USA vs Russia...Because Ukraine can't defend itself.

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Brittney Griner sentenced to nine years in Russian prison​

A Russian court sentenced WNBA star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison Thursday, an expected conclusion to her trial that should allow negotiations for a prisoner swap to accelerate. Griner, who was arrested Feb. 17 for bringing cannabis into the country, had been prepared for a harsh sentence, sources close to the player said. But she and her supporters have also been aware that Russia was not going to move forward with a trade that could bring her home until her trial was completed. A guilty verdict was considered a foregone conclusion, and Griner pleaded guilty July 7, though the case continued under Russian law.
During sentencing, Judge Anna Sotnikova said she had found that Griner intentionally broke the law and also fined her 1 million rubles (about $16,700). Sotnikova said the time Griner has served in custody since her arrest in February would count toward the sentence. Griner reacted to the sentence with little emotion, listening to the verdict with a blank stare on her face.

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Russia to open duty-free shops selling western imports to foreign diplomats​

Goods must be paid for in foreign currency, a practice reminiscent of Soviet-era beryozka stores

Russia will introduce duty-free shops selling western imports to diplomats for foreign currency in a practice that will remind many Russians of the
infamous beryozka stores that epitomised official privilege during the Soviet era.

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They must really have a shortage of dollars and Euros. I would be surprised if they don't expand this to all foreign tourists just like Cuba does.

 

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3 more ships with grain depart Ukraine ports under UN deal​

Three more ships carrying thousands of tons of corn have left Ukrainian ports, officials said Friday, in the latest sign that a negotiated deal to export grain trapped since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly six months ago is slowly materializing. But major hurdles lie ahead to get food to the countries that need it most. The ships bound for Ireland, the United Kingdom and Turkey follow the first grain shipment to pass through the Black Sea since the start of the war. The passage of that vessel heading for Lebanon earlier this week was the first under the breakthrough deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations with Russia and Ukraine.The Black Sea region is dubbed the world’s breadbasket, with Ukraine and Russia key global suppliers of wheat, corn, barley and sunflower oil that millions of impoverished people in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia rely on for survival.

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Russia Having 'More and More Difficulties Conducting War in Ukraine': Rice​

Russia is having "more and more difficulties" conducting its invasion of Ukraine, said Dan Rice, a special adviser to the Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzzhnyi. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, citing a need to "liberate" the separatist Donbas region and rid the Ukraine govt of Nazis, even though Ukrainian President Volodymyre Zelensky is Jewish. While Putin hoped for a quick invasion, he was met with a stronger-than-expected response from the Ukrainian military. After five months of fighting, Russia gains have stalled and fighting remains concentrated in eastern Ukraine as the military has run into several issues. In an interview with Ukrinform published on Friday, Rice said Russia's invasion will likely remain difficult for them, predicting they will have "more and more difficulties conducting war in Ukraine."

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What happens if Russia wins the war?

 

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What happens if Ukraine wins the war?

 

[Oerdin]

What happens if Russia wins the war?

Sadly, I would be surprised if Russia doesn't eventually wear Ukraine down. I originally thought there would then be an insurgency but if the Russians continue to depopulate territory as the conquer it then who is left to rebel?

 

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What happens if Russia wins the war?

Sadly, I would be surprised if Russia doesn't eventually wear Ukraine down. I originally thought there would then be an insurgency but if the Russians continue to depopulate territory as the conquer it then who is left to rebel?

If we didn't enter fear Ukraine would be done. How does this happen in 2022? Where a country can take over another country. What happens to the Ukrainian's at the end of the war? Be Russia slaves? I mean, I don't get it.

