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Russian forces have withdrawn from key eastern towns, as a rapid Ukrainian counter-attack makes further gains. Ukrainian officials said troops entered Kupiansk, a vital eastern supply hub for Russian forces, on Saturday. Russia's defence ministry then said its troops have retreated from nearby Izyum to allow them "to regroup". The ministry also confirmed the withdrawal of troops from a third key town, Balaklyia, in order to "bolster efforts" on the Donetsk front. The Ukrainian advances - if held - would be the most significant since Russia withdrew from areas around Kyiv in April. Izyum was a major military hub for...

Big banks in Europe are preparing for an energy crisis as Russia tightens the gas taps, per Reuters. JPMorgan may use diesel generators, while Deutsche Bank turned off fountains and hot water. The insurer Zurich said it could close its gym and some office floors if the situation worsens. Major banks across Europe are implementing measures in the workplace to cut down on energy consumption as Russia tightens its gas supply to the continent. The Kremlin shut off its natural-gas flow to Europe via the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline last week and said it wouldn't reopen it until the...

Warthog Defense members are sharing stories, insider tips, news from the front lines, and unique slices of military life including the tough stuff of war.

A must-watch lecture! Energy Markets and war briefing: With Dr. Dan Fine, T. Greg Merrion and John Byrom with special emphasis on the Resource war between Russia, Ukraine, and Europe.

Total collapse of US/EU/NATO policy both military and economic, damage to European society may be irreparable

The war currently underway in Ukraine, which pits Ukraine as a proxy for the collective West against Russia, is primarily an ideological or religious one, with Russia representing what is left of Christian Europe, and “the West” representing a totalitarian ideology that abhors religion in general and Christianity in particular. This statement may sound strange, given the fact that some Westerners – though fewer every day – still see “the West,” (basically Europe and North America) as Christian, and Russia as Communist, or crypto-Communist.

Disclaimer: The Kyiv Independent is publishing this investigation to shed light on the alleged abuse of power in the leadership of one wing of the International Legion – a legion created for foreign fighters dedicated to defending Ukraine. The members of the Legion’s unit say that they reported their commanders’ misconduct to Ukrainian law enforcement, the parliament, and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Office, but saw no proper reaction and thus turned to journalists as a last resort. Soldiers who pointed at the problems within this unit of the Legion claim they received threats for speaking up. For their safety, we do...

Yesterday, Allahpundit wrote about the Russian effort to feed more troops into the stalled war on Ukraine. Russia’s inability to advance creates a possible opening for a Ukrainian counterattack. And we’ve seen some signs that Ukraine has been taking the initiative with attacks on supply lines and ammunition depots in Crimea and elsewhere. Just today there is another story that Ukraine struck a Russian base and killed 200 paratroopers:“The Armed Forces of Ukraine struck enemy fortifications in occupied Kadiivka, killing about 200 Russian paratroopers,” he wrote on Twitter.Haidai noted that the occupiers had been based in a hotel in Kadiivka...

Mercouris explains the reason for the slow and deliberae pace of the Russian rescue operationAside from everything else, this conflict is going to kill the basic business model for the US MIC. Nobody is going to want to buy US weapons after this.

Ankara supports Ukraine's territorial integrity and rejects the illegal annexation of Crimea, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. "The return of Crimea to Ukraine, of which it is an inseparable part, is essentially a requirement of international law," Erdogan said in a video message to the Second Crimea Platform Summit. The Crimea Platform is an international coordination mechanism of Ukraine to draw more global attention to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Erdogan said Ankara will continue to support the Crimean Platform that was established to resolve the Crimean issue through peaceful means. "Türkiye does not recognize...

Doubts about continuing to pump weapons and other aid into Ukraine are especially prevalent among independents, at 37%, while 18% of Americans oppose the shipments altogether.The survey suggests waning support for US involvement as the conflict drags on, contributing to surging inflation on the home front. In fact, 40% of Americans now agree with the statement that “the problems of Ukraine are none of our business, and we should not interfere.” That compares with 31% when the same question was asked in April.Moreover, 59% of survey respondents, including 69% of Republicans, agree with the statement that “given the current economic...

