4 important things vitamin B12 does to your brain and body
Allana Akhtar – November 25, 2022
Eggs are a good source of vitamin B12.Getty
Vitamin B12 is an essential nutrient for forming red blood cells and DNA.
Without enough B12, a person can have trouble walking, experience memory loss, or TKTK
The body does not make vitamin B12, and it only occurs naturally in animal products.
The 8 “B” vitamins help the body convert food into energy, and all of them play an essential role maintaining healthy hair, nails, eyes, liver, and nervous system, according to Mount Sinai.
Vitamin B12 is a particularly important nutrient because it helps form red blood cells and DNA. Though vitamin B12 deficiencies are rare in the US, vegetarians and vegans are more susceptible to the condition, Dr. Eduardo Villamor, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan, previously told Insider.
Villamor said symptoms of a vitamin B12 deficiency vary with how long a person has been without the nutrient.
Mild vitamin B12 deficiencies result in fatigue, which can sometimes be debilitating; doctors recently diagnosed a woman in the UK who experienced extreme tiredness and trouble walking for years with “dangerously low” vitamin B12 levels.
If someone is concerned about a vitamin deficiency, dietitians and doctors told Insider they recommend talking to their healthcare provider before starting supplement use on their own.
Here are 4 essential roles vitamin B12 plays in the body:
1. Vitamin B12 is essential for creating red blood cells
Vitamin B12 plays a particularly important role in creating red blood cells, which transport oxygen throughout the body.
Vitamin B12 contributes to the complicated process of making hemoglobin, the protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen. B12 activates the chemical “succinyl CoA” that the body eventually turns into hemoglobin.
Without B12, the body cannot make enough hemoglobin to produce fully functioning red blood cells, according to Cleveland Clinic. The lack of healthy red blood cells due to a vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to anemia, which causes pain, trouble walking, memory loss, mood changes, and vision problems.
2. The nutrient plays an important role in DNA formation
Vitamin B12 helps catalyze biological processes that create DNA and RNA, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Per the NIH, people deficient in B12 synthesize DNA slowly. Because DNA is the building block for all cells, people without enough vitamin B12 can develop megaloblastic anemia, when the body produces large, abnormal red blood cells.
According to the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, B12, B1, and B6 are known as the “neurotropic” B vitamins because they play a part in maintaining a healthy central and peripheral nervous system.
Vitamin B12 helps form myelin, which is a protective sheath wrapped around the nerves. Myelin sheaths allows nerves to send electrical impulses to other nerves quickly and efficiently, per Cleveland Clinic.
The nutrient also plays an important role in creating new nerves and repairing nerves after injury, CNS said. A deficiency in B12 can create a “tremendous health problem,” manifesting in a breakdown of the brain’s spinal cord, damage to the nerves outside the brain, and impaired cognitive function.
4. Too little vitamin B12 could weaken bones
Low levels of vitamin B12 has been linked to osteoporosis, or the weakening of bones. A 2015 review found a lack of B12 might trigger the body to make “osteoclasts,” or cells that breakdown bone.
However, too much B12 could also harm your bones. A study of 75,000 post-menopausal woman found those taking supplements that far exceeded the recommended daily amount of B12 had an increased risk for hip fracture.
Combining Olive Oil and Lemon Juice May Have Exponential Health Benefits, According to Science
Nora Miller – November 25, 2022
Lemon juice and olive oil are ingredients that appear in many of our favorite dishes. But did you know that the two — when paired — have tremendous health benefits? On its own, lemon juice supports everything from weight loss to better skin clarity, and the nutritional and wellness value of olive oil is well-known. Together, however, their impact is amplified. Read on to learn how (and why) incorporating the combination of olive oil and fresh lemon juice can improve your health.
What are the health benefits of olive oil?
Olive oil has a rich history. Cleopatra’s famous golden glow is believed to be a result of bathing in olive oil. The Ancient Greeks viewed the olive as a “sacred fruit,” and the Romans associated olive oil with elite society and consumed the liquid to extend longevity. Dubbed the “golden nectar of the gods,” this rich source of healthy fats and antioxidants has been a coveted commodity for centuries. Today, it remains a staple of the Mediterranean diet. Here are some of the reasons olive oil is so special.
It’s packed with polyphenols.
Just a teaspoon of olive oil — specifically, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) — provides an abundance of polyphenols, which are natural bioactive compounds whose antioxidant properties promote wellness. This is good news for those experiencing age-related bone loss. Why? Because according to recent research, polyphenols in olive oil help support bone health by helping to keep oxidative stress in check. What’s more, animal studies reveal that intake of certain polyphenols has produced positive effects on bone mass, resulting in greater strength. In other words, the polyphenols in high-quality olive oil help to promote bone health as part of a complete healthy diet.
This isn’t the only data suggesting olive oils’ importance in maintaining cardiovascular health. In a 2014 review study, researchers found that participants who consumed the most olive oil were almost 10 percent less likely to have heart issues compared to participants who ate the least olive oil. While additional conclusive research is needed, the science around olive oil thus far is promising.
Cleanses and detoxes are believed to flush out waste and toxins that have built up in the body over time. While there aren’t many studies exploring whether olive oil and lemon juice can help detoxify your digestive system, researchers suggest that the antioxidants and polyphenols in the two could be “cleansing” to the body.
