Business Insider

Video shows huge explosions Ukraine says are Russian thermobaric bomb strikes on its positions

Sophia Ankel – May 27, 2022

• Ukraine accused Russia of using thermobaric weapons on their forces in the eastern region of Donbas.
• A video posted by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Thursday shows huge explosions in the area.
• Thermobaric weapons are so destructive they can vaporize human bodies.

A video published by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence on Thursday shows huge explosions, which its officials said were Russian thermobaric bomb strikes on their troops’ positions in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine said the explosives — also known as vacuum bombs — landed on Ukrainian troops near the town of Novomykhailivka in the Donetsk region, currently the focus of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

The video, which has not been independently verified by Insider, shows intense back-to-back blasts in a small area.

russian TOS-1A shelling Ukrainian positions near Novomykhailivka, Donetsk region. This is what the the largest and most horrific war of the 21st century looks like. Ukraine is ready to strike back. To do this, we need NATO-style MLRS. Immediately. pic.twitter.com/XwdBfAfEq8

— Defence of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 26, 2022

“This is what the largest and most horrific war of the 21st century looks like. Ukraine is ready to strike back,” the Ministry of Defense wrote alongside the video. It also appealed to NATO to supply its forces with similar weapons.

The thermobaric rocket is a type of explosive that uses oxygen in the surrounding area to generate a high-temperature blast. It is so destructive it can vaporize human bodies and crush internal organs, according to Insider’s Abbie schull and Allan Akhtar.

The weapon was first used during the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan and was also deployed in Chechnya and the Syrian civil war, per The Guardian.

A senior US defense official said in March that while Russia has launchers for this type of capability in Ukraine, it was unclear if such weapons had been used.

The video comes amid reports that Russian forces are making gains in the wider Donbas region of which Donetsk is a part.

The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Ulrayinska Pravda

Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia used 60% of its high-precision weapons

Denys Karlovskyi – May 25, 2022

According to Ukrainian military intelligence, the Russian forces have already used more than 60% of high-precision weapons stockpiles.

Source: Deputy Head of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine Vadym Skibitskyi

Skibitskyi’s quote: “According to our data, if we’re talking about high-precision weapons, about 60 percent of their stockpile has already been used. In the case of some types, even more – 70%.

There are relevant regulatory requirements for the threshold level that must be maintained in the army, and the number of Iskanders [mobile short-range ballistic missile systems] has almost reached this threshold level.

The Russian army has changed its tactics when using such weapons. Where, earlier, 2 or 4 missiles might have been used on one object, now the object is clearly selected and the target is hit with 8 to 12 missiles of various forms. [The Russians are using] ballistic and cruise missiles, land-based, naval and air-based [types of missiles], in order to be ready to hit this target.

We see these changes, and we understand that Russian resources of high-precision weapons and high-precision ammunition are at a borderline level. “

Details: Skibitskyi added that in the first two months of its large-scale invasion, Russia launched random strikes with high-precision missiles.

He is convinced that Russia currently does not have sufficient capacity to quickly replenish its spent stocks of high-precision weapons. Due to economic sanctions imposed by Western countries, Russian industry is unable to obtain the required number of imported components to equip high-precision missiles.

Background: 

• Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar said on 9 May that Russia still has enough reserves of components to equip missiles and capacity for their large-scale production.
• In late April, Maliar said that Russia had launched more than 1,300 missiles in Ukraine.

Business Insider

A Russian mother said military officers ‘lied to my face’ and she forced Putin’s government to return her 2 conscripted sons who were not supposed to be in Ukraine

Azmi Haroun – May 26, 2022

• A Russian mother successfully made Russian authorities return her sons from Ukraine.
• Her two sons were conscripts but never meant to serve in the Ukraine war, the mother told the BBC.
• She won a case with the military prosecutor and said  “lied to my face.”

A Russian mother who was initially excited about her two sons’ conscription to the Russian military last year forced Putin’s government to return her sons home after she found out they were wrongfully sent to fight in Ukraine, according to the BBC.

Marina, a pseudonym used by the BBC due to fear of retribution, told the outlet that in 2021, she told her two sons that “it was their duty to the motherland,” and they were conscripted for a year in the country’s military.

