WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine outnumbered, outgunned, ground down by relentless Russia

As the Ukraine war enters its third year, the infantry of 59th Brigade are confronting a bleak reality: they're running out of soldiers and ammunition to resist their Russian invaders.

One platoon commander who goes by his call sign "Tygr" estimated that just 60-70% of the several thousand men in the brigade at the start of the conflict were still serving. The rest had been killed, wounded or signed off for reasons such as old age or illness.

Heavy casualties at the hands of Russian forces have been compounded by dreadful conditions on the eastern front, with frozen soil turning into thick mud in unseasonably warm temperatures, playing havoc with soldiers' health.

"The weather is rain, snow, rain, snow. People get ill with simple flu or angina as a result. They're out of action for some time, and there is nobody to replace them," said a company commander in the brigade with the call sign "Limuzyn". "The most immediate problem in every unit is lack of people."

On the cusp of the second anniversary of its Feb. 24 invasion, Vladimir Putin's Russia is in the ascendancy in a conflict that combines attritional trench combat reminiscent of World War One with high-tech drone warfare that's sending tens of thousands of machines into the skies above.

Moscow has made small gains in recent months and claimed a major victory at the weekend when it took control of Avdiivka in the hotly contested eastern Donetsk region. A spokesperson for 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, one of the units that tried to hold the town, said the defenders were outnumbered seven to one.

Reuters spoke to more than 20 soldiers and commanders in infantry, drone and artillery units on different sections of the 1,000-km frontlines in eastern and southern Ukraine.

While still motivated to fight Russian occupation, they spoke of the challenges of holding off a larger and better supplied enemy as military support from the West slows despite pleas for more from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Another commander in the 59th Brigade, who only gave his first name Hryhoriy, described relentless attacks from groups of five to seven Russian soldiers who would push forward up to 10 times a day in what he called "meat assaults" - highly costly to the Russians but also a major threat to his troops.

"When one or two defensive positions are fighting off these assaults all day, the guys get tired," Hryhoriy said as he and his exhausted men were afforded a brief rotation away from the frontlines near the Russian-occupied eastern city of Donetsk.

"Weapons break, and if there is no possibility of bringing them more ammunition or changing their weapons, then you understand what this leads to."

Russia's defence ministry didn't respond to a request for comment on the state of play on the frontlines.

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Ivan Havryliuk told Reuters that Ukraine had been forced onto the defensive by a lack of artillery ammunition and rockets, and that Kyiv was expecting Russia to intensify its assaults on several fronts.

"If there are further delays to the necessary military aid, the situation on the front could become even more difficult for us," he said in a written response.

WANTED: FIGHTERS AND AMMO

Kyiv relies heavily on money and equipment from abroad to fund its war effort, but with $61 billion in U.S. aid held up by political bickering in Washington it is looking more exposed than at any time since the start of the invasion.

A soldier serving in a GRAD rocket artillery unit, whose call sign is "Skorpion", said that his launcher, which uses Soviet-designed ammunition held by few of Ukraine's allies, was now operating at about 30% of maximum capacity.

"It became like this recently," he said. "There aren't as many foreign munitions."

Artillery shells are also in short supply as a result of Western countries' inability to keep up the pace of shipments for a drawn-out war. On top of the U.S. supply pause, the EU has conceded it will miss its target to supply a million shells to Ukraine by March by nearly half.

Michael Kofman, a senior fellow and Russian military specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think-tank, estimated that Russia's artillery was firing at five times the rate of Ukraine's, a figure that Hryhoriy of the 59th Brigade also gave.

"Ukraine is not getting a sufficient amount of artillery ammunition to meet its minimum defensive needs, and this is not a sustainable situation moving forward," Kofman added.

Moscow now controls almost a fifth of Ukrainian territory including the Crimea peninsula it annexed in 2014, even if the frontlines of the war have largely stagnated in the last 14 months.

Ukrainian officials have said their armed forces number around 800,000, while in December Putin ordered Russia's forces to be increased by 170,000 troops to 1.3 million.

Beyond personnel, Moscow's defence spending dwarfs that of Ukraine. In 2024 it earmarked $109 billion for the sector, more than twice Ukraine's equivalent target of $43.8 billion.

A new law aimed at mobilising 450-500,000 more Ukrainians is slowly making its way through parliament, but for some soldiers fighting now, significant reinforcements seem a distant hope.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov recently referred to Ukraine's artillery ammunition deficit as "critical" in a letter to the European Union, urging its national leaders to do more to bolster supplies.

His letter said Ukraine's "absolute critical daily minimum requirement" was 6,000 artillery shells, but his forces were able to fire just 2,000 a day, the Financial Times reported.

