said that Ukraine could achieve a quick victory if the West provided swift help with fighter jets. He predicted that the defeat of Russia could otherwise take three to five years, given the current level of Western support. What the former general said "The sooner we deliver them...

Wagner Group is a Russian paramilitary organisation, first deployed in the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and now a private extension of the Russian army in Ukraine with close ties to Putin. The source told the outlet how squadrons of prisoner conscripts are sent in waves over and over, leapfrogging to move the front line slightly closer to the enemy while Russian artillery continues to explode overhead. The source said: 'Sometimes there is an order not to wait for the shelling to end - the 'Musicians' [Wagner recruits] are so disciplined that they will go anyway because they stand a...

American officials estimate that nearly 200,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in Moscow’s nearly yearlong conflict with Ukraine, The New York Times reported. The rising number of casualties is driven in part by heavy fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is increasingly sending poorly trained recruits and convicts to the front lines in an effort to deplete Ukrainian artillery, according to the Times. However, officials have warned that the casualty numbers — which are based on satellite imagery, intercepted communications, social media, on-the-ground reporting and official government numbers — are difficult to estimate and...

Firepower has been crucial in Russia’s gains in the war, but Ukrainian fighters and analysts say that Moscow has relied increasingly on a more crude tactic as its forces try to take the eastern city of Bakhmut: the sheer weight of troop numbers. Russian casualties in recent fighting in Bakhmut have been higher than in previous months as commanders have poured soldiers into the battle, the Ukrainians said. The Kremlin is aiming for a significant victory after suffering battlefield setbacks in the south and northeast last fall and as both sides prepare for offensives in the coming weeks or months....

The former vice president added: "If the armed forces do not have the ability to conduct strategic offensive operations, then it is better not to try, especially outside your own country... People are dying senselessly, although the slogan is 'Defend Russia.' Where are they defending Russia? What are they dying for....? Who has the right to take a father away from his children? Who gave the right to take away sons from mothers and fathers? Nobody." During the same talk, Rutskoy took aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him a "laughingstock" for not carrying out certain military intentions, citing...

A load of more than 60 Bradley fighting vehicles departed South Carolina for Ukraine last week as part of the latest $2.5 billion package in military aid that the Biden administration announced earlier this month. The armored vehicle, named after World War II Gen. Omar Bradley, is operated by three crew members and can transport up to seven infantry around the battlefield. It's outfitted with a 25mm automatic cannon, as well as a 7.62 Coaxial Machine Gun and an anti-tank missile launcher. "The Bradley is a very powerful vehicle that we are providing to the Ukrainians," Army Lt. Col. Rebecca...

The Russian military on Monday claimed it was able to make advances against Ukrainian forces in the Kherson and Kursk regions. Ukraine disputed these claims and blasted Russia for once again launching missiles at civilian targets, while the Russians accused Ukraine of hitting populated areas with their own artillery shells. Russian officials told the state-run Tass news agency on Monday that Russian artillery “wiped out two Ukrainian artillery squads in the Kherson region,” killing seven Ukrainian troops. The Russians claim to have destroyed a Ukrainian self-propelled artillery gun and a 120mm mortar with its ammunition.

The war in Ukraine is poised to become even more violent this year with a major Russian offensive expected and more advanced Western-made weapons pouring in to bolster Ukrainian forces. Along these lines, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg recently warned that the war has entered a "decisive phase." This new stage of the war could bring the fight to a territory vital to Russia's military capabilities in Ukraine and cherished by Russian President Vladimir Putin: Crimea. The Black Sea peninsula, which was invaded by Russian forces and illegally annexed by Putin in 2014, served as a launchpad for Russia's invasion last...

But Hodges is among military experts who believe that reclaiming Crimea is required for Ukraine's long-term survival. He told Britain's Channel 4 News last Wednesday that Crimea is the "decisive terrain" and that it should be isolated "with long range precision weapons." In his view, these would include F-16 jets and ATACMs (Army Tactical Missile Systems) and armed drones, which can "reach beyond the current HIMARS being used that could isolate Crimea" and "make Crimea untenable." The fate of Crimea as a deciding factor in the war in Ukraine continues to be debated amid speculation over whether it would be...

