WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Biden allows Ukraine limited use of US arms to strike inside Russia, say US officials

President Joe Biden quietly has authorized Kyiv to launch U.S.-supplied weapons at military targets inside Russia that are supporting an offensive against the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, four U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The decision marks a policy shift by Biden, who had steadfastly refused to allow Ukraine to use American weaponry for strikes inside Russia.

Russia's embassy in Washington and Russia's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Biden's decision applies only to targets inside Russia near the border with the Kharkiv region, where an offensive launched by Moscow on May 10 has overrun some villages.

"The President recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use U.S.-supplied weapons for counter-fire purposes in the Kharkiv region so Ukraine can hit back against Russian forces that are attacking them or preparing to attack them," said one U.S. official.

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Russia is building up forces near the northern part of the region, but it lacks the troop numbers to stage a major push, Ukraine's top commander said on Thursday.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, is 19 miles (30 km) from the border with Russia.

It is the second time this year that Biden has quietly relaxed his policy on weapons supplies for Ukraine, bending to calls to send long-range missiles known as ATACMS to Kyiv.

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"The Biden administration has come a long way from their hypersensitivity to and misunderstanding of the risk of escalation," said Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former director for European affairs at the White House National Security Council under the Trump administration.

He applauded the shift in Biden's policy, which he said "unties Ukraine's hands."

"Of course it's the right move," Vindman said.

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The U.S. is the biggest supplier of weapons to Ukraine in its battle against the full-scale invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2022.

The officials said that U.S. policy would continue to prohibit the Ukrainian military from using ATACMS, which have a range of up to 186 miles (300 km), and other long-range U.S.-supplied weapons for deep strikes inside Russia.

Biden's decision also does not mean the U.S. now approves of drone attacks that Ukraine has been launching against Russian petroleum facilities, they said.

Some NATO allies and U.S. lawmakers have been calling on Biden to relax the restriction on U.S. weapons to allow Ukraine to strike missile launchers and other military sites inside Russia that are backing Moscow's drive toward Kharkiv.

Russia jetfighters flying inside Russia out of reach of Ukrainian air defenses have been supporting the offensive by loosing highly precise glide bombs at Ukrainian defense lines and into Kharkiv, where they have caused numerous civilian casualties.

Putin on Tuesday warned NATO membersagainst allowing Ukraine to fire their weapons into Russia and he raised anew a risk of nuclear war.

Some experts dismissed his remarks as bluster. They noted that Putin has failed to act on similar threats in the past and already has committed the bulk of his conventional forces to Europe's biggest land war since World War Two.

"I don't think we can or should be bullied by Vladimir Putin," said U.S. Representative Gerry Connolly, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. "Is he really willing to risk nuclear war and a conflict with NATO?"

Connolly co-signed a May 20 letter with Representative Michael Turner, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and other lawmakers urging the Biden administration to allow Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to hit strategic targets inside Russia.

For some time, critics have urged NATO allies to relax restrictions on use of their weapons against military targets inside Russia. Those voices have grown within the alliance since Russia launched the Kharkiv offensive.

Countries that have called for relaxing restrictions or done so for their own arms sent to Ukraine include Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Baltic states, Finland, Denmark, Germany and France.

Biden faced the potentially embarrassing prospect that as he hosts a NATO summit in July, Russian forces would be advancing on Kharkiv and in Ukraine's east as the alliance marks its 75th anniversary, analysts said.

** Life on Ukraine’s front line: ‘Worse than hell’ as Russia advances

The artillery fire begins just before dawn. A soldier steps into a darkened trench and lights a cigarette, carefully cupping the flame with his free hand. A boom and crackle of outgoing fire sound in the distance.

Viktor, the infantryman, ducks his head under a canopy of camouflage netting and looks up at the brightening sky. The incessant buzz of a drone sounds overhead, moving a dozen meters from one end of the trench to linger just above him.

Viktor swallows. A moment later, the buzzing sound moves on.

“One of ours,” the 37-year-old soldier says, bringing the cigarette back up to his lips.

The sun finally rises and the noise of war picks up. For weeks, Viktor has barely slept as Russian drones and artillery continually target his position. During the day, he watches for any attempts by Russian troops to cross a minefield that separates the two sides. At night, he picks up a shovel to dig and fortify his trench.

“They’re constantly firing, constantly probing,” he says. “We have to survive somehow and we have to hold the line.”

It is the start of another draining day on Ukraine’s eastern front line. Monitoring his scratchy radio, Viktor will try to move as little as possible in a trench less than 800 meters from where Russian soldiers are amassed. For seven months, Viktor’s unit has held this sector of the front, repelling a relentless onslaught of Russian assaults.

Now in the third year of full-scale war, Ukraine’s top military leaders openly admit that the battlefield situation on the eastern front has deteriorated. Two years of war have sapped Ukraine’s ammunition and manpower, while the country’s failed counter-offensive last year sank morale.

As Reuters traveled along the eastern stretch of Ukraine’s 1,000-kilometer front line in April, soldiers in infantry, artillery and drone units all expressed exhaustion. They spoke of an acute shortage of ammunition and an urgent need to replenish troops. A new push by Moscow earlier this month near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is likely to further divert precious ammunition and personnel from other sections of the front, stretching Kyiv’s military thin at a critical moment in the war.

Though Congress finally greenlit a long-delayed $60 billion U.S. military package in April, analysts say that a severe worldwide shortage of artillery shells means Ukraine will likely be outgunned by Russia for the remainder of the year as Kyiv’s allies ramp up production. Reuters could not independently establish how much of the new U.S. weaponry has made it to the front line. On a visit this month to Kyiv, Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured Ukraine that the delayed aid was “now on the way” and some had “already arrived.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said recently there were no reports of artillery shortages. But in an interview last week with Reuters, he called on Western allies to speed up aid, saying every decision they’ve made on military support for Ukraine has been “late by around one year.”

With the possibility of Donald Trump, who has questioned American military aid to Ukraine, returning to the presidency later this year, many Ukrainians fear the continued support of their most powerful ally hangs in the balance.

Russia, meanwhile, has continued to batter Ukraine with seemingly endless resources.

President Vladimir Putin, riding high as he begins his fifth term, has redoubled his war effort. In 2014, Russian-backed separatists staged a battle to control the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. Since 2022, Putin has made clear his aims to annex the entirety of the area, known as Donbas. To that end, Russian forces have made steady advances in recent months. In February, they captured the eastern city of Avdiivka.

Now, Russia is trying to seize Chasiv Yar, a strategic hilltop city that, if captured, would allow its troops to more easily advance toward the remaining cities of the Donetsk region. Russia’s recent incursions in Kharkiv have distracted the world’s attention from the heavy battles being waged in the Donetsk region, Zelenskiy told Reuters.

The Ukrainian armed forces and the Russian defense ministry did not respond to questions for this story.

Fighting to hold the line

In recent months, Russian forces have made modest but steady gains along Ukraine’s eastern front.

Before Russia launched its full-scale invasion two years ago, Viktor, the infantryman, was working as a window framer outside of Uman, a city in central Ukraine. His wife had just given birth to a baby daughter. They lived with his parents in his childhood home built on a small hill overlooking verdant forests and fields that changed color with the seasons. (Like all of the Ukrainians profiled in this report, Viktor asked to be identified by his first name only, in keeping with military protocol.)

Viktor received his mobilization notice four months after the beginning of the war. He was quickly sent to an area in northern Ukraine that borders Russia to dig trenches and fortifications. Later, he was transferred to Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group were fighting to capture the city. Last September, Viktor was handed a Browning machine gun and taught how to clean and maintain the weapon. A week later, he was transferred to the front in Donetsk without having fired a single practice round.

When Viktor’s infantry unit first arrived here, thickets of oak and birch trees lined the grassy fields. There were still birds in the trees then and the leaves were just starting to change color. The soldiers dug trenches into the tough black soil but had no time to cover them with wooden planks before the Russian bombardment started. Through winter, the Russians’ near-constant shelling reduced the trees and fields to ashes, leaving only a tangle of charred stumps.

In winter, temperatures in Viktor’s trench fell as low as minus 26 degrees Celsius. On warmer days, shin-high water pooled at the bottom of the canal, mixing with the earth to turn into slushy mud, soaking everything. All the while, Russian drones flew overhead, hovering above the open trench and dropping grenades.

At the beginning of this year, Russian forces attempted yet another assault, driving an armored personnel carrier into a field just meters from Viktor’s position. He fired at the vehicle with his machine gun and diverted it to a minefield, where it detonated a mine and exploded.

Several of the Russian soldiers died in their vehicle, say Viktor and his commander. Others survived with serious injuries and tried to crawl through the minefield back toward the Russian positions. One of them, a former convict from Russia’s Buryatia region, was taken prisoner, Viktor says. Immediately afterward, Russian attacks on Viktor’s position intensified.

“So of course the Russians were angry. They lost equipment, lost people, so of course they started shelling with everything they have,” Viktor says.

