Latest news with #UkraineCounteroffensive
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
2000 Meters to Andriivka review – war in Ukraine as an eerie, pin-sharp waking nightmare
Two years ago, the Ukrainian photojournalist and film-maker Mstyslav Chernov stunned us with his eyewitness documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, about Russia's brutal assault on the southern Ukrainian port city. His new film is if anything more visceral, with waking-nightmare images captured in pin-sharp 4K digital clarity. It is a moment-by-moment account of his experience embedded with Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade in 2023 (one of them appears to be a Brit) during Zelenskyy's highly anticipated counteroffensive, making a gruelling journey along what amounts to a two-kilometre corridor of 'forest'. In fact, it is scrubland offering no real cover – but it is free of Russian mines, unlike the areas of farmland either side. The forces brutally fight every metre of the way, heading for the symbolic liberation of the largely ruined village of Andriivka in north-eastern Ukraine. They are carrying a precious Ukrainian flag, and it is their mission to fix this to any broken bit of wall they can find, to proclaim their national spirit is not dead. They are in a wasteland, as one says: 'It's like landing on a planet where everyone is trying to kill you. But it's the middle of Europe.' Chernov is armed only with a camera, to the astonishment of many soldiers he encounters, and the film was constructed by editing his footage together with that of solders' helmet cameras and drone material. Chernov shows us how drones are now utterly ubiquitous in war, delivering both the pictures and the assaults. That is the ultra-modern, even postmodern aspect of this film, but it coexists with an eerie resemblance to the eastern front of the first world war. Chernov, in one of his murmuringly subdued voiceovers, comments: 'The smell of death, explosives and freshly cut trees.' The wrecked landscape does indeed look like 1916, and Chernov does not scruple to show us real dead bodies (but spares us the ultimate horror of the corpses' faces). When the intertitles flash up the grim advances – 1,000 meters to go, 300 metres to go – it is like the cricket-style scoreboard for the Battle of the Somme in Richard Attenborough's film of Oh! What a Lovely War: 'Ground gained: nil.' The most heart-wrenching moments come when Chernov interviews soldiers in a quiet moment, their twentysomething faces alive with intelligence – and in a sombre voiceover tells us how they were killed four or five months later. It is a (repeated) flourish that might be considered on the verge of bad taste, but Chernov manages it with such unflinching conviction. Since the events of this film, Russia has counter-counterattacked and retaken Andriivka; though now we hear Trump has soured on Putin. A Ukrainian soldier surveys the wreck of Andriivka and says: 'Everything will grow back.' 2000 Meters to Andriivka is in UK and Irish cinemas from 1 August.
Russia Today
3 days ago
- Business
- Russia Today
Musk ordered Starlink shutdown during Ukraines 2022 counteroffensive
Elon Musk ordered a shutdown of Starlink satellite coverage during Ukraine's counteroffensive in September 2022, Reuters has reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Starlink, a satellite internet service developed by Musk's company SpaceX, has played a key role in maintaining connectivity for Ukrainian forces since the escalation of the conflict in February 2022. It has enabled the troops to coordinate operations, conduct surveillance, and operate drone systems across the front. According to several anonymous sources, Musk had directed a senior engineer at SpaceX's California headquarters to cut coverage in areas including Kherson Region and parts of the Donetsk People's Republic. The order reportedly deactivated over 100 terminals, causing a communications blackout that disrupted reconnaissance and artillery targeting. Ukrainian officials told the outlet that the outage led to the failure of a planned encirclement of Russian forces. Sources said the command was issued in late September and may have stemmed from Musk's concern that Ukrainian gains could trigger a Russian nuclear response. Neither Musk nor SpaceX have responded to Reuters' requests for comment. A company spokesperson called the reporting 'inaccurate' but did not specify what was disputed. The Pentagon, White House, as well as Ukrainian officials have also declined to comment. The report follows a global Starlink outage on Thursday, which disrupted frontline communications for over two hours. Ukrainian commanders confirmed the disruption but said service has since been restored. Musk has previously admitted to refusing a Ukrainian request to activate Starlink over Crimea, arguing that it would have enabled strikes on Russian ships stationed in Sevastopol and escalated the conflict. In 2023, he said doing so would have made SpaceX 'explicitly complicit in a major act of war.' Earlier this year, the billionaire also stressed that Starlink is 'the backbone of the Ukrainian army,' and stated that if the system were to be turned off, Kiev's 'entire front line would collapse.' Last month, the head of Russia's Lugansk People's Republic banned all SpaceX products, including Starlink, warning that they could be used to coordinate attacks. Officials in Moscow have long voiced concerns about the military use of the technology.
Russia Today
5 days ago
- Business
- Russia Today
Musk ordered Starlink shutdown during Ukraine offensive in 2022
Elon Musk ordered a shutdown of Starlink satellite coverage during Ukraine's counteroffensive in September 2022, Reuters has reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Starlink, a satellite internet service developed by Musk's company SpaceX, has played a key role in maintaining connectivity for Ukrainian forces since the escalation of the conflict in February 2022. It has enabled the troops to coordinate operations, conduct surveillance, and operate drone systems across the front. According to several anonymous sources, Musk had directed a senior engineer at SpaceX's California headquarters to cut coverage in areas including Kherson Region and parts of the Donetsk People's Republic. The order reportedly deactivated over 100 terminals, causing a communications blackout that disrupted reconnaissance and artillery targeting. Ukrainian officials told the outlet that the outage led to the failure of a planned encirclement of Russian forces. Sources said the command was issued in late September and may have stemmed from Musk's concern that Ukrainian gains could trigger a Russian nuclear response. Neither Musk nor SpaceX have responded to Reuters' requests for comment. A company spokesperson called the reporting 'inaccurate' but did not specify what was disputed. The Pentagon, White House, as well as Ukrainian officials have also declined to comment. The report follows a global Starlink outage on Thursday, which disrupted frontline communications for over two hours. Ukrainian commanders confirmed the disruption but said service has since been restored. Musk has previously admitted to refusing a Ukrainian request to activate Starlink over Crimea, arguing that it would have enabled strikes on Russian ships stationed in Sevastopol and escalated the conflict. In 2023, he said doing so would have made SpaceX 'explicitly complicit in a major act of war.' Earlier this year, the billionaire also stressed that Starlink is 'the backbone of the Ukrainian army,' and stated that if the system were to be turned off, Kiev's 'entire front line would collapse.' Last month, the head of Russia's Lugansk People's Republic banned all SpaceX products, including Starlink, warning that they could be used to coordinate attacks. Officials in Moscow have long voiced concerns about the military use of the technology.
