Oorlog in Oekra�ne #973

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Hopes grow of G7 deal to support Ukraine with $300bn in frozen Russian assets
Foreign ministers confident of agreement to use bank assets as security for Ukraine reconstruction loan

Hopes of a multi-country deal to use $300bn of Russian state assets frozen in the European banking system to support Ukraine have grown after it emerged that G7 ministers were confident of overcoming technical and political obstacles at a meeting in northern Italy on Saturday.

The Canadian finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, said she was optimistic that G7 leaders would reach an agreement, as support coalesced around a plan to use frozen Russian central bank assets as security for a $50bn (�39bn) loan.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations gathered in Stresa, Italy, have been in discussions to thrash out a plan to present to national leaders for final agreement at a summit in mid-June.

About $300bn (�235bn) belonging to the Russian central bank has been frozen in the west, largely in foreign currency, gold and government bonds. About 70% of this is held in the Belgian central securities depository Euroclear, which is holding the equivalent of �162bn.

The US is estimated to have $40bn-$60bn worth of Russian assets, and the UK closer to �25bn, but no official figure has been disclosed.

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Op zaterdag 25 mei 2024 18:46 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.theguardian.c(...)rozen-russian-assets
[..]

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Hopelijk komen zij snel tot een gunstige beslissing voor Oekra�ne. Hierbij maakt het niet zo veel uit in welke vorm dit zal gebeuren. Geld is geld tenslotte, en Oekra�ne kan alle hulp goed gebruiken.

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As Russian losses in Ukraine hit 500,000, Putin buries future demographic risks at home
Behind the figure lies a potential demographic and economic time bomb that Russian President Vladimir Putin may not be able to ignore so easily.

^{A man digs a grave near tombs of Russian soldiers at a cemetery in the town of Yefremov in the Tula region on March 23, 2023. (For illustrative purposes) (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)}

According to Ukraine's General Staff, over half a million Russian soldiers were either killed or wounded in Ukraine during the 27-month-long full-scale war.

The staggering number is in line with the estimates of the U.K. and France, which said earlier in May that the overall Russian losses are set to be around 500,000.

"We estimate Russian military losses at 500,000, including 150,000 deaths," French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on May 3.

Russia's aggression with little regard for the lives of its own soldiers is likely to continue, but behind the figure lies a potential demographic and economic time bomb that Russian President Vladimir Putin may not be able to ignore so easily.

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Polish foreign minister calls for long-term rearmament of Europe
Exclusive: Radoslaw Sikorski also says he favours deepest possible inclusion of UK in EU defence structures

A long-term rearmament of Europe, in which the UK can play the closest possible role, is necessary to defeat Russian imperial ambitions, Poland's foreign minister has said.

Radoslaw Sikorski also called for majority voting for EU sanctions and a 5,000-strong EU mechanised brigade, and said Poland was willing to back an EU-wide scheme to incentivise Ukrainian draft dodgers to return to their homeland.

In an interview with the Guardian, Sikorski said Poland backed the right of Ukraine to strike at military targets inside Russia, arguing that the west had to stop constantly limiting itself in what it does to support Ukraine. The US national security adviser Jake Sullivan has been holding out against Ukraine using US weapons on Russian territory.

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If Ukraine had nuclear weapons, would we be attacked?
The Russian breakthrough on Kharkiv ended in military casualties 1 in 8. One Ukrainian for eight Russians – Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The main thing from the interview with the President of Ukraine:

🔹 Under attack first, the Baltic countries are Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. In these countries, we can try to test NATO’s reaction to an invasion by Russia.

🔹 I asked Biden and the EU to impose sanctions against the Kremlin, Putin, his entourage, and Russia’s energy industry before the invasion, so he knows it will hurt. But no one heard us.

🔹 Regarding the alliance – military and strategic—with Russia, there is no way any of your countries can have a strategic alliance with Putin.

🔹 China has to protect Ukraine and promised independent Ukraine security in the Budapest Memorandum based on Ukraine giving up nuclear weapons.

🔹 If Ukraine had nuclear weapons, would Russia attack us? No. So why talk about the balance between our countries?

🔹 The peace summit will have three items out of 10: nuclear energy security, food security and an all-for-all swap with the return of Ukrainian children.

🔹 Russia has always wanted a divided world. And this is the only way Putin can get away from the political and economic isolation of his country.

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Op zaterdag 25 mei 2024 18:40 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.forbes.com/si(...)as-most-modern-tank/
[..]

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Daar hebben wij inderdaad al een aantal voorbeelden van gezien. Inclusief het filmpje die eerder vandaag gepost was. Een duur foutje dus, die de gehele tank zo goed als onbruikbaar maakt..

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Russia’s Foreign Ministry to prevent drafted citizens from renewing their passports abroad
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has published a draft law on the procedure for issuing passports, which will prohibit Russian consulates abroad from issuing documents to Russian citizens who have been sent digital draft notices.

According to the legislative proposal put forward by the Foreign Ministry, consular officials can decline to issue a new passport to any Russian citizen to anyone who has received a “summons from the military enlistment office”, noting that once a Russian citizen is sent draft papers, they are automatically banned from leaving the country.

While the Foreign Ministry plans to stop issuing foreign passports to Russian men called up to perform their one-year compulsory military service or its civil equivalent, it’s not clear whether the rule would apply to reservists who have been called up as part of mobilisation.

Russians abroad who have been drafted are to remain unable to renew their passports abroad “until the obligation to report to the military draft office has been met”, the Foreign Ministry document said.

Alexey Tabalov, founder of NGO Conscript School, which campaigns for an all professional Russian military, suggested in a conversation with Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit, that one way to get around the restrictions would simply be for Russians to deregister from the military enlistment office.

Lawyer Anastasia Burakova advised Russian men who could be subject to the proposed restrictions to apply for a 10-year passport before the draft legislation becomes law.

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Baltics, Poland, other countries agree to create 'drone wall'
A group of countries, including the Baltic states, Poland, Norway, and Finland, have agreed to create a "drone wall" to help defend their collective borders, Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said in an interview with the Lithuanian media outlet BNS published on May 24.

The announcement comes after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said earlier in May that Poland had signed a contract to join the European Sky Shield Initiative, which currently includes 21 countries. The initiative aims to create an Iron Dome-style air defense system covering NATO members across Europe.

As Lithuania was a founding member of the initiative, which was formed in October 2022, the suggested "drone wall" is a different proposal.

"This is a completely new thing—a drone border from Norway to Poland, the purpose of which would be to protect our border with the help of drones and other technologies," Bilotaite said.

"Not only physical infrastructure, surveillance systems, but also using drones and other technologies that would allow us to also protect ourselves from provocations by unfriendly countries, and prevent contraband."

The proposal would utilize both its own drones and anti-drone systems, Bilotaite said.

The plan is still in its formative stages, she said, and there is no concrete timeline when it will be implemented.

"It is clear that if we agree on common solutions, we could apply for European funds, if we present (the) need as a region, there is a high probability that we will receive funding from the European Commission," Bilotaite said.

Amid Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine and its widespread usage of drones and missiles to strike civilian targets, countries on NATO's eastern flank have sought to improve their air defense capabilities against potential Russian threats.

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Russia and China are trying to disrupt the Peace Summit in Switzerland
Clash of summits. Russia plans to hold a BRICS meeting around the same time that Switzerland planned a peace conference on Ukraine. Source: Politico

Read also: China provides Russia with intelligence information from satellites

According to diplomatic sources, the meeting in Moscow will be held at the level of foreign ministers.

This means China will not send its top envoy, Wang Yi, to the Swiss meeting.

Beijing has previously told EU diplomats that they are not inclined to send senior representatives to the Swiss event unless Russia is invited.

In addition to Russia and China, the alliance also includes Brazil, India, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia.