The war between Russia and Ukraine started long before February 24, 2022. Russian aggression has been constant ever since Vladimir Putin came to power in the late nineties. However, it was the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 that started the current conflict. The crazy part is NATO and the rest of the world just watched as Russian forces invaded Crimea in an eerily similar way to how Nazi Germany annexed Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the Rhineland before launching its invasion of Poland and starting World War II.

"I'm the only monster drag queen in Russia," Danya proudly tells me as he applies ghostly-white make-up in front of a mirror. We're sitting in his kitchen, a rainbow flag adorning the wall. The 22-year-old regularly performed at a queer club night in St Petersburg called Gender Blender. But the project has now cancelled its shows after a new anti-LGBT law was passed by the Russian Parliament in December. Danya's work has all but dried up. "According to the law, it's forbidden to do what we're doing," Danya says. "We're a lot more anxious now. The risks are much higher."...

Ukraine's forces have said they launched a strike on a base and field hospital where Russian troops were being housed with Ukrainian sources saying on Twitter that more than 100 people had been left under the debris. On Sunday, the Ukrainian military's Strategic Communications Directorate (AFU Stratcom) reported that its forces had launched a strike on the building of the hospital of a former-machine building plant in the Russian-occupied town of Kadiivka, around 30 miles south of Lysychansk. AFU Stratcom said the former hospital had been housing Russian soldiers, particularly those linked to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has criticized...

Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose Wagner Group of mercenaries has dominated headlines in Ukraine, has reportedly been sidelined by Vladimir Putin after failing to make good on his promises of military gains. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Prigozhin's "star has begun to set" following his boasts that his forces could capture the Donetsk city of Bakhmut. The think tank said on Sunday that Putin wanted to see what Prigozhin and his previous commander in Ukraine, General Sergey Surovikin could do after the conventional Russian military had suffered disastrous setbacks. "Both efforts failed," the ISW said, as Prigozhin's attempts...

One consideration for the Ukrainians, the official said, is how much they continue to pour into defending Bakhmut at a time when they are preparing for an offensive to try to drive the Russians out of areas they hold in southern Ukraine.….

"Russian losses are beginning to approach around 180,000 dead or wounded soldiers," Norwegian Chief of Defence Eirik Kristoffersen said in an interview with TV2,...Norway, a country bordering Russia, has been a member of NATO since its founding in 1949. "Ukrainian losses are probably over 100,000 dead or wounded. In addition Ukraine has about 30,000 civilians who died in this terrible war," said the Norwegian general.

The US Treasury Department will designate the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group as a “transnational criminal organization” and will impose additional sanctions next week against the group and its support network across the world, the White House said on Friday. “These actions recognize the transcontinental threat that Wagner poses, including through its ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters on Friday, ahead of the Treasury Department announcement. Along with the new sanctions, the US has released newly declassified photos of Russian railcars traveling from Russia to North Korea and back...

President Biden and his team on Friday marked two years since he was sworn into office, highlighting economic gains and bipartisan achievements that will likely form the backbone of a potential re-election bid. “When I came into office, we had a lot of problems,” Biden told a gathering of bipartisan mayors at the White House. “The pandemic was raging. Our economy was reeling, but we acted together. Now, two years in, it’s clearer than ever our plan is working.” The president gave a wide-ranging speech in which he pointed to infrastructure investments, the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act last...

The mercenaries are a powerful force in the war and are driving Russia's offensive around Bakhmut. But mounting casualties mean recruitment in Russia's prisons is getting harder. The graves are all fresh. Row after row of them, almost identical. The same mound of sandy soil, the same black, red and yellow wreath mounted with a golden star. The same wooden, orthodox cross to mark the grave, though there are some Muslim headstones too. Just the names and the dates on a small bronze plaque to distinguish the lives extinguished. None of them lived to a ripe old age. This is...

Amid indications that Russia is planning to resume offensive operations in spring 2023, Ukraine's allies are scrambling to provide Ukraine with sufficient artillery ammunition.But this requires scouring the globe for munitions to feed Ukraine's polyglot collection of Soviet-designed guns and the dizzying array of howitzers and rocket launchers supplied by various Western countries."Ammunition availability might be the single most important factor that determines the course of the war in 2023, and that will depend on foreign stockpiles and production," US defense experts Michael Kofman and Rob Lee wrote in December for the Foreign Policy Research Institute.The US has vowed to...