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Today, about 300 soldiers (mostly ethnic Ossetians) from the Russian military base returned to South Ossetia of their own free will, because they thought they had been left for dead during a special operation in Ukraine. The former president of South Ossetia called not to draw hasty conclusions and not to accuse the guys of desertion, but to carefully investigate the situation when soldiers are sent to combat operations without full outfit and stocks of weapons, warm clothing and protective equipment. Returned soldiers on the border of Russia and South Ossetia. They hitchhiked home. additional detail on this incident from...

It is known that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu removed Lieutenant General Vladislav Yershov from his duties. He was the commander of the 6th Combined Arms Army of the country. According to preliminary data, 2,000 servicemen were missing from the 6th Army alone. Of these, about 180 people are conscript soldiers. It is known that now General Eroshov is under house arrest. [google translation]

The Russian Ministry of Defense released a video early Saturday that it claimed showed a Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile hitting a Ukrainian missile warehouse about 300 miles southwest of Kyiv. The strike, if it did occur, would represent both the first known use of the Kinzhal in combat and yet another Russian attack on facilities in western Ukraine near the country's borders with multiple NATO members... UPDATE: 5:20 PM EST— We can now say for certain that the strike depicted happened nowhere near the western part of the country and not at some major military weapons storage area. It...

Slightly more than half of Ukrainians believe that Putin's regime wants to destroy the entire people of Ukraine in a full-scale war. Source: results of a poll conducted by the sociological group "Rating" on March 12-13 Details: 56% of Ukrainians surveyed believe that the main goal of Russia's invasion is the complete destruction of the Ukrainian people, and this opinion dominates in all regions of Ukraine. Another half believe that the target of the attack is the occupation of Ukraine and joining Russia. Only 15-17% think that Russia is pursuing a goal to change Ukraine's political course or prevent the...

PRAGUE -- Slovak authorities have broken a Russian spying network that was operating on Slovak territory, officials said on Tuesday. Stefan Hamran, the country’s chief police officer said four Slovak nationals have been detained in the case with two of them facing spying and bribery charges... “We’re talking about serious cases,” Lipsic said. “It’s about a long term, paid cooperation with the Russian military intelligence service" (known as GRU). The two are accused of seeking out and gathering highly sensitive, strategic and classified information about Slovakia, its armed forces and NATO and handed them over to undercover GRU officers who...

This Tuesday, March 15, the fourth death of a Russian general in the invasion of Ukraine has been reported, in this case Major General Oleg Mityaev... Mityaev was commander of the Russian Army’s 150th Motorized Rifle Division, a mechanized infantry unit... On March 3, the death of Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, the first member of the Russian Army Generalate killed during this invasion, was confirmed. He was deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Russian Ground Forces... On Monday, March 7, Ukrainian sources reported the death of Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, 44, chief of staff of the...

Ukraine's defense ministry on Saturday began using Clearview AI’s facial recognition technology, the company's chief executive told Reuters, after the U.S. startup offered to uncover Russian assailants, combat misinformation and identify the dead. Ukraine is receiving free access to Clearview AI’s powerful search engine for faces, letting authorities potentially vet people of interest at checkpoints, among other uses, added Lee Wolosky, an adviser to Clearview and former diplomat under U.S. presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden....

On March 4, my colleagues and I decided to publish for the first time a letter from our source, who, judging by the letters, is serving in one of the analytical units of the special services. We sincerely hoped that this publicity would draw attention to the war in Ukraine and the ongoing events and would allow the war to be stopped sooner. But we could not imagine that this letter and this publication would attract such attention around the world. We decided to continue publishing data from our source and we believe that this will give the world new...

A Moscow microbiologist has accused the Kremlin of 'pure lies' and 'propaganda' in claiming Ukraine had secret US-funded biowarfare labs which they claim could attack Russia... But Moscow State University microbiologist Dr Yevgeny Levitin analysed the documentation allegedly seized by the invasion force - and strongly criticised the Russian claims. From a scientific perspective, he says the claims are 'absurd fakes' and 'a deliberate lie, which is not justified in any way'. In a sign of rising dissent in Moscow over the war, he went public with his critique and wrote an open letter with other unnamed graduates of his...

The first Israeli special forces veterans arrived in Ukraine to fight on the side of Ukraine against Russian aggression.

Kirill (we do not indicate his last name at the request of his mother) is 12 years old, he studies in the 6th grade of a Moscow school... On Friday, March 4, sixth graders had their usual history lesson. Cyril himself tells about what happened: The teacher said: "Actually, this is not discussed with the sixth graders, but if you want to understand what is happening, then ask questions." And I started asking questions. I asked: “Why did Putin [start a ‘special operation’]?” To this the teacher replied that it was a "special operation." She said: “I don’t know exactly...

HORISHNI PLAVNI, Ukraine... Spurred by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of their country, the citizens of this small Ukrainian city on the east bank of the Dnipro River have mustered all available resources to support the war effort and ease the suffering of fellow civilians caught in the crossfire.... Out of Horishni Plavni’s overall population of about 50,000 residents, roughly 80% work in the local mining industry and earn an average salary of about $500 a month.... Although Horishni Plavni has not been struck by a Russian attack, the air raid alerts have frequently sounded, adding anxiety to people’s daily lives. So,...

When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s nuclear forces to go on high alert last week, he looked down a long table at his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, who nodded in assent. ... Russian troops’ failure to quickly seize Ukraine, however, has shown Mr. Shoigu’s changes, while real, didn’t create the fearsome fighting force he touted. Poor logistics, flawed strategy and ill-prepared troops mean any victory will be immensely costly, and an occupation hard to sustain. ... “By agreeing to these assumptions and this type of operation, he has essentially thrown the Russian military into a disaster.”

It has been about 10 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. While Russia’s military is advancing further into the country, it is clear that all is not going according to President Vladimir Putin’s plan. While Moscow has made progress in its efforts against Ukraine, it has also experienced a series of significant setbacks.The Washington Examiner recently published a report detailing some of Russia’s mistakes in its endeavor to overthrow Ukraine’s government. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall during a speech at the Air Force Association’s annual conference on Thursday stated that Putin has “made a very, very serious miscalculation.”He said the Russian...

A Russian attack helicopter makes a menacing low pass over a rural village in Ukraine, its gunship fully equipped with missiles and machine guns. But, unknown to the crew of the state-of-the-art Mi-24 Hind aircraft, Ukrainian soldiers are waiting unseen in the line of trees below. -snip- Their deaths came on a day when Russian aerial forces lost as many as eight aircraft, as well as multi-role, strike and close air support aircraft and a drone. Their losses, claimed by Ukrainian military sources, provide further evidence of Russia's failure to gain air superiority – a tactical advantage that Vladimir Putin...