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Explosions shake the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson throughout the day. Internet, electricity and water are sporadic. Prices for basic goods, such as food and soap, are skyrocketing. Hundreds of cars are lined up trying to leave the city. By 4 p.m., the streets are empty. Ukraine has launched a military offensive aimed at retaking Kherson and upending a key goal of Vladimir Putin’s war: eliminating independent Ukrainian identity. How that liberation effort plays out is a test case for Russia’s efforts to mold the territory and its people in its own image. As Ukraine recaptures territory this weekend in...

Ukrainian armed forces said on Monday they had recaptured more than 20 settlements in the past 24 hours amid a large counter-offensive. “In the past 24 hours, Ukrainian armed forces drove the enemy away from more than 20 settlements” and are regaining “full control over them,” the Ukrainian army said in its daily briefing. “In their retreat, Russian troops are hastily abandoning their positions and fleeing,” the army statement added. Throughout the weekend, Ukraine claimed sweeping successes against Russia in the south and the east, including the cities of Izyum, Kupiansk, and Balakliya. On Sunday night, regions in eastern Ukraine...

The Russian army is losing at least a battalion’s worth of vehicles and men daily as twin Ukrainian counteroffensives roll back Russian territorial gains in eastern and southern Ukraine. That’s hundreds of casualties and scores of vehicle write-offs every day. These losses catastrophic for Russia. Russian army barely was sustaining a little over 100 under-strength battalions in Ukraine before Kyiv’s forces counterattacked in south on Aug. 30 and in the east eight days later. In under two weeks of brutal fighting, the Ukrainians have destroyed, badly damaged or captured 1,200 Russian tanks, fighting vehicles, trucks, helicopters, warplanes and drones, according...

I can’t believe it’s happening! But it is. Russia is pushed back even further. You’ll hear an interception from the Kharkiv region to find more insight about how they retreat. Also some exciting news from Moscow - some deputies are openly against Putin! Hopefully, there will be even more good news in the near future :)

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There are always people who say that the Russian army is fighting offensively, why not carry out a large in-depth assault with tanks and quickly encircle and cut off the enemy? The Russian tank forces were supposed to form up an iron barrel array on the front and gradually smash into the Ukrainian lines with fire. The Russian tank forces were supposed to form up an iron barrel array on the front and gradually smash into the Ukrainian lines with fire. Can the Russian General Staff fight a war? Now to talk about the large-scale in-depth assault and encirclement of...

The far right appears close to causing an earthquake in Swedish politics, the Sweden Democrats becoming the country’s second-largest party while the wider rightwing bloc that it leads edged towards a slim victory over the incumbent centre-left. Exit polls on Sunday night at first suggested a narrow victory for the Social Democrats and their centre-left allies. But as the votes were counted the tally swung towards the right. With more than 90% of the vote counted, the right bloc of four parties had a share of the vote corresponding to 176 of 349 seats in parliament, with the left bloc...

Saturday, I posted on the new Ukrainian offensive in Kharkiv Oblast that has liberated several hundred square miles of territory and threatens to unravel the entire Russian invasion; see Russia’s Disaster in Kharkiv Turns Into an Avalanche of Failure as Ukraine’s Army Advances Without Opposition.The main effort in yesterday’s report was Kupiansk, a critical rail and highway node on the Oskil river. That city is firmly in Ukrainian hands. As I noted yesterday, this places the main railroad line from Russian forces in Ukraine to Russia within range of Ukrainian tube artillery.The Ukrainian offensive in Kharkiv Oblast shows some signs...

Kharkiv, which is Ukraine's second largest city and is the biggest population center closest to Russia's border, has been plunged into total darkness Sunday night amid alleged Russian attacks on key infrastructure sites, including large power stations."The center of Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv was plunged into darkness on Sunday evening by an electricity blackout," Reuters has confirmed of the large-scale outage. It's further being reported that some city districts are also without water, creating a severe crisis for residents."The cause and extent of the blackout in the northeastern city were not immediately clear. There were also unconfirmed social media reports...

How the Situation in Ukraine Could Get Far More DangerousAfter days of a withering Ukrainian counteroffensive, the Russian defense ministry announced that it was withdrawing its forces from two areas in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. In a video statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky quipped, “The Russian army in these days is demonstrating the best that it can do — showing its back.” Ukrainians celebrated, and rightly so. While Russian spokesmen said that Russian forces were “repositioning” ahead of a new offensive, reporters on the ground cast doubt on such pronouncements both because they mirror Russian statements as it abandoned its drive...