Note: If you experience a negative reaction, such as allergies, after consuming olive oil and lemon juice, consult a healthcare professional.
The Final Word
So, do olive oil and lemon juice have combined health benefits? In a word, yes. The fatty acids and minerals in olive oil and the antioxidants and vitamins in lemon juice are believe to improve digestion, prevent premature skin aging, and more. Of course, more research is needed to support these claims, but if you’re looking for a simple way to boost your overall health, consuming olive oil and lemon juice couldn’t hurt.
Keep in mind, though, that olive oil is calorie-dense and lemon juice is acidic, which may harm tooth enamel. If you are watching your calorie intake or have especially sensitive teeth, consume these ingredients in moderation. Lastly, if you have a health condition or are taking prescription medications and are wondering if olive oil and lemon juice is right for you, consult your health care provider or nutritionist for guidance.
This content is not a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Always consult your physician before pursuing any treatment plan.
This article originally appeared on our sister site, Womans World.
Former surgeon general faces his wife’s cancer – and the ‘Trump Effect’
Manuel Roig-Franzia, The Washington Post – November 25, 2022
Former surgeon general faces his wife’s cancer – and the ‘Trump Effect’
Former surgeon general Jerome Adams and his wife, Lacey, often find themselves talking about what they have named the “Trump Effect.”
It followed them from Washington to their home in the Indianapolis suburbs. They felt it when he was exploring jobs in academia, where he would receive polite rejections from university officials who worried that someone who served in the administration of the former president would be badly received by their left-leaning student bodies. They felt it when corporations decided he was too tainted to employ.
Now, two years after Adams left office as only the 20th surgeon general in U.S. history, the couple feel it as acutely as ever. As Donald Trump announced this month that he will run for president again, they had hoped it all would have faded away by now.
They would rather talk about public health, in a very personal way. This summer, Lacey Adams was diagnosed with a third recurrence of melanoma. Both Adamses have been sharing her experiences on social media and in public appearances, hoping to spread a message about skin-cancer prevention. But the stigma of his association with Trump, even though neither of them is a supporter of his political campaign, remains.
Trump is “a force that really does take the air out of the room,” Adams, 48, said. “The Trump hangover is still impacting me in significant ways.” He said the 2024 Trump campaign “will make things more difficult for me.”
The former surgeon general’s predicament underscores one of the givens of today’s political environment: Association with Trump becomes a permanent tarnish, a kind of reverse Midas touch. Whether indicted or shunned or marginalized, a cavalcade of former Trump World figures have foundered in the aftermath of one of the more chaotic presidencies in modern American history.
Lacey saw it coming. She said she “hated Trump” and did not want her husband to leave his comfortable life in Indiana, where he practiced anesthesiology and served as state health commissioner under then-Indiana governor Mike Pence, who was Trump’s vice president when Jerome became surgeon general. Lacey, 46, worried about a lasting “stigma” but her husband talked her into supporting their move by saying he thought he could make a bigger difference inside the administration than outside it, especially when it came to his efforts to combat opioid addiction.
Now Jerome bristles at his forever label as “Trump’s surgeon general,” an image sealed by his highly public role during the much-criticized early White House response to the coronavirus pandemic. Other surgeons general, he feels, have been less intensely identified with the president who appointed them, permitting them to glide into a life of prestigious and sometimes lucrative opportunities, unencumbered by partisan politics.
Not him. “It was a lot harder than he thought to find a landing spot because of the Trump Effect,” Lacey said. For eight months after leaving office, Jerome could not find a job. The couple started to worry about how they would support their three children, especially since Lacey does not work outside the home.
“People still are afraid to touch anything that is associated with Trump,” Jerome said. Though he was quick to add in the interview that he is “not complaining.” He added, “It is context.”
Finally, in September 2021, Purdue University President Mitch Daniels, a former Indiana governor and Republican stalwart, hired Adams as the first executive director of health equity initiatives at the school.
Even as Adams was seeking to define the next chapter of his life, he was engaged in an almost constant battle on social media. His frequent tweets about everything from his personal life to public health issues have invariably drawn attacks from both the right and the left. Rather than ignore his critics, he has often punched back, engaging in Twitter spats that stretch for days.
He has battled on social media over his recommendation that people continue to wear masks in crowded indoor settings, his criticism of President Biden’s declaration of an end to the pandemic and about his advocacy for coronavirus vaccinations for children and for adults to get booster shots. He takes heat from the left for a pro-life stance on abortion and from the right for his opposition to laws that dictate what a doctor can say to a patient about abortion.
“I get mad at him for being addicted to Twitter,” Lacey said. “People hated him because he was part of Trump’s administration. Now the Trump people hate him.”
Carrie Benton, an Ohio medical lab scientist who has tangled with Jerome Adams on social media, is critical of what she considers “blanket statements” he is now making about topics such as masking. But she also feels he should still be held accountable for errors committed by the Trump administration early in the pandemic.
The pushback has done little to dissuade Adams. He invites debate. He wants to argue, genially. He tries to search for ways to use his platform as a former surgeon general that do not turn into politically charged spats.
“It is hard to find an issue,” he said.
In August, an issue found him, and it was precisely the topic that he had hoped would not feel so personal anymore. During a routine follow-up check, doctors discovered tumors on the outside of Lacey’s right thigh.
“Here we go again,” Lacey said to herself.
