Ukrainian soldiers greeted with flowers and tears after liberating village
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense and deputy foreign minister have shared a video of Ukrainian soldiers being greeted by cheering residents of Bohuslavka within the southeastern Kharkiv region, after the village was liberated.
The footage shows a small crowd of residents gathered with flags and having given flowers for the soldiers, singing the Ukrainian national anthem while wiping tears from their eyes.
Within the video, one among the soldiers tells residents that Ukrainian forces have pushed back the enemy, with Russian forces having “retreated to a certain distance.”
“You are not any longer threatened by their artillery fire today,” the soldier says, based on comments translated by NBC News’ Ukrainian fixer Artem Grudinin.
“Representatives of the military-civilian administration will arrive here tomorrow and can provide assistance. I hope you’ve gotten some leaders who can develop a listing of questions for them out of your community. There may be a automotive with an antenna there, they gives you web there,” he says, with the gang replying with “thanks.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Russian leaders likely concerned as Ukraine’s forces approach Luhansk borders, UK says
Russian leaders are highly prone to be concerned that leading Ukrainian units are actually approaching the borders of Luhansk region which Russia claimed to have formally annexed last week, the British Ministry of Defense said Wednesday.
In its latest intelligence update on Twitter, the ministry said Ukraine continues to make progress in offensive operations along each the northeastern and southern fronts.
“Within the north-east, in Kharkiv Oblast [or province], Ukraine has now consolidated a considerable area of territory east of the Oskil River,” it said, with its formations advancing as much as 12 miles beyond the river “into Russia’s defensive zone towards the availability node of the town of Svatove.”
An aerial view of Svatove city, within the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. The British Ministry of Defense said Ukrainian formations can now approach the town to strike Russian supplies.
Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images
It is extremely likely that Ukraine can now strike the important thing Svatove-Kremina road with most of its artillery systems, the ministry added, “further straining Russia’s ability to resupply its units within the east.”
Ukraine’s progress meant it was approaching the borders of Luhansk, one among 4 regions Moscow “annexed” last week following sham referendums. President Vladimir Putin signed the annexations into law on Wednesday, undeterred by Ukraine’s vow to fight to reclaim all occupied territory.
— Holly Ellyatt
Putin signs law formally annexing 4 Ukrainian regions
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets the Moscow-appointed heads of 4 Ukrainian regions, partially occupied by Russia, on the Grand Kremlin Palace on Sept. 30, 2022, in Moscow, Russia.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed laws formally annexing 4 Ukrainian regions which can be partially controlled by Russian forces, Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported Wednesday.
The move comes after sham referendums were held within the regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk. The outcomes, widely seen as faked and illegitimate, showed a majority of individuals wanting to hitch the Russian Federation.
Each Russia’s upper and lower houses of parliament (the Duma and Federation Council, or Senate) approved laws ratifying the annexations earlier this week, leaving President Vladimir Putin to place his signature to the laws formally annexing the territories.
Ukraine and the overwhelming majority of the international community don’t recognize the annexation, slamming it as illegal and farcical.
Russian forces have various levels of control over the regions, with Ukrainian forces making gains within the south (around Kherson) and east, and its forces advancing in Donetsk and towards Luhansk. The Kremlin also said it had yet to find out the borders of annexed territory in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
— Holly Ellyatt
Putin is ‘literally out of moves,’ ex-CIA chief says
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces look increasingly ill-equipped and outmaneuvered on the battlefield, is running out of options within the war in Ukraine, based on David Petraeus, a former CIA director and retired U.S. Army general.
When asked what Putin’s next move may very well be in Ukraine, whose armed forces are making significant gains in counteroffensives within the south and east of the country, Petraeus told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble he believes Putin is “literally out of moves.”
“He’s trying all these different desperate actions. But the actual fact is the truth that confronts Russia on the battlefield is that Ukraine has a vastly more capable and bigger force than the country [Russia] that’s greater than 3 times their size. The fact on the battlefield now’s desperate for Putin,” he added.
“There’s literally nothing he can do. It’s irreversible,” he said, noting that even sham referendums staged by Russia in 4 regions, with the fake votes resulting in those regions being “annexed,” had not modified anything.
