Author: John Hanno

Business Insider

Leaked document shows Russia is preparing for ‘a massive medical emergency’ of Ukraine war casualties

Bethany Dawson – February 26, 2022

• Leaked documents sent to ITV News show that Russia is preparing for a major medical event.
• The health ministry is compiling lists of medical professionals for deployment.
• A Ukrainian military official said that this could show that Putin “has the intention to go until the end.”

Leaked documents show that Russia is preparing for many casualties caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and is preparing to draft civilian medics from across the country, said ITV News.

The documents, sent exclusively to ITV news and signed by Deputy Health Minister Plutnitsky, ask medical teams “to be promptly involved in activities aimed at saving lives & preserving the health of people in Russia.”

Emma Burrows, ITV’s news editor, wrote that it “indicates Russia is anticipating a massive medical emergency” and could be forced to deploy doctors and medics from health organizations across the country.

It requests that medical institutions send a list of medical specialists and their details to the Russian health ministry to deploy them when needed. Medics that it is looking for include trauma, heart, maxillofacial and pediatric surgeons, anesthetists, radiologists, nurses (including for operating rooms), and infectious disease specialists.

The document states that these people will be paid by the “Federal Center of Medical Disasters.”

A Ukrainian military official told ITV news that this document shows that the Russians “did not expect to face such a level of resistance and losses” and that they are “far from achieving their goals” of a quick, surprise attack.

They also added that this leaked document could show that Putin intends to “go until the end, despite huge losses of personnel.”

An intelligence update by the UK Ministry of Defence on February 26 stated that “Russian casualties are likely to be heavy and greater than anticipated or acknowledged by the Kremlin.”

According to the official Ukrainian Parliamentary Telegram channel, the Ukrainian military has killed over 3,000 Russian troops and captured 200. Mykhailo Podoliak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is quoted in Ukrainian media saying, “this shows that Ukraine has not just survived, Ukraine is winning!”

Vice News

Lt. Col. Vindman: Trump ‘Absolutely’ at Fault for Russia’s Ukraine Invasion

By Cameron Joseph – February 26, 2022

“It’s because of Trump’s corruption that we have a less capable, less prepared Ukraine,” retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman told VICE News.

The man who played a key role in then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment says Trump’s attempts to coerce Ukraine for a quid pro quo played a big role in undercutting the country’s ability to fight off a Russian invasion.

Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman served as the director of European affairs on Trump’s National Security Council, and was on the call when Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “do us a favor” and dig up dirt on now-President Joe Biden. 

Trump was impeached by the House in late 2019 for demanding that Ukraine investigate Biden while withholding hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of military aid the embattled country needed to defend itself against Russia. The Trump administration eventually released the aid, but not before a lengthy delay that strained the countries’ relations and clearly emboldened Putin.

Vindman was a key witness in that trial.

Trump and his allies vilified Vindman in response, smearing the 20-year Army veteran with accusations of dual loyalty because he was born in Ukraine (and implicitly because he’s Jewish). Vindman was reassigned from that job in early 2020, likely as punishment for speaking out. He’s now suing.

Vindman told VICE News on Friday that Trump’s decision to withhold the badly needed military aid hurt the country’s ability to defend itself—and emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin. And while Vindman doesn’t let President Biden off the hook, he puts much of the blame for Putin’s invasion squarely on Trump.

“It’s because of Trump’s corruption that we have a less capable, less prepared Ukraine,” Vindman said.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Cameron Joseph: For those of our readers who don’t remember every detail of the first impeachment, can you explain what you heard President Trump ask of President Zelenskyy in July 2019?

Alexander Vindman: I was coordinating a policy of support for Ukraine. It was a new government; the Zelenzskyy government won in a landslide, under a mandate to further integrate with the West. And the entire U.S. government apparatus, recognizing that we had this looming threat of Russia, decided that it was appropriate to invest in the relationship with Ukraine. 

This isn’t out of thin air either. This was as a result of the national security strategy that Donald Trump himself signed in 2017. Operating under that guidance, I had put together a number of plans to support Ukraine.

Really the only person that was at odds was Donald Trump, and his really tight group of minions.

There were strange inquiries coming down on security assistance, this aid that is now proving to be critically important to Ukrainian armed forces defending themselves—and ultimately a hold on security assistance.

And it culminated in this phone call where the president attempted to extort President Zelenskyy. He demanded an investigation into Joe Biden in exchange for support to Ukraine.

Do you think Trump’s efforts at quid pro quo might have emboldened Vladimir Putin? What impact do you think they had?

There’s no question. 

Based on Trump’s temperature toward Ukraine, I think Vladimir Putin believed that in a second Trump term [Putin] could have just waltzed in, NATO potentially would have been destroyed, and Ukraine would have been handed on a silver platter.

But that didn’t turn out. Instead, you had the American public reject Trump and Trumpism at least in sufficient numbers [for President Biden] to win the legal, lawful, proper election. And then the former president attempted to launch a coup and drive hyperpartisanship toward extremism and weaken the United States.

