Under pressure in HIS country…..
Russian President Putin says no more grabbing men to be exported to the front…..
Ukraine President is named Man of the Year by Time magazine….
The atrocities by Russian troops are being documented ….
Weekly POW swap made…..
The Russian’s are now moving to fortify its border with the Ukraine…Worried about a invasion?
Here’s what we know:
Amid setbacks on the battlefield, and fears in Russia that more soldiers will be conscripted, the Russian leader says he is not mobilizing additional forces for now.
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Putin says Russia doesn’t currently need to conscript more troops.
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A U.N. report documents 441 killings of civilians around Kyiv.
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How Russia’s campaign of terror in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha unfolded.
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Ukraine escalates its offensive in Luhansk, aided by a winter freeze, officials say.
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Zelensky is named Time’s person of the year.
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The sounds of war mark time in one battered town….
Kyiv has not publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks, which are the most brazen and far-reaching inside Russia since its invasion in February. But a senior Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation, told The Washington Post on Tuesday that all three attacks were carried out by Ukrainian drones.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
- Russian forces killed at least 441 civilians extrajudicially, in what likely amounted to war crimes, in the first month of its invasion of Ukraine, during the push to take Kyiv, the capital, according to a report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
- The report, based on investigations launched after hundreds of bodies of civilians were found following the initial Russian retreat from the Kyiv area, found indications that civilians were targeted intentionally. Russian forces conducted summary executions, killing civilians with bound hands in detention after torturing them. Some were “killed while moving within or between settlements on foot or by bicycle, car or van,” the report found. “Most victims were targeted while commuting to work, delivering food to others, visiting neighbours or relatives, or while attempting to flee the hostilities.”
- The recent strikes show that Ukraine “can operate in Russia at will — and that will scare the Russians,”the Western official said Tuesday, adding: “The Russians will be doubting their ability to defend their strategic assets in Russia.”
- Asked whether the United States was working to prevent Ukraine from developing its own ability to strike inside Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday: “No. Absolutely not.”
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called a U.S. plan to deliver a further $800 million to Ukraine “extremely confrontational” on Wednesday. The measure was adopted by lawmakers Tuesday as part of a larger defense spending bill. The United States has pledged more than $19 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles, air defense systems, combat drones and artillery equipment.
Battleground updates
- Russia is working to extend defensive positions along its international border with Ukraine and inside its Belgorod region, Britain’s Ministry of Defense saidWednesday, noting that Russia was installing “more elaborate” defense systems.
- The Russian military said Ukraine used a “Soviet-era made” drone in at least one of the attacks this week. Alexander Kots, a prominent military correspondent with the Kremlin-friendly newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, said the Engels air base was hit on Monday by a Soviet Tu-141 Strizh unmanned aerial vehicle, which uses technology from the 1970s.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited his country’s forces near the front line in the eastern Donetsk region on Tuesday. In an address marking Ukraine’s Armed Forces Day, Zelensky said the country “cannot be defeated and cannot be broken.” He continued: “Thousands of Ukrainians gave their lives for the day to come when not a single occupier remains on our land and all our people are free again.”
- Russia and Ukraine carried out a prisoner swap Tuesday, exchanging 60 prisoners each, officials said. Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff, told Reuters that some of the returned Ukrainian prisoners were those who held out in the besieged city of Mariupol earlier this year. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Russian prisoners would be flown to Moscow to receive medical care and psychological support, Reuters reported.
Global impact
- The conditions for a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine are “not there now,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. He blamed Russia for failing to participate in negotiations that respect “the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
- The State Department approved a potential sale of more than 100 M1A1 Abrams tanks to Poland, the Pentagon said Tuesday. The deal, which includes munitions, combat recovery vehicles and other related equipment, is worth $3.75 billion. European nations have stepped up major weapons purchases this year to defend against Russian military aggression.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin “has no genuine interest in negotiation or meaningful diplomacy” to end the war in Ukraine, the United States told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. Ambassador Lisa Carty, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, said Putin is “trying to break Ukraine’s will to fight by bombing and freezing its civilians into submission.”….
image…Time Magazine ..