A girl looks on at a display of Russian weapon systems used in their attacks, outside St Michael's Cathedral, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine. REUTERS/Edgar Su
WNU Editor: The above picture is from this photo-gallery .... Top Photos of the Day (Reuters).
* Russian and Ukrainian troops are locked in intense close-quarter combat
* The epicentre of the fighting is Severodonetsk - a manufacturing hub in Luhansk
* Putin's forces have been making agonisingly slow but steady gains in the region
* Water and electricity in several of the region's towns have been shut off
* Bodies are being left in supermarkets in Mariupol according to mayor's adviser
* Ukrainian officials repeated calls for more long-range arms from Western allies
* French, German leaders implored Putin to hold 'direct and serious negotiations'
Russian and Ukrainian troops are locked in intense close-quarter combat today in the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk as Moscow's soldiers, supported by intense shelling, attempted to gain strategic footholds in the region while facing fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Ukrainian regional officials reported that Russian forces were 'storming' the eastern city in the Luhansk region, where the fighting has knocked out power and mobile phone services and terrorised civilians who have not fled.
Severodonetsk, a manufacturing hub, has emerged as an epicentre of Russia's quest to conquer Ukraine's industrial Donbas region.
Read more ....
The Battle For Eastern Ukraine Intensifies
Ukraine, Russia battle in the east as Zelenskyy visits front -- AP
Ukrainian defenders hold out in Donbas city under heavy fire -- Reuters
Russia Tightens Grip As "Street-By-Street" Fighting Rages In Donbas Region -- AFP
Sievierodonetsk bombing so intense, casualties cannot be assessed, officials say -- The Guardian
Russian troops storm Sievierodonetsk as Donbas suffers heavy bombardment -- Euronews
Ukraine war: President Zelensky visits Kharkiv in first trip outside Kyiv region -- BBC
Ukrainian President visits front line in first official appearance outside Kyiv since Russia invaded -- ABC News Australia
Zelensky: Conditions in Donbas ‘indescribably difficult’ -- The Hill
Zelensky Signals Donbas Could Soon Fall: "Indescribably Difficult" Russian Onslaught -- Zero Hedge
Russians Close To Encircling Key Town, Zelenskiy Urges Talks With Putin -- RFE
Ukraine Says ‘Everything’ Being Done to Defend Donbas From Russian Onslaught -- Moscow Times
Russia takes small cities, aims to widen east Ukraine battle -- AP
Lysychansk holdouts await end to Russia's Donbas attacks -- DW
Ukraine war: Russia says 'liberation' of Donbas its key priority -- BBC
An Air Force E-4B Nightwatch takes off from Lincoln Airport in Nebraska April 26. The airport in Lincoln is being used while repairs are made to Offutt Air Force Base following a March 2019 flood. (Daniel Woolfolk/Staff)
Politico: Time is ticking to replace the Pentagon’s 1970s-era Doomsday planes
Built to survive a nuclear attack, these Air Force aircraft are expected to fly well past their 50th birthday.
ABOARD AN E-4B DOOMSDAY PLANE — Inside a military aircraft designed to survive a nuclear war, an area once used as a first class lounge now contains six blue passenger seats next to two sleeping bunks.
Maj. Ted DeBonis, maintenance squadron commander, says it’s a break area for the 12 aircraft mechanics who accompany the plane on every hop, waiting to fix it anywhere in the world.
It’s an unusual setup for a military aircraft. But a flying maintenance hangar is the kind of thing you need when you’re operating a plane that’s been around since the Carter administration.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Are these planes necessary? .... Does America need its ‘Doomsday plane’? (Air Force Times).
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in 2019. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP
Simon Tisdall, The Guardian: The Donald and the Kremlin Don: how Trump’s toxic legacy helps Putin
From Afghanistan to North Korea, Joe Biden is running short of time to repair the damage done by his predecessor in the White House
Even by Donald Trump’s chaotic standards, the “comprehensive peace agreement” for Afghanistan signed by the US in Doha in February 2020 was a huge own goal.
The pact posited no binding ceasefire, no power-sharing requirements, and no political roadmap. In return for some mumbo-jumbo about al-Qaida, Trump pledged total, unconditional US and Nato withdrawal within 14 months.
This was not peacemaking. This was capitulation. The Taliban could hardly believe their luck.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: This is what "Trump derangement syndrome looks like in the UK".
It is amazing to me on how utterly detached from any true sense of reality some people in the West have become even as disaster looms. That it is not President Biden's fault, but the fault of Trump and Putin who are working together to discredit Biden's global leadership and policies.