To the people who don’t necessarily follow it, it could seem far-fetched; they might tie these events to Joe Biden. But look at the timing of when this [Russian military] buildup first started. It started in the spring of 2021, just weeks after the [Jan. 6 Capitol] insurrection. Donald Trump didn’t recede into the history books, he didn’t go into quiet retirement. He continued to perpetuate this big lie and sow discord, and Vladimir Putin saw an opportunity in that.

This is 20 years building. But it was a slow creep until you get to the Trump administration, and there’s a big lurch forward. We were almost at a point of no return at that point.

By the time President Biden comes into power, you have all these vulnerabilities and opportunities. From Putin’s perspective, there’s this distracted, enfeebled superpower that’s casting its eyes further afield towards long term competition with China and the price to normalize and stabilize the relationship with Russia was a sphere of influence. 

There are other things that we could have done differently as this ramped up. Now we find ourselves in a different world, in a world that we haven’t actually experienced in decades, in generations.

Do you think Putin would have invaded Ukraine if Trump hadn’t signaled that he didn’t care that much about the country? Would we be here?

Trump is the megaphone, but it’s Tucker Carlson playing on Russian airwaves. It’s Mike Pompeo cheerleading for Putin. It’s these folks that suggest that there’s a division not just within the American public but within the elites. That firm resolve for the traditional Republican Party about staking out a strong position on national security isn’t there. Those are opportunities that these folks presented. 

They have blood on their hands because if they weren’t acting against America’s interests in aiding and abetting our most belligerent aggressive enemy then we may not have ended up here.

I think this is about opportunity, the vulnerability that Donald Trump and his henchmen have offered Vladimir Putin.

Trump delayed military aid for Ukraine as he tried to squeeze Zelenskyy. Do you think that had any impact on Ukraine’s preparedness for an invasion?

Absolutely. 

He arrested what should have been a very, very robust relationship. The entire U.S. government was behind this idea of  a magnified cooperation with Ukraine to help nurture it move forward towards the West. The pillars of that were economic, they were going to be in the energy sector, they were going to be political, to help move them on reforms and anticorruption. They were going to undergird Zelenskyy’s newfound strength to conduct these types of reforms. It was also going to be on security cooperation.

So not only did he arrest all that, but the opportunity cost for the next several years, going all the way through the rest of the Trump administration and kind of a slow ramp up for the Biden administration. We lost that time. 

All that time, Ukraine could have been hardening. It could have been preparing, it could have been making itself unpalatable [for invasion]. It’s because of Trump’s corruption that we have a less capable, less prepared Ukraine.

You emigrated from Ukraine when you were a toddler and have worked professionally with folks in the country since then. Who have you talked to since the invasion began? What have you heard from them?

I don’t really have any family to speak of [left in Ukraine]. My family all emigrated; we came as refugees. We had the rest of our family come over in subsequent decades. But I do have friends and colleagues that are over there.

I haven’t spoken to many since the war started. It’s only been 36 hours, it feels like it’s been much longer than that. But it’s really quite disturbing. People are very fearful.

I’ve talked to people here that have family members there who are panicked, trying to figure out what to do, how to protect their family.

Do you think that Russia would have invaded Ukraine if Trump had taken a firmer line toward Russia and been more supportive of Ukraine?

Trump had a deep animosity toward Ukraine. We all know now about the conspiracy theories about the CrowdStrike servers, CrowdStrike being a Ukrainian enterprise, Hillary Clinton’s emails and the criticism he received for his inane commentary on Ukraine when he was a candidate, and of course Paul Manafort being tripped up. The idea that he was going to be supportive of Ukraine just seems far-fetched to me.

Put another way, if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016, do you think Putin would be in Ukraine right now?

That is a hard thing to say. Maybe not. 

We’ve lurched toward confrontation because we weren’t pushing back on Russian aggression. We lurched under Trump. Without that lurch, we would still have maybe that opportunity to avert this catastrophe. And it’s not a catastrophe simply for Ukraine; it’s a catastrophe for our Euro-Atlantic alliance and for a rules-based order.

Putin was certainly concerned about Hillary Clinton taking a firmer line with him. Maybe it didn’t have to happen in 2022, but there was eventually going to be a reckoning unless we recognized Russia as belligerent and started to impose costs for its aggression.

Do you think Putin stops at Ukraine? Are you concerned he might turn his attention to the Baltic states or other NATO allies? How do you see this playing out?

There have been other conflicts, but we haven’t had this kind of massive military offensive in Europe, which is the bedrock, the core of our vital interests. It’s the combined power of the U.S. and NATO together that really keep the world on some sort of peaceful trajectory. President Putin’s own rhetoric suggests his wandering eyes will look toward Moldova and Georgia and Finland.

I think NATO allies are a high bar. Their collective defense architecture will hold firm.

What do you think could draw in American or NATO boots on the ground in actual combat?

