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Russia is still suffering heavy losses almost two years into Vladimir Putin’s war, Volodymyr Zelensky says, adding that the dead bodies of Russian soldiers are not being cleared up from the battlefield.
“Thousands, thousands of killed Russian soldiers, nobody even took them away,” he told The Economist, referring to fighting around the besieged eastern town of Avdiivka which he visited last week and saw Putin’s troops being slaughtered in the fighting.
The war-time president added that the notion Moscow is winning the war is only a “feeling” and not backed up by reality.
Mr Zelensky also warned the world that the Russian president is coming for them next. “Putin feels weakness like an animal, because he is an animal. He senses blood, he senses his strength. And he will eat you for dinner with all your EU, Nato, freedom, and democracy,” he said.
It comes as Putin vowed to intensify its own strikes after a series of heavy Ukrainian bombardments on Russian border regions. Kyiv and Moscow exchanged heavy attacks over New Year’s Eve and Day.
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Show latest update 1 hour ago Russia suffering heavy losses, says Zelensky
Russian forces are suffering heavy losses and the dead bodies of Russian soldiers are not being cleared up from the battlefield, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"Thousands, thousands of killed Russian soldiers, nobody even took them away," he told The Economist, referring to fighting around the besieged eastern town of Avdiivka which he visited last week and saw Putin’s troops being slaughtered in the fighting.
He also highlighted Mr Putin and the Russian army’s failure to take a single large city of Ukraine in 2023 and instead Ukraine “managed to break through Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea”. Ukraine is now using the new route for shipping millions of tonnes of grain.
The war-time president added that the notion of Moscow winning the nearly two-year-old war is only a "feeling" and not backed up by reality.
Mr Zelensky also warned the world that the Russian president is coming for them. “Putin feels weakness like an animal, because he is an animal. He senses blood, he senses his strength. And he will eat you for dinner with all your EU, Nato, freedom, and democracy,” he said in an interview.
Arpan Rai 2 January 2024 03:29
1 hour ago Zelensky acknowledges counteroffensive not moved as fast as imagined in 2023
President Zelensky acknowledged that Ukraine did not succeed “as the world wanted” in 2023 as he insists Russia is suffering huge losses.
In an interview with the Economist, Zelensky said: “Maybe we did not succeed (in 2023) as the world wanted. Maybe not everything is as fast as someone imagined.”
But he added that the notion that Russian forces were winning was a mere “feeling,” citing heavy Russian losses in the besieged eastern town of Avdiivka, which he visited last week.
“Thousands, thousands of killed Russian soldiers, nobody even took them away,” he told the magazine in the interview, held virtually.
In contrast, he hailed the “huge result” of Ukrainian forces breaking through a Russian Black Sea blockade, enabling grain exports by way of a new route along its southern coast.
(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Athena Stavrou 2 January 2024 03:30
2 hours ago ICYMI: British combat medic found dead in Ukraine ‘devoted her life to others’, say family
A British woman who died as a combat medic in Ukraine “devoted her life to helping others”, her family say.
Katherine Mielniczuk went to the country after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 compelled to use her medical skills to help those in need, they said.
The 26-year-old, who graduated in chemistry from the University of Bristol, spent almost two years risking her life to provide medical supplies and emergency care to injured Ukrainian and foreign fighters, travelling to the most volatile stretches of the frontline, earning herself the nickname “Apache”.
Read the full report here:
British combat medic found dead in Ukraine ‘devoted her life to others’, say family ‘It is impossible to truly convey what an incredible woman Katherine was or how deeply and widely she was loved and will be missed’
Athena Stavrou 2 January 2024 02:30
3 hours ago Russia rounds up thousands of migrants at New Year's Eve festivities
Russia’s police have detained thousands of migrants across the country in New Year’s Eve raids with scores of them facing deportation, Russian media reported on Monday.
About 3,000 migrants were detained in Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg during checks “to prevent crime,” Russia’s RIA state news agency reported.
“As it turned out, more than 600 of the migrants have been in Russia with various violations of migration legislation,” RIA cited an unnamed law enforcement agency source as saying.
More than 100 people faced deportation, RIA added.
A crowd of drunken migrants attacked two young men demobilized from the front line, one soldier was hit with a baton,” the Committee said on the Telegram messaging app.
“It is also noted that the migrants insulted the wives of veterans of the special military operation.”
Russia calls the war it unleashed on Ukraine in February 2022 a “special military operation.”
Athena Stavrou 2 January 2024 01:30
4 hours ago Zelensky says Russia suffering major losses
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the notion that Russia was winning the nearly two-year-old war was only a “feeling” and that Moscow was still suffering heavy battlefield losses.
Zelensky also said there were no real signs that Russia was interested in peace and that any indication that Russia wanted talks signified that Russia was running out of weapons and soldiers.
“I see only the steps of a terrorist country,” he told the Economist.
