Daily Archives: May 21, 2022

Russia claimed to have captured Mariupolon Friday in what would be its biggest victory yet in its war in Ukraine. The announcement came following a nearly three-month siege that reduced much of the strategic port city to a smoking ruin, with over 20,000 civilians feared dead.

There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin the "complete liberation" of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol - the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance - and the city as a whole, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti quoted the ministry as saying that a total of 2,439 Ukrainian fighters who had been holed up at Azovstal had laid down their arms and surrendered since Monday, including over 500 on Friday.

The steelworks had been the site of fierce fighting for weeks. The dwindling group of outgunned fighters had held out in the plant, drawing Russian airstrikes, artillery and tank fire before their government ordered them to abandon its defense and save their lives.

Wives of fighters who held out at the steelworks spoke emotionally about what may have been their last contact with their husbands.

Olga Boiko, wife of a marine, wiped away tears as she said that her husband had written her on Thursday: "Hello. We surrender, I don't know when I will get in touch with you and if I will at all. Love you. Kiss you. Bye."

Natalia Zaritskaya, wife of another fighter at Azovstal, said that based on the messages she had seen over the past two days, "Now they are on the path from hell to hell. Every inch of this path is deadly."

She said that two days ago, her husband reported that of the 32 soldiers with whom he had served, only eight survived, most of them seriously wounded.

The complete takeover of Mariupol gives Putin a badly needed military victory in the war he began on Feb. 24 - a conflict that was supposed to have been a quick and easy victory for the Kremlin but instead has seen the failure to take the capital of Kyiv, a pullback of its forces to refocus on battles in eastern Ukraine and even the sinking of Russia's flagship of its Black Sea fleet, the Moskva.

Military analysts say the city's capture at this point holds more symbolic importance than anything else, since Mariupol is already effectively under Moscow's control and most of the Russian forces that were tied down by the drawn-out fighting have already left.

Russia had sought control of Mariupol, on the coast of the Sea of Azov, to complete a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and free up troops to join the growing battle for control of the wider industrial Donbas region, home to an 8-year-old Moscow-backed separatist rebellion. It would also deprive Ukraine of a vital port.

The city endured some of the worst suffering of the war. An estimated 100,000 people remained from a prewar population of 450,000, many trapped without food, water, heat or electricity. Constant bombardment has left behind shattered and charred buildings in row after row of destroyed apartment blocks and ruined neighborhoods.

A maternity hospital was hit with a lethal Russian airstrike on March 9, producing searing images of pregnant women being evacuated from the facility.

A week later, about 300 people were reported killed in a bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter, although the real death toll could be closer to 600. Officials had written the word "CHILDREN" in Russian on the pavement outside to try to forestall an aerial attack.

Long traffic jams of cars snaked out of the city, filled with evacuees fleeing past checkpoints of Russian soldiers with heavy weapons who didn't have time to search inside each vehicle in the convoys.

Satellite images in April showed what appeared to be mass graves near Mariupol, where local officials accused Russia of concealing the slaughter by burying up to 9,000 civilians. The imagery showed rows of graves stretching away from an existing cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside the port city.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko accused the Russians of "hiding their military crimes" in the mass graves and labeled it "the new Babi Yar" -- recalling the ravine in Kyiv where the Nazis massacred nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews during World War II.

It was not the first time Moscow has claimed to have captured Mariupol. At a joint appearance with his defense minister on April 21, Putin declared that "the completion of combat work to liberate Mariupol is a success." Even though die-hard Ukrainian forces were still inside the Azovstal plant at that point, Putin ordered the military to seal off the complex "so that not even a fly comes through."

After continued bombardment, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on May 16 the evacuation of his forces from the bunkers and tunnels beneath Azovstal was done to save the lives of the fighters.

"Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes to be alive. It's our principle," Zelenskyy said.

The Azovstal complex covers 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is threaded with about 24 kilometers (15 miles) of tunnels and bunkers. Earlier in May, hundreds of civilians were evacuated from the plant during humanitarian cease-fires.

One civilian evacuee from Azovstal, who made it to the Ukrainian controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on May 3, said she went to sleep at the plant every night afraid she wouldn't wake up. "You can't imagine how scary it is when you sit in the bomb shelter, in a damp and wet basement, and it is bouncing and shaking," said Elina Tsybulchenko, 54.

While Russia described the troops leaving the steel plant as a mass surrender, the Ukrainians called it a fulfilled mission.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, described the defense of Mariupol as "the Thermopylae of the 21st century" - a reference to one of history's most glorious defeats, in which 300 Spartans held off a much larger Persian force in 480 B.C. before finally succumbing.

"The Azovstal defenders thwarted the enemy's plans to seize eastern Ukraine, drew away enormous numbers of enemy forces, and changed the course of the war," Podolyak said.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Mariupol's defenders gave Ukraine "critically important time to form reserves and regroup forces and receive help from partners. And they fulfilled all their tasks."

The U.S. has gathered intelligence that shows some Russian officials have become concerned that Russian forces in the ravaged port city of Mariupol are carrying out grievous abuses, a U.S official familiar with the newly declassified findings told CBS News.

The Russian officials are concerned that the abuses will backfire and further inspire Mariupol residents to resist theRussian occupation. The U.S. official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the Russians, who were not identified, also feared that the abuses will undercut Russia's claim that they've liberated the Russian-speaking city.

Meanwhile, teams of war crimes investigators are hard at work across Ukrainegathering evidencethey hope will lead to more prosecutions of Russia's invading forces.

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Russia claims to have full control of Mariupol as wives share last ...

As the Soviet Union dissolved, efforts were made to keep the Soviet Armed Forces as a single military structure for the new Commonwealth of Independent States. The last Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union, Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, was appointed supreme commander of the CIS Armed Forces in December 1991.[7] Among the numerous treaties signed by the former republics, in order to direct the transition period, was a temporary agreement on general purpose forces, signed in Minsk on 14 February 1992. However, once it became clear that Ukraine (and potentially the other republics) was determined to undermine the concept of joint general purpose forces and form their own armed forces, the new Russian government moved to form its own armed forces.[7]

Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree forming the Russian Ministry of Defence on 7 May 1992, establishing the Russian Ground Forces along with the other branches of the military. At the same time, the General Staff was in the process of withdrawing tens of thousands of personnel from the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, the Northern Group of Forces in Poland, the Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia, the Southern Group of Forces in Hungary, and from Mongolia.

Thirty-seven Soviet Ground Forces divisions had to be withdrawn from the four groups of forces and the Baltic States, and four military districtstotalling 57 divisionswere handed over to Belarus and Ukraine.[8] Some idea of the scale of the withdrawal can be gained from the division list. For the dissolving Soviet Ground Forces, the withdrawal from the former Warsaw Pact states and the Baltic states was an extremely demanding, expensive, and debilitating process.[9]

As the military districts that remained in Russia after the collapse of the Union consisted mostly of the mobile cadre formations, the Ground Forces were, to a large extent, created by relocating the formerly full-strength formations from Eastern Europe to under-resourced districts. However, the facilities in those districts were inadequate to house the flood of personnel and equipment returning from abroad, and many units "were unloaded from the rail wagons into empty fields."[10]The need for destruction and transfer of large amounts of weaponry under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe also necessitated great adjustments.

The Ministry of Defence newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda published a reform plan on 21 July 1992. Later one commentator said it was "hastily" put together by the General Staff "to satisfy the public demand for radical changes."[11] The General Staff, from that point, became a bastion of conservatism, causing a build-up of troubles that later became critical. The reform plan advocated a change from an Army-Division-Regiment structure to a Corps-Brigade arrangement. The new structures were to be more capable in a situation with no front line, and more capable of independent action at all levels.[12]

Cutting out a level of command, omitting two out of three higher echelons between the theatre headquarters and the fighting battalions, would produce economies, increase flexibility, and simplify command-and-control arrangements.[12] The expected changeover to the new structure proved to be rare, irregular, and sometimes reversed. The new brigades that appeared were mostly divisions that had broken down until they happened to be at the proposed brigade strengths. New divisionssuch as the new 3rd Motor Rifle Division in the Moscow Military District, formed on the basis of disbanding tank formationswere formed, rather than new brigades.

