Free Republic

Throughout the summer, Ukraine has struggled to mount a counteroffensive that could puncture defenses Russia had spent months erecting. Allies watched in frustration as the Ukrainian military used sophisticated weaponry from Western Europe and the United States to seemingly little effect. The Russians were dug in and, it seemed, going nowhere.But this week, the Ukrainians appeared to be showing signs of forward momentum in the Zaporizhzhia region. The village of Robotyne was liberated earlier this week. Since then, Ukrainian forces have advanced toward nearby Novoprokopivka and Verbove.The recent advance does not mean the counteroffensive can be deemed a success —...

Russia's defence minister said on Tuesday his forces had thwarted the first three days of a Ukrainian counter-offensive, alleging that they had killed or wounded more than 3,700 Ukrainian soldiers. Unusually, Sergei Shoigu read a statement himself rather than leaving it to the ministry's regular spokesman. "In the past three days, the Ukrainian regime launched a long-promised offensive in different sectors of the front," Shoigu said. He said Ukraine had suffered 3,715 casualties over three days, as well as losing 52 tanks and 207 armoured vehicles.

T S Eliot's famous opening lines from The Waste Land come to mind as Washington confirms that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is heading for the Middle East to attend an international conference regarding the Iraq situation, in Kuwait on April 22. This will be no ordinary run-of-the-mill international conference. It's about Iraq. And Rice may well bump into her Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki.