Latest news with #Soviet-era
The Star
12 hours ago
- Politics
- The Star
Explainer-Why is Russia trying so hard to capture the strategic Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk?
MOSCOW/KYIV (Reuters) -Russian forces are pushing hard to encircle the strategically important eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after capturing a string of villages to its south and east, and over 100,000 soldiers are trying to advance in the area, Kyiv says. Following are key facts about Pokrovsk, which Russians call by its Soviet-era name of Krasnoarmeysk, and the long battle for its control which began in earnest last summer. WHAT IS POKROVSK? Pokrovsk is a road and rail hub in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region which had a pre-war population of some 60,000 people. Most people have now fled, all children have been evacuated and, according to Serhii Dobriak, the head of the city's military administration, less than 1,500 residents remain. It lies on a key road which has been used by the Ukrainian military to supply other embattled eastern outposts, including the towns of Chasiv Yar, which has long been consumed by fierce fighting, and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region. Ukraine's only mine that produces coking coal - used in its once vast steel industry - is around six miles (10 km) west of Pokrovsk. Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest said in mid-January it had suspended the mine's operations. Since 2014, Pokrovsk has been the site of a major technical university, the largest and oldest such institution in the wider region. The university, now abandoned, has been damaged by shelling. WHY DOES RUSSIA WANT POKROVSK? Moscow says it has annexed Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region and controls over 70% of the area's territory. Kyiv and most Western countries reject Russia's seizure of the territory as an illegal land grab. Capturing Pokrovsk, dubbed "the gateway to Donetsk" by Russian media, and Kostiantynivka to its northeast which Russian forces are also trying to envelop, would give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Control of Pokrovsk would allow Moscow to further disrupt Ukrainian supply lines along the eastern front and boost its long-running campaign to capture Chasiv Yar, which sits on higher ground offering potential control of a wider area. Its capture would also give Russia more options to attack Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region to the west, which is not one of the areas which Moscow has claimed but where it says it has already established a small foothold. WHAT IS UKRAINE DOING TO DEFEND POKROVSK? Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi - who said in May that Ukraine had stalled the long grinding Russian offensive on Pokrovsk and even pushed back in some areas - said on Friday that his forces were standing firm. Ukrainian officials say Russia has relentlessly pounded their forces with artillery, glide bombs, and drones and sent in small groups of fighters to try to gain ground rather than commit large groups of infantry or armoured vehicles. Russia has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, Syrskyi has estimated. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made various senior personnel changes in the army during the city's defence. Ukraine says Moscow has sustained huge losses after throwing everything it has at trying to break through. Moscow says Ukrainian forces are taking serious losses. Neither side discloses full casualty figures. EVACUATION Ukrainian authorities have worked hard to try to persuade the city's remaining and mostly elderly and sick residents to evacuate. Dobriak, the head of the military administration, said on Monday that evacuation vehicles could no longer reach many areas and that people had to leave on foot. He said it was increasingly hard to deliver food and that food stores would have to close in the coming days. One of the main roads in, which Ukrainian forces call "the road of life," is covered by anti-drone nets to try to protect vehicles from Russian drone strikes. WHAT DOES POKROVSK LOOK LIKE NOW? Even though the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag is still flying in Pokrovsk, the city is a shadow of its former self, with no electricity, gas, heating or piped water. Reuters footage published on May 21 showed the facades of apartment blocks badly damaged, deserted streets strewn with debris, and a few elderly residents and people on bicycles. Shellfire was audible and the roads were pockmarked with shell impacts and the wreckage of vehicles. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow and Anastasiia Malenko in KyivEditing by Peter Graff)
