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Russia's parliament on Tuesday approved a bill to toughen punishments for a host of crimes such as desertion, damage to military property and insubordination if they are committed during military mobilisation or combat situations. The bill, passed in its second and third readings on Tuesday by the lower house of parliament, the Duma, comes amid debate inside Russia about a possible mobilisation

Humiliation for Putin's troops is continuing as they begin to abandon the major city of Melitopol in the face of Kyiv's lightning counter-offensive. The city's pre-occupation mayor said that Russian troops were pulling out of the area in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region. Mayor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram that Russian troops were heading towards Moscow-annexed Crimea. He said columns of military equipment were reported at a checkpoint in Chonhar, a village marking the boundary between the Crimean peninsula and the Ukrainian mainland.

Deputies from 18 municipal districts in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kolpino have called for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s resignation, according to a petition with a list of signatures posted on Twitter on Monday. “We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of its president Vladimir Putin are detrimental to Russia’s and its citizens’ future. We demand Vladimir Putin's resignation from the post of the President of the Russian Federation,” said the petition posted by Ksenia Thorstrom, a local deputy of the Semenovsky District in Saint Petersburg. The petition follows Russia’s first regional and municipal elections since the start...

“According to multiple former senior U.S. officials we spoke with, in April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement: Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”

Ukrainian troops have taken four villages back from Russian occupation in the south near the city of Kherson, a Ukrainian military source tells CNN. Their main “target” is Kherson, the source added. “The operation began at night with massive shelling of Russian positions and the rear,” the source, who CNN is not naming for security reasons, said. “The main direction of the attack was on Pravdyne. We hit their infantry from the DNR (Donetsk People's Republic) and LNR (Luhansk People's Republic), and they fled. The Russian landing force fled after them," the source told CNN. “We have now liberated four...

Intelslava reports on the attempted ukie offensive near Kherson... 🇷🇺🇺🇦 "The AFU attempted a limited "counterattack" today on the Kherson front. The troops and equipment involved were immediately savaged by Russian artillery and airstrikes. The AFU has no meaningful offensive capacity. Leaving their defensive positions only hastens their destruction. 39.6Kviews 11:44 Intel Slava Z 🇷🇺🇺🇦 The counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the south, the area - north of Posad-Pokrovsky: ▪️Two Su-25 attack aircraft of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine were shot down ▪️7-8 infantry fighting vehicles, 4-5 tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed...

LONDON (Reuters) - Cold winters helped Moscow defeat Napoleon and Hitler. President Vladimir Putin is now betting that sky-rocketing energy prices and possible shortages this winter will persuade Europe to strong arm Ukraine into a truce -- on Russia's terms. That, say two Russian sources familiar with Kremlin thinking, is the only path to peace that Moscow sees, given Kyiv says it will not negotiate until Russia leaves all of Ukraine. "We have time, we can wait," said one source close to the Russian authorities, who declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the media....

U.S. natural gas prices take a sharp turn lower after Freeport LNG said on Tuesday it now expects to restart its shuttered export plant in early to mid-November, and ramp up to a sustained level of at least 2B cf/day by the end of November, delaying the timeline from a previous estimate of October. Freeport LNG's newest recovery plan will utilize the company's second loading dock as a lay berth until loading capabilities at the second dock are reinstated in March 2023, when it anticipates being capable of operating at 100% of capacity. Nymex front-month natural gas futures (NG1:COM) for...

Ankara supports Ukraine's territorial integrity and rejects the illegal annexation of Crimea, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. "The return of Crimea to Ukraine, of which it is an inseparable part, is essentially a requirement of international law," Erdogan said in a video message to the Second Crimea Platform Summit. The Crimea Platform is an international coordination mechanism of Ukraine to draw more global attention to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Erdogan said Ankara will continue to support the Crimean Platform that was established to resolve the Crimean issue through peaceful means. "Türkiye does not recognize...

If you’re expecting massive tank battles fought across a wide front, prepare to be disappointed. Ukrainian government and military leaders have acknowledged that a counteroffensive in the Kherson oblast has started, and evidence is mounting that the operation is gaining momentum. The dictionary defines counteroffensive as “an attack made in response to one from an enemy, typically on a large scale and for a prolonged period.” For many, the word counteroffensive conjures up images from World War II and the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes or the Red Army’s response to Germany’s Operation Bagration near Minsk. Prepare to...

