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Tag: ukraine

  • Biden announces deal to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia

    Biden announces deal to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia

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    President Biden and the leaders of two close U.S. allies formally announced Monday that Australia will purchase nuclear-powered attack submarines from the U.S. to modernize its fleet amid growing concern about China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

    Mr. Biden flew to San Diego for talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on an 18-month-old nuclear partnership given the acronym AUKUS. The three leaders delivered remarks from Naval Base Point Loma at the entry of San Diego Bay, flanked by U.S. sailors with the USS Sterett destroyer in the background. 

    “Today, as we stand at an inflection point in history, where the where the hard work of advancing deterrence and promoting stability is going to affect the prospect of peace for decades to come, the United States can ask for no better partner in the Indo-Pacific, where so much of our shared future will be written,” Mr. Biden said.

    The partnership between the three nations, announced in 2021, enabled Australia to access nuclear-powered submarines, which are stealthier and more capable than conventionally powered vessels, as a counterweight to China’s military buildup.

    Australia is buying up to five Virginia-class boats as part of AUKUS. A future generation of submarines will be built in the U.K. and in Australia with U.S. technology and support. The U.S. would also step up its port visits in Australia to provide the country with more familiarity with the nuclear-powered technology before it has such subs of its own.

    President Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak deliver remarks after the AUKUS summit at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, California, on March 13, 2023.
    President Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak deliver remarks after the AUKUS summit at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, California, on March 13, 2023.

    LEAH MILLIS / REUTERS


    In a statement before their meeting, the leaders said their countries have worked for decades to sustain peace, stability and prosperity around the globe, including in the Indo-Pacific.

    “We believe in a world that protects freedom and respects human rights, the rule of law, the independence of sovereign states, and the rules-based international order,” they said in the statement, released before their joint appearance.

    “The steps we are announcing today will help us to advance these mutually beneficial objectives in the decades to come,” they said.

    San Diego is Mr. Biden’s first stop on a three-day trip to California and Nevada. He will discuss gun violence prevention in the community of Monterey Park, California, and his plans to lower prescription drug costs in Las Vegas. The trip will include fundraising stops as he steps up his political activities before an expected announcement next month that he will seek reelection in 2024.

    Mr. Biden was also set to meet individually with Albanese and Sunak, an opportunity to coordinate strategy on Russia’s war in Ukraine, the global economy and more.

    The secretly brokered AUKUS deal included the Australian government’s cancellation of a $66 billion contract for a French-built fleet of conventional submarines, which sparked a diplomatic row within the Western alliance that took months to mend.

    China has argued that the AUKUS deal violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It contends that the transfer of nuclear weapons materials from a nuclear-weapon state to a non-nuclear-weapon state is a “blatant” violation of the spirit of the pact. Australian officials have pushed back against the criticism, arguing that they are working to acquire nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed, submarines.

    Mr. Biden emphasized that the submarines “will not have any nuclear weapons of any kind on them,” and said the three leaders are “deeply committed to strengthening nuclear non-proliferation regime.”

    “The question is really how does China choose to respond because Australia is not backing away from what it — what it sees to be doing in its own interests here,” said Charles Edel, a senior adviser and Australia chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I think that probably from Beijing’s perspective they’ve already counted out Australia as a wooable mid country. It seemed to have fully gone into the U.S. camp.”

    Before he departed for California, Mr. Biden spoke about steps the administration is taking to safeguard depositors and protect against broader economic hardship after the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history.

    The president said the nation’s financial systems are safe. He said he’d seek to hold accountable those responsible for the bank failures, called for better oversight and regulation of larger banks and promised that taxpayers would not pay the bill for any losses.

    The president’s daughter Ashley Biden and granddaughter Natalie Biden also traveled with him to San Diego.

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  • Heavy casualties reported in Bakhmut as battle for city rages

    Heavy casualties reported in Bakhmut as battle for city rages

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    Ukraine and Russia have reported heavy casualties as the slow, grinding fight for control of the salt-mining town of Bakhmut continues in eastern Ukraine.

    Ukraine controls the area to the west of the now ruined and nearly deserted Bakhmut, while Russia’s Wagner Group controls most of the eastern part, according to British intelligence, with the Bakhmutka River that winds through the town marking the front line.

    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 1,100 Russian soldiers had been killed in the past few days fighting along the Bakhmut section of the front line.

    “In less than a week, starting from the 6th March, we managed to kill more than 1,100 enemy soldiers in the Bakhmut sector alone, Russia’s irreversible loss, right there, near Bakhmut,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

    He added that some 1,500 Russian soldiers had been so badly wounded they were unable to continue fighting.

    Russia’s defence ministry said its forces were conducting further military operations in the eastern Donetsk region which, together with neighbouring Luhansk, makes up the industrial Donbas.

    The ministry said Russian forces had killed more than 220 Ukrainian service members over the past 24 hours.

    “In the Donetsk direction … more than 220 Ukrainian servicemen, an infantry fighting vehicle, three armoured fighting vehicles, seven vehicles, as well as a D-30 howitzer were destroyed during the day,” the ministry said.

    Both sides have admitted to suffering and inflicting significant losses in Bakhmut over the past few months, although the exact number of casualties is difficult to independently verify.

    Ukraine has repeatedly said that the defence of Bakhmut would continue, with top commanders saying over the weekend the fight there allows them to gain time needed to prepare a broader counterattack.

    “On Bakhmut: the situation there is difficult, very difficult, the enemy is fighting for every metre,” Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group of mercenaries said on Sunday in a voice recording published on the Telegram channel of his press service.

    “And the closer to the city centre, the fiercer the fighting.”

    Moscow says capturing Bakhmut would shake Ukrainian defences and be a step towards seizing all of the Donbas, a major target.

    (Al Jazeera)

    But fighting and heavy shelling have been also ongoing along the entire front line in Ukraine’s east and south, including other parts of Donetsk.

    According to Russia-installed officials in Donetsk, the city was shelled four times by Ukraine forces on Sunday, affecting residential areas and damaging power lines.

    The Reuters news agency was unable to independently verify the report. Both sides have repeatedly said they are not targeting civilians in their attacks.

    Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed, as well as soldiers on both sides. Russia has bombarded Ukrainian cities and set millions of civilians to flight in what Kyiv and the West call an unprovoked war of conquest.

    Svetlana Boiko, 66, was wounded in the Donetsk shelling when her apartment was struck. She told Reuters that shelling “used to fly over without ever hitting us”.

    “This is the first time since 2014 that it has hit us. So, this is what 2023 looks like,” Boiko said.

    In September, Russia claimed it had annexed the Donetsk region and three other Ukrainian regions, including parts that have been held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

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  • CBS Weekend News, March 11 2023

    CBS Weekend News, March 11 2023

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    CBS Weekend News, March 11 2023 – CBS News


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    “Pineapple Express” storm batters California; Texas high schoolers developing parts used for NASA missions.

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  • Ukrainian dancers celebrate country’s culture and resilience even in the face of war

    Ukrainian dancers celebrate country’s culture and resilience even in the face of war

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    Ukranian dancers keep spirits high amid war


    Ukranian dancers keep spirits high amid war

    04:19

    As the war in Ukraine rages on, dancers from the country’s most acclaimed ballet company are using their artistry to make a stand. 

    Armed with pirouettes, pliés and jetés, dancers like prima ballerina Olga Kifyak-Fon-Kraimer are using their skills to showcase Ukraine’s culture. Ballet has long been one of Moscow’s most revered cultural exports, but many of the best dancers are from or trained in Ukraine. 

    “We dance in spite of Russia,” said Kifyak-Fon-Kraimer, whose brother was killed fighting against Russia. “It’s very hard. But we are Ukrainians. We are unbreakable.” 

    Some dancers even went to the front lines, especially as theaters were shut down during the first months of the war. Oleksander Shapoval, a principal dancer at the Ukraine National Ballet, was a once-in-a-generation dancer who performed in 30 different roles over 28 seasons. In September 2022, he was killed in a Russian mortar attack. 

    The father of two was remembered as a “courageous romantic,” a mentor and a friend. 

    “It was very difficult for, I think, for all (the) company,” said Mykyta Sukhorukov, who has taken over Shapoval’s role as the company’s principal dancer. 

    Now, Sukhorukov is dancing the lead role in “Don Quixhote,” a romantic comedy bringing laughter to audiences in Kyiv. American volunteer Paige Vienne attended the performance and said it emphasized the resilience of the Ukrainian people.

    “A lot of people back home … asked me if Kyiv was destroyed, and I said ‘Absolutely not,’” Vienne said. “To continue on is really the Ukrainian spirit. It’s really incredible to see that people continue to just not exist, but live.” 

    Imtiaz Tyab


    imtiaz-tyab-promo.jpg

    Imtiaz Tyab is a CBS News correspondent based in London.

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  • Biden and EU leader to try to resolve spat over electric vehicle tax credits

    Biden and EU leader to try to resolve spat over electric vehicle tax credits

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    President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are expected to outline a plan Friday that the White House hopes will turn the page on a spat between the two over electric vehicle tax credits.

    According to administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity before the leaders met, Biden and von der Leyen are expected to agree to open negotiations between the U.S. and the EU on a deal that could boost the use of European minerals critical in the production of electric vehicle batteries that are eligible for U.S. tax credits through Biden’s roughly $375 billion clean energy law that passed last year.

    The agenda for their Oval Office meeting also includes Western coordination to support Ukraine in the war against Russia, joint efforts to decrease Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels and the Biden administration’s growing concerns that China is considering providing weaponry to Russia for use in the war.