Let us recall that across Europe there is an active sabotage campaign organized by Russia as part of President Vladimir Putin’s growing efforts to undermine Western support for Ukraine. American and European officials have reported attempts to damage railroads, military bases and other facilities used to supply weapons to Ukraine.

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Hungary slows down EU arms initiative for Ukraine funded by frozen Russian assets – the FT
Hungary has blocked the European Union's approval of the allocation of proceeds from frozen Russian assets to purchase weapons for Ukraine.

Source: Financial Times, citing five people who attended a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Following months of debate, the EU countries agreed to use the proceeds from about �190 billion stuck in the Belgian central securities depository Euroclear to purchase weapons for Ukraine.

However, the Hungarian ambassador opposed the acceleration of payments, making it impossible to ensure that the principle of unanimity in making such decisions is respected.

"For the time being they are blocking everything connected to the military support to Ukraine," said one source, suggesting that Budapest's reservations will remain at least until next month's European elections.

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Putin's dream fails
After decoupling from the European gas market, Vladimir Putin wanted to sell his raw materials to Asia. But the plan did not work - and Gazprom is in a serious crisis. This has consequences for the Russian war chest.

"Dreams come true." That is the corporate slogan of the Russian gas giant Gazprom. You might not be able to call it a dream, but Russian President Vladimir Putin at least had a clear idea of ​​what would happen after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and a large part of the European states disconnected from the Russian gas market: While exploding gas prices in Europe were supposed to trigger revolts in the Kremlin's interests, Putin wanted to sell his gas to Asia and especially to China . In the end, the Europeans would beg him to get Russia to resume supplying raw materials.

This dream did not come true. Two years ago, former President and Putin confidant Dmitry Medvedev predicted an explosion in gas prices in Europe - they were expected to rise by about fifty times their pre-war average. For a short time, prices did indeed skyrocket. But now the price in Germany is currently 7.8 cents per kilowatt hour. That is as low as it was in October 2021, four months before Putin's invasion of Ukraine began.

While Europe can currently breathe a sigh of relief, at least on the gas front, and oil prices are also falling again, the former Russian flagship company Gazprom is hanging on the ropes. At the beginning of May, the state-owned company reported a net loss of 629 billion rubles (almost 6.4 billion euros) for 2023 - it is the highest net loss that Gazprom has recorded since 1999. The reason: The development of new markets is not going well, and cooperation with China is also stalling in many areas.

Putin has miscalculated, and alarm bells are ringing in the Kremlin. If he does not get the problem under control, the lack of profits from commodity trading could significantly affect the financing of his war starting next year.

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Op zaterdag 25 mei 2024 20:19 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)o_storm_across_open/
Russians training(seriously) to storm across open fields to trenches using "combat" motocross vehicles
Ik heb volgens mij nog geen succesvolle aanval gezien door Rusland op motors.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)of_the_30th_brigade/
Ukrainian 2nd battalion of the 30th brigade violently remove Russian MT-LB and its infantry from their land

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Op zaterdag 25 mei 2024 20:42 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Ik heb ze weleens succesvol naar een lege loopgraaf zien racen, om er vervolgens in te springen. Maar ik betwijfel hoe effectief 1 eenzame rus in een loopgraaf is.
[..]
Typisch weer he.

AT mijn -> AP mijn -> FPV drone -> bommenwerper drone

En het geheel is gefilmd met een observatie drone

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Op zaterdag 25 mei 2024 21:37 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]
Wat een kutmuziek.

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Op zaterdag 25 mei 2024 14:48 schreef Joppiez het volgende:

[..]
Mooi, nog eens 500k en dan begint dat volk hopelijk eens achter de oren te krabben dat het niet zo slim is, deze militaire operatie.

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Op zaterdag 25 mei 2024 21:37 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]
Wat een kutmuziek.

