Latest news with #Ukrainian-controlled
The Advertiser
02-07-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Ukraine struggles to contain Russian advances in east
Russian forces have made incursions near two towns key to army supply routes in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official says as the Kremlin seeks a breakthrough in an offensive at a time of uncertainty over US weapons support for Ukraine. In recent weeks, Russia has amassed forces and despite heavy losses has advanced in rural areas either side of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, which both sit on crossroads running to the frontline from larger cities in Ukrainian-controlled territory. Russia's advances on the front are matched by an intensification of drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities. So far, the efforts by US President Donald Trump have failed to achieve a ceasefire in the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in 2022. One of the aims of the Russian offensive is to occupy the rest of the Donetsk region. Russian soldiers are using small assault groups, light vehicles and drones to push towards the neighbouring region, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsia group of forces. "There are constant attacks with the intent of breaking through" to the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region at any cost, Trehubov said in written comments to Reuters. Russia has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, which it has been trying to seize since early last year, Ukraine's top armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week, describing dozens of battles in the area every day. A decision by the US to halt some deliveries of various weapons including precision rocket artillery to Ukraine will worsen the situation on the ground for Ukraine's forces, said Jack Watling, a senior researcher at think-tank Royal United Services Institute. "The loss of these supplies will significantly degrade Ukraine's ability to strike Russian forces beyond 30km from the front line and therefore allow Russia to improve its logistics," Watling said. Ukrainian blog DeepState, which uses open-source data to map the frontline, said the Russian military in June had seized 556 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, which it said was the largest monthly loss of ground since November. Russian forces, which have numerical superiority, cut the main road linking Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in May, complicating Ukrainian movements and resupply efforts. "The Russian advance is being contained but their crossing of the Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka highway is a strategic and logistical setback," Trehubov said. Heavy Russian losses have prevented Russian advances toward Kostiantynivka via Chasiv Yar or along the western Pokrovsk front, he said. "Now they are attempting (to advance) further away from populated areas," Trehubov said. DeepState also reported that Russian advances in June near Pokrovsk and nearby Novopavlivka accounted for more than half of all Russian gains along the entire frontline in all of Ukraine. Trehubov said Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka remain Ukrainian logistical hubs despite setbacks and drone activity which make some defensive fortifications less effective. "(Drones) hinder logistics for both sides but don't make it impossible. Drones after all are not invulnerable," he said. Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for more than three years. The Kremlin claims the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in their entirety and has ordered the establishment of buffer zones along the borders defined by Russia. Russian forces have made incursions near two towns key to army supply routes in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official says as the Kremlin seeks a breakthrough in an offensive at a time of uncertainty over US weapons support for Ukraine. In recent weeks, Russia has amassed forces and despite heavy losses has advanced in rural areas either side of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, which both sit on crossroads running to the frontline from larger cities in Ukrainian-controlled territory. Russia's advances on the front are matched by an intensification of drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities. So far, the efforts by US President Donald Trump have failed to achieve a ceasefire in the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in 2022. One of the aims of the Russian offensive is to occupy the rest of the Donetsk region. Russian soldiers are using small assault groups, light vehicles and drones to push towards the neighbouring region, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsia group of forces. "There are constant attacks with the intent of breaking through" to the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region at any cost, Trehubov said in written comments to Reuters. Russia has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, which it has been trying to seize since early last year, Ukraine's top armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week, describing dozens of battles in the area every day. A decision by the US to halt some deliveries of various weapons including precision rocket artillery to Ukraine will worsen the situation on the ground for Ukraine's forces, said Jack Watling, a senior researcher at think-tank Royal United Services Institute. "The loss of these supplies will significantly degrade Ukraine's ability to strike Russian forces beyond 30km from the front line and therefore allow Russia to improve its logistics," Watling said. Ukrainian blog DeepState, which uses open-source data to map the frontline, said the Russian military in June had seized 556 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, which it said was the largest monthly loss of ground since November. Russian forces, which have numerical superiority, cut the main road