It was apparent months ago that the Kremlin’s intensive focus on Donbas risked creating vulnerabilities elsewhere. At the peak of the fighting in Donbas in early July, three-quarters of the Russian army’s roughly 110 front-line battalions in Ukraine were in Donbas. Just a handful of battalions defended Russian gains in and around Kherson. The Ukrainian army also concentrated its best forces in Donbas, of course—but not at the expense of the southern front. In late May, Ukrainian troops began pushing south toward Kherson, then 40 or so miles from the line of contact. Two months later, Kyiv’s southern counteroffensive has...

Even though the Battle of Donbas is far from over, Ukraine is expected to open the next chapter of the war sometime in the near future — a highly anticipated, major counter-offensive operation in the south, particularly to liberate the Russian-occupied city of Kherson. Kyiv has declared its intentions to liberate the only regional capital captured by Russia following the Feb. 24 full-scale invasion. Experts across the world agree that retaking Kherson is the most feasible way for Ukraine to score a major victory over Russia and turn the tide of the war. As part of a counter-offensive operation, Ukraine...

The movement of Vladimir Putin's vessels to the port city of Novorossiysk in southern Russia comes after Ukrainian stocks of longer-range missile systems were boosted by Western allies. Ukrainian media reports Serhiy Bratchuk, adviser to the head of Odesa's Regional Military Administration, reporting news of the ships' eastward movement via Telegram. Media outlet Ukrinform reports the official as saying: "According to the information of our Navy, the enemy has redeployed a significant number of warships from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk. "Russian ships were earlier deployed in missile-proof areas in the zone covered by coastal air defence systems, as close as possible...

A $36 million Russian Su-34 bomber was reportedly shot down by Russia's own forces over Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, Ukrainian media outlets claimed on Monday. The jet was reportedly downed near Alchevsk, a city in the Luhansk region—one of the areas where the war is currently focused. Alchevsk is currently under the occupation of Moscow-backed separatist forces. Videos and images shared by the Strategic Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Telegram messaging app on Monday appear to show the charred remains of a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber. -snip- "Russian invaders from the air defense shot down their own...

Lt.Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of the US Army in Europe, told Insider that Russia lacks the resources and capabilities to make significant advancements in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region — where the 20-week-long war has turned into a grinding campaign. ... Russia's arsenal of artillery and rockets is the "only advantage" that President Vladimir Putin's forces have right now and said this is reflected in attacks on Ukrainian defense positions and civilian areas, which cause lots of casualties. A key to Ukrainian success will be to neutralize these weapons, he said. Without them, Russian victories will be hard...

Mikhail Khodorkovsky was once the richest man in Russia until he challenged Vladimir Putin and was sent to jail for 10 years. Now, he has advice for Western leaders trying to deal with his former adversary, telling CBC’s Terence McKenna that a show of strength is key.

Vladimir Putin has vowed to defeat the West on the 'battlefield' and suggested he could escalate the war in Ukraine. The Russian leader announced at a televised meeting with MPs this afternoon: 'Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. 'Well, what can I say - let them try.

Why the sudden total collapse of the Ukrainian forces in LissichanskTwo years after the Serbian war, an American general asked his Serbian counter-part what it was like to have fought against the greatest military power in history. The Serbian general replied, " I don't know, we've never fought Russia."

Russia's new 100 rouble banknote is impossible to withdraw from ATMs after Western firms that program cash machine quit the country following Ukraine invasion The Association of Russian Banks has asked for a six-month delay to rolling out the new 100 Rouble banknote as a new security feature is needed The Rzhev Memorial to the Soviet Soldier, a memorial to one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War, is featured on the note to fuel patriotism The Western companies which install and update ATMs have pulled out of Russia Russia’s new 100 rouble banknotes are impossible to withdraw...

As Russia tries to take the initiative in eastern Ukraine, Moscow has had to find fresh manpower from some unlikely places for what is shaping up to be a crucial phase of the war. Since the beginning of what the Kremlin calls its special military operation, it has tried to pursue its campaign with an army at peacetime strength. The results have been mixed. Though Russian forces have made gains in the east and south of the country, they sustained crushing losses in Moscow’s initial attempt to seize Kyiv, by some counts losing as many soldiers as the old Soviet...