Gas switch turned off for Poland and Bulgaria ….
Tough way to lock yourself out of a Europen market?
Slower advances for Russian troops in the East of the Ukraine….
Ukraine forces strike at targets inside Russia...
US and European Diplomats heading back to work in Kyiv…..
Sen. Rand Paul gets into it with the American Sec of State….
Despite heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Biden announced Wednesday that Russia had freed former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed from detention. Moscow said it had arranged a prisoner swap to secure the return of pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been jailed in the United States on drug charges. Biden did not reference a prisoner swap but said in a statement: “The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, called the explosions that were reported overnight in three regions of Russia “karma” — without claiming responsibility — and suggested they may even have been a “divine intervention.” Russian media, citing local officials, said explosions were reported in the Belgorod, Voronezh and Kursk regions, although the claims could not be independently verified. The governor of Belgorod said authorities extinguished a fire at an ammunition depot — among the latest in a string of mysterious fires at sensitive facilities — after explosions were heard in the city.
Here’s what else to know