linking Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in May, complicating Ukrainian movements and resupply efforts. "The Russian advance is being contained but their crossing of the Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka highway is a strategic and logistical setback," Trehubov said. Heavy Russian losses have prevented Russian advances toward Kostiantynivka via Chasiv Yar or along the western Pokrovsk front, he said. "Now they are attempting (to advance) further away from populated areas," Trehubov said. DeepState also reported that Russian advances in June near Pokrovsk and nearby Novopavlivka accounted for more than half of all Russian gains along the entire frontline in all of Ukraine. Trehubov said Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka remain Ukrainian logistical hubs despite setbacks and drone activity which make some defensive fortifications less effective. "(Drones) hinder logistics for both sides but don't make it impossible. Drones after all are not invulnerable," he said. Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for more than three years. The Kremlin claims the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in their entirety and has ordered the establishment of buffer zones along the borders defined by Russia. Russian forces have made incursions near two towns key to army supply routes in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official says as the Kremlin seeks a breakthrough in an offensive at a time of uncertainty over US weapons support for Ukraine. In recent weeks, Russia has amassed forces and despite heavy losses has advanced in rural areas either side of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, which both sit on crossroads running to the frontline from larger cities in Ukrainian-controlled territory. Russia's advances on the front are matched by an intensification of drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities. So far, the efforts by US President Donald Trump have failed to achieve a ceasefire in the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in 2022. One of the aims of the Russian offensive is to occupy the rest of the Donetsk region. Russian soldiers are using small assault groups, light vehicles and drones to push towards the neighbouring region, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsia group of forces. "There are constant attacks with the intent of breaking through" to the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region at any cost, Trehubov said in written comments to Reuters. Russia has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, which it has been trying to seize since early last year, Ukraine's top armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week, describing dozens of battles in the area every day. A decision by the US to halt some deliveries of various weapons including precision rocket artillery to Ukraine will worsen the situation on the ground for Ukraine's forces, said Jack Watling, a senior researcher at think-tank Royal United Services Institute. "The loss of these supplies will significantly degrade Ukraine's ability to strike Russian forces beyond 30km from the front line and therefore allow Russia to improve its logistics," Watling said. Ukrainian blog DeepState, which uses open-source data to map the frontline, said the Russian military in June had seized 556 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, which it said was the largest monthly loss of ground since November. Russian forces, which have numerical superiority, cut the main road linking Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in May, complicating Ukrainian movements and resupply efforts. "The Russian advance is being contained but their crossing of the Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka highway is a strategic and logistical setback," Trehubov said. Heavy Russian losses have prevented Russian advances toward Kostiantynivka via Chasiv Yar or along the western Pokrovsk front, he said. "Now they are attempting (to advance) further away from populated areas," Trehubov said. DeepState also reported that Russian advances in June near Pokrovsk and nearby Novopavlivka accounted for more than half of all Russian gains along the entire frontline in all of Ukraine. Trehubov said Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka remain Ukrainian logistical hubs despite setbacks and drone activity which make some defensive fortifications less effective. "(Drones) hinder logistics for both sides but don't make it impossible. Drones after all are not invulnerable," he said. Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for more than three years. The Kremlin claims the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in their entirety and has ordered the establishment of buffer zones along the borders defined by Russia. Russian forces have made incursions near two towns key to army supply routes in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official says as the Kremlin seeks a breakthrough in an offensive at a time of uncertainty over US weapons support for Ukraine. In recent weeks, Russia has amassed forces and despite heavy losses has advanced in rural areas either side of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, which both sit on crossroads running to the frontline from larger cities in Ukrainian-controlled territory. Russia's advances on the front are matched by an intensification of drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities. So far, the efforts by US President Donald Trump have failed to achieve a ceasefire in the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in 2022. One of the aims of the Russian offensive is to occupy the rest of the Donetsk region. Russian soldiers are using small assault groups, light vehicles and drones to push towards the neighbouring region, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsia group of forces. "There are constant attacks with the intent of breaking through" to the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region