Chernihiv, situated in northern Ukraine, lies approximately 50km (31 miles) from the Belarusian border.
Serving as the administrative hub of the broader Chernihiv region, the city endured a harrowing two-month-long siege by Russian forces in the initial phases of the conflict.
After Russia’s unsuccessful bid to capture Kyiv, positioned 125km northeast of Chernihiv, the Russian military withdrew from the city.
With the departure of Moscow’s troops, concerns arose regarding whether the Russian assaults on civilian sites within the city qualified as war crimes. Russia has consistently refuted such allegations.
Wednesday morning saw the second consecutive night that Russia attacked the southern port city of Odesa.
According to a representative of the Ukrainian military administration in Odesa, Ukraine’s air defences were thwarting a Russian attack.
A CNN crew in Odesa saw a consistent barrage coming from the air defence in the general area of the port. At least three loud fringe were also heard by the team.
Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa region’s military administration, urged people not to come close to windows.
Russian forces launched airstrikes on Odesa on Tuesday in retaliation for Kyiv’s attack Monday on the strategic and symbolic Crimean bridge linking the annexed peninsula to the Russian mainland.
Ukraine is launching a significant attack in the south and east by capitalising on the anarchy that has engulfed Vladimir Putin‘s government.
According to reports, Kiev generals were considering how they could gain an advantage on the front lines as the Wagner Group’s mercenaries marched towards Moscow.
In Ukraine, where there is ferocious fighting going on apart from the revolt, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar wrote earlier today that “progress is being made in all directions.”
She claimed that the army had initiated an operation in a number of eastern sites, including Bakhmut, Yagidne, Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bohdanivka, Klishchiivka, and Kurdyumivka, despite earlier cautions not to divulge Ukraine’s military preparations.
This is where Russian forces and allied Wagner soldiers had made major advances in recent months.
Ms Maliar also added: ‘The enemy tried to advance in the Kupyansk, Lymansk, and Marinsk directions, but they failed to advance.
‘They launched airstrikes and artillery fire in the Avdiyiv and Shakhtar directions.’
Russian forces said they had repelled multiple attacks in four areas in the east of the country.
In the south, Ms Maliar confirmed that heavy fighting continues in all directions of the offensive.
‘The enemy is on the defensive, making great effort to stop our offensive actions,’ she added.
‘At the same time, the enemy is suffering significant losses in personnel, weapons and equipment.’
The UK Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian soldiers have been undertaking major offensive operations on three main axes in the south and east.
An update on Twitter this morning read: ‘Forces are using the experiences from the first two weeks of the counter-offensive to refine tactics for assaulting the deep, well prepared Russian defences.
‘Ukrainian units are making gradual but steady tactical progress in key areas.
‘In Luhansk Oblast, Russian forces have made their own significant effort to launch an attack in the Serebryanka Forest near Kremina.’
The MoD said Russia has made some small gains, but added that Ukrainian forces have prevented a breakthrough.
Russia has been added to the UN’s yearly list of nations that have been deemed to have violated children’s human rights.
It emphasised the murder and dismemberment of children committed by both Russian forces and mercenaries following on Moscow’s instructions, including the notorious Wagner Group.
The UN has confirmed 480 strikes on schools and hospitals and 136 child deaths by Russian forces in 2022 alone, along with 518 injuries.
Ukraine says 484 have died as a direct result of the invasion over the 16 months since it began.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: ‘I am particularly shocked by the high number of attacks against schools, hospitals and protected personnel, and by the large number of deaths and maimings of children attributed to Russian forces and affiliated armed groups.’
Mr Guterres said he is also concerned by the number of human rights violations against children by Ukrainian forces.
According his report to the Security Council, Ukrainian soldiers are responsible for the deaths of 80 children and injuries to 175 others, many occurring in an estimated 212 strikes on schools and hospitals.
Turning back to Russia, he reiterated ‘concerns’ about the Putin regime’s forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, which has been branded a war crime by the UN.
Upwards of 16,000 youngsters were estimated to have been taken as of March this year after their towns were conquered.
Of those, 10,513 have been located, according to Ukrainian officials, but only around 300 have been returned.
Victims freed from their captors described how soldiers told them their parents had abandoned them, and beat them with iron rods if they voiced support for Ukraine.
