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KYIV and DNIPRO, UKRAINE, and MOSCOW — Explosions rocked several cities across Ukraine in the most extensive attack on the country since the early days of Russia's invasion in February. The attacks came only hours after Russia blamed Ukraine for a weekend explosion that partially damaged a strategic bridge that connects Russian-occupied Crimea to mainland Russia. Ukrainian emergency services report that several people are dead across the country, including at least five people in the the capital Kyiv, which hasn't been hit since June. It's also the closest strike to the center of the city since the war began, coming...

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday people were killed and injured in multiple missile strikes on cities across Ukraine, including the first bombardment of the capital in months. CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D'Agata said the strikes, which could signal a major escalation in the eight-month-old war, appeared to be entirely punitive — retaliation meant to terrorize Ukrainian civilians in densely-populated urban neighborhoods, close to government buildings, with one even hitting a children's playground. Ukraine's national police later said at least 10 people were killed and about 60 others injured by the missile strikes early Monday morning. Russia's strongman leader...

Ukraine poked the Russian bear on Saturday by blowing up the Kerch Bridge from Russia to Crimea. According to Russian news agency Tass, an explosion occurred in early Saturday morning on one of Putin’s prestige projects and Europe’s longest bridge, which connects Russia and Crimea. “An object believed to be a fuel storage tank has caught fire on the Crimean Bridge, but the viaduct’s navigable arches sustained no damage, an aide to the head of Crimea, Oleg Kryuchkov, said on Saturday,” according to the news outlet. “According to preliminary information, a fuel storage tank is on fire… Navigable arches were...

Russia's “partial mobilization” and its sham referendums to justify the annexation of four provinces in Eastern Ukraine create new sources of uncertainty about the future course of the war. Yet Russia's actions should also produce a rare moment of strategic clarity for Ukraine's partners: No viable path to negotiated peace remains, and any result short of Ukrainian victory will be, in the long run, a worse outcome for the rules-based international order. The third, and more politically significant, alternative falls somewhere between the first two. This camp decries Russia's barbarity and lauds Ukrainians' bravery while, at same time, worrying about...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree installing a new operator for a massive international oil-and-gas project in Russia's Far East, affecting billions of investment dollars from major U.S., Japanese, and Indian companies. The maneuver and decree on October 7 appear to repeat a strategy that the Kremlin has used recently to seize other foreign-owned energy assets. Putin ordered that authority be given to the Russian government to decide whether foreign stakeholders in the massive Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project may retain their holdings in the joint venture. The move toward nationalization further complicates U.S. Exxon Mobil's efforts to...

Russian governors threaten missile attacks on Ukraine's 'big cities' in a 'desire to seek revenge' for the Crimea bridge explosion as top Putin propagandist calls for total war and return to brutal Stalinist-era operations Top Putin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov called for total war against Ukraine following Crimea bridge blast He also demanded a return to Stalinist-era counterintelligence operations to root out internal opposition Crimea's governor spoke of a 'healthy desire for revenge' while another official warned of rocket attacks The deputy governor of Stavropol told Ukrainians 'leave your cities' as he threatened Sarmat missile strikes Russia's deputy PM meanwhile deployed...

“Early retirement” is a strange way to describe a 44-year-old’s acceptance of a new government role, but for Mikk Marran, Estonia’s spymaster, it feels a lot like that. As of next month he will no longer helm Välisluureamet, the Baltic state’s foreign intelligence service, which, long before Vladimir Putin’s faltering invasion of Ukraine, was at the forefront of assessing the threats and capabilities of a resurgent and revanchist Russia.(snip) According to one former high-ranking U.S. intelligence officer, “Estonia punches far above its weight on Russian affairs. The respect for Marran and his service in the U.S. intelligence community is quite...

General Dynamics Land Systems has officially unveiled its AbramsX future main battle tank concept in the flesh — or should we say in the steel. Earlier this week we wrote up the latest on the feature-packed M1 Abrams evolution, but now we get to see the actual hardware ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army's big conference in Washington, D.C., this week

From what I have read, a truck filled with explosives blew up, killing three people in a car nearby, and then the flames took over a train also crossing the bridge. That train was full of fuel. It is only thanks to the amazing speed at which the bridge crews reacted that the damage was limited to only 9 wagons and, therefore, to a much shorter segment of the rail tracks.Looking at the video, one would imagine that the bridge is in ruins. In fact, traffic was reestablished on both rail tracks and the road in less than 24 hours...

