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Richard "Ric" Grenell, the former acting director of National Intelligence in President-elect Trump's first administration, is reportedly under consideration to be special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Currently, there is no special envoy responsible for bringing an end to the war in Eastern Europe. Trump is strongly considering whether to create the role, Reuters reported, citing four sources familiar with the president's deliberations. If he does create the new position, Grenell is said to be a leading candidate, though Trump may select someone else, the sources told Reuters. There is also no guarantee that Grenell would accept the position if...

Ukraine claimed that Russian troops occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had planted bombs on the facility’s roof in preparation for an imminent sabotage – even as Moscow accused Kyiv of plotting a “false-flag” attack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Tuesday that he told France’s Emmanuel Macron in a phone conversation about Russian “dangerous provocations” at the plant in southeastern Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s forces seized control of Zaporizhzhia — Europe’s largest nuclear facility — in the first days of the invasion in February 2022, and it has remained in Russian hands for the past 16 months....

Ukraine has released images purporting to show a car packed with explosives parked on the Kakhovka Dam before it was bombed, unleashing the river on settlements below, leading to serious flooding. The Kakhovka Dam was bombed earlier this month, causing the Soviet-era structure holding back the Dnipro/Dnieper, one of Europe’s major rivers to flood downstream. Given the colossal volume of water released fatalities have been mercifully comparatively limited, with the Ukrainian government speaking of 17 killed as a consequence of the attack, and a further 31 missing.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made a forceful case on Friday for European members of NATO to increase their military spending, calling Russia’s intervention in Ukraine a “clarifying moment” for the alliance. “In recent years, one of the biggest obstacles to alliance investment has been a sense that the end of the Cold War ushered in an end of history, an end to insecurity, at least in Europe, and the end of aggression by nation-states,” Mr. Hagel said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center. “But Russia’s actions in Ukraine shatter that myth.” -snip- Mr. Hagel’s remarks added to calls...

The head of a CIS delegation observing disputed election results in the Ukraine was beaten up by a group of opposition supporters after the observer praised the much disputed election results for their “transparency”. Alexei Kochetkov, the head of the CIS-EMO mission in the Ukraine, telephoned to say he had been assaulted by a group of people wearing orange ribbons, a symbol of support for pro-western opposition candidate Yushchenko, who, according to the disputed preliminary results, lost the presidential race, the Interfax news agency reported. On Monday, after observers from the United States and Europe widely criticized the elections for...