Monthly Archives: May 2023

History books

The Harvard academic on writing while grieving and where his country goes from here

Fri 12 May 2023 05.00 EDT

Before my first reporting trip to Ukraine, one of my seasoned war correspondent colleagues had two pieces of advice. First, not to miss the delicious coffee and pastries you can find in Kyiv (which is a wonderfully reassuring thing to hear as you head off towards a conflict). Second, that it was absolutely necessary to read Serhii Plokhys 2015 book The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine. I did, and it unwound 2,500 years of complex, fascinating and often tragic events, all the way from Herodotuss accounts of the ancient Scythians to the Maidan protests in Kyiv a decade ago. Now Plokhy and I are speaking by Zoom me from London, he from his home near Harvard, where he is professor of Ukrainian history. Hes in his study. There are globes on every surface, and antique maps of Ukraine hang on the walls.

Plokhy, 65, is a genial presence calm, expansive, gently humorous, not given to grandstanding exactly how you might imagine and want a history professor to be. However, his latest project is anything but conventional historiography. He begins The Russo-Ukrainian War, his new book, by recalling the moment he picked up his phone and checked his emails, early on 24 February last year. He was in Vienna. One email from a Harvard colleague, with whom hed been discussing the prospect of an all-out invasion, hoped he was OK. I was not OK, he writes. Aside from anything, his sister and her family were in Zaporizhzhia, the south-eastern city where hed grown up. By the time he called her, she could already hear the pounding of Russian artillery. He describes how he dressed carefully, that first morning, putting on a shirt and a blazer for a visit to some archives to show that I was collected and prepared to carry out my duties, whatever they might be. The book ends with an afterword that pays heartbreaking tribute to his cousin, killed in October near Bakhmut.

History is normally written from the calm, distant purview that a scholar attains when chaotic events have resolved themselves into some recognisable shape or pattern. It is not usually interrupted by grief for a family member killed as a result of those still-unfolding events. At first, he says, he resisted the idea of a book about the invasion, produced during the invasion. To write such a volume would be to go against the basic principles of the profession. Our wisdom as historians comes from the fact that we already know how things turned out, he says.

But soon he began to change his mind. History, after all, is a weapon in this conflict. Vladimir Putins justification for his aggression towards Ukraine is rooted in his (twisted and faulty) understanding of the past. He even wrote a sprawling, inaccurate essay laying out his views in 2021, titled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians. Plokhy began to feel compelled to fight the Russian presidents terrible history writing with good, solid history writing of his own.

I found myself in the same situation as a lot of Ukrainians, he says. After the shock passes, you ask yourself: OK: how can I help? And actually a sense of being involved helps you to survive emotionally. Then you think about the kind of help you can offer. You think about [rock musician] Slava Vakarchuk who goes and sings to the troops. You think of the guy who goes to the army recruitment office, takes a rifle and goes for training. You think of the person who buys used cars in the European Union and brings them to the frontline. These people are all part of the war effort. And I felt I could be part of it by utilising the skills that I have as a historian. I wonder how on earth he has managed to be the dispassionate scholar amid the intense, personal turbulence that the Russian invasion of his country has brought. Because he has had to be, he says. Being a good historian requires me to control my emotions, otherwise I would not be doing my job according to the standard of the field and I would not fight back as effectively as I could, he says.

As soon as Ukraine survived the initial assault, Plokhy knew exactly how to approach the new book: As a historian, I knew the answers. I mean: I cant tell you and I dont say in the book what will happen tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. But the frame that Im using is to look at this as one of many wars of the disintegration of empire, and from the perspective that the great powers have lost every single war that they have been fighting since 1945, from Korea to Vietnam to Afghanistan.

So has Russia essentially already lost? Is the full-scale invasion of Ukraine a convulsion of a dying empire? Yes, exactly, he says. We just dont know how long it will go on, and what the price will be. Death throes, he points out, can go on for a pretty long time. Russian imperial disintegration began in 1914, he argues, with the outbreak of the first world war and he points out that the Ottoman empire, for example, has been in the process of disintegration since the 17th century, with the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the rise of Islamic State, he says, being a part of that slow-flowing story. So, Im not prepared to jump to the conclusion that the invasion of Ukraine is the absolutely last chapter of the Russian empire. But I have no doubt that it is an important chapter.

I wonder whether he can foresee the disintegration of the Russian Federation as it is currently constituted especially in a context where Russia is seemingly recruiting its military disproportionately from its Muslim peoples and peripheral autonomous republics. The process of disintegration has already started, he replies. Already Russia doesnt control its constitutional territory by which he means that some parts of Ukraine that were formally adopted as part of the Russian Federation last autumn in the wake of the full-scale invasion, such as Kherson, have already been liberated and restored to Ukrainian hands. But yes, he says, republics on the edges of the federation such as Tuva, Buryatia and Sakha, not to mention Chechnya, are vulnerable. The longer the war goes on, the stronger the narrative that Russia is using them as cannon fodder.