In the heat of battle, all you can do is pray, he says. Around his neck, Viktor wears silver medallions of the Virgin Mary and the crucifix. But when the situation is truly dire, he will pray to every God he knows.

After Russia’s failed assault, their drones started dropping gas canisters into Viktor’s trench. A colorless, odorless gas would quickly fill the trench as Viktor and his partner fumbled in the dark for their gas masks. Coughing and sputtering, Viktor would crawl into a hole dug into the side of the trench just tall enough for him to crouch in and grab his phone. There, using candlelight, he would flick through photos and videos of his now two-year-old daughter on his phone.

The Ukrainian military says Russia has ramped up its use of riot-control chemical agents to clear trenches on the front line. The U.S. State Department says Russia is deploying a choking agent called chloropicrinagainst Ukrainian troops, in violation of the international chemical weapons ban. The U.S. allegations were unfounded, the Russian foreign ministry said this month.

When spring finally came, nothing flowered. All Viktor sees now are the outlines of blackened tree trunks on the horizon.

His exhaustion is palpable – the result of months spent holding the line against an enemy with seemingly endless manpower and weaponry. Death and injury are constant and every day is a reminder of the asymmetry of the war.

A declassified U.S. intelligence report in December assessed that Russia had lost as much as 90% of the personnel it had at the start of the 2022 invasion, with 315,000 soldiers killed or injured. Despite the losses, Russia is still estimated to have almost 500,000 servicemen in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, and has continued to replenish its troops, recruiting heavily from prisons and from the general public. Ukrainian officials say Russia is planning to add another 300,000 soldiers in time for its summer offensive.

Russia’s new defense minister said this month there were no plans for a new mass call-up of troops. Russian officials also say Western estimates of Russian losses are inaccurate.

Zelenskiy recently signed off on a long-debated mobilization law to bolster Ukraine’s armed forces, which number around 800,000. The law, passed in April, lowers the draft age to 25 from 27. The government hasn’t said how many new conscripts the law would yield, and how soon they can reinforce the troops already on the front line.

“It’s not like how it looks on a map, with all these pretty lines and arrows,” Viktor says. “I see my friends, what’s happened to them, what we’re fighting. It’s hell. It’s worse than hell.”

In February, the constant Russian assaults, sleep deprivation, and fear finally got to Viktor. He woke up one morning frozen with terror, physically unable to go to his position.

“I couldn't calm myself down,” he says. “Not even that I didn’t want to go, but I couldn’t go. I was physically and mentally tired.”

Viktor was paralyzed by anxiety. What if he failed to do his job properly, what if something went wrong with his gun, what if he let down his comrades, whom he calls his “brothers” and considers his second family?

He shared his concerns with his company commander. Despite a severe shortage of soldiers on the front, the commander gave Viktor a few days of rest and time to talk with a psychologist. That short reprieve saved him and helped reframe his fear of death.

The face of war

Soldiers injured on the front lines are taken to medical stabilization points for treatment.

In the past, he used to think of death as a distant possibility. “But in a war, you’re completely unprotected,” he says. “Death can come at any moment. I’m starting to get used to the idea of death … that it can happen, and you can’t escape it.”

“The psychologist said that a person who has faith understands that in death the spirit leaves the body and only a shell remains on earth.”

Viktor’s ideas are blurrier when it comes to what follows death, but he knows, with certainty, that there is no salvation for the Russian soldiers who marched into Ukraine.

“I think they’re churning in hell,” he says.

Viktor’s eyes suddenly flick up. The whistle of incoming artillery makes him duck for cover.

“Get in the hole!” he yells, his voice drowned out by a shattering boom as he flattens himself against the dirt floor of the trench. Another whistle, this time closer, then a sound of impact, of metal meeting earth. The dirt walls of the trench vibrate. Then all is quiet for some time.

A little while later, the exhausted voice of a Ukrainian soldier crackles over the radio, asking for help. The soldier’s position, a few hundred meters away from Viktor’s trench, has been hit by what appear to be Russian suicide drones, which smash into their targets laden with explosives.

“One 200, three 300s,” the soldier says over the radio, using military code: one dead and three wounded.

“What are my instructions?” he asks, panting slightly. The soldier is ordered to hold his position and not attempt to cross the minefield.

“Plus plus,” he sighs, acknowledging the order.

A few minutes later, the same soldier’s voice returns to the radio.

“What are my instructions?” he asks again, audibly out of breath.

“He’s concussed,” Viktor says, noting the soldier’s confusion and slurred speech, signs of possible head trauma.

He slumps against the white sandbags that line the walls of his trench and takes off his helmet. “They’re not going to be able to rescue them until dark.”

Over the radio, the injured soldiers are told to wait until nightfall – more than eight hours – for a medevac team to extract them. From there they could be taken to a stabilization point, a medical facility close to the front line where wounded soldiers receive emergency aid. The commander says another group of men will be transported to hold the position at the same time.

“Do not leave your post,” he tells the soldier on the radio, instructing him to drink water and stay awake.

Several more explosions are heard from the injured men’s position.

“They’re trying to finish them off,” Viktor says, as the radio crackles again with the voice of the soldier. Several more Russian drones are swooping on their position and dropping munitions.

Viktor takes another drag of his cigarette. He’s lost count of the soldiers he’s seen injured or killed. There was a cheerful soldier in his twenties he shared a trench with last fall. He was killed in a heavy mortar attack while Viktor was away from the position for a few days of rest.

Asked for the young soldier’s name, Viktor hesitates and squeezes his eyes shut.

“I can’t even remember,” he says after a pause. “I can’t even remember where he was from.”

More than anything, Viktor wishes he could go home, but he says the chances of another soldier replacing him soon at his front-line position are slim.

The final mobilization law passed in April did not include a provision in an earlier version that would have rotated out soldiers who had already served 36 months of duty. Ukraine’s defense ministry is now considering a new law that will address demobilization.

Even with the mobilization push, many young Ukrainian men do not want to be sent to challenging front-line trenches like Viktor’s, soldiers and officers in his brigade say.

“No one will trade with us,” Viktor says. “Who would want to come here?”

So, he stands guard at his Browning, listening and watching. For hours, the radio crackles on as the injured soldiers wait for the skies to darken. Viktor, ever alert in his trench, looks up at the midafternoon sky. A deeper buzzing sound can be heard approaching, a sound that resembles a larger drone carrying a heavier payload. The sound comes closer, then hovers, suspended above the trench.

Viktor strains to hear against the wind. The buzzing moves away, towards the Russian position.

“Ours,” he says.

‘Nobody’s safe’

A few dozen kilometers away in a demolished village in the southern sector of Donetsk region, another soldier stares at a bank of computer monitors in the dark basement of a command observation point. Roman, a 38-year old commander of a fire support platoon, squints at the screens, a cherry-flavored cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. On one screen is a grid of thermal images, including one showing a tree line in his sector of the Donetsk front.

There is no movement. But Roman knows there are Russian dugouts under the trees. He leans back in his leather armchair and scratches behind the ears of his dog, Marcel, a mixed breed he found in the destroyed village. Another soldier, one of the men in Roman’s drone unit, coughs in his sleep as he shifts on an army cot set up in the room.

Drones have been used in wars before, but their use has exploded in the war in Ukraine. Russian and Ukrainian forces are now racing to develop and deploy a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, that can carry out precision attacks, destroying everything from dugouts to multi-million dollar tanks.

Ukrainian soldiers and commanders say aerial vehicles initially gave them an edge over Russia. They now say Moscow is far outpacing their ability to produce them, in particular the lower-cost first-person view drones, or FPVs, which can be laden with explosives and crashed into targets.

Like thousands of other Ukrainians, Roman volunteered to fight in 2022. At the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion, he had been living in Marseille, after almost eight years working and living abroad. He grew up in a working-class village outside of Kyiv with a single mother and left Ukraine to search for a better life. In Marseille, he met his French wife, opened a small pizza restaurant with friends, and spent his free time walking his dog and swimming in the brisk waters of the ocean.

“I was really living my dream, it was everything I wanted after struggling for so long,” he says.

When war broke out, his wife and mother begged him not to return to Ukraine. But Roman felt he wouldn’t be able to look himself in the mirror if he didn’t volunteer. He quickly joined up with Ukraine’s police task force, which has fighting units, first heading to the southern Ukrainian cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson before moving to Bakhmut in Donbas.

In December of 2022, Roman formally joined the military. Last year, he was assigned to accompany one of Ukraine’s deadliest snipers, Vasya, who has more than 440 kills, according to the press officer of Roman’s brigade. Vasya has been given the prestigious “Hero of Ukraine” title, a presidential award usually bestowed posthumously, although he is still alive. Roman, who has combat lifesaving training, was tasked with protecting Vasya and keeping him alive as they stalked Russian soldiers in the thick of the Kreminna Forest.

In his new role, Roman oversees 32 soldiers in the 58th Motorized Brigade who are fanned out across mortar and drone positions in the Donetsk region.

Roman’s war is now waged almost entirely on monitors.

“It looks like a fucking video game,” he says, toggling between the different windows on his screen.

