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Morning Headlines
RFI: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday as part of a European tour to drum up vital support from allies in the war effort against Russia, amid concerns over the conflict in the Middle East.
Reuters: The United States issued a 30-day waiver for countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products currently stranded at sea, in what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said was a step to stabilize global energy markets roiled by the Iran war.
The Moscow Times: Moscow said Friday that the global energy market "cannot remain stable" without its oil, piling pressure on Washington to lift more sanctions as the Middle East war strangles supplies.
Reuters: European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the U.S. wants to "divide Europe" and doesn't "like the European Union" in an interview published by the Financial Times on Friday, after more than a year of turmoil in transatlantic relations.
The Kyiv Independent: Explosions rang out at Russian airfields in an apparent Ukrainian attack on Russian military targets in the Black Sea region overnight on March 13, Russian Telegram channels reported.
Reuters: Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez spoke by telephone to his counterparts from both China and Russia on Thursday, three days after Trump said the Communist island was in "deep trouble".
ISW: The Kremlin may be accelerating its internet censorship campaign now to preempt domestic backlash and insulate the regime ahead of future unpopular decisions, such as rolling reserve call-ups.
More News
Reuters: The U.S. and Western allies clashed with Russia and China on Thursday over Iran's nuclear intentions, as Washington sought at the United Nations to further justify the war it launched on Iran two weeks ago.
The Guardian: Putin’s “hidden hand” lies behind Iran’s military methods, the UK defence secretary has said, after a night in which drones struck a base used by western forces in Erbil, northern Iraq.
Business Insider: Russia has been expanding a drone base near the front lines in eastern Ukraine, adding more launch positions and storage facilities, according to new satellite imagery reviewed by Business Insider. The base is only months old, and it's growing.
CEPA: The Russian Duma is about to adopt a law permitting the extraterritorial engagement of the armed forces to free Russian citizens arrested or detained by foreign courts. The government commission on legislation has just approved the respective draft legislation.
United24 Media: Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco is currently negotiating with at least two Ukrainian defense firms to purchase interceptor drones designed to protect its critical infrastructure from potential Iranian aerial attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported on March 12.
Reuters: Ukraine is opening up access to its battlefield data for its allies to train drone AI software, the defence minister said on Thursday, as Kyiv seeks to harness the experience it has garnered fending off Russia's four-year, full-scale invasion.
RFE/RL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Azerbaijan, and three Central Asian republics are, via Slovakia, pushing to get Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov removed from the European Union’s sanctions list ahead of a 15 March rollover of the bloc’s extensive blacklist.
Politico: The European Commission has proposed sending a fact-finding mission to a contested Soviet-era pipeline in an attempt to resolve a bitter row between Kyiv and Budapest and unlock a major tranche of financial support for Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine sought to sign a major agreement with the United States on drone production and air defense technologies, but the deal required White House approval and has not yet been finalized, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on March 12.
Reuters: The presidents of Romania and Ukraine signed a statement of intent on Thursday to produce Ukrainian defence systems including drones in Romania, they said after a meeting in Bucharest.
The Guardian: Muscovites have been turning to walkie-talkies and pagers amid unexplained disruptions to internet services in the capital, as the Kremlin appears to ramp up control over online activity in Russia.
Reuters: Ukraine struck an oil pumping station in Russia's Krasnodar region, an official from Ukraine's SBU security service said on Thursday, the latest target of a campaign by Kyiv to attack Russian strategic infrastructure. The Tikhoretsk hub is one of the largest oil points in southern Russia and is the only supply route for petroleum products to the key Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
Euronews: The Kremlin is running a global cyber campaign to infiltrate WhatsApp and Signal accounts of government officials, diplomats and military personnel, Dutch and Portuguese intelligence agencies warned.
Reuters: Russia's crude oil and refined product exports and revenues declined in February to their lowest since the start of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.
worth mentioning
Canada to boost Arctic defenses, says it can no longer rely on others
The MAGA movement is uniting Europe’s right-wing and pro-Russian forces against the EU
Russia’s prison service faces staffing crisis as shortages top 30%
ICC opens probe into alleged crimes against humanity by Belarus
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