I first came to Turkey in 2014 to work. Russia's war against Ukraine had only recently begun, and the invasion of Crimea was on everyone's mind. At the time, many of my Turkish friends asked me a question that both moved and perplexed me: "What kind of nation are you?" They take your country's lands away from you, and you hand over Crimea to the Russians without a fight? There were, in fact, explanations for this.
After Russian aggression towards Ukraine, Turkey closed off the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to all warships from any country. Turkey acquired its authority on the straits from the Montreux Convention which is the latest of the eight treaties governing the straits . Here is the brief history of how the agreements that govern the Straits evolved through conflicts and how it influences war in Ukraine.
Military defeats and massive losses faced by the occupiers in the Lugansk region demotivate soldiers of the Russian Federation's armed forces. The occupiers refuse to return to the war in Ukraine, considering massive losses in the Russian army. To compensate for a lack of personnel, the Kremlin is forcibly mobilizing residents of the temporarily occupied territories.
Men aged 18 to 60 are being forced to fight en masse on the side of the Russians in the occupied territories of the Luhansk regions. Putin is short on cannon fodder. Some experts believe Russia will declare a general mobilization. Otherwise, the occupying forces simply lack personnel.
Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, stated on Radio NV that Ukraine is considering the possibility of blowing up the Kerch Bridge in Crimea. Can our defenders take such a step? The Russian side, according to Danilov, uses the bridge to reinforce their groups. He also stated that if possible, the Ukrainian military will destroy the crossing. The Kremlin, on the other hand, threatened to "strike back."
In the Luhansk direction, the enemy, intensifying the shelling with available means of fire, tried to advance deep into the territory of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Popasna and Rubizhne, to develop an offensive in the direction of Severodonetsk. The occupiers were unsuccessful and suffered losses.
The conflict continues: for the past two months, Ukraine's Armed Forces have boldly defended the country from Russian occupiers. During the Easter holidays, the situation remained tense on all fronts.
Mariupol is in a difficult situation. Fighting is raging around Azovstal, which serves as the Azov Regiment's headquarters.
“What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare[a] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?” Genesis 18:24
The visits of international leaders to Kyiv demonstrate the partners' trust in the Ukrainian government as well as the consolidation of the West as a whole in the face of the Russian threat.
Over 500 thousand Ukrainians, including 121 thousand children, were forcibly deported to Russia from Ukraine's temporarily occupied territories. Serhiy Kyslytsia, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made the announcement.
According to reports, Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin was in the occupied Donetsk region. Vitaly Milonov, a United Russia deputy, posted a photo of Prigozhin on VKontakte. Prigozhin commented on this photo as follows: "I was walking along Nevsky Prospekt and I noticed Milonov walking. I approached him and said hello. That's the end of the story. There's nothing to say. Why is everything shattered around here? This is St. Petersburg, our city."