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Russia accused Ukraine on Tuesday of trying to obtain a nuclear weapon with help from Britain and France, an allegation Kyiv called an absurd lie. A French foreign ministry spokesperson said the allegation was "blatant disinformation". A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "There's no truth to this." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has previously criticised Kyiv's decision to give up its former Soviet nuclear arsenal in the 1990s without obtaining proper, binding security guarantees. But Kyiv has said it does not seek to re-acquire nuclear weapons, and respects all international treaties. NUCLEAR THREATSIn a statement published on the...

"This is the proportional response that Russia has the right to," the Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman stressedMOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/. A nuclear strike on targets in Ukraine, as well as in France and the United Kingdom, would be considered lawful and justified in the event that London and Paris provide Kiev with nuclear capabilities, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Max, commenting on Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service’s (SVR) reports about such plans by the two European countries. According to Medvedev, this information "radically changes the situation." "This is a direct transfer of nuclear weapons to a...

KYIV, Ukraine, and MOSCOW — When the Kremlin launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the assumption in Moscow, and much of the West, was that Russian forces would take the country in a matter of days. Instead, what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation" has become the biggest land war in Europe since World War II and has lasted longer than the Soviet army's fight against Nazi Germany. Russia's war on Ukraine is a grinding war of attrition. Ukraine has managed to hold a much larger army to minimal gains while adjusting to a life under constant...

Ukraine has regained control of 400 square kilometres of territory, including eight settlements, along a section of the southern frontline since the end of January, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has said. Syrskyi's statement on Monday did not make clear how much of the newly secured territory had previously been under Russian control and how much lay in "grey zone" areas not firmly held by either side. The rare battlefield gains in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region stand in contrast to the broader trend of slow and costly Russian advances across the frontlines over the past two and a half years, as the...

Ukraine is outmatched by Russian forces and requires significantly more infantry and weapons if it hopes to win the war, according to military intelligence and independent battlefield monitors. Although Moscow is paying an extraordinary price for comparatively minimal gains, western officials believe the country can sustain at least another year of war at the current rate of attrition. On Tuesday it will be four years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After months of incremental advances, it appears to be on the verge of capturing a series of strategic locations in Ukraine’s so-called “fortress belt” and is expanding...

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that the UK and its allies should deploy non-combat troops to Ukraine right now, to "flip a switch" in Russian President Vladimir Putin's head. Speaking exclusively to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg alongside the former head of the military, Adm Sir Tony Radakin, Johnson said troops should be sent to peaceful regions in non-fighting roles. He said: "If we can have a plan for boots on the ground after the war, after Putin has condescended to have a ceasefire, then why not do it now?" The UK government is currently working with its allies to...

Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin’s plans to invade, and why most of Europe – including the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – dismissed them. As the fourth anniversary of the invasion approaches and the world enters a new period of geopolitical uncertainty, Europe’s politicians and spy services continue to draw lessons from the failures of 2022. The phone call William Burns had travelled halfway around the world to speak with Vladimir Putin, but in the end he had...

US-mediated peace talks on Ukraine collapsed in less than two hours after Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky claimed it was unfair that Donald Trump was placing more pressure on his country than on Russia.The second day of talks concluded on Wednesday, though neither side signalled they were any closer to ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.The talks wrapped up after just two hours, much shorter than the six hours of meetings on Tuesday, according to the head of Russia's delegation.

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...

Ukrainian forces managed to liberate over 200 square kilometers of territory from the Russian troops last week, marking their most successful breakthrough in 2.5 years, AFP reports. According to the outlet, these gains are confirmed by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Between February 11 and 15, Ukrainian troops recaptured 201 square kilometers from Russian forces. AFP reports that Ukrainian soldiers took advantage of disruptions in Russian access to Starlink terminals.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison after being poisoned with a deadly toxin found in Ecuadorian dart frogs, the U.K. and other allies claimed Saturday. There is no possible explanation other than a deliberate poisoning, European officials said, noting that the frogs are not found in Russia. Russia’s prison service reported in February 2024 that Navalny died after having felt unwell following a walk around the high-security facility in a remote town above the Arctic Circle where he was serving a combined 30½-year jail sentence. He was 47. “The U.K., Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands are confident...

