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A third of the German Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzers used by the Ukrainian army are already in need of maintenance and are to be sent for repair in Slovakia, German newspaper Spiegel reports, citing its own sources. According to the publication, from the very beginning, the Ukrainian military tried to fire special ammunition at too great a distance.

According to Yanushevich, Ukrainian strikes have completely decommissioned almost all the major bridges in the region - Antonivskyi (road and railway), as well as the Nova Kakhovka Dam Bridge. “As a result of these actions, the Russian army was cut off from the supply of weapons and personnel from the territory of Crimea and the left-bank part of Kherson Oblast,” Yanushevich explained. He also confirmed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have launched an offensive in all directions in southern Ukraine, but added that the authorities can only provide official information from the military. “We must remain calm and not...

The recent ceremony of accession of four Ukrainian regions to Russia brought a speech from President Putin that outlined the reasons behind Russia’s current struggles, the character and identity of its foes and, more importantly, laid the groundwork for Russia’s next level of confrontation with the West beyond the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine. In his speech, Putin clearly defined the present fight as a worldwide battle in which Russia plays a leading role against the Deep State that ultimately runs the West and which uses all available tools – including military, economic, cultural, and social – in its attempt...

It started with Gazprom revealing that the Line B string of NS2 is intact; not only it escaped Pipeline Terror but may “potentially” be used to pump gas to Germany. That confirms once again that NS2 is an engineering marvel. In fact the whole system: the pipes are so strong they were not broken, but merely punctured. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak followed up, with a caveat: restoration of the whole system, including NS, is possible, and “requires time and appropriate funds”. But first, in Russia’s order of priorities, the perpetrators must be conclusively identified. Sources in Moscow confirmed...

Russian leader Vladimir Putin marked his 70th birthday on Friday with congratulations from the fellow authoritarian leaders of Cuba and Kyrgyzstan and a full “work” schedule, according to the Kremlin. The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry observed the day by sharing a recent quote from Putin predicting the “collapse of Western hegemony” on Twitter, illustrated by a photo of Putin wearing sunglasses.

The Swedish Security Service’s crime scene investigation of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines has now been completed. The investigation has strengthened the suspicions of gross sabotage. The Security Service carried out the crime scene investigation, beginning this past weekend, with excellent support and cooperation from the Swedish Coast Guard, Armed Forces and Police Authority. The crime scene investigation has shown that there have been detonations near Nord Stream 1 and 2, within the Swedish economic zone, resulting in extensive damage to the gas pipelines. Certain seizures were made during the on-site investigation. The Swedish Security Service is...

Aformer Russian commander said that the reason Moscow has seen a series of military failures in Ukraine is because Russian President Vladimir Putin has been misled by lies that have impaired his decision-making on the battlefield. "I don't think our Supreme [would] have made [inappropriate] decisions if he was retrieving accurate information about the real circumstances. The system of total lies brought us to this situation," Andrey Gurulyov, former deputy commander of Russia's southern military district, told television presenter and propagandist Vladimir Solovyov on Russian state media. The latest setbacks Putin has suffered due to a successful counteroffensive from Ukrainian...

Two Russians who said they fled the country to avoid compulsory military service have requested asylum in the U.S. after landing on a remote Alaskan island in the Bering Sea, Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office said Thursday. Karina Borger, a spokesperson for Murkowski, said by email that the office has been in communication with the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection and that “the Russian nationals reported that they fled one of the coastal communities on the east coast of Russia to avoid compulsory military service.” Spokespersons with the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection each...

A Russian-installed official in Ukraine on Thursday suggested President Vladimir Putin's defence minister should consider killing himself due to the shame of the defeats in the Ukraine war, an astonishing public insult to Russia's top brass. -snip- Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy head of the annexed Kherson region, followed suit, publicly lambasting the "generals and ministers" in Moscow for failing to understand the problems on the front. "Indeed, many say: if they were a defence minister who had allowed such a state of affairs, they could, as officers, have shot themselves," Stremousov, 45, said. "But you know the word 'officer'...

The pencils of Russian commanders 😅 #RussianArmyPhoto 1Photo 2Photo 3You'll figure it out.

KYIV, Ukraine—Outside the Giraffe shopping mall on the western edge of Ukraine’s capital, a group of locals prepared to meet the Russian armored column thundering their way. It was late February, and the Russians, from an elite airborne unit, were riding atop their vehicles, as if expecting a warm greeting. One wore a Cossack woolen hat instead of a helmet. Another hadn’t loaded his rifle. The few dozen Ukrainians from the towns of Irpin and Bucha had other intentions, which they had written on the cement mixer and bulldozer that blocked the road: “Welcome to hell.” After Russia launched an...

