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Ukrainian forces have used Maxim machine guns, a weapon often associated with World War I, to mow down frontal assaults by Russian troops in the battle for Bakhmut. "It only works when there is a massive attack going on," a Ukrainian soldier identified as Borys, 48, recently told BBC News of the Maxim gun. "Then it really works." "We use it every week," Borys added. Ukrainian forces have found the Maxim M1910 — was first introduced in 1910 (the initial version of the gun emerged in the 1880s) and employed by the Imperial Russian Army during World War I —...

McCarthy rejected an invitation from Zelenskyy to visit Kyiv. Zelenskyy invited McCarthy to show him how US aid is being put to use in the war against Russia. "I don't have to go to Ukraine or Kyiv to see it," McCarthy said. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's invitation for him to visit Kyiv amid growing concerns over GOP pushback to continued aid to Ukraine. McCarthy also reiterated that he does not support providing Ukraine with "blank checks."

A crowd laughed at Russia's top diplomat when he said the Ukraine war "was launched against us." An audience member at India's G20 summit shouted "come on!" at Sergey Lavrov during the event. He was answering a question about Russia's energy strategy moving forward. Sergey Lavrov, Russia's top diplomat and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a conference in India Thursday said that the war in Ukraine "was launched against us," prompting the crowd to erupt in laughter. Lavrov was a speaker at India's G20 Summit in New Delhi, leading a session that was part of a...

The former commanding US general in Europe, Ben Hodges, has told DW that the West should provide Kyiv with fighter jets. He said that providing Ukraine with the planes could lead to a victory for Kyiv within the year. The former commanding general of the United States Army in Europe, Ben Hodges, said that Ukraine could achieve a quick victory if the West provided swift help with fighter jets. He predicted that the defeat of Russia could otherwise take three to five years, given the current level of Western support. What the former general said "The sooner we deliver them...

"Frankly speaking, we are quite concerned about the possible escalation of this conflict," Fu Cong, China's top envoy to the EU, said...He said China doesn't believe "only providing weapons will actually solve the problem," taking an apparent jab at the military aid Western countries have been continuously providing Ukraine throughout the war. "We are quite concerned about people talking about winning a complete victory on the battlefield," Fu went on to say. "We believe that the right place would be at the negotiating table."

The war in Ukraine is poised to become even more violent this year with a major Russian offensive expected and more advanced Western-made weapons pouring in to bolster Ukrainian forces. Along these lines, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg recently warned that the war has entered a "decisive phase." This new stage of the war could bring the fight to a territory vital to Russia's military capabilities in Ukraine and cherished by Russian President Vladimir Putin: Crimea. The Black Sea peninsula, which was invaded by Russian forces and illegally annexed by Putin in 2014, served as a launchpad for Russia's invasion last...

Ukraine is finally getting the Western-made tanks that it wants, but there's still a few big items on its wishlist. Kyiv says the next thing it wants is fighter jets. "We have new tasks ahead: Western-type fighter jets, sanctions, Peace Formula implementation," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after Germany announced on Wednesday it would send Leopard 2 main battle tanks, a decision that followed weeks of mounting pressure by European countries. Yuriy Sak, an advisor to the Ukrainian defense minister, concurred, telling Reuters that "the next big hurdle will now be the fighter jets." Some others, however, have pointed...

Russia was "ill prepared" for the economic response to the invasion. Western countries have slapped crippling economic sanctions on Russia, and in November, Russia's economy entered a recession. Putin planned for a quick war, but "Russian guns have now been firing for almost 300 days" and "the cupboard is bare," Radakin went on to say, echoing US officials who have pointed out that Russia is running through its munitions faster than it can replenish them. Russia has lost much of the territory it managed to occupy in the early days of the invasion. A Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in recent...

Over the roughly two decades that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been in power, he's dedicated a lot of time and money to building up and modernizing Russia's military. In the process, Putin garnered a reputation as a force to be reckoned with and was widely viewed as one of the most powerful leaders in the world. But the war in Ukraine has decimated the Russian military that Putin spent years building, while raising questions about his grip on power, Russia experts and military analysts told Insider. "Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a strategic defeat. So far the Kremlin...

Former US officials and diplomats in recent days have sharply criticized the Biden administration over a New York Times report based on conversations with senior officials that said US intelligence was helping Ukraine kill Russian generals. "Shut up about it," John Sipher, a former CIA officer who served in Russia, said in a tweet on the Times report. Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, in a tweet responding to Sipher said, "Exactly. No one should be talking to press about such things."

It’s not too much to ask that Congress debate and vote on whether to authorize a U.S. march to war that’s now well underway. The New York Times claimed this week that the United States is providing real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine that has enabled the Ukrainians to target and kill approximately a dozen Russian generals, and helped >locate and strike the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet last month. Described as a “classified effort,” the U.S. provision of targeting intelligence to Ukraine “also includes anticipated Russian troop movements gleaned from recent American assessments of Moscow’s secret battle plan for...

Maria Butina, a Russian national who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and acted as an unregistered foreign agent in the US, denied this week that her new seat in Russia's parliament is a gift. "It's not a reward," Butina told the New York Times in a new interview. "I wasn't a spy. I wasn't working for the government. I was just a civilian." "If I had known that I have to register to build peace between the two nations by my own initiative, I would have loved to," she added.

President Donald Trump on Monday said he's considering sending federal law enforcement to other major cities to counter unrest after controversially deploying federal agents to respond to demonstrations against racism and police brutality in Portland, Oregon. "In Portland they've done a fantastic job," Trump said of the federal agents sent to the Oregon city. Trump described the protesters as anarchists who "hate" the U.S. and signaling he might send federal troops to cities like Chicago, New York, Detroit, Baltimore, and Oakland... The federal officers sent to Portland are with the U.S. Marshals Service and an elite U.S. Customs and Border...

Veteran reporter Bob Woodward on Friday told radio host Hugh Hewitt he looked "hard" for evidence of collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia but didn't find anything. But he still thinks the special counsel Robert Mueller has "something" on the president. Woodward suggested Mueller possibly has "a secret witness or somebody who has changed their testimony." Trump has firmly rejected allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russia in the 2016 US presidential election and often refers to the Mueller probe as a "witch hunt." Veteran reporter Bob Woodward on Friday told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt he looked...