First, links to reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, National Public Radio, and the Washington Post; others are accessible by clicking on their names below. Then, via Popular Resistance, links to posts from Moon of Alabama, Chris Hedges, and Mitchell Plitnick. — MCM

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Russia strikes south Ukraine city, presses attacks in east, by Cara Anna | The Associated Press POKROVSK, Ukraine — Russian missiles hit industrial facilities at a strategic city in southern Ukraine today as Moscow continued efforts to expand its gains in the country’s east. Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that the Russian missiles struck an industrial and infrastructure facility in the city, a key shipbuilding center in the estuary of the Southern Bug river. . . . Mykolaiv has faced regular Russian missile strikes in recent weeks. . . . The Russian military has declared a goal to cut off Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast all the way to the Romanian border. If successful . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russia preparing for next stage of offensive, Ukraine says, by Tom Balmforth and Max Hunder | Reuters * Russia shelling ‘along the entire front line’ – Ukraine military * Russia regrouping for offensive toward Sloviansk, Kyiv says * Moscow orders steps to prevent Ukrainian strikes in east * Russia reinforcing positions in south – Britain | KYIV — Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”. Russian rockets and missiles have pounded cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed dozens in recent days. “It is not only missile strikes from the air and sea,” Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russian missiles are blasting civilians in Ukraine. Reported by Jason Beaubien | National Public Radio KREMENCHUK, Ukraine —Despite regularly proclaiming that it does not attack civilian targets, Russia has obliterated apartment buildings across the country, bombed theaters and destroyed museums, in addition to blowing up shopping malls in Ukraine. United Nations human rights experts have counted almost 5,000 civilians killed and more than 6,000 injured since the start of the war in February. Just days . . . Click HERE to listen and read.

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Ukrainian villagers flee Russian-occupied Kherson on foot, bike and wheelchair. Reported by Emily Feng and Kateryna Malofieieva | NPR  ZELENODOLSK, Ukraine — More than 15 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since Russia invaded in late February, according to the United Nations. Many have fled abroad, while others have sought shelter in other parts of the country, escaping towns devastated by incessant bombardments or gripped by Russian military control. Each day, a stream of people displaced by war arrives in the southern village of Zelenodolsk, under Ukrainian control. It’s a cluster of austere, concrete buildings located . . . Click HERE to listen and read.

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White House says Russian officials visited Iran twice to examine drones. By Ellen Francis, Andrew Jeong and Tyler Pager | The Washington Post The White House said Saturday it gathered intelligence that Russian officials recently visited an airfield in Iran twice to examine drones they are considering acquiring for the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. The Iranian military showcased the drones on June 8 and July 5 at Kashan airfield, which suggested “ongoing Russian interest” in procuring the equipment, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement. The White House released . . . READ MORE . . .

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NYT Reports ‘Strikes on Civilians’ that Happen to Hit Military Targets, by Moon of Alabama | Educate! Just last week the New York Times reported of a Russian strike ‘on civilians’ in Chasiv Yar even as its own reporter at the location acknowledged in a detailed separate report that the apartment complex that was hit was mostly housing military forces. On Friday a Russian missile strike hit the town of Vinnytsia in western Ukraine. The New York Times is again lamenting about a damage to civilian buildings even as the main target was obviously a military . . . READ MORE . . .

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War With Iran, by Chris Hedges | Scheer Post / Educate!  The United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia are plotting a war with Iran. The 2015 Iranian nuclear arms accord, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Donald Trump sabotaged, does not look like it will be revived. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is reviewing options to attack if Teheran looks poised to obtain a nuclear weapon and Israel, which opposes U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations, carries out military strikes. During his visit to Israel, Biden. . . READ MORE . . .

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Biden’s Words Make War with Iran More Likely, by Mitchell Plitnick | Mondoweiss / Educate! Joe Biden sat down for a wide-ranging interview with an Israeli television station. In it, there were two chilling statements regarding Iran. When asked if he was prepared to walk away from the Iran nuclear deal (or JCPOA) if the only way to close the deal was to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) he said, simply, “Yes.” And when . . . READ MORE . . .

