russia-ukraine conflict – hnk19.com

Kyiv statue: Ukraine replaces Soviet-era hammer and sickle symbol with a trident

[ad_1]

CNN
—

Ukraine has removed Soviet-era signage from a hilltop monument in Kyiv, amid a conflict that has seen the country fight to reassert its cultural identity in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

Kyiv last week replaced the Soviet hammer and sickle symbol with a trident – the Ukrainian coat of arms – on the shield of the Motherland Monument, which dominates the capital’s skyline.

“We believe that this change will be the beginning of a new stage in the revival of our culture and identity, the final rejection of Soviet and Russian symbols and narratives,” the Ukrainian culture ministry said. The week-long operation to dismantle the Russian insignia was completed on August 6, according to the ministry.

The monument, a 102 meter-tall statue that towers over the surrounding area, is made of steel. Its construction began in 1979, and it depicted a woman holding a sword and a shield emblazoned with the Soviet hammer and sickle symbol.

Workers remove the Soviet-era emblem from the motherland monument in Kyiv on August 1, 2023.

The steel statue, pictured with the Ukrainian coat of arms on Sunday, is an imposing feature of Kyiv's skyline.

The Russian Foreign Ministry insisted on Sunday that “mother cannot be renamed.”

“In Kiev, a trident was installed on the monument ‘Motherland,’” the ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said on Telegram, using the Russian spelling of Kyiv. The Ukrainian government’s campaign to switch the international name from the Russian Kiev to Ukrainian Kyiv was part of pre-war efforts by the Ukrainian government to get rid of old Soviet names and establish a stronger sense of national identity.

“This is the whole essence of the Kiev regime and the cyborgs led by it. Mother cannot be renamed. She is one. And the only thing you can do with it is to love. And they don’t know how.”

Putin’s desire to undermine Ukrainian national identity and autonomy has remained a key motivation for the conflict.

When the Kremlin launched its invasion in February 2022 Putin suggested Ukraine had no right to exist as an independent state, identifying the eastern part of the country “ancient Russian lands.”

Shelling from Moscow has wiped out significant architectural landmarks in Ukraine over the past year, including most recently in the historic city center of Odesa, which UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site amid the threat of Russia’s invasion.

Kyiv has seen much change in recent years. The Moscow Bridge, a 816 meter-long structure over the Dnieper river, was renamed in 2018 as the Northern Bridge.

The quad that once celebrated Soviet statesmen Andrei Ivanov has been the Latvian Square since 2018. The triangular plaza is sandwiched between the Butyshiv Lane and Omelyanovich-Pavlenko Street, previously known as Andriy Ivanov Street and Susorov Suvorov Street.

Ukrainian flags feature prominently across the city, with a red star on top of the famous Hotel Ukraine being repainted blue and yellow.

A mile-long street stretching across one of Kyiv’s residential neighborhoods was once known as the Ivan Kudrya Street. In 2019, it was renamed John McCain Street, in honor of the former US presidential candidate.

“A lot of people approve of the change,” Andreyi Pobigay, a long time employee of a kitchenware store on the John McCain street, told CNN in February 2022.

“It’s a good thing. Kudryn was exploding our churches and historical objects, whereas McCain actually helped Ukraine,” he added.

McCain won the hearts of Ukrainians when he traveled to Kyiv in late 2013, meeting opposition leaders and even visiting the Maidan Square, the site of anti-government protests.

Kudrya, meanwhile, was a Soviet spy and a leader of a sabotage group in Kyiv during World War II. When the Kyiv city council announced the renaming of the street, it said his main task was “to fight Ukrainian nationalists.”

“McCain was the one who spoke to US senators and the US government so that sent help to Ukraine … meanwhile, Russia, our brother country, is now the aggressor towards us. So I think it’s the right thing,” Pobigay added.

[ad_2]

Source link

US and Western officials fear Putin unlikely to change course in Ukraine before 2024 election

[ad_1]

Washington
CNN
—

Top US and European officials are concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is factoring the 2024 US presidential election into his Ukraine war planning in hopes that a loss by President Joe Biden next year will lead the US to curtail its support for Ukraine and improve Russia’s negotiating position, four US officials told CNN.

The US does not yet have explicit intelligence about Putin’s mindset, or whether he is purposefully dragging out the war in hopes of a Donald Trump or Republican presidential victory. But next year’s election remains a key factor that top Western national security, intelligence and diplomatic officials believe will influence Putin’s decisions in Ukraine, making it even less likely the war is resolved before the end of next year. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS that was released on Friday found most Americans oppose Congress providing additional funding to support Ukraine, as the public splits over whether the US has or has not already done enough in the conflict.

One US official said they have “no doubt” that Putin is “trying to hold out” until the 2024 election. Another source familiar with the intelligence said “it’s sort of the elephant in the room” for the US, Ukraine and Europe.

