Free Republic

The battle for Bakhmut is a war within a war. Some of the fiercest fighting of the invasion has happened here. And now the Kremlin's forces are gaining ground, metre by metre, body by body. Wave after wave of mercenaries from the notorious Wagner group have been sent into battle here. There are reports of fields of Russian corpses. Moscow now has effective control of both main roads into the city, leaving just one back route left - a slender supply line."They have been trying to take the city since July," says Iryna, press officer of the 93rd Brigade. "Little...

The soil of Bakhmut is dusted with snow and soaked with blood. This small city in Eastern Ukraine is at the centre of an epic battle. For more than six months Russian forces have tried to claim it. Ukrainian troops have resisted, giving rise to the popular slogan here "Bakhmut holds." Now the Russians are attacking from three sides, with regular troops and fighters from the notorious Wagner mercenary group. The Russians have reached one of the main highways into the city, and are closing in on the outskirts. There is house-to-house fighting in some areas on the outskirts, with...

Egypt's top court had in January ordered a retrial of the three men. But an Egyptian official told Agence France-Presse news agency on Sunday: "There is a presidential decision to deport Peter Greste to Australia." Another official told Associated Press the release had been co-ordinated with the Australian embassy in Cairo. The BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo says Egyptian law requires those deported under these circumstances to either finish their sentence in their home country or be put on trial again there, and it is unclear whether the Australian authorities have agreed to that. Al-Jazeera has demanded the release of...

-snip Same van, same building. We are at the same place where Guerin said: "We've been walking for a few minutes now. The damage here is absolutely incredible. I haven’t seen a single building that isn't damaged in some way. Many have been flattened, many have been singed. This town has really been wiped out." But thanks to Alex Thomson's report we now know that Guerin has just walked up the same street as him, the one with the view across the valley to "the outer areas of town virtually intact". At the same time Guerin was saying "This town...

Israeli officials have expressed dismay that BBC reporter Orla Guerin, who has come under sharp attack for what some perceive as an anti-Israeli bias in her coverage, will receive an MBE honor from the British government for "outstanding service to broadcasting." Diaspora Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky, who last year wrote a formal letter of complaint to the BBC over Guerin's coverage, said it is a pity that the absence of anti-Semitism was not a criterion for the award. If it were, he said, Guerin would not be receiving the honor. The MBE stands for Member of the British Empire, one...

Senior editors at the BBC are understood to have remonstrated with their correspondent, Barbara Plett, over her "misjudgment" in revealing on air that she had cried when Yasser Arafat's Jordanian helicopter carried him away from Ramallah en route to hospital in France.