#daniel boffey

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

hey so remember those new protest laws that make peaceful protest illegal? yeah? wanna see them in action?

[alt text:]

Head of UK’s leading anti-monarchy group arrested at coronation protest

Republic’s Graham Smith held at protest on King Charles III’s procession route in central London

Daniel Boffey Chief reporter, Sat 6 May 2023 08.31 BST

The head of the UK’s leading republican movement has been arrested at an anti-monarchist protest on King Charles III’s procession route.

Graham Smith had been collecting drinks and placards for demonstrators at Trafalgar Square when he was detained by police on the Strand in central London.

It is understood Smith was detained after bringing a megaphone to the demonstration. The Met police had tweeted earlier this week that they would have a “low tolerance” of those seeking to “undermine” the day.

Harry Stratton, a director at Republic, who arrived as Smith and the others were detained, said: “They were collecting the placards and bringing them over when the police stopped them.

“The guys asked why and they were told: we will tell you that once we have searched the vehicle. That’s when they arrested the six organisers. We asked on what grounds they had been arrested but they wouldn’t say. It is a surprise as we had had a number of meetings with the police. They had been making all the right noises”.

full article

dont you love it when your government decides to not even bother hiding the fact the fascist tendencies theyre leaning more and more into?

#uk police #uk politics #britpol #british politics #british police #monarchy #anti monarchy #the guardian #harry stratton #graham smith #daniel boffey #charles #charles iii #coronation #hell country #police misconduct

[biglisbonnews]

‘You don’t survive that’: Ukraine sappers dice with death to clear Russian mines Overworked and underequipped brigades face daily ordeal in the most heavily mined country in the worldOleksandr Slyusar, a Ukrainian sapper with a ready smile, had spent the last 30 hours under Russian shelling in the recently liberated village of Staromaiorske in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. A rocket fired at them from a Grad system had peppered the legs and back of a fellow landmine-clearer with shrapnel.Slyusar, 38, had taken his friend west to hospital in Zaporizhzhia city that morning, before arriving back at a secret military base within earshot of the rolling thunder of the Russian guns. Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/13/ukraine-sappers-mine-clearers-russia-war

#Ukraine #Europe #Russia #World news #Daniel Boffey #The Guardian

[cetaceous]

Where Russian Tanks go to Change Sides A Tank Repair Shop in a Secret Location in Ukraine The Guardian, reporting by Daniel Boffey image credits: Ed Ram/The Guardian

[steer-straight]

James and Paul (not real names), two British fighters in the International Legion. Photograph: Daniel Boffey/The Observer 

(via ‘I don’t like bullies’: British volunteers tell why they’re fighting for Ukraine | Ukraine | The Guardian)

[ukrainenews]

Daily Wrap Up May 12, 2022

Under the cut: Russia says that Finland and Sweden joining NATO would turn them into enemies of Russia instead of neutral territories; Russian logistics ship Vsevolod Bobrob was hit and caught fire off the coast of Snake Island; Russia’s Gazprom stops gas transit through Poland to Europe; Ukrainian courts are starting war crime trials; Ukraine is negotiating for the release of the soldiers trapped in the Azovstal steel plant, many injured; Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has blocked a US bill to give $40 billion in aid to Ukraine.

“Speaking to UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers, First Deputy Representative of Russia to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy has said that Sweden and Finland joining the bloc would turn them overnight from neutral into enemy countries and become a “target” for Russia.

“They know that the moment they become members of NATO it will imply certain mirror moves on the Russian side,” he said. “If there are NATO detachments in those territories, these territories would become a target — or a possible target — for a strike.”

“NATO is a very unfriendly bloc to us — it is an enemy and NATO itself admitted that Russia is an enemy. It means that Finland and Sweden all of a sudden, instead of neutral countries, become part of the enemy and they bear all the risks. So they would bear certain defence risks of course, certain economic costs — but it’s up to them to decide… They were living normally as good neighbours with us for tens of years; if they suddenly choose to become part of a very unfriendly bloc, it’s up to them.