One of the things that concerns me is the scale of this. We’re seeing just the first 36 hours. We have to remember our involvement in the Balkans [in the 1990s] was very reluctant. And it was the human catastrophe that unfolded that ultimately drew us in. So there might be a clamor from that standpoint. I think it’s unlikely, but there could be an accident or miscalculation that could draw us in. It could be a cyberattack with spillage over Ukraine’s borders into Europe and the U.S. that could draw us in. 

There are different potential scenarios that are dangerous here. That’s why we should have done more.

What do you want to see the U.S. do to continue to support Ukraine militarily going forward, and do you expect that this will happen?

It’s military, informational, it’s diplomatic, and it’s economic. It’s a full-court press to isolate Russia, a full-court press to build consensus around the alliance and around our partners that feel that Russia’s actions have crossed a line. It’s a full-court press on China, frankly, to play a constructive role here as a rising superpower.

Open the spigot from the extremely wealthy West. Why are we talking about relatively paltry sums of a billion dollars? Open up the spigot, talk about rebuilding Ukraine.

On the military side, there’s more to be said there. Right now it’s particularly dangerous. There are a lot of things we could have done two days ago, maybe even with boots on the ground in a humanitarian role, that we can’t do now.

There should be a new partnership formed between NATO and Ukraine built around the notion of supporting them through this existential crisis for them. We should do something like lend-lease, basically provisioning them like we did with Russia, the Soviet Union against the Nazis, with whatever they need in order to conduct this war and defend themselves.

That doesn’t violate the rules of the road we operated under during the Cold War. We never went to blows directly with the Soviet Union, but there are multiple instances of Russia supporting our adversaries or us supporting their adversaries. Afghanistan, Korea, Vietnam are just the ones that rise to mind. The rules of the road were no direct confrontation, but indirectly supporting proxies was totally within bounds.

Once Biden was in office, what if anything could he have done to avoid this? I know you’ve been critical of how he handled this.

Yes, he could have avoided it. 

They took certain things off the table. There were certain policy options they didn’t consider due to a misplaced sense of danger. Putin is masterful at preying on hopes and fears. And the saber-rattling about a bilateral confrontation is misplaced. It is a mirage. The Russians do not want a war with us. They don’t want a nuclear war. They don’t want a conventional war.

We’ve lost our nerve to a certain extent. We were practiced at not blinking at Soviet provocations in the Cold War. And we’ve forgotten. We’re facing an adversary that lives in that world, grew up in that world, uses the tools of that world, and we’re not prepared.

What scares you most going forward?

The possibility of a confrontation with Russia now is negligible. But the probability of us having a significant confrontation down the road is higher unless we hold our ground here.

New York Post

Heroic Ukrainian soldier blows himself up on bridge to prevent Russian advance

By Yaron Steinbuch – February 25, 2022 

A Ukrainian soldier has been hailed as a hero for blowing himself up to destroy a bridge in an effort to stop Russian tanks from invading his country.

Marine battalion engineer Vitaly Skakun Volodymyrovych was deployed to the Henichesk bridge in the southern province of Kherson when the Russian tanks advanced, the Ukrainian military said on its Facebook page.

“On this difficult day for our country, when the Ukrainian people give way to the Russian occupiers in all directions, one of the hardest places on the map of Ukraine was the Crimean intersection, where one of the first enemies met a separate marine battalion,” according to the post.

When the battalion decided that the only way to block the armored column was by blowing up the bridge, Volodymyrovych volunteered to place mines on the span, the General Staff of the Armed Forces said.

And when he realized he had no time to get to safety, the brave soldier made the ultimate sacrifice on the bridge, which connected Russian-occupied Crimea and mainland Ukraine.

“According to his brothers in arms, Vitaly got in touch [with them] and said he was going to blow up the bridge. Immediately after an explosion rang out,” the military said.

“Our brother was killed. His heroic act significantly slowed down the push of the enemy, allowing the unit to relocate and organize the defense,” the statement said.

“Russian invaders, know, under your feet the earth will burn! We will fight as long as we live! And as long as we are alive we will fight!” it added.

Military commanders said they planned to give Volodymyrovych a posthumous award for his “heroic act.”  

As a result of his act of valor, the Russian forces were forced to take a longer route into the region, the US Sun reported.

More than 130 Ukrainian soldiers were killed on the first day of fighting after Russian forces stormed into the country, according to the outlet.

Reuters

At the Ukrainian border, a mother brings a stranger’s children to safety

Anita Komuves – February 26, 2022

BEREGSURANY, Hungary (Reuters) – Clutching a mobile phone number of a woman she had never met, Nataliya Ableyeva crossed the border from Ukraine into Hungary on Saturday, entrusted with a precious cargo.

A stranger’s children.

Waiting at the border crossing on the Ukrainian side, Ableyeva had met a desperate 38-year-old man from her home town of Kamianets-Podilskyi, with his young son and daughter.

