What happened this week in the war in Ukraine? This overview of 11 articles will keep you updated.
This week’s regular Ukraine update will be published in an abbreviated form due to holidays. Instead, you get an overview of the most important articles on this topic.
1. ‘Last night we shot down 25 percent of Russian drones. We’re getting better at it’: On the Road with Kiev Air Defense
It’s a World War I tactic that doesn’t cost much and still works. In addition to expensive air defense systems, enemy drones and missiles are also shot down in Ukraine with automatic rifles and Kalashnikovs. “It’s a game of cat and mouse.”
2. How the war in Ukraine collides with the past: “Historical parallels with WWII keep emerging”
The parallels between the war in Ukraine today and World War II are often far-reaching. However, there are also a number of significant differences between the fighting since last year and the fighting in the 1940s.
3. “The Russians are so close here that you only have three seconds to crouch when they attack.”
While Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of a plan to attack the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, the situation remains tense for residents of the nearby city of Nikopol. “We’ve got our gas masks ready.”
4. Putin’s mainstay, Prigozhin’s banker and US ally: The UAE is small but mighty
Now that millions and millions of Russians are no longer welcome in London or Monaco, oligarchs are fleeing to the United Arab Emirates. This includes Wagner’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who works as a banker in Dubai. How did the oil country get such a major position on the world stage?
5. Brussels lawyers who defend the Russian oligarchy: would I defend the Nazi? I do not think so’
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has frozen the assets of nearly 1,800 Russian individuals and institutions. The room for maneuver of the oligarchs and Putin’s supporters is also limited: in principle, they are no longer allowed to travel freely across Europe. About forty wealthy people challenged this decision, in half of the cases with the help of Brussels lawyers. We spoke to three of them, including Thierry Pontinck, who is defending Roman Abramovich.
6. You progress meter by meter How do you do that? Two soldiers analyze the Ukrainian attack
Despite all the Western support, the Ukrainian army is only managing to win back ground from the entrenched Russians, meter by meter. Why is it so difficult to advance on the 2,500-kilometer front? Explanation based on the five stages of war.
7. The slow progress, according to Ukrainian commanders and soldiers, is due to one big problem: land mines
As Putin threatens to use cluster bombs, Ukrainian soldiers at the front face another formidable obstacle to their counterattack: “Whole fields are full of these bombs, everywhere.”
8. Oleksandr Sirsky, the supreme commander who learned from the Greeks, Russians and NATO
For months the Ukrainian army relied on the military genius of Oleksandr Sersky. The general repulsed Russia’s attack on Kiev last year and is now leading the Ukrainian counteroffensive. “He can really see the enemy’s head.”
9. Russia’s exit from the grain deal is a “knife in the back” of African countries
Diplomats and aid workers said the fact that Russia is letting the grain deal fall through will have dire consequences for food prices and food security in African countries. “People are rushing to buy and store food.”
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