She had first been diagnosed with melanoma 12 years ago, in 2010, when she spotted a “weird mole.” She had it removed. She thought she was in the clear.
“No big deal,” she said.
As an adolescent growing up in the Midwest, she had been a frequent visitor to tanning beds. She did not worry much about the sun, even though she is very light-skinned. After having the mole removed, she changed her ways. Sunscreen. Long sleeves. She joked that her mother would chase her around with floppy hats. She started getting regular dermatology checks. It was all good. Until it was not.
In early 2018, just as her anesthesiologist husband was starting as surgeon general under Trump, she noticed lumps on her groin while shaving her bikini line. The doctor in her house, newly minted as America’s doctor, was constantly on the go as he sought to get a grasp on his job, serving as a public health advocate and overseeing thousands of members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. “The doctor in my house is my absent-minded professor, always running in 100 directions,” she said.
So Lacey called the doctor next door: her neighbor in Indiana and dear friend, Amy Hoffman, an emergency room physician. When Hoffman realized why her friend was calling, she put her on the speakerphone, so that her husband, an oncologist, could listen in.
He just had one question: Was it on the same side as the melanoma from years earlier? Yes, she said. She could hear the worry in their voices.
“Stop unpacking,” she said they told her. “Stop going to fancy events with your husband. You need to make this a priority.”
She was soon ushered into a special area of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center reserved for high-ranking officials and their families. She was given a fuzzy robe with an embroidered White House logo.
“All of a sudden it is like you are in the Ritz-Carlton,” she recalled, and asked herself, “Why am I deserving of this special attention?”
A scan showed a tumor somewhere between the size of a pea and a grape. She needed to have surgery. Doctors eventually removed 12 lymph nodes, some of which were cancerous. While she was recovering from surgery, still groggy from the anesthesia, her husband came into the room with a request that was hard for her to comprehend through the fog of the drugs: He wanted her Facebook password.
She had taken a selfie at the medical center and posted it to her Facebook page, and she also took a little dig at the administration. The White House was not happy, he told her. They wanted it taken down.
In the months to come, she would again think she had beaten cancer. She underwent a year of immunotherapy treatments. She rang the bell, a tradition among cancer patients completing treatments, at Walter Reed after scans showed she was cancer free.
“Cancer, schmancer,” she thought.
There were other things to worry about. Her husband had come to Washington hoping to focus on opioid addiction, a plague that had hit members of his family. Instead, he was thrust into a much more public role with the arrival of the coronavirus. As the Trump administration struggled with effective responses, the new surgeon general kept setting off firestorms.
He shared a Valentine’s Day poem on social media that said the regular flu was a greater risk than covid and urged people to get flu shots. He told African Americans, who were contracting the coronavirus in disproportionate numbers, to take precautions to protect their “Big Mama.”
In each instance, he fumbled the messaging, making incomplete or poorly explained statements. He asked people not to buy masks because there was a shortage. He said people were at a greater risk of catching the regular flu than covid because projections by the Trump administration, later shown to be inaccurate, suggested more people would get the regular flu.
He used the words “Big Mama,” which led to accusations that he was using Trump-style racist dog whistles, because it was a term of affection in his own family that he thought would help him connect with African Americans.
Those missteps, which Adams has blamed on a partisan atmosphere, drew heavy criticism, which might be expected. What he had not anticipated was how people would come for his loved ones. On social media, trolls called his family ugly. They criticized Adams, who is Black, for marrying a White woman.
While her husband was trying to fend off critics and nasty commenters by sharpening his messaging, Lacey, like many Americans, was putting off medical appointments while limiting her movements because of the risk of contracting the coronavirus. She had a clear scan in January 2020. It was not until July that year that she returned for another scan. It revealed a tumor on her back.
The cancer had returned for a second round: This time it was Stage 4. She started immunotherapy. And again she beat it. For two years she passed routine scans, with good results. Then, this past summer, came the tests that revealed the cancer had returned. His wife cries herself to sleep some nights. He marvels at her resilience.
She has been speaking and writing about the disease that lurks inside her and threatens to deprive her of so many things she looks forward to, like the days her children, now 18, 16 and 12, graduate or get married.
Some days she is too ill from side effects of her treatments to do much. But other times she is full of energy and ready to go. People might look at her and not know she is sick, and that is one of her points: Melanoma is a stealthy disease, the doctors keep telling her. It can hide inside people without any outward signs. She had once had a mole, but other times nothing showed up on her skin. The disease was hiding from her.
She understands that she has been given a platform few have. No one would be listening to a mom from Indiana if she were not the wife of the former surgeon general.
The other day, her husband asked if he could post a photo of her on Twitter. She said for him to go ahead. It showed her in profile, lying in bed with the covers partly obscuring her face, on a day when she was not feeling great. He asked for prayers, but he also gave some advice: “See a dermatologist right away if a mole changes/looks different from your others!”
What happened next was nothing short of amazing to them. People wished the best for Lacey even though they were not fans of Jerome: “I don’t agree with your politics. God bless your sweet wife.” “I’m sorry your wife has cancer, even though I completely disagree with some of your decisions.”
Some people even wanted advice. “Should we worry about a single mole or look for odd shapes and changes in several?” That person did not mention Trump at all. That might be a person they could help. That might be, they dared to imagine, the end of the Trump Effect, and the beginning of a Lacey Effect.