It is a cruel game to ask a historian to look into the future. But here we are and, as Plokhy himself says, rephrasing Churchill, historians are probably the worst commentators on contemporary events except for all the others. So what about the Ukrainians spring counteroffensive, I ask which, when we speak in the last days of April, is expected any day.

He is not prepared to predict the outcome of that but whatever happens, it will be crucial, he says. At the extreme end of the spectrum of what the Ukrainian military might achieve is the retaking of the Crimea, about which he seems a great deal more optimistic than many observers (the Russians have built mighty defences on the peninsula, and will surely fight harder for this territory than any other part of illegally annexed Ukraine). If it were achieved, he says, it could send a shock wave into Moscow in political terms. It would have a major impact on the Ukrainian morale, on Russian morale, and on the morale of Ukraine supporters in the west. On the other hand, if the counteroffensive completely collapses, the more likely scenario would be a sort of armistice, with Ukraine losing additional territories. That wouldnt mean the end of the war, but it would mean a very different outcome.

Either way, a lot depends on it. This year started, he says, with the realisation that things will be decided on the battlefield more than they will be decided at the negotiating table. On the battlefield there were two questions: the outcome of the Russian winter offensive; and the outcome of the Ukrainian spring counteroffensive. We have the answer to the first question. Nothing came out of the Russian offensive. Now the second question is about to be answered. It may prove a turning point for the whole war.

Im curious about how he sees his book in relation to journalism. One way to look at it is that a journalist is someone who takes a photograph, he says. Then along comes the historian and creates a frame, and makes a different kind of meaning from that snapshot of reality. By contrast to the way in which a journalist would approach writing a book about the war, Plokhy takes a good 150 pages to get on to the events of 24 February 2022. Instead, he walks the reader back to 1991 (and even earlier), teasing apart the parallel stories of Russian and Ukrainian post-Soviet politics and in the process, answering some key questions about the past 30 years: why did democracy take in Ukraine but not Russia? Why does Ukraine have a post-Soviet history of mass protest and Russia not? How has Ukraine reacted at different times to the pull of Moscow on the one side, and of Nato and the EU on the other?

I tell him about an encounter I had in a bookshop in Kyiv, in which the bookseller told me the most common question she has from customers is: Can you recommend me a book thats not about Ukrainian suffering? Plokhy laughs, and tells me that Volodymyr Vynnychenko, the first prime minister of Ukraine in 1918-19, said that it was impossible to read Ukrainian history without taking bromide (once used as a sedative) because it was so painful, horrible, bitter and sad. Is Ukraine condemned to be a buffer state, trapped between east and west, destined for more and more suffering? You cant change geography, says Plokhy. You cant change your neighbours. But you can change yourself, and that seems to me what is happening now in the middle of this war. In other words, Ukraine can choose and is choosing not to be a no mans land. When you knock on Nato or the EUs door and it doesnt open right away, it doesnt matter so much if you are prepared to come back and knock again, he says. That was the case with, say, Poland. Its just a matter of time.

Hes on Ukraines side, without ambiguity or equivocation: is that OK for a historian? Should a scholar be more even-handed? I dont have a problem being on the side of the country that is trying to save its democracy from the aggression of an increasingly authoritarian, dictatorial state, he tells me. I dont have a problem being on the side of a victim attacked under a false pretext and a misinterpretation of history and history is something that I understand.

Yes, I am on one side. But its a no-brainer. He moves his camera to show me one of the maps on his office wall, made in 18th-century Italy. Above the Black Sea theres an inscription. It translates as free Ukraine. And he gives me a big, optimistic grin.

The Russo-Ukrainian War by Serhii Plokhy will be published by Allen Lane on 16 May.

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Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy: This may not be the last chapter of the Russian empire, but its an important one - The Guardian

Irina Tsybaneva, 60, left a note on the grave of Putins parents that said they had raised a monster and a murderer.

A 60-year-old Russian retiree was given a two-year suspended sentence after being found guilty of desecrating the grave of President Vladimir Putins parents when she left a note at the burial site that said they had brought up a monster and a murderer.

The court on Thursday found Irina Tsybaneva from St Petersburg guilty of desecrating the Putins burial place motivated by political hatred.

The retiree said she was motivated by Russias war on Ukraine.

Prosecutors had sought a three-year suspended sentence for Tsybaneva, who in October was charged with desecrating the Putin family plot in St Petersburg with a note referring to Putins deceased mother and father as parents of this maniac, independent news sites reported.

Death to Putin, you brought up a monster and a murderer, the note said, urging the deceased parents to take him with you, hes causing so much pain and trouble, according to Novaya Gazeta Europe.

