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A newly released transcript of a call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reveals Putin prioritized a game of ice hockey ahead of scheduling peace negotiations with U.S. President Joe Biden.The transcript of the Feb. 20 phone call between Putin and Macron was obtained and jointly published by AFP and the French-language publication Le Temps. The transcript revealed that during the call between Macron and Putin, the French president asked Putin to agree to meet U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva, Switzerland for peace talks…

Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have started the war in Ukraine if he was a woman, according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. "If Putin was a woman, which he obviously isn't, but if he were, I really don't think he would've embarked on a crazy, macho war of invasion and violence in the way that he has," Johnson told German broadcaster ZDF on Tuesday evening. Putin's invasion of Ukraine is "a perfect example of toxic masculinity," he said, calling for better education for girls around the world and for "more women in positions of power."

Today the representatives of Turkiye, Finland and Sweden, under the auspices of the NATO Secretary General, have agreed the following. NATO is an Alliance based on the principles of collective defence and the indivisibility of security, as well as on common values. Turkiye, Finland and Sweden affirm their adherence to the principles and values enshrined in the Washington Treaty. One of the key elements of the Alliance is unwavering solidarity and cooperation in the fight against terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, which constitutes a direct threat to the national security of Allies as well as to international peace...

Warning: Contains graphic descriptions of war | A former Canadian soldier, identified as Shadow, tells CBC’s David Common about the violence he’s witnessed, the courage of Ukrainians and why he went over to fight. #ukraine #canada #ukrainewar Watch The National live on YouTube Sunday-Friday at 9 p.m. ET Subscribe to The National: https://www.youtube.com/user/CBCTheNa... Connect with The National online: Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/thenational Twitter | https://twitter.com/CBCTheNational Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/cbcthenational More from CBC News | https://www.cbc.ca/news The National is CBC's flagship nightly news program, featuring the day's top stories with in-depth and original journalism, with hosts Adrienne Arsenault and Andrew Chang in Toronto,...

The conflict in Ukraine is driving a modernization of NATO weaponry, honing the alliance’s ability to face off against Russia and adding to the list of unintended consequences from Moscow’s invasion of its smaller neighbor. Former East Bloc NATO members have been arming Ukraine with Soviet-designed equipment similar to Kyiv’s existing gear. That has permitted a military housecleaning of their own arsenals on a scale that would have been unimaginable months ago. In turn, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will help its eastern members replace those arms with newer ones, greatly improving efficiency.

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MOD) on Thursday accused CNN of conspiring with the Ukrainian military’s neo-Nazi Azov fighters to film a staged attack on civilians.In a press release on their Telegram, the MOD specifically claimed Ukraine’s 72nd Centre for information and Psychological Operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in Kharkov are preparing a false flag.The statement, titled, “Statement of the Joint Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response,” said “professionals of the 72nd Centre for Information and Psychological Operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in Kharkov are preparing another cynical provocation with deaths...

Shannon Vavra Mon, June 27, 2022, 11:14 AM Ukrainian State Emergency Service / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Ukrainian State Emergency Service / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Russia fired a series of rockets at a shopping center in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, on Monday, raising alarm bells that Russia is stepping up its attacks on civilian structures regardless of the loss of life. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday there were more than a thousand civilians inside the shopping mall and the casualties to come might bring even more shock and horror to Ukrainian people already confronting so much death and destruction as...

Member states of both NATO and the European Union, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have repeatedly called on NATO to provide a substantial increase in the number of foreign troops stationed in the region following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The Baltic countries have also pushed for an urgent update to the alliance’s so-called “tripwire” approach. That’s because, under NATO’s existing strategy, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has warned that the former Soviet state and its historic capital city of Tallinn would be “wiped off the map” in the event of a Russian attack, according to The Financial Times....

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany, June 27 (Reuters) - Two top OPEC oil producers, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, can barely increase oil production, French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said he had been told by the UAE's president. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been perceived as the only two countries in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with spare capacity to boost global deliveries that could reduce prices. "I had a call with MbZ," Macron was heard telling U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G7 summit, using shorthand for UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for a "fair tribunal" in a Nuremberg-style trial to hold Russia accountable for war crimes in a late night address Wednesday. "Just as September 1, 1939 and June 22, 1941 ended in Nuremberg trials, February 24, 2022 must end in a fair tribunal. Russia must be held accountable for all the evil it has brought to Ukraine," Zelenskyy said in what has become a regular nightly address to Ukrainians since Russia invaded nearly 4 months ago. Zelenskyy’s comments came just one day after Attorney General Merrick Garland visited Ukraine and announced the U.S. would not...