at any cost, Trehubov said in written comments to Reuters. Russia has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, which it has been trying to seize since early last year, Ukraine's top armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week, describing dozens of battles in the area every day. A decision by the US to halt some deliveries of various weapons including precision rocket artillery to Ukraine will worsen the situation on the ground for Ukraine's forces, said Jack Watling, a senior researcher at think-tank Royal United Services Institute. "The loss of these supplies will significantly degrade Ukraine's ability to strike Russian forces beyond 30km from the front line and therefore allow Russia to improve its logistics," Watling said. Ukrainian blog DeepState, which uses open-source data to map the frontline, said the Russian military in June had seized 556 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, which it said was the largest monthly loss of ground since November. Russian forces, which have numerical superiority, cut the main road linking Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in May, complicating Ukrainian movements and resupply efforts. "The Russian advance is being contained but their crossing of the Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka highway is a strategic and logistical setback," Trehubov said. Heavy Russian losses have prevented Russian advances toward Kostiantynivka via Chasiv Yar or along the western Pokrovsk front, he said. "Now they are attempting (to advance) further away from populated areas," Trehubov said. DeepState also reported that Russian advances in June near Pokrovsk and nearby Novopavlivka accounted for more than half of all Russian gains along the entire frontline in all of Ukraine. Trehubov said Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka remain Ukrainian logistical hubs despite setbacks and drone activity which make some defensive fortifications less effective. "(Drones) hinder logistics for both sides but don't make it impossible. Drones after all are not invulnerable," he said. Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for more than three years. The Kremlin claims the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in their entirety and has ordered the establishment of buffer zones along the borders defined by Russia.
Perth Now
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Ukraine struggles to contain Russian advances in east
Russian forces have made incursions near two towns key to army supply routes in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official says as the Kremlin seeks a breakthrough in an offensive at a time of uncertainty over US weapons support for Ukraine. In recent weeks, Russia has amassed forces and despite heavy losses has advanced in rural areas either side of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, which both sit on crossroads running to the frontline from larger cities in Ukrainian-controlled territory. Russia's advances on the front are matched by an intensification of drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities. So far, the efforts by US President Donald Trump have failed to achieve a ceasefire in the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in 2022. One of the aims of the Russian offensive is to occupy the rest of the Donetsk region. Russian soldiers are using small assault groups, light vehicles and drones to push towards the neighbouring region, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsia group of forces. "There are constant attacks with the intent of breaking through" to the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region at any cost, Trehubov said in written comments to Reuters. Russia has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, which it has been trying to seize since early last year, Ukraine's top armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week, describing dozens of battles in the area every day. A decision by the US to halt some deliveries of various weapons including precision rocket artillery to Ukraine will worsen the situation on the ground for Ukraine's forces, said Jack Watling, a senior researcher at think-tank Royal United Services Institute. "The loss of these supplies will significantly degrade Ukraine's ability to strike Russian forces beyond 30km from the front line and therefore allow Russia to improve its logistics," Watling said. Ukrainian blog DeepState, which uses open-source data to map the frontline, said the Russian military in June had seized 556 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, which it said was the largest monthly loss of ground since November. Russian forces, which have numerical superiority, cut the main road linking Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in May, complicating Ukrainian movements and resupply efforts. "The Russian advance is being contained but their crossing of the Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka highway is a strategic and logistical setback," Trehubov said. Heavy Russian losses have prevented Russian advances toward Kostiantynivka via Chasiv Yar or along the western Pokrovsk front, he said. "Now they are attempting (to advance) further away from populated areas," Trehubov said. DeepState also reported that Russian advances in June near Pokrovsk and nearby Novopavlivka accounted for more than half of all Russian gains along the entire frontline in all of Ukraine. Trehubov said Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka remain Ukrainian logistical hubs despite setbacks and drone activity which make some defensive fortifications less effective. "(Drones) hinder logistics for both sides but don't make it impossible. Drones after all are not invulnerable," he said. Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for more than three years. The Kremlin claims the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in their entirety and has ordered the establishment of buffer zones along the borders defined by Russia.