The border guards would not let him pass. Ukraine has banned all Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving, so they can fight for their country.

“Their father simply handed over the two kids to me, and trusted me, giving me their passports to bring them over,” 58-year-old Ableyeva said, the arms of the young boy she had known for just a few hours around her neck.

The children’s Ukrainian mother was on her way from Italy to meet them and take them to safety, the father said. He gave Ableyeva the mother’s mobile number, and said goodbye to his children, wrapped up against the cold in thick jackets and hats.

Ableyeva had left her own two grown-up children behind in Ukraine. One a policeman, the other a nurse, neither could leave Ukraine under the mobilisation decree.

She took the two small children by the hand and together they crossed the border.

On the Hungarian side at Beregsurany, they waited, sitting on a bench near a tent set up for the steady flow of refugees streaming over the frontier. The little boy was crying when his mobile phone rang.

It was his mother, she was nearly at the border post.

When 33-year-old Anna Semyuk arrived, her blonde hair scraped back in a pony tail, she hugged her son and went to her daughter, lying exhausted in the back of a car and wrapped in a pink blanket.

Then she thanked Ableyeva. Standing in the cold on the scrubby ground, two women embraced for several minutes and started to cry.

“All I can say to my kids now, is that everything will be alright,” said Semyuk. “In one or two weeks, and we will go home.”

(Reporting by Anita Komuves, writing by Krisztina Than, editing by Ros Russell)

Axios

Germany to send thousands of weapons to Ukraine in major reversal

Zachary Basu – February 26, 2022

Germany will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles to Ukraine, marking a complete reversal in Berlin’s restrictive arms export policy, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Saturday.

Why it matters: Germany has for months come under intense criticism for its response to Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine. The government said its “historical responsibilities” prevented it from shipping arms to conflict zones, and had previously blocked other NATO allies from transferring German-origin weapons to Ukraine.

Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. 

What they’re saying: “The Russian attack marks a turning point. It is our duty to do our best to help Ukraine defend against the invading army of Putin. That’s why we’re supplying 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 stinger missiles to our friends in the Ukraine,” Scholz tweeted.

• Germany will also lift its ban on other countries exporting German-origin weapons, allowing the Netherlands to transfer 400 rocket-propelled grenade launchers to Ukraine.

The big picture: Germany is the largest economy and most powerful country in the European Union, making its voice and policy positions critical to the effectiveness of the West’s response to Russia’s invasion.

• Germany is highly reliant on Russian natural gas and had been an obstacle in discussions about imposing the harshest sanctions on Moscow, fearing the economic and energy reverberations.
• Massive public pressure, including from Ukrainian officials, appears to have led Germany to drop its opposition to a number of the toughest measures, including halting the certification of the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

What to watch: The EU is working toward an agreement to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT financial system, a major step that Germany had previously opposed along with Italy and Hungary.

Go deeper: Ukraine-Russia crisis dashboard

Daily Mail

Russian troops enter Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv and fierce fighting breaks out after Putin was said to be ‘raging’ at stalled invasion: Ukrainians obliterate Chechen special forces column of 56 tanks outside Kyiv and kills top general

By Jimmy McCloskey, Daily Mail, James Robinson, dailymail.com and Will Stewart in Moscow – February 26, 2022 

• The group – likely to number in the hundreds – was blown to smithereens on their second day in the country
• Those killed include Chechen general Magomed Tushaev – one of the regime’s most highly-decorated soldiers
• Vladimir Putin had green-lighted their deployment, with each fighter given a deck of cards to help them recognize Ukrainian leaders they were encouraged to capture and kill
• But Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky is still reported to be alive – and is fast becoming a global hero – while Putin has faced scorn over his huge army’s slow progress to capture the country 
• On Sunday morning, Ukrainian government ministers confirmed they’d managed to keep control of the capital city of Kyiv for the third night running 
• But Russian forces entered Kharkiv – Ukraine’s second-largest city – around the same time, with street battles reported to be taking place  
• Russia has struck the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine in Kyiv, which stores nuclear waste
• The facility’s radiation detector was also destroyed – although a preliminary inspection suggests there is no immediate danger to locals 
• First confirmed death toll has also emerged – UN says at least 240 Ukrainian citizens have been killed 
• Woman was killed in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, after Russian artillery shell struck nine-story residential apartment building  
• Two blasts went off in the south west of the Ukrainian capital shortly after midnight local time
• A fuel depot in the city of Vasylkiv was targeted by Russian ballistic missiles, its mayor said 
• Russia also blew up a gas pipeline in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, which sits close to the Russian border  
• Vladimir Putin is said to be furious at his troops’ apparent lack of progress, and is reportedly fuming in his heavily-guarded Russian mountain lair 
• An eerie orange glow filled the sky, CNN reports that a fuel depot may have been hit
• Blast took place close to one of Kyiv’s two airports – Boryspil International Airport, whose capture is vital to Russian takeover ambitions  

