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BBC News China has distanced itself from the remarks of one of its envoys who questioned the sovereignty of Ukraine and other former Soviet countries. Paris ambassador Lu Shaye's comments last week caused widespread outrage, leading on calls to Beijing to clarify. On Monday, China's foreign ministry said it respected the independence of all post-Soviet republics.

A social-media account overseen by a former U.S. Navy noncommissioned officer—a prominent online voice supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine—played a key role in the spread of intelligence documents allegedly leaked by Airman First Class Jack Teixeira. A purported Russian blogger known as Donbass Devushka, which translates as Donbas Girl, reposted the files from obscure online chat rooms. The blog is the face of a network of pro-Kremlin social-media, podcasting, merchandise and fundraising accounts. But the person who hosted podcasts as Donbass Devushka and oversees these accounts is a Washington-state-based former U.S. enlisted aviation electronics technician whose real name is Sarah...

"...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.

Russia has suffered around 200,000 casualties since its invasion of Ukraine The Ministry of Defence claims a 'minority' are due to non-combat causes A high number of deaths are linked to Russian soldier's alcohol consumption The UK Ministry of Defence said an 'extremely high' number of Russian troop deaths as a part of the Ukraine war are linked to alcohol abuse. Russian military forces are injuring themselves as a result of poor handling of weapons and heavy drinking, according to the ministry's morning intelligence update. Although Russia has suffered around 200,000 casualties since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of...

Pro-Kremlin groups have been caught red-handed staging a video of Ukrainian soldiers allegedly harassing a woman and her baby.In the clip, filmed on the woman’s dash cam, a vehicle with a Ukrainian flag pulls over and two men in camouflage jump out.They start insulting the Russian-speaking woman calling her "scumbag" and "swine" as the woman begs the officers not to talk to her like that."Give me your papers, you bastard," yells one of the men in the video. "First of all, use the official language [Ukrainian] when speaking to me, you pig. Don’t use the pigs' language [Russian] with me,"...

Oversight mechanisms for American aid to Ukraine are effectively preventing fraud and diversion, according to Congressional testimony from those involved. Nicole Angarella, the acting deputy inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said there is no evidence that direct assistance to embattled Kyiv has been fraudulently or otherwise diverted from its intended purposes. “I want to be clear that providing timely, impactful, and independent oversight of USAID’s Ukraine response is my office’s top priority,” Angarella said. “From our substantiated work that we’ve done thus far, we have not identified any instances of fraud or misuse with respect...

The incident – which was broadcast by Russian state television – happened as Putin was filmed chatting with purported residents outside what appeared to be a freshly-built apartment complex in the besieged Ukrainian city. "It’s all lies, it’s all just for show!" a woman’s voice could be heard yelling in the background, according to the BBC. The person who yelled could not be seen in the footage. Right after the outburst, men standing beside Putin could be seen looking around.

Kyiv says Kalibr missiles being transported on a train in Dzhankoi were destroyed as Russia's region chief blames drone attackA Ukrainian drone strike destroyed a shipment of cruise missiles intended for use by Russia's Black Sea fleet. Ukraine's defence ministry said on Monday that an explosion in Dzhankoi in the north of the Crimean peninsula destroyed a number of Kalibr missiles, which are designed to be launched from ships. "An explosion in Dzhankoi city in the north of temporarily occupied Crimea destroyed Russian Kalibr-KN cruise missiles as they were being transported by rail," the ministry's main intelligence directorate said in...

Love him or hate him, Tucker Carlson has become the most important political analyst of our era. The release to him of suppressed J6 Capitol footage that contradicted the Democrat/media narrative dominated political news until Carlson's questionnaire on Ukraine policy to the potential GOP presidential field knocked it out of the headlines. Not since Woodward and Bernstein dominated the news with Watergate has a media source produced results that focused the national spotlight so completely as Mr. Tucker Carlson. Unsurprisingly, many are the progressives who want to see him knocked off the air. Last night, he began his top-rated hour-long...

Russia could supply fighter jets to Iran, significantly improving the Iranian air force and its aging stable of aircraft. The reports that Moscow could be considering this unprecedented move came last week as Iran tensions with the US, Israel and the region are peaking. In addition it came a year after Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia has received drones from Iran - might Russia be paying Iran “in kind” for the drones, by sending some old fighter jets? US warnings came true US warnings about Russia’s moves and Iran-Russia ties in the past have been borne out. Thus, reports that Moscow...

