Ukrainian troops lose ground with fewer fighters and exposed supply lines

Ukrainian military medics of 59th brigade carry a wounded soldier on a stretcher from an ambulance arrived from the battlefield on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region in Ukraine on Jan. 29, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 03 February 2025
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Ukrainian troops lose ground with fewer fighters and exposed supply lines

  • Moscow is set on capturing as much territory as possible as the Trump administration is pushing for negotiations to end the war
  • Ukrainian soldiers in Pokrovsk said that Russian forces switched tactics in recent weeks, attacking their flanks instead of going head-on

POKROVSK REGION, Ukraine: A dire shortage of infantry troops and supply routes coming under Russian drone attacks are conspiring against Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk, where decisive battles in the nearly three-year war are playing out — and time is running short.
Ukrainian troops are losing ground around the crucial supply hub, which lies at the confluence of multiple highways leading to key cities in the eastern Donetsk region as well as an important railway station.
Moscow is set on capturing as much territory as possible as the Trump administration is pushing for negotiations to end the war and recently froze foreign aid to Ukraine, a move that has shocked Ukrainian officials already apprehensive about the intentions of the new US president, their most important ally. Military aid has not stopped, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Ukrainian soldiers in Pokrovsk said that Russian forces switched tactics in recent weeks, attacking their flanks instead of going head-on to form a pincer movement around the city. With Russians in control of dominant heights, Ukrainian supply routes are now within their range. Heavy fog in recent days prevented Ukrainian soldiers from effectively using surveillance drones, allowing Russians to consolidate and take more territory.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian commanders say they do not have enough reserves to sustain defense lines and that new infantry units are failing to execute operations. Many pin hopes on Mykhailo Drapatyi, a respected commander recently appointed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as ground forces chief, to shift the dynamic and counterattack.
“The war is won by logistics. If there is no logistics, there is no infantry, because there is no way to supply it,” said the deputy commander of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, known by the call sign Afer.
“(Russians) have learned this and are doing it quite well.”
Poor weather at the worst time
A combination of factors led Kyiv to effectively lose the settlement of Velyka Novosilka this past week, their most significant gain since seizing the city of Kurakhove in the Donetsk region in January.
Scattered groups of Ukrainian soldiers are still present in Velyka Novosilka’s southern sector, Ukrainian commanders said, prompting criticism from some military experts who questioned why the higher command did not order a full withdrawal.
The road-junction village is 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region, where authorities have begun digging fortifications for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, anticipating further Russian advances.
Russia amassed a large number of infantry around Velyka Novosilka, soldiers there said. As heavy fog set in in recent days, Ukrainian drones “barely worked” to conduct surveillance, one commander near Pokrovsk told The Associated Press. Long-range and medium-range surveillance was impossible, he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely about sensitive military matters.
“Because of this, the enemy was amassing forces … taking up positions, digging in. They were very good at it,” he said.
It was at that fateful moment that Russian forces launched a massive attack: Up to 10 columns of armored vehicles, each with up to 10 units, moved out from various directions.
Ukrainian logistics in peril
Key logistics routes along asphalted roads and highways are under direct threat from Russian drones as a result of Moscow’s recent gains, further straining Ukrainian troops.
Russian forces now occupy key dominant heights around the Pokrovsk region, which allows them to use drones up to 30 kilometers (18 miles) deep into Ukrainian front lines.
The Pokrovsk-Pavlohrad-Dnipro highway is “already under the control of Russian drones,” said the commander at Pokrovsk’s flanks. Russian forces are less than 4 kilometers ( 2 1/2 miles) away and are affecting Ukrainian traffic, he said. “Now the road is only 10 percent of its former capacity,” he said.
Another paved highway, the Myrnohrad-Kostyantynivka road, is also under Russian fire, he said.
This also means that in poor weather, military vehicles, including armored personnel carriers, tanks and pickup trucks, have to trudge through the open fields to deliver fuel, food and ammunition, as well as evacuate the wounded.
In a first-aid station near Pokrovsk, a paramedic with the call sign Marik said evacuating wounded soldiers once took hours, now it takes days.
“Everything is visible (by enemy drones) and it is very difficult,” he said.
New recruits are unprepared
Ukrainian soldiers in Pokrovsk said shortages of fighting troops are “catastrophic” and challenges are compounded by newly created infantry units that are poorly trained and inexperienced, putting more pressure on battle-hardened brigades having to step in to stabilize the front line.
Afer, the deputy commander, complained that new recruits are “constantly extending the front line because they leave their positions, they do not hold them, they do not control them, they do not monitor them. We do almost all the work for them.”
“Because of this, having initially a 2-kilometer area of responsibility, you end up with 8-9 kilometers per battalion, which is a lot and we don’t have enough resources,” Afer said. Drones are especially hard to come by for his battalion, he said, adding they only have half of what they need.
“It’s not because they have lower quality infantry, but because they are completely unprepared for modern warfare,” he said of the new recruits.
His battalion has almost no reserves, forcing infantry units to hold front-line positions for weeks at a time. For every one of his soldiers, Russians have 20, he said, emphasizing how outnumbered they are.
Back at the first-aid station, a wounded soldier with the call sign Fish was recovering from a leg wound sustained after he tried to evacuate a fallen comrade. He had moved him from a dugout to load him into a vehicle when the Russian mortar shell exploded nearby.
“We are fighting back as much as we can, as best as we can,” he said.


