Month: March 2022

Vadym Boychenko told the BBC teams were only able to clear the rubble of the building during lulls in the fighting.

Ukrainian officials say Russia attacked the site, which was clearly marked as a civilian shelter. Moscow denies it.

Russian forces have encircled the city, which has no electricity, water or gas.

About 300,000 people are trapped inside, as food and medical supplies run out with Russia blocking the entry of humanitarian aid. Russian attacks have hit a hospital, a church and countless apartment blocks, with local officials estimating that about 80% of residential buildings are either damaged or destroyed, a third of them beyond repair.

Mariupol has seen some of the fiercest battles since Russia invaded Ukraine, three weeks ago. The location of the port city, on the Sea of Azov, is strategic for Russia, as it would help it create a land corridor between the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, controlled by Russian-backed separatists, and Crimea, the peninsula it invaded and annexed in 2014.

“[There is] street fighting in the city centre,” Mr Boychenko said, confirming a claim made by Russia on Friday, when it said it was “tightening the noose” around the city.

“There are tanks… and artillery shelling, and all kinds of weapons fired in the area,” the mayor said. “Our forces are doing everything they can to hold their positions in the city but the forces of the enemy are larger than ours, unfortunately.”

Its military advances appear to have largely stalled and some now question whether it can recover from the losses it has suffered. This week, a senior Nato military official told the BBC, “the Russians clearly have not achieved their goals and probably will not at the end of the day”. So what has gone wrong? I have spoken to senior Western military officers and intelligence officials, about the mistakes Russia has made.

Russia’s first mistake was to underestimate the strength of resistance and the capabilities of Ukraine’s own smaller armed forces. Russia has an annual defence budget of more than $60bn, compared with Ukraine’s spending of just over $4bn.

At the same time, Russia, and many others, appear to have overestimated its own military strengths. President Putin had embarked on an ambitious modernisation programme for his military and he too may have believed his own hype.

A senior British military official said much of Russia’s investment had been spent on its vast nuclear arsenal and experimentation, that included developing new weapons such as hypersonic missiles. Russia is supposed to have built the world’s most advanced tank – the T-14 Armata. But while it has been seen on Moscow’s Victory Day Parade on Red Square, it has been missing in battle. Most of what Russia has fielded are older T-72 tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and rocket launchers.

At the start of the invasion Russia had a clear advantage in the air, with the combat aircraft it had moved near the border outnumbering Ukraine’s air force by more than three to one. Most military analysts assumed the invading force would quickly gain superiority in the air, but it has not. Ukraine’s air defences are still proving effective, limiting Russia’s ability to manoeuvre.

Moscow may have also assumed its special forces would play an important role, helping deliver a quick, decisive blow.

A senior Western intelligence official told the media that Russia thought it could deploy lighter, spearhead units like the Spetsnatz and VDV paratroopers, “to eliminate a small number of defenders and that would be it”. But in the first few days their helicopter assault on Hostomel Airport, just outside Kyiv, was repelled, denying Russia an airbridge to bring in troops, equipment and supplies

Instead, Russia has had to transport its supplies mostly by road. This has created traffic jams and choke points which are easy targets for Ukrainian forces to ambush. Some heavy armour has gone off road, only to get stuck in mud, reinforcing an image of an army that has become “bogged down”.

Meanwhile, Russia’s long armoured column from the north that was captured by satellites has still failed to encircle Kyiv. The most significant advances have come from the south, where it has been able to use rail lines to resupply its forces. The UK Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, told the BBC that President Putin’s forces “have lost the momentum”.

“They’re stuck and they are slowly but surely taking significant casualties.”

Russia had amassed a force of around 190,000 troops for this invasion and most of those have already been committed to the battle. But they have already lost about 10% of that force. There are no reliable figures for the scale of either Russian or Ukrainian losses. Ukraine claims to have killed 14,000 Russian troops, though the US estimates it is probably half that number.

Western officials say there is also evidence of dwindling morale among Russian fighters, with one saying it was “very, very, low”. Another said the troops were “cold, tired and hungry” as they had already been waiting in the snow for weeks in Belarus and Russia before they were given the order to invade.

Russia has already been forced to look for more troops to make up for its losses, including moving in reserve units from as far afield as the east of the country and Armenia. Western officials believe it is also “highly likely” that foreign troops from Syria will soon join the fight, along with mercenaries from its secretive Wagner group. A senior Nato military official said this was a sign it was “scratching the bottom of the barrel”.