“Putin knows Trump will help him. And so do the Ukrainians and our European partners,” the source said. “So even though we haven’t seen anything explicitly to that effect, you have to assume, I believe, that everyone is thinking it.”

A European diplomat told CNN that they believe trying to ride out the war in Ukraine until the US election “is exactly Putin’s plan.”

Officials who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity to discuss private internal considerations believe that Putin could be eyeing a win by Trump, or another Republican candidate, as a trigger for the US to pull back support for Ukraine. They also say that Putin’s eye on the election makes it even more important for the US to maintain long-term support to Ukraine, a commitment that the Biden administration continues to reiterate.

Trump, the far-and-away front-runner for the GOP nomination at this point, has not committed to backing Ukraine in the war. He has claimed that as president he could have the war settled in 24 hours, and just this week he said that support for Ukraine should be conditioned on congressional investigations into Biden and his family.

While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis walked back previous statements calling the war in Ukraine a “territorial dispute” he has maintained a broadly anti-interventionist policy. Congressional Republicans have also drawn a tougher line on funding for Ukraine since the GOP took control of the House this year, with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy suggesting earlier this summer that he would plan to block any Senate-led efforts to approve additional funding to aid Ukraine’s war effort.

“The election next year complicates things because the Russians think they have a light at the end of the tunnel. It encourages Putin to think that they can outlast the Americans because political support for Ukraine will be compromised if Trump wins,” said Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland.

The forthcoming US presidential election has put even more pressure on the Ukrainian counteroffensive, with Europeans, Americans and Ukrainians all hoping for substantial Ukrainian gains to potentially impact Putin’s calculus before the end of next year.

One European official said that without those gains, it was possible to predict Putin attempting to drag out the conflict until the results of the contest are known – essentially forestalling any attempt at negotiating an end to the fighting. That prospect has lent urgency to Europe’s attempts to ship ever-more-powerful arms to Ukraine, hoping to shift battlefield momentum before next year.

At this year’s G7 summit in Japan, the American election was the subject of anxious discussions among delegations, the official said, as leaders looked ahead to what could prove to be a decisive factor in the Ukraine war. Biden has sought to tamp down those concerns, but European officials view even a close race against Trump as reason for Putin to try extending the conflict until November.

“Putting a shape on the US election will have an enormous effect” in how the war proceeds, the official said.

In the most recent New York Times polling, Biden and Trump are locked in a tie, each with 43% of voters supporting them.

The looming US election is also on the minds of Ukrainians, two sources told CNN. They are hoping to make gains on the battlefield in the short-term that could change the dynamics at play sooner rather than later.

“The Ukrainians want to win or have something that changes due dynamic before late this year. There are all sorts of reasons for their urgency – such as Ukrainians dying everyday – but the US presidential election is one of them,” said Bill Taylor, the former US ambassador to Ukraine.

But so far the Ukrainian counteroffensive has not resulted in major breakthroughs.

“It has and will continue to be a tough fight for them,” Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder said this week, noting broadly that the counteroffensive has moved forward.

Ukrainians are determined that there still may be gains in the short-term and US officials are cognizant of the need for sustained support so even after the summer Ukraine can continue fighting.

Saudi Arabia is set to host peace talks on Ukraine this weekend that will include the US as well as a number of Western and developing countries. The talks will be aimed at developing shared principles to end the war and discussing the kind of security assistance Kyiv will need to deter Russia from ever attacking Ukraine again, US officials have said.

“We are not looking at these talks as generating any concrete deliverables at the end of them. The point of these talks is to continue the conversation with countries around the world about how we obtain a just and lasting peace at the end of this war,” said State Department spokesperson Matt Miller on Wednesday.

While Russia will not be at the table, the question of what Putin is willing to do – and whether he would even abide by a ceasefire or peace agreement – will be top of mind, officials said.

Though the idea of peace negotiations at this point in the war appear premature, US officials believe that multiple factors could impact how dug-in Putin remains on the battlefield, including pressure from the global south.

“These are the countries that could make a difference if they applied pressure to Russia,” said a second US official referencing countries in the global south, especially larger countries such as India, adding that driving up their interaction with Ukraine would be beneficial even if any negotiated peace might be far off.

[ad_2]

Source link

Russia’s Medvedev makes new nuclear threat over Ukraine war

[ad_1]

CNN
—

Russia may be forced to use a nuclear weapon if Ukraine’s counteroffensive succeeds, senior Russian official Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday – the latest in a series of nuclear threats made during Moscow’s invasion by the key ally of President Vladimir Putin.

“Just imagine that the offensive… in tandem with NATO, succeeded and ended up with part of our land being taken away. Then we would have to use nuclear weapons by virtue of the stipulations of the Russian Presidential Decree,” said Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, in a Telegram post.

