Fresh off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “victory” of a fifth term, the Kremlin on Monday said it would move to establish a buffer zone in Ukrainian territory for the sake of Russia’s security. Putin suggested creating a “'sanitary zone' in the territories today under the Kyiv regime.”
What’s this all about? While the bulk of the fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war has occurred within Ukrainian territory, Kyiv has regularly launched strikes against targets in Russia proper as well. The border city of Belgorod has been a frequent target. The Kremlin said a buffer zone would aim to ensure “any means that the enemy uses to strike us are out of range."
Moscow already illegally annexed four Ukrainian territories — Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia — in 2022 (despite not fully controlling these regions). But Russia in recent months has ramped up strikes on Kharkiv, a region along the Ukraine-Russia border. Talk of a buffer zone could signal that Russia will increasingly prioritize seizing territory in Kharkiv.
Ukraine raises the alarm. Kyiv says this signals that Russia is planning to escalate the conflict, which has largely been stalemated over the past year, though Russia last month seized Avdiivka — giving it new momentum in 2024.
Three weeks into the US-Israeli war against Iran, the list of losers is unusually long. Iran is getting devastated. The United States is trapped in an asymmetric conflict it can't exit.
The war in Iran is entering a more dangerous phase.
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Microsoft, Europol, and industry partners took coordinated action to disrupt Tycoon 2FA, a major phishing‑as‑a‑service operation designed to bypass multifactor authentication. Active since 2023, the service fueled large‑scale online impersonation, enabling fraud, data theft, and disruptions across sectors, including healthcare and education. Acting under a US court order, the coalition seized hundreds of domains powering Tycoon 2FA’s infrastructure — underscoring the need for global, public‑private cooperation that is essential to counter industrialized cybercrime and protect digital trust. Read the full blog here.