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Kuleba calls for more Patriots, support for striking military targets in Russia after 'barbaric' attack on Kharkiv

After a Russian attack killed at least four and injured at least 38, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Ukraine's partners to "provide Ukraine with additional air defense and support for Ukrainian strikes on military targets in Russia" in a post on X on May 25.

The missile strike earlier in the day hit a building materials hypermarket. In a post on Telegram, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said two Russian guided bombs had hit the hypermarket, causing a fire covering 15,000 square meters.

Mere hours later, a second strike on Kharkiv's city center injured at least 14 more.

Additional air defense, and the ability to shoot down Russia's military aircraft before they drop bombs is the only way to prevent such "barbaric war crimes against civilians," Kuleba wrote in his post.

U.S. officials have repeatedly said that they do not support or encourage Kyiv's strikes with American weapons deep inside Russia, while Ukrainian officials are reportedly trying to convince Washington to lift this ban.

According to the New York Times, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken began to support lifting the ban on striking targets in Russia after his visit to Kyiv earlier in May.

Zelensky also called for additional air defense systems from world leaders after the deadly strike.

Kyiv has ramped up its calls on allies to provide Ukraine with more air defenses, in particular, with U.S.-made Patriot systems that can intercept ballistic missiles.

Earlier in the week, Kuleba wrote on X, "We are very grateful to Germany for announcing one additional (Patriot) system. But getting six more as soon as possible remains critical not only for Ukraine’s survival but for peace in Europe."

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Ukrainian border guards destroy Russians' satellite communication facilities in Donetsk region
Ukrainian border guards from the Revenge Brigade have destroyed satellite communication facilities of the Russian military at the Vuhlehirska thermal power plant in the Donetsk region.
That's according to the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service, Ukrinform reports.

"The Phoenix unit of the Revenge Brigade blinded the occupiers by hitting the satellite communication facilities at the Vuhlehirska TPP with drones," the report reads.

Прикордонники знищили засоби зв’язку і БТ� противника

A BTR 82A armored personnel carrier, which the Russians camouflaged in a forest, was also destroyed.

Russia's overall combat losses in Ukraine between February 24, 2022 and May 25, 2024 have reached about 500,080.

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Lithuania deported a Russian citizen due to a threat to state security
Russian citizen Vladimir Vodo was deported from Lithuania. The Lithuanian Department of State Security reported that Vodo poses a threat to state security as he expresses disloyal views towards Lithuania and disseminates propaganda information on social networks in accordance with the Kremlin information policy. Source: LRT

Due to this, his residence permit in Lithuania was revoked and the Migration Department decided to deport him.

Vodo tried to appeal this decision, arguing that he is caring for his sick mother, has strong ties to Lithuania, speaks the Lithuanian language and has completely severed all ties with Russia, but the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania on May 15 made a final decision on Vodo’s deportation to Russia.

The Russian was detained in Vilnius on the eve of the deportation and spent the night at the Foreigners Registration Center in Pabrade. He was taken to the Kibartai border checkpoint and, after completing all the necessary formalities, was sent to Russia.

Representative of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service Giedrius Misutis noted that the process took place without incidents, problems or unplanned situations. Vodo has lived in Lithuania since 1989 and received his first permanent residence permit in 1993.

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Sudanese General Says Russia Seeks Red Sea Fuel Station In Swap For Weapons
A top Sudanese general, Yasser al-Atta, said on May 25 that Russia had asked for a fueling station on the Red Sea in exchange for weapons and ammunition, and that agreements with Russia would be signed soon. The two countries signed a naval base deal under former President Omar Al-Bashir, but army leaders later said that plan was under review and it never materialized. Russia has previously developed ties with the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, which is the army’s foe in a year-old war and which Western diplomats say has also had ties with Russia's Wagner private military group.

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Musk: SpaceX spending 'significant resources combating Russian jamming' of Starlink in Ukraine
After the New York Times reported that Russia has been increasingly disrupting Ukraine's Starlink service, Elon Musk said that SpaceX is spending "significant resources combating Russian jamming efforts," in a May 24 post on X.

