The Russian leader says there should be Ukraine talks on ending the war with a former German leader as mediator…..
Russia’s war push appears to have stalled….
Hmmmm?
The current cease-fire has the normal exceptions of some actual fighting.still going on…
The Ukraine has a small group of scientists in Antartica ….
A piece below on who is actually winning the War…
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German officials have reacted cautiously to Vladimir Putin’s surprise suggestion that former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder could act as a mediator in Ukraine war peace talks, saying they had “taken note” of Putin’s comments but viewed them as part of “a series of bogus offers” from Russia, government sources told Agency-France Presse. One source said a real test of Moscow’s intentions would be to extend the current three-day truce.
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Schröder, 82, has remained close to Putin long after leaving office, standing apart from most western leaders since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. He previously held key roles in Russian energy projects, including work on the Nord Stream gas pipelines and a seat on the board of Russian oil firm Rosneft, which he gave up in 2022. Putin on Saturday said he thinks the Ukraine war is winding down and he nominated Schröder as a potential key negotiator to help end the conflict.
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Michael Roth, a former lawmaker from Germany’s Social Democratic party (SPD) and chair of the foreign affairs committee, said a mediator “cannot be Putin’s buddy”, in an interview with Tagesspiegel. He stressed that any mediator must above all be accepted by Ukraine. “Neither Moscow nor we can decide that on Kyiv’s behalf.” Others within the party, however, have been more open to Putin’s suggestion.
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Quoted by Der Spiegel, the SPD’s foreign affairs spokesperson in parliament, Adis Ahmetovic, said the proposal needs to be “carefully considered” with European partners. SPD lawmaker Ralf Stegner argued, in the same magazine, that “if we don’t want Putin and (US President Donald) Trump to decide Ukraine’s future” alone, Europe should seize every possible chance – however small.
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Meanwhile, the US-mediated ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine appeared under serious strain on its second day on Sunday, writesAngelique Chrisafis and Pjotr Sauer. Both sides have accused the other of violating the deal through weekend attacks. Three people were killed in Russian drone strikes on areas near the frontline, and more than 200 battlefield clashes had taken place since early Saturday, Ukrainian officials said. Russia’s defence ministry said it had downed 57 Ukrainian drones over the past day and “responded in kind” on the battlefield.
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The US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow “soon enough” to continue talks with Russia, news agency Interfax reported Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov as saying on Sunday.
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Russia has accused Armenia of providing Volodymyr Zelenskyy with “a platform for anti-Russian remarks”, in a further sign of a chill in relations between traditional allies Moscow and Yerevan. On a visit to Yerevan last week, Zelenskyy said Russia feared “drones may buzz over Red Square” in Moscow during the annual parade on 9 May. “The main thing for us is that Armenia does not adopt an anti-Russian stance,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Russia was awaiting an explanation from Yerevan on the matter.
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Latvia’s defence minister resigned on Sunday, after the recent incursion of two Ukrainian drones into its territory, hitting oil storage facilities. Minister Adris Spruds’s decision followed a call for his resignation from Latvia’s prime minister, Evika Silina, who stated he had “lost (her) trust and that of the public”. Silina said anti-drone systems had not been deployed quickly enough to counter the Thursday’s incursion.
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On Thursday, two drones crossed over the Russian border into Latvia. A fire broke out, but was quickly brought under control. The Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiga said that the drones had flown into Latvia as a result of “Russian electronic warfare”.
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ISW….Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 10, 2026
- Russian and Ukrainian forces continued limited offensive operations across the theater throughout the second day of the May 9–11 ceasefire.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin vaguely suggested that the war in Ukraine could end soon, despite offering no indication that Russia intends to end the war.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refuted Russian claims that Ukraine is sabotaging the planned prisoner of war (POW) exchange as part of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire.
- Russia appears to be increasing the sophistication of its cognitive warfare effort that uses flag raisings to achieve informational impacts.
- The Kremlin and the Russian military command continue to coerce and punish pro-war information space figures critical of Russian political and military leadership as part of a wider effort to consolidate control over the information space.
- Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Borova and Slovyansk directions, the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area, and in western Zaporizhia Oblast.
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The Ukraine in Antarctic Peninsula ….
Maintaining a permanent scientific presence at Vernadsky Research Base, the mint-green structure perched on a remote, rocky outcropping nearly 10,000 miles from Kyiv, might seem an unusual priority for a country fighting for its existence at home. But Ukrainian officials see their small polar foothold as not just a scientific endeavor, but also a crucial bulwark in their fight for survival and against Russia’s expansionist plans.
That’s because its very existence secures Ukraine a seat at the table where major world powers govern the vast white landmass entirely by consensus — giving the besieged country an important forum to draw attention to Russian aggression in all its forms. A long-term polar strategy adopted this year by Ukraine declares its Antarctic presence a “platform for protecting national interests.”
“Ukraine’s systematic presence in the regions of Antarctica, the Arctic, and the World Ocean is of major strategic and geopolitical importance,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said when approving the strategy in February. “It provides additional foreign policy instruments, strengthens Ukraine’s national security, enhances our country’s position on the global stage, and contributes to countering Russia’s aggressive policy in these regions.”
On May 11, the core decisionmakers in the continent’s governance will gather in Hiroshima, Japan, for the annual Antarctic Consultative Treaty Meeting. Representatives of 29 nations will debate everything from restrictions on krill fishing in the Southern Ocean to the future of Antarctic tourism to the frontiers of mineral prospecting on the resource-rich continent.
The politics of the war in Ukraine have seeped into the work of the little-known governing body. Lines between the Western countries backing Ukraine on one side and Russia on the other have hardened, with the United States delegation under the Trump administration retreating from its previous support for Ukraine…..
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Daily Kos grunt report for Today….
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