Zelensky also said that hitting Russian strength in Crimea was critical to reducing attacks on Ukraine as was defending cities in the east of the country.
(EPA)
Athena Stavrou 2 January 2024 00:30
5 hours ago Putin and Zelensky deliver contrasting New Year’s speeches
Russia’s Putin and Ukraine’s Zelensky have delivered contrasting addresses as the warring countries enter another year of conflict.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky honoured his people’s resilience in times of bloodshed in a long and lyrical New Year speech, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin stressed his country’s unity in a short and stern message that made only passing reference to the war.
“The major result of the year, its main achievement: Ukraine has become stronger,” Zelensky said in a televised address.
“No matter how many rockets the enemy launches, no matter how many shellings and attacks - vile, merciless, massive - the enemy carries out in an attempt to break Ukrainians, intimidate, knock Ukraine down, drive it underground, we will still rise,” he said, dressed in his trademark khaki outfit.
Comments by Putin provided a sharp contrast to those of Zelenskiy and also to his own speech last year, when he cast the war as a near-existential fight.
This year, he called Russia’s soldiers “our heroes,” but did not mention Ukraine by name and did not refer to the “special military operation” - his term for the war his invasion unleashed in February 2022.
“We have proven more than once that we can solve the most difficult problems and will never retreat, because there is no force that can divide us,” Putin said in a four-minute speech, dressed in a suit and a red tie against a backdrop of the Kremlin walls.
(President Volodymyr Zelensky Office)
Athena Stavrou 1 January 2024 23:30
6 hours ago Independent analysis: Ukraine’s fight is increasingly in the skies
As the frontline of the war in Ukraine is mired in bloody stalemate, breaking the enemy’s morale via repeated aerial assault is becoming increasingly important.
Ukrainian officials say Moscow launched 90 drones in attacks as the new year began, after days on intensifying strikes.
In his analysis, Askold Krushelnycky writes that Vladimir Putin is likely lashing out in response to a number of high-profile successful strikes by Kyiv.
Read the full report here:
Drones, missiles and air defence: Ukraine’s fight is increasingly in the skies Ukrainian officials say Moscow launched 90 drones in attacks as the new year began, after days of intensifying strikes. Askold Krushelnycky writes that Vladimir Putin is likely lashing out in response to a number of high-profile successful strikes by Kyiv
Athena Stavrou 1 January 2024 22:20
7 hours ago Latest pictures from Ukraine
Aftermath of an overnight shelling in Donetsk
(AFP via Getty Images)
A girl sits on a swing at a compound of residential houses heavily damaged by Russian drone strikes
(REUTERS)
Aftermath of an overnight shelling in Donetsk in Russian-controlled Ukraine
(AFP via Getty Images)
Athena Stavrou 1 January 2024 21:20
8 hours ago Putin ‘boiling with rage’ after strikes
President Vladimir Putin said he is “boiling with rage” and has vowed to intensify strikes after accusing Ukraine of launching attacks.
Speaking during a New Year’s Day visit to a military hospital, Mr Putin said Ukraine can expect more strikes after shelling of the Russian border city of Belgorod which killed more than two dozen people on Saturday.
“They want to intimidate us and create uncertainty within our country. We will intensify strikes. Not a single crime against our civilian population will go unpunished,” the Russian leader said, describing the barrage of Belgorod as a “terrorist act”.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for Saturday’s attack, which was one of the deadliest to take place on Russian soil since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started more than 22 months ago.
Russian officials in the occupied city of Donetsk also accused Kyiv of shelling the city in the early hours of New Year’s Day, killing four people.
While vowing retribution, he insisted Russia will only target military infrastructure in Ukraine.
“Of course, we can hit public squares in Kyiv and in any other Ukrainian city,” he said.
“I understand - I’m boiling with rage - but do we need to hit civilians? No. We are hitting military targets and that’s what we will keep doing.”
(via REUTERS)
Alex Ross 1 January 2024 20:20
9 hours ago Russia sentenced more than 200 Ukrainian fighters
Russian courts have sentenced more than 200 Ukrainian fighters to prison terms since Moscow started its military operation in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
In an interview with the state RIA news agency published on Sunday, he said: “The courts of the Russian Federation have already sentenced more than 200 representatives of Ukrainian armed formations to long terms of imprisonment for committing atrocities.”
Both sides accuse each other of committing numerous atrocities in the war that Russia started with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.
Lavrov told RIA that Russia’s main investigative organ, the Investigative Committee, has initiated 4,000 criminal cases against about 900 Ukrainian individuals.
“They include not only members of radical nationalist associations, representatives of Ukrainian security forces and mercenaries, but also representatives of the military and political leadership of Ukraine,” Lavrov said.
(POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Athena Stavrou 1 January 2024 19:20
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1/ 1Zelensky says Moscow suffering heavy losses as Putin vows more attacks
Zelensky says Moscow suffering heavy losses as Putin vows more attacks
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