Polio outbreak declared in Papua New Guinea

Updated 41 min 33 sec ago
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Polio outbreak declared in Papua New Guinea

SYDNEY: A polio outbreak has been declared in Papua New Guinea, sparking concern about the disease's spread in a country with low vaccination rates, health officials said.
Poliovirus, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water, is highly infectious and potentially fatal.
It can cause deformities and paralysis and mainly affects children under five years old.
The virus was detected in wastewater and environmental samples in the Pacific nation's capital Port Moresby and second largest city Lae, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
In subsequent testing, two children in Lae were found to have the poliovirus type 2 strain, according to the WHO representative in Papua New Guinea, Sevil Huseynova.
The confirmation of community transmission in the children "constitutes a polio outbreak", Huseynova said in briefing notes provided to AFP on Friday.
The health agency "expresses deep concern over the confirmed outbreak", she said.
Genetic testing showed the polio strain detected in Papua New Guinea was linked to one circulating in Indonesia.
Papua New Guinea was certified as polio-free in 2000, but immunisation rates among children are low -- less than 50 percent, according to the WHO.
"Polio is a highly infectious disease, and in communities with low polio immunisation rates, the virus quickly spreads from one person to another," Huseynova said.
Papua New Guinea Health Minister Elias Kapavore said the situation was "serious but manageable".
"We've dealt with this before and know what works," he told reporters on Thursday.
"Vaccination is safe and effective, and we're acting quickly to keep children protected."


Thai monk arrested over $9 million temple embezzlement

Updated 16 May 2025
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Thai monk arrested over $9 million temple embezzlement

  • Temples in Buddhist-majority Thailand rely heavily on income from “merit-making” ceremonies where worshippers make donations in hopes of gaining good fortune and better reincarnation
  • The arrest from one of the Bangkok suburb’s most prominent temples has triggered significant backlash on social media

BANGKOK: Thai police have arrested a Buddhist monk over allegations he embezzled more than $9 million from the prominent temple he ran which was funded by donations from devotees.
Investigators from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) accuse Abbot Phra Thammachiranuwat from Wat Rai Khing of siphoning more than 300 million baht ($9.05 million) from the temple’s bank account into his own.
Investigators traced funds from the temple on Bangkok’s western outskirts to an illegal online gambling network running baccarat card games, local media said.
Temples in Buddhist-majority Thailand rely heavily on income from “merit-making” ceremonies where worshippers make donations in hopes of gaining good fortune and better reincarnation.
Police charged Phra Thammachiranuwat with corruption and malfeasance, CIB deputy commissioner Jaroonkiat Pankaew told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.
“This (arrest) is to help purify our religion,” Jaroonkiat said.
Authorities have arrested a second suspect and are investigating whether others were involved, while local media reported the abbot has now left the monkhood.
Wat Rai Khing, believed to have been founded in 1851, houses a replica of the Buddha’s footprint.
The arrest from one of the Bangkok suburb’s most prominent temples has triggered significant backlash on social media.
“Next time I will donate to a hospital or school for good causes, not a temple,” one user posted on social media platform X.
Others cautioned their fellow Buddhists to remain firm in their faith.
“Not all monks are bad. Don’t generalize,” another X user wrote.


France sues Iran at top UN court over detained citizens

Updated 16 May 2025
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France sues Iran at top UN court over detained citizens

  • The announcement comes as Iranian negotiators are set to meet with their counterparts from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany

PARIS: Paris has filed a case against Tehran at the top UN court over two French citizens who have been held in Iran for three years, the French foreign minister said on Friday.
The announcement comes as Iranian negotiators are set to meet with their counterparts from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany in Turkiye on Friday for talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Cecile Kohler, a 40-year-old literature teacher from eastern France and her partner Jacques Paris, in his 70s, were arrested on May 7, 2022, on the last day of a tourist trip to Iran.
They have been held on spying charges, which they have vehemently denied.
In its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), France accuses Iran “of violating its obligation to provide consular protection” to the pair, who “have been held hostage... detained in appaling conditions that amount to torture,” Jean-Noel Barrot told France 2 television.
They are among a number of Europeans still held by Iran in what some European countries, including France, regard as a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.
Kohler and Paris are the last known French detainees in Iran after some recent releases and are regarded as “state hostages” by the French government.
The two are jailed in extremely tough conditions, according to their families.


