Russia is using old oil tankers to bypass export sanctions, risking spills
Russia is using a fleet of older, poorly insured tankers to sidestep Western sanctions on its fossil fuels, raising fears of a potentially catastrophic accident or oil spill as the Kremlin works to finance its invasion of Ukraine, policymakers and environmental advocates said.
The worries have been especially acute among countries on the Baltic Sea, a shallow body of water that is a northern route for Russian oil shipments. Navigation there can be a challenge, especially for crews unaccustomed to its icy winter conditions. After restrictions on Russian oil exports were imposed in December, old oil tankers with no record of previously sailing through that route started appearing in the narrow Gulf of Finland that leads to St. Petersburg, Finnish officials said.
Read the full story here.
Russia is using a fleet of older, poorly insured tankers to sidestep Western sanctions on its fossil fuels, raising fears of a potentially catastrophic accident or oil spill as the Kremlin works to finance its invasion of Ukraine, policymakers and environmental advocates said.
The worries have been especially acute among countries on the Baltic Sea, a shallow body of water that is a northern route for Russian oil shipments. Navigation there can be a challenge, especially for crews unaccustomed to its icy winter conditions. After restrictions on Russian oil exports were imposed in December, old oil tankers with no record of previously sailing through that route started appearing in the narrow Gulf of Finland that leads to St. Petersburg, Finnish officials said.
Read the full story here.
Russia is shipping very old tanks west, signaling shortage in Ukraine
Open-source researchers have found evidence that Moscow is dusting off Stalin-era tanks — some first deployed more than 70 years ago — and shipping them west, possibly a sign that battlefield losses have led to a shortage of armor for Moscow’s forces on the front in Ukraine.
According to photographs obtained by the Tbilisi, Georgia-based Conflict Intelligence Team, T-54 and T-55 tanks from the 1940s were spotted aboard a train departing from Arsenyev in the Primorsky Krai region of Russia’s Far East, heading west. Russia’s 1295th Central Tanks and Repair Storage Base is in Arsenyev.
The researchers could not confirm that the tanks were being sent for use in combat on the front in Ukraine. Both Russia, which occupies about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, and Ukraine are short on weapons and ammunition, and they are relying on extensive stocks of old weapons.
Read the full story here.
Open-source researchers have found evidence that Moscow is dusting off Stalin-era tanks — some first deployed more than 70 years ago — and shipping them west, possibly a sign that battlefield losses have led to a shortage of armor for Moscow’s forces on the front in Ukraine.
According to photographs obtained by the Tbilisi, Georgia-based Conflict Intelligence Team, T-54 and T-55 tanks from the 1940s were spotted aboard a train departing from Arsenyev in the Primorsky Krai region of Russia’s Far East, heading west. Russia’s 1295th Central Tanks and Repair Storage Base is in Arsenyev.
The researchers could not confirm that the tanks were being sent for use in combat on the front in Ukraine. Both Russia, which occupies about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, and Ukraine are short on weapons and ammunition, and they are relying on extensive stocks of old weapons.
Read the full story here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- After a visit to the embattled southern region of Kherson, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 50 villages there have been “completely destroyed” by Russia, with more than 90 percent of buildings in some locations ruined.
- Ukraine’s victory over Russia could occur “this year,” Zelensky told the European Council by video link Thursday, provided there are “no delays or stagnation” in defense cooperation.
- The International Criminal Court signed an agreement to establish a country office in Ukraine, a week after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges of sending Ukrainian children to Russia.
- U.N. human rights monitors have found evidence of dozens of summary killings of Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war, as well as other potential war crimes.
More live updates here.
- After a visit to the embattled southern region of Kherson, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 50 villages there have been “completely destroyed” by Russia, with more than 90 percent of buildings in some locations ruined.
- Ukraine’s victory over Russia could occur “this year,” Zelensky told the European Council by video link Thursday, provided there are “no delays or stagnation” in defense cooperation.
- The International Criminal Court signed an agreement to establish a country office in Ukraine, a week after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges of sending Ukrainian children to Russia.
- U.N. human rights monitors have found evidence of dozens of summary killings of Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war, as well as other potential war crimes.
