Category Archives: Ukraine

At least three civilians have been killed in Russian shelling in the eastern Donetsk oblast. At least three Ukrainian civilians were killed and 13 were wounded in artillery barrages from the Russian military in Donetsk, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

Ukraine says it has struck a base used by the Wagner group, according to reports. Ukraine said it had struck a base used by Russian paramilitary group as well as a bridge near the occupied city of Melitopol , according to reports from AFP.

Five people have been injured in Kharkiv after Russian shelling. Two of them are in a serious condition, a top Ukrainian official has said.

Putin says Russia is ready to offer allies in Latin America, Asia and Africa advanced weapons. Putin used a speech at an arms show near Moscow to boast of Russias advanced weapons capabilities and declare its willingness to share technology with like-minded countries. In a letter to Kim Jong-un for Koreas liberation day, Putin said closer ties would be in both countries interests, and would help strengthen the security and stability of the Korean peninsula and the north-east Asian region, North Koreas KCNA news agency said.

The UN has said it can facilitate an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visit to Ukraines damaged Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant if Russia and Ukraine agree. A total of 42 countries have called on Russia to immediately withdraw military forces from the plant, including the US, Japan and the UK, plus the EU. The IAEA has warned of a possible nuclear disaster unless fighting stops.

On Polands Armed Forces Day, Ukraines commander-in-chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, has released a video statement commemorating the national holiday. In the video, he says in Polish: Today, just like 102 years ago, we once again face a centuries-old enemy together. The holiday celebrates the anniversary of the 1920 victory over Soviet Russia at the Battle of Warsaw.

Kyivs mayor has warned of a cold winter for citizens, due to gas shortages. The former boxing champion and mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said he did not want to reassure residents that everything will be fine and that there were harsh realities in the country.

The defence team of the US basketball star Brittney Griner has appealed against her conviction for drugs possession and trafficking, Griners lawyer Maria Blagovolina told Reuters on Monday. Griner, who had played for a Russian club, was arrested at a Moscow airport on 17 February after cannabis-infused vape cartridges were found in her luggage. She pleaded guilty to the charges but said she had made an honest mistake by entering Russia with cannabis oil, which is illegal in the country. She was convicted on 4 August and jailed for nine years.

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 173 of the invasion - The Guardian

WARSAW After years of struggling to make a living as musicians in Ukraine, Yevgen Dovbysh and Anna Vikhrova felt they had finally built a stable life. They were husband-and-wife artists in the Odessa Philharmonic he plays the cello, she the violin sharing a love for Bach partitas and the music from Star Wars. They lived in an apartment on the banks of the Black Sea with their 8-year-old daughter, Daryna.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Vikhrova fled for the Czech Republic with her daughter and mother, bringing a few hundred dollars in savings, some clothes and her violin. Dovbysh, 39, who was not allowed to leave because he is of military age, stayed behind and assisted in efforts to defend the city, gathering sand from beaches to reinforce barriers and protect monuments and playing Ukrainian music on videos honoring the countrys soldiers.

We spent every day together, Vikhrova, 38, said. We did everything together. And suddenly our beautiful life was taken away.

Dovbysh was granted special permission to leave the country last month to join the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, a new ensemble of 74 musicians that was gathering in Warsaw, the first stop on an international tour aimed at promoting Ukrainian culture and denouncing Russias invasion. Carrying his cello, and wearing a small golden cross around his neck, he boarded a bus for Poland, looking forward to playing for the cause, and also to being reunited with another member of the fledgling ensemble: his wife.

I love my country so much, he said as the bus passed ponds, churches and raspberry fields in Hrebenne, a Polish village near the border with Ukraine. I dont have a gun, but I have my cello.

When his bus arrived in Warsaw, he rushed to meet Vikhrova. He knocked on the door of her hotel room, waited nervously, and then embraced her when she opened it. She teased him about his decision to wear shorts for the 768-mile journey, despite the cool weather, a legacy of his upbringing in balmy Odessa. She gave him a figurine of a Star Wars creature, Baby Yoda, a belated birthday present.

Im so happy, he said. Finally, we are almost like a family again.

The next morning, they took their chairs in the new Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, led by the Canadian Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, to prepare for a 12-city tour to rally support for Ukraine. Beginning here in Warsaw, the tour has continued in London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Berlin and other cities, and will travel to the United States this week to play at Lincoln Center on Aug. 18 and 19 and at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Aug. 20.

The tour has been organized with the support of the Ukrainian government. Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, said in a recent statement celebrating the founding of the orchestra that artistic resistance to Russia was paramount. The orchestra also has the backing of powerful figures in the music industry. Wilsons husband, Peter Gelb, who runs the Metropolitan Opera in New York, has played a critical role, helping line up engagements and benefactors, and the Met has helped arrange the tour. Waldemar Dabrowski, the director of the Wielki Theater, Warsaws opera house, provided rehearsal space and helped secure financial support from the Polish government.

CULTURE, DISPLACED A series exploring the lives and work of artists driven far from their homelands amid the growing global refugee crisis.

At the first rehearsal, musicians filed into the Wielki Theater carrying blue and yellow bags; instrument cases covered in peace signs and hearts; and tattered volumes of Ukrainian poems and hymns.

As the musicians began to warm up at rehearsal, Wilson took her place at the podium, locked eyes with the players, and spoke about the need to stand up to Moscow.

For Ukraine! she said, throwing her fist into the air. Then the orchestra began playing Dvorak.

The musicians had arrived mostly as strangers to one another. But slowly they grew closer, sharing stories of neighborhoods pounded by bombs, while the refugees among them recounted their long, tense journeys across crowded borders this winter.

Among the violins was Iryna Solovei, a member of the orchestra at the Kharkiv State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, who fled for Warsaw at the start of the invasion along with her 14-year-old daughter. Since March, they have been among the more than 30 Ukrainian refugees living inside the Wielki Theater, in offices that were converted to dormitories.

In March, Solovei watched from a distance as her home in Kharkiv was destroyed by Russian missiles. She shared photos of her charred living room with her fellow players, telling them how much she missed Ukraine and worried about her husband, who still plays with the Kharkiv ensemble.

Everyone has been hurt, she said. Some people have been hurt physically. Some people have lost their jobs. Some people have lost their homes.

She reminisced about her days as an orchestra musician in Ukraine, and the deep connections she felt with audiences there. To cope with the trauma of war, she takes walks in a park in Warsaw, where a Ukrainian guitarist plays folk songs at sunset.

