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The Ukrainian public would not accept Kyiv simply handing over the country’s Donbas region to Russia in a peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday — advising US envoys against continually pushing a version of peace the war’s victims would see as an “unsuccessful story.” “Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive … me, they will not forgive [the US],” Zelensky told Axios, speaking as US, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Geneva. “This is part of our country, all these citizens, the flag, the land.” The president said it was “not fair” that President Trump...

An elite British Army battalion is going all in on drones after working closely with Ukrainian soldiers and seeing how central these systems have become in modern warfare. The 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards now has 78 of its 300 members qualified as drone operators, its commanding officer, Lt. Col. Ben Irwin-Clark, told Business Insider. The unit has big plans to increase its training and work with drones further."That just gives you an idea of how important this is," he said.The battalion has built a training facility with drone warfare in mind, and its soldiers are heavily invested, he...

They've hung him upside down like a slab of meat. Stripped to his underwear. Arms bound tight with tape. Ankles lashed to a tree trunk in the open winter air. The second man, attached to a neighbouring tree, is at least taped upright. A man screams at them in Russian. He stuffs a fistful of snow into one of the men's mouths. Both cringe in terror, whimpering protestations and pleas. This is no medieval dungeon - it's the Russian army in Ukraine in the 21st century. The men's 'crime'? Refusing to walk, yet again, into what they call 'the meat...

Russian forces appear close to being pushed out of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupyansk, with only a small number of isolated troops remaining and even pro-Kremlin voices acknowledging the setback, according to a report.

For those who understand the basics of attrition warfare, the outcome of the fight in Ukraine was obvious a long time ago. Russia's superior logistical position along with its grinding offensive tactics have worn down Ukraine's defenses and left the country with a desperate manpower shortage. The recent capture of the vital hub of Pokrovsk has now opened the door to an accelerating Russian advance. The Russian offensive is gaining significant ground from Pokrovsk to the north, all the way to Kupiansk. The strategic city of Siversk is now largely under control of Russia according to geo-location mapping. Myrnohrad, also...

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia is deliberately slowing its economic growth in order to suppress inflation. "As for the decline from more than 4% GDP growth: this is not a decline, it is a deliberate action. It is a slowdown in growth in exchange for curbing inflation and maintaining macroeconomic stability," Putin said during a televised meeting with top lawmakers. A graph published in Russian central bank's report earlier in September showed two consecutive quarters of gross domestic product (GDP) decline in quarter-on-quarter terms, aligning with the common definition of a technical recession.

Russia's wartime economy may finally be losing steam, fresh data shows. In June, Russia's manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, or PMI, sank to 47.5 — its sharpest pace of contraction since March 2022, according to S&P Global. This was a reversal from the PMI of 50.2 in May, when Russia's manufacturing activity expanded. The results from the latest S&P Global manufacturing PMI survey are a contrast against the resilience that Russia's economy has been projecting over the last few years. Russia appears to have avoided an economic collapse since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But many analysts have...

Russian TV presenters have urged Vladimir Putin to consider dropping nuclear bombs on a NATO country to "solve" the world's problems "at once". In a chilling diatribe hawkish presenter Vladimir Solovyov raged that Russia should move nuclear weapons into Iran, under Kremlin control, and even attack NATO member Poland with an atomic weapon. Speaking on Russian state TV, Solovyov said Russian should use tactical weapons against Ukraine and "just in case, also drop one into Poland", adding: "No one will say a word. They will impose sanctions, so what?". Under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) it...

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea will send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to support reconstruction work in Russia’s Kursk region, a top Russian official said Tuesday, the latest sign of expanding cooperation between the nations. North Korea has already supplied thousands of combat troops and a vast amount of conventional weapons to back Russia’s war against Ukraine. In April, Pyongyang and Moscow said that their soldiers fought together to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region, though Ukraine has insisted it still has troops present there. Wrapping up a one-day visit to Pyongyang, Russian Security...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) today introduced a resolution to respond to the Russian Federation delivering tactical nuclear weapons to the Republic of Belarus. This is the first time Russia has deployed nuclear warheads beyond its borders since the fall of the Soviet Union, and represents a serious threat to global security in the midst of the war in Ukraine. Graham and Blumenthal noted their resolution holds that any use of a tactical nuclear weapon by Russia, Belarus or their proxies, or the destruction of a nuclear facility that disperses radioactive contaminants into...