DRONE WAR ON MASSIVE SCALE

Conventional warplanes are a relatively rare sight over the frontlines, largely because air defences act as a deterrent. Yet a different battle is raging in the skies, with both sides striving for the upper hand in drone technology.

Drones - or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) - are cheap to produce and can surveil enemy movements and drop ordnance with pinpoint accuracy.

Kyiv has overseen a boom in drone production and innovation and is developing advanced, long-range UAVs, while Moscow has more than matched its rival with huge investments of its own, allowed it to nullify Ukraine's early advantage.

The scale is astonishing.

On the Ukrainian side alone, more than 300,000 drones were ordered from producers last year and more than 100,000 sent to the front, digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov told Reuters.

A strong focus now is on light, nimble FPV drones, where operators, or pilots, get a first-person view from an onboard camera. President Zelenskiy has set a target for Ukraine to produce one million FPV drones this year in light of the battlefield advantages delivered by the technology.

Limuzyn, the company commander in the 59th Brigade, said Russia's widespread use of drones had make it difficult for Ukrainian troops to establish or strengthen fortified positions.

"Our guys start to do something, a drone sees them, and a second drone arrives to drop something onto them."

Drones have also forced the Russians to move valuable vehicles and weapons systems back by several kilometres, according to two Ukrainian drone pilots in different units.

"It's now very hard to find vehicles to hit... most vehicles are 9-10 km away or more," said a pilot in the 24th Brigade with the call sign "Nato". "At the beginning they were very comfortable being 7 km away."

Two other Ukrainian drone pilots, "Leleka" and "Darwin", both serving in the elite Achilles drone unit of the 92nd Brigade, described queues of two or three UAVs sometimes forming above the battlefield, waiting to hit enemy targets.

Leleka recalled watching four drones from different Ukrainian units coming in to strike a target on one occasion: "It's like taxis at the airport, one drone comes, then another, then a third."

The same situation is true for the Russians, whose drones now comfortably outnumber Ukraine's, according to Ukrainian pilots from three units. The Russian defence ministry said this month that the country had ramped upits production of military drones in the past year, without giving figures.

As the use from drones grows, both sides are bolstering deployment of electronic warfare systems which can disrupt the frequencies that feed commands from the pilot to the drone, making them drop out of the sky or miss their target.

Darwin, a 20-year-old who dropped out of medical school to enlist when Russia invaded, compared the current drone arms race to that between aviation and air defence: planes dominated in World War Two, but modern air defence systems greatly limited their use in this war, he said.

"In future, I am sure there will be an analogous situation with drones: The concentration and effectiveness of electronic warfare will become so big that any connection between an aerial vehicle and its pilot will become impossible."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine can’t maintain advanced US-supplied weapons – Pentagon

The US has no plan in place to maintain, service or repair tanks, armored vehicles and air defense systems Washington has given to the Ukrainian military, Pentagon Inspector-General Robert P. Storch has admitted. The failure to plan “puts at risk Ukraine’s ability to fight effectively using the US-provided equipment, as well as the DoD’s readiness to address other national security threats if needed,” he added.

Storch revealed in two redacted reports released to the public on Tuesday that the US has delivered 186 Bradley and 189 Stryker Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV), 31 Abrams main battle tanks, and an unspecified number of Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine. 

Washington’s  Department of Defense “had not developed or implemented a plan” to maintain any of them, according to the inspectors cited in the reports, who warned that there is nothing to suggest the weaponry could be sustained past October 2024.

All of the weapons systems were taken from the US military’s own stocks “without limits,” under the Presidential Drawdown Authority, according to the reports. If this practice continued, it “may require the [Department of Defense] to choose between the readiness of [Ukrainian] units or the readiness of US Army units,” one official told the inspectors.

The US military-industrial complex has struggled to replace the weapons systems sent to Ukraine, due to shortage of parts and the lack of production lines or trained personnel. Maintenance was described in the reports as an “afterthought” for the Pentagon, whose main focus was to arm Ukraine “as quickly as possible.” 

An official with the US European Command told the inspectors that “the current model would not be sustainable or effective over the longer term.” 

“The DoD provided Ukraine with armored vehicles and air defense systems without a plan to ensure their long-term usefulness,” Storch said in a statement. “While the DoD is currently working on developing such a plan, the lack of foresight in this matter is concerning.”

The US military sent “limited spare parts, ammunition, and maintenance support” and “did not coordinate or tailor those efforts into a comprehensive sustainment plan,” according to Storch’s reports.

What was sent included “some” consumables and spare parts for field maintenance, as well as “additional items informed by US experience operating the weapon systems in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria,” Storch noted. 

