Vladimir Putin ‘accidentally’ bombs a Russian city instead of Ukraine

* The US decision to provide Ukraine with 31 advanced M1A2 Abrams tanks will make a difference in the war, but it is not a panacea, US Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday .

* Six German-made Leopard 2A4 tanks bound for Ukraine left Spain by ship, according to a naval tracking website.

* Ukraine pressed allies for long-range weapons, aircraft and ammunition as the United States hosted a meeting at the Ramstein airbase in Germany on Friday to discuss increased support to repel a Russian invasion.

* The Russian Defense Ministry said stormtroopers were fighting in the western parts of Bakhmut, the last part of the besieged Ukrainian city still held by Kiev forces.

* Ukraine said Russian forces had made some progress in their fight for Bakhmut but the situation was under control.

As Ukrainian and Russian troops fight conventional battles on the front lines, Europe’s first major war of the Internet age has also unleashed a technological war as both sides vie for the upper hand with their drones and satellite communications.

While the two sides have kept pace so far, Ukraine’s minister in charge of technology told The Associated Press in an interview Friday that he was confident his country had the motivation and skills to out-innovate Russia at the end.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address that kyiv was actively preparing new units that had yet to appear on the front line amid heavy fighting in Bakhmut.

Russia’s assault on Bakhmut relies heavily on the private army of the Wagner Group, whose commander Yevgeny Prigozhin on Friday expressed concern about a Ukrainian counterattack.

“Today we are killing those who were trained in Ukraine, but those who come from Germany will be technologically educated,” he said in an audio recording posted on Telegram, an apparent reference to Ukrainians who will be trained in Germany to use Abrams tanks provided by the United States.

“The West has delivered 230 tanks and another 1,500 armored vehicles. This is also enough to generate serious opposition.”

The Ukraine, he predicted, would attack when the ground had firmed after the spring rains.

“They will attack…they will come and try to separate us, and we must resist,” he said.

A heartbreaking photo of a pregnant woman in a bombed-out Mariupol maternity hospital has won this year’s World Press Photo award.

The winning photo shows Iryna Kalinina, 32, an injured pregnant woman being carried from a maternity hospital that was damaged during a Russian airstrike on Mariupol in March last year.

Their baby, named Miron after the word “peace”, was stillborn. The World Press Photo website said Kalinina died half an hour after giving birth.

My colleague Maroosha Muzaffar reports:

Six Leopard 2A4 tanks bound for Ukraine left Spain by ship on Friday, according to a naval monitoring website, as part of Western military aid for Kiev’s fight against invasion by Russia.

German-made Leopard tanks and armored personnel carriers were herded onto a cargo ship, Reuters witnesses said. The ship will go to Poland and the hardware will be transferred to Ukraine, which is expected to launch a counter-offensive in the spring. It was unclear when the team would arrive.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said this month that Spain will send 10 Leopard 2A4 tanks. The military is repairing the remaining four. Spain has also trained 40 tank crew members and 15 mechanics.

The US decision to provide Ukraine with 31 advanced M1A2 Abrams tanks will make a difference in the war, but it is not a panacea, US Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday.

Milley’s comments came as the United States announced that the Abrams tanks that will be used to train the Ukrainians will arrive in Germany in the coming weeks.

“I’m biased, but I think the M1 tank is the best tank in the world… I think the M1 tank, when it’s delivered, will make all the difference,” Milley, the US top general, said after a meeting . of Ukraine’s allies at the Ramstein airbase in Germany.

“But I also warn that there is no silver bullet in war.”

A Russian official warned on Friday of an “uncontrollable” arms race involving multiple nuclear powers, the state-run RIA news agency said.

“In essence, we are witnessing a missile arms race with consequences that are difficult to predict. Tens of billions of dollars are being invested in improving missile technology. This process is getting uncontrollable,” said Grigory Mashkov, roving ambassador.

RIA said Mashkov referred in a magazine interview to China’s rapid expansion of its missile systems and the nuclear capabilities of Israel, India and Pakistan.

Atomic scientists said in January that the “Doomsday Clock” – a theoretical measure of humanity’s risk of extinction – had moved closer to midnight than ever as a result of rising nuclear tensions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has claimed four regions of Ukraine as its own territory and placed them under its nuclear umbrella, in moves condemned as illegal by most countries at the United Nations. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russia would use all means at its disposal to defend its “territorial integrity.”

In February, Putin announced that Moscow would suspend the New START treaty with the United States, which limits the nuclear warheads deployed by each side, saying Washington was trying to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia in Ukraine.

Earlier, RIA quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that a “vacuum” in strategic stability could emerge once New START expires in 2026. It was unclear whether this was a statement from the ministry or a comment from the interview by Mashkov.

RIA also quoted the ministry as saying that Moscow needed to develop its tactical missile capabilities, including in its Kaliningrad region, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania.

They have drawn the most attention in eastern Ukraine, but it seems that wherever war breaks out, from Syria to Sudan, this group of mercenaries can be found profiting from the bloodshed. Now, leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s break with the Kremlin could make them even more dangerous. writes World Affairs Editor kim sengupta.