Meanwhile, other Western defence sources have expressed concern about an increase in signals intelligence and chatter being monitored which could signal Russia's preparedness to invade. The admiral described Russia's military build-up on its border with Ukraine as deeply worrying. Those concerns have been echoed by Britain's most senior military officer. Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker told CNBC he believes American and EU aid packages for Ukraine will be approved come January, saying he believed this funding would tide Ukraine over for another year, militarily. Volker said that aid packages must include more advanced weaponry for Ukraine, however, like F-16 fighter jets which have been pledged by Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. After liberating a handful of villages in the summer, Ukrainian and Russian forces have been caught in largely attritional battles, with neither side making significant gains. Russia can win the war, or the Ukrainians can win the war. And, as you're seeing things now, if you really think about it, what has been achieved this year? Very little has been achieved by Russia, and you can say the same thing for the Ukrainians, he said. Within weeks of the war breaking out, a scheme was launched called Homes for Ukraine, matching Ukrainians with families in the UK who were able to offer shelter and accommodation. But there was criticism that current rules and systems were too complicated and too strict. Russia lacks a decisive, breakthrough capability to overrun Ukraine and will do what it can to hold on to what it currently occupies, using the time to strengthen its defences while it hopes for the West to lose the will to continue supporting Ukraine. Industrial-age warfare bends significant parts, or in some cases whole economies, towards the production of war materials as matters of priority. Russia's defence budget has tripled since 2021 and will consume 30% of government spending next year. Abbott considered sending 'large military deployment' to Ukraine in wake of MH17 disaster People were out on the streets last night in this city - they were waving the Ukrainian flag. They said this was their land. They were going nowhere, she reported. Many people in Kyiv have sought shelter in underground metro stations. Russia said it has destroyed more than 70 military targets in Ukraine. But later on Thursday President Zelensky said Ukraine had suffered losses and a lot of aircraft and armoured vehicles had been destroyed. Convoys have also entered the eastern Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, and moved into the Kherson region from Crimea - a territory that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Right now, such scenarios tend to exercise only the minds of Ministry of Defence war-gamers and military thriller writers. But far-fetched as they might sound, General Sir Patrick Sanders, the head of Britain’s army, believes it is time we dwelt on them more. As fighting intensifies, cross-Channel shipping is attacked by Russian submarines, and long-range conventional missiles strike Dover and Southampton. The threats facing Europe today are too pressing for our military to be reduced to this state. The priority must be for ministers to end the wokery and get back to the infinitely more serious business of preparing for war. What could happen if Russia wins war in Ukraine? Experts consider the scenarios Which is why Putin finds Ukraine’s orientation toward the EU and NATO (despite Russian aggression having quite a lot to do with that) untenable to Russia’s national security. https://euronewstop.co.uk/who-is-allies-with-ukraine.html , hesitant to escalate tensions with Russia any further, was slow to mobilize a diplomatic response in Europe and did not immediately provide Ukrainians with offensive weapons. Moscow continues to deny that it has any plans to invade, even as it warns of a “military-technical response” to stagnating negotiations. What are some of the possible scenarios that politicians and military planners are examining? Few can predict the future with confidence, but here are some potential outcomes. True Russian cyberwarfare capabilities have proved something of a damp squib in Ukraine. Far from crippling the entire national infrastructure, the worst they are known to have done is briefly disrupt power and mobile phone networks. Hall said Putin's opinion has always been that Ukrainians and Russians are the same people, that they're part of the Slavic Brotherhood of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Fifteen of today's sovereign nations were once part of the Soviet Union, and experts say Russia cares more about Ukraine than nearby Belarus, as well as other former USSR countries in central Asia. Without it Russia can't claim a thousand years of history because Kyiv was already in existence 1,200 years ago, when Moscow was a forest, he said. But Putin still refers to Ukraine as Russian, and denies it's a nation in its own right. He told then-US President George W. Bush in 2008 that Ukraine wasn't even a country. Your parents are likely to pay even more for gas and electricity because