While the sustainment is not required under the current congressional authority for sending weapons to Ukraine, “the weapon systems are not likely to remain mission capable” without it, the report said.

At least one US Patriot system has been destroyed by hypersonic missiles, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Last year’s Ukrainian offensive saw multiple Bradley and Stryker vehicles destroyed in attempts to advance against Russian defenses. There have been no public reports of Abrams tanks being used in active combat operations so far.

** Only 10% of EU citizens believe Ukraine can win – poll

Only 10% of European Union citizens polled across 12 countries believe Ukraine will triumph over Russia on the battlefield, according to poll results published Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

While twice as many (20%) expect Russia to emerge victorious, the prevailing opinion – shared by 37% of respondents – was that the conflict would end with some form of compromise settlement.

Survey respondents in just two countries, Poland and Portugal, thought a Ukrainian victory was more probable than a Russian one, but each nation’s results also indicate most believe a compromise to be most likely. Over a third (35%) of Portuguese respondents and 27% of Poles anticipated a settlement, compared to 17% of each who foresaw a victorious Kiev – or to the 11% and 14%, respectively, who predicted Moscow would win.

Hungary, long the loudest voice of opposition to Brussels’ ongoing funding of Ukraine’s military, registered the most pessimistic views regarding Kiev’s potential triumph, with just 5% predicting a win for the EU-backed troops compared to 31% for Moscow.

Despite this grim outlook, nearly a third (31%) of respondents thought Europe should continue pushing Ukraine to reconquer the territories incorporated into Russia following referendums in late 2022.

While a plurality (41%) of overall respondents suggested Europe push Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal with Russia, this view was less than half as popular in Portugal and Poland as was that of urging Kiev to fight on. Hungarians were by far the most supportive of encouraging a peace deal (64%), while 16% of them would advise their neighbors to keep fighting.

The survey’s authors framed the results as an indication that “the quest to define peace will thus be a critical battleground in this war” with elections looming in the EU and US, warning the bloc’s leaders that they must convince their citizens that “peace on Russian terms” – an outcome in which Ukraine did not join the EU, for example – was not a “durable peace.”

The poll surveyed 17,023 respondents in 12 European countries in January, several weeks before Russia took control of Avdeevka on Saturday in what has been described as its most important victory since last year’s battle of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut).

Ukraine was granted EU-candidate status in 2022 following the start of Russia’s military operation in the country. Funding the conflict initially enjoyed broad support across the bloc – so much so that Brussels ditched the ban on weapons purchasing that was part of its founding treaties in order to bankroll Kiev’s military.

While the widely acknowledged failure of last summer’s Ukrainian counteroffensive, as well as economic crises at home, have sapped many Europeans’ enthusiasm for the conflict, Brussels passed €50 billion ($54 billion) in aid for Ukraine as part of the EU budget earlier this month.

Reuters/RT

Sometimes, it takes a single word — like “because” — to change someone’s mind.

That’s according to Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who’s compiled a list of “magic words” that can change the way you communicate. Using the word “because” while trying to convince someone to do something has a compelling result, he tells CNBC Make It: More people will listen to you, and do what you want.

Berger points to nearly a 50-year-old study from Harvard University, wherein researchers sat in a university library and waited for someone to use the copy machine. Then, they walked up and asked to cut in front of the unknowing participant.

They phrased their request in three different ways:

• “May I use the Xerox machine?”
• “May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make copies?”
• “May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?”

Both requests using “because” made the people already making copies more than 50% more likely to comply, researchers found. Even the second phrasing — which could be reinterpreted as “May I step in front of you to do the same exact thing you’re doing?” — was effective, because it indicated that the stranger asking for a favor was at least being considerate about it, the study suggested.

“Persuasion wasn’t driven by the reason itself,” Berger wrote in a book on the topic, “Magic Words,” which published last year. “It was driven by the power of the word.”

Other ‘magic words’ and how to use them

Companies use “because” to make their advertisements more convincing, behavioral scientist Nuala Walsh wrote in an Inc.com column last year: Makeup company L’Oréal has used the slogan “Because you’re worth it” for five decades, and furniture stores need you to shop their sales now “because it’s for a limited time.”

The seven-letter word isn’t the only one with communication superpowers. Arguments, requests and presentations aren’t any more or less convincing when they’re based on solid ideas, Berger says — rather, they depend on the individual words you use.

“You could have excellent ideas, but excellent ideas aren’t necessarily going to get people to listen to you,” he says. “Subtle shifts in our in our language can have a really big impact.”

Saying and writing the word “recommend” instead of “like” makes people nearly a third more likely to follow your suggestions, Berger noted in his book. The same is true when you swap out verbs for nouns, he says: People are up to 30% more likely to oblige your requests when you ask for helpers instead of help, or voters instead of votes.