Russia steps up missile barrage of recaptured Ukrainian city
Sam Mednick – November 25, 2022
The body of a woman killed during a Russian attack is covered with an emergency blanket before being transported to the morgue in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. A barrage of missiles struck the recently liberated city of Kherson for the second day Friday in a marked escalation of attacks since Russia withdrew from the city two weeks ago following an eight-month occupation. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) A resident wounded after a Russian attack lies inside an ambulance before being taken to a hospital in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)A volunteer gives free meal to people who lost electrical power after recent Russian rocket attack in a heating point in the town of Vyshhorod, north of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)Ukrainian MLRS Multiple Launch Rocket System takes a position on the frontline at an undisclosed location in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Roman Chop)
KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — Natalia Kristenko’s dead body lay covered in a blanket in the doorway of her apartment building for hours overnight. City workers were at first too overwhelmed to retrieve her as they responded to a deadly barrage of attacks that shook Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson.
The 62-year-old had walked outside her home with her husband Thursday evening after drinking tea when the building was struck. Kristenko was killed instantly from a wound to the head. Her husband died hours later in the hospital from internal bleeding.
“Russians took the two most precious people from me,” their bereft daughter, Lilia Kristenko, 38, said, clutching her cat inside her coat as she watched on in horror Friday as responders finally arrived to transport her mother to the morgue.
“They lived so well, they lived differently,” she told The Associated Press. “But they died in one day.”
A salvo of missiles struck the recently liberated city of Kherson for the second day Friday in a marked escalation of attacks since Russia withdrew from the city two weeks ago following an eight-month occupation. It comes as Russia has stepped up bombardment of Ukraine’s power grid and other critical civilian infrastructure in a bid to tighten the screw on Kyiv. Officials estimate that around 50% of Ukraine’s energy facilities have been damaged in the recent strikes.
The Ukrainian governor of Kherson, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said Friday that Russian shelling attacks killed 10 civilians and wounded 54 others the previous day, with two neighborhoods in the city of Kherson coming “under massive artillery fire.”
The Russian shelling of parts of the Kherson region recently recaptured by Kyiv compelled authorities to transfer hospital patients to other areas, Yanushevych said.
Some children were taken to the southern city of Mykolayiv, and some psychiatric patients went to the Black Sea port of Odesa, which is also under Ukrainian control, Yanushevych wrote on Telegram.
“I remind you that all residents of Kherson who wish to evacuate to safer regions of Ukraine can contact the regional authorities,” he said.
Scores of people were injured in the strikes that hit residential and commercial buildings, lighting some on fire, blowing ash into the air and littering the streets with shattered glass. The attacks wrought destruction on some residential neighborhoods not previously hit in the war that has just entered its tenth month.
After Kristenko’s parents were hit, she tried to call an ambulance but there was no phone network, she said. Her 66-year-old father was clutching his abdominal wound and screaming “it hurts so much I’m doing to die,” she said. He eventually was taken by ambulance to the hospital but died during surgery.
On Friday morning people sifted through what little remained of their destroyed houses and shops. Containers of food lined the floor of a shattered meat store, while across the street customers lined up at a coffee shop where residents said four people died the night before.
“I don’t even know what to say, it was unexpected,” said Diana Samsonova, who works at the coffee shop, which remained open throughout Russia’s occupation and has no plans to close despite the attacks.
Later in the day, a woman was killed, likely from a rocket that hit a grassy patch nearby. Her motionless body lay on the side of the road. The violence is compounding what’s become a dire humanitarian crisis. As Russians retreated, they destroyed key infrastructure, leaving people with little water and electricity.
People have become so desperate they’re finding some salvation amid the wreckage. Outside an apartment building that was badly damaged, residents filled buckets with water that pooled on the ground. Workers at the morgue used puddles to clean their bloody hands.
Valerii Parkhomenko had just parked his car and gone into a coffee shop when a rocket destroyed his vehicle.
“We were all crouching on the floor inside,” he said, showing the ash on his hands. “I feel awful, my car is destroyed, I need this car for work to feed my family,” he said.
Outside shelled apartment buildings residents picked up debris and frantically searched for relatives while paramedics helped the injured.
“I think it’s so bad and I think all countries need to do something about this because it’s not normal,” said Ivan Mashkarynets, a man in his early 20s who was at home with his mother when the apartment block next to him was struck.
“There’s no army, there’s no soldiers. There are just people living here and they’re (still) firing,” he said.
Kherson’s population has dwindled to around 80,000 from its prewar level near 300,000. The government has said it will help people evacuate if they want to, but many say they have no place to go.
“There is no work (elsewhere), there is no work here,” said Ihor Novak as he stood on a street examining the aftermath of the shelling. “For now, the Ukrainian army is here and with them we hope it will be safer.”
Mstyslav Chernov and Bernat Armangue in Kherson contributed reporting.
Krull: House Republicans plan to investigate things that don’t matter to most Americans
John Krull – November 24, 2022
INDIANAPOLIS — Some people are slow learners.
And some people never learn at all.
The members of the Republican caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives belong to one of those two groups. The next two years will tell us which one.
Fresh from a midterm election that fell far, far, far short of both Republican expectations and historic norms for parties out of power, the House GOP firebreathers announced their priorities for the coming legislative session, one in which they will have one of the slimmest majorities in American history.
