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Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 02-04-2024 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.
North Korean imprecise analogues of Russian missiles have already been used to attack Ukraine in December and January, and Kremlin ships in the peninsula’s ports indicates more likely en route.
John Kirby, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications said at a briefing on Jan. 4, 2024, that the United States has information that North Korea has supplied its ballistic missiles to Russia, along with their launchers.
The White House representative emphasized that Russia has not just received the missiles but is already using them against Ukraine.
Ivan Fedorov, 35, was abducted in March 2022 by Russian soldiers as they entered his city after refusing to cooperate with Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed the mayor of an occupied city who was once abducted by Russia as the new head of the country's southern embattled Zaporizhzhia region, his office said on Sunday.
Zelensky made the announcement as he visited the southern front on Sunday, including meeting troops in the frontline village and fighting hotspot of Robotyne, which has been heavily attacked by Russia.
The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.
WORLD BRIEFING: February 4, 2024
The Houthis vow to respond after US and UK strike 36 targets across 13 locations in Yemen. The Houthis in Yemen, who are backed by Iran, started targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea in November, disrupting global supply chains. Shipping companies have stopped using the Red Sea, which usually carries almost 15% of global seaborne trade, and are using a much longer route around southern Africa instead. The Houthis say they are targeting Israeli-linked ships in solidarity with the Palestinians; however, many attacked vessels have had no connection to Israel - BBC
The Battle of Novomykhailivka was important because it confirmed that yes, in Ukraine we are witnessing a military technological revolution. Right now.
The following is a semi-regular round-up of musings from Kyiv Post defense correspondent, Stefan Korshak. You can read the original here.
There’s been all manner of news and developments in the last week and change, a goodly chunk of it positive and I expect most of you are aware.
Ukraine retook Robotyne from Russian forces last summer but it is now heavily attacked by Moscow’s forces.
President Zelensky visited troops in the southern frontline village of Robotyne on Sunday, saying they “face a difficult and critical mission to repel the enemy and defend Ukraine.”
In a post on social media, he wrote: “Zaporizhzhia region. Robotyne. The location of the 65th Mechanized Brigade. I spoke with the defenders, thanked them, and presented them with state awards.
Serhiy Kolyada on the never-ending Russian fake news stream.
It would follow the first of such agreements signed between the UK and Ukraine last month.
Germany and Ukraine could sign a bilateral security agreement as early as this month, according to reports.
Ukrainian officials said the text “has not yet been agreed upon, but it is mostly ready.” While sources in Berlin suggested it could be ready to be signed on Feb. 16 during the Munich Security Conference.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has appointed the former Ukrainian ambassador to Belarus to work with the Belarusian democratic opposition. How significant is this?
The former Ukrainian Ambassador to Belarus, Ihor Kyzym, has revealed that he has been appointed Ambassador-at-Large for Belarus. The diplomat reported this on his Facebook page on Feb. 2
Leaders of the Belarusian democratic movement in exile have welcomed this move while official Kyiv has made no effort to publicize it.
The row centers on a disastrous Russian armored assault earlier in the week in which a large column of Moscow’s tanks were decimated by cheap Ukrainian FPV drones.
Russian milbloggers have branded prominent Kremlin propagandists “traitors and sellouts” for refusing to acknowledge the failings in the Russian army which are leading to massive losses of men and materiel.
In a post on Telegram on Saturday, one milblogger insisted “true patriots” were those who reacted to news of a Russian armored attack being decimated by Ukrainian FPV drones by asking: “How is this possible?”
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.
Amnesty International’s report “Like a Prison Convoy: Russia’s Unlawful Transfer of Civilians in Ukraine and Abuses During ‘Filtration’” and the Conflict Observatory’s “Russia’s Systematic Program for the Re-education and Adoption of Ukraine’s Children” have provided a thorough account of Russia’s stealing children. Along with additional documentation from Ukraine and UN bodies, the reports were the basis for a decision on March 17, 2023, by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for “Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Alekseyeva Lvova-Belova for the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied territories in Ukraine.”