But months into 2022, Marina worried for her boys as Russian troops were building at the Ukrainian border. When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military invasion into the neighboring country on February 24, Marina stopped hearing from her sons.

“Time stopped for me. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep,” she told the BBC. “I exchanged messages with the mothers of other conscripts from the same unit. It turned out that many of them had lost contact with their children, too.”

In early March, after weeks of denying that he had sent young conscripts into war, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov admitted that Russia had sent conscripts to Ukraine — and that they were among the casualties.

Marina told the BBC that after weeks and an attempt to drive into Ukraine herself, she heard from colleagues in her son’s unit who said that her sons had signed military contracts to fight in Ukraine.

“I wrote to the prosecutor-general’s office asking to investigate,” Marina told the BBC. “I told them there was no way my sons could have signed military contracts. I was certain. Other mothers wrote, too. They all knew their children.”

By March 9,  the military prosecutor’s office investigated Marina’s claim and returned her sons to Russia shortly after, given they had never signed military contracts to fight in Ukraine.

“The lads that came back from there were so thin, dirty and exhausted,” Marina told the BBC. “Their clothes were torn. My son said: ‘It’s better that you don’t know what happened there.’ But all that mattered to me was that he had come back alive.”

She added that throughout the war, military officers “lied to my face.”

“First, they lied that my sons weren’t in Ukraine. Then they lied that they’d signed military contracts. Officers lied, sergeants lied,” she told the BBC. “Later someone told me that they weren’t allowed to tell me the truth. Incredible. They were allowed to break the law and send my sons [to Ukraine], but they weren’t allowed to tell a mother where her children are.”

She added that other families are still living with the nightmare of not knowing where their children are, and whether they are serving in the war.

“So many sons haven’t come back and never will. So many mothers are still searching for their children,” Marina said. “My children were different people when they came back. You can see it in their eyes. They’re different. They’re disillusioned. I want them to believe again in a bright future, in peace and love. They’ve stopped believing.”

Popular Mechanics

These 3 High-Tech NATO Weapons Could Force Russia to Flee Ukraine

Kyle Mizokami – May 25, 2022

• Ukraine has a new list of weapons it hopes to get from the United States and its NATO allies.
• Ukraine wants long-range weapons that can target Russian forces far behind enemy lines if necessary and break the naval standoff that is isolating the country at sea.
• The wish list is emerging just as Russian forces are gaining new ground in the eastern part of the country.

With its defenses already bolstered by shipments of weapons from NATO, Ukraine now has a new wishlist of weapons it hopes will prove decisive in the ongoing war with Russia. Kyiv has asked for long-range rocket artillery, attack drones, and anti-ship missiles to beat back the Russian invasion, and already at least one NATO ally, Denmark, has pledged to step up. The weapons are more necessary than ever as a fresh Russian offensive makes gains in the Ukrainian state of Luhansk.

Ukraine already fields all three of those weapon types, as Defense News points out, but U.S. and NATO-made versions would be both more technologically advanced and generally more capable. The weapons would serve alongside those already provided by NATO, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, NLAW anti-tank rockets, M777 howitzers, and Switchblade kamikaze drones.

M142 HIMARS Rocket Artillery System

The U.S.-made HIMARS is at the top of the list. The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is an armored five-ton truck equipped to launch 227-millimeter (8.93-inch diameter) rockets. Each HIMARS carries six GPS-enabled Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rockets. And, according to the U.S. Army, each conducts “high-volume destructive, suppressive, and counter-battery fires,” or artillery missions at ranges of up to 43 miles. HIMARS can “out-stick” most Russian artillery, firing on it from beyond the range of Russian guns and rocket launchers.

Ukraine already has a variety of rocket artillery systems, including the BM-30 Smerch 300-millimeter rocket system. Most rocket artillery systems are unguided, and rocket artillery is less accurate than tube (howitzer) artillery. Rocket artillery is therefore typically relegated to the suppression mission, with each rocket carrying smaller high-explosive or anti-tank cluster munitions. As the rocket flies over the target, the cluster munitions disperse, covering a wide area.