Russia is preparing to hold "sham" referendums in occupied Ukrainian territories within a matter of days or weeks, the US warned on Wednesday. Moscow has instructed officials to begin preparations in areas that have fallen under its control during its war on Ukraine, including Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhia, parts of Donetsk and Luhansk, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. The first referenda could be announced as soon as this week's end, he added, noting the US and international community will not view any such elections as legitimate. "We expect Russia to try to manipulate the results of these referenda...

Six months after President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the war has upended basic assumptions about Russia’s military and economy. ... Ukraine is half a year into the war and what it will mean as it marks continued independence is as uncertain as the outcome of the conflict. What is clear is that rather than reasserting Moscow as a global military power as Putin had hoped, his decision to invade Ukraine has triggered a deep rethinking of Russia’s conventional capabilities. It also prompted further expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with hitherto neutral Finland and Sweden deciding to join...

Ankara supports Ukraine's territorial integrity and rejects the illegal annexation of Crimea, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. "The return of Crimea to Ukraine, of which it is an inseparable part, is essentially a requirement of international law," Erdogan said in a video message to the Second Crimea Platform Summit. The Crimea Platform is an international coordination mechanism of Ukraine to draw more global attention to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Erdogan said Ankara will continue to support the Crimean Platform that was established to resolve the Crimean issue through peaceful means. "Türkiye does not recognize...

Russia’s counterintelligence agency on Monday claimed that the car bomb that killed the daughter of Vladimir Putin’s ally Alexander Dugin was planted by a female Ukrainian spy who then fled to Estonia. Officials with FSB have identified Darya Dugina’s alleged assassin as 43-year-old Natalia Vovk, who they said was acting as part of a criminal plot “orchestrated and perpetrated by Ukrainian special services,” according to Russian state news agency TASS. FSB published a video compilation allegedly that opens with Vovk entering Russia in her grey Mini Cooper, which sports plates issued by the Kremlin-backed separatist Donetsk People’s Republic. A second...

The car bomb attack on 'Putin's Rasputin' - who Vladimir deemed 'uncontrollable' - has 'all the hallmarks of a Russian GRU execution' because the military spy group 'often include a target's family', an expert has claimed. Yuri Felshtinsky, author of Blowing up Ukraine: The Return of Russian Terror and the Threat of World War III, has claimed the attack on Putin loyalist Alexander Dugin's daughter would have been authorised by the Kremlin. He claimed that Dugin, 60, had a reputation for being 'unruly' and that the Kremlin is 'using Dugin in its own global propaganda war' counting on the fact...

"As a result of urgent detective measures, the federal security service has solved the murder of Russian journalist Darya Dugina, born in 1992," Tass reported quoting an FSB statement.The assassin, Natalia Vovk was identified as a citizen of Ukraine, who was born in 1979, the report further added. On July 23, 2022, Vovk and her daughter Sofya Shaban, who was born in 2010, arrived in Russia, the agency reported.The FSB claimed in its report that Vovk and Shaban went to the literary and musical festival Tradition on the day of the murder. Darya was there at the event as an...

British soldiers have been urged to prepare their relatives for possible deployment to "war with Russia". The corresponding warning was published in the official magazine of the British Army Soldier. Warrant Officer of the British Army Paul Carney on the pages of the magazine gave some advice to military personnel regarding the possible involvement of the armed forces of the United Kingdom in the conflict with Russia. According to him, the British military needs to warn their relatives in advance about this, also find the telephone numbers of social security departments and discuss their will with the priests. "I want...

The Army’s top “other ranks” soldier says troops must be ready to fight Russia – and should alert loved ones to a potential conflict. The time had come to prepare “families and loved ones” for the possibility of being sent to the East. WO1 Carney – the Army’s highest ranked Warrant Officer – wrote in Soldier magazine: “I want us all to check we are physically fit for operations. And it is also important we prepare loved ones and families, who often have the hardest role in our absence. “My ask is that you have discussions about a potential deployment...

An ailing Vladimir Putin is flailing over his war strategy, torn between using nuclear weapons and accepting defeat and handing back Ukrainian regions invaded by his forces, a Telegram channel claims. Amid fresh concerns over his health, his security officials have bluntly told the warmonger president that he has run out of 'good' options. This comes as the death toll in the Russian armed forces plus separatist fighters and pro-Putin private armies has reached almost 65,000, said General SVR Telegram channel, an opposition source offering 'insider' information which the Kremlin is 'seeking to shut down'. There is 'despondency' among Putin’s...