Category Archives: Ukraine

If this is a Russian nest of spies, as Ukraine's government is suggesting, there could not be a more magnificent and grandiose place for alleged agents to hide.

Within the walls of this extraordinary 1,000-year-oldcomplex, which includesa monastery, crypts, chapels and alabyrinth of subterranean caves, a brutal political game is playing out.

The Pechersk Lavra in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv often referred to simply as the Lavra is at the centre of a bitter political dispute running parallel to the nation's war with Russia.

The fight over the Lavra reflects deepening tensions across Ukraine.

Ukraine's church was under the jurisdiction of the Moscow patriarchate for three centuries.

But a schism developedwithin the Ukrainian churchbetween those loyal to Russia and those who wanted to be independent.

In 2019, they were allowed to split, and the names the churches gave themselves were subtly different but their allegiances are not.

The Ukrainians refer to their church as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (UOC), whereas the Russian part calls itself the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).

These factions of the broader Orthodox church co-existed, sometimes uneasily, on this compound.

But due to the tensions unleashed by the war between Russia and Ukraine, often-subterranean tensions at one of Europe's oldest and most famous churches have broken into the open.

For years, one of the Russian-linked leaders at the Lavra, the Metropolitan Pavel, has held a prominent position, even though Ukrainian intelligence, in recent times at least, has made allegations against him.

The country'sintelligence agency, the SBU, insists some members of UOC-MP, including Metropolitan Pavel,have maintained close ties with Moscow.

Authorities claimhe has glorified Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

They have now placed the Metropolitan Pavel under house arrest, attaching an electronic tag to his leg.

"I haven't done anything. I believe this is a political order," the religious leader told reporters after the ruling.

He also complained that the living conditions at his homewere not fit for him to be under house arrest for 60 days.

"There is nothing to sleep on, no heat and no light. There is no kitchen, no spoon. But it's OK, I'll endure it all," he said.

He has also been banned from recording addresses to his followers.

His arrest follows a raid on the Lavra last year by SBU agentswho said they were investigating reports the site was used "to hide sabotage and intelligence groups, foreign citizens, [and store]weapons".

And last week, Kyiv exchanged a priest accused of collaborating with Russia for 28Ukrainiansoldiers.

The prisoner swap is a public indication of the value that Russia places on these priests in Ukraine.

"A lot of priests became collaborators," saidAndrii Kovalov, a leading academic on the Lavra who joined the Ukrainian army last year.

"They have actively supported the Russian army by informing Russian artillery and aviation.

"That's why the [Ukrainian]government has started to act against Russian saboteurs dressed as priests."

While many of these tensions have been below the surface, they are now being spoken about openly.

"Russia is our bad daughter," Mr Kovalov said.

"And now our bad daughter is trying to fight its mother."

Mr Kovalov did his PhD on the relationship between religion and security in Ukraine and has been working as a political and religious analyst since 2010.

He argued that Russia hadbeen using religion as "a soft power" to influence and infiltrate Ukraine.

That was why Ukraine came to the point, he said, of realising that it needed to have an independent church and hence the recent crackdown against alleged Russian influences.

The war, he said, hadbeen a catalyst for these tensions coming to the surface.

"Before, the Russian church was masked under the cover of the Ukrainian church," he said.

"But the war made the differences very clearand explained to the average Ukrainian who was not interested in politics that the [UOC]is the only legal church which cares about the Ukrainian people and prays for the Ukraine nation and soldiers."

It was obvious, he argued, that there hadbeen people at a senior level of the Lavra who hadbeen supporting Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.

He said that in a time of war, it was unsustainable for there to be people at the head of a venerable religious institution supporting the invasion of the country in which they were being hosted.

He stressedthat not all Russian priests at the Lavra were Kremlin sympathisers, but in such a sensitive time of war, one supporteror "collaborator" wastoo many.

He arguedthat when Ukraine was fighting for its existence, no such support could be tolerated.

"The Russian Federation [for] thousands of years was trying to absorb Ukraine," he said.

"Russia has stolen our history, our traditions, and Russia never imagined its history and civilisation without Ukraine.

"When [Vladimir]Putin says that Russia and Ukraine are the one nation, he's in fact crossing out the right of Ukraine to exist."

Tensions between the Russian and Ukrainian elements of the Orthodox Church have existed for centuries the Lavra itself reflects the two streams of the church.

Paintings or images of Ukrainian heroes sit nearby a portrait of Metropolitan Pavel.