You can, and should, use these strategies when you’re on the receiving end of a conversation, Berger says: Listen to the specific words other people use, and craft a response that speaks their language. Doing so can help drive an agreement, solution or connection.

“Everything in language we might use over email at the office ... [can] provide insight into who they are and what they’re going to do in the future,” says Berger.

CNBC

The economies of Ghana and Nigeria are poised to see the slowest economic growth in 2024 when compared to their peers in the West African region.

Overall, the West African region is expected to grow by 0.8% to 4.0% this year and 4.4% in 2025 according to the AfDB macro-economic performance outlook for 2024.  

African Development bank stated that aside Nigeria and Ghana, every other country in the sub-region is estimated to grow by at least 4% in 2024 with embattled Niger leading the pack at 11.2% followed by Senegal and Ivory Coast at 8.2% and 6.8% respectively.  

• It stated, “except for Nigeria and Ghana, all countries in the region are projected to grow at least 4 percent in 2024” 

2024 economic forecast for Nigeria 

The bank’s forecast for Nigeria anticipates a growth rate of 2.9% in 2024, improving to 3.7% by 2025. This modest growth trajectory is primarily linked to the repercussions of recent policy reforms, including the elimination of fuel subsidies and the efforts to consolidate the foreign exchange markets.  

These measures, while aimed at stabilizing the economy, have exacerbated the cost of living, suppressing both consumer spending and investment.  

Despite these challenges, the report suggests that the strategic redirection of resources—specifically, the $5 billion formerly allocated to fuel subsidies between 2022 and May 2023—towards vital social infrastructure, holds the promise of yielding significant long-term benefits over the immediate discomforts. 

Ghana’s economic projections for 2024 

In contrast, Ghana’s economic growth is expected to slightly pick up to 2.8% in 2024, from a sluggish 1.5% in 2023. The analysis attributes this slow pace to persistent inflationary pressures that continue to strain household budgets, implying that inflation remains a critical barrier to Ghana’s economic revival and growth prospects. 

Ghana and Nigeria- pseudo-rivals with similar economic tales 

Ghana grappled with an unprecedented economic downturn in 2023, marked by a staggering inflation rate that peaked at over 50%. However, recent reports as of indicate a significant easing of inflation to 23.4%. The Ghanaian currency, the Cedi, also faced a steep devaluation of over 11% in the first half of 2023.

• The country’s economic challenges began in December 2022 when it announced a suspension of payments on a major chunk of its $28.4 billion external debt, essentially defaulting.  
• However, Ghana secured a $3 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), offering a glimmer of hope amidst its financial turmoil. 
• Like its counterpart in West Africa, Nigeria’s economic problems started with the currency redesign fiasco followed by the twin reforms of then newly elected President Tinubu- fuel subsidy removal and unification of the foreign exchange market.  
• These policies pushed inflation to a 27year high as of December 2023 at 28.92% mainly propelled by rising cost of food and transport. Also, Nigerians have seen their currency depreciate by over 100% since the unification of the forex market in June and the resultant devaluation by the CBN. 

Nairametrics

Solomon Dalung, Minister of Youths and Sports Development in the first term of President Muhammadu Buhari, has told President Bola Tinubu to perform what he described as his “Lagos miracles”.

Tinubu was the governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007.

During his campaign for the highest office in the land, Tinubu emphasised that he built Lagos to a model for good governance, infrastructure renewal and innovation and asked that he should be given the chance to replicate such in Nigeria.

However, policies introduced by the president have not addressed the needs of Nigerians, but plunged the country into further hardship in many instances.

This, some of Tinubu’s allies have blamed on the past.

But in a series of posts via X, the former minister described attempts by the President Tinubu-led administration to consistently blame Buhari for Nigeria’s economic challenges, as hypocritical.

Dalung said if Tinubu’s administration devoted the same resources and effort used during elections and tribunals to tackle security and economic issues, significant improvements would have been achieved.

According to him, blaming Buhari for economic woes wouldn’t alleviate the hardships faced by the people.

While acknowledging Buhari’s failure to fulfill the “change” promise, Dalung maintained that the responsibility for Nigeria’s economic woes lies with Tinubu’s government due to its reckless policies.

He wrote: “Blaming #MBuhari for economic woes cannot address the economic situation confronting the people. Can bulk trading be the only solution for #officialABAT & his economic team? The pregnant situation deserves urgent prescriptions. Hunger & high cost of living is at unbearable level.

“The attempt to change narratives of #officialABAT from “don’t pity me, I look for the job and got it” to blaming Buhari by #BwalaDaniel #aonanuga1956 & Co travellers is uncharitable hypocrisy, #officialABAT knew all these problems, yet “he snatched power and ran away with it.

