Tag: russia

Ukraine conflict a NATO ‘proxy war’ – Trump envoy

Russian President Vladimir Putin is right in considering the Ukraine conflict a proxy war against Russia, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg told Fox News in an interview on Sunday.

He said that while he believes the peace process will ultimately succeed, “escalatory issues” remain. Kellogg referred to comments by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who last month indicated that Berlin would be open to supplying Kiev with Taurus cruise missiles.

Kellogg addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s perspective, saying “he considers this a proxy war by NATO. And frankly… in a way it is.”

“The escalatory issues are still there,” Kellogg said. “Chancellor Merz has said: well, I’m going to give the Ukrainians the Taurus missile system.”

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Assassination attempt on Putin mentioned by Budanov prepared with US money — Russian MFA

The assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned by chief of the Ukrainian military intelligence service Kirill Budanov was prepared with US money, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

“Yesterday one of chiefs of the Kiev regime Buganov openly admitted that the Ukrainian intelligence service prepared assassination attempts on the Russian president. This assassination attempt was again prepared with US money,” she wrote on her Telegram channel.

Instead of financing terrorists from Kiev Washington should have invested those funds in its domestic security, Zakharova said due to the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump.

There was a shooting at a rally of Trump in Pennsylvania late on Saturday. The Republican was wounded. According to recent reports, he is safe, the injury was minor – the bullet pierced his right ear. The shooter was killed by members of the US Secret Service, which is responsible, in particular, for protecting the top officials of the state. The Associated Press reported that authorities were investigating the incident as an assassination attempt on Trump.

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Russian Arctic region under drone attack – governor

Russia’s Murmansk Region, located mostly north of the Arctic Circle, is being targeted by drones, local governor Andrey Chibis has said.

Air defenses have been intercepting incoming UAVs in the region, Chibis wrote on Telegram on Sunday.

“Enemy drones have attacked the territory of Murmansk Region,” he wrote.

The governor urged the population to remain calm and report all incidents to the authorities.

Also on Sunday, several drones targeted a military installation in Irkutsk Region, central Russia. Local Governor Igor Kobzev said it is the first UAV raid in Siberia.

The attack occurred in the settlement of Sredny, some 150km from Lake Baikal, Kobzev wrote on Telegram. He added that the drones were launched from a tractor-trailer. “The source from where the UAVs came had been blocked,” he said.

Kiev has significantly intensified drone raids into Russia in recent weeks, targeting Moscow and other regions. Russia has responded by launching a series of large-scale missile and UAV strikes against Ukrainian military-related infrastructure.

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Kiev attacked military airfields in five Russian regions – MOD

Military airfields across Russia have been attacked in a series of kamikaze drone strikes, the country’s Defense Ministry reported on Sunday, blaming the incidents on Kiev. Most of the strikes were successfully repelled, with some resulting in material damage, it added.

Airfields were targeted in the Murmansk Region in the country’s north, in Ivanovo and Ryazan regions in central Russia as well as in Irkutsk Region in Siberia and Amur Region in the Far East, the ministry said. All the attacks employed first-person view (PFV) kamikaze drones, with some of them being launched from territories in close proximity to the airfields, it stated.

Some of the culprits behind the attacks have been detained, the ministry said, without revealing the number of those arrested or their identities. The Russian military also said that the “Kiev regime” was ultimately responsible for the strikes, which they described as “terrorist attacks.”

In Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions, the attacks were repelled and resulted in no damage or casualties, according to the ministry. In Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, the strikes led to some aircraft catching fire, the military said. No casualties have been reported in any of the incidents, according to the ministry’s data.

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Ukraine Doubles Down on Terrorist Attacks, Sabotaging TWO Railway Bridges in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk Regions – 7 Dead, Over 70 Injured, Including Children

As the peace negotiations unfold, with a second round of talks expected tomorrow (2) in Istanbul, the war in Ukraine continues unabated, with Russian forces advancing not only in the Eastern Donetsk Oblast, but also in northern regions of Sumy and Kharkov.

Just in the last week of offensive operations, Russia has occupied over 18 Ukrainian settlements and about 200 square kilometers, according to German newspaper BILD.

With its frontline formations collapsing in multiple points of the frontline, Ukraine is resorting ever more to asymmetrical tactics – a.k.a. terrorism.

Just three days ago, a suicide bomber blew himself up in Stavropol and killed Russian Major Zaur Aleksandrovich Gurtsiev.

The bomber, who rented a room in the Major building, approached Gurtsiev and detonated explosives in his bag – both men died.

Now if that was not enough, TWO Russian railway bridges were blown up overnight in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk in sabotage attacks.

The explosions and train derailings left a deadly trail of 7 fatalities and dozens of wounded, mostly civilians and including children – in a move that will most likely prompt severe retaliation by Moscow, in the eve of the June 2 talks in Istanbul.

RT reported:

“On Saturday evening, a bridge fell in front of a moving train in Bryansk Region, killing seven people and injuring 71 others. Several hours later, early on Sunday, a railway bridge collapsed under a moving freight train in Kursk Region, leaving the driver and two of his assistants wounded.”

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Does No One Want Peace in Ukraine?

Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have been rare since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Part of the blame falls on Europe and the mainstream media for attempting to suffocate diplomacy.

When the first bilateral talks occurred in the early weeks of the war, the West, led by the United States, Britain and Poland discouraged them and nudged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky off the promising path of peace and along the path of war with promises of whatever Ukraine needs for as long as they need it. An initialed draft of a peace plan yielded to three years of war.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “should be pressured, not negotiated with” and told Zelensky that Ukraine should “just fight.” The Americans, rather than encouraging diplomacy that could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, prevented the poisoning of international relations and prevented the real risk of World War III, ramped up military aid and provided Ukraine with the most advanced weapons NATO had to offer.

