The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has dismantled the infrastructure of what it described as a Russian botnet consisting of millions of hacked Internet of Things (IoT) devices. 

According to the DoJ, RSOCKS was operating as a proxy service, but instead of offering customers IP addresses legitimately leased from internet service providers (ISPs), the firm was offering IP addresses that had been assigned to hacked devices. 

The DoJ said that together with law enforcement partners in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK it has “dismantled” the infrastructure of RSOCKS “which hacked millions of computers and other electronic devices around the world”.

The service was available for cybercriminals to use to conceal the source of their activity, which included credential attacks on login web pages.  

“It is believed that the users of this type of proxy service were conducting large scale attacks against authentication services, also known as credential stuffing, and anonymizing themselves when accessing compromised social media accounts, or sending malicious email, such as phishing messages,” the DOJ said. 

RSOCKS’s website advertising its services and prices has now been replaced with a message that it has been seized by the FBI, but previously customers could buy access to a pool of RSOCKS proxies from $30 a day for 2,000 proxies to $200 per day for 9,000 proxies, according to the DoJ.

Once purchased, the customer could download a list of IP addresses and ports associated with one or more of the botnet’s backend servers. The customer could then route malicious internet traffic through the compromised victim devices to mask the true source of the traffic, the DOJ said.

RSOCKS operators allegedly built the proxy service by brute forcing passwords for IoT devices, many of which are put into service with default passwords or are protected by weak passwords. 

The operators initially targeted IoT devices to build the botnet but later expanded to compromising Android devices and computers. Victims of the botnet included a university, hotel, a television studio, and an electronics manufacturers. Other victims were home businesses and individuals. 

The DOJ revealed it had dismantled the botnet as it unsealed a search warrant affidavit in the Southern District of California. 

“This operation disrupted a highly sophisticated Russia-based cybercrime organization that conducted cyber intrusions in the United States and abroad,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy. 

“Our fight against cybercriminal platforms is a critical component in ensuring cybersecurity and safety in the United States. The actions we are announcing today are a testament to the FBI’s ongoing commitment to pursuing foreign threat actors in collaboration with our international and private sector partners.”

The DoJ in April announced it had disrupted a botnet controlled by the Russian Federation’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) that consisted of thousands of infected WatchGuard and Asus firewall devices. 

A 15-year-old boy was shot to death and three adults, including a police officer, were wounded after a musical event lacking a permit erupted into chaos on a District of Columbia street Sunday night, police said.

The wounded police officer and the other adults were recovering at hospitals, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert J. Contee III told reporters at the scene of the shooting. The incident took place near 14th and U Streets NW, about 2 miles north of the White House.

Social media had promoted a free music event known as Moechella and several hundred people were gathering in the area around 6 p.m., Contee said. Police arrived to assist the crowd and people stayed mostly to the sidewalks as music played from a truck, he said.

In the hours that followed a fight broke out, and then an incident of an undetermined nature caused people to scatter, Contee said. Police shut down the gathering, he said, because the event appeared to have become unsafe.

Several people were hurt in the rush to leave the area and were being assisted by public safety first responders when the shooting occurred, Contee said. He said the events occurred between 6 and 8:30 p.m.

A handgun was recovered from one of the victims but not the firearm believed to have caused the death and injuries, Contee said. No police fired their weapons and there was no exchange of gunfire, he said.

The police chief said officials would be speaking to event organizers and considering what legal action could be taken because the event lacked a permit.

“We will certainly want to make sure that people are held accountable when they hold unpermitted events in our city,” he said.

In two other incidents, a 16-year-old girl was killed in Southeast D.C. and a 19-year-old was shot and killed while sitting in a residential neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia on Saturday night, WUSA-TV reported.

An analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ)  showed Washington, D.C. reported a 16% increase in homicide rates in 2021.

First published on June 20, 2022 / 9:03 AM

© 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Palaces, yachts and vineyards reportedly provided to Vladimir Putin by friends and oligarchs can today be linked to what appears to be an informal network holding assets worth more than $4.5bn (£3.7bn).

A digital paper trail appears to suggest that an array of holiday homes and other assets reportedly used by the Russian president, which according to available records belong to or have been owned by separate individuals, companies and charities, are linked through a common email domain name, LLCInvest.ru.

Putin diagram

A snapshot of leaked email exchanges from last September further suggests directors and administrators associated with some of the separate entities that hold and manage these assets have discussed day-to-day business problems as if they were part of a single organisation.