"The Lavra for centuries was like a major historical and religious site for [the] orthodox church in Ukraine," Ukraine's Minister for Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko told the ABC.

"It's one of the biggest monasteries, which by origin comes fromthe 12th or 11th century its importance from a historical and religious point of view is huge."

Mr Tkachenko said the UOC-MPhadbeen behaving inappropriately during the war including a refusal by some in that branch to recognise the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

He said the accusations against theMetropolitan Pavel were now a matter of the courts.

"Each of these cases needs to be proven by the secret service or police," he said.

"There are a lot of cases that are now under investigation,with accusations of collaboration, with accusations of not recognising the territorial integrity of [the] Ukrainian state by representatives of the Russian church."

Mr Tkachenko said photographs of such a senior church figure as the Metropolitan with an electronic tag around his leg would have been confronting to many people.

But he did not express sympathy for his claims of hardship.

"He was, for many years, moving, not with this thing [around his ankle], but in a Mercedes car. So he used to know how to live a lucrative life," he said.

Asked about the view of some Ukrainians that the church hadbecome a nest of spies, Mr Tkachenko said there was evidence of collaboration and misinformation.

"Unfortunately during the war, many cases happened where representatives of the [UOC-MP]were directly collaborative with Russian troops, or were provoking their believers and spreading disinformation," he said.

"So as a machine of mass media, the Kremlin is using [the church] asa propagandistic machine tool in the war."

Mr Tkachenko said the question of loyalty within Ukraine's churches was not about freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

"This is a question to Russia, not for Ukraine," Mr Tkachenko said.

"In Ukraine there are a lot of different representatives of religiousorganisations Jewish, Muslim, Protestants, Greek Catholics and so on. It was always a sort of dialogue between them, a sort of consensus onhow to act."

And so while a political battleof sorts rages inside the Lavra, the rest of Ukraine continues its war with Russia.

"If you ask ordinary Ukrainians, 95 or 97 per cent of them will respond that they believe this war should be finished as soon as possible, but with only one caveat: victory for Ukraine," he said.

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How Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine may have turned Kyiv's ancient monastery into a 'nest of spies' - ABC News

The leak of classified documents on the gaming and chat platform Discord continues to be a treasure trove of information about Americas proxy war with Russia in Ukraine.

Earlier revelations from the Discord leak suggested Ukraine is a cornered animal. The latest shows it might lash out like one. The Washington Post reported Monday that documents in the leak claimed that the United States had to force Ukraine to back down from a direct attack on Moscow. Time and time again, the United States has had to rein in or express serious concern internally about Ukraines plans to fight Russia, not just in Ukraine or even within Russias borders, but in the Middle East and North Africa as well.

A classified report from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) claimed that Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, who heads the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) for Ukraines defense ministry, instructed one of his officers on February 13 to get ready for mass strikes on 24 February. Ukraine was to strike with everything the HUR had. The NSA report also said Ukrainian officials joked about using TNT to strike Novorossiysk, a Black Sea port city east of the Crimean Peninsula. The Post asserted such an operation would be largely symbolic, but would nevertheless demonstrate Ukraines ability to hit deep inside enemy territory.

Budanov has a reputation for being a loose cannon. Previously, he claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was terminally ill and employed body doubles for public appearances. He is apparently convinced that Ukraine will overwhelm and repel the Russian invasion, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, sometime this summer. Which is why it appears the U.S. intelligence apparatus has taken up monitoring Budanovs moves and communications. And Budanov appears to know it. The Post added that, when it has interviewed Budanov on occasion since the outbreak of the war, reporters have heard white noise or music in the background of the major generals office.

This time, however, it appears the United States prevented the loose cannon from going off. On February 22, the CIA internally circulated a classified report that the HUR had agreed, at Washingtons request, to postpone strikes on Moscow. Nevertheless, the CIA also said there is no indication that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had agreed to postpone its own plans to attack Moscow around the same date.

The SBU also apparently held off any plans it may have had for striking deep into Russian territory on the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion. The United Statess efforts to discourage Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory only lasted so long, however. About a week after the anniversary of the Russian invasion, the Kremlin accused Ukrainian drones of striking infrastructure relatively close to Moscow.

Such drone attacks are par for the course in Ukraines recent military operations inside Russian territory. Last October, Russia accused Ukraine of drone strikes against its Black Sea fleet in Crimea. Though the authenticity has not been confirmed, video footage shows a drone heading towards a ship as what appears to be gunfire hits the water around the Russian vessel. The Kremlin claimed a minesweeper was damaged in the attack. Then in December, Ukrainian drones reportedly struck Engels-2, a military air-base about 400 miles inside Russian territory. Drones also struck two other military airfields and an oil facility in the Kursk province.