In comments shared with Newsweek, Russia's ambassador to the United States has warned that a new resolution proposed by two U.S. senators threatens to push Washington and its NATO military alliance closer to a nuclear exchange with Moscow. Should such a war of mass destruction erupt, he warns, the U.S. would not be spared by its distance from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. ...Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut proposed a resolution Thursday that would consider any nuclear-related provocation by Russia or Belarus in Ukraine as a direct attack on NATO, triggering...

https://youtu.be/TEWlVpKd_To Around 5:30 Alexander starts talking about two sources on Wagner including it’s history and use and who actually runs it and Prigozhian role and his relationship with troops. And it’s not laudatory btw so I’d suggest Z brigade here should try and put aside their prejudices and give it a listen you might learn a little about your foe

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday avoided commenting on the statement by the head of the private military company Wagner threatening to withdraw from the battlefield in the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, saying the matter is related to a "special military operation" of Russia. "We have seen it in the media, but I cannot comment on it because it concerns the course of a special military operation," Peskov told reporters at a press briefing in Moscow.

A new wave of Russian missiles plunged into the Caspian Sea after ‘technical malfunctioning’, it's been reported. Launched from a Tu-95MS – one of Vladimir Putin’s Soviet nuclear bombers – the three rockets were aimed at Ukraine. The alleged blunder could have seen them hit Russian residential buildings, said Crimean Wind Telegram channel, citing a Moscow military source A new wave of Russian missiles plunged into the Caspian Sea after ‘technical malfunctioning’, it has been reported. Launched from a Tu-95MS – one of Vladimir Putin’s Soviet nuclear bombers – the three rockets were aimed at Ukraine. The alleged blunder could...

Attacks on Pavlograd may have stopped the great "ukie counteroffensive(TM)" I view the Ukrainian confusion of the letters 'G' and 'H' as an artifact of some kind of a linguistic inferiority conplex... E.G. it's 'Hitler' and not 'Gitler'. 'Pavlograd' and not 'Pavlohrad'....The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain....

Ukraine's Ambassador to Ireland has called for people to boycott Jameson Irish Whiskey after the company decided to continue trade in Russia.Larysa Gerasko alleges that Jameson is playing a part in financing Russian aggression in Ukraine by resuming trade in Russia.

The Kremlin is suddenly concerned with saving face ahead of an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive. After spending the last year reassuring Russians that victory is inevitable in the war against Ukraine, the Kremlin is now frantically working to lower expectations—and rolling out a contingency plan to lessen the impact of a humiliating defeat. A new manual prepared by Russia’s presidential administration and distributed to the Kremlin’s army of propagandists contains some surprising instructions: Do not “underestimate” Ukraine’s impending counter-offensive and do not spread the idea that Kyiv is somehow “not ready” for it. That’s according to the independent news outlet Meduza,...

Investigative independent journalist Lee Fang weighs in on his reporting surrounding Ukrainian intelligence and disinformation

With even nationalist pro-war bloggers criticising Putin’s actions in Ukraine, his desperation and paranoia are growing. May is traditionally a month for public celebration in Russia, with massive public processions on 1 May for Labour Day and military parades on 9 May for Victory Day, a holiday commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. Not so in 2023. Russia’s biggest trade union cancelled its traditional Labour Day demonstrations because of the “heightened risk of terrorist activity”, while regions near the Ukrainian border called off Victory Day parades so as to “not provoke” the Ukrainian army. The Russian government has warned...

Scott Ritter describes the paymaster system in the Country 404 military. All of that is being done with US taxpayer money of course.