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Ukraine's top commander said on Sunday Russian forces aimed to capture the town of Chasiv Yar by May 9, setting the stage for an important battle for control of high ground in the east where Russia is focusing its assaults. The fall of the town west of the shattered city of Bakhmut by the date Moscow marks the Soviet victory in World War Two would indicate growing Russian battlefield momentum as Kyiv faces a slowdown in Western military aid. Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who warned this weekend that the situation in the east had deteriorated, said Russia was focusing its...

The last week of November is setting up to be a pivotal week in Ukraine’s futile effort to fend off the Russian military. Russia is clobbering Kiev and other parts of western Ukraine with drone hordes that are wreaking havoc on military depots and electric power nodes. In Kiev, the rift between President Zelensky and General Zaluzhny is widening, with rumors swirling that Zelensky will order a full mobilization of Ukraine that will draft 17 to 70 year old civilians, including women. (snip) Zelensky’s efforts to hide the staggering losses of Ukrainian troops took a major hit when Ukrainian TV...

Russia planned to start the invasion with a "massive missile and airstrike campaign" against Ukrainian military targets, RUSI says, with a list also showing who should be killed, who would be intimidated and who would be targeted as a collaborator. A British defence and security think tank has revealed details of Moscow's pre-invasion plan for Ukraine, based on captured Russian documents apparently signed off by Vladimir Putin. Russia had planned to take over Ukraine over 10 days and annex it by August this year, the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov argued on Thursday that Russia's latest attacks against Ukraine's power grid weren't aimed at the civilian population, urging Kiev to "end the suffering" of its people by accepting Moscow's terms to end the war. Russia's requests for ending the attacks include Ukraine proclaiming political and military neutrality, recognizing Crimea as Russian territory and granting independence to Donetsk and Lugansk.Despite millions of Ukrainians currently without power across the country, Peskov told reporters that Russia's military pays "special attention to avoid striking social targets... As for targets that are directly or indirectly related to military potential, they are...

Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley urged Kyiv and Moscow to find a "political solution" as the winter months loom, warning that the chances of a total military victory was "unlikely." "You want to negotiate from a position of strength. Russia right now is on its back," Milley told reporters following the 7th session of the Ukraine Contact Group. "The probability of Russia achieving its strategic objectives of conquering Ukraine…is close to zero." But he also warned that Russia’s ability to pull more men into its ranks despite substantial losses and the fact that it still occupies...

Chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told lawmakers that Kyiv may not withstand the first 72 hours of Russian invasion and that it could fall in less than 3 days, Fox News reported citing multiple sources with the United States Congress. Milley reportedly warned lawmakers in this week's closed-door briefings, adding that around 15,000 Ukrainian troops and 4,000 Russian troops could lose their lives if Moscow chooses to invade.

The staggeringly high rate of Russian casualties in Ukraine means that President Vladimir V. Putin may not be able to achieve one of his key war objectives: seizing the entire eastern region of the country this year, officials in the Biden administration and military experts say. With 500 Russian troops killed or wounded every day, according to the latest estimate by American intelligence and military officials, Russia’s war effort has decelerated to a grinding slog, the officials said.

MOSCOW (AP) — With Russia’s military action in Ukraine in its fifth month, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned Kyiv that it should quickly accept Moscow’s terms or brace for the worst, adding ominously that Russia has barely started its action. Speaking at a meeting with leaders of the Kremlin-controlled parliament, Putin accused Western allies of fueling the hostilities, charging that “the West wants to fight us until the last Ukrainian.” “It’s a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it looks like it’s heading in that direction,” he added. “Everybody should know that largely speaking, we haven’t even yet...