Few of the reforms planned in the early 1990s eventuated, for three reasons: Firstly, there was an absence of firm civilian political guidance, with President Yeltsin primarily interested in ensuring that the Armed Forces were controllable and loyal, rather than reformed.[11][13] Secondly, declining funding worsened the progress. Finally, there was no firm consensus within the military about what reforms should be implemented. General Pavel Grachev, the first Russian Minister of Defence (199296), broadly advertised reforms, yet wished to preserve the old Soviet-style Army, with large numbers of low-strength formations and continued mass conscription. The General Staff and the armed services tried to preserve Soviet-era doctrines, deployments, weapons, and missions in the absence of solid new guidance.[14]

British military expert, Michael Orr, claims that the hierarchy had great difficulty in fully understanding the changed situation, due to their education. As graduates of Soviet military academies, they received great operational and staff training, but in political terms they had learned an ideology, rather than a wide understanding of international affairs. Thus, the generalsfocused on NATO expansion in Eastern Europecould not adapt themselves and the Armed Forces to the new opportunities and challenges they faced.[15]

The new Russian Ground Forces inherited an increasing crime problem from their Soviet predecessors. As draft resistance grew in the last years of the Soviet Union, the authorities tried to compensate by enlisting men with criminal records and who spoke little or no Russian. Crime rates soared, with the military procurator in Moscow in September 1990 reporting a 40-percent increase in crime over the previous six months, including a 41-percent rise in serious bodily injuries.[16] Disappearances of weapons rose to rampant levels, especially in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.[16]

Generals directing the withdrawals from Eastern Europe diverted arms, equipment, and foreign monies intended to build housing in Russia for the withdrawn troops. Several years later, the former commander in Germany, General Matvei Burlakov, and the Defence Minister, Pavel Grachev, had their involvement exposed. They were also accused of ordering the murder of reporter Dmitry Kholodov, who had been investigating the scandals.[16] In December 1996, Defence Minister Igor Rodionov ordered the dismissal of the Commander of the Ground Forces, General Vladimir Semyonov, for activities incompatible with his position reportedly his wife's business activities.[17]

A 1995 study by the U.S. Foreign Military Studies Office[18] went as far as to say that the Armed Forces were "an institution increasingly defined by the high levels of military criminality and corruption embedded within it at every level." The FMSO noted that crime levels had always grown with social turbulence, such as the trauma Russia was passing through. The author identified four major types among the raft of criminality prevalent within the forcesweapons trafficking and the arms trade; business and commercial ventures; military crime beyond Russia's borders; and contract murder. Weapons disappearances began during the dissolution of the Union and has continued. Within units "rations are sold while soldiers grow hungry ... [while] fuel, spare parts, and equipment can be bought."[19] Meanwhile, voyemkomats take bribes to arrange avoidance of service, or a more comfortable posting.

Beyond the Russian frontier, drugs were smuggled across the Tajik bordersupposedly being patrolled by Russian guardsby military aircraft, and a Russian senior officer, General Major Alexander Perelyakin, had been dismissed from his post with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Bosnia-Hercegovina (UNPROFOR), following continued complaints of smuggling, profiteering, and corruption. In terms of contract killings, beyond the Kholodov case, there have been widespread rumours that GRU Spetsnaz personnel have been moonlighting as mafiya hitmen.[20]

Reports such as these continued. Some of the more egregious examples have included a constant-readiness motor rifle regiment's tanks running out of fuel on the firing ranges, due to the diversion of their fuel supplies to local businesses.[19] Visiting the 20th Army in April 2002, Sergey Ivanov said the volume of theft was "simply impermissible".[19]Some degree of change is under way.[21]

Abuse of personnel, sending soldiers to work outside unitsa long-standing tradition which could see conscripts doing things ranging from being large scale manpower supply for commercial businesses to being officers' families' servantsis now banned by Sergei Ivanov's Order 428 of October 2005. What is more, the order is being enforced, with several prosecutions recorded.[21] President Putin also demanded a halt to dishonest use of military property in November 2005: "We must completely eliminate the use of the Armed Forces' material base for any commercial objectives."

The spectrum of dishonest activity has included, in the past, exporting aircraft as scrap metal; but the point at which officers are prosecuted has shifted, and investigations over trading in travel warrants and junior officers' routine thieving of soldiers' meals are beginning to be reported.[21] However, British military analysts comment that "there should be little doubt that the overall impact of theft and fraud is much greater than that which is actually detected".[21] Chief Military Prosecutor Sergey Fridinskiy said in March 2007 that there was "no systematic work in the Armed Forces to prevent embezzlement".[21]

In March 2011, Military Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky reported that crimes had been increasing steadily in the Russian ground forces for the past 18 months, with 500 crimes reported in the period of January to March 2011 alone. Twenty servicemen were crippled and two killed in the same period as a result. Crime in the ground forces was up 16% in 2010 as compared to 2009, with crimes against other servicemen constituting one in every four cases reported.[22]

Compounding this problem was also a rise in "extremist" crimes in the ground forces, with "servicemen from different ethnic groups or regions trying to enforce their own rules and order in their units", according to the Prosecutor General. Fridinsky also lambasted the military investigations department for their alleged lack of efficiency in investigative matters, with only one in six criminal cases being revealed. Military commanders were also accused of concealing crimes committed against servicemen from military officials.[23]

A major corruption scandal also occurred at the elite Lipetsk pilot training center, where the deputy commander, the chief of staff and other officers allegedly extorted 3 million roubles of premium pay from other officers since the beginning of 2010. The Tambov military garrison prosecutor confirmed that charges have been lodged against those involved. The affair came to light after a junior officer wrote about the extortion in his personal blog. Sergey Fridinskiy, the Main Military Prosecutor acknowledged that extortion in the distribution of supplementary pay in army units is common, and that "criminal cases on the facts of extortion are being investigated in practically every district and fleet.[24]

In August 2012, Prosecutor General Fridinsky again reported a rise in crime, with murders rising more than half, bribery cases doubling, and drug trafficking rising by 25% in the first six months of 2012 as compared to the same period in the previous year. Following the release of these statistics, the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia denounced the conditions in the Russian army as a "crime against humanity".[25]

In July 2013, the Prosecutor General's office revealed that corruption in the same year soared 450% as compared to the previous year, costing the Russian government 4.4 billion rubles (US$130 million), with one in three corruption-related crimes committed by civil servants or civilian personnel in the military forces. It was also revealed that total number of registered crimes in the Russian armed forces had declined in the same period, although one in five crimes registered were corruption-related.[26]

The Russian Ground Forces reluctantly became involved in the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 after President Yeltsin issued an unconstitutional decree dissolving the Russian Parliament, following its resistance to Yeltsin's consolidation of power and his neo-liberal reforms. A group of deputies, including Vice President Alexander Rutskoi, barricaded themselves inside the parliament building. While giving public support to the President, the Armed Forces, led by General Grachev, tried to remain neutral, following the wishes of the officer corps.[27] The military leadership were unsure of both the rightness of Yeltsin's cause and the reliability of their forces, and had to be convinced at length by Yeltsin to attack the parliament.

When the attack was finally mounted, forces from five different divisions around Moscow were used, and the personnel involved were mostly officers and senior non-commissioned officers.[9] There were also indications that some formations deployed into Moscow only under protest.[27] However, once the parliament building had been stormed, the parliamentary leaders arrested, and temporary censorship imposed, Yeltsin succeeded in retaining power.

The Chechen people had never willingly accepted Russian rule. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Chechens declared independence in November 1991, under the leadership of a former Air Forces officer, General Dzhokar Dudayev.[28] The continuation of Chechen independence was seen as reducing Moscow's authority; Chechnya became perceived as a haven for criminals, and a hard-line group within the Kremlin began advocating war. A Security Council meeting was held 29 November 1994, where Yeltsin ordered the Chechens to disarm, or else Moscow would restore order. Defense Minister Pavel Grachev assured Yeltsin that he would "take Grozny with one airborne assault regiment in two hours."[29]

The operation began on 11 December 1994 and, by 31 December, Russian forces were entering Grozny, the Chechen capital. The 131st Motor Rifle Brigade was ordered to make a swift push for the centre of the city, but was then virtually destroyed in Chechen ambushes. After finally seizing Grozny amid fierce resistance, Russian troops moved on to other Chechen strongholds. When Chechen militants took hostages in the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis in Stavropol Kray in June 1995, peace looked possible for a time, but the fighting continued. Following this incident, the separatists were referred to as insurgents or terrorists within Russia.