An anti-corruption expert in Russia, who requested anonymity given the political situation in Moscow, said the findings raised questions as to whether there was a level of “common management”.

“LLCInvest looks most of all like a cooperative, or an association, in which its members can exchange benefits and property,” they suggested.

For nearly two decades, Putin has been accused of secretly accumulating vast wealth through proxies, fuelled by a series of disclosures in leaks such as the Pandora papers about the fortunes of those closest to him.

Sergey Kolesnikov, a businessman, claimed 10 years ago that he had been behind a scheme that allowed a group of Russia’s top oligarchs to pool billions of rubles into a type of “investment fund” for the benefit of Putin, who was then serving as prime minister. The claims were denied and Kolesnikov fled from Russia.

Last month the UK government contrasted Putin’s “lavish lifestyle” with official Russian records which listed “modest assets” including a small flat in St Petersburg, two Soviet-era cars from the 1950s, a trailer and a small garage.

Alexei Navalny has claimed this £1bn palace was built for Putin’s personal use in Gelendzhik on the Black Sea. Photograph: AP

After a year-long investigation, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Russian-language news site Meduza have identified 86 companies and not-for-profit organisations whose representatives appear to use the common LLCinvest domain name, often alongside corporate email accounts.

Claims of a secret presidential fortune are denied and a chain of ownership leading to Putin has not been identified. A Kremlin spokesperson said: “The president of the Russian Federation is in no way connected or affiliated with the objects and organisations you named.”

Villa Sellgren is owned by Sergey Rudnov, the son of a childhood friend of Putin. Photograph: Navalny.com

According to OCCRP and Meduza, assets linked to organisations or the corporate structures around them in which the LLCinvest.ru email domain appears to have been in use, include:

A £1bn palace which Alexei Navalny has claimed was built for Putin’s personal use in Gelendzhik on the Black Sea. The billionaire oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, who is under EU and US sanctions, has claimed ownership of the property. Corporate records held by the Spark database in Russia stated as of June that the property belongs to a firm called Kompleks whose parent company is Binom. The company director at Binom until July last year appears to have a registered LLCInvest.ru email domain. The LLCinvest.ru address remains cited on Spark, Russia’s largest company database, as a contact.

Acres of vineyards around the Gelendzhik palace. Navalny has claimed the wineries were a Putin “hobby” that had got out of control. Vineyards surrounding the palace belong to a not-for-profit founded by two Putin associates, Gennady Timchenko and Vladimir Kolbin, both of whom are also under western sanctions. Kolbin and others associated with the vineyards appear to have LLCInvest.ru email accounts.

The Igora ski resort in the Leningrad oblast where the wedding of Putin’s daughter took place in 2013. According to land records, it is owned by Ozon, a company in which Putin’s friend, Bank Rossiya’s chairman and largest shareholder Yuri Kovalchuk, who is under western sanctions, has had a large stake. The LLCInvest.ru email account is a contact on the Spark records of Ozon’s parent company, Relax.

A villa north of St Petersburg, known by locals as “Putin’s Dacha”. The Villa Sellgren was owned by Oleg Rudnov, a childhood friend of Putin’s, and inherited by his son Sergey Rudnov, through a company called North. Rudnov appears to use LLCinvest.ru email addresses, according to the Spark records.

A wood-clad building north of St Petersburg known as the Fisherman’s Hut. Emails leaked from a construction firm suggest that three different companies using the domain name owned different parcels of land around the complex, while a fourth LLCInvest entity – a nonprofit organisation named Revival of Maritime Traditions – managed the construction. That same foundation, recently placed under western sanctions, owns two yachts, Shellest and Nega, said by the US Treasury to be linked to Putin.

Russsia assets map

The $4.5bn in assets held by LLCInvest entities includes large cash deposits. Two not-for-profit foundations, co-founded by Timchenko and Kolbin, which according to Spark corporate records appear to use the domain name, have significant funds at their disposal. The Development of Agrarian Initiatives had 17bn rubles (£248m) in its deposit account at the end of 2020 while the Development of an Effective Investment Market held more than 20bn rubles (£292m) in long-term deposits and almost 5bn rubles (£73m) in short-term deposits at the end of 2020, according to publicly available accounts.