The whole world is praying he would die, the note said.

Tsybanevas lawyer said she did not plead guilty because she had not desecrated the grave physically or sought publicity for her action.

The retiree who was initially placed under house arrest and prevented from going online and banned from visiting the Serafimovskoe Cemetery in St Petersburg does not plan to appeal the verdict.

Tsybaneva told the court she wrote the note after she watched the news about the war in Ukraine, news outlets reported.

After seeing the news, I was overwhelmed by fear, I felt very unwell, Tsybaneva told the court, according to Novaya Gazeta.

The fear was so strong that I could not cope with it, and this is possibly my fault. I barely remember writing it [the note], I dont have any recollection of the text itself. I realise that I succumbed to my emotions and committed an irrational act. I am sorry that my actions could offend or affect someone, she said.

Tsybaneva also said she was certain her note would not be noticed because it was rolled in a small tube and did not attract any attention, the news organisation added.

Also on Thursday, a Russian military court sentenced Nikita Tushkanov, a history teacher from Komi in northeast Russia, to five and a half years in prison for comments he made about last years explosion on the Kerch bridge linking Ukraines Crimea Peninsula to mainland Russia.

Tushkanov was found guilty of justifying terrorism and discrediting the Russian army for publishing a social media post in October calling the bridge explosion a birthday present for Putin.

The Kremlin has unleashed a sweeping campaign of repression aimed at criticism of Russias war in Ukraine, which has seen critics, in addition being fined and sentenced to jail, being fired from jobs, blacklisted and branded by the authorities as foreign agents in Russia.

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Russian woman convicted of desecrating grave of Putins parents - Al Jazeera English

Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of Ukraines National Security and Defence Council (NSDC), has said that all attempts by Vladimir Putin, President of the aggressor country, to intimidate Ukraine with "adequate responses" have failed and that the worst is only just beginning for Russia itself.

Source: Danilov on Twitter

Quote from Danilov: "All of Russia's attempts to intimidate Ukrainians and the world with a so-called 'adequate response' appear to be talking to themselves. Putin used everything he could".

Details: He believes the worst is just beginning for Russia, a fake country without Western developments and investments.

"There will be many 'pleasant' encounters with advanced technologies ahead for Russians... and these will not be just smartphones," the NSDC Secretary stated.

Background: The last time, on 11 May, the Kremlin promised an "adequate response" to the supply of long-range Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!

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Putin runs out of "adequate responses", worst for Russia about to begin Ukraine's National Security and Defence ... - Yahoo News

Russias defence ministry has denied reports that Ukrainian forces had broken through in various places along the front lines and said the military situation was under control. Moscow was reacting after Russian military bloggers, writing on the Telegram messaging app, reported what they said were Ukrainian advances north and south of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, with some suggesting a long-awaited counteroffensive by pro-Kyiv forces had started. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had earlier said the offensive had yet to start.

Turkeys defence minister, Hulusi Akar, has said that parties to the Black Sea grain initiative are approaching an extension. Akars comment was released by his ministry in a statement on Friday, after talks in Istanbul.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Musiyenko says Kyivs backers understand that a counteroffensive may not result in the complete eviction of Russian troops and the definitive defeat of Russia in all occupied areas. We have to be ready for the war to continue into next year - or it could end this year, Musiyenko told Ukrainian NV Radio. It all depends on how the battles develop. We cant guarantee how the counter-offensive will develop.

The Russian-imposed mayor of occupied Donetsk has reported on Telegram that one person was killed by Ukrainian shelling of the city overnight.

The commander of Russias Black Sea Fleet has said its defences are being tightened amid a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting its home base, the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Vice Adm Viktor Sokolov told Fridays edition of the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda: In connection with the threat of attacks by robotic surface and underwater systems, we have increased the technical defences of the fleets main base and of the ships anchorages. Sokolov said the Black Sea Fleet, whose flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by Ukraine in April 2022, would receive four new ships in 2023.

Chinas foreign ministry has announced that its special representative of Eurasian affairs will visit Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia from Monday in what it calls an effort to promote peace talks,

US President Joe Biden and Spanish prime minister Pedro Snchez will discuss Ukraine, defence cooperation, and migration on Friday during a meeting at the White House. While Madrid agrees with Washington on the illegality of Russias February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Snchez will convey the divergent views of China and Brazil and propose giving greater weight to the views of non-Nato nations hurt by the war, a Spanish diplomatic source told Reuters.

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen met German finance minister Christian Lindner on Friday, to underscore the importance of working together to counter evasion of sanctions imposed on Russia over its war in Ukraine, the US Treasury has said.

The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Friday they are considering speeding up a plan to disconnect the Baltic regions electricity supply from Russias power grid.

