In separate comments published Sunday, Stoltenberg and Johnson also reiterated that Western governments must continue to support Ukraine to deter future aggression by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Stoltenberg told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that nobody knew how long the conflict would last but “we need to prepare for the fact that it could take years.”

“We must not cease to support Ukraine. Even if the costs are high, not only for military support but also because of rising energy and food prices.”

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Boris Johnson, writing in the Sunday Times after his second visit to Kyiv on Friday, said Western allies must “steel ourselves for a long war, as Putin resorts to a campaign of attrition, trying to grind down Ukraine by sheer brutality.”

Johnson said that seizing all of Ukraine’s Donbas, which covers much of eastern Ukraine, had been Putin’s objective for the last eight years “when he ignited a separatist rebellion and launched his first invasion.”

While Russia was still short of this goal, “Putin may not realise it but his grand imperial design for the total reconquest of Ukraine has been derailed. In his isolation, he may still think total conquest is possible.”

Both men stressed the need to avert future Russian aggression.

Stoltenberg said: “If Putin learns the lesson from this war that he can just carry on as he did after the Georgia war in 2008 and the occupation of Crimea in 2014, then we will pay a much higher price.”

Johnson asked what would happen if President Putin was free to keep all the areas of Ukraine now controlled by Russian forces. “What if no one was willing to lift a finger as he annexed this conquered territory and its fearful people into a greater Russia? Would this bring peace?”

Source – cnn.com

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The officials identified the commander as Colonel Medvechek of the 37^th Motor Rifle Brigade, adding that the incident illustrated the “morale challenges Russian forces are facing.”

Nato officials reportedly estimate that as many as 15,000 Russian troops may have been killed since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine a month ago. Nato is also reported to estimate that in total 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, injured, captured or gone missing.

The Western officials said they believed Col Medvechek was “killed by his own troops deliberately”…as a “consequence of the scale of losses that had been taken by his brigade”. They added: “Indeed we believe he was run over by his own troops.

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“When we think about the operations it’s important we don’t just count weapons systems and tanks but we think about the moral and conceptual elements of fighting power.”

They added it was their understanding that the commander had been run over by a tank.

However, there were reports on Friday night that the commander had survived and had been taken to hospital in Belarus for treatment.

Earlier on Friday further, details emerged of a seventh Russian General believed to be killed in action.

Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev, 48, was killed in a strike by the Ukrainian armed forces, they say. He was Commander of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District.

The Russian side has not so far confirmed the death but Western officials said on Friday they believed Lt Gen Rezantsev had been killed.

With Russia’s forces now throwing their “maximum” effort into the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, the Western officials estimated around 20 of the 120-150 Russian battalion groups which were available at the start of the assault, were no longer “combat effective”.

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I didn’t really see her face, but at her feet were several cooing pigeons. Every now and again, a shower of birdseed would tumble from her hand. She was wearing a heavy-looking grey coat, keeping out the late morning winter chill. I motioned to my colleague, cameraman David McIlveen, to try to take her picture – but she sensed he was approaching, emptied the brown paper bag of birdseed and briskly walked away.

It was the first time in 48 hours that I had left our lodgings – a basement car park in the heart of Kyiv which had become a makeshift bomb shelter. A weekend-long curfew had been imposed after Russian troops had invaded the country. There were a real fear foreign saboteurs were moving among the population and anyone caught outdoors would have been arrested.

You could see the nervousness on the faces of the Ukraine soldiers and partisans manning checkpoints, despite the black balaclavas shielding them from the cold. Their eyes told stories of apprehension, concern, worry and existential threat. Russian spies might be plotting routes for incoming troops, or smuggling weapons into the Ukrainian capital, or simply there to somehow sow seeds of discord among ordinary people to break local unity.

The city was awash with rumour and dread. Who might that be in the bomb shelter next to you, who is listening in to your conversation in the bread queue? Best stay indoors and observe the curfew.

Ukraine: Russia says it may cut gas supplies if oil ban goes ahead

The Ukraine woman feeding the pigeons would have spent the past two days in her own basement as well, and I thought it was interesting that one of the first things she did was to feed the pigeons – as if nothing was awry. An ordinary day out, a bit of fresh air, with no threat of death from above.

Prepared to die

A few other people were on the streets, queuing outside a supermarket that had little on its shelves. Most people were shuttered at home. Villages, towns and cities across the land saw a vanishing, as citizens descended underground to subterranean worlds of refuge.

Vladimir Putin professes to know what the 40 million-plus population of this land want. A few days among these people would have told him much more than he seems to understand.

Source – https://www.bbc.co.uk/

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Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said a “rejection of Russian oil would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market”, causing prices to more than double to $300 a barrel.

The US has been exploring a potential ban with allies as a way of punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

But Germany and the Netherlands rejected the plan on Monday.

The EU gets about 40% of its gas and 30% of its oil from Russia and has no easy substitutes if supplies are disrupted.

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While the UK would not be directly impacted by supply disruption, as it imports less than 5% of its gas from Russia, it would be affected by prices rising in the global markets as demand in Europe increases.

Iain Conn, the former boss of British Gas owner Centrica, said natural gas was “less freely” traded compared to oil, and it would be “much more difficult” to replace Russian gas if supplies are affected as it is transported through fixed pipelines from country to country.

The price of Brent crude – the global benchmark for oil prices – rose to around $130 a barrel on Tuesday following reports that the US and UK will announce their own ban on Russian oil imports.

In an address on Russian state television, Mr Novak said it would be “impossible to quickly find a replacement for Russian oil on the European market”.

“It will take years, and it will still be much more expensive for European consumers. Ultimately, they will be hurt the worst by this outcome,” he said.

Pointing to Germany’s decision last month to freeze certification of Nord Stream 2, a new gas pipeline connecting the two countries, he added that an oil embargo could prompt retaliation.

“We have every right to take a matching decision and impose an embargo on gas pumping through the [existing] Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline,” he said.

Source – https://www.bbc.co.uk/

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Democrats have accused Trump of temporarily delaying $391 million in aid in order to leverage Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into helping the probe. Mulvaney seemed to indicate that the two were connected, but now he claims it was a misunderstanding.

“That’s what people are saying that I said, but I didn’t say that,” Mulvaney claimed on “Fox News Sunday,” insisting that his words were taken the wrong way. Mulvaney acknowledged that President Trump had mentioned concern regarding Ukraine and the Democratic National Committee’s hacked server, “but it wasn’t connected to the aid.”

The confusion over whether or not Mulvaney had admitted to a quid pro quo stemmed from an exchange with ABC News reporter Jon Karl. Karl asked if the investigation of Ukraine’s possible ties to Democrats during the 2016 election was connected to the withholding of the money, stating that this would be a quid pro quo.

“We do that all the time with foreign policy,” Mulvaney said. He later issued a statement saying that “there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election.”

The investigation request was part of a phone call between the two world leaders, but both Trump and Zelensky have insisted there was no pressure involved. The call was the basis for an anonymous whistleblower complaint that has become the basis for an impeachment investigation that has included several closed-door interviews with officials related to U.S.-Ukraine relations. The complaint also alleged that Trump wanted Ukraine to help Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s business dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.

Sunday morning, Mulvaney claimed that the best proof that there was no quid pro quo is the fact that the Trump administration ended up turning over the money.

Source – https://www.foxnews.com/politics

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