Facing blackouts and Iranian-made drones, Ukrainian Jews urge Israel to help
KYIV, Ukraine — When Russia invaded Ukraine, the homeland of his parents and grandparents, David felt obligated to leave Israel and fight against President Vladimir Putin, the man he views as a modern Hitler.
After praying on a recent Shabbat in Kyiv’s oldest synagogue, David, 56, said he was proud to have spent most of the past nine months on the front lines, where he took fire from artillery and drones while fighting in Ukraine’s eastern offensive in Kharkiv.
But he fumed when asked about Israel, his home for more than two decades, and about its limited support for Ukraine — a stance that seems increasingly odd given the deepening alliance between Russia and Iran, whose leaders have repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction and are supporting Moscow’s war effort by supplying drones and missiles.
Read the full story here.
KYIV, Ukraine — When Russia invaded Ukraine, the homeland of his parents and grandparents, David felt obligated to leave Israel and fight against President Vladimir Putin, the man he views as a modern Hitler.
After praying on a recent Shabbat in Kyiv’s oldest synagogue, David, 56, said he was proud to have spent most of the past nine months on the front lines, where he took fire from artillery and drones while fighting in Ukraine’s eastern offensive in Kharkiv.
But he fumed when asked about Israel, his home for more than two decades, and about its limited support for Ukraine — a stance that seems increasingly odd given the deepening alliance between Russia and Iran, whose leaders have repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction and are supporting Moscow’s war effort by supplying drones and missiles.
Read the full story here.
Ukrainians struggle to find and reclaim children taken by Russia
It is a potential war crime to remove children during conflict or to change their nationality, but Russia has been secretive about how many Ukrainian children have families or relatives who want them returned home. Maria Lvova-Belova — Putin’s children’s rights commissioner who openly advocates stripping children of their Ukrainian identities and teaching them to love Russia — has insisted that none have Ukrainian families, while Ukraine officials say all belong in Ukraine.
Daria Herasymchuk, Ukraine’s top children’s rights official said last month that 10,764 Ukrainian children had been reported by relatives, family or friends to have been deported by Russia without their parents.
Read the full story here.
It is a potential war crime to remove children during conflict or to change their nationality, but Russia has been secretive about how many Ukrainian children have families or relatives who want them returned home. Maria Lvova-Belova — Putin’s children’s rights commissioner who openly advocates stripping children of their Ukrainian identities and teaching them to love Russia — has insisted that none have Ukrainian families, while Ukraine officials say all belong in Ukraine.
Daria Herasymchuk, Ukraine’s top children’s rights official said last month that 10,764 Ukrainian children had been reported by relatives, family or friends to have been deported by Russia without their parents.
Read the full story here.
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Putin declares ‘war’ – aloud – forsaking his special euphemistic operation
RIGA, Latvia — After nearly 10 months of war, but referring to the brutal invasion of Ukraine instead as “a special military operation,” Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday finally called it a “war” for the first time, setting off an uproar among antiwar Russians who have been prosecuted for merely challenging the Kremlin-approved euphemism.
“Our goal is not to spin this flywheel of a military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin said during a televised news conference following a government meeting on Thursday. “This is what we are striving for.”
Exactly what Putin has been striving for has been a subject of much consternation and debate, especially in Ukraine, where thousands have been killed and cities have been flattened, and in Western capitals that have sent billions in weapons and economic aid to Kyiv to help the country withstand Russia’s aggression.
Read the full story here.
RIGA, Latvia — After nearly 10 months of war, but referring to the brutal invasion of Ukraine instead as “a special military operation,” Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday finally called it a “war” for the first time, setting off an uproar among antiwar Russians who have been prosecuted for merely challenging the Kremlin-approved euphemism.
“Our goal is not to spin this flywheel of a military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin said during a televised news conference following a government meeting on Thursday. “This is what we are striving for.”
Exactly what Putin has been striving for has been a subject of much consternation and debate, especially in Ukraine, where thousands have been killed and cities have been flattened, and in Western capitals that have sent billions in weapons and economic aid to Kyiv to help the country withstand Russia’s aggression.
Read the full story here.
In patriotism push, Russians send handmade gifts to troops in Ukraine
Russian volunteers are crafting girdles from dog hair to help keep soldiers fighting against Ukraine warm. Children as young as six are tasked in school to sew balaclavas and make amulets believed to protect soldiers. Elderly “knitting battalions” are churning out chunky socks to send to the front.