Russia has struggled with the basics. There is an old military saying that amateurs talk tactics while professionals study logistics. There is evidence that Russia has not given it enough consideration. Armoured columns have run out of fuel, food and ammunition. Vehicles have broken down and been left abandoned, then towed away by Ukrainian tractors.

Western officials also believe Russia may be running low on some munitions. It has already fired between 850 and 900 long-range precision munitions, including cruise missiles, which are harder to replace than unguided weapons. US officials have warned Russia has approached China to help address some of its shortages.

In contrast, there has been a steady flow of Western-supplied weapons going into Ukraine, which has been a boost for its morale. The US has just announced it will be providing an additional $800m in defence support. As well as more anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, it is expected to include Switchblade, which is a small, US-developed, “kamikaze” drone that can be carried in a backpack before being launched to deliver a small explosive at targets on the ground.

Western officials still warn that President Putin could “double down with greater brutality”. They say he still has enough firepower to bombard Ukrainian cities for a “considerable period of time”.

Despite the setbacks, one intelligence official said President Putin was, “unlikely to be deterred and may instead escalate. He likely remains confident that Russia can militarily defeat Ukraine”. And while the Ukrainian forces have shown fierce resistance, that same official warned that without significant resupplies they too could “eventually be spent in terms of ammunition and numbers”. The odds may be better than when the war first started, but they still seem stacked against Ukraine.

In a series of tweets, the ex-Tory leader revealed he was driving a lorry to the country with goods collected by Oxfordshire food project Chippy Larder.

He said it was filled “with everything from nappies to sanitary products, warm clothes to first-aid kits”.

Mr Cameron and two colleagues from the charity will give the donations to the Red Cross when they reach Poland.

He wrote: “It’s going to be a long drive, but I’ll keep you updated along the way.”

The woman, believed to be aged 19, was found with serious injuries at student accommodation block Arbour House in Sebastian Street, Clerkenwell, at about 05:10 GMT on Saturday.

She was later pronounced dead at the scene, the Met Police said.

The force said no arrests had been made and it is trying to identify her next of kin.

A police presence remains at the scene.

Douglas Ross told the party’s conference in Aberdeen that he grew up in a Scotland that was confident and outward looking.

But he argued that Scotland was now divided against itself.

He said the country was becoming “smaller every day” under the SNP.

Mr Ross missed the weekly First Minister’s Questions session in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday because of a bad throat – but was well enough to deliver his speech.

He welcomed Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the conference on Friday afternoon, with the two men shaking hands on stage ahead of Mr Johnson’s speech.

Mr Ross called for the PM to step down earlier this year over lockdown parties in Downing Street – but withdrew that last week, saying the row should be “put on pause” because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

He said the only person who would benefit from Mr Johnson being removed from office would be Vladimir Putin.

But his comments were condemned by political opponents, with SNP MP Ian Blackford describing it as an “utterly humiliating u-turn” and Labour leader Anas Sarwar saying Mr Ross “should not be using the Ukraine crisis to go bacMr Ross shook hands with the prime minister at the conference on Friday despite calling for him to quit two months ago

In his speech, Mr Ross asked whether anyone would say that Scotland is a better place today than it was when the SNP first came to power in 2007.

He said: “The nation I grew up in was confident and outward looking, yet the nation my children grow up in today is far more bitter and inward-facing.

“That isn’t a record that any government should be proud of – Scotland is becoming a smaller country every day that the SNP remain in power.

“We are becoming worse off, both economically and intellectually, because we are stuck with a government that won’t take any responsibility.”

He also called on Tory activists to “bring together the silent majority of working people to end this stalemate” and provide a real alternative for people who are “fed up with the last 15 years of SNP stagnation”.

He said that this alternative would “end the referendum obsession” and “take back Scotland from the SNP and allow us all to move forward together”.

The two-day Scottish Conservative conference has seen the party call for the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) to be scrapped in Scotland’s schools.

And it has unveiled plans to bring forward a bill in the Scottish Parliament that would create a register of domestic abusers.

The database would work in a similar manner to the sex offenders register, with police or local authorities being able to take action if a risk was identified.

It is the first time, they say, a federal election campaign has been undermined in this way in America.

The perpetrators went to “outrageous and dangerous” lengths to do so, the Department of Justice said.

Three of the accused have been arrested, but two are at large.

According to court documents, they are accused of “transnational repression schemes” to target American residents whose political views and actions were “disfavoured by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government”.

