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France declared Ukraine has the right to defend itself, including using French SCALP missiles, against Russia. “There’s no red line,” said a French spokesperson, reinforcing support for Ukraine’s strikes on targets like the reported North Korean-command post in Russia's Kursk region. The spokesperson highlighted France’s military aid and training efforts for Ukraine, emphasizing international law supports Kyiv’s self-defense. Source: Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs

The sums of money flowing to Ukraine from Europe and the U.S. are enormous The Council of the European Union has approved a financial support package, which includes an extraordinary macro-level loan of up to €35 billion, as well as a credit cooperation mechanism that will help Ukraine repay €45 billion of loans, the EU council announced. As part of the new macro-level financial assistance (MFA) approved by the member states, interest income from the funds of the Russian central bank frozen in EU banks will be made available to Ukraine. The funds will help Ukraine cover the costs of...

Russia’s future will be characterized by a smaller population. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war has virtually guaranteed that for generations to come, Russia’s population will be not only smaller, but also older, more fragile, and less well-educated. It will almost certainly be ethnically less Russian and more religiously diverse. While some might view diversity as a strength, many Russians do not see it this way. In a world with hordes of people on the move to escape war, persecution, poverty, and the increasing impact of climate change, xenophobic political rhetoric sells well. Putin has spoken frequently about Russia’s demographic problems,...

SUMY, Ukraine—Russia is withdrawing some of its military forces from Ukraine to respond to a Ukrainian offensive into Russian territory, U.S. officials said, the first sign that Kyiv’s incursion is forcing Moscow to rejigger its invasion force. The officials said the U.S. is still seeking to determine the significance of Russia’s move and didn’t say how many troops the U.S. assesses Russia is shifting. But the new U.S. assessment bolsters claims by Ukrainian officials who said last week’s surprise invasion of Kursk province had drawn Russian forces away from Ukraine, where Moscow’s advantage in manpower and equipment is allowing them...

Ukrainian troops have advanced up to 30km inside Russia, in what has become the deepest and most significant incursion since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia's defence ministry said its forces had engaged Ukrainian troops near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, as the offensive in the Kursk region entered a sixth day. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Kyiv of "intimidating the peaceful population of Russia". (snip) While Ukrainian-backed sabotage groups have launched intermittent cross-border incursions, the Kursk offensive marks the biggest co-ordinated attack on Russian territory by Kyiv's conventional forces. “We are...

Russian nationalists called angrily on Sunday for President Vladimir Putin to make immediate changes to ensure ultimate victory in the Ukraine war, a day after Moscow was forced to abandon its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine. The swift fall of Izium in Kharkiv province was Russia's worst military defeat since its troops were forced back from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in March. (snip)Moscow's almost total silence on the defeat - or any explanation for what had taken place in northeastern Ukraine - provoked significant anger among some pro-war commentators and Russian nationalists on social media. Neither Putin, who is Russia's...

Historic news as 400 Russian soldiers have surrendered in central Vovchansk, the largest mass surrender of the entire war on the Russian side. These Russian forces were encircled at the chemical plant and for only 2 days held out until the surrender from today. Russian forces in the city are now seriously crippled with the loss of half a BTG. Meanwhile Ukrainian drone attacks continue to drive home damage into the Russian federation, as Russia takes high losses with very little gains.

Frontline | The War in Ukraine and Global Security: 'The Kremlin knows this is not sustainable' as Putin's losses mount in Ukraine | Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges Times Radio 836K subscribers 5-14-2024 3:00 p.m. 30:32 Minutes "I don't think that they can maintain their industry and an army of this size that they need, given the casualties they're suffering." Russian manpower shortages because of the war in Ukraine are not sustainable, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges tells Frontline on #timesradio 15,449 views 2 hours ago

Ukrainian forces held their ground in the strategically important eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar as Russian troops are reported to have failed an attempt to cross a canal in the area. The town, which had a pre-war population of more than 12,000, and is dissected by a canal, is located some 7 miles from the war-torn city of Bakhmut which was seized by Russian forces last May. The town in the Donetsk region has been the focus of Moscow's military since March.

Watch the moment a strike hits the Russian oil depot. THIS is the moment a Russian oil depot exploded in a huge fireball in yet another humiliating blow to Putin. Plumes of black smoke could be seen rising into the sky in Vyborg after the explosion at the oil refinery near the Nato border with Finland. Dramatic footage showed the oil depot engulfed in a raging inferno. Leningrad regional governor Alexander Drozdenko denied a Ukrainian kamikaze drone had hit the facility. He also denied there was a fire and claimed "there was a bang due to the use of pyrotechnics"....