Jihadists in Nigeria turn to TikTok to spread propaganda

Updated 16 May 2025
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Jihadists in Nigeria turn to TikTok to spread propaganda

LAGOS: Jihadists in northeastern Nigeria are surging -- and using social media to spread the word of their campaigns and recruit fighters.
At least 100 people were killed in the new wave of jihadist attacks in April alone, as the governor of Borno, the epicentre of the violence which has raged since 2009, said the state is losing ground to armed groups.
At the same time, apparent jihadists and their boosters on TikTok were flaunting rifles, grenades and stacks of cash, according to easily accessible videos reviewed by AFP that same month.
They broadcast live in joint videos with accounts run by men preaching anti-Western ideologies in a style reminiscent of the videos released by deceased Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in the early days of the 15-year-old insurgency.
Criminal gangs that carry out raids on villages and kidnap for ransom in the northwest of the country have used TikTok in the past.
"It started with bandits," Bulama Bukarti, a vice president at Texas-based Bridgeway Foundation wrote on X. "Now, Boko Haram members are hosting live TikTok shows -- spreading propaganda, justifying their violence and threatening anyone who dares speak against them."
A Boko Haram fighter threatened Bukarti himself in a now-deleted TikTok video for speaking against the group, he said.
While many of the accounts on the video sharing app have been flagged and taken down, the capability of broadcasting live streams on the platform adds another layer of difficulty to monitoring the content they put out.
A TikTok spokesperson said it was difficult to quantify the number of accounts linked to terrorist organisations that have been taken down.
While some of these accounts have been deleted, several others remain active, according to accounts viewed by AFP at the time of publication.
"Terrorist groups and content related to these groups have no place on TikTok, and we take an uncompromising stance against enabling violent extremism on or off our platform," a spokesperson for the company told AFP in an emailed statement.


Among the 19 accounts reviewed by AFP were men dressed as clerics, their faces revealed to the camera even as they called for violence against the government and teamed up with accounts that showed off weapons hauls.
Accounts also post old footage of the original Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf, and those of Isah Garo Assalafy, who was banned from preaching in public places in Niger state for using violent rhetoric against democracy and Western civilisation.
These accounts frequently go live, interacting with followers, answering questions and receiving digital gifts that can be converted into cash.
Nigeria's jihadist conflict, which over the years has expanded to include a rival Islamic State group, has killed more than 40,000 and displaced some two million people in Africa's most populous country.
Saddiku Muhammad, a former jihadist who has since defected, told AFP that armed groups are turning to TikTok in part because security forces cracked down on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
They also know TikTok is popular with young people.
"Jihadists realised that to capture the minds of young people, they need to speak to them in the language they understand -- instead of the traditional didactic and demagogic styles that are boring and unattractive to them," Muhammad said.
"From all indications, it is paying off. They are reaching out to young potential recruits."


Analysts told AFP that the use of TikTok by members of armed groups is a direct challenge to the government.
Malik Samuel, a security analyst at Abuja-based think tank Good Governance Africa, said it is a common Boko Haram tactic to use the group's young members to spread propaganda.
"I believe showing their faces is strategic -- to show that they aren't afraid and to let their target know that they are engaging with real people," Samuel said.
Islamic State West Africa Province, however, still appears to follow a more polished, top-down communication strategy than the apparent Boko Haram jihadists posting on TikTok, he said.
TikTok said it has partnered with UN-backed Tech Against Terrorism to improve the detection and removal of violent extremist content.
"Our community guidelines clearly state that we do not allow the presence of violent and hateful organisations or individuals on our platform," it said.
"We will always take action on content found to violate these policies."
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Israeli strikes kill at least 20 people in Gaza as Trump wraps up his Middle East visit

Updated 16 May 2025
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Israeli strikes kill at least 20 people in Gaza as Trump wraps up his Middle East visit

GAZA: Israeli strikes killed at least 20 people in Gaza on Friday morning, as U.S. President Donald Trump wraps up his Middle East visit.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, where they were brought. Survivors said many people were still under the rubble.
The widespread attacks across northern Gaza come as Trump finishes his visit to Gulf states but not Israel.
There had been widespread hope that Trump’s regional visit could usher in a ceasefire deal or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza. An Israeli blockade of the territory is now in its third month.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.