Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- A group of former senior U.S. national security officials have held secret talks with prominent Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin — and, in at least one case, with the country’s top diplomat — with the aim of laying the groundwork for potential negotiations to end the war in Ukraine
- In a high-level example of the back-channel diplomacy taking place behind the scenes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with members of the group for several hours in April in New York, four former officials and two current officials told NBC News.
- Among the goals, they said, is to keep channels of communication with Russia open where possible and to feel out where there might be room for future negotiation, compromise and diplomacy over ending the war.
- The talks come amid mounting signs that the U.S. and its allies are eager to see Moscow and Kyiv move toward peace talks in the fall, after the completion of Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin – who led a short-lived rebellion in Russia last month – is in Russia and not Belarus, the leader of Belarus says.
- In response to Mr Lukashenko’s remarks the Kremlin said it was “not following” Prigozhin’s movements.
- The BBC tracked Prigozhin’s private jet flying to Belarus in late June, and returning to Russia the same evening.
- In his address Mr. Lukashenko said he was not concerned about having Wagner fighters in Belarus, adding they would be in the country on “certain conditions”.
- Putin initially accused the group of treason, but under the deal that brought an end to the mutiny, Prigozhin was promised security and the Russian criminal case against Wagner was dropped.
- Its fighters were told they could either sign regular army contracts, go home or head to Belarus.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has again warned Russia may be planning to “simulate an attack” the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, claiming that Russian troops have placed “objects resembling explosives” on the roofs of buildings at the site.
- “There is a serious threat because Russia is technically ready to provoke a local explosion at the station, which could lead to a [radiation] release,” Zelenskiy said
- Russian troops seized the station, Europe’s largest nuclear facility, in February 2022. Each side has since regularly accused the other of shelling around the plant and risking a major nuclear mishap.
- While the reactors would be difficult to damage, according to former plant workers who spoke to the Guardian, the small cooling pond is vulnerable to an explosion, which could cause partial nuclear meltdown comparable to the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the US.
- Oleksiy Kovynyev, a former senior engineer, said that in this scenario, most radiation would be contained, but that if ventilation channels were opened, radiation could be released.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Belarus official: West left us no choice but to deploy nuclear arms
- Western countries left Belarus no choice but to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons and had better take heed not to “cross red lines” on key strategic issues, a senior Belarusian official was quoted as saying
- “Today, everything has been torn down. All the promises made are gone forever,” the Belta news agency quoted Volfovich as telling an interviewer on state television.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Wall Street Journal: Wagner boss planned to capture top Russian defense chiefs
- Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin planned to seize two top Russian military officials when he launched a short-lived mutiny on Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing Western officials.
- Prigozhin’s plot involved the capture of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and top army general Valery Gerasimov when the pair visited a region along the border of Ukraine, the WSJ wrote.
- Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) learned of the plot two days before it was due to take place, forcing Prigozhin to change his plans at the last minute and launch a march towards Moscow instead, according to the report.
- Wagner mercenaries took control of a key military base in the city of Rostov-on-Don, and his troops were approaching the Russian capital when Prigozhin called off his mutiny.
- When asked about the WSJ report, two European security sources told CNN that while it was likely Prigozhin would have expressed a desire to capture Russian military leaders, there was no assessment as to whether he had a credible plan to do so.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Plan to blow up Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant approved, situation has never been so severe before ― Chief of Defense Intelligence
- Source: Budanov, in an interview with The New Statesman, as cited by Defense Intelligence website
- Quote: “The situation has never been as severe as now.”
- Details: According to Budanov, Russia has completed preparations for the terrorist attack on the ZNPP.
- When asked whether the Russians decided to blow up the power plant, Budanov said the plan was entirely “drafted and approved.” The only element missing is the order to act. “Then it can happen in a matter of minutes,” he said.
- Ukrainian intelligence has determined that Russian troops have moved vehicles packed with explosives to four of the six power units.
