CNBC:

Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s office, said that Kyiv is working to involve as many countries as possible in the talks, which are slated to take place in Jeddah.

“President Zelenskyy said that our choice is to unite the world around Ukraine. The evidence of this choice is clear: We are engaging countries from the West, East, North and South,” Yermak said during a meeting with Ukrainian officials.

Oh what a delightful tea party it must have been! Too bad the Russians were not invited. They were too busy fighting and winning the war we started in Ukraine when we sponsored the coup to topple Ukraine’s constitutional, democratically-elected government in 2014.

Yahoo! News:

After a first phase marked by slow progress and heavy equipment losses, Ukraine has regrouped to launch a second, more forceful thrust to reclaim its territory. The purpose of the new counteroffensive is to smash through Russia’s fortified positions in the Zaporizhzhia region on the occupied nation’s eastern border.

If the Ukrainian charge can pry an opening in the Russian defenses and reach the Azov Sea, the Kremlin could see its grip on the four regions it illegally annexed last year weakened by the time cold weather arrives and the fighting slows.

How embarrassing. A couple of days ago, we were witnessing the “main thrust” of the doomed spring counteroffensive of the US/EU/NATO proxy army in Ukraine. Now, I guess, our imperial war planners have realized their own failure, and so we are supposed to pretend like a completely different counteroffensive has been planned and launched. But it’s the exact same thing. And it’s still going to fail.

See also: Does Ukraine Have A Second Summer Push Up Its Sleeve?

The New York Times:

Ukraine has launched the main thrust of its counteroffensive, throwing in thousands of troops held in reserve, many of them Western-trained and equipped, two Pentagon officials said on Wednesday, hours after Russian officials reported major Ukrainian attacks in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

A spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said the Ukrainians had mounted a “massive” assault with three battalions, reinforced with tanks, south of the town of Orikhiv, and then another a few miles farther south near the village of Robotyne, according to the state news agency Tass. Both were repelled, the ministry said.

Other American officials cautioned that the latest Ukrainian attack might be preparatory operations for the main thrust or perhaps just reinforcements to replenish war-weary units.

The previous strategy of sending a steady flow of Ukrainians to die for nothing at the foot of Russia’s multi-layered defenses did nothing to facilitate the promised capture of Crimea from Russia. So the doomed Ukrainian spring counteroffensive was paused. After much brainstorming, the US/EU/NATO cabal’s puppet government in Ukraine has settled on an updated strategy of blowing its wad.

The Hill:

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, two Ukrainian unmanned combat aerial vehicles attempted to attack facilities early Monday morning in Moscow but were stopped by radio-electronic warfare systems. No casualties were reported, though two nonresidential buildings were struck.  

The Russian Foreign Ministry said a “helicopter-type drone,” with no explosives also fell on a cemetery in the city of Zelenograd.

Separately, Russian authorities claimed Kyiv launched drones in Russian-annexed Crimea, hitting an ammunition depot and causing a traffic backup on a major highway and a railway crossing in the Black Sea peninsula. There were no casualties reported, but a private home was damaged by drone fragments.

As our doomed spring counteroffensive in Ukraine continues to fail, our puppet government in Ukraine is wasting vital drone resources on symbolic acts of terrorism in Russia. Apart from provoking much more devastating retaliatory attacks from Russia, these attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure can only achieve the political objective of terrorizing Russian civilians. We can deny that we condone these attacks, but these attacks only happen because we ensure that they do happen.

See also:
–Iran Helping Russia Build Drone Stockpile That Is Expected To Be ‘Orders Of Magnitude Larger’ Than Previous Arsenal, US Says
–Analysis: Russia’s Danube Attacks Tighten Noose On Ukraine’s Grain Sector

The Hill:

U.S. intelligence officials told reporters on Friday that there is ‘no reason to doubt’ Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims that he moved nuclear weapons into Belarus, according to CNN.

Senior Defense Intelligence Agency officials also said they don’t believe the movement alters the global nuclear landscape or increases the risk of nuclear attack, the outlet reported.

Putin announced in June that Russia had delivered its first nuclear warheads into Belarus as part of a plan to deploy tactical nuclear bombs in the country bordering Ukraine.

“This is a deterrence measure [against] all those who think about Russia and its strategic defeat,” he said at the time.

The Russian president also claimed that it was only “the first batch,” the Russian state-run outlet TASS reported. “We will complete this work by the end of this year.”

There is roughly a zero percent chance that President Putin would authorize an unprovoked attack on Poland. It is almost certain that if the Poland-Belarus powder keg does explode, it is because the US federal government chose to explode it.