Dzhokar Dudayev was assassinated in a Russian airstrike on 21 April 1996, and that summer, a Chechen attack retook Grozny. Alexander Lebed, then Secretary of the Security Council, began talks with the Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov in August 1996 and signed an agreement on 22/23 August; by the end of that month, the fighting ended.[30]The formal ceasefire was signed in the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt on 31 August 1996, stipulating that a formal agreement on relations between the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Russian federal government need not be signed until late 2001.

Writing some years later, Dmitri Trenin and Aleksei Malashenko described the Russian military's performance in Chechniya as "grossly deficient at all levels, from commander-in-chief to the drafted private."[31] The Ground Forces' performance in the First Chechen War has been assessed by a British academic as "appallingly bad".[32]Writing six years later, Michael Orr said "one of the root causes of the Russian failure in 199496 was their inability to raise and deploy a properly trained military force."[33]

The Second Chechen War began in August 1999 after Chechen militias invaded neighboring Dagestan, followed quickly in early September by a series of four terrorist bombings across Russia. This prompted Russian military action against the alleged Chechen culprits.

In the first Chechen war, the Russians primarily laid waste to an area with artillery and airstrikes before advancing the land forces. Improvements were made in the Ground Forces between 1996 and 1999; when the Second Chechen War started, instead of hastily assembled "composite regiments" dispatched with little or no training, whose members had never seen service together, formations were brought up to strength with replacements, put through preparatory training, and then dispatched. Combat performance improved accordingly,[34] and large-scale opposition was crippled.

Most of the prominent past Chechen separatist leaders had died or been killed, including former President Aslan Maskhadov and leading warlord and terrorist attack mastermind Shamil Basayev. However, small-scale conflict continued to drag on; as of November 2007, it had spread across other parts of the Russian Caucasus.[35] It was a divisive struggle, with at least one senior military officer dismissed for being unresponsive to government commands: General Colonel Gennady Troshev was dismissed in 2002 for refusing to move from command of the North Caucasus Military District to command of the less important Siberian Military District.[36]

The Second Chechen War was officially declared ended on 16 April 2009.[37]

When Igor Sergeyev arrived as Minister of Defence in 1997, he initiated what were seen as real reforms under very difficult conditions.[38]The number of military educational establishments, virtually unchanged since 1991, was reduced, and the amalgamation of the Siberian and Trans-Baikal Military Districts was ordered. A larger number of army divisions were given "constant readiness" status, which was supposed to bring them up to 80 percent manning and 100 percent equipment holdings. Sergeyev announced in August 1998 that there would be six divisions and four brigades on 24-hour alert by the end of that year. Three levels of forces were announced; constant readiness, low-level, and strategic reserves.[39]

However, personnel qualityeven in these favored unitscontinued to be a problem. Lack of fuel for training and a shortage of well-trained junior officers hampered combat effectiveness.[40] However, concentrating on the interests of his old service, the Strategic Rocket Forces, Sergeyev directed the disbanding of the Ground Forces headquarters itself in December 1997.[41] The disbandment was a "military nonsense", in Orr's words, "justifiable only in terms of internal politics within the Ministry of Defence".[42] The Ground Forces' prestige declined as a result, as the headquarters disbandment impliedat least in theorythat the Ground Forces no longer ranked equally with the Air Force and Navy.[42]

Under President Vladimir Putin, more funds were committed, the Ground Forces Headquarters was reestablished, and some progress on professionalisation occurred. Plans called for reducing mandatory service to 18 months in 2007, and to one year by 2008, but a mixed Ground Force, of both contract soldiers and conscripts, would remain. (As of 2009, the length of conscript service was 12 months.)[43]

Funding increases began in 1999; after some recovery in the Russian economy and the associated rise in income, especially from oil, "Russia's officially reported defence spending [rose] in nominal terms at least, for the first time since the formation of the Russian Federation".[44] The budget rose from 141 billion rubles in 2000 to 219 billion rubles in 2001.[45] Much of this funding has been spent on personnelthere have been several pay rises, starting with a 20-percent rise authorised in 2001. The current professionalisation programme, including 26,000 extra sergeants, was expected to cost at least 31 billion roubles ($1.1 billion USD).[46] Increased funding has been spread across the whole budget, with personnel spending being matched by greater procurement and research and development funding.

However, in 2004, Alexander Goltz said that, given the insistence of the hierarchy on trying to force contract soldiers into the old conscript pattern, there is little hope of a fundamental strengthening of the Ground Forces. He further elaborated that they are expected to remain, to some extent, a military liability and "Russia's most urgent social problem" for some time to come.[47] Goltz summed up by saying: "All of this means that the Russian armed forces are not ready to defend the country and that, at the same time, they are also dangerous for Russia. Top military personnel demonstrate neither the will nor the ability to effect fundamental changes."[47]

More money is arriving both for personnel and equipment; Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated in June 2008 that monetary allowances for servicemen in permanent-readiness units will be raised significantly.[48] In May 2007, it was announced that enlisted pay would rise to 65,000 roubles (US$2,750) per month, and the pay of officers on combat duty in rapid response units would rise to 100,000150,000 roubles (US$4,230$6,355) per month. However, while the move to one year conscript service would disrupt dedovshchina, it is unlikely that bullying will disappear altogether without significant societal change.[21] Other assessments from the same source point out that the Russian Armed Forces faced major disruption in 2008, as demographic change hindered plans to reduce the term of conscription from two years to one.[49][50]

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2021)

A major reorganisation of the force began in 2007 by the Minister for Defence Anatoliy Serdyukov, with the aim of converting all divisions into brigades, and cutting surplus officers and establishments.[51][52] However, this affected units of continuous readiness (Russian: ) only. It is intended to create 39 to 40 such brigades by 1 January 2016, including 39 all-arms brigades, 21 artillery and MRL brigades, seven brigades of army air defence forces, 12 communication brigades, and two electronic warfare brigades. In addition, the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division stationed in the Far East remained, and there will be an additional 17 separate regiments.[citation needed] The reform has been called "unprecedented".

In the course of the reorganization, the 4-chain command structure (military district field army division regiment) that was used until then was replaced with a 3-chain structure: strategic command operational command brigade. Brigades are supposed to be used as mobile permanent-readiness units capable of fighting independently with the support of highly mobile task forces or together with other brigades under joint command.[53]

In a statement on 4 September 2009, RGF Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Boldyrev said that half of the Russian land forces were reformed by 1 June and that 85 brigades of constant combat preparedness had already been created. Among them are the combined-arms brigade, missile brigades, assault brigades and electronic warfare brigades.[54]

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2021)

After Sergey Shoygu took over the role of minister of defense, the reforms Serdyukov had implemented were redirected and corrected. Shoygu replaced the purpose of the reforms to instead cover military training. He also has helped restore trust with senior officers as well as the defense ministry. He did this a number of ways but one of the ways was integrating himself by wearing a military uniform.[55]

Shoygu helped improve operational readiness by ordering 750 military exercises, such as Vostok 2018. The exercises also seemed to have helped validate the general direction of reform. the effect of this readiness was seen during Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. Since Anatoliy Serdyukov had already completed the unpopular reforms (military downsizing and reorganization), it was relatively easy for Shoygu to be conciliatory with the officer corps and Ministry of Defense.[56]

Rearmament has been an important goal of reform. With the goal of 70% modernization by 2020 This was one of the main goals of these reforms. From 1998 to 2001, the Russian Army received almost no new equipment. Sergey Shoygu took a less confrontational approach with the defense industry. By showing better flexibility on terms and pricing, the awarding of new contracts for the upcoming period was much better. Shoygu promised that future contracts would be awarded primarily to domestic firms. While easing tensions, these concessions also weakened incentives for companies to improve performance.[57]