A few kilometers closer to the front, three soldiers in Roman’s unit sit in a cramped dugout, waiting for Roman’s orders to launch the drone. Denys, a drone pilot and youngest of Roman’s platoon at 21, sits in the corner vaping as another soldier teases him for being too green and stupid.

“He’s senile, don’t listen to him,” Denys says, pointing to the older soldier, who is in his 30s. “They’re so desperate for fighters they’re recruiting from homes for the elderly.”

The two soldiers banter on. Serhii, their explosives expert, listens with a smile. Unlike artillery and other longer-range drone teams, units like theirs need to sit closer to Russian positions because their reconnaissance drones normally have a shorter range. Day and night the soldiers sit underground, waiting for an order to fly the DJI Mavic, a quadcopter that they use to surveil the sector and drop bombs on Russian targets.

Roman’s voice comes over the speaker of Denys’ phone and the men spring into action. Denys balances the drone controller on one leg, while Serhii attaches a freshly charged battery to the Mavic.

Once in the air, the drone sweeps over a field pockmarked by artillery rounds. The soldiers watch its video feed on a small screen: It ascends higher as it flies over two Russian heavy vehicles destroyed by mines. On the horizon, a line of trees appears.

“Denyska, climb higher, you’re flying for reconnaissance,” Roman can be heard telling his drone pilot.

“I’m climbing,” Denys says.

“Higher. Fly sideways,” Roman orders.

As the tree line comes closer, Denys scans for movement on a small monitor.

“No, there’s nothing,” he says.

“Okay, come back, I’ll watch everything on streams,” Roman says, referring to the live feeds from other reconnaissance drones, as he searches for targets.

The next day, one of the reconnaissance flights spots a Russian soldier standing under a thick cover of trees.

“He doesn’t see the drone so he thinks he’s safe,” Roman says in his bunker, looking at the Russian man in fatigues on his screen. “But nobody’s safe.”

Mouth still wet from brushing his teeth, the Russian soldier squints as he tries to make out the soft whirring sound. He turns to say something to his partner, then spots the Ukrainian drone. He dives into a hole under the trees, just as Denys drops a homemade bomb right on top of it.

“Fucking great! Good boy!” Roman exclaims, staring at a plume of dust and smoke rising from the hole.

Denys asks Roman to repeat the praise.

“I told you you're great, do you need anything else?” Roman jokes.

Leaning back in his armchair, Roman taps the tip of an unlit cigarette on the back of the pack. Marcel, the dog, trots over to him to lean against his legs.

“The idea is – let them be scared. We want them to sit in their holes and not even pop their heads up. If any time you see movement you throw something at them, you throw FPV, you fly a drone, you hit them with artillery, you shoot them with a machine gun, they’ll be scared even to go to the toilet,” says Roman.

Drone race

Ukrainian and Russian forces are racing to develop and produce unmanned aerial vehicles, which can target everything from trenches to state-of-the art equipment on the battlefield.

One of the most potent weapons in the war has been FPV drones. They have made it almost impossible for both Ukrainian and Russian troops to move on the battlefield without being spotted from above. These drones, which carry explosives, can be guided to a target kilometers away, and cost as little as $500 to produce. Russia, like Ukraine, aggressively targets soldiers’ positions and equipment with FPVs. Doctors and staff working at medical stabilization points in Donbas now say most of the battlefield injuries they treat are from such drones.

There are no reliable estimates of how many FPV drones Russia is able to manufacture every month. Ukraine plans to produce a million FPVs this year, but soldiers and commanders in drone units say they need to double or triple this number if they hope to keep up with Russian troops.

To more quickly supply Roman’s brigade with drones, former jewelers and mechanics sit in a village house near the front line, soldering parts for FPVs that can immediately be deployed. Brigades also collect downed Russian drones, which are then taken apart and examined by army engineers who are desperate to keep up with the pace of development on the Russian side.

Roman’s phone rings and he picks up, switching to French. His wife is calling from Marseille to ask about Marcel the dog and the vaccinations he will need for a short leave that Roman is planning to France. The couple married just before Roman enlisted to fight, and in his final week in France he drew up a will to make sure she would be taken care of if he died at war.

Like many Ukrainians, one of his best friends from childhood was killed in the fighting two years ago. Afterward, Roman had the words “hate” and “revenge” tattooed above his knuckles, a reminder of the emotions that keep him fighting.

But drone warfare, unlike the close-quarter fighting he conducted in the forests, does not always provide the gratification he seeks. Video clips of the bomb drops, often edited by the soldiers themselves with a hip-hop soundtrack and shared on social media, have an artificial, almost unreal quality about them.

“If I see someone is dead, if we’ve killed someone, I have zero moral satisfaction, it’s just like a video game,” Roman says. Often, he wonders what will actually satisfy the anger and sadness that he feels.

“So your friend is gone. How many invaders do you have to kill to avenge him? 10? 100? 1,000? You’re not going to get your friend back,” he says.

Soldiers in Ukraine clearly delineate life before and after the war.

Even Roman, who has a background in martial arts and easily fits his new role of commander, never dreamed of becoming a soldier. A look at his social media photos from just a few years ago reveals a different man: carefree and smiling on a messenger bike, eating pizza with his friends, posing in a rice paddy in Bali.

Another soldier describes that sense of disconnect as missing the person you once were and not recognizing the new person you’ve become. When there’s a lull in his work, Roman lingers on such thoughts.

“My wife is constantly asking, ‘When is it going to be over?’ And I say I don’t have a fucking answer,” he says. At first, he thought he might be away from home for a year or two. Now, he thinks the war will continue for at least a few more years.

Though he’s not interested in demobilizing and leaving his men behind, Roman agrees that Ukraine needs a way to help fighters rest. Some of Ukraine’s most motivated men and women were the first to volunteer in 2022. Now, so many of them are dead, injured, or exhausted. It’s not enough just to draft more people to take their place, Roman says; they need to be properly prepared and trained.

“You can’t keep the same people constantly on the front line.”

But the decision of Ukrainians like him to continue fighting isn’t really a choice, he says. It’s a question of life or death for his people and his country. And if Russia prevails in Ukraine, he’s convinced no one in Europe will be safe.

“For Europe and the whole world, we’re on the front lines defending it,” Roman says. “Because this motherfucker will never stop just in Ukraine,” he adds, referring to Putin. “If you let him get away with it, he’s not going to stop over here.”

Sitting in the windowless basement in front of the monitors, Roman loses track of time. Outside, above the destroyed rooftops of village houses, the night sky is full of stars.

III

‘It’s endless’

In an area north of Roman’s command center, artillery units defending Ukraine’s eastern front waited for new deliveries of ammunition to arrive.

Ukraine’s shortage of artillery shells has become a decisive factor in its struggle to repel Russian advances. Russia’s new offensive outside of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine is likely to put further strain along the eastern front, where artillery units have been carefully prioritizing targets and rationing shells. In an April interview, Zelenskiy said that Russia was firing shells at a ratio of 10 to one to those of Ukraine.

One of Russia’s targets is Kupiansk, a northeastern city in the Kharkiv region that was captured by Russia in early 2022 and retaken by Ukrainians later that year. Today, Russian forces are about 10 kilometers away. Oleksii, a soldier in an artillery unit in the 57th Motorized Brigade, is preparing to return to his position in the city after spending a few days resting in a nearby village house.

Oleksii, 27, volunteered to fight five years ago after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. Since then, the town in the Zaporizhzhia region where he grew up has been reduced to rubble. His comrades are all motivated and want to fight, he says, but their biggest concern is the acute shortage of shells.

“When you work and when you have enough shells, you can work and you understand you are destroying the enemy,” Oleksii says. In 2022, one artillery installation could fire 40, up to 100 shells a day. Now, the number has been reduced to two or three shells a day, maybe a dozen on a busy day, he says.

In February, Zelenskiy said Ukraine had received just 30% of the one million shells the European Union promised to deliver by March. The European Commission did not respond to questions about the shell delivery.

By the time Oleksii arrives at one of the brigade’s artillery positions, a spring storm has started. Rain is falling and thunder cracks overhead. The hulking 2S1 Gvozdika, a self-propelled howitzer, sits hidden under a cluster of branches and khaki netting, while soldiers take shelter in a dugout nearby.

The unit commander, a slim man with dark hair named Yurii, boils water on a camping stove as his men wait for an order to fire on a column of Russian infantry.

Stirring a cup of tea, one of the soldiers says the months-long shell shortages have made Ukrainian forces on the front lines exceedingly vulnerable. Without shells, artillery units like theirs are unable to cover for infantry on the front lines.

“If the Americans had passed the package sooner, Russians wouldn’t have gotten so close to Chasiv Yar,” says Yurii, the 53-year-old commander. “They wouldn’t have taken so many villages and we wouldn’t have to fight to take back these villages.”

Russians have factories across their country where they can produce all manner of weapons and ammunition, Yurii says, while Ukraine is largely reliant on the goodwill of Europe and the United States.

“Russians can shoot their artillery like it’s a machine gun,” the commander says. “It’s endless.”