Aerial drone footage shared by military analysts on Wednesday appears to show dozens of Russian soldiers being targeted with U.S.-supplied long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, at a training ground in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region. The clip was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by a volunteer with GeoConfirmed, an OSINT account that geolocates visual content from the Russia-Ukraine war. "Ukrainian ATACMS strike, with 4 ATACMS, including one dud, hitting a Russian training area in Mozhnyakivka, Luhansk Oblast. Based on the footage the losses will be significant. 80 km behind the front line," GeoConfirmed said, sharing stills showing the impact...

Watch footage of the bizarre tanks ploughing through the battlefield. PUTIN'S failing forces have resorted to using bizarre mobile sheds on the battlefield in an attempt to withstand Ukrainian kamikaze drones. Russian tanks have appeared underneath turtle shell-like cages after it was revealed that a humiliated Putin has lost almost all of the tanks he had when he began his brutal invasion of Ukraine. Strange footage shows a row of ageing Russian tanks trawling through fields under the steel covers. The odd-shaped metal blanket appears to be designed to shield Putin's dwindling fleet from Ukrainian onslaught. Up close clips show...

Ukrainian drones attacked Russia's third largest oil refinery on Tuesday about 1,300 km (800 miles) from the front lines, hitting a core unit which processes about 155,000 barrels of crude refining per day. -snip- Pictures from the scene indicated the drone hit the primary refining unit, CDU-7, at the Taneco refinery. The unit accounts for around a half of the plant's total annual production capacity. "A drone attack was carried out on one of the enterprises in Nizhnekamsk," Ramil Mullin, the mayor of Nizhnekamsk, said. -snip- The attack was one of several in Tatarstan, a highly industrialised region south-east of...

Dramatic footage shows the moment a suspected Ukrainian plane-type UAV explodes as it was targeted at a Russian plant assembling Iranian Shahed drones used in the war. There was a huge blast and fireball near Yelabuga, deep in Russia, at least 660 miles from the closest Ukrainian territory. A total of three strikes were reported in the area. Russian sources say it hit a dormitory for workers in the Alabuga economic zone in the Republic of Tatarstan, where it is believed the deadly Iranian drones are assembled. It is unclear so far if there was also damage to the drone-making...

Ukraine used Cessna-sized drones to attack deep inside the Russian Federation in the early hours of Tuesday morning, launching multiple strikes against a factory and oil refinery in the longest range hits of the war so far. A drone factory and an oil refinery over 800 miles from the frontline of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were the targets in an attack claimed by Kyiv’s military intelligence bureau in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Footage shared from the scene by Ukrainian state media shows a large drone — perhaps the size of a civilian single-engine pleasure aircraft — crashing into...

Footage showed numerous destroyed tanks, vehicles as well as multiple Russian casualties dispersed in a field. Ukraine has wiped out on of Russia's biggest tank charges since the start of the war, destroying 12 tanks in one day. Footage showed 48 Russian tanks and other vehicles coming under attack from Ukrainian drones, missiles and artillery. It shows the convoy of Russian tanks and armoured vehicles moving in the east of Ukraine alongside soldiers. Kyiv's forces then struck the convoy as it moved down a single road, taking out 12 tanks and eight armoured vehicles as well as several Russian personnel....

Russian forces have inadvertently bombed their own region, escalating concerns over military oversight and competence. On March 31, the Russian Air Force mistakenly discharged two FAB-500 air bombs in Belgorod Oblast, marking the 16th such incident in just two weeks. Reports indicate that the bombs were accidentally released during a routine flight, landing in the Belgorod region. Telegram messages from ASTRA sources confirmed the development, stating: "2 more FABs were dropped by Russian planes on the Belgorod region." One bomb was discovered near the Nina farmstead, while another left a crater in the area of the village of Kryukovo.

For decades, the USSR and then the Russian Federation competed with the US to dominate the global arms market. In 2023, according to SIPRI, Russia didn't even make the top five list of exporters. In this episode, I look at the evolution of Russian arms exports in 2022 and 2023, examine the drivers, and look at some of the nations (like France) that have taken market share as Russia drops.

Vladimir Putin's military is unlikely to use its prized T-14 Armata tank in combat in Ukraine because it is "too valuable," an ally of the Russian president said. The comments were made by Sergey Chemezov, the CEO of Rostec, the country's state-owned defense conglomerate, in an interview with Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti, published Sunday. Moscow is reported to have briefly deployed several of the main battle tanks for combat operations in July 2023, before they were withdrawn from the front line. The tank was once labeled by a senior British army official as "the most revolutionary tank in...

Deliveries of all-new Russian aircraft have been delayed by two years due to safety concerns ... The publication said that, for example, the weight of the new MS-21 passenger aircraft has increased by 5.75 tons, compared to the previous version, which used foreign components and Western engines. This means its flight range and altitude have been significantly reduced. One of Kommersant's sources said that, if Russia is unable to reduce the weight of the aircraft, it will be impossible for authorities to make the plane achieve the desired performance characteristics. "It's impossible to increase engine thrust by 20 percent," the...