Putin’s War Russia-Ukraine September 2024-

Reuters: Ukraine and Russia at War
North Korea/Russia/South Korea June 2023-

Kyiv’s White House wooing implodes as Zelenskyy tells the truth about Trump
Julian Borger
All America’s allies know that Trump is trapped in a disinformation bubble, but Zelenskyy said it out loud
(The Guardian) All the effort Kyiv had expended in wooing the White House, combining flattery with bribery and a share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth, imploded in minutes when Volodymyr Zelenskyy broke the fundamental rule of the new global reality: he told the truth about Donald Trump.
All America’s allies, the great majority of Republican leaders who have bowed to him, and a good number of his own cabinet, know full well that Trump is trapped in a disinformation bubble, but Zelenskyy said it out loud at a press conference on Wednesday.
In this new world where the foreign policy of the most powerful country on Earth has been rapidly reorganised around the fragile ego of a sullen and resentful old man, you might as well launch missiles at America’s eastern seaboard as utter a few words of rebuke. …
Trump tells ‘dictator’ Zelenskiy to move fast or lose Ukraine
By Doina Chiacu and Olena Harmash
Trump calls Zelenskiy ‘a dictator without elections’
Trump speaks after Zelenskiy accuses him of being trapped in Russian disinformation bubble
‘We will defend our right to exist,’ Ukraine’s foreign minister says in response to Trump
Putin says US-Russia trust is key to any Ukraine peace deal
EU floats plan to boost weapons supplies to Ukraine
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a “dictator” on Wednesday and warned he had to move quickly to secure peace or risk losing his country, deepening a feud between the two leaders that has alarmed European officials.
The extraordinary attacks – a day after Trump claimed Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s 2022 invasion – heightened concerns among U.S. allies in Europe that Trump’s approach to ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict could benefit Moscow.
Svitlana Morenets: Trump is making sure that Zelensky is re-elected
(The Spectator UK) Ukrainians don’t like it when foreign leaders tell them what to do – whether they are Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump. Last night, Trump blamed president Volodymyr Zelensky for ‘starting’ the war with Russia and demanded that elections take place in Ukraine if it wants to be involved in the peace negotiations. Trump also expressed his disappointment that Zelensky hadn’t struck a deal with Russia before now, and said that Zelensky only had a ‘4 per cent’ approval rating in Ukraine.
Trump may have been trying to put pressure on Ukraine to make peace faster, but his comments are actually only helping Zelensky secure a second presidential term.
Zelensky’s approval ratings have fallen from their peak of over 90 per cent in March 2022, with war fatigue and domestic missteps both playing their part. Yet, he remains a popular wartime leader. The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology put his approval rating at 57 per cent this month.
Echoing Kremlin, Trump calls Zelensky a dictator, angering Ukrainians
Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has low approval ratings and that elections are needed, statements also made in the past week by the Kremlin.
(WaPo) Ukrainians from across the political spectrum rallied behind President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, decrying President Donald Trump’s claims that he was failing, unpopular, illegitimate and to blame for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions
In a post Wednesday on Truth Social, Trump went on to describe Zelensky as “a Dictator without Elections,” who was soon going to lose his country. The comment was immediately the top of the news in Russian media outlets.
Trump blames Ukraine over war with Russia, saying it could have made a deal
President hits back at Ukraine’s complaint that it has been left out of US-Russia talks, saying it had years to make a deal ‘without the loss of much land’

18 February
U.S., Russia hold first talks on Ukraine without NATO allies, Kyiv
While U.S. officials characterized the talks as the first step in a peace deal, the Russians are portraying them as a way to end Moscow’s isolation.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed Kyiv for starting the war between Russia and Ukraine as his top aides concluded initial talks in Saudi Arabia on ending the conflict that included Russia but excluded Ukrainian and European officials.