Since the start of the year, the ruble has soared 40% against the dollar — outperforming every other currency in the world.Russian President Vladimir Putin has touted the ruble’s robust recovery as proof that his economy has successfully withstood the onslaught of Western sanctions. “The idea was clear: crush the Russian economy violently,” Putin told an economic forum in St. Petersburg last week. “They did not succeed. Obviously, that didn’t happen.”

Türkiye has seemingly accelerated its diplomatic efforts for making a food corridor from Ukraine to the world markets possible under a plan crafted by the United Nations. While a military delegation is holding talks with their Russian counterparts in Moscow, Türkiye will host defense and foreign secretaries of the United Kingdom on June 23 in the Turkish capital. With concerns over a food crisis, especially in the underdeveloped nations, are growing due to the blockage of the export of millions of tons of grains in the Ukrainian ports and silos, Türkiye and the U.N. reiterate their efforts for overcoming the...

RUSSIA's "outdated weapons" have proven to be no match for Ukrainian defences as the latest intelligence report from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) shows 55 percent of Russian-backed forces have been wiped out in the Donbas region. With the focus of the conflict heavily concentrated in the Donbas region in and around the strategic industrial city of Severodonetsk, Ukraine has called on the west to supply extra weapons to defend the territory. Russia has announced it has all but captured the city as heavy shelling continues, however, the cost of the operation has taken its toll on Russian personnel, with...

Frontline Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russians in Donetsk 'WILL WIN WAR' 1,097,632 views Jun 15, 2022 Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russian troops on the frontline in Donetsk region said on Tuesday (June 14) they were optimistic about winning the war. Ukrainian military hardware drove through the town of Niu-York, which lies some 50 kilometres to the north from the separatists stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Donetsk region, where heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops is ongoing. Reuters witnesses said the town was under shelling on Tuesday. Speaking from the trenches in Niu-York, 28-year-old Ukrainian soldier nicknamed "Pashtet" said he doesn't understand...

Ukrainian forces attacked drilling platforms in the Black Sea owned by a Crimean oil and gas company, the pro-Russian head of the annexed peninsula said on Monday, giving no details of what weapons were used. Three people were wounded and a search was under way for seven workers from the Chernomorneftegaz energy company, Sergei Askyonov, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, said in a post on Telegram. Crimean officials said work on three drilling platforms had been suspended after the hit, with fires reported. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the reports. Ukraine's military declined to comment. Russian-backed officials seized Chernomorneftegaz...

Kazakhstan, an ally of Russia, has refused to recognise the Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics. Both the leaders of the disputed Donbas region, Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, were present at the 25th St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). But even Russian allies for now are apprehensive to recognise them as ‘Heads of Government’. On Friday, one of the key dignitaries, Kazakhstan President President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, while sharing the stage with President Putin at the plenary session, hit a rare discordant note from Kremlin’s position. “If the right to self-determination is put into practice all over the world, then...

Posted Jun 20, 2022 by Martin Armstrong Britain’s Military Chief of the General Staff had just taken that position and he has already told the army they need to prepare for war against Russia in Europe. He has told every soldier to prepare to fight Russia in a potential World War III. He has pledged to forge an Army that can beat Russia in battle and said that we must now prepare “to fight in Europe once again.” He added on his fourth day on the job: “There is now a burning imperative to forge an Army capable of fighting...

A document released by a news outlet on Tuesday reportedly shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered that his government destroy all the documents related to the nation’s biolabs being run in collaboration with the Hunter Biden-connected firm Metabiota. NBC may have actually caught this destruction on camera. ...

As the situation in Donbass (East Ukraine) worsens for Ukrainian forces, as reports are now leaking from Kyiv that Ukraine is losing 1,000 troops a day, the State Department has essentially admitted American mercenaries have been captured by Russian forces in-country. Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, from Hartselle, Alabama are currently “missing” from the battlefield, however, their precise fate is as yet unconfirmed, according to a State Department official, reported Zero Hedge.White House national security spokesman John Kirby didn’t confirm the reports, but strongly hinted that it’s the administration’s belief they were...

Two former US servicemen have been captured during fighting with Russian forces in Ukraine, The Telegraph has been told. Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, had been serving as volunteers with a regular Ukrainian army unit. A comrade of the two men, who asked not to be named, told The Telegraph said that they had been captured after running into a much larger Russian force during a battle last Thursday. "We were out on a mission and the whole thing went absolutely crazy, with bad intel," he said. "We were told the town was clear when it turned out...