First, links to reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, and National Public Radio; others are accessible by clicking on their names below. Then, a link to a Washington Post columnist seeing Russia “in slow-motion collapse, [with] too few people to protect it. Putin plays his hand boldly. But he’s holding fewer high cards than it might appear.” Next, a link to how one economist sees a potential basket of opportunities for China’s activity worldwide.— MCM

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Renewed Russian attacks strike several areas of Ukraine, by Cara Anna | The Associated Press KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Russia stepped up its onslaught against Ukraine today, with civilian casualties reported in several areas. . . . At least three civilians were killed and three more were injured in a Russian rocket strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Chuhuiv in the early hours, a regional police chief said. . . . In the neighboring Sumy region . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russia pounds Ukrainian cities, says it is stepping up operations, by Tom Balmforth and Max Hunder | Reuters * Southern city latest target of long-range bombardment * Around 40 killed in bombardments since Thursday, says Ukraine * Russia says it is stepping up operations to protect capture territory * Agreement close on lifting blockade on Ukrainian grain exports * War overshadows G20 meet | KYIV — Russian rockets hit a southern Ukrainian city on Saturday in the latest in a series of bombardments that Ukraine says have killed dozens of people in recent days, while the defence ministry in Moscow said its forces had been ordered to step up operations. Two people were killed in the southern city of Nikopol, on the Dnipro River, emergency services said, after . . . READ MORE . . .

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Chechen soldiers join Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Reported by Emily Feng | National Public Radio Soldiers from Chechnya, a Muslim territory, are part of the foreign fight against Russia in Ukraine. Russia brutally suppressed them in two wars, and their presence echoes old hatreds in Ukraine. Click HERE to listen and read.

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Ukrainians from war-torn cities wonder if they’ll ever be able to return home. Reported by Joanna Kakissis | NPR Ukrainian officials promise to rebuild and revitalize Mariupol —  which Russian forces have destroyed and now occupy. Some who fled the city doubt they will ever return. Click HERE to listen and, one day, read.

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Putin’s long game in Ukraine may not play out as he predicts, by David Ignatius | The Washington Post President Vladimir Putin is betting that a long war in Ukraine will exhaust his adversaries sooner than it does Russia. . . . The West’s trump card is its fundamental economic strength — if it can summon the will to exercise it. President Biden said on Feb. 24, the day the war began, that he would “impose severe costs on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time. … We’re going to impair their ability to compete in a high-tech 21st-century economy”. This threat of an ever-tightening squeeze on Russia’s economy . . . READ MORE . . .

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China to the rescue? By Branko Milanovic | Social Europe / IPS Journal The war between Russia and Ukraine, which has already lasted more than a hundred days with no end in sight, has been nothing short of disastrous. It has resulted in thousands (probably more than a hundred thousand) deaths and injuries, more than five million refugees, destruction of significant parts of Ukrainian territory and likely losses in gross domestic product of more than a third in Ukraine and around 10 per cent in Russia. It has exacerbated inflation in western Europe and the United States. Ideologically, it has led to a Tsarist-like revival of Russian nationalism and a return to a 1950s-style cold-war mentality in the west. And the effects keep piling . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

The essay that begins below was published by Consortium News two days ago. — MCM

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The Imaginary War

By Patrick Lawrence

What were the policy cliques, “the intelligence community” and the press that serves both going to do when the kind of war in Ukraine they talked incessantly about turned out to be imaginary, a Marvel Comics of a conflict with little grounding in reality? I have wondered about this since the Russian intervention began on Feb. 24. I knew the answer would be interesting when finally we had one.

Now we have one. Taking the government-supervised New York Times as a guide, the result is a variant of what we saw as the Russiagate fiasco came unglued: Those who manufacture orthodoxies as well as consent are slithering out the side door.

I could tell you I don’t intend to single out the Times in this wild chicanery, except that I do. The once-but-no-longer newspaper of record continues to be singularly wicked in its deceits and deceptions as it imposes the official but imaginary version of the war on unsuspecting readers.

As Consortium News’s properly suspecting readers will recall, Vladimir Putin was clear when he told the world Russia’s intentions as it began its intervention. These were two: Russian forces went into Ukraine to “demilitarize and de–Nazify” it, a pair of limited, defined objectives.

An astute reader of these commentaries pointed out in a recent comment thread that the Russian president had once again proven, whatever else one may think of him, a focused statesman with an excellent grasp of history. At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Allied Control Council declared its postwar purpose in Germany as “the four D’s.”  These were de–Nazification, demilitarization, democratization and decentralization.

