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She threw out a claim, got challenged, and immediately admitted, "I don't know." MSNBC’s Katy Tur got burned by making an unfounded claim during her show on Monday. She made a claim that has often been made as evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. “At the Republican National Convention, the Republican Party decided not to arm Ukraine against Russia,” Tur said, trying to wrap up her show. Former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg interrupted her, however, and pointed out, “But Ukraine is armed.” The former adviser, who says he can no longer stand Trump, was most likely referencing reports that the Trump...

It was quiet in eastern Ukraine last Wednesday. Indeed, it was another quiet day in an extended stretch of relative calm. The battles between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatists had largely stopped and heavy weaponry was being withdrawn. The Minsk cease-fire wasn't holding perfectly, but it was holding. On that same day, General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander in Europe, stepped before the press in Washington. Putin, the 59-year-old said, had once again "upped the ante" in eastern Ukraine -- with "well over a thousand combat vehicles, Russian combat forces, some of their most sophisticated air defense,...

The US military's top-ranking officer on Tuesday added to a growing clamor for Washington to arm Ukraine in its battle with pro-Russian forces, saying he favors doing so through NATO. It was the first time General Martin Dempsey had spoken out in support of arming Ukraine's army against the separatists and follows similar comments by the Pentagon's new chief, Ashton Carter, and the director of national intelligence, James Clapper. "I think we should absolutely consider lethal aid and it ought to be in the context of NATO allies because (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's ultimate objective is to fracture NATO," Dempsey...

American threats to arm Ukraine are a "bluff" aimed at making Russia blink as the crisis in east Ukraine deepens, according to senior EU diplomats. Angela Merkel and François Hollande’s mission to Moscow comes following a “radical deterioration” and Western intelligence showing “beyond doubt” that thousands of Russian are fighting in Ukraine, senior diplomats said. The general consensus among Western diplomats, including Nato, is that there is no military solution to the Ukraine crisis although attitudes are hardening in Washington as fears grow that Kiev is on the edge of military and economic collapse. One European diplomat said that reports...