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The Biden Administration unveiled its second round of military aid to Ukraine for $400 million, following its $95 billion and $60 million for the country. The new package will consist a number of weapons, including: Patriot missile system munitions High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMAR) systems and ammunition Stinger anti-air missiles, 155mm artillery rounds Bradley Fighting Vehicles Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAPs) “As President Biden has made clear, the United States and the international coalition we have assembled will continue to stand with Ukraine in its defense of its freedom,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement....

The command of the operational tactical group “Kharkiv” passed from Yuriy Galushkin to Mykhailo Drapaty. This is what was reported by the "Rbc Ukraine" agency, according to which this decision comes against the backdrop of the offensive launched by the Russian Armed Forces against the north-eastern Ukrainian region. “Following a decision by the military leaders, from 11 May the brigadier general Mykhailo Drapaty was appointed commander of the operational tactical group of troops 'Kharkiv',” the newspaper reports, according to which Drapaty He also maintains the position of Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Operational tactical group “Kharkiv”...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian troops are locked in intense battles with the advancing Russian army in two border areas, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, while the death toll from a Russian apartment building collapse blamed on Ukrainian shelling rose to 15. Zelenskyy said “fierce battles” are taking place near the border in eastern and northeastern Ukraine as outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers try to hold back a significant Russian ground offensive. “Defensive battles are ongoing, fierce battles, on a large part of our border area,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.

A 10-story residential building in Belgorod, Russia, was struck overnight by a Ukrainian missile, a local governor said. "The Belgorod city and the Belgorod district came under a massive attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces," Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said in a post on Telegram. The Ukrainian Tochka-U missile that struck the building was among several that Ukraine launched overnight, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement. Ukrainian military officials did not immediately comment on the claims, which could not immediately be verified.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in a Cabinet shakeup that comes as he begins his fifth term in office. In line with Russian law, the entire Russian Cabinet resigned Tuesday following Putin’s glittering inauguration in the Kremlin, and most members have been widely expected to keep their jobs, while Shoigu's fate had appeared uncertain. Putin signed a decree on Sunday appointing Shoigu as secretary of Russia's Security Council, the Kremlin said. The appointment was announced shortly after Putin proposed Andrei Belousov to become the country’s defense minister in place of Shoigu. The announcement...

Ukraine’s top general says the situation in the northern Kharkiv region has “significantly worsened” after Russia claimed to have captured four further villages as it expanded its surprise cross-border offensive. A Ukrainian regional official insisted Russia’s progress was not yet “significant” but admitted ground fighting in the area was spreading. Meanwhile, speaking on British television, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron acknowledged it was an “extremely dangerous moment,” adding that Russia had effectively “invaded [Ukraine] again.” The precise goal of Russia’s new push – which began in the early hours of Friday morning – is unclear. It may be to create...

Denys Yaroslavskyi is angry. ... “There was no first line of defence. We saw it. The Russians just walked in. They just walked in, without any mined fields” he says. He shows me video from a drone feed taken a few days ago of small columns of Russian troops simply walking across the border, unopposed. He says officials had claimed that defences were being built at huge cost, but in his view, those defences simply weren’t there. “Either it was an act of negligence, or corruption. It wasn’t a failure. It was a betrayal”. Everyone knew that this incursion was...

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked the head of his personal protection unit after two of its top officials were detained over an alleged assassination plot. Serhiy Rud has led the president's security detail since 2019. ... The two colonels in the state guard who were detained on Tuesday are suspected of belonging to a network of agents run by Russia's FSB security service. Mr Zelensky has spoken of repeated Russian plots to assassinate him, but the latest revelations involved his own entourage and also targeted military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov and the head of the SBU state security service,...

Intelligence chiefs have warned ministers they fear Britain and other key Ukrainian allies are being targeted by Russian saboteurs following a series of suspicious incidents in recent months. These include a wave of fires at arms factories and military-related industrial sites in the West that are supplying Ukraine. There have also been attacks on computer systems, train derailments and even jamming of satellite signals for civil air flights. Last night, a senior British security source said Western intelligence agencies feared a spate of industrial fires were connected to Moscow, saying 'the b******s' were trying to set Europe alight. 'Lots of...