Ukraine war latest, at a glance  

• Russia failed to capture Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv during fighting on Saturday night and Sunday morning 
• But Russian forces entered Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, on Sunday morning
• Street battles were reported to be taking place, while pictures appear to show one Russian military vehicle on fire
• Oleh Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said Ukrainian forces are fighting Russian troops in the city and asked civilians not to leave their homes 
• Russian forces have reportedly blocked Kherson and Berdyansk and delivered another missile strike on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, the Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov says
• UN reports that at least 240 Ukrainian civilians have been killed 
• At least 200,000 people have fled Ukraine to three countries, with 150,000 said to have crossed into Poland alone
• Unconfirmed reports that a cancer hospital for children in Kyiv had been shelled by Russians forces meanwhile have also been debunked
• It has been reported by Ukrainian news site TSN that the boy was killed when a children’s hospital in the city 
• According to the Kyiv Independent, at least two children and two adults were wounded during an incident at Okhmadyt children’s cancer hospital
• However the New York Times debunked the claims, saying that while gunfire was heard near to the hospital it had not been shelled by artillery
• Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko says their airforce shot down a missile aimed at the capital Kyiv, by a plane that flew in from Russian ally Belarus 
• Ukraine’s defence ministry today appealed for foreigners to come forward to join its armed forces and fight back Putin’s army, with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine urging people to contact his department.  
• According to UK intelligence, fighting in Kyiv last night was at a ‘lower intensity’ than the previous evening
• The MoD said there had been an ‘intensive’ exchange of rocket artillery in Kharkiv, followed by ‘heavy fighting’ between Ukrainian and Russian forces
• As the fighting raged on, Russia claimed it was engaging in peace talks with the Ukrainian government in Belarus 
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the delegation includes military officials and diplomats. ‘The Russian delegation is ready for talks, and we are now waiting for the Ukrainians,’ he said. 
• However, while Zelensky said that while said the Ukraine was ready for peace talks, he said they would not be taking place in Belarus – which was a staging ground for Russia troops prior to the invasion
• In a televised address, Zelensky, standing beside a Ukrainian flag dressed in an army green t-shirt and jumper, said: ‘If there had been no aggressive action from your territory, we could talk in Minsk… other cities can be used as the venue for talks.
• Meanwhile, Ukraine has obliterated a 56 tank convoy of feared Chechen fighters
• Among those killed was one of Chechnya’s top generals, Magomed Tushaev  
• At least two blasts have rocked the country in the early hours of Sunday local time
• Vasylkiv, which sits southwest of Ukraine, saw its air base’s fuel depot attacked by Russian ballistic missiles
• Subsequent blaze cast an eerie orange glow over Kyiv, around 40 kilometers north east 
• Gas pipeline was blown up near Kharkiv, sending huge mushroom cloud billowing into the sky
• Woman was killed in Kharkiv after Russian shell hit apartment block 
• Elon Musk agreed to turn his Starlink satellite network on over Ukraine
• Officials want to ensure locals can still access the internet if Russia destroys telecoms network
• Keen to push back against Russian propaganda, and expose the violence being meted out by Putin’s army
• Russian premier said to be furious at slower-than-expected efforts to conquer Ukraine 
• UK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey, writing in The Telegraph, warned Putin’s days ‘will surely be numbered’ if he fails in his ambition to take Kyiv 
• Mr Heappey, a former major in the Rifles, said if Putin failed and the Russian people could be shown ‘how little he cares for them… Putin’s days as president will surely be numbered and so too will those of the kleptocratic elite that surround him. He’ll lose power and he won’t get to choose his successor.’
• However there are fears that delays in Russia’s invasion plan could lead Putin to become more desperate in his attempts to crush Ukrainian resolve.
• A Russian thermobaric rocket launcher was spotted by a US film crew south of Belgorod, Russia, near the Ukrainian border.
• The weapons, which contain a highly explosive fuel and chemical mix and send out supersonic blast waves that can rip buildings and bodies apart, can reduce cities to rubble and would cause huge loss of life. 
• Millions of citizens are sheltering underground
• But others have taken to the streets armed with guns and Molotov cocktails, to try and fight back
• US and EU have agreed to curtail Russia’s use of SWIFT messaging system, which is vital to for global financial transactions
• Donald Trump condemned the invasion Saturday
• He said: ‘The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling, it’s an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur. It never would have occurred. We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless them all.’
• China’s ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong shared a video scotching claims he’d fled Kyiv 
• Urged other Chinese nationals in Ukraine to shelter 
• Comes as China tries to condemn attack while keeping ally Vladimir Putin on side

Russian forces have entered Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv after failing in their overnight efforts to seize control of the capital city of Kyiv – as Ukraine’s president today said his country were ready for peace talks.

Footage shared on social media Sunday morning showed Putin’s army trucks rolling through the city of 1.41 million people, which sits in Eastern Ukraine close to the border with Russia.

