Displaying items by tag: Russia

Kim Jong Un will visit Vladimir Putin in September; the USA is concerned they will discuss North Korea providing Moscow with weapons to use in Ukraine. An arms deal makes transactional sense. Moscow needs ammunition and artillery shells. Pyongyang has plenty of both. Sanction-starved North Korea needs money and food after three years of border closures. Also, the breakdown of talks with the USA has left North Korea more isolated than ever. The US has warned of an arms deal between the two countries for some time: now, a leader-level meeting between Kim and Putin catapults this into the next realm. Russia’s desperate situation means Mr Kim will be able to extract a high price. On 4 September, South Korea's intelligence service briefed that Russia's defence minister has suggested that Russia, China and North Korea hold joint naval drills, like those carried out by the USA, South Korea and Japan, which Kim Jong Un so detests.

On 29 August Ukraine gained a foothold less than three miles from Russia’s defensive lines in the Zaporizhzhya region, and the village of Robotyne was liberated following weeks of fighting over the settlement. When Ukrainian forces split to launch another attack in-between the villages of Novodanylivka and Verbove, prominent Russian military blogger Romanov (with 135,000 followers) described the current situation for Russia as ‘very dangerous.’ But sadly, there has been a dramatic rise in Ukraine's death toll. The grim task of counting the dead is a daily reality, with the unknown soldiers piled high in a small brick mortuary, not far from the Donetsk front line. The figures remain classified, but US officials recently put the number at 70,000 dead and as many as 120,000 injured. It is a staggering figure, from armed forces estimated at only half a million strong. The UN has reported 9,177 civilian deaths. 9,177 civilian deaths.

Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed dead, having been named as one of ten passengers in a private jet that crashed north of Moscow. A key ally of Vladimir Putin, his private military company has played a key role in Ukraine following Moscow's invasion in February 2022. But his relationship with Putin soured after he ordered his troops to march on Moscow in a day-long rebellion against Russia's military leaders in June. The details of the crash are not clear, but claims that it was shot down have not been substantiated. The following day Putin said he had sent condolences to Prigozhin’s family.  His death will leave Putin stronger in the short term, removing a powerful figure who had played an important part in the war but had also been openly critical of Russia’s military leaders.

Demyan Kevorkyan, a prisoner released early to fight with Wagner mercenaries is accused of a double murder after returning home from the war. He was arrested for killing a young man and woman on their way home from work. He is not the only convict who was freed early to fight and then reoffended. It is confirmed that suspects in about twenty serious offences, including rape and murder, are fighters recruited from prison by Wagner to fight in Ukraine. Kevorkyan was one of 150 prisoners recruited on 31 August 2022, and was later spotted back in his home village of Pridorozhnaya in south-west Russia telling people he had just returned from the battlefields of Ukraine.

The majority of the world looks on with disbelief at Russia’s 17 months of ‘battle for justice’, and Russians are tired. Youths are fleeing, the economy falters, loved ones risk their lives, and they are tired of the lack of peace. Many are familiar with Orthodox Christianity, but they are non-practising. They are not familiar with the true stability and peace only found in Jesus. 17.7 million Russians don’t know who Jesus is. In their deep war-torn weariness, Russia’s 143 million people need Jesus to be their ultimate place of rest and their source of true peace. Putin’s anti-terrorism laws ban Christians from preaching outside a church building. Evangelism in homes or online is prohibited. Pastors and missionaries trained outside Russia must attend additional state-approved education. Bible teachers are needed to provide sound doctrine. Only God, manifested through the Body of Christ, can bring the hope and deliverance this nation seeks.

After Ukraine’s recent drone attacks, there have been warnings of tough retaliatory measures. Putin’s closest ally Dmitry Medvedev, of Russia's Security Council, said Moscow must ‘choose unconventional targets for our strikes - not just storage facilities, energy hubs and oil bases.’ He also warned of a global conflict breaking out as nuclear tensions rise and concerns about climate change intensify: ‘The world is sick, and quite probably on the verge of a new world war.’ Officials in Moscow have repeatedly warned that the world faces the most dangerous decade since World War 2. At NATO’s arms control conference recently, the USA said, ‘We have watched and worried that Putin would use his non-strategic tactical nuclear weapon for a managed risk escalation. It’s critical that we remain watchful.’ NATO’s secretary general said Putin’s plan to place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus was part of a years-long pattern of ‘dangerous, irresponsible nuclear rhetoric’ which intensified with the ‘brutalisation of Ukraine’. See

We can pray into Putin’s situation as he tries to crack down on the increasing resistance by his ex-supporters, the nationalists. Their abandoning him falls in line with the growing war-weariness across Russia. Russian ultranationalist Igor Girkin was arrested after he criticised Vladimir Putin’s handling of the Ukraine war, calling for a transfer of power. He said online that the Russian army is no longer loyal to Putin; he expects the Ukrainian counteroffensive to break the Russian front. He also promised to form an opposition party of ‘angry patriots’ to save Russia from collapse. There are other nationalists and dissenters also criticising Putin’s handling of the war. Putin still depends on Wagner’s generals, which means a weakened Russian military and more mistrust. China supported Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Western sanctions gave Putin economic tensions. Now selling the Chinese yuan indicates his dependence on Beijing. 

The head of Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service, Richard Moore, has said that Putin is clearly under pressure in the wake of the Wagner mutiny attempt in June. In his second speech since becoming MI6 chief in 2020, Richard Moore also appealed to Russians appalled by the war in Ukraine to ‘join hands’ with his intelligence service and bring the bloodshed to an end. He said there appeared little prospect of Moscow regaining momentum in Ukraine, adding that he was optimistic about Kyiv’s counter offensive. This follows Russia evacuating thousands of people in the Crimean peninsula after a military training base fire in the Kirovske district. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s port city of Odessa sustained massive Russian airstrikes the day after Putin pulled out of a deal allowing safe grain exports from the region. The Odessa military administration said the attack was very powerful.

Ukraine's counter-offensive is currently slow and cautious. But this patient approach should soon pay off as long-range strikes prevent Russia rearming frontline units, and low Russian morale provides opportunities for strategic breakthroughs by Ukrainian forces. There are vast stretches of minefields lying ahead of Ukraine's counter-attack. ‘Petals’ - small, green, anti-personnel mines - are being scattered by Russian rockets across fields previously liberated and cleared by Ukraine forces. President Zelensky admitted Ukraine’s counterattack was ‘slower than desired’, partly due to minefields slowing down troop movement. The enemy has no mercy for their own soldiers. They are used as cannon fodder. But Ukraine is trying to move forwards with the minimum of casualties. One soldier said, ‘We are learning to improvise and to invent ways to make quick, safe paths through the minefields. But we are fighting a very vicious enemy.’

Volodymyr Zelensky sparked concerns globally when he accused Russian troops of placing ‘objects resembling explosives’ on the roof of a cooler at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP). Putin has long flirted with the nuclear spectre since mounting his Ukraine invasion. Zelensky suggested Putin might cause a nuclear incident by turning ZNPP itself into a weapon. As Ukraine attempts to reclaim territory captured by Russia, including the Zaporizhzhya region, Russia could claim any explosion at ZNPP resulted from reckless Ukrainian shelling, not its own explosives. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, ‘The situation at the plant is quite tense. The potential for sabotage by the Kyiv regime is high and could have catastrophic consequences.’