Latest news with #MaxHunder
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Facing battlefield setbacks, Ukraine withdraws from mine ban treaty
* Facing battlefield setbacks, Ukraine withdraws from mine ban treaty Kyiv is quitting treaty banning anti-personnel landmines * Decision has been criticised by rights campaigners * Russia is not a signatory to the Ottawa Convention * Ukraine is looking for ways to halt Russian advances By Max Hunder and Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey KYIV, - Oleksiy, a 26-year-old Ukrainian soldier, is six months into a difficult recovery after losing most of his left leg to an anti-personnel mine. Despite his injuries, he says Ukraine is right to withdraw from a treaty banning such weapons. Facing challenges in securing new U.S. supplies of artillery and munitions, or to recruit enough new soldiers to hold frontline positions, Kyiv announced its withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention on June 29. Military analysts and a Ukrainian unit commander said that doing so could help slow the Russian advances Kyiv is struggling to contain over three years after Moscow's full-scale invasion. "Russia does not adhere to any conventions - so why should we?" Oleksiy, who gave only his first name in line with Ukrainian military requirements, said at a rehabilitation centre for wounded service personnel in Kyiv. "We need to do this, because if we mine then there is then a chance that we won't give it up." Russia is not a party to the treaty, and military analysts, rights groups and Ukrainian soldiers say it has been using anti-personnel mines widely. Russia's Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Moscow has not confirmed it uses anti-personnel mines in Ukraine. Russian officials say Ukraine has already used such devices in the war. The United States approved the provision of anti-personnel mines to Ukraine in November, Reuters has previously reported. At the time, U.S. officials said Ukraine was expected to use the U.S. mines on its own territory although it committed to not using them in areas populated with civilians. Russia holds about a fifth of Ukraine including Crimea, which it seized in 2014. Ukraine's defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment on whether it already deploys such munitions, their battlefield usefulness and criticism of the move. Ukraine widely uses anti-vehicle mines not covered by the treaty. About a quarter of Ukraine is contaminated by mines or unexploded ordnance, the Defence Ministry's demining unit says. Frontline areas and pockets of the Kursk region just inside Russia are thickly contaminated with the small devices which explode when triggered by contact, vibration or tripwires. Three military analysts said anti-personnel mines were a useful tool to counter Russia's emerging tactic of sending small assault squads, some riding on motorbikes, that are not stopped by other frontline fortifications. "When our side does not have much infantry on the front lines, creating a system of obstacles with these types of mines strengthens the defence - so that we do not rely solely on UAVs or artillery," said Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine's National Institute for Strategic Studies, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones. A bomb squad company commander from Ukraine's 59th brigade operating near the eastern city of Pokrovsk said a large rotary drone could be used to deploy up to 70 anti-personnel mines at a time. "They can effectively mine distant areas. And the enemy will take significant losses without even reaching our positions," said the commander, who uses the call-sign Voron. He did not say whether Ukraine was already deploying anti-personnel mines. "COPYING RUSSIA" Anti-mine campaigners condemned Ukraine's decision to leave the Ottawa Convention, following the example of five other European nations bordering Russia. The move opens the way to Ukraine increasing the deployment of a munition that can maim civilians, including children, long after conflict subsides. Ukraine said in July 2024 that nearly 300 Ukrainian civilians had been killed and over 1,000 others wounded by Russian mines. Neither country releases casualty figures for its own soldiers. Tamar Gabelnick, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, told Reuters that Kyiv's decision would put civilians at risk for years. "Why would Ukraine want to copy the abusive, horrible military tactics of their enemy? Why would they want to stoop down to that level?", she said. About 85% of mine deaths worldwide are civilian, she said. After signing a decree to quit the treaty, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that often the function performed by anti-personnel mines could not be performed by any other weapon. The decision to exit the treaty, which prohibits anti-personnel mines but not other types such as anti-vehicle mines, needs parliament's approval but is likely to be waved through. Lawmaker Fedir Venislavskiy said the armed forces would use the munitions responsibly and that Ukraine has regulations on use of anti-vehicle mines, including mapping their locations. "The maps of these minefields will allow them to be cleared quite quickly after hostilities end," he said. Ukraine has not said whether it plans to quickly deploy more mines. Venislavskiy said it would now be able to establish its own production. Ukraine destroyed some of its Soviet-era anti-personnel mine stocks after ratifying the convention in 2005 but Venislavskiy said it still has enough to cause Russia problems. Oleksiy set off a mine while defending a patch of forest in territory Ukraine held in Russia's Kursk region at the time. He did not say who set the mine. "I fell and saw that my leg was still there but twisted... it became so painful, I started to shout for help," he said. Oleksiy dragged himself to his comrades, he said, possibly saving their lives. His leg was later amputated but he said the potential reward of mines stopping Russian advances was worth the risks involved in deploying them. "We can demine it later - it's a long process, it can drag on for many years, but it's not giving up your land," he said. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
No way to restart Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant at present, IAEA chief says