Here’s a video of U.S. forces using HIMARS in live-fire exercises:

HIMARS is different from other rocket systems. In recent years, outrage over the threat that unexploded submunitions pose to civilians led to a global treaty outlawing the weapons. Although the United States is not a party to the treaty, it no longer develops them and has shelved existing submunition ammo stocks. This has forced HIMARS to take a different path: instead of showering a wide area with thousands of tennis ball-sized bomblets, HIMARS makes each rocket count. Each GMLRS rocket is capable of first-round hits on a set of GPS coordinates, using a unitary, single large warhead designed to make up for the loss of hundreds of smaller submunition warheads.

It was unthinkable three months ago that Ukraine might receive HIMARS, but times are changing. So far, the Biden administration has not approved the request, but is reportedly considering it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested he wouldn’t say no to a transfer, indicating there could be bipartisan support.

MQ-1 Gray Eagle Attack Drone

Ukraine also wants reusable attack drones. It already operates a small fleet of TB-2 Bayraktar attack drones, each capable of carrying smart micro munition (MAM-L) guided bombs. Although Bayraktars have proven effective in striking Russian supply convoys and armored vehicles, particularly behind enemy lines, it’s less capable than NATO-operated drones. Ukraine is also likely running low on Bayraktars, as combat losses mount.

Although the U.S. government has provided Switchblade 300 and 600 kamikaze drones, these are one-way weapons that are not designed to fly more than one mission. An obvious solution to Ukraine’s problem is the U.S. Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle. Gray Eagle is larger, faster, flies higher, and carries a bigger and better weapons payload than Bayraktar. Gray Eagle has much longer legs than Bayraktar, capable of flying up to 2,500 nautical miles versus 186 miles due to the use of satellite navigation.

Here’s a video of a Gray Eagle taking off from an unspecified country “in the Middle East region.” Note the two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles:

Gray Eagle, which acts as an uncrewed scouting platform for AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, would be a considerable upgrade from Bayraktar. Gray Eagle can carry up to four Hellfire anti-tank missiles, each with a range of up to 6.8 miles. By contrast, Bayraktar must fly much closer to the target to release its MAM-L bombs. This boost in range will allow Ukrainian drone operators to conduct standoff attacks, staying out of the range of all but dedicated air systems, and in general lasting longer over the battlefield.

Ukraine first asked for Gray Eagle drones in late April, and has held discussions with its manufacturer, General Atomics. The U.S. government may be hesitant to sign off on a transfer due to Russia’s past complaints that armed drones like the Predator, Reaper, and Gray Eagle are technically equivalent to cruise missiles, and this could open up Washington to allegations that it’s providing cruise missiles to Kyiv. Armed drone transfers are also strictly regulated under the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international agreement meant to prevent the proliferation of long-range missile technology, as Politico points out. The Trump administration loosened those rules, but the Biden administration may be hesitant to follow suit.

Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile

One of the most spectacular of Russia’s many failures in the war was the loss of the Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser and flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. Two Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles, fired from a truck based on shore, sunk the 600-foot-long warship. While that was the humiliating end of Moskva, it wasn’t the end of the Russian Navy, which continues to patrol Ukraine’s coastline and threaten amphibious landings behind the front line.

Neptune is a brand-new missile system that became operational pretty recently in late 2021. Ukraine has requested more anti-ship missiles from NATO that would allow it to take the offensive, sinking Russian warships blocking its ports—including critical grain shipments to countries worldwide—or pushing them far enough out to sea that they become irrelevant.

The most likely candidate for Ukraine is the American-made Harpoon. Harpoon, originally deployed in the 1980s, is an anti-ship cruise missile. Harpoon is launched from a ship via rocket booster, which accelerates the missile skyward until the built-in turbine engine can take over. The missile is designed to fly low over the waves at subsonic speeds to avoid radar detection, has a 500-pound warhead, and a range in excess of 67 nautical miles.

Here’s a video of the retired amphibious cargo ship USS Durham, struck by three Harpoon missiles during the 2020 Rim of the Pacific Exercise, the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise:

Harpoon uses a radar built into its nose to find its target. An operator can program a missile to fly to a specified area and only then turn on its radar, a useful capability for flying past friendly ships and islands, and preventing the enemy from detecting the missiles’s radar emissions until the last minute. A newer version, Harpoon Block II, includes GPS guidance, resistance to enemy jamming, and a re-attack capability that allows the missile to turn around and try again if it misses an enemy ship.