LLCinvest is not a standard email provider open to the public such as Yahoo but a domain on a server owned by Moskomsvyaz, a telecoms company which has close links to Bank Rossiya. The St Petersburg bank is under western sanctions and described by the US Treasury as “the personal bank for senior officials of the Russian Federation”. Rossiya has also been described as ‘Putin’s bank’ for its role in allegedly carrying out the Russian leader’s bidding. The Kremlin has denied any such links or influence.

The discovery of the common email domain was made through analysis of leaked metadata from Moskomsvyaz servers, which appears to show the names of senders and recipients of LLCinvest.ru emails, the subject matter and time of correspondence. This was cross checked with open source records and a separate leak of the content of some full messages.

The yacht Shellest is owned by the nonprofit organisation Revival of Maritime Traditions.

Moskomsvyaz and all but one of the individuals who appear to have used LLCInvest.ru email addresses, did not reply to requests for comment. It is unclear as to the purpose of the common email service, or the motivation for the apparent cooperation on staffing and logistical issues.

There is no suggestion that all the users of the LLCInvest.ru are involved in managing assets that have been linked in reports to Putin. Only one man who uses a LLCinvest.ru email account in his role as a director of multiple companies, spoke on the phone when called. He claimed ignorance of the nature of his work.“I’m a humble employee and mind my own business,” he said when questioned. “I only sign papers. You know how sometimes homeless people are registered as directors of a company. I’m not homeless but I sign the papers like they do without going into the details.”“If my company was part of a big holding, I wouldn’t know,” he added. The man’s identity is being withheld for his own safety.

Following a yearlong investigation into narcotics and gun trafficking in Queens and Brooklyn, 13 individuals were arrested in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx during the past two days on charges contained in two indictments that are unsealed and two criminal court complaints that were filed today. During the long-term investigation, an undercover officer purchased large amounts of fentanyl, cocaine and heroin including fentanyl pressed into counterfeit prescription pills with a street value worth over $3 million. In total,15 kilograms of cocaine and 12 kilograms of fentanyl mixtures were seized along with an assault weapon and three firearms, two of which were allegedly sold by accused ringleader NELSON CRUZ who is charged with Operating as a Major Trafficker.

Bridget G. Brennan, New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Frank Tarantino III, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) New York Division, New York City Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell and New York State Police Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen announced the arrests today in conjunction of the unsealing of two indictments.

The investigation was conducted by New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF) Group T-23 and the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Investigators Unit. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz reviewed and submitted for court authorized wire taps during the investigation. NYDETF Group T-23 is comprised of agents and officers with the DEA New York Division, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the New York State Police.

The indictments were filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP). One indictment charges CRUZ with Operating as a Major Trafficker, Criminal Sale and Possession of a Firearm, Conspiracy and Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree. His four alleged co-conspirators are charged with top narcotics felonies. JOSE DE SALA GARCIA and JOSEPH SPATOLA also face firearm charges.

The second indictment, which focuses on traffickers primarily operating in Brooklyn, contains charges of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the First and Second Degrees. In addition, two criminal court complaints charging CRUZ and four other individuals were filed today in connection events that occurred on June 15 and 16, including the delivery of cocaine to a Bronx location and search warrants conducted in Queens.

Beginning approximately one year ago, defendant MANUEL SURIEL allegedly began selling cocaine at a restaurant in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. SURIEL subsequently introduced a co-representative of alleged major trafficker CRUZ and other alleged narcotics traffickers who conducted narcotics sales in Brooklyn and Queens.

Beginning October 8, 2021, defendant SURIEL and a co-representative of CRUZ allegedly conducted a series of sales with an undercover officer at locations in Queens and Brooklyn, including the first fentanyl sale charged in the case. On October 14, 2021, SURIEL and the co-conspirator allegedly provided 100 grams of fentanyl in exchange for $5,100 in the parking lot of a Target department store in College Point, Queens. By January 2022, the focus of the investigation shifted away from Brooklyn to CRUZ’s organization, based in the Richmond Hill/South Ozone area of Queens. Over time, CRUZ established a pattern of providing large quantities of fentanyl on consignment, with several sales in the $10,000-$16,000 range.

A wiretap investigation revealed that CRUZ allegedly conspired with JOSE DESALA-GARCIA, MANUEL SURIEL, JOSEPH SPATOLA and others to possess, sell and distribute narcotics in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and elsewhere. The investigation revealed that cocaine had been obtained from sources of supply in Puerto Rico and fentanyl from Mexico.

