Breaking News & Live Updates on 02-03-2024

The soldier also reveals that there are rumors among Russian army that they will all be sent home soon and the war “lasts until February 24 and that's it.”

A Russian soldier has been overheard in an intercepted phone call describing how he and his comrades were deployed on a foolhardy and deadly mission by commanders who later arrested him for complaining about what happened.

In the conversation released by Ukraine's Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR), the man tells his friend Sanya about his company ending up in the midst of withering Ukrainian fire, all while lacking the artillery needed for a counterattack.

Oleg Stegachev was stationed at the Engels air base and was reportedly involved in missile strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine, leading to casualties among the local population.

The commander of the crew of the Tu-95 strategic bomber was reportedly shot in the Russian city of Engels. It turned out to be Major Oleg Stegachev, Ukraine's Defense Intelligence (HUR) reported on Saturday, Feb. 3.

According to the report, born on 23.06.1983, Stegachev was stationed at the Engels air base and was involved in missile strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine, leading to casualties among the local population.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

The U.S. military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds force Friday, in the opening salvo of retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan last weekend, officials told The Associated Press. President Joe Biden and other top U.S. leaders had been warning for days that America would strike back at the militias, and they made it clear it wouldn’t be just one hit but a “tiered response” over time. The officials confirming the initial strikes spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations not yet announced - AP

Russia's foreign ministry on Friday condemned a decision by Ecuador to hand over Russian-made military hardware to the United States for use in Ukraine as a "reckless" breach of contract, the RIA news agency reported. The Ecuadorean government said last month it would take up an offer from Washington to swap what it called "Ukrainian and Russian scrap metal" for advanced U.S. equipment worth $200 million. The United States has said the arms it gets from Ecuador will be sent to Ukraine to help bolster its forces on the battlefield against Russia. Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry's spokeswoman, told RIA that Ecuador's decision was made under pressure from external forces. "Such a reckless decision was taken by the Ecuadorian side under serious pressure from outside interested parties," she said - Reuters

Corrupt politicians have been systematically plundering public budgets and natural resources in the Western Balkans for years. Increasingly, international actors are also discovering an El Dorado.

Milorad Dodik is nothing short of an expert when it comes to attacks on the Bosnian state. Republika Srpska’s (RS) president has been hurtling the Serbian-dominated entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina ever closer toward secession over the past months. State institutions should be stripped of their power; decisions of the state’s highest court should cease to apply in RS. On Jan. 9, Dodik opened the celebrations to mark a holiday previously deemed unconstitutional by Bosnia’s Constitutional Court, with paramilitary formations and Putin’s Night Wolves taking part in the festivities. Secession is the main subject of Dodik’s propaganda, which even conjures up the specter of a new war.

For Dodik and his Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) party, nationalist aspirations are by no means the only interests at stake here. The Bosnian-Serbian leadership uses its position of power primarily as a lucrative source of income: family members and party colleagues have been siphoning funds from state budgets for years – with no consequences from the domestic legal system.

A detained AFP video journalist said the Russian and foreign reporters were being transported in a van to a police station.

Russian police on Saturday detained a group of around 20 journalists, including an AFP reporter, covering a protest in Moscow by the wives of men mobilised to fight in Ukraine. 

The women have staged rare protests outside the Kremlin walls for weeks, in an uncomfortable movement for the authorities that has so far not been put down. 

Moscow targets a prominent human rights activist in continuing bid to suppress dissent.

Russia on Friday named veteran human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov, head of the Nobel Prize-winning Memorial group, a "foreign agent".

Moscow has labelled hundreds of activists and independent journalists "foreign agents" in recent years as part of a sweeping crackdown on dissent.

Rumors about Zaluzhny’s possible dismissal persist, but so far Zelensky’s administration has not confirmed them, and the situation remains unclear.

In a further twist to an ongoing headline story in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration has reportedly informed the White House of its intention to dismiss Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, The Washington Post reported on Friday, Feb. 2.

This decision, as per sources cited by the publication, has not been welcomed by US officials but they refrained from objecting, acknowledging it as a sovereign decision made by Ukraine’s leadership. 

The Volgograd refinery is operated by Lukoil, an industry giant, and is touted as the "biggest producer of oil products in the federal South district," covering eight regions in southwest Russia.

A fire erupted at a major Russian oil refinery in the southwestern Volgograd region overnight after a drone attack blamed on Ukraine, the regional governor said Saturday, Feb. 3. 

Ukraine has launched drone attacks on Russia for months following Moscow's almost two-year offensive. 

"Last night, the air defence and electronic jamming repelled an attack by drones in the Volgograd region's Kalachyovsky and Zakanalye districts," governor Andrei Bocharov said on Telegram.

Sharp reduction in borrowing.

