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Yevgeny Prigozhin used a false pretext to lead his Wagner Group forces in an armed insurrection against the Russian state, according to a senior U.S. official. Prigozhin had been plotting ways to reverse his fortunes in the face of waning power and came up with a plan to claim his forces had been bombed, which he would then use to justify actions against Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian defense leaders, the senior official said. The precipitating factor for Prigozhin’s military march was the directive that his forces be increasingly incorporated into the Russian military, the official said. Prigozhin...

Ukrainian forces have suffered losses in heavy equipment and soldiers as they met greater than expected resistance from Russian forces in their first attempt to breach Russian lines in the east of the country in recent days, two senior US officials tell CNN.One US official described the losses – which include US supplied MRAP armored personnel vehicles as “significant.”Ukrainian forces managed to overrun some Russian forces in the east around Bakhmut. However, Russian forces, armed with anti-tank missiles, grenades and mortars, have put up “stiff resistance,” with their forces dug into defensive lines that are several layers deep in some...

WASHINGTON — The man accused of ramming a U-Haul truck into barriers near the White House earlier this week isn't a U.S. citizen, authorities said Wednesday. Sai Varshith Kandula, a 19-year-old from suburban St. Louis, wore an orange jail-issued jumpsuit in his brief courtroom appearance — his first since the Monday incident — when prosecutors requested pre-trial detention. A government prosecutor told the court that Kandula is not a citizen or lawful permanent resident. But later on Wednesday, a Department of Justice official clarified the open-court remarks and said Kandula does hold a green card for lawful, permanent U.S. residency....

QORQANYA, Syria — U.S. military officials are walking back claims that a recent strike in Syria killed an influential al-Qaeda figure, following assertions by the dead man’s family that he had no ties to terrorists but was a father of 10 tending to his sheep when he was slain by an American missile.Lotfi Hassan Misto, 56, whose family identified him as the victim of a Hellfire missile attack on May 3, was a former bricklayer who lived quietly in this town in northwest Syria, according to interviews with his brother, son and six others who knew him. They described a...

Many Russian troops are dying in Ukraine because of non-combat issues such as alcohol consumption and poor weapons handling drills, the UK defense ministry said in an intelligence update on Sunday. The ministry estimated that Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties since its invasion of Ukraine over a year ago and that a "significant minority" has not been due to the fighting. A Russian Telegram news channel reported in March that alcohol consumption is a particular issue amongst the deployed Russian troops and that "extremely high" incidents, crimes, and deaths have been linked to it. The ministry noted that...

While President Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have failed, according to a report. US officials told CNN on Tuesday that Russia used a deconfliction line to notify the US in advance of the missile test, which reportedly did not pose a risk to the country. According to the officials, the US did not view the test as an anomaly or an escalation. The test was of a nuclear-capable heavy SARMAT missile, dubbed Satan II by NATO, and classified as a “superweapon” by the head of Russia’s aerospace research agency. US...

During his national address, Putin blamed Western governments for the war in Ukraine, accusing them of ‘letting the genie out of the bottle’ and plunging the world into chaos. He said Ukraine and the West started the war and Russia was “using force to stop it”. "Ukraine and Donbas have become a symbol of total lies," Putin said.

Russia carried out a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have failed while President Joe Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, according to two US officials familiar with the matter. Russia notified the United States in advance of the launch through deconfliction lines, one official said. Another official said that the test did not pose a risk to the United States and that the US did not view the test as an anomaly or an escalation. The test of the heavy SARMAT missile – nicknamed the Satan II in the West and capable of delivering multiple nuclear...

It happened with the Russia hoax, it happened all during Trump’s time in the White House, and it happened again with the Chinese spy balloon. Anonymous sources were once rarely used in journalism. They would only be cited when trying to preserve someone’s physical safety or report on the most sensitive national security matters, and there was an expectation that such unusual sourcing be reviewed by editors and carefully corroborated whenever possible. Now anonymous sourcing has become the norm in reporting and is frequently used as a political weapon to disseminate Democrats’ talking points and smear their enemies. The illicit...

I reported last week that my source from Ukraine, not Russia, was placing the Ukrainian military casualties at 150,000 with 35,000 unaccounted for – missing in action. Including the civilian deaths, over 250,000 people have died. Ukraine is losing the war. With the UK claiming they will now train Ukrainian pilots and provide fighter jets, this is obviously putting the UK at risk and such pilots with a few weeks of training will only crash and burn. Our targets coming into play for April and May are critical. We see major shifts in the financial markets coming even by June....