Let’s give David Thompson, who brought this historical reference to my attention, a deserved byline here:

“Putin’s reiteration of the de–Nazification and demilitarization principles established from the Potsdam Conference is not just some quaint tip of the hat to history. He was laying down a marker to the United States and the United Kingdom that the agreement reached at Potsdam in 1945 is still relevant and valid ….”

The Russian president, whose entire argument with the West is that a just and stable order in Europe must serve the security interests of all sides, was simply restating objectives the trans–Atlantic alliance had once signed on to accomplish. In other words, he was pointing out said alliance’s gross hypocrisy as it arms the ideological descendants of German Nazis.

I dwell on this matter because the imaginary war began with the Biden regime’s and the press’s quite irresponsible misrepresentations of the Russian Federation’s aims in Ukraine. All else has flowed from it.

You remember: Russian forces were going to “conquer” the whole of the nation, wipe out the Kiev regime, install a puppet government and then drive on to Poland, the Baltic states, Transnistria and the rest of Moldova, and who could imagine . . . READ MORE . . .

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Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, is a columnist, essayist, author and lecturer. His most recent book is Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. Follow him on Twitter @thefloutist. His web site is Patrick Lawrence.

For now, links to reports from the Associated Press, National Public Radio, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters; others are accessible by clicking on their names below. Then, links to two articles by author and blogger Stephen Gowans; the first concerns journalist Eva Bartlett, a subject of commentary posted here yesterday; in the second, Gowan describes how he sees an outlawed Ukrainian communist party as officially sizing up Western and Russian motives in the war.  — MCM

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Ukrainian rescue teams hunt for survivors in Vinnytsia, by Hanna Arhirova | The Associated Press VINNYTSIA, Ukraine — Rescue teams with sniffer dogs combed through debris in a central Ukrainian city today looking for people still missing after a Russian missile strike Thursday that killed at least 23 people. Russian forces, meanwhile, pounded other sites in a painstaking push to wrest territory from Ukraine and try to soften unbending morale of its leaders, civilians and troops as the war nears the five-month mark. The cruise missile strikes on Vinnytsia launched by a Russian submarine on Thursday were the latest incidents to take civilian . . . READ MORE . . .

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Updates from Vinnitsyia, Ukraine after a deadly rocket attack. Reported by Brian Mann | National Public Radio U.S. officials say there’s also growing evidence Russia is forcibly relocating hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from territory they’ve captured. Click HERE to listen and, tomorrow, read.

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Search Operations Continue After Deadly Russian Strikes on Ukraine’s Vinnytsia, by Frankie Taggart and Cecile Feuillatre | Agence France-Presse Ukrainian rescuers today continued search operations in the central city of Vinnytsia, where Russian strikes killed at least 23 people, including children. The charred remains of upturned cars surrounded by burnt debris were seen in images distributed by officials following the attack on Thursday on the city hundreds of kilometers from the front lines. In his daily address to the nation late Thursday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the toll was likely to rise. Dozens are still missing and many hospitalized in critical . . . READ MORE . . .

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Briton dies in detention in breakaway east Ukraine region. From Reuters. — A Briton who was detained by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine and accused of being a mercenary has died, an official in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said today. The death of Paul Urey, 45, was confirmed by a British charity which described him as a humanitarian worker and denied he had any military background. Urey was captured in southeast Ukraine in late April while attempting to help a woman who had been given permission to travel to Britain leave Russian-controlled territory, said . . . READ MORE . . .

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What’s motivating the foreigners who have gone to Ukraine to fight against Russia.  Reported by Ryan Lucas | NPR The U.S. State Department says it is “aware of unconfirmed reports of two U.S. citizens captured in Ukraine.” They are believed to among the thousands of foreigners who have gone to fight in Ukraine. Click HERE to listen and read.

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Eva Bartlett and the Pleasures and Displeasures of ‘Independent Journalism,’ by Stephen Gowans | What’s Left When I recently described a report Eva wrote from Mariupol, I said it was propaganda for the billionaires’ government of Russia. I do believe that that is what it is. I don’t mean, however, that she is in the employ of the Russian government; only that her agenda is the same. My motive in impugning Eva’s report was to raise legitimate questions that are all too infrequently asked about the kind of journalism Eva practices, and about journalism more generally. The first question is . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukraine Communists’ View of the War in their Country and How to End It, by Stephen Gowans | What’s Left The Union of Communists of Ukraine (UCU), a communist party banned in Ukraine, published a statement on the war in their country on SolidNet, subsequently republished in English on The Defense of Communism site on July 12, 2022. The following is a summary of the party’s analysis, which closely follows the classical Marxist view of imperialism. The UCU characterizes the war in Ukraine as a clash of two imperialist alliances: One led by the United States, and the other led by Russia. The UCU contests the reasons offered for war on both sides. From the Russia side . . . READ MORE . . .

