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The US has lifted its long-standing ban on weapons supplies and training to Ukraine's Azov brigade, whose origins were mired in controversy over alleged links to far-right groups. A state department spokesman told the BBC a vetting process "found no evidence of gross violations of human rights" by the brigade. The Azov brigade, now a unit within Ukraine's National Guard, hailed the move, saying Russia's "lies... received a devastating blow". Moscow condemned the decision, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the US was "even prepared to flirt with neo-Nazis" to suppress Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made false...

ON MARCH 7, 2022, two weeks after Moscow entered the civil war in Ukraine, US secretary of state Antony Blinken told CBS News from Moldova that the US would give Poland a ‘green light’ to send Mig-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. Within days the Pentagon shot down the idea. Then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also supported the Polish planes scheme, but the Pentagon rejected it because it ‘could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO,’ according to then Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. So what...

SNIPTo prevent the attacks, Zelenskyy pushed for permission from the U.S. to use long-range weapons to target airfields hundreds of miles inside Russia.“We can protect our cities from Russian guided bombs if American leadership makes a step forward and allows us to destroy Russian military aircraft on their bases," he said.SNIPWhile praising American aid as a whole, he also framed American deliveries of 31 Abrams tanks, once the center of a major political push, as ultimately too few to make a difference. “I'm not sure that such a number of tanks can change the situation on the battlefield,” said Zelenskyy....

The largest Ukrainian flag in the world is set to be rolled out just outside the Republican National Convention on Monday in a call for continued support from the GOP as Donald Trump takes up the nomination. The flag will be unveiled at nearby Clarence & Cleopatra Johnson Park at 5:30 p.m. in Milwaukee. The event is organized by Ukrainian Milwaukee and Razom for Ukraine, a New York City-based nonprofit that has raised $100 million since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine in February 2022. “As Republicans gather to nominate President Trump as the standard bearer of their party,...

Havrylyuk said that people were seen as expendable by Putin in his mission to conquer Ukraine, but economic issues and problems supplying its troops with ammunition and equipment could soon blunt its campaign. The ISW said that high casualties were part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's strategy to grind out a victory in Ukraine through a war of attrition. "The recent increase in reports of entire Russian units becoming combat ineffective due to losses highlights the tactics on which Russian forces are relying on to pursue Putin's theory of a slow, gradual, grinding victory in Ukraine," it said. Vladimir Putin...

Western-provided F-16 fighter jets are on their way to Ukraine and set to start flying missions later this summer. But they may not yet be enough to make a difference on the battlefield, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated in a discussion this week on what Ukraine needs, comparing the jets to the US-made Abrams tanks that Ukraine got last fall. Asked by Fox News' host Bret Baier at the Reagan Institute if the 31 Abrams Ukraine received as its counteroffensive was already stumbling made a difference, Zelenskyy said: "I'm not sure that such number of tanks can change the situation...

Sir Keir Starmer has told the Ukrainian president that British missiles can be used for defensive strikes against targets inside Russia. The announcement came as the new British prime minister met Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Washington DC on Wednesday.

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a vocal supporter of President Biden, was caught on a hot mic Wednesday expressing his dissatisfaction with the state of the presidential race. “I mean, we’re just going to keep fighting. I don’t know what to say. You know, got to do what we have to do,” Pritzker was heard telling a man on the sidelines of a crime-fighting event in Chicago. “I don’t like where we are,” the governor added. A spokesperson for the governor told NBC Chicago that Pritzker was discussing the presidential race and the debate regarding the 81-year-old president’s status as...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that decisive action must be taken before the U.S. presidential election in November to repel Russia's offensive against his country, using an address on the sidelines of the NATO summit to press for greater support during a pivotal but tumultuous stretch in America's political calendar. "It’s time to step out of the shadows to make strong decisions to act and not wait for November or any other months to descend. We must be strong and uncompromising all together," Zelenskyy said. Speaking in Washington four months before an election beset by new uncertainty following President...

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - An air defense missile that hit a children's hospital in Kiev was likely fired from a Norway-supplied NASAMS system, and Russia is waiting for a reaction from Oslo in this regard, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said on Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is reportedly “concerned” about President Joe Biden’s health after watching his debate performance. The report underscores questions of whether Biden remains fit for office amid recent leaks about his increased sleep needs. Zelensky expressed worry about Biden’s health, a Ukrainian source told Axios on Tuesday; he is among many other European officials and diplomats who have done so. “Let’s be candid and frank: Everyone is waiting for November,” Zelensky said in a press conference. “The whole world is looking to November, and truly speaking, Putin awaits November too.” Zelensky in Washington says “let’s be candid and...