Britains defence secretary, Ben Wallace, on Thursday confirmed reports that the UK is donating long-range Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine. Wallace said Ukrainians will have the best chance to defend themselves.

The US ambassador to South Africa has accused the country of covertly providing arms to Russia a charge that drew an angry rebuke from Pretoria. Reuben Brigety told a media briefing that the US believed weapons and ammunition had been loaded on to a Russian freighter that docked at a Cape Town naval base in December. We are confident that weapons were loaded on to that vessel and I would bet my life on the accuracy of that assertion, Brigety said, according to a video of the remarks. The arming of Russia by South Africa is fundamentally unacceptable.

Polands defence minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, confirmed that the army was aware of a possible missile heading towards the country in December but failed to inform the government. Poland has been on alert for possible spillover of weaponry from the war in neighbouring Ukraine, especially since two people were killed near the border last November by what Warsaw concluded was a misfired Ukrainian air defence missile.

Zelenskiy again denied any Ukrainian responsibility for the drone incident over the Kremlin. Russia has accused Washington and Kyiv of masterminding the attack, which it described as an assassination attempt on Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time, and no injuries were caused by the drones.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 443 of the invasion - The Guardian

12 May 2023, 01:46 BST

A grain terminal at the port in Odesa in Ukraine

The head of the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that it will be difficult to feed the world if Russia pulls out of the Ukraine grain deal.

Cindy McCain told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that the deal, which is due to expire on 18 May, must be renewed.

The export agreement has allowed Ukraine to transport millions of tonnes of food despite the ongoing conflict.

The deal was brokered by the UN and Turkey last July.

It was agreed to help tackle a global food crisis after access to Ukraine's ports in the Black Sea was blocked by Russian warships following the invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine is a major global exporter of sunflower, maize, wheat and barley, and more than half of the wheat grain procured by the WFP last year came from there.

At the same time, the UN also agreed to help Moscow facilitate its own agricultural shipments.

"They must renew the deal. We can't possibly be able to feed the region let alone the world unless they do," Ms McCain said.

"As you know, Ukraine used to be pretty much the breadbasket of Europe, and now that's not happening. And we need to get the grain out because it's affecting other countries."

The deal is meant to be extended for 120 days at a time but Russia has threatened to quit the agreement on 18 May over obstacles to its grain and fertiliser exports.

Senior officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN met in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss proposals to extend the deal.

The meeting appeared to end without Russian agreement.

The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin could speak to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at short notice if needed regarding an extension of the deal, but no such plans have been announced as yet.

Ms McCain said the WFP had been sourcing grains from other sources to distribute to countries around the world but it had not been able to feed as many people due to rising costs.

Cindy McCain told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that it was "50/50" whether the deal would be renewed

She said the conflict "has managed to completely cascade around the world difficulties to be able to feed people".

Ms McCain, who took office last month, said she believed it would be difficult for Ukrainian farmers to be able to bring in a harvest this year.

"I know that there are some farms that are still operating. But you have to remember, a large majority of the land where the crops were grown before are now mined, with land mines," she said.

"The equipment that they use to work the farms are mined. This is a tragic situation. And if the conflict were to end today, we'd be years being able to clear the land and clear the properties to make sure that it was safe to plant and safe to put livestock on."

On whether she thought Russia would sign an extension to the Black Sea grain deal, she said: "No, I'm not, I'm not confident that they will. The things I've been hearing is that... it's 50/50 right now.

"It worries me very much. And it should worry everybody else too."

She urged "every world leader" to help facilitate the renewal of the deal and end the conflict.

Turkey's Defence Ministry said on Thursday that progress had been made in the talks on the Black Sea grain deal and that the parties had agreed to continue four-way technical meetings.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said after the talks that the grain deal should be extended for a longer period and expanded. He said the talks would continue online.

Russia has issued a list of demands regarding its own agricultural exports that it wants met before it agrees to an extension, including restarting a pipeline that delivers Russian ammonia to a Ukrainian Black Sea port, which the UN has been pushing for.

You can see the whole interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, this Sunday, on BBC One and iPlayer from 09:00 BST

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Ukraine war: WFP chief Cindy McCain says grain deal with Russia needed to feed world - BBC

Ukrainian artillery fires towards the frontline during heavy fighting amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near Bakhmut, Ukraine, April 13, 2023.REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Wagner boss Prigozhin said on Thursday that Ukraine's "counteroffensive is in full swing."

Ukrainian forces have reported counterattacks near the war-torn city of Bakhmut.

But President Zelenskyy said earlier that Kyiv still needs "more time" before a major assault.

Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed Thursday that Ukraine's much-anticipated counteroffensive is in "full swing," rebuffing comments made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just hours earlier about delaying major operations.