 

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US: Russia to plant evidence framing Ukraine for deadly prison strike​

Russia is planning to fabricate evidence pointing the finger at Ukraine for a deadly attack on a Moscow-operated prison near the front lines in the ongoing war, according to US intelligence officials.Washington believes that Russia is preparing the false proof ahead of international journalists and investigators potentially visiting Olenivka Prison, where 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and 75 others were wounded July 29, a US official told CBS News. “We have reason to believe that Russia would go as far as to make it appear that Ukrainian HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems] were to blame” for the attack, the official added. A separate official familiar with the intelligence told the Associated Press that Russia may plant ammunition from HIMARS at the site to back its claim. Since mid-June, the US has provided Ukraine with at least 12 of the rocket systems as Russia’s brutal invasion rages on.

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Russia Loses 24 of Its Best Fighter Jets, Turns to Obsolete Planes: Ukraine​

Russia is reportedly turning to "outdated" fighter jets after it lost about two dozen Su-35 aircraft in its ongoing assault on Ukraine, according to a social media post on Thursday. In a Facebook post, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that Russia was going to start using "old" Su-24M bombers after Moscow's forces lost "two squadrons" in the war. "The SU-35 aircrafts also showed a low level of durability. During the full-scale aggression, the occupants lost two squadrons of such aircraft—it's about 24 units," Ukrainian Brigadier General Alexei Gromov said, the post reported.

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Russia Blocks Human Rights Group Online for 'False' Ukraine Reporting​

Authorities in Russia recently blocked the social media account of Russian human rights group OVD-Info over its media coverage of the war in Ukraine, and it's not the first time they've been blocked. The human rights watchdog specializes in monitoring and reporting on political persecution in Russia with the help of tips and information received through its hotline operated 24/7. It also helps provide legal assistance, according to its website.

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Russia's war priority: reorient units to strengthen southern Ukraine, UK says​

Russia's priority over the past week has likely been to reorient units to strengthen its campaign in southern Ukraine, British military intelligence said on Sunday. Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over multiple incidents of shelling at the Zaporizhzhia facility in southern Ukraine. Russian troops captured the station early in the war. Russian-backed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in the Donbas continued to attempt assaults to the north of Donetsk city, according to the intelligence update. Particularly heavy fighting has focused on the village of Pisky, near the site of Donetsk Airport, the British Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter. Ukraine's military command on Saturday said "fierce fighting" continued in Pisky, an eastern village which Russia had earlier said it had full control over. UK also said the Russian assault "likely" aims to secure the "M04 highway", the main approach to Donetsk from the west.

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Around Ukraine's embattled nuclear power plant, "everybody is afraid"​

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Russia not to use Europe's largest nuclear plant as a shield for its forces amid growing concern that fighting could lead to a potentially catastrophic radiation leak. Dozens of other countries say the presence of Russian troops around the sprawling Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station poses "a great danger." CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D'Agata visited two towns just a few miles from the facility, and he found residents deeply worried about the potential for a disaster. Ukrainian military officials have accused Russia's invading troops of using the plant as a shield and a base to launch attacks from, knowing that any counterstrike would carry the inherent risk of damaging the nuclear plant's heavily fortified reactors or other sensitive equipment.

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Russia-Ukraine war: A weekly recap and look ahead (Aug. 15)​

As the week begins, here's a roundup of key developments from the past week and a look ahead.

What to watch this week​

The world follows as ships finally carry Ukrainian-grown food to global customers and destinations gripped by hunger, including in the Horn of Africa.This week, Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region are expected to begin a criminal trail for captured foreigners, including men from the United Kingdom, Sweden and Croatia, accused of working as mercenaries, Interfax reported. On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry holds its Moscow Conference on International Security. NPR will also keep an eye out for developments in talks over a possible prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States.

What happened last week​

Aug. 8: The U.S. Agency for International Development said it's providing $4.5 billion more in budgetary support for Ukraine's government. And the Pentagon announced an additional $1 billion in security assistance to the country. Russia suspended weapons inspection under its START nuclear arms control treaty with the U.S., saying Western sanctions on travel made the checks on U.S. compliance impossible.


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A priest prays for unidentified civilians killed by Russian troops in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 11. Eleven unidentified bodies exhumed from a mass grave were buried in Bucha that day.