The war is like a horrific dream, she added. We can forget about it for a moment, but we can never escape it.

At the back of the orchestra, in the percussion section, stood Yevhen Ulianov, a 33-year-old member of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine.

His daughter was born on Feb. 24, the first day of the invasion. He told his fellow players how he and his wife, a singer, had gone to the hospital in Kyiv a few hours before the war started. As she went into labor, air-raid sirens sounded repeatedly, and at one point they were rushed from the maternity ward to the basement of the hospital.

I couldnt understand what was happening, he said. I could only think, How will we get out of here alive?

Ulianov did not play for two months after the invasion, as concerts in Kyiv were canceled and theaters elsewhere were damaged. The orchestra reduced his salary by a third in April, and he relied on savings to pay his bills. Inside his apartment near the center of the city, he practiced on a vibraphone, taking shelter in a corridor when air-raid sirens sounded.

We didnt know what to do should we stay or should we leave? he said. What if the Russian army came to Kyiv? Would we ever be able to play again?

Before the orchestras first concert, late last month in Warsaw, Vikhrova and Dovbysh were anxious.

They had spent more than a week rehearsing the program, which included pieces by Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin and Valentin Silvestrov, Ukraines most famous living composer. But they were unsure how the audience might react. And they were grappling with their fears about the war.

Vikhrova had been trying to build a new life in the Czech Republic with their daughter, joining a local orchestra. But she worried about her husbands safety every second, every minute, every hour, she said. She slept near her phone so that she would be woken up by warnings about air raids in Odessa. She grew anxious after one attack there before Easter, when her husband saw Russian missiles in the sky but had no time to take shelter. To take her mind off the war, she played Bach and traditional Ukrainian songs.

Holding her husbands hand backstage, Vikhrova said she longed for the day when they could return to Ukraine with their daughter, who was staying with her mother in the Czech Republic for the duration of the tour.

I feel like Im leading a double life, she said. Half of me is in Ukraine, and half of me is outside.

Dovbysh remembered the fear in his daughters eyes when she and her mother left Odessa in February. He recalled taking time to explain the war and telling her she would be safe. He promised they would see each other again soon.

When the tour ends this week and his military exemption expires, he is scheduled to return to Odessa. It is unclear when he will be able to see his family again.

Every day, he said, I dream of the moment when we can see each other again.

As the war drags on, the musicians have at times struggled to keep their focus. They spend much of their free time checking their phones for news of Russian attacks, sending warnings to relatives.

Marko Komonko, 46, the orchestras concertmaster, said it was agonizing to watch the war from a distance, likening the experience to a parent caring for an ill child. He fled Ukraine in March for Sweden, where he now plays in the orchestra at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm.

We live with a constant sense of worry, he said.

For more than two months after the invasion, he said, he felt nothing when he played his violin. Then, in early May, he began to feel a mix of sadness and hope when he performed a Ukrainian folk melody at a concert in Stockholm.

For some, playing in the orchestra has strengthened a sense of Ukrainian identity. Alisa Kuznetsova, 30, was in Russia when the war began; since 2019, she had worked as a violinist in the Mariinsky Orchestra. In late March, she resigned from the orchestra in protest and moved to Tallinn, Estonia, where she began playing in the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.

When she joined the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, she initially felt guilty, she said, worried that the other players would see her as a traitor because of her work in Russia. But she said her colleagues had reassured her that she was welcome.

For my soul, for my heart, she said, this has been really important.

In European cultural capitals, the orchestra has been greeted with standing ovations and positive reviews from critics.

A stirring show of Ukrainian defiance, a review in The Daily Telegraph said of the orchestras performance at the Proms, the BBCs classical music festival. The Guardian wrote of tears and roars of delight for the new ensemble.

But the musicians say the measure of success will not be reviews, but their ability to shine a light on Ukraine and showcase a cultural identity that Russia has tried to erase.

Nazarii Stets, 31, a double bass player from Kyiv, has been redoubling his efforts to build a digital library of scores by Ukrainian composers, so their music can be widely downloaded and performed. He plays in the Kyiv Kamerata, a national ensemble devoted to contemporary Ukrainian music.

If we are not fighting for culture, he said, then what is the point of fighting?

Wilson, who came up with the idea for the orchestra in March and plans to revive it next summer, said she made a point of featuring Silvestrovs symphony as a way of promoting Ukrainian culture. Near the end of the piece, the composer wrote a series of breathing sounds for the brass, an effect meant to mimic the last breaths of his wife.

Wilson, who dedicated the piece to Ukrainians killed in the war, said she instructed the orchestra to think of the sounds not as death, but as life.

Its the breath of life, to show that their spirits go on, she said in an interview.

Vikhrova said the tour had brought her closer to her husband and her fellow players. She cries after each performance of the Silvestrov symphony, and when the orchestra plays an arrangement of the Ukrainian national anthem as an encore.

This has connected our hearts, she said. We feel part of something bigger than ourselves.

Anna Tsybko contributed reporting.

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An Orchestra Supports Ukraine, and Reunites a Couple Parted by War - The New York Times

Overview

The Ukrainian General Staff over the weekend reported that the city of Kramatorsk was attacked by Russian ground forces and later was struck by heavy rocket fire. The UGS also said that the Russians were pushed back.

If the UGS reports are correct, even if only Russian reconnaissance elements were involved, this is a new development. Kramatorsk lies about 30km northwest of Bakhmut and 8 to 10 km south of Sloviansk. As Bakhmut falls (as is expected in the course of the coming 7 to 10 days), Russian forces driving southwest from the Izium region could be pushing between the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk or just south of Kramatorsk and trap Ukrainian forces to the east of the Izium-Kramatorsk-Bakhmut line.

Near Bakhmut, the town of Zaitseve just southeast of Bakhmut is now under Russian control. The Russian front line is still moving slowly, but now more perceptibly westward. The UGS says that more than 150 missiles hit Bakhmut overnight.

The intensity and size of engagements has also been picking up opposite the city of Donetsk from Krasnohorivka 20 km to the north to Avdivka directly opposite to Pisky further south. The town of Pisky essentially is leveled. According to the UGS morning report, a Russian foray along major route M-04 toward the town of Pervomaiske was unsuccessful.

Avdivka, as we have previously detailed, is a fortified town that has defined the line of control since 2017. A breakthrough by Russia there would open up major railroad and highway connections to the western portion of Donetsk Oblast and be seen as a strategic loss for Ukraine. No surprise that both sides describe the fighting as fierce.