The diplomat implied, however, that Russia was not especially concerned about the decision, and that it didn’t change the security situation in Europe.”-via Unherd

~

“A Russian logistics ship caught fire after after being struck in the Black Sea, forcing it to return to port, according to a Ukrainian official.

Vsevolod Bobrov was apparently hit off the coast of Snake Island and was left “limping” back to Sevastopol.”-via The Independent (register for full article)

~

“The sanctions that Russia imposed on May 11 against EuRoPol GAZ, the owner of the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, mean a ban on Gazprom from using the capacity of this pipeline, Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov confirmed.

"A ban has been established on transactions and payments in favor of persons under sanctions, in particular for Gazprom, this means a ban on the use of a gas pipeline owned by EuRoPol GAZ to transport Russian gas through Poland," he explained.

He recalled that "previously, the Polish side repeatedly violated the rights of PJSC Gazprom as a shareholder of EuRoPol GAZ, and on April 26, 2022, it entered the concern into the sanctions list , blocking the company's ability to exercise rights on shares and other securities of EuRoPol GAZ, and receive dividends" .”-via Interfax (Russian language)

~

“A court in Kyiv will hear the first war crime trial since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine when a Russian soldier accused of murdering a 62-year-old civilian appears in the dock on Friday, the Guardian’s Daniel Boffey reports.

The watershed moment comes as the number of crimes registered by Ukraine’s general prosecutor surpassed 11,000 and Unicef reported that at least 100 children had been killed in the war in April alone.

The defendant who will appear at Kyiv’s district court is Vadim Shysimarin, a 21-year-old commander of the Kantemirovskaya tank division, who is currently in Ukrainian custody.”-via The Guardian

~

“Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said “very difficult negotiations” are ongoing to evacuate seriously wounded fighters from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Vereshchuk said yesterday that Kyiv had proposed to Moscow that badly injured defenders in the plant be swapped for Russian prisoners of war.

Writing on her Telegram, Vereshchuk said:

To be clear: we are currently negotiating only about 38 severely wounded (bedridden) fighters. We work step by step. We will exchange 38, then we will move on.

There are currently no talks on the exchange of 500 or 600 people, which is being reported by some media outlets.”-via The Guardian

~

“In a rare showing of public unity, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to press for quick passage of a $40 billion aid bill for Ukraine but were blocked by GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky who is demanding changes to the legislation.

Despite the high-profile pressure from the two leaders, Paul refused to blink, meaning that Schumer will need to take procedural steps to overcome his objection, which could take several days, but will ultimately lead to passage of the supplemental spending bill sometime next week.

McConnell and Schumer on Thursday offered to allow a vote on Paul's amendment, but he insisted it be added to the underlying bill.

The change Paul is seeking would create a special inspector general to oversee how the Ukraine military aid is spent. Members from both parties broadly agree with that notion, but forcing a change to the bill at this stage would be very time consuming and would slow getting the needed aid to Ukraine.”-via CNN

#daily wrap up #ukraine #russia #finland #NATO #US #Azovstal steel plant #poland #snake island #russian warship go fuck yourself

[tamarovjo4]

Privacy campaigners say the UK quietly introduced legislation to let police run facial recognition searches on 50M+ driving license holders without oversight (Daniel Boffey/The Guardian)

http://dlvr.it/T0RGjS

[qudachuk]

Senior members of the government have spent the week calling for Saturday’s pro-Palestinian march to be banned but the Metropolitan police have resisted the pressure. Daniel Boffey reportsOver the past month, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have gathered in central London and...

