White House Accuses Russia of Tempting a Nuclear Accident With New Attacks on Ukraine’s Power Grid

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The White House on Wednesday condemned Russia’s latest barrage of attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and warned that the Kremlin appears “willing to increase the risk of a nuclear safety incident” as it continues to pummel the country’s power grid.

Multiple regions throughout Ukraine have gone dark following Russia’s latest onslaught, forcing Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom to disconnect the country’s three fully functioning nuclear power plants from the power grid as part of an “emergency protection measure.”

Officials in Kyiv reported that three people were killed and nine wounded after a two-story building was hit in the capital city. Another four people were killed and 34 wounded in the surrounding region.

White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said the Kremlin is turning to “increasingly horrific attacks” as it struggles on the battlefield. (Read more from “White House Accuses Russia of Tempting a Nuclear Accident With New Attacks on Ukraine’s Power Grid” HERE)

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Reported Ukrainian Attack on Russian Naval Base Could Be Crucial, UK Officials Say

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Media reports that Ukraine used a drone to attack an oil terminal near a Russian naval base on the Black Sea could turn out to be a turning point in the nine-month-long war, British military officials said.

Russian and Ukrainian media outlets reported Friday that an attack took place in the port city of Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea coast. A major naval base of the Kremlin’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF) is near the oil terminal, British military intelligence officials said.

“The BSF relocated many of its submarine operations to Novorossiysk after its Sevastopol base in occupied Crimea was struck by Ukraine over the summer,” the British Defense Ministry tweeted Tuesday. (Read more from “Reported Ukrainian Attack on Russian Naval Base Could Be Crucial, UK Officials Say” HERE)

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U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Warns Iran Approaching Weapons Grade Uranium Enrichment Levels

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The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), announced Tuesday that Iran is currently enriching uranium up to “60 percent purity” at its underground Fordox nuclear facility.

Although a 90 percent enrichment level is needed to convert uranium into weapons-grade material, the move brings Iran well above the 3.67 percent benchmark outlined in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“We had said that Iran will seriously react to any resolution and political pressure…that is why Iran has started enriching uranium to 60% purity from Monday at the Fordow site,” Iran’s chief nuclear officer Mohammad Eslami said Tuesday, Reuters reports.

The move comes in response to the IAEA passing a resolution last Thursday insisting Iran cooperate with an ongoing investigation into traces of uranium across three undeclared sites in the country. (Read more from “U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Warns Iran Approaching Weapons Grade Uranium Enrichment Levels” HERE)

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US ‘Tracking’ Clip May Show Ukrainians Executing Russian Troops

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The United States is monitoring allegations that Ukrainian soldiers allegedly executed Russian troops in a video posted on social media that has both sides accusing the other of war crimes.

Four videos posted on social media last week appear to show the killing of 11 Russian soldiers as Ukrainian forces recaptured the village of Makiivka in the Luhansk region in mid-November, according to the New York Times. There are gaps missing in the videos, and it’s unclear why, though the New York Times used other videos to understand what occurred.

In one of the videos, a Ukrainian soldier is filming, and he quickly flashes the camera to himself and another soldier lying on his stomach pointing a rifle, while a third armed soldier can be seen walking backward with his rifle pointed at a destroyed outhouse where Russian soldiers appeared to be hiding. Gunfire can be heard, but it’s unclear who is firing at whom. The clip cuts, and in the same area where the soldier backtracked, six Russian soldiers are laying on their stomachs, while four more come out with their hands up. . .

An aerial video the New York Times viewed showed the aftermath of the surprise attack. The gunman appeared to be dead near the spot he opened fire, while the soldiers who had been laying on their stomachs also appeared to be dead, shot in the head. . .

“We are obviously tracking that quite closely. It’s really important to emphasize that the laws of war apply to all parties equally, both the aggressor state and the defender state, and this is in equal measure,” Beth Van Schaack, U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, told reporters on Monday. “But when it comes to the war in Ukraine, that’s really where the equivalency ends. When we’re looking at the sheer scale of criminality exhibited by Russian forces, it’s enormous compared to the allegations that we have seen against Ukrainian forces.” (Read more from “US ‘Tracking’ Clip May Show Ukrainians Executing Russian Troops” HERE)

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Russia and Ukraine Face Showdown for Europe’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant

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The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station has enormous value as an energy asset in a war marked by the Russian bombardment of Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The strategic significance of the district only has grown since September, when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree claiming the plant a “federal property” of the Russian government. Ukraine’s reclamation of Kherson further south has raised the specter of fighting to cut the “land bridge” linking Russian forces in annexed Crimea to the troops-occupied Donbas and Russia proper.

