Defense News

Transfer three A-10 aircraft squadrons to Ukraine now

Everett Pyatt – March 3, 2022

“Give us the tools, and we will finish the job,“ spoke U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill in February 1941. Following this powerful speech, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt proposed and Congress approved the lend-lease program. This provided the U.K. equipment and access to United States production capacity. This action was essential to stopping the Nazi advances.

History often rhymes. Now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is making the same plea for equipment necessary to stop the advance of the Russian autocratic Army. Now is the time for another lend-lease program supporting Ukraine.

Congress is acting in a supportive manner, but details are important. Russia must face a military defeat to enforce sanctions. The history of sanctions supports the conclusion that they do not change policy, but rather make conduct of business far more difficult while imposing distress on the economy as shown in Iraq, Iran, North Korea and others.

Sanctions must be accompanied by military success.

Zelenskyy has requested weapons and support in line with Churchill’s philosophy. Ukrainian soldiers have proved their courage and bravery. There is one more step that could be decisive: the transfer of three squadrons of A-10 aircraft to the Ukrainian Air Force.

This aircraft and its gun system were designed to counter an armored assault in Europe. They proved effective in Desert Storm’s target-rich environment, quite similar to the current advancing Russian force. They also became the infantry’s friend in close-air support missions.

The United States Air Force has deployment packages ready to go. The whole transfer to the Ukrainian Air Force could be completed in days after congressional authorization.

Firepower is needed to defeat the coming onslaught of armored forces. Other weapons are necessary for ground forces, but air power will be decisive. The A-10 has proven this ability and was designed for this purpose.

Zelenskyy asked NATO for air support. This request was declined by NATO. That is an appropriate decision since Russia has not attacked NATO.

However, that decision leaves each country an opportunity to decide based on its own moral compass. Many, including the United States, have decided to provide and have already supplied lethal aid necessary to slow the Russian advance. Some effects are notable, but military analysts agree that the long-term outlook for Ukraine’s survival is not good. One predicts a continuing resistance war for decades.

Zelenskyy is right in requesting air power support. It is necessary to slow or stop the oncoming juggernaut of Russian armored forces. The United States has the most effective weapon for this role — the U.S. Air Force’s A-10 aircraft. It is available since the service wants to retire most of the 30-year-old fleet. The airplane was designed to operate in Europe from ill-prepared facilities. Pilot retraining is minimal. All that is needed is painting Ukrainian insignia and delivering the aircraft. This could be done in days.

Each day is critical to slowing the momentum of Russia’s invading force. It is time to implement the United States’ moral compass and add the A-10 to the list of weapons already scheduled. Failure to add defensive capability to current Ukraine forces, while sanctions develop, weakens the potential impact of sanctions. They are complementary actions.

Everett Pyatt is a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy for shipbuilding and logistics.

Business Insider

Ukrainian colonel says Russian troops are ‘hungry, without fuel, demoralized’ as 40-mile-long convoy near Kyiv is stalled for days

Sinéad Baker – March 3, 2022

• Russian troops are struggling without food and fuel, a Ukrainian colonel told The Wall Street Journal.
• It comes as the US and UK say the 40-mile-long Russian military convoy bearing down on Kyiv is stalled.
• UK intelligence said it was “delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion.”

The 40-mile-long Russian military convoy bearing down on Ukraine’s capital city appears to have been stalled for days, and a Ukrainian colonel said Russian troops were running low on supplies and morale.

The Ukrainian colonel told The Wall Street Journal: “The Russians thought they could break through and be in Kyiv in a couple of days. They didn’t realize that we have learned how to wage war in the past eight years.”

“Now they sit there, hungry, without fuel, demoralized, and we just come in every little while and pop them off. And every day, we are pushing them back.”

The remarks come as the US and UK said the military convoy, which was spotted in Sunday satellite images apparently approaching Kyiv, had made little progress.

The UK Ministry of Defence said on Thursday the convoy was about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Kyiv’s center and struggling with issues including resistance from Ukrainians. Since last week’s invasion, ordinary Ukrainians have been taking up arms to fend off Russian forces.

“The main body of the large Russian column advancing on Kyiv remains over 30km from the centre of the city having been delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion. The column has made little discernible progress in over three days,” it said.

