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TORY: As the anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine nears, Russian forces pounded the city of Bakhmut on Monday, in what NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said was the beginning of a major, long-feared new offensive: "The reality is we have seen the start already because we see now what Russia does now - President Putin does now - is to send thousands and thousands more troops, accepting a very high rate of casualty." Military officials said Ukrainian defenders, who have held on for months, were braced for new ground attacks.

Smack-Down! Hungary Pushes Back Against Obnoxious US Ambassador written by daniel mcadams saturday february 4, 2023 undefined US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman and his husband. Biden's Ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, is a particularly odious specimen in a long line of obnoxious US residents of Szabadság tér since the end of Hungary's subjection to Soviet control in 1989. Before him, Soap Opera producer and Obama glamor-queen moneybags Coleen Bell warned Hungarians in 2016 to get on board with the destruction of Syria or face the wrath of DC. Secretary of State Tony Blinken's own father, Donald, did the Clinton...

The Kremlin on Friday confirmed a report that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will give his long-delayed 2022 annual address to the Federal Assembly on February 21, 2023, a date chosen to coincide with the anniversary of his attack on Ukraine. The address is reportedly to be followed up with a “large-scale concert and rally event at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium” the next day.

The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group has said in a rare interview that it could take two years for Moscow to control the whole of two eastern Ukrainian regions whose capture it has stated as a key goal of the war. Yevgeny Prigozhin said his understanding of Russia's plan was that it needed to fully control the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that Moscow last year claimed as "republics" of Russia, in a move condemned by most countries of the United Nations as illegal. "As far as I understand, we need to close off the Donetsk and Luhansk republics and...

Russia's federal media watchdog tasks its spooks with protecting Vladimir Putin from memes that portray him as a 'bald dwarf', 'a crab', or 'a Hitler wannabe'. That is according to reports on a leak out of Roskomnadzor, the main agency behind online censorship in Moscow that is responsible for blocking material about the on-going invasion of Ukraine and any disparaging posts about the Russian president. Analysis of the leaks found that the agency compiles reports on all 'negative publications', and sends them 'upstairs' to the Kremlin and Russia's security services to brief them on all of the despot's critics via...

A Telegram channel linked to the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary outfit involved in current offensives in Ukraine's eastern region, has released footage that purportedly shows Russian tanks running over troops in the city of Vuhledar. -snip- Grey Zone, a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, posted footage purportedly from the recent clashes in Vuhledar. "In Vuhledar, a complete f****** is happening, and it is happening over and over again, often in commanding of the same units that were trumpeting about problems previously, but the problems are not ending," the channel said in a post accompanying the videos. -snip- "At least 30 pieces...

On February 16, 2022, a full week before Putin sent combat troops into Ukraine, the Ukrainian Army began the heavy bombardment of the area (in east Ukraine) occupied by mainly ethnic Russians. Officials from the Observer Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were located in the vicinity at the time and kept a record of the shelling as it took place.

It happened with the Russia hoax, it happened all during Trump’s time in the White House, and it happened again with the Chinese spy balloon. Anonymous sources were once rarely used in journalism. They would only be cited when trying to preserve someone’s physical safety or report on the most sensitive national security matters, and there was an expectation that such unusual sourcing be reviewed by editors and carefully corroborated whenever possible. Now anonymous sourcing has become the norm in reporting and is frequently used as a political weapon to disseminate Democrats’ talking points and smear their enemies. The illicit...

It was in the summer of 1995 when I, an 18 year old recruit, first drove an M1 Abrams tank. Is to continue to support Ukraine with what it needs on the Current Time 0:30 / Duration 1:10 Newsweek U.S. Dismisses Russia's Reaction to Abrams Tanks: 'Heard That Line Before' 0 View on Watch More videos More tanks for Ukraine: Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands make new pledge Euronews/Euronews More tanks for Ukraine: Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands make new pledge 1:02 Ukrainian troops plead for more tanks and munitions in battle for Bakhmut France 24/France 24 Ukrainian troops plead...

Chechen warlord and close Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov has signalled his intent to invade Poland next should Russia be victorious in Ukraine. ‘I have repeatedly stated that the fight against Satanism should continue throughout Europe and, first of all, on the territory of Poland,’ he said on Telegram. Kadyrov added: ‘What if, after the successful completion of the NMD (National Missile Defence), Russia begins to denazify and demilitarise the next country? ‘After all, after Ukraine, Poland is on the map! I will not hide that I personally have such an intention.’ Elsewhere this week, Kadyrov, 46, was awarded the title...