Dr. Olena Lennon, a resident researcher in national security policy and instructor at the University of New Haven, tracks developments regarding abduction by Russia of Ukraine’s children. At a public event on Dec. 7, 2023, on the topic of the deportation of Ukraine’s children, she stated that unlike many previous cases brought before the ICC, “this situation was so self-evident that the ICC could not make any other ruling since Russia willingly incriminates itself by bragging about the number of children being taken to Russia.”
A series of spectacular Ukrainian strikes against BSF targets have been steadily chipping away at Moscow’s naval capabilities. And there's still no sign of Admiral Sokolov.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF) operations have been “greatly complicated, if not paralyzed,” Ukraine’s navy has said.
Speaking to national TV on Sunday, Captain 3rd rank Dmytro Pletenchuk, said 25 vessels out of around 80 deployed by Moscow at the start of the full-scale invasion have been destroyed, and 15 are currently under repair.
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.
Serbia: An autocrat and lithium reserves
Western actors’ thirst for raw materials also sheds some light on recent diplomatic volte-face in the wake of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine: representatives of both the US and the EU have taken a remarkably lenient line on President Aleksandar Vučić’s behavior in Belgrade, despite the continuing policy of destabilization pursued by Serbia, a loyal partner of Moscow. OSCE observers reported that the Serbian parliamentary elections in December 2023 were marred by intimidation on a massive scale and biased media coverage, but there has been strikingly little criticism from the EU on this issue.
North Korea this year declared the South its “principal enemy” and threatened war over “even 0.001 millimetres” of territorial infringement.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko visited South Korea to discuss the Ukrainian war and bilateral ties, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Sunday, as the two countries trade increasingly heated rhetoric over the nuclear-armed North.
Rudenko, Russia’s deputy foreign minister handling Asia-Pacific affairs, met his South Korean counterpart Chung Byung-won on Friday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Russia has lost thousands of tanks in Ukraine – though the losses were significant until the autumn of 2023, Russia might be losing fewer tanks with the capability to replenish them.
Between Feb. 24, 2022, and Jan. 25, 2024, the Russian Ground Forces are estimated to have lost approximately 2,600 main battle tanks (MBTs) and 4,900 armored combat vehicles (ACVs) in Ukraine – 40 percent fewer in 2023 compared to 2022, according to an update from the British Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The report said the decrease in losses was in part due to the “increasing positional nature” of the war, where Russia was on the defensive for the majority of 2023 before resuming an offensive in eastern Ukraine, particularly in the town of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region.
In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin conferred on Bikovic the Pushkin medal for contributions to Russian culture, and he was subsequently given Russian citizenship.
Actor Milos Bikovic has been dropped from the cast of popular TV series “The White Lotus,” an HBO spokesperson said, after the Serbian native’s ties to Russia drew a sharp rebuke from Ukraine.
Bikovic, who was cast for the third season of the award-winning dark comedy just weeks ago, protested against the network’s decision as “the triumph of absurdity and the defeat of art.”
The author’s photographs were originally intended to reinforce existing US support for Ukraine but now sees them as being essential to combat the growing antipathy towards the provision of aid.
In lieu of a thousand words, I spent the last year taking thousands of pictures of Ukraine and its people under fire. I took them in the field alongside war crimes investigators and military intelligence units, while I was teaching law at Taras Shevchenko University.
In the beginning, I took them when Americans were still virtually united in their support for Ukraine against Putin’s naked aggression, before opposition became a MAGA article of faith.
A Q&A following your questions about Stefan Korshak's recent visit to the training base of the Belarusian unit, The Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment.
As threatened, here is a Q&A following your questions about my recent visit to the training base of the Belarusian unit, The Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment.
Kyiv Post already published two stories on the regiment which you can read here and here.
Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Key Takeaways from the ISW:
Everyone in Ukraine agrees that a massive new mobilization is imperative. But the devil is in the details, and lawmakers are still in the process of hammering out the fine points.
On Jan. 30, the Cabinet of Ministers published a revised bill on mobilization. After the first version of the draft law on mobilization had attracted criticism from the parliament and public in mid-January, the Ministry of Defense took a break for several weeks to revise the document.
The new draft law includes fresh proposals, taking into account previous comments and new norms, and is believed to have a better chance of being supported in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.