    The Treasury Department said in a statement that an agreement “with like minded partners” could help provide a measure of “security and stability by ensuring the United States and allies and partners are not reliant on China for critical minerals.” White House officials hope an agreement with the EU can be reached soon, but also plan to consult members of Congress, labor groups and others with a stake in the outcome.

    Von der Leyen and other European leaders have voiced opposition to incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act that Biden signed in August that favor American-made electric vehicles. The legislation stipulates that for U.S. consumers to be eligible for a tax credit of up to $7,500 on their EV purchase, the EV’s battery must largely contain minerals from the U.S. or a country with which the U.S. has a free-trade agreement. Additionally, 50% of components in batteries must be manufactured or assembled in North America by 2024, with that percentage rising gradually to 100% by 2028.

    “Getting on the same page on the effort to diversify supply chains on electric vehicle batteries is an important step for U.S.-EU relations, and any steps that avoid a subsidy war are meaningful,” said James Batchik, assistant director of the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council. “That said, a resolution will depend on the details of any future agreement.”

    Mr. Biden stood by the policy that favors American EVs when French President Emmanuel Macron, a critic of the legislation, visited Washington late last year. But he also acknowledged “glitches” in the legislation and said there were “tweaks we can make” to satisfy allies.

    Ensuring access to critical minerals is a key element of the administration’s efforts to promote American electric vehicle manufacturing and other clean energy technologies.

    Mr. Biden last year announced he was using the Defense Production Act to boost production of lithium and other minerals used to power electric vehicles. Experts said the move by itself is unlikely to ensure the robust domestic mining the Democratic president seeks as he promotes cleaner energy sources.

    His order directed the Defense Department to consider at least five metals — lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel and manganese — as essential to national security and authorizes steps to bolster domestic supplies.

    The U.S. and the EU have remained largely in lockstep throughout the Russian war, coordinating sanctions against Moscow and the delivery of weaponry to Kyiv. The leaders are expected to use Friday’s Oval Office meeting to spotlight that Western unity.

    Mr. Biden is also expected to raise U.S. intelligence findings that show that China is considering sending weapons to Russia to help prosecute the war in Ukraine.

    The White House says Beijing has yet to deliver weapons to Russia but is more seriously weighing the prospect as Russia has burned through ammunition in a conflict that has gone on much longer than Russian President Vladimir Putin anticipated.

    European nations have had a less adversarial relationship with China than the U.S. has, but that has been evolving since the start of the war.

    This week the Dutch government announced it would join the U.S. in imposing export restrictions aimed at limiting China’s access to materials used to make advanced processor chips. In a speech before the German parliament last week, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on China to “use your influence in Moscow to press for the withdrawal of Russian troops, and do not supply weapons to the aggressor Russia.”

    A European official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and insisted on anonymity, said that Western allies are taking seriously U.S. warnings that China could be edging toward sending Moscow arms, because many of the publicized U.S. intelligence findings throughout the war have proved to be true.

    The official, however, noted that reputational — and potential economic — costs of providing weapons to Russia seem to outweigh any benefits for Beijing.

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  • Russia fires hypersonic missiles in latest Ukraine attack as war in east drives elderly holdouts into a basement

    Russia fires hypersonic missiles in latest Ukraine attack as war in east drives elderly holdouts into a basement

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    Near Dnipro, southeast Ukraine — Across Ukraine, people were left Friday to pick up the pieces of Russia’s latest blistering coordinated assault, a barrage of missiles the previous day that left at least six people dead and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands more. The attack saw Moscow turn some of its most sophisticated weapons to elude Ukraine’s potent, Western-supplied air defense systems.

    Among the more than 80 missiles unleashed on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure Thursday were six “Kinzhal” [Dagger] hypersonic cruise missiles, according to Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat. The jet-launched rockets are believed to be capable of reaching speeds up to Mach 10 or 12, double the speed of sound (anything over Mach 5 is considered hypersonic).

    Rocket strike kills 5 in Ukraine's Lviv
    People look at the ruins of houses destroyed by a Russian missile that hit a residential area in the village of Velika Vilshanytsia, near Lviv, Ukraine, March 9, 2023. 

    Pavlo Palamarchuk/Anadolu Agency/Getty


    Ukraine has acknowledged that it cannot intercept the missiles, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads. The Russian military has used them at least once previously during the war, about a year ago.

    Fitted with conventional warheads hypersonic missiles don’t inflict significantly more damage than other, less-sophisticated rockets, but their ability to avoid interception makes them more lethal. It also makes them more valuable resources for Russia’s military to expend, which may be further evidence of long-reported ammunition and missile shortages that Vladimir Putin has asked his allies in Iran, North Korea and even China to remedy.


    U.S. officials say China is considering sending weapon to Russia amid war with Ukraine

    06:58

    Russia’s Defense Ministry said it hit military and industrial targets “as well as the energy facilities that supply them” with its attack on Thursday.

    In his daily video address to the Ukrainian people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was as defiant as ever after the latest assault.

    “No matter how treacherous Russia’s actions are, our state and people will not be in chains,” he said. “Neither missiles nor Russian atrocities will help them.”

    While Russia’s air war has reached far across the country, hitting targets even in the far-western city of Lviv on Thursday, the worst of the suffering has been for Ukrainian civilians in the east, where Russian forces have seized a massive swath of the Donbas region — and where they’re pushing hard to seize more.

    There, Thursday’s assault was met with a mixture of defiance and disgust. 

    “This is horrible,” Vasyl, a resident of hard-hit Kherson said. “I don’t have any other words, other than Russia is a horrid devil.”


    Russia launches more than 80 missiles in fresh strikes on Ukraine

    05:50

    Moscow’s destruction is evident across the small towns and villages of eastern Ukraine, including in Velyka Novosilka. The town right on the edge of Russian-held ground was once home to 5,000 people, but it’s become a ghost town.

    Only about 150 people were still there, and CBS News found them living underground in the basement of a school. It was dark, without electricity or running water, and most of those surviving in the shelter were elderly.

    oleksander-sinkov-ukraine.jpg
    Oleksander Sinkov speaks with CBS News in the basement of a school in the southeast Ukrainian village of Velyka Novosilka, where he took shelter with dozens of other mostly-elderly residents after his home was destroyed early in Russia’s invasion.

    CBS News/Agnes Reau


    Oleksander Sinkov moved in a year ago after his home was destroyed.

    Asked why he didn’t leave to find somewhere safer, he answered with another question: “And go where? I have a small pension and you can’t get far with that.”

    The residents of the school pitch in to help cook and take care of other menial chores as they can, but there’s very little normal about their life in hiding.

    ukraine-school-shelter.jpg
    Inside the basement of a school in the southeast Ukrainian village of Velyka Novosilka, where dozens of mostly-elderly residents are taking shelter from the war outside.

    CBS News/Agnes Reau


    Iryna Babkina was among the youngest people we met in the school. She stayed behind to care for the elderly.

    “They cling to this town,” she said of her older neighbors. “We have people here who left and then came back because they couldn’t leave the only home they’ve ever known.”

    ukraine-school-shelter-dodonbas.jpg
    Iryna Babkina speaks with CBS News in the basement of a school in Velyka Novosilka, southeast Ukraine, where she is sheltering from Russia’s war and helping to look after other residents.

    CBS News/Agnes Reau


    It had been weeks since Russia carried out a coordinated attack across the country like Thursday’s, but in the front-line towns like Velyka Novosilka in the east, the shells fall every day, leaving those left behind to survive, barely, however and wherever they can.

    Imtiaz Tyab


    imtiaz-tyab-promo.jpg

    Imtiaz Tyab is a CBS News correspondent based in London.

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  • Georgian government withdraws controversial “foreign agents’ bill after massive protests

    Georgian government withdraws controversial “foreign agents’ bill after massive protests

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    Georgian government withdraws controversial “foreign agents’ bill after massive protests – CBS News


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    The governing party of the nation of Georgia has decided to withdraw proposed legislation that would have require some organizations and independent media outlets to register as “foreign agents.” Stephen Jones, the director of the program on Georgian Studies at Harvard University, joined CBS News to discuss.

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  • Former Shell CEO’s pay package jumped 50% amid soaring energy prices

    Former Shell CEO’s pay package jumped 50% amid soaring energy prices

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    The pay package for Shell’s CEO jumped by half last year to nearly $12 million, the fossil fuel giant said Thursday, as oil and gas companies made record profits from skyrocketing energy costs that have driven a cost-of-living crisis.

    London-based Shell paid Ben van Beurden a total of 9.7 million pounds ($11.5 million) in 2022 as annual company profits doubled to an all-time high of $40 billion because Russia’s war in Ukraine sent oil and gas prices soaring.

    Van Beurden’s pay includes a 2.6 million-pound bonus and 4.9 million pounds worth of stock, according to the company’s annual report.

    Van Beurden stepped down at the end of last year and was replaced by Wael Sawan, who will be paid a base salary of 1.4 million pounds and a bonus that’s expected to be bigger than the salary, the report said.

    Demands have increased for oil and gas companies raking in huge profits to do more to reduce high energy costs that are hurting consumers and small businesses.

    Opposition lawmakers in Britain have called for an expanded tax on the windfall profits of oil and gas firms to provide more help for households struggling to afford expensive utility bills.


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  • Why is Ukraine still fighting in decimated city of Bakhmut?

    Why is Ukraine still fighting in decimated city of Bakhmut?

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    Ukrainian troops slowly eased out of their most precarious defences in Bakhmut during the last week of February and the first of March, but they did not give up the eastern city to Russian forces.

    Ukraine’s tactic was likely to limit its losses while continuing to suck in Russian forces into what now ranks as the war’s longest and most hard-fought battle.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the conquest of the eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, known collectively as the Donbas region, as one of his goals – and Bakhmut in Donetsk is key to that.