Forced to do more with less and learning from the war in Ukraine, U.S. special operations commanders are juggling how to add more high-tech experts to their teams while still cutting their overall forces by about 5,000 troops over the next five years. The conflicting pressures are forcing a broader restructuring of the commando teams, which are often deployed for high-risk counterterrorism missions and other sensitive operations around the world. The changes under consideration are being influenced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including lessons learned by British special operations forces there. ... The United States is “taking a lot of...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces began a renewed ground assault on Ukraine’s northeast, killing and injuring several and forcing more than 1,700 civilians to evacuate from the Kharkiv region, local officials said Saturday. Artillery, mortar, and aerial bombardments hit more than 30 different towns and villages, leaving at least three people dead and five others injured, said Kharkiv governor, Oleh Syniehubov. Ukraine rushed reinforcements to the Kharkiv region on Friday to hold off a Russian attempt to breach local defenses, authorities said.

From 10 to 20 thousand men of conscript age, who are currently convicted and in prison, as well as men with criminal records, could be mobilized to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska said in an interview with BBC Ukraine. Commenting on the law which allows mobilization of convicts, Maliuska said, “I think ten thousand possibly would be involved [and sent into the armed forces – ed.], maybe a little bit more.” Maliuska said that if current prisoners were counted together with men who had prior criminal records, the number would rise to 20,000. “Yes,...

Russian forces have attacked across the Ukrainian border to the north of Kharkiv in a potential effort to open a new front in the war and intensify the pressure on Ukraine’s second city. Ukraine’s defence ministry said there had been “an attempt by the enemy to break through our defence line using armoured vehicles” at about 5am on Friday near the town of Vovchansk, and the initial attacks had been repelled. There were also reports of fighting in the border villages of Strilecha, Pylna and Borysivka farther west, and that Russian forces had advanced by about 1km around Vovchansk, though...

Ukraine is legislating to join Russia in sending recruiters into the nation’s prisons to bolster its military, as Moscow’s invasion grinds on and the casualty list grows ever longer. Ukraine’s Parliament has passed a draft law allowing certain classes of convicts to get out of jail early in return for military service. As noted, Ukraine’s ability to field enough soldiers to sustain the war against Russia is one of the nation’s greatest longer-term challenges of the war, its population considerably smaller than Russia’s and already disturbed and scattered by the conflict. Releasing criminals from prison in return for military service...

Volodymyr Zelensky has officially dismissed former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Valery Zaluzhny from military service due to health reasons.

President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that after the end of the war, there will be a demographic "boom" in Ukraine. He said this during a meeting with students of Sumy State University. When asked by a student about government programs aimed at stimulating the birth rate, the Ukrainian leader replied that the number one issue is safety. "I think that the biggest incentive is safety, and what's next with the child, and what to do. And we need not only financial incentives, because finances, in my opinion, help, but they do not stimulate giving birth during the war," Zelensky said. The...

Ukraine detained two agents in Kyiv’s equivalent to the Secret Service over allegedly plotting with the Russians to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky. Two colonels in Ukraine’s State Protection Department, which is tasked with guarding the lives of the president and other high-ranking government officials, have been arrested for an alleged attempt to assassinate President Zelensky in conjunction with Russia’s FSB, the successor to the Soviet Union’s KGB, it is claimed1. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Russian intelligence agency was tasked with finding potential traitors within Zelensky’s security detail who could take him hostage and ultimately kill...

Russia said on Wednesday that sending NATO troops into Ukraine would potentially be extremely dangerous, and Moscow was closely watching a Ukrainian petition that called for such an intervention. The petition, posted on the Ukrainian president's website, says Ukraine should ask the United States, Britain and other countries to send troops to help it repel Russia's invasion. "We have repeatedly said that direct intervention on the ground in this conflict by the military of NATO countries potentially carries enormous danger, so we consider this an extremely challenging provocation, nothing less, and, of course, we are watching this very carefully."

Missiles from North Korea, drones from Iran, and a massive amount of technical assistance from China. Russian President Vladimir Putin may complain about the backing Ukraine is receiving from Nato allies, but it is doubtful that Russia would be able to maintain its military offensive without the help it is getting from its motley collection of autocratic friends. In the latest indication of the support Moscow is receiving for its war effort in Ukraine, a team of UN investigators has concluded that debris from a missile that landed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on January 2 was from a...

Today it was reported that an assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Zelensky was thwarted. Two officers had planned a missile attack on him and other high-ranking military officials. Additionally, Russian forces have advanced 2 km westward from Ocherytne towards "Prohress". In Chasiv Yar, Russian troops continue their bombardments using FPV drones, artillery, FAB bombs, and the TOS1A system. In the areas around Kupiansk and Kherson, increased activity has been noted from both sides in recent days, particularly with Russian ground offensives towards Kupiansk. Furthermore, Russia and now Belarus have begun testing the combat readiness of their nuclear missiles, which can...