“The Ukrainians are already taking back … The momentum on the battlefield, could be very much against Russia, they’re scrambling just to ascertain recent defensive positions.”
The previous CIA chief warned against getting carried away with Ukraine’s recent advances, warning that Russia is unpredictable.
“Don’t misinterpret this, there’s still an infinite amount of harm and destruction that Russia can do, they will punish. And they’ll proceed to punish Ukraine on a day by day basis with missiles and rockets and bombs and so forth. But at the top of the day, they can not reverse the situation on the battlefield, which goes to see Ukraine, taking back the territory that Russia has taken since 24 February, and maybe taking back the whole lot that Russia has taken from them since 2014,” he said.
In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, an act that accompanied the creation of pro-Russian separatist blocs in eastern Ukraine (with the so-called “people’s republics” in Luhansk and Donetsk) and which led to February’s invasion.
— Holly Ellyatt
There are signs that Russia is falling apart, says Munich Security Conference chair
Christoph Heusgen, chair of the Munich Security Conference, says, nonetheless, that it’s difficult to say how long the situation will play out.
Lukashenko is a ‘low cost partner’ to Putin, says leader of Belarusian Democratic Movement
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Aleksandr Lukashenko are in a “fake friendship” with each side just using one another, based on Belarusian Democratic Movement leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
“They use one another because … Lukashenko is a loyal partner … very low cost partner, I’d say, who gives [Putin] territory to attack Ukraine,” she told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Tuesday.
In February, Lukashenko hosted Russian troops and equipment, and permitted Russia to make use of Belarus as a staging post for its invasion of Ukraine.
The opposition leader described the connection of the 2 leaders as a symbiotic one.
“Without Putin, Lukashenko won’t survive the events of 2020. In order that they need one another, and so they use one another.”
Lukashenko claimed victory within the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, which was contested by Tsikhanouskaya at that cut-off date.
The victory of Ukraine against Russia is “crucial for Belarus,” the democratic leader emphasized, “because this victory will give us opportunity, one movement of opportunity to apprise and to eliminate the [Putin’s] regime.”
“That is why it is so vital for [everyone] to support Ukrainians as much as we are able to.”
— Lee Ying Shan
‘Excellent news from the front lines’: Ukraine’s forces count significant gains in counteroffensives
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s military has made swift and significant progress in its counteroffensives within the south and east of the country, recapturing dozens of settlements in regions Russia claims to have annexed.
“Now we have excellent news from the front lines,” the president said in his nightly address Tuesday, “the Ukrainian army is making pretty fast and powerful movements within the south of our country as part of the present defense operation.”
“Dozens of settlements have already been liberated from the Russian pseudo-referendum this week alone. That is in Kherson region, Kharkiv region, Luhansk region and Donetsk region together,” he said, referring to the regions where sham votes on joining Russia were held in late September.
Ukrainian soldiers adjust their national flag atop a personnel armored carrier on a road near Lyman, within the Donetsk region, on Oct. 4, 2022.
Anatolii Stepanov | Afp | Getty Images
Naming a series of settlements that had been liberated in Kherson in southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy said that “that is removed from an entire list. Our soldiers will not be stopping. And it’s only a matter of time before we expel the occupier from all of our land.”
Ukraine’s continuing advances into Russian-occupied territory has prompted concerns that President Vladimir Putin might resort to using nuclear weapons as his army suffers defeats on the battlefield.
Those concerns rose Tuesday on reports online that Putin had sent a convoy of vehicles, belonging to the Russian unit in control of the country’s nuclear arsenal, to Ukraine. But experts have said such reports must be viewed with caution.
— Holly Ellyatt
World Bank estimates Ukraine’s war-torn economy will sink 35% in 2022
Destruction after an apartment constructing hit by Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 14, 2022.
Alejandro Martinez | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Devastated by Russia’s invasion eight months ago, the Ukrainian economy will plunge 35% this 12 months, the World Bank forecast.
The war has destroyed factories and farmland and displaced hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians. The World Bank, a 189-country anti-poverty agency, estimates that rebuilding the country will cost at the very least $349 billion, 1.5 times the scale of Ukraine’s prewar economy.