“They might try to challenge Russia in Zaporizhzhia Oblast,” a second senior European official surmised in a conversation with the Washington Examiner in a recent discussion of Ukrainian military options following the Russian retreat from Kherson. “They might cut the Russians into two parts, so you have Donbas on the one hand with Mariupol. On the other hand, you have part of Zaporizhzhia, part of Kherson oblast, and the Crimea.”

Russian and Ukrainian officials throughout the conflict have accused each other of shelling near the plant or taking other steps to jeopardize the security of the facility. An eruption of strikes in recent days represented the latest “close call,” according to the United Nations’s nuclear watchdog.

“One Russian milblogger claimed that the shelling came from Russian-controlled territory south of the plant, but most Russian sources accused Ukraine,” the Institute for the Study of War noted Sunday.

A team of monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which described the plant as “Europe’s largest nuclear power plant,” certified that “key equipment remained intact and there were no immediate nuclear safety or security concerns,” while Russia’s lead nuclear agency called for a “security zone” to be created around the plant. (Read more from “Russia and Ukraine Face Showdown for Europe’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant” HERE)

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Russia Denies It Is Demanding Zelenskyy’s Ouster as Part of Peace Deal

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Even as Russia continues a relentless missile attack on Ukraine’s power system as winter approaches, the Kremlin is apparently walking back its earlier goals to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.

On Monday, a Kremlin official said the “special operation” in Ukraine ordered by President Vladimir Putin nine months ago is not demanding regime change in Kyiv.

“No, the president has spoken about this already,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to TASS, the official Russian news agency.

Shortly after Russian tanks rolled across the border in February 2022, Mr. Putin called on the Ukrainian military to oust Mr. Zelenskyy, calling the leadership in Kyiv corrupt and essentially denying that Ukraine, once a key part of the Soviet Union, had a right to exist as a country independent of Russia.

“Take power into your own hands. It will be easier for us to agree with you than this gang of junkies and neo-Nazis,” Mr. Putin told a meeting of the Russian Security Council in Moscow then. (Read more from “Russia Denies It Is Demanding Zelenskyy’s Ouster as Part of Peace Deal” HERE)

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Zelensky Rejects NATO View That Russia Did Not Fire Missile That Fell in Poland

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An emerging NATO consensus about the origin of the missile that struck a village in Poland is wrong, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. . .

That emphatic statement sets up an unusual dispute between Ukraine and two of its most important Western partners. Both President Joe Biden and his Polish counterpart have signaled their growing confidence a Ukrainian anti-air defense missile landed in Poland during an intense Russian bombardment of Ukraine.

“From the information that we and our allies have, it was an S-300 rocket made in the Soviet Union, an old rocket, and there is no evidence that it was launched by the Russian side,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said Wednesday. “It is highly probable that it was fired by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense.”

The course of the dispute has left Western observers “puzzled,” as one senior European official confessed, given the general confidence in both Ukrainian and NATO intelligence capabilities regarding such issues.

“The Ukrainians have very good data collection — they have good radars, they track every single missile,” former U.S. Ambassador Kurt Volker, the State Department’s special envoy for the Ukraine crisis prior to then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment scandal, told the Washington Examiner. “I’ve been to their headquarters where they do this — [it’s] very sophisticated. They know what’s going on. I’m sure the Poles do as well. I’m sure we do as well. So the Poles and Ukrainians need to sit down with their experts and look at their data … and come up with what they think actually happened.” (Read more from “Zelensky Rejects NATO View That Russia Did Not Fire Missile That Fell in Poland” HERE)

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U.S. Parts Allegedly Found in Iranian Drones Russia Is Using to Pummel Ukraine

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The U.S. government is investigating the circumstances behind Western-made parts found in Iranian drones Russia has used to pummel Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Of more than 200 technical components found in remains of shot-down Iranian drones, at least half could be traced to U.S. firms and a third to firms in Japan, the WSJ reported, citing Ukrainian military intelligence verified in a report by Ukraine’s Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO) and viewed by the outlet. Despite U.S. efforts to thwart Russia’s supply of Iranian drones, the Kremlin continues to employ the weapons in highly destructive attacks on civilian targets throughout Ukraine.