In Magnitogorsk, a city near the Ural Mountains, Sergei Loza’s bakery collects wild hops to make whole-meal sourdough rusks for soldiers based on his grandmother’s recipe. Technical school students from Voronezh, in southwestern Russia, have made trench candles and welded chunky metal camp stoves.
Schoolchildren from across Russia’s vast expanse make letters and drawings in support of the military.
Read the full story here.
Russian volunteers are crafting girdles from dog hair to help keep soldiers fighting against Ukraine warm. Children as young as six are tasked in school to sew balaclavas and make amulets believed to protect soldiers. Elderly “knitting battalions” are churning out chunky socks to send to the front.
In Magnitogorsk, a city near the Ural Mountains, Sergei Loza’s bakery collects wild hops to make whole-meal sourdough rusks for soldiers based on his grandmother’s recipe. Technical school students from Voronezh, in southwestern Russia, have made trench candles and welded chunky metal camp stoves.
Schoolchildren from across Russia’s vast expanse make letters and drawings in support of the military.
Read the full story here.
Using conscripts and prison inmates, Russia doubles its forces in Ukraine
RIGA, Latvia — Despite heavy combat losses over ten months of brutal war, Russia now has more than double the number of troops poised to fight in Ukraine as it did when it invaded in February, including thousands of convicts released from prison and conscripts from a controversial mobilization drive this fall.
According to a new U.S. assessment, the Wagner mercenary group, which fights alongside regular Russian troops in Ukraine, in recent months recruited 40,000 prisoners from all over the country into its ranks. Together, with 300,000 new conscripts and 20,000 volunteers, Russia’s force is now more than double the 150,000 initially allocated to what President Vladimir Putin termed a “special military operation.”
Read the full story here.
RIGA, Latvia — Despite heavy combat losses over ten months of brutal war, Russia now has more than double the number of troops poised to fight in Ukraine as it did when it invaded in February, including thousands of convicts released from prison and conscripts from a controversial mobilization drive this fall.
According to a new U.S. assessment, the Wagner mercenary group, which fights alongside regular Russian troops in Ukraine, in recent months recruited 40,000 prisoners from all over the country into its ranks. Together, with 300,000 new conscripts and 20,000 volunteers, Russia’s force is now more than double the 150,000 initially allocated to what President Vladimir Putin termed a “special military operation.”
Read the full story here.
As Russia bombs Ukraine’s infrastructure, its own services crumble
As Russia has launched relentless strikes on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, leaving millions without electricity, water and heat, towns across Russia have been beset by their own, utility-related disasters.
A huge gas pipeline explosion outside St. Petersburg last month, major fires in two separate Moscow shopping malls allegedly caused by dodgy welding, and faulty power grids that have left tens of thousands without heat and electricity are just some of the incidents reported since Russia’s efforts to obliterate Ukraine’s infrastructure that began in October.
In late October, two sewer pipes burst in the southern city of Volgograd, flooding several streets with feces and waste water, and leaving 200,000 of the 1 million residents without water or heating for several days.
Read the full story here.
As Russia has launched relentless strikes on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, leaving millions without electricity, water and heat, towns across Russia have been beset by their own, utility-related disasters.
A huge gas pipeline explosion outside St. Petersburg last month, major fires in two separate Moscow shopping malls allegedly caused by dodgy welding, and faulty power grids that have left tens of thousands without heat and electricity are just some of the incidents reported since Russia’s efforts to obliterate Ukraine’s infrastructure that began in October.
In late October, two sewer pipes burst in the southern city of Volgograd, flooding several streets with feces and waste water, and leaving 200,000 of the 1 million residents without water or heating for several days.
Read the full story here.
Ukrainian politician who idolizes Reagan tries to win over today’s Republicans
KYIV, Ukraine — The seven-foot-tall bronze statue of Ronald Reagan bursting through the Berlin Wall was supposed to be here by now, standing in one of the Ukrainian capital’s prominent public squares.
The monument was the brainchild of Maryan Zablotskyy, who grew up venerating Reagan in Lviv in western Ukraine — as many did in the post-Soviet years. Zablotskyy founded the Ayn Rand Center Ukraine to promote the libertarian author and covered his office walls with posters of Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, with their quotes translated into Ukrainian.
Now a member of his country’s parliament, Zablotskyy, 37, faces the prospect that the party of his favorite politician could turn against Ukraine in its moment of greatest need — under invasion and relentless bombing by Russia, with about one-fifth of its land occupied and its economy in tatters.
Read the full story here.