On his social media channels, Prigozhin accused Zelenskyy of lying when he said in a media interview that Ukraine needed more time before it could carry out a counteroffensive. "Zelensky is lying," Prigozhin said, according to a CNN translation. "The counteroffensive is in full swing."

Prigozhin's remarks came amid reports of Ukrainian advances at front-line areas in eastern Ukraine, such as in the war-torn city of Bakhmut, where Wagner Group mercenaries have played a key role in brutal and intense fighting for months. Ukrainian forces signaled that they carried out "effective counterattacks" that forced some Russian soldiers to retreat.

"Thanks to our well-thought-out defense in the Bakhmut sector, we are getting results from the effective actions of our units," Colonel-GeneralOleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Telegram, according to CNN. "In particular, we are conducting effective counterattacks. In some areas of the front, the enemy was unable to withstand the onslaught of Ukrainian defenders and retreated to a distance of up to 2 kilometers."

A Ukrainian battalion said this week that it managed to chase Russian soldiers out of parts of Bakhmut, sharing footage that appeared to show soldiers on the run. Aerial footage showed troops running through fields and being hunted down by armored vehicles, while videos taken from the ground showed fighting and bodies.

Story continues

Kyiv's military officials have cautioned that the offensives mentioned by Prigozhin are nothing more than a "positional struggle" and don't reflect a broader counteroffensive. Some reporters also cast doubt on the claims.

In a Thursday Facebook update, Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces said Russia was concentrating its main efforts on several fronts in eastern Ukraine, including around Bakhmut, Adviivka, Lyman, and Marinka. "During the day, the enemy carried out more than 30 attacks on the specified areas of the front," the update read, adding that the "fiercest battles" continue for the cities of Bakhmut and Marinka.

The update did not mention any widespread counteroffensive like the one Prigozhin claimed was underway and Russian Telegram channels have also speculated may be happening amid some reported Ukrainian advances.

Ukrainian officials have previously hinted that the country's much-anticipated counteroffensive will take place in the near future, though it's not immediately clear when, exactly, that will happen. A major assault, which is aimed at liberating occupied land in eastern and southern Ukraine, would follow a Russian offensive earlier this year that failed to produce notable territorial results.

Zelenskyy, in a recent interview with public service broadcasters part of Eurovision News, said Ukraine still needs more time before a counteroffensive. Kyiv could go forward with what it already has in its arsenal and "be successful," he said, according to the BBC. "But we'd lose a lot of people. I think that's unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time," he added.

Ukraine's combat brigades were "ready," Zelenskyy said, but his military still needs "some things" like armored vehicles that had been "arriving in batches."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in late April that over 98 percent of all the combat vehicles that were promised to Ukraine part of a massive influx of heavy armor provided by Kyiv's Western backers had already been delivered. The military alliance's chief said this meant nearly 1,800 armored vehicles and tanks and "vast amounts of ammunition."

"In total we have trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armoured brigades, this will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory," Stoltenberg said.

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A Ukrainian counterattack has the Wagner boss sounding alarms on a counteroffensive in 'full swing,' claiming Zelenskyy played everyone - Yahoo News

May 12 (Reuters) - Russia's defence ministry said on Friday its forces repelled a surge of attempted Ukrainian attacks against positions in eastern Ukraine, but indicated that its troops had fallen back in one area for what it said were tactical reasons.

The ministry said in a statement that Ukraine had deployed more than a thousand troops and up to 40 tanks in 26 attempted attacks across a frontline extending over 95 kilometres. It said the attacks had taken place in the direction of the town of Soledar, which is held by Moscow's forces.

"All the attacks by Ukrainian army units were rebuffed," the ministry said. "No breakthroughs in the defensive lines of Russian forces were allowed to take place."

The same statement did indicate however that Russian forces had fallen back a bit in one area of the front, taking up what it described as "more favourable positions" near the Berkhivka reservoir northwest of Bakhmut.

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said earlier on Friday that Ukrainian forces had advanced by about 2 km around Bakhmut this week and had not given up any positions there in that time.

Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose troops have done the bulk of the fighting in and around Bakhmut, said via his press service that what the defence ministry had described was in fact a "rout" which had seen troops flee.

He said Ukraine had been able to completely regain control of a crucial supply road that links Bakhmut with the town of Chasiv Yar and had seized useful higher ground.

The risk, he said, was that if more ground was lost Ukrainian forces could gradually encircle Bakhmut.

Prigozhin, who has been openly feuding with the Defence Ministry for months, has repeatedly accused the top brass of sabotaging Wagner's push for Bakhmut and this week accused them of doing too little to protect Bakhmut's flanks.

The Defence Ministry appeared to push back against that assertion on Friday, saying that Ukrainian attempts to counter-attack Bakhmut's flanks were being repelled.