A growing list of failings and defeats in Ukraine have spawned angry outbursts from Russia's elite, who still support the "military operation" but have gone as far as to suggest army chiefs should face the firing squad. Before September saw a series of battlefield reversals, public criticism of the army was rare. The offensive had been presented as a sacred, patriotic mission and speaking ill of the armed forces could lead to a long stay in prison. Today, nobody among the elite is calling into question the merits of Moscow's viewpoint or the operation against a neighbouring nation. But the...

Racing down a road with his men in pursuit of retreating Russian soldiers, a battalion commander came across an abandoned Russian armored vehicle, its engine still running. Inside there was a sniper rifle, rocket propelled grenades, helmets and belongings. The men were gone. “They dropped everything: personal care, helmets,” said the commander, who uses the code name Swat. “I think it was a special unit, but they were panicking. It was raining very hard, the road was bad and they drop everything and move.” After months of static fighting and holding the line under withering Russian artillery barrages, Ukrainian soldiers...

A video has emerged on social media showing what appears to be three Russian soldiers surrendering to Ukrainian forces as their armored personnel carrier (APC) flies a makeshift white flag. Vitaly Kim, head of the Nikolayev region’s military administration, shared the video on his official Telegram channel Wednesday, claiming that the Russian soldiers sold the armored vehicle to the Ukrainian military as part of the surrender process.“We bought an BMP-2 (APC),” Kim wrote in the caption, the pro-Ukraine news outlet zn.ua reported. The recording, which was also uploaded to the pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel “Nikolayevskiy Vanyok,” shows the armored vehicle with...

The Ukrainians’ bodies lay side-by-side on the grass, the earth beside them splayed open by a crater. Dragged to the spot by Russian mercenaries, the victims’ arms pointed to where they had died. “Let’s plant a grenade on them,” a voice says in husky Russian, in what appears to be a plan to booby-trap the bodies. “There is no need for a grenade, we will just bash them in,” another says of the Ukrainian soldiers who will come to collect the bodies. The mercenaries then realize they have run out of ammunition. (snip) Wagner’s struggles in Ukraine have set in...

Tyler Rogoway @Aviation_Intel New reality of modern warfare that was anything but unforeseeable: the 'democratization' of long-range precision strikes via cheap, hard-to-spot, hard-to shoot down, and potentially overwhelming 'suicide' drones. And yes, this puts critical fuel and weapons storage areas at risk. Maria Avdeeva@maria_avdv7h Bila Tserkva, 80 km north of Kyiv, was attacked by at least 6 Iranian Shahed-136 drones tonight. This caused a major fire at infrastructure facilities. Reportedly 16 drones were launched from the south of Ukraine in the direction of Odesa, Dnipro and Kyiv overnight. Ukraine Situation Report: Russia's Drone War Erupts Thanks To Iran Russia's Iranian-made...

The presidential press office of Ukraine accused global media outlets of “nuclear hysteria” on Thursday for sharing remarks made by President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked the world for “preemptive strikes” on Russia to avoid nuclear war. Zelensky made the remarks during a question and answer session with the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, on Thursday, asserting that NATO had a responsibility to “make it impossible for Russia to use nuclear weapons.

Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko told the U.K. Daily Mail in an article published Wednesday that Ukrainian “intelligence services” were killing Ukrainians suspected of collaborating with the Russian military “like pigs” in areas where Kyiv has pushed back the ongoing invasion.The British newspaper highlighted multiple examples of individuals — civilians with backgrounds such as chicken farm security guard and alleged pedophile — currently in Ukrainian custody and facing prosecution for aiding the Russian invasion. Those cases, where some form of legal process appears to be in place, contrast significantly with Gerashchenko’s insistence that Ukrainian law does not protect collaborators...

"The truth is on our side and truth is strength!" Vladimir Putin boomed into a microphone on Red Square last week, after a grand ceremony at which he proclaimed four large chunks of Ukrainian territory to be part of Russia. "Victory will be ours!" But in the real world, things look very different. Even as Russia's president signed his illegal annexation treaties in the Kremlin, Ukrainian forces were advancing inside the areas he had just seized. Hundreds of thousands of men have been fleeing Russia rather than be drafted to fight in an expanding war. And things are going so...

Footage has emerged of a Russian propagandist being brutally arrested for speaking out against high-ranking Russian officials. Affiliates and members of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group have repeatedly criticised the Russian Armed Forces and its leaders on Telegram. Alexey Slobodenyuk, the head of media for a Russian mercenary group fighting in Ukraine, was pulled from his car by a special branch of the National Guard of Russia known for their unwavering loyalty to Vladimir Putin. Slobodenyuk has been accused of attacking defence minister Sergei Shoigu online, claiming that Russia’s current failings in Ukraine were in part due to organisational failures....