“An empty stomach does not listen to the voice of the gospel, the echoes of concerns especially traditional rulers cannot be ignored. I lean my voice to it, #officialABAT hunger is a recipe for disaster, can you sit back at home and engage broadly if your wisdom cannot provide solutions?

“If #officialABAT deploys the same energy, knowledge, tactics & money during elections & tribunal to deal with Nigeria’s security & economic challenges, things will change. Why has the steam suddenly changed to blaming Daura? You have snatched power, oya perform your Lagos miracles.”

Daily Trust

Bandits in large numbers have again killed nine people and abducted 27 others in Makera village of Talata-Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

An indigene of the area, Mohammed Garba, told our correspondent on the phone that the bandits invaded the village around 9pm on Monday while they were shooting indiscriminately to scare away residents.

According to Garba, the bandits were in the village for several hours where they moved from house to house and abducted 53 people.

He stressed that nine people who tried to escape the abduction were killed on the spot.

He said, “We were about to go to bed when the bandits entered into our village and began to shoot indiscriminately as a result of which, many people escaped to the forest.

“Others who did not run to the forest hid in their houses but unfortunately, the bandits went from house to house and abducted 53 people according to the head count we conducted.

“Similarly, the bandits also shot to death nine people who wanted to run away or who refused to be abducted.”

Garba maintained that his four children were among those abducted by the bandits.

He said that the bandits have yet to reach out to the community for ransom.

He expressed disgust over the issue, calling on the state government to do something urgent to protect the lives and property of the people of the area.

According to him, residents of the community were trying their best to protect themselves, lamenting that, the bandits came to the village in large numbers.

He said, “We were overpowered by the bandits who were in large numbers.

“We tried our best to chase away the bandits but because they came in hundreds, we were not able to defeat them.”

Spokesperson for the state police command, Yazid Abubakar, could not be reached for comment at the time of filling in this report.

Punch

Food deliveries into northern Gaza are halted because of the war's chaos, increasing famine risk

The World Food Program said Tuesday it has paused deliveries of food to isolated northern Gaza because of increasing chaos across the territory, hiking fears of potential starvation. A study by the U.N. children’s agency warned that one in six children in the north are acutely malnourished.

Entry of aid trucks into the besieged territory has been more than halved in the past two weeks, according to U.N. figures. Overwhelmed U.N. and relief workers said intake of trucks and distribution have been crippled by Israeli failure to ensure convoys’ safety amid its bombardment and ground offensive and by a breakdown in security, with hungry Palestinians frequently overwhelming trucks to take food.

The weakening of the aid operation threatens to deepen misery across the territory, where Israel’s air and ground offensive, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, has killed over 29,000 Palestinians, obliterated entire neighborhoods and displaced more than 80% of the population of 2.3 million.

Heavy fighting and airstrikes have flared in the past two days in areas of northern Gaza that the Israeli military said had been largely cleared of Hamas weeks ago. The military on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of two neighborhoods on Gaza City’s southern edge, an indication that militants are still putting up stiff resistance.

The north, including Gaza City, has been isolated since Israeli troops first moved into it in late October. Large swaths of the city have been reduced to rubble, but several hundred thousand Palestinians remain largely cut off from aid.

They describe famine-like conditions, in which families limit themselves to one meal a day and often resort to mixing animal and bird fodder with grains to bake bread.

“The situation is beyond your imagination,” said Soad Abu Hussein, a widow and mother of five children sheltering in a school in Jabaliya refugee camp.

Ayman Abu Awad, who lives in Zaytoun, said he eats one meal a day to save whatever he can for his four children.

“People have eaten whatever they find, including animal feed and rotten bread,” he said.

SLIDE INTO HUNGER

The World Food Program said it was forced to pause aid to the north because of “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order.”

It said it had first suspended deliveries to the north three weeks ago after a strike hit an aid truck. It tried resuming this week, but convoys on Sunday and Monday faced gunfire and crowds of hungry people stripping goods and beating one driver.

WFP said it was working to resume deliveries as soon as possible. It called for the opening of crossing points for aid directly into northern Gaza from Israel and a better notification system to coordinate with the Israeli military.

It warned of a “precipitous slide into hunger and disease,” saying, “People are already dying from hunger-related causes.”

UNICEF official Ted Chaiban said in a statement that Gaza “is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths, which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza.”

The report released Monday by the Global Nutrition Cluster, an aid partnership led by UNICEF, found that in 95% of Gaza’s households, adults were restricting their own food to ensure small children can eat, while 65% of families eat only one meal a day.