The first gun sale in the investigation occurred on February 18, 2022, with the purchase of a semi-automatic pistol from CRUZ and DESALA-GARCIA for $1,100. The sale took place across from a residence located on 130th street in Queens. On March 9, 2022, CRUZ sold another assault rifle for $2,500. Narcotics sales with CRUZ then allegedly continued through May 2022.

Beginning on June 7, 2022, agents and officers with NYDETF Group T-23 and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Investigators Unit arrested 13 individuals. SPATOLA and PATRICK HARRISON were arrested on June 7, after members of the NYDETF Group T-23 conducted a surveillance operation in the vicinity of Bay 28th Street in Brooklyn, and observed SPATOLA park his car, and walk away with a Target bag found to contain one kilogram of cocaine and 238 alleged fentanyl pills. HARRISON was inside the vehicle.

A court authorized search of SPATOLA’s Queens residence, resulted in the seizure a Glock 23 handgun, a Glock magazine with .40 caliber ammunition cartridges, and a box of additional rounds of ammunition, as well as additional quantities of cocaine.

On June 15, 2022, the investigation culminated in arrests outside of a residential building on Morris Avenue in the Soundview area of the Bronx. Members of NYDETF T-23 observed an undercover police officer meet with defendant CRUZ, who arrived at the location in a white Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck. Moments later defendants DELGADO, GENAO, and AGRAMONTE arrived in a grey Dodge Ram pick-up truck. Police observed CRUZ instruct GENAO to hand a weighted black duffle bag to the undercover officer, which was found to contain 9.5 kilograms of cocaine. Defendants CRUZ, GENAO, DELGADO, and AGRAMONTE were charged in a separate criminal court complaint.

Agents and officers then conducted a series of additional court-authorized searches at two locations in the Richmond Hill area of Queens. In a garage located on 108th street, police recovered over 12 kilograms of fentanyl and heroin, approximately four kilograms of cocaine, and 10,0000 counterfeit fentanyl pills imprinted to look like 30 mg oxycodone, Adderall, and other prescription drugs.

A search warrant was obtained at a second location on 130th street where officers and agents recovered a half kilogram of cocaine on a chair in the middle of the kitchen area of the first-floor apartment. In the front bedroom of the apartment, there was approximately $30,000 and a money counter seized. In the back bedroom, police seized a 9mm black Taurus handgun. In the apartment, defendant ELIANNY JIMENEZ DE LA CRUZ was arrested and charged with Criminal Possession of a Controlled substance in the First and Third Degree and Criminal Possession of a Firearm. NELSON CRUZ is also charged in connection with cocaine and the handgun recovered in the apartment.

Police estimate a total of 15 kilograms of cocaine, 12 kilograms of heroin and fentanyl mixtures were seized from all three locations.

Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan thanked Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, and commended SNP’s Special Investigations Bureau and Investigators Unit, the DEA New York Division, the New York City Police Department and the New York State Police for their work on the investigation.

Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said “Gun violence is New York City’s number one public safety concern, and at the same time drug overdoses are claiming more lives than ever before. This investigation exposes the close link between drug and gun trafficking. Close collaboration between federal, state and city law enforcement is key to preventing dangerous weapons and deadly drugs from taking precious lives.”

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said, “The combination of illegal guns and drugs – especially involving dangerous substances such as fentanyl – places entire communities at risk for fatal drug overdoses and senseless gun violence. Queens County has seen an alarming increase in fatal overdoses since the pandemic began, and majority of those deaths are attributed to the same drugs recovered as part of this investigation by the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office. We will not stand for those who bring deadly weapons into our neighborhoods and sell poison on our streets. My Office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to make sure that those who deliberately put our residents and families in harm’s way are held accountable for their actions.”

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said, “These indictments underscore our determination to reclaim our streets from drug dealers and other offenders who endanger the safety and degrade the quality of life of our communities. I commend Special Narcotics Prosecutor Brennan and all of our law enforcement partners for their hard work in putting this case together.”

DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarantino III said, “Dismantling fentanyl trafficking organizations is our priority because out of all illegal drugs, fentanyl is killing the most people,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Tarantino. “This investigation highlights how drug traffickers are armed and dangerous, selling drugs and guns on our city streets. As a result of tireless efforts by the members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, NYC Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, Queens District Attorney’s Office and Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, this drug and gun network has been shut down.”

Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said, “This long-term investigation shows that the NYPD and its law enforcement partners are relentless in arresting and prosecuting those who peddle illegal drugs and guns on our city’s streets,” said Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell. “The criminality outlined in today’s indictments, including reckless drug dealing by accused trafficker Nelson Cruz, is a form of wanton depravity that the NYPD will never stop fighting against. I want to thank the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, the DEA, the State Police, prosecutors in the Brooklyn and Queens district attorney’s offices, and all of our investigators for their outstanding work in this important case.”

State Police Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen said, “Thanks to the hard work of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, we have disrupted an organization that was selling dangerous illegal drugs and firearms in New York City. The State Police and our partners will continue to aggressively pursue those who endanger our communities with their illegal activities.”

The charges and allegations are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

A Russian court has sentenced a former U.S. diplomat to 14 years in prison for “large-scale” cannabis smuggling.

Marc Fogel had previously worked at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, but was employed as an English teacher at the Anglo-American School in Moscow at the time of his arrest in August 2021. 

“The American citizen Fogel has been found guilty,” a court in the Moscow suburb of Khimki announced in a statement. A news release said Fogel committed “large-scale drugs smuggling, large-scale illegal storage of drugs without a commercial purpose.”

Fogel was sentenced in the same jurisdiction that is hearing the case against WNBA superstar Brittney Griner whose pre-trial detention was recently extended. Griner was detained in February entering Russia for allegedly having vape cartridges with hash oil in her luggage. 

As part of the investigation, Russian police released footage of searches conducted by investigators at the now closed school in Moscow.

The U.S. Embassy did not elaborate on Fogel’s case or on his diplomatic status, which he may have held, in that he was a staff member at the school when he was arrested. The school was previously run by the U.S. embassy.

Fogel, who is in his 60s, argued that a doctor recommended cannabis to him for treating pain after spinal surgery and that he was not aware that medical marijuana was illegal in Russia.

“He insists that it was medical marijuana and claims that a doctor prescribed it to him in the United States, which is allegedly confirmed by an entry in the medical record,” Alexander Khurudzhi, a member of a Moscow human rights committee, reported CBS News.

According to Russia’s Interfax news agency, Fogel pleaded guilty to smuggling, storing, transporting, manufacturing and processing narcotic drugs and was sentenced to serve his prison term at a maximum-security penal colony.

In addition to Griner, several Americans are detained in Russian prisons, and vice versa.

In April, the United States exchanged former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, sentenced by a Russian court to nine years in prison for violence, for a Russian pilot who had been in a U.S. jail since 2010.

Photo: Moscow airport via Moscow Times

The percentage of Americans who say they believe in God has dipped to the lowest number in the past nearly 80 years, according to a new Gallup poll published Friday. 

The Values and Belief poll, conducted from May 2 to 22, showed 81% of people answered that they believe in God. That is down six percentage points from the 87% of respondents who said they believed in God in the 2017 poll. This year is the lowest percentage in Gallup’s trend since the public opinion polling company first asked the question in 1944. 

This year’s poll found 17% of Americans said they do not believe in God. 

When asking the question first in 1944, again in 1947, and twice each in the 1950s and 1960s, a consistent 98% of respondents said they believed in God. When Gallup asked the question nearly five decades later, in 2011, 92% of Americans said they believed in God.

NUMBER OF AMERICANS WHO THINK US HAS POOR MORAL VALUES HITS RECORD HIGH: POLL 

A subsequent survey in 2013 found belief in God dipping below 90% to 87%, roughly where it stood in three subsequent updates between 2014 and 2017 before this year’s drop to 81%.

The poll found that the belief in God has plummeted the most in recent years among young adults and people on the left of the political spectrum, namely liberals and Democrats. 

Gallup said those groups show drops of 10 or more percentage points comparing the 2022 figures to an average of the 2013-2017 polls. Most other key subgroups have experienced at least a modest decline, although conservatives and married adults have had essentially no change, according to the polling company. 

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The poll found the groups with the largest declines are also the groups that are currently least likely to believe in God, including liberals (62%), young adults (68%) and Democrats (72%). Belief in God is highest among political conservatives (94%) and Republicans (92%), which Gallup said reflects “that religiosity is a major determinant of political divisions in the U.S.”