    “We understand that after Bakhmut, they could go farther,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN. “They could go to Kramatorsk. They could go to Sloviansk. It would be open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine in the Donetsk direction.”

    Ukraine made a strategic decision to hold onto Bakhmut for as long as possible, reinforcing it with elite units on Sunday as Russian forces from the Wagner mercenary group entered its northern suburbs.

    Zelenskyy said his top commanders were in favour of “continuing the defence operation and further strengthening our positions in Bakhmut”, a city with a pre-war population of about 70,000 people.

    He did not elaborate on the reasons, but the Institute for the Study of War suggested that Bakhmut has been a meat grinder for Russian forces, diverting them from other parts of the 800km-long (497-mile-long) front.

    “The Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut remains strategically sound as it continues to consume Russian manpower and equipment as long as Ukrainian forces do not suffer excessive casualties,” the United States-based think tank said in a war assessment.

    “Russian forces are unlikely to quickly secure significant territorial gains when conducting urban warfare, which usually favours the defender and can allow Ukrainian forces to inflict high casualties on advancing Russian units – even as Ukrainian forces are actively withdrawing,” it said.

    Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, has put a figure on that logic, saying Ukrainian forces have lost one soldier for every seven Russians in Bakhmut.

    White House officials reported on February 17 that the Wagner Group alone, which has predominantly fought in the Bakhmut area, has suffered 30,000 casualties, including about 9,000 fatalities, in one year of war.

    Russia committed an estimated 190,000 soldiers to the invasion it launched on February 24, 2022, and has since added another 316,000. Ukraine estimated that more than 150,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.

    Al Jazeera could not independently verify the figures.

    Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told USA Today that Russia’s losses rendered it unable to mount a major offensive after this spring.

    “Russia has wasted huge amounts of human resources, armaments and materials,” he told the newspaper. “Its economy and production are not able to cover these losses. … If Russia’s military fails in its aims this spring, it will be out of military tools.”

    A controlled withdrawal

    Ukraine began to show signs of easing out of Bakhmut on February 28 when presidential adviser Alexander Rodnyansky said a tactical withdrawal from parts of the city was not out of the question.

    “So far, [our troops have] held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back because we’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing,” Rodnyansky said.

    “I believe that sooner or later, we will probably have to leave Bakhmut,” Ukrainian parliamentarian Serhiy Rakhmanin said on Ukrainian NV radio the following day. “There is no sense in holding it at any cost.”

    “But for the moment, Bakhmut will be defended with several aims: Firstly, to inflict as many Russian losses as possible and make Russia use its ammunition and resources,” he said.

    Blowing the bridges

    On March 1, the Ukrainian general staff said Russian troops were attempting to advance on Bakhmut “without interruption” although  Zelenskyy said his forces “are keeping each sector of the front under control”.

    That picture changed two days later when Ukrainian forces started blowing up bridges in and around Bakhmut, an indication that they were considering limited withdrawals.

    One bridge was across the Bakhmutka River, which divides the city into eastern and western halves. The other bridge was just west of Bakhmut en route to Khromove. The moves suggested Ukrainian forces were trying to slow Russian progress through the city and prevent their rapid deployment farther west should Bakhmut fall.

    “Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut,” Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video posted on Telegram.

    “Only one route [out] is left,” he said. “The pincers are closing.”

    Prigozhin faced his own problems, however, complaining on social media that the Russian Ministry of Defence was not providing him with enough ammunition to finish the job.

    Prigozhin said he wrote a letter to the commander of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, presumably Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, “about the urgent need to allocate ammunition. On March 6, at 8 o’clock in the morning, my representative at the headquarters had his pass cancelled and was denied access to the group’s headquarters.”

    The Russian defence ministry has been wary of Prigozhin, who has boasted about his group’s adroitness and implied that Russian regulars were ill-trained or incompetent.

    On Wednesday, Prigozhin said Wagner was in control of half of Bakhmut. Geolocated footage backed his claim that Ukrainian defenders had been driven to the west side of the Bakhmutka River.

    But if Ukraine reckons that the Russian focus on Bakhmut gives it an advantage, why does Russia insist on this strategy?

    “Putin most likely calculates that time works in his favour and that prolonging the war … may be his best remaining pathway to eventually securing Russia’s strategic interests in Ukraine, even if it takes years,” Avril Haines, US director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday during an annual hearing on global threats.

    But Haines, like other Western observers, believes Putin does not have the resources to pull this strategy off.

    “If Russia does not institute a mandatory mobilisation and identify substantial third-party ammunition supplies, it will be increasingly challenging for them to sustain even the current level of offensive operations,” Haines said. “We don’t see the Russian military recovering enough this year to make major territorial gains. … They may fully shift to holding and defending the territory they currently occupy.”

    Budanov agreed in a Voice of America interview.

    “Russia is not ready for long-term hostilities,” he said, dismissing the notion of a multiyear war. “They show in every possible way that they are ready there [for] a ‘war of decades’. But in reality their resources are quite limited, both in time and in volume. And they know it very well.”

    Ukraine coils itself to strike

    Ukraine, meanwhile, continues to enrich its arsenal with Western-donated equipment in preparation for a major spring counteroffensive.

    Germany and Poland said they will deliver 28 Leopard tanks this month while Canada doubled its initial donation of four. That brought the tally of allied battle tanks bound for Ukraine to 227.

    The US also announced a new $2bn military aid package that for the first time included tactical bridges. These are driven into position and are unfolded to span rivers in offensives involving battle tanks and armoured fighting vehicles.

    Ukraine has had a very high demand for guided artillery and rockets, and the Pentagon has had to improvise by finding cheap and plentiful components. One answer has come in the form of ground-launched small-diameter bombs, which pair artillery shells and rocket motors.

    In the same vein, the head of NATO Allied Air Command said on Monday that the US had provided Ukraine with kits that turn unguided, artillery shells into precision-guided munitions with a range of 72km (45 miles).

    A strategic goal will be an attempt to “drive a wedge into the Russian front in the south – between Crimea and the Russian mainland”, Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence, told the German media group Funke.

    Budanov, Skibitsky’s boss, who is said to be the only senior Ukrainian official to have predicted the Russian invasion last year, said Ukraine will fight “a decisive battle this spring, and this battle will be the final one before this war ends”.

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  • Russia hits Ukraine with deadly missile barrage, cutting power again to occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

    Russia hits Ukraine with deadly missile barrage, cutting power again to occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

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    Dnipro, Ukraine — Russia hit Ukraine on Thursday with its most punishing attacks in nearly a month. A barrage of missiles and explosive drones rained down in a blistering assault that struck cities from the capital Kyiv to the vital southern port of Odesa, and all the way to the far-western city of Lviv.

    At least nine people were killed, according to Ukrainian officials, and millions more were plunged into the cold and dark as the attacks hit power infrastructure — including cutting the vital electricity supply yet again to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest atomic energy facility.

    Ukrainians try to survive under attacks in war-torn Nikopol
    A view of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, from Nikopol, Ukraine, March 3, 2023.

    Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency/Getty


    Ukraine’s nuclear power operator Energoatom said the “last power line between the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP [Nuclear Power Plant] and the Ukrainian power system was cut off as a result of rocket attacks.” The company said it was the sixth time the sprawling facility had been cut off from the nation’s electricity grid since Russian troops captured it last year. Russia accused Ukrainian forces of causing the outage, as it has in all previous instances.

    Whenever the electricity supply is cut, the plant relies on old diesel generators to keep its vital cooling systems running, but they can only do the job for about 10 days.

    “The countdown has begun. If it is impossible to renew the external power supply of the station during this time, an accident with radiation consequences for the whole world may occur,” Energoatom warned Thursday.

    Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, issued a fresh appeal Thursday for a demilitarized safe-zone around the Russian-held plant, saying he was “astonished” by the fact that such a sensitive facility was still being put at risk by the war. 

    “Each time we are rolling a dice. And if we allow this to continue time after time then one day our luck will run out,” Grossi told the agency’s Board of Governors in Austria, according to a statement. “This is the sixth time — let me say it again — sixth time, that ZNPP has lost all off-site power and has had to operate in this emergency mode. Let me remind you, this is the largest nuclear power station in Europe. What are we doing? How can we sit here in this room this morning and allow this to happen? This cannot go on. I am astonished by the complacency.”

    In January the IAEA announced plans to establish a “continuous presence” at all Ukrainian nuclear power plants “to help prevent a nuclear accident,” but the continued fighting around Zaporizhzhia has made it impossible at that facility.  

    Consequences Of Falling Rocket Debris In A Residential Area In Kyiv
    Police inspect damage from a Russian missile attack in a residential district of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 9, 2023. 

    Vladyslav Musiienko/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine/Getty


    In the shell-shocked central city of Dnipro, residents’ fears were more immediate after the overnight missile attacks, and some struggled to comprehend why their city was a target for Vladimir Putin’s assault.

    “It doesn’t make sense to me how this can be in the 21st century,” said 60-year-old Igor Yezhov, calling the Russian attackers “wild people — just savages.”

    All winter the Kremlin has ruthlessly targeted Ukraine’s power and civilian infrastructure with missiles and drones, but it is the eastern mining city of Bakhmut where the ground war remains the most intense.

    The head of the Kremlin-linked Russian mercenary group Wagner claims his fighters have captured key urban areas after seven grinding months of street battles in the city. 


    Russian mercenaries on the “lies” that lured them to Ukraine

    03:01

    Moscow has thrown wave after wave of fighters, many of them from the Wagner Group, at the battle for Bakhmut, desperate to claim the entire town in what would be its first major territorial gain in over half a year.

