Despite the recent fall of the eastern city of Bakhmut to Russian and Wagner forces, Ukrainian officials still insist that they will “get back what’s ours,” according to top military officer, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is reiterating the same message claiming that “we strongly believe that we will succeed.”
An aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed that as a condition for ending the war, Kyiv is demanding that Russia withdraw its troops from the border with Ukraine. Zelensky is also hopeful that international forces would be deployed to areas within Moscow’s borders.
A large-scale early morning drone strike on Moscow Tuesday has left several civilian apartment buildings in the Russian capital damaged with the Kremlin immediately blaming Ukraine for the attacks. It is largely being described as the first attack on the city’s civilian neighborhoods.
According to a press release from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), American columnist and YouTuber Gonzalo Lira was arrested at the beginning of May in Ukraine because he allegedly “publicly justified” the Russian invasion of the country. While the press release notes that Lira “has the citizenship of one of the countries of Latin America,” it completely neglects to mention that Lira is also a U.S. citizen, having been born in California.
On Thursday, despite urgent warnings from the U.S. and other Western allies, Belarus and Russia signed an agreement to formalize the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory as part of the formation of what the two countries have called a ‘union state.’
Russia’s Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has given a rare and revealing interview with pro-Moscow blogger Konstantin Dolgov, fresh off the weekend declaration of victory over Bakhmut in Ukraine’s east.
Poland and Norway have joined the ever-expanding faction of NATO countries that are willing to begin training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. The countries’ willingness comes after President Joe Biden gave his approval at last week’s G7 summit in Japan for Europeans to send Western fighters to Ukraine. The policy change occurred after months of debate inside the administration.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department took immediate steps to distance Washington from a cross-border attack in Russia’s Belgorod region by Ukrainian-aligned individuals that occurred over the weekend. “We have made very clear to the Ukrainians that we don’t enable or encourage attacks outside Ukrainian’s borders,” the State Department commented before adding that it is “up to Ukraine to decide how they want to conduct their military operations.”
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave in to “numerous requests from Orthodox worshippers” and donated the 15th-century “Trinity” icon to the Russian Orthodox Church. The icon is believed to be the work of religious artist Andrei Rublev and many experts and artists advised against the turnover claiming that the church did not have the ability to take care of such a fragile piece of art, voicing concerns that it would eventually be destroyed.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been outspoken since arriving at the annual Qatar Economic Forum (QEF) about his stance on the war in Ukraine and NATO and the West’s relentless support of Zelensky and the resulting escalations with Russia. Orban has also blatantly stated that the Ukrainians are not able to defeat Russia without the assistance of NATO troops, which the alliance is unwilling to send and which Hungary is staunchly against.