Ukraine appears to now be reaching further into Russian territory and is less ambiguous about its involvement in these attacks. Earlier on in the conflict, Ukraine often denied playing a role in attacks on Russian installations and infrastructure within its borders, such as the car-bombing incident in August 2022 that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin, a Russian nationalist and staunch supporter of Russias invasion. Despite repeated Ukrainian denials, the U.S. intelligence community believes Ukraine was behind the attack.

In an interview with the Post in January, however, Budanov simultaneously denied Ukraines involvement in many of these attacks and claimed that they would continue. Such attacks shattered their illusions of safety, Budanov reportedly claimed. There are people who plant explosives. There are drones. Until the territorial integrity of Ukraine is restored, there will be problems inside Russia.

Other revelations from the Discord-leaked documents: Ukraine wants to expand the scope of the conflict beyond that of continental Europe and take the Russians to task in the Middle East and North Africa. The NSA report claimed that Budanovs HUR planned to attack the Wagner Groupa Russian military contractor with a reputation for brutality whose members have assisted in the Ukraine offensivein the African country of Mali. The Wagner Groups services are retained by the government of Mali for security and training their own military forces.

The NSA document said, It is unknown what stage the operations [in Mali] were currently in and whether the HUR has received approval to execute its plans, according to the Post.

At the same time, the HUR was developing plans to strike Russian forces in Syria by partnering with the Kurds. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly put the kibosh on the special operations offensive in the Middle East, but at least one of the documents reviewed by the Post claimed that efforts to attack Russian assets in Syria that avoid Ukrainian culpability may still be on the table for the Ukrainian government.

Are these not plans for a world war? Would the United States not be responsible if the Ukrainian government, which both militarily and financially would be defunct without nearly $100 billion in U.S. aid, decided to go forward with such plans?

The Biden administration would deny any culpability in starting World War III, of course. It would point to the fact that the U.S. prohibits using the military aid it gives Ukraine to strike Russia. Thus, the United States retains much say over Ukraines battle plans and has successfully thwarted grand Ukrainian plans to strike Moscow and several other core Russian targets on separate occasions.

Ukrainian officials have admitted this in private, too. Oftentimes, if Ukraine wants to use a rocket system provided by the United States to strike a target, U.S. military personnel in Europe either have to confirm the coordinates or provide the coordinates themselves.

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The Biden administration and the foreign policy blob that supports the United States involvement in Ukraine might think this makes our involvement sound all the better. It doesnt. It reveals who is really waging this war against Russia. Ukraine, which has been a money-laundering operation for the well-connected in the West for the last decade (see Hunter Biden), continues to be just that. Ukraine is the American liberal empires proxy in the truest sense.

The weapons systems, ammunition, and military equipment the United States provides Ukraine maintains a certain level of fungibilityand aid dollars more so than the physical equipment. Providing military aid, even with the current strings attached, expands Ukraines pool of resources, meaning they can devote what is theirs to operations and theaters that suit their fancy.

Restraining Ukraine is becoming increasingly difficult, and funding Ukraines military efforts increasingly risky. That much is clear from Americas own assessment of Ukraines war plans revealed in the Discord leak. Heads should roll at the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House for blindly walking into a conflict that Ukraine wants to go global.

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Ukraine Plans for World War III - The American Conservative

This page is regularly updated with the latest available maps

Read more on the War in Ukraine

Russia has struggled for months to capture the largely bombed-out city in Donetsk province which Ukrainian forces refer to as Fortress Bakhmut. With the aid of paramilitary soldiers from Yevgeny Prigozhins Wagner Group, Russia has come closer to surrounding the city in recent weeks, advancing from the east, north and south.

Satellite images from the Vuhledar area, south of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, reveal the extent of damage in areas that have suffered intense artillery shelling.

On February 24 last year, the world awoke to news that Russian tanks had rolled into Ukraine from the east and north.

Troops had been massing on Ukraines borders for months and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had made a series of fiery speeches on the long-running conflict in the Donbas region.

There were fears that the war could be a short one, with Ukrainian troops potentially overrun in a matter of days. But that has not proved to be the case.

Ukrainian forces advanced into Kherson on 11 November after Russia said its forces had completed their withdrawal from the southern city, sealing one of the biggest setbacks to President Vladimir Putins invasion.