Most sensible politicians would use a moment such as this to lay a foundation for future growth. They would outline an agenda featuring plans and programs designed to sway independent or undecided voters. They would use their platform to persuade.
But that’s not the way the deep thinkers in the House Republican caucus approach things. Their agenda is simple.
They plan a series of investigations — and every one of those investigations will be designed to appeal to the narrowing base of supporters that already supports the GOP.
The Republicans say they will investigate President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, even though there already are several criminal investigations into the younger Biden’s conduct, and he likely will be indicted soon.
They plan to investigate the U.S.-Mexico border “crisis.” Maybe that investigation will determine why Republicans made top-heavy tax cuts for billionaires their legislative priority rather than border security from 2017 to 2019, when they controlled the presidency, both chambers of Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.
But I wouldn’t count on it.
The Javerts in the House also intend to dive into the U.S. withdrawal from the Afghanistan War, the cause of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Of these, only the study of the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle doesn’t seem exclusively partisan in nature.
It’s doubtful, though, that House Republicans will ask the essential question about that costly episode, which is: Once the United States has plunged into a long-term military conflict without an exit strategy in mind, how should we go about extricating ourselves?
The other investigations are nothing more than attempts to throw chunks of red meat to the most rabid and snarling parts of the Republican base. The House GOP brain trust seems to think this is a winning political strategy. They’re wrong about that — for at least two reasons.
The first is none of these investigations connects in any way to the lives of average Americans.
The strongest message Republicans had in the 2022 election focused on the economy and the unease many — perhaps even most — Americans feel regarding galloping inflation.
Voters in the suburbs — once a Republican bastion but now the battlefield in which elections for at least the next decade will be decided — worry the good lives they’ve built for themselves and their families will slip away, one price increase at a time.
Inflationary pressures on the world economy aren’t likely to go away any time soon, so House Republicans could spend their political capital fashioning programs designed to alleviate those concerns. They could create a system of targeted tax cuts aimed at helping the middle class offset costs in other areas.
But no.
The Republicans are going to focus on wooing the voters already with them.
They might as well send every embattled suburban GOP candidate out to campaign wearing a sign reading: “Please send me back to make noise and spend your tax money while accomplishing nothing.”
The second reason the GOP strategy is wrong is that it’s based on a mistaken premise.
The problem with that thinking is Clinton was damaged goods long before the investigation started. For nearly 20 years, she had carried historically high negatives. Polls showed that four out of 10 voters wouldn’t cast a ballot for her under any circumstances, which meant she had to persuade five out of the remaining six to support her.
That’s a tall order.
Joe Biden never has aroused the levels of animosity both Clintons did and do and, if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee again, Biden likely won’t do anything more than say: “Vote for me because I’m not him.”
Republicans have been down this road before.
Pity they didn’t learn anything along the way.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The views expressed are those of the author only and should not be attributed to Franklin College.
Russia Risks Knockout Blow in War as Putin Hits Rock Bottom
Tom Mutch – November 24, 2022
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
SOUTHERN ENGLAND—After a string of Russian defeats in the war, U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is urging Ukraine to “keep up the pressure, keep up the momentum” and continue their rapid-fire attacks on Vladimir Putin’s forces through the winter months.
“Given the advantage the Ukrainians have in equipment training and quality of their personnel against the demoralized, poorly trained, poorly equipped Russians, it would be in the Ukraine’s interest to maintain momentum through the winter,” Wallace said. “They have 300,000 pieces of arctic warfare kit, from the international community”—a crucial requirement for any winter offensive.
Wallace told The Daily Beast that this was the advice he would give to his Ukrainian counterparts, who he speaks to “almost weekly.” He praised the Ukrainians for shocking the world by showcasing their own courage and skills, as well as the huge deficiencies in the Russian armed forces.
The intervention comes at a time when senior American officials have tried to nudge Ukraine away from the battlefield and towards the negotiating table.
Two weeks ago, General Mark Milley, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that, because Ukraine may not reach a full victory on the battlefield, it should use the expected slowdown in military operations over the winter as a “window” for discussions with the Russians.
But President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared that he will not negotiate with Russia while Putin remains in power, and has said that any settlement must end with Ukraine in control of all its post-independence territories, including the Donbas and Crimea.
In an exclusive interview at a British army base in the south of England, Wallace instead suggested this was the time for Ukraine to press its advantage, pointing to the dire quality of the Russian armed forces.
“A Russian unit was recently deployed with no food and no socks, and not many guns. That is catastrophic for a person going in the field… The Russians have scale, but are not very good. Well, most of the good ones are dead,” he said. “They are a meat grinder—they shove them in the meat grinder—and use massive quantities of artillery. Only a nation that does not care for its own people could send 100,000 of its own people to be either dead, injured, or deserted.”
Ukrainian soldiers ride on a self-propelled artillery 2S1 Gvozdika outside Bakhmut on Nov. 9, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images
As we spoke last week, the crack and whistle of rifle bullets rang out behind him, from a practice range where a team of trainers from the British and New Zealand militaries were instructing Ukrainian forces. Around 5,000 Ukrainian troops have already been through a grueling three-to-five-week training program designed to give them a crash course in the basics of modern combat.