The passage below is from the preface of a textbook on reporting and writing.* — MCM

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Learning to report accurately and to write precisely and vigorously are no simple tasks. The young man or woman who would join the ranks of journalists must learn and then put into practice principles and concepts that have been developed over the years by practitioners who understand first, that truth is elusive and second, that its capture on paper require mastery of a demanding discipline.

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* News Reporting and Writing, 7th Edition, by Melvin Mencher (Brown & Benchmark Publishers, 1997)

First, links to reports from Reuters, the Associated Press, National Public Radio, and the Moscow Times; others are accessible by clicking on their names below. Then, a link to a Global Research article decrying commentary on CBC questioning the independence of a Canadian journalist reporting from Ukraine. — MCM

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Russia in deadly strike on Ukrainian city a day after grain talks breakthrough, by Max Hunder and Pavel Polityuk | Reuters * Russian missiles hit central Ukrainian city * Ukraine says at least 12 killed in strike * No immediate comment from Moscow * Ukraine says it repels assaults in the east | KYIV — Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia far behind the frontlines on Thursday in an attack which Ukrainian officials said had left at least 12 people dead, including a small child. The strike, which Ukraine said had also wounded dozens, came a day after a breakthrough in talks between Moscow and Kyiv to unblock Ukrainian grain exports and underscored how far the two countries remain from . . . READ MORE . . .

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In Ukraine war, a race to acquire smarter, deadlier drones, by Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Frank Bajak | The Associated Press KYIV — Drone camera footage defines much of the public’s view of the war in Ukraine: grenades quietly dropped on unwitting soldiers, eerie flights over silent, bombed-out cities, armor and outposts exploding into fireballs. Never in the history of warfare have drones been used as intensively as in Ukraine, where . . . READ MORE . . .

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Germany rushes to decouple itself from Russian gas. Reported by ROB SCHMITZ | National Public Radio Germany is scrambling to build infrastructure to replace its dependence on Russian gas. NPR’s Rob Schmitz reports that time is not on its side. Click HERE to listen and, tomorrow, read.

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Russian Lawmakers Hold Snap Summer Session as War, Economic Issues Loom, by Anastasia Tenisheva | The Moscow Times Russia’s lower house of parliament will gather for an “extraordinary” meeting Friday amid speculation that deputies could sign off on a major policy announcement or government reshuffle. The meeting comes as Russia faces mounting domestic and foreign policy problems, from the dragging war in Ukraine to the economic fallout of sanctions. But the suddenness of the decision to recall parliament . . . READ MORE . . .

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‘One-sided News on Ukraine’: Open Letter to CBC on Its Defamation of Eva Bartlett, by Karin Brothers | Global Research On the morning of July 6th, the CBC crossed the line from merely putting out its usual one-sided news on Ukraine to a defamatory attack on independent journalists who report live from the Donbass. While they named Americans John Mark Dougan and Patrick Lancaster, they reserved particular venom for the highly-respected Canadian Eva Bartlett. The National News anchor Ian Hanomansing featured Justin Ling, a writer who has written hit pieces on journalists whose accounts counter state propaganda. They suggested . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

To begin, links to reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, and National Public Radio; click on their names below for others. Then, via Global Research, a link to a piece by the founder and president of the International Movement for a Just World. — MCM

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Minister: Ukraine needs assurances to resume grain exports, by Oleksandr Stashevskyi, Hanna Arhirova and Maria Grazia Murru | The Associated Press KYIV — The Ukrainian foreign minister says grain exports from his country’s ports won’t resume without security guarantees for ship owners, cargo owners and Ukraine as an independent nation. Military officials from Russia and Ukraine held their governments’ first face-to-face talks in months today. They met in Istanbul to discuss a United Nations plan for getting blocked Ukrainian grain to world markets through the Black Sea. Speaking . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukraine targets grain exports breakthrough at four-way talks, by Yesim Dikmen and Ali Kucukgocmen | Reuters * Kyiv upbeat as Istanbul talks resume * 20m tonnes of grain blocked in Odesa * Russia says it has worries on arms smuggling * Says it also needs some sanctions relief | ISTANBUL — Ukraine said today that an agreement to resume grain exports blocked by Russia appeared close as four-way talks began in Turkey, raising hopes of an end to a standoff that has exposed millions to the risk of starvation. Kyiv believed a deal was just “two steps away”, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was quoted as saying, though other participants seemed less optimistic. Several Ukrainian cities meanwhile . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed Somalia towards famine. Reported by Leila Fadel | National Public Radio Russia and Ukraine previously provided nearly all of Somalia’s wheat. Now, the country is on the brink of famine. Click HERE to listen and, tomorrow, read.