13 February
Amateur Hour
— Hegseth reins in demands on Ukraine amid allies’ outcries:
“Everything is on the table,” the Defense secretary said with no mention of concessions he demanded the day before.
(Politico) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today pulled back some of the peace deal concessions he demanded of Ukraine a day earlier, including no NATO membership for the embattled country or a return to its pre-war borders. He made no mention of any conditions today, hours after President Donald Trump and Russian Vladimir Putin spoke by phone about a potential peace deal. Hegseth’s initial comments and the phone call infuriated European allies, who took it as a sign the United States was sidelining Ukraine.
The Wednesday turn of events caused a firestorm of criticism from European allies attending the NATO defense ministers meeting, who one by one made a rare public show of disunity.
Trump Says Ukraine Will Not Be Sidelined in Peace Talks With Russia
(NYT) Asked whether Ukraine would be part of the negotiations, the president said on Thursday, “Of course they would.” A day earlier, he had suggested otherwise, and appeared ready to make concessions that Ukraine has flatly rejected.
A Carve-Up That Leaves Ukraine Sidelined
(Bloomberg) Even before President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrives at the Munich Security Conference tomorrow to renew his case with the US for defending Ukraine’s independence, his country’s fate looks to have been sealed.
A sense of foreboding had been building. The day before Donald Trump got on the phone with Vladimir Putin, the US leader observed matter of factly that “Ukraine may be Russian some day.”
The full extent of what he meant became clear as the two presidents extended summit invitations to each other during yesterday’s 90-minute conversation. Forget about joining NATO or US boots on the ground. Ukraine would have to concede territory that Russia began seizing back in 2014.
Zelenskiy was notified almost as an FYI. His worst fear — that terms and conditions of a peace settlement were being agreed behind his back — was coming to pass.

12 February
Putin’s Ukraine – The End of War and the Price of Russian Occupation
Nataliya Gumenyuk
(Foreign Affairs) From afar, the situation Ukraine faces after three years of full-scale war with Russia seems clear. Over the past 12 months, Moscow has intensified its assault on civilian populations, sending drones, missiles, and bombs in almost daily attacks on cities across the country. Infrastructure and power stations have been relentlessly targeted. Millions of people have been displaced, and millions more who fled the country after 2022 have been unable to return. Even as Ukraine has struggled to hold the frontlines, its soldiers continue to be injured and killed.
Given these mounting costs, and that Ukraine has, against all odds, managed to defend 80 percent of its territory, one might expect its citizens to support any effort to end the war. That would be sensible in the eyes of many Western analysts. Just as Russia seems unlikely to make major new advances, it will also be very difficult for Ukrainian forces, contending with an enemy that is prepared to burn through huge quantities of ammunition and manpower, to recapture all the territory now controlled by Russia. In this view, securing a cease-fire and bringing relief to the bulk of the country should be a top priority.
Yet that is not how Ukrainians see it. With U.S. President Donald Trump’s vow to quickly end the war—and even before that, the threat from the United States and its allies that they might reduce military aid in the future—Ukraine’s government and population have had to take seriously the discussion of a cease-fire. But such a scenario diverges sharply from the victory plan that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined in the fall of 2024. And many Ukrainians themselves are deeply skeptical of a settlement, saying that no deal is better than a bad deal. …

10-12 February
In Calls With Putin and Zelensky, Trump Pushes for Talks to End Ukraine War
(NYT) President Trump held a 90-minute phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Wednesday that he characterized as the start of the negotiation to end the war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said he had his own call later with Mr. Trump about “charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace.”

