Corruption has been a major roadblock in Kyiv’s bid to joint the European Union and Nato, with officials from both blocs demanding widespread anti-graft reforms before Kyiv can join them. Russia launched drone and missile attacks targeting civilian and critical infrastructure across wide areas of Ukraine, Kyiv’s air force said on Sunday. Russia's defence ministry has denied attacking Ukrainian cities - saying it was targeting military infrastructure, air defence and air forces with "high-precision weapons".
- Washington has suggested that force could rise to 175,000 by the end of January.
- The BBC reports that the UK government will utilise recent legislation to impose restrictions on the people and organisations linked to Russia - as well as measures to personally target Vladimir Putin.
- Ukrainian protesters gathered outside Downing Street on Thursday afternoon to call for more action from the UK and the international community.
- The Prime Minister also suggested Britain could provide more military support to Ukraine as legislation to allow for tougher UK sanctions against Russia were expected to come into force today.
- The UK's defence secretary has also warned that we need to be prepared for a war.
- Russia officially claims that it is an expeditionary oceanographic ship used for marine research, however intelligence sources told DR it is actually a spy vessel.
Nato powers are already promising to build up their own forces in the alliance's eastern flank. After 2,000 anti-tank weapons were delivered last week and 30 British troops arrived to teach Ukrainian forces how to use them, the phrase "God Save the Queen" began trending on Twitter in Ukraine. Some bars and restaurants in Kyiv were offering free drinks to anyone who had a UK passport. Nato member states have increasingly sent Ukraine air defence systems to protect its cities, as well as missile systems, artillery and drones that helped turn the tide against Russia's invasion. https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-is-australia-saying-about-ukraine.html -time leader was also desperate to prevent Ukraine from entering Nato's orbit, but his attempt to blame the Western defensive alliance for the war is false.
European security
Ukraine's Western allies had repeatedly warned that Russia was poised to invade, despite repeated denials from Moscow. The US, EU, UK and Japan imposed sanctions against leading Russians, Russian banks and MPs who backed the move. Hours earlier Ukraine's president had asked how a people who lost eight million of its citizens fighting Nazis could support Nazism.
- It also wants Nato to withdraw its forces from most Eastern European countries.
- She says London will consider supplying Nato with more “fast jets, warships and military specialists”.
- Russian military convoys have crossed from Belarus into Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, and from Russia into the Sumy region, which is also in the north, Ukraine's border guard service (DPSU) said.
It means that some of the population will have had some military training - and can then be assigned to reserve units should war break out. Talk of wider war in Europe and the potential need for mass mobilisation or a "citizen army" may sound alarming. But the head of the British Army Gen Sir Patrick Sanders is not alone in issuing a national call to prepare for a major conflict on European soil. Europe’s most divisive energy project, Nord Stream 2 bypasses the traditional gas transit nation of Ukraine by running along the bed of the Baltic Sea. On Tuesday, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, stopped the certification process for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in response to Russia’s recognition of the two self-proclaimed republics.
Russia-Ukraine war: attacks on Russian enlistment offices signal dissatisfaction with war, says UK – as it happened
Russia’s military is likely to make a formal entrance into the territories soon. Its troops and military vehicles have secretly taken part in the fighting since 2014, but this deployment will probably be much larger. Moscow will now threaten Ukraine with a broader war if it continues to fight against the “separatists”, telling Kyiv that Russia is now obliged by treaty to defend them from attack.
What was meant to be a quick operation is now a protracted war that Western leaders are determined Ukraine should win. To bolster his depleted forces President Putin announced Russia's first mobilisation since World War Two, although it was partial and limited to some 300,000 reservists. Forced into further retreats from Kharkiv in the north-east and Kherson in the south, that aim remains unchanged, but it has shown little success in achieving it. For years, the Russian president has denied Ukraine its own statehood, writing in a lengthy 2021 essay that "Russians and Ukrainians were one people" dating back to the late 9th Century. He vowed to protect people from eight years of Ukrainian bullying and genocide - a Russian propaganda claim with no foundation in reality. He spoke of preventing Nato from gaining a foothold in Ukraine, then added another objective of ensuring Ukraine's neutral status.