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] Shahed drones contain European components, according to reportDaniel BoffeyIranian kamikaze drones used in the latest attacks on Ukrainian cities are filled with European components, according to a secret document sent by Kyiv to its western allies in which it appeals for long-range missiles to attack production sites in Russia, Iran and Syria.In a 47-page document submitted by Ukraine’s government to the G7 governments in August, it is claimed there were more than 600 raids on cities using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) containing western technology in the previous three months.According to the report, obtained by the Guardian, 52 electrical components manufactured by western companies were found in the Shahed-131 drone and 57 in the Shahed-136 model, which has a flight range of 2,000km (1,240 miles) and cruising speed of 180kmh (111mph).A girl with a suitcase stands next to cars damaged or wrecked by the rubble of a residential building hit by a downed kamikaze drone on 30 May 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty ImagesFive European companies including a Polish subsidiary of a British multinational are named as the original manufacturers of the identified components.“Among the manufacturers are companies headquartered in the countries of the sanctions coalition: the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Japan, and Poland,” it claims.According to the report, Iran has already diversified its production through the use of a Syrian factory in the port of Novorossiysk but the production of drones is shifting to Russia, to the central Tartar region of Alabuga, although Tehran continues to supply the components.It says the Iranian government is trying to “disassociate itself from providing Russia with weapons” and “cannot cope with Russian demand and the intensity of use in Ukraine”:Key eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureUkraine has said it will not play in football tournaments involving Russian teams after soccer European governing body, Uefa, announced plans to reinstate Russia’s under-17 sides to European competitions.In a statement released late on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) urged Uefa to reconsider its decision and urged other countries not to play against Russian teams.Uefa said on Tuesday that “children should not be punished for actions whose responsibility lies exclusively with adults”, and that Russian U-17 sides would be readmitted to UEFA competitions “in the course of this season”.Reuters reports the UAF said the return of Russian teams to competitions “in the midst of hostilities conducted by the Russian Federation against Ukraine is groundless and such that it tolerates Russia’s aggressive policy.”Ukraine’s sports ministry has barred Ukrainian national sports associations from sending delegations to compete at events where Russians or Belarusians were competing, however the men’s football team has been competing in qualification for Euro 2024, despite the fact that the Belarusian team is competing in a separate qualifying groupIn a post on Telegram, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has commented on the arrest of people accused of helping Russia guide missile strikes on Kyiv. He wrote it was “a good signal to all traitors: there will be retribution.”Ukraine’s security forces claim to have arrested two men in the Kyiv region who were assisting Russia. They cite an attack on the city on 21 September as one of the occasions on which the men helped Russia identify targets in the city.Suspilne reports that in Donetsk region, Russia has attacked six cities and villages in the last 24 hours. It writes “the Russian army destroyed 22 residential buildings, a bus station, trade pavilions, an enterprise and a hangar.”Black Sea fleet commander seen on video againPjotr SauerRussia’s military news outlet Zvezda on Wednesday published an interview with Black Sea fleet commander Viktor Sokolov, despite Ukraine claiming to have killed him in an attack on the fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol.“The Black Sea Fleet carries out the tasks set by the command confidently and successfully,” Sokolov says in the short video, wearing a military uniform.On Tuesday, Russia’s defence ministry released footage showing Sokolov attending a defence board meeting via video call.In response to the Russian video, Ukraine’s special forces appeared to backtrack their earlier claims that Sokolov was killed, writing on Telegram: “Since the Russians were urgently forced to publish a response with Sokolov allegedly alive, our units are clarifying the information.”Germany has welcomed a decision by Switzerland to open the way to sell back some of its German-made Leopard II tanks to help rebuild stocks depleted by aid to Ukraine.Germany had asked Switzerland in February to sell back some of the 96 Leopard II tanks it has in storage to manufacturer Rheinmetall, Reuters reports.To comply with Swiss neutrality laws, Berlin has assured Berne the weapons would not go to Kyiv, but remain in Germany or with a Nato or EU ally.