Shoygu also focused on forming battalion tactical groups (BTGs) as the permanent readiness component of the Russian army, rather than brigade-sized formations. According to sources quoted by the Russian Interfax agency, this was due to a lack of the manpower needed for permanent-readiness brigades. BTGs made up the preponderance of units deployed by Russia in the Donbass war. By August 2021 Shoygu claimed that the Russian army had around 170 BTGs.[58][59][60]

Russia conducted a military buildup on the Ukrainian border starting in late 2021. By mid February 2022, elements of the 29th, 35th and 36th Combined Arms Armies (CAAs) were deployed to Belarus,[61] supported by additional S-400 systems, a squadron of Su-25 and a squadron of Su-35; additional S-400 systems and four Su-30 fighters were deployed to the country for joint use with Belarus. Russia also had the 20th and 8th CAAs and the 22nd AC regularly deployed near the Ukrainian border, while elements of 41st CAA were deployed to Yelnya, elements of 1st TA and 6th CAA were deployed to Voronezh[62] and elements of the 49th[63] and the 58th CAA were deployed to Crimea. The 1st and 2nd AC were rumoured to be operating in the Donbass region during this time.[64] In all, Russia deployed some 150,000 soldiers around Ukraine during this time, in preparation for the eventual Russian invasion.

On 11 February, the US and western nations communicated that Putin had decided to invade Ukraine, and on 12 February, the US and Russian embassies in Kiev started to evacuate personnel.[65] On February 24, Russian troops began invading Ukraine.[66] Questions have been raised over the readiness and morale of Russian forces in Ukraine with emerging reports of soldiers refusing orders and even attacking their commanders.[67]

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian tank losses were reported by the use of Ukrainian sophisticated anti-tank weapons and a lack of air support the Russian army has been described by Phillips O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at St Andrews University as a boxer who has a great right hook and a glass jaw.[68] Quoting Napoleon In war, moral power is to physical as three parts out of four. Retired US four-star general Curtis Scaparrotti has blamed confusion and poor morale amongst Russian soldiers over their mission as to their poor performance.[69]

Reports say that Russian forces are having to repair damaged Ukrainian tanks; the Russian Defence Ministry says these tanks are for pro-Russian forces. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Chief Directorate of Intelligence claims that Russia has stopped making new tanks.[70] Due to the fighting in Ukraine the Russian Victory Day parade will be reduced by some 35%, purely in ground combat vehicles or systems. The parade on 9 May 2022, according to the official guide, would feature only 25 Russian combat systems and 131 ground combat vehicles. Compared to last year where it featured 198 vehicles and 35 combat systems. In particular there is a shortage of display ready T-80 and they are using older equipment to make up numbers. An example is usage of tank transporters in lieu of actual tanks. Likewise the T-14 Armata, Kurganets-25 and VPK-7829 Bumerang are both stuck at three numbers for the Victory Day parade. The same number since 2015, possibly indicating that production has frozen as other reports have suggested, due to sanctions. [71] [72]

The President of Russia is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The Main Command (Glavkomat) of the Ground Forces, based in Moscow, directs activities. This body was disbanded in 1997, but reformed by President Putin in 2001 by appointing Colonel General Nikolai Kormiltsev as the commander-in-chief of the ground forces and also as a deputy minister of defense.[73]

Kormiltsev handed over command to Colonel General (later General of the Army) Alexey Maslov in 2004, and in a realignment of responsibilities, the Ground Forces Commander-in-Chief lost his position as a deputy minister of defence. Like Kormiltsev, while serving as Ground Forces Commander-in-Chief Maslov has been promoted to General of the Army.

In January 2014, the acting commander of the Russian Ground Forces was Lieutenant General Sergei Istrakov, who was appointed by Russian president Vladimir Putin upon the dismissal of former commander Colonel General Vladimir Chirkin over corruption charges in December 2013.[74][75] Istrakov handed over his position to a new commander on 2 May 2014, Colonel General Oleg Salyukov.

The Main Command of the Ground Forces consists of the Main Staff of the Ground Troops, and departments for Peacekeeping Forces, Armaments of the Ground Troops, Rear Services of the Ground Troops, Cadres of the Ground Troops (personnel), Indoctrination Work, and Military Education.[76] There were also a number of directorates which used to be commanded by the Ground Forces Commander-in-Chief in his capacity as a deputy defence minister. They included NBC Protection Troops of the Armed Forces, Engineer Troops of the Armed Forces, and Troop Air Defence, as well as several others. Their exact command status is now unknown.

The branches of service include motorized rifles, tanks, artillery and rocket forces, troop air defense, special corps (reconnaissance, signals, radioelectronic warfare, engineering, nuclear, biological and chemical protection, logistical support, automobile, and the protection of the rear), special forces, military units, and logistical establishments.[77]

The Motorised Rifle Troops, the most numerous branch of service, constitutes the nucleus of Ground Forces' battle formations. They are equipped with powerful armament for destruction of ground-based and aerial targets, missile complexes, tanks, artillery and mortars, anti-tank guided missiles, anti-aircraft missile systems and installations, and means of reconnaissance and control. It is estimated that there are currently 19 motor rifle divisions.[78]

The Navy now has several motor rifle formations under its command in the Ground and Coastal Defence Forces of the Baltic Fleet, the Northeastern Group of Troops and Forces on the Kamchatka Peninsula and other areas of the extreme northeast.[78] Also present are a large number of mobilisation divisions and brigades, known as "Bases for Storage of Weapons and Equipment", that in peacetime only have enough personnel assigned to guard the site and maintain the weapons.

The Tank Troops are the main impact force of the Ground Forces and a powerful means of armed struggle, intended for the accomplishment of the most important combat tasks. As of 2007, there were three tank divisions in the force: the 4th and 10th within the Moscow Military District, and 5th Guards "Don" in the Siberian MD.[79]The 2nd Guards Tank Division in the Siberian Military District and the 21st Tank Division in the Far Eastern MD were disbanded.

The Artillery and Rocket Forces provide the Ground Forces' main firepower. The Ground Forces currently include five or six static defence machine-gun/artillery divisions and seemingly now one division of field artillerythe 34th Guards in the Moscow MD. The previous 12th in the Siberian MD, and the 15th in the Far Eastern MD, seem to have disbanded.[80]

The Air Defense Troops (PVO) are one of the basic weapons for the destruction of enemy air forces. They consist of surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft artillery and radio-technical units and subdivisions.[81]

Army Aviation, while intended for the direct support of the Ground Forces, has been under the control of the Air Forces (VVS)[82] since 2003. However, by 2015, Army Aviation will have been transferred back to the Ground Forces and 18 new aviation brigades will have been added.[83] Of the around 1,000 new helicopters that have been ordered under the State Armament Programmes, 900 will be for the Army Aviation.[84]

The Spetsnaz GRU serve under the Ground Forces in peacetime and at the same time are directly subordinated to the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GRU) and will fall under GRU operational control during wartime operations or under special circumstances.[85][86][87] The Ground Forces currently fields 7 spetsnaz brigades of varying sizes and one spetsnaz regiment.

As a result of the 2008 Russian military reforms, the ground forces now consist of armies subordinate to the four new military districts: Western, Southern, Central, and Eastern Military Districts. The new districts have the role of 'operational strategic commands,' which command the Ground Forces as well as the Naval Forces and part of the Air and Air Defence Forces within their areas of responsibility.[88]

Each major formation is bolded, and directs the non-bolded major subordinate formations. It is not entirely clear to which superior(s) the four operational-strategic commands will report from 1 December 2010, as they command formations from multiple services (Air Force, Ground Forces & Navy). A current detailed list of the subordinate units of the four military districts can be found in the respective articles.[88] During 2009, all 23 remaining divisions were reorganised into four tank brigades, 35 motor-rifle brigades, one prikritiya brigade formed from a machinegun-light artillery division, and three airborne-assault brigades (pre-existing). Almost all are now designated otdelnaya (separate), with only several brigades retaining the guards honorific title.