New Straits Times
a day ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Sleepless in Kyiv: War takes psychological toll on city's residents
SEVERAL nights a week, Daria Slavytska packs a yoga mat, blankets and food into a stroller and descends with her 2-year-old Emil into the Kyiv subway. While air raid sirens wail above, the 27-year-old tries to snatch a few hours' sleep safely below ground. For the past two months, Russia has unleashed nighttime drone and missile assaults on Kyiv in a summer offensive that is straining the city's air defences, and has its 3.7 million residents exhausted and on edge. Other towns and villages have seen far worse since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in early 2022 — especially those close to the frontline far to the east and south. Many have been damaged or occupied as Russia advances, and thousands of people have fled to the capital, considered the best-defended city in the country. But recent heavy attacks are beginning to change the mood. At night, residents rush to metro stations deep underground in scenes reminiscent of the German "Blitz" bombings of London during World War 2. Slavytska has started nervously checking Telegram channels at home even before the city's alarms sound, after she found herself in early July running into the street to reach the metro with explosions already booming in the sky. The number of people like Slavytska taking refuge in the cavernous Soviet-era ticket halls and drafty platforms of Kyiv's 46 underground stations soared after large-scale bombardments slammed the city five times in June. Previously, the loud air raid alert on her phone sent Emil into bouts of shaking and he would cry "Corridor, corridor, mum. I'm scared. Corridor, mum," said Slavytska. Now, accustomed to the attacks, he says more calmly "Mum, we should go." The subway system recorded 165,000 visits during June nights, more than double the 65,000 visits in May and nearly five times the number in June last year, said its press service. More people were heading to the shelter because of "the scale and lethality" of attacks, said the head of Kyiv's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko. He said strikes killed 78 Kyiv residents and injured more than 400 in the first half of the year. In April, a strike destroyed a residential building a couple of kilometres from Slavytska's apartment block. "It was so, so loud. Even my son woke up and I held him in my arms in the corridor," she said. "It was really scary." After seeing how stressed Emil became after the air alerts, Slavytska sought help from a paediatrician, who recommended she turn off her phone's loud notifications and prescribed a calming medication. Scientists and psychologists say the lack of sleep is taking its toll on a population worn down by more than three years of war. Kateryna Holtsberh, a family psychologist who practises in Kyiv, said sleep deprivation caused by the attacks was causing mood swings, extreme stress and apathy, leading to declined cognitive functions in both kids and adults. "Many people say if you sleep poorly, your life will turn into hell and your health will suffer," said Kateryna Storozhuk, another Kyiv region resident. "I didn't understand this until it happened to me." Anton Kurapov, post-doctoral scholar at the University of Salzburg's Laboratory for Sleep, Cognition and Consciousness Research, said it was hard to convey to outsiders what it felt like to be under attack. "Imagine a situation where you go out into the street and a person is shot in front of you ... and what fear you experience, your heart sinks," he said. "People experience this every day, this feeling." As she tries to squeeze out more hours of sleep in the subway, Slavytska is looking into buying a mattress to bring underground that would be more comfortable than her mat. Others are taking more extreme measures. Small business owner Storozhuk, who had no shelter within 3km of her home, invested over US$2,000 earlier this year in a Ukrainian-made "Capsule of Life" reinforced steel box, capable of withstanding falling concrete slabs. She climbs in nightly, with her Chihuahua, Zozulia.