See also:
–Tensions Heat Up Between Russia And Poland
–Putin, Lukashenko To Meet After Russia Warns About Aggression Against Belarus

Reuters:

President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused NATO member Poland of having territorial ambitions in the former Soviet Union, and said any aggression against Russia’s neighbour and close ally Belarus would be considered an attack on Russia.

Warsaw’s Security Committee decided on Wednesday to move military units to eastern Poland after members of the Russian Wagner mercenary force arrived in Belarus, the state-run news agency PAP quoted its secretary as saying on Friday.

Poland denies any territorial ambitions in Belarus.

In his remarks Putin had also stated that the western part of Poland was a gift from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to the country and that Russia would remind Poles about it.

Belarus is Russia.

See also:
–Belarus Says Wagner Fighters Are Training Troops On The Polish Border
–Poland To Move Soldiers To East Of Country Due To Wagner Risks, State News Agency Reports

WSET:

On Wednesday, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine applauded the Senate’s vote to formally add a bipartisan bill to explicitly prohibit any President of the United States from withdrawing from NATO without Senate approval or an Act of Congress to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Senator Kaine and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), reintroduced the bill earlier this month.

Kaine and Rubio’s amendment would require the U.S. President to consult with and gain consent from the Senate before taking any steps to suspend, terminate, or withdraw U.S. membership from NATO. In the event that a President attempts to withdraw from the alliance without the necessary approval, the legislation explicitly forbids the use of any funding for this purpose. The bill would also grant Congressional Legal Counsel the authority to challenge the Administration’s actions in court.

These two Neoconservative senators, with their Congressional Neocon and Globalist cohorts, must be concerned about the possibility of President Donald Trump returning to office and finally advancing the actual interests of the Americans.

MarketWatch:

Russia followed its withdrawal from a grain export deal by expanding its attacks from port infrastructure to farm storage buildings in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Friday, while also practicing a Black Sea blockade.

Other Russian missiles damaged what officials described only as an “important infrastructure facility” southwest of the port city of Odesa, in what appeared to be an effort to cripple Ukraine’s food exports.

If we would have wanted Ukraine to keep its coastline, then we would have fulfilled our obligations to Russia under the grain export deal.

See also:
–Russia Batters Ukraine’s Grain Infrastructure For 4th Night
–Is Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Failing? Defense Experts Say The Risks Facing Kyiv Are Growing

AFP:

Kyiv on Thursday put ships in the Black Sea headed for Russian-controlled ports on alert, as Moscow hit the Ukrainian ports of Mykolaiv and Odesa with drones and missiles in another night of “hellish” strikes.

Ukraine said it would treat the ships as potential carriers of military cargo, mirroring a move made by Russia after it withdrew from a key grain export deal.

As an enlisted surface warfare specialist of the United States Navy, I have a hunch that the Russian Navy will not be defeated with a hastily-supplied, limited amount of cluster bombs. That is not to say that the US/EU/NATO axis does not have assets in place to specifically to harass the Russian Navy.

Reuters:

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday it would deem all ships travelling to Ukrainian ports to be potential carriers of military cargo and their flag countries to be parties to the conflict on the Ukrainian side.

The move follows Russia’s decision this week to pull out of the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain export deal which had guaranteed the safety of Ukrainian exports for the past year.

“In connection with the termination of the Black Sea Initiative and the end of the maritime humanitarian corridor, from 00.00 Moscow time on July 20, 2023 (2100 GMT on Wednesday) all ships proceeding to Ukrainian ports in Black Sea waters will be considered as potential carriers of military cargo,” the ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

One of the main reasons why the US and its Euro peons orchestrated the coup which toppled the constitutional, democratically-elected government of Ukraine in 2014 was to deprive Russia of its Black Sea Fleet homeport in Crimea. The grand result of the incredibly stupid project is that our puppet government in Ukraine will be landlocked.

The New York Sun:

The Russian defense ministry said its “strike of retribution” was carried out with sea-launched precision weapons on Ukrainian military facilities near Odessa and Mykolaiv, a coastal city to the northeast.

It destroyed facilities preparing “terror attacks” against Russia involving maritime drones, including a facility at a shipyard that was producing them, the ministry said. It added that it also struck Ukrainian fuel depots near the two cities.

The US/EU/NATO puppet government in Ukraine will not need to control Odessa, now that the grain export deal is history.

CNN:

On his Telegram channel, Vladimir Konstantinov, head of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea, blamed the damage to the bridge on a Ukrainian attack.

