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Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a July 21 interview that President Volodymyr Zelensky will likely need to hold a public referendum before agreeing to any territorial compromises with Russia. The statement follows a proposal by former U.S. President Donald Trump for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. As Trump's victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election becomes more likely, efforts are underway to sway him to Ukraine's side and ensure that any potential deal is favorable to Kyiv. "The next few months will be very difficult for Volodymyr Zelensky. Should he continue the war with new deaths and...

At the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, commemorating the alliance’s 75th anniversary, leaders offered Ukraine a fresh round of false hope in its war against Russia — which is worse than doing nothing. Whether by military commitment or intensified support, the pretension that NATO could currently deliver a Ukrainian victory, or secure one later, encourages the country’s leaders to postpone reckoning with their dire circumstances. Moreover, it threatens to further imperil NATO members without a security payoff. After the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in 2023, recognition that its forces cannot regain more of its territory has begun to sink in....

We tend to think of United States presidential elections as a strictly American affair, as they are supposed to be. But the whole world is watching every four years, with global leaders from both our allies and our adversaries gaming out what their relationships and fortunes might look like depending on the winner. This year is no exception, and one of those leaders keeping a close eye on the race is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He allowed his mask of neutrality to slip a bit during a recent interview with the BBC when he told them that he was "preparing...

Former President Trump vowed to “bring peace” after he spoke on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday. “President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and I had a very good phone call earlier today. He congratulated me on a very successful Republican National Convention and becoming the Republican nominee for President of the United States,” Trump posted to his Truth Social site. Trump said Zelensky condemned the “heinous” assassination attempt against the former president last Saturday and remarked about the American people coming together in unity. “I appreciate President Zelenskyy for reaching out because I, as your next President of...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – At least two people were killed and three more injured after a Russian missile strike on infrastructure in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, said Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said Saturday. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials confirmed that the death toll following a Russian strike Friday on the city of Mykolaiv, had risen to four. A child was among the victims, said the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych.

Ukraine is on its way to being able to “stand on its own feet” militarily, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday, noting that more than 20 other countries have pledged to maintain their own military and financial aid to the country even if the U.S. were to withdraw its support under a different president. Blinken for the first time directly addressed the possibility that former President Donald Trump could win the November election and back away from commitments to Ukraine. Trump’s public comments have varied between criticizing U.S. backing for Ukraine’s defense and supporting it, while his running mate,...

Former President Donald Trump might not understand what is going on in Ukraine, according to the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, however he said Friday he is happy to bring the Republican nominee up to speed if he returns to the White House in 2024. Zelensky made his claim about Trump’s ignorance in an exclusive interview with the BBC in London, adding he was willing to work with anyone who was in power in Washington. “Maybe he really doesn’t understand what goes on in Ukraine, so we have to work with the United States,” Zelensky told the BBC, repeating his previous...

I'm posting a few notes about an article in Le Monde, because the French publication does not permit partial reproduction of an article: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/07/17/war-in-ukraine-zelensky-wants-russia-to-take-part-in-a-new-peace-summit_6687222_4.html1. Zelensky has opened the door to direct negotiations with Moscow without making the departure of Russian occupying forces a pre-condition. Russia is invited to attend. 2. The first peace summit since talks broke down in Spring of 2022 included 100 countries meeting in Switzerland. Russia was not invited. That summit ended with timid declarations which did not include an appeal to Russia to halt its invasion. The declaration was signed by 80 countries.3. Zelensky outlined a...

Ukrainian troops have lost a hard-won position on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, near the southern city of Kherson, after months of bloody fighting to hold on to a piece of land in what some Ukrainian soldiers and military analysts have described as a futile operation. The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday night that fighting continued on the eastern bank but that most of the main positions in the village of Krynky, where its troops had gained a foothold, “were destroyed by intense, combined and prolonged enemy fire.” The statement came after several Ukrainian news media outlets reported...

LONDON (AP) – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Britain’s new government to help Ukrainian forces attack deeper inside Russia to stop deadly missile strikes on his country, as he gave a rare address by a foreign leader to a U.K. Cabinet meeting. Zelenskyy said “long-range capability” to destroy sites where Russian weapons are concentrated is key to Ukraine’s defense. “I ask you to show your leadership” in lifting restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons, Zelenskyy told Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Russia has deployed devastating firepower as it pursues a summer offensive in eastern Ukraine, reducing villages to rubble and pushing...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s army has pulled out from the village of Urozhaine in the eastern Donetsk region, an official said Thursday, surrendering another front-line position as Russian forces blast Ukrainian defenses in a relentless onslaught. The village was reduced to rubble which “made it impossible to hold the positions there,” Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for local ground forces, told The Associated Press in a written message. He did not say when the pullout occurred. Russia seized Urozhaine in the early days of the war that began after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. Ukrainian troops...

One Patriot battery costs $1 billion, while missiles are at least $3 million apiece According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his country needs more missiles and fighter planes than promised to defend its airspace. “In order to ensure the full protection of Ukraine, in the opinion of our soldiers, we need 25 Patriot systems,” the head of state stressed at a press conference in Kyiv. However, Zelensky did not mention how many Patriot air defense systems Ukraine currently has. He claimed that his country needs other weapons systems of different ranges and capabilities for comprehensive air defense; he also noted...

The war in Ukraine has long become one of attrition and endurance, where the status of the competing forces is arguably more important than individual pieces of terrain changing hands. In this piece, leveraging the work of various people and sources, we look at what we can determine about the status of Russian equipment stocks and active vehicle fleets in 2024, and try to project potential paths forward and establish a baseline for comparing against Ukrainian forces in a coming episode.

The latest Russian Defense Ministry daily bulletin was issued on Tuesday afternoon, July 9. Since then the Pentagon and the White House have been as silent as the tomb. Make that thirty-five American tombs. “During the day [July 9],” said the Defense Ministry briefer [3] in Moscow, “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a group strike with high-precision weapons on American HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems prepared for strikes on the territory of Crimea, as well as the venue of an official meeting of the AFU [Armed Forces of the Ukraine] command staff. The objectives of the...

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...