Al Etihad
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Etihad
Ukraine struggles to contain Russian summer advances as US aid stalls
2 July 2025 19:56 KYIV (REUTERS) Russia has made incursions near two towns key to army supply routes in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said on Wednesday, as Moscow seeks a breakthrough in a summer offensive at a time of uncertainty over US support for recent weeks, Russia has amassed forces and despite heavy losses has advanced in rural areas either side of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, which both sit on crossroads running to the frontline from larger cities in Ukrainian-controlled advances on the front are matched by an intensification of drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities, following signs that Washington's support for Ukraine's war effort is far, the efforts by US President Donald Trump have failed to achieve a ceasefire in the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in of the aims of the Russian offensive is to occupy the rest of the Donetsk region. Now, they are using small assault groups, light vehicles, and drones to push towards the neighbouring region, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for the Khortytsia group of forces."There are constant attacks with the intent of breaking through" to the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region at any cost, Trehubov said in written comments to now has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, which it has been trying to seize since early last year, Ukraine's top armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week, describing dozens of battles in the area every day.A decision by Washington to halt some deliveries of various weapons including precision rocket artillery to Kyiv will worsen the situation on the ground for Ukraine's forces, said Jack Watling, a senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, a think-tank."The loss of these supplies will significantly degrade Ukraine's ability to strike Russian forces beyond 30 km (19 miles) from the front line and therefore allow Russia to improve its logistics," Watling said.
Straits Times
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Ukraine struggles to contain Russian summer advances as US aid stalls
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members of the 25th Sicheslav Airborne Brigade fire a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system towards Russian troops near the frontline town of Pokrovsk, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine April 19, 2025. REUTERS/Anatolii Stepanov/File Photo KYIV - Russia has made incursions near two towns key to army supply routes in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said on Wednesday, as Moscow seeks a breakthrough in a summer offensive at a time of uncertainty over U.S. support for Kyiv. In recent weeks, Russia has amassed forces and despite heavy losses has advanced in rural areas either side of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, which both sit on crossroads running to the frontline from larger cities in Ukrainian-controlled territory. Russia's advances on the front are matched by an intensification of drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities, following signs that Washington's support for Ukraine's war effort is faltering. So far, the efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump have failed to achieve a ceasefire in the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in 2022. One of the aims of the Russian offensive is to occupy the rest of the Donetsk region. Now, they are using small assault groups, light vehicles, and drones to push towards the neighbouring region, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for the Khortytsia group of forces. "There are constant attacks with the intent of breaking through" to the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region at any cost, Trehubov said in written comments to Reuters. Russia now has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, which it has been trying to seize since early last year, Ukraine's top armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week, describing dozens of battles in the area every day. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore and Cambodia to expand collaboration in renewable energy, carbon markets and agri-trade Singapore Ong Beng Seng's court hearing rescheduled one day before he was expected to plead guilty Singapore ByteDance food poisoning: Catering firm convicted after cockroach infestation found on premises Singapore Three hair salons raided in clampdown on touting, vice, drugs in Geylang and Joo Chiat Singapore The romance continues: Former 'Singapore girl', 77, returns to Osaka Expo after 55 years Singapore Granddaughter of Hin Leong founder O.K. Lim fails to keep 3 insurance policies from creditors' reach Singapore Man on trial for raping drunken woman after offering to drive her and her friend home Singapore 3 weeks' jail for man who touched himself on train, flicked bodily fluid on female passenger A decision by Washington to halt some deliveries of various weapons including precision rocket artillery to Kyiv will worsen the situation on the ground for Ukraine's forces, said Jack Watling, a senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, a think-tank. "The loss of these supplies will significantly degrade Ukraine's ability to strike Russian forces beyond 30 km (19 miles) from the front line