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...

During a Friday appearance before the press on the White House lawn, President Donald Trump warned that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “is gonna have to get moving, otherwise he’s gonna miss a great opportunity” because “Russia wants to make a deal.”Responding to a reporter who questioned whether the president will still “demand” that Zelensky “hold elections before summer,” Trump said, “Well, Zelensky is gonna have to get moving. Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelensky’s gonna have to get moving, otherwise he’s gonna miss a great opportunity. He has to move.”Late on Wednesday, Zelensky told reporters that he has...

Meanwhile, Moscow is citing fictitious Ukrainian counter-offensives to explain why it doesn’t control territories its forces were claiming they’d seized in Zaporizhia oblast; it looks like Putin’s frontline commanders are afraid to tell the high command they’re failing. Poor Vlad: Having caught on to how Putin’s thugs were using hijacked Starlink terminals to guide their drones in massive long-distance attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid and civilian population, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now blocking of Russian access to Starlink, disabling Moscow’s frontline command-and-control communications for another game-changer. Russia’s damning whine: Blocking it from Starlink is (somehow) a violation of international law....

Zelensky: The Ukrainian Army is the strongest army in Europe. And I think it is simply not smart to keep this army outside NATO

Today, I'm going to have a special episode. What this episode is going to be is an extension on the episode we had 4 days ago regarding this offer from Russia to America regarding a massive amount of resources. Of course, resources carry with it a massive amount of money. Today we have a little bit more information on this that may make it unbelievably attractive, almost too good to turn away potentially for Trump that this would be in US dollars as of course what we have seen over the past years is many nations Russia at the helm...

The opposition leader, who is leading the polls ahead of April's elections, says Viktor Orbán's party is orchestrating a smear campaign with secretly recorded intimate videos. Hungary's opposition leader Péter Magyar has accused Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's ruling Fidesz party of preparing a blackmail campaign against him involving a secretly recorded sex tape, escalating tensions ahead of April's parliamentary elections. Magyar, whose Tisza party leads Fidesz in opinion polls, said he suspects the governing party plans to release intimate recordings made with surveillance equipment. "I suspect they are planning to release a recording, recorded with secret service equipment and possibly...

Russian soldiers and military bloggers have railed against the Kremlin after it restricted access to the Telegram messaging app. Widespread disruptions to the app were reported on Monday and Tuesday as Roskomnadzor, the Russian state media regulator, said it would levy its strongest restrictions on Telegram’s operations yet. The internet watchdog said the move would safeguard Russian citizens against “criminal and terrorist” content, in Moscow’s latest crackdown on the free internet. Roskomnadzor, which has for years crusaded for a “sovereign internet” liberated from Western influence, has over the past six months imposed new limits on Telegram and WhatsApp at least...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the US wants the war with Russia to end by June, adding that both sides had been invited to the US for talks next week. "America proposed for the first time that the two negotiating teams – Ukraine and Russia – meet in the United States of America, probably in Miami, in a week. We confirmed our participation," he said. There was no immediate comment from Washington or Moscow, but US President Donald Trump has been pushing for an end for the conflict since he took office again more than a year ago. Meanwhile, Russia...

Iran has supplied millions of rounds of ammunition and shells, according to estimates, which is not the full extent of what Moscow has purchased from Tehran. Tehran has also supplied Shahed-136 kamikaze drones and joint technology that has enabled Russia to produce them domestically under the name Geran-2 as part of a $1.75 billion contract signed in early 2023.... In total, Russia has spent more than the equivalent of $4 billion on Iranian military equipment and weapons since the end of 2021, according to the estimate... Russia is not among Iran’s largest trading partners. China tops the list, with trade...