    In the battered town of Chasiv Yar, just a few miles west of Bakhmut in Ukrainian-held territory, CBS News met Baida, a soldier who had just returned from the front line. At 55, he said he’d never expected to become a soldier before Russia invaded his country, and he admitted the battle was “really hard.”

    He spoke to us in front of the armored vehicle he’d driven in the battle, which he credited with saving the lives of himself and his fellow soldiers on multiple occasions.

    “This vehicle is very strong, it survives anti-tank mines, keeps the personnel safe, survives rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank guided missiles,” he said. “I can show the examples of when we came under shelling in it and it stood strong, sustaining 120[mm] mortars. It maneuvers well, performs well in mud and forests, it’s stable.”

    ukraine-soldier-baida.jpg
    Ukrainian soldier “Baida” shows the armored personnel carrier that he credits with saving his life on multiple occasions as he took part in the battle for Bakhmut, as he speaks with CBS News in the nearby town of Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, in early March 2023. 

    Agnes Reau/CBS News


    But Baida, a callsign, knows nothing can protect him or his fellow soldiers every time.

    “Yesterday one of our men died, a driver of the same vehicle,” he said. “That’s how it is. We are hoping for everything to be okay… There are losses, but we can’t win without that.”

    Those losses were felt acutely at the funeral of 29-year-old medic Yama Rikhlitska, who was killed as she treated injured soldiers in a field hospital just outside Bakhmut.

    “Oh Yana,” her mother cried in anguish as she said her final goodbye, “my baby, my little one.”

    As Ukrainians continue to pay the ultimate price in this war now in its second year, there’s a grim acceptance that the brutal conflict is showing no signs of easing, let alone ending.

    Imtiaz Tyab


    imtiaz-tyab-promo.jpg

    Imtiaz Tyab is a CBS News correspondent based in London.

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  • Sunak and Macron hail ‘new chapter’ in UK-France ties

    Sunak and Macron hail ‘new chapter’ in UK-France ties

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    PARIS — Vegetarian sushi and rugby brought the leaders of Britain and France together after years of Brexit rows.

    U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday held the two countries’ first bilateral summit in five years, amid warm words and wishes for closer post-Brexit cooperation.

    “This is an exceptional summit, a moment of reunion and reconnection, that illustrates that we want to better speak to each other,” Macron told a joint press conference afterward. “We have the will to work together in a Europe that has new responsibilities.”

    Most notably from London’s perspective, the pair agreed a new multi-annual financial framework to jointly tackle the arrival of undocumented migrants on small boats through the English Channel — in part funding a new detention center in France.

    “The U.K. and France share a special bond and a special responsibility,” Sunak said. “When the security of our Continent is threatened, we will always be at the forefront of its defense.”

    Macron congratulated Sunak for agreeing the Windsor Framework with the European Commission, putting an end to a long U.K.-EU row over post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, and stressing it marks a “new beginning of working more closely with the EU.”

    “I feel very fortunate to be serving alongside you and incredibly excited about the future we can build together. Merci mon ami,” Sunak said.

    It has been many years since the leaders of Britain and France were so publicly at ease with each other.

    Sunak and Macron bonded over rugby, ahead of Saturday’s match between England and France, and exchanged T-shirts signed by their respective teams.

    Later, they met alone at the Élysée Palace for more than an hour, only being joined by their chiefs of staff at the very end of the meeting, described as “warm and productive” by Sunak’s official spokesman. The pair, who spoke English, had planned to hold a shorter one-to-one session, but they decided to extend it, the spokesman said.

    They later met with their respective ministers for a lunch comprising vegetarian sushi, turbot, artichokes and praline tart.

    Macron congratulated Sunak for agreeing the Windsor Framework with the European Commission | Christophe Archambault/AFP via Getty Images

    Speaking on the Eurostar en route to Paris, Sunak told reporters this was the beginning of a “new chapter” in the Franco-British relationship.

    “It’s been great to get to know Emmanuel over the last two months. There’s a shared desire to strengthen the relationship,” he said. “I really believe that the range of things that we can do together is quite significant.”

    In a show of goodwill from the French, who pushed energetically for a hard line during Brexit talks, Macron said he wanted to “fix the consequences of Brexit” and opened the door to closer cooperation with the Brits in the future.

    “It’s my wish and it’s in our interests to have closest possible alliance. It will depend on our commitment and willingness but I am sure we will do it,” he said alongside Sunak.             

    Tackling small boats

    Under the terms of the new migration deal, Britain will pay €141 million to France in 2023-24, €191 million in 2024-25 and €209 million in 2025-26.

    This money will come in installments and go toward funding a new detention center in France, a new Franco-British command centre, an extra 500 law enforcement officers on French beaches and better technology to patrol them, including more drones and surveillance aircraft.

    The new detention center, located in the Dunkirk area, would be funded by the British and run by the French and help compensate for the lack of space in other detention centers in northern France, according to one of Macron’s aides.

    According to U.K. and French officials, France is expected to contribute significantly more funding — up to five times the amount the British are contributing — toward the plan although the Elysée has refused to give exact figures.

    A new, permanent French mobile policing unit will join the efforts to tackle small boats. This work will be overseen by a new zonal coordination center, where U.K. liaison officers will be permanently based working with French counterparts.

    Sunak stressed U.K.-French cooperation on small boats since November has made a significant difference, and defended the decision to hand more British money to France to help patrol the French northern shores. Irregular migration, he stressed, is a “joint problem.”

    Ukraine unity

    Sunak and Macron also made a show of unity on the war in Ukraine, agreeing that their priority would be to continue to support the country in its war against Russian aggression.

    The French president said the “ambition short-term is to help Ukraine to resist and to build counter-offensives.”

    “The priority is military,” he said. “We want a lasting peace, when Ukraine wants it and in the conditions that it wants and our will is to put it in position to do so.”

    The West’s top priority should remain helping Ukrainians achieve “a decisive battlefield advantage” that later allows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sit down at the negotiating table with Russian President Vladimir Putin from a stronger position, Sunak said en route to the summit.

    “That should be everyone’s focus,” he added. “Of course, this will end as all conflicts do, at the negotiating table. But that’s a decision for Ukraine to make. And what we need to do is put them in the best possible place to have those talks at an appropriate moment that makes sense for them.”

    The two leaders also announced they would start joint training operations of Ukrainian marines.

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  • France pushes protectionism in Ukraine defense plan

    France pushes protectionism in Ukraine defense plan

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    As Russia’s war in Ukraine puts a heavy strain on EU arms, there’s infighting in Brussels over how best to reload.

    The latest skirmish is focused around a procurement fund intended to ramp up production of arms in Europe.

    POLITICO has learned that key committees in the European Parliament — namely, the committees for industry, the internal market, and the subcommittee on security and defense — have clashed over the fund, formally known as European Defense Industry Reinforcement Through Common Procurement Act (EDIRPA). It holds €500 million for now, with the possibility to grow.

    A French-led group in the Parliament is vying to keep the joint defense purchase pot within the borders of the European Union — which opponents are deriding as a power grab for France.

    Currently, a compromise text seen by POLITICO leaves the door open to spending outside the EU. It says non-EU companies may be involved “provided that this does not contravene … the security and defense interests of the union and its member states.”

    A faction across the relevant committees — consisting mainly of Polish, Estonian, Portuguese, German and Luxembourgish parliamentarians — has also amended the text to include “associated third countries.” They want to keep open the option to tap non-EU countries, like South Korea or the United States, to fill any gaps in weapon production.

    In light of grinding ground battles on Ukrainian territory, concerns have been growing over the EU’s capacity to ramp up production of ammunition and weapons.

    Yet French MEPs who dominate the Renew Europe group have been pushing back, seeking to make the fund a European-only affair.

    Nathalie Loiseau, chair of the parliamentary defense subcommittee, denied that the push to limit funding to European countries would benefit only France. “France is not the only country producing weapons in Europe,” the Renew MEP told POLITICO, pointing also to Germany, Italy and Poland. 

    Loiseau said the entire remit of EDIRPA is intended to strengthen European industrial policy. “We need our industries to be able to produce [arms] more quickly, and we need to find a way to encourage this, so we need a solid EDIRPA.”

    Ivars Ījabs, a Latvian MEP in the Renew Europe group who is leading work on the file in the internal market committee, described how he and his colleagues are “aware of the immediate challenges to European defense forces.”

    As one of the MEPs most opposed to the French position, he explained: “My French colleagues are very much in support of the European Commission’s original proposal, with an emphasis on strengthening the defense industrial base in the medium term.”

    Loiseau added that while she is open to non-European companies producing the weapons, “they must be produced in Europe,” arguing that spending EU money on weapons produced outside the bloc would be illegal under EU treaties, risking collapse of the entire procurement program.

    Striking a balance

    The increasingly acrimonious row in Parliament over the defense plan hits on a question raised since Europe began discussing beefing up its defense capabilities: Who will be able to get their hands on the extra billions of euros the EU intends to invest?

    Thierry Breton, the internal market commissioner who announced the plan last year and has been championing it, is also French. Unveiling the initiative, he said, “These investments, funded by the European taxpayers … should benefit first and foremost European industry wherever that is possible.”

    French industry accounts for more than 25 percent of European military capabilities. But many other countries, from Italy to Sweden, also have strong defense sectors (and many key companies based there often have strong corporate ties with countries outside the EU, such as the U.K. and the U.S.).

    German center-right MEP Andreas Schwab said a balance needs to be struck to get the process moving. 