In 2013, two of these brigades were reactivated as full divisions: the 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division and 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division. These two divisions marked the beginning of the expansion of the Ground Forces as more brigades are being reformed into full divisions within each military district.

Since 1 January 2021, the Northern Fleet has been elevated to Northern Military District.[89]

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Russian Ground Forces - Wikipedia

Biden tweets video of signing $40 billion Ukraine aid package amid South Korea visit

President Joe Biden tweeted a video of himself signing legislation authorizing an additional $40 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Biden inked the aid boost, which was overwhelmingly approved by Congress this week, during his state visit to Seoul, South Korea.

"This law will allow us to continue sending security, economic, and humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine as they continue to defend their democracy and freedom," the tweet from Biden's official White House Twitter account said.

Biden also during his visit signed the Access to Baby Formula Act, which is designed to alleviate a nationwide shortage of formula in the United States.

Both bills were flown to South Korea by a U.S. government official on a commercial jet who was already planning to travel to Asia for work-related duties, a White House official told NBC News.

Dan Mangan

A bus carrying service members of the Ukrainian armed forces, who surrendered at the besieged Azovstal steel mill, drives away under escort of the pro-Russian military in the course of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, in Mariupol, Ukraine May 20, 2022.

Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters

Concern mounted over the fate of the Ukrainian fighters who became Moscow's prisoners as Russia claimed seizure of the steel plant-turned-fortress in Mariupol.

The Russian Defense Ministry released video of Ukrainian soldiers being taken into custody after announcing that its forces had removed the last holdouts from the plant's miles of underground tunnels. The Azovstal steel plant became a symbol of Ukrainian tenacity, and its seizure delivers Russian President Vladimir Putin a badly wanted victory in the war he began in February.

Family members of the steel mill fighters, who authorities say came from a variety of military and law enforcement units, have pleaded for them to be given rights as prisoners of war and eventually returned to Ukraine. They are considered heroes by their fellow citizens.

Convoys of buses, guarded by Russian armored vehicles, left the plant Friday. At least some Ukrainians were taken to a former penal colony, while Russian authorities said others were hospitalized.

Denis Pushilin, the pro-Kremlin head of an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, said the Ukrainians were sure to face a tribunal. Russian officials and state media have sought to characterize the fighters as neo-Nazis and criminals.

"I believe that justice must be restored. There is a request for this from ordinary people, society, and, probably, the sane part of the world community," Russian state news agency Tass quoted Pushilin as saying.

Associated Press

Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the I-80 Speedway on May 01, 2022 in Greenwood, Nebraska. Trump is supporting Charles Herbster in the Nebraska gubernatorial race.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

Russia on Saturday released a list of nearly 1,000 Americans who are now permanently barred from entering the country, an action likely in response to sanctions imposed on the nation following its February invasion of Ukraine.

The list includes President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Hillary Clinton and George Soros. It also names 211 Republicans and 224 Democrats from both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

There are also a few notable omissions. Former President Donald Trump and Mike Pence, who served as his vice president, are not included. Former President Barack Obama is also not on the list.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more here.

Carmen Reinicke

Superyacht Valerie, linked to chief of Russian state aerospace and defence conglomerate Rostec Sergei Chemezov, is seen at Barcelona Port in Barcelona city, Spain, March 9, 2022.

Albert Gea | Reuters

McKinsey & Co., a major global consulting firm, worked with both a Russian weapons maker and the Pentagon simultaneously, NBC News reported today.

An NBC investigation uncovered that McKinsey advised Rostec, a Russian state-owned manufacturing company in recent years. The company manufactures engines for missiles, including many of the weapons that Russia has fired on Ukraine since its February invasion.

The scope of McKinsey's work with Rostec did not directly involve weapons, according to the report. Still, the consulting firm was working on national security contracts for the U.S. government, including the Defense Department and U.S. intelligence community.

It's the latest accusation of conflicts of interest faced by McKinsey. The consulting firm previously worked with opioid manufacturers while advising officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on opioids. Congress has also scrutinized the company for its work in China.

A McKinsey spokesman told NBC News that it has strict rules and firewalls to safeguard against conflicts of interest, and that its work abroad is walled off from its work in Washington.

Carmen Reinicke

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, center, talks to media in Irpin, Ukraine, Saturday, May 21, 2022.

Efrem Lukatsky | AP Photo

Antnio Costa, Portugal's prime minister, visited Kyiv today and made a joint appearance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss aid, the president's office said in a statement.

"I once again felt such a closeness of values and a common understanding by our nations of the future of Europe. Portugal has been helping Ukraine since the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion of our land," Zelenskyy said, according to a statement.

"I am grateful to your country and to you personally, Mr. Prime Minister, for your defensive, political and humanitarian assistance, as well as for the great support for our citizens, forcibly displaced Ukrainians who fled the war and are now on the European continent in various countries, in particular in Portugal," he added.

Zelenskyy also called for Portugal's support in Ukraine's bid for accession to the European Union.

Costa is the latest of many world leaders to visit Kyiv or reach out to Zelenskyy to provide aid in recent weeks. In a tweet, he confirmed Portugal's support of Ukraine.

"We are all moved by the European choice made by Ukraine and its people and we welcome it with open arms," he said. "It is fundamental to accelerate Ukraine's political and economic convergence with the EU."

Carmen Reinicke

A soldier holds a Javelin missile system during a military exercise in the training centre of Ukrainian Ground Forces near Rivne, Ukraine May 26, 2021. Picture taken May 26, 2021.

Gleb Garanich | Reuters

Albania's defense minister said Saturday the Western Balkan country has bought anti-tank Javelin missiles to strengthen its defenses.

Niko Peleshi said Albania signed a contract with U.S. Lockheed Martin, without specifying the number of missiles, how much they cost or when they would be delivered.

Peleshi said buying the missiles was part of the army's modernization efforts.

Earlier this week, Lockheed Martin said the U.S. Army had awarded two production contracts for Javelin missiles and associated equipment and services with total value of $309 million. These contracts include more than 1300 Javelin missiles funded from the recent Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act and orders for several international customers including Norway, Albania, Latvia and Thailand.

"Not to create any panic, there is no concrete threat. We are a NATO member country and the national security issue resolved. We are protected," the minister told journalists.

Peleshi also said NATO is not a threat to any country, including Russia. Tirana supports the alliance's "open door" policy welcoming Finland and Sweden as new members, which Peleshi said were "two independent sovereign countries with high political, legal and also military standards."

Associated Press

Soldiers put camouflage atop a weaponized Geon Strike 1000 ATV on May 20, 2022 in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. The commercially sold vehicle was modified by the Ukrainian Army for use against invading Russian soldiers. Troops from the 93rd brigade have been fighting to repel a Russian advance to the south from Izium.

KHARKIV OBLAST - MAY 20: Soldiers put camouflage atop a weaponized Geon Strike 1000 ATV on May 20, 2022 in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. The commercially sold vehicle was modified by the Ukrainian Army for use again invading Russian soldiers. Troops from the 93rd brigade have been fighting to repel a Russian advance to the south from Izium. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images

KHARKIV OBLAST - MAY 20: Ukrainian Army Major Oleh "Serafim" Shevchenko checks the steering on an amphibious Argo 8X8 ATV on May 20, 2022 in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. Shevchenko modified the Canadian made vehicle, as well as the Ukrainian made Geon Strike 1000 (L) for military use against invading Russian forces. Soldiers from the Ukrainian Army's 93rd brigade have been fighting to repel a Russian advance to the south from Izium. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Soldiers put camouflage atop a weaponized Geon Strike 1000 ATV on May 20, 2022 in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. T

John Moore | Getty Images

KHARKIV OBLAST - MAY 20: Camouflage covers Ukrainian military ATVs on May 20, 2022 in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. Ukrainian Army troops from the 93rd brigade have been fighting to repel a Russian advance to the south from Izium. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images

John Moore | Getty Images

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a joint news conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the Presidential office in Seoul, South Korea, May 21, 2022.

Jeon Heon-Kyun | Reuters

President Joe Biden signed legislation to support Ukraine with another $40 billion in U.S. assistance as the Russian invasion approaches its fourth month.