As the wind picks up outside, the men argue over the U.S. election in November and what Trump’s possible return would mean for the war.

“But he won’t win!” exclaims one of the soldiers.

“Even if he did, he’ll still have to help Ukraine,” another says. “When he’s president he won’t be able to ignore the opinions of his people.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Reuters that the former president would make negotiating an end to the war “a top priority” in a second term, and that European nations need to pay “more of the cost of the conflict.”

The problem, Yurii says, is that even after all of the horrors of the past two years of war, there are still so many people in Europe and the U.S. who do not accept all that Putin and the Russian military are capable of.

The horrific images of civilians slaughtered in Bucha after its occupation, the pulverized cities of Mariupol and Bakhmut. The tens of thousands killed, the endless portraits of dead Ukrainian soldiers shared on Facebook and Instagram, the never-ending funeral processions for fathers and brothers, the videos of children draped over their coffins.

“It’s not possible, I guess, just by looking at the photos” to comprehend the horrors of this war, Yurii says.

But Oleksii, the soldier in the artillery unit, says Ukrainians have little choice but to keep fighting.

“For our entire history we’ve been fighting,” he says, rubbing the dust out of his eyes.

The men fall quiet. They sit side by side on narrow military cots, taking sips from their cups. Suddenly, the radio comes alive with an order. The soldiers dash out of their dugout and prepare to fire.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

‘Paranoid’ Zelensky lashing out at US – FT

Vladimir Zelensky has instructed Ukrainian officials to publicly criticize US President Joe Biden for not attending the upcoming “peace summit” in Switzerland, the Financial Times has reported, citing documents from Kiev.

Neither Biden nor his VP Kamala Harris is scheduled to attend the gathering in Lucerne, where Kiev hopes to win non-Western countries to its “peace formula” for resolving the conflict with Russia. 

According to FT, the Ukrainian leader specifically instructed MPs and officials in a May 26 memo to “pile public pressure” on Biden, as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping, for not attending the summit.

“It is unlikely that the world will understand President Biden and President Xi if they do not join in the realization of such undeniably just goals and [in] bringing peace closer,” said the memo, as quoted by the outlet.

While China has shown understanding for Russia in the conflict, the US has been one of Ukraine’s most prominent supporters. According to FT, however, there have been “many points of friction” between the leadership in Kiev and Washington lately, as Russian troops have continued to advance on the battlefield. 

Zelensky recently sacked several government and military officials that the US was “working closely” with, without much of an explanation. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent visit to Kiev, during which he lectured Zelensky on corruption and played rock music on stage at a club, also reportedly rubbed the Ukrainian leadership the wrong way.

One senior Kiev official described the feeling in Zelensky’s office as “paranoia” and said the Ukrainian leader had “deep anxiety” about both the military situation and the peace summit, which is scheduled for mid-June in Lucerne.

Another Ukrainian official told FT that Zelensky has become more “emotional and nervous”over the situation at the front, convinced that the US is eager to start talks with Russia because Washington wants the conflict “to go away before the [US] election.” Polls currently show Biden losing support as he faces a rematch with former US President Donald Trump in November.

Zelensky is “very irritated” with Biden, said one member of his government, noting that many Ukrainian officials are worried about Kiev “openly provoking” the White House.

“What do you say in America? Do not bite the hand that feeds you,”a fourth Ukrainian government official told FT.

Zelensky has infuriated Washington before. His social media rant last July, after NATO did not formally invite Ukraine to join, reportedly almost causeda backlash from the White House. In the end, however, the US and its allies continued to fund Kiev’s war effort.

Reuters/RT

For the deposed Kano Emir, Aminu Bayero, it was not a matter of if but when. The moment the Supreme Court upheld Governor Abba Yusuf's election in January, Bayero knew the governor would need the throne to pay his debt. 

During the campaign, the governor promised that if he were elected, he would revoke the sharing of the Kano Municipal Emirate between two Bayeros among the four new emirs and restore the throne’s singular pre-eminence.

Of course, he won. But before the ruling of the Supreme Court in January affirming his election, two lower courts had ruled in favour of the APC candidate, increasing the probability that Yusuf might not get it.

But Yusuf defied the trend and got it. Since then, Aminu Ado Bayero has taken his case to virtually all notable traditional rulers in the country, begging them to beg President Bola Tinubu to save him. His last visit was to the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikuru Adetona. Neither the Awujale, the Sultan, nor any other traditional rulers he had visited could help.

The throne would be used to pay a debt foretold.

Nearly there 

But the re-instated Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is not sitting pretty yet. Not even one side of his royal buttocks is hugging the throne in the main palace yet. He’s currently in a holding room, besieged by orders and counter-court orders about what should happen next.

A young man genuinely surprised by the drama in Kano asked what the fuss was about. Why should the country almost come to grief over who of two cousins – with ties and friendships that run deep – would become the emir? It’s a fair point. 

There was a time in this country when the business of chiefs, obas, emirs—or any traditional rulers, by whatever description or name—was the concern of local governments.

How they were appointed, kept or removed was local. Their relevance or longevity depended mainly on how their communities perceived their compliance with the customs and traditions. 

Burden of a legacy 

Colonial rule exploited and undermined the system. However, the more significant damage was inflicted by the long years of military rule, which emasculated the states and local governments through a centralised system of administration that left the units bereft. Successive politicians have only paid lip service to federalism.

After the civil war and the national trauma that followed it, the military recruited traditional rulers, amongst others, to help heal the country and deepen their own legitimacy. They courted the institutions, propped them up, and invested them with responsibilities that made them more prestigious, prominent, and powerful.

A number of soldiers, especially from the North, where the traditional institution had grown from colonial rule to become something of a vital centre of political and religious authority, soon took traditional titles to reinvent and perpetuate their control, complete with the feudal and anachronistic levers of power.

Game of Thrones pro-max

A young man born into a modern world of merit, innovation and competence is right to question the sense in a country that advertises itself as a republic but is still obsessing over a wayward, neo-medieval concept called monarchy. The only thing that imitates what is happening in Kano is the fantasy TV series, “Game of Thrones”, based on George R. R. Martin’s book, A Song of Ice and Fire.

But that’s precisely the point about the pathology of the monarchy. Throne rule may be extinct in France and parts of Europe where monarchs paid for feudalism with their heads hoisted on spikes by wild mobs or it may be seriously challenged in a few remaining bastions like Britain, but the drama, the complex themes of power, loyalty and betrayal, remains a reality of our daily existence. That’s why Kano obsesses.

Powers behind the throne 

Sanusi and Bayero fancy themselves as the centre of the drama. They’re not. Both men and their supporters are grist in a vast and complex power mill grinding through the heart of the politics of 2027 and beyond in the North. Whoever wins now will still yield the throne to pay a future debt.

It's not Sanusi v Bayero. Or some karmic payback either way. It’s the leader of the NNPP Rabiu Kwankwaso v Abdullahi Ganduje and a few key members of the Tinubu’s cabinet who want to lead the North in 2027. 

One insider described what is happening as a “skirmish”, insisting that the battle, which obviously consumed former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, is only just beginning.

Coming war

After President Muhammdu Buhari's catastrophic tenure and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s serial futile attempts at taking the presidency, the North has been asking itself if this is indeed the best it can offer. That soul-searching is at the heart of the jostling to produce credible leadership that can rally the region, if not for the next four years, then certainly for the next general election cycle.

In this coming battle, any potential contender who shows his hand early on may not be politically alive to tell the story. But that will not stop politicians from trying to succeed where El-Rufai was ambushed.

Kwankwaso is one such politician. With the victory at the governorship polls, he regained his political footing in Kano, the largest vote bank in the North-West, where his successor betrayed him. He has been trying, without much success, so far, to trash Ganduje, the chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). 

What Kwankwaso may need to reinforce his grip as the potential pre-eminent political leader in the North, is to secure control of the Kano emirate. Whether given Sanusi’s own volatile history Kwankwaso would find him serviceable in this task is another matter. What is clear is that of the two devils, one is preferred.

Once the emirate is settled, Kwankwaso will return to the immediate task of worming his way into the ruling party. Why would he prefer the ruling party to the prospects of a mega-merger of PDP, LP and others? Because it’s a joke that offers no serious pathway to power, and those mooting the idea know it. Kwankwaso, too, knows it.

Why this skirmish matters 

But he also knows that the only thing more combustible than having FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and Rivers State Governor Simi Fubara in one room is having Kwankwaso and Ganduje in one room. The combatants, with the referee and spectators, are guaranteed a bloody ending. That’s why, after lining his political and monarchical ducks in a row, Kwankwaso's next stop is Abuja.

Ganduje knows that this is a fight for his political life. And even though forces around the president detest Ganduje, they are united on the matter of blocking any potential leader from the North who is currently outside Tinubu’s inner circle. There’s no guarantee they would succeed but they won’t fail for lack of effort.

As it was in the “Game of Thrones”, expect more surprises, more twists and turns, more convenient alliances, treachery and betrayals. The monarchy may be damaging itself either from within or from outside pressure, but the lessons it teaches about power, about its absolutism and ephemerality, remain for all who have eyes to see.