The Kherson region where the Ukrainian offensive was supposed to take place has arguably been the quietest region over the past several weeks.

Russian ground forces undertook no substantive ground operations in the past several days, but did conduct artillery and missile strikes across most of the line of contact. Seven to eight towns in and around the small Ukrainian bridgehead over the Inhulets about 6km wide and 5km deep were subjected to air strikes, andessentially every town was struck by rocket and or tube artillery. The city of Mykolaiv continues to be struck by rockets, as does Nikopol.

Ukrainian artillery and HIMARS and other MLRS systems continue to target Russian supply and ammo dumps and are reported to have struck two more ammo dumps in Kherson and Zaporizhia Oblast, but with diminishing effects as the Russian have minimized their size and dispersed them.

An American observer on the scene near Kherson City notes that HIMARS has been effective, but the numbers are not adequate to change the outcome, only provide scattered tactical successes. Without the advent of some game-changing technology in sufficient quantity to shift the balance, its hard to predict anything other than a grinding war of attrition.

But Ukraine cannot win a war of attrition.

A Ukrainian official, not the one chided by President Zelensky, commenting on the explosions at the airfield in Crimea last week, told a reporter, in response to a question as to whether that might mark the start to Ukraines long awaited offensive, You can say it is.

A NATO member country military intelligence report of which we have seen excerpts noted, The comment by the official doesnt ring true. Rather, it would seem that the Ukrainians are reaching the end of the rope before the Russians optimistic predictions of most Western media and some Western governments and intelligence agencies notwithstanding.

This war, on all fronts, has settled into a war of attrition. It also appears that Russia is meeting both its manpower and firepower supply needs. Without an infusion of substantial amounts of new offensive weapons and the trained troops to wield them, it will be difficult for the Ukrainians to win in even a limited sense. A few spectacular hits like the sinking of the Moskva or the destruction of a Crimean military airfield will not turn the current tide.

A war of attrition in which neither side is willing or able to launch decisive offensive action is, in effect, a war in which both sides are trying to destroy the others army, to kill or disable as many enemies as possible. Such a war the larger army wins unless the smaller armys allies supply large amounts of added resources, including personnel.

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Ukraine the situation August 15, 2022 - Asia Times

A city with a Russian history, proclaim billboards across the Ukrainian city of Kherson, occupied by the Russian army since the first days of March. Others display the Russian flag, or quotes from Vladimir Putin.

Over the past five months, Moscow has appointed an occupation administration to run the Kherson region and ordered schools to teach the Russian curriculum. Local people are encouraged to apply for Russian passports to access pensions and other benefits.

The next stage of the Kremlins plan is a referendum, to add a dubious sense of legality to these facts on the ground, and create a pretext for bringing Kherson and other occupied parts of southern Ukraine into Russia, using an updated version of the 2014 Crimea playbook.

In a series of telephone interviews, people in Kherson reported minimal enthusiasm for a referendum, and described a nervous, unpredictable atmosphere in the city.

Residents remain unsure about what the next few months might bring: a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive to regain control, a protracted battle that turns the city to rubble, or Russia carrying out its sham referendum and annexing the territory.

You have to remember there was never any talk in Kherson of a referendum; no one thought about it before the war. Now it will be a referendum at gunpoint, said Kostyantyn, who worked in the IT sector before the occupation.

Even those who described themselves as largely apolitical said they were firmly opposed to voting in a referendum or joining Russia.

I will not go to the referendum, of course. I dont know anyone who will. I am not a political person and dont have strong opinions on politics but it is clear to me that a referendum is not right, said Svitlana, a former beauty salon employee who is now selling food items on the street to make ends meet.

Russian authorities have used intimidation to crush public opposition to their rule. A series of pro-Ukraine rallies that took place in March and April petered out after Russian soldiers shot stun grenades into the crowd and began detaining organisers at their homes.

In late May, the citys internet was rerouted through Russian servers, and all local media has either been shut down or stuffed with pro-Russia content.

Now complaints about the Russians are reserved for whispered conversations in kitchens. Residents describe the formerly bustling city of 300,000 as a ghost town. The official curfew begins at 10pm, but few people go out after five.

The noisy protest rallies have been replaced by an underground partisan movement. Posters and flyers surreptitiously placed around the city under cover of darkness threaten death to those who collaborate with the occupiers. In June, an official from the puppet authorities was killed in a bomb blast while on his way to work.

Others help Ukraine by sharing information. One person with whom the Guardian spoke said he had responded to a Facebook post back in March, seeking people living in occupied areas, and now regularly shares information with a contact from the Ukrainian security services.

I am not involved in any way in any underground organisations. I just pass on the information I see which factories are working with the occupiers, troop movements, Russian banks I see opening, he said.

The Kremlin reportedly plans to hold the referendum on 11 September. In June, the Russian-language news outlet Meduza cited three sources close to the Kremlin detailing a plan to hold referendums in four Ukrainian regions Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson and subsequently turn them into one new region of Russia.

There is a possibility that Russia will stall, hoping for military victories that bring the four regions under full control. Ukraine still holds major cities in the Donetsk region, such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, as well as Zaporizhzhia city.

According to some reports, however, ballots are already being printed. In late July, the Russian administration in Kherson invited people to put forward their candidacy as electoral officials.

In Zaporizhzhia, the chair of the regional parliament, Olena Zhuk, said she saw many signs that the Russians were preparing for a referendum soon in the occupied parts of the region. Lets start by saying any referendum would be illegitimate by Ukrainian law, by Russian law, by any law, she said in a telephone interview.

Formally annexing more Ukrainian territory may not have been in the Kremlins war plans from the beginning. Putins goal appears to have been a lightning march to Kyiv and the installation there of a pro-Russia puppet government, which would have kept Ukraine as a nominally independent state in Russias orbit.

That plan failed, and the focus moved to annexing larger chunks of southern and eastern Ukraine. In the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, the Russians appointed Volodymyr Saldo and Yevhen Balytskiy, former Ukrainian MPs, as the nominal heads of their administrations.

Saldo fell ill a month ago, and was reportedly airlifted to Moscow in a coma, amid rumours of poisoning.

In Zaporizhzhia, Zhuk said she knew Balytskiy personally and was shocked that he had decided to collaborate. She predicted, however, that the Russians would soon have little use for him. Nobody likes betrayers. It is a rule of life, she said.

Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning

These people are sent to the square in the first few days to say: Russia will help us. We are all brothers. But then in one or two months, when the people have been pacified a bit, other people will come and take real power.

Lower down the chain, the Russians have struggled to find Ukrainian officials to fill the ranks of their occupation administrations, particularly while the future is so uncertain.

No one wants to work for the Russians. They know it is a one-way ticket to hell, said Kostyantyn, the former IT worker. Russian television sometimes blurs the faces of officials to ensure they do not become targets for attacks.

One of the most visible figures of Russian rule in Kherson is Kyrylo Stremousov, a former anti-vaccine blogger who stood for mayoral elections in 2020 and received about 1.5% of the vote.

While there have been disappearances and reports of torture, the situation in the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is different to the full-scale terror that Russian forces unleashed in Bucha and other occupied areas closer to Kyiv back in March. Here, the Russians have tried to launch something of a hearts and minds operation in parallel to the intimidation.

In one recent meeting in a park in the village of Mykilske, Stremousov told a crowd, most of whom were pensioners, that Russia was here to solve their problems, promising an improved economic situation and also using Kremlin rhetoric about so-called traditional values in opposition to the decadent west.

We want to return to the world where there is a real understanding of the word family and not a perverted form of it, where everyone can feel like part of one whole, he said.

The Russians want to open schools on 1 September using the Russian curriculum, and have placed adverts seeking teachers from Russia to retrain Ukrainian teachers.

The new administration has also renamed the Kherson National Technical University, dropping the word national, and has promised free tuition for anyone of any age who wants to study.

We are doing everything to make sure we can open our doors on 1 September and our first students can start their lives in comfortable surroundings, said the Russian-appointed rector, Halyna Raiko, in an interview for a pro-Russian television station in which she appeared visibly nervous and uncomfortable.

While nostalgia for the Soviet period and appeals to conservative social values may work on a segment of the older population, many people who remain in Kherson are hoping fervently for Ukraine to regain control over the city.

When we hear explosions, everyone rejoices it means Ukraine is coming closer, said Olena, a 45-year-old mother, but she conceded that this prospect also comes with its own set of fears.

We are waiting for the Ukrainian army, but of course we hope civilians dont die during the liberation. We love our city and dont want it to be turned into Mariupol, she said.

There is a fear, though, that if the Kremlin succeeds with its referendum plan and formally annexes the territory, a Ukrainian counteroffensive would become harder and more dangerous, and a Russian crackdown would be on the cards.

Everyone knows that Russia will fake the referendum results, said one person who runs an anti-Russia Telegram channel from inside Kherson, who asked not to use his name. They will feel even more empowered and start rounding up everyone who voted against.

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A referendum is not right: occupied Kherson looks to uncertain future - The Guardian

Workers at Zaporizhstal iron and steel works on July 22 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Jason Beaubien/NPR hide caption

Workers at Zaporizhstal iron and steel works on July 22 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine In this eastern Ukrainian city, a Soviet-era mural stands boldly in front of Zaporizhstal iron and steel works.

The mural shows muscular ironworkers handing a freshly forged sword to equally muscular soldiers who are rushing off to war. Today, however, Ukraine's iron industry is in rough shape because of war itself.

During much of the 20th century, a thriving industrial heartland churned in central and eastern Ukraine, fed by abundant coal mines and big, hulking steel mills. In several parts of the country, these plants still dominate the landscape, the local economy and even civic identity. Iron and steel production remains Ukraine's second-leading industry after agriculture. And prior to the Russian invasion this year, it was a major supplier of iron ore to Turkey, China and parts of the European Union.

While the war with Russia has raised serious international concern about getting Ukraine's vast production of wheat, corn and sunflower oil normally its top exports to global markets, the invasion has been even more devastating to the country's metalworks. Exports of bulk iron ore, for instance, that are shipped by the ton in massive cargo vessels have stopped entirely from Ukrainian ports.

Inside the sprawling Zaporizhstal industrial compound, the plant's giant blast furnaces normally convert tons of raw iron ore into a stream of molten orange pig iron.

But Serhiy Safonov, the manager of the blast furnace shop, says that only two of the factory's four blast furnaces are currently operational.

Employees secure and package rolls of sheet steel at the Zaporizhstal PJSC rolled steel plant in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on June 30. Julia Kravchenko/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

Employees secure and package rolls of sheet steel at the Zaporizhstal PJSC rolled steel plant in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on June 30.

The furnaces are designed to run constantly, he says, and normally would never be shut down over their 30-year life span. But earlier this year all four furnaces had to be dialed back to what Safonov calls a "low idle" as Russian troops threatened to advance on Zaporizhzhia. Moscow's forces never reached the area, but tens of thousands of people fled. Much of the city shut down, and the factory that used to employ 11,000 workers is now operating at less than 50% of capacity.

Yuriy Ryzhenkov, the CEO of Metinvest Group, which owns the Zaporizhstal plant, says they have enough raw materials inside Ukraine to keep pumping out rolls of sheet metal and bars of cast iron. The problem is they can't get those products to market. Metinvest and other Ukrainian steel producers now have huge backlogs of processed metal sitting in Ukrainian warehouses.

"The main difficulty is the logistics," Ryzhenkov says. Traditionally, all Ukrainian steel companies, of which Metinvest is the largest, export their products via the Black Sea ports or Azov Sea ports. "At the moment," Ryzhenkov says. "The ports have been blocked by the Russians."

While a few ships carrying grain have been allowed to leave Ukraine recently, there's still no agreement to allow vessels ferrying other goods to transit the Black Sea.

Some steel and iron ore is getting sent by rail to ports in Poland and Romania, but it's a slow and expensive process. Adding to the logistical challenges, Ukraine's railways operate on a different gauge track than the Western Europeans, meaning cargo has to get transferred at the border.

"This was never envisaged as the main export route for the steel industry in Ukraine," Ryzhenkov says.

As difficult as it is to get steel to customers in Turkey, Italy and North Africa, the Zaporizhzhia factory at least is still in Metinvest's hands.

Russian and Moscow-backed separatist forces seized the company's two steel mills in Mariupol. This includes the Azovstal plant, where Ukrainian soldiers made a final stand against the Russian occupation of the city. Russian forces blew apart the mill to capture it and finally take full control of the southern port city.

