Author: Reporter

Ukrainian forces are biding time in counteroffensive to thin Russia’s resources before striking

The first phase of Ukraine’s counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory began weeks ago without fanfare. Apart from claiming that its troops are edging forward, Kyiv has not offered much detail on how it is going. Taking place mostly out of sight of impartial observers, the fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine pits troops equipped with new Western-supplied weapons against Kremlin forces that spent months digging formidable defenses and honing tactics. Here is a look at what is happening after more than 17 months of war: WHAT ARE UKRAINE’S TACTICS? Fighting has intensified at multiple points along the 930-mile front...

Read More

Ukraine tries to outsmart a brutal Russian army distracted by rebellion and infighting

The ambush had been postponed three times before Ukrainian commanders decided one recent night that conditions were finally right. Cloaked in darkness, a battalion of Kyiv’s 129th brigade pressed ahead, advancing stealthily on unsuspecting Russian soldiers. By the time the Russians situated along the front line realized they were under attack, it was too late. Ukraine’s recapture of the small village of Neskuchne in the eastern Donetsk region on June 10 encapsulated the opening strategy of a major counteroffensive launched earlier in June. Small platoons bank on the element of surprise and, when successful, make incremental gains in territory...

Read More

Ukrainian family finds closure after 16-month ordeal to identify a veteran killed in Bucha

The Ukrainian veteran’s gravestone carries his photograph and birthday, but the date Roman Shadlovskyi died is a broad estimate: March 2022, the month Russian forces brutally killed both civilians and military personnel before ending their occupation of Bucha. Shadlovskyi’s body was found about three months later in a mass grave along with the remains of six other people in a forest outside the city near Ukraine’s capital. Residents and relatives gathered at a Bucha cemetery on July 18 to give him a proper burial. “They took him on the fourth of March, but we don’t know when they tortured...

Read More

Russia seeks to escalate global hunger crisis with halt to deal allowing Ukraine grain exports

Russia on July 17 halted a breakthrough wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Black Sea Grain Initiative would be suspended until demands to get Russian food and fertilizer to the world are met. The July 17 attack on a bridge connecting the Crimean Peninsula to Russia was not a factor in the decision, he said. “When the part of the Black Sea deal related to...

Read More

Study finds unprecedented global warming could cause Himalayan glaciers to lose 80% of their volume

Glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates across the Hindu Kush Himalayan mountain ranges and could lose up to 80% of their current volume this century if greenhouse gas emissions are not sharply reduced, according to a new report. The report in June from Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development warned that flash floods and avalanches would grow more likely in coming years, and that the availability of fresh water would be affected for nearly 2 billion people who live downstream of 12 rivers that originate in the mountains. Ice and snow in the Hindu Kush Himalayan ranges is...

Read More

First U.S. deep water port in Arctic hosts cruise ships after climate ice melt opens shipping lanes

The cruise ship with about 1,000 passengers anchored off Nome, too big to squeeze into into the tundra city’s tiny port. Its well-heeled tourists had to shimmy into small boats for another ride to shore. It was 2016, and at the time, the cruise ship Serenity was the largest vessel ever to sail through the Northwest Passage. But as the Arctic sea ice relents under the pressures of global warming and opens shipping lanes across the top of the world, more tourists are venturing to Nome — a northwest Alaska destination known better for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog...

Read More