** Ishiekwene, Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP, is the author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It.

An unforgiving industry means you have to plan that much more.

Restaurants that open within the first year have a high failure rate, and they're extremely risky investments. Truth be told, I didn't fully grasp why this was until I researched restaurants for a college assignment. 

I quickly learned that the restaurant industry is extremely challenging. A restaurant's success depends on more than its ability to prepare quality meals and serve them on location.

A restaurant's success is influenced by many factors, and many of them are not simply related to the food's amazing quality and freshness. I recently spoke with restaurateurs of successful restaurants, and they revealed some of their tips and tricks for opening successful restaurants.

Michael and Kwini Reed are the owners of two wildly successful restaurants "Poppy + Rose" and "Poppy + Seed" located in Los Angeles and Anaheim, CA. Michael Reed, the chef behind both restaurants' modern twists on various cuisine styles has over 20 years of experience in the industry.

Bernard James is a gourmet celebrity chef and 25-year culinary and restaurant industry veteran. Originally from Guyana, he has been preparing authentic gourmet Caribbean cuisine since adolescence and owns Taste of the Caribbean in Los Angeles.

My own experiences and these discussions have enabled me to highlight four factors that entrepreneurs should consider before opening a restaurant.

1. Location

Significant factors to consider when choosing the right location for your restaurant are your target customers, accessibility, visibility, competition in the area, and the size or space you require to properly serve your ideal customer base. 

Once you know your target audience, you can find the appropriate location for the demographic of people you intend to serve. Choosing the right location also requires consideration of accessibility and visibility. 

The majority of restaurant chains are located near areas with plenty of foot traffic or highways as their visibility and accessibility are greatly enhanced. You will also need to consider the local competition and the size and space of your desired restaurant location. 

Selecting the wrong restaurant location can kill your restaurant if you do not properly evaluate the competition. Avoid choosing a location that is near a successful competitor offering similar cuisine. When it comes to restaurant location, size matters. 

How a restaurant is run and the overall customer experience can be impacted by its size. Customers are less likely to stay and dine in an area that feels cramped. Choose a location that reflects the experience you want to give your customers.

2. Funding

The vast majority of restaurants are in a financial deficit at their inception. The expenses associated with location, equipment, staff, ingredients, and marketing will likely result in most restaurants having more expenses than income at the start. 

Some restaurateurs seek breathing room by utilizing available business loans or credit cards to cover their growing expenses, but this is a short-term fix. Given these circumstances, cash flow is imperative to successful restaurant operations as the primary goal is to turn a profit as quickly as possible. 

Having a clear insight into your restaurant's finances is important. You can start with a cash flow statement to determine how much money you make and spend each month. A cash flow forecast can be created once your cash flow has been determined. 

Using one, you will be able to forecast future sales based on the past months or year(s), as well as ongoing operating costs, such as salary, rent, food, and capital expenses, such as taxes. According to Kwini Reed of Poppy & Love and Poppy & Seed, maintaining a cash flow forecast is vital. 

"You need to consider cash flow when starting a restaurant. Moreover, you should establish a forecasting system to determine your requirements and create a budget that includes working capital, salary, food costs, and liquor costs. 

These types of things are going to be recurring expenses each month. You want to have at least 3-4 months of operational cash flow in the bank, but 6 months is ideal. Normally, in the restaurant world, it's only feasible to have 3 months of operational cash flow."

3. Marketing

Social media has become a great tool for restaurants to advertise their businesses since it enables restaurateurs to reach their desired customer base and audience. 

Whether you are paying for social media ads or setting up your own pages and marketing your business, you must focus on social media marketing. Featuring regular food content on your restaurant's social media pages will help to attract more customers. 

Your restaurant's social media pages are also a great way to communicate with guests, not only about opening hours and contact information, but also about menu additions, events, and promotions.

In discussing social media marking with Michael Reed of Poppy & Love and Poppy & Seed, he shared, "Social media puts a face to the name, essentially. It allows us to visually demonstrate our craft to our customer base and show them who we really are. 

It provides customers with the opportunity to showcase reviews during actual restaurant service, share honest feedback directly with business owners, and connect with us on a more personal level. 

The faster pace of social media, compared to traditional marketing, works well with restaurants who change their menu offerings frequently with the seasons, like Poppy & Seed, so we can inform customers in real-time."

4. Inimitable

You can make your restaurant hard to rival by offering a well-chosen menu and excellent customer service. It may seem obvious, but the menu is one of the most powerful tools you can use when opening a restaurant. 

If the above conditions are properly met, a well-crafted and priced menu can drastically increase restaurant profits and ensure longevity. In order to differentiate your unique culinary vision from your competitors, your menu must be carefully designed.

Chef Bernard James shares how he keeps his food unique in his restaurant, "Taste Of The Caribbean LA differs from other Caribbean restaurants in that we incorporate ingredients from various Caribbean countries into our recipes and dishes. We work meticulously to ensure everything at our restaurant is fresh and authentic to capture the essence of Caribbean culture and it is evident in our food."  

An establishment's success can depend on the quality of customer service it provides. Satisfied customers share their positive experiences via word-of-mouth or online, and this generates more revenue. Exceptional customer service should accompany a thoughtfully well-crafted menu.

Inc

One year after President Bola Tinubu came to office, investor excitement over his reforms has faded, with some saying they’ll reconsider their positions if Nigeria stabilizes its currency and enacts more change.

“We are likely to add to local currency bonds once FX volatility declines, but the timing of that remains up in the air,” said Kevin Daly, a portfolio manager at London-based Abrdn Investments Ltd. “It will require a combination of factors such as further foreign portfolio flows, and more importantly some de-dollarization as the central bank can’t be the sole provider of FX liquidity for the market,” he said.

Since succeeding Muhammadu Buhari in late May 2023, Tinubu has instituted reforms to woo investors and boost dollar liquidity. They include scrapping costly fuel subsidies, replacing central bank governor Godwin Emefiele with ex-Citibank executive Olayemi Cardoso, who has pledged a return to orthodox central banking, clearing a foreign-exchange backlog, and overhauling the country’s exchange-rate policies — effectively devaluing the naira.

While the initial steps enthused investors, increased dollar flows and led to a rally in the naira, that’s since dissipated.

Tellimer Ltd. data shows investor inflows into the foreign-exchange market declined by almost a fifth in April to a daily average of $200 million from a month earlier and were at $180 million in the first three weeks of May. The naira has lost almost 67% of its value against the dollar since June and fuel subsidies have been reintroduced after a public backlash over rising food and fuel costs.

Inflation in Nigeria Has Surged

The policy rate has lagged price growth since 2020

Other measures investors would like to see before they boost their investments is better returns.

“We have invested in Nigerian eurobonds, but not yet invested in the local currency bonds,” said Ayo Salami, chief investment officer at Emerging Markets Investment Management Ltd. “The local currency bonds are not yet attractive given that inflation at about 33.7% is still above the policy rate at 26.25%,” Salami said.

Another issue Nigeria needs to address is the repatriation of funds.

While Nigeria offers higher equity valuations and better yields, emerging and frontier market peers like South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Turkey and Pakistan offer less repatriation risks and a more advanced policy course correction and higher credibility that policies will be sustained, Tellimer said.

“I think as long as we can be consistent and clear about policy direction, when it comes to monetary policy and the like, then I think you will see confidence return, then you will see liquidity return,” said Ladi Balogun, chief executive officer of Lagos-based FCMB Group. “That is when you will see international investors come back.”

Bloomberg

President Bola Tinubu has officially signed a bill reintroducing Nigeria’s old national anthem, "Nigeria, We Hail Thee," into law. This was announced by Senate President Godswill Akpabio during a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Akpabio stated that the president signed the bill on Wednesday morning. He also mentioned that Tinubu would launch the rendition of the old national anthem during the joint session of the National Assembly yesterday.

The anthem "Nigeria, We Hail Thee" had been replaced in 1978 by "Arise, O Compatriots."

However, Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of the House of Representatives, noted that Tinubu would not deliver a "state of the nation" address as previously announced, explaining that yesterday (May 29) is not officially designated as Democracy Day. Abbas apologized for the earlier miscommunication.

The bill was swiftly passed by the House of Representatives on May 23, followed by the Senate's approval on Tuesday. Presenting the judiciary committee's report on the bill, Chairman Tahir Monguno said the committee disagreed with Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi’s suggestion that the process to change the anthem should be subjected to a more extensive review.

During the public hearing, Fagbemi had argued that the decision to change the national anthem should not be made hastily but should involve a broader consultation process.

Some Nigerians have expressed outrage over the bill President Bola Tinubu signed into law on Wednesday morning.

The bill, which was simultaneously introduced in the Senate and the House of Representatives last week, received an accelerated consideration and passage.

The speed with which both chambers of the National Assembly considered and passed the bill at a time Nigerians are facing more pressing issues occasioned by rising inflation and security challenges, has been criticised.

