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The news agency reports that it has spoken to three Ukrainian special forces soldiers – 23-year-old Taras, 21-year-old Vladyslav, and their commander, 39-year-old Oleksii. The military says that in case the worst happens, the Ukrainian government will deny any knowledge of them. The Guardian notes that they are members of the Brotherhood battalion, a volunteer group of Ukrainian special forces fighting Vladimir Putin deep in Russia. Their work "ranges from the kidnapping of senior Kremlin officials, to the destruction of key military infrastructure and the downing of enemy aircraft on Russian territory". One of the soldiers, Vladyslav, says that they…

WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of agonizing, the U.S has agreed to send longer-range bombs to Ukraine as it prepares to launch a spring offensive to retake territory Russia captured last year, U.S. officials said Thursday, confirming that the new weapons will have roughly double the range of any other offensive weapon provided by America. The U.S. will provide ground-launched small diameter bombs as part of a $2.17 billion aid package it is expected to announce Friday, several U.S. officials said. The package also for the first time includes equipment to connect all the different air defense systems Western allies…

Konstantin Yefremov, former Russian military officer who fled Russia, has claimed that Ukrainian men were cruelly tortured in captivity; Russian soldiers shot at them and threatened to rape them.  Details: In April 2022, Yefremov’s unit guarded their "rear HQ" in Kamianka village in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. The colonel was in charge of questioning Ukrainian captives there.   Quote from Yefremov: "Three Ukrainian military captives were brought there one day. One of them confessed he was a sniper. And the colonel’s eyes lit up when he heard it. He beat him up, pulled down his pants and asked if he was married.…

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk discussed with Prime Minister of the French Republic Elisabeth Born the mechanisms for establishing an international special tribunal for Russia. "To say 'thank you' to France and to urge them to stay with Ukraine in the future. These are two key messages that I voice during every meeting, including during a conversation with the Prime Minister of the French Republic, Elizabeth Born," Stefanchuk said. During the conversation with Born, he emphasized the importance of recognizing Russia as a terrorist state. The interlocutors also discussed defense support for Ukraine. "We are striving to restore…

A man walks through the rubble of a building destroyed by shelling in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on January 29. (Marek M. Berezowski/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Russian troops are pummeling the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut into what the Donetsk region military administration head Pavlo Kyrylenko called a “total ruin.”  Two people were killed Tuesday, including a child, Kyrylenko said on Telegram. Four civilians were wounded, he added.  “Russians are levelling Bakhmut to the ground, killing everyone they can reach. We are carefully documenting all war crimes. They will be held accountable for everything!,” he wrote on Telegram. CNN reported in January that…

Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that Russia is preparing a new offensive that could happen "sooner than we expect. Answering the question of how crucial the time factor is now for the delivery of tanks to Ukraine, the former Secretary General noted that it is an urgent matter and called on the countries that have made the decision to speed up the delivery. "I would urge the countries to speed up the decision-making process and deliver the tanks as soon as possible. (...) We have two tasks: first, to help Ukraine close the skies so that attacks…

The logo of Russian internet group Yandex is pictured at the company’s headquarter in Moscow, Russia, October 4, 2018. (Source: REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) Russia’s most popular search engine is limiting information about the invasion for people using Russian IP addresses By Jacqueline Malaret and Ingrid Dickinson Since the onset of Russia’s war on Ukraine, global technology firms have grappled with how to mitigate disinformation and respond to requests from the Russian government to censor information on their platforms. While much international attention has been paid to social media platforms, much less has been given to Yandex, the most popular search engine…

New York Times released film about atrocities of Pskov paratroopers in Bucha The New York Times published an investigation on how it identified a group of Pskov paratroopers who committed war crimes in occupied Bucha in the spring. The investigation was published on YouTube https://youtu.be/IrGZ66uKcl0?t=34

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced the beginning of a Marathon of Honesty, which will be aimed at cleansing hypocrisy from the international Olympic leadership and preventing any attempts to bring representatives of Russia back into world sport. Source: Zelenskyy's evening address Details: The head of state expressed his disappointment with the statements made by Thomas Bach, the current President of the International Olympic Committee, who wants to bring Russian athletes back to international competitions. "I spoke with him several times. And I never heard how he was going to protect sport from war propaganda," Zelenskyy noted.He pointed out that tyrannical…

The International Olympic Committee this week reaffirmed its commitment that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be able to compete. Russian olympian Anastasia Fesikova who won a Silver medal in the London Olympics | Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Image Ukraine will start an international campaign to ban Russian athletes from competing in the Olympic Games to held in Paris next year, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country’s president. Speaking during his daily address late on January 27, the Ukrainian leader said Russian athletes should be barred from participating in next year’s Games even under a neutral flag. The Olympics should not…