The co-conspirators allegedly tried to “interfere with federal elections” by orchestrating a campaign to undermine the US congressional candidacy of a military veteran who was once a leader of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing.

In another plot, they planned to destroy the work of a Chinese artist, living in Los Angeles, who had been critical of his home government, and allegedly planted spy equipment in the artist’s workplace and car.

Fan “Frank” Liu, Matthew Ziburis and Shujun Wang were all arrested in the Eastern District of New York earlier this week.

Two other suspects, Qiang “Jason” Sun and Qiming Lin are at large.

Breon Peace, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the plots had involved campaigns to “silence, harass, discredit and spy” on US residents for “simply exercising their freedom of speech”.

He added: “The United States will not tolerate blatantly illegal actions that target US residents, on US soil, and undermine our treasured American values and rights.”

The details of the allegations revealed on Wednesday, allege Mr Lin hired a private investigator in New York to disrupt the Brooklyn man’s congressional campaign, including “by physically attacking” him.

The man had been a student leader of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, who had escaped to America, become a citizen and served in the US military,

In 2021, he announced his intention to run for a US congressional seat on Long Island in the November 2022 general election.

Matthew Olsen, an assistant attorney general for the Justice department said the case represented “a conspiracy to derail the congressional candidacy of an American citizen” and warned that it and the others unveiled today were examples of the “alarming rise in trans-national repression… authoritarian states around the world feel emboldened to reach beyond their borders to intimidate or exact reprisals against individuals who dare to speak out against oppression and corruption”.

Mr Liu, 62, of Long Island, New York, and Mr Ziburis, 49, of Oyster Bay New York, are charged with conspiring to act as agents of the PRC government, conspiring to commit interstate harassment and the illegal use of a means of identification.

Mr Liu, the president of a media company in New York, and Mr Sun are charged with conspiring to bribe a federal official in connection with a scheme to obtain the tax returns of a pro-democracy activist residing in the United States.

Mr Lin, 59, of the PRC, is charged with conspiracy to commit interstate harassment, as well as conspiring and attempting to use a means of identification.

Mr Lin, it is alleged, works on behalf of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), the Chinese intelligence and secret police agency.

The US Commerce Department has said the planes are in contravention of US sanctions on Russia.

Providing service to these aircraft anywhere in the world – including inside Russia – may lead to heavy fines and potential jail time, it says.

The list includes aircraft operated by Russian airlines, including Aeroflot.

While most are Boeing aircraft, a Gulfstream private jet owned by Mr Abramovich – the current owner of Chelsea football club – is also included.

The Russian was among seven oligarchs sanctioned by the UK government earlier this month in response to the Ukraine war.

Mr Abramovich, 55, is alleged to have strong ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he has denied.

In a statement, the department said any refuelling, maintenance or repair work of any of the listed aircraft – as well as the provision of spare parts – violates US export controls.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the move was in response to “Russia’s brutal war of choice against Ukraine”.

She added: “We are publishing this list to put the world on notice – we will not allow Russian and Belarusian companies and oligarchs to travel with impunity in violation of our laws.”

The department said violators face “substantial jail time, fines, loss of export privileges, or other restrictions”.

The regulations apply to any aircraft which has more than 25% US-origin content that was re-exported to Russia after new controls came into effect on 24 February, the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

“By preventing these aircraft from receiving any service, for example, including from abroad, international flights from Russia on these aircraft are effectively grounded,” the statement added.

Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves said the US government hoped the move highlighted Russia’s increasing isolation from the global economy.

“Our actions aren’t idle words or dead letters on the page,” he said. “They have real teeth and as Putin’s vicious war continues, they will continue to bite harder on the Russian and Belarusian economies”.

The US, Canada and European allies have already banned Russian aircraft from operating in their airspace, forcing Russian airlines to largely abandon their international routes.

The aircraft, which belonged to the US Marine Corps, was taking part in a Nato exercise when it came down on Friday.

It crashed in a remote region of Norway, south of the town of Bodo, and helicopters were unable to land at the site due to bad weather.

But search teams used snowmobiles to reach the scene of the crash in the early hours of Saturday.

“It is regrettably confirmed that all four on board the plane have perished,” local police said in a statement, adding that the victims were all US nationals.

An investigation into the cause of the accident was paused due to bad weather, but police said it would resume once the weather improves.

The MV-22B Osprey aircraft was taking part in a Nato exercise known as Cold Response, which is designed to prepare members of the defensive alliance to protect Norway.

It involves some 30,000 troops from 27 member countries.