Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 05-02-2024

What is the cost of a Russian victory?

It is pretty remarkable looking back at the last two years of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine and the fact that the combined West has not come to terms with the implications of a Russian victory and what that would mean.

I mean two years plus on, and the West still has its head in the sand on this core question with many Western politicians preferring not to think the unthinkable. What would a Russian victory mean for Europe and the Western alliance?

Russian forces have been increasingly using these guided bombs to target frontline regions.

A Russian guided bomb attack in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region wounded six children on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said. 

The Kharkiv region – large parts of which were occupied by Russia for months after it invaded in February 2022 – has faced increased attacks for weeks. 

Russia said it found an unexploded cluster munition from an intercepted ATACMS missile in occupied Crimea – whatever it was, it didn’t come from an ATACMS.

Sergei Aksyonov, head of occupied Crimea, said on Tuesday that unexploded cluster munitions from one of the six US-supplied ATACMS reportedly intercepted over Crimea “scattered” in the area and warned residents not to approach.

The announcement also came with a picture of a metal sphere roughly the size of a baseball, purported to be an unexploded ordnance from an ATACMS, found in the village of Dons’ke, approximately 13 kilometers (8 miles) from Simferopol city.

Workers at a scrap yard called security forces after the local Roma diaspora in Russia's Tambov region scrapped the newest drone.

In central Russia, in the Tambov region, Roma, also known as “Gypsies,” brought an Orlan-10 drone – which Moscow considers the most effective drone in the Russian army – to a scrap metal collection point.

Employees of the scrap yard called the police and sappers, according to Russian Telegram Baza.

Lieutenant Andrii Kovalenko of the Center for Combating Disinformation, said the Kremlin’s latest propaganda attempts to present an alternate version of Ukraine.

Russian propaganda is working on splitting Ukraine, trying to divide Ukrainians into those who went abroad to escape the war, and those who stayed, Ukrinform reported, quoting the head of the state-run Center for Combating Disinformation (CCP), Lieutenant Andrii Kovalenko.

Kovalenko, who said that there’s “a lot of work to be done,” has hosted 20 YouTube videos, called “About the War,” with the Ukrainian state news agency over the past three months, highlighting Russian disinformation.

Trump told Time America is picking up almost the entire tab to support Ukraine and cheapskate Europe won’t pay up. The reality is the US is pretty clearly in second place.

Former US President Donald Trump in a major interview with Time magazine charged – again – that Europe isn’t helping out as it should with financial support and arms to Ukraine it should, and that American taxpayers are being taken for a ride, but fact-checks by Time and more in-depth fact-checks by Kyiv Post show reality doesn’t mesh with his narrative.

According to Trump, he supports Ukraine and wants to prevent aggression in the Old World, but Europe isn’t paying anything close to its fair share on the Russo-Ukraine War and deterring the Kremlin. And American largesse and patience has its limits, he said.   

Some analysts believe that Russia could be on the verge of launching a major new offensive in Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron has reaffirmed that he doesn't rule out sending troops to Ukraine if Russia breaks through Ukrainian front lines and Kyiv requests such assistance.

In an interview with The Economist, Macron stated that the possibility of sending troops would "legitimately" arise in such a scenario.

Foreign Minister Kuleba recalled that Ukraine’s past attempts at negotiation with Russia have been unsuccessful, leading to a large-scale invasion in 2022.

In an interview with the Foreign Policy media outlet, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hinted that peace negotiations with Russia might commence once Ukraine establishes a peace coalition.

Switzerland is set to host a high-level peace conference next month. Responding to concerns about holding a peace summit without the war-initiating party, Kuleba highlighted two strategies to engage Russia in sincere dialogue.

A deputy defense minister said the application will launch on May 18, the day the new mobilization law comes into force, and will be one of three methods military-age males can update their data.

Ukraine is planning to launch a mobile application for conscription-age males to update their military registration on May 18, the day the new mobilization law comes into force, said Kateryna Chernogorenko, deputy minister of defense of Ukraine for digital development.

“On May 18, the Ministry of Defense will launch, as defined by the current law, the electronic office of a conscript ... Now this application is literally being created, and we are receiving all the necessary documents to make it available to all our citizens,” Chernogorenko told Radio Liberty on Wednesday.

Attacks on Ukraine’s food supplies and grain intended for export intensified, as did the use of cluster and phosphorous munitions on civilian residential areas.

Please find the previous parts of the digest below:

February to March 2022

The former head of cybersecurity has been engulfed in a series of scandals in recent weeks, from luxurious assets surpassing his official income to intimidating reporters through military recruitment.

Ilya Vityuk, former head of cybersecurity at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was dismissed officially on Wednesday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as per a Presidential Decree.

Prior to his dismissal, Vityuk was suspended from his duty by the head of SBU after he was engulfed in a series of scandals in recent weeks, where SBU press service said Vityuk was sent to the front for “combat missions” following his suspension as the head of cybersecurity.

Ukraine's intelligence has uncovered video evidence showing Russian troops launching drones over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and setting up launch pads near the sixth reactor.

Russian troops are employing kamikaze drones over the nuclear reactors of the temporarily occupied ZNPP. They have equipped launch pads for these drones near the sixth reactor, according to Ukraine's Military Intelligence (HUR).

Special intelligence units have obtained video evidence showing Russian forces using kamikaze drones over the nuclear reactors of the power plant.

Odesa, a Black Sea port vital for Ukrainian exports, has been regularly targeted by deadly missile and drone attacks.

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

Wednesday saw another huge Russian strike on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, resulting in a massive fire, local media reported. The target appears to have been the privately-owned Nova Poshta warehouse. It follows Tuesday’s missile strike, which killed 9 and injured three dozen people. As of Wednesday evening, there were at least 14 injured.

The parliament of Georgia Wednesday to advance a controversial 'foreign agent' bill that has sparked weeks of mass protests in the capital, Tbilisi, and warnings from Brussels that it would damage Georgia's hopes of becoming a member of the EU - RFE/RL

Jack Teixeira orchestrated the most damaging leak of US classified information in a decade, posting highly sensitive documents on the social media platform Discord.

The US airman who admitted to leaking a trove of classified Pentagon documents is facing separate Air Force charges under the military justice system, a spokesperson said Wednesday.

Jack Teixeira orchestrated the most damaging leak of US classified information in a decade while serving as a junior Massachusetts Air National Guard IT specialist, posting highly sensitive documents on the social media platform Discord, from which they spread across the internet.

According to a factsheet released by the US State Department, Russia used the chemical agent chloropicrin, as well as "riot control agents (tear gas)," in Ukraine.

The US State Department has accused Russia of deploying a chemical weapon against Ukrainian forces, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The accusation was made on Wednesday, alongside the announcement of fresh sanctions against Moscow.

According to a factsheet released by the department, Russia used the chemical agent chloropicrin, as well as "riot control agents (tear gas)," in Ukraine, both in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Odesa, a Black Sea port vital for Ukrainian exports, has been regularly targeted by deadly missile and drone attacks.

A Russian missile attack injured 13 people in Ukraine's southwestern city of Odesa, its mayor said early Thursday, after similar strikes earlier in the week killed at least eight.