A senior US defense official also told reporters on Wednesday: “We believe that the convoy is stalled.”

NPR reported that the convoy includes tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and supplies.

A senior US defense official told reporters on Tuesday that some of the Russian forces in Ukraine were “literally out of gas” and are “having problems feeding their troops,” Insider’s Abbie Shull reported.

It is not clear if the official was talking about the convoy near Kyiv, or other Russian operations in Ukraine.

The official said that Russians “face greater resistance than they thought, that they have experienced fuel and logistics challenges.”

But the official warned that Russia may have decided to pause its operations as “they are possibly regrouping, rethinking, reevaluating.”

NBC News

Volunteers cross Polish border into Ukraine to fight Russian forces

Markus Schreiber, Konstantin Shukhnov, Corky Siemaszko – March 3, 2022

MEDYKA, POLAND — While busloads of Ukrainian refugees streamed across the border Thursday into Poland, small groups of determined-looking men were heading in the opposite direction to fight the Russians.

Most appeared to be Ukrainian émigrés in their 20s and 30s, but some could also be heard speaking other languages. Many of the men had black tactical boots hanging from their duffle bags.

And judging by the license plates of the cars dropping them off at the crossing in this Polish border town, they had come from as far away as Italy and Germany.

Among those heading east into Ukraine was a man with a military bearing from Great Britain who identified himself only as Ian and said he was 62.

“I’m going to fight,” Ian told NBC News correspondent Jay Gray.

Then Ian walked up to the Ukrainian border guards, who looked him over, checked his papers and sent him to the left to join the other hard-eyed men waiting for a bus bound for the battle against the Russians.

Ian and the others were answering the call that embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on his website Sunday for “friends of peace and democracy” to join their new brigade, the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, and help them fight the Russians.

“This is the beginning of a war against Europe, against European structures, against democracy, against basic human rights, against a global order of law, rules and peaceful coexistence,” his statement said.

Zelenskyy said Thursday that some 16,000 foreigners have already joined the brigade, a number NBC News could not immediately confirm.

The Ukrainian leader’s appeal harkened back to the 1930s when the embattled Spanish government called for international volunteers to help fight in the civil war against Gen. Francisco Franco and the fascists, a struggle Ernest Hemingway immortalized in “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

In France, the Ukrainian Embassy has been actively recruiting former soldiers to join the fight, and it set up a Facebook page with information and paperwork they would need to fill out, The New York Times reported.

More than 1 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have fled in the eight days since the Russians invaded their country, and the pace at which civilians have been crossing the border into Poland has been accelerating as the fighting has grown fiercer.

An army of Polish volunteers backed by relief workers from other countries has set up refugee aid centers in nearby cities, like Przemysl, an ancient city of some 61,000 people.

From there, Ukrainian refugees have been bused to major Polish cities like Warsaw, Krakow and Gdansk, as well as to Germany, Austria and even Denmark.

In recent days, the border crossing at Medyka has been the scene of emotional reunions as émigré Ukrainians reunited with loved ones who had traveled for days to get there.

There have been outbursts of anger from Ukrainians frustrated by the bureaucracy on both sides of the border. And there have been allegations of racism lodged by Africans and Asians who had been living in Ukraine and who say their escape was delayed by Ukrainian border guards.

But on Thursday, the evacuation appeared to be going smoothly.

Rather than marching across the border, most of the escapees boarded buses provided by Poland’s national fire department on the Ukrainian side.

Waiting on the Polish side was a couple who gave their names as Jim and Alyona and said they had driven to Medyka from Belgium.

Alyona, who’s Ukrainian, was waiting to collect her sister, who had been traveling by train for several days from the city of Dnipro.

Visibly distraught, Alyona said she had heard from her sister, who was still at least three to five hours away from Medyka.

“I will wait here all night if I have to,” Alyona said.

Konstantin Shukhnov reported from Medyka, Poland, and Corky Siemaszko from New York City.

Reuters

Fearing martial law or conscription, some Russians try to flee abroad

March 3, 2022

MOSCOW (Reuters) – As Russian troops slowly advanced on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Thursday, some people back in Moscow were attempting to flee to destinations abroad that have not banned flights from Russia, stomaching soaring prices in the rush to escape.

The Kremlin dismissed speculation that Russian authorities plan to introduce martial law following the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special operation”, or that they will stop men of fighting age leaving Russia, but some did not want to risk staying.