    “This instrument needs to find a middle ground, a middle way: sufficiently flexible for foreign components, but also a boost to EU industry — and especially, a boost to make ministries of defense start working together on bigger joint procurement projects,” he told POLITICO. 

    Thierry Breton announced the procurement plan last year, arguing it should benefit first and foremost European industry | Pool photo by Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images

    All major players agree on one thing: The fund should be bigger.

    While the Commission’s plan earmarked an initial €500 million, the draft European Parliament proposal by the internal market and defense committees increased that to €1.5 billion. 

    But even €1.5 billion is “peanuts” when it comes to military hardware, said Dragoş Tudorache, Renew’s lead on EDIRPA in the defense subcommittee.

    Tudorache explained that Parliament could theoretically wrap it up within two to three weeks once there’s agreement among the three committees.

    As to which of the two camps will win out: “Right now I would not call it either way,” the MEP said.

    A vote of the full Parliament — possibly in June — may be the most likely outcome.

    EDIRPA is separate to the European Peace Facility, an off-budget intergovernmental EU fund that is now being used to backfill member countries’ supplies once they’ve sent arms to Ukraine. This mechanism is at the center of current plans to provide ammunition quickly to Ukraine, as first reported by POLITICO.

    In contrast, EDIRPA is a medium-term project, originally meant to be for 2022 to 2024, to carry forward the joint procurement of arms and ammunition. 

    Based on EDIRPA, the Commission is meant to present an even larger program for joint procurement, called the European defence investment programme, which was originally expected for last year but is now tapped to arrive later this year.

    Diplomats point out that is unclear where the Commission could find the money for a more ambitious joint procurement program.

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    Suzanne Lynch, Eddy Wax and Jacopo Barigazzi

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  • China’s Xi to meet Putin in Moscow, speak to Zelenskyy: reports

    China’s Xi to meet Putin in Moscow, speak to Zelenskyy: reports

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    Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning to visit Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin as early as next week, according to reports by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.

    The U.S. newspaper added that Xi would also call Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which will be the first time the two men will have had direct communication, at least publicly, since the Russian invasion started more than a year ago.

    The Kremlin last week refused to comment on reports saying that Xi would be in the Russian capital on March 21.

    Xi, who broke with tradition and embarked on his third five-year term as president last week, has long considered Putin his “old friend,” while the two governments reached a “no-limit partnership” shortly before Putin waged war on Ukraine.

    There was no immediate response from Beijing or Moscow.

    Sergii Nikoforov, Zelenskyy’s spokesman, would not deny or confirm the upcoming talks. “I don’t have any additional information … yet,” he said.

    The U.S. has over recent weeks been accusing China of considering sending lethal arms to Russia; Beijing has labelled that as “slandering” tactics.

    Meanwhile, Beijing has proposed a vaguely worded peace proposal. Zelenskyy has said he would be open to discussing part of the plan in a meeting with Xi, even as the West criticized Beijing for showing pro-Russia bias in the text.

    Veronika Melkozerova contributed reporting from Kyiv.

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  • Georgia protests over foreign agents bill continue into second day | CNN

    Georgia protests over foreign agents bill continue into second day | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the Georgian parliament on Wednesday in the second day of protests in capital city Tbilisi over a draft “foreign agents” bill that critics fear could drive a wedge between the Caucasian nation and Europe.

    Protesters could be seen waving the flag of the European Union – which Georgia applied to join last year – and those of the United States and Ukraine, as well as the Georgian flag. Social media videos also showed some protesters throwing stones at the building’s windows and attempting to break a protective barrier, with police deploying water cannon and tear gas.

    The controversial bill would require organizations receiving 20 percent or more of their annual income from abroad to register as “foreign agents” or face heavy fines – a proposal that rights experts warn will pose a chilling effect to civil society in the country and damage its democracy.

    The ruling Georgian Dream party has said that the bill is modeled on US legislation, Reuters reports. But critics say it evokes a controversial law in neighboring Russia that forms the basis of draconian restrictions and requirements on organizations and individuals with foreign ties.

    The bill passed a first reading on Tuesday in the legislature and faces several further steps before becoming law. Its ultimate passage is considered likely, however, as the bill has strong support among lawmakers.

    In a statement on Wednesday, the Georgian Interior Ministry called “on the protesters, organizers and political leaders not to go beyond the limits defined by the law on freedom of assembly and expression.”

    At least 76 people have been arrested in connection to Tuesday’s protests.

    A protesters wave the Georgian, Ukrainian and European flags outside Georgia's Parliament in Tbilisi on March 8, 2023.

    Georgia has long played a delicate balancing act between citizens’ pro-European sentiment and the geopolitical aims of its powerful neighbor, Russia.

    But an EU statement Tuesday warned that the law would be “incompatible with EU values and standards” and could have “serious repercussions on our relations.”

    Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said she believed that the bill “looks very much like Russian politics.”

    “There is no need for this law, it comes from nowhere. Nobody has asked for it,” Zourabichvili told CNN’s Isa Soares Wednesday.

    Zourabichvili has vowed to veto the bill. But supreme executive power lies with the government headed by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

    Georgia applied for EU membership in March 2022. Though it was not granted candidacy status, the European Council has expressed readiness to grant that status if Georgia implements certain reforms.

    “For Georgia, there has been certain conditions that are very much linked to the democratic credentials for democratic reforms,” European Union Vice Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told CNN.

    The bloc’s member states have since “had very intense discussions” about Georgia’s candidacy, Šefčovič said, speaking to CNN’s Richard Quest on Wednesday.

    The US has said it is “deeply troubled” by the bill, with State Department spokesman Ned Price on Wednesday describing it as “Kremlin-inspired.”

    “Parliament’s advancing of these Kremlin-inspired draft laws is incompatible with the people of Georgia’s clear desire for European integration and its democratic development,” Price said.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile addressed Georgian protesters directly, thanking them on Wednesday for raising his country’s flag during the demonstrations and wishing them “democratic success.”

    “I want to thank everyone who has been holding Ukrainian flags in the squares and streets of Georgia these days,” Zelensky said.

    “We want to be in the European Union and we will be. We want Georgia to be in the European Union, and I am sure it will be,” Zelensky added later. “We want Moldova to be in the European Union, and I am sure it will be. All free peoples of Europe deserve this.”

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  • Ukraine is vowing to defend ‘fortress’ Bakhmut as Russian forces surround it: Here are 3 reasons why

    Ukraine is vowing to defend ‘fortress’ Bakhmut as Russian forces surround it: Here are 3 reasons why

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    Ukrainian infantrymen with the 28th Brigade view damaged buildings while driving to a frontline position facing Russian troops on March 05, 2023 outside of Bakhmut, Ukraine.

    John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    After seven months of fighting over the industrial city of Bakhmut in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, it’s not surprising that neither Ukraine nor Russia want to capitulate over its defense — or capture.

    But now it looks increasingly likely that Russia, through the sheer weight of manpower expended on relentless fighting there, particularly by Moscow’s mercenary forces in the Wagner Group, could be gaining the upper hand.

    On Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s mercenary forces fighting in Bakhmut (a city that Russia calls “Artemovsk”) said that Wagner had taken full control of the eastern part, according to comments published by Russian state news outlet Tass.

    Despite its forces appearing vulnerable to encirclement, Ukraine vowed on Monday to continue defending the city and to send in reinforcements, defying expectations that a tactical withdrawal was in the cards.

    Both Russia and Ukraine have thrown masses of personnel into their bids to capture, and defend, Bakhmut, respectively, with both claiming to have inflicted hundreds of losses on each others’ forces on a daily basis.

    Aside from atoning for these sacrifices with some kind of victory in Bakhmut, there are several other reasons why both sides have a reason to continue fighting until the bitter end, ranging from the symbolic to the militarily expedient.

    Symbolic value

    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the decision to defend Bakhmut showed that nowhere in Ukraine would be “abandoned,” an important psychological and symbolic message to Ukrainian fighters that their defense of their country, after a year of fighting, matters.

    Still, the merits of fighting on in Bakhmut — a city with a population of around 70,000 and known for its salt mining industry before the war — have been questioned, with military analysts and officials noting that even if Bakhmut falls into Russian hands, it won’t change the course of the war dramatically.

    An aerial view of destruction in Bakhmut on Feb. 27, 2023. Russian forces appear to be tightening the noose around the city in Donetsk.

    – | Afp | Getty Images

    “I think it is more of a symbolic value than it is strategic and operational value,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters Monday when asked about the significance of the battle over Bakhmut.

    “The fall of Bakhmut won’t necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight,” he added, noting that he would not predict when Bakhmut might fall to Russian forces.

    Ukrainian officials say the city is now largely lying in ruins, reducing any value it could have for Russia whereas for Kyiv, it’s a part of Ukraine. “I think it’s more about the symbolic value than the actual strategic value,” Yuriy Sak, an advisor in Ukraine’s defense ministry, told CNBC.

    “It’s not a big city … by now it’s ruins, it’s pulverized. There are a couple of thousand people living in underground shelters but it’s a deserted city, there’s only constant artillery and street-to-street fighting. Strategically, I think for both sides now, it’s more of a symbol, that’s why we call it the ‘fortress’ of Bakhmut,” Sak said.

    The Wagner private military company has a point to prove in Bakhmut as it looks to enhance its credibility within the Kremlin and Russia’s defense ministry (with which Prigozhin has had a very public spat) as well as among the Russian public and military blogosphere.

    Michael Clarke, former director general of British defense and security think tank RUSI, agreed Tuesday that “there’s no enormous strategic value in Bakhmut” but noted that Russia, as well as Ukraine, has attributed a special symbolic significance to the city.