A leading Ukrainian presidential aide claimed this morning that the explosion which damaged a key bridge in Crimea may have been ordered by one of Vladimir Putin's warring commanders. The 12 mile crossing over the Kerch strait links Crimea to the Russian mainland and is a major artery for Putin's forces that control most of southern Ukraine's Kherson region and for the Russian naval port of Sevastopol. It was damaged in an explosion early Saturday morning which saw chunks of the bridge fall into the sea and a large fire break out. The incident prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials...

Boy, looks like I missed the hysteria. Instead of thumbing my way around the internet to catch the latest news on the complete devastation of Russia’s Kerch bridge that unites Crimea with Mother Russia, I was at a gun range being trained by a retired Delta Force operator. He is a hell of a teacher.Needless to say, my time was better spent (and cheaper) compared to what Ukraine spent on its spectacular failure to destroy the Kerch bridge. Failure? Yes. The initial images of a veritable Dante’s furnace, complete with rolling clouds of black smoke and frantic tongues of flames...

Russian citizens who criticize the Kremlin could find themselves on the receiving end of a nasty visit from Chechen forces, according to an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin’s attempted "partial mobilization" of fighting-aged Russians into the war in Ukraine has prompted a wave of social displeasure, including a mass exodus of apparent draft dodgers and protests in the outlying regions where people are bearing the brunt of the war. Russian lawmaker Adam Delimkhanov, an ethnic Chechen politician known for threatening to decapitate the relatives of a human rights activist, warned university students against any display of disrespect. “I...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Joe Biden’s remarks warning of “armageddon” amid nuclear threats from Russia were “right.” At a fundraiser last week, Biden said, “We have not faced the prospect of armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.” Discussing Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden added, “I know fairly well. He’s not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons.”

The impact of the use of a nuclear device in Ukraine will depend on the details. Like any large-scale industrial army, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have obvious pressure points that would be vulnerable to nuclear attack. These include logistical centers, command and communications nodes, and concentrations of front-line forces. During the Cold War the Soviet Union expected to use tactical nuclear weapons against NATO (and expected that NATO would use them in return) and it is therefore likely that the Russian armed forces have workable theories as to how they might best use tactical nukes to inflict damage on Ukraine’s...

Former President Donald Trump blamed the United States for "almost forcing" Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.During an interview on Real America's Voice, a right-wing network favorable to Trump, the former president criticized the Biden administration. He argued that their "rhetoric" in the months leading up to the Ukraine invasion contributed to Putin's decision.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that Russia has begun to prepare its people for the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine. “They begin to prepare their society. That’s very dangerous,” Zelensky said.

HBO has timed the release of a new documentary on President Joe Biden’s first year in office to just three weeks before the midterm elections in what appears like the latest effort by Hollywood to rally support for Democrats and make the deeply unpopular Biden look more presidential. In one indication as to how Biden will be portrayed, the documentary is being executive produced by far-left New York Times White House and national security correspondent David Sanger, who is also a frequent personality on CNN. On Friday, the cable network released the first trailer for the documentary, which features talking-head...

I have a Facebook account which I rarely use, and saw this ad for this guy. THIS is an Admiral???? I got so ticked off I had to leave a reply. Tucker Carlson supports Putin? Really? I admit I haven't watched Fox news in a while but I find that hard to believe. But what really ticked me off is his comment of "the fringe right cabal headed by Donald Trump" Who is this jerk? THIS is/was running our Navy?? Don't tell me he's related to Al Franken.

Maybe Grandpa Joe Should Stop Rambling About Nuclear WarOkay, this one requires a couple of soundbites to set the stage. The first is from 10 years ago this month...“Governor Romney… a few months ago, when you were asked what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia. Not Al-Qaeda. You said Russia. And the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”How’s that one workin’ out, Barry?...“No one [deals unfairly or harshly] with a Biden.”Okay? Get those two ideas squared firmly in your mind: 1) Russia is not a problem because the Democrats are in charge,...

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has said he agrees that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February “would not have happened” if Donald Trump was still U.S. President. Bolsonaro, himself dubbed the ‘Tropical Trump’ or ‘Trump of the Tropics’ during and after his first successful presidential run in 2018, made the remarks in an interview with Brazilian news magazine Veja.