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KYIV, June 19 (Reuters) – The war in Ukraine could last for years, the head of NATO said on Sunday, calling for steadfast support from Ukraine’s allies as Russian forces battle for territory in the country’s east.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said supplying state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would boost the chance of freeing its eastern region of Donbas from Russian control, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported. read more

After failing to take the capital Kyiv early on in the war, Russian forces have focused efforts on trying to take complete control of the Donbas, parts of which were already held by Russian-backed separatists before the Feb. 24 invasion.

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” Stoltenberg was quoted as saying.

“Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday with an offer of training for Ukrainian forces, also said on Saturday it was important Britain provide support for the long haul, warning of a risk of “Ukraine fatigue” as the war drags on. read more

In an opinion piece in London’s Sunday Times, Johnson said this meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader”.

A top target in Moscow’s offensive to seize full control of Luhansk region – one of the two provinces making up the Donbas – is the industrial city of Sievierodonetsk.

Russia said on Sunday its offensive in the city was proceeding successfully. read more

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian TV that fighting made evacuations from the city impossible, but that “all Russian claims that they control the town are a lie. They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town.”

Russia’s defence ministry said it had taken control of Metyolkine, just southeast of Sievierodonetsk, with Russian state news agency TASS reporting that many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered there. Ukraine’s military said Russia had “partial success” in the area.

KHARKIV STRIKES

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in a note that “Russian forces will likely be able to seize Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area”.

In Sievierodonetsk’s twin city of Lysychansk, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed, Gaidai said. “People are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters,” he added. He later said 19 people had been evacuated on Sunday.

In Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, northwest of Luhansk, Russia’s defence ministry said its Iskander missiles had destroyed weaponry recently supplied by Western countries.

Russian forces were trying to approach Kharkiv, which experienced intense shelling earlier in the war, and turn it into a “frontline city”, a Ukrainian interior ministry official said. read more

Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said he would cancel a planned trip to Madrid to discuss the city’s reconstruction with Norman Foster and other architects due to the uncertainty caused by increased bombardment.

In southern Ukraine, Western weaponry had helped Ukrainian forces advance 10 km (6 miles) towards Russian-occupied Melitopol, its mayor said in a video posted on Telegram from outside the city.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield accounts.

‘MOOD ASSURED’

Russia has said it launched what it calls a “special military operation” to disarm its neighbour and protect Russian speakers there from dangerous nationalists. Kyiv and its allies dismissed that as a baseless pretext for a war of aggression.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has rallied citizens with daily filmed messages, said he had visited forces in the southern Mykolaiv region, about 550 km (340 miles) south of Kyiv.

“Their mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,” he said in a video on Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train. “We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back.”

In Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, Zelenskiy said he had heard reports on destruction from Russian strikes.

“The losses are significant. Many houses have been destroyed; civilian logistics have been disrupted,” he said.

Ukraine received a significant boost on Friday when the European Commission recommended it for candidate status, a decision EU nations are expected to endorse at a summit this week. read more

Though actual membership could take years, the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, said the move put a common Ukrainian dream at hand.

“Whole generations fought for a chance to escape from the prison of the Soviet Union and, like a free bird, to fly to European civilisation,” he said in a statement.

Such sentiments fly in the face of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated goals when he ordered his troops into Ukraine: to keep Moscow’s southern neighbour outside of the West’s sphere of influence.

Reporting by Reuters bureaus
Writing by David Brunnstrom, Clarence Fernandez and Aidan Lewis
Editing by Grant McCool, William Mallard and Frances Kerry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Four months of war in Ukraine appear to be straining the morale of troops on both sides, prompting desertions and rebellion against officers’ orders, British defense officials said Sunday. NATO’s chief warned the fighting could drag on for “years.”

“Combat units from both sides are committed to intense combat in the Donbas and are likely experiencing variable morale,” Britain’s defense ministry said in its daily assessment of the war.

“Ukrainian forces have likely suffered desertions in recent weeks,” the assessment said, but added that “Russian morale highly likely remains especially troubled.”

It said “cases of whole Russian units refusing orders and armed stand-offs between officers and their troops continue to occur.”

Separately, the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate released what it said were intercepted phone calls in which Russian soldiers complained about front-line conditions, poor equipment, and overall lack of personnel, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War.

In an interview published on Sunday in the German weekly Bild am Sonntag, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that “nobody knows” how long the war could last. “We need to be prepared for it to last for years,” he said.