Prigozhin complained his men were still not getting enough shells and equipment, but said they were still advancing in Bakhmut and only needed to capture around a further 20 buildings to take full control of the city.

Bakhmut, much of which now lies in ruins, has been the focus of fierce fighting for months.

Reuters was unable to verify the situation on the battlefield.

Reporting by Reuters

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Russia says it repelled surge of Ukrainian attacks in the east - Reuters

Ukraine

Dmytro Pletenchuk, a press officer, took photos in the aftermath of last weeks devastating shelling in Kherson

Fri 12 May 2023 00.30 EDT

When the barrage began, Dmytro Pletenchuk was outside Kherson railway station. A shell set fire to a train evacuating civilians. Another plunged into the square. Pletenchuk, a major in the Ukrainian navy and press officer for Khersons defence forces, ran to his car to get his flak jacket. He came back to a scene of carnage: a body covered in blankets; a dazed man slumped on the pavement, his foot bleeding; glass everywhere and debris.

Pletenchuk took photographs. Im a professional. I must work. I cant cry, he said. The same morning, the Russians bombed a petrol station, a private building and a supermarket, in one of the worst attacks since the invasion. I saw four dead people lying in the aisle. Red Cross workers rescued a young boy. You could see the bone in his leg, Pletenchuk said.

The devastating artillery bombardment on 3 May killed 24 people and injured 45, two of them children. Pletenchuk took out his mobile phone and showed the Guardian some of the images he recorded on this ghastly day, sent to news outlets around the world and published by Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on his official Telegram channel, with nearly 1 million subscribers.

Zelenskiy described the attack as the work of an evil state and wrote: The world needs to see and know this. He added: A railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket, a gas station do you know what unites these places? The bloody trail that Russia leaves with its shells, killing civilians in Kherson and Kherson region. My condolences to the families and friends of the victims. We will never forgive the culprits.

The photos are harrowing. Shrapnel has clawed part of the skull from a shopper; the mangled body of a woman lies amid vegetables and a fallen-over trolley. Plentenchuk shot video as well. One clip includes lurid vermillon puddles and a rivulet of blood running outside the store. With Grad missiles its always the head and legs. I dont know why, he reflected grimly. That day I just saw brains on the ground.

Civilians living on Ukraines frontline are regularly exposed to similar horror. With no end to the war in sight, there is a growing psychological and emotional toll. Pletenchuck said he had bad dreams. In one, he relived Russias devastating missile attack last year on the regional administration building in Mykolaiv where he worked, which killed 37 of his colleagues. I wake up in the part of the dream when the explosion happens, he said.

Other nightmares feature his eight-year-old daughter, Regina. I dream the Russians capture us, something like that. Or that there is an attack and I dont have ammunition and cant find my gear. Pletenchuk said he and his wife, a journalist also based in Kherson, took sleeping tablets. I cant sleep really, he admitted. You hear the sound of explosions at night across the city. Its incoming, and outgoing from our side.

One of the victims photographed by Pletenchuk under a white sheet was 73-year-old Viktor Kuksenko. He had gone to the railway station to collect a relative. His widow, Lyudmyla, said their last conversation was at 1.46pm. When he didnt return, she went to the station to investigate. Two police officers told her there had been a major incident, with multiple casualties, and advised her to go home.

Soon afterwards, her phone rang. There was a call from my husbands number. The voice was a womans. I said: Is he alive or dead? She answered: Dead. She told me to drop by at the morgue the next day. I was in shock. When I arrived, they wouldnt let me see his body. They said his head was bashed in. She added: He was my first love. I was 13 when we met. He was 15. A good, kind, gentle person. We were together for 52 years.

Lyudmyla said she and her husband had survived last years occupation of Kherson, which ended in November when Russian troops retreated across the Dnipro River. Ever since, the city has been a target. We didnt leave because there is a lot of looting. We were worried that someone might steal the little we have. My pension is tiny. Ive always economised. What am I supposed to do now? she said.

According to the regional administration, Russian forces hit Kherson and the surrounding district with 200-600 munitions a day. They use multiple rocket launcher systems, mortars, tank rounds and quadcopter drones that drop small grenades, usually on civilian objects. Serhiy Melashych, a city council worker, said he came under attack two weeks ago when he visited Ostriv, an island district close to the river. He had been delivering humanitarian aid.

A mortar flew over my head. I hid behind a fence, he said, showing a photo he took of a small flechette that had embedded itself in one of the tyres on his car. I have a nightmare where the rocket flies towards me, he added. Before the war, if I saw blood I would be shocked. Now Im not. If you see these attacks often they become a kind of normal. You live with it.

