The highly anticipated counteroffensive of Kiev, which began on June 4th, has already resulted in the deaths of over 90,000 Ukrainian servicemen, with the additional loss of over 500 tanks.
According to a Chinese newspaper, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) are grappling with a surge in desertions caused by increasing casualties and mental exhaustion among soldiers.
The news outlet cited “emerging reports of ever-increasing stress and mental health issues, with soldiers reluctant to take to the battlefield as they feel they do not have enough time to recover from their traumatic experiences.”
The media outlet cited Romanian immigration authorities as saying that “6,200 Ukrainian men of military age have crossed their border illegally, while some 20,000 have fled with special permits, though these are often falsified documents such as medical certificates and exemptions.”
On top of that, the newspaper added that the UAF struggles with a shortage of ammunition due to “inconsistent donations and varying arms types.”
“This leads to the inefficient use of supplies due to shells, and to rockets being unreliable in their accuracy, which can result in equipment being damaged and soldiers injured. This contributes to low morale in the Ukrainian troops,'' per the newspaper.
With the assistance of NATO instructors, the Ukrainian forces have been trying to make progress on various front lines since the beginning of June.
Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that the UAF has been unable to achieve any significant success on the fronts, already suffering the loss of over 90,000 soldiers and 557 tanks.
The head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, has proposed that Russia skip next year’s presidential elections, citing the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
Kadyrov made the remarks on Saturday in Chechnya’s capital Grozny during a public event to celebrate the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The celebratory rally attracted around 25,000 people, according to local authorities.
“I propose now, when there is the special military operation [in Ukraine], to unanimously decide that we will have only one candidate in the elections – Vladimir Putin. Or temporarily cancel the elections, because we don’t have another person who is able to defend our country today,” Kadyrov stated.
Thus far, Russia’s top leadership has not commented on the proposal floated by the Chechen leader. The initiative met a reserved reaction in Russia’s legislature, deputy head of the State Duma’s international affairs committee Aleksey Chepa suggesting it was not a very appropriate idea.
“I believe that the elections should not be postponed. I understand Kadyrov’s position. I think that it is important for the president today to understand how many people support him. It will be proper to hold competitive elections – with multiple candidates, it will not give our enemies an opportunity to contest the outcome,” Chepa stated, after outlet News.ru sought a comment.
People brandishing weapons take to the streets of Yemen’s Huthi-held capital Sanaa on Saturday in support of the Palestinians, after the militant group Hamas launched a surprise large-scale attack against Israel from Gaza. Photo by MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP via Getty Images
A number of Arab states have called for “restraint” and a de-escalation of violence following the launch of the largest attack in years on Israeli territory early on Saturday morning.
Qatar, a Gulf state that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, issued a statement through its foreign ministry on Saturday in which it said that the ultimate responsibility for the so-called ‘Al-Aqsa Storm’ operation conducted by Hamas lies with the Israeli government.
Doha added in its statement its desire for both sides in the conflict to exercise restraint, and called on the international community to ensure that Israel does not use the event as an excuse for a “disproportionate” response against Palestinians in Gaza.
Saudi Arabia, another state that does not currently have formal ties with Israel, also released a statement on X (formerly Twitter) to say that it was “closely following up on the unprecedented developments” between “Palestinian factions and the Israeli occupation forces.”
The Saudi foreign ministry also said it had repeatedly “warned of the dangers” that might occur “as a result of the continued occupation” and for “depriving the Palestinian people of their legitimate rights.”
In recent weeks, the leadership of both Saudi Arabia and Israel have signaled a desire to normalize relations, with the United States understood to be actively negotiating the details. Earlier this week, Hamas expressed its “unwavering position of rejecting all forms of normalization and contact with the Israeli occupation.”
Early on Saturday, Hamas militants entered Israeli territory and have appeared to gain a foothold of control in some communities in the south of the country. Israeli authorities said more than 2,000 rockets had been launched from Gaza. At least 40 people have been killed, Israel’s health ministry said on Saturday afternoon, with more than 500 people injured. Reports have also said that an unknown number of Israeli citizens and soldiers have been taken captive.
Egypt, meanwhile, cautioned of potentially “grave consequences” that might emerge from a further escalation of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians. Its foreign ministry also called on both sides to exercise “maximum restraint and avoid exposing civilians to further danger.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday during a congress of his AK Party in Ankara that both sides in the conflict “must refrain from aggressive acts.” He also warned against “any kind of attempt” to damage or harm the “historical and religious status” of Al-Aqsa mosque in the occupied territory of East Jerusalem.
The Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah also issued a statement on Saturday to indicate that it was “in direct contact with the leadership of the Palestinian resistance.” It added that Hamas’ assault could be viewed as a “decisive response to Israel’s continued occupation and a message to those seeking normalization with Israel.”
However, Hezbollah’s statement stopped short of expressing an intention to militarily support the attack.
After weeks of escalating tensions along the Gaza-Israel border and deadly confrontations in the occupied West Bank of Palestine, Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza, primarily led by Hamas, declared today morning a full-scale military operation into the towns and settlements located along the separation fence with Gaza.
Military confrontations along the borders were ongoing Saturday evening, with an Israel response of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on multiple residential neighbourhoods.
The latest barrage of rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza Saturday evening has resulted in the collapse of a building in Tel Aviv, as reported by Israel's fire department according to Haaretz. The death toll among Palestinians has now reached 232, with 1,697 individuals wounded, including dozens in critical condition. The ongoing power cuts are anticipated to have severe health consequences, aggravated by the Israeli blockade and significant shortages of medical supplies.
An official report from the Palestinian news agency Wafa states that a complete power blackout has affected all regions of the besieged Gaza Strip. Israel's Energy Minister had previously announced plans to cut power to Gaza, a region that relies on Israel for about two-thirds of its electricity.
Mohamed Abu Silmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, has emphasized the critical situation faced by hospitals and medical facilities in the Gaza Strip due to Israel's power cuts. They are struggling to provide adequate care to the increasing number of casualties resulting from Israel's ongoing air assaults. Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the besieged enclave, is particularly strained as it receives the highest volume of casualties. The power outage has exacerbated the workload upon medical professionals working to treat the injured.
In a tragic development, Israeli forces have fatally shot a 13-year-old boy in the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian medics report that three individuals have been killed and over 30 wounded.
Additionally, it has been announced by the spokesperson of Hamas's military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, that Palestinian fighters have captured "dozens" of Israeli soldiers and officers, and they are currently being held "in secure underground locations."
Netanyahu, as announced by his Likud party, has extended an invitation to opposition leaders Lapid and Gantz to collaborate in forming a unity government. Notably, Lapid had previously expressed his willingness to work alongside Netanyahu to demonstrate unity. Meanwhile, Gantz has indicated that he is considering this offer.
Furthermore, Israel has conducted airstrikes targeting multiple high-rise buildings in recent hours, with one of these strikes being captured on live coverage by Al Jazeera. The situation remains extremely volatile and fluid.
Meanwhile, at least 200 Israelis were killed in the Palestinian resistance attack, Israel’s ambulance service said. More than 1,100 Israelis had been wounded, the health ministry said, while dozens had been taken hostage, according to reports.
The attack marked an unprecedented infiltration into Israel by an unknown number of Hamas gunmen crossing from the Gaza Strip, and the heaviest blow for Israel in the conflict with Palestinians since the suicide bombings of the Second Intifada some two decades ago.
‘PLEASE SEND HELP’
Speaking to Israel N12 News by phone from Nir Oz, a kibbutz near Gaza, a woman identified as Dorin said militants had infiltrated her house and tried to open the bomb shelter where she was hiding.
“They just came in again, please send help,” she said. “There are a lot of homes harmed ... My husband is holding the door closed ... They are firing rounds of bullets.”
Israeli Defense Minister Gallant said “troops are fighting against the enemy at every location” and authorized the call-up of reservists.
Israeli media reported that gunmen had opened fire on passers-by in Sderot, and footage circulating on social media appeared to show clashes in city streets as well as gunmen in jeeps roaming the countryside.
“We were told there are terrorists inside the kibbutz, we can hear gunfire,” a young woman named Dvir, from Beeri Kibbutz, told Israeli Army Radio from her bomb shelter.
BACKDROP OF SURGING VIOLENCE
The escalation comes against a backdrop of surging violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the West Bank, which together with the Gaza Strip is part of the territories where Palestinians have long sought to establish a state.
Hamas media displayed videos of what it said were bodies of Israeli soldiers brought into Gaza by fighters, and Palestinian gunmen inside Israeli homes and touring an Israeli town in jeeps reportedly been driven into Israel by the attackers.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the footage.
Hamas media also circulated video footage apparently showing a destroyed Israeli tank.
In Gaza, the roar of rocket launches could be heard and residents reported armed clashes along the separation fence with Israel, near the southern town of Khan Younis, and said they had seen significant movement of armed fighters.
Palestinians in Gaza were bracing for Israel’s response.
“We are afraid,” Palestinian woman, Amal Abu Daqqa, said as she left her house in Khan Younis.
Others in Gaza expressed disbelief at the infiltration into Israel. “It is like a dream. I still can’t believe it,” said one Gaza shopkeeper.
The attack came a day after Israel marked the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war that brought the country to the verge of catastrophic defeat in a surprise attack by Syria and Egypt.
Historical revisionists are now trying to argue that actual Nazi soldiers were just anti-Soviet resisters.
We knew that it was coming. It was only a matter of time. And now attempts to whitewash the actions of actual Nazis from WWII have begun – all because a bunch of ignoramuses in the Canadian parliament cheered one alongside Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, and it all just makes Ukraine and its Western supporters look bad.
It also makes Western lawmakers look like they have no clue when it comes to Nazism in Ukraine – either past or present. So instead of asking questions about their judgment, it’s time to ask whether you’ve just misunderstood Nazis.
The newly-resigned Canadian House Speaker introduced Ukrainian one-time Waffen-SS soldier Yaroslav Hunka as a Ukrainian (and naturalized Canadian) who fought Russians back in the day, yet apparently no one bothered to do the math. The Soviet Union was allied with the West against Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany was who fought against the Russians. Okay, it wasn’t the only one – there were others, like the Polish Home Army, which fought against both the Soviets and the Germans. So maybe Hunka was part of that? That’s the theoretical explanation the German Foreign Office offered when it emerged that the German ambassador to Canada was also present at the standing ovation in parliament. Yeah, that must have been it. A Ukrainian going to war to protect Ukraine from the Soviet Union by joining the Polish Home Army. Sounds plausible.
Oh, no, wait, he was actually in the Waffen SS, namely the First Galician Division – a unit that mostly consisted of Ukrainians and killed Poles and Jews. He joined it voluntarily and later described his decision in an essay published by an American online magazine. And now Poland wants him extradited for alleged war crimes.
Leaving aside convoluted historical revisionism, those who don’t acknowledge the nuance in this Nazi’s service are just feeding Russian propaganda, according to some Western commentators. “This history is complicated,” one wrote recently in POLITICO. “Because fighting against the USSR at the time didn’t necessarily make you a Nazi, just someone who had an excruciating choice over which of these two terror regimes to resist.”
It's pretty safe to say that someone who volunteered for the combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organization is an actual Nazi – unlike Canadian Freedom Convoy truckers and their supporters who were treated like Nazis by this same Canadian government, which went as far as to even block some of their bank accounts. Have Hunka and the actual Nazis who were welcomed to Canada in the wake of the war ever had their bank accounts blocked? Or is that just for people who honk too loudly in protest? Who’s more embarrassing to Canada: naturalized Nazis, truckers, or the parliament?
So apparently, we’re supposed to now believe that Waffen SS soldiers aren’t really Nazis, just anti-Soviet resistors. Are we supposed to also look deep into the heart and intentions of each individual who served voluntarily in the Nazi uniform to determine how they really felt about it? Who knows – perhaps Hunka didn’t really mean it when pledging loyalty to the Führer. Maybe he’s like an employee at Home Depot who can’t be held responsible for store policies – even though, in the case of Nazis, that didn’t fly either, as the Nuremberg Trials proved.
It takes some Olympic-grade mental gymnastics to suggest that neither Zelensky, who’s Ukrainian himself, nor Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who holds degrees in Russian and Slavic studies from Oxford and Harvard and whose grandfather edited a Ukrainian Nazi newspaper during WWII, couldn’t have known that this guy just might be a Nazi… but they whooped it up for him anyway. But now, their actions are on the verge of being reframed.
It's all such a backside-covering move to compensate for a total lack of due diligence – the same kind that was demonstrated when it emerged that Canada had knowingly trained and equipped Azov Battalion neo-Nazis for Ukraine’s current conflict with Russia while seemingly being bothered far more by the notion that the press risked finding out about it than by the idea of training guys with Nazi tattoos.
To accept historic reality, instead of trying hard to weasel Justin Trudeau and the Canadian establishment out of this embarrassment, is to let “Russian propaganda” win. Seriously. That’s the argument. “Canada’s enemies have thus latched on to these simple narratives, alongside concerned citizens in Canada itself, with the misstep over Hunka being used by Russia and its backers to attack Ukraine, Canada and each country’s association with the other,” wrote the POLITICO commentator. Know who else has “latched on” to the “I can’t believe they could be that dumb” narrative around this Canadian Nazipalooza? Honest people and patriots who are, in fact, less interested in peddling narratives that serve a handful of establishment elites and more interested in defending historical realities that serve all of humanity rather than reframing or perverting them to suit an ideological cause – anti-Russian or otherwise.
Trudeau said in the same breath as his apology for the Hunka incident that “it's going to be really important that all of us push back against Russian propaganda, Russian disinformation, and continue our steadfast and unequivocal support for Ukraine.” It seems that some have already jumped on the opportunity to redefine defense of well-established historical record as “Russian propaganda” and to impose the whims of Western leaders as the new dystopian reality.
Footage obtained by RT shows the moment when 17 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered to Russian forces in Donetsk. They decided to lay down their arms after they were ordered to hold their positions without any ammunition, RIA Novosti has reported.
The video, part of which was apparently filmed by a drone, shows the Ukrainian troops walking in single file toward Russian military personnel with their hands up. After being searched, they discarded their bulletproof vests and boarded a truck. The footage also shows several injured Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground
According to RIA Novosti, citing Russian security sources, the surrender took place in the vicinity of Donetsk. The media outlet claimed that the Ukrainians had run out of ammunition and had sustained several injuries. Despite this fact, they were reportedly ordered to remain in place, with their commanders refusing to evacuate them.
The media outlet reported that another group of Ukrainian soldiers surrendered in Donetsk late last month, handing over an ammunition crate to Russian troops.
Speaking at a plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “since June 4 alone, Ukrainian units have already lost over 90,000 people,” noting that this figure included both deaths and incapacitations.
Kiev has also lost 557 tanks and almost 1,900 armored vehicles over the same period, Putin added.
Ukraine launched its counteroffensive at the start of the summer with a series of largely unsuccessful advances along the frontline between Kherson and Donetsk. Kiev’s forces have since managed to make some modest gains but no major breakthrough is in sight.
Several senior Western officials have publicly acknowledged that the counteroffensive has not proceeded as they had hoped, with media reports claiming that the operation has been viewed as a failure in the US and Europe
