The NY Times does a piece on the Free Russian Legion, Russian’s fighting WITH the Ukraine forces AGAINST the Russians…..
A look at where the Russian Spring offensive may be going…
The Ukraine KNOWS it WILL get Western Fighter Jets sooner or later…..
US Defense Sec Austin going back to Europe on Ukraine business….
(While US Fighter Jets are shooting down China’s ballons….)
Putin seems to be throwing away his countries soliders….
Bank Underwriting the Ukraine’s rebuilding is already moving ahead…
Russian Legion…
Nearly a year into the war, the Free Russia Legion, as the unit is called, has received little attention — in part to protect the soldiers from reprisals by Russia, but also because of reluctance within the Ukrainian military to highlight the efforts of soldiers whose home country has done so much harm to Ukraine. Several hundred of them are concentrated in the area around Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, officials said; they are always grouped with their own but are overseen by Ukrainian officers….
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At the start of the war, Ukrainian law prevented Russian citizens from joining the armed forces. It took until August to finalize legislation that would allow the Legion to legally join the fight, Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence service, said in a statement.
“There was a large number of Russians who because of their moral principles could not remain indifferent and were searching for a way to enter the ranks of the defenders of Ukraine,” Mr. Yusov said, explaining the military’s motivation to create the unit. “All legionnaires have come with a huge desire to stop Putin’s horde and free Russia from dictatorship.”
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The Russian Spring Offense….
Aided by western intelligence, commercial satellites and a network of partisans working to undermine the Russian occupation, senior Ukrainian officials said that Moscow’s immediate intentions are coming into focus.
They are massing tens of thousands of soldiers, including conscripts from a mass mobilization last Fall, just outside the range of American made precision missiles. The formations suggest they could be preparing to encircle Ukrainian forces arrayed across the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian minister of defense, said he expected the Russian army to attempt the capture of the Donbas and then “announce the completion of their special military operation” and call for negotiations.
But, he noted, it will be the third attempt by Russia to capture the Donbas since the war began; the first two both failed.
Britain’s defense intelligence agency said on Tuesday that Russia had been trying to launch “major offensive operations” since early last month, but it had “only managed to gain several hundred meters of territory per week,” because of a lack of munitions and maneuver units.
Ukraine can afford to make tactical retreats, according to military analysts, as long as it does not risk suffering a total collapse of its lines in a way that would result in its troops being encircled….
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This week, Ukraine-allied defense minsters are expected to discuss Kyiv’s ongoing requests for more weapons, including fighter jets.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
- Zelensky announced sanctions for 200 people working for the Russian nuclear industry in his nightly address. He did not describe what the sanctions would entail. Shelling of the area surrounding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has long troubled nuclear watchdogs. “Russia’s radiation blackmail of the world must be punished,” he said. “This is also something we will be discussing at various diplomatic levels next week.”
- Prystaiko’s comments about Kyiv’s request for jets came after Polish President Andrzej Duda said sending F-16s was a “very serious decision.” Poland has fewer than 50 of the advanced warplanes, so it would require “many” replacements if it were to donate any to Ukraine, Duda said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked European Union and British leaders for warplanes during his trip to Western Europe last week.
- U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is scheduled to lead a meeting Tuesday of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, attended by senior military officials from more than 50 nations backing Ukraine with weapons and other supplies. Beyond Kyiv’s requests for more military aid, the allied defense officials are expected to discuss concerns that the West’s own stocks of weapons are depleted after a year of supplying Kyiv and that manufacturing is needed to replenish them. Immediately after the meeting, held in Brussels, NATO foreign ministers will hold a two-day meeting there.
- Zelensky named Ukraine’s security and defense agencies as the next targets of his promised zero-tolerance approach to corruption after high-profile dismissals in recent weeks related to his probe. The comments in Zelensky’s nightly address follow his visit with E.U. leaders; stamping out corruption is a key requirement of Kyiv’s aspiration to join the bloc.
- In a separate decree Saturday, Zelensky said he was firing a top official, Ruslan Dziuba, who was deputy commander of the National Guard. No reason was provided in the brief statement about Dziuba’s dismissal.
- Electricity is not expected to be limited in some major metropolitan areas of Ukraine on Monday, a sign of resilience amid months of Russian attacks on infrastructure. On its Telegram account, utility Ukrenergo said it did not plan to meter power in Kyiv, Odessa or the Dnipropetrovsk region. Much of Ukraine has rationed electricity because of Russia’s disabling attacks. Officials reacted with cautious excitement. Zelensky in his nightly address said there will still be some restrictions in places where the damage is too great but said he was heartened that there’s still power.
- Russia is reinforcing its troops around Lyman and Bakhmut, the center of some of the bloodiest fighting in recent months, according to Ukraine’s armed forces. In a Sunday update, they said Russia is continuing to focus its offensive efforts in the area, including with airstrikes on troop positions. The commander of Ukraine’s military, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, said Ukrainian troops are holding their ground in Bakhmut “despite constant enemy pressure.”
- The Russian tycoon behind the mercenary Wagner Group said it could take Moscow up to two years to seize the regions of eastern Ukraine it illegally claimed to annex in September, or three years if it wants to occupy areas east of the Dnieper River. Yevgeniy Prigozhin made the remarks in a rare video interview with a Russian military blogger, Reuters reported. Wagner mercenaries are involved in a bloody and grinding battle against Kyiv’s forces in the eastern Donbas region.
- A woman, 53, was killed and two were hospitalized after a Russian strike on a residential building in Nikopol, according to the Ukrainian Internal Affairs Ministry. The Washington Post could not confirm the strike, which the ministry blamed for the destruction of four residential buildings and an educational facility….