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New recruits of the 126th Territorial Defence Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces attend a military exercise at a training ground, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in an undisclosed location in southern Ukraine October 29, 2024.
What We're Watching

Russia unleashes assault, Ukraine seeks Allied permission to hit North Koreans

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Sunday that his troops were struggling to hold back “one of the most powerful Russian offensives” in the Donbas region.

​A woman outside the damaged house of her son, who was killed the day before by shelling in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine.
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Hard Numbers: Deadly shelling, drug kingpin's jail security, Lai sighting, Sweden soccer semi, twin takeover

Shelling in the southern Ukrainian province of Kherson Ukraine on Sunday killed seven people, including a 23-day-old baby girl. The attack followed denials by Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar that Ukrainian forces had engaged in Russian-occupied territory in the region.

Nuclear weapons could be used; Russia's war gets more dangerous
Quick Take

Nuclear weapons could be used; Russia's war gets more dangerous

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: I have to talk about Russia. There's Brazil, there's United Kingdom, there's Iran, but Russia is the biggest story, and it's because we've just seen the worst week in the war in terms of escalation and danger since the initial invasion on February 24, 2022. President Putin's closest remaining friends on the global stage - the Indian prime minister, the Chinese president, the Kazakh president - all told him directly, "the war is a horrible idea. Please end this as soon as possible." Putin does exactly the opposite and escalates, calling up a minimum of 300,000 additional troops in a mobilization, something he had been dragging his feet on and avoiding because he knew how unpopular it would be in Russia.

Ukraine gains; Russia to escalate
Quick Take

Ukraine gains; Russia to escalate

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: The big news in the world is once again on the ground in Ukraine with the Ukrainians having taken a significant amount of territory with counterattacks against the Russians. The town of Izium has been captured by the Ukrainians, critical because it was the headquarters for Russian military operations in the north and half of the Donbas. And of course, the Donbas is the entire focus of the second phase as the Russians have announced the special military operations, the war in Ukraine.

Hard Numbers: India taxes diesel exports, Donetsk citizens told to flee, France nationalizes EDF, NYC needs lifeguards
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Hard Numbers: India taxes diesel exports, Donetsk citizens told to flee, France nationalizes EDF, NYC needs lifeguards

New export taxes on fuel could reduce the amount of diesel India sells abroad by as much as 100,000 barrels per day.

Putin improves his hand in Ukraine
Quick Take

Putin improves his hand in Ukraine

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: You've probably seen the latest news that Luhansk has fallen. The Donbas, which is now the focus of the Russian war, not the entire focus, but certainly the lion's share of. It is comprised of two different administrative regions, one Donetsk, the other Luhansk. The Ukrainians had been giving a pretty solid fight, but they've been losing territory pretty consistently if slowly, over the last month and a half. And this means that Luhansk is now fully under Russian control.

Putin keeps his war cards close
Quick Take

Putin keeps his war cards close

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: It is May 9th, and that means Victory Day. It's when the Soviets were celebrating their defeat of the Nazis in World War II. The Russians of course, continued that after 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. And today even more important in the context of Russia's invasion into Ukraine, not in any way victorious and Putin, wasn't trying to claim it was, rather, it was all about justifying what he referred to as a preemptive rebuff to NATO aggression. He talked about the Ukrainians as a Nazi regime, that they were trying to get nuclear weapons, that NATO and Ukraine were going to take Crimea back from Russia. All of which was made up from a whole cloth, but nonetheless was the basis of Putin's speech.

Ukraine crisis: Wait, was that an invasion?
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Ukraine crisis: Was that an invasion?

Vladimir Putin has unilaterally recognized the separatist regions of Eastern Ukraine, vowing to send Russian “peacekeepers” there. What does this mean, and what comes next?

Setting Ukraine's rebels free?
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Setting Ukraine's rebels free?

Hidden behind this week’s “will he or won’t he invade” stories on Putin and Ukraine is a potentially game-changing, little-noticed story from Moscow. Is Russia’s president about to give up on the Minsk Agreement, recognize Ukraine’s breakaway provinces, and declare victory… without going to war?