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Ukrainian rail service adds a special train to get people out of Donbas. Reported by Eleanor Beardsley | NPR Russia is pounding eastern Ukraine as it tries to consolidate its control of the entire Donbas region. To help get people the out, the Ukrainian rail service has added a special train from the Donbas. Click HERE to listen and read.

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How Russia’s current war in Ukraine echoes its Crimean War of the 1850s. Reported by Greg Myre | NPR KYIV — Here’s a widely held view of Russia’s war: Russia had a more powerful army and expected a quick victory. It didn’t think Western powers would intervene. Yet a poorly planned military campaign led to a fight much tougher than expected. To be clear, we’re not talking about Russia’s current war in Ukraine. We’re talking about Russia’s war in Crimea in the 1850s. Even if you’re not familiar with the Crimean War . . . Click HERE to listen and read.

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What’s ahead as Biden arrives in Israel for his first trip as President. Reported by Asma Khalid | NPR President Biden lands in Israel today, a country he first visited as a young senator about 50 years ago. Click HERE to listen and, tomorrow, read.

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Ukraine and NATO’s Hardline Position on Expansion: End the War, Lift the Sanctions, Initiate Peace Negotiations, by Dr. Chandra Muzaffar | Global Research Thousands have been killed so far on both sides. Among Ukrainians both soldiers and civilians are victims. Russian casualties have been mainly soldiers. . . . [also] massive infrastructure destruction in Ukraine. The outflow of refugees from Ukraine to Poland and other European countries has been heart breaking. The other consequence of the war has been the imposition of severe economic sanctions upon Russia by the United States of America and other Western . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

First, links to reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, and National Public Radio; for others, click on their names below. Then links to a pair of posts by Caitlin Johnstone. Finally, a link to one by Chris Hedges (also promoted by Johnstone, Popular Resistance, and Consortium News). — MCM

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Ukraine reports striking Russian ammunition depot in south, by Maria Grazia Murru  | The Associated Press KYIV — Ukrainian authorities said today that their forces targeted a Russian ammunition depot in southern Ukraine overnight, resulting in a massive explosion captured on social media. The Ukrainian military’s southern command said a rocket strike targeted the depot in Russian-held Nova Kakhovka, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) east of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, which is also occupied by Russian forces. The precision of the strike . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukrainian rockets hit Russian-controlled area as Kyiv readies southern counter-attack, by Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk | Reuters * Ukraine strikes Russia-controlled Kherson region * Says it kills 52 Russians, destroys hardware * Russian-installed official says civilians hurt too * Says at least seven people killed * Ukraine planning counter attack to retake south KYIV — Ukraine said today it had carried out a long-range rocket strike against Russian forces and military equipment in southern Ukraine, territory it says it is planning to retake in a counter-offensive using hundreds of thousands of troops. According to Ukraine, the strike hit an ammunition dump in the town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region and killed 52 Russians. It came after Washington supplied Ukraine with HIMARS mobile artillery systems which Kyiv says . . . READ MORE . . .

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A new reality reverberates through Russia’s music scene. Reported by Alina Selyukh | National Public Radio The day singer-songwriter Manizha Sangin was supposed to headline a June music festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, she went instead to a shelter housing Ukrainian refugees. A week earlier, the festival had abruptly removed her from its lineup — the second to do so. Soon, her July solo show in Moscow was also canceled . . . Click HERE to listen and read.

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The latest on Russia’s war with Ukraine. Reported by Jason Beaubien | NPR At least 30 people have been killed in a missile strike in Chasiv Yar in Ukraine. Airstrikes in the east have continued despite Russia pausing its offensive. Click HERE to listen and, tomorrow, read.

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What’s on Biden’s agenda for his first Middle East trip as president. Steve Inskeep of NPR speaks with Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics, about the president’s goals on his upcoming trip to the Middle East. Click HERE to listen and, tomorrow, read.