Speaking earlier this year, the mother of one liberated boy said her son was refusing to open up about the experience and told her: ‘Mum, I don’t want to tell you about it, you wouldn’t sleep at night.’
Other parents have claimed Russian civilians – sometimes their own relatives – are taking part in the kidnappings by allowing kids to be rehomed with them.
Russian social services are reportedly paying out cash and moving people into better-quality homes in exchange for fostering Ukrainian children.
The UN says Russia’s policy has created ‘a framework in which some of the children may end up remaining permanently’.
Globally, the UN verified grave violations against 13,469 children over 2022, including 2,985 who were killed, in 24 countries and one region.
Some of the worst upsurges were found in Myanmar and South Sudan, where violations rose 140% and 135% respectively.
His colleagues have confirmed that a British guy was hurt while attempting to rescue animals in southern Ukraine.
John Carl, an Odessa Cat Crew volunteer, drove to Kherson to help organisations rescue thousands of animals from the devastation floods caused by the explosion of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
Teams from UAnimals have spent more than a week exploring remote places on motorboats in order to rescue pets and wild animals from rooftops and drowned homes.
John was on one of these boats when Russian forces shelled it on Wednesday night, UAnimals said in a post on Instagram.
‘On the evening of June 14, Russians shelled the UAnimals boat,’ it read.
‘At that moment, there was a volunteer from the charitable foundation Kyiv Tails and foreign volunteers from the organization Odessa Cat Crew on board.
‘The girl, Oksana, sustained a minor leg injury, while British volunteer, John Carl, was injured and taken to the hospital.
‘Russians are deliberately destroying all living beings in Ukraine.’
UAnimals, which has been working to shelter and rehabilitate animals during the war, added his condition is now stable and that he is conscious.
Separately, Odessa Cat Crew said John had been operated on in Kherson and that he is currently recovering from his injuries.
For more than a week, volunteers just like John and Oksana have been escaping Russian missiles and bullets to help stranded residents and animals in the region.
The region’s Ukrainian-appointed governor, Oleksander Prokudin said on Sunday the enemy was ‘deliberately trying to disrupt rescue efforts’.
‘Today, terrorists opened fire on three boats that were used to rescue 21 people from the flooded bank,’ he said on Ukrainian television.
‘Almost all of them were elderly and people with limited mobility. Russian soldiers fired at these people in the back.’
He said three people were killed and 10 injured, including two law enforcement officers, during the evacuation.
After the dam in Nova Kakhovka was blown up, entire neighborhoods of Kherson were left underwater, only further underscoring the horrors of the invasion.
The city was liberated by Ukrainian troops in early November, but since then has been regularly shelled by Russian forces from the east side of the Dnipro River.
Metro.co.uk caught up with Oleksandr Todorchuk, an ex-journalist who foundedUAnimals, hours after the dam explosion.
By the time his teams had arrived in Nova Kakhovka, the water levels had raced up by metres.
Videos shared online show them wading through waist-deep water to rescue pets and livestock left behind.
At the time, Oleksandr said: ‘We are doing our best to save the animals, but more will die than we can save.
‘When people are evacuating, they have no time or ability to take the animals, or even unlock rooms where they are sleeping, so this creates a huge problem.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for a comment.
In horrifying video, it appears like Russian forces are beheading other soldiers who are attempting to flee the battlefield.
At least seven combatants can be seen sprinting across an open stretch of ground towards a forest in a video shot by a Ukrainian drone.
When three armed guys wearing the same outfit emerge from the trees, some of them let go of their helmets.
According to the Kyiv Post, these troops are most likely a part of a “barrier unit with the mission of preventing soldiers from fleeing from battle and using lethal force if necessary.”
This alleged unit pushes two of the fleeing troops back and then fires warning shots into the air.
Several soldiers drop to the ground before trying to crawl away but their own comrades seemingly open fire on them while they are on the floor.
Once all seven figures have stopped moving, the three men appear to go from body to body, presumably checking each one is dead.
Two men at the front of the fleeing group are seemingly pushed down to the ground (Picture: Telegram)The ‘barrier unit’ seems to open fire on their comrades trying to crawl away (Picture: Telegram)
The 14-second video was first posted by Telegram channel Look for Your Own – a project set up with the backing of Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs to help the relatives of captured Russian soldiers identify them.