The legislation, which was passed by Congress with bipartisan support, deepens the U.S. commitment to Ukraine at a time of uncertainty about the war's future. Ukraine has successfully defended Kyiv, and Russia has refocused its offensive on the country's east, but American officials warn of the potential for a prolonged conflict.

The funding is intended to support Ukraine through September, and it dwarfs an earlier emergency measure that provided $13.6 billion.

The new legislation will provide $20 billion in military assistance, ensuring a steady stream of advanced weapons that have been used to blunt Russia's advances. There's also $8 billion in general economic support, $5 billion to address global food shortages that could result from the collapse of Ukrainian agriculture and more than $1 billion to help refugees.

Biden signed the measure under unusual circumstances. Because he's in the middle of a trip to Asia, a U.S. official brought a copy of the bill on a commercial flight to Seoul for the president to sign, according to a White House official.

Associated Press

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has proposed a formal deal with allies outlining how to get compensation from Russia for the immense damage it has caused to Ukraine with its invasion.

"We invite partner countries to sign a multilateral agreement and create a mechanism ensuring that everybody who suffered from Russian actions can receive compensation for all losses incurred," Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday.

Under such a deal, Russian funds and property in nations which are part of the agreement would be confiscated and allocated to a compensation fund.

Ukraine's president says he will be addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos on May 23.

Ole Jensen | Getty Images News | Getty Images

"That would be fair. And Russia will feel the weight of every missile, every bomb, every shell which it has fired at us," he said, stressing that such a mechanism would prove that countries that act as invaders would have to pay for their aggression.

Several countries are discussing changing their laws to allow the redistribution of seized foreign assets for compensating war victims or rebuilding countries after war. Canada has already said it would change its laws to enable this.

Natasha Turak

U.K. Boris Johnson spoke with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, focusing on their two countries' cooperation and the war in Ukraine.

Johnson raised the issue of Turkey's opposition to Sweden and Finland's NATO membership applications, and "encouraged" Erdogan to work with both countries and NATO leaders to address his concerns, a U.K. government statement said. The 30-member alliance will be meeting in Madrid in June.

Sweden and Finland have made the decision to apply for NATO membership, which would mean a significant enlargement for the alliance along Russia's western border, as the two countries reassessed their security requirements amid Russia's war in Ukraine.

NATO requires unanimous consent to admit new members, and so far Turkey is the only state standing in the way, citing the Nordic states' support for Kurdish groups that Ankara classifies as terrorists.

Natasha Turak

Representatives from the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan walked out of a meeting of ministers during theAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok, Thailand. The walk-out was done while Russian economy ministerMaxim Reshetnikovwas speaking, in protest to Russia's military offensive in Ukraine.

The act was" an expression of disapproval at Russia's illegal war of aggression in Ukraine and its economic impact in the APEC region," Reuters quoted one diplomat as saying.

Natasha Turak

Russia is using 'reconnaissance strike' tactics which it previously used in Syria, finding targets via reconnaissance drones and then striking them with aircraft or artillery.

But Russia is "likely experiencing a shortage of appropriate reconnaissance UAVs for this task, which is exacerbated by limitations in its domestic manufacturing capacity resulting from sanctions," the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence wrote in its daily intelligence update on Twitter.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have played a key role for both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war but suffer a high rate of attrition, the ministry wrote, as they are frequently shot down or electronically jammed.

"If Russia continues to lose UAVs at its current rate, Russian forces intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability will be further degraded, negatively impacting operational effectiveness," the ministry wrote.

Natasha Turak

A view shows Azovstal steel mill during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine May 20, 2022.

Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters

The last Ukrainian forces holed up in Mariupol's smashed Azovstal steelworks surrendered, Russia's defense ministry said, ending the most destructive siege of the war as Moscow fought to cement control over the Donbas region.

Hours before Russia's announcement on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the last defenders at the steelworks had been told by Ukraine's military that they could get out and save their lives.

Russia said there were 531 members of the last group that had given up. "The territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant... has been completely liberated," the ministry said in a statement, adding that a total of 2,439 defenders had surrendered in the past few days.

The Ukrainians did not immediately confirm those figures.

Russia also launched what appeared to be a major assault to seize the last remaining Ukrainian-held territory in the province of Luhansk, one of two southeastern Ukrainian provinces Moscow proclaims as independent states.

Reuters

A close up shot of Brittney Griner #42 of the Phoenix Mercury at practice and media availability during the 2021 WNBA Finals on October 11, 2021 at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

Michael Gonzales | National Basketball Association | Getty Images

The State Department called on the Kremlin to grant "consistent and timely consular access" to all U.S. citizens detained in Russia.

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Russia may be running out of crucial targeting drones; brutal siege of Mariupol steel plant ends - CNBC

Russian soldiers left graffiti in the school in Borodyanka, a town outside of Ukraine's capital Kyiv. Anya Kamenetz/NPR hide caption

Russian soldiers left graffiti in the school in Borodyanka, a town outside of Ukraine's capital Kyiv.

BORODYANKA, Ukraine Viktoria Timoshenko's biology classroom is a surreal sight. She didn't recognize it at first, she says.

In March, while her small town of Borodyanka, an hour's drive northwest of Kyiv, was under attack, a Russian shell tore through the wall and ripped down the ceiling. Half of it droops down over a pile of bricks and dust. You can hear the traffic outside now, through the large hole where the windows used to be.

Ukrainian forces liberated this area in April. It took a few weeks, but residents are now trickling back in, assessing the damage, filling in Russian-dug trenches with a backhoe, tending their neglected gardens, and recounting the stories of what they endured, and how.

Timoshenko, 25, with dark curly hair, is in her first year as a teacher. She moved across the country from Melitopol, an area that today is under Russian occupation, and started here last fall. She's a fresh recruit from Teach for Ukraine, a nonprofit that trains and places new teachers in underserved schools.

"To tell you the truth, we didn't take her seriously," says one of her students, 17-year-old Volodymyr Hrabovenko, who goes by Vova. "We were the senior class, the oldest, and she was too young."

Vova is the youngest of six. He's been the school's student body president since eighth grade, organizing holiday parties and events with community leaders. "It's my job to know all the kids," he says.

Soon they all warmed up to Timoshenko. She was honest, and didn't talk down to them. As part of biology class, she taught them about condoms and consent. "I remember what I wanted to know when I was their age," she says. "I tried to give them the material which will be useful for them in the future."

Vova Hrabovenko, 17, and his teacher Viktoria Timoshenko in what's left of her biology classroom after Russian shelling. "I didn't recognize it at first," she says. Anya Kamenetz/NPR hide caption

But then the future changed. Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24. Four days later, Vova remembers going to his door and seeing helicopters flying overhead, recognizing them as Russian equipment.

"I was really scared," he says. "At that moment you understand that there is a war. After this understanding you don't have anything anymore. You don't have dreams, you don't have thoughts."

From that point things happened fast. First, Timoshenko, who lived in an apartment building, went to stay with another one of her students, 16-year-old Iryna Emshanova, and her family. They had a basement, providing better shelter.

Vova and his family, meanwhile, were in an especially dangerous part of town. Their power and cellphone connection was out for two days.

Timoshenko called local authorities, begging them to get Vova out. They sent a car to pick up him and his grandmother, while his two grown brothers stayed behind with their mother.

A week passed. Iryna's grandmother offered to house them all even farther from danger, a few hours southeast, in a town called Vinnytsia.

But Vova's grandmother refused. Like so many people, especially older people, all over the country during this war, she couldn't imagine leaving her home region, even when in mortal danger.

"We didn't have enough time to say goodbye," Vova remembers. "The head of the village drove up and said, 'Pick your things up immediately.' So we picked up our things and I came to my granny and I said, 'I'm leaving.' And she said, 'Good. Be safe.'"

On March 16, one week after they parted, a Russian airstrike killed his grandmother. She had just turned 82.

She was like a "second mother," Vova says. She used to take him with her to see her friends in the village, and play cards. He even has a happy memory of her in the bomb shelter, which they shared with neighbors.