While Azovstal is now better known, it was actually the smaller of Metinvest's two steel plants in Mariupol. The other, Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, spread over more ground and, with 14,000 employees, had more workers than Azovstal. Ilyich was seized by Russian troops in April. Ukrainian fighters held out at Azovstal until mid-May.

A Russian serviceman patrols the destroyed part of the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Ukraine's port city of Mariupol on May 18. Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A Russian serviceman patrols the destroyed part of the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Ukraine's port city of Mariupol on May 18.

"At some point in time we'll come back to Mariupol and see what is the state of Azovstal and Ilyich mill and see if they can be restored," he says.

The plants were insured, "but insurance doesn't typically cover the wartime risks," he says. "And that's the big problem."

The company's lawyers are looking at ways to file a claim against the Russian Federation for billions of dollars in damages, Ryzhenkov says but making a shrug, as if it's a longshot.

There isn't a definitive tally of monetary damages in Mariupol, but the human suffering after months of bombardments has been extensive. Ukrainian officials say more than 20,000 civilians were killed in the Russian siege of the city. U.N. officials have documented a lower number of civilian casualties but still estimate the number killed in the city is in the thousands.

With the city under Russian control, Metinvest has urged customers globally not to buy steel from Mariupol. The company says there's a "high probability" that the occupying Russian forces are selling off some of the more than 200,000 tons of steel products Metinvest had stored at its two plants there.

Earlier this year, Metinvest was paying its idled employees two-thirds of their salaries, including at the Mariupol plants now controlled by the Russians. But in June the company had to lay off thousands of workers.

With limited revenue, two of its largest factories gone, and few options to export their industrial products to customers overseas, Ryzhenkov says the company right now is just focused on survival.

"We are making sure that whatever we still have control over we keep intact," he says.

"And we are waiting for Ukraine to kind of win the war and take back what belongs to it." But he's under no illusions that that is going to happen quickly.

The challenges facing Metinvest are similar for other Ukrainian steelmakers and industrial firms, particularly in the east of the country.

The Soviet-era mural in front of Zaporizhstal iron and steel works in Zaporizhzhia. The mural depicts iron workers handing a sword to soldiers. Jason Beaubien/NPR hide caption

The Soviet-era mural in front of Zaporizhstal iron and steel works in Zaporizhzhia. The mural depicts iron workers handing a sword to soldiers.

"There are a number of really problematic trends that will compound over time," says Andrew Lohsen, who up until last year was based in Ukraine as a monitor and an analyst for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"One of them is the fact that these industries are highly dependent on coal that is mined behind enemy lines now or close to the fighting."

He says the industrial capacity of Ukraine right now is severely strained because so much of its manufacturing sector is in or near the intense fighting in eastern Ukraine.

This has been part of the problem for Metinvest. Prior to 2014, Metinvest was based in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. When Russian-backed separatists seized Donetsk in 2014, Metinvest relocated its headquarters to Mariupol, a city on the Sea of Azov. This year, when Russia grabbed Mariupol, the headquarters were displaced again, this time moving to the capital, Kyiv.

Ryzhenkov at times sounds weary talking about the impacts of the war, the export bottlenecks, the assets stolen by the Russians, the layoffs. But when asked if the company might be able to somehow restart operations in Mariupol or elsewhere near the fluctuating front lines, he answers quickly.

"The position of our shareholders is very clear on this," he says. "We will not operate in any occupied territory, under any occupational regime." He insists they'll operate only in areas under Ukrainian control.

Hanna Palamarenko contributed to this report.

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Ukraine's iron and steel industry is in rough shape because of war - NPR

In the months following Russias winter invasion of Ukraine, President Bidenannouncedthe U.S. would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainians and established Uniting for Ukraine, aprogramthat streamlines and expands thehumanitarian paroleprocess for Ukrainians to gain admittance to America.

The United Statess immediate action and strong commitment to help Ukrainians during a humanitarian crisis is truly commendable. Yet, one year after the U.S.s dramatic evacuation from Afghanistan, many Afghans who risked their lives to assist the U.S. in the fight against the Taliban and for democratic ideals are still looking for a pathway to the United States. And Afghans who were evacuated to the U.S. remain in limbo with no assurance they can stay or work when their humanitarian parole expires in 2023.

Correcting for this inaction is a matter of national security in future conflicts, why would anyone risk their lives by serving alongside our soldiers or providing critical translation services if the U.S. cant keep our promises to them when we depart? We cannot allow our enemies to claim that the U.S. cannot be trusted.

To do right by our Afghan allies and national security, Washington must streamline the pathway for Afghans to get to America and establish a program that leads to permanent resident status.

Humanitarian parole was used to allow both Afghans and Ukrainians to lawfully enter the U.S. While humanitarian parole brought more than 76,000 Afghan evacuees to the U.S. immediately after the fall of Kabul, the program is largely failing Afghans still living abroad.

The path for Ukrainians is much clearer andstreamlinedthan for Afghans. The Uniting for Ukraine program allows U.S. citizens to sponsor Ukrainians, agreeing to financiallysupportthem throughout the application process and their stay in the U.S.

Theprogramalso waives the application fee and in-person interview requirement.

In contrast, since July 2021, more than 45,000 Afghans haveappliedfor humanitarian parole. Fewer than 2,500 applications have beenprocessedand most have been denied. Only 270 wereapproved, and the vast majority of applicants have yet to be processed.

Afghans must also overcome bureaucratic hurdles to obtain humanitarian parole that Ukrainians do not. There is a $575 per person application fee more than the average Afghan typicallymakesin a year. Afghan applicants must be under a specific risk of serious harm and arerequiredto complete an in-person interview at a U.S. embassy, which is nearly impossible because there is no longer an operating embassy in Afghanistan.

Alternative options to enter the U.S. that provide a pathway to lawful permanent residency, such as theU.S. Refugee Admissions Program(USRAP), are currently backlogged. USRAP was nearlydismantledby the Trump administration. Despite President Bidens efforts toraisequotas fromhistoric lowsunder Trump, the still decimated infrastructure means applicants could wait years before receiving an answer.

TheSpecial Immigrant Visa(SIV) is also available to Afghans who worked directly with the U.S. government, but the difficulty in obtaining necessary verification documentation has only increased. The Biden administrationdid not increasethe ability to process these applications in anticipation of the influx of Afghans, and the application processremainscomplicated and slow.

Because permanent visas arent a realistic alternative, the U.S. must level the playing field to ensure Afghan allies have the same opportunities as Ukrainians. A program like Uniting for Ukraine would eliminate application barriers for overseas Afghans.