of this crisis. And that is a dangerous backdrop against which to have a blazing public row over who is to blame for the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. If we took casualties at the rate the Ukrainians are taking them, the NHS would immediately be overwhelmed, and for years we’ve missed recruitment targets for the Armed Forces. With Mariupol decimated, the Ukrainians are now focusing on Kherson, the only major city the Russians occupy, in a bid to start pushing them back and blocking access to the Crimean Peninsula. But they note it's crucial for Ukraine to be able to show at least some gains in order to maintain Western support for the war into 2024 — and perhaps beyond. Later on Friday, Mr Biden spoke to several European leaders to underscore the concerns raised by US intelligence about the potential imminence of a Russian invasion. Off Ukraine's northern border, Russia and its ally Belarus are starting 10 days of war games, involving massive drills with live ammunition. In Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta, the rumble of US heavy military matériel was breaking the dawn quiet, signs that reinforcements and 1,000 more troops were coming into an airbase there. Luke March, professor of post-soviet and comparative politics at the University of Edinburgh, says this means the Kremlin needs to claim some sort of victory in the coming weeks and months. There's also a lot of pressure to show their Western supporters they have started to make progress, because if the message starts to be that Ukraine will lose, they'll stop supplying weapons. But it may not be implausible if the people who have benefited from Mr Putin no longer believe he can defend their interests. Moscow has claimed its forces have taken control of the village of Tabaivka in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region. Added to that are the recent border crisis involving thousands of migrants in Belarus, as well as Russia's backing of separatists in the Caucasus and elsewhere, he said. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has given varying public explanations for why he launched the invasion. Russia said it has destroyed more than 70 military targets in Ukraine. Before the war, Russia made demands including a promise that Ukraine would not join a group of countries called Nato. Since the invasion, the price of everyday items across the world has increased. This is because many countries are no longer using gas supplied by Russia, so there is greater demand and a higher cost for gas supplied from other places. Mr Biden said that the US would be giving a new military aid package to Ukraine, worth $500m (around £415 million). The Ukraine government is working with other nations, including the UK, to try to help young people continue their education as much as possible. He uses Russia's internal security forces to suppress that opposition. Meanwhile Russia's currency, the rouble, fell to an all-time low against the dollar and the euro. Alexei Kulemzin said Ukraine was behind the strike on the eastern Ukrainian city, which is currently under Russian occupation. Germany's pausing of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is perhaps the most significant step to punish Vladimir Putin because of the likely impact on the Russian economy. At the start of 2023, hopes were high that a much-vaunted Ukrainian counteroffensive — expected to be launched in the spring — would change the dial in the war against Russia. Historically, Russia and countries that are a part of Nato have not always got on. Many people in Ukraine want the country to join Nato to avoid being dominated by Russia. Industrial-age warfare bends significant parts, or in some cases whole economies, towards the production of war materials as matters of priority. He is once again a powerful politician – Vladimir Putin’s chosen ruler of the occupied territory that lies across the river from Kherson. But diplomats and government leaders have struggled to jump-start moribund talks to stave off war. As the war approaches its second anniversary, severe weapons shortages and worrying signs of waning Western support are undermining Ukraine’s war effort. This may lead Putin to conclude that he can still emerge victorious in his confrontation with the West, which is bound to encourage further provocations in future. Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch his “special military operation” against Ukraine was motivated by a belief that the West would not mount any meaningful opposition. With Ukraine desperately battling to bolster its defences against an impending Russian winter offensive, and Israeli forces struggling to make headway against fanatical Hamas terrorists in Gaza, Western resolve understandably finds itself under intense scrutiny. One ex senior minister suggested to me that there was a generational divide between those who had lived with the threat of the Cold War era, and those who had not. The former minister, currently a serving Conservative MP, pointed out that the prime minister grew up without that existential threat.
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