and therefore allow Russia to improve its logistics," Watling said. RUSSIAN GAINS Ukrainian blog DeepState, which uses open-source data to map the frontline, said the Russian military in June had seized 556 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, which it said was the largest monthly loss of ground since November. Russian forces, which have numerical superiority, cut the main road linking Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in May, complicating Ukrainian movements and resupply efforts. "The Russian advance is being contained, but their crossing of the Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka highway is a strategic and logistical setback," Trehubov said. Heavy Russian losses have prevented Russian advances toward Kostiantynivka via Chasiv Yar, or along the western Pokrovsk front. "Now they are attempting (to advance) further away from populated areas," Trehubov said. DeepState also reported that Russian advances in June near Pokrovsk and nearby Novopavlivka accounted for more than half of all Russian gains along the entire frontline in all of Ukraine. Trehubov said Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka remain Ukrainian logistical hubs, despite setbacks and drone activity which make some defensive fortifications less effective. "(Drones) hinder logistics for both sides but don't make it impossible. Drones after all are not invulnerable," he said. REUTERS
Daily Maverick
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Help pressurise Putin to agree to a ceasefire, Ukraine urges African countries
Under almost constant deadly bombardment by Russia, Ukraine has appealed to African countries to pressure Russia to agree to an unconditional ceasefire in the 40-month-old war. Ukraine does not ask much from Africa. Mainly just more principled votes at the UN condemning Russia's invasion. But now, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has issued the ceasefire appeal through African journalists visiting Ukraine in a brief respite between concerted missile and drone attacks on the capital, Kyiv, and other cities. He noted that Ukraine had accepted the US proposal for an unconditional, full ceasefire. 'Now we need to pressure Russia to say unconditional yes and to accept a ceasefire… That is why it is also important to support our peace efforts from your countries, from your capitals,' he told the journalists. Just before we arrived in Kyiv on a study tour, hundreds of projectiles had hit the city on 17 June. A few days later we visited the epicentre of that attack, an apartment building in the Solomianskyi district, which had taken a direct missile hit, collapsing 32 apartments from the ninth floor to the ground floor, killing 23 civilians and injuring 27 more. Workers were clearing rubble. They were joined by two boys, aged about 11 and wearing hard hats, who had volunteered to help their neighbours. An elderly woman sat on a bench in the grounds, quietly weeping. Tsiupko Mykola, the deputy head of the local emergency services, said 13 surrounding buildings had also been damaged, including a kindergarten. So far none of the dead seemed to be children, 'but there are several unidentified bodies still', so they didn't know for sure. Could the Russians have mistakenly hit this civilian target? He rolled his eyes. 'You can see with your own eyes it is a residential building that took a direct hit,' he said, adding that there were no military targets in the vicinity. Five more civilians died elsewhere in Kyiv that night. Two days after we left Ukraine, Russia launched 352 drones, 11 ballistic and five cruise missiles, killing at least six civilians in Kyiv and one in Bila Tserkva. Then, on Sunday, 29 June, Ukraine suffered its largest Russian attack in a single night, when a barrage of 537 drones and missiles again hit Kyiv and several other cities, including some as distant from the front as Lviv in the far west of the country, which is rarely targeted. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US think tank, said Russia had significantly ramped up its use of drones over the last nine months, 'increasing from approximately 200 launched per week to more than 1,000 per week by March 2025 as part of a sustained pressure campaign'. The United Nations human rights office reported on Sunday that civilian casualties in Ukraine had increased by 37% from December 2024 to May 2025, compared to the same period the previous year, with 968 civilians killed and 4,807 injured. The majority of these casualties occurred in Ukrainian-controlled areas. 'The war in Ukraine — now in its fourth year — is becoming increasingly deadly for civilians,' said Danielle Bell, the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. Unacceptable Russian demands Ukraine's special envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Maksym Subkh, said it had been more than three months since Ukraine had offered an unconditional ceasefire, but Russia had not accepted the offer. In the last two rounds of direct negotiations in Istanbul in May and June, the Russians had put preconditions for negotiations that were completely unacceptable, said Subkh. Apart from claiming the Ukrainian land they had occupied — and even some land still under Ukrainian control — Russia had insisted that Ukraine should not join Nato; it should not maintain strong and modern armed forces; it should destroy the weapons it had received from its Western partners to counter Russia's aggression; and it must adopt Russian as an official language. Subkh