More than 90% of children younger than 5 in Gaza eat two or fewer food groups a day, known as severe food poverty, the report said. A similar percentage are affected by infectious diseases, with 70% experiencing diarrhea in the last two weeks. More than 80% of homes lack clean and safe water.

In Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where most humanitarian aid enters, the acute malnutrition rate is 5%, compared to 15% in northern Gaza. Before the war, the rate across Gaza was less than 1%, the report said.

A U.N. report in December found that Gaza’s entire population is in a food crisis, with one in four facing starvation.

DROP IN AID TRUCKS

Soon after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Israel blocked entry of all food, water, fuel, medicine and other supplies into Gaza. Under U.S. pressure, it began to allow a trickle of aid trucks to enter from Egypt at the Rafah crossing, and in December opened one crossing from Israel into southern Gaza, Kerem Shalom.

The trucks have become virtually the sole source of food and other supplies for Gaza’s population. But the average number entering per day has fallen since Feb. 9 to 60 a day from more than 140 daily in January, according to figures from the U.N. office for humanitarian coordination, known as OCHA.

Even at its height, U.N. officials said the flow was not enough to sustain the population and was far below the 500 trucks a day entering before the war.

The cause of the drop was not immediately clear. For weeks, right-wing Israeli protesters have held demonstrations to block trucks, saying Gaza’s people should not be given aid. U.N. agencies have also complained that cumbersome Israeli procedures for searching trucks have slowed crossings.

But chaos within Gaza appears to be a major cause.

Moshe Tetro, an official with COGAT, an Israeli military body in charge of civilian Palestinian affairs, said the bottleneck was because the U.N. and other aid groups can’t accept the trucks in Gaza or distribute them to the population. He said more than 450 trucks were waiting on the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom crossing, but no U.N. staff had come to distribute them.

Eri Kaneko, a spokesperson for OCHA, said the U.N. and other aid groups have not been able to regularly pick up supplies at the crossing points because of “the lack of security and breakdown of law and order.” He said the Israeli military has a responsibility to facilitate distribution within Gaza, and “aid piling up at the crossing is evidence of an absence of this enabling environment.”

In a rare public criticism of Israel, a top U.S. envoy, David Satterfield, said this week that its targeted killings of Gaza police commanders guarding truck convoys have made it “virtually impossible” to distribute the goods safely.

Besides crowds of Palestinians swarming convoys, aid workers say they are hampered by heavy fighting, strikes hitting trucks and Israeli failure to guarantee deliveries’ safety. The U.N. says that from Jan. 1 to Feb. 12, Israel denied access to 51% of its planned aid deliveries to north Gaza.

NO END IN SIGHT

The war began when Hamas-led militants rampaged across communities in southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. The militants still hold some 130 captives, around a fourth of whom are believed to be dead.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said it had confirmation that Hamas started delivering medications to the hostages, a month after the medications arrived in Gaza under a deal mediated by the Gulf state and France. The deal provides three months’ worth of medication for chronic illnesses for 45 of the hostages, as well as other medicine and vitamins, in exchange for medicines and humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel has vowed to expand its offensive to Rafah, where more than half of the territory’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that the total Palestinian death toll since Oct. 7 had risen to 29,195. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its records, but says women and children make up two-thirds of those killed. Over 69,000 Palestinians have been wounded, according to the ministry.

Israel says it has killed over 10,000 Palestinian militants but has provided no evidence for its count. The military blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because the militant group fights in dense residential neighborhoods. The military says 237 of its soldiers have been killed since the start of the ground offensive in late October.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Moscow reveals details on capture of Avdeevka

The key Donbass town of Avdeevka has been liberated with minimal losses among Russian troops, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. While fleeing the town, Ukrainian forces left behind many wounded soldiers, military hardware and equipment, as well as heavily mined positions, the minister said.

The president congratulated the minister on the success in Avdeevka, noting that the Ukrainian forces were forced to flee the heavily-fortified town, while their announced withdrawal was a purely political attempt to cover up the true position and portray it as an “organized retreat.”

“The situation in Avdeevka is certainly a success but it needs to be advanced further. Its development must be well-prepared, provided with personnel, weapons, equipment, and ammunition,” Putin told the minister.

A northern suburb of Donetsk, Avdeevka has served as a pivotal stronghold for Kiev since the early stages of conflict in then-Ukrainian Donbass. Over the past nine years, the site has remained on the conflict frontline and has been the launching point for multiple Ukrainian attacks on Donetsk in which, local officials estimate, thousands of civilians have died. 

It had also been heavily reinforced, with vast underground bunkers and tunnels built by the Ukrainian military, Shoigu noted.