"There was a little boy in our shelter, 4 years old, and he couldn't stop asking questions 'Why are we here? What are we going to do?' He tried to make our grandma play with him she didn't understand how to use these modern technologies, but he insisted on playing these games with her," Vova says.

There are many fresh graves in the town's new cemetery. Anya Kamenetz/NPR hide caption

From mid-March to early May, Timoshenko and Vova lived with Iryna and her family in Vinnytsia. The teenagers enrolled in online classes at the local school remote learning has continued wherever possible, throughout the country.

Timoshenko helped them with their lessons. They all became very close and made each other laugh. "Before, we were friends," she says in English. "But now after the war, we are like best friends."

Vova had a few of what he called "nervous breakdowns," crying, and not wanting to talk to anyone. The biggest one was when he found out that his grandmother was killed.

"I felt like the world around me disappeared. It became gray. I couldn't breathe," he says.

Timoshenko has tried to keep her emotions bottled up, to stay optimistic. "I had to be strong because my pupils were near me and I'm responsible for them," she says. "And now, when it's a little bit safer, I realize that in some way I postpone my feelings, my thoughts, just because it's not a good time for it. I think that if I start to share my emotions it will be very hard for me to stop."

For her, this was all coming full circle. Eight years ago, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine's Crimea, she was a senior in high school. The war derailed her college plans and put her into a depression. She ended up taking a gap year and making a new plan for her future, one which ultimately brought her to Borodyanka.

Timoshenko's parents are back in her hometown of Melitopol, in southeastern Ukraine. They tell her they are facing shortages of food and water.

For five weeks, Russians first attacked, and then occupied, Borodyanka. Soldiers slept in the school, covering the brightly decorated walls with crude graffiti, looting items like microscopes and video projectors. They used the town's cemetery as a parking lot, says Timoshenko, driving tanks over the headstones.

One day, after Vova had evacuated, the soldiers came to his house. They saw photographs of him, a young man almost old enough to fight, and asked where he was.

His mother and brother told the truth they didn't know. So the soldiers beat them, Vova says. And they shot his brother, grazing him in the ear.

The governor of Borodyanka said, as of May 17, at least 150 civilians were identified as being killed during the occupation, and not just by shelling. There are reports of soldiers shooting people too.

Only a few remains of Vova's grandmother's body were found in the shelled house. They are buried in the town's new cemetery, covered with a raw mound of dirt. The cemetery has rows of freshly dug graves, marked for now only with numbers. And open graves, waiting for the bodies that are still being found.

In May, Vova, Timoshenko and Iryna and her family all returned to a village close to Borodyanka. Vova is now living with one of his sisters. Timoshenko is staying in a house that belongs to a family that has left for Poland.

The school has resumed classes online. It's not clear what will happen this fall the building is severely damaged. The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office, which is cataloging alleged war crimes, says Russian weapons have damaged more than 1,700 educational institutions since February. Targeting civilian infrastructure deliberately is a violation of international law.

But Timoshenko does say that out of 20 members of Vova's senior class, 18, including him, will get their high school diplomas on time.

She is helping him study for his college entrance exam, which the Ukrainian government has postponed until the summer to give students more time to prepare.

He wants to be a journalist, he says. One who tells the truth, not fake news.

And, he says, he will never again live in Borodyanka.

Polina Lytvynova contributed reporting.

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How a Ukrainian teacher helped students escape Russia's invasion, and still graduate - NPR

Soviet customers stand in line outside the just opened first McDonald's in the Soviet Union on January 31, 1990 at Moscow's Pushkin Square.

Vitaly Armand | Afp | Getty Images

It was 4 a.m. and a trickle of Russians had already begun lining up outside the building in the freezing winter cold, hours before opening time.

When the doors opened, hundreds of hungry, bundled-up Muscovites rushed in for their first-ever taste of this alien creation: the Big Mac.

It was January of 1990 and McDonalds was opening its very first restaurant in the Soviet Union, becoming one of the few Western companies to breach the Iron Curtain in its final days as it slowly opened up to the world.

At that time, Russians were hungry. In the literal sense. Stores frequently ran out of food and lacked most of the products that existed in the Western world. A meal at McDonald's cost half a days' wages, but "it's unusual and delicious," one local woman told a CBC News reporter at the opening, after trying her first burger.

"We are all hungry in this city," the woman said. "We need more of these places there is nothing in our stores or restaurants." The McDonald's ended up having to stay open several hours past its official closing time due to the high demand, and served a whopping 30,000 customers on its opening day a record for the iconic American chain.

Of course, in the 32 years since, Russia has become a capitalist haven, replete with thousands of recognizable Western brands and foreign investment. But in the weeks following Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of its neighbor Ukraine and amid global condemnation, most of these brands have shut their doors, either closing temporarily or vacating the country entirely.

So the scenes from 1990 have almost repeated themselves three decades later, albeit in a very different context. When McDonald's announced the temporary closing of its more than 800 restaurants in Russia in early March, before this week's decision to exit the country permanently, long lines were seen outside its facilities as Russians came to get what could be their last-ever golden-arched burgers and fries.

One Russian man even handcuffed himself to the door of a Moscow McDonald's in protest, shouting "Closing down is an act of hostility against me and my fellow citizens!" before being arrested.

For Bakhti Nishanov, a Eurasia specialist who grew up in the Soviet Union, the departure is oddly emotional.

"It's truly weird how this hits me. It's almost like hope leaving the country," he told CNBC.

"This has a massive symbolic importance: McDonald's coming to Russia, then part of the Soviet Union, was an implicit signal to the world that Russia is open for business. The company leaving Russia is an explicit signal that the country is no longer a place you want to be in as a business," Nishanov said.

People wait in line to enter a McDonald's restaurant in Moscow on March 11, 2022, after the chain announced it was temporarily closing its 850 restaurants in Russia, joining other foreign brands that have been suspending operations in Russia following the country's military campaign in neighboring Ukraine. McDonald's has since decided to exit Russia permanently.

Vlad Karkov | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

"I first read about the McDonald's in Russia in a youth magazine called Yunniy Tehnik," Nishanov recounted. "I was absolutely mesmerized and fascinated by the article and the idea that one, for a relatively modest amount of money, can too be part of the American culture that McDonald's was a tangible representation of."

"To a generation of Russians, McDonald's commonly referred to as MakDak was a fascinating phenomenon," he added. "Clearly connected to the American culture, yet very much part of their daily lives and, in a way, less foreign or alien than many other brands."

Economically, too, the departure is significant McDonald's employs 62,000 people across Russia. With the hundreds of other foreign companies that have left the country, the number of jobs that have disappeared is estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

The burger chain will now sell its business, which included some 847 restaurants, saying that the "humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the precipitating unpredictable operating environment, have led McDonald's to conclude that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald's values."

The logo of the closed McDonald's restaurant in the Aviapark shopping center in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2022.

Picture Alliance | Getty Images

CEO Chris Kempczinski said he was proud of all of the company's workers employed in Russia and that the decision was "extremely difficult." He also said that the employees will continue to be paid until the business is sold and that "employees have future employment with any potential buyer."

Shoppers look towards closed McDonald's and KFC restaurants at the Mega Mall, in Khimki, outside of Moscow, Russia on March 27, 2022.

Konstantin Zavrazhin | Getty Images

McDonald's write-off from exiting Russia will be between $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion, the company said. Just closing its restaurants for the first few weeks in Russia had hit its earnings significantly, costing it $127 million last quarter. Together with its 108 restaurants in Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian business made up about 9% of McDonald's revenue in 2021.

Politically, the golden arches also went a long way, says Tricia Starks, a professor of history at the University of Arkansas and author of the forthcoming book "Cigarettes and Soviets."

"The American way of consumption was a crucial soft-diplomacy front in the Cold War acquainting the Soviets with America's material standards was another field of battle," Starks said. A few other brands took on this role in the USSR before McDonald's did, namely Pepsi in 1972 and Marlboro in 1976.

A Soviet policeman stands by a queue of people waiting to enter a newly opened McDonald's on Gorky Street in Moscow in 1990.

Peter Turnley | Corbis Historical | Getty Images

But McDonalds, unlike a can of Pepsi or a pack of Marlboro cigarettes, "was a totally immersive experience of capitalism's sensual joys," she said.

