Displaying items by tag: Russia

Mercenary group Wagner does not officially exist, but billboards in Russia’s cities depicting three men in military uniform next to the words ‘Wagner2022.org’ are inviting fighters to join its ranks in Ukraine. They have transformed from a secretive mercenary organisation to an extension of Russia’s efforts in Ukraine. Wagner was established in 2014 to support pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and is funded by a businessman linked to Putin. On paper, it doesn’t exist, with no company registration, tax returns, or organisational chart to be found. Russia’s senior leadership, including Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly denied any connections between Wagner and the state. Currently Wagner has lowered recruitment standards, hiring convicts and blacklisted individuals, which impacts military effectiveness. Before the conflict less than 30% of Wagners were professionals. Now this recruitment push threatens to diminish its overall military standards.

Ten people in Berdyansk, Ukraine, have been taken captive by Russian militia groups. They were kidnapped while helping evacuate residents from the southern port city, which Russia occupies. The captives include several Orphan's Promise (OP) volunteers, a driver, and an elderly couple who are the parents of a pastor who works with OP. Their whereabouts are unknown. These militia groups are known for their cruelty, especially to volunteers helping Ukrainians. Terry Meeuwsen, the founder of OP said, ‘We have no idea where this team is. We don't know if they're alive. We don't know if they're being cared for. We just have no idea. Being treated well has not been the traditional response by the Russians.’

Vladimir Putin visited Iran this week in only his second overseas trip since invading Ukraine. He received a red carpet welcome from Iran’s supreme leader who wants to strengthen long-term cooperation with Russia. Tehran and Moscow are both suffering under Western sanctions. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised Putin for ensuring his country had ‘maintained its independence’ from America and said their two countries needed to remain vigilant against ‘Western deception’. Ahead of Putin’s arrival, Iranian officials indicated they could strike weapons deals with Russia. ‘Currently, we are ready to export military equipment and weapons’ said Iran's army ground forces commander. His comments came a week after America claimed Iran was planning to send hundreds of weapons-capable drones to Moscow for use in Ukraine. Meanwhile a Ukrainian missile struck a key bridge linking Russian-occupied Kherson city with the heavily militarised Crimean Peninsula, amid reports Kyiv is preparing to take back captured territory in the South.

Russian natural gas supplies to Germany have been halted for annual maintenance work. But the German economy minister warned that EU countries must be prepared for gas shipments not resuming, believing Russia is using gas ‘as a weapon’ in response to EU sanctions. Supplies to five European countries have already been cut over their refusal to comply with new payment schemes. Stopping supplying Germany could tip the country into a major recession. Entire industries rely on gas, and most German homes use it for heating. The head of the International Energy Agency has warned that Russia may cut off gas supplies to Europe entirely and that Europe needs to prepare now.

Mariangela Alejandro, a history and politics student, was taught by professor Tim Hayward at Edinburgh University. But a few weeks into the course she complained, ‘He goes from talking about global financial markets and poverty into this realm of conspiracy theories about the Syrian president and Russia.’ Days after a maternity hospital in Mariupol was bombed, Prof Hayward retweeted a Russian ambassador to the UN describing the attack as #fakenews. The tweet said the hospital had been controlled by the Ukrainian military, and no patients were there. In a lecture he outlined an argument that the renowned aid organisation the White Helmets may have helped fake a chemical attack in Syria. Russia has said the attack was staged. In March he and other academics were accused by MPs in the House of Commons of spreading misinformation about the Ukraine war. Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said the Government would crack down hard on misinformation.

Vladimir Putin's admiration for Peter the Great is well known, but he now has ideas of ‘Great’-ness himself as he openly compared himself to the 18th-century tsar. He is equating Russia's invasion of Ukraine with Peter's expansionist wars three centuries ago, thereby acknowledging that his own war is a land grab. Putin's empire-building ambitions have irked his neighbours; Estonia has called his comments ‘completely unacceptable.’ Putin said he sees a new battle for geopolitical dominance, and that Peter the Great was his role model. ‘You might think he was fighting with Sweden, seizing their lands’, Putin said, referring to the northern wars which Peter launched to forge a new empire. ‘But he seized nothing; he reclaimed it. It has fallen to us, too, to reclaim and strengthen.’

The story of this war cannot yet be written, but we can pray about possible scenarios. One would be Russia and Ukraine grinding each other down with neither demonstrating capacity to land a tactically decisive blow. Pray the West will supply Ukraine with all that is needed to overcome Putin. Another could be Putin announcing a ceasefire, pocketing his territorial gains and declaring ‘victory’ with a land corridor to Crimea established. This might change the narrative but not end the fighting. Pray for God’s wisdom to saturate Ukraine’s leaders so that a theoretical peace is avoided, and for US, UK and European policymakers to ensure Russia's invasion fails, for the sake of Ukraine and the international order. Pray for Ukraine’s victory using its new long-range rockets. Pray that it can retrieve territory where Russian supply lines are stretched, causing the troops to withdraw to where they were before the invasion, as Western sanctions hit Russia's war machine.

President Erdogan is giving signals of an imminent cross-border large-scale military incursion into Syria. Military equipment is on the frontier, and artillery shells now pound positions held by Syrian Kurdish armed forces. Senior officials and analysts believe operations against the groups will commence soon, hoping to conclude before the NATO summit on 29 June. ‘We will crack down on them suddenly overnight’, Erdogan told reporters. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it will coordinate with Syrian troops to fend off any Turkish invasion. An SDF commander said Damascus should use air defence systems against Turkish planes. Turkey’s vowed new offensive will be on areas controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia, a key part of the SDF. Syria warned Turkey there will be no compromise on territorial integrity. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organisation. Syrian Kurdish forces are backed by Washington, and co-ordinated with Syria and its ally Russia. See

Fears of a global food crisis are swelling as Russian attacks on Ukraine’s ability to produce and export grain have choked off one of the world’s breadbaskets, fuelling charges that President Putin is using food as a powerful new weapon in his three-month-old war. On 24 May world leaders called for international action to deliver twenty million tons of grain now trapped in Ukraine, predicting that the alternative could be hunger in some countries and political unrest in others, in what could be the gravest global repercussion yet of Russia’s assault on its neighbour. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where worries about the war’s consequences have eclipsed almost every other issue, speakers reached for apocalyptic language to describe the threat. 'It’s a perfect storm within a perfect storm,' said David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Programme. Calling the situation 'absolutely critical,' he warned, 'We will have famines around the world.'

More than 14 million people are thought to have fled their homes since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the UN says. More than six million have left for neighbouring countries, while eight million people are displaced inside the war-torn country itself. The EU has granted Ukrainians the right to stay and work throughout its 27 member nations for up to three years. The UN says that as of 24 May, 2.1 million Ukrainians have returned to Ukraine. Some are returning to areas such as the capital Kyiv, which is now considered safer. Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, says the city's population is back to two-thirds of its pre-war level.' More than 60,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the UK, after fleeing the Russian invasion. Some have travelled on family visas, while others have come via a sponsorship scheme which lets unrelated people host an individual or group.