French President Macron get’s media coverage saying Europe needs to be less dependant on the US….
(Re: Trump and Republicans)
Drone wars…
Ukraine missile deliveries...
US Aid money and ‘stuff’ coming…..
Belarus leader…’Peace talks’ Between Ukraine and Russia now?
Russia high level military corruption problem’s grow….
Ukraine is working on drafting more men….
Russia is NOT happy with talks of losing its frozen assets in the West….
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French president Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a “credible” defence strategy less dependent on the US. He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay. In his almost two-hour long speech, Macron warned that “our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die”.
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Macron also said in his speech that the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”. “We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the US.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he met the UK finance minister Jeremy Hunt in Kyiv and called for sanctions against Russia to be tightened to stop Moscow bypassing them. Zelenskiy said in a statement on the Telegram app that he was grateful to the UK for this week announcing a new £500m ($625m) uplift in a defence support package for Ukraine.
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France is calling for further sanctions against Russia, targeted against officials and organisations involved in attempts to disrupt elections and the democratic process in EU member states, according to a paper seen by the Guardian. The sanctions would also target those involved in fuelling armed conflict and instability beyond Europe. While naming no countries, the sanctions are likely to be targeted at the Kremlin-controlled Wagner mercenary group.
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A Ukrainian attack drone left two dead in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and two more were killed by Ukrainian artillery fire in the southern Kherson region, officials said. “A man and a woman were killed as a result of a strike on a civilian car. Their four young children were orphaned,” the Russian-installed head of Zaporizhzhia, Evgeny Balitsky, wrote on social media. The Russian head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said separately that two people were killed by Ukrainian fire in the village of Dnipryany.
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Joe Biden signed into law a bill that rushes $95bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion.
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The Kremlin said on Thursday that deliveries of US long-range army tactical missile systems (Atacms) to Ukraine would not change the outcome of the war but would create more problems for Ukraine itself. The US in recent weeks secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine, which has so far used them twice, a US official said on Wednesday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “This will not fundamentally change the outcome of the special military operation. We will achieve our goal. But this will cause more problems for Ukraine itself.”
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Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that the risk of military incidents along his country’s border with Ukraine was quite high, reported Reuters citing Russia’s state-run RIA news agency. Lukashenko was quoted as saying that Belarus had nonetheless moved several combat-ready battalions from Vitebsk region, situated on its border with Russia, to the western limits of the country.
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In another report by Reuters, citing the Russian state-run Tass news agency, Lukashenko was cited as saying conditions were ripe to start Russia-Ukraine peace talks. Lukashenko said preliminary texts discussed between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkey in the early weeks of the war could serve as a starting point for negotiations.
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Poland could help return Ukrainians of military age back to Ukraine, the defence minister said, as Kyiv ramps up efforts to replenish its depleted and exhausted military. “We have suggested for a long time that we can help the Ukrainian side ensure that people subject to compulsive military service go to Ukraine,” Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told Polsat television.
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A Russian attack on Nato would end in defeat for Moscow, but Nato must increase its defences, Poland’s foreign minister Radek Sikorski told parliament on Thursday. Sikorski was describing the new direction of the government of prime minister Donald Tusk, explaining to a world audience and those at home how the new priorities have changed. He said Poland wants to return to the group of countries which sets the agenda of the EU.
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Late on Wednesday, Ukraine said it would stop issuing new passports abroad to some military-aged men, according to legislation published on the government website. It has also suspended consular services for men aged 18 to 60 living abroad, sparking fury among expatriates in Poland and elsewhere.
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A third man has been detained in a bribery case involving a Russian deputy defence minister, Moscow’s court service said on Thursday. It said businessman Alexander Fomin is suspected of paying bribes to deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov, who was detained on Wednesday, as well as Ivanov’s associate, Sergei Borodin.
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The Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday it was expelling two diplomats from Latvia in retaliation, after the Baltic state in March ordered a Russian embassy official to leave. Earlier on Thursday, the state news agency Tass reported that Russia had summoned the Latvian charge d’affaires.
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Russia is considering downgrading the level of its diplomatic relations with the US if western governments go ahead with proposals to confiscate its frozen assets, state news agency RIA quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday. Ryabkov said Moscow would retaliate economically and politically if the assets were seized.
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Ukraine said on Thursday it had sentenced a husband and wife to 15 years in prison for providing information to Russia that allowed its forces to launch a rocket strike at a hospital. The husband and wife – sentenced on treason charges – were accused of providing information on Ukrainian army positions, including “places of inpatient treatment for wounded Ukrainian soldiers,” the SBU said in a statement. “It was at their direction that the occupiers shelled a local hospital,” in the southern city of Kherson, it said.
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The SBU said on Thursday it had detained a former serviceman accused of helping Russian forces “coordinate” attacks on the north-eastern Kharkiv region. It said the suspect, who faces up to eight years in prison, had tried to flee to Russian-held territory. “He was encouraged to take these steps by his parents, who live in occupied territory,” a statement read.
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Ukrainian forces also said they had repelled a Russian sabotage group in the north-eastern Sumy region. The Russian forces were pushed back with artillery and mortar fire, it added.
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A Russian missile damaged critical infrastructure and injured six people in Ukraine’s central Cherkasy region on Thursday, the regional governor said. The attack hit civilian and railway infrastructure in the city of Smila, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Illya Yevlash said in a television broadcast.
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Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the US was trying to create divisions between Russia and China. Zakharova was speaking at a briefing with reporters as US secretary of state Antony Blinken began a visit to China.
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Zakharova also said on Thursday that any talks on ending the conflict in Ukraine were pointless without Russian participation, referring to a conference that Switzerland plans to host in June. Zakharova told reporters that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s peace formula – which calls for a full withdrawal of Russian forces from all the territory they have captured – does not bring peace closer but prolongs the conflict.
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Next year, Sweden will contribute a reduced battalion to Nato forces in Latvia to help support the Baltic state following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said the Scandinavian country’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson. The Swedish troop contribution is the first to be announced since the country joined Nato in March.
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A Russian historical reenactment fan has been jailed for spying on the Polish military for Moscow. The man, whose identity was not released, was detained a few weeks into the war and sentenced to two and a half years in prison last week, prosecutors in Gdansk in northern Poland said.
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Russia has vetoed a UN security council resolution calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, describing it as “a dirty spectacle”. Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, dismissed the resolution as “absolutely absurd and politicised,” and said it didn’t go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space. The vote in the 15-member security council was 13 in favour, Russia opposed and China abstaining…..