While launching the National Anthem at the National Assembly, Tinubu commended the lawmakers.

“Please, let’s continue to collaborate and build our country. We have no other institutions or personality that will help us unless we do it ourselves. Let us work together to build our nation not only for us but generations yet unborn”, he said.

‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’, composed by the Britons, was the national anthem of Nigeria used from Independence in 1960 until 1978, when it was replaced by a new anthem, ‘Arise, O Compatriots.’

But with the new law, ‘Arise, O Compatriots’, will give way for ‘Nigeria, we hail Thee’.

While a few persons have commended the president for signing it into law, others see it as a mispriority.

On X, a social media user, @Zarmaomar, wrote: “The long-awaited national anthem bill that will solve the issues of insecurity, hunger, corruption and create job opportunities has been officially signed by the President…”

@Mudiaga247 said: “How does signing this bill help the Drowning Economy.”

@KennyNuga: “Misplaced priority. we need laws mandating all vehicles to shift off the road when an Ambulance is approaching. we need laws that criminalize bullying in our institutions.”

@RealQueenBee_: “This will now be an achievement for the Tinubu administration, reverting back to the colonial anthem.”
@Ikepicano: “did he know what he signed?”

@PatoEner: “This government is never implementing policies that would alleviate the poverty in the economy. Or do they think hungry people sing the national anthem?”

@DoublePrince001: “Within 7 days it was sorted….. Let’s talk about minimum wage or what will benefit Nigerians… It will take months and years.”

@iam_damayor: “Congratulations Nigerians, we now have a new National Anthem. When you want to buy anything, just recite it and you get the 2015 price of that goods/service.”

@That_Ondo_Boy: “As for me, I’m in support of this Old National Anthem ooo. Tinubu you do this one oooo. Now, let’s sign to bill the old exchange rate, old food price too as at the time of the old National Anthem.”

Analysts, CSOs fault bill

In an interview with Daily Trust, analysts and civil society organisations argued that the resolution of the National Assembly to revert to the old National Anthem was a misplacement of priority, and also a sign of disconnection with reality.

The Country Director of Action Aid Nigeria (AAN), Andrew Mamedu, in an interview with our correspondent, said the bill to revert to the old National Anthem “is an absolute misplacement of priorities and an abuse of legislative privilege, especially given the numerous pressing issues facing the nation that remain unaddressed”.

He stated: “While the National Anthem is a symbol of our heritage, the urgent and concurrent approval of this bill stands in stark contrast to the lack of prioritisation and accelerated legislative action on critical national matters. Issues such as security, economic stability, education, healthcare and infrastructure development are in dire need of attention and resources.

“It is profoundly disappointing and frankly outrageous that the National Anthem is being prioritised over these vital concerns”, he stressed.

Similarly, Yiaga Africa’s Senior Communications Officer, Mark Amaza, told one of our correspondents that the actions of the federal lawmakers on the issue were “a misplacement of priorities”.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with our current National Anthem that warrants a change. Not only that, this episode shows how disconnected our legislators are from the challenges of Nigeria that at this critical juncture, they chose to prioritise a needless return to our former National Anthem”, Amaza said.

The Executive Director, Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), Ibrahim Zikirullahi, also decried that Nigeria continued to exhibit a disturbing trend of misplaced priorities.

According to him, it is disheartening to see the nation trapped in a cycle of ineffective leadership.

“Our senators, elected to represent the masses, seem disconnected from the pressing needs of the people. Who among the citizens indicated that changing the National Anthem was a priority?

“Nigerians are hungry, angry, and deeply disappointed. Trust in the government is at an all-time low.

“Changing the National Anthem does not address the urgent issues we face: it doesn’t put food on our tables, create jobs, improve security, provide reliable electricity, clean water, good roads, or quality healthcare,” Zikirullahi said.

On his part, a former senator from Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Senator Shehu Sani, said the parliament should have consulted widely before tampering with the National Anthem.

He said that altering the National Anthem without wide consultations would be seen as an attempt to dissolve Nigeria.

Commenting on his X handle, the former lawmaker said: “Tempering with or changing the National Anthem or National Pledge of Nigeria should be done after wider public consultation and should be factored in the process of constitutional amendments.”

A seasoned journalist and former Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, also faulted the lawmakers’ decision to reintroduce the old National Anthem.

He said: “The excessive embrace of the past is part of the metaphysical nostalgia that refused to appreciate the political economic choices and wrong leadership recruitment processes that led us to the deep pit we have been dug into.

“Instead of searching for far more rational and scientifically relevant instruments of problem solving, our lawmakers think an empty gesture of nostalgia offers an easy route.

“There is also an unacceptable demographic tyranny that Opeyemi Bamidele and his colleagues are attempting to impose on Nigeria, with the plan to revert to the old National Anthem. It is an anthem that would resonate with the generation born before independence and maybe immediately after. Let us unpack the facts”, he said in an opinion article published in Daily Trust on Saturday.

Lawmakers’ move in order – NOA DG

The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Oninlu, said even though the bill was yet to become a law, the move was not a bad one.

“You see, there is so much in words that we speak and we hear. So, in communication, the impact of our statement resonates with us. There are some anthems that you listen to and then you see a call to it. They call you to action. They ask you to act and do certain things. And there are some that are just flags that are just like any other song.

“And anytime you sing them, you don’t feel any psychological attachment. No any feeling. It doesn’t call up any passion in you. It doesn’t really speak to your emotion, and doesn’t call up to your sentiment.

“And it’s important that you have an anthem that connects with your sentiment; that calls you to action so that when carrying out those actions, the impact of the anthem will now reflect in our lives”, he said in an interview on Trust TV’s Daily Politics.

Senate, Reps’ spokespersons silent

Efforts by Daily Trust to get reactions of the spokespersons of the two chambers of the National Assembly were unsuccessful.

Daily Trust

In his inaugural address one year ago, President Bola Tinubu championed unity and promised to remodel the economy to bring about growth and development through job creation, food security and ending extreme poverty.

As Tinubu begins his second year as president, most Nigerians score him very low on the economy, according to results from a new national Africa Polling Institute (API) poll.

At least 84 percent of respondents expressed sadness with the current state of affairs in the country under Tinubu while 81 per cent said that the president is driving the country in the wrong direction.

One such Nigerian dissatisfied with Tinubu’s performance is Abubakar Ibrahim, a development worker in the Nigerian capital and former supporter of the president.

Ibrahim told PREMIUM TIMES that he was no longer happy to have voted for Tinubu and remains sceptical of how much he can achieve. Ibrahim, 31, sees Tinubu’s first year as one of “ups and downs.”

“The biggest problem that continues to face us is inflation and in turn the cost of living crisis. Unfortunately, these are problems induced by the president’s policies,” Ibrahim said.

The latest API national survey brings to light a stark reality, said Bell Ihua, the API’s executive director. “Hunger, poverty, and dissatisfaction are the harsh realities of Tinubu’s one year in office.”

In terms of the biggest challenges facing the country under Tinubu’s stewardship, 36 per cent of respondents said hunger, 28 per cent identified with inability to meet basic needs and 13 per cent said unemployment. This is followed by heightened insecurity (9 per cent) and poor electricity supply (5 per cent).

Similarly, about 74 per cent of respondents affirmed that their economic situation has deteriorated over the last year, compared to 20 per cent who said their economic situation had remained the same and a meagre 5 per cent who said it had improved.

“The impact of the cost of living crisis we are in is weighing heavily on me,” Muhammad Sani, a resident of Kano State, told PREMIUM TIMES. “The prices of goods have more than doubled under this administration. There are basic things we can’t afford now as a family and that has impacted our living standard negatively.”

In terms of the job performance of Tinubu, 78 per cent of respondents said he has performed abysmally, with 49 per cent rating him “Very Poor” and 29 per cent “Poor.”

Methodology

The national survey was administered between the 1st and 18th of May to elicit citizens’ opinions and assessments of Tinubu’s first year in office.

The researchers said they applied a stratified random sampling method, ensuring representation from all nationwide demographic groups. A total of 3,996 randomly selected Nigerians aged 18 years and above were interviewed in the 36 states and Abuja, representing the six geopolitical zones in the country.

The researchers said they visited three local government areas (LGAs) in each of the 36 states, covering the 108 senatorial districts in the country, as well as the urban, semi-urban, and rural residents. In the FCT, the API visited the six area councils to meet respondents.

“With a sample of this size, we can say with 95 per cent confidence that the results are statistically precise – within a range of plus or minus 3 per cent,” Ihua said, adding, “For scholars, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who wish to undertake further statistical analysis of our data, the raw data for this national survey can be purchased on our website.”

PT

The Federal Government has withdrawn the three-count terrorism charge against Bello Bodejo, the President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore. Bodejo was arrested at the Miyetti Allah office in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State after unveiling a vigilante group.

The government had accused Bodejo of establishing an ethnic militia in Nasarawa State and being involved in activities detrimental to national security and public safety. The charges included providing material support, assistance, and transportation for acts of terrorism, as specified under Sections 29, 2(3)(g)(xii), 12(a), and 13(2)(b) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

Bodejo had been in the custody of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) since January 23, with the trial court approving his detention on March 22. On May 27, the court denied his bail but ordered an accelerated hearing of the charges.

