The U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says there is credible evidence that Russian forces have been rounding up people in areas of Ukraine’s south and east and detaining them in “filtration camps,” where they are interrogated. Ambassador Michael Carpenter told the Permanent Council …
Read More »Former Marine Killed, British Citizens Detained in Ukraine
A former U.S. Marine was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces as Russia launched new attacks in eastern Ukraine, shortly after two British citizens were detained at a checkpoint inside the country. Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed on Monday, …
Read More »DOJ’s Garland Wants to Use ‘KleptoCapture’ Proceeds to Send Oligarch Assets to Ukraine
The U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said this week that the Biden administration supports legislation that calls for some of the proceeds being seized from Russian oligarchs to go directly to Ukraine. “That’s not the current circumstance,” Garland told the Senate Appropriations Committee as lawmakers questioned him about the property …
Read More »Mali’s Junta Rulers Slam France for Filming Wagner Mercs as They Staged a ‘Mass Grave’
Mali’s military government has accused France of spying after the French military released drone video of what it said were Russian mercenaries staging a mass grave near a military base the French handed back to Mali. Mali’s military government on Tuesday night accused France of spying and deliberately violating its …
Read More »Prisoner Swap: US, Russia Trade Former Marine Trevor Reed for Convicted Drug Smuggler Konstantin Yaroshenko
Amid worsening relations between Washington and Moscow, the U.S. has completed a prisoner swap involving two imprisoned citizens. The swapped prisoners are Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, jailed on U.S. drug-smuggling charges, and former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, jailed in Russia on charges of assaulting police. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on …
Read More »Jihadists Say They Captured Russian Wagner Fighters in Mali
by Gatimu Juma A Mali jihadist group claimed that it captured a fighter from Russia’s privately owned Wagner military group. “In the first week of April, (we) captured a soldier of the Russian Wagner forces in the Segou region in central Mali,” the GSIM (the Group to Support Islam and …
Read More »Moscow Aims to Capture Moldava’s Breakaway Transdniester Region, Russian Commander Says
Full control of southern Ukraine was a strategic goal to allow access to Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniester, according to the acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District, Rustam Minnekayev. Minnekayev’s comments were the most detailed public description yet of Russia’s goals in the second phase of its invasion …
Read More »Ukraine Retakes Three Villages Near Russian Border, Official Says
The head of the Kharkiv regional administration, Oleh Sinehubov, said on his Telegram channel that Ukrainian forces had retaken at least three villages near the Russian border after “fierce battles.” British military intelligence said early on April 23 that Russian invasion forces appeared to have made no major gains in …
Read More »Easter Services in Kyiv: A Soldier Lights a Candle
SoF correspondent Owen Thorne sends this report, written in haste on Easter Sunday in Ukraine. Easter services in Kyiv brought citizens and soldiers together to worship and give thanks. It was a solemn respite from war. One soldier in uniform and a headscarf lit a candle inside the church. She …
Read More »Evacuation From Mariupol: Latest Attempt to Pull Civilians From War Zone Fails
A new attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol appears to have failed, with local officials laying the blame on Russian forces who reportedly attacked a metals plant where desperate Ukrainian defenders are holding out in the devastated southeastern port city. The report of a fresh effort to storm the Azovstal …
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