One Russian man, who moved back to Moscow from western Europe around a year ago, said he had bought a flight to Istanbul for the weekend, adding that living in Moscow may no longer be possible.

“I’m afraid that mobilisation will be introduced tomorrow and I won’t be able to fly out,” said the 29-year-old, requesting anonymity like others cited in this article.

Related video: Ukraine invites Russian moms to collect captured sons

Hennadiy Maksak, executive director of “Ukrainian Prism,” discusses the information war Ukraine is fighting against Russia, and explains their effort to reach the relatives of Russian soldiers who have been captured by Ukrainian forces.

“In my worst nightmares I couldn’t have dreamt of such hell when I was coming back a year ago.”

Another man, aged 38, said he had managed to buy an expensive ticket to fly to the Middle East at the weekend.

“I don’t want to fight in this war. We’ve heard lots of rumours and I don’t trust the Kremlin when it says they aren’t true,” he said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its second week on Thursday with Ukrainian cities surrounded and under bombardment. Hundreds of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians have been killed and Russia has been plunged into an isolation never before experienced by an economy of such size.

FEARING ARREST

The cost of plane tickets has leapt since Russia closed its airspace to airlines from the European Union and many other countries in a tit-for-tat response to sanctions imposed by the West, severely limiting Russians’ ability to travel.

The unprecedented Western sanctions on Moscow have already sent prices rising and started hitting the lives of ordinary Russians, while those who protest have been swiftly arrested.

Some 7,669 people have been detained at anti-war protests since the invasion began on Feb. 24, according to the OVD-Info protest-monitoring group.

After giving her cat to her family to look after, a 29-year-old woman flew to Israel on Sunday before prices rose even further, worried that things in Moscow can only get worse.

“I am ashamed that I haven’t stayed in Russia, that I am not fighting to the end, not protesting in the streets,” she said.

“But if you go out against the war, they arrest you, and there is this law on state treason.”

Russia’s state prosecutor’s office on Feb. 27 issued a reminder that anyone providing financial or other assistance to a foreign state or international organisation aimed against Russia’s security could be convicted of treason and face a maximum sentence of 20 years.

VISA PROBLEMS

Others faced bureaucratic hurdles. Russians require visas to enter most European countries, and a modest queue had formed at the Italian visa application centre in Moscow, which was still accepting requests by appointment only, with the nearest available slots over a week away.

“I will make an appointment for March 11, although what may happen in the near future is scary and uncertain,” said one 40-year-old Russian woman.

“I want to have a visa ready. I think they will let me in with a PCR test (against COVID) and then I’ll sort something out,” she added.

Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine has not been approved by the EU, meaning many Russians without a shot recognised in the West may be denied entry on health grounds.

It was not just Russians trying to flee. A Filipino woman who works as a nanny in Moscow was also applying for a visa.

“I desperately want to get a visa, I’m scared here,” she said.

(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Axios

Russia’s financial “fortress” falters under the West’s sanctions

Kate Marino – March 3, 2022

Re-created from the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center; Chart: Axios Visuals; Does not include gold held domestically. *This value also encompasses smaller financial institutions. The status of these reserves is unclear.

Russia spent seven years building a financial “fortress” that could help it withstand the impact of sanctions imposed by the West — and the keystone was $630 billion in central bank foreign exchange reserves.

Driving the news: Presumably, Russia didn’t expect the G7 nations to go so far as to freeze those reserves, which they did this week — a move nearly unprecedented in scope.

Why it matters: That fortress isn’t so strong after all if Russia can’t use its billions to support its war efforts and fund domestic spending.

• The G7 has locked up nearly $400 billion of that money, according to estimates by the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.

Backstory: Since March 2014, Russia has cut its foreign assets held in the U.S. and Europe, while increasing those in China and Japan, as well as its domestic gold holdings, the FT reports.

The big question: How will China handle Russia’s yuan assets? China’s not expected to freeze them — but faces a dilemma in how to aid its strategic partner, Russia, without running afoul of Western sanctions, Bloomberg writes.

Reuters

‘Hedgehogs’ v tanks, as Kyiv braces for Russian onslaught

Aleksandar Vasovic – March 3, 2022

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues in Kyiv

KYIV (Reuters) – As Russian troops closed in on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Thursday, a muddy construction site in a local neighborhood was teeming with workers and welders of the KAN real estate developer.