However, at the commencement of the hearing yesterday, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, applied to withdraw the charges. A lawyer from the AGF’s office, Mrs. Aderonke Imana, made an oral application for the withdrawal.

Bodejo’s legal team, led by Ahmed Raji, did not oppose the withdrawal and thanked the AGF for his "magnanimous gesture." In a brief ruling, the trial judge, Inyang Ekwo, discharged Bodejo from the allegations.

Israel seizes Gaza's entire border with Egypt, presses with raids into Rafah

Israeli forces have taken control of a buffer zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the country's military said on Wednesday, giving Israel effective authority over the Palestinian territory's entire land border.

Israel also continued deadly raids on Rafah in southern Gaza despite an order from the International Court of Justice to end attacks on the city, where half of Gaza's 2.3 million people had previously taken refuge.

In a televised briefing, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces had gained "operational" control over the "Philadelphi Corridor", using the Israeli military's code name for the 14 km-long (9 mile) corridor along the Gaza Strip's only border with Egypt.

"The Philadelphi Corridor served as an oxygen line for Hamas, which it regularly used to smuggle weapons into the area of the Gaza Strip," Hagari said. Hamas is the armed Palestinian group that governs the blockaded territory.

Hagari did not spell out what "operational" control referred to but an Israeli military official earlier said there were Israeli "boots on the ground" along parts of the corridor.

The border with Egypt along the southern edge was the Gaza Strip's only land border that Israel had not controlled directly.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israel sent tanks on raids into Rafah. They had moved into the heart of Rafah for the first time on Tuesday despite an order from the top United Nations court to immediately halt the assault on the city.

The World Court said Israel had not explained how it would keep evacuees from Rafah safe and provide food, water and medicine. Its ruling also called on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release hostages taken from Israel on Oct. 7.

Rafah residents said Israeli tanks had pushed into Tel Al-Sultan in the west and Yibna and near Shaboura in the centre before retreating towards a buffer zone on the border with Egypt, rather than staying put as they have in other offensives.

"We received distress calls from residents in Tel Al-Sultan where drones targeted displaced citizens as they moved from areas where they were staying toward the safe areas," the deputy director of ambulance and emergency services in Rafah, Haitham al Hams, said.

Palestinian health officials said 19 civilians had been killed in Israeli airstrikes and shelling across Gaza. Israel accuses Hamas militants of hiding among civilians, something Gaza's ruling Islamist group denies.

Health Minister Majed Abu Raman urged Washington to pressure Israel to open the Rafah crossing to aid, saying there was no indication that Israeli authorities would do so soon and that patients in besieged Gaza were dying for lack of treatment.

Fighting in Gaza will continue throughout 2024 at least, Israel's National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said, signalling Israel was not ready to end the war as Hamas has demanded as part of a deal to exchange its hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

"The fighting in Rafah is not a pointless war," Hanegbi said, reiterating that Israel aimed to end Hamas rule in Gaza and stop it and its allies attacking Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel needed to craft a post-war plan for Gaza or risk lawlessness, chaos and a Hamas comeback in the enclave.

The U.S., Israel's closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major ground offensive in Rafah on Tuesday while saying it did not believe such an operation was under way.

More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's Gaza offensive, the enclave's health ministry said.

Israel launched its war after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

CEASEFIRE NEGOTIATIONS STRUGGLE ON

There was no word on Wednesday on developments in the ceasefire and hostage release talks. Hamas has said talks are pointless unless Israel ends its offensive on Rafah.

The armed wing of Hamas and that of allies Islamic Jihad said they confronted invading forces in Rafah with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs and blew up explosive devices they had planted, resulting in numerous successful hits.

The Israeli military said three Israeli soldiers were killed and three badly wounded. Public broadcaster Kan radio said an explosive device had been set off in a Rafah building.

Palestinian health officials said several people were wounded by Israeli fire and stores of aid were set ablaze in eastern Rafah, where residents said Israeli bombardment had destroyed many homes in an area Israel has ordered evacuated.

Around a million Palestinians who had taken shelter in Rafah at the southern end of the Gaza Strip have now fled after Israeli orders to evacuate, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA reported on Tuesday.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it had evacuated its medical teams from its field hospital in the Al-Mawasi area, a designated civilian evacuation zone, because of continued bombardments.

PRCS said two of its staff were killed when an ambulance was struck while on a mission to rescue people in Rafah. In another Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City, medics said five other Palestinians were killed.

In the nearby city of Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike killed three people overnight, including Salama Baraka, a former senior Hamas police officer, medics and Hamas media said. Another killed four people, including two children, medics said.

In northern Gaza, Israeli forces shelled Gaza City neighbourhoods and moved deeper into Jabalia, where residents said large residential districts were destroyed.

Malnutrition has become widespread in Gaza as aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle. The U.N., which has warned of famine, said on Wednesday the amount of humanitarian aid entering the enclave has dropped by two-thirds since Israel began its assault on the Rafah region this month.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Soldiers in Ukraine say US-supplied tanks have made them targets for Russian strikes

Ukrainian crews working on US-supplied Abrams tanks have told CNN of a series of the weaknesses and flaws with the armored vehicles, calling into doubt their utility on the war’s ever-changing frontlines. The donation was announced by US President Joe Biden as evidence of the United States’ “enduring and unflagging commitment to Ukraine.”

CNN journalists were the first reporters to see the M1 Abrams in Ukraine, at a location in the country’s east, where around six vehicles were visible, hiding in the foliage.

Crews trained in Germany said the vehicles – the US military’s main $10 million battle tank used in Iraq against Saddam Hussein’s forces and insurgents – lacked armor that could stop modern weapons.

“Its armor is not sufficient for this moment,” said one crew member, callsign Joker. “It doesn’t protect the crew. For real, today this is the war of drones. So now, when the tank rolls out, they always try to hit them.”

His colleague, Dnipro, added they are the “number one target.”

“Without defense, the crew doesn’t survive at the battlefield,” he said.

The crew showed CNN their attempts to affix active armor to one damaged tank. They used plates of plastic explosive that, when hit by a round, detonate and provide a protective counter-blast.

All 31 Abrams deployed to Ukraine are engaged near the frontline in the east, according to officials in the 47th Mechanised Brigade, who took receipt of them all. The Ukrainian request for Abrams, complex and heavy tanks, sparked significant debate in early 2023, as the American vehicle has a complex supply chain. Some versions even run on jet fuel.

Pentagon officials said in April that the Abrams were pulled back from the frontline due to the threat of Russian attack drones, although the 47th said some were still in action, despite the deficiencies that had materialized.

Much of the Ukrainian frontline is now dominated by the use of self-destructing attack drones, tiny and accurate devices that can swarm infantry and even cause significant damage to tanks. The advent of these so called First-Person Vision (FPV) drones, flown by soldiers wearing gaming goggles, has changed the nature of the war, limiting movement and introducing a new element of vulnerability to armored vehicles.

This Ukrainian crew have learned of the Abrams’ limitations the hard way, in pitched battles around the town of Avdiivka, which Russia finally took control of in February. A driver lost a leg when the armor was penetrated. Yet it is not just innovation that is hamstringing the tanks — they appear to have technical issues too.

One, parked under a tree, was almost immobile during CNN’s visit, due to an engine problem, the crew say, despite the vehicle having just been shipped in from Poland. They also complain of how, in rain or fog, condensation can fry the electronics inside the vehicle.

Ammunition is also a problem, like elsewhere on the Ukrainian frontline. They say they seem to have the wrong type for the fight they are in.

“What we have is more for direct tank-to-tank fights, which happens very rarely,” Joker said. “Much more often we work as artillery. You need to take apart a tree-line or a building. We had a case when we fired 17 rounds into a house and it was still standing.”

The Ukrainian crew expressed frustration the tanks were made for a NATO style of warfare, in which air power and artillery prepare the battlefield before tanks and infantry advance. Kyiv has long bemoaned its lack of artillery and air power.

“They would never do it,” Joker said, of NATO soldiers undertaking the same advances they make without air support. He switched to English to mimic a NATO soldier: “‘Call the aviation, call the artillery,’” he said. “We have no aviation and artillery. We have only tank. And it’s the problem.”

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian defense ministry told CNN that “Ukraine is now testing and improving equipment that was not initially prepared for our war.”

“We are asking all countries to support us with equipment of any technical capacity levels. We use all of it accordingly,” the spokesperson added.

Biden’s decision to supply the Abrams came after European allies pledged to send their own battle tanks in early 2023 ahead of Ukraine’s failed summer counteroffensive last year, a step that had been deemed unthinkable months earlier.

Kyiv’s allies have slowly swallowed the red lines of what equipment they once refused to supply. F-16s may arrive in Ukraine in the months ahead. Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine’s military commander, on Monday said he had signed initial paperwork to permit France to send military trainers into the country to try and reverse an urgent manpower problem on the frontlines. France’s defense ministry declined to confirm the plan, but said it, and other ideas, had long been under discussion. The move would mark a significant escalation in the West’s involvement in the war, now in its third year.