Now there is hope of a resumption of those talks. Russian and Ukrainian delegations have met for the first time since those early talks for a first round of direct negotiations. And, once again, rather than nurturing them, Europe and the Western media are dismissing and suffocating them.

Rather than throwing their influential weight behind Ukraine negotiating with Russia, Europe has pushed Ukraine to adopt maximalist terms that they know will force Russia to go on fighting. They try to convince the Trump administration that Putin is bent on conquering Europe and is only faking interest in peace. They push for more sanctions on Russia and more military aid for Ukraine.

Instead of pushing for peace, Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on May 26 that Germany had removed range restrictions on weapons sent to Ukraine, restrictions that his predecessor, like the United States, had insisted on to avoid crossing red lines that could draw NATO into war with Russia and into a third world war.

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If Only Ukraine-Loving Senate Republicans Put Americans First For Once

Senate Republicans and their majority leader are Johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to punishing Russia with sanctions after bad Vlad Putin and crew upped their missile strikes against Ukraine. Political strongmen tend to get a little testy when they suspect the countries they’re attacking of trying to blow them up.  As Axios reported earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., was “ready to move on a popular, bipartisan sanctions bill if Russia won’t come to the table in good faith” on a peace deal. 

“Senate Republicans are seizing on President Trump’s growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin to argue the time to impose fresh sanctions on Russia is now,” the news outlet reported. Axios apparently carpooled with the rest of the corporate news gang on the “angry” “frustration” talking points expressway.

Senate Republicans are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore.

Tough-talking Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is buddying up with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on an economic sanctions bill aimed at bringing Russia to the negotiating table. Graham says there’s a “new sheriff in town. The old playbook won’t work this time.”  

But the old playbook remains sadly in fashion in so many ways in Washington, D.C. 

Wouldn’t it be swell if Senate Republicans displayed the same level of passion and urgency when it comes to cutting taxes, shrinking government, and protecting our borders? While a lot of Americans agree with Trump that “crazy” Putin may be “playing with fire,” they would like to see their representatives in Washington, D.C., take some interest in pressing matters at home.

Whatever you think of President Trump’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” and the House-passed reconciliation package as it stands is colossal, it does deliver on key policy issues Americans overwhelmingly support. Topping that list is the huge provision that locks in the wildly popular tax cuts Trump signed in his first term. When the clock strikes 2026, the law preventing the IRS from grabbing more of your hard-earned money turns back into a pumpkin without action from Congress. 

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Trump Admin Refuses To Confirm Whether It’s Lifted Range Restrictions On Missiles To Ukraine

Press pool reporters were left frustrated Tuesday afternoon when during a State Department briefing the Trump admin spokesperson refused to comment on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s announcement that the United States and European allies had lifted “absolutely” all restrictions on the range of arms sent to Ukraine.

State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said when pressed by reporters, “I’m not going to discuss that. I’m not going to confirm that.” The Kremlin has responded by saying the decision was potentially dangerous and runs counter to attempts at a settlement. Still, there’s been no confirmation from the governments named by Merz, especially the US. Here is how Russia’s RT presented the televised exchange:

German chancellor says US, UK and EU all gave Kiev permission to fire longer-range missiles at Russia Trump’s government sounding more and more like Biden’s…

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Germany Deploys Permanent Troops To Lithuania As Russian Offensive Builds

Germany has deployed a permanent military brigade beyond its borders for the first time since the end of World War II, with troops dispatched to the capital of Lithuania.  The event was inaugurated by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said during a military ceremony in Vilnius that “the security of our Baltic allies is also our security.” 

The decision is part of a series of actions in recent months by European nations to “bolster defenses” on NATO’s eastern flank amid claims that Russia intends to invade greater Europe if they defeat Ukraine.  The “domino theory” remains unfounded and the Kremlin has never threatened to attack any country outside of Ukraine.  The move to shift troops to Lithuania places them near the border of Belarus (a Russian ally) and within striking distance of Ukraine or the Russian border. 

European governments have been threatening an escalation by eventually moving NATO troops into Ukraine in direct confrontation with Russian forces.  Vladimir Putin has previously warned that NATO troops in Ukraine represent a red line which could result in nuclear conflict. 

Putin asserted that if Ukraine’s Western backers deepened their involvement in the war, such as sending troops, the consequences for the “invaders” would be “tragic”. 

“They must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” Putin said, in apparent reference to increasingly lethal Western weapons provided to Kyiv. “What they are now suggesting and scaring the world with — all that raises the real threat of a nuclear conflict that will mean the destruction of our civilization.”

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Kremlin reacts to West lifting limits on long-range weapons for Ukraine

The reported decision by Ukraine’s Western backers to lift restrictions on Kiev’s use of long-range weapons runs counter to Russia’s efforts to find a peaceful settlement of the conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

Peskov made the remarks in response to comments by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said Ukraine is no longer subject to range limitations on Western-supplied weaponry.

“If such decisions have indeed been made, they are entirely at odds with our aspirations for a political resolution and with the efforts currently being made toward a settlement,” Peskov stated.

“Quite dangerous decisions, again – if they were indeed made,” he stressed.

At the EuropaForum on Monday, Merz said “there are no longer any range restrictions” on Western-supplied weapons used by Ukraine against Russian military targets. “There are no restrictions from the UK, France, Germany, or the US,” he added, as quoted by Euronews.

Moscow has repeatedly warned Western countries against participating in the conflict by giving Kiev targeting data from NATO satellites to carry out long-range strikes against Russia.

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