Russia Ukraine conflict dwell: Putin ‘loses entire brigade’ as Moscow endure painful losses in latest battle

The White House on Thursday said Russia is executing soldiers who have failed to follow orders and threatening entire units with death if they retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire.

It’s a improvement that U.S. nationwide safety officers consider displays Russia’s morale issues 20 months into its grinding invasion of Ukraine, stated White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

“It’s reprehensible to think about that you would execute your own soldiers because they didn’t want to follow orders and now threatening to execute entire units, it’s barbaric,” Kirby informed reporters. “But I think it’s a symptom of how poorly Russia’s military leaders know they’re doing and how bad they have handled this from a military perspective.”

The White House has downgraded and launched intelligence findings about Russian motion over the course of the conflict. In the previous, the administration has stated it has acted to reveal the intelligence to focus on plans for Russian misinformation and different exercise so allies stay clear-eyed about Moscow’s intent and Russia thinks twice earlier than finishing up an operation.

This latest unveiling of intelligence about Russia’s struggles comes as President Joe Biden is urgent the Republican-controlled House to go together with offering extra funding for Ukraine as Kyiv tries to repel Russia in a conflict that has no finish in sight.

French president, Emmanuel Macron, has condemned the Hungarian chief Viktor Orbán’s recent assembly and handshake with Vladimir Putin.

“I want to condemn it [the meeting with the Russian president once again and make it very clear. I can tell you what I said to Viktor Orbán publicly around the table,” he stated. “First of all, I respect all the heads of state and government around the table and they have this sovereignty.

There’s absolutely no need to prohibit a head of state or government from going in one direction or another. It doesn’t shock us. What I am asking, out of respect and loyalty, is that we coordinate beforehand and coordinate afterwards and that, especially in the situation we are in with Russia, we do not use these bilateral contacts to negotiate things about ourselves that would weaken our unity.

Russian forces heavily shelled the centre of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Friday, injuring eight people and destroying or damaging at least 15 buildings, a senior city official said.

Pictures posted on social media showed at least three sites dotted with piles of rubble and the interior of one building strewn with shattered building materials and other debris.

Roman Mrochko, head of the city’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app that three of the injured were being treated in hospital. He said two buildings had been destroyed, three suffered heavy damage and 10 less damage.

“In the evening the entire city trembled,” Ukraine‘s Emergency Services said on Telegram. “The enemy targeted the very centre of Kherson.”

The posting said emergency workers had rescued two women, in their 70s and 80s, who had been blocked in a building, and brought a fire under control in a rubble-strewn area.

Ukraine‘s Suspilne public broadcaster said Russian forces had also shelled Beryslav, a town further north on the Dnipro River in Kherson Region, wounding one person.

Russian forces captured Kherson in the early days of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but abandoned the city and the western bank of the Dnipro late last year. They now regularly shell those areas from positions on the eastern bank.

It was a good thing Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky had his videoconference address to the European Union summit pre-slotted for the opening session.

Immediately afterward, EU leaders switched off and went to the order of the day — the Israel-Hamas war. They didn’t come again to the difficulty of Russia‘s war in Ukraine again before Friday’s closing day of the summit.

After dominating summit after summit since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the timing alone, anecdotal because it was, underscored a deeper actuality: Zelensky might be going through harder instances to get all the eye and political, financial and army help that Ukraine needs.

As rumours swirl in regards to the well being of the Russian president, Mary Dejevsky explains what the demise of Putin may imply for Russia, Ukraine and the remainder of the world

The White House stated it had data that Russia was executing its personal troopers who retreated from an offensive in Ukraine or refused to observe orders.

“We have information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders,” White House spokesperson John Kirby informed a media briefing on Thursday.

“It’s reprehensible to think about that you would execute your own soldiers because they didn’t want to follow orders and now threatening to execute entire units, it’s barbaric,” Mr Kirby stated.

Despite its last-minute scheduling, the assembly at a bookstore in Russia’s westernmost metropolis of Kaliningrad nonetheless drew about 60 individuals, with many outraged by a lawmaker’s efforts to ban abortions in native personal clinics.

The weeknight turnout stunned and heartened Dasha Yakovleva, one of many organizers, amid recent crackdowns on political activism underneath President Vladimir Putin.

“Right now, there is no room for political action in Russia. The only place left is our kitchens,” Yakovleva, co-founder of the Feminitive Community ladies’s group, informed The Associated Press. “And here, it was a public place, well-known in Kaliningrad, and everyone spoke out openly about how they see this measure, why they think it’s unjustified, inappropriate.”

Thyroid most cancers, Parkinson’s illness, leprosy or declining within the aftermath of a stroke – just some of the various unproven illnesses rumoured to have the Russian chief in recent years.

Just this week, the Kremlin had been compelled to disclaim rumours that Vladimir Putin had suffered a cardiac arrest in his bed room, months after they had been compelled to disclaim that he had dirty himself.

Since gripping the reins of energy in 1999, Putin has established himself as one of the crucial notorious politicians in fashionable historical past, with a vicelike grip over Russia.

His present time period is about to run out subsequent 12 months, but underneath sweeping modifications to the structure that had been launched in 2020, he may rule Russia till 2036.

Yet since his invasion of Ukraine and the lack of tens of hundreds of his troops, the fallout of his army gamble has triggered cracks to seem for the primary time underneath his 20-year management. Speculation has additionally dogged the ageing tyrant that his well being is failing, with the way forward for Russia unsure upon his demise.

Vladimir Putin has misplaced “at least a brigdade” of troops in his offensive push in the direction of the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, president Volodymyr Zelensky stated.

“The invaders made several attempts to surround Avdiivka, but each time our soldiers stopped them and threw them back, causing painful losses. In these cases, the enemy lost at least a brigade,” Zelensky stated.

Russia renewed the offensive on the embattled city in mid-October, making an attempt to overwhelm Ukrainian positions with fixed barrages of artillery and waves of troops and preventing autos, based on native and army authorities in Ukraine.

Brigades fluctuate in measurement and might quantity between 1,500 and eight,000 troops. Battlefield losses are a state secret in Russia and Ukraine, although they’re believed to run into the various tens of hundreds on each side since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The new Slovak authorities’s pledge to cease army help to Ukraine ought to solely have an effect on military provides and never business gross sales, parliament’s speaker and chief of the second-biggest ruling get together, Peter Pellegrini, was quoted as saying on Friday.

Prime Minister Robert Fico took half in a two-day European Union summit on Thursday and Friday the place he stated that Slovakia will cease supporting its neighbour Ukraine militarily whereas nonetheless being a backer of humanitarian help.

Fico received final month’s election with pledge to cease army help to Ukraine on his manifesto. He was appointed as prime minister for a fourth time this week, main a three-party authorities.

Commenting on the message on Friday, Pellegrini, chief of the centre-left Hlas get together, was quoted by media as saying he favoured permitting orders made on a business foundation to proceed.

“If someone orders and pays for these systems, then that is support for Slovak industry,” Dennik N quoted him saying.

Slovakia’s defence business has seen a lift with others in central and jap Europe amid efforts to assist Ukraine‘s battle against the Russian invasion.

Germany, Denmark and Norway said a year ago they would buy 16 Slovak-made Zuzana-2 howitzers for Ukraine.

Dennik N said the first was delivered in August.

Fico told a parliamentary committee ahead of the summit that he saw no military solution to the conflict, and said the army’s provides had been depleted and the military wanted to focus on its personal shares.