The NY Times has a piece on the Ukraine military command center and a reporter’s talk with confident Ukraine military commanders who feel that they will be able to hold their postions (especally in Bakhmut) and then, advance when newly trained troops move into the field with better equipment…
Colonel Mezhevikin said that he was confident that Ukrainian forces could keep holding the city and push Russian troops back farther. If the Ukrainians hold their recent gains, the battles of the last month at Bakhmut could prove a turning point in Ukraine’s defense against Russia, not only stalling the latest Russian offensive but also in setting themselves up to deliver a knockout blow, he said….
Finland will be joining NATO….
Sweden still has Turkey holding up it’s entry based on the Kurts issue….
The EU warns China on getting to close to Putin….
Will Russian President Putin visit Turkey, a NATO country, holding up Sweden’s joining the organiztionin April?
Will Russia begin to draft humdreds of thousand’s of more of it’s men?
Will THAT spur another mass exodus of Russian males from the country?
Ukraine President Zelensky keeps visiting the troops in battle zones…..
The Ukraine’s UAV Strike (Drone) companies go operational.…
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Turkey’s Parliament approved Finland’s bid to join NATO, its final hurdle to membership in the military alliance. Here is what we’re covering:
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Finland’s accession to NATO is a diplomatic and strategic setback for Russia
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A Russian father convicted over antiwar comments is held in Belarus, his lawyer confirms.
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The U.S. imposes sanctions on a Slovakian accused of trying to broker a Russia-North Korea arms deal.
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Russia detains a Wall Street Journal reporter, accusing him of espionage.
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Bankers are convicted of allowing a Putin ally to deposit millions in Swiss accounts.
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China’s stance on Russia and Ukraine will define ties with the E.U., the bloc’s top official says…More.
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In Ukraine, “military activity is increasing” in the region where the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is located, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said. The fighting is fueling fears of a possible nuclear accident at the plant, the largest in Europe.
image….The military operations of a major Ukrainian battle group defending the city of Bakhmut from an unnamed location in eastern Ukraine.Credit…Carlotta Gall/The New York Times
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
- President Biden was briefed Thursday morning about Gershkovich’s detention and the State Department has been in touch with the Wall Street Journal and the journalist’s family, White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “The targeting of American citizens by the Russian government is absolutely completely unacceptable,” Kirby said.
- Kirby urged U.S. citizens to heed previous warnings and avoid travel to Russia. Any Americans there should leave immediately out of concern for their safety, he added. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that Washington condemned the “Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish journalists and civil society voices.”
- Russian security agents detained Gershkovich in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the central Ural Mountains, the FSB said. Without citing any evidence, the agency accused him of “acting on instructions from United States” and “collecting information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.” The Wall Street Journal said it was “deeply concerned” for Gershkovich’s safety.
- There has been a “significant increase in the number of troops” in Zaporizhzhia and “open talk about offensives and counteroffensives” involving Ukrainian and Russian forces, IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said during a visit Wednesday to the nuclear plant. “Every measure and precaution should be taken so that the plant is not attacked and can be protected,” Grossi said. He added that efforts are underway to get Kyiv and Moscow to agree to principles such as not attacking the plant or using it as a base to launch attacks.
- The situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant will “only become less dangerous” once the facility is returned to Ukraine, Ivan Samoyduk, the deputy mayor of Enerhodar, the city where the nuclear facility is located, told The Washington Post. “Even if a [protection] zone is established, Russia will ignore it,” he said.
- Turkey’s parliament is expected to ratify Finland’s NATO bid on Thursday, paving the way for the Nordic country to join the alliance — but without its ally and fellow membership hopeful Sweden. Thursday’s vote is the last remaining hurdle in Finland’s quest to join the military organization.
- Britain’s Defense Ministry said reports that Russia intends to recruit an additional 400,000 troops for its war in Ukraine could mean more mandatory mobilization. While Russian authorities have presented this effort “as a drive for volunteer, professional personnel, rather than a new, mandatory mobilisation,” in practice, this distinction could become “blurred,” the ministry said, with regional authorities meeting “their allocated recruitment targets by coercing men to join up.”
- Zelensky said that if Russian forces capture the eastern city of Bakhmut, Vladimir Putin will sell the victory “to the West, to his society, to China, to Iran.”A defeat there would also greatly add to pressure on Ukraine to compromise with Russia, he told the AP. Ukraine’s armed forces said that Russia is partially succeeding but that Ukrainian troops continue to hold on.
- The fierce battle for Bakhmut has caused extensive damage to the Ukrainian army and to the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary outfit’s head, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, said in an audio message posted to social media this week. He said Wagner would keep fighting for the city, which has assumed a symbolic significance for both sides, analysts say.
- Putin could visit Turkey in April to inaugurate a nuclear power plant built by Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, according to Reuters. Ankara does not recognize the International Criminal Court, which issued a warrant this month for the Russian leader over war crimes in Ukraine….