Russia plays hardball on Ukraine peace discussions after Trump talks of Putin contact
Trump: US making progress in talks with Russia
Russia says Putin’s conditions must be met in full
Conditions include Ukraine dropping NATO ambitions
Kremlin: we can neither confirm nor deny contact
(Reuters) – Russia’s point man for relations with the United States said on Monday that all of President Vladimir Putin’s conditions must be met in full before the war in Ukraine can end, suggesting Moscow is playing hardball with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Russia’s foreign minister drove the point home, saying that while Moscow was ready for talks with Ukraine, results could be achieved only if the “fundamental reasons” behind the nearly three-year-old conflict were resolved.
The View From Ukraine with The Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov (video)
What you need to know about a “Trump Peace Plan”
Mark Leon Goldberg
On February 3rd, Donald Trump appointed retired General Keith Kellogg as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, making him the point person leading an effort to craft a much-anticipated “peace plan” for Ukraine. To that end, there’s been a flurry of activity ahead of the Munich Security Conference later this week, where elements of this plan may become clearer.
But can a peace deal actually come together in a way that upholds Ukraine’s determination to exist as an independent state, free from Russia’s yoke? And does Russia have any incentive to relent, given its slow but steady progress on the battlefield against war-weary Ukrainian soldiers?
Joining me to discuss these questions and more is Yaroslav Trofimov, a Ukrainian-born journalist and chief foreign affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
Hear directly from one of the best journalists covering Ukraine today as he shares insights on the current state of the conflict, Zelenskyy’s domestic political challenges, and whether or not Trump’s peace plan is for real.

3 February
Ukrainian troops losing ground to Russia as Trump talks of ending war
(AP) — A dire shortage of infantry troops and supply routes coming under Russian drone attacks are conspiring against Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk, where decisive battles in the nearly three-year war are playing out — and time is running short.
Ukrainian troops are losing ground around the crucial supply hub, which lies at the confluence of multiple highways leading to key cities in the eastern Donetsk region as well as an important railway station.
Moscow is set on capturing as much territory as possible as the Trump administration is pushing for negotiations to end the war and recently froze foreign aid to Ukraine, a move that has shocked Ukrainian officials already apprehensive about the intentions of the new U.S. president, their most important ally. Military aid has not stopped, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

14 January
North Korea’s suicide soldiers pose new challenge for Ukraine in war with Russia
11,000 North Koreans fighting in Kursk, Ukraine and allies say
Evidence mounts that some soldiers kill themselves before capture
North Korean ex-soldier says troops brainwashed, ready to die
(Reuters) – After a battle in Russia’s snowy western region of Kursk this week, Ukrainian special forces scoured the bodies of more than a dozen slain North Korean enemy soldiers.
Among them, they found one still alive. But as they approached, he detonated a grenade, blowing himself up, according to a description of the fighting posted on social media by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces on Monday.
…a South Korean lawmaker briefed by the country’s spy agency on Monday said that the numbers of North Korean soldiers wounded and killed on the battlefield suggests they are unprepared for modern warfare, such as drone attacks, and may be being used as “cannon fodder” by Russia.
More worryingly there are signs these troops have been instructed to commit suicide, he said.

2024

30 December
Exclusive: The Russian billionaires whose chemical factories fuel Russia’s war machine
By Stephen Grey, John Shiffman and Grant Smith
(Reuters) – Chemicals factories founded or owned by some of Russia’s wealthiest men are supplying ingredients to plants that manufacture explosives used by Moscow’s military during the war in Ukraine, an analysis of railway and financial data shows.
Reuters identified five chemical companies, in which five Western-sanctioned billionaires hold stakes, that provided more than 75% of the key chemicals shipped by rail to some of Russia’s largest explosives factories from the start of the war until September this year, according to the railway data.

27 December
North Korea Is Experiencing Mass Casualties in Russia, White House Says
The North Korean losses amount to almost 10 percent of the country’s deployment to Russia, the Biden administration said.
(NYT) More than 1,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded fighting Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region in the past week, and a few chose suicide over surrender, the Biden administration said on Friday.
The heavy North Korean losses would amount to almost 10 percent of Pyongyang’s deployment figures to Russia. The announcement was the latest turn in the American effort to publicly criticize both President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-un, for sending ill-prepared and ill-equipped troops to a foreign front line to aid Russian efforts in its war with Ukraine.