Melashych acknowledged that the war was emotionally very difficult for everybody. I cope in different ways. Sometimes I go and see my family who live in a safe area. I asked them for a cat to keep me company but they joked it would be too dangerous for the cat. Other times I drink a glass of whisky. I tell myself there are worse places to be in Ukraine. At the end of the day I can sleep because Im very tired.

About 50,000 people live in Kherson, from a pre-invasion population of 300,000. Some returned after liberation; others exited last week after the supermarket and railway attack. Olena Velikho, 85, stopping off at a cafe for a bowl of soup, said she was staying put. Im a child of the second world war. It doesnt scare me, she said.

Pletenchuk said the fact that some parents with children refused to leave was a problem. There are no safe places in Kherson, he pointed out. The situation would improve only once Ukraines armed forces had evicted the Russians from the left bank of Kherson province and other occupied areas, he said. Ultimately Russia itself had to be destroyed, to prevent Moscow from launching another war in the future, he suggested.

Since the invasion, the press officer has taken thousands of photographs of ruined buildings, murdered civilians and the twisted remnants of enemy missiles. Pletenchuk said he was considering exhibiting some of them once the fighting was over as a way of processing the horror that Ukraine had collectively endured, and of reminding future generations of Russian war crimes. Its a very big archive, he said.

He was confident that Ukraine would eventually be able to move on from its current cycle of trauma and grief. People feel optimistic. We all believe in our victory and we understand Russia cant win. They dont know what they are doing in our country. They come to Ukraine and die, like slaves. They dont have our motivation. We know exactly why we are fighting.

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I must work. I cant cry: capturing Russias attacks on Ukrainian civilians - The Guardian

[1/2] Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine... Read more

VATICAN CITY, May 11 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to meet Pope Francis in the Vatican on Saturday, diplomatic sources said on Thursday, days after the pope said the Holy See was involved in a peace mission to try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The planned trip has not been officially announced. Pope Francis has given no further information about the peace initiative.

There was no immediate comment from the Kyiv government on reports of the possible trip. Zelenskiy's office never releases details of his travel plans ahead of time for security reasons.

An Italian political source confirmed that Zelenskiy might be in Rome at the weekend and said if that was the case, he would also see Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is a staunch defender of Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022.

News of the planned visit was first reported by Italy's Ansa news agency. It said Zelenskiy was also expected to travel to Germany this weekend.

Since the invasion, the pope has pleaded for peace practically on a weekly basis, and has repeatedly expressed a wish to act as a broker between Kyiv and Moscow. His offer has so far failed to produce any breakthrough.

Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal met the pope last month and said he had discussed a "peace formula" put forward by Zelenskiy. He said he had also invited the pontiff to visit Kyiv.

Pope Francis, 86, has said previously that he wants to visit both Kyiv and Moscow on a peace mission.

Tens of thousands have been killed, millions uprooted and whole cities have been flattened during the war in Ukraine.

Reporting by Philip Pullella; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Chris Reese

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Ukraine's Zelenskiy expected to meet pope on Saturday -sources - Reuters

KYIV, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Ukraine needed more time to begin a counteroffensive against Russia because it does not yet have enough military equipment from its Western backers, though Ukrainian officials had repeatedly described the assault as imminent.

In terms of personnel and motivation, Ukraines forces are ready for the operation, Mr. Zelensky said in an interview broadcast by the BBC on Thursday, but they are still waiting for some promised hardware from the West, specifically armored vehicles.

We can go forward, and, I think, be successful, he said. But wed lose a lot of people. I think thats unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time.

Ukrainian military and political analysts said Mr. Zelensky was right about the continuing shortfalls ahead of an operation that Ukraine and its supporters hope will be a turning point in the war. But they also pointed to other possible motives behind his remarks: to pressure the allies to ramp up deliveries, to lower expectations for the counteroffensive, and to confuse the Kremlin about Kyivs intentions.

For months, Ukraines political and military leaders have been signaling that they are preparing a major push to retake territory seized by Russia since it invaded last year, though they have not said precisely when or where the blow would come. Some analysts have predicted that the counteroffensive would be focused on the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of southern Ukraine, not in the eastern Donbas region where the heaviest fighting has been taking place for months.

One Russian military leader claimed on Thursday that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was already underway.

Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private militia, said it was happening in the Donbas and centered on the city of Bakhmut, where his mercenaries have led a grueling assault that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. In an audio message posted on Telegram by his press service, he dismissed Mr. Zelenskys comments as a ruse.

The counteroffensive is taking place at full speed, he said, adding that it would begin in the Bakhmut area and then shift to the Zaporizhzhia region. He said of the Ukrainians: Those units that have undergone the necessary training, received weapons, equipment, tanks and everything else they are already fully engaged.

Russias Defense Ministry said in a statement it had repelled some Ukrainian reconnaissance in force operations in the east, but described the actions in routine terms and denied that there had been any breakthroughs.