The Ukrainian defense ministry later appeared to tamp down those expectations, saying in a statement to CNN that it had “started internal paperwork to move forward when the decision is taken.”

For the Abrams crew, each delay in equipment or assistance costs the lives of friends. “I only have one question,” Joker said of US assistance. “Why is this taking so long and (comes) partially? We are losing time. It’s death to us.”

** France and Germany say Ukraine should be able to use their weapons to strike inside Russia

France and Germany said Tuesday that Ukraine should be allowed to use their weapons against targets inside Russia from which Moscow attacks Ukraine.

Speaking at a news conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron outlined that French weapons sent to Ukraine, including long-range missiles, were permitted to target bases inside Russia.

“Ukrainian soil is being attacked from bases in Russia,” Macron said during his visit to Schloss Meseberg in Brandenburg, Germany. “So how do we explain to the Ukrainians that we’re going to have to protect these towns and basically everything we’re seeing around Kharkiv at the moment, if we tell them you are not allowed to hit the point from which the missiles are fired?”

“We think that we should allow them to neutralize the military sites from which the missiles are fired and, basically, the military sites from which Ukraine is attacked,” Macron continued.

Macron added, however, that “we must not allow them to hit other targets in Russia,” including civilian or other military targets.

Germany’s Scholz echoed Macron’s comments and said that Ukraine was allowed to defend itself as long as it respected the conditions given by the countries that supplied the weapons - including the United States - and international law.

“Ukraine has every possibility under international law for what it is doing. That has to be said explicitly,” Scholz said. “I find it strange when some people argue that it should not be allowed to defend itself and take measures that are suitable for this.”

Western allies of Ukraine have long held the policy that donated weapons should be strictly limited to usage inside Ukrainian territory. The issue is a controversial one, with fears from Western leaders that if their weaponry is used to strike inside Russia, it would escalate the violence and trigger a wider war involving NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked permission from his allies to expand the usage of the provided weapons to strike inside Russia.

The United States, the largest arms supplier to Ukraine, has previously forbidden Kyiv from firing its weapons inside Russian territory over escalation concerns.

However, in comments that appeared to hint at the possibility of a change in policy, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the US would continue to “adapt and adjust” its support for Ukraine.

“Another hallmark of our support for Ukraine over the last two years has been to adapt as the conditions have changed. Battlefields change. As what Russia does has changed in terms of how it is pursuing its aggression escalation, we’ve adapted and adjusted too. And I am confident we will continue to do that,” he said when asked about the possibility of allowing Ukraine to strike Russian soil.

But Blinken also reiterated that at present the US has not enabled Ukraine to strike beyond its borders into Russia with US weaponry.

“We haven’t encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine. Ukraine, as I’ve said before, has to make its own decisions about the best way to effectively defend itself. We’re going to make sure that it has the equipment that it needs to do that,” Blinken said.

When pressed on his remarks about adjusting and adapting, he added, “We’re always listening. We’re always learning, and we’re always making determinations about what’s necessary to make sure that Ukraine can effectively continue to defend itself.”

Shift in red lines?

Previous red lines drawn by Western leaders in their support for Ukraine have been crossed, including the provision of tanks, which was agreed in early 2023 to help Ukraine breach enemy defensive lines, and F-16 fighter jets, which European governments agreed to in the summer of 2023 after months of diplomatic pressure.

France has supplied Ukraine with an unknown number of SCALP cruise missiles, according to the French Defense Ministry’s website.

The SCALP missiles have a range of up to 155 kilometers (96 miles) and carry a 400-kilogram (881-pound) high-explosive penetration warhead, according to the Missile Threat project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The SCALP is the equivalent of Britain’s Storm Shadow, which has also been given to Ukraine, and which British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said earlier this month could be used at Kyiv’s discretion.

“In terms of what the Ukrainians do, in our view it is their decision about how to use these weapons, they are defending their country, they were illegally invaded by Putin and they must take those steps,” Cameron said during a visit to Kyiv. “We don’t discuss any caveats that we put on those things. But let’s be absolutely clear: Russia has launched an attack into Ukraine, and Ukraine absolutely has the right to strike back at Russia.”

France has also supplied Ukraine with a range of military weaponry, including Caesar self-propelled howitzers with a range of up to 42 kilometers.

Macron stressed that the French arms are to be used only against targets from which attacks are launched into Ukraine.

“We must not allow them to hit other targets in Russia,” including civilian or other military targets, the French leader said.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Ukraine could not use the long-range weapons without significant NATO support, and such involvement by the alliance could trigger “a global conflict.”

For instance, “long-range precision weapons cannot be used without space-based reconnaissance,” Putin said Tuesday during a state visit to Uzbekistan.

“Final target selection” or “launch mission” for Western systems need to be made by “highly skilled specialists who rely on this reconnaissance data,” Putin said.

“So, these officials from NATO countries, especially the ones based in Europe, particularly in small European countries, should be fully aware of what is at stake,” he emphasized.

“They should keep in mind that theirs are small and densely populated countries, which is a factor to reckon with before they start talking about striking deep into the Russian territory.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine got a key pledge of support on Tuesday from Belgium, which said it will supply Kyiv with 30 F-16 fighter jets in the next four years, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The deal was part of a bilateral security agreement signed between the two countries Tuesday in Brussels, according to the Ukrainian leader.

The agreement includes at least $1.06 billion in Belgian military aid to Ukraine this year, with Belgium offering its long-term commitment to support Ukraine over the next 10 years, Zelensky detailed in a post on X. The first F-16 jets from Belgium will be delivered this year.

“The agreement guarantees Belgium’s timely security assistance, modern armored vehicles, equipment to meet Ukraine’s air force and air defense needs, naval security, mine clearance, participation in the artillery ammunition coalition, and military training,” Zelensky said.

The meeting follows a similar agreement between Ukraine and Spain on Monday, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announcing a $1.08 billion weapons deal for Ukraine.

Alongside Belgium and Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Finland and Canada have also signed security agreements.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian troops destroy first French-made TRF1 howitzer in Ukraine operation

Russian troops destroyed the first French-made TRF1 towed howitzer of the Ukrainian army over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

Russia’s Battlegroup West units gained better ground and inflicted casualties on six Ukrainian army and National Guard brigades in the Kupyansk area where the enemy lost roughly 400 troops over the past day, it specified.

In addition, "the Ukrainian army lost two tanks, 11 motor vehicles, a Polish-manufactured 155mm Krab self-propelled artillery system, a French-made 155mm TRF1 howitzer and two US-made 105mm M119 guns," the ministry said in a statement.

Ukrainian army loses 165 troops in Kharkov area over past day

The Ukrainian army lost roughly 165 troops and two combat vehicles in battles with Russian forces in the Kharkov area over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup North units continued advancing deep into the enemy’s defenses and inflicted casualties on manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 82nd air assault, 3rd tank and 125th territorial defense brigades in areas near the settlements of Liptsy, Volchansk, Vilcha, Neskuchnoye and Malaya Danilovka in the Kharkov Region. In addition, they repulsed four counterattacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian army’s 57th motorized infantry, 71st jaeger and 13th National Guard brigades," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in the Kharkov direction over the past 24 hours amounted to 165 personnel, two infantry fighting vehicles, seven motor vehicles, a 152mm D-20 howitzer, a US-manufactured 155mm Paladin self-propelled artillery gun and two Bukovel-AD electronic warfare stations, it specified.

Russian forces also destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot, it said.

Russian troops strike six Ukrainian army brigades in Kupyansk area over past day

Russian troops advanced to better positions and inflicted casualties on six Ukrainian army brigades in the Kupyansk area over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup West units took more advantageous positions and inflicted damage on formations of the Ukrainian army’s 14th, 30th, 77th and 116th mechanized, 13th and 31st National Guard brigades in areas near the settlements of Sinkovka in the Kharkov Region, Novosyolovskoye in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Grigorovka and Serebryanka in the Donetsk People’s Republic. They repelled two counterattacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian army’s 43rd mechanized brigade and 3rd border guard squad. The Ukrainian army lost as many as 400 personnel," the ministry said.

Ukrainian army loses 245 troops in Donetsk area over past day

The Ukrainian army lost roughly 245 troops and six ammunition depots in battles with Russian forces in the Donetsk area over the past day, the ministry reported.

"The enemy lost as many as 245 personnel, two tanks, two motor vehicles, a 152mm Giatsint gun and a 122mm D-30 howitzer. Over the past 24 hours, six ammunition depots of the Ukrainian army were destroyed," the ministry said.

Kiev loses 125 troops in south Donetsk area over past day

The Ukrainian army lost roughly 125 troops in battles with Russian forces in the south Donetsk area over the past day, the ministry reported.

"The enemy’s losses amounted to 125 personnel, a tank, two armored combat vehicles and six motor vehicles," the ministry said.

CNN/Tass