Ukraine war: Putin loses 70,000 troops in just 60 days as naval drills begin in China

Over the past decade, Russia has seen a sharp increase in treason and espionage cases.

Lawyers and experts say prosecutions for these high crimes started to grow after 2014 – the year when Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula. That’s also when Moscow backed a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

The number of these cases in Russia spiked significantly after the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, urged the security services to “harshly suppress the actions of foreign intelligence services [and] promptly identify traitors, spies and saboteurs”. The crackdown has ensnared scientists and journalists, as well as ordinary citizens.

China and Russia‘s naval forces on Sunday kicked off a joint exercise at a military port in southern China on Sunday, official news agency Xinhua reported, days after NATO allies called Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war in Ukraine.

The Chinese defense ministry said in a brief statement forces from both sides recently patrolled the western and northern Pacific Ocean and that the operation had nothing to do with international and regional situations and didn’t target any third party.

The exercise, which began in Guangdong province on Sunday and is expected to last until mid-July, aimed to demonstrate the capabilities of the navies in addressing security threats and preserving peace and stability globally and regionally, state broadcaster CCTV reported Saturday, adding it would include anti-missile exercises, sea strikes and air defense.

Struggling with manpower shortages, overwhelming odds and uneven international assistance, Ukraine hopes to find a strategic edge against Russia in an abandoned warehouse or a factory basement.

An ecosystem of laboratories in hundreds of secret workshops is leveraging innovation to create a robot army that Ukraine hopes will kill Russian troops and save its own wounded soldiers and civilians.

Defense startups across Ukraine — about 250 according to industry estimates — are creating the killing machines at secret locations that typically look like rural car repair shops.

Officials and military bloggers in Russia are complaining about poor security around critical infrastructure in areas away from the war frontline, just days after a Ukrainian drone strike successfully hit an oil depot, the Institute for the Study of War said.

It cited footage from Russian sources over the weekend of two security guards armed with anti-drone guns seemingly watching a Ukrainian drone strike the oil depot without attempting to shoot down the drone and criticised the security guards for not defending the depot, the Washington-based think tank said in its latest assessment.

This has sparked Russian officials to draw comparisons with a robust defence system from Ukraine against Russia’s Shahed drone strikes.

“Russian sources alleged that Russian authorities have attempted to absolve themselves of responsibility for Ukrainian drone strikes by ordering Russian facilities to hire their own security and questioned why the Russian government has not organised mobile fire groups similar to Ukraine’s mobile fire groups that defend against Russian Shahed-136/131 drone strikes,” it said.

The ISW added that Russian milbloggers have routinely complained about the Russian government’s inability to address and repel Ukrainian strikes against Russian infrastructure.

Ukraine has launched a new drive to boost recruitment to its armed forces, unveiling a set of billboards telling potential soldiers it offers an opportunity to “be yourself”.

One of the billboards reads, “Summer, UAV,” showing a soldier operating a drone from a beach chair as his boots rest on the sand. Another from the Khartia Brigade promises: “We guarantee 60 days of preparation,” reported The Guardian.

Manpower has long been an issue for Kyiv’s military as it fights a much larger and better-equipped foe. The problem has grown more acute in recent months, prompting authorities to introduce stricter measures for draft evaders.

In May this year, president Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law allowing some convicts to join the armed forces as it battles to hold the line against Russian offensives in Ukraine’s northeast, east and south.

Ukraine has already lowered the draft mobilisation age from 27 to 25. The upper limit is 60.

Ukraine has said its forces are facing the “hottest situation” along the frontline in the Pokrovsk area in eastern Donetsk region.

Intense Russian attacks have surged in the area, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.

“The enemy has already attacked our positions 35 times today in the areas of Novooleksandrivka, Vozdvizhenka, Progress, Lozuvatskyi, Novoselivka Pershoya and Yasnobrodivka … The situation remains tense near Novooleksandrivka, Novoselivka Persha and Progress, where six clashes are still ongoing. Our defenders restrain the enemy,” it said.

Russian forces continued offensive operations near Chasiv Yar yesterday but there were no confirmed changes to the frontline, said The Institute for the Study of War.

The Kremlin says it is “not surprised” by the assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump and said it was “obvious” that his life was in danger.

“After numerous attempts to remove candidate Trump from the political arena – using first legal tools, trials, prosecutors, attempts to politically discredit him – it was obvious to all outside observers that his life was in danger,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, reported Russian news agency TASS.

Peskov also pointed to the “atmosphere that has been created” around Mr Trump.

Trump’s campaign said the presumptive Republican nominee was doing “fine” after being whisked off the stage though the shooting pierced the upper part of his right ear.

Over the past decade, Russia has seen a sharp increase in treason and espionage cases.

Lawyers and experts say prosecutions for these high crimes started to grow after 2014 – the year when Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula. That’s also when Moscow backed a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

The number of these cases in Russia spiked significantly after the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, urged the security services to “harshly suppress the actions of foreign intelligence services [and] promptly identify traitors, spies and saboteurs”. The crackdown has ensnared scientists and journalists, as well as ordinary citizens.

The following are some treason cases prosecuted in Russia in recent years:

Russian forces claim they have taken control of Urozhaine village in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region even as Ukraine’s military said fighting was still underway.

“As a result of successful actions, the ‘east’ group of forces has taken control of the locality of Urozhaine in Donetsk region…and are carrying out mopping-up and demining operations,” the Russian defence ministry said on its official Telegram channel.

According to the Ukrainian bloggers, Kyiv’s forces had relinquished control of the village, southwest of the Russian-held city of Donetsk. Ukraine‘s military said fighting was still going on in the area.

The General Staff of Ukraine‘s armed forces, in yesterday morning’s report, said only that Russia had launched 18 attacks on Urozhaine and other nearby localities. It made no mention of the village in a late afternoon report.

The village came under Russian control early in the February 2022 invasion, but Ukraine retook the settlement near the Mokri Yaly river in July 2023.