Additionally, Congress must pass an Afghan Adjustment Act toexpeditepathways for evacuated Afghans currently living in the U.S. to receive permanent resident legal status. The U.S. has a history of passing similar legislation after military conflicts, including after the rise of Fidel Castro in Cuba, the Vietnam War and conflicts in Iraq.

For 20 years, American forces worked hand-in-hand with Afghans. What was true a year ago, as the U.S. withdrew, remains true now: We must not turn our backs on our Afghan allies.

Margaret D.Stock, lieutenant colonel (retired), is an attorney with the Anchorage office of Cascadia Cross Border Law Group LLC. She transferred to the Retired Reserve of the U.S. Army in June 2010 after serving 28 years as a Military Police Corps officer in the Army Reserve. She is a member of theCouncil on National Security and Immigration.

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Time to treat Afghan allies with same respect as those fleeing Ukraine - The Hill

Key events

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Here is a summary of todays events:

Ukraine has said Russian soldiers who shoot at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant or use it as a base to shoot from would become a special target.

The oil giant Saudi Aramco has unveiled record profits of $48.4bn in the second quarter of 2022, after Russias war in Ukraine and a post-pandemic surge in demand caused crude prices to skyrocket.

Pope Francis said the war in Ukraine had diverted attention from the problem of world hunger and called for urgent food aid to prevent looming famine in Somalia.

The Ukrainian armys Operational Command South said the Russian bombardment of populated areas in the Dnipropetrovsk region continued overnight.

The chairman of Germanys conservative CDU party and opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, said he could not imagine Germany playing a mediating role in the Russian war against Ukraine.

Countries including Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic have called for the EU to limit or block short-term Schengen visas for Russian citizens, in protest at their countrys invasion of Ukraine. Poland is also considering restrictions for Russian tourist visas.

Ukraine has said Russian troops who crossed the Dnipro River during their offensive in the southern Kherson region were facing growing difficulties after strategic bridges were damaged, Reuters reports.

The UK Ministry of Defences update said Russia had probably prioritised reorganising its forces over the past week to reinforce southern Ukraine, but that in the Donbas region in the east, Russian-backed forces had continued to attempt attacks on the north of Donetsk city.

Hungary says Russia has started delivering additional gas to the country after a July visit to Moscow by its foreign minister.

Two more ships carrying grain left Ukraines Black Sea ports on Saturday, Turkeys defence ministry said, bringing the number of vessels to have departed the country to 16 since a UN- and Turkey-brokered deal was agreed in late July, aimed partly at easing a global food crisis.

The Razoni, the first ship to depart Ukraine two weeks ago since grain exports from the countrys Black Sea ports resumed under a UN-brokered deal, was approaching the Syrian port of Tartus on Sunday after the cargo was refused by its original Lebanese buyer, two shipping sources told Reuters.

People in the eastern Ukrainian town of Rubizhne have started exhuming bodies hastily buried in courtyards at the height of battle, to lay them to rest with dignity.

The US has expressed concern to India that it was used earlier this year to break economic sanctions imposed on Russia during a high-seas transfer of fuel made from Russian crude, according to a local central banker.

Updated at 11.58EDT

The chairman of Germanys conservative CDU party and opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, cannot imagine Germany playing a mediating role in the Russian war against Ukraine.

Regardless of who would be in charge, he said, the Federal Republic of Germany has no mediating role in this conflict.

He told the German Press Agency: We stand together with Europe on the side of Ukraine and are therefore not neutral in this conflict. Merz had been asked if he could imagine that former chancellor Angela Merkel, for example, could intervene to bring the war to an end.

The CDU leader accused Germanys coalition government of prolonging the war through its hesitant action in supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine.

It still applies that the Federal Republic of Germany could have done more earlier. The government should have quickly done what the German Bundestag decided on 28 April, namely to deliver heavy equipment on a larger scale, said Merz.

Even now, he stressed, not everything that Germany could contribute was being delivered.

In this respect, we are still not helping Ukraine to the extent that is necessary. And that is prolonging this brutal war, which is now becoming a gruelling war of attrition with hundreds of victims every day, Merz said.

The Ukrainian armys Operational Command South said on Sunday that the Russian bombardment of populated areas in the Dnipropetrovsk region continued overnight.

The Russian occupiers again shelled two districts - Nikopol and Kryvorizky, the military unit said in a Facebook post.

As a result of the shelling, a school, residential buildings and high-rise buildings, shops and cafes were damaged, the statement added, including gas pipelines and power lines, leaving reportedly almost a thousand subscribers without power supply.

In the Marhanets settlement, the unit said, a 69-year-old man was injured and had to have a partial amputation of his right arm, and remained in hospital on Sunday morning.

Russia, in a daily briefing, said it had taken control of Udy village in the eastern Kharkiv region.

The Guardian could not independently verify these reports.

Updated at 11.07EDT

Updated at 09.54EDT

Ukraine on Sunday said Russian troops who had crossed the Dnipro River during their offensive in the southern Kherson region were facing growing difficulties after strategic bridges were damaged, Reuters reports.

Moscows forces seized the city of Kherson on the Dnipro early in their invasion of Ukraine, the only regional capital they have conquered so far.

Their westward offensive in the region has made some progress, but the three bridges they control in the area - two for road traffic and another carrying a railway have been bombarded repeatedly in recent weeks.

The most important crossing is the Antonivskiy bridge in Khersons suburbs, which has been targeted by missiles since late July.

Sergiy Khlan, a regional lawmaker, told Ukrainian television that the only ways for Russian soldiers to cross the river were pontoons near the Antonivskiy bridge that cannot totally meet their needs.

Russia was moving its command centres to the left bank of the river, knowing that it would not be able to evacuate them in time if fighting escalated, he added.

But Khlan said the 20,000 Russian troops on the right bank could still cross the bridges on foot for now.

The Nova Kakhovka bridge, about 30 miles to the north-east of Antonivskiy bridge, was targeted this week.

Khlan on Saturday said Ukrainian forces struck the bridge, preventing the Russians from moving ammunition, equipment and food across it to resupply their troops.

A briefing by Britains defence ministry said the two road bridges leading to Russian-controlled territory on the west bank of the Dnipro were probably out of use.

Updated at 09.29EDT

Pope Francis said on Sunday that the war in Ukraine had diverted attention from the problem of world hunger and called for urgent food aid to prevent looming famine in Somalia.