“Ukraine continues to want enormous financial support because the war needlessly rages on in addition to for recovery and reconstruction projects,” said Anna Bjerde, World Bank vp for Europe and Central Asia.
Still, the bank’s assessment for Ukraine’s economy marks an upgrade from the 45.1% freefall it forecast in June. And it expects that the Ukrainian economy will return to growth in 2023, expanding 3.3% — though the outlook is extremely uncertain and can rely on the course of the war.
Meanwhile, the Russian economy, hammered by Western sanctions, is predicted to shrink each years — by 4.5% in 2022 and three.6% next 12 months. In June, nonetheless, the bank had predicted the Russian economy would fare even worse this 12 months, shrinking by 8.9%. The energy-producing Russian economy has proven surprisingly resilient, helped by a surge in oil and natural gas prices.
— Associated Press
Latest U.S. weapons package for Ukraine brings commitment to $16.8 billion since Russia invaded
Pro-Russian separatist forces are seen within the Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine on May 28, 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
The Biden administration announced one other $625 million military aid package for Ukraine on Tuesday, bringing the U.S. commitment to greater than $16.8 billion since Russia invaded the country in late February.
The newest weapons package includes 4 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, in addition to munitions for those systems, 16 155mm and 105mm Howitzers, 75,000 155mm artillery rounds, 500 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds, 1,000 155mm rounds of Distant Anti-Armor Mine, or RAAM systems, 200 mine-resistant armored vehicles and 200,000 rounds of small arms ammunition.
“Recent developments from Russia’s sham referenda and attempted annexation to recent revelations of brutality against civilians in Ukrainian territory formerly controlled by Russia only strengthens our resolve,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in an announcement announcing the twenty second weapons installment.
“The capabilities we’re delivering are rigorously calibrated to make essentially the most difference on the battlefield and strengthen Ukraine’s hand on the negotiating table when the time is correct,” Blinken added.
— Amanda Macias
Lack of coaching and supplies will proceed to plague Russian troops and mobilized recruits
Service members of pro-Russian troops load ammunition into an armoued personnel carrier during fighting in Ukraine-Russia conflict within the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 12, 2022.
Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters
The British Ministry of Defense said Russia likely can have difficulty training and equipping the lots of of 1000’s of troops recently mobilized to fight in Ukraine.
For the reason that early days of the war, Russian forces on the bottom in Ukraine have been beset with a slew of logistical problems on the battlefield, including reports of fuel and food shortages.
“The challenges of accommodating, training, equipping and deploying mobilized and conscripted personnel are significant,” the Ministry of Defense wrote in an intelligence update.
“Deficiencies inside the Russian administrative and logistical systems will proceed to undermine these efforts,” the update added.
— Amanda Macias
Ukraine unlikely to give you the option to hitch NATO while war ongoing, former commander says
Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) from 2013-2016, Philip Mark Breedlove attends a session on the Warsaw Security Forum in 2016.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ukraine applied for a fast-track entry to the NATO military alliance last week after Russia annexed more of its territories following a set of sham referendums, but a top former military commander has said Ukraine is most unlikely to give you the option to hitch the bloc while the war is ongoing.
“The demonstrated history of NATO is that they don’t seem to be going to bring a nation in that’s in the course of a border dispute or has occupied land,” Philip Breedlove, former commander of U.S. European Command, seventeenth Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations, told CNBC Tuesday.
“They are not going to bring them in because then the entire alliance is committed to go straight to Article 5 [the principle that an attack on one member of NATO is an attack on all members] and so until this issue with Russia occupying Ukrainian land is over I do not think there’s going to be a fast-track” to NATO membership, he said.
“I support it, I applaud Mr. Zelenskyy but I’m just being a realist,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on the sidelines of the Warsaw Security Forum.
Breedlove said Ukraine’s successes on the battlefield in recent weeks represent a “fundamental shift” within the war, but that the nuclear threat posed by Russia is larger than ever.
Breedlove said Russian President Vladimir Putin was now facing an existential fight “as he starts to lose ground” and that the nuclear threat posed by Russia had grown because the war was not going Russia’s way.
“Two months ago I’d’ve told you that [the threat] was credible but highly unlikely. Now I’d inform you that it’s credible and the likelihood is greater than it was two months ago,” he said.
— Holly Ellyatt