Instead of homes and offices, they were making giant, metal anti-tank barricades known as “hedgehogs”, and smaller spiked barriers aimed at stopping wheeled vehicles.

After Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb 24, KAN, a large local property company, reinvented itself to help the defenses of the city of 3.4 million people.

Zakhar, a foreman, picked up the phone and started calling the company’s construction workers who had remained in Kyiv. Almost everyone volunteered to stay and contribute, he said.

“We build things. We do not know how to fight, but we knew we could be useful,” Zakhar said. A few metres away sparks flew as builders cut through and welded together large metal beams.

It is another example of how Ukrainian civilians are supporting regular troops as they try to repel Russia’s advance, including through civil defence units and independent militia that have formed across the country.

Russia says its actions in Ukraine are a “special operation” not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its neighbour’s military capabilities and capture what it calls dangerous nationalists.

Ukraine’s military is dwarfed by that of its powerful neighbour, but resistance in the first week of the conflict has slowed Russia’s progress, particularly in urban areas.

Russia has captured one Ukrainian city so far – the southern Dnipro River port of Kherson – and has bombarded others with increasing intensity, including Kyiv and the country’s second city Kharkiv.

A giant column of Russian armour has stalled as it approaches Kyiv from the north, delayed by resistance, mechanical failures and congestion, according to the British defence ministry.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the violence and crossed into neighbouring countries. Men of fighting age are prevented from leaving Ukraine.

‘WE WILL THROW SPEARS’

On Feb. 25, Kyiv’s mayor and boxing champion, Vitali Klitschko, said the city “has gone into the defensive phase.”

Heavy equipment was brought in to build concrete checkpoints, blocking positions and bunkers inside the city and along all major roads and in the suburbs.

At KAN, workers cut long pieces of girder using blow torches and angle grinders, welding them together into triangular barriers used to bolster fortifications and slow the movement of tanks and tracked armoured personnel carriers.

Oleksandr Bodyuk, the company’s deputy director, said workers were also using reinforcing bars and girders salvaged from construction sites to produce spiked, movable defences against wheeled vehicles, including trucks.

So far the makeshift factory, which started operating this week, has produced 110 large hedgehogs, including 40 in the fist 12 hours, Bodyuk said, adding that the company runs other similar sites in the city.

“We have demands from many places for these types of blocking devices, we deliver them wherever they are needed in the area … subcontractors and friends are providing transportation for the products and the material,” he said.

Andriy Kryschenko, Kyiv’s deputy mayor who was wearing military fatigues, said many similar firms and workshops had adapted to produce hedgehogs, concrete barriers and other defences.

He added that tens of thousands of people in Kyiv had received weapons and many more were waiting at enlistment and recruitment offices. The city hall was also supporting Territorial Defence units and troops at the frontline, Kryschenko said.

At the construction site, Serhiy Serdyuk, a grizzled welder in his 50s, said workers were ready to take up weapons and join the fight.

“If we have to, when the materials run out, we will make spears and we will throw those spears at them.”

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Insider

France seized a $120 million super-yacht owned by Russian oligarch and Putin confidant Igor Sechin – a man dubbed ‘Darth Vader’ by Russian media

Kate Duffy – March 3, 2022

• France said its customs officials seized a super-yacht owned by a Russian oligarch.
• The yacht, worth an estimated $120 million, belongs to Igor Sechin, CEO of Russia’s Rosneft.
• Western nations have targeted rich Russians tied to the Kremlin as part of Ukraine war sanctions.

A super-yacht owned by a Russian oligarch has been seized by France under sanctions targeting individuals linked to the Kremlin, the French finance ministry said Thursday.

The yacht, Amore Vero, is owned by Igor Sechin, CEO of Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, the ministry said. Superyacht Fan put Amore Vero’s price tag at $120 million.

The yacht was seized on Wednesday night in La Ciotat, a town in the south of France, per a press release tweeted by French finance minister Bruno Le Maire. The vessel had been docked in La Ciotat since early January, the release said.

Sechin was placed on European Union and United States sanctions lists soon after Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday last week. The EU, US, UK and others have sanctioned a number of high-profile Russian business executives that have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sechin has been described in Russian media as the country’s “Darth Vader.” He was deputy prime minister of Russia until 2012 and is said to be a close ally of Putin.

The 280-ft Amore Vero has a swimming pool that converts into a helicopter pad, according to Oceanco, its maker. It also has a private owner’s deck and a sun deck with a jacuzzi, Oceanco says.

The yacht can accommodate up to 14 guests in seven suites, and has two VIP cabins, according to Superyacht Times.

The EU sanctions “require the detention of the vessel with immediate effect,” the French finance ministry’s press release said.

The seizure of Amore Vero appears to be the second instance of a European authority seizing a Russian oligarch-owned super-yacht since Ukraine sanctions were enacted.

Germany recently seized Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s $600 million super-yacht, Forbes reported Wednesday, citing multiple unnamed sources. Usmanov’s yacht was docked in Hamburg, Germany, for a refit when it was seized, per Forbes.

Sechin’s yacht was seized by French customs officials on Wednesday, Le Maire said Thursday.

A superyacht owned by a US-sanctioned Russian billionaire arrived in the Maldives earlier this week, Agence France-Presse reported Tuesday. It’s one of several Russian-owned pleasure craft believed to be headed to the sunny island nation, which doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the US.

The yacht, Clio, is owned by Oleg Deripaska, the founder of the Russian aluminum group Rusal who was sanctioned by the US in 2018. Clio dropped anchor off Malé, the capital of the Maldives, on Monday, AFP said, citing port officials.

HuffPost

Veterans Group’s Blistering Ad Exposes GOP As ‘Party Of Putin’

Lee Moran – March 3, 2022

VoteVets, a progressive political action committee that works to elect Democratic military veterans to Congress, blasts GOP praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a new online spot.

The group’s 76-second ad, released Wednesday, begins with footage of former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo complimenting the Russian leader, who is being condemned worldwide following his military invasion of Ukraine.

“Nothing good comes from appeasing a dictator, whether it’s the butcher in Moscow or the defeated loser in Mar-a-Lago,” says the video’s narrator.

“Remember, Donald Trump was impeached for threatening to withhold military aid for Ukraine,” the voiceover continues. “Aid Ukraine needed to hold off Russian aggression. He tried to extort Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, the hero now leading the resistance on the streets.”

The narrator recalls that “52 out of 53 Republican senators voted to let Trump get away with it.” Moreover, Trump “divided NATO, threatened to pull America out and convinced his pal Putin that the West was weak.”

“Donald Trump’s appeasement of Putin wasn’t just a personal act of treason, it’s the Republican Party’s official position,” the narration concludes.

Donald Trump never says a bad word about Vladimir Putin. Even as Ukraine is invaded, he calls Putin "very savvy." When he tried to extort Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and was impeached, the Republican Party refused to convict.

One thing is certain, the GOP is the #PartyOfPutin. pic.twitter.com/1lDARwYFKZ

— VoteVets (@votevets) March 2, 2022

Associated Press

Fire out at Ukraine’s key nuclear plant amid Russian attacks

Jim Heintz, Yuras Karmanau and Mstyslav Chernov – March 3, 2022

Ukraine Nuclear Plant

This image made from a video released by Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant shows bright flaring object landing in grounds of the nuclear plant in Enerhodar, Ukraine Friday, March 4, 2022. Russian forces shelled Europe’s largest nuclear plant early Friday, sparking a fire as they pressed their attack on a crucial energy-producing Ukrainian city and gained ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea. (Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

A woman sits by the window of a Lviv-bound train, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 3, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office says a second round of talks with Russia aimed at stopping the fighting that has sent more than 1 million people fleeing over Ukraine’s borders, has begun in neighboring Belarus, but the two sides appeared to have little common ground. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) ASSOCIATED PRESS

Stanislav, 40, says goodbye to his son David, 2, and his wife Anna, 35, on a train to Lviv at the Kyiv station, Ukraine, Thursday, March 3. 2022. Stanislav is staying to fight while his family is leaving the country to seek refuge in a neighbouring country. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)ASSOCIATED PRESS

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A fire at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant ignited by Russian shelling has been extinguished, Ukrainian authorities said Friday, and Russian forces have taken control of the site.

Ukraine’s state nuclear regulator said that no changes in radiation levels have been recorded so far. It said staff are studying the site to check for other damage to the compartment of reactor No. 1 at the Zaporizhzhia plant in the city of Enerhodar.

The regulator noted in a statement on Facebook the importance of maintaining the ability to cool nuclear fuel, saying the loss of such ability could lead to an accident even worse than 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world’s worst nuclear disaster, or the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns in Japan. It also noted that there is a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at the site, though there was no sign that facility was hit by shelling.

The shelling of the plant came as the Russian military pressed their attack on a crucial energy-producing Ukrainian city and gained ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea. As the invasion entered its second week, another round of talks between Russia and Ukraine yielded a tentative agreement to set up safe corridors to evacuate citizens and deliver humanitarian aid.

Leading nuclear authorities were worried — but not panicked — about the damage to the power station. The assault, however, led to phone calls between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders. The U.S. Department of Energy activated its nuclear incident response team as a precaution.

Earlier, nuclear plant spokesman Andriy Tuz told Ukrainian television that shells fell directly on the facility and set fire to one of its six reactors. That reactor is under renovation and not operating, he said.

The Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said that measurements taken at 7 a.m. Friday (0500 GMT) showed radiation levels in the region “remain unchanged and do not endanger the lives and health of the population.”

The mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, announced on his Telegram channel Friday morning that “the fire at the (nuclear plant) has indeed been extinguished.” His office told The Associated Press that the information came from firefighters who were allowed onto the site overnight.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in “coming hours” to raise the issue of Russia’s attack on the nuclear power plant, according to a statement from his office.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm tweeted that the Zaporizhzhia plant’s reactors were protected by robust containment structures and were being safely shut down.

In an emotional speech in the middle of the night, Zelenskyy said he feared an explosion that would be “the end for everyone. The end for Europe. The evacuation of Europe.”

“Only urgent action by Europe can stop the Russian troops,” he said. “Do not allow the death of Europe from a catastrophe at a nuclear power station.”

But most experts saw nothing to indicate an impending disaster.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the fire had not affected essential equipment and that Ukraine’s nuclear regulator reported no change in radiation levels. The American Nuclear Society concurred, saying that the latest radiation levels remained within natural background levels.

“The real threat to Ukrainian lives continues to be the violent invasion and bombing of their country,” the group said in a statement.

Orlov, the mayor of Enerhodar, said Russian shelling stopped a few hours before dawn, and residents of the city of more than 50,000 who had stayed in shelters overnight could return home. The city awoke with no heat, however, because the shelling damaged the city’s heating main, he said.

Prior to the shelling, the Ukrainian state atomic energy company reported that a Russian military column was heading toward the nuclear plant. Loud shots and rocket fire were heard late Thursday.

Later, a livestreamed security camera linked from the homepage of the Zaporizhzhia plant showed what appeared to be armored vehicles rolling into the facility’s parking lot and shining spotlights on the building where the camera was mounted.

Then there were what appeared to be muzzle flashes from vehicles, followed by nearly simultaneous explosions in surrounding buildings. Smoke rose into the frame and drifted away.

Vladimir Putin’s forces have brought their superior firepower to bear over the past few days, launching hundreds of missiles and artillery attacks on cities and other sites around the country and making significant gains in the south.

The Russians announced the capture of the southern city of Kherson, a vital Black Sea port of 280,000, and local Ukrainian officials confirmed the takeover of the government headquarters there, making it the first major city to fall since the invasion began a week ago.

A Russian airstrike on Thursday destroyed the power plant in Okhtyrka, leaving the city without heat or electricity, the head of the region said on Telegram. In the first days of the war, Russian troops attacked a military base in the city, located between Kharkiv and Kyiv, and officials said more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed.

“We are trying to figure out how to get people out of the city urgently because in a day the apartment buildings will turn into a cold stone trap without water, light or electricity,” Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said.

Heavy fighting continued on the outskirts of another strategic port, Mariupol, on the Azov Sea. The battles have knocked out the city’s electricity, heat and water systems, as well as most phone service, officials said. Food deliveries to the city were also cut.

Associated Press video from the port city showed the assault lighting up the darkening sky above deserted streets and medical teams treating civilians, including a 16-year-old boy inside a clinic who could not be saved. The child was playing soccer when he was wounded in the shelling, according to his father, who cradled the boy’s head on the gurney and cried.

Severing Ukraine’s access to the Black and Azov seas would deal a crippling blow to its economy and allow Russia to build a land corridor to Crimea, seized by Moscow in 2014.

Overall, the outnumbered, outgunned Ukrainians have put up stiff resistance, staving off the swift victory that Russia appeared to have expected. But a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia’s seizure of Crimea gave it a logistical advantage in that part of the country, with shorter supply lines that smoothed the offensive there.

Ukrainian leaders called on the people to defend their homeland by cutting down trees, erecting barricades in the cities and attacking enemy columns from the rear. In recent days, authorities have issued weapons to civilians and taught them how to make Molotov cocktails.

“Total resistance. … This is our Ukrainian trump card, and this is what we can do best in the world,” Oleksiy Arestovich, an aide to Zelenskyy, said in a video message, recalling guerrilla actions in Nazi-occupied Ukraine during World War II.

The second round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations was held in neighboring Belarus. But the two sides appeared far apart going into the meeting, and Putin warned Ukraine that it must quickly accept the Kremlin’s demand for its “demilitarization” and declare itself neutral, renouncing its bid to join NATO.

Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron he was determined to press on with his attack “until the end,” according to Macron’s office.

The two sides said that they tentatively agreed to allow cease-fires in areas designated safe corridors, and that they would seek to work out the necessary details quickly. A Zelenskyy adviser also said a third round of talks will be held early next week.

Despite a profusion of evidence of civilian casualties and destruction of property by the Russian military, Putin decried what he called an “anti-Russian disinformation campaign” and insisted that Moscow uses “only precision weapons to exclusively destroy military infrastructure.”

Putin claimed that the Russian military had already offered safe corridors for civilians to flee, but he asserted without evidence that Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” were preventing people from leaving and were using them as human shields.

The Pentagon set up a direct communication link to Russia’s Ministry of Defense earlier this week to avoid the possibility of a miscalculation sparking conflict between Moscow and Washington, according to a U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the link had not been announced.

Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Chernov reported from Mariupol, Ukraine. Sergei Grits in Odesa, Ukraine; Francesca Ebel, Josef Federman and Andrew Drake in Kyiv; and other AP journalists from around the world contributed to this report.

The Hill

National security staffer allegedly pushed out during Trump administration rehired

March 3, 2022

A National Security Council (NSC) staffer pushed out under former President Trump has been rehired by the Biden administration.

Ellen Knight, a government classification expert, is now working at the NSC as senior director for records, access, and information security management, NSC spokeswoman Emily Horne told The New York Times.

“Ellen Knight is a dedicated career public servant,” Horne said in a statement, according to the paper. “We’re thankful to have her return to the National Security Council as the senior director for records, access, and information security management, and benefit from her extensive experience in classified information management.”

During the Trump administration Knight worked at the NSC on a two-year detail assignment from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). She was involved with the prepublication review process for former national security adviser John Bolton’s book, “The Room Where it Happened,” which she claims led to retaliatory measures by the Trump administration.

Knight, in a September 2020 letter, claimed that lawyers at the NSC played “an outsized role in the review process” after she informed them that she received Bolton’s manuscript. She says NSC political appointees intervened in the process by delaying the issuance of a letter that deemed the book cleared. They also allegedly challenged her evaluation of the book.

Additionally, she claimed that White House lawyers pressured her to reverse her conclusion that Bolton’s book did not include any classified information and was safe to be published, according to the Times.

In the letter, the ex-staffer’s lawyer suggested that she may have been retaliated against for her stance on the review and refusal to block the publication of the book.

Knight was serving at the NSC on finite assignment, but the letter said she was given assurances that she would stay at NSC in a direct-hire position once her detail finished.

In 2020, however, she was told there was not a path forward for her at the NSC, and ultimately returned to NARA.

The letter was filed in Washington, D.C., federal court as part of the saga involving Bolton’s book. The Trump administration sought to block the publication of the book, claiming that it had classified information and could compromise national security if shown to the public.

The attempt was unsuccessful and the book published, but a lawsuit soon followed. The Justice Department ultimately dropped the suit and ended a criminal investigation into whether the book included classified information, according to the Times.

The Hill has reached out to the NSC and White House for comment.