Russia claoms to have full control over the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka after a Ukraine withdrawal….
Ukraine claims to have stopped a another Russian advance at Zaporizhzhia …
China wants the Ukraine and the World to know that it’s NOT sending Russia weapons to be used against them…
The Kremlin is selling the almost two-year conflict as a battle for Russia’s survival domestically as causualities arrive back home….
Russia is also running propaganda efforts against Ukraine President Zelensky
Waiting no more…Denmark will send its force’s ammo to the Ukraine , which is running short….
Vice President Harris repeats her bosses pledge to stand with Ukraine…..
House Republicans echoing ex-President Donald Trump do NOT….’
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
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Russian troops have reportedly established full control over the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka and have advanced 8.6 km (5.3 miles) in that part of the frontline, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing the defence ministry. Russia claimed the capture Avdiivka after Ukrainewithdrew, but Moscow said that some Ukrainian troops were still holed up in a vast Soviet-era coke plant. The fall of Avdiivka is Russia’s biggest gain since capturing the city of Bakhmut in May 2023.
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Ukraine’s army on Sunday accused Russian forces of shooting two prisoners of war (PoW) and posted a grainy video shot from the air that they said showed the incident. AFP could not verify the authenticity of the video or the location and Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the news agency’s report.
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More than 400 people were detained in Russia by Saturday night while paying tribute to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, according to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests and provides legal aid. Hundreds of people in dozens of Russian cities streamed to ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repressions with flowers and candles on Friday and Saturday to pay a tribute to the politician.
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Ukrainian forces repelled a Russian offensive on the southern front after the withdrawal of Kyiv’s troops from the devastated eastern town of Avdiivka, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday. “Defence forces in the Zaporizhzhia sector defeated yesterday’s Russian offensive,” Ukrainian military said on Telegram, adding that 18 armoured vehicles including three tanks were destroyed and that the Russians “retreated to their previous positions”. So far there has been no comment from the Russian side.
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“Please, do not ask Ukraine when the war will end. Ask yourself – why is Putin still able to continue it,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said as he addressed delegates at the 60th Munich Security Conference on Saturday. In a lengthy thread posted on his X account today, Zelenskiy shared a video of the speech and also wrote: “We can get our land back. And Putin can lose.”
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China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has told his Ukrainian counterpart that Beijing does not sell lethal weapons to Russia for its war against Ukraine, a statement said on Sunday. China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict but has been criticised for refusing to condemn Moscow for its offensive.
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Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Saturday he had discussed the prospects for peace in Kyiv’s war against Russia with his Chinese counterpart. Kuleba said he had discussed Ukraine’s plans to hold a global peace summit, which Switzerland has agreed to help stage. The two men, he said, “agreed on the need to maintain Ukraine-China contacts at all levels and continue our dialogue”.
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The UK’s shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy has said he would support further sanctions against Russia and added he would “plug the gaps” of existing measures. In seperate comments made at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, Lammy said: “Russia will continue to be a threat for Europe for months, years, perhaps a generation more.”
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Events on the battlefield in Ukraine are a matter of “life and death” for Russia that could determine its fate, president Vladimir Putin said in remarks aired on Sunday. The Kremlin has repeatedly framed the almost two-year conflict as a battle for Russia’s survival in a bid to rally patriotic sentiment among its population.
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More than 100 Kremlin documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post, show that Russia ran a disinformation campaign to undermine the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The US publication said Kremlin instructions had “resulted in thousands of social media posts and hundreds of fabricated articles” that “tried to exploit what were then rumoured tensions” between Zelenskiy and his top army commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
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German politician Ricarda Lang pushed back at the idea of a deal with Russia, in response to US Republican senator JD Vance’s comments, that included his belief that Putin is not “an existential threat to Europe”, on a panel at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday. Lang said: “Putin has shown over and over again – and he just showed this with the murder of Navalny on Friday – that he has no interest in peace at the moment.”
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Poland’s Radek Sikorski stressed Poland’s support for Ukraine at the third day of the Munich Security Conference, but acknowledged that Warsaw and Kyiv have two problems linked to grain and trucking. Responding to Sikorski on stage, Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said: “We have to solve it. There are legitimate messages on both sides. I think that the major contribution in resolving these issues has been done by Ukraine, because we secured the Black Sea.”
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Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Sunday there should be a thorough investigation into the death of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny before making any accusations. Speaking at a press conference after attending an African Union summit in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Lula said refraining from taking a stance on the death at this moment was a matter of “common sense”.
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Denmark has decided to donate all the artillery rounds from its stockpiles to Ukraine, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Frederiksen did not specify how many artillery shells Denmark has in its stockpiles.
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The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said “the most important security commitment for Ukraine is membership” of the EU, in comments made at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday.
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalny, published a picture of the couple on her Instagram account on Sunday in what is her first social media post since her husband died. The caption read simply: “I love you.”
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Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas on Sunday dismissed a warrant issued by Russia for her arrest, saying it was just an attempt to intimidate her amid speculation she could get a top EU post. “It’s Russia’s playbook. It’s nothing surprising and we are not afraid,” she told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. When asked by Reuters whether she was interested in any future European role she said: “We are not there yet.”
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The wife of jailed British-Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza has said she fears for her husband’s life after the death of Alexei Navalny. Evgenia Kara-Murza, has called on the international community to take further action to free political prisoners in Russia who she says are the only alternative to Putin’s regime…..