5 December
Far from the front lines, a spy war rages over Russian weapons
Faltering Russian drones point to modest successes in Western efforts to block Moscow’s access to technology. Yet, aided by covert operatives, Russia’s weapons production is soaring.
(WaPo) Early this year, Ukrainian air defense crews began noticing something odd about the one-way attack drones that Russia regularly launches against Ukrainian cities. The latest arrivals from Russia’s arms factories would swoop in, just as before. But then something would go wrong.
The newest Geran-2 drones were more likely to spin out of control whenever they went into a sharp turn. Some would crash harmlessly. Others would level off, becoming easy prey for air defense batteries. And yet the drones kept coming — sometimes as many as 100 in a single day.
… The defective drones marked a small win for Western countries in an ongoing shadow conflict — waged in part by spy agencies — to deny Moscow access to the high-tech components needed for modern weapons of war. And yet, such measurable victories are notable in part because they are rare, Western officials acknowledge.

21 November
Is the war in Ukraine escalating or headed toward an endgame?
Christopher S. Chivvis, senior fellow and director of the Carnegie Endowment’s American statecraft program
Allowing Ukraine to use US Atacms missiles for deep strikes may be worth the risk if it hastens negotiations
It seems like the war in Ukraine is on the brink of escalating to a new level. North Korean troops have joined Russia on the battlefield, Ukraine is striking deep into Russian territory with US-provided weapons, and the Kremlin is yet again making nuclear threats. These developments intensify the sense that this war could spiral out of control. Paradoxically, however, they may also help usher in its end.
In October, North Korea added 11,000 troops to the battlefield on Russia’s side. The Biden administration said this were an unacceptable escalation. Over the weekend, it approved Ukraine’s use of US-provided missiles for long-range strikes into Russia. Russia responded with a new and more threatening nuclear doctrine that says it might use its nuclear arsenal against a non-nuclear country – a not-so-thinly veiled threat to Ukraine.
Russia has made nuclear threats several times during the war, and I have argued that the west must take these threats seriously, no matter how inconvenient and immoral they may be. Still, these latest threats seem like pure posturing given the fact that the announcement was long expected, and Russia is now making steady headway on the battlefield with conventional means.
Putin says Russia struck Ukraine with experimental ballistic missile
Mark MacKinnon
(Globe & Mail) Russia said it had attacked the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday with an experimental new ballistic missile, as Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the war for Ukraine was becoming a global one.
The attack, which Mr. Putin said was carried out using a hypersonic medium-range missile named “Oreshnik,” marked the latest in a series of dangerous escalations in the past few days alone. Although the missile was not equipped with a nuclear warhead, Mr. Putin suggested it would have been capable of carrying one.
The strike on Dnipro happened four days after departing U.S. President Joe Biden gave in to months of pressure and allowed the Ukrainian military to use Western-made long-range missiles to strike Russian territory. Ukraine has since used U.S.-manufactured ATACMS and British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles to attack targets hundreds of kilometres inside Russia.

17 November
Russia pounds Ukraine’s power grid in ‘massive’ air strike
Russia stages first big missile attack on Kyiv since August
Power system damaged further as winter sets in
Strike piles pressure on Ukraine at critical juncture
Attack prompts Poland to scramble air force
(Reuters) – Russia unleashed its largest air strike on Ukraine in almost three months on Sunday, launching 120 missiles and 90 drones that killed at least seven people and caused severe damage to the power system, officials said.
Ukrainians had been bracing for weeks for a renewed Russian attack on an already hobbled energy system, fearing long winter blackouts and mounting psychological pressure almost 1,000 days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Biden approves Ukraine’s use of long-range U.S. weapons inside Russia, reversing policy
The Biden administration will allow Kyiv limited use of ATACMS to strike enemy positions in Russia, according to senior U.S. officials.
(Reuters) – Washington’s decision to let Kyiv strike deep into Russia with long-range U.S. missiles escalates the conflict in Ukraine and could lead to World War Three, senior Russian lawmakers said on Sunday.
Two U.S. officials and a source familiar with the decision revealed the significant reversal of Washington’s policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict earlier on Sunday.
“The West has decided on such a level of escalation that it could end with the Ukrainian statehood in complete ruins by morning,” Andrei Klishas, a senior member of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, said on the Telegram messaging app.