“The proliferation of weapons into Ukraine for use against Ukrainian people is a top priority for us, and we’re going to investigate any illegal export that might be connected with that effort,” a senior official from the U.S. Commerce Department, responsible for much of a sanctions regime of historic proportions targeting Iranian weapons exports, told the WSJ.

Ukrainian intelligence estimated that up to three quarters of the parts in Iran’s drones, primarily the Shahed-136 “suicide” drone and the Mohajer-6, were of U.S. origin, according to the WSJ.

U.S. officials involved in export controls either declined to comment or were not able to confirm the origin of drone parts, the WSJ reported. However, industry officials familiar with the matter told the WSJ the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security had initiated a probe into Western-origin parts. (Read more from “U.S. Parts Allegedly Found in Iranian Drones Russia Is Using to Pummel Ukraine” HERE)

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Russian Colonel Tied to Mobilization Dies Mysteriously

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A high-ranking Russian army colonel with ties to Vladimir Putin’s mobilization efforts for the war in Ukraine died under mysterious circumstances this week.

Col. Vadim Boyko was found dead in his office at Makarov Pacific Higher Naval School on Wednesday, local news reported.

Early media coverage, including a Telegram post by the Far Eastern Gazette, described the incident as a suicide. “[Boyko] came to work and put a bullet in his temple,” the initial post read.

A similar post from BAZA — an outlet with ties to law enforcement — questioned the suicide scenario, noting that witnesses heard five shots coming from Boyko’s office.

“The duty officer, who heard the shooting, ran to the place and saw Boyko’s body — the colonel was dead,” BAZA recounted. “The man did not leave a suicide note. At the place of his death, criminalists found five cartridge cases and four Makarov pistols. (Read more from “Russian Colonel Tied to Mobilization Dies Mysteriously” HERE)

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Zelensky Almost Plunged Us All Into World War III — Again. Enough Already.; Zelensky Insists Missile That Hit Poland Was Not Ukrainian; NATO Row Breaks Out as Zelensky Savaged for ‘Destructive Lies’

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By Daily Wire. On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sounded the alarm and called upon NATO allies to finally, directly, enter the war after an alleged Russian missile hit a Polish town, killing two people and causing destruction.

It turns out that Zelensky — who has bilked billions of dollars from the West, especially the U.S. — was wrong in his assessment. Authorities now say that it looks likely that it wasn’t a Russian weapon at all, but a Ukrainian one fired in self-defense that accidentally landed over the border. Regardless, Zelensky was quick to jump the gun and conclude that it was indeed Russia.

The question, then, is why do we trust this nutcase banging the war drums anymore? . . .

Since Poland is a NATO country, measures could be triggered that would have forced all NATO allies to defend Poland against Russia — thus starting World War III. . .

This isn’t the first time the Ukrainian president has acted wildly. Zelensky has also called upon the U.S. and other nations to establish a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine — which would have required Western nations to shoot down Russian aircraft, thus escalating the conflict even more. (Read more from “Zelensky Almost Plunged Us All Into World War III — Again. Enough Already.” HERE)

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NATO Row Breaks Out as Zelensky Savaged for ‘Destructive Lies’

By Express UK. NATO and Ukraine found themselves at odds at an urgent meeting on Wednesday, it has been revealed, as Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “no doubt” a missile that killed two people after landing in Poland near the Ukrainian border was not of Ukrainian origin. NATO, Warsaw and the US all said they believed the missile was “likely” fired by Ukraine in order to defend themselves against Russian missiles, with the alliance’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg making clear that it was “not Ukraine’s fault”, as the firing of the missile was “the direct result” of Putin’s invasion of the country. . .

But Mr Zelensky would not budge on the issue, insisting that a report he received from the incident left him certain that it was “not our missile or our missile strike”.

His statements have reportedly irked at least one Kyiv-based diplomat from a NATO country, who told the Financial Times: “This is getting ridiculous. The Ukrainians are destroying [our] confidence in them. Nobody is blaming Ukraine and they are openly lying. This is more destructive than the missile.”

NATO countries were called to an emergency meeting last night after a missile landed in the Polish village of Przewodów, near the Ukrainian border, during a mass air strike by Russia in which they unleashed over 100 missiles into Ukrainian cities, targeting civilian infrastructure. (Read more from “NATO Row Breaks Out as Zelensky Savaged for ‘Destructive Lies’” HERE)

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Zelensky Insists Missile That