Late last week, Reuters reported that the U.S. had backed the request and was trying to find NATO countries that could fill it. Ukraine has virtually no navy and its air force is fixated on the land war, so the best solution is another ground-launched missile system. The United States has anti-ship missiles in its arsenal, including the Harpoon and new Naval Strike Missile anti-ship missiles, but does not operate a truck-mounted version.

On Monday, Denmark stepped up to provide one truck-mounted Harpoon system and missile reloads. Denmark received Block II Harpoon upgrade kits in 1999, so Ukraine will almost certainly get the newer, more capable version. Denmark, a peninsular nation in the Baltic Sea, needs the weapon to defend its hundreds of miles of coastline, but with Finland and Sweden joining NATO and strengthening the organization, defense of the Baltic just got a little easier.

There is also the possibility that Ukraine could receive the Norwegian-designed Naval Strike Missile. Poland, a staunch ally of Ukraine, operates a land-based, truck-mounted version.

Russia’s retreat from northern Ukraine has allowed it to focus on the eastern part of the country, releasing its fury on the Donbas region. The challenge to the United States and NATO is to provide new weapons, and the training to use them, in time for the Ukrainians to operate them effectively. Weapons like HIMARS, Gray Eagle, and Harpoon will give Kyiv a technological edge and hopefully convince Russia it has bitten off more than it can chew, and a full withdrawal is in Moscow’s best interests. If not, Ukraine has proven more than capable of escorting Russia to the border.

Reuters

Ukraine gathers Russian dead in chilled train for prisoner exchange

Vitalii Hnidyi – May 24, 2022

MALA ROHAN, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukraine is gathering the bodies of dead Russian soldiers strewn among the rubble of formerly occupied towns and using everything from DNA to tattoos to verify their identities in the hope of exchanging them for prisoners of war.

Volunteers have helped the military gather 60 bodies in the northeastern region of Kharkiv where Russian forces have retreated in recent weeks, stacking them up in a refrigerated rail carriage.

Bodies are sometimes used as part of prisoner exchanges and other times in exchanges for Ukrainian bodies, said Anton Ivannikov, captain of military-civil cooperation branch, Ukrainian Armed Forces, which is coordinating the effort. The bodies of those related to high ranking officials can be especially valuable to an exchange.

“We are gathering all the documents, all the credit cards. Anything which would help us identify the body” including tattoos and DNA, Ivannikov said.

“In the future this will tell us which soldier, which brigade was in this region, for further exchange,” he said.

The bodies will travel on the train to Kyiv where the team negotiating exchanges is based, he said.

The recovery effort has been made possible due to Ukraine’s pushing of Russian forces from towns in the Kharkiv region – and largely out of artillery range of Kharkiv city, the second-largest in the country.

At a recent recovery effort in the village of Mala Rohan, just east of Kharkiv city, Reuters witnessed volunteers using ropes to drag the bodies of two Russian soldiers from a well between houses severely damaged by shelling.

At least one of the two had their hands tied, a sign, Ivannikov said, that they may have been punished as deserters. Reuters was unable to verify the circumstances of any of the deaths.

Two volunteers wrapped the bodies in white plastic tarpaulin and lifted them into a waiting ambulance.

The volunteers dug another body out of a shallow grave marked with a makeshift cardboard sign that said “Russian occupant buried here” with the soldier’s name and date of burial.

A fourth body – one of 12 found in the village over three days – was pulled from the basement of a woman’s home. He was left alone when his fellow servicemen retreated,” Ivannikov said. “Most likely, he shot himself.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the allegation that Russian soldiers may have been shot for deserting or on whether it would consider exchanging bodies for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

While the Ukrainian military recovers bodies around Kharkiv, about 240 kms(149 miles) to the south east, its forces are defending against intense assaults in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine.

Moscow calls its actions a “special operation” to disarm its neighbour. Kyiv said it never threatened Russia in any way and says the attack was completely unprovoked.

(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

Associated Press

After 3 months of war, life in Russia has profoundly changed

The Associated Press – May 23, 2022

When Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine, war seemed far away from Russian territory. Yet within days the conflict came home — not with cruise missiles and mortars but in the form of unprecedented and unexpectedly extensive volleys of sanctions by Western governments and economic punishment by corporations.