He also urged allies ”not to weaken support for Ukraine, even if the costs are high, not only in terms of military aid, but also because of the increase in energy and food goods prices.”

In recent days, Gazprom, the Russian gas company, has reduced supplies to two major European clients — Germany and Italy. In Italy’s case, energy officials are expected to huddle this week about the situation. The head of Italian energy giant ENI said on Saturday that with additional gas purchased from other sources, Italy should make it through the coming winter, but he warned Italians that “restrictions” affecting gas use might be necessary.

Germany will limit the use of gas for electricity production amid concerns about possible shortages caused by a reduction in supplies from Russia, the country’s economy minister said on Sunday. Germany has been trying to fill its gas storage facilities to capacity ahead of the cold winter months.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that Germany will try to compensate for the move by increasing the burning of coal, a more polluting fossil fuel. “That’s bitter, but it’s simply necessary in this situation to lower gas usage,” he said.

Stoltenberg stressed, though, that “the costs of food and fuel are nothing compared with those paid daily by the Ukrainians on the front line.”

Stoltenberg added: What’s more, if Russian President Vladimir Putin should reach his objectives in Ukraine, like when he annexed Crimea in 2014, “we would have to pay an even greater price.”

Britain’s defense ministry said that both Russia and Ukraine have continued to conduct heavy artillery bombardments on axes to the north, east and south of the Sieverodonetsk pocket, but with little change in the front line.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said via Telegram on Sunday: “It is a very difficult situation in Sievierodonetsk, where the enemy in the middle of the city is conducting round-the-clock aerial reconnaissance with drones, adjusting fire, quickly adjusting to our changes.”

Russia’s defense ministry claimed on Sunday that Russian and separatist forces have taken control of Metolkine, a settlement just to the east of Sievierodonetsk.

Bakhmut, a city in the Donbas, is 55 kilometers (33 miles) southwest of the twin cities of Lysyhansk and Siervierodonetsk, where fierce military clashes have been raging. Every day, Russian artillery pummels Bakhmut.

But Bakhmut’s people try to go about their daily lives, including shopping in markets that have opened again in recent weeks.

“In principle, it can be calm in the morning,″ said one resident, Oleg Drobelnnikov. ”The shelling starts at about 7 or 8 in the evening.” Still, he said, it has been pretty calm in the last 10 days or so.

“You can buy food at small farmer markets,″ said Drobelnnikov, a teacher. ”It is not a problem. In principle, educational institutions, like schools or kindergartens, are not working due to the situation. The institutions moved to other regions. There is no work here.”

Ukraine’s east has been the main focus of Russia’s attacks for more than two months.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a trip south from Kyiv to visit troops and hospital workers in the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions along the Black Sea. He handed out awards to dozens of people at every stop, shaking their hands and thanking them again and again for their service.

Some time after Zelenskyy left Mykolaiv, “the enemy carried out fire damage against units of the Defense Forces with cannon and rocket artillery in the areas of the settlements of Pravdyne, Posad-Pokrovskoe and Blahodatne,” according to the Ukrainian army briefing on Sunday.

In other attacks in the south, Ukraine’s southern military operational command said Sunday that two people were killed in shelling of the Galitsyn community in the Mykolaiv region and that shelling of the Bashtansky district is continuing.

Russia’s defense ministry said seaborne missiles destroyed a plant in Mykolaiv city where Western-supplied howitzers and armored vehicles were stored.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has expressed concerns “that a bit of Ukraine fatigue is starting to set in around the world” and has urged support for Ukrainian efforts to try to roll back the Russian invasion.

“It would be a catastrophe if Putin won. He’d love nothing more than to say, ‘Let’s freeze this conflict, let’s have a cease-fire,’” Johnson said on Saturday, a day after a surprise visit to Kyiv, where he met with Zelenskyy and offered offer continued aid and military training.

Western-supplied heavy weapons are reaching front lines. But Ukraine’s leaders have insisted for weeks that they need more arms and they need them sooner.

On Sunday, Pope Francis, despite having lamented arms buildups, added his own admonition to those who might lose focus on Ukraine, which he has said deserves to defend itself.

“And let’s not forget the martyred Ukrainian people in this moment,” Francis told the public in St. Peter’s Square. He prodded them to ask themselves ”’What did I do today for the Ukrainian people?”

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Sylvia Hui in London, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Frances D’Emilio in Rome, and Srdjan Nedeljkovic in Bakhmut, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine