Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has expressed strong support for Russia in the ongoing Ukraine conflict, according to statements made on his weekly programme on state TV, as reported by TASS. Maduro asserted that Russia would “ultimately prevail” against what he termed a 'surge of Nazism' in Ukraine,

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase its number of troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million, as Moscow’s military action in Ukraine drags on for more than 2 ½ years.

"At the military level, Ukraine’s effective use of maneuver warfare stands in stark contrast to Russia’s ‘meat grinder’ tactics," Nicholas Aucott said.