TOKYO -- Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly a full year ago, attacks against military and civilian targets alike have caused numerous deaths, with no end to the fighting in sight. Intelligence analysts, however, have taken interest in one specific part of the death toll: the number of Russian generals killed in the conflict Generals command hundreds or thousands of soldiers. A larger number of general deaths thus signals a weak military. British media reported in June that over 10 generals had been killed. Japan estimates the total at more than 20, based on intelligence gathered in cooperation with the...

Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to recapture Crimea from Russian troops in the near future, four senior Defense Department officials told House Armed Services Committee lawmakers in a classified briefing. The assessment is sure to frustrate leaders in Kyiv who consider taking the peninsula back one of their signature goals. It’s unclear what led the briefers to that assessment. But the clear indication, as relayed by three people with direct knowledge of Thursday’s briefing’s contents, was that the Pentagon doesn’t believe Ukraine has — or soon will have — the ability to force Russian troops out of the...

A Ukrainian soldier's account of the front line in Bakhmut has given rare insight into the tactics being employed by Russian soldiers in the eastern industrial city in the Donetsk region, which has, for months, been one of the war's hottest spots.The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a think tank based in Washington, noted in its daily assessment of the conflict that Ukraine's Joint Forces Task Force posted an interview on February 1 with a Ukrainian serviceman operating in Bakhmut.In his interview, the Ukrainian soldier said that the situation in Bakhmut has recently "radically changed." Russia has committed...

American officials estimate that nearly 200,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in Moscow’s nearly yearlong conflict with Ukraine, The New York Times reported. The rising number of casualties is driven in part by heavy fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is increasingly sending poorly trained recruits and convicts to the front lines in an effort to deplete Ukrainian artillery, according to the Times. However, officials have warned that the casualty numbers — which are based on satellite imagery, intercepted communications, social media, on-the-ground reporting and official government numbers — are difficult to estimate and...

Russian Wagner Group fighters are being killed in fierce fighting between government forces and rebels in the Central African Republic, as the sanction-hit Kremlin looks to extend its reach in mineral- and gold-rich countries. Mercenary fighters for the notorious "private military company" that took on a prominent role in the ongoing war in Ukraine have "sustained heavy casualties" in renewed violence over goldmines in the African nation, according to British newspaper The Guardian. Wagner mercenaries have tried to gain control over commodities such as gold and diamonds in CAR, helping dodge the economic impact of sanctions over Ukraine. It is...

Southwest of the city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldiers Andriy and Borisych live in a candle-lit bunker cut into the frozen earth. For several weeks they have been confronting hundreds of fighters belonging to the Russian private military contractor Wagner throwing themselves against Ukrainian defenses. Disguised in a balaclava, Andriy recounts one seemingly endless firefight when they came under attack by a flood of Wagner fighters. “We were fighting for about 10 hours in a row. And it wasn’t like just waves, it was uninterrupted. So it was just like they didn’t stop coming.” Their AK-47 rifles became so hot from...

Firepower has been crucial in Russia’s gains in the war, but Ukrainian fighters and analysts say that Moscow has relied increasingly on a more crude tactic as its forces try to take the eastern city of Bakhmut: the sheer weight of troop numbers. Russian casualties in recent fighting in Bakhmut have been higher than in previous months as commanders have poured soldiers into the battle, the Ukrainians said. The Kremlin is aiming for a significant victory after suffering battlefield setbacks in the south and northeast last fall and as both sides prepare for offensives in the coming weeks or months....

Russia is using prisoners and freshly mobilized troops to absorb heavy Ukrainian fire along the war's front lines in order to clear the way for its better trained forces to take ground, a US official said, calling the move a classic Russian tactic. Prisoners recruited by the Wagner Group — a notorious paramilitary organization with close ties to the Kremlin — and others have recently been deployed to the forefront of fighting around eastern Ukraine's war-torn city of Bakhmut, which has become the epicenter of hostilities between Moscow and Kyiv. These recruits have been forced to "take the brunt" of...

According to multiple reports, Russian President Putin's medical condition has deteriorated significantly in recent months, and his doctors have advised him to stay away from public events due to concerns over his health. The General SVR Telegram channel, which claims to have sources inside the Kremlin, claims that "Putin gets tired quickly, suffers from frequent dizziness and headaches, as well as occasional unclear consciousness, and his doctors advised him to stay away from public events in order to rest." .....

A Russian propaganda video is circulating on social media, mocking the men who fled the country to neighboring nations in order to avoid being conscripted as part of President Vladimir Putin's partial mobilization decree. The origin of the clip is unclear, but it has been shared by multiple Telegram channels. It attempts to portray the men who are staying in Russia as "men" and those who flee as "boys." In the video, a wealthy Russian man says that he's escaping to neighboring Georgia, presumably to avoid conscription, and he's promptly mocked for doing so.