“There simply wouldn’t be any other solution,” the former Russian president added. “Our enemies should pray to our fighters that they do not allow the world to go up in nuclear flames.”

Medvedev, who served as president of Russia from 2008 to 2012, has struck a bellicose tone throughout Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, repeatedly raising the specter of nuclear conflict.

Last April, he warned of Russian nuclear expansion should Sweden and Finland join NATO. Helsinki joined the defense alliance later that month, while Stockholm’s path to NATO membership was cleared earlier this month after Turkey dropped its objections.

In September, Medvedev said strategic nuclear weapons could be used to defend territories incorporated into Russia from Ukraine.

And in January, as NATO member states debated new weapons shipments to Ukraine, Medvedev said defeat for Russia in the war could lead to nuclear conflict.

“The loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram in January. “Nuclear powers do not lose major conflicts on which their fate depends.

“This should be obvious to anyone. Even to a Western politician who has retained at least some trace of intelligence.”

Medvedev’s remarks Sunday again raise the possibility that Russia could potentially lose the war following nearly 18 months of attrition – a rare admission from a senior Russian official.

They also came just hours after Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Kyiv of attacking Moscow with drones. Three drones were intercepted Sunday, but a business and shopping development in the west of the Russian capital was hit, the ministry said.

The United States has previously warned Russia against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, both through private direct communications, as well as public channels, including at last year’s UN General Assembly.

Last month, Putin said Russia had moved a first batch of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, claiming they were placed there for “deterrence.”

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin said the rest of the tactical nuclear weapons Russia intends to move to Belarus would be transferred “by the end of the summer or by the end of the year.”

The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said it had “no reason to doubt” Putin’s claim that nuclear weapons were in Belarus.

But US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at the time that the US has “not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture nor any indication Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.”

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said last month that in the face of aggression, he would show “no hesitation” in using the Russian tactical nuclear weapons stationed on Belarusian soil.

But the senior DIA officials said they do not believe Lukashenko would have any control over the arsenal. It would most likely be entirely controlled by Russia, the officials said.

Russia has about 4,477 deployed and reserve nuclear warheads, including around 1,900 tactical nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

[ad_2]

Source link

Ukraine moves Christmas to December 25, distancing itself from Russian tradition

[ad_1]

CNN
—

Ukraine has passed legislation moving its official Christmas holiday to December 25, further distancing itself from the traditions of the Putin-aligned Russian Orthodox Church, which celebrates the holiday on January 7.

The bill was passed by Ukraine’s parliament earlier this month. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed it into law on Friday.

The legislation’s sponsors said its passage would help Ukraine “abandon the Russian heritage of imposing the celebration of Christmas on January 7,” and help Ukrainians “live their own life with their own traditions (and) holidays.”

Ukraine and Russia are both majority Orthodox countries, but since Russia illegally annexed Crimea and began supporting separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in 2014, a large part of the Orthodox community in Ukraine has moved away from Moscow.

Russia’s war in Ukraine further accelerated the divide between the two branches of Orthodox Christianity, especially given that the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, fully endorsed the invasion and framed it as a culture clash between the wider Russian world and Western liberal values.

The new law will effectively formalize what some churches in Ukraine had already begun practicing. A branch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine allowed its churches to celebrate Christmas on December 25 last year. Ukraine’s main Greek Catholic church said in February it was moving to a new calendar to celebrate Christmas on December 25 as well.

The decision appears to be popular. In December, the Ukrainian government launched a poll asking citizens whether the date for Christmas should be moved to December 25. Nearly 59% of the more than 1.5 million people who voted supported such a move.

Alla and Oksana, two teachers from the Zaporizhzhia region who had been forced to flee their homes, said they supported the decision to change the date. They added that they celebrated Christmas on December 25 last year and felt they would “quickly adapt.”

“Ukraine should be a civilized European country,” Alla said. “This should be the norm for us.”

Vitalina and Pavlo, a couple from Lviv visiting Kyiv, supported the decision but said the transition would be harder for the parents.

“Celebrating December 25 is logical. This is how Europe celebrates. We celebrated in December this year and there was nothing difficult about it. We want to be closer to Europe and to the world,” Pavlo said.

Tetyana, an Orthodox Christian from Kyiv, said the date was not important for her, but was ready to support the move because of its symbolic value.

“If necessary, we will celebrate on December 25. It is no longer about religion, it is more a sign of statehood. Let it be so. I support the president and my country,” she said.

The new law will also change the dates of several Ukrainian holidays that are celebrated on the same day as religious festivities. The Day of Ukrainian Statehood – the country’s independence day – will move from July 28 to July 15, while the Day of Defenders of Ukraine, when Ukraine honors its veterans and war dead, will move forward to October 1 from October 14.

[ad_2]

Source link