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

Kazakhstan’s Defense Ministry has cancelled commemorative events, including a military parade, on May 9 to mark the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Political and economic factors appear to have played a role in the decision. Victory Day, as the May 9 celebration is known across the former Soviet Union, has become Russia’s primary state holiday in the years since 1991. Elsewhere in the former Soviet empire, the occasion has receded in significance. In Kazakhstan, a military parade hasn’t been on May 9 since 2019. Even so, commemorative events honoring veterans have continued to be staged across...

This is the moment a hobbling Alexander Lukashenko begged Vladimir Putin and a Russian security operative to provide him with transport and save him from walking at today's military parade. Doddering along, the Belarusian tyrant was unable to walk less than a quarter of a mile alongside Vladimir Putin at the Red Square event. The despot had been shuffling to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden, alongside the Kremlin wall, to lay a wreath with the Kremlin ruler and other ex-Soviet republic leaders. Appearing in evident discomfort, Lukashenko grimaced and pleaded with Putin to get him some...

peculation is surrounding Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's health after he reportedly made an early exit during Russia's Victory Day festivities. Lukashenko was photographed at the event with a visible bandage on his right arm. A staunch Putin ally, Lukashenko was the only one of the invited heads of state who did not join Putin in laying down flowers at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a 300-meter walk from where he was seated during the procession, Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva reported. Belarusian political analyst Dmitry Bolkunets wrote on Telegram that Lukashenko also did not attend a meal with Putin and...

Vladimir Putin’s annual Victory Day parade in Moscow meant to showcase Russia’s military might failed to impress Tuesday, with critics poking fun at the lone World War II-era tank that was seen rolling forlornly through Red Square. The event celebrating Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 was a drastically pared-down affair compared to years past, featuring a mere 8,000 soldiers — the lowest number since 2008. Even the procession in 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic, featured some 13,000 soldiers. Last May, more than a month into the invasion of Ukraine, 11,000 troops took part in...

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group that leads the ongoing assault on Bakhmut, on Tuesday accused the Russian army of fleeing its positions around the city. "Today one of the units of the Defense Ministry fled from one of our flanks ... exposing the front," said Prigozhin. Prigozhin, popularly known as Putin's chef because of the lucrative catering contracts he once held with the Kremlin, accused the Russian Defense Ministry of "scheming all the time" instead of fighting. Prigozhin said soldiers were abandoning their positions because of the "stupidity" of Russian army commanders, who he said were giving...

VLADIMIR Putin rushed through a speech in Moscow's Red Square today to open a diminished parade marking Russia's victory in World War II. Far fewer troops and a solitary rusting tank dating from the war were on display amid tight security after a suspected assassination attempt on the tyrant. -snip- A solitary WWII vintage commemorative T-34 was the only tank that took part and instead of usual show of armoured might, it was followed by just 10 armoured jeeps. The usual flypast over Moscow and other cities was cancelled again, after a lack of trained pilots grounded it last year.

Alex Mercouris describes the situation in BakhmutApparently there are still a couple of thousand ukies holed up in one little corner of Bakhmut in basements and hide holes of verious sorts. Mercouris claims that the order has gone out to those unfortunates that their "job" is to prevent Bakhmut falling prior to May 10; that is, their job is to prevent Russians from celebrating the capture of the place on or prior to VE day, which is a big annual celebratiion in Russia. Whoever issued that order plainly does not give a rat's ass about the lives of country 404's...

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has arrived in Moscow for bilateral meetings with President Vladimir Putin and to attend a victory parade in the Russian capital to mark the end of World War II, likely making him the only foreign head of state to be at the May 9 events. Japarov's press service announced the official visit and arrival on the presidential website, saying the Kyrgyz leader was met at Vnukovo Airport by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin. Attendance by foreign officials at commemorations of what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War has waned since Moscow's illegal annexation of the...

When Vladimir Putin takes to the stage on Tuesday to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, his speech on Red Square will have been preceded by a turbulent week in which drones attacked the Kremlin and one of his top war leaders threatened mutiny. The dramatic footage early last Wednesday of two drones flying over the walls of the Kremlin, its historical seat of power, exposed vulnerabilities in the heart of the Russian capital, putting Moscow on edge. The authorities have banned the use of drones and started jamming GPS signals, leading to taxis appearing to be in the...

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday avoided commenting on the statement by the head of the private military company Wagner threatening to withdraw from the battlefield in the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, saying the matter is related to a "special military operation" of Russia. "We have seen it in the media, but I cannot comment on it because it concerns the course of a special military operation," Peskov told reporters at a press briefing in Moscow.

Standing in a field of corpses, Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin on Friday published an expletive-ridden video personally blaming top defence chiefs for losses suffered by his Wagner Group fighters in Ukraine. Prigozhin's tirade reignited and escalated a long-running feud with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, whom he has repeatedly accused of starving his forces of ammunition. Prigozhin appeared next to dozens of bloodied corpses that he said were those of Wagner fighters. His expletives were bleeped out in the video published by his press service. "We have a 70% shortage of ammunition. Shoigu!...

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia's Wagner Group mercenary force, said in a sudden and dramatic announcement on Friday that his forces would pull out of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut that they have been trying in vain to capture since last summer. Prigozhin said they would withdraw on May 10 - ending their involvement in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war - because of heavy losses and inadequate ammunition supplies. He asked defence chiefs to insert regular army troops in their place. "I declare on behalf of the Wagner fighters, on behalf of the Wagner command, that on...

Russia's ex-president Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday called for the 'physical elimination' of Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky after Moscow accused Kyiv of a drone attack on the Kremlin aimed at assassinating Vladimir Putin. 'After today's terrorist attack, there are no options left aside the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal,' said Medvedev, who has been increasingly hawkish since Moscow's Ukraine offensive. Two drones were used in the alleged attack, Moscow claimed, with nighttime footage showing fireballs erupting above the roof of the government complex. -snip- A chilling warning was issued by senior Russian official Vyacheslav Volodin, who called on Moscow...

At least six Russian regions have scrapped 9 May Victory Day parades that mark the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany amid fears over Ukrainian strikes, with a region 400 miles from the border being the latest to cancel. The governor of Saratov announced the parade there would not go ahead because of “safety concerns”, adding to a string of cancellations that are a glaring admission of the country’s military vulnerability more than 14 months into the war. Earlier, heads of Belgorod, Kursk, Voronezh, Oryol, and Pskov region, as well as the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, similarly cancelled their annual military parades....

Russia has accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin in a double drone strike on the Kremlin overnight, prompting demands from lawmakers in Moscow for the Kyiv regime 'to be destroyed'. Moscow said it had foiled the attempt and furiously decried the attack as 'a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation.' But Ukraine quickly responded to the accusation - the most dramatic Russia has levelled against Kyiv since invading its neighbour more than 14 months ago - saying it had 'nothing to do' with the alleged attack, casting doubt...

With even nationalist pro-war bloggers criticising Putin’s actions in Ukraine, his desperation and paranoia are growing. May is traditionally a month for public celebration in Russia, with massive public processions on 1 May for Labour Day and military parades on 9 May for Victory Day, a holiday commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. Not so in 2023. Russia’s biggest trade union cancelled its traditional Labour Day demonstrations because of the “heightened risk of terrorist activity”, while regions near the Ukrainian border called off Victory Day parades so as to “not provoke” the Ukrainian army. The Russian government has warned...

Ukraine can afford to wait before launching its offensive. But Russia is in a hurry.Ticktock goes the Kremlin clock. May 9th is looming, the militaristic highlight of Russia’s official calendar. The armed forces will goosestep across Red Square, while fearsome weapons systems, some of them usable, will trundle over the cobblestones.The bombast celebrates the epoch-defining victory over Nazi Germany 78 years ago. More recent triumphs are harder to find; in the Ukraine war, Russia’s most serious military engagement since 1991, they are wholly absent. The sole bright spot lately has been the growth of Russian influence in Africa, spearheaded by...

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin-connected businessman who controls the notorious Wagner mercenary group, has accused “decision-makers” in Russia of treason for not providing his troops and military units of Russia's regular armed forces with ammunition needed to fight in Ukraine. "A criminal group did not give us ammunition,” Prigozhin said in a five-minute audio statement posted on Telegram on April 26 in which he reiterated his claim that ammunition is being stockpiled in depots but not delivered to the battlefield. Prigozhin claimed his troops have no ammunition to fight against Ukrainian artillery because of "treason" by unspecified top Russian officials, pledging...

Russia's annual in-person commemoration of its country's World War II fighters is not going to take place this year, according to state authorities. The nixing of the face-to-face "Immortal Regiment" march comes amid reports that the nation's major national event Victory Day event, which is scheduled to take place May 9 and celebrates the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany, may be canceled or downsized in certain regions including Crimea, Kursk and Belgorod due to ongoing security concerns resulting from the war with Ukraine. Russian State Duma Deputy Elena Tsunaeva, co-chairperson of the central headquarters of the "Immortal Regiment...