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Three Illuminating Quotes About The War In Ukraine, passed along by Caitlin Johnstone | caitlinjohnstone.com Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, and Chris Hedges have lent their expertise to the subject of the war in Ukraine with some recent comments that help bring some much-needed clarity to an often confusing and always contentious issue. Here they are: Click HERE to read more and listen.

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Political False Dichotomies: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, by Caitlin Johnstone | caitlinjohnstone.com The empire relies on false political dichotomies like Democrats vs Republicans to keep everyone fighting over issues which don’t affect the functioning of the empire so the machine can trudge onward uninterrupted by the local riff raff. That is the entire job of those parties. The mainstream media exist to keep everyone spellbound by those false dichotomies on the level of discourse and debate. They manufacture . . . READ MORE . . .

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NATO: The Most Dangerous Military Alliance on the Planet, by Chris Hedges | The Chris Hedges Report The massive expansion of NATO, not only in eastern and Central Europe but the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia presages endless war. And a potential nuclear holocaust. NATO, and the arms industry that depends on it for billions in profits, has. . . READ MORE . . .

I started reading (or rereading) the Iliad in a fairly new translation weeks before the death of a retired English teacher I barely knew who had reread it repeatedly — along with the Bible, the Odyssey and other classics. Especially after attending his funeral today, I wish I had known him better.

One thing the Achaeans’ sacking of Troy — in Homer’s poem — may have in common with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is that both were entirely unnecessary except for the existence of armed camps, belligerent or ineffective leaders, mythology (ancient and modern), and goals of plunder. In the former case, Zeus didn’t favor the war but let two goddesses, his wife Hera and his daughter Aphrodite, have their way. Some 3,000 years later, Russia’s resources in a time of mounting global scarcity take the place of Troy’s riches; the Kremlin, witnessing encroachment on Russia’s periphery by a growing Western military alliance, the power of “neoconservatives” and weapons manufacturers in Washington combined with an anti-Russian coup d’état in Kiev seen as engineered by Western intelligence operatives, saw invasion as the only option after the failure of diplomacy. — Mark Channing Miller

First, reports from the New York Times, the Associated Press, Reuters, the Moscow Times, and National Public Radio; others can be accessed by clicking on the organizations’ names below. — MCM

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Attacks intensify as Russia readies new offensive, by Carlotta Gall | The New York Times Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine is intensifying in Donetsk provinces, with a string of towns and villages coming under bombardment in the last week as Russian troops turn their firepower further west after seizing control of the last city under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province. The attacks have mostly . . . Times subscribers can click HERE to read more.

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Putin expands fast-track Russian citizenship to all Ukraine, by Mstyslav Chernov | The Associated Press KHARKIV, Ukraine — As Russian missiles struck a key Ukrainian city, Russian President Vladimir Putin expanded a fast-track procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians today, another effort to strengthen Moscow’s influence over war-torn Ukraine. Until recently, only residents of Ukraine’s separatist eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as residents of the southern Zaporizhzhia and the Kherson regions, large parts of which are now under Russian control, were eligible to apply for the simplified passport procedure. Ukrainian officials haven’t yet reacted . . . READ MORE . . .

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Amid Ukraine war, Russian parliament to hold extraordinary session. From Reuters. LONDON — The lower house of the Russian parliament will gather Friday for an extraordinary session, its council decided on today, just days after President Vladimir Putin warned that he had not even started to get serious in the war in Ukraine. Putin used a meeting with parliamentary leaders on Thursday to dare the United States and its allies to try to defeat Russia in Ukraine, which . . . READ MORE . . .

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Effectiveness of Ukraine’s HIMARS Fuels Concern in Russia, by Anastasia Tenisheva | The Moscow Times Pro-Kremlin figures have expressed rare public concern after Western-supplied weapons allowed Ukraine to carry out a series of successful attacks on Russian targets far behind the frontlines. The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which the United States started sending to Ukraine last month, appear to have been most effective at . . . READ MORE . . .

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Could Turkey block Finland and Sweden NATO membership? Reported by Peter  Kenyon | National Public Radio It looks like commitments by Sweden and Finland to fight iilitant groups brought Turkey to drop objections to those countries joining NATO. But it’s still not quite a closed issue in Turkey. Click HERE to listen and read.

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TO BE CONTINUED