"From the moment you stepped in, it was an entirely different experience than a Soviet restaurant. You were greeted with smiles and shouts of 'Can I help you?' Products were of consistent quality and always consumable. The burgers were hot!"

This was a culture shock to Soviet denizens, many of whom expressed confusion when staff would smile at them. "When I smile, people are asking what's wrong, they think I am laughing at them," one Russian employee at the McDonald's opening day in 1990 told a reporter.

Traditionally dressed Russian musicians perform in front of the then-busiest McDonald's restaurant in the world in Pushkin Square in Moscow during the 15th anniversary of the opening of its first restaurant in Russia on January 31, 2005.

ALEXANDER MEMENOV | AFP | Getty Images

"When you were done, a worker would come and whisk away the trash, and the showplace on Pushkin Square was kept clean despite the thousands who would come by through the day some of them waiting hours to spend a full month's wages on dinner for a family of four," Starks described, noting that customer service was simply not a concept in the USSR. "Service was a side product of a McDonald's experience."

Not all Russians feel bad about the golden arches leaving.

"Hello Americans We want to thank you for all your sanctions, for taking away from our country Coca Cola, KFC, McDonald's and all that sh--. Now by summer we will be healthy, strong and without ass fat," Russian influencer and comedian Natasha Krasnova wrote in an Instagram post in March that was viewed more than 5 million times.

A mobile fast food van is seen in Moscow, Russia, as people buy alternative fast food after McDonald's closed its roughly 850 restaurants across the country. March 21, 2022.

Sefa Karacan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Many Russians have encouraged replacing Western chains with Russian-made brands, and at this point are perfectly capable of making their own burgers and other fast food products. There has also been a push by some to ditch American-style food as a whole in favor of local dishes, as much of the country rejects Western symbols out of patriotism.

A view of McDonald's restaurant serving in Murmansk, Russia, the northernmost city in the world, on March 11 2022, after the chain said it would temporarily close all of its 850 restaurants in Russia in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine. In May, it announced its permanent exit from Russia.

Semen Vasileyevy | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Many Russians feel bitter about having to deal with the consequences of a war they did not choose. Those consequences pale in comparison to the horror being dealt to Ukraine, where thousands of civilians have been killed by Russian bombs and numerous cities reduced to rubble.

But as the war rumbles on and Russia becomes increasingly isolated by international sanctions, time will tell how many Russians will abandon their country in pursuit of the more open world they knew, and how many will choose allegiance to the state, turning against that world.

For Nishanov, it's not just about McDonald's, but something bigger.

"McDonald's leaving Russia hits many of my generation differently," he said, "I think because it represented and I know this sounds dramatic hope and optimism. The company leaving confirms Putin's Russia is a place devoid of those two things."

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Goodbye, American soft power: McDonalds exiting Russia after 32 years is the end of an era - CNBC

The United States has accused Russia of holding the worlds food supply hostage amid growing fears of famine in developing countries, as a former Russian president warned that the Kremlin would not release vital grain shipments without an end to western sanctions.

Speaking at a UN security council meeting on Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken demanded that Russia lift its blockade of Ukraines Black Sea ports and enable the flow of food and fertiliser around the world.

The Russian government seems to think that using food as a weapon will help accomplish what its invasion has not to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people, he said at the meeting called by the Biden administration.

The food supply for millions of Ukrainians and millions more around the world has quite literally been held hostage by the Russian military, he added.

Blinken called on Russia to stop threatening to withhold food and fertiliser exports from countries that criticise your war of aggression.

Russia and Ukraine produce 30% of the global wheat supply and 69% of the worlds sunflower oil.

Earlier on Thursday, Dmitry Medvedev, a former president of Russia who is now senior security official, warned that Russia would not continue food supplies unless the west eased its sanctions on the Kremlin.

After pleas from western government and the United Nations to Moscow to allow the flow of food to avert possible famine in some countries, Medvedev said on Thursday that Russia was ready to do so but expected assistance from trading partners, including on international platforms in return.

Otherwise, theres no logic: on the one hand, insane sanctions are being imposed against us, on the other hand, they are demanding food supplies, Medvedev said on the messaging app Telegram. Things dont work like that, were not idiots.

Countries importing our wheat and other food products will have a very difficult time without supplies from Russia. And on European and other fields, without our fertilisers, only juicy weeds will grow, added Medvedev, who served as president between 2008 and 2012 but is now deputy chairman of Russias security council.

We have every opportunity to ensure that other countries have food, and food crises do not happen. Just dont interfere with our work.

Ertharin Cousin, chief executive and founder of Food Systems for the Future, and a co-author of a report on the issue with Boston Consulting Group, said the crisis could have ramifications across the world. While this crisis will impact all of us around the world in significant ways, low-income economies risk devastation and potential unrest, she said. Were not just talking about the poorest of the poor, who are already suffering from hunger. Were also talking about people who could recently afford a loaf of bread for their families and who now will be unable to do so.

The demand to have sanctions on the Russian economy lifted could intensify western efforts to supply Ukraine with the weapons it needs to be able to challenge Russias naval blockade. Ukraine has already sunk Russias flagship battle cruiser Moskva but its military would need more sophisticated missiles in order to force the Russian Black Sea fleet to back off.

According to a report by Reuters, the White House is working on such a plan. Three US officials and two congressional sources said two types of powerful anti-ship missiles were in active consideration for either direct shipment to Ukraine, or via transfer from a European ally that has the missiles, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The plans are tempered by concerns that supplying Ukraine with the latest anti-ship weaponry could intensify the conflict. Current and former US officials and congressional sources have also cited roadblocks to sending longer range, more powerful weapons to Ukraine that include lengthy training requirements, difficulties maintaining equipment, or concerns weaponry could be captured by Russian forces.

Moscows military campaign in Ukraine and a barrage of unprecedented international sanctions on Russia have disrupted supplies of fertiliser, wheat and other commodities from both countries, pushing up prices for food and fuel, especially in developing nations.

Serhii Dvornyk, a member of Ukraines mission to the UN, backed Blinkens claim and called on Russia to stop stealing Ukrainian grain and unblock the ports, noting that 400 million people around the world depended on grain from Ukraine.

The countrys grain exports fell from 5m tons a month before Russias February invasion to 200,000 tons in March and about 1.1m tons in April, he added.

Russias ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, countered by saying his country was being blamed for all of the worlds woes.

He said the world had long suffered from a food crisis caused by an inflationary spiral stemming from rising costs of insurance, logistical snarls, and speculation on western markets.

He argued that Ukraines ports are blocked by Ukraine itself, which, he said, had placed mines along the Black Sea coast.

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US accuses Russia of weaponising food in Ukraine crisis and holding global supplies hostage - The Guardian

Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce Jurin Laksanawisit speaks at the opening ceremony of Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC 2022) in Bangkok, Thailand May 21, 2022. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

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BANGKOK, May 21 (Reuters) - Representatives of the United States and several other nations walked out of an Asia-Pacific trade ministers meeting in Bangkok on Saturday to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine, officials said.

The walkout was "an expression of disapproval at Russia's illegal war of aggression in Ukraine and its economic impact in the APEC region," one diplomat said.

Representatives from Canada, New Zealand, Japan and Australia joined the Americans, led by Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in walking out of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, two Thai officials and two international diplomats told Reuters.

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Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, saying it aimed to demilitarise and "denazify" its neighbour. Ukraine and the West say President Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression, which has claimed thousands of civilian lives, sent millions of Ukrainians fleeing and caused economic fallout around the world.

Another diplomat said the five countries that staged the protest wanted "stronger language on Russia's war" in the group's final statement to be issued on Sunday.

"The meeting will not be a failure if (a joint statement) cannot be issued," Thai Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit told reporters, adding that the meeting was "progressing well" despite the walk out.

The walkout took place while Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov was delivering remarks at the opening of the two-day meeting from the group of 21 economies.

The delegations from five countries that staged the protest returned to the meeting after Reshetnikov finished speaking, a Thai official said.

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Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by William Mallard

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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U.S., others walk out of APEC talks over Russia's Ukraine invasion - Reuters