It’s been OVER FOUR year and Russia is beginning to LOSE ground…
In a complete NOT Understanding?
Trump & Co. are STILL trying to force Ukraine to hand over the Donbas region to Russia, who can’t militarily take it…
It DOES appear that this war/conflict WILL go on until the next American President is sworn in…
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The US is making its offer of security guarantees for a peace deal in Ukraine conditional on Kyiv ceding all of the country’s eastern region of Donbas to Russia, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters in an interview. With the US focused on its own conflict with Iran, president Donald Trump is applying pressure to Ukraine in an effort to bring a quick end to the four-year war triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion, Zelenskyy said. “The Middle East definitely has an impact on President Trump, and I think on his next steps. President Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, still chooses a strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” he told Reuters. “I would very much like the American side to understand that the eastern part of our country is part of our security guarantees,” he said.
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Russia sought to blackmail the US by offering to stop sharing military intelligence with Iran if, in return, Washington would cut off Ukraine from its intelligence data, Zelenskyy said on Wednesday. Zelenskyy, who said on Monday that Ukraine’s military intelligence has “irrefutable” evidence that Russia was continuing to provide intelligence to Iran, told Reuters he had seen the data but provided no further details. “I have reports from our intelligence services showing that Russia is doing this and saying: ‘I will not pass on intelligence to Iran if America stops passing intelligence to Ukraine.’ Isn’t that blackmail? Absolutely,” Zelenskyy said.
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Russian attacks killed two people in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv and the region around it and a strike on the Danube port of Izamil damaged port facilities and energy infrastructure, officials said. Prosecutors in Kharkiv region, in a statement on Telegram early on Thursday, said a woman injured in an attack on the city of Kharkiv had died of her injuries in hospital. They said nine people were injured in strikes on two districts of the city, a frequent target of Russian forces, 30 km (18 km) from the border. Prosecutors also said a Russian drone killed a man in his car in a district closer to the border.
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Ukrainian drone strikes killed two people on Wednesday in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, the regional governor said. Vyacheslav Gladkov, writing on Telegram, said drones killed an 18-year-old man aboard a motorcycle in a village near the border and a woman in her car in the town of Graivoron, also near the border. Belgorod has been a frequent target of Ukrainian forces during the four-year war pitting Kyiv against Moscow. Ukrainian shelling of a public building in the city of Belgorod killed four people last week.
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Zimbabwe said on Wednesday that 15 of its citizens had been killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine, the latest African country to report recruits dying on the frontlines. Information minister Zhemu Soda told a press conference that the 15 had been deceived into enlisting, referring to it as human trafficking. He said one recruitment method used by traffickers targeting Zimbabweans was social media. An official at Russia’s embassy in Harare declined to comment.
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British prime minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday he has given the military permission to board and detain Russian ships his government alleges are part of a network of vessels that enables Moscow to export oil despite western sanctions. The decision comes as other European nations have stepped up efforts to disrupt Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of tankers used by Moscow to fund its four-year war against Ukraine. Starmer said he approved more aggressive action against the vessels because Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely “rubbing his hands” at the sharp rise in oil prices driven by the US-Israel war against Iran.
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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a Putin ally, was greeted by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as he arrived on his first visit to the reclusive nation, the Korean Central news agency reported on Thursday. A ceremony welcoming Lukashenko took place on Kim Il Sung Square on 25 March, with Kim “gladly” meeting and “warmly” welcoming the Belarus leader, the report said. Lukashenko visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun – where the embalmed bodies of Kim’s father and grandfather lie in state – to pay his respects, flanked by top North Korean officials, the report said. Lukashenko laid a bouquet on behalf of Putin, it added….
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ISW…Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 25, 2026
- A prominent Russian milblogger issued a lengthy critique of the Russian military’s inability to achieve victory in Ukraine and called for serious force generation and defense industrial reforms.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued insistence that Russian forces maintain pressure along the entire frontline with continuous, albeit slow and grinding, advances is incompatible with the reforms the Russian military and DIB would need to implement to achieve a decisive battlefield victory in Ukraine.
- Successful Ukrainian counterattacks in northeastern and southern Ukraine in recent months are, in part, triggering such criticism in the Russian information space.
- The Kremlin recently cracked down on another prominent pro-Kremlin blogger for challenging Putin and his conduct of the war.
- Ukrainian forces struck the Novatek Ust-Luga oil terminal in Leningrad Oblast overnight on March 24 and 25, marking the second strike in three days against Russian oil terminals in Leningrad Oblast.
- Ukrainian forces also targeted a Russian shipbuilding plant in Leningrad Oblast on the night of March 24 and 25, striking a ship.
- The Kremlin’s efforts to close the Russian open internet are degrading the effectiveness of Russian air raid warning systems in border regions.
- Russian authorities are likely trying to mitigate backlash against the recent throttling of Telegram and YouTube by promising to allow advertising on these platforms through the end of 2026.
- Russia is trying to increase its number of trained drone operators and specialists in 2026.
- Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Slovyansk direction, in the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area, and in western Zaporizhia Oblast. Russian forces recently advanced in the Hulyaipole direction.
- Ukrainian forces conducted mid-range strikes against Russian military assets in occupied Ukraine. Russian forces launched 147 drones against Ukraine….
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For Putin, the War in Iran Changed Everything
…On Feb. 28, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli attack; in the days that followed, everything changed. Oil prices surged above $100 a barrel and, in a major reversal, the United States lifted sanctions on Russian oil. Demand soared for Russian fertilizer as the world reeled from disruptions to food supply. All of a sudden, the economic problems bedeviling Russia seemed to evaporate.
What’s more, divisions deepened between the United States and its NATO allies, who refused to send ships to the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump called it a “very foolish mistake.” For Mr. Putin, whose foreign policy has been built around cultivating disorder in the West, this was welcome. Equally important is the absorption of America’s attention in the Middle East, pushing Ukraine far from mind. It’s not just attention that is being diverted: The United States is burning through weaponry and ammunition that could otherwise be sent to Ukraine.
In America, too, the Kremlin spies an advantage. It’s not hard to see how a protracted conflict with Iran could erode Mr. Trump’s political standing and weaken the Republican Party, making the upcoming midterm elections especially precarious. This reinforces Mr. Putin’s conviction about the transience of American politics. Mr. Trump, like any American president, is a temporary figure: A new administration will eventually arrive, potentially with a very different approach to Russia. The war in Iran may hasten that shift. In this view, concessions on Ukraine would be pointless.
These are all considerable boons for the Kremlin. But the money now flooding into Russia is by no means a guarantee that Mr. Putin will be able to continue the war indefinitely. On the contrary, some close to the government believe that the current situation will be short-lived. By May, many in Moscow expect, the war in Iran could be over and sanctions against Russia reinstated. For the troubled Russian economy, there is no permanent salvation.
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A level of public discontent that until recently would have been unthinkable is now part of daily life. Before too long, it seems, Mr. Putin will have to make a consequential choice: either agree to some form of de-escalation in Ukraine, potentially including an end to the war, or move in the opposite direction — tightening controls across the board, even to the point of a new mobilization. It’s impossible to predict what decision Mr. Putin will make. But a large factor will be whether America continues in its own war…
Daily Kos grunt Report for Today….
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