WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Ukrainians torn by evacuation calls as Russian shells fall in northeast Ukrainians living in the northeastern Kupiansk district close to Russia's border on Sunday found themselves torn between the will to stay and protect what they have built and the desire to flee from Russian artillery fire. "If you said the evacuation is going well," Dmytro Lozhenko, who runs a volunteer group that helps civilians flee the fighting, said on television, "It would sound like a bit of sarcasm." Regional authorities announced a mandatory evacuation of civilians from near the Kupiansk front earlier this month due to daily…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Seven killed, 144 wounded in Russian missile strike on Ukraine's Chernihiv Seven people including a 6-year-old girl were killed, 144 wounded, and 41 were in hospital after a Russian missile struck a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said. "I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, delivered early on Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden. "A notable response." He said that of the 144 people injured, 15 were children, and…

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Putin visits Ukraine military operation headquarters Russian President Vladimir Putin met the head of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, and other high-ranking military commanders during an unannounced visit to the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District, the Kremlin said on Saturday morning. The head of state received classified briefings from Gerasimov and other senior commanding officers involved in the ongoing military operation in Ukraine, the brief statement said. Russian state media shared a video of the rare visit, which shows the head of the General Staff greeting Putin at the headquarters ahead of the closed-door meeting. However, it…

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Ukraine scrambling to avoid Russian strikes on airbases – FT Russia has ramped up attacks on airbases used by Kiev to launch long-range missile attacks, forcing Ukrainian personnel and aircraft to constantly be on the move to avoid being struck, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing sources. Ukrainian officials told the paper that Kiev and its backers believe that Moscow’s recent attacks on airbases and pilot training facilities in western Ukraine are aimed at decimating its fleet of bombers used to fire British Storm Shadow and French Scalp missiles. Ukraine is “racing to move around crucial weaponry…