Ukrainian forces have made gains around Bakhmut this week for the first time since March, commanders on both sides have said, but it is unclear whether those reflect opportunistic, small-scale attacks or the start of something bigger.

Mr. Prigozhin has in the past been ahead of Russian officials in acknowledging what is happening on the battlefield, but he has also made questionable claims in his campaign to pry more supplies out of a Russian military command that he criticizes bitterly.

A Russian military blogger, Oleksandr Simonov, who often embeds with Wagner fighters in Ukraine, posted on Thursday that they had made further advances inside the city of Bakhmut, but that Ukrainian troops had forced Russian troops into retreat in two spots north of the city. On Tuesday, the Russians ceded a few square miles southwest of the city.

Whatever Mr. Zelenskys intensions, his point about being unprepared is correct, said Taras Chmut, who heads Come Back Alive, a charitable foundation that provides military supplies for the Ukrainian army. Despite tens of billions of dollars in weapons delivered, with more on the way, the Ukrainian military is lacking in matriel, including artillery shells, armored vehicles and air defense systems, he said.

The amount we gathered in recent months is still not enough for a successful counteroffensive, said Mr. Chmut, a former military officer. But, he added, It is the decision of the senior military command whether to accept the risks.

Maria Zolkina, head of regional security and conflict studies at the Kyiv-based Democratic Initiatives Foundation, said Mr. Zelenskys interview was part political statement to make the Western partners speed up those supplies. She said he was also probably looking to temper any high hopes in case the counteroffensive was not as successful as expected.

But, Ms. Zolkina added, I would not exclude that it was an informational trick as Ukraine is trying to hide its preparations.

Shashank Joshi, defense editor at The Economist, put it more bluntly: Of course this is what youd say if the counteroffensive was about to begin, he wrote on Twitter,

Ms. Zolkina said Kyiv was concerned that if the operation fails to deliver major gains, there could be pressure from some Western partners to negotiate an end to the war or accept reduced assistance.

On Thursday, Britains defense secretary, Ben Wallace, told Parliament that the government would provide Ukraine with air-launched cruise missiles that can strike at a range of up to 155 miles. The Storm Shadow missile, with a 990-pound explosive warhead, would enable Ukraine to launch powerful strikes on targets in Crimea, the peninsula that Russia illegally seized in 2014.

Ukraine has a right to be able to defend itself, Mr. Wallace said. The use of Storm Shadow will allow Ukraine to push back Russian forces based within Ukrainian sovereign territory.

The Biden administration has so far refused to send such long-range munitions to Ukraine, wary of provoking some kind of escalation by Russia. But the war has worn down resistance from the White House, which has agreed to send sophisticated weapons that had previously seemed off-limits, like Patriot air defense systems and HIMARS rocket launchers.

Ben Hodges, a retired lieutenant general who was the commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe and supports giving Ukraine long-range weapons, said on Twitter that the British cruise missiles would threaten Russias Black Sea Fleet, based in Sevastopol, in Crimea. This will give Ukraine capability to make Crimea untenable for Russian forces, he said.

Ukrainian leaders have insisted that they intend to reclaim Crimea, but for now it may matter more as a staging and supply area for Russian operations in southern Ukraine.

If Mr. Zelenskys comments about waiting to launch the campaign were an attempt at misdirection, it would be in keeping with an information war that has been full of feints and surprises.

Last fall, the Ukrainian military let it be known that it was planning a counterattack in the south, which led Russia to move troops to the south, leaving its defenses undermanned in the Kharkiv region in the northeast. The Ukrainian military command then attacked there, instead, surprising the Russians as well of many of its own troops and recapturing a vast swath of territory in a rout.

As recently as 10 weeks ago, Western weapons deliveries were still falling far short of what Ukraine needed for a counteroffensive, according to classified U.S. military assessments from February and March.

But two weeks ago, the top NATO military commander, Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli of the U.S. Army, said that Ukraine had by that point received 98 percent of the combat vehicles necessary to launch the battle.

Even so, Ukrainian officials regularly say they need more and better weapons. And in recent days, they have sought to manage the expectations of their own people and Western allies, saying that there may not be a single conclusive battle.

It looks like we are in a Hollywood movie, where a great battle for Middle-earth begins, and one battle for Gondor will decide everything, said Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential adviser, making a reference to The Lord of the Rings. It doesnt happen like that.

It is not a matter of one week or one month, he said. This is a question of many events, because one can be more successful, and the other, less successful.

Carlotta Gall reported from Kyiv, Shashank Bengali and Matthew Mpoke Bigg from London, and Lara Jakes from Rome. Oleksandr Chubko contributed reporting from Kyiv, and Anatoly Kurmanaev from Berlin.

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Zelensky, Citing Equipment Gaps, Says It's Too Soon for Counteroffensive - The New York Times