A top aide to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said that he is “well on his way to recovery” as he remains hospitalized to receive treatment for clinical depression and will return to work in the Senate “soon.” Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s chief of staff, tweeted three pictures of the freshman senator during a meeting on Monday with him at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where they discussed a number of items Fetterman is expected to work on in the coming months. “Productive morning with Senator Fetterman at Walter Reed discussing the rail safety legislation, Farm Bill and other Senate business,”...

Russian tax revenue from crude oil and petroleum products plummeted by 48% in February from a year earlier due to the much lower price of Russia’s flagship crude grade after the EU banned imports of Russian oil, according to Bloomberg estimates based on official Russian data. Total tax revenues from oil and natural gas dipped by 46% year over year to $6.9 billion (521 billion Russian rubles) in February, per data from the Russian Finance Ministry published on Friday. Russia’s revenues from crude oil and oil products alone crumbled by 48% annually to $4.8 billion (361 billion rubles), according to...

This morning explosions have occurred near the Machulishchy air base in Belarus. As a result, Russia’s A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft might have been hit.

Michael Weiss and Holger Roonemaa Mon, February 20, 2023 at 5:00 PM CST A leaked internal strategy document from Vladimir Putin’s executive office and obtained by Yahoo News lays out a detailed plan on how Russia plans to take full control over neighboring Belarus in the next decade under the pretext of a merger between the two countries. The document outlines in granular detail a creeping annexation by political, economic and military means of an independent but illiberal European nation by Russia, which is an active state of war in its bid to conquer Ukraine through overwhelming force. “Russia’s goals...

An elite Russian naval infantry unit made up of mostly mobilized troops has lost nearly all its troops in fighting near the eastern Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, Russian media reported Monday, citing one of the survivors. The 5,000-strong 155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade has been “nearly destroyed” after up to 300 marines per day were killed in Russia's assault on the coal-mining town, according to comments by the Ukrainian defense forces to Politico on Sunday. A surviving marine who spoke with the 7x7 regional news site said the losses were so severe that only eight men remained in one landing...

Russia’s widely-anticipated winter offensive has begun. Aiming to extend its control over eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, Russian troops are attacking north and south of Donetsk city. In the northern sector, around the city of Bakhmut, the Russians slowly are advancing—albeit at staggering cost. In the south, around Vuhledar, the Russians’ losses are just as steep—but they’ve made no clear gains that could justify the casualties. Vuhledar is turning into a meatgrinder for the Russian army, with enormous implications for the wider offensive. The latest Russian attack on Vuhledar—a town with a pre-war population of just 14,000 that lies a mile...

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, of building "camps" for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Morawiecki posted on Facebook, "On the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, let us remember that to the east Putin is building new camps." Morawiecki, who has advocated for Ukraine since the start of the invasion, did not elaborate on his claim any further. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made similar past accusations against Russia. In October, Zelensky described Olenivka as a “concentration camp” where Ukrainians prisoners are kept.

".....“The last 10 years I do a lot of things to protect the human rights and other people. But in this moment, I understood that my mission to help other people created a very high risk to my family,” Osechkin told CNN from France, where he’s lived since 2015 after he fled Russia and claimed asylum. He now has full-time police protection. He’s become the champion of a growing number of high-level Russian officials defecting to the West, emboldened and disgruntled by the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. He says ex-generals and intelligence agents are among their number...."

Russia is using prisoners and freshly mobilized troops to absorb heavy Ukrainian fire along the war's front lines in order to clear the way for its better trained forces to take ground, a US official said, calling the move a classic Russian tactic. Prisoners recruited by the Wagner Group — a notorious paramilitary organization with close ties to the Kremlin — and others have recently been deployed to the forefront of fighting around eastern Ukraine's war-torn city of Bakhmut, which has become the epicenter of hostilities between Moscow and Kyiv. These recruits have been forced to "take the brunt" of...

Governor of Luhansk region said Ukrainian forces attacked a hotel in Kadiivka Serhiy Gaidai said survivors face inadequate medical services to treat them Ukrainian officials also claim up to 200 Russian troops were killed in Melitopol But President Zelensky said situation 'remains very difficult' in frontline cities Serhiy Gaidai (pictured), the governor of the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, told Ukrainian television that Ukrainian forces have attacked a hotel where members of Russia's brutal private Wagner military group were based Ukrainian forces have attacked a hotel where members of Russia's brutal private Wagner military group were based, killing many, a local leader...