My VE Day in Kyrgyzstan
Alexandra was leading us to camp and ride in the remote and wildly beautiful Tienshan mountains. Rather than trying to make arrangements for satellite phones, I decided to surrender any direct link to the outside world for a week.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
‘Moldova is worse than Ukraine': My clash with Russian sympathisers fighting the EU
Not all battles are fought with bullets. The Telegraph have travelled to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, during a vital geopolitical crossroads on Europe's eastern flank. To its east is Ukraine, a country fighting for its very survival. To its west is Romania, a member of Nato and the European Union. Moldova is a member of neither and for many, that puts it in Putin's sights. The Telegraph has explored the dangers facing Moldova and the ramifications not only for Ukraine and Europe, but also for the wider West. If there were such a thing as a second Cold War, Chisinau would be on the front line. To hear more about this story, listen to our award-winning podcast, Ukraine: The Latest.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Putin's show of strength to the West: Russia carries out huge wargames in Baltic and Caspian seas with 150 warships and 15,000 troops ahead of peace talks with Ukraine today
Russia launched major navy drills around the world today, deploying more than 150 vessels and 15,000 military personnel in the Pacific and Arctic oceans and in the Baltic and Caspian seas as peace talks with Ukraine were set to get underway. The so-called 'July Storm' exercise from July 23 to July 27 will test the readiness of the fleet for non-standard operations, the use of long-range weapons and other advanced technology, including unmanned systems, Russia's defence ministry said. 'At sea, the crews of the ships will practice deployment to combat areas, conducting anti-submarine operations, defending areas of deployment and economic activity,' a statement read. They will also practice 'repelling attacks by air attack weapons, unmanned boats and enemy drones, ensuring the safety of navigation, striking enemy targets and naval groups', under the supervision of Navy chief Admiral Alexander Moiseev. Besides the naval vessels, more than 120 aircraft will also take part in the drills along with 10 coastal missile systems, displaying Moscow 's aerial prowess. It comes as a delegation of eight Russian officials gets set to meet their Ukrainian counterparts in the Turkish city of Istanbul for a third round of direct peace talks. But there is little hope the negotiations will yield significant results, and the Kremlin earlier this week sought to play down expectations. Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters: 'There is no reason to expect any breakthroughs in the category of miracles... it is hardly possible in the current situation. 'We intend to pursue our interests, we intend to ensure our interests and fulfil the tasks that we set for ourselves from the very beginning.' Asked if he could give a sense of how the Kremlin saw the potential time frame of a possible peace agreement, Peskov said he could give no guidance on timing. 'There is a lot of work to be done before we can talk about the possibility of some top-level meetings,' Peskov added, a day after Zelensky renewed a call for a meeting with Vladimir Putin. The Russian President has thus far spurned Zelensky's offers of a face-to-face meeting to end Europe's biggest conflict since World War II. But the Ukrainian leader insists that lower-level delegations like the ones expected for talks in Istanbul today simply do not have the political heft to stop the fighting on their own. The sides remain far apart on how to end the war begun by Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. The Russian President has repeatedly declared that any peace deal should see Ukraine withdraw from the four regions that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022. He also wants Ukraine to renounce its bid to join NATO and accept strict limits on its armed forces - demands Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected. 'Ukraine never wanted this war, and it is Russia that must end the war that it itself started,' Zelensky said in a Telegram post as he called for a sit-down with Putin. But Peskov said Tuesday that 'a lot of work needs to be done before having a detailed discussion on the possibility of high-level meetings,' effectively scrapping hopes of a summit to bring Zelensky and Putin together any time soon. Ukrainian and Western officials have accused the Kremlin of stalling in talks in order for its bigger army to capture more Ukrainian land. Moscow's forces are currently in control of roughly 20% of Ukraine's landmass. Indeed, sources in the Kremlin told Reuters last week that Putin intends to simply seize more Ukrainian territory and believes his nation, which has thus far survived the toughest sanctions imposed by the West, can endure further economic hardship. 