The MoF borrowed UAH1.5bn (US$42m) on Tuesday, a four-fold decrease compared with last week and approximately one-tenth of what was raised at this year's first primary auction. However, this week, was the first auction without a FX-denominated bond offering this year.

Ten-month bills received demand for a total of UAH535m (US$12.4m) at par value, which is significantly more than last week (UAH329m). Meanwhile, the demand for bonds maturing in October 2025 has almost halved to UAH879m (US$24.4m). The demand for three-year "reserve" notes was again the smallest, falling to UAH167m (US$4.4m) from UAH263m (US$6.5m) last week. Bid rates were mostly unanimous again, so the cut-off and weighted average rates remain unchanged from last week.

Ukraine destroyed nine enemy drones within the Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Zhytomyr regions, Kyiv's air force said.

Ukraine's air force on Saturday said it downed nine out of 14 drones launched by Russia over southern and central regions overnight. 

Kyiv said most of the drones were directed at energy facilities in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where thousands have been without power since Russian strikes on Friday. 

Russia makes no secret of the fact that they intend to turn Ukrainian children into “patriotic” Russians. To do so they resort to abduction and deportation.

On Jan. 25, 2024, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) approved a resolution with regard to the situation of Ukrainian children in Europe, including those abducted and subjected to Russian efforts to erase the children’s identity, as well as those who have found refuge in the countries of the European Union and are in need of protection and refuge. The resolution was supported unanimously by the 85 members of PACE. In a strong step in support of the Ukrainian government’s case against Russia in the International Court of Justice for the crime of genocide introduced on Feb. 26, 2022, the PACE decision calls on the national parliaments of all Council of Europe member states to adopt positions “condemning the war crimes against children and recognizing deportations, forcible transfers, and unjustifiable delay in repatriation of Ukrainian children… as a crime of genocide.”

In a related matter, for several weeks, Ukrainian officials have been condemning a decision by the Russian government to “fast-track” the adoption of abducted Ukrainian children by Russian families. On Jan. 4, 2024, a “citizenship decree” was signed by Russia’s president to simplify the process of granting Russian citizenship to “foreign nationals and stateless persons.” Officials in Kyiv drew attention to a contentious section that orphaned Ukrainian children, or those without parental guardianship (i.e., forcibly separated from their parents following Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory) can be swiftly assigned Russian citizenship via presidential decision.

Nadezhdin has spent weeks criticising long-term President Putin and the Kremlin's military offensive in Ukraine, which is nearly into its third year.

Russian officials said on Friday they found "errors" in a bid by presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin to register to challenge Vladimir Putin, paving the way to bar him from the March vote.

Nadezhdin has spent weeks criticising long-term President Putin and the Kremlin's military offensive in Ukraine, which is nearly into its third year.

A selection of what European papers are saying.

The decision was awaited with bated breath, but now the EU's 50-billion-euro aid package for Ukraine for the period up to and including 2027 has been agreed. Hungary gave up its resistance after intensive negotiations in which it was reportedly agreed that the financial aid would be reviewed every two years, although any changes would require a unanimous decision. Commentators are only partially relieved.

Good news for Kyiv

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin evoked a wide Russian social and economic mobilization reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s total mobilization during the Second World War during a February 2 speech despite the fact that Russia is undertaking a far more gradual but nonetheless effective mobilization of its defense industrial base (DIB).
•  Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated on February 2 that Russian forces retain the “strategic initiative” along the entire frontline in Ukraine, a notable departure from Shoigu’s previous characterization of Russian operations as “active defense.”
• Open-source investigations indicate that Russian forces are benefitting from Ukraine’s ammunition shortage and inability to conduct sufficient counterbattery warfare.
• US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller reiterated on February 1 that Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly indicated that he has not changed his aims to capture and subjugate Ukraine.
• Russian milbloggers and ultranationalist figures continue to present themselves as impartial and constructive critics of the Russian military in juxtaposition to official Kremlin sources in the Russian information space.
• Kremlin affiliates reportedly launched an information campaign wherein prominent social media influencers promote the Russian Orthodox Church.
• Russian forces recently made confirmed advances near Avdiivka and in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area amid continued positional engagements along the entire line of contact on February 2.
• Russian outlet Izvestiya stated on February 2, citing sources within the Russian military, that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) is forming air defense units as part of assault units to defend Russian infantry against Ukrainian drones, frontline air strikes, and shelling.
• Ukrainian and Canadian officials announced a new coalition to return Ukrainian children from Russia to Ukraine.

The EU leaders’ decision to provide Ukraine with €50 billion in aid must now pass through the European Parliament, while the Ukrainian government and European Commission finalize a plan for the funds.

On Feb. 1 all 27 EU leaders agreed on vital aid for Ukraine totaling €50 billion ($54 billion) at an extraordinary summit in Brussels. The funding deal is set to cover the period 2024-2027.

A major deal with compromises