Three months after the Feb. 24 invasion, many ordinary Russians are reeling from those blows to their livelihoods and emotions. Moscow’s vast shopping malls have turned into eerie expanses of shuttered storefronts once occupied by Western retailers.

McDonald’s — whose opening in Russia in 1990 was a cultural phenomenon, a shiny modern convenience coming to a dreary country ground down by limited choices — pulled out of Russia entirely in response to its invasion of Ukraine. IKEA, the epitome of affordable modern comforts, suspended operations. Tens of thousands of once-secure jobs are now suddenly in question in a very short time.

Major industrial players including oil giants BP and Shell and automaker Renault walked away, despite their huge investments in Russia. Shell has estimated it will lose about $5 billion by trying to unload its Russian assets.

While the multinationals were leaving, thousands of Russians who had the economic means to do so were also fleeing, frightened by harsh new government moves connected to the war that they saw as a plunge into full totalitarianism. Some young men may have also fled in fear that the Kremlin would impose a mandatory draft to feed its war machine.

But fleeing had become much harder than it once was — the European Union’s 27 nations, along with the United States and Canada had banned flights to and from Russia. The Estonian capital of Tallinn, once an easy long-weekend destination 90 minutes by air from Moscow, suddenly took at least 12 hours to reach on a route through Istanbul.

Even vicarious travel via the Internet and social media has narrowed for Russians. Russia in March banned Facebook and Instagram — although that can be circumvented by using VPNs — and shut access to foreign media websites, including the BBC, the U.S. government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

After Russian authorities passed a law calling for up to 15 years’ imprisonment for stories that include “fake news” about the war, many significant independent news media shut down or suspended operations. Those included the Ekho Moskvy radio station and Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper whose editor Dmitry Muratov shared the most recent Nobel Peace Prize.

The psychological cost of the repressions, restrictions and shrinking opportunities could be high on ordinary Russians, although difficult to measure. Although some public opinion polls in Russia suggest support for the Ukraine war is strong, the results are likely skewed by respondents who stay silent, wary of expressing their genuine views.

Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Moscow Center wrote in a commentary that Russian society right now is gripped by an “aggressive submission” and that the degradation of social ties could accelerate.

“The discussion gets broader and broader. You can call your compatriot — a fellow citizen, but one who happens to have a different opinion — a “traitor” and consider them an inferior kind of person. You can, like the most senior state officials, speculate freely and quite calmly on the prospects of nuclear war. (That’s) something that was certainly never permitted in Soviet times during Pax Atomica, when the two sides understood that the ensuing damage was completely unthinkable,” he wrote.

“Now that understanding is waning, and that is yet another sign of the anthropological disaster Russia is facing,” he said.

The economic consequences have yet to fully play out.

In the early days of the war, the Russian ruble lost half its value. But government efforts to shore it up have actually raised its value to higher than its level before the invasion.

But in terms of economic activity, “that’s a completely different story,” said Chris Weafer, a veteran Russia economy analyst at Macro-Advisory.

“We see deterioration in the economy now across a broad range of sectors. Companies are warning that they’re running out of inventories of spare parts. A lot of companies put their workers on part time work and others are warning to them they have to shut down entirely. So there’s a real fear that unemployment will rise during the summer months, that there will be a big drop in consumption and retail sales and investment,” he told The Associated Press.

The comparatively strong ruble, however heartening it may seem, also poses problems for the national budget, Weafer said.

“They receive their revenue effectively in its foreign currency from the exporters and their payments are in rubles. So the stronger the ruble, then it means the less money that they actually have to spend,” he said. “(That) also makes Russian exporters less competitive, because they’re more expensive on the world stage.”

If the war drags on, more companies could exit Russia. Weafer suggested that those companies who have only suspended operations might resume them if a cease-fire and peace deal for Ukraine are reached, but he said the window for this could be closing.

“If you walk around shopping malls in Moscow, you can see that many of the fashion stores, Western business groups, have simply pulled down the shutters. Their shelves are still full, the lights are still on. They’re simply just not open. So they haven’t pulled out yet. They’re waiting to see what happens next,” he explained.

