Russian forces - The African Mirror

Mar

2023

UK says Ukraine forces under increasingly severe pressure defending Bakhmut

UKRAINIAN forces defending Bakhmut are facing increasingly strong pressure from Russian forces, British military intelligence said, with intense fighting taking place in and around the eastern city. Ukraine is reinforcing the area with elite units, while the regular Russian army and forces of the private military Wagner group have made further advances into Bakhmut's northern suburbs, the British Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin. The Ukraine armed forces' general staff said in a Facebook post late on Saturday that Russian troops were trying but failing to surround Bakhmut, adding defenders had repelled numerous attacks in and around the…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Russians tighten noose on Ukraine’s Bakhmut, Putin warns of Western espionage

WORLD

DAN PELESCHUK RUSSIAN forces pressed forward their weeks-long drive to encircle and capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, where the commander of Ukraine's ground forces described the situation as "extremely tense". Taking Bakhmut, the scene of some of the war's bloodiest battles, would be Russia's first major prize in more than six months and open the way to seizing the last remaining urban centres in the Donetsk region, one of four Moscow claims to have annexed in its "special military operation" in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the FSB security service on Tuesday to bolster security in the four regions…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Allies offer more weapons to Ukraine, but no decisions made on tanks

WORLD

IDREES ALI and TOM BALMFORTH WESTERN allies dampened Ukraine's hopes for a rapid shipment of battle tanks to boost its firepower for a spring offensive against Russian forces, with the United States urging Kyiv to hold off from mounting such an operation. The United States' top general, speaking after a meeting of the allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, also said it would be very hard for Ukraine to drive Russia's invading forces from the country this year. The run-up to the Ramstein meeting had been dominated by the issue of whether Germany would agree to send Leopard 2 tanks…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Scale of alleged torture, detentions by Russian forces in Kherson emerges

WORLD

ANTHONY DEUTSCH, ANNA VOITENKO and OLENA HARMASH OKSANA Minenko, a 44-year-old accountant who lives in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, said she was repeatedly detained and tortured by occupying Russian forces. Her husband, a Ukrainian soldier, died defending Kherson’s Antonivskyi bridge on the first day of full-scale war, she said. During several interrogations in the spring, Russian forces submerged her hands in boiling water, pulled out her fingernails and beat her in the face with rifle butts so badly she needed plastic surgery, according to Minenko. “One pain grew into another,” said Minenko, speaking while at an improvised humanitarian aid…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

‘What ceasefire?’: shells fly at Ukraine front despite Putin’s truce

WORLD

HERBERT VILLARRAGA RUSSIAN and Ukrainian forces exchanged artillery fire at the front line in Ukraine, even after Moscow said it had ordered its troops to stop shooting for a unilateral truce that was firmly rejected by Kyiv. President Vladimir Putin ordered the 36-hour ceasefire from midday on Friday to observe Russian Orthodox Christmas. Ukraine has said it has no intention to stop fighting, rejecting the purported truce as a stunt by Moscow to buy time to reinforce troops that have taken heavy losses this week. "What ceasefire? Can you hear?" said a Ukrainian soldier, using the nom de guerre Vyshnya,…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia intensifies attacks on liberated Kherson, eastern Ukraine

WORLD

DAN PELESCHUK and HERBERT VILLARRAGA RUSSIAN forces stepped up mortar and artillery attacks on the recently liberated city of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, Ukraine's military said, while also exerting constant pressure along front lines in eastern regions of the country. Russia fired 33 missiles from multiple rocket launchers at civilian targets in Kherson in the 24 hours to early Wednesday, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its morning report. Russia denies targeting civilians. Heavy fighting also persisted around the Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut, now largely in ruins, in the eastern province of Donetsk, and to…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Fighting rages in east Ukraine, Europe agrees extra military aid to Ukraine

WORLD

NICK STARKOV and PAVEL POLITYUK RUSSIAN forces pounded targets in eastern and southern Ukraine with missiles, drones and artillery, Ukraine's General Staff said, while millions remained without power in subzero temperatures after further strikes on key infrastructure. European Union foreign ministers agreed to put another 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) into a fund that has been used to pay for military support for Ukraine after it was largely depleted during almost 10 months of the war. The EU ministers were also due to discuss a ninth package of sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, while Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was set to…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia shells eastern front as Putin says West ‘exploiting’ crisis

WORLD

DAN PELESCHUK RUSSIAN forces shelled the entire front line in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, as Russia's President Vladimir Putin accused the West of using Ukrainians as "cannon fodder" in its quest for global dominance. Putin also said, without elaborating, that Russia would probably have to do a deal over Ukraine someday while accusing France and Germany of betrayal over past efforts to bring peace to eastern Ukraine. In a sign of Russia's clampdown on public dissent since it invaded Ukraine on February 24, a Moscow court sentenced opposition politician Ilya Yashin to eight and a half…

Oct

2022

By The African Mirror

Russian forces “preparing to work under radioactive contamination” – Moscow

WORLD

RUSSIA'S Defence Ministry said that it had prepared its forces to work in conditions of radioactive contamination after Moscow accused Ukraine of planning to detonate a "dirty bomb" - something Kyiv has strongly denied. After weeks of rising international tension following threats by President Vladimir Putin to defend Russia's "territorial integrity" with nuclear weapons, it was the first concrete statement from Moscow of a change in its forces' state of preparedness. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Western defence ministers on Sunday that Moscow believed Ukraine was preparing to detonate such a bomb - a device using conventional explosives packed with…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Russia threatens broad Ukraine offensive as U.S. presses China over war stance

WORLD

PAVEL POLITYUK UKRAINIAN defenders battled to contain Russian forces along several fronts, officials said, as the United States urged China to align itself with the West in opposing the invasion following an ill-tempered G20 meeting. A missile strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded three civilians, its governor said, though Russia's main attacks appeared focused southeast of there in Luhansk and Donetsk. Those two provinces, parts of which were held by pro-Russian separatists before the conflict began in February, comprise the eastern industrial region of the Donbas. Ukrainian officials reported strikes in both on Saturday, while Britain's Ministry of…