    “For seven months now, the Wagner Group … has made Bakhmut a target in order to show that they can take ground when the rest of the Russian army were losing ground. So it’s become a massive symbolic issue,” Clarke told BBC radio, adding that he didn’t believe the fall of Bakhmut was inevitable but said it was “most likely.”

    “The Ukrainians are in a situation now where they’ve got to decide whether they live with the symbolic problem of giving it up or do they lose more troops defending it.”

    A soldier from a Ukrainian assault brigade walks along a muddy road used to transport and position British-made L118 105mm Howitzers, on March 4, 2023, near Bakhmut, Ukraine.

    John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Whether Ukraine will be able to keep on supplying its troops in Bakhmut is a critical issue. On Tuesday, the British Ministry of Defence noted that a Russian strike destroyed a bridge over the only paved supply road into Bakhmut still under Ukrainian control, noting in an intelligence update that “muddy conditions are likely hampering Ukrainian resupply efforts as they increasingly resort to using unpaved tracks.”

    Clarke said the southwest of Bakhmut still offered Ukraine a way in and out of Bakhmut currently but once that route is cut off “they will have to get out.”

    Strategic value

    Russia has made no bones about the fact that it sees capturing Bakhmut as a way to sever Ukrainian supply routes in the wider Donetsk region, capturing which is a key military goal for Russia. Bakhmut serves as a transportation hub for Ukraine supplying its troops in the region although Ukrainian officials have sought to downplay the impact any fall of Bakhmut would have on the war effort.

    Ukrainian military vehicles drive along a road outside of the strategic city of Bakhmut on January 18, 2023 in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Russia has stepped up its offensive in the Donetsk region in the new year, with the region’s Kyiv-appointed governor accusing Russia of using scorched-earth tactics.

    Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Nonetheless, Ukraine is wary that Russia will use the city as a stepping stone to advancing on other cities in eastern Ukraine, consolidating their military occupation of the region.

    On Tuesday, Zelenskyy warned that Russian troops will have “open road” to key cities in eastern Ukraine if they seize Bakhmut.

    “This is tactical for us,” Zelensky told CNN, insisting that Kyiv’s military brass is united in prolonging its defense of the city. “We understand that after Bakhmut they could go further. They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, it would be open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction. That’s why our guys are standing there.”

    Ukraine’s fears that capturing Bakhmut would allow Russians to advance further are not universally shared. Analysts say Russia has depleted so much manpower during the battle for Bakhmut that it could leave them spent.

    Experts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank note that Bakhmut is not “intrinsically significant operationally or strategically,” but note that, for Russia, taking Bakhmut is “necessary but not sufficient for further Russian advances” in the Donetsk region.

    “Russian forces have already taken such heavy losses fighting for the city that their attack will very likely culminate after they have secured it — if not before. The loss of Bakhmut is not, therefore, of major operational or strategic concern to Ukraine, as Secretary Austin and others have observed,” it said in analysis Monday.

    Curbing mercenary momentum

    Ukraine says there is another rationale to fighting on in Bakhmut if Russia’s best fighting units are expended in the process.

    The Defense Ministry said Monday that the commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, had once again visited the units defending Bakhmut and had noted that “the enemy threw Wagner’s additional forces into battle” and that Ukraine’s forces had “inflicted significant losses on the enemy, destroyed a large amount of equipment, forced Wagner’s best assault units into battle, and reduced the enemy’s offensive potential.”

    Defense analysts note that Wagner’s founder Priogozhin himself now appears wary that the battle of Bakhmut could, ISW analysts said, “severely degrade the Wagner Group’s best forces, depriving Russia of some of its most effective and most difficult-to-replace shock troops.”

    Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and close ally of Vladimir Putin, is the head Russia’s Wagner mercenary group and a series of other companies.

    Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images

    “Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin apparently fears that his forces are being expended in exactly this way. Prigozhin made a number of statements on March 5 and 6 that suggest that he fears that the Russian Ministry of Defense is fighting the Battle of Bakhmut to the last Wagner fighter and exposing his forces to destruction,” the ISW analysts said.

    For Ukraine, the severe degradation or destruction of the elite Wagner fighting force would have positive ramifications beyond the battlefield, the ISW said, noting that Prigozhin’s increasing prominence and status in Russia’s public sphere has brought about a wider dissemination of Wagner’s militarism and ideology throughout Russia.

    “Badly damaging Prigozhin’s power and reputation within Russia would be an important accomplishment from the standpoint of the long-term prospects for restoring sanity in Russia. That is an aim in America’s interests as well as in Ukraine’s, and it raises the stakes in the Battle of Bakhmut beyond matters of terrain and battlespace geometry,” the ISW said.

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  • Ukraine war focuses China military minds on Starlink, US missiles

    Ukraine war focuses China military minds on Starlink, US missiles

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    China needs the ability to shoot down low-Earth-orbit Starlink satellites and defend its tanks and helicopters against shoulder-fired Javelin missiles, Chinese military researchers have concluded, after studying Russia’s struggles in the Ukraine war as a means to learn lessons for possible future conflict with the United States.

    A review of almost 100 articles in more than 20 defence journals has revealed an effort across China’s military-industrial complex to scrutinise the impact of US weapons and technology in Ukraine that could be deployed against Chinese forces in a possible future conflict, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

    Some of the Chinese journal articles stress Ukraine’s relevance given the risk of a regional conflict that pits Chinese forces against the US and its allies, possibly over Taiwan.

    The Chinese-language journals, which reflect the work of hundreds of Chinese researchers across a network of People’s Liberation Army (PLA)-linked universities, state-owned weapons manufacturers and military intelligence think tanks, are far more candid in their assessments of Russian shortcomings in warfare than China’s official position on Moscow’s war, which it has refrained from criticising.

    Take out Starlink

    Half a dozen papers by PLA researchers highlight Chinese concern at the role of Starlink, a satellite network developed by Elon Musk’s US-based space exploration company SpaceX, in securing the communications of Ukraine’s military amid Russian missile attacks on the country’s power grid.

    “The excellent performance of ‘Starlink’ satellites in this Russian-Ukrainian conflict will certainly prompt the US and Western countries to use ‘Starlink’ extensively” in possible hostilities in Asia, said a September article co-written by researchers at the Army Engineering University of the PLA.

    The authors deemed it “urgent” for China – which aims to develop its own similar satellite network – to find ways to shoot down or disable Starlink.

    Collin Koh, a security fellow at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the Ukrainian conflict had provided impetus to longstanding efforts by China’s military scientists to develop cyberwarfare models and find ways of better protecting armour from modern Western weapons.

    “Starlink is really something new for them to worry about; the military application of advanced civilian technology that they can’t easily replicate,” Koh said.

    Beyond technology, Koh said he was not surprised that Ukrainian special forces operations inside Russia were being studied by China, which, like Russia, moves troops and weapons by rail, making them vulnerable to sabotage.

    Despite its rapid modernisation, the PLA has no recent combat experience. China’s invasion of Vietnam in 1979 was its last major battle – a conflict that rumbled on until the late 1980s.

    China’s defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the findings and Reuters was also unable to determine how closely the conclusions reflect the thinking among China’s military leaders.

    A member of Ukraine’s 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade disconnects their Starlink satellite on the front line in the Kreminna region, Ukraine, in January 2023 [File: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters]

    Drone warfare a ‘door kicker’ in future conflict

    Ukraine has also forged an apparent consensus among Chinese researchers that drone warfare merits greater investment.

    “These unmanned aerial vehicles will serve as the ‘door kicker’ of future wars,” noted one article in a tank warfare journal published by state-owned arms manufacturer Norinco, a supplier to the PLA, that described drones’ ability to neutralise enemy defences.

    An article in the administration’s official journal in October noted that China should improve its ability to defend military equipment in view of the “serious damage to Russian tanks, armoured vehicles and warships” inflicted by Stinger and Javelin missiles operated by Ukrainian fighters.

    One article, published in October by two researchers at the PLA’s National Defence University, analysed the effect of US deliveries of high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine, and whether China’s military should be concerned.

    “If HIMARS dares to intervene in Taiwan in the future, what was once known as an ‘explosion-causing tool’ will suffer another fate in front of different opponents,” it concluded.

    The article highlighted China’s own advanced rocket system, supported by reconnaissance drones, and noted that Ukraine’s success with HIMARS had relied on the US sharing of target information and intelligence via Starlink.

    While some of the journals involved are operated by provincial research institutes, others are official publications for central government bodies such as the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, which oversees weapons production and military upgrades.

    Drones
    China leads the way in dozens of critical technologies including drones, according to a report by an Australian think tank [Aly Song/Reuters]

    Taiwan scenario

    Four diplomats, including two military attaches, said PLA analysts have long worried about superior US military might, but Ukraine has sharpened their focus by providing a window on a large power’s failure to overwhelm a smaller one backed by the West. While the Ukraine scenario has obvious Taiwan comparisons, there are differences, particularly given the island’s vulnerability to a Chinese sea blockade.

    Western countries, by contrast, can supply Ukraine by land via its European neighbours.

    References to Taiwan are relatively few in the journals reviewed by Reuters, but diplomats and foreign scholars tracking the research say that Chinese defence analysts are tasked to provide separate internal reports for senior political and military leaders.

    US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns has said that Xi has ordered his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, while noting that the Chinese leader was probably unsettled by Russia’s experience in Ukraine.

    Several articles analyse the strengths of the Ukrainian resistance, including special forces’ sabotage operations inside Russia, the use of the Telegram app to harness civilian intelligence, and the defence of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

    Russian successes are also noted, such as tactical strikes using the Iskander ballistic missile. The journal Tactical Missile Technology, published by state-owned weapons manufacturer China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, produced a detailed analysis of the Iskander, but only released a truncated version to the public.