The Ukrainian Independent Information Agency, a local news agency, said on Monday it had confirmed the authenticity of the video.
Last November, the British Ministry of Defence said the Kremlin has ‘probably’ started using ‘barrier troops’ to block people from leaving the frontline.
This tactic was deployed by the Red Army and regularly used by Joseph Stalin during the Second World War.
A political adviser on post-Soviet and international politics, Jason Jay Smart, told Newsweek: ‘Russians shooting their own troops has a long tradition in Russian military history, and it has been commonplace throughout this war.’
Vladimir Putin’s troops are currently facing a Ukrainian counter-offensive, which has seen one of the Kremlin’s top generals killed.
Major-general Sergey Goryachev, 52, died during fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region, making him one of 11 generals to be officially classed as casualties in the war.
Just this morning, Russia suffered a major explosion at a key oil refinery inside its own borders in the city of Krasnodar.
Footage shows the diesel processing facility in flames, with thick noxious black smoke coming from it.
Krasnodar is a key link in Putin’s war effort and a hub for supplying occupied Crimea.
Putin’s £1 billion clifftop palace, which boasts an underground bunker, pole-dancing boudoir, and vineyard, is less than 80 miles away from the blast.
The suspected drone attack was reported by local Kuban News, which said more than 130 firefighters were called to the scene.
Yesterday, Ukraine claimed it had retaken three villages in what it dubbed its first victories since the counter-offensive began.
Moscow is yet to confirm the fall of any of the villages, instead speaking of repelling Ukrainian assaults in the region.
In Belgorod, a province in southwestern Russia, Moscow claimed it was engaged in combat with a gang of saboteurs. However, a group of anti-Putin Russian citizens who support the Ukrainian army has taken credit for the attack.
According to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, there were no casualties, but shelling in the vicinity caused damage to an administrative building, several residential buildings, and a kindergarten.
Groups identifying themselves as the “Freedom of Russia Legion” and “Russian Volunteer Corps” claimed in a Telegram post that they had “liberated” a community in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine.
A Ukrainian official acknowledged that the units had carried out an operation in the area but insisted they were acting independently.
“We can confirm that this operation was carried out by Russian citizens,” Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency, told CNN.
He said the units were “part of defense and security forces” when they were in Ukraine, but were independent from Kyiv when they were not: “In Russia they are acting as independent entities.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin’s forces were working to push out a “sabotage and reconnaissance group,” according to state media TASS.
The situation in Belgorod marks “the first time” that Ukrainian-aligned forces have launched “a cross-border land operation against Russian targets,” according to CNN’s Sam Kiley.
“This is on a significant scale, and clearly intended to cause considerable consternation among the local authorities at the very least, if not at the level of the Kremlin,” Kiley told CNN’s Lynda Kinkade on Connect the World.
At least eight people had been injured in the attacks, but there were no deaths among civilians in Belgorod, according to Gladkov, the regional governor.
“The situation remains extremely tense. A sabotage and reconnaissance group, the Ministry of Defense and all law enforcement agencies have entered the territory to carry out combat missions to protect our country,” Gladkov said in a live-streamed address on Monday.
Gladkov said that the Belgorod government is “completing a house tour of the border villages” and in the town of Graivoron to ensure the safety of the local population.
He added that “most of the population left the territory” with personal transportation and the local government is providing assistance for those who do not have the opportunity to leave on their own.
He also noted that the head of the district Gennady Ivanovich Bondarev, is working with the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the police to evacuate people.
He said earlier that Russian troops, the border service, the National Guard and the FSB “are taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy.”
Air defenses struck down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the region, Gladkov said, adding that there were no victims and Russian authorities are looking into any potential damage on the ground.
Aleksey Baranovsky, a representative of the Kyiv-based Russian Armed Opposition Political Centre – the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion – told CNN that the operation had started Sunday night and fighting was “ongoing.”
He would not specify the number of fighters who had crossed the border into Russia.
Baranovsky said the group wanted to “liberate our motherland from the tyranny of Putin.”
In a Telegram post, the groups said they had “fully liberated the settlement of Kozinka of Belgorod region. [The] first groups have entered Grayvoron.”