'Putin thinks no one has seriously engaged with him on the details of peace in Ukraine - including the Americans - so he will continue until he gets what he wants,' one source said. Russian analysts have said Moscow's forces will aim to bleed Ukraine dry with a strategy of 'a thousand cuts,' using drones and meat grinder assaults to relentlessly pressure many sectors of the front while increasing long-range aerial attacks against key infrastructure. Since spring, Russian troops have accelerated their land gains, capturing the most territory in eastern Ukraine since the opening stages of Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022. DeepState Map, a Ukrainian open-source live mapping service, suggests Putin's soldiers have managed to secure 1,415 square kilometres (546 square miles) of land in the past three months. Now, they're closing in on the eastern strongholds of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region, methodically capturing villages near both cities to try to cut key supply routes and envelop their defenders. Capturing those strongholds would allow Russia to push toward Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, setting the stage for the seizure of the entire Donetsk region. If Russian troops seize those last strongholds, it would open the way for them to forge westward to the Dnipropetrovsk region. The regional capital of Dnipro, a major industrial hub of nearly 1 million, is about 150 kilometres (90 miles) west of Russian positions. Putin's troops are also already in control of the entire Luhansk region, along with more than 70% of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and small parts of the Kharkiv region, where they are encircling Lyman and Kupiansk. Russia's battlefield success of late is due in part to Ukraine's manpower and ammunition shortages after more than three years of brutal war, but can also be attributed in part to a refinement of frontline tactics, specifically the use of drones. Petro, a senior sergeant with the 38th Marine Brigade fighting near Pokrovsk, told the Kyiv Independent last week that his unit is experiencing a 'huge problem' with Russia's use of drones and glide bombs. Rather than relying on tanks and armoured vehicles to grind forward as they did earlier in the war, Russian forces are increasingly deploying swarms of first-person view (FPV) drones to bombard Ukrainian positions and limit the mobility of defenders. Roman Pohorilyi, co-founder of DeepState Map, added that Shahed-type attack drones are also being used along the contact line, not just to launch attacks on infrastructure. But groups of unfortunate foot soldiers are nonetheless forced to pile in behind them in a mad dash to overwhelm the defensive lines - a tactic Petro described as 'meat assaults in small groups'. 'Three (Russian soldiers) advance, two are killed, and one reaches the trench.' A view of the destruction after Russian forces launched a missile attack on the Kyivskyi district of Kharkiv Since Donald Trump's return to the White House in January, the US and Russian leaders have shared several personal phone calls. Trump also dispatched special envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow for a diplomatic visit, and the US has proposed an unconditional ceasefire - but these actions have yielded no results. Moscow's escalating attacks on Ukraine have tested Trump's patience, and his temper boiled over last week during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office. 'We are very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per cent,' he threatened. 'I'm disappointed in President Putin. I thought we would've had a deal two months ago,' he went on, in reference to the US-proposed ceasefire that Kyiv accepted but was rejected by Moscow. Perhaps more consequentially, Trump also threatened to levy secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian exports to discourage them from keeping funds flowing into the Kremlin's war chest, should the conflict continue beyond the 50-day deadline. Until now, the US and its European allies have declined to impose measures that would restrict Russia from exporting its oil and gas elsewhere. Such a move would constitute a dramatic ramping up of Western efforts to back Ukraine as it would likely see Washington and the EU target countries such as China, India and NATO member Turkey, all of whom import huge quantities of Russian energy. In response, leading Russian propagandist Igor Korotchenko said Moscow must use the 50-day period before sanctions are imposed to win the war by dramatically increasing the intensity of attacks across the border. Korotchenko, a former colonel-turned-military analyst and editor-in-chief of National Defence magazine, told state-TV: 'Weakening the potential of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' rear support system will force Ukraine to accept Russia's terms. 'It is necessary to intensify Russian strikes… to the maximum extent possible. Scaling up this approach, we can achieve success.'
