First, links to reports from the Associated Press and National Public Radio; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. Next, two videos, one 13 minutes long and one 23 minutes long, from pro-Ukrainian commentators, with a brief introduction by an American observer who supplied them to me. Then, via Popular Resistance, commentary by a longtime participant in and observer of U.S. foreign policy.  — MCM

–   –   –

Russian strikes hit Ukraine, most of Kyiv without water, by Andrew Meldrum, Sam Mednick and Hanna Arhirova | AP  KYIV — A massive barrage of Russian strikes this morning hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities, knocking out water and power supplies . . . . Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces carried out “strikes with long-range high-precision air and sea-based weapons against the military command and energy systems of . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Understanding the Biden administration’s approach to diplomacy with Russia. Ayesha Rascoe of NPR talks with Heather Conley, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, about the Biden administration’s approach to diplomacy with Russia. Click HERE to listen and read.

–   –   –

Two presentations from the weekend. “You might find interesting as I do a couple of pro-Ukrainian, pro-West daily YouTube battlefield reports. I just watched these two. I check out also two pro-Russia sites, including SouthFront. There’s spin everywhere but we have to work our way through it in such ways, I think.” Smotri Media, Catastrophic Losses after failed Russian attack — Ukraine War Map Update, Day 249: Ukrainian Battle Map, Oct 30, 2022. 30/Oct/2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF_-fXThVLE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7m8DsmOTok

–   –   –

Ukraine: Will U.S. back off as Russia did on Cuba? by Ray McGovern | Antiwar.com / Popular Resistance Sixty years ago last Friday, on Oct. 28, 1962,. the U.S. and Russia stepped back from the brink of nuclear war by making a deal. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would yield to President John F. Kennedy’s demand that Soviet missiles be removed from Cuba; Kennedy pledged not to invade. . . . In One Hell of a Gamble: The Secret History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, authors Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali call particular attention to one exceedingly important fact; namely . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

TO BE CONTINUED