‘It allows us to do our job’: Ukrainian artillery team buoyed by fresh ammunition after costly wait on frontline
Sat in a makeshift shelter on the outskirts of a frontline town in eastern Ukraine, the soldier – callsign “Zaur” – shared some rare, good news: new ammunition appeared to be arriving.
He did not know the precise details but said fresh supplies started to be delivered about a week or two earlier.
This was making a difference for his artillery team as they fought to defend Chasiv Yar from advancing Russian forces.
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“It allows us to do our job, to hold off Russian soldiers, to restrain them, and also to destroy them when they attempt counterattacks,” Zaur said.
Ukrainian troops have been losing ground in the Donbas and now face a reopened front in the northeastern region of Kharkiv as they run short of ammunition and weapons following delays in the delivery of munitions from their allies, in particular the United States.
Even though American weapons are finally arriving to the frontline, the wait has been costly.
Zaur described the fight for Chasiv Yar, which has long been a Russian target. “It’s pretty intense. There are battles every day,” he said.
Should the hilltop town fall, it would give the invaders access to higher ground, enabling them to target artillery fire onto a wider area and putting cities in the remaining parts of the Donbas that are still under Ukrainian control at greater risk.
Asked whether Ukraine would manage to fend off the Chasiv Yar attack, the soldier, who commands the artillery unit, said: “We’ll try to hold on as much as possible, and time will tell…
“We’ll try our best… to do what’s necessary to survive.”
A Sky News team was shown around the artillery position under the cover of patchy woodland, next to some grassy mounds. Booms could be heard from distant fighting.
In a sign of the battle moving closer, soldiers had just finished digging a deep, narrow trench, which ran from the already-sheltered location of their self-propelled artillery gun – a 2S1 Gvozdika that fires 122mm rounds.
The trench had taken three days to dig. It had only been finished on the day we visited the area last week and – the soldiers said – had already been used to shelter from incoming rounds.
Russian troops have been trying to push into Chasiv Yar for the past year after seizing the nearby city of Bakhmut.
In recent weeks, though, they appear to have been edging closer – with a Ukrainian military medical stabilisation point forced to pull back to a city called Kostiantynivka.
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Russian soldiers advance in Ukrainian drone footage
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As we surveyed the artillery site, there was suddenly an ominous sound.
A powerful rocket – I was not able to see it – was flying overhead.
Over a radio held by a soldier, a voice could be heard saying: “It was coming straight at us, then veered towards a five-storey building. It flew low, damn it.”
Within minutes, we became aware of another danger – a drone.
One of the troops said he thought it was a Ukrainian drone but from our position, it seemed impossible to be sure.
We were told that the commander thought it best for us to leave.
As we walked – quickly – across some open ground between two patches of tree cover, one of the Sky News team thought they could hear a self-exploding attack drone in flight.
Again, it was not possible to know for sure what was making the noise, but then came the sound of an explosion, though the impact site was not in the immediate vicinity.
In a final reminder of the battle, as we headed towards our vehicle, it was possible to see a black dot hovering above the trees – yet another drone.
Singer Fuse ODG has released an “alternative” charity song to Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? after criticising the original for having potentially damaging effects on Africa.
The single titled We Know It’s Christmas (Band Aid Reply) was released by the British-Ghanaian singer on Tuesday, in what he described as “not just a song” but a “statement”.
Writing about his new song in The Guardian, the singer said he is “offering an Afrobeats alternative to Band Aid” as a “celebration of progress and a step toward reclaiming our narratives”.
He said the Afrobeats genre has in the past helped to unite Africans globally and “foster pride in our heritage”.
“We’re no longer waiting for charity; we’re building our own futures. This is about empowerment, pride, and showing the world that Africa’s story is far more than poverty and aid,” he wrote on YouTube.
The rapper said all the funds from the single will go to the New Africa Growth and Relief Fund, which he has launched to help build a “financial safety net” for the continent.
It comes after pop star Ed Sheeran said he was not asked permission for his vocals to be used in Band Aid 40, and would have “respectfully declined” if he had been asked, referencing a post by Fuse ODG, for updating his view on the matter.
Fuse ODG said a decade earlier he had refused to take part in the 2014 revamp of the 1984 project as he feels that while it helps get “sympathy and donations, they perpetuate damaging stereotypes that stifle Africa’s economic growth, tourism, and investment”.
He said his “mission” is now to “reclaim the narrative, empowering Africans to tell their own stories, redefine their identity, and position Africa as a thriving hub for investment and tourism”.
The singer acknowledged that while the public’s generosity in reaction to the original single – which was launched by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to help charities working with starving children in Ethiopia – was “genuine” and addressed “a specific humanitarian crisis”, the way it depicted Africa “did more long-term harm than good”.
Artists who took part in the original Band Aid in 1984. Pic: PA
The re-recording of the song in 2014. Pic: PA
He claims the song “inadvertently contributed to a broader identity crisis for Africans, portraying the entire continent as one monolithic, war-torn, starving place”.
Band Aid 40 was released last month to mark the song’s 40th anniversary. It is a remix which blends the voices of artists who have featured on previous editions including Harry Styles, George Michael and Bono.
Reacting to recent criticism of the hit, Geldof said earlier this week that none of the arguments put forward by critics like Fuse ODG and Sheeran would “get any oxygen if Band Aid didn’t come out”.
“Sentiment changes, opinions change, theory changes over 40 years, and that’s correct. You can’t stay stuck,” he said while appearing on ITV show Lorraine.
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“You’ve got to find different ways of combating these issues and different ways of talking about them and what we’re celebrating here, and none of these arguments will get any oxygen if Band Aid didn’t come out. That’s part of all this.
“So Ed says, ‘This is the way I feel now’. And I’ve put in the call – he’s a really lovely man, he’s an intelligent guy, he’s a major artist and we’ll have a chat and we’ll either agree or disagree but we’ll talk about it.
“But the debate must be made, and it means that we can argue our point of view even more strongly. So that’s where I’m at with this.”
A gunman has tried to assassinate a prominent Indian politician at the Golden Temple in the Indian city of Amritsar,
The assailant fired at Sukhbir Singh Badal, the former deputy chief minister of Punjab, at one of the holiest shrines in the Sikh religion on Wednesday.
No injuries were reported.
The suspect, later identified as 68-year-old Narain Singh Chaura, was overpowered by bystanders and was handed to police.
The attack happened at one of the holiest Sikh sites. File pic: saiko3p/iStock
Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the gunman was “a former terrorist and a criminal”.
“He has been arrested and the weapon has been recovered,” he said.
The incident was caught on camera by media filming Mr Badal, who was performing his “sewadar” as a religious punishment meted out by the Akal Takht, the highest religious authority of the Sikhs.
He and some of his party leaders were directed to perform guard duty, wash dishes, clean shoes and toilets at the Golden Temple and several other gurdwaras, or temples.
A small board hung around his neck acknowledging the “misdeeds” committed by him and his government while he was in power in Punjab from 2007 to 2017.
At the time of the assassination attempt, Mr Badal was in a wheelchair with a fractured leg, holding a spear as a guard at the temple gates.
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Mr Bhullar said alert police officers managed to stop the attack.
“Deploying policemen in uniform at the Golden Temple was a challenging task because of religious feelings,” he said.
“There are many restrictions and constraints in checking or frisking people coming to the temple. We did what was possible and the result shows how prepared we were.”
The attacker is believed to be a member of the now-inactive militant group Khalistan Liberation Army.
Leaders of Mr Badal’s party and opposition leaders are demanding a high-level judicial probe into the incident and say the law and order situation of Punjab is deteriorating – a claim denied by the ruling state government.
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