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The ISW report asserts that "several indicators" suggest the attack was staged, noting that Russia recently enhanced "domestic air defense capabilities" while arguing it was "extremely unlikely" that Ukrainian drones could have thwarted "multiple layers of air defense" and be destroyed "in a way that provided spectacular imagery caught nicely on camera."..."The rapid and coherent presentation of an official Russian narrative around the strike suggests that Russia staged this incident in close proximity to the May 9th Victory Day holiday in order to frame the war as existential to its domestic audience," the ISW report states.

In a Telegram post, Girkin listed a number of Russia's failures in Ukraine such as the "heavy" losses near the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, which Girkin wrote forced Russian troops to "retreat again, leaving part of the positions previously occupied." He added that even though the battle in Bakhmut is still ongoing, Ukraine made advances while Russia has not.

Documents reviewed by The Washington Post reportedly show how Russia has attempted to forge a coalition between Germany's far-left and the far-right to oppose support for Ukraine. Russia attempted to influence German public opinion to oppose support for Ukraine and become more hostile toward the West, according to a report by The Washington Post on Friday. The US newspaper reviewed Kremlin documents that recorded meetings between its officials and Russian political strategists about how to unite elements in the Left Party and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) behind a common, pro-Moscow cause. The documents were first obtained by an...

The Russian TV guest continued: "The enemy is saturating the line of contact with electronic warfare and electronic suppression, as well as with reconnaissance equipment. This is also a sign that the Kyiv regime is actively preparing for counter-offensive actions. All in all, it is alarming along the entire line of contact." Later on during the segment, a TV host warned Russian troops against relaxing because Ukrainian forces are "colossal for the current times,"

[familyop: the following is a translation to English courtesy of Welt.]The Russian special ship „ SS-750 “ is designed for underwater actions and has a mini submarine with gripping farms. The Danish Defense Command now confirms that a patrol ship observed the „ SS-750 “ a few days before the Nord Stream explosions.A few days before the Nord Stream explosions in the Baltic Sea, according to the Danish military, a Russian special ship was located near the detonation sites. The Danish Defense Command confirmed the newspaper „information“ that a patrol ship on 22. September 2022 east of the island of...

Ukraine plans to successfully use its new Patriot air defense systems against cruise and ballistic targets. The American surface-to-air missile system has been on combat duty in Ukraine since April 2023. Ukrainian soldiers had mastered the Patriot air defense system as fast as they could. Recently, the Ukrainian Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk conducted an inspection of the Patriot air defense system. “Modern Western equipment has its own peculiarities, but our sky defenders are quickly mastering it and are already ready to eliminate Russian invaders,” said the Lieutenant General. Oleschuk added that Patriot’s work is aimed at shooting...

Peace in Ukraine...could be part of a larger package between China and America...Ms. Yellen “offered détente with China in order to address the world’s problems together,” an Atlantic Council senior fellow, Diane Francis, writes in an essay titled “Ukraine’s Korea Solution.” Ms. Yellen’s speech...“contained an unspoken quid pro quo which is that if China helps terminate Russia’s war against Ukraine, protectionist measures against its economy will be lifted and trade will once more grow.”

Top elements of the Russian political and business segments are afraid for their future after a possible Russian defeat and are therefore seeking contact to Ukraine and other countries, said Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. "They are looking for ways out, of course. And not only with Ukraine. The geography in which they are trying to get personal security guarantees for themselves, for their fortunes, for their families is quite wide," according to Yusov.

Ukraine is ramping up for its highly anticipated spring offensive, powered by a huge arsenal of tanks and other weapons being delivered by Western allies, along with newly organized brigades. “The frontline is priority number one. We are also actively preparing new brigades and units that will show themselves at the front,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address. “Everyone in Ukraine must understand that the main task of the state is the de-occupation of our territories, the return of our lands and our people from Russian captivity.”

By Thomas Kent, for CEPA.It’s one of the curiosities of the information war that for many years the US did not respond in kind to Russian propaganda targeting US citizens. This was largely a red line of America’s own making, reflecting concerns that by directly addressing the Russian people, it would unnecessarily provoke Vladimir Putin. Or that such campaigns just wouldn’t work.Wars change things.In recent months, the State Department has produced a stream of forceful video messages aimed at Russian citizens. Some juxtapose statements by Putin with evidence he is lying. Some end with slogans like “The truth always wins”...

