A New York Times piece on the reality of the Ukraine conflict….
It looks at the the tired Ukraine soliders, who ARE up for the fight….
It is not pretty….
The Russian’s report a drone has hit a oil depot in Crimea setting a fuel tank fire….
Several other tanks were damaged….
The wait (or has it started?) for the Ukraine Spring Offensive….
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
- The fire has been extinguished, said Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, the largest city of the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014. Officials said at least one of two drones was shot down over Crimea on Saturday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
- A spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate described the fire as “God’s punishment”for the civilian deaths in Uman. “This punishment will be long lasting,” Andriy Yusov said in comments posted on the agency’s website, warning Crimea residents to avoid being near military facilities. “We can neither confirm nor deny” Ukrainian involvement in the incident, he told The Washington Post. Russia has blamed Kyiv for a series of blasts in Crimea, including against Russian military sites last year. Kyiv has not officially claimed the attacks while warning they will continue as a result of the war.
- Thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising into the air in Sevastopol. The blaze will not affect the supply of fuel to the city and other tanks in the depot were not damaged, governor Razvozhaev added. Russian news agencies said there were no casualties.
- The dead in Uman include four children, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Friday. He thanked the military for shooting down 21 missiles that targeted Ukraine in the deadliest attack since the winter. In January, Russia killed at least 25 people when it struck Dnipro.
- A Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian troops is still being planned and will happen, Zelensky said in an interview with northern European journalists Saturday. In addition to expectations for a counteroffensive, the interview, shared on Zelensky’s Telegram account, covered the NATO summit planned for July, the costs of liberating Crimea and Ukrainian requests for fighter aircraft.
Global impact
- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the world must ensure the invasion of Ukraine cannot succeed, in a Friday speech at Harvard University. Yoon, who is on a state visit to the United States, told reporters that his country was considering its options when he was asked whether Seoul would provide lethal aid to Kyiv.
- Pope Francis met with Ukrainian refugees and later with an envoy of the Russian Orthodox Church in Budapest Saturday. More than 2.5 million have crossed into Hungary from Ukraine since the start of the war, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The Vatican said Francis met with the Russian Orthodox Church’s representative in Hungary, Metropolitan Hilarion, for 20 minutes and that the conversation was “cordial,” according to the Associated Press.
- Some European Union states and the European Commission reached a deal on Ukrainian produce imports, the commission’s executive vice president said Friday. The deal defuses a crisis over import bans by Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia. The European Commission will offer more than $100 million of support to those countries, which will withdraw their bans. Ukrainian food exports to its neighbors have risen due to Russia’s presence in the Black Sea, but that has raised concerns about depressed crop prices in those countries.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree introducing life imprisonment for treason. The crime was previously punishable by up to 20 years in prison. This was part of changes to Russia’s criminal code finalized Friday, including tougher sentences for terrorism and acts of sabotage…