American Military News
a day ago
- Politics
- American Military News
Will Trump's 50-Day Deadline Shift Putin? Doubtful, Analysts Say
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. US President Donald Trump handed the Kremlin a clear warning this week, announcing plans for weapons supplies to Kyiv via Europe and saying the United States will impose 'very severe tariffs' on Russia if it doesn't reach a deal on the war in Ukraine within 50 days. Trump did not specify whether a cease-fire would suffice, or only a comprehensive peace deal. Either way, many analysts say it's unlikely to happen. Here's why. Territorial Aims Russian President Vladimir Putin's goals clearly go far beyond the conquest of part of Ukraine: He has made plain that he wants to subjugate the country and weaken NATO and the West, restoring a measure of Moscow's Soviet-era sway over swaths of Europe. But a more immediate aim is all about territory. Russia occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine. In addition to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has controlled since 2014, Putin formally and falsely claims that the Ukrainian mainland regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson are now Russian — including the substantial portions that Russia does not occupy. Russia has said a full Ukrainian withdrawal from those four regions is a prerequisite of any peace deal — a demand that Kyiv says is unacceptable. And while analysts say Putin could weather any backlash at home if he agreed to a pact that would limit Russia's presence to the land it now holds, he has given zero indication that he might do that. On the contrary, Russia has stuck to this demand in its rhetoric. On the ground, it has sought to make its claim a reality, pressing forward in the Donetsk region in particular and bearing down on the ruined city of Pokrovsk. In one of the first Russian reactions to Trump's remarks, Kremlin-aligned lawmaker Konstantin Kosachyov said on Telegram that 'oh so much can change on the battlefield in 50 days.' Russia could seek to step up its offensive in the coming weeks, pushing to advance not just in the provinces it claims but also elsewhere, such as in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions north of Donetsk. In June, Putin issued a thinly veiled threat to try to capture the city of Sumy. Still, there actually is a limit to what can change in six weeks on the battlefield, where incremental Russian gains have come at a massive cost in terms of casualties, which are estimated to be close to 1 million killed or wounded since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. But while there is no way Russia can seize the remaining parts of the four regions by September — areas that include the capitals of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson — that may only sharpen Putin's desire to secure control over them on paper ahead of any deal. 'To me, it's clear that Putin does not want any cease-fire, at least not until he gains control over all the regions that are defined as Russian in his version of the constitution,' Dmitry Gudkov, a former opposition lawmaker in the Russian parliament, told Current Time on July 16. 'In essence, it would mean Ukraine's capitulation.' 'Ultimatums Are Unacceptable' Trump has sought to broker an end to the war in Ukraine since he took office six months ago, following an election campaign in which he said he could get it done in a day or two. Facing pushback from Putin, most notably in the form of his carefully worded rejection of the US call for a 30-day cease-fire, Trump has had harsh words for Putin in recent weeks. But the 50-day warning was the first time Trump has given the Kremlin an ultimatum — a form of pressure that Putin, who has made demands that other countries treat Russia as an equal a formal part of his foreign policy, does not seem to like. So while many in the West have been eager for Trump to make specific demands on Putin, it's not clear whether an ultimatum increases or decreases the chances of a deal. Putin has not spoken publicly about Trump's remarks, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said nothing specific about them. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees Moscow's ties with the US, said on July 15 that 'any attempts to make demands, especially ultimatums, are unacceptable to us.' 'If we cannot achieve our goals through diplomacy, then the [war against Ukraine] will continue,' Ryabkov said, delivering the closest thing so far to an official rejection of Trump's call for a deal within 50 days — by September 1 or 2, depending on how it's counted. 'This is an unshakable position.' The Blame Game The Kremlin may hope that Trump's turn against Putin in recent weeks is not so unshakable — and that if there's no deal come September, the pendulum will swing back and the US president will lay at least part of the blame on Kyiv. One prominent view in Russia is that Trump's current focus is 'transient' and the increased support for Ukraine is 'a maneuver designed to increase pressure on Putin and test whether this approach yields results,' Tatyana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote on X. Those who hold this view believe that when 'it becomes evident that such pressure is ineffective — expected to be soon — Trump is likely to revert to a diplomatic course, including exerting pressure on Ukraine to reach a compromise,' Stanovaya wrote ahead of Trump's remarks. Trump has put much of the blame on Ukraine at times in the past. And an aspect of his July 14 remarks that flew mostly under the radar was that he stressed that he hopes the push for a deal within 50 days will 'have an impact on Ukraine also.' 