The First Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksandr Pavliuk, announced in a Telegram post that Patriot missile defense systems from the US, the Netherlands, and Germany have arrived in Ukraine. These systems are expected to help protect against Russian cruise missiles and UAV attacks. Pavliuk thanked the partner countries for significantly strengthening Ukraine’s air defense capabilities.Ukraine's Defense Minister expressed his gratitude to the🇺🇸American,🇩🇪German, and🇳🇱Dutch people for the Patriot air defense system. He confirms that they arrived in Ukraine. https://t.co/WBP28Od6hW— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 19, 2023The US first announced the transfer of Patriot systems to Ukraine in December 2022 as...

Igor Girkin, a military blogger and former Russian commander, predicted Ukraine's future offensive, which he thinks might get the Russian President Valdimir Putin and his supporters "out of a state of being on the planet of pink ponies."Girkin's remarks came as part of an interview posted with English subtitles on Saturday by Twitter account user @TheKremlinYap, which posts segments of Russian state TV.

A slight majority of Americans surveyed backed Ukraine's ambition to join NATO, saying they were either strongly supportive (30 percent) or supportive (25 percent). One in 10 were either strongly opposed (5 percent) or opposed (5 percent), with 26 percent indifferent. Seven percent said they didn't know. Respondents also said that the defense of Ukraine is "vital" to American national interests, with 27 percent strongly agreeing and 29 percent agreeing. Twenty-two percent neither agreed nor disagreed, 7 percent disagreed, 5 percent strongly disagreed, and 9 percent said they didn't know.

"...there is a small U.S. military presence at the embassy in conjunction with the Defense Attachés office to help us work on accountability of the material that is going in and out of Ukraine," Kirby said, referencing the weapons and other support the U.S. has been sending to Kyiv. "So they're attached to that embassy and to that the defense attache." Kirby...added that those troops "are not fighting on the battlefield." In addition, Fox News is told that the U.S. forces in Kyiv also provide security services.

According to Monday's assessment from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), members of the Wagner Group have reportedly committed war crimes in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian city, according to videos posted by Russian social media users "purportedly showing the remains of a head belonging to a Ukrainian serviceman on a spike at an unspecified area in Bakhmut." "Social media users recalled similar instances of skulls mounted on spikes in Popasna, Luhansk Oblast, where Wagner troops operated over spring-summer of 2022," the assessment read.

The real video is available on both Instagram and YouTube and shows there was clearly no cocaine on the desk when Zelensky was holding a Zoom call in 2022.

The father of a a Russian girl sent to an orphanage after drawing an antiwar sketch at school has been extradited from Belarus back to Russia...He faces two years in prison...Alexei Moskalyov fled house arrest just before his sentencing hearing last month in the town of Yefremov, south of Moscow. He was detained in Belarus...

Dmitry of WarTranslated today posted a translation from the Pro-Russian Military Blogger known as Murz, an active duty soldier and blogger in the LPR, and a friend of the infamous Igor Girkin (Strelkov), responding to propaganda claims by Anna Dolgaryova. He discusses "Meat Battalions", Russian soldiers sent to die in mass numbers, stating that Russia is now running low on infantry--not just "good" infantry now, but infantry in general. He asks her near the end how she plans to explain away the imminent shifting of the frontline to the East once Ukraine begins its offensive.The true believers in Mother Russia...

Defeating Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine is the "best deterrence" for keeping Chinese President Xi Jinping out of Taiwan, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul, who traveled to Taiwan this weekend, said in an interview that aired Sunday. "I've talked to the prime ministers and the presidents of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and what's happening in Ukraine will determine what happens in Taiwan and the Pacific," the Texas Republican said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I believe the best deterrence to Chairman Xi is a failure for Putin in Ukraine." Weapons for Taiwan are also necessary to...

"The legal process which has now begun in New York won't just end in Donald Trump being convicted and barred from the [2024] election," Bout said..."Most likely he will simply be eliminated there," he continued. "Therefore, I think it's in the best interests of all of humanity and primarily all of the American people to invite Donald Trump here, to Russia, to give him security and protection here so that he leads this uprising against the globalists and, most importantly, does not allow the elimination of the American people."