There IS a quiet push to get Ukraine to bend to making a ‘deal’ with Russia for a settlement of the conflict….
THAT would have Zelensky having to accept the gains Russia has made….
THAT is NOT want Zelensky has been selling domestically….
The Russians have been pounding Kharkiv ….
And the Russians are still trying to make gains around the Bakhmut area…
Members of the American Congress have grown concerned that Russian efforts to work the American Government thru quiet manipulation IS working….
In Congress and with ex-President Donald Trump….
NATO is BIGGER and STRONGER….
Worried that its American partnership could be dropped with a past American President who said out loud that he’s actually on Russian President Putin’s side in regard to the Ukraine …..
NATO….Closer to the situation that America ….Has indicated that they ARE in it for the long haul…
But?
The Ukraine WANTS NATO membership …
Probably to have the organization join its fight against Russia, something NATO and American is NOT in a hurry to do ….
This, and the Trump question, is spoiling the hurrah over NATO’s 75th Aniversey….
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An overnight Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv killed six people and wounded at least 10 others, national emergency services and the city’s mayor said on Saturday. Igor Terekhov also said in Telegram post that the attack had targeted Shevchenkivskyi, a northern area of the city, Agence France-Presse reports. Terekhov said Iranian-made drones had carried out the attack, hitting at least nine high-rise buildings, three dormitories and a petrol station.
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Oleg Synegubov, the region’s governor, said earlier that two men were killed in Shevchenkivskyi. Police confirmed the deaths and said a further eight people were hospitalised “with blast injuries and shrapnel wounds”. Police added that there were no casualties in a separate attack on Mala Danylivka, a village on Kharkiv’s north-west outskirts.
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A new Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killed one civilian and injured several more, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Saturday. “There is information about one death as a result of a strike on a residential area of the city. There are also injuries,” Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging app. Regional officials reported that a Russian strike earlier on on Kharkiv killed six civilians and injured 10.
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A kamikaze drone hit a military facility belonging to the defence ministry of pro-Russian separatist authorities in Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria region, its security ministry said on Friday. A message posted by the ministry said the target was six km (four miles) from the border with Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion for over two years, with the nearest front lines around 200 km (125 miles) to Moldova’s east, Reuters reported. “The target was a radar station, which suffered minor damage, but there were no casualties. An investigative team is working on the spot. A criminal case has been opened,” the ministry said. It did not name a culprit.
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Russia on Saturday condemned as a provocation a drone attack on a military facility of pro-Russian separatists in Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria region and called for an investigation. A kamikaze drone hit a facility belonging to the separatist authority’s defence ministry six km (four miles) from the border with Ukraine, the region’s security ministry said on Friday.
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Ukrainian forces are still in control of the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine despite attempts by Russian troops to break through their defences, commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said. Russia’s RIA news agency on Friday cited an official as saying Russian forces had entered the suburbs of the town, which Moscow sees as an important staging point for Kyiv’s troops. Ukrainian military said the report was untrue, Reuters reported. “Chasiv Yar remains under our control, and all enemy attempts to break through to the settlement have failed,” Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday.
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On the ground in Ukraine, Russian forces were advancing, and pushing back against them was “difficult”, said Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s armed forces. Syrskyi said the situation in the Bakhmut area in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region was particularly challenging, Reuters reported. He said Russian forces are carrying out offensive operations day and night, using assault groups with the support of armoured vehicles, as well as assaults on foot.
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Tajikistan’s foreign ministry on Saturday rejected a claim by a top Russian security official that Ukraine’s embassy in the Tajik capital was recruiting mercenaries to fight against Russia. “We note that this assertion by the Russian official has no basis to it,” Russian news agencies quoted Tajik foreign ministry spokesperson Shokhin Samadi as saying.
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Russia fired five missiles on Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Friday, killing at least four people, injuring 20 and damaging residential buildings and industrial facilities, the regional governor said. Two journalists covering the aftermath of the strikes were among those wounded in the city, near the war’s frontline. Ivan Fedorov, the governor, said: “First there were two missile strikes, and then, about 40 minutes later, there were other strikes at the same place – just as rescuers, police started working.” Reuters TV footage showed reporters rushing to help colleagues lying injured on the ground before emergency crews arrived.
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A Ukrainian drone attack targeting the Morozovsk airbase in Russia killed or injured 20 members of airfield personnel and destroyed six Russian warplanes, as well as badly damaging eight others, according to officials in Kyiv on Friday. Russian defence officials, however, claimed they intercepted more than 40 Ukrainian drones and only a power substation was damaged in the barrage. Neither side’s claims could be independently verified. Morozovsk airbase is used by Russian tactical bombers that launch guided bombs at the Ukrainian military and frontline towns and cities, according to a Kyiv source.
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Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Vodyane in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Friday. The ministry’s statement – the latest of several claimed advances by Russian forces since they took nearby Avdiivka in February – could not be independently verified. Earlier on Friday, Russia’s state-run RIA news agency cited an official as saying Russian troops had entered the suburbs of Chasiv Yar, farther north near Bakhmut. The Ukrainian military denied Russian advances in the town.
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Russian investigators claim to have found pro-Ukraine data on the phone of one of the Moscow terror attack suspects, despite evidence that an Islamic State offshoot was responsible. The data showed that on the war’s second anniversary in February he had trawled for photographs of the Crocus City Hall and sent it to others, Russia’s investigative committee alleged, also saying it found photos of men in camouflage holding the Ukrainian flag. Human rights experts have warned that any statements from the suspects should be met with scepticism as the men appeared to have been tortured.
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Pro-Russian separatists in Moldova claimed an explosive drone hit a military base, without causing injuries or major damage, three weeks after an allegedly similar incident. The strike was in Rybnitsa district, 6km (3.7 miles) from the Ukraine border, the region’s ministry for state security said on Friday. “The target was a radar station that suffered minor damage. A group of investigators is on-site,” it added, without directly blaming Ukraine…