The fight for Bakhmut continues….
Ammo problems ….
NATO meeting to keep things going….
American General’s saying the war is ‘over’….
It isn’t….
Russian holding thousands of Ukraine children….
97% of the Russian troop’s fighting in the Ukraine conflict?
Weeks of failed attacks on the city of Vuhledar have left two Russian brigades in tatters, Ukrainian and Western officials say. Here’s what we’re covering:
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A Ukrainian military official said his forces ‘fought back decently’ in Vuhledar.
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As Russia and Ukraine expend ammunition at a staggering rate, the race to rearm takes on added urgency.
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Russia’s losses around Vuhledar renew questions about its ability to sustain a fresh offensive.
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Russia has relocated 6,000 Ukrainian children to camps in Russian territory, a report finds.
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Some NATO members face pressure to spend more on defense.
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The U.N. asks for $5.6 billion more in aid to address the devastation to Ukrainian civilians….
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
- NATO is “looking for ways to enhance our defense industrial capacity,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. Ukraine’s backers expect the war, which is depleting ammunition stocks, to intensify in the coming months.
- NATO hopefuls Finland and Sweden will take part in Wednesday’s meetings. “The main question is not whether Finland and Sweden are ratified together,” Stoltenberg told reporters earlier. “The main question is that they are both ratified as full members as soon as possible.”
- U.S. researchers accused Russia of putting thousands of Ukrainian children in “reeducation” camps, while Moscow called the allegations “absurd statements.” The State Department-supported Conflict Observatory said the camps “expose children from Ukraine to Russia-centric academic, cultural, patriotic, and/or military education,” as part of what a report describes as an operation directed by the Kremlin. The Russian Embassy in Washington said Moscow has accepted children who fled Ukraine, adding that “we do our best to keep minors in families.”
- The head of the Wagner Group said that “for a long time” he ran the internet troll farm that faced U.S. sanctions over charges of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Yevgeniy Prigozhin, whose mercenary forces are fighting alongside Russia in Ukraine, said on Telegram that he created and managed the Internet Research Agency to “protect the Russian information space from the boorish aggressive propaganda of anti-Russian assertions from the West.”
Battleground updates
- Ukraine’s armed forces said heavy fighting is raging around Bakhmut. Russian artillery pounded districts in the besieged city as Ukrainian troops fought to repel attacks, Kyiv’s military said early Wednesday. Russian forces have ramped up their attacks in recent weeks on the city in the eastern Donetsk region.
- Britain is “delivering for Ukraine the effects they need on the battlefield,” rather than fighter jets,which require months of training, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Wednesday. He said Ukraine’s backers can help faster by providing weapons such as antiaircraft missiles. Kyiv is renewing calls for aircraft now that allies, including the United States and Germany have pledged heavy tanks, although Western officials indicate they are unlikely to send jets anytime soon….
What after a possible Ukraine victory against Russia from a Putin enemy in London…
“A lost war in Ukraine is a steppingstone to war in the Asia Pacific,” Khodorkovsky said in the interview with The Washington Post in London, where he now lives. “You need to understand that when even a big guy is hit in the face, a number of other guys will start to doubt whether that guy is really that strong, and they will want to go for his teeth. … If the U.S. wants to go to war in Asia, then the most correct path to this is to show weakness in Ukraine as well.”
Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade in prison in Russia before being pardoned by Putin in 2013, said stepping up Western military aid to Ukraine and securing its victory was the only way for the United States to avoid such a military conflict with China….