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Morning Headlines
Reuters Exclusive: Former U.S. President Donald Trump, a longtime admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday Putin has been "somewhat weakened" by an aborted mutiny and that now is the time for the United States to try to broker a negotiated peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.
Reuters: European Union leaders declared on Thursday they would make long-term commitments to bolster Ukraine's security as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged them to start work on a new round of sanctions against Russia.
AP News: For the past four days, Ukraine has stepped up operations around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Wagner forces seized after months of intense fighting and then handed over to Russian soldiers, who continue to lose some ground on their southern flank. Along the front line, however, the strength of the Russian military remains unchanged since the revolt.
CNN: The Biden administration is strongly considering approving the transfer of controversial cluster munition warheads to Ukraine, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN, as the Ukrainians struggle to make major gains in their weeks’ old counteroffensive.
WSJ: With its ground counteroffensive stalled, Kyiv is trying to interrupt the Kremlin’s supply lines and degrade its forces before sending in troops.
ISW: The Ukrainian General Staff stated that Ukrainian forces seized the “strategic initiative" in the Bakhmut direction and are currently conducting a broad offensive in the area.
Critical Threats (CTP): The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Russian forces conducted airstrikes on rebel positions in Idlib Province between June 25 and 27. CTP is considering the hypothesis that Iran will commit forces to Idlib Province to support the SAA and Russian forces.
More News
ITV News: Representatives of Wagner Group were negotiating a lucrative deal with President Bashar al-Assad to make Syria its biggest base, just days before its troops attempted to stage a coup in Moscow.
BBC News: The Wagner Group is still recruiting fighters across Russia, days after staging a mutiny that led Vladimir Putin to raise fears of civil war.
The World Bank approved a $1.5 billion loan to Ukraine on June 29, according to a press release from the organization.
Satellite imagery obtained by Bellingcat suggests that Russia created a dam on the outskirts of the occupied Ukrainian city of Tokmak in Zaporizhzhia oblast ahead of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Bloomberg: Russians’ support for peace talks with Ukraine has grown after a short-lived mutiny led by Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to a new opinion poll.
The Moscow Times: Kyiv said Thursday its forces were gaining ground in Donbas, as Moscow claimed it had killed two generals in a missile strike earlier this week — the same day strikes on a restaurant in east Ukraine killed at least 12 people.
Bloomberg's documentary: Putin’s image as an all-powerful leader was shattered last weekend with the Wagner mercenary group mutiny. What consequences could this have on Russia's war in Ukraine and stability inside the world's biggest nuclear power?
AFP: Spain will take on the EU's rotating presidency this weekend with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visiting Kyiv to show steadfast European support for Ukraine as it battles Russian forces, officials said Thursday.
POLITICO: European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said she wants the European Union to open serious negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership bid in mid-December this year.
AP News: Former Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Thursday, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and touring the war-torn country as it fights Russian aggression.
AP News: Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of the Russian group of forces fighting in Ukraine, is believed to have been detained days after mercenaries staged a revolt inside Russia, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Thursday, citing U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence assessments.
Reuters: Russia's ambassador to Switzerland said Moscow could not accept any Swiss-hosted peace summit on Ukraine after it joined European Union sanctions against his country, adding Switzerland had lost its reputation for neutrality.
AFP: The Czech government said late on Wednesday it had banned all athletes representing Russia from taking part in local competitions as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued. At the same time, athletes and teams representing the Czech Republic must not take part in competitions held in Russia, it added in a statement.
The Moscow Times: Russian railway depots are clogged with empty shipping containers from China amid a deepening trade imbalance between the two countries, the independent business news outlet VPost reported Wednesday.
The Moscow Times: Prigozhin's Patriot media group (troll factory) “will now be directly supervised by the presidential administration,” The Bell cited its sources as saying.
WSJ Exclusive: Russian cargo ships sanctioned by the U.S. for carrying weapons and other supplies have been regularly calling at Turkish ports since the invasion of Ukraine began.
In this exclusive video, New York Times journalists spent a week inside a military field hospital in eastern Ukraine, filming a team of combat medics as they raced to save the lives of wounded soldiers.
AFP: Kyiv said Thursday the time had come for NATO to clarify its stance on war-torn Ukraine's membership, ahead of a key alliance summit next month.
Reuters: Poland expects the European Union to help it fund measures to strengthen its eastern border, a deputy minister said on Thursday, after Warsaw announced a tightening of security due to concerns over the presence of the Wagner group in Belarus.
The Kyiv Independent: Large-scale special exercises have begun in Ukraine to prepare for a potential Russian attack on the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the state nuclear energy agency Energoatom reported on June 29.
worth mentioning
Clearstream suspends processing of new Russian share conversions after EU sanctions
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