Fighting between Russian, pro-Russian and Ukrainian forces is still ongoing in the region. While both Ukraine and western countries have accused Russia of sending weapons to assist, Moscow has denied intervention. They’ve said that the Russians who joined the fighting volunteered to do so on their own. They’ve also criticised the US and NATO for giving Ukraine weapons, saying that it’s encouraging rebel areas. While Russia's Vladimir Putin insisted for months that there were no plans to invade Ukraine, it's the question everyone is asking as the president declared a "special military operation" in the Donbas region of the country.
Refusal can mean a jail sentence, though there is the option of civilian service out of uniform too. A number of European countries also rehearse for civil emergencies - with exercises that involve ordinary citizens as well as the military. There is a sense in the upper echelons of the British military that many politicians and most of the public have not grasped the threat they see. It is the duty of the military to analyse that threat, and they still might be proved wrong. But European nations closer to Russian borders appear to be taking it more seriously.
- Further east in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, the BBC's Eastern European Correspondent Sarah Rainsford said people did not expect such a full-on assault.
- European countries have largely outsourced much of their military capacity and thinking on strategy and security to the States through NATO.
- He also expressed concerns that some members of NATO are trying to set up a military training centre in Ukraine.
- The UK, EU and other Western allies have vowed to impose tough new sanctions to punish Moscow, but say they will not send in troops.
- Foreign Secretary Liz Truss summoned Russia's ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, for the second time this week to ask him to explain the "illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine".
The invasion by land, air and sea began after a pre-dawn TV address where Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine's military lay down its arms. Russia officially claims that it is an expeditionary oceanographic ship used for marine research, however intelligence sources told DR it is actually a spy vessel. But without political support, the mindset of a country that does not feel like it is about to go to war is unlikely to change. Finland, Nato's newest member and a country which has an 800-mile border with Russia, has wider conscription. Around 80% of the male population complete some form of military service.
- Even now, Russia's leader describes the biggest European invasion since the end of World War Two as a "special military operation".
- Moldova alone said more than 4,000 people had come over the border from Ukraine.
- The breakaway regions were seized by Russian-backed rebels after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.
- Both the US and the UK are also helping Ukraine manage Russian cyber attacks, which could lead to many Ukrainian deaths if key infrastructure is taken over by Moscow.
- Labour's Keir Starmer and many Conservative backbenchers have called for further military options to be explored.
He has urged the United Nations to "do everything possible" to stop the aggression going any further. Defence ministry officials conspired with employees from a Ukrainian arms firm to embezzle almost $40m earmarked to buy 100,000 mortar shells, Ukraine’s security service said. Five people have been charged, with one person detained trying to cross the Ukrainian border.
- Shellings of the border territories and settlements of the Sumy oblast brought the Bilopolska, Shalyginska, Esmanska and Druzhbivska communities under fire.
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has not gone to plan, with Ukraine remaining vigilant two months after the attacks began.
- These took place far away from the front lines of Russia’s war, in civilian populated areas.
- Russian forces attacked eight communities in the Sumy oblast overnight, causing more than 24 explosions, the Sumy regional military administration said.
- It will be the first time the global body will discuss recent threats of a Russian invasion, which has left world governments on edge.
- Refusal can mean a jail sentence, though there is the option of civilian service out of uniform too.
A spate of Ukraine-linked attacks on Russia's oil infrastructure have reportedly led Moscow's energy ministry to propose restricting flights over energy facilities. If the US abandons the military alliance, it will fall to European countries to ensure a Ukrainian victory, Mr OBrien says. European countries have largely outsourced much of their military capacity and thinking on strategy and security to the States through NATO.