And while I find this type of analysis paranoid and bizarre, I am willing to bet that this Guardian opinion post written by one of its chief correspondents is shared by many in London and in Washington DC. That the disaster that we are seeing is not the fault at all of our current leaders, but the fault of others.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 29 May 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) May 29, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/uOVOzCZE8O
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/f1hL0W2AGs
Ukraine round-up: Zelensky in Kharkiv and a pro-Putin propaganda machine https://t.co/BA2pjcRsDk
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 29, 2022
Ambassadors for the 27 EU member nations failed to reach a compromise on banning Russian oil imports before the leaders' summit on Monday
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 29, 2022
France had proposed banning only oil imports by sea, since Hungary is largely dependent on a pipeline from Russiahttps://t.co/BAlNpVMq9Z
VIDEO: Ukrainian presidency posts footage of Zelensky wearing bullet-proof vest and being shown destroyed buildings in Kharkiv and nearby
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 29, 2022
Zelensky made his first trip to Ukraine's war-torn east since the launch of Moscow's invasion, after Russian forces retreated in recent weeks pic.twitter.com/176ksZXZR9
#UPDATE After visiting Kharkiv for the first time since Russia's invasion began, Zelensky said he had dismissed the region's security service chief "for not working to defend the city from the first days of the full-scale war, but thinking only of himself"https://t.co/J13kWKCiKL pic.twitter.com/F9Cez8C3iY
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 29, 2022
Officials in the eastern Ukraine city of Sievierodonetsk say Russian and Ukrainian troops are engaged in close-quarter combat there. They report that the fighting has knocked out power and cellphone service and terrorized civilians who haven’t fled. https://t.co/7ER5G9bVcF
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 29, 2022
Ukraine war: Russia says 'liberation' of Donbas its key priority https://t.co/JD1sEeLIxv
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 29, 2022
Putin to hold talks with Erdogan
— RT (@RT_com) May 29, 2022
The Turkish leader will also hold separate negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyhttps://t.co/Pa6CUQt6Ja pic.twitter.com/0k4regK81D
Russian ambassador to the UK says he doesn’t believe Moscow will use tactical nuclear weapons on Ukraine
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 28, 2022
Andrei Kelin says weapons are only used when Russia's "existence is in danger"
Watch the full interview on Sunday Morning at 9am on @BBCOnehttps://t.co/TbpUp8IeaO pic.twitter.com/xjO18xWkPi
Russia scraps age limit for new troops in Ukraine push https://t.co/fqXKwIuXQs
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 28, 2022
WNU Editor: Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin is trying to defend the indefensible.
I only wished the BBC reporter asked this question to the ambassador .... “from Russia’s perspective, what needs to be done to bring about a cessation of the war? What needs to be done to specifically put into motion the end of Russia's ‘special operation’”.
Preliminary results in Colombia's presidential election first round showed 62-year-old Gustavo Petro, a former Bogota mayor, leading with 40.3% of the vote to 28% for Rodolfo Hernandez, a 77-year-old millionairehttps://t.co/f4MX5Of3dP pic.twitter.com/CK5z6jNCST
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 29, 2022
#UPDATE President Biden and the first lady have arrived in Uvalde, where a gunman killed 19 children and 2 teachers at an elementary school
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 29, 2022
They will visit a memorial, attend a Catholic Mass, and meet with first responders and mourning relativeshttps://t.co/EjOFIaWYZZ
Hong Kong's care home Covid death toll soarshttps://t.co/a1zzsrjeIG pic.twitter.com/0ywCttkecT
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 29, 2022
China’s foreign minister to meet with Pacific nations amid push for sweeping regional deal https://t.co/7dFTsezoNr
— Guardian World (@guardianworld) May 30, 2022
#UPDATE Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Sunday lifted a state of emergency imposed since last year's military coup, the ruling sovereign council saidhttps://t.co/IHibXwaktD
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 29, 2022
Tensions high in Jerusalem ahead of Israeli youth Flag March https://t.co/iBfYWXQvjM
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 29, 2022
Sri Lankan PM Ranil Wickremesinghe said his government was working to make the president and cabinet accountable to parliament, after weeks of street protests sparked by the country's worst economic crisis in decades.https://t.co/UNvcOsCjzK
— DW News (@dwnews) May 29, 2022
Teak Net
An Air Force Air Force MC-130J Commando II, left, and a New Zealand air force C-130H Hercules fly in a dissimilar formation during Teak Net, a bilateral exercise, over New Zealand, May 13, 2022.
* Withdrawal from the Luhansk region likely, admits Ukraine in new war blow
* Area is hugely significant and one of main aims of Putin and Russia's invasion
* President Zelensky said Ukraine was protecting Luhansk as best it could
* Putin had launched invasion under the aims of capturing Luhansk and Donetsk
* Boris Johnson offered renewed support for Ukraine in a phone call with Zelensky
Ukraine has admitted it may have to retreat from its last post in the Luhansk region as Russian forces continue their relentless march.
Putin's forces - now into their fourth month of the invasion - have concentrated on the east of the country in recent weeks.
Ukrainian soldiers leaving Luhansk will be a blow to the country, due to its symbolic significance in the war.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: The above map gives a sobering picture on the current state of the war in the Donbas. The Luhansk region is now almost completely in Russia hands, and the Donetsk region is under Russian attack from three different directions.
But I am the first to admit that war is very unpredictable. Russia may have the momentum right now but a lot can happen in the coming weeks and months. But for now Ukraine is clearly losing the war in the Donbas.