Those companies will soon be pressed to resolve the limbo that their Russian businesses are in, Weafer said.

“We are now getting to the stage where companies are starting to run out of time, or maybe run out of patience,” he said.

USA Today

‘Ashamed’ of war, Russian diplomat resigns; Russian POW sentenced to life for killing civilian: Live updates

John Bacon, Kim Hjelmgaard, Tom Vanden Brook, Jordan Mendoza and

Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY – May 23, 2022

A veteran Russian diplomat to the U.N. Office at Geneva resigned his post Monday, saying he is “ashamed” of his country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Boris Bondarev, 41, confirmed his resignation in a letter delivered Monday at the Russian diplomatic mission blasting the “aggressive war unleashed” by President Vladimir Putin.

“For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on Feb. 24 of this year,” he wrote, referencing the date the invasion began.

Bondarev, who has recently worked on Russia’s role in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, told the Associated Press he is concerned about Moscow’s response to his letter and that he has no plans to leave Switzerland. His letter and statement take aim at Russian oligarchs who have grown rich under the Putin regime.

“Those who conceived this war want only one thing – to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity,” Bondarev wrote. “To achieve that they are willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes.”

U.N. Watch executive director Hillel Neuer called on other Russian diplomats worldwide to follow Bondarev’s “moral example” and resign.

“Boris Bondarev is a hero,” Neuer said.

Latest developments:

►The Russian economy is “withstanding the blow” of international sanctions well, even though it “is not easy,” President Vladimir Putin said.

►Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon remains committed to avoiding escalating the war with Russia. A call last week with his Russian counterpart was “purposeful and worthwhile,” Milley said.

►Russia has forcibly deported more than 1.4 million Ukrainian citizens, including 240,000 children, to the Russian Federation, said Liudmyla Denisova, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

►Russian forces are stepping up their bombardment of the Donbas area. Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said heavy fighting was continuing near Luhansk and that the front line was under continuous shelling. Of 1.6 million people who lived in the region before the invasion, there are “not more than 320,000 people” remaining, he said.

►Starbucks is closing its 130 stores in Russia and no will longer have a brand presence there. The company said it will continue to pay its nearly 2,000 Russian employees for six months and help them transition to new jobs.

West pledges sophisticated weaponry to aid Ukraine’s fight

Western allies have promised new, sophisticated weaponry to support Ukraine as it resists Russia’s invasion, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday. Denmark will send Harpoon anti-ship missile systems to help Ukraine defend its Black Sea coastline, Austin said. The missiles will pose a significant threat to Russian ships in the event of an attack on the key port city of Odesa, or an amphibious landing by Russian forces on the Ukrainian coast, he said.

In all, 20 countries pledged military aid to Ukraine at a meeting of allies Monday morning, Austin said. Italy, Greece, Norway and Poland have agreed to send artillery cannons and ammunition, which have been in demand as the war rages in eastern Ukraine.

There have been “serious exchanges of artillery fires over the last several weeks,” Austin said.

Zelenskyy says war will decide ‘if brute force will rule the world’

Countries, large cities and even large companies can stake out a section of Ukraine to lead rebuilding after the war, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video speech to global business and political leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Zelenskyy said the world had reached a “turning point” on freedom.

“This is really the moment when it is decided if brute force will rule the world,” he said. “If so, there is no need for further meetings in Davos.”

Zelensky also urged international corporations to shun Russia and set up shop in Ukraine.

“Set a precedent so that your brands will not be associated with war crimes,” Zelensky said through an interpreter.

Russian POW sentenced to life in prison for killing Ukrainian civilian

The first trial of a Russian soldier for war crimes in Ukraine since the invasion concluded Monday with Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old from Siberia, sentenced to life in prison for premeditated murder and violating international laws for war.

Shishimarin, a captured Russian tank-unit sergeant, fatally shot Oleksandr Shelipov, a 62-year-old civilian, in the head in late February. Shishimarin had pleaded guilty, but his defense had argued he was carrying out a direct order that he initially disobeyed.

Last week Shishimarin had asked Shelipov’s widow, Kateryna, for forgiveness. She said she wanted a life sentence to be handed down, but also that she would be willing to see Shishimarin returned to Russia in an exchange for Ukrainian fighters who surrendered to Russian forces at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

During the trial the three-judge panel heard that Shishimarin was ordered to kill the man so he wouldn’t be able to report them to Ukrainian military authorities. Shishimarin fired his Kalashnikov rifle at the victim through the open window of a car.