The operation to capture the town has been prepared by the General Staff since last fall, the minister revealed. The Russian command used high-precision strikes against key points in the Ukrainian positions, Shoigu stated, adding that over 450 such strikes were carried out daily during the operation.

Russia seized control of Avdeevka on Saturday, inflicting heavy casualties on Ukrainian troops amid their retreat, reportedly reaching up to 1,500 in a single day. The Ukrainian command, however, has insisted the rout was actually an organized withdrawal on the order of Kiev’s freshly-appointed top general, Aleksandr Syrsky.

** Russian defense chief points to significant increase in drones, ammunition

The number of unmanned aerial vehicles in use by the Russian army has increased 17-fold, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said in an interview with TASS Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Petrov.

"We have increased the number of tanks almost six-fold; we are improving and upgrading them. The number of unmanned aerial vehicles has grown 17-fold and the number of both artillery and jet shells has risen 17.5-fold. It certainly allows us to face the future with confidence even though the job is challenging," Shoigu noted.

About 540,000 people entered military service under contract in Russia in 2023, making it possible to create a reserve army of six divisions, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.

"We recruited almost 540,000 people for contract service last year alone, which allowed us to create a reserve army of six divisions. Today, they are well-trained professional troops who constitute a strong force. As many as 50,000 people have entered military service under contract since the beginning of this year, and they keep coming," he pointed out.

he Ukrainian army failed to reach even the first line of Russia’s defenses during its large-scale counteroffensive, Shoigu said.

"[Russian forces] started to do careful work on an everyday basis, using all resources, including the Aerospace Forces, army aircraft, attack aircraft, paratroopers, marines and high-precision weapons, because we had to hit vehicles carrying military equipment and ammunition on the distant approaches, along with training centers and troops. This is how, step by step, we made sure that the enemy failed to reach even the first line of defense despite using huge forces. And there are two more defense lines," he pointed out.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Putin says Russia will push further into Ukraine after 'chaotic' fall of Avdiivka

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Russian troops would push further into Ukraine to build on their success on the battlefield after the fall of the town of Avdiivka where he said Ukrainian troops had been forced to flee in chaos.

The town, which once had a population of 32,000, fell to Russia on Saturday, Putin's biggest battlefield victory since Russian forces captured the city of Bakhmut in May 2023.

Television footage released by Russia's defence ministry showed that almost every house in Avdiivka had been branded with war.

Putin said on Tuesday the Ukrainian order to withdraw from the town had been announced after Ukrainian troops had already begun to flee in chaos. He said that all captured Ukrainian soldiers should be accorded their rights under international conventions on prisoners.

"As for the overall situation in Avdiivka, this is an absolute success, I congratulate you. It needs to be built on," Putin told Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in the Kremlin.

"But that development must be well-prepared, provided with personnel, weapons, equipment and ammunition," Putin said. "It seems to be self-evident, but nevertheless I draw your attention to it."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN that Avdiivka would not have fallen had Kyiv received weapons held up by the U.S. Congress' failure to approve a large aid package.

"We wouldn't (have lost) Avdiivka if we had all the artillery ammunition that we needed to defend it. Russia does not intend to pause or withdraw...Once Avdiivka is under their control, they undoubtedly will choose another city and begin to storm it," Kuleba said.

Ukrainian troops, he said, were "making miracles...but the reason they have to sacrifice themselves and die is that someone is still debating a decision. I want everyone to remember that every day of debate in one place means another death in another place."

The U.S. Senate this month passed a $95 billion aid package that includes funds for Ukraine, but House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has declined to bring it up for a vote on the floor of the House.

MONTHS OF FIGHTING

Ukraine said it withdrew its soldiers to save them from being fully surrounded after months of fierce fighting. The Ukrainian military said there had been casualties, but that the situation had stabilised somewhat after the retreat.

Each side said the other had suffered huge losses.

After the failure of Ukraine to pierce Russian front lines in the east and south last year, Moscow has been trying to grind down Ukrainian forces just as Kyiv ponders a major new mobilisation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appointed a new commander last week to run the war.

Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering full-scale war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.

Avdiivka, called Avdeyevka by Russians, has endured a decade of conflict. It holds particular symbolism for Russia as it was briefly taken in 2014 by Moscow-backed separatists who seized a swathe of eastern Ukraine, but was then recaptured by Ukrainian troops who built extensive fortifications.

Avdiivka sits in the industrial Donbas region, 15 km (9 miles) north of the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Donetsk. Before the war, Avdiivka's Soviet-era coke plant was one of Europe's biggest.

Shoigu said Russian forces had also taken control of the village of Krynky in Ukraine's southern Kherson region. Ukraine's southern military command said its troops had held their positions on the left bank of the River Dnipro and that Russian attacks were unsuccessful.