In a separate incident Monday evening, the Freedom of Russia Legion posted a video on Telegram that appears to show the blue and white so-called flag of free Russia flying over Moscow State University.
Other videos posted by the group also appear to show another Russian opposition flag flying over various areas of the Russian capital.
The group did not claim direct responsibility for the incidents and CNN could not independently verify the reports.
The Freedom of Russia Legion numbers a few hundred of diehard, battle-hardened Russian volunteers fighting their own people as part of theUkrainian armed forces.
Caesar is a member of the group. He is a former teacher, a father and has a wife living in Kyiv. He told CNN last year that he had dedicated his life to toppling Russian President Vladimir Putin and marching into Red Square and the Kremlin itself.
He is a devoted member of the Orthodox Church and is nostalgic for the Tsarist era that predated the Soviet Union. His unit is well-equipped with modern armored vehicles, gunsights and the latest automatic weapons.
The Legionnaires themselves have admitted that they’re often treated with suspicion by Ukrainian soldiers but hope to win them over with gallantry on the battlefield.
Their apparent incursion along a border that is frequently used by Russian mortar teams and artillery as a firebase for attacks inside Ukraine will help further cement their reputation.
It also serves as part of ongoing psychological operations intended to undermine support for the war in Russia and the fighting spirit of Russian soldiers themselves – signaling that they could be attacked at any time and even by their own countrymen.
Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, said: “Russian forces are working to push out the Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group from the territory of the Russian Federation and destroy it. There are enough forces and means,” he told reporters.
He made reference to Bakhmut, which has garnered an outsized importance in the conflict as Russian forces battle to capture the eastern Ukrainian city while failing to make gains elsewhere.
As part of a persistent onslaught that occurred as Ukraine was preparing its soldiers for an anticipated spring counteroffensive, a Russian missile struck a museum building in a Ukrainian city on Tuesday, killing one of its employees and injuring 10 others.
According to Ukrainian officials, the local history museum in Kupiansk, which is in the Kharkiv region, was struck by S-300 air defense missiles fired by the Russian military during the raid.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, shared a video from the scene showing the demolished structure and emergency personnel assessing the damage.
“The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely,” Zelenskyy said. “Our history, our culture, our people. Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods.”
Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said that three people were hospitalized, seven received minor injuries and two others were still believed to be under the debris. Emergency responders were working to recover them.
Kupiansk was captured by Russian forces in the earlier stages of the Russian invasion and was reclaimed by Ukrainian forces in a surprise counteroffensive in September that saw the Russians driven out of broad swaths of the Kharkiv region.
A woman also died in Russian shelling of the town of Dvorichna, near Kupiansk, and two civilians were killed in the eastern Donetsk region, according to the Ukrainian presidential office.
The Ukrainian military is now preparing for a new massive counteroffensive, relying on the latest supplies of Western battle tanks and other weapons and fresh troops that were trained in the West.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine released Monday, described the planned counteroffensive as a “landmark battle in Ukraine’s modern history” that will see the country “reclaim significant areas.”
This is when a Russian flag is said to have been flown over the Bakhmut administration building.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private military organization Wagner, asserted today that his troops had ‘legally’ taken control of the 70,000-person city in east Ukraine.
“Bakhmut has been taken from a legal standpoint.” In an audio message uploaded on his press service’s Telegram account, he claimed that the enemy was concentrating in the western regions.
Bakhmut saw fighting start in May of last year, but Russian forces didn’t make significant headway there until January and February, making it one of the longest battles of the war.
Footage of the night hoisting of the Russian flag on the administration building in Artyomovsk
Prigozhin’s claim of victory comes despite assurances from Ukrainian officials, who dismissed the video as a stunt and said its army still holds the city.
In his nightly address, Volodymyr Zelensky indicated that fighting was continuing to heat up.
But the president gave no indication the city had fallen in the hands of Vladimir Putin’s shadow army.
Bakhmut and several other towns including Avdiivka were at the ‘epicentre of hostilities’, a statement from Ukraine’ military said last night.
‘The enemy continues its assault Bakhmut. But our defenders courageously hold the city,’ it said.
Zelensky thanked soldiers fighting in Avdiivka, Maryinka, and Bakhmut. ‘Especially Bakhmut. It is especially hot there,’ he stressed.
Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar had previously described the situation in the city as ‘tense’.
She said Ukrainian forces were defending their positions, while Russia’s were paying scant attention to losses as they attacked.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting had engulfed the centre of Bakhmut.
Ukrainian forces had repelled 25 enemy attacks, but enemy troops had captured the AZOM metal plant.
‘The enemy is attacking the city centre from the north, the east and the south and is trying to take the city under its full control,’ Zhdanov, who has close ties to the Ukrainian military, said in a video on YouTube.
As per two US officials, the US will deliver older M1-A1 versions of the country’s main combat tank to Ukraine rather than the more recent model, greatly reducing the time it takes to transport the tanks.
According to one of the officials, the decision will allow the tanks to arrive as soon as this fall, cutting months off the previous schedule that may have lasted a year or longer.
The US is trying to hasten the delivery of tanks to Ukraine, according to John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council.
“We’re working on that. There’s some changes that you can make to the process, to sort of speed that up,” Kirby said on MSNBC. “The Pentagon is working as fast as they can, and they’ll have more to say on adjustments they’re making.”
The US had previously announced it would send the more modern M1-A2 version of the Abrams battle tank, but that would have required either building new tanks or modernizing existing older tanks, then training Ukrainian crews on the more advanced system. The M1-A2 has a newer digital targeting system that makes it a more capable tank, but it also required more training for Ukrainian troops to operate the more complex tank and to maintain the system.
The decision to speed up the delivery of tanks comes as Ukraine is preparing to launch a spring offensive against Russian forces, built largely around the more powerful and more advanced systems Western countries have agreed to send, including tanks and other armored vehicles.
Reuters first reported the decision to send the older Abrams tanks.
The US still intends to send 31 M1-A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, the same number as previously announced. The size of a complete Ukrainian tank battalion.
In mid-February, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said these systems would “make a pretty significant difference” in Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive.
Austin urged other countries last week to send tanks and other armored vehicles to Ukraine as soon as possible.
“We have to deliver swiftly and fully on our promised commitments,” Austin said at a news conference following the latest meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, an unofficial organization of some 50 countries providing aid to Ukraine. “That includes delivering our armored capabilities to the battlefield and ensuring that Ukrainian soldiers get the training, spare parts and maintenance support that they need to use these new systems as soon as possible.”
Last month, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said all of the options the US was considering to get tanks to Ukraine would take months.
“We’re looking at options for how to get the Ukrainians tanks and there are a variety of different ways that we could do that,” Wormuth told a group of reporters at the time. “We’re looking at what’s the fastest way we can get the tanks to the Ukrainians. It’s not going to be a matter of weeks.”
But she warned that even the faster options still involve “longer timelines” that may take a more than a year.
According to Kyiv, some Russian forces are leaving their positions in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian military’s general staff, Russian units have left the towns of Mykhailivka, Polohy, and Inzhenerne, all of which are located south of the city of Zaporizhzhia.
The Kremlin is also getting ready to evacuate “the staff of the occupying authorities” in the area, the military continued.
Since the beginning of the invasion, Russian military have been occupying parts of Zaporizhzhia; in September, Moscow unlawfully annexed Zaporizhzhia together with three other Ukrainian districts.
Front lines in the region run for more than 100 miles across rolling farmland. Geolocated footage posted on Wednesday shows the aftermath of strikes on buildings in Polohy.
On the battlefield, the Ukrainians appear to be repeating actions they undertook further south in Kherson, namely striking bridges, supply hubs and Russian troop concentrations behind the front lines.
Ukrainian forces pushed into Kherson over recent months and liberated large swathes of the region, including Kherson city, after Russian troops withdrew east of the Dnipro River last month.
The General Staff said that in recent days their strikes on about half a dozen places had wounded more than 230 Russian soldiers and destroyed ammunition and equipment.
CNN is unable to confirm the claims made by the General Staff.
Powerful explosions have rocked the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in recent weeks, renewing concerns that fighting so close to the facility could cause a nuclear accident.
On November 20, UN nuclear experts at the plant said that more than a dozen blasts were heard within a short period of time. Shelling was observed both near and at the site of the facility.