 

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Five takeaways from The Post’s examination of the road to war in Ukraine​

Amonths-long examination by The Washington Post of the road to war in Ukraine, including Western efforts to thwart the Kremlin’s plans, is based on extensive interviews with more than three dozen senior U.S., Ukrainian, European and NATO officials. Here are some key findings: 1. The United States intelligence community penetrated multiple points of Russia’s political leadership, spying apparatus and military, and found Vladimir Putin preparing for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.


In the Oval Office in October 2021, President Biden’s top advisers presented him with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war plans for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. U.S. intelligence agencies had used satellite imagery, intercepted communications and human sources to show that Putin was massing troops along Ukraine’s border with the aim of seizing the capital, Kyiv, and much of the country, leaving only a rump Ukrainian state in the west. The United States had discovered Putin sharply increasing funding for military operations while leaving his pandemic response underfunded. “We assess that they plan to conduct a significant strategic attack on Ukraine from multiple directions simultaneously,”

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The return of 'rasputitsa' and what it means for Russia's war in Ukraine​

For centuries, Russia has depended on its harsh winter weather to help turn back invaders. But as summer turns to fall in Ukraine, it might be Russian forces who find themselves on the losing side of the “rasputitsa” — the wet, muddy period caused by melting snow in the spring and heavy rains in autumn.The rasputitsa, also known as “General Mud” or “Marshal Mud,” is well-known to military historians. During Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, French soldiers were unable to effectively retreat on muddy rural roads. More than a century later, during World War II, Adolf Hitler’s tanks and trucks sputtered in waist-deep mud while attempting to advance to Moscow. Jason Lyall, a professor of government at Dartmouth, said toward the beginning of the invasion that rasputitsa is one of the “the Four Horseman of the Ukrainian Army,” alongside portable anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles.

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The US has been quietly giving Ukraine radar-hunting missiles that could really be a problem for Russia​

• A top defense official said this month that the US has been sending Ukraine anti-radiation missiles.
• The official didn't say which missile, but there are reports of AGM-88 missiles in use in Ukraine.
• The AGM-88 may have a limited overall impact, but it gives Russian troops another reason to worry.

It's open season on Russian radar stations as Ukraine deploys US-made anti-radiation missiles designed to home in on radar beams. Ukraine's advantage is likely to be temporary as the Russian military adapts, but for now, the presence of AGM-88 HARM, or High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles, will make Russian troops think twice before powering up their radars. The presence of AGM-88s spells trouble for the Russian air-defense radars needed to defend against Ukrainian helicopters and jets and for the counter-battery radars used to locate Ukrainian artillery — including US-made multiple rocket launchers.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian military intelligence believes Russia planning ‘provocation’ at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – latest​

Zelenskiy told Guterres that this “deliberate and cynical terror on the part of the aggressor could have catastrophic consequences for Ukraine and the whole world,” according to a statement released by the office of the president. They agreed that an IAEA mission “must be carried out in a legal way through a territory free from occupiers”.

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Ukraine and Russia Accuse Each Other of Plotting Attack on Nuclear Plant​

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, has already been hit by shelling, and the United Nations chief, warning of disaster, called for a demilitarized zone around it.

Tensions around the nuclear power plant on the front lines of the war in Ukraine escalated sharply on Thursday, as the Russian and Ukrainian militaries traded charges that each was preparing to stage an attack on the plant in coming days, risking a catastrophic release of radiation. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the Ukrainian military was preparing a “terrorist attack” on the sprawling Zaporizhzhia power plant complex on the Dnipro river, prompting the Ukrainian military intelligence agency to respond that the Russian warning was in fact a pretext for Moscow to stage a “provocation” of some kind there on Friday. The fears of a possible attack came even as the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, held talks in the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine, with the Ukrainian and Turkish presidents in an effort to ease military tensions around the site and restart diplomatic engagement to end the nearly six-month-old war. U.N. nuclear regulators have been pleading for access to the plant to ensure its safety.


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USA vs Russia...Because Ukraine can't defend itself.​