The program is run by the U.K., with trainers being sent from countries including Canada, New Zealand, and Norway. They are taught stripped-down infantry tactics with a focus on “survivability and lethality,” as one trainer put it. Many are sent straight to the front lines upon finishing. Overhead, you could hear the whir of the rotor blades from a British military helicopter as it descended to collect Wallace and his New Zealand counterpart.
In his interview with The Daily Beast, Wallace also slammed successive U.K. and European governments for decades of neglect of their armed forces.
When asked what he had learned from his experiences visiting and working with his Ukrainian counterparts, he said: “I can speak for my own and some others in Europe, it looks good at the front—but under the bonnet, ammunition stocks, maintenance, availability, reliability of our equipment, and the readiness of our soldiers to go anywhere has been hollowed out for decades.”
He noted that a variety of global crises, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the COVID pandemic, and the rise of China has meant that “the world is more anxious” and aware of “the need for resilience… and the military can do resilience, that is our middle name.”
A Ukrainian soldier of an artillery unit fires towards Russian positions outside Bakhmut on Nov. 8, 2022.Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images
The U.K. has often taken a more upbeat view of Ukraine’s prospects than some of its other partners, including the United States. One senior Ukrainian military official who works on liaising with foreign militaries said that British commitment went “well above” that of most other countries.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military details, he noted that officials at the U.K’s Ministry of Defence were “extraordinarily committed,” often working regular overtime and weekends at key points of the military campaign.
“If our armed forces need a particular vehicle or piece of weaponry, the Brits will search through the military catalogs of different countries, and find what we need,” he added, citing the Australian Bushmaster as an example.
The Ukrainian military official also mentioned former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s early and regular trips to Kyiv to meet with Zelensky as an important factor in boosting Ukrainian morale and demonstrating international support. While Johnson is mostly disgraced in his home country, he remains a folk hero in Ukraine, appearing on murals, T-shirts, coffee mugs, and beer cans.
Wallace would speak to who was responsible for last week’s deadly missile incident in Poland, but noted that the “missiles were flying around that part of the world because Russia fired 80 missiles into civilian infrastructure. It is against the Geneva Convention, but that does not stop Mr. Putin.”
Russia tells its troops there must be 5 million of them for victory
Ukrainska Pravda – November 24, 2022
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports that the military and political command of Russia is spreading a document called “Conclusions of the war with NATO in Ukraine” among the military. It is stated in the document that 5 million Russian troops must be deployed in order for Russia to win.
Source: Ukrinform; Oleksii Hromov, the deputy head of the Main Operative Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, at the briefing
Quote: “A part of this ‘masterpiece’ [‘Conclusions of the war with NATO in Ukraine’ – ed.] among other things focuses of the main problems of the Russian occupying forces such as the commanders’ inability to command troops, low level of discipline and military training, obsolescence of armament and military equipment, commanders’ inability to make decisions without obligatorily coordinating them with higher command etc. Meanwhile it is stated in every document that the Defence Forces of Ukraine have a quite high level of equipment, and commanders on all levels can make decisions in combat conditions themselves.
It is also stated in the document that there has not been such a war in the previous 80 years, and Russia needs its army to consist of nearly 5 million troops in order to win.”
Details: Hromov remarked that according to the estimates of some Russian offices, it may hint at the next mobilisation wave and implementing martial law in the country.
Responding to the question whether the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is also writing a document concerning the needs of the Defense Forces of Ukraine in case the Russian Army is extended, Hromov said that this process is always ongoing.
After Russian retreat, Ukrainian military plans next move
Sam Mednick – November 24, 2022
A sniper unit aims towards Russian positions during an operation, Kherson region, southern Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022. The Ukrainian sniper adjusted his scope, fired a.50-caliber bullet and said he saw a Russian soldier fall across the Dnieper River. Another Ukrainian used a drone to scan for Russian troops. Two weeks after retreating from from the southern city of Kherson, Russia is pounding the territory across the Dnieper with artillery. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)A destroyed school on the outskirts of a recently liberated village outskirts of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. The Russian withdrawal from the only provincial capital it gained in nine months of war was one of Moscow most significant battlefield losses. Now that its troops hold a new front line, the Ukrainian military said through a spokesman, the army is planning its next move. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)A destroyed school on the outskirts of a recently liberated village outskirts of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. The Russian withdrawal from the only provincial capital it gained in nine months of war was one of Moscow most significant battlefield losses. Now that its troops hold a new front line, the Ukrainian military said through a spokesman, the army is planning its next move. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)Residents queue to fill containers with drinking water in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. The Russian withdrawal from the only provincial capital it gained in nine months of war was one of Moscow most significant battlefield losses. Now that its troops hold a new front line, the Ukrainian military said through a spokesman, the army is planning its next move.(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File) Residents plug in mobile phones and power banks at a charging point in downtown Kherson, southern Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. The Russian withdrawal from the only provincial capital it gained in nine months of war was one of Moscow most significant battlefield losses. Now that its troops hold a new front line, the Ukrainian military said through a spokesman, the army is planning its next move. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)Residents talk on the phone next to a monument with a recently paint Ukrainian flag in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. The Russian withdrawal from the only provincial capital it gained in nine months of war was one of Moscow most significant battlefield losses. Now that its troops hold a new front line, the Ukrainian military said through a spokesman, the army is planning its next move. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)Valeriy Gregoryevich points at the other side of the Dnipro river where Russian positions are fortified as he and other residents collect water from the river bank in the recently liberated city of Kherson, southern Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 21, 2022. The Russian withdrawal from the only provincial capital it gained in nine months of war was one of Moscow most significant battlefield losses. Now that its troops hold a new front line, the Ukrainian military said through a spokesman, the army is planning its next move. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian sniper adjusted his scope and fired a.50-caliber bullet at a Russian soldier across the Dnieper River. Earlier, another Ukrainian used a drone to scan for Russian troops.