    Many other articles also focus on the mistakes of Russia’s invading army, with one in the tank warfare journal identifying outdated tactics and a lack of unified command, while another in an electronic warfare journal said Russian communications interference was insufficient to counter NATO’s provision of intelligence to the Ukrainians, leading to costly ambushes.

    Chinese research also concludes that the information war has been won by Ukraine and its allies.

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  • Who blew up Nord Stream?

    Who blew up Nord Stream?

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    Nearly six months on from the subsea gas pipeline explosions, which sent geopolitical shockwaves around the world in September, there is still no conclusive answer to the question of who blew up Nord Stream.

    Some were quick to place the blame squarely at Russia’s door — citing its record of hybrid warfare and a possible motive of intimidation, in the midst of a bitter economic war with Europe over gas supply.

    But half a year has passed without any firm evidence for this — or any other explanation — being produced by the ongoing investigations of authorities in three European countries.

    Since the day of the attack, four states — Russia, the U.S., Ukraine and the U.K. — have been publicly blamed for the explosions, with varying degrees of evidence.

    Still, some things are known for sure.

    As was widely assumed within hours of the blast, the explosions were an act of deliberate sabotage. One of the three investigations, led by Sweden’s Prosecution Authority, confirmed in November that residues of explosives and several “foreign objects” were found at the “crime scene” on the seabed, around 100 meters below the surface of the Baltic Sea, close to the Danish Island of Bornholm.

    Now two new media reports — one from the New York Times, the other a joint investigation by German public broadcasters ARD and SWR, plus newspaper Die Zeit — raised the possibility that a pro-Ukrainian group — though not necessarily state-backed — may have been responsible. On Wednesday, the German Prosecutor’s Office confirmed it had searched a ship in January suspected of transporting explosives used in the sabotage, but was still investigating the seized objects, the identities of the perpetrators and their possible motives.

    In the information vacuum since September, various theories have surfaced as to the culprit and their motive:

    Theory 1: Putin, the energy bully

    In the days immediately after the attack, the working assumption of many analysts in the West was that this was a brazen act of intimidation on the part of Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin.

    Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spelt out the hypothesis via his Twitter feed on September 27 — the day after the explosions were first detected. He branded the incident “nothing more [than] a terrorist attack planned by Russia and act of aggression towards the EU” linked to Moscow’s determination to provoke “pre-winter panic” over gas supplies to Europe.

    Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also hinted at Russian involvement. Russia denied responsibility.

    The Nord Stream pipes are part-owned by Russia’s Gazprom. The company had by the time of the explosions announced an “indefinite” shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 pipes, citing technical issues which the EU branded “fallacious pretences.” The new Nord Stream 2 pipes, meanwhile, had never been brought into the service. Within days of Gazprom announcing the shutdown in early September, Putin issued a veiled threat that Europe would “freeze” if it stuck to its plan of energy sanctions against Russia.

    But why blow up the pipeline, if gas blackmail via shutdowns had already proved effective? Why end the possibility of gas ever flowing again?

    Simone Tagliapietra, energy specialist and senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank, said it was possible that — if it was Russia — there may have been internal divisions about any such decision. “At that point, when Putin had basically decided to stop supplying [gas to] Germany, many in Russia may have been against that. This was a source of revenues.” It is possible, Tagliapietra said, that “hardliners” took the decision to end the debate by ending the pipelines.

    Blowing up Nord Stream, in this reading of the situation, was a final declaration of Russia’s willingness to cut off Europe’s gas supply indefinitely, while also demonstrating its hybrid warfare capabilities. In October, Putin said that the attack had shown that “any critical infrastructure in transport, energy or communication infrastructure is under threat — regardless of what part of the world it is located” — words viewed by many in the West as a veiled threat of more to come.

    Theory 2: The Brits did it

    From the beginning, Russian leaders have insinuated that either Ukraine or its Western allies were behind the attack. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said two days after the explosions that accusations of Russian culpability were “quite predictable and predictably stupid.” He added that Moscow had no interest in blowing up Nord Stream. “We have lost a route for gas supplies to Europe.”

    Then a month on from the blasts, the Russian defense ministry made the very specific allegation that “representatives of the U.K. Navy participated in planning, supporting and executing” the attack. No evidence was given. The same supposed British specialists were also involved in helping Ukraine coordinate a drone attack on Sevastopol in Crimea, Moscow said.  

    The U.K.’s Ministry of Defence said the “invented” allegations were intended to distract attention from Russia’s recent defeats on the battlefield. In any case, Moscow soon changed its tune.

    Theory 3: U.S. black ops

    In February, with formal investigations in Germany, Sweden and Denmark still yet to report, an article by the U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh triggered a new wave of speculation. Hersh’s allegation: U.S. forces blew up Nord Stream on direct orders from Joe Biden.

    The account — based on a single source said to have “direct knowledge of the operational planning” — alleged that an “obscure deep-diving group in Panama City” was secretly assigned to lay remotely-detonated mines on the pipelines. It suggested Biden’s rationale was to sever once and for all Russia’s gas link to Germany, ensuring that no amount of Kremlin blackmail could deter Berlin from steadfastly supporting Ukraine.

    Hersh’s article also drew on Biden’s public remarks when, in February 2022, shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion, he told reporters that should Russia invade “there will be no longer Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

    The White House described Hersh’s story as “utterly false and complete fiction.” The article certainly included some dubious claims, not least that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has “cooperated with the American intelligence community since the Vietnam War.” Stoltenberg, born in 1959, was 16 years old when the war ended.

    Russian leaders, however, seized on the report, citing it as evidence at the U.N. Security Council later in February and calling for an U.N.-led inquiry into the attacks, prompting Germany, Denmark and Sweden to issue a joint statement saying their investigations were ongoing.

    Theory 4: The mystery boatmen

    The latest clues — following reports on Tuesday from the New York Times and German media — center on a boat, six people with forged passports and the tiny Danish island of Christiansø.

    According to these reports, a boat that set sail from the German port of Rostock, later stopping at Christiansø, is at the center of the Nord Stream investigations.

    Germany’s federal prosecutor confirmed on Wednesday that a ship suspected of transporting explosives had been searched in January — and some of the 100 or so residents of tiny Christiansø told Denmark’s TV2 that police had visited the island and made inquiries. Residents were invited to come forward with information via a post on the island’s Facebook page.

    Both the New York Times and the German media reports suggested that intelligence is pointing to a link to a pro-Ukrainian group, although there is no evidence that any orders came from the Ukrainian government and the identities of the alleged perpetrators are also still unknown.

    Podolyak, Zelenskyy’s adviser, tweeted he was enjoying “collecting amusing conspiracy theories” about what happened to Nord Stream, but that Ukraine had “nothing to do” with it and had “no information about pro-Ukraine sabotage groups.”

    Meanwhile, Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned against “jumping to conclusions” about the latest reports, adding that it was possible that there may have been a “false flag” operation to blame Ukraine.

    The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said only that their investigation was ongoing, while a spokesperson for Sweden’s Prosecution Authority said information would be shared when available — but there was “no timeline” for when the inquiries would be completed.

    The mystery continues.

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  • Ukrainian troops describe vicious battle for Bakhmut as Russian forces accused of executing one of their own

    Ukrainian troops describe vicious battle for Bakhmut as Russian forces accused of executing one of their own

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    Near Bakhmut, Ukraine — Russia’s Minister of Defense gave some indication Tuesday as to why his country has been willing to throw so many soldiers at the grueling battle to capture the small industrial city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Sergei Shoigu said capturing the town would enable Russian forces to push further into Ukraine, taking more ground in the Donbas region that Russian President Vladimir Putin has appeared desperate to seize in its entirety.

    The Ukrainian forces battling street-to-street to hold onto the city are surrounded on three sides, but they have refused to back down. Some of the troops who’ve held that front line have told CBS News they can’t understand why Russia has been willing to sacrifice so many lives, but it has not weakened their resolve.

    Shoigu said Tuesday that taking Bakhmut was essential to Russia’s “further offensive” in the Donbas. That acknowledgement may bolster Ukraine’s commitment to prevent that from happening.


    Ukraine fights to keep Bakhmut as Russian forces surround the city

    04:46

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday night that his military commanders had informed him they were not ready to give up, and he and other senior leaders “unanimously supported this position.”

    “I told the commander in chief to find the appropriate forces to help our guys in Bakhmut,” Zelenskyy said.

    And those guys will welcome any help they can get.

    Ukrainian forces brought our team to a vital lookout point only about a mile and a half from the decimated center of Bakhmut. We were close enough to see smoke rising from the ruins. From the secret vantage point, Ukrainian soldier Izhak has kept a close eye on Russian positions in the near distance.

    “Our biggest fear is artillery,” he said, “because it can hit us at any time. You don’t know when, where, or how.”


    Russian mercenaries on the “lies” that lured them to Ukraine

    03:01

    Russian regular forces and mercenaries from the Wagner group who’ve led the charge on Bakhmut have said they’re close to encircling the charred and ruined city entirely. But the leader of the private Wagner army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who’s clashed in recent weeks with Shoigu and other top military brass over resources, said Monday that his forces needed backup and more ammunition.

    “I’m knocking on all doors and sounding the alarm about ammunition and reinforcements, as well as the need to cover our flanks,” Prigozhin said, highlighting a rift that may already have complicated Russia’s bid to take Bakhmut.

    “If everyone is coordinated, without ambition, screw-ups and tantrums, and carries out this work, then we will block the armed forces of Ukraine. If not, then everyone will be screwed,” he said bluntly.