KYIV, Ukraine — The seven-foot-tall bronze statue of Ronald Reagan bursting through the Berlin Wall was supposed to be here by now, standing in one of the Ukrainian capital’s prominent public squares.
The monument was the brainchild of Maryan Zablotskyy, who grew up venerating Reagan in Lviv in western Ukraine — as many did in the post-Soviet years. Zablotskyy founded the Ayn Rand Center Ukraine to promote the libertarian author and covered his office walls with posters of Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, with their quotes translated into Ukrainian.
Now a member of his country’s parliament, Zablotskyy, 37, faces the prospect that the party of his favorite politician could turn against Ukraine in its moment of greatest need — under invasion and relentless bombing by Russia, with about one-fifth of its land occupied and its economy in tatters.
Read the full story here.
For Ukraine, Hungary’s Orban is another problematic strongman next door
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — An authoritarian leader, known for suppressing political opposition and using his national press as his own mouthpiece, insists that Ukrainians who speak his language need protection and financial assistance, and he allows his government to issue passports, illegally, to Ukrainian citizens.
Residents of border towns get their news from foreign TV, feel no closer to Kyiv than they do to the neighboring national capital, and seethe over monuments to their heritage being taken down by Ukrainian authorities. Sounds like Russian influence in east Ukraine? In fact, it is Hungary’s role in Ukraine’s west.
Tensions between Ukraine and Hungary, which share an 85-mile border, are hardly of the magnitude of Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, now in its 10th month of deadly, destructive war.
Read the full story here.
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — An authoritarian leader, known for suppressing political opposition and using his national press as his own mouthpiece, insists that Ukrainians who speak his language need protection and financial assistance, and he allows his government to issue passports, illegally, to Ukrainian citizens.
Residents of border towns get their news from foreign TV, feel no closer to Kyiv than they do to the neighboring national capital, and seethe over monuments to their heritage being taken down by Ukrainian authorities. Sounds like Russian influence in east Ukraine? In fact, it is Hungary’s role in Ukraine’s west.
Tensions between Ukraine and Hungary, which share an 85-mile border, are hardly of the magnitude of Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, now in its 10th month of deadly, destructive war.
Read the full story here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- A Ukrainian drone was shot down near Engels airfield, more than 370 miles east of the border with Ukraine, killing three Russian servicemen, according to Moscow.
- About 9 million Ukrainians were without power across the country as of Monday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address.
- Russia has continued to launch small scale attacks around Bakhmut in Donetsk and Svatove in Luhansk, but they have not made significant territorial gains, the U.K. Ministry of Defense reports.
- A Russian attack on the city of Kherson on Christmas Eve left at least 11 dead and 64 injured in Kherson, according the region’s governor.
Follow our live updates here.
- A Ukrainian drone was shot down near Engels airfield, more than 370 miles east of the border with Ukraine, killing three Russian servicemen, according to Moscow.
- About 9 million Ukrainians were without power across the country as of Monday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address.
- Russia has continued to launch small scale attacks around Bakhmut in Donetsk and Svatove in Luhansk, but they have not made significant territorial gains, the U.K. Ministry of Defense reports.
- A Russian attack on the city of Kherson on Christmas Eve left at least 11 dead and 64 injured in Kherson, according the region’s governor.
Follow our live updates here.
From a bunker, an acting mayor keeps her front-line Ukraine town alive
ORIKHIV, Ukraine — It was the only time of day when the Russians weren’t shelling, so the people of Orikhiv rushed toward city hall, looking for the woman in charge.
They found the acting mayor, Svitlana Mandrych, where she always is, in the building’s basement, running what is left of her town from a cramped bunker.
Much like the rest of Orikhiv, the city hall’s battered walls looked as if they were falling apart.
Its second floor was blown out; the windows and doors were all shattered or badly damaged. The building has been hit by artillery fire so incessantly that 51-year-old Mandrych was forced to move her office to a cold, concrete-walled room underground, lit by a single lightbulb.
Read the full story here.
ORIKHIV, Ukraine — It was the only time of day when the Russians weren’t shelling, so the people of Orikhiv rushed toward city hall, looking for the woman in charge.
They found the acting mayor, Svitlana Mandrych, where she always is, in the building’s basement, running what is left of her town from a cramped bunker.
Much like the rest of Orikhiv, the city hall’s battered walls looked as if they were falling apart.
Its second floor was blown out; the windows and doors were all shattered or badly damaged. The building has been hit by artillery fire so incessantly that 51-year-old Mandrych was forced to move her office to a cold, concrete-walled room underground, lit by a single lightbulb.
Read the full story here.