“Tonight the terrorist regime in Kyiv committed a new crime – it attacked the Crimean bridge,” Konstantinov said.

“The railroad track was not damaged by the strike,” Konstantinov added.

For Russia’s ability to hold Crimea in the face of the Ukrainian onslaught, this attack will prove to be a minor inconvenience.

See also: Ukraine War: Vladimir Putin Vows Response After ‘Terrorist’ Attack On Crimea Bridge

ABC News:

After Russia announced it would end its participation in a critical deal that has allowed ships to safely export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, top Biden administration officials on Monday accused Moscow of weaponizing food.

But even as they denounced the decision, they signaled there was little the U.S. could do alleviate the hunger crisis in Africa and the Middle East they said Russia’s move would only exacerbate.

US citizens blast US officials’ decision to start a war of NATO expansionism against Russia, thereby presenting an existential threat to Russia, and necessitating Russia’s decision to exit Ukraine grain export deal.

It is not like the Russians can deal with us in good faith, anyway. Plus, they are going to need everyone out of the way for their upcoming operations around Odessa.

The New York Times:

In the first two weeks of Ukraine’s grueling counteroffensive, as much as 20 percent of the weaponry it sent to the battlefield was damaged or destroyed, according to American and European officials. The toll includes some of the formidable Western fighting machines — tanks and armored personnel carriers — the Ukrainians were counting on to beat back the Russians.

The startling rate of losses dropped to about 10 percent in the ensuing weeks, the officials said, preserving more of the troops and machines needed for the major offensive push that the Ukrainians say is still to come.

Some of the improvement came because Ukraine changed tactics, focusing more on wearing down the Russian forces with artillery and long-range missiles than charging into enemy minefields and fire.

But that good news obscures some grim realities. The losses have also slowed because the counteroffensive itself has slowed — and even halted in places — as Ukrainian soldiers struggle against Russia’s formidable defenses.

The doomed Ukrainian spring counteroffensive was never going to work. We are sending out lots of Ukrainians to die for nothing, and we know it.

The New York Times:

Belarus’s Ministry of Defense said Friday that soldiers from Russia’s Wagner military company were training its security forces, offering a rare if vague sign of the group’s presence in the country after its failed uprising against Moscow last month.

President Putin asked Wagner to merge into the Russian military as a unit, but “Prigozhin rejected” the offer. Now Wagner is in Belarus, serving multiple purposes. They are training and modernizing the Belarusian military, while serving as the foreign legion of Belarus’ Russia-friendly government. They have also — if English-language Ukrainian media can be believed — freed up the contingent of Russian military forces deployed in Ukraine.

The mere presence of Russian forces in Belarus has caused the US/EU/NATO puppet government of Ukraine to divert vital resources away from the south and eastern front. Wagner can achieve the same goal while modernizing the Belarusian military; while also standing ready to deploy anywhere in Belarus to squash domestic uprisings or to halt foreign incursions.

Reuters:

Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said on Wednesday that he and CIA counterpart William Burns had discussed “what to do with Ukraine” in a phone call late last month, Russia’s TASS news agency said.

Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in February 2022, says other countries should not negotiate its future on its behalf, and the United States has repeatedly backed this principle, described as “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine”.

This is another positive development. We know we have lost Ukraine, and the time is approaching for us to wash our hands of the mess we made there.

CBS News:

The announcement by the G7 leaders came on the final day of the NATO leaders summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where one day earlier, the alliance declared that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO.” But the members declined to provide a timeline for when an invitation would be extended, saying only that would occur when Ukraine makes several reforms and allied countries “agree and conditions are met.”

Zelenskyy was critical of the joint statement, saying in a tweet Tuesday that it was “unprecedented and absurd” that there was no defined timeframe regarding Ukraine’s admittance to NATO. But on Wednesday, he acknowledged in a tweet that his country understands “that Ukraine cannot become a member of NATO while there is a war ongoing.”

This will also not result in a victory for the US/EU/NATO puppet government in Ukraine.

See also: ‘Very Dangerous’: Russia Slams G7 Security Assurances To Ukraine

The Wall Street Journal:

Allies repeat promise the war-torn country will join alliance but don’t say when.

The doomed Ukrainian spring counteroffensive has failed.

See also:
–Nato’s Decision Not To Allow Ukraine To Join Military Alliance Angers Zelensky
–Ukraine Shouldn’t Treat Allies Like Amazon: UK Defense Chief
–White House Says It Deserves ‘Gratitude’ From Ukraine For Billions Spent On War After Zelensky NATO Criticism
–Zelenskyy Now Celebrating NATO Security Commitments