Soldiers were also seen marching through Kharkiv on foot, with a very dramatic clip showing Russians slowly advancing along a road before running and firing their guns as Ukrainians opened fire on them.

Another clip shared online shows an army vehicle said to belong to the Russians ablaze, with locals saying it had been torched by Ukrainians seeking to defend their city. 

Oleh Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said Ukrainian forces are fighting Russian troops in the city and asked civilians not to leave their homes.  

Meanwhile, the UK’s Ministry of Defence released its  latest intelligence update, saying there had been an ‘intensive’ exchange of rocket artillery in the city, followed by ‘heavy fighting’ between Ukrainian and Russian forces. It said fighting in the capital Kyiv had been ‘less intense’ than previous nights.

The breach of Ukraine’s defenses came hours after Russia was dealt a significant blow when a column of Chechen special forces sent to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were blown up by locals just two days into their mission. 

The armed group – famed for their barbaric violence and human rights abuses – are said to have been obliterated after their convoy of 56 tanks was blown to smithereens near Hostomel, just northeast of Kyiv, by Ukrainian missile fire on the second day of the Chechens’ deployment. It is unclear how many died – but the number is likely to run into the hundreds. 

Their deaths were reported by The Kyiv Independent news outlet as officials in Kyiv revealed that they’d managed to maintain control of Ukraine’s capital city throughout combat on Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

First Deputy Chairman of Kyiv City State Administration Mykola Povoroznyk said: ‘The situation in Kyiv is calm, the capital is fully controlled by the Ukrainian army and the terror defense. At night there were several clashes with sabotage group.’ 

But Russian forces were seen entering Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv on Sunday morning. Footage shared on social media showed Russian tanks and trucks rolling through the city, which sits in eastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border, with gunshots also heard ringing out.

Other videos shared online showed Russian troops walking in to the city of 1.419 million people on foot, as well as an army truck said to be Russian consumed by flames. 

Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko, meanwhile, said their airforce had shot down a missile aimed at the capital Kyiv, by a plane that flew in from Russian ally Belarus.

But while fighting raged in the north, Russian forces said they had successfully blocked Kherson and Berdyansk in the south, effectively opening up a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula – which it annexed in 2014.

Among the Chechens said to have been wiped out was general Magomed Tushaev. He was commander of the 141th motorized national guard brigade – Chechen head of state Ramzan Kadyrov’s elite force.

Tushaev had also been pictured with Kadyrov, in a measure of his importance to the Chechen regime, which shot to notoriety in the west for hunting down, torturing and killing gay men. 

Kadyrov is even believed to have visited his doomed squadron in a Ukrainian forest before their alleged deaths. 

The terror squadron’s reported killings are a crushing psychological blow for Vladimir Putin’s stalled efforts to conquer Ukraine. The Russian premiere had dispatched the group to capture or kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, knowing full well that the fighters’ brutal reputation would strike further fear into the hearts of besieged Ukrainians. 

Each fighter had been given a deck of cards complete with photos of Ukrainian officials they’d been told to target. 

But Zelensky remains standing, and has become a global hero for his brave dispatches from the front line – while his would-be assassins’ reported killings have brought huge disgrace and widespread grief to Chechnya. 

Putin is said to be growing increasingly angry by his stalled efforts to conquer Ukraine. His fire and manpower vastly outnumbers that of Ukraine, and it is widely believed that Russia will eventually conquer its neighbor.

But the surprisingly effective defense being mounted by the smaller nation has badly tarnished Russian military prestige, with the Kremlin still a way-off their objective of seizing the capital of Kyiv and installing its own government. 

Today, as Russia marked special forces day, he thanked soldiers for ‘heroically fulfilling their military duty’ in Ukraine. But he remained insistent that his armies were providing assistance to the ‘people’s republics of Donbas’ – referring to two rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine that Russia recognized as independent states ahead of its invasion – despite conflicts taking place in cities outside the region such as Kyiv and Kharkiv.

‘I want to thank the command, the personnel of the special operations forces, veterans of the special forces units for their loyalty to the oath, for their impeccable service in the name of the people of Russia and our great motherland,’ he said. 

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s defence ministry today appealed for foreigners to come forward to join its armed forces and fight back Putin’s army, with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine urging people to contact his department. ‘Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin too,’ he said in a Twitter post this morning.

Today, as the fighting continued, The Kremlin announced that a Russian delegation had arrived in the Belarusian city of Homel for talks with Ukrainian officials.  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the delegation includes military officials and diplomats.

‘The Russian delegation is ready for talks, and we are now waiting for the Ukrainians,’ he said.

However, while Zelensky said that while said the Ukraine was ready for peace talks, he said they would not be taking place in Belarus – which was a staging ground for Russia troops prior to the invasion. 

In a televised address, Zelensky, standing beside a Ukrainian flag dressed in an army green t-shirt and jumper, said: ‘If there had been no aggressive action from your territory, we could talk in Minsk… other cities can be used as the venue for talks.