Elon Musk's SpaceX company began providing the Starlink terminals to Ukraine shortly after the Russian full-scale invasion in February 2022. Last year, Ukraine said that approximately 42,000 terminals were in operation across the military, hospitals, businesses, and aid organizations.

Starlink, recognized for its superior security compared to cellular or radio signals, is deemed crucial for Ukrainian operations. The Pentagon reached an agreement last year with SpaceX to financially support access for the Ukrainian military.

According to the New York Times, Russians have caused widespread outages of Ukraine's Starlink use during its offensive near Kharkiv, disrupting soldiers' abilities to communicate, conduct intelligence, and carry out drone attacks.

The U.S. Pentagon is preventing the Russian military from using Starlink internet terminals operated on the battlefield in Ukraine, John Plumb, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy at the U.S. Department of Defense, said in an interview with Bloomberg on May 9, though he did not specify how.

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Kadyrov’s ‘attack dog’ Magomed Daudov appointed Chechnya’s new prime minister

The former speaker of the Chechen parliament Magomed Daudov has been appointed the new premier of Chechnya, Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov announced on Friday evening.

“I have introduced my dear brother Magomed Daudov to the post of chairman of the government of the Chechen Republic,” Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel, “Given his extensive experience and high professionalism, I am sure that deputies will fully support Magomed Khozhakhmedovich’s candidacy.”

While Kadyrov added that it was up to the regional parliament to approve Daudov for the post, he nevertheless congratulated him in advance.

Daudov, who is often referred to as Kadyrov’s “attack dog”, resigned as chairman of the Chechen parliament on 15 May, having held the position since 2015. Known for both his brutality, Daudov also enjoys a reputation for efficiency and has in the past been tasked by Kadyrov to lead the republic’s Covid response strategy as well as to organise the conscription of Chechen fighters to serve in Ukraine.

Earlier on Friday, Kadyrov announced that Chechnya’s former prime minister Muslim Khuchiev, who resigned unexpectedly on Tuesday, had been appointed an aide to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

“I am glad that Muslim Khuchiev’s experience and talent, which he has successfully applied in our republic, are in demand at the federal level,” Kadyrov said after announcing the appointment, adding: “The trust placed in him is a good incentive for even better work to be done for the benefit of our great state."

Since Kadyrov’s diagnosis with a terminal disease became public knowledge last month, changes to the republic’s government are being scrutinised even more closely than usual as various contenders position themselves to replace the long-serving autocrat.

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NATO summit to be held in The Hague in 2025
Next year’s NATO Summit will be held in The Hague from June 24 to June 26. The leaders of all 32 member states of the Atlantic alliance will gather at the World Forum, outgoing Foreign Affairs minister Hanke Bruins Slot announced on Friday.

The Summit will be held in the Netherlands for the first time. The three cities eliminated from the race to host the event include Rotterdam, Apeldoorn, and Maastricht. The minister said that The Hague has substantial experience hosting this type of large event. It was judged to have the best facilities and locations.

The meeting will ask a great deal of the residents in the city, Mayor Jan van Zanen acknowledged. The area surrounding the World Forum will be a “hermetically sealed international zone,” he said. He promised the city’s residents that he would promptly inform them of the necessary measures.

A total of 45 government and state leaders will be present, as well as leaders of countries working closely with NATO, like Australia and New Zealand. The president of Ukraine is also scheduled to appear. Around 6,000 delegations and 2,000 journalists are expected to attend the summit.

Organizing the Summit will cost at least 95 million euros. The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) held in the city in 2014 cost around 50 million euros. This Summit will cost much more because more safety measures are needed, many more delegations are present, and because of inflation over the past decade.

This year, the Summit will be held at the beginning of July in Washington D.C. in the United States, when NATO turns 75 years old. It is possible that the decision of whether Mark Rutte will be the new NATO secretary-general will be announced by then.

Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania are still resisting his appointment. Romania has its own candidate for the position.

