The Russian military’s top brass is under increasing scrutiny as more details emerge of how at least 89 Russian soldiers, and possibly many more, were killed in a Ukrainian artillery attack on a single building.
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“The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate,” the update added.
The Russian Defense Ministry, in a rare admission of losses, initially said the strike killed 63 troops. But as emergency crews searched the ruins, the death toll mounted. The regiment’s deputy commander was among the dead.
That stirred renewed criticism inside Russia of the way the broader military campaign is being handled by the Ministry of Defense.
Vladlen Tatarsky, a well-known military blogger, accused Russian generals of “demonstrating their own stupidity and misunderstanding of what’s going on (among) the troops, where everyone has cellphones.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a frigate armed with the country’s latest hypersonic weapons on a trans-ocean cruise in a show of force as tensions with the West escalate over the war in Ukraine.
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Some military experts say a single, hypersonic missile-armed warship is no match for the massive naval forces of the U.S. and its allies.
But others noted that the frigate’s potential deployment close to U.S. shores could be part of Putin’s strategy to up the ante in the Ukrainian conflict.
“This is a message to the West that Russia has nuclear-tipped missiles that can easily pierce any missile defenses,” pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov wrote in a commentary.
Sitting on comfy armchairs in a low-lit room smelling of lavender and pine trees, the men take deep breaths as they close their eyes and listen to meditation music.
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“This rehabilitation is helping soldiers, at least for a week, to put themselves together,” said Oleksander Vasylkovskyi, a lieutenant colonel in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Vasylkovskyi remembers how soldiers suffered silently after returning home from fighting Russia in Ukraine’s Donbas in 2014. Suicide rates among veterans increased in the following years, with many untreated cases of post-traumatic stress disorder. He hopes a center like this can raise awareness of the need for mental health care and prevent suicides in the future.
Here, soldiers are offered a variety of treatments: aquatic therapy in a hot pool to heal muscle aches; red light therapy to improve heart and blood circulation, a salt room for better breathing; and for those having nightmares, electrosleep therapy — a Soviet-era low-frequency electrotherapy that is said to relax the nervous system and induce sleep.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his armed forces to observe a 36-hour unilateral cease-fire in Ukraine this weekend for the Orthodox Christmas holiday.
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Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Russian forces “must leave the occupied territories — only then will it have a ‘temporary truce.’”
Ukraine’s National Security Council chief Oleksiy Danilov told Ukrainian TV: “We will not negotiate any truces with them.”
He also tweeted: “What does a bunch of little Kremlin devils have to do with the Christian holiday of Christmas? Who will believe an abomination that kills children, fires at maternity homes and tortures prisoners? A cease-fire? Lies and hypocrisy. We will bite you in the singing silence of the Ukrainian night.”
U.S. President Joe Biden said it was “interesting” that Putin was ready to bomb hospitals, nurseries and churches on Christmas and New Year’s. “I think he’s trying to find some oxygen,” he said, without elaborating.