First, links to Associated Press, Reuters, and TelerSUR reports; links to some of their other stories are accessible by clicking on their names below. Then, links to stories for subscribers to the Berkshire Eagle and the Springfield Republican; the first, beginning on page 1 of today’s Eagle, is about a Ukrainian family that has resettled the Berkshire County town of Washington; the second, which began on page 1 of yesterday’s Springfield Republican, is about a local Sister of St. Joseph being named ambassador of peace by Corpus Cristi USA. Linked next, from CounterPunch, an extensive debate in print stemming from a letter four Ukrainian economists critical of Noam Chomsky’s statements on the war and how best to end it. — MCM
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Russia claims advances in Ukraine amid barrages, troop boost, by John Leicester and Hanna Arhirova | The Associated Press KYIV — Russia claimed today it has occupied large swaths of eastern Ukraine after a relentless, weekslong barrage and the recent deployment of more troops. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow’s forces have control of 97% of the Luhansk region. Russia has declared that fully capturing the entire Donbas . . . READ MORE . . .
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Ukraine will fight for all territory, stalemate ‘not an option’, Zelenskiy says, by Pavel Polityuk and Abdelaziz Boumzar | Reuters * Fierce street fighting for key eastern industrial city * Ukraine troops outnumbered, will not surrender-Zelenskiy * Eastern front under constant shelling * Russian-held ports ready to resume grain exports – Moscow | KYIV/DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine — Ukraine will fight to recover all its territory occupied by Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said today, as his troops battled street-to-street in Sievierodonetsk in one of the bloodiest land battles of the war. “We have already lost too many people to simply cede . . . READ MORE . . .
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Ukraine Is Not in Talks with Third Parties over Peace Plan. From TeleSUR. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he is not holding talks with third parties over a peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “I do not have any negotiations about any plans. Such negotiations are at zero level today,” Zelensky said, while commenting on media reports* that the European Union (EU), the United States, and Britain allegedly discussed a peace plan for Ukraine. The international community is having growing fatigue with the conflict, Zelensky said, adding that some countries are trying to convince Ukraine to make unfavorable concessions. READ MORE . . .
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Chinese Envoy Warns Against Providing Weapons to Ukraine. From TeleSUR. Dai Bing, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, warned Monday against constantly providing weapons to Ukraine or imposing sanctions on Russia. “The international community should work together to promote peace talks, and encourage Russia and Ukraine to come back to the negotiation track,” Dai told a Security Council meeting on sexual violence and human trafficking in the context of the Ukraine conflict. “Constantly providing weapons or imposing sanctions and pressure . . . READ MORE . . .
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After multiple tries to cross the U.S. border, and a lot of bureaucracy, this Ukrainian family who fled war is resettling in the Berkshires, by Greta Jochem | The Berkshire Eagle WASHINGTON, Massachusetts — Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Yana Nepliuieva and Ruslan Nepliuiev left their home in Dnipro, Ukraine, with three of their children and Yana’s mother. Each carried a bag with their most important items and documents. Their end destination: the Berkshires. “It was a difficult decision leaving everything . . . Subscribers to the Eagle or berkshireeagle.com can click HERE to read whole story.
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Sister of St. Joseph Jane Morrissey named ambassador of peace. Report by Anne-Gerard Flynn on Sister Jane Morrissey, 81, of Springfield, MA, being named ambassador of peace for Corpus Christi USA includes this quote: “I learned to face life as it is, underneath all the guile and noise. I learned to be real. When life and death are at stake, you can’t fool around with the tangential. I learned to use time well, to look at life and its meaning from another side. I learned the Gospel, especially the Sermon on the Mount, the way of nonviolent love.” It ends with with a paragraph including: “The support for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and for the Back from the Brink campaign . . . assure me that finding an alternative to the arms race and the perennial dangers of nuclear weapons and waste disposal remain real and relevant. . . . Through Pax Christi and these campaigns, we can work together to create options for nonviolent conflict resolution in countries like the Ukraine. We need to build the spiritual and religious will to do so. The time is now.” Subscribers to the Republican or masslive.com can click HERE to read whole story.
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The Ukraine War: Chomsky Responds. Introduced by Jeffrey Sommers | CounterPunch In May of this year, four economists from Ukraine (Bohdan Kukharskyy, Anastassia Fedyk, Yuriy Gorodnichenko, and Ilona Sologoub) working in the United States took umbrage with [Noam] Chomsky’s comments on the war, or at least what they assumed were the ideas (and “patterns”) he expressed. They held some of his statements to be either inaccurate, or even when true, irrelevant to the conflict and/or giving succor to Russia’s war effort. The Ukrainian economists invited Dr. Chomsky to respond. READ MORE . . .
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* The TeleSUR report did not indicate which news media organizations were reporting that the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom were discussing a possible peace plan.