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Large number of Russian experts enter N. Korea to help spy satellite launch efforts: source
SEOUL, May 26 (Yonhap) -- A large number of Russian experts have entered North Korea to support its spy satellite launch efforts, and Pyongyang has staged more engine tests than expected to likely meet their "high" standards, a senior South Korean defense official said Sunday.

Speculation has persisted over the timing of the North's highly anticipated launch as it vowed last December to place three more military spy satellites in orbit this year, a month after successfully launching its first one.

On Friday, South Korea's military said it had detected apparent signs of preparations for a new launch after previously stating that there were no indications of an imminent one.

"North Korea has very carefully conducted (rocket) engine tests much more than expected," the official told Yonhap News Agency. "Looking at North Korea's activities last year, it should have already staged a (launch)."

The November launch of the Malligyong-1 satellite took place after two failed attempts in May and August, respectively.

The official said many Russian technicians have entered North Korea after Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to support the North's satellite program last year, and they likely have "high" standards, prompting the delay.

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quote:

Russia launches overnight attacks across Ukraine

[img]An apartment building damaged by Russian drones on May 26, 2024, in Vinnytsia Oblast. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine / Telegram) [/img]
Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.

Russian forces launched a large-scale aerial attack against Ukraine the night of May 26, causing explosions in multiple regions and injuring at least three people.

The Air Force announced an aerial alert throughout the country, including the far-western oblasts, in the early hours of May 26, citing the threat of Russian missiles, drones, Tu-95MS bombers, and later, Kinzhal ballistic missiles.

Russian forces attacked Vinnytsia Oblast in the early hours of May 25, hitting residential buildings and injuring three people, Governor Serhii Borzov reported.

The attack struck an apartment building, Borzov reported at 4:23 a.m. local time. Three people were injured and residents were evacuated from the building. The State Emergency Service said the attack targeted the town of Zhmerynka, and that several buildings sustained damage.

In Mykolaiv Oblast, Governor Vitalii Kim reported that Russian drones damaged the windows of a preschool building. He also said air defense units destroyed three drones over the region.

Explosions were heard in Khmelnytskyi Oblast at around 3:30 a.m. local time, according to a correspondent from the news outlet Suspilne. Shortly thereafter, explosions were reported in Zhytomyr and Kyiv oblasts.

Residents of Starokostiantyniv in Khmelnytskyi Oblast also reported power outages, according to Suspilne.

Poland announced that it had scrambled military jets in order to ensure the safety of Polish airspace amid Russia's attack against Ukraine.

The Air Force reported the morning of May 26 that over the course of the night, Ukrainian air defense units intercepted 31 Shahed drones and 12 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles over Mykolaiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Vinnytsia and Chernihiv oblasts.

Russia's massive aerial assault follows the deadly bombing of a busy shopping center in Kharkiv in the middle of the day on May 25. The attack killed at least 12 people and injured 43. Hours later, a second Russian attack injured 25 people.

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Op zondag 26 mei 2024 00:15 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Ok, maar beeld je eensch het volgende in: je bent net in je museum stuk op een AT mijn gereden, daarna zijn je beentjes eraf geblazen door een AP mijn, je hoort het gezoem van meedere drones. En dan hoor je ook nog eens deze muziek,

Hoe kut is dat dan?

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Op zondag 26 mei 2024 12:39 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Jezus...

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Op zondag 26 mei 2024 15:52 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]


[ afbeelding ]


De IKEA zal er ook wel aangaan.

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Russia Plans New Offensive in Ukraine’s Northeast, Zelensky Says

Moscow is again amassing forces near the border, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. His comments came as officials said that a Russian strike had killed at least 14 people in Kharkiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Sunday that Moscow’s forces were massing for a new ground offensive on the northeast of his country, a day after a Russian missile strike on a hardware superstore in the city of Kharkiv killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more, according to Ukrainian officials.