‘Of course we want peace, we want to meet, we want the war to end. Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku – we’ve offered them to the Russians.

‘Any other city would suit us, too – in a country, from whose territory missiles are not launched at us. This is the only way negotiations can be honest and can really end the war.’

With Ukraine’s military putting up a staunch defence, Putin’s forces are also reportedly being bogged down by poor planning and ineffective coordination. Many units are reportedly operating without the protection of air cover.  

With Russia’s invasion stalling three days in, UK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey, writing in The Telegraph, warned Putin’s days ‘will surely be numbered’ if he fails in his ambition to take Kyiv. 

‘Progress to Kyiv has been much slower than they’d expected, they were unable to take key cities early and now must try to bypass them,’ he wrote.

‘This leaves pockets of well-armed and well-trained Ukrainians to the rear of the Russian front line, exposing a vulnerable logistics tail – an omen for what awaits Putin.’ 

Mr Heappey, a former major in the Rifles, said if Putin failed and the Russian people could be shown ‘how little he cares for them… Putin’s days as president will surely be numbered and so too will those of the kleptocratic elite that surround him. He’ll lose power and he won’t get to choose his successor.’ 

However there are fears that delays in Russia’s invasion plan could lead Putin to become more desperate in his attempts to crush Ukrainian resolve.

A Russian thermobaric rocket launcher was spotted by a US film crew south of Belgorod, Russia, near the Ukrainian border.

The weapons, which contain a highly explosive fuel and chemical mix and send out supersonic blast waves that can rip buildings and bodies apart, can reduce cities to rubble and would cause huge loss of life. 

Business Insider

Germany to send anti-tank weapons and missiles to Ukraine, in major reversal of restrictive arms export policy that ‘marks a turning point’ for the country

Bethany Biron – February 26, 2022

• Germany is sending 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles to Ukraine.
• The announcement marks a reversal of restrictive policies in Germany that prohibited sending arms to conflict areas.
• “The Russian attack marks a turning point,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday.

Germany is planning to send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles to Ukraine, according to a statement made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday.

“The Russian attack marks a turning point,” Scholz wrote in a statement shared on Twitter. “It is our duty to do our best to help Ukraine defend against the invading army of Putin. That’s why we’re supplying 1000 anti-tank weapons and 500 stinger missiles to our friends in Ukraine.”

The announcement marks a significant shift of Germany’s restrictive arms export policy. The country has previously said it held “historical responsibilities” that prevented it from sending weapons and arms to conflict areas, often citing guilt for crimes committed against the Soviet Union during World War II.

As part of the new stance, Germany is also lifting restrictions it previously held among NATO allies that prohibited sending German-based arms to conflict areas. This will allow countries like the Netherlands to ship 400 rocket-propelled grenades to Ukraine, Axios reported.

Ukranian officials and leaders in allied countries banned from sending arms expressed frustration over the strict policies in recent weeks, heading into Russia’s attack against Ukraine on Thursday. The reversal comes as Russian forces continue their advance into the Ukranian capital of Kyiv, where the mayor announced a strict curfew on Friday.

The decision could also foster wider support from the European Union, particularly given Germany’s vast economic power and stature. The country also holds a large percentage of the continent’s arms and ammunition, according to Politico.

Insider

Ex-Trump aide says Michelle Obama would put Republicans in ‘a very difficult position’ if she ran for president in 2024

John L. Dorman – February 26, 2022

• Monica Crowley said that a Michelle Obama presidential bid would put the GOP in “a very difficult position.”
• The former Treasury spokesperson made the comments during the 2022 CPAC conference in Florida.
• While Obama’s name is often floated as a candidate, she has expressed little desire to run for office.

The conservative commentator Monica Crowley, a former Trump administration aide, on Saturday said that a presidential run by former first lady Michelle Obama would put Republicans in “a very difficult position.”

“If they [Democrats] were to run Michelle Obama, that would put us in a very difficult position because they’d reach for a candidate who is completely plausible, very popular, and immune to criticism,” she said. “Also, when you think about her positioning, she spoke as a DNC [Democratic National Convention] keynote speaker in 2020, she wrote her autobiography and did a 50-city tour, she has massive Netflix and Spotify deals, and she’s got a voting-rights group alongside Stacey Abrams.”

Crowley made the remarks during a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida featuring her alongside Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, conservative activist Jack Posobiec, and attorney Kurt Schlichter. She also spoke of the complications that Democrats might face in 2024 if President Joe Biden chooses not to run for reelection. (He has so far committed to running for a second term.)

Pointing to Vice President Kamala Harris and some of her first-year stumbles in office, Crowley argued that Democrats nonetheless would be hard-pressed to deny her a presidential nomination for fear of alienating Black women, who have been the most loyal segment of the party for years.

Crowley, who served as an assistant secretary for public affairs for ex-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, then said that Democrats might seek another scenario that would thrill the party − the candidacy of former first lady Michelle Obama.