'We want to make sure that Ukraine does what they have to do,' Trump said. 'All of a sudden, they may feel emboldened and maybe they don't want [a deal] — this is a very difficult situation.' 'Not Ready For Prime Time' In any case, though, there are at least two reasons why the threat of sanctions seems unlikely to push Putin much closer to a deal with Ukraine to halt or end the war at this point. One is that it is unclear how the measures Trump threatened — chiefly, tariffs or sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil — would work. Trump's July 14 announcement was 'laudable in its intention to hit Russia on the economic side' but 'not ready for prime time in its details,' Daniel Fried, a fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank and an architect of US sanctions against Russia after it seized Crimea in 2014, said on the podcast Just Security. It's also unclear how well they would work if they are put in place, so the Kremlin could be inclined to take its chances. 'China and India are the top two recipients of Russian energy exports, and the expectation that they will pressure Putin to end his war in the next 50 days seems naïve,' Michael McFaul, a political science professor at Stanford University and the US ambassador to Russia in 2012-14, wrote in Time Magazine. The other reason is that Russia has weathered Western sanctions so far and the Kremlin has made that a point of pride, slotting it into the overarching narrative that Russia — in fact the aggressor in an unprovoked war — is fighting a defensive campaign in a major showdown with West — and winning. Against that backdrop, appearing to bend in the face of the tariff threat is something Putin would be loath to do unless absolutely necessary. 'Two Big Contingencies' The same may go for the stepped-up weapons shipments that Trump has promised Ukraine, with NATO allies footing the bill by purchasing Patriot air-defense missile systems and other arms from the United States or sending Kyiv weapons they have already received. Fried, the former sanctions architect, said that if Trump's announcements on weapons for Ukraine and economic pressure on Russia are 'crystallized, sharpened, and implemented,' it could make a big difference in terms of the war and the path to peace. 'Two big contingencies: Get the weapons flowing and keep them flowing; and crystallize our policy options for hitting the Russian economy. You do both and Ukraine's in a very different position,' he said. 'If Putin's assumptions or his hopes for a US failure of leadership and abandonment of Ukraine prove to be false, then he may have to settle.' Other analysts suggest that's not about to happen anytime soon, if at all. 'I think…we're going to need to see the United States showing a lot more muscle if it really is going to be able to bring Putin to the table in any kind of meaningful way,' Russia expert Mark Galeotti said on the This Is Not A Drill podcast. The prevailing view in Russia is that 'none of these developments will alter Putin's strategy of coercing Kyiv into capitulation by any available means,' Stanovaya wrote. 'Putin will not be beaten out of his war optimism easily, and he believes [Trump] has few cards,' Alexander Gabuev, director of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, wrote on X on July 14. As far back as winter 'it was clear that Vladimir Putin is convinced [of] one thing: time is on his side,' Gabuev wrote. 'This is why he isn't interested in a deal [that's] not on his terms.'
India Today
a day ago
- Politics
- India Today
Apache power: US-made chopper is Indian Army's big move to control aviation assets
On the rainy July 22 morning, a Soviet-era Antonov cargo aircraft touched down at the Hindon airbase close to Delhi, delivering the first batch of American AH-64E Apache attack helicopters for the Indian Army. These helicopters—nicknamed 'Flying Tank' for their heavy firepower and battlefield resilience—are set to be deployed along the western front with Pakistan, significantly boosting India's armoured warfare induction marks a major step in the army's longstanding efforts at direct control over its combat aviation assets. The three helicopters delivered are part of a Rs 5,691 crore deal signed in February 2020 for six Apaches, specifically for the Indian Army. The choppers will be based at the newly raised 451 Army Aviation Squadron in Jodhpur, Rajasthan—strategically located for operations in the desert terrain bordering the Indian Air Force (IAF), which uses its 22 Apaches for air defence and deep-strike roles targeting enemy radar installations and command posts, the Indian Army intends to use its fleet for close air support, tank-busting missions and battlefield dominance during armoured delivery also rekindles