Tag: German

More than 152 combat clashes took place over the past 24 hours, nearly half of which took place on the Pokrovsk front, Kyiv has said.

Ukrainian forces repelled 73 attacks near Pokrovsk, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Facebook, as Russian troops look to cut off key supply lines in the eastern town.

Russian troops fired five missiles, dropped 11 aerial bombs and used 2,653 kamikaze drones in the past 24 hours, it added.

Combat clashes were recorded around the country, most significantly on the Kupiansk, Lyman and Toretsk fronts, and in Russia’s Kursk region.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has called on Moscow and Beijing to deepen their strategic partnership, in a call with his “dear friend” and Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Waving at Mr Xi over a video call, Putin said he wants to bring forward “new plans for the development of the Russian-Chinese comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” in a video released by the Kremlin of their conversation.

“I agree with you that cooperation between Moscow and Beijing is based on a broad commonality of national interests and a convergence of views on what relations between major powers should be,” Putin said.

“We build our ties on the basis of friendship, mutual trust and support, equality and mutual benefit. These connections are self-sufficient, independent of domestic political factors and the current global situation.”

Russia and China have for years been united in a common geopolitical cause to weaken western US-led hegemony, particularly after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and increased US efforts to counter China’s economic and military strength.

Russian troops have taken control of the village of Vovkove in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, TASS state news agency city the Russian Defence Ministry as saying.

The settlement is around 12 kilometres (7 miles) southwest of the key strategic town of Pokrovsk, which Russia is aiming to bypass as it looks to cut off vital Ukrainian supply lines.

The battlefield report has not been independently verified.

British military vehicles were deployed in a major NATO exercise, practising a major deployment of land, sea and air forces across Europe.

The exercise in Hungary, named Exercise Steadfast Dart, is the first deployment under the bloc’s new Allied Reaction Force (ARF), a replacement for the Nato Response Force last year.

Ukrainian forces hit a Russian aviation factory in the Smolensk region and an oil depot in the Voronezh region on Tuesday, its military said.

Andrii Kovalenko, the head of Kyiv’s Center for Countering Disinformation, said according to Ukrainska Pravda: “This plant [the Smolensk Aviation Plant] is closely connected with other businesses of the Russian defence industrial base, supplying components or involved in collaboration to create modern aircraft systems.”

The Voronezh strike is the second time Ukraine has hit an oil depot this week.

Ukraine has increased the regularity of its long-range strikes into Russia for the past several months, damaging energy infrastructure and military-industrial facilities.

A pro-Russian candidate currently leads the Romanian polls four months before a crucial election in May.

Calin Georgescu, the far-right candidate who opposes Romanian support for Ukraine in its defense against Putin’s invasion, is the voters’ top choice ahead of a re-run of a presidential election.

The European Union state’s top court annulled the initial presidential election two days before the second round of voting, due to allegations of Russian interference.

The election of Georgescu would be a critical blow for Ukraine, which has relied on Romania to export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta, trained Ukrainian fighter pilots and donated a Patriot air defence battery to Kyiv.

Georgescu is critical of NATO and has praised Romania’s fascist leaders of the 1930s. The EU court said he had benefited from a social media campaign likely orchestrated by Russia – Moscow denied the accusations.

But the latest polls for the first round show Georgescu set to gain 38 percent of the vote, with Crin Antonescu, leader of the pro-European governing coalition, sitting at just 25 percent.

The chief of Russia’s $23 billion sovereign wealth fund said new US president Donald Trump’s decisive leadership could “change the course of history” on Tuesday.

His praise came after MR Trump signed a batch of executive orders straight after his inauguration. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said Mr Trump’s actions could boost growth and open opportunities for dialogue.

“President Trump’s bold actions today prove that decisive leadership can change the course of history, unlocking economic growth and transforming global challenges into opportunities for dialogue and resolution through problem solving,” Mr Dmitriev said.

Mr Dmitriev, who is currently under US sanctions deemed illegal by Russian officials, is a US-educated former Goldman Sachs banker who played a key role in early contracts between Moscow and Trump’s first administration, after election in 2016.

In Ukraine’s capital, they know that the 47th president of the US is no particular friend. They also believe he’s potty about Vladimir Putin, and that may be to their advantage when Trump comes around to renewing military support for a nation fighting off the Kremlin.

Officials here are philosophical and diplomatic, even when speaking privately, about the incoming president. They’re keen to make a new relationship work – but also know that if there’s one legacy Trump won’t want attached to his name is that he was a patsy for the Russian president.

World affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has congratulated US president Donald Trump on his inauguration on Monday.

“He is a man of strength,” Mr Zelensky wrote alongside a video messgae. “I wish President Trump and all of America success.

“Ukrainians are ready to work together with Americans to achieve peace—a true peace. This is a chance that must be seized.”

The Ukrainian military chief has said that 150,000 of Vladimir Putin’s troops were killed in 2024, as the countries prepare for a new era of their conflict after Donald Trump re-enters the White House.

A record 434,000 casualties, including the wounded, were suffered last year taking total Russian casualties to 819,000, claimed Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. “This year of combat has cost them more than the previous two years of the war combined,” Mr Syrskyi told Ukrainian TV channel TSN.

Russia has gained ground in eastern Ukraine over the past year, but at the cost of heavy casualties as it throws waves of soldiers at Ukraine’s defensive lines.

Moscow and Kyiv are also seeking battlefield gains to strengthen their negotiating positions ahead of any prospective talks to end the three-year-old war.