    Russia Ukraine War
    A Ukrainian tank drives towards a front line near Bakhmut, Ukraine, March 6, 2023.

    Evgeniy Maloletka/AP


    The strain on Russian troops as they’re ordered to press the fight for Bakhmut against Ukrainian forces who’ve been promised backup from Kyiv and more weapons from Western partners has been made brutally clear as they’re accused of committing horrific atrocities.

    There has been a swell of international outrage this week over a gruesome video showing the apparent execution of a Ukrainian soldier by Russian forces around Bakhmut.

    The Ukrainian soldier stands smoking a cigarette in a forest and is heard calmly issuing the refrain, “Glory to Ukraine,” before a peel of gunfire appears to cut him down. A Russian voice, seemingly of one of the gunmen, is heard saying, “Die, b****.”

    ukraine-soldier-execution.jpg
    Ukraine’s Armed Forces’ 30th Mechanized Brigade, on March 7, 2023, identified a soldier seen in an an apparent execution video as Tymofiy Shadura. The post said he went missing amid fighting near Bakhmut more than a month earlier.

    Social media


    Responding to the video — the latest evidence of alleged Russian war crimes in his country — Zelenskyy lauded the slain soldier Monday night, repeating his “glory to Ukraine” salute and vowing to “find the murderers.”

    In a Facebook post, the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ 30th Mechanized Brigade identified the slain soldier as one of their own, naming him as Tymofiy Shadura. The post said he went missing amid fighting near Bakhmut on Feb. 3.  

    Masik, a Ukrainian soldier who’d just returned from Bakmut, told CBS News that he and his fellow troops understood the risks and brutality of the battle to hold onto the city.

    “Lots of us have been killed,” he said. “But this is our land, and we must keep fighting.”

    While some military analysts have described Bakhmut as a largely symbolic battle over a city with little strategic value, Masik told CBS News its elevated topography, with the vantage point it offers to points further west, and its position on the road network, could partly explain why Russia has fought so hard to seize it. But he couldn’t explain the seemingly first-world-war-tactic of just throwing more and more men at the front line to die.


    Inside the high tech battle for Bakhmut

    02:28

    “The Russians have said they’ve surrounded Bakhmut for half a year now,” he said. “But we’re here, on the edge of Bakhmut. Bakhmut will stand. Right now we have elite soldiers there who are repelling them, chewing them up… I think they’re just throwing more forces at it to show they have achieved a goal – that there was some objective with this ‘special operation.'”

    “But they are falling in such high numbers, that I don’t understand why. I can’t explain why their commanders are ordering them to lay down so many lives with so little success,” said Masik.

    At a location nearby, deep in the woods, CBS News met members of a tank unit who had also experienced the horrors of the battle for Bakhmut first-hand. Vladyslav said his unit had fought on almost every front line of the war, and he didn’t hesitate to call Bakhmut the “hottest” they’d seen.

    Video captured the moment the tank he was driving took a direct hit from Russian fire.

    “There was fire everywhere,” he said. “People were walking around. I don’t know how they live there – it was in ruins. At every step there were strikes.”

    ukraine-soldier-vladyslav.jpg
    Ukrainian soldier Vladyslav, a member of a tank unit, speaks with CBS News near the front line in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, with his tank behind him, early in March 2023. 

    CBS News/Agnes Reau


    He acknowledged his fear about the city falling to the Russian invaders.

    “If the Russians take Bakhmut then Ukraine will be at a serious breaking point,” he said. “It will be hard to get them out of there, and they will have many roads under control, so it will not be possible to bring supplies to our people.”

    But he was defiant.

    “We are Ukrainians, and we need to get our land back, and we don’t even talk about that,” he said. “Bakhmut is holding. There is intense fighting, we were there. And I’ll say it is scary, but it needs to be done.”

    Imtiaz Tyab


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    Imtiaz Tyab is a CBS News correspondent based in London.

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  • China’s new foreign minister warns of conflict with US, defends Russia ties | CNN

    China’s new foreign minister warns of conflict with US, defends Russia ties | CNN

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    China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned Tuesday that “conflict and confrontation” with the United States is inevitable if Washington does not change course, delivering a stern and wide-ranging rebuke of US policies for his first press conference in the new role.

    Qin, who was until recently China’s ambassador to the US, built up a reputation for being careful and accomplished diplomat while overseas.

    But he struck a far more combative tone in his first appearance as foreign minister at China’s annual parliamentary meeting, warning of the “catastrophic consequences” of what he described as a “reckless gamble” by Washington in how it treats its fellow superpower.

    “If the United States does not hit the brakes, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there will surely be conflict and confrontation,” Qin said on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.

    At the highly scripted event, Qin set the tone for China’s foreign policy for the coming year and beyond, berating the US for rising bilateral tensions and defending Beijing’s close partnership with Moscow.

    Ties between the world’s two largest economies are at their worst in decades, and tensions soared further last month after a suspected Chinese spy balloon floated over North America and was then shot down by US fighter jets.

    On Tuesday, Qin accused the US of overreacting in its response, which he said created “a diplomatic crisis that could have been avoided.”

    The incident, Qin said, shows “the US perception and views of China are seriously distorted. It regards China as its primary rival and the biggest geopolitical challenge.”

    “The US claims it seeks to compete with China but does not seek conflict. But in reality, the so-called ‘competition’ by the US is all-round containment and suppression, a zero-sum game of life and death,” he said.

    “Containment and suppression will not make America great, and the US will not stop the rejuvenation of China,” Qin said.

    The great power rivalry between the US and China has intensified in recent years.

    Under leader Xi Jinping, China has become increasingly authoritarian at home and assertive abroad, taking a more aggressive approach to exert its influence and counter the West.

    And Washington has pushed back.

    Under the Biden administration, the US has shored up ties with allies and partners to contain Beijing’s rising influence, including in its backyard.

    It has also pushed to decouple from China in emerging technologies, recently banning the export of advanced chips to the fury of Beijing.

    Qin lashed out at Washington for its Indo-Pacific strategy, accusing it of forming exclusive blocks to provoke confrontation, advocating for decoupling and plotting an “Asia-Pacific version of NATO.”

    “The real purpose of the Indo-Pacific strategy is to contain China,” Qin said. “No Cold War should be repeated in Asia, and no Ukraine-style crisis should be repeated in Asia.”

    China’s refusal to condemn Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and its growing partnership with Moscow have further strained its relations with the West. While Beijing has sought to cast itself as a neutral peace broker, it has also defended its “rock-solid” ties with Russia.

    On Tuesday Qin said the Sino-Russian relationship “does not pose a threat to any country in the world, nor will it be interfered or sowed discord in by any third party.”

    “The more unstable the world becomes, the more imperative it is for China and Russia to steadily advance their relations,” he said.

    Qin highlighted the issue of Taiwan as the “bedrock of the political foundation of Sino-US relations and the first red line that must not be crossed.”

    The Chinese Communist Party claims the self-governing democracy of Taiwan as part of its territory, despite having never controlled it, and refuses to rule out the use of force to “reunify” it with mainland China.

    On Tuesday, Qin urged the US not to “interfere in China’s internal affairs” and questioned Washington’s different responses to the issues of Ukraine and Taiwan.

    “Why does the US talk up respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity on the Ukraine issue, but does not respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity on the issue of Taiwan? Why does the US ask China not to provide weapons to Russia while keeps selling arms to Taiwan?” Qin said.

    Qin’s remarks come amid reports of a potential meeting between Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in April – a face to face that will most certainly draw the ire of Beijing.

    The Financial Times reported Monday that Tsai will meet McCarthy in California, rather than in Taiwan as the US Speaker had initially indicated.

    A US State Department spokesperson said Monday he is “not aware of any confirmed travel” by the Taiwanese President.

    Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said it had no information to share regarding Tsai’s potential US visit at this point.

    Defying Beijing’s threats of retaliation, McCarthy’s Democratic predecessor Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in August in the first visit by a US Speaker in 25 years.

    Beijing responded by staging unprecedented military exercises around Taiwan and cutting off key lines of communication with the US.

    China’s Foreign Ministry has since warned McCarthy not to visit Taiwan.

    Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australia National University’s Taiwan Studies Program, said Tsai’s potential meeting with McCarthy in California is not necessarily a “replacement or downgrade.”

    Instead, it could be an “add-on,” he said, suggesting McCarthy could always visit Taiwan at a later date.

    While Taiwan wants to normalize high-level visits by American officials to Taiwan, it also needs to be seen by its Western partners that it is being a responsible stakeholder in the process.

    “Some may think that there is better timing than this current moment to be pursing another US speaker visit to Taiwan,” Sung said.

    A meeting in the US, he added, could serve as “a very visual deliverable in the short term to show continued US support for Taiwan, regardless of change of party leadership in the legislature.”

    Tsai has transited in the US before on her visits to Taipei’s diplomatic allies.

    She last visited the US in 2019 and gave a speech in New York – a trip that angered Beijing.

    To China, Tsai’s potential meeting with McCarthy will be provocative no matter where it takes place, Sung said.

    “Beijing is going to be very unhappy and protest vigorously regardless. So I guess for them it will be a difference in intensity, but not a difference in kind. Beijing won’t like any such high level exchange be it taking place on Taiwan or US soil.”

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  • Residents near Bakhmut frontline endure constant shelling from Russian forces

    Residents near Bakhmut frontline endure constant shelling from Russian forces

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    Residents near Bakhmut frontline endure constant shelling from Russian forces – CBS News


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    As the battle for nearby Bakhmut rages, residents of the embattled eastern town of Chasiv Yar are enduring constant shelling from Russian forces, but some refuse to leave. Imtiaz Tyab reports.

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