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Plumes of black smoke were seen on Tuesday at a Russian military airbase near the settlement of Gvardeyskoye in the centre of Russian-controlled Crimea, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported. Earlier on Tuesday, Russia’s Defence Ministry separately blamed a series of explosions around Dzhankoi in northern Crimea on “sabotage”, state-owned news agency RIA reported. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in a recent series of blasts in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Explosions shook an ammunition depot in Russian-annexed Crimea on Tuesday, the latest such incident in a region used by Moscow as a staging post for its war in Ukraine.

ussian President Vladimir Putin on Monday touted a new era of weapon systems that he says are "decades ahead of their foreign counterparts" while his nation simultaneously faces a stiffer challenge than expected from Ukrainian forces. Putin's comments came as Pentagon officials estimate that between 70,000 and 80,000 Russian troops have either been killed or wounded in action since the Ukraine invasion began February 24. As Russia continues to lose not only soldiers but artillery, Putin maintains an optimistic outlook with Russian allies in Latin America, Asia and Africa that have "historically firm, friendly and truly trustworthy relations" and are...

Russia has abandoned 20,000 troops near Kherson in the face of a Ukrainian counter-attack, the regional governor has claimed. Vitaly Kim said Russia is relocating command posts on the west bank of the Dnipro River to the east, leaving 'stupid orcs' - his term for Kremlin soldiers - behind. Ukraine has already blown up all three bridges under Russian control connecting the two banks, meaning its soldiers on the west side have no easy way of resupplying, reinforcing, or retreating as Kyiv's men continue their advance. Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv which sits on the west bank, said Monday that...

Russia could struggle to resupply its troops in a key part of occupied Ukraine after Kyiv forces hit two bridges used to transport supplies, according to the British Ministry of Defence. Both the Antonivsky road bridge and Kherson rail bridge over the Dnipro River have been heavily damaged, and are "likely unusable for heavy military vehicles" according to U.K. intelligence. The two bridges connect Russian forces in the occupied -city of Kherson, on the north-west bank of the Dnipro, with the main Russian controlled area to the south-east. -snip- The latest U.K. update, released on August 13, details the logistical...

MYKOLAIV REGION, Ukraine - On the front line in southeast Ukraine, there is little sign that a major counteroffensive is brewing. For weeks, Western intelligence and military analysts have predicted that a Ukrainian campaign to retake the strategic port city of Kherson and surrounding territory is imminent. But in trenches less than a mile from Russia's positions in the area, Ukrainian soldiers hunker down from an escalating onslaught of artillery, with little ability to advance. (clip) But time is slipping if Ukraine is to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky's stated goal of winning the war by the end of the year,...

The sidewalk vendors of Times Square sell cheap metal signs bearing the image of Spider-Man, no doubt unaware that the superhero’s co-creator walks right past them every day, completely unrecognized. Then again, only a handful of people in the world would recognize Steve Ditko, the mysterious 84-year-old artist who, with writer Stan Lee, dreamed up the wall crawler back in 1962. ...When The Post knocked on his door, Ditko — who turns out to be a owlish man with wisps of white hair and ink-stained hands, wearing large black glasses and an unbuttoned white shirt with a white tee beneath...

Steve Ditko is one of the most innovative and influential comic book artists of all time. He co-created “The Amazing Spider-Man” (Ditko’s original and imaginative design for that character is an icon known world-wide) and worked on such well-known characters as The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man. His creative contributions to those characters during their early years helped secure their longevity and appeal over the decades. [SNIP] Originally included in the graphic novel, “Steve Ditko’s Static,” published by Robin Snyder and Steve Ditko in 1988, “In Principle” is chillingly more relevant today than it was when it was originally published....