As Ukraine requests extra weaponry amid its counteroffensive in opposition to Russia, the Biden administration is weighing whether or not to provide Kyiv with controversial cluster bombs. Senior U.S. administration and protection officers have contacted lawmakers to evaluate their consolation with sending the munitions, individuals accustomed to the matter instructed The Washington Submit. The Biden administration has issues concerning the optics of the transfer and the potential for long-term hurt to civilians, because the munitions can go away behind unexploded bomblets that stay lethal for many years.
CIA Director William J. Burns made a secret go to to Ukraine earlier this month, the place officers revealed an formidable endgame for the struggle, The Submit has reported. The technique goals to retake Russian-occupied territory and open cease-fire negotiations with Moscow by the top of the 12 months, officers accustomed to the go to mentioned.
Right here’s the most recent on the struggle and its affect throughout the globe.
After mutiny, Kremlin seems to be to unwind holdings tied to Wagner mercenary boss: With Moscow nonetheless rattled by the Wagner mercenary group’s failed rebel, the Kremlin has begun dismantling and taking management of Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s sprawling empire, which included not solely the army-for-hire but in addition a propaganda media wing and web troll factories notorious for interfering in U.S. elections.
However dealing with his operations poses a problem for the Russian authorities, Mary Ilyushina, Rachel Chason, Robyn Dixon and John Hudson report. The Russian navy, for example, depends on Prigozhin’s companies to feed troopers preventing in Ukraine and can’t afford disruptions.
“Prigozhin will not be solely the Wagner Group, he represents a construction that’s making an attempt to work on the ideological entrance, on the political entrance,” mentioned Denis Korotkov, a Russian investigative journalist who first uncovered the Wagner Group. “All this works in a decent ecosystem with different sides of his enterprise.”