- According to the head of the Defense Intelligence, Russia’s order to commit a terrorist attack on the ZNPP may have been caused by the defeat of the Russian occupation forces on the Left Bank of Dnipro ― Russia considers creation of a nuclear disaster zone a safeguard for the further advance of the defense forces of Ukraine.
- There is frustration in Ukrainian intelligence and government circles that the international community’s response to the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam on 6 June was so muted that this could provoke further use of “scorched Earth tactic,” the newspaper notes.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Wagner Chief Says He Ordered His Russian Mercenaries to Halt March on Moscow and Return to Ukraine
- A rebellious mercenary commander said Saturday he ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and retreat to field camps in Ukraine, appearing to defuse a dramatically escalating crisis that represented the most significant challenge to President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power.
- Moscow had braced for the arrival of forces from the Wagner Group, a private army led by Yevgeny Prigozhin that has been fighting alongside regular Russian troops in Ukraine, by erecting checkpoints with armored vehicles and troops on the city’s southern edge. Red Square was shut down, and the mayor urged motorists to stay off some roads.
- But Prigozhin announced that while his men were just 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Moscow, he decided to turn them back to avoid “shedding Russian blood.”
- He did not say whether the Kremlin had responded to his demand to oust Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. There was no immediate comment from Putin’s government.
- Putin had vowed harsh consequences for organizers of the armed uprising led by his onetime protege, who brought his forces out of Ukraine, seized a key military facility in southern Russia and advanced toward Moscow.
- In a televised speech to the nation, Putin called the rebellion a “betrayal” and “treason.”
- “All those who prepared the rebellion will suffer inevitable punishment,” Putin said. “The armed forces and other government agencies have received the necessary orders.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Preparatory attack of the Ukrainians in Kherson-Crimea: British Storm Shadows bombed bridges & the main weapons depot of the Russian ED
- Ukrainian forces have started sabotage operations in Crimea according to the plan of the General Staff, the British and the Americans, which indicates that the start of the main offensive is very close.
- Early in the morning, the Ukrainians launched a barrage of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles against the M-18 bridge at the Chongar Pass connecting Crimea and Kherson as well as the bridge at Sivash.
- The M-18 bridge was marked on the map released by the former commander of the US Army in Europe, General Ben Hodges, and presented to WarNews247 a few days ago.
- A little over 24 hours earlier, the Ukrainians again struck with British Storm Shadows the railway station and a large Russian ammunition depot in Rykove, Kherson.
- The Ukrainians claim that the “hit on the bridge is very serious as 70% of the Army’s transports pass through there”.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Ukraine-Russia war: Ukraine ‘planning Storm Shadow attack on Crimea’
- Ukraine is reportedly planning to attack occupied Crimea with Himars and British Storm Shadow missile, Russia has claimed in a warning to Kyiv and the West.
- Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, said that Russia would retaliate if Ukraine started hitting the territory that Vladimir Putin annexed in 2014
- “The use of these missiles outside the zone of our special military operation would mean that the United States and Britain would be fully dragged into the conflict and would entail immediate strikes on decision-making centers in Ukraine,” warned Mr Shoigu.
- Crimea may become within target of Ukraine’s arsenal of missiles and artillery as its counter offensive pushes further south. Ukraine says it has recaptured 113 square km (44 square miles) of land from Russian forces.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Belarus receives nuclear bombs ‘three times size of Hiroshima bomb’ from Russia
- Belarus has started taking the delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, president Alexander Lukashenko announced, claiming that some of these were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
- Mr Lukashenko said that “the bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on) Hiroshima and Nagasaki”, adding to his previous statement that he didn’t simply ask Mr Putin for the weapons, but “demanded” them.
- The Vladimir Putin ally was speaking to the Russian state TV channel Rossiya-1 on a road in a forest clearing with military vehicles and a storage facility visible in the background seen around him.
- This will be the first such warhead deployment by Moscow, comprising shorter-range less powerful nuclear weapons that could potentially be used on the battlefield, outside of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
- The interview was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency’s Telegram channel on Wednesday.
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