The Director General of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, hopes to reach an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on protecting the plant by year’s end.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica published Friday, Grossi said: “My commitment is to reach a solution as soon as possible. I hope by the end of the year. I know that President Putin is following the process and I do not rule out another meeting with him soon, as well as with Ukrainian President Zelensky.”
The developments come as the Russian military has started a census in some parts of occupied territory in the Zaporizhzhia region, according to the Ukrainian mayor-in-exile of the southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol.
“Over the past few days, the Russians have been in a fuss. First, they were taking the wounded out of the hospital. Then they started a census in the towns of Mykhailivka and Burchak to allegedly prepare for evacuation,” Ivan Fedorov said on national television Friday. The Ukrainian military also said that the occupation authorities are conducting a census in Burchak.
Melitopol has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the invasion. Analysts have suggested that the next offensive front for the Ukrainians is likely to be a thrust southward toward it.
The General Staff said that elsewhere Russian forces continued to defend their positions in Luhansk region using tanks, mortars and artillery to prevent further advances of Ukrainian forces.
Russian units were also shelling several settlements in recently liberated parts of Kherson region. But Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksii Hromov claimed that last week that Russian forces had accidentally fired on their own unit near the village of Tsukury in Kherson, killing 14 servicemen. CNN cannot verify that claim.
Hromov said that Russian forces had gathered in the city of Dzankhoi in Crimea, which had “actually turned into the largest military base on the territory … from where the Russian occupation troops and weapons and military equipment of the Russian Armed Forces are redeployed.”
On February 24, one year has passed since Russian forces invaded.
When asked if we could expect the battle to continue in another 12 months, Ben Wallace responded, “I think we will.”
“I believe that Russia has completely disregarded the lives of both its own military and the people of Ukraine.
‘We are sitting here 12 months in and 188,000, actually more now, Russian soldiers are dead or injured as a result of this catastrophic miscalculation and aggression by President Putin.
‘When someone has crossed the line and thinks it is OK to do that to your own people, running effectively a meat grinder for an army, I think he is not going to stop.’
Mr Wallace added that planes currently held by Nato countries could be given to Ukraine as the conflict continues.
The Defence Secretary stressed the battle in Ukraine was ‘not a Nato conflict’.
Ukraine has begged for more tanks and weapons to aid their forces (Picture: Getty / REX)Ben Wallace said Putin ‘will not stop’ (Picture: UK MOD Crown copyright)
But, asked on LBC whether Nato-supplied fighter jets could be sent to Kyiv, he said: ‘Supplied by Nato, yes.
‘There is already talk, I think, of an eastern European country supplying MiG-29s.
‘We’re not going to see Nato, we’re going to see countries that are members of Nato potentially put in air force equipment or MiG-29.’
He claimed he ‘didn’t start the war’ in a rambling address that lasted near to two hours.
A selection of cabinet minsters, deputies and senators were all in attendance as the address is broadcast across the world.
Putin referred to the war as a ‘special military operation’ and referred to the situation in Ukraine as a ‘military coup’.
He claimed Ukrainians have been waiting for his troops to ‘come to their help’ and that the West released a ‘genie in a bottle.’
Vladimir Putin attends a patriotic concertin Moscow on February 22, 2023. (Picture: Maksim Blinov/ SPUTNIK/AFP)Medical personnel from Ukraine’s 72nd Mechanized Brigade treat soldiers at a stabilization hospital near the frontline on February 22, 2023 (Picture: John Moore/Getty Images)
Putin said: ‘They started the war and we used the force to stop it.”
‘They spent $150bn to support militarily Kyiv’s regime.’
He went on to tell the audience each Russian has a ‘great responsibility’ to ‘protect our people on our historic land.’
On Friday January 27, 2023, the body of a Tanzanian national killed in combat with Russian soldiers in Ukraine was brought home.
Nemes Tarimo, 37, died three months ago after agreeing to sign up with the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
His body was received by his family at the main airport in Dar es Salaam with burial scheduled for Saturday in his home village in the southern highlands of country.
Tanzanian victim killed in Ukraine’s body is returned home
Mr Tarimo had been in Moscow as an ICT master’s student at the Russian Technological University. But he was then imprisoned some time after January 2021 for what were described as drugs-related offences.
Last year, he was enticed with a deal: sign up with the Russian mercenary group Wagner and be pardoned or stay in prison.