The people of this region, who already live in very precarious conditions, are now in mortal danger because of drought, he said at his weekly address in St. Peters Square, referring to the Horn of Africa.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said this month that it could officially declare famine in eight regions of Somalia next month if livestock continue to die, key commodity prices rise further and humanitarian assistance fails to reach the most vulnerable.

Francis told pilgrims and tourists in the square that he wanted to draw attention to the grave humanitarian crisis that has hit Somalia and some areas of bordering countries.

The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said last week that about a million people have been internally displaced in Somalia since January, Reuters reports.

The country is one of the worlds most susceptible to climate vulnerability.

I hope that international solidarity can respond efficiently to this emergency, Francis said.

Unfortunately the war [in Ukraine] has distracted attention and resources but these are the aims that call for the utmost commitment - the fight against hunger, health care, education, he said.

Updated at 08.58EDT

The Razoni, the first ship to depart Ukraine two weeks ago since grain exports from the countrys Black Sea ports resumed under a UN-brokered deal, was approaching the Syrian port of Tartus on Sunday after the cargo was refused by its original Lebanese buyer, two shipping sources told Reuters.

Ukraine cut off diplomatic ties with Syria in June after Damascus recognised the independence of the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Earlier this week the ship was reported to have docked in Turkey, and was supposed to unload 1,500 tonnes of its 26,527 tonnes of corn in the country, before proceeding to Egypt with the rest of its cargo.

Updated at 07.48EDT

Oil giant Saudi Aramco on Sunday unveiled record profits of $48.4bn in the second quarter of 2022, after Russias war in Ukraine and a post-pandemic surge in demand caused crude prices to skyrocket.

The worlds biggest oil producer saw its net profits surge by 90% year-on-year, and posted its second straight quarterly record in strong market conditions - a rise of 22.7% from from the first quarter of 2022, for which the company had announced a net income of $39.5bn.

Almost entirely state-owned Aramco is just the latest oil giant to rake in eye-watering sums after ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni also revealed multi-billion-dollar profits in the second quarter, Reuters reports.

While global market volatility and economic uncertainty remain, events during the first half of this year support our view that ongoing investment in our industry is essential, said Aramco president and CEO Amin H Nasser.

In fact, we expect oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade, he added.

Half-year profits were $87.9bn, up from $47.2bn for the same period of 2021.

Aramco will pay an $18.8bn dividend in Q3, the same as it paid in Q2. It continues to work on increasing crude oil maximum sustainable capacity from 12 million barrels per day to 13 million by 2027, its earnings announcement said.

Aramco shares are up 25% this year.

The company is the crown jewel and leading source of income for the conservative kingdom, and temporarily overtook Apple as the worlds most valuable company in March.

It is now in second place with a market valuation of $2.4tn.

Updated at 07.49EDT

People in the eastern Ukrainian town of Rubizhne have started exhuming bodies that were hastily buried in courtyards at the height of battle, anxious to be able to lay them to rest with dignity.

Rubizhne is part of the Luhansk region of Ukraine where Russian forces established full control in early July, more than four months after president Vladimir Putin launched what he called his special military operation in Ukraine.

Men with spades removed soil on Friday outside a damaged apartment block in the town of 50,000 people.

Lilia Ai-Talatini, 48, watched as the workers pulled out a blanket covering her mother, who had been quickly interred after attacks that started in March and divided the town in two, Reuters reports.

Ai-Talatini said the fighting at that time had prevented her for 10 days from reaching her parents apartment.

She said her mother was unwell, and when she died, she and her husband had no spades and therefore, as shells flew, had to drag the corpse to an open trench in the ground, burying her in what she described as inhuman conditions.

Now she is going to the cemetery, we have a plot there, she said.

The breakaway Russian-backed Luhansk Peoples Republic (LPR), one of Moscows proxies in eastern Ukraine, is coordinating the search for bodies.

Anna Sorokina, an LPR official, said a team had been working in Rubizhne for 10 days and exhumed 104 sets of remains.

Its clear that shrapnel wounds predominate but there are also bullet wounds, she said, estimating there were a total of 500 unofficial graves in the city.

Boris Kovalyov, 44, a forensic expert from the southern Russian region of Rostov, said examples of genetic material would be stored to help identify unknown corpses.

Updated at 06.51EDT

The US has expressed concern to India that it was used earlier this year to break economic sanctions imposed on Russia during a high-seas transfer of fuel made from Russian crude, according to a local central banker.

A Russian tanker on the open sea reportedly handed over oil to an Indian ship, which was then processed in India and finally exported to the United States, the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Michael Patra, said on Saturday at a financial conference in the state of Odisha.

You know there are sanctions against people who buy Russian oil. Heres what we were told by the US Treasury Department, Patra told his state and financial industry audience.

An Indian ship hit upon a Russian tanker in the open sea, picked up oil, called at a port in the state of Gujarat. The oil was in processed at this port and turned into a distillate used in the manufacture of single-use plastic, the central banker said.

The Indian ship took over the freight again, left the port and was only informed about its destination, New York, on the open sea.

Thats how war works, Patra summed up. He did not name the ship. The US Embassy did not comment, Reuters reported.

Countries including Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic have called for the EU to limit or block short-term Schengen visas for Russian citizens, in protest at their countrys invasion of Ukraine.

Now, Poland is now also considering restrictions for Russian tourist visas.

Poland is working on developing a concept that will make it possible not to issue visas to Russians, deputy foreign minister Piotr Wawrzyk told the PAP news agency on Sunday, adding that a decision would be made in the coming weeks.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected calls for visa restrictions, saying a blanket ban on visas for Russians was hard to imagine, my colleagues Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer report.

EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the measure at an informal meeting this month, although universal approval from the blocs 27 members would be needed to implement any such policy.

Two more ships carrying grain left Ukraines Black Sea ports on Saturday, Turkeys defence ministry said, bringing the number of vessels to depart the country to 16 since a UN- and Turkey-brokered deal was agreed in late July, aimed partly at easing a global food crisis.

Ukraines infrastructure ministry said on Saturday that 16 ships carrying 450,000 tonnes of agricultural products had departed from Ukrainian sea ports since early August under the deal, which ensured safe passage for vessels, Reuters reports.

The UN-chartered ship MV Brave Commander will depart Ukraine for Africa in coming days after it finishes loading more than 23,0000 tons of wheat in the port of Pivdennyi, a UN official said.