a long-running turf war between the Indian Army and the IAF over control of attack helicopters. Since Independence, the IAF has retained command over all offensive air assets, including attack and heavy-lift helicopters. The army, however, has argued that helicopter gunships meant to support ground forces should be under the Army Aviation Corps' operational command in order to ensure better coordination and effectiveness in battlefield scenarios. Official sources claim that the arrival of the Apache helicopters is not just a boost in firepower—it represents a symbolic shift in the army's growing ambitions to carve out greater control over integrated air-land warfare. The delivery of all six helicopters is expected soon, after which they will be formally inducted and operationalised for July 22 delivery is more than just acquisition of cutting-edge hardware—it signals a strategic evolution of India's approach to modern aerial warfare. Built in Mesa, Arizona, the AH-64E is widely regarded as the most advanced multi-role combat helicopter in service globally. It forms the backbone of the US army's attack helicopter fleet and is also part of arsenals of several allied nations, including AH-64E incorporates 26 new technologies to enhance battlefield performance. These include advanced digital connectivity, the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System, more powerful T700-GE-701D engines with enhanced transmissions, improved rotor blades made of composite materials, and the ability to control unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) mid-flight—allowing manned-unmanned teaming in real time. Globally, over 400 AH-64Es have been delivered, and the US army fleet alone has clocked more than 4.5 million flight as the Apaches strengthen India's capabilities against Pakistan in the western theatre, a parallel and significant development is unfolding on the eastern front. This March, the defence ministry signed a Rs 62,700 crore (approximately $7.3 billion) contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for 156 'Prachand' light combat helicopters, underscoring the increasing role of rotorcraft in India's war-fighting doctrine. These helicopters—66 for the IAF and 90 for the Indian Army—will be delivered over the next five years, with deliveries starting in the third for high-altitude warfare, the Prachand is tailored to Indian needs, especially for deployment along the contested Himalayan border with China. With modern stealth features, armour protection and potent night-attack capabilities, the helicopter is optimised for precision strikes in extreme terrain. This makes it a vital counter to Chinese advancements in attack helicopter People's Liberation Army (PLA) has made significant strides with its Z-10 attack helicopter, also known as the Zhishengji-10 or the 'Fierce Thunderbolt'. Also dubbed the 'Chinese Apache' due to its design resemblance and battlefield role, the Z-10 represents China's growing ambitions to rival the US and western rotorcraft the arrival of the US-made Apaches and scaling up of India's homegrown Prachand fleet reflect a broader shift in India's aerial doctrine—one that emphasises on layered, terrain-specific attack helicopter capabilities across two distinct fronts. As the global strategic environment evolves, India's twin investments in American and indigenous platforms ensure it retains a credible edge in both desert and mountain to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch
NDTV
a day ago
- General
- NDTV
The Legacy Of MiG-21, In Indian Air Force Service Since 1963
New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided to retire the remaining squadrons of the Soviet-era MiG-21 fighter jets in September. They are being replaced with the single-engine Mk-1A. Top Points On MiG-21 Jets: MiG-21s, known as the workhorse of the Air Force for several decades, entered service in 1963 on a trial basis, a year after India bought them from the Soviet Union. The supersonic fighter jets were India's first combat aircraft of non-Western origin. They went on to become the asset of the IAF from 1970 to the mid-2000s, till the Su-30MKIs were pressed into action. MiG-21s could operate in all weather and carry a wide variety of air-to-ground munitions in an attack role. They also played a major role during the 1971 war with Pakistan, dropping about 500 kg bombs on the Pakistani air bases. The war, which started on December 3 and ended with the Pakistani armed forces surrendering 13 days later, leading to the creation of Bangladesh, also saw the first-ever encounter between the MiG-21 and Pakistan's F-104A, with India dominating the skies. MiG-21s remained an "immense asset" for over a quarter century, the Indian Air Force has written on its website. "The quantity vs quality dilemma inevitably faced by most of the world's air forces as a consequence of spiralling costs was mitigated for the IAF by the large-scale availability of the MiG-21, which type will surely go down as one of aviation history's all-time classics," it has said. The legacy of MiG-21, however, has been marred by several accidents in the recent past. India, which produced more than 600 MiG-21s, will replace them with single-engine Tejas Mk-1A jets.