Two weeks after retreating from the southern city of Kherson, Russia is pounding the town with artillery as it digs in across the Dnieper River.
Ukraine is striking back at Russian troops with its own long-distance weapons, and Ukrainian officers say they want to capitalize on their momentum.
The Russian withdrawal from the only provincial capital it gained in nine months of war was one of Moscow’s most significant battlefield losses. Now that its troops hold a new front line, the army is planning its next move, the Ukrainian military said through a spokesman.
Ukrainian forces can now strike deeper into the Russian-controlled territories and possibly push their counteroffensive closer to Crimea, which Russia illegally captured in 2014.
Russian troops continue to establish fortifications, including trench systems near the Crimean border and some areas between the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east.
In some locations, new fortifications are up to 60 kilometers (37 miles) behind the current front lines, suggesting that Russia is preparing for more Ukrainian breakthroughs, according to the British Ministry of Defense.
“The armed forces of Ukraine seized the initiative in this war some time ago,” said Mick Ryan, military strategist and retired Australian army major general. “They have momentum. There is no way that they will want to waste that.”
Crossing the river and pushing the Russians further back would require complicated logistical planning. Both sides have blown up bridges across the Dnieper.
“This is what cut Russians’ supply lines and this is also what will make any further Ukrainian advance beyond the left bank of the river more difficult,” said Mario Bikarski, an analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit.
In a key battlefield development this week, Kyiv’s forces attacked Russian positions on the Kinburn Spit, a gateway to the Black Sea basin, as well as parts of the southern Kherson region still under Russian control. Recapturing the area could help Ukrainian forces push into Russian-held territory in the Kherson region “under significantly less Russian artillery fire” than if they directly crossed the Dnieper River, said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. Control of the area would help Kyiv alleviate Russian strikes on Ukraine’s southern seaports and allow it to increase its naval activity in the Black Sea, the think tank added.
Some military experts say there’s a possibility the weather might disproportionately harm poorly-equipped Russian forces and allow Ukraine to take advantage of frozen terrain and move more easily than during the muddy autumn months, ISW said.
Russia’s main task, meanwhile, is to prevent any further retreats from the broader Kherson region and to strengthen its defense systems over Crimea, said Bikarski, the analyst. Ryan, the military strategist, said Russia will use the winter to plan its 2023 offensives, stockpile ammunition and continue its campaign targeting critical infrastructure including power and water plants.
Russia’s daily attacks are already intensifying. Last week a fuel depot was struck in Kherson, the first time since Russia withdrew. This week at least one person was killed and three wounded by Russian shelling, according to the Ukrainian president’s office. Russian airstrikes damaged key infrastructure before Russia left, creating a dire humanitarian crisis. Coupled with the threat of attack, that is adding a layer of stress, say many who weathered Russia’s occupation and are leaving, or considering it.
Ukrainian authorities this week began evacuating civilians from recently liberated parts of Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, fearing lack of heat, power and water due to Russian shelling will make winter unlivable.
Boarding a train on Monday, Tetyana Stadnik has decided to go after waiting for the liberation of Kherson.
“We are leaving now because it’s scary to sleep at night. Shells are flying over our heads and exploding. It’s too much,” she said. “We will wait until the situation gets better. And then we will come back home.”
Others in the Kherson region have decided to stay despite living in fear.
“I’m scared,” said Ludmilla Bonder a resident of the small village of Kyselivka. “I still sleep fully clothed in the basement.”
Bill Barr says Trump will ‘burn the whole house down’ and destroy the GOP if he doesn’t win the 2024 nomination
Tom Porter – November 23, 2022
Former Attorney General Bill Barr and former President Donald TrumpDrew Angerer/Getty Images
Former Attorney General Bill Barr discussed Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign in an op-ed.
He said Trump’s “narcissism” means he would be unable to accept losing the GOP nomination race.
Barr is a former Trump loyalist, who has recently turned against his ex-boss.
Former Attorney Bill Barr said that Donald Trump would seek to destroy the Republican Party if defeated in his bid to become its 2024 presidential nominee.
He said that if Trump loses the nomination, it could tear the GOP apart.
“Unless the rest of the party goes along with him, he will burn the whole house down by leading ‘his people’ out of the GOP,” Barr said, referring to the former president’s hardline supporters in the party.
“Trump’s willingness to destroy the party if he does not get his way is not based on principle, but on his own supreme narcissism,” Barr wrote.
“His egoism makes him unable to think of a political party as anything but an extension of himself — a cult of personality.”
Barr is among Republicans claiming the the divisive and flawed candidates Trump endorsed are the reason for the party’s failure to win control of the Senate, and to only secure a small House majority.
“The GOP’s poor performance in the recent midterms was due largely to Trump’s mischief,” said Barr, citing his candidate choice, failure to provide proper funding, and stoking of internal GOP divisions.