More live updates here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- U.N. human rights monitors said the vast majority of the human rights violations they documented were committed by Russian forces. Russia committed 621 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions of civilians, while Ukraine committed 91, they said.
- The Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group killed at least 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war, the mission said. Four other Ukrainian prisoners were summarily executed by Russians.
- Ukraine summarily executed up to 25 Russian prisoners of war and persons hors de combat, Matilda Bogner said, referring to those out of combat due to injury or other ailments.
More live updates here.
- U.N. human rights monitors said the vast majority of the human rights violations they documented were committed by Russian forces. Russia committed 621 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions of civilians, while Ukraine committed 91, they said.
- The Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group killed at least 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war, the mission said. Four other Ukrainian prisoners were summarily executed by Russians.
- Ukraine summarily executed up to 25 Russian prisoners of war and persons hors de combat, Matilda Bogner said, referring to those out of combat due to injury or other ailments.
More live updates here.
Between Avdiivka and Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces fight Russia on tough terrain
NIU-YORK, Ukraine — The Russian jet cut a path through the tributaries of the Donbas hills, flying low to avoid detection, just as a Ukrainian soldier juggled three unruly kittens in his meaty palms.
It was half of a litter, explained the soldier, who goes by the call sign Yarik, as their mother prowled the edge of a dugout. Within minutes, the enemy Su-25 fired a missile, striking a position about 300 meters away with a thunderous crack.
“Bunker! Bunker! Bunker!” the soldiers shouted, sending humans and felines alike seeking cover in the shadowy earthen shelter with a pine log roof. After a few minutes with no follow-on attacks heard, the men, from Ukraine’s 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, filtered back to the edge of the trench line, where younger troops instructed an older soldier how to use a vape pen. He asked about the flavor he was struggling to identify.
Read the full story here.
NIU-YORK, Ukraine — The Russian jet cut a path through the tributaries of the Donbas hills, flying low to avoid detection, just as a Ukrainian soldier juggled three unruly kittens in his meaty palms.
It was half of a litter, explained the soldier, who goes by the call sign Yarik, as their mother prowled the edge of a dugout. Within minutes, the enemy Su-25 fired a missile, striking a position about 300 meters away with a thunderous crack.
“Bunker! Bunker! Bunker!” the soldiers shouted, sending humans and felines alike seeking cover in the shadowy earthen shelter with a pine log roof. After a few minutes with no follow-on attacks heard, the men, from Ukraine’s 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, filtered back to the edge of the trench line, where younger troops instructed an older soldier how to use a vape pen. He asked about the flavor he was struggling to identify.
Read the full story here.
A Republican ‘civil war’ on Ukraine erupts as Reagan’s example fades
When Ronald Reagan addressed a brand new organization of upstart conservatives nearly five decades ago, he cast U.S. entanglements abroad as part of the nation’s destiny to take on “leadership of the free world.”
At a dinner named after the former president at the annual CPAC gathering earlier this month, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake pushed a very different message.
“This is not our fight. We are ‘America First!’” Lake said in her keynote address.
Lake’s aversion to deepening American involvement in Ukraine, echoed by many speakers at CPAC, has been dismissed by some Republicans in Congress as a fringe viewpoint held by a handful of conservatives that does not meaningfully threaten NATO unity against Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
But Republican voters are increasingly adopting those same skeptical views.
Read the full story here.
When Ronald Reagan addressed a brand new organization of upstart conservatives nearly five decades ago, he cast U.S. entanglements abroad as part of the nation’s destiny to take on “leadership of the free world.”
At a dinner named after the former president at the annual CPAC gathering earlier this month, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake pushed a very different message.
“This is not our fight. We are ‘America First!’” Lake said in her keynote address.
Lake’s aversion to deepening American involvement in Ukraine, echoed by many speakers at CPAC, has been dismissed by some Republicans in Congress as a fringe viewpoint held by a handful of conservatives that does not meaningfully threaten NATO unity against Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
But Republican voters are increasingly adopting those same skeptical views.