“We are very happy and grateful for this decision,” Michael Flügger, Germany’s ambassador to Switzerland told Swiss TV. “We need these tanks, they will fill gaps with us and our European partners.”He was speaking after the Swiss parliament on Tuesday approved the decommissioning of 25 Leopard II tanks, paving the way for them to be resold to Germany.Requests from Germany, Denmark and Spain to allow Swiss-made weaponry they have previously bought to go to Ukraine have been blocked by Berne citing Swiss neutrality, which prevents weapons being sent directly or indirectly to combatants in a war.Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, has announced on his Telegram channel that one person has been injured and hospitalised with shrapnel wounds after Ukrainin shelling of the village of Bolshetroitskoe.The Russian-installed head of occupied Luhansk region has announced that three kindergartens and four schools in Krasnodon have switched to remote learning after the area came under fire.Tass quotes Leonid Pasechnik saying: “In order to ensure the safety of our children and the continuity of their educational process, it was decided to temporarily transfer three kindergartens and four schools in Krasnodon to distance learning. As soon as all the consequences are eliminated and the premises are restored, the children will return to classes.”Updated at 08.17 BSTReuters has a quick snap that Robert Telus, Poland’s agricultural minister, has said talks with Ukraine about grain imports are going in a good direction.Relations between Poland and Ukraine have become strained over the accusation that cheap Ukrainian imports are undermining Poland’s agricultural sector, which has become a campaigning issue in Poland’s elections, which are due to be held mid-October.Suspilne includes these details in its morning news round-up, writing on Telegram: At night, Russian troops shelled the Nikopol district of Dnipropetrovsk region with heavy artillery: two people were injured. Six houses, a private enterprise, a car, power lines were damaged. At about 5.00am, Russian military aircraft struck near Mykolaivka in the Kherson region. Information about the consequences of the attack is being clarified. Yesterday, the Russian army shelled the Kherson region 119 times: 12 people were injured. The Zaporizhzhia region was attacked 130 times: one person died, another was wounded. The claims have not been independently verified.The UK’s Ministry of Defence has conjectured that “a concerted new Russian offensive is less likely over the coming weeks”, based on its assessment that “Russia has highly likely committed elements of its new 25th Combined Arms Army (25 CAA) to action for the first time.”It claims that “the formation started moving into Ukraine from late August 2023”, and: “Since the start of the invasion, Russia has only rarely maintained an uncommitted army-size grouping which could potentially form the basis of a major new offensive thrust.”It goes on to add 25 CAA appears to have been “deployed piecemeal to reinforce the over-stretched line”.Updated at 07.45 BSTDaniel BoffeyMore now on the report on European components used in Shahed drones: Among the suggestions for action by Ukraine’s western allies – at which they would probably baulk – are “missile strikes on the production plants of these UAVs in Iran, Syria, as well as on a potential production site in the Russian federation”.The document goes on: “The above may be carried out by the Ukrainian defence forces if partners provide the necessary means of destruction.”There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the western companies whose parts have been identified. “Iranian UAV production has adapted and mostly uses available commercial components, the supply of which is poorly or not controlled at all,” the report says.Customs information is said by the Ukrainian report to show that “almost all the imports to Iran originated from Turkey, India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Costa Rica”.Sokolov situation ‘remains unclear’ says US thinktankThe US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War says it remains “unclear” whether or not the Russian Black Sea fleet commander Viktor Sokolov has been killed.Russia’s defence ministry released footage showing Sokolov attending a defence board meeting via video call, a day after Ukraine claimed that Sokolov was killed in an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol.Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that Ukraine’s special forces were “currently clarifying information regarding the possible death” of Sokolov.