The ship, bound for Ethiopia, will be the first humanitarian food aid cargo to Africa since the start of the war, amid fears that the loss of Ukrainian grain supplies could lead to outbreaks of famine.

The blockage of Ukrainian ports has trapped tens of millions of grain in the country.

Zelenskiy said that in less than two weeks, Ukraine had managed to export the same amount of grain from three ports as it had done by road for all of July.

Ukraine hopes to increase its maritime exports to over 3 million tonnes of grain and other farm products per month in the near future.

Updated at 06.52EDT

Updated at 06.53EDT

In July, the Eastern Finnish city of Imatra began playing the Ukrainian national anthem at a prominent tourist site every evening, to protest the Russian invasion.

Excerpt from:

Russia-Ukraine war live news: Zelenskiy warns Russian troops in nuclear plant; Kherson bridges likely out of use as it happened - The Guardian

Russia president Vladimir Putin is shown looking down and touching his nose while military salute in the background.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reacts during the Navy Day Parade, on July 31, 2022, in Saint Petersburg, Russia.Contributor/Getty Images

Putin likely realizes he's made a mistake invading Ukraine, a former NATO leader said.

"I think he knows it in his heart, he'll never admit it publicly," said James G. Stavridis.

Russia is "blowing through" military capability and can't keep it up, Stavridis said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin likely regrets invading Ukraine but will never admit it, said former NATO leader James Stavridis.

Stavridis, who was NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe from 2009 to 2013, spoke of the invasion in a radio show on Saturday.

Stavridis was a guest on "The Cats Roundtable" on WABC New York, a show hosted by grocery-store billionaire John Catsimatidis, who also owns WABC.

Asked whether Putin knew the invasion of Ukraine was a mistake, Stavridis said: "I think in the dark, quiet hours at two o'clock in the morning when he wakes up, he realizes he's made a mistake. Publicly, he'll never admit that. Never."

Stavridis said Putin would maintain the "fiction" that Neo-Nazis run Ukraine and that he was forced into the conflict by NATO, rather than choosing to invade.

But, he said, Putin knows he is responsible for the invasion, the sanctions, and the military pushback.

"I think he knows it in his heart, he'll never admit it publicly," he said.

Putin is "burning through capability" in Russia's military, per Stavridi.

"I'd say, six months from now, he's going to be in very dire straits," Stavridis said, at which point he speculated that negotiations could begin.

According to the Pentagon, Russia has suffered as many as 80,000 casualties. In the interview, Stavridis put that number closer to 70,000 killed and wounded.

His comments came as reports have highlighted seemingly desperate tactics from Russia to replenish its ranks, including offering freedom to prisoners who enlist, as well as substantial cash bonuses for others who join up.

Sanctions levied against Russia by Western countries have also taken their toll, sending its economy back to 2018 levels, Insider previously reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Putin knows he's made a 'grave mistake' invading Ukraine but will never admit it, says former NATO commander - Yahoo News

Five Europeans captured in eastern Ukraine have gone on trial in a court administered by Kremlin-backed separatists in the city of Donetsk, Russian media reported.

The five Mathias Gustafsson of Sweden, Vjekoslav Prebeg of Croatia, and Britons John Harding, Andrew Hill and Dylan Healy all pleaded not guilty to charges of being mercenaries and undergoing training to seize power by force, according to Russian media reports.

They could face the death penalty under the laws of the self-proclaimed, unrecognised Donetsk Peoples Republic.

The next court hearing in their case is scheduled for October, Russian media reported.

Harding, Prebeg and Gustafsson were captured in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol and face possible execution for attempting to seize power by force and taking part in armed conflict as mercenaries, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Hill faces charges of being a mercenary, while Healy is being tried for taking part in the recruitment of mercenaries for Ukraine, the news agency said.

On 9 June, the supreme court of the self-proclaimed republic sentenced two Britons and a Moroccan, all of whom were captured by pro-Russian forces in Ukraines industrial east, to death for being mercenaries. All three have appealed against their verdicts.

There has been a moratorium on the death penalty in Russia since 1997, but it does not apply in the two separatist regions in Ukraine.

Ukrainian social media has been abuzz with speculation that the Kremlin may seek to use the foreign fighters to extract concessions from Ukraine or swap them for Russian prisoners.

The rest is here:

Five face trial on mercenary charges in separatist-controlled Ukraine - The Guardian

Moscow: Claiming that Russia is no longer dependent on Ukrainian engines to power its frigates, the head of Russian United ShipBuilding Corporation (USC) Monday said they are willing to invest in India as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.

I dont know why India went in for a Ukrainian engine when we have now built our own capability and capacity. We are no longer dependent on Ukraine for engines, USC President Alexei Rakhmanov said, speaking on the sidelines of the Army 2022, Russias defence exhibition being held in Moscow.

The top Russian official, who is in charge of the countrys shipbuilding industry, was referring to the gas turbine engines that India bought from Ukraine to power the four stealth frigates that it is building with Russian help.

As reported by ThePrint earlier, India had procured gas turbine engines from Ukraine and handed over to Russia to install them on the Admiral Grigorovich-class guided-missile stealth frigates that are being made for the Indian Navy by a Russian shipyard as part of a $2.5 billion deal.

While two ships are being built in Russia, two others are to be built at the Goa shipyard with Russian help.

India had ordered Ukranian engines for the ones being built in Goa, but it is learnt that the delivery had not taken place yet. One of the targets of the Russian missile attacks on Ukraine was the production facility of these gas turbine engines.

It is not yet known what will happen to the two frigates that are to be built in Goa, with the engines being undelivered and the factory hit.

Speaking about the delivery schedule of the two frigates, Rakhmanov said the first would be delivered by November 2023 and the next within six months of it.

He said that the original delivery schedule was hit by the Covid pandemic as well as the ongoing war with Ukraine.

We are trying to fast track the delivery and fill up the gap, Rakhmanov said.

According to the original delivery schedule, the first ship was to be handed over by the end of this year.

Talking about further plans, the top Russian defence official said that the USC is keen on investing in India and are looking at possible shipyards for the same. He also said that Russia wanted to invest in the Pipavav shipyard but it has gone into an insolvency procedure.

We want to be part of the Make in India initiative, he said.

Also read: Drastic changes needed in P75I tender Russia on Indian Navys submarine plans

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Not dependent on Ukraine for engines, want to be part of Make in India initiative, says Russia - ThePrint