“Russia is the only source of aggression and constantly tries to expand the war,” Mr. Zelensky said in a speech delivered in Englishinside the ruins of a publishing house in Kharkiv that was destroyed last week in a Russian strike.

“Russia is preparing for offensive actions” around 60 miles northwest of Kharkiv, he said, adding that Moscow is gathering “another group of troops near our border.” Mr. Zelensky gave no further details about the potential attack.

Moscow surprised Ukraine on May 10 when its troops poured across the northeastern border, punching through Ukrainian defenses and seizing villages close to the frontier. That forced the government in Kyiv to rush in reinforcements in a bid to halt the Russian advance.

One target for an assault, based on Mr. Zelensky’s comments, could be the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine, which has seen frequent cross-border fire but no ground attacks since Russian forces attempted to seize its main city, also called Sumy, at the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. They were later forced to withdraw after fierce fighting. Ukraine’s military has previously warned of another Russian border assault in the northeast.

The May incursion was the most significant in months of fighting, and military experts say that a key Russian objective was to expand the length of the battlefield, which already stretches hundreds of miles, and in that way force Ukraine to spread its troops more thinly. In doing so, Moscow apparently hoped to extend its existing advantage in terms of the size of its military, the experts say.

The war has ebbed and flowed since President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia launched the invasion, with Ukrainian forces now defending against Russian advances in the eastern region of Donetsk, in the northeast and in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

One immediate casualty has been Kharkiv, which has seen a sharp escalation in the ferocity of Russian aerial attacks this month, forcing many to flee. On Sunday, the death toll from the attack on the hardware superstore rose to 14, with another 43 people wounded, according to a social media post from Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the region’s military administration.

Fire fighters extinguished the flames at the superstore, the local authorities said, and 200 emergency workers were dealing with the aftermath of the attack, according to Mr. Syniehubov.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said the strike had been conducted to ensure maximum civilian casualties. “He can’t occupy Kharkiv, hence he tries to kill it,” Mr. Kuleba wrote on social media, referring to Mr. Putin.

The Telegram social media channel of the Russian Defense Ministry has made extensive comments about fighting in recent days but made no comment about the Kharkiv strike or about others reported by Ukrainian officials, in keeping with its general practice.

Mr. Kuleba called on Ukraine’s allies in NATO to supply his country with more Patriot missiles and other systems that can defend against missile strikes.

A multibillion-dollar military aid package was stalled for months in the U.S. Congress, leaving Ukraine short of ammunition and increasingly exposed to Russian missile and drone attacks. The package finally passed last month, but much of the hardware has yet to reach Ukraine.

In a sign of Kharkiv’s vulnerability, Mr. Syniehubov reported on a second strike on Saturday, which he said hit civilian commercial infrastructure in the center of the city just hours after the attack on the superstore. At least 25 people were wounded, including a 14-year-old boy who was hospitalized, according to the regional prosecutor’s office. There was no comment from the Russian authorities.

Russia also conducted attacks beyond the usual recent battlegrounds. Gov. Vitaliy Kim, head of the military administration in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine, said that exploding drones had damaged a preschool building there, while the Ukrainian public broadcasting company Suspilne reported explosions in ​Khmelnytskyi, a central region.

In his speech from Kharkiv, Mr. Zelensky appealed to President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China to attend a peace summit on Ukraine in Switzerland next month. Kyiv has attempted to rally global support for a framework that would involve the complete withdrawal of Russian forces from all of Ukraine’s territory and an end to attacks on Ukrainian soil.

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Russia is producing artillery shells around three times faster than Ukraine's Western allies and for about a quarter of the cost

Sky News visited a group of new recruits who were learning how to use an N-LAW anti-tank missile, first provided to the Ukrainian military by the UK.

Russia is producing artillery shells around three times faster than Ukraine's Western allies and for about a quarter of the cost, according to an analysis shared with Sky News.

The figures, produced by the management consulting firm Bain & Company, underline a major challenge faced by the Ukrainian armed forces as they rely on supplies of ammunition from the United States and Europe to battle Russia's full-scale invasion.

