Heading towards World War III?

Moscow will offer a reward for any information leading to the capture of two commanders of Ukraine’s notorious Azov regiment who are accused of brutally torturing and murdering Russian POWs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced on its website on Wednesday.

The bounty has been placed on 28-year-old Konstantin Nemichev and 26-year-old Sergey Velichko, who have served as commanders in the Azov regiment. The unit was declared a terrorist organization by Russia’s Supreme Court in June. Both of the fighters have been put on the international wanted list, as well as Russia’s 'ten especially dangerous wanted criminals' list.

“The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation has decided to offer a reward for assistance in detaining the commanders of the Ukrainian nationalist battalion Konstantin Nemichev and Sergey Velichko, accused of committing a crime under Article 317 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” the ministry’s press service wrote, adding that one million rubles (~$16,600) will be paid out for information on each individual.

The ministry previously called for the arrest of the two Azov commanders back in May after Russia’s Investigative Committee had identified them as being responsible for “causing multiple bodily harm, including with the use of firearms” to at least eight Russian servicemen, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Both Nemichev and Velichko are currently part of the Kraken regiment operating near the city of Kharkov, which primarily consists of Azov veterans and other neo-Nazi fighters and volunteers.

The regiment describes itself as a special reconnaissance and sabotage unit under the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, operating separately from the Armed Forces. Last week, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that Kraken forces had executed some 100 fellow Ukrainian soldiers who had abandoned their positions amid a Russian breakthrough in the Kharkov region. According to Moscow, the executions were carried out to “suppress panic and intimidate the personnel of the Armed forces of Ukraine.”

www.rt.com/russia/561465-russia-azov-commanders-bounty

A Russian rocket strike on a Ukrainian train station has killed 22 people, Ukraine says, on the day marking six months since Moscow's invasion began.

It says five of the victims of the attack in the eastern town of Chaplyne burnt to death in a vehicle. An 11-year-old boy was also killed.

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the strike in the middle of a UN Security Council meeting. He said about 50 people were injured.

Russia has so far made no comment.

It has repeatedly denied targeting civilian infrastructure.

Mr Zelensky said he learned of the strike on Chaplyne, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, as he was preparing to speak to the Security Council, adding: "This is how Russia prepared for the UN Security council meeting."

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62666188

With German weapons stocks running low, the country’s defense industry should produce arms specifically for Ukraine, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said.

During an interview with ZDF broadcaster on Wednesday, the German minister was asked whether Kiev could win in the conflict with Russia.

“We don’t know that,” she replied, but promised that Berlin would “do everything possible” to help Ukraine.

However, Baerbock acknowledged that supplying Kiev with arms had become increasingly difficult for Germany as its own military was suffering from a shortage of equipment.

“Unfortunately, the situation here is such that we have an absolute deficit in our own stocks,” the Green Party politician said.

The German defense industry should therefore “produce hardware specifically for Ukraine,” instead of the country having to share weapons from its own arsenal.

www.rt.com/news/561514-germany-weapons-ukraine-baerbock

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky posted a picture of a soldier wearing the insignia of a notorious Nazi SS division to his official Instagram account on Wednesday. The post, part of a series celebrating Ukraine’s Independence Day, was not the first piece of Nazi iconography shared by Zelensky.

Zelensky posted the image on Instagram early on Wednesday. In it, a Ukrainian soldier carrying a rifle displays the standard of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the 1st Galician division.

www.rt.com/russia/561496-zelensky-soldier-nazi-symbol

As Russia’s war on Ukraine drags on, U.S. security assistance is shifting to a longer-term campaign that will likely keep more American military troops in Europe into the future, including imminent plans to announce an additional roughly $3 billion in aid to train and equip Ukrainian forces to fight for years to come, U.S. officials said.

U.S. officials told The Associated Press that the package is expected to be announced Wednesday, the day the war hits the six-month mark and Ukraine celebrates its independence day. The money will fund contracts for as many as three types of drones, and other weapons, ammunition and equipment that may not see the battlefront for a year or two, they said.

The total of the aid package — which is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and is the largest to date— could change a bit overnight, but not likely by much. Officials said that it will include money for the small, hand-launched Puma drones, the longer-endurance Scan Eagle surveillance drones, which are launched by catapult, and, for the first time, the British Vampire drone system, which can be launched off ships.

apnews.com/article/us-ukraine-3-billion-dollar-aid-package-363cdbeb670626eb410d72e81bd8068c

Washington is still considering supplying modern combat jets to Ukraine amid its ongoing conflict with Russia, US Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl has said. No “final decision,” however, has been made on this matter and actual delivery could take “years” to materialize – while Kiev must in turn be able to “sustain” and “afford” advanced weaponry systems, the official told a press briefing on Wednesday.

“As it relates to future aircrafts, fourth generation aircraft, for example, even if we were to provide those now, they wouldn’t arrive for years, so we’ve been focused on, as it relates to their fighter aircraft, on what they need … to support the current efforts to hold in the east and perhaps going on a counter offensive,” Kahl explained, pointing to the recently approved delivery of air-to-surface missiles that can be used by warplanes remaining in the Ukrainian inventory.

www.rt.com/news/561550-ukraine-us-fighter-jets