Trump announced his candidacy at a relatively muted event at Mar-a-Lago last week amid mounting criticism of his midterm strategy. Meanwhile, momentum is building behind his rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Barr in the op-ed said it was time for new leadership in the Republican Party.
“It is painfully clear from his track record in both the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms that Donald Trump is neither capable of forging this winning coalition nor delivering the decisive and durable victory required,” Barr said.
“Indeed, among the current crop of potential nominees, Trump is the person least able to unite the party and the one most likely to lose the general election,” he added.
Ukrainians work to restore power to nuclear plants as country freezes
Pavel Polityuk and Tom Balmforth – November 23, 2022
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine restored power on Thursday to two of its four nuclear power plants but much of the country remained consigned to freezing darkness by the most devastating Russian air strikes on its energy infrastructure so far.
Viewed from space, Ukraine has become a dark patch on the globe at night, satellite images released by NASA showed, following repeated barrages of Russian missiles in recent weeks.
With temperatures falling below zero, authorities were working to get the lights and heat back on. Russia’s latest missile barrage killed 10 people and shut down all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants for the first time in 40 years.
Regional authorities in Kyiv said power had been restored to three quarters of the capital by Thursday morning and water was working again in some areas. Transport was back up and running in the city, with buses replacing electric trams.
Authorities hoped to restart the three nuclear power plants in Ukrainian-held territory by the end of the day. By early evening, officials said a reactor at one of them, the Khmelnytskyi nuclear plant, had been reconnected to the grid.
The vast Zaporizhzhia plant in Russian-held territory also had to activate backup diesel power but it too was reconnected on Thursday, Ukrainian nuclear power company Energoatom said.
Since early October, Russia has attacked energy targets across Ukraine about once a week, each time firing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of missiles to knock out Ukraine’s power grid.
Moscow acknowledges attacking basic infrastructure, saying its aim is to reduce Ukraine’s ability to fight and push it to negotiate. Kyiv says such attacks are clearly intended to harm civilians, making them a war crime.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was Kyiv’s fault Ukrainians were suffering because it refused to yield to Moscow’s demands, which he did not spell out. Ukraine says it will only stop fighting when all Russian forces have left.
“What is there to talk about? I think that the first step should come from them. For starters, they have to stop shelling us,” said 27-year-old Olena Shafinska, queuing at a water pump in a park in central Kyiv with a group of friends.
Nuclear officials say interruptions in power can disrupt cooling systems and cause an atomic disaster.
“There is a real danger of a nuclear and radiation catastrophe being caused by firing on the entire territory of Ukraine with Russian cruise and ballistic missiles,” Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom said.
“Russia must answer for this shameful crime.”
WEAPONISING WINTER
Winter has arrived abruptly in Ukraine and temperatures were well below freezing in the capital, a city of three million. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “clearly weaponising winter to inflict immense suffering on the Ukrainian people”.
The Russian president “will try to freeze the country into submission,” she added.
There was no prospect of action from the Security Council, where Russia wields a veto. Moscow’s U.N. ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, said it was against council rules for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to appear via video as he did on Wednesday, and rejected what he called “reckless threats and ultimatums” by Ukraine and its supporters in the West.
He blamed damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure on its air defence missiles and said the West should stop supplying them.
Ukrainian authorities said three apartment blocks were hit on Wednesday, killing ten people.
“Our little one was sleeping. Two years old. She was sleeping, she got covered. She is alive, thanks be to God,” said a man who gave his name as Fyodr, dragging a suitcase as he walked away from a smouldering apartment building hit in Kyiv.
Also in the capital, performers and staff members of the Kyiv National Academic Operetta Theater tearfully bid farewell to 26-year-old ballet dancer Vadym Khlupianets who was killed fighting Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow has shifted to the tactic of striking Ukraine’s infrastructure even as Kyiv has inflicted battlefield defeats on Russian forces since September. Russia has also declared the annexation of land it occupies and called up hundreds of thousands of reservists.
The war’s first winter will now test whether Ukraine can press on with its campaign to recapture territory, or whether Russia’s commanders can keep their invasion forces supplied and find a way to halt Kyiv’s momentum.
Having retreated, Russia has a far shorter line to defend to hold on to seized lands, with more than a third of the front now blocked off by the Dnipro River.
“Ukraine will slowly grow in capabilities, but a continued maneuver east of the Dnipro River and into Russian-occupied Donbas will prove to be much tougher fights,” tweeted Mark Hertling, a former commander of U.S. ground forces in Europe.
“Ukrainian morale will be tested with continued Russian attacks against civilian infrastructure … but Ukraine will persevere.”
Russia has been pressing an offensive of its own along the front line west of the city of Donetsk, held by Moscow’s proxies since 2014. Ukraine said Russian forces tried again to advance on their main targets, Bakhmut and Avdiivka, with only limited success.
Further south, Russian forces were digging in on the eastern bank of the Dnipro, shelling areas across it including the city of Kherson, recaptured by Ukrainian forces this month.
Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield accounts.
Moscow says it is carrying out a “special military operation” to protect Russian speakers in what Putin calls an artificial state carved from Russia. Ukraine and the West call the invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.
(Additional reporting by Stefaniia Bern and Reuters bureauxWriting by Peter Graff, Alexandra Hudson, Philippa Fletcher, Editing by William Maclean)