Kyivs progress and Moscows chaotic retreat across the Dnipro river, conducted under Ukrainian artillery fire, meant Russia had surrendered the only provincial capital it had captured in the war, as well as ceding strategic positions.

At the end of August, Ukraine launched its first big counter-attack since Russias full assault on the country began in February, even as Kyiv complained that its forces lacked sufficient heavy western weaponry to make a decisive strike.

The advance liberated 3,000 sq km of territory in just six days Ukraines biggest victory since it pushed Russian troops back from the capital in March.

Ukraines forces continue to push east, capturing the transport hub of Lyman, near the north-eastern edge of the Donetsk province, which it wrestled from Russian control on October 1. The hard-fought victory came after nearly three weeks of battle and set the stage for a Ukrainian advance towards Svatove, a logistics centre for Russia after its troops lost the Kharkiv region in the lightning Ukrainian counter-offensive.

The shift in the conflicts focus towards the Donbas region followed Russias failure to capture Kyiv during the first phase of the war. Before Ukraines rapid counter-offensive, marginal Russian gains in the east suggested the war was entering a period of stalemate.

The Russians were thwarted in Kyiv by a combination of factors, including geography, the attackers blundering and modern arms as well as Ukraines ingenuity with smartphones and pieces of foam mat.

The number of Ukrainians fleeing the conflict has made it one of the largest refugee crises in modern history.

In mid-March, an attack on a Ukrainian military base, which had been used by US troops to train Ukrainian soldiers, added to Russias increasingly direct threats that Natos continued support of Ukraine risked making it an enemy combatant in the war. On March 24, Nato agreed to establish four new multinational battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia to add to troops in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Sources: Institute for the Study of War, Rochan Consulting, FT research

Cartography and development by Steve Bernard, Chris Campbell, Caitlin Gilbert, Cleve Jones, Emma Lewis, Joanna S Kao, Sam Learner, ndra Rininsland, Niko Kommenda, Alan Smith, Martin Stabe, Neggeen Sadid and Liz Faunce. Based on reporting by Roman Olearchyk and John Reed in Kyiv, Guy Chazan in Lviv, Henry Foy in Brussels and Neggeen Sadid in London.

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Russias invasion of Ukraine in maps latest updates

1. England hands Ukraine defeat on emotional night at Wembley Stadium  CNN
2. Kane and Bukayo Saka combine against Ukraine for Englands perfect Euros start  The Guardian
3. Russia host Iraq in first home match since invasion of Ukraine  Reuters

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England hands Ukraine defeat on emotional night at Wembley Stadium - CNN

Ukraine War: Forthcoming 'fighting season' could be final chapter in conflict - here's why and how it could play out  Sky News

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Ukraine War: Forthcoming 'fighting season' could be final chapter in conflict - here's why and how it could play out - Sky News

Russia-Ukraine war live: Russian plans for nuclear weapons in Belarus dangerous and irresponsible as it happened  The Guardian

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russian plans for nuclear weapons in Belarus dangerous and irresponsible as it happened - The Guardian

Russian authorities say a drone caused an explosion that injured three people far from Ukraine border; no word on origin  ABC News

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Russian authorities say a drone caused an explosion that injured three people far from Ukraine border; no word on origin - ABC News

European powers vowed to intensify support for Ukraine as world leaders, military officers and diplomats gathered in Germany for the Munich security conference to discuss Europes security situation since the Russian invasion. About 40 heads of state and government as well as politicians and security experts from nearly 100 countries, including the US, Europe and China are expected to attend during the three days of the conference.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged the west to speed up its support, telling the Munich conference that Vladimir Putin would gain a military advantage unless arms deliveries arrived soon. We need to hurry up, Zelenskiy said in a video address. We need speed speed of our agreements, speed of our delivery speed of decisions to limit Russian potential.

Zelenskiy warned a possible consequence of delaying western weapons to Ukraine could be a Russian invasion of Moldova. He said neighbouring Belarus would make a mistake of historic proportions if it joined in the Russian offensive and claimed polls showed 80% of its people did not wish to join.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, gave Zelenskiy an indirect rebuff, saying caution was better than hasty decisions and unity was better than going it alone. Scholz said Germany was the biggest supplier of weapons in continental Europe, and that the region was in uncharted territory and there was no blueprint for confronting a nuclear-armed aggressor, making it vital to avoid an unintended escalation.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, urged allies to intensify their military support for Ukraine to help it carry out a needed counter-offensive against Russia. There could be no peace in Ukraine until Russia was defeated, Macron said, adding that Russia was doomed to a defeat in the future.