“I was nervous about what was going on. I didn’t want to kill,” Shishimarin said at the hearing in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. Judge Serhiy Ahafonov said he did not consider the defendant’s remorse sincere.

Swedish PM cites ‘positive’ call with Erdogan over NATO membership

Negotiations with Turkey on Sweden’s membership to NATO will take more time, but a recent phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was “good and positive,” the Swedish prime minister said Monday. Magdalena Andersson told Swedish official news agency TT she was looking forward to the upcoming negotiations with Ankara. Edrogan has taken issue with Sweden and Finland, citing their alleged support for the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK and other groups that Turkey views as terrorists. Andersson said Sweden was one of the first countries that classified the PKK as terrorists.

Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO last week – a decision spurred by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Unanimous consent of all NATO members is required for new members. Erdogan has made few references to Finland amid reports that most of Turkey’s grievances are directed at Sweden, which has a large community of Kurdish exiles.

Russian casualty rate high – and rising, British assessment says

In the first three months of its “special military operation,” Russia has likely suffered a similar death toll to that experienced by the Soviet Union during its entire nine-year war in Afghanistan, the British Defense Ministry said in its latest assessment of the war in Ukraine. About 15,000 Russians died in the Afghan war that ended in 1989.

“Poor low-level tactics, limited air cover, a lack of flexibility, and a command approach which is prepared to reinforce failure and repeat mistakes has led to this high casualty rate (in Ukraine), which continues to rise in the Donbas offensive,” the assessment says.

The Russian public has, in the past, “proven sensitive to casualties suffered during wars of choice,” the assessment says. As the death toll rises and the human cost becomes more apparent, public dissatisfaction with the war and a willingness to voice it may grow, it says.

Fighters who surrendered at steel mill to face ‘international tribunal’

The head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine says almost 2,500 fighters from the Azovstal steel mill captured by the Russian forces will face “international tribunal” there. Denis Pushilin was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that “at the moment the charter for the tribunal is being worked out.”

Family members of the fighters taken prisoner at the mill have pleaded for them to be given rights as prisoners of war and eventually returned to Ukraine.

Ex-Defense Secretary: Russia unlikely to use nuclear weapons

Even with the war in Ukraine going much worse than expected for Russia, the probability of Russian President Vladimir Putin deploying a nuclear weapon is “low but not zero,” former U.S. Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Robert Gates said Sunday. Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Gates said Russia’s use of a tactical weapon would prompt a strong response from the West.

“The other thing that I hope somebody around Putin is reminding him is that, in that part of the world, and particularly in eastern Ukraine, the winds tend to blow from the west,” Gates said. “If you set off a tactical nuclear weapon in eastern Ukraine, the radiation is going to go into Russia.”

Gates, who served as defense secretary under Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama from 2006-2011, said the Biden administration should have started arming Ukraine for a conflict with the Russians months earlier. But he gives President Joe Biden high marks for rallying the U.S. allies and assembling a coalition to confront Russia, resisting calls for a no-fly zone – which would require deeper intervention – and for refusing to bite on Putin’s nuclear threats.

Gates pointed out that sanctions from the West and failures on the battlefield have dealt a major blow to Russia and its global standing. “Putin will remain a pariah,” Gates said: “He has put Russia really behind the eight ball economically, militarily, and because now people are going to look at the Russian military and say, ‘You know, this was supposed to be this fantastic military. Well, they give a good parade, but in actual combat, not so hot.'”

Biden, Harris on Russia’s banned list, but not Trump

Russia has permanently barred nearly 1,000 Americans from entering the country in response to the United States’ support of Ukraine in the war, and the list includes numerous elected leaders but conspicuously leaves out a prominent one – former President Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy were among the 963 banned by Russia, a largely symbolic gesture.

Recent living former presidents like Barack Obama and George W. Bush were not on the banned list, but Trump’s name stands out as he has frequently been accused of being too cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Two days before the Feb. 24 invasion, Trump referred to Putin’s strategy toward Ukraine as “genius” and “savvy.”