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Ukraine counteroffensive makes “notable” progress near Zaporizhzhia, but it’s a grinding stalemate elsewhere
Kyiv — Ukraine’s counteroffensive is grinding on. Video from Ukraine’s Azov battalion showed an early morning assault on Russia’s defensive lines near the town of Bakhmut. The intense, running gun battles there come months after Moscow-backed mercenaries seized control of the eastern city in a hugely symbolic victory.
They took Bakhmut after some of the war’s most brutal fighting, and the ongoing battle around the city, as along much of the hundreds-of-miles-long front line, is bloody and neither side is advancing significantly.
But as Ukraine’s counteroffensive grinds to a stalemate on multiple fronts, the military is starting to make important gains further the south. According to U.S. officials, there was “notable” progress near the southern city of Zaporizhzhia over the weekend.
CIA World Factbook
Kyiv’s aim is to break through Russia’s defenses and march directly south, all the way to the coast on the Sea of Azov. If they manage it, Ukraine would cut off Russia’s land access route to the long-occupied Crimean Peninsula. But Moscow has established long barriers across the terrain, full of minefields, tank traps, miles of trenches and other defenses, and that has been slowing Ukraine’s advance.
The Kremlin’s drone warfare campaign also isn’t slowing down. Early Monday, Moscow launched a 3-and-a-half-hour assault on the Danube River port of Izmail, targeting vital Ukrainian infrastructure. Ukraine’s military said at least 17 of the Russian drones were taken down by air defense systems, but some hit their targets and damaged buildings.
Izmail has become an important transit route for Ukraine’s vast grain exports following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision in July to withdraw from a U.N. and Turkey-brokered export deal that saw the supplies pass safely through the Black Sea for about a year.
Putin met Monday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of efforts to revive the agreement, which saw some 32 million of tons of grain reach global markets through Ukraine’s sea ports and helped to ease a global food crisis, according to the U.N.
But it didn’t appear that any breakthrough was made, with Putin reiterating complaints about the accord, including accusing Western nations of refusing to ease sanctions on Russian banking and insurance services that Moscow says have severely impacted Russia’s own exports and deliveries of agricultural equipment and spare parts.
The restrictions, imposed after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, have also had a major impact on the Russian economy.
Far from the diplomacy — and deep underground — many children were back in school this week in the eastern city of Kharkiv. But life is far from normal in Ukraine’s second largest city. Dozens of improvised classrooms for around 1,000 students have been set up in a local subway station.
“We are trying to do everything possible for our children not to feel this war,” said the school’s director, Ludmyla Usichenko. “We are trying to create a safe environment for them.”
As Ukraine’s brutal war drags into its 18th month, even educating children means making concessions.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.
The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.
Amazon is ranked No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies.
At a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have unionized with them by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections.
The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta and the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join” them, the union said.
“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” he said.
The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do the election that led to the union victory at the warehouse on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, aren’t its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers everyday.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.“
The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer.
Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
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