The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will call on world leaders to ensure a lasting peace for Ukraine with the establishment of a new Nato charter to help it defend itself again and again in the face of any future declarations of war by Russia. Sunak is expected at the Munich conference to call for countries to double down on our military support, and to warn that the security and sovereignty of every nation is at stake.

Russias foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has said the US is inciting Ukraine to strike directly at Russian territory, after comments by the US undersecretary of state, Victoria Nuland, about Crimea. Nuland had said the US supported Ukraine striking at targets in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 in a move that is only recognised by a handful of mostly rogue states.

As many as 60,000 Russian forces may have been killed in just under a year of Russias war in Ukraine, the UKs Ministry of Defence has said. The casualty rate has significantly increased since September 2022 when partial mobilisation was imposed. Convict recruits used by Wagner may have had a casualty rate of one in every two men.

Russias defence ministry website has confirmed Lt Gen Andrey Mordvichev is the new head of the central military district, replacing Col Gen Alexandr Lapin, who in January was appointed chief of staff of Russias ground forces. Mordvichevs appointment follows other sweeping changes to Russias military leadership.

Russias foreign ministry said it had summoned the Dutch ambassador over what it called obsessive attempts by authorities in the Netherlands to hold it responsible for the downing of flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014. In a statement Russia accused the joint investigation team set up to establish who was responsible of being politicised.

The World Health Organization has appealed for more funds to support Ukraines health sector, which has been severely damaged by the war. Ukraine needed more funds to ensure mental health, rehabilitation and community access to health services, said the WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, in a briefing in the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr.

A British embassy security guard has been jailed for more than 13 years after a judge told him his treachery spying for Russia had put his former colleagues at maximum risk. David Ballantyne Smith, 58, originally from Paisley, Scotland, copied secret documents he found in unlocked filing cabinets and on desks at the embassy, including a letter to the then-prime minister, Boris Johnson, on the war against Ukraine.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 360 of the invasion ...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shake hands during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine on April 25, 2022.Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

Blinken said a lasting peace deal in Ukraine can't occur if its territorial integrity is not respected.

The top US diplomat said that Ukraine giving up territory to Russia would "open a Pandora's box."

"Putin has to give up on his notion that Ukraine is not its own country," Blinken said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a new interview with NPR that there's a slim chance of Kyiv and Moscow reaching a peace deal as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin behaves as if Ukraine is not a real country.

"Vladimir Putin has to give up on his notion that Ukraine is not its own country, that it needs to be erased from the maps and subsumed into Russia. He's already failed at that. But he seems to continue to believe that that's what he's trying to achieve. And unless he's disabused of that notion, it's hard to see how peace can really move forward," Blinken said.

Putin in September illegally annexed four Ukrainian territories. But Russian forces do not fully occupy these regions, and in some places, they have even lost ground to Ukraine in the time since Putin announced the so-called annexations.

The Russian leader's decision to annex the Ukrainian territories made the possibility of negotiations to end the fighting extremely unlikely. Moscow now claims these regions as part of Russia while the Ukrainian government has been adamant it would not agree to any peace deal requiring it to cede territory to Russia.

Blinken also told NPR that any peace agreement would need to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity, otherwise it would not be a "just peace and a durable peace."

"If we ratify the seizure of land by another country and say 'that's okay, you can go in and take it by force and keep it,' that will open a Pandora's box around the world for would be aggressors that will say, 'Well, we'll do the same thing and get away with it,'" Blinken added.

Western leaders and officials have repeatedly warned that if Russia wins in Ukraine it could inspire other world leaders with imperialistic ambitions to act on them.

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The top US diplomat's comments came as Russia continues to push for gains in eastern Ukraine as the war inches toward the one-year mark. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday Russia has already begun a highly-anticipated new offensive, warning that Putin is willing to endure high casualties in order to exhaust Ukrainian forces.

"We're seeing what Russia is just now, what President Putin do now, is sending thousands and thousands of more troops, accepting a very high rate of casualty, taking big losses, but putting pressure on the Ukrainians. And what Russia lacks in quality, they try to compensate in quantity," Stoltenberg said.

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Top US diplomat warns that if Ukraine gives up territory to Russia in ...

The Interview - If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, NATO borders will 'no longer be an obstacle', warns Khodorkovsky  FRANCE 24 English

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The Interview - If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, NATO borders will 'no longer be an obstacle', warns Khodorkovsky - FRANCE 24 English