Scottish Sun
2 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Massive protests sweep Kyiv over corruption reform in biggest challenge to Zelensky since Putin's invasion of Ukraine
MAJOR protests have started to sweep across Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a controversial corruption bill. Critics fear the new law may weaken the country's anti-corruption bodies by stripping the two main organisations in the embattled nation of their independence. 9 Protests have started across Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill that critics fear will weaken the country's anti-corruption bodies Credit: AFP 9 The demonstarions in central Kyiv continued late into the night Credit: AP 9 Lviv also saw similar remonstrations as did several cities in Ukraine Credit: Reuters 9 Many came armed with passionate placards Credit: Reuters Zelensky addressed the criticism he has faced in recent days but assured his fellow country men and women that both agencies would still "work" as usual. He warned that the bill needed to be passed in order to clear the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) of "Russian influence". The offices of the two agencies were raided by Ukraine's security services on Monday after infiltration allegations from Moscow emerged. All corruption cases in Ukraine will now placed under the control of the prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko. Zelensky says this will allow criminal proceedings, sometimes worth in the billions, to be investigated quicker. He claims that the current anti-corruption infrastructure often allows for important cases to be left "lying dormant" for years. The President added that the prosecutor general would ensure "the inevitability of punishment" for those who broke the law. But many civilians strongly disagreed with his beliefs saying the bill now gives Zelensky ultimate power over independent bodies. After the bill passed, thousands of people came together in the capitla of Kyiv to take part in the biggest anti-government protest since the start of Russia's barbaric invasion in February 2022. Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a war veteran, is said to have first rallied Kyiv residents on Tuesday. Why Putin's $1 TRILLION military surge is just 'smoke and mirrors' - and even the tyrant knows it He urged people to gather at the square near the Ivan Franko Theatre due to it being "the closest viable spot to the President's Office". He announced plans on social media as he said: "Time is not on our side. "We must take to the streets tonight and urge Zelensky to prevent a return to the dark days of Yanukovych. See you this evening!" Lviv, Dnipro and Odesa also saw demonstrations overnight. The protests remained peaceful throughout despite an increased police presence across Ukraine. Many took homemade placards with messages directed towards the government. One read: "We chose Europe, not autocracy." Another said: "My father did not die for this." 9 Anti-government chants could be also be heard during the marches Credit: AP 9 The Ivan Franko National Theater building in Kyiv had the slogan 'Veto the law' projected onto it Credit: Getty 9 Zelensky says the new bill will allow criminal proceedings, sometimes worth in the billions, to be investigated quicker Credit: Getty Kyiv mayor and former world heavyweight champion, Vitali Klitschko, was among the protesters. He has clashed with Zelensky on dozens of occasions since becoming mayor as he told reporters on the ground: 'Sapo and Nabu must remain independent institutions." The issue is due to continue to rage on for some time after the Ukrainian parliament voted for the law on July 22. It was swiftly approved by the speaker shortly afterwards. The heads of NABU and SAPO quickly implored President Zelensky to go back on the decree. The issue of anti-corruption independence in Ukraine has also branched out across Europe in the past 24 hours. Several G7 ambassadors voiced their concerns over the bill. The European Union also warned against Ukraine's making any hasty judgements. What are Zelensky's controversial reforms? PRESIDENT Volodymyr Zelensky has signed into law a new bill surrounding the independence of Ukraine's two key anti-corruption institutions. The bill was passed with the support of 263 lawmakers, with 13 voting against it and 13 abstaining. The new law now brings the independent National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office under the lead of the prosecutor general of Ukraine, Ruslan Kravchenko. Ruslan is now able to transfer cases from the agencies and reassign prosecutors. Zelensky believes the change will speed up the process of finalising cases as well as stamp out any alleged Russian influence. But the head of NABU says the bill will "destroy" Ukraine's anti-corruption infrastructure. 9 Kyiv residents take part in the rally which remained peaceful Credit: Getty