Vladimir Putin's major new offensive has 'definitely started,' Ukraine has said, as Russia unleashed a 'massive' wave of missile and drone strikes on Friday.... When asked on television whether the new offensive had already begun, Ukrainian Governor of the Donetsk region answered: 'Yes, definitely.' Zaporizhzhia official said south-eastern city had been hit 17 times in one hour... Krylenko said in areas around Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Vuhledar - which have seen some of the bloodiest fighting of the war - 'the enemy's forces and means are escalating there with daily intensity'....Moscow's forces struck critical infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and...

Belarus on Friday condemned as "catastrophic" a decision by Poland to close a border checkpoint between the two countries, saying it could lead to a collapse on both sides of the border. Poland said on Thursday, citing security concerns, it would close a key border crossing into Belarus at Bobrowniki, starting at 12 p.m. (1100 GMT) on Friday, driving already hostile relations between the two countries to a new low. -snip- Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poland might close further border crossings. "We are not excluding closing other border crossings with Belarus," he told a news conference in...

-Moldovan government resigns, economy in turmoil. -Tensions with Russia fuelled by war in Ukraine. -President to hold consultations on next prime minister.CHISINAU, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Moldova's pro-Western government resigned on Friday after a turbulent 18 months in power marked by economic turmoil and the spillover effects of Russia's war in neighbouring Ukraine. In the latest tensions with Moscow over the war, the government said shortly before Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita announced her resignation that a Russian missile had violated Moldovan airspace, and summoned Russia's ambassador to protest. President Maia Sandu accepted Gavrilita's decision and said she would consult with...

Ukrainian forces have put an advanced Russian BMPT Terminator armored fighting vehicle out of commission for the first time, according to the Ukrainian Marines. The Terminator is a relatively new addition to Russia's ground arsenal and only a small number of them are known to be in service, making this kill quite the trophy for the Ukrainian military. Members of the Ukrainian Marine Corps’ 140th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion helped destroy the BMPT, according to a post on the service’s official Facebook page. The post explains the Marines belonging to the unit shared the Terminator’s coordinates with nearby artillery forces, who...

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials said they require coordinates provided or confirmed by the United States and its allies for the vast majority of strikes using its advanced U.S.-provided rocket systems, a previously undisclosed practice that reveals a deeper and more operationally active role for the Pentagon in the war. The disclosure, confirmed by three senior Ukrainian officials and a senior U.S. official, comes after months of Kyiv’s forces pounding Russian targets — including headquarters, ammunition depots and barracks — on Ukrainian soil with the U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and other similar precision-guided weapons such as...

U.S. and French troops that are part of a NATO battlegroup in Romania held a military exercise on Thursday to test the 30-nation alliance’s eastern flank defenses, as Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine nears its one-year anniversary. The joint combat drills at the Black Sea training range in Capu Midia, dubbed Eagle Royal 23, involved some 350 multinational battlegroup troops who practiced firing live ammunition from a U.S.-made HIMARS, a mobile, truck-mounted missile system. The HIMARS have been successfully used by Ukraine’s military against Russia. Romania’s defense ministry said that the goal of the drills — held between Feb....

Ukraine's armed forces chief said Friday two Russian missiles crossed the airspace of Moldova and NATO-member Romania on their way to Ukraine. "At 10:18 am (0818 GMT), two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles crossed the border of Ukraine with the Republic of Moldova," Valery Zaluzhny said on social media. "At approximately 10:33, these missiles crossed the airspace of Romania. After that, they re-entered the airspace of Ukraine." Romania's defence ministry said a report about a Russian missile flying into Romanian airspace was unconfirmed. If confirmed, it would be the first violation of NATO member Romania's airspace since the beginning of the...

Starlink being used to control drones that carry chemical weapons, Musk pulls the plug IOW, the system was being used for war crimes. Scott Ritter claims that those drones have been seen dropping cannisters of some sort of chemical mixture behind Russian lines.

Fur coats purportedly given to widows of soldiers fighting for Russia in Ukraine as compensation for their deaths were taken back after the women were filmed expressing their gratitude for them, it has been reported. A video clip widely viewed on Russian social media shows a group of women holding up the garments in the town of Makiivka, in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine. "Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts…for taking care of us," said one woman before the group said "thank you" in unison. The man filming the women was reportedly Yevgeny Skripnik, an...

The leader of The Wagner Group – described as the private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin – has revealed that the paramilitary organisation are no longer recruiting prisoners to fight the war in Ukraine...According to independent Russian media, the reason comes down to reports of convicts being executed discouraging new volunteers to step forward. The alleged lack of volunteers joining the 'suicide squad', as some describe the Wagner Group, is damaging optics to Prigozhin who appears to be losing his influence within the Kremlin.