Russia Watch

Nuclear Sites Dotted Across Ukraine Pose Threat of Radiation Disaster – The New York Times
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DIFFERENT NIGHT, SAME TARGETS: As President Donald Trump considers tightening the economic screws on Moscow sometime in the near but indeterminate future, the air war in Ukraine has settled into almost Groundhog Day-like predictability, with both sides working to gain an advantage as peace prospects fade.

Russia launched another massive attack on Kyiv overnight, hitting familiar civilian targets, a five-story apartment building, a kindergarten, a shopping mall in the center of the city, and an office building housing the European Union delegation to Ukraine. The strikes, which employed almost 600 drones, 20 cruise missiles, nine ballistic missiles, and two Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, hit more than 20 sites and are being described as “the fiercest Russian attack since the Trump-Putin summit.”

“Right now in Kyiv, first responders are clearing the rubble of an ordinary residential building after a Russian strike,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X this morning. “Tragically, at least 8 people have already been confirmed dead. One of them is a child. People may still be trapped under the rubble. Dozens are wounded.” The death toll has since grown to at least 14 civilians killed, including three children, with 38 injured.

“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table. It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war. And this means that Russia still does not fear the consequences. Russia still takes advantage of the fact that at least part of the world turns a blind eye to murdered children and seeks excuses for Putin,” Zelensky said. “All deadlines have already been broken, dozens of opportunities for diplomacy ruined,” he said. “It is definitely time for new, tough sanctions against Russia for everything it is doing.”

UKRAINE’S ‘REFINED’ STRATEGY CRIPPLING RUSSIA’S GAS PRODUCTION: Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued to use its increasingly effective home-grown, long-range drone to chip away at Russia’s oil refineries and pipelines, wreaking havoc on domestic gas supplies and causing average Russians pain at the pump. Overnight posts on X showed two more refineries — the Kuibyshev refinery in the Samara region and the Afipsky refinery in the Krasnodar region — ablaze after Ukraine drone strikes.

Gas stations have run dry in some parts of Russia and Crimea, with social media posts showing desperate motorists waiting in long lines of cars waiting for the next delivery of scarce fuel.

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Kyiv, Ukraine — A massive Russian drone and missile attack hit Ukraine’s capital early Thursday, including a rare strike in the center of the city, killing at least 14 people including three children, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. It was the first major Russian combined attack on Kyiv in weeks, and it comes as U.S.-led peace efforts to end the three-year war struggle to gain traction.

“Already 14 people are known to have been killed as a result of the Russian attack, including 3 children. A horrific and deliberate killing of civilians,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post. “The Russians are not choosing to end the war, only new strikes… It is crucial now that the world responds firmly. Russia must stop this war it started and continues. For the spurning of ceasefire and for the constant Russian attempts to weasel out of negotiations, new strong sanctions are needed. Only this can work. The Russians understand only strength and pressure.”

In addition to the deaths, officials said at least 38 people were wounded in the attack.

Russia launched 598 strike drones and decoys and 31 missiles of different types across the country, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, making it one of the largest attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.  Ukraine’s forces shot down and neutralized all but 41 of the weapons, its Air Force said.

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WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s defense minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland early Wednesday was identified as a Russian drone, calling it a provocation by Russia.

At a news conference in Warsaw, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz accused Russia of provoking NATO during a crucial moment, as peace talks over the war in neighboring Ukraine are underway, the country’s news agency PAP reported.

“Russia is provoking us once again,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said, just as peace talks have given hope that the war “has a chance of ending.”

Police said they received reports of the crash around 2 a.m. and found burned metal and plastic debris at the scene, near the village of Osiny. The blast broke windows in some nearby houses, but nobody was injured, PAP reported.

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‘IT’S VERY, VERY SERIOUS WHAT I HAVE IN MIND’: Despite being rebuffed at every turn, President Donald Trump is still holding out hope that Russia will come to the table to negotiate an end to the more than three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.

At a marathon broadcast Cabinet meeting that ran more than three hours, Trump indicated that despite his frustration, he’s ready to wage economic warfare against Russia to increase the pressure on Vladimir Putin. “It’s very, very serious what I have in mind, if I have to do it. But I want to see it end,” Trump said. “We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic. Because we’re not going to get into a world war.”

“Over the last couple of weeks, over 12,000 people died in, like, in two weeks,” Trump said. “They were Russian, they were Ukrainian, they weren’t American. So, a lot of people would say, ‘What do you care? They’re not American.’ I care. They’re 12,000.”

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Ukraine admitted for the first time on Tuesday that Russian forces had entered the central Dnipropetrovsk region, saying fighting there was ongoing. The battlefield monitor DeepState said in a social media post that the Russian army was “consolidating its positions” and preparing “for a further advance”.

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President Donald Trump revealed on Sunday night that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted their summit meeting to be held “anywhere” but the United States, saying it was “very hard” for Putin to make an appearance in Alaska for the high-stakes meeting.

Trump made the revelation in a Truth Social post on Sunday night, in which he took aim at the media over criticism of having Putin on U.S. soil for a summit that ultimately ended with no ceasefire or peace deal in the Ukraine war.

“The Fake News has been saying for 3 days that I suffered a ‘major defeat’ by allowing President Vladimir Putin of Russia to have a major Summit in the United States. Actually, he would have loved doing the meeting anywhere else but the U.S., and the Fake News knows this. It was a major point of contention!” the U.S. president said.