KYIV — Ukrainian forces are pulling back along parts of the frontline under fierce Russian pressure; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed the difficult situation on a lack of weapons for his soldiers. That's likely to increase pressure from Kyiv during next week's NATO Washington summit for its allies to speed up arms deliveries. “This is not a stalemate, but a problematic situation," Zelenskyy told Bloomberg on Thursday. "A problem can be solved if there are tools and desire. We have the desire, but the tools have not arrived. We have brigades without weapons. We have 14 brigades that do not...

WASHINGTON – Ukrainian pilots will take to the skies in American-made F-16 fighter jets in the coming weeks to deter Russian airstrikes, the leaders of the US, Denmark and the Netherlands announced Wednesday. Kyiv is set to receive 78 F-16s from a consortium of NATO countries who got President Biden’s permission last year to dispatch the American-made aircraft and train Ukrainian pilots. “The transfer process for these F-16s is now underway, and Ukraine will be flying operational F-16s this summer,” Biden, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a joint statement. Denmark and the...

The president of Poland on Tuesday sharply rejected any cease-fire deal for the Ukraine war that would require Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow — drawing a clear line in the sand at a moment when China, fellow NATO ally Hungary and some leading American politicians are growing louder in their calls for a rapid negotiated end to the conflict. Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose nation is the most powerful NATO member state bordering Ukraine, stood firm on the issue in a wide-ranging exclusive interview with The Washington Times, just as a key summit of NATO leaders got underway in...

ransomnote: emphasis mineKYIV. Nov 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian members of parliament have demanded the presidents of Ukraine and the United States, Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, investigate suspicions of the legalization of $7.4 billion by the "family" of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych through the American investment fund Franklin Templeton Investments, which they said has ties to the U.S. Democratic Party.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txohpK6WV9IAt a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Wednesday, MP Andriy Derkach announced that deputies have received new materials from investigative journalists about international corruption and the participation of Ukrainian officials in it."Last week, November 14, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO),...

The dramatic pictures showed blood-covered mothers cradling their terrified children as they tried to escape the hospital after the strike. Horrifying pictures have captured the aftermath of a devastating Russian missile strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv that caused widespread damage and killed at least two people. Vladimir Putin's army launched a massive assault on Ukraine, targeting five Ukrainian cities with more than 40 missiles - at least 33 people have been killed and more than 150 injured across the country. The onslaught hit apartment buildings and public infrastructure, including the newly reconstructed ward at Kyiv's Okhmatdyt Hospital. Windows...

My sources have confirmed that not only did Russia make a stop in Cuba, but China is also present, and they are constructing spy installations to watch what is going to take place, especially with our elections. Most likely, they will put missiles in Cuba in retaliation for this Proxy War to conquer Russia. Guess what! This is two Pi Cycles from 1962 (2024) – right on schedule. They are well aware that Biden is NOT running the country. This is in the hands of the Neocons, and both Garland and Blinken just so happen to be Ukrainian Jews with...

It’s odd how no one in the American media seems to ask how Obama and Biden went from a friendly “reset” with Russia in 2009 to full geopolitical antagonism in 2011.♦ What exactly led to the complete reversal of intent?I digress…. However, having some deeper understanding of the current status of the conflict, I also find it curious how the New York Tims can just seemingly bury the lead in their story about how U.S-led military “mercenary” soldiers are on the ground fighting, while seemingly forgetting their prior outline about how the CIA was conducting all the military operations in...

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Ukrainian missiles would not have hit Russian cities, including Sevastopol, without direct US involvement in targeting, and Moscow will respond "in the foreseeable future," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday. "Without the direct involvement of the United States in the targeting and processing of satellite data, these missiles would not have gone anywhere ... As for our response, the [Russian] president said we will respond, and I'm sure you'll hear about it in the foreseeable future," Lavrov told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin. The diplomat said NATO and the US continue to insist on their non-involvement...

Jul 7, 2024 Discussions of escalation management in Ukraine are usually framed from a Western perspective and the incremental provision of aid by Ukraine's allies. But as the war carries on Moscow faces escalation dilemmas of its own. It has an imperative to escalate in ways that place as much pressure on Ukraine as possible, but often attempts to do so prompt responses from Ukraine's allies that put Russia in a worse place than when it started. Today, we look at four recent Russian lines of escalation and effort in Ukraine, from the Kharkiv offensive to the new partnership agreement...