Russia attacked power stations and other infrastructure Sunday, causing widespread outages across Ukraine as Kyiv’s forces pressed a swift counteroffensive that has driven Moscow's troops from swaths of territory it had occupied in the northeast. The bombardment ignited a massive fire at a power station on Kharkiv's western outskirts and killed at least one person. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the “deliberate and cynical missile strikes” against civilian targets as acts of terrorism. Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv appeared to be without power Sunday night. Cars drove through darkened streets, and the few pedestrians used flashlights or mobile phones to light...

Panicked Russian soldiers are abandoning their tanks, weapons and even clothes as they "literally run from their positions" in the face of a shock Ukrainian offensive, soldiers have told The Telegraph. A Ukrainian intelligence unit on the front line said the Russian chain of command was broken and soldiers were fleeing without putting up a fight, many of them changing into civilian clothes to avoid detection. A drone operator returning from the front line on Sunday also told The Telegraph that the speed of the offensive had even taken their own army by surprise, with troops struggling to recover the...

Ukraine has made some impressive progress on the battlefield, but let us hold the applause for a moment: It’s too soon to tell whether Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive heralds a Ukrainian victory in the war with Russia, but the remarkably rapid Ukrainian advance on the one hand and the equally remarkable rapid retreat by the Russians on the other do testify to Ukrainian military prowess and, perhaps more critical, Russian military incompetence. It should be amply clear by now that, expert expectations to the contrary, Russia cannot win the war. In fact, the irony is that Russian troops have responded to...

WASHINGTON — Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said Sunday that Russia's president-elect Vladimir Putin is a "patriot" who could turn out to be a constructive partner with the United States on certain issues. Kissinger said Putin, who was elected to a third term as president in an election marred by irregularities and protests against his rule, "is not anti-western." "He is, above all, a Russian patriot who feels humiliated by the experience of the 1990s, which were in the most formative period of his career," Kissinger said in an interview with CNN, referring to the 1991 collapse of...

Vladimir Putin: 'We Have Won. Glory to Russia' Putin claims resounding election win as opposition activists allege widespread fraud 4 March 2012 Vladimir Putin, with Dmitry Medvedev, sheds a tear as he addresses supporters. Putin has claimed a resounding election victory. Photograph: Mikhail Voskresensky /Reuters Vladimir Putin has claimed a resounding victory in Russia's presidential election, provoking a furious response from opposition activists who alleged that the vote was marred by widespread fraud. At a rally in front of the Kremlin an emotional Putin, with tears running down his face and flanked by the outgoing president, Dmitry Medvedev, said: "I...

In China, Russia's Putin calls US a parasite AP– 8 hrs ago BEIJING (AP) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is likening the U.S. to a parasite following his meetings with Chinese leaders to push ahead energy deals and draw the once wary neighbors closer. In an interview with Chinese state media released Tuesday, Putin said that the U.S. itself is not a parasite for the world economy but that its dollar monopoly is. Putin said his criticism was meant to help find a solution to problems in the world economy.

Negotiations Russia "does not reject" negotiations with Ukraine, but there are some "delays that complicate the process" of negotiations. This was said by Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov quoted by Tass. In an interview with Rossiya-1 television, Lavrov reported that Vladimir Putin convened a meeting with the Duma, the lower house of parliament, and leaders of the different factions. "The president told the participants that we do not reject negotiations," Lavrov stressed, but he accused the Ukrainians of delaying the process of negotiations. Kiev, Putin said again according to Lavrov's account, "should understand that the longer it delays the process, the...

KHARKIV, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Power blackouts and cuts in water supply hit several areas of Ukraine's northeastern region of Kharkiv on Sunday as Russian attacks hit infrastructure sites, the region's governor said. "The (Russian) occupiers have struck critical infrastructure in the city and region of Kharkiv," Olegh Synehubov wrote on Telegram. "In several population centres, there are no electrical or water supplies. Fires have broken out where these strikes occurred and emergency crews ... are containing the blazes."

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...

Vladimir Putin has taken to comparing himself to some of his czarist predecessors, invoking their military triumphs. In June, he praised Peter the Great for “taking back and reinforcing” territory in the Baltics in the Great Northern War in the 18th century. But as Putin’s effort to conquer parts of Ukraine slogs into its sixth month, some historians feel he more closely resembles Nicholas II, whose 1904-1905 war against Japan was an unmitigated disaster. The parallels between the two conflicts are undeniable. Just as Nicholas underestimated his Japanese adversary, so did Putin, who was convinced that his invasion of Ukraine...