said these demands showed that Russia was treating Ukraine as a colony, adding that Ukraine was experiencing the hardship and brutality African people had experienced during their colonisation. Meanwhile, Russia was continuing its constant shelling of Ukraine and 'the death toll is rising dramatically'. He said the conditions that either side had should be discussed after the ceasefire, during negotiations. He stressed that Ukraine remained determined to join the European Union and Nato, as it saw no other way of getting the security guarantees it needed for its protection. EU membership The EU ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernová, told us that the EU had had to step up its military support because at the start of the war Nato had 'armed Ukraine for defence, not victory', as the US feared a nuclear backlash. And the EU — or at least almost all of it — remained committed to admitting Ukraine as a member. However, while Ukraine was rapidly fulfilling the many conditions required to join the EU, the EU was not in a position to accept it because one member state, Hungary, was blocking Ukraine's accession. Mathernová said polls indicated that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's party might lose elections later this year, and so the objection to Ukraine joining the EU could fall away. Foreign Minister Sybiha said that in the two rounds of direct peace talks in Istanbul this year, Russia had shown it was not serious by sending low-level delegations. Now it was time 'to engage all instruments of diplomacy … time for full diplomatic mobilisation'. Apart from putting pressure on Russia to agree to an unconditional ceasefire, it was crucial that African countries should support Ukraine by backing resolutions at the UN General Assembly seeking an end to the war. Sybiha was clearly referring to Ukraine's past disappointments that so many African countries — including South Africa — had abstained from UN General Assembly resolutions condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and demanding that it withdraw its forces. This was often because these countries had historical relations with the Soviet Union, although Subkh pointed out that Ukraine had also been part of the Soviet Union and many African leaders had been educated or received training in Ukraine. Military support Sybiha also sent a message to African leaders who had committed themselves to Russia, referring apparently mainly to those African countries which receive military support from the private military company Wagner, or its successor, the Africa Corps. 'Look at facts, first of all, and sooner or later you will get the bill,' said Sybiha. 'So that is why it is always important to diversify your relations with different parties. To diversify your security, to diversify your energy security, your food security.' Subkh stressed that Ukraine had had good relations with Africa for a long time, and noted that it had intensified relations since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Last year, it opened eight new embassies in Africa. Mathernová said that after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia had switched the focus of its disinformation campaign away from Western countries and 'massively invested' in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The West underestimated the importance of this shift, 'because the imperialist nature of this war, the imperialist desire of Putin, was so obvious in our case. 'And looking at it from different parts of the world, it's not so obvious. 'And I must say that they are so, so, so much better, the Russians, at the game of disinformation, false narratives, coming up with using existing grievances and just multiplying and making them a lot bigger.' Mathernová said Russia had switched its disinformation campaign to Africa, Asia and Latin America because it knew it would be successful internationally, as 'it's the West against the rest, right?' Moscow's disinformation includes characterising the Ukraine government as neo-Nazi and accusing it of being a puppet of the West. 'People are exhausted' In three visits to Ukraine — in November 2023, May 2024 and now June 2025 — I found that the Ukrainian people remained remarkably resilient in the face of unprovoked aggression, death and destruction. But the growing strain of the war, amid the rising toll of death and destruction, had also become apparent. Mathernová said the Ukrainian leadership was doing remarkably well. 'But people are exhausted, tired. They don't see a clear end.' She noted that President Volodymyr Zelensky's popularity had ebbed and flowed, from 98% when the war started, down to about 50% and then to above 70% after US President Donald Trump called him a dictator in the White House earlier this year. Nonetheless, she said, 'Ukrainians are knowingly by now facing a situation where there is no good and bad option. It's bad and worse options, right? 'I mean, that's the reality.' She believes the war will end 'with a temporary loss of some territories, but a sovereign and independent Ukraine.' For that to happen, an unconditional ceasefire is necessary very soon to stop the steady destruction of Ukraine and its people. Yet we do not hear the South African government using its friendship with Russia to demand that it stop bombarding Ukraine so that peace negotiations may begin. DM Peter Fabricius was visiting the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine on a journalists' study tour sponsored by those three governments.