The war has been described from the start as a "battle of fires" because of the volume of artillery rounds used.

It prompted the US, the UK and other European allies to seek to ramp up production in their respective factories, but their ability to manufacture artillery rounds still lags behind Russia's despite a combined economic strength that far outmatches Moscow's.

As a result, Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline say for every one round they fire against Russian positions, the invading troops can launch around five shells back.

Battling against the odds, the Ukrainians say they have become skilled at trying to make every round count.

"Often, with just one, two or three shells, we can completely destroy a target," said Senior Lieutenant Kostiantin, an artillery battery commander with the 57th Brigade, which is fighting against a new Russian invasion into the Kharkiv region, in the northeast of Ukraine.

But the commander said Ukrainian troops still need more supplies.

"We have to keep holding the Russians back… and make every metre of land they try to take cost them hundreds of lives."

Shortages force defenders to pretend in training

The research on artillery rounds by Bain & Company, which drew on publicly available information, found that Russian factories were forecast to manufacture or refurbish about 4.5 million artillery shells this year compared with a combined production of about 1.3 million rounds across European nations and the US.

On cost, it said the average production cost per 155 mm shell - the type produced by NATO countries - was about $4,000 (�3,160) per unit, though it varied significantly between countries. This is compared with a reported Russian production cost of around $1,000 (�790) per 152 mm shell that the Russian armed forces use.

Artillery is only one of many munition shortfalls faced by Ukraine.

Sky News visited a group of new recruits in the east of the country who were learning how to use an N-LAW anti-tank missile, first provided to the Ukrainian military by the UK.

They said a shortage of supplies means they just pretend to fire the weapon in training and would only use it for real when in battle - and only then when there are any stocks.

"We have a lack of N-LAWs and we need more," said a soldier with the callsign "Bolt", who was giving the training to the new soldiers in a reconnaissance battalion of 5th Brigade.

Asked whether he had a message for the factory workers in the UK who assembled the weapon, Bolt said: "We'd like to thank our Western partners for their help. But, if possible, we would be very grateful if they could provide more NATO munitions."

Factories could win the war on frontlines

The importance of producing weapons and ammunition is why many experts say factory production lines - rather than the frontline - could be where the war in Ukraine is won.

Sky News visited a factory in Belfast in April where the N-LAW missile is assembled by Thales, a global defence company. The weapon is designed by the Swedish firm Saab.

The assembly takes place inside a large hall containing a mixture of machines grinding metal and desks where delicate work takes place on tiny but vital components.

Working hours on the production line at the time were only four days a week from 7am until 4pm, though they were believed to be increasing.

Thales manufactures its own weapons here as well, including Starstreak, a short-range, surface-to-air missile that can take out aircraft, and the Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM). Both of these systems are also used in Ukraine.

The key to ramping up production in UK

Philip McBride, the managing director of Thales Belfast, said N-LAW production capacity had doubled since the start of the year and there was scope to double it again.

Asked why the expansion only began then, when Russia's full-scale war erupted in February 2022, he explained it was because of a number of factors.

Firstly, the UK Ministry of Defence supplies Ukraine with N-LAWs, rather than Thales directly. The missiles initially given to the Ukrainian military were those that the British armed forces already had in their own stockpiles.

"They've granted that and then they go through their own procurement process, agree what their actual requirement is in the UK… and once they've decided that, then they'll place orders allowing us to ramp up," Mr McBride said.

Another factor is that it can take up to two years to source the parts that are required for the N-LAW.

However, asked if production at the factory would have been expanded sooner had the Ministry of Defence put in orders earlier, the managing director said: "The earlier an order comes, the sooner we can ramp up production."

A lot of work is going on at the plant to modernise the equipment and enable a further expansion of production lines.

The number of employees has also grown, with around 900 people now working at the site and at a second facility in Belfast, compared with just 500 a few years ago.