“ISW is unprepared at this time to make an assessment about the authenticity of the Russian MoD’s footage of Sokolov or about Sokolov’s status on Earth,” the institute said.Updated at 07.46 BSTShahed drones contain European components, according to reportDaniel BoffeyIranian kamikaze drones used in the latest attacks on Ukrainian cities are filled with European components, according to a secret document sent by Kyiv to its western allies in which it appeals for long-range missiles to attack production sites in Russia, Iran and Syria.In a 47-page document submitted by Ukraine’s government to the G7 governments in August, it is claimed there were more than 600 raids on cities using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) containing western technology in the previous three months.According to the report, obtained by the Guardian, 52 electrical components manufactured by western companies were found in the Shahed-131 drone and 57 in the Shahed-136 model, which has a flight range of 2,000km (1,240 miles) and cruising speed of 180kmh (111mph).A girl with a suitcase stands next to cars damaged or wrecked by the rubble of a residential building hit by a downed kamikaze drone on 30 May 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty ImagesFive European companies including a Polish subsidiary of a British multinational are named as the original manufacturers of the identified components.“Among the manufacturers are companies headquartered in the countries of the sanctions coalition: the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Japan, and Poland,” it claims.According to the report, Iran has already diversified its production through the use of a Syrian factory in the port of Novorossiysk but the production of drones is shifting to Russia, to the central Tartar region of Alabuga, although Tehran continues to supply the components.It says the Iranian government is trying to “disassociate itself from providing Russia with weapons” and “cannot cope with Russian demand and the intensity of use in Ukraine”:Opening summaryWelcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.Our top story this morning: Iranian kamikaze drones used in the latest attacks on Ukrainian cities are filled with European components, according to a secret document sent by Kyiv to its western allies in which it appeals for long-range missiles to attack production sites in Russia, Iran and Syria.And the Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank, writes in its daily report that it “remains unclear” whether the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) Commander Adm Viktor Sokolov, who Ukraine claimed to have killed, is alive or dead.Russia’s defence ministry released footage showing Viktor Sokolov, the commander of the Black Sea fleet, attending a defence board meeting via video call, a day after Ukraine claimed that Sokolov was killed in an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol.Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that Ukraine’s special forces were “currently clarifying information regarding the possible death” of Sokolov.More shortly. Elsewhere meanwhile: Scientists investigating the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines have revealed key new details of explosions linked to the event, which remains unsolved on its first anniversary. Researchers in Norway shared with the Guardian seismic evidence of the four explosions, becoming the first national body to publicly confirm the second two detonations, as well as revealing a detailed timeline of events. The European Union must begin a major wave of change to prepare for the arrival of Ukraine as a member state, the leader of its parliament has said. Roberta Metsola told the Guardian said she expected member states to begin formal negotiations with Ukraine as soon as December. Turkey’s parliament will keep its promise to ratify Sweden’s Nato bid if US president Joe Biden’s administration paves the way for F-16 jet sales to Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, according to Turkish media. An overnight Russian airstrike on the key Ukrainian grain exporting port of Izmail injured two people and damaged infrastructure, the governor of the Odesa region said on Tuesday. A port building, storage facilities and more than 30 trucks and cars were damaged in the attack, which lasted more than two hours, Oleh Kiper said, while the ferry service with Romania was also closed. The Ukrainian military reported shooting down 26 of the 38 Iranian-made attack drones it said were launched by Russia. Separately on Tuesday, a Russian missile strike also damaged a local enterprise in the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, its mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Ukrainian troops have “enjoyed success” by villages near Bakhmut, a key city seized by Russian forces in May, Ilia Yevlash, spokesperson for forces in the east, told national television. A spokesperson for troops in the south, Oleksandr Shtupun, meanwhile told the news site Espreso TV that Ukrainian troops were digging in and poised to move on the village of Verbove as part of their advance to the Sea of Azov. Russian troops were bringing in reserves. “I believe we will soon have good news,” Shtupun said. A cargo vessel left a Ukrainian Black Sea port on Tuesday, an industry source told Reuters, without giving any further details. Kyiv has tried to establish a temporary “humanitarian corridor” hugging the coastline, and two bulk carriers left the port of Chornomorsk last week using it. In July the UN and Turkey-brokered deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea collapsed after Russia withdrew. [ad_2]