10 November
October was worst month for Russia since start of Ukraine war, UK official says
“Russia is paying an extraordinary price for Putin’s invasion,” U.K. Chief of the Defence Staff Tony Radakin tells BBC.
While Russian gains are putting pressure on the Ukrainian front, Radakin said, Moscow is suffering losses “for tiny increments of land.”
The Kremlin does not provide figures on the impact the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has had on the Russian military. A Wall Street Journal report in September said more than a million people on both sides had been injured or killed since the start of the conflict. United States officials told reporters last month that Russia had suffered more than 600,000 dead or wounded.
The estimated number of Russian casualties is more than 40 times what it suffered during its decade-long invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Radakin spoke after a massive drone strike rattled Moscow and its suburbs early Sunday, while a huge overnight wave of Russian drones targeted Ukraine. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said a total of 32 drones were shot down over the Russian capital’s outskirts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, said on Sunday that Russia had “launched a record 145 Shaheds and other strike drones against Ukraine.”
Putin late Saturday signed into law a pact with North Korea obliging the two countries to provide immediate military aid using “all means” if either is attacked. The agreement marks the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.

30 October
North Korean troops in Russian uniforms heading to Kursk, says US
Lloyd Austin says deployment near Ukraine border is a dangerous and destabilising development
North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving to the Russian region of Kursk, near Ukraine, according to the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, who described the deployment as a dangerous and destabilising development.
Austin was speaking at a press conference at the Pentagon with the South Korean defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, as concerns grow about Pyongyang’s deployment of as many as 11,000 troops to Russia. The US and South Korea said some of the North Korean troops are heading to Kursk, on the border with Ukraine, where the Kremlin’s forces have struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion.
Austin said “the likelihood is pretty high” that Russia will use the North Korean troops in combat. He added that officials were discussing what to do about the deployment, which he said had the potential to broaden or lengthen the conflict in Ukraine.

28 October
What are the global consequences of North Korean soldiers now appearing on the frontlines in Ukraine?
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden and co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, shares his perspective on European politics from Stockholm, Sweden.
(GZERO media) Well, I think first, it’s a reflection of the fact that Russia President Putin, does have difficulties getting the manpower to man the front lines. He has difficulty recruiting in Russia itself. He’s dependent upon soldiers, and evidently, he’s now dependent upon North Korea to supply the front lines. I mean, that’s a sign of at least long-term weakness in terms of Russia. Then the question is, of course, what has he given in return to the sort of dictator in Pyongyang? In all probability, high-tech and different sorts of military equipment. And that, of course, has serious implications or potential serious implications for stability on the Korean Peninsula. So there are consequences on the front
lines in Russia and on the Korean Peninsula.

24 October
Putin ends BRICS summit that sought to expand Russia’s global clout but was shadowed by Ukraine
(AP) … The conflict came up repeatedly at the meeting, which saw the first visit to Russia from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in more than two years and drew an angry reaction from Kyiv. Guterres called for “a just peace” in Ukraine, in line with the U.N. Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions. He also urged an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan.
At a news conference Thursday night, Putin was asked about former U.S. President Donald Trump’s promise to end the fighting in Ukraine.

2 October
Russia captures Vuhledar after two years of Ukrainian resistance
Russia takes control of Vuhledar – bloggers and media
Russia had encircled the town
Russia has been advancing at fastest rate in two years
No comment from Russia or Ukraine on Vuhledar
(Reuters) – Russian troops on [2 October] took charge of the eastern Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Russia launched its full-scale assault in 2022.
The advance of Moscow’s forces, which control just under a fifth of Ukraine, has underlined Russia’s vast superiority in men and materiel as Ukraine pleads for more weapons from the Western allies that have been supporting it.
Ukraine says its forces have withdrawn from defensive bastion of Vuhledar
Eastern city had resisted repeated attacks but Russian troops are close to ‘encircling’ it in Donetsk advance

1 October
‘Everything is dead’: Ukraine rushes to stem ecocide after river poisoning
(The Guardian) Russia is suspected of deliberately leaking chemical waste into a river, with deadly consequences for wildlife

30 September
Russia to raise defence budget by 25% to highest level on record
Draft documents say defence and security will make up 40% of government spending as Putin continues war against Ukraine