By Max Hunder KYIV (Reuters) -The idled Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine is not in a condition to be restarted at present, due to a lack of water for cooling and the absence of a stable power supply, the head of the UN's nuclear safety watchdog said on Tuesday. Water would have to be pumped from the Dnipro River for the plant, which has not generated power for nearly three years, to restart, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told Reuters. The facility, located in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region and Europe's largest nuclear plant, was occupied by Russia in March 2022, shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour. Before the war, the plant generated a fifth of Ukraine's electricity. Speaking in an interview in Kyiv, Grossi said the Russians had "never hidden the fact" that they want to restart the plant, but added they would not be able to do so soon. The plant is less than 10 km (6 miles) from Ukrainian positions on the other side of the Dnipro River. It has six reactors, the last of which stopped generating electricity in September 2022. The water level of its cooling pond, which sits on the southern bank of the Dnipro, dropped significantly in the summer of 2023 after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed downstream. Nearby areas regularly come under artillery and drone bombardment, which has on occasion damaged the two remaining power lines supplying the electricity needed for the plant to cool itself, even in its dormant state. Both sides accuse each other of being responsible for the attacks. Greenpeace issued a report last week saying Russia was building a 90-km high-voltage power line to connect the power plant to its grid. Grossi said the IAEA did not agree with that report's conclusions. "There are some areas where there has been some work, but we do not have any concrete evidence that this is part of a concerted, orchestrated plan to connect the power plant in one sense or the other." "We are not in a situation of imminent restart of the plant. Far from that, it would take quite some time before that can be done," Grossi said. The plant's machinery would have to be thoroughly inspected before any restart, he added. "You can imagine in such a huge piece of machinery, you have pumps, you have bolts, you have pipes, you have a number of things that may be suffering corrosion." Grossi said that if enough water could be pumped in from the Dnipro River, all six of the plant's reactors could eventually be restarted, although "a number of things" would need to be done beforehand. RUSSIAN TECHNICIANS Ukraine has said that any attempt by Russian technicians to restart the plant would be dangerous because they are not certified to operate it. Grossi said Russian nuclear staff were capable of conducting a restart, and that the issue of certification was a political rather than technical one. "They are professionals -- they know what they are doing," he said. Ukraine has also protested at the IAEA's monitoring mission to the plant accessing it via Russian-occupied territory. Grossi said this was to protect the safety of his staff, and that at present he does not have the necessary guarantees from the Russian side to safely transit IAEA staff through the frontlines to Ukraine-controlled territory, as had been done several times in the past.
Daily Maverick
02-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
To attack Russian air bases, Ukrainian spies hid drones in wooden sheds
Ukraine's SBU domestic intelligence says it carried out 'operation Spider's Web' Drones in sheds were placed on trucks and driven near Russian bases SBU says 34% of cruise missile carriers put out of action Video shows Russian strategic bombers on fire By Tom Balmforth and Max Hunder Ukraine's domestic security agency, the SBU, acknowledged that it carried out the attacks and said they caused considerable damage. The sheds were loaded onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases. The roof panels of the sheds were lifted off by a remotely-activated mechanism, allowing the drones to fly out and begin their attack, the official said. The security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said strikes were conducted on Sunday on four air bases, and that 41 Russian warplanes were hit. An SBU statement posted on the Telegram messaging app estimated the damage caused by the assaults at $7 billion. 'Thirty-four percent of strategic cruise missile carriers at the main airfields of the Russian Federation were hit,' the SBU said on Telegram. Unverified video and pictures posted on Russian social media showed Russian strategic bombers on fire at the Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region of Siberia. Igor Kobzev, the regional governor, said there had been a drone attack on a military unit near the village of Sredny, which is near the Belaya base, though he did not specify what the target was. He said the drones had been launched from a truck. The Irkutsk region attack was the first time a drone assault had been mounted by Ukraine so far from the front lines, which are more than 4,300 km (2,670 miles) away. That is beyond the range of the long-range strike drones or ballistic missiles Ukraine has in its arsenal, so required a special scheme to get the drones close enough to their target. Photographs shared with Reuters by the Ukrainian security official showed dozens of short-range quadrocopter drones piled up in an industrial facility. The official said these were the same devices used in the attack. Other images shared by the official showed the wooden sheds with their metal roofing panels removed, and the drones sitting in the cavities between roof beams. Separate video posted on Russian Telegram channels, which has not been verified by Reuters, appeared to show matching sheds on the back of a truck. The roof panels can be seen lying on the ground next to the truck, and the video footage shows at least two drones rising out of the top of the sheds and flying off. The Russian online media outlet that posted the video, Baza, said in a caption that it was filmed in the district near the Belaya air base. The Irkutsk region air base hosts Tupolev Tu-22M supersonic long-range strategic bombers, a type of aircraft that has been used to launch missiles against targets in Ukraine. The operation was code-named 'Spider's Web', according to the Ukrainian security official, and was personally overseen by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Vasyl Maliuk, head of the SBU domestic intelligence agency. If confirmed, the strikes would be the most damaging Ukrainian drone attack of the war, and would be a significant setback for Moscow. The source shared video footage shot from a drone, saying it showed one of the strikes. The images showed several large aircraft, some of which appeared to be Tu-95 strategic bombers, on fire.
The Star
01-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Senior Ukrainian military commander tenders resignation over lethal strike on training facility
KYIV (Reuters) -The commander of Ukraine's land forces, one of the most senior positions in the country's armed forces, announced on Sunday that he was tendering his resignation, citing a lethal strike on Ukrainian military training facility. (Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukrainian military says it hit Russian semiconductor device plant
KYIV (Reuters) -A Ukrainian drone attack hit a semiconductor devices plant in Russia's western Oryol region that supplies Russian fighter jet and missile producers, Ukraine's military said on Wednesday. Ten drones had reached the target area and a fire had broken out, the military said on the Telegram messaging app. It said the Bolkhovsky Semiconductor Devices Plant supplies various Russian enterprises, including some involved in the production of Iskander and Kinzhal missiles. "This is one of the leading enterprises in the Russian Federation in the field of development and production of semiconductor devices and components," the statement said. There was no immediate comment on the strike from Moscow, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine has increasingly hit back against regular Russian missile and drone attacks with a fleet of domestically produced drones. (Reporting and writing by Anastasiia Malenko and Max Hunder, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