Obama, who was the first lady while her husband — former President Barack Obama – served president from 2009 to 2017, has long expressed her distaste for politics. She has also enjoyed moderate to high favorability among the general public in various polls.

But, the former first lady has continually stated that she does not foresee her name being on a presidential ballot. Many Democrats, though, cannot help but envision her running for a White House bid given her status as a highly-regarded first lady with universal name recognition and an appeal that can cut across demographic and political lines.

Although conservatives are eager to regain the White House after former President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential loss, Crowley, during the forum, refused to underestimate Obama’s potential appeal as a candidate.

“For all of these people who say, ‘Michelle Obama isn’t political’ [and] ‘They’re making too much money now,’ keep a very close eye on her because her trajectory is exactly what Barack Obama did before he ran for president and what Bill and Hillary Clinton both did,” she said. “I think if she were to run, that would be a very difficult situation for us.”

The former first lady has never held elective office, but some of her major speeches — beginning at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver to her deeply personal video at the DNC in support of Biden during the 2020 presidential race — have been praised by many voters from across the political spectrum.

However, during the 2018 Simmons Leadership Conference in Boston, she threw cold water on the idea of a presidential run, as she has often done when asked since leaving the White House.

“The reason why I don’t want to run for president — and I can’t speak for Oprah [Winfrey] — but my sense is that, first of all, you have to want the job,” she said at the time, referencing calls for media mogul to run for office.

She continued: “And you can’t just say, ‘Well, you’re a woman, run.’ We just can’t find the women we like and ask them to do it, because there are millions of women who are inclined and do have the passion for politics.”

Insider

Estonia and Romania ban Russian airlines from their airspace, after the UK, Poland, Moldova and the Czech Republic

Taylor Ardrey – February 26, 2022

• Estonia and Romania have barred Russia from their airspace, officials announced Saturday.
• The move comes after other countries, including the UK and Poland, did the same this week.
• The US State Department said it’s in ‘regular dialogue with our Ukrainian partners’ regarding a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Estonia and Romania on Saturday banned Russian airlines from their airspace after the U.K., Poland, Moldova, and the Czech Republic did the same.

Romania’s foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu tweeted Saturday morning that the country “just joined other EU member states in banning (Russian) airlines from our airspace.” Aurescu went on to say Romania encourages all partners and allies “to take such action, as we stay resolute in our support for #UkraineUnderAttack.”

Kaja Kallas, Estonian Foreign Minister, echoed similar sentiments, stating there’s”no place for planes of the aggressor state in democratic skies.”

After Russia attacked Ukraine on Thursday, United Kingdom officials issued a ban restricting Russian-owned airlines from the country’s airspace.

“This means that Aeroflot will not be permitted to operate flights to or from the United Kingdom until further notice,” the UK Civil Aviation Authority said in a Feb. 24 announcement.

In response, Russian officials decided to bar any aircraft owned, leased, or operated by individuals associated with the UK from its airspace, as Insider reported.

Additionally, as Aljazeera reported, Russia also placed the ban on other European countries, including Poland, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria, aviation officials said Saturday.

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger has called on the US to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine to aid in their fight against Russia, according to Yahoo News.

“The fate of #Ukraine is being decided tonight, but also the fate of the west. Declare a #NoFlyZone over Ukraine at the invitation of their sovereign govt,” Kinzinger tweeted Friday. “Disrupt Russia’s air ops to give the heroic Ukrainians a fair fight. It’s now, or later.”

When asked Saturday if the US has given any consideration to Ukraine’s call for a no-fly zone, spokesperson for the US Department of State Ned Price responded, “We are in regular dialogue with our Ukrainian partners. We are looking at a range of ways we can continue to support them.”

The Week

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger calls for U.S.-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine

Grayson Quay, Weekend editor – February 26, 2022

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) called for the U.S. to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine to give the country’s military a “fair fight” against invading Russian forces.

“The fate of #Ukraine is being decided tonight, but also the fate of the west. Declare a #NoFlyZone over Ukraine at the invitation of their sovereign govt,” Kinzinger tweeted on Friday.

In addition to serving in Congress, Kinzinger is a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard.

According to Politico, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked NATO to “close the skies,” but as of Friday the alliance remained unwilling to take the risk.

Critics were quick to point out that Kinzinger’s proposed no-fly zone would likely require the U.S. to fire on Russian aircraft, which could lead to a war between Russia and NATO.

“No. This is insane,” tweeted Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who is known for his non-interventionist views on foreign policy.

Buzz Patterson, a former U.S. Air Force pilot who ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican in 2019, wrote that a no-fly zone would force American pilots “to shoot down Russian aircraft” and called the proposal “the dumbest s–t I’ve ever heard [Kinzinger] say … And that’s a pretty high bar.

In an Feb. 13 appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation, Kinzinger accused Republicans who disagreed with his hawkish stance of “naivety” and “affection for authoritarianism.”