Neither side gives death tolls for the war.

** Avdiivka, a Ukrainian town taken by Russia, shown in ruins

The trees are splintered, the houses wrecked, the surviving civilians live in basements, NATO ammunition has been abandoned - this is the picture shown by footage released by Russia from the ruins of the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka.

The town, once with a population of 32,000, fell to Russia on Saturday, President Vladimir Putin's biggest victory since Moscow captured the city of Bakhmut in May 2023.

Television footage released by Russia's defence ministry showed that almost every house in Avdiivka was branded with war. An unidentified Russian soldier walked past a wasteland of rubble, describing a chaotic Ukrainian retreat.

The cupola of a church was in pieces, roads were strewn with the detritus of war including a wrecked armoured vehicle and whole apartment blocks hung down broken, seeping out lives long abandoned into the snow.

The soldier showed baked beans and chilli military rations supplied by Canada, brand new NATO 7.62 mm M118 cartridges, 120 mm mortars and a box with "Choctaw Defense Manufacturing Group" printed on them.

Reuters was able to confirm the location of some of the footage released by the defence ministry by the structure and design of nearby buildings, a bridge and train tracks which matched file and satellite imagery. Reuters was not able to independently verify when the video was taken.

Beside dogs, a woman named Tatiana, one of just a few hundred civilians still living in the ruins, told of a life huddling in basements and running to collect water in plastic containers during any lull in the fighting.

"It was scary of course - very scary," Tatiana said in Russian in the footage. "We are so happy that you have come."

"We live in the basements. We don't live in flats. All our flats are wrecked. After the start of the special operation we went down into the basements."

RT/Reuters

In the fast-paced business world, conventional wisdom dictates that admitting mistakes is a sign of weakness or a loss of power and authority. It also transmits to others that you failed. The reality is quite the opposite.

Here's the brutal truth: Acknowledging when you are wrong and when you made a mistake can be a game-changer for your leadership journey. 

As reported previously on Inc., Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has "observed that the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they'd already solved. They're open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions and challenges to their own way of thinking."

In other words, the smart and successful ones admit when they are wrong. As leaders who frequent my musings, I hope you're putting serious thought into practicing this form of intellectual humility.

The brutal truth of it takes one courageous first step: It's admitting when you make the wrong choices while being open to considering other people's ideas. 

The research and the benefits

It takes a lot of emotional intelligence and courage to be willing to expose oneself like this, but the research shows that there are significant payoffs to doing so. A 7-year study involving 12,000 people, published in the book Performing Under Pressure, found that admitting when one is wrong is a rare behavior highly correlated with top performers.

In fact, those in the top 10% of performers were distinguished from average performers by their ability to admit their mistakes.  

Admitting to being wrong also has been found to be positively correlated with promotion. Therefore, when identifying potential leaders, it is essential to look for individuals willing to acknowledge their mistakes.

Acknowledging when you're wrong has many benefits, including breeding trust with teams. Imagine this: You're leading a team and you've made a call that, upon reflection, wasn't the best move. Instead of sweeping it under the rug, you own up to it.

Admitting that someone's idea is better than yours shows your true authenticity and your capacity to be vulnerable when the stakes are high. Your team will respect you more for being genuine. It builds a trust bridge that can withstand the storms of any workplace.

Admitting mistakes ultimately helps you to learn from a great teacher: Failure. When you own up to your mistakes, you're not just admitting a blunder; you're saying, "Hey, I'm learning, just like you." It sets a tone that mistakes are not the end of the world; they're stepping stones to success.

Inc

The parallel section of the foreign exchange market recorded a new all-time low on Monday after the naira depreciated to N1,730 per dollar.

The naira fell by 8.13 percent from N1,600/$ recorded on February 16, 2024.

Currency traders at the street market quoted the buying price of the dollar at N1,700 and the selling price at N1,730 — leaving a profit margin of N30.

“Customers are demanding for the dollars so much and it is affecting the market,” a black market trader known as Aliyu said.

At the official window, the naira depreciated by 2.65 percent to N1,537.96/$ on February 16 — from N1,498.25 per dollar on February 15.

According to data from FMDQ Securities, a platform that oversees foreign exchange trading in Nigeria, the local currency hit an intra-day trading low of N1,631 and a high of N1,000.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in furtherance of its efforts to stabilise the naira, made certain policy changes in the past week.

On February 15, 2024, the CBN announced it had placed limits on the transfer of proceeds from crude exports by international oil companies (IOCs) to offshore parent company accounts.

CBN also halted cash payments of personal travel allowance (PTA) and business travel allowance (BTA) — directing banks to adopt electronic transfers.

The Cable