[andrewtheprophet]

Number of nuclear horns is rising: Daniel 7/8

Number of nuclear weapons held by major powers rising, says thinktank There are now an estimated 12,512 warheads across the globe, with most of the new ones in military stockpiles said to be China’s Daniel Boffey The number of operational nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the major military powers is on the rise again according to a leading thinktank, whose analysts warn the world is…

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#Andrew the Prophet #andrewtheprophet #china #daniel 7:7 #ICBM #Missile #nuclear #program #Russia #the prophecy #theprophecy #weapon #Weapons

[christinamac1]

Number of nuclear weapons held by major powers rising, says thinktank

Daniel Boffey,Guardian, 12 June 23 The number of operational nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the major military powers is on the rise again according to a leading thinktank, whose analysts warn the world is “drifting into one of the most dangerous periods in human history” There are now an estimated 12,512 warheads across the globe, with most of the new ones in military stockpiles said to be…

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[worldfreshnews]

Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine claims to have killed 109 Russians in eastern Donetsk battle; Poland to send 60 additional tanks

Ukraine claims to have killed 109 Russians in eastern Donetsk battle Daniel Boffey Ukraine’s army claims to have killed 109 Russian soldiers and wounded a further 188 in one day during fighting around the village of Vuhledar in the eastern Donetsk oblast. Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern operational command of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the bloody death toll was recorded on…

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[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

[alt text:]

Tory vice-chair Lee Anderson says anti-monarchists should leave UK

Contentious MP reacts to arrest of coronation protesters by telling British republicans to emigrate

Daniel Boffey Chief reporter, Sat 6 May 2023 17.21 BST

The Conservative party’s deputy chair, Lee Anderson, has said that anti-monarchist campaigners should emigrate rather than use their right to free speech to protest against the coronation of Charles III.

The comments followed the arrest of a number of demonstrators at the king’s coronation, including Graham Smith, the chief executive of the country’s largest republican pressure group, Republic, which was formed in 1983.

He tweeted: “Not My King? If you do not wish to live in a country that has a monarchy the solution is not to turn up with your silly boards. The solution is to emigrate.”

full article here

fully obsessed with this bonkers take; tories really do just come out with some of the weirdest bullshit youll ever fucking hear and we're expected to not just point and laugh at them.

#uk politics #britpol #british police #uk police #british politics #anti monarchy #anti charles #anti tory #tories #lee anderson #daniel boffey #the guardian #peaceful protest #monarchy #charles iii #graham smith #unlawful arrests #coronation #30p lee

[gungieblog]

Russia announces Kherson evacuation, raising fears city will become frontline

Deputy PM says residents will be helped to move away from southern Ukrainian region partly occupied by invaders

Daniel Boffey in Kyiv

Thu 13 Oct 2022 13.01 EDT

Moscow has announced it will evacuate Kherson after an appeal from the Russian-installed head of the region, raising fears the occupied city at the heart of the south Ukrainian oblast will become a new frontlineMarat Khusnullin, a Russian deputy prime minister, told state television on Thursday that residents would be helped to move away from the region in south Ukraine, which remains only partly occupied by invading troops due to a successful Ukrainian counterattack in recent months.

#ukraine #russia

[dialogue-queered]

Comment:

A shrewd, stylised history of the Russian government’s war tactics under Putin since Chechnya, and its assessment of the costs and ‘benefits’ of both terror and siege tactics to demoralise and break governments and citizens alike.

The key here (for Ukraine) is sustaining the interest of Ukraine’s allied governments over time. The Bucha ‘massacres’ will affect the latter as well as the issue of reparations in any peace negotiations. Peace is a long way off as the tactical and negotiation issues mount.

Article:

Daniel Boffey, Kyiv

As horrifying images and testimony have emerged from Bucha, the Ukrainian town 35 miles north-west of the capital, Kyiv, it is becoming ever more likely that Vladimir Putin has operated by a strict playbook in the north of Ukraine as with elsewhere in the country that has served him well for decades, albeit at a heavy cost to his army.

First, there are the initial errors, including the underestimation of the enemy. Putin’s attack on the Chechen capital, Grozny, in 1999, was as unsuccessful as the attempt to decapitate Ukraine’s leadership in Kyiv within a few days of his 24 February invasion.

Whether born out of hubris, or a failure of his inner circle to be frank with their leader about the limits of the Russian capability, both in Chechnya and in Ukraine, there was an overwhelming belief in the superiority of the country’s armed forces which saw them try to drive long convoys of armour directly towards their targets and into repeated ambush by their nimble foes.

When Russian paratroopers dropped into Hostomel airport, on the outskirts of Bucha, they had initially disappeared from view, according to locals. They were supposed to be swiftly advancing on Kyiv as part of an attempt to knock out Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government and install a quisling pro-Moscow alternative.

Instead, the Russian forces faced heavy resistance, and had to fight hard in Bucha and elsewhere, north and north-east of Kyiv, just to keep the initial ground they had secured. The Russians had reappeared after a few days, residents said, with fatal consequences.

Which led to the brutal corrective moves that Moscow made in both Grozny and is now accused of making in various locations in Ukraine, born out of the belief that brute force through the indiscriminate use of artillery, potentially resulting in the total destruction of a city, will bring a people to its knees.

The United Nations called Grozny the most destroyed city on Earth in 2003 and between 5,000 and 8,000 civilians were killed during its siege. During the 2016 battle of Aleppo, Russia seized back rebel-held areas of the city for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad through a month-long aerial bombing campaign, killing men, women and children.

In Ukraine, Bucha is the latest, but Chernihiv, Mariupol and Kharkiv came before, enduring similar treatment. Firstly, came a communications blackout and the cutting off of the essentials of electricity, gas and water.

What followed was the blanket bombing of civilian targets, alongside the false offer of humanitarian corridors that gave and then cruelly dashed hope.

Infrastructure was demolished, hospitals, bomb shelters and schools targeted.

Ukraine’s government has claimed that Russia is engaged in the forcible deportation of people from Mariupol to the Russian Federation. Many of those boarding coaches for Russia may not care in the first instance where they are going just as long as it is away from the hell that is that port city.

The belief is that faced with such torment, people’s will to fight will collapse and there will be an acceptance of an alternative government, no matter how objectionable.

Assad remains in power. In Chechnya, Putin turned to the son of the chief mufti, Ramzan Kadyrov, who has since provided support for Russian forces in both Syria and Ukraine. Which comes to the final play: the normalisation of the new administrations.

That requires a level of cynicism and weakness from the west that Putin has long believed is a banker: that the US and the EU will draw a blind eye to what has happened given the intractability of the new normal.

In the case of Ukraine, however, it is not at all clear that terror will prevail, with the forced regrouping of Putin’s forces east suggesting that he may have given up on his initial ambition of total capitulation. He may instead seek to establish himself in the east, if he can batter down the resistance there. But that will still be a hard slog not least if the economy at home is tanking due to the west’s economic sanctions. The other fly in Putin’s ointment then, is that perhaps the west may this time stay true to its claims of solidarity with Kyiv and escalate its sanctions regime. The names of Bucha, Mariupol and Kharkiv, may well become a rallying cry for Zelenskiy to that goal.

#ukraine #europe #world news #russia #vladimir putin #daniel boffey #war #war crimes #auspol #politics

[darthfoil]

#luxembourg #pollution #environment #europe #world news #theguardian #the guardian #guardian #Daniel Boffey #traffic #bad traffic #fix #good #good news #happy #happy news #positive news #climate change #fre #free #public #public transportation #transportation #cars #car #yay #climate #global warming

[rajeshahuja]

Russia-Ukraine war latest: GCHQ head says some Russian soldiers ‘refusing to carry out orders’; White House says Putin ‘misled over Russian military performance’ – live

Russia-Ukraine war latest: GCHQ head says some Russian soldiers ‘refusing to carry out orders’; White House says Putin ‘misled over Russian military performance’ – live

  This article titled “Russia-Ukraine war latest: GCHQ head says some Russian soldiers ‘refusing to carry out orders’; White House says Putin ‘misled over Russian military performance’ – live” was written by Samantha Lock (now), Johana Bhuiyan, Gloria Oladipo, Léonie Chao-Fong and Martin Belam (earlier), for theguardian.com on Thursday 31st March 2022 04.28 UTC 5.28am BST Summary Here is a…

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#Amelia Gentleman #Article #Australia Foreign #Chris Michael #Dan Sabbagh #Daniel Boffey #David Smith #Europe #Gloria Oladipo #Johana Bhuiyan #Jon Henley #Léonie Chao-Fong #Lizzy Davies #Mark Rice-Oxley #Martin Belam #Martin Farrer #Minute by minute #News #Pjotr Sauer #Russia #Samantha Lock #Ukraine #Ukraine crisis live #World news