Read the full story here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine:
- The United States has “not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture” after Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview that aired Saturday on Russian state TV that the Kremlin would store tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
- Putin likened the move to the United States’ positioning of weapons in Europe. The United States was estimated in 2021 to have about 100 nuclear weapons stored in vaults across Europe, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
- Moscow plans to produce or upgrade more than 1,600 tanks in three years, Putin said in the interview on Russia-24, a state-owned news channel. He said that while Western governments — which he dubbed “arsonists” — planned to deliver more than 400 tanks to Kyiv, Russia would upgrade and produce more than 1,600 new tanks.
Read more updates here.
- The United States has “not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture” after Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview that aired Saturday on Russian state TV that the Kremlin would store tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
- Putin likened the move to the United States’ positioning of weapons in Europe. The United States was estimated in 2021 to have about 100 nuclear weapons stored in vaults across Europe, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
- Moscow plans to produce or upgrade more than 1,600 tanks in three years, Putin said in the interview on Russia-24, a state-owned news channel. He said that while Western governments — which he dubbed “arsonists” — planned to deliver more than 400 tanks to Kyiv, Russia would upgrade and produce more than 1,600 new tanks.
Read more updates here.
War forces thousands of disabled Ukrainians into institutions
DNIPRO, Ukraine — When a Russian shell slammed into Taya Berkova’s apartment building in Kharkiv last March, her neighbors did something she could not: They ran. The 43-year-old, who uses a wheelchair because she has cerebral palsy, was trapped as the floors above her burned.
When her elderly parents and other residents finally wrangled her and her chair down six flights of stairs, she became trapped again, in a basement with no ramp and no toilet that she could use without help. Conditions have not been much better in the string of makeshift shelters she has lived in since.
She is one of thousands of displaced Ukrainians with disabilities, many of them senior citizens, who have been institutionalized since the start of Russia’s invasion and who are experiencing some of the war’s most shattering consequences.
Read the full story here.
DNIPRO, Ukraine — When a Russian shell slammed into Taya Berkova’s apartment building in Kharkiv last March, her neighbors did something she could not: They ran. The 43-year-old, who uses a wheelchair because she has cerebral palsy, was trapped as the floors above her burned.
When her elderly parents and other residents finally wrangled her and her chair down six flights of stairs, she became trapped again, in a basement with no ramp and no toilet that she could use without help. Conditions have not been much better in the string of makeshift shelters she has lived in since.
She is one of thousands of displaced Ukrainians with disabilities, many of them senior citizens, who have been institutionalized since the start of Russia’s invasion and who are experiencing some of the war’s most shattering consequences.
Read the full story here.
The Ukraine war is Antony Blinken’s defining moment
When Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a personal appeal to Volodymyr Zelensky, hoping to convince him that a Russian invasion was imminent, Ukraine’s president didn’t believe him.
The warning lacked specificity, Zelensky recalled in an interview after the invasion. Moreover, if the Americans truly believed the situation was as dire as Blinken intimated, why hadn’t they begun to send more powerful weapons months sooner?
This discreet meeting, occurring on the sidelines of a climate summit in Glasgow in November 2021, revealed the limitations of Blinken’s influence over the Ukrainian leader and Zelensky’s innate skepticism of U.S. intelligence. But in the time since, Blinken’s rapport with Zelensky and his top aides has evolved substantially, and the top U.S. diplomat has become one of Kyiv’s most trusted champions and interlocutors.
Read the full story here.
When Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a personal appeal to Volodymyr Zelensky, hoping to convince him that a Russian invasion was imminent, Ukraine’s president didn’t believe him.
The warning lacked specificity, Zelensky recalled in an interview after the invasion. Moreover, if the Americans truly believed the situation was as dire as Blinken intimated, why hadn’t they begun to send more powerful weapons months sooner?
This discreet meeting, occurring on the sidelines of a climate summit in Glasgow in November 2021, revealed the limitations of Blinken’s influence over the Ukrainian leader and Zelensky’s innate skepticism of U.S. intelligence. But in the time since, Blinken’s rapport with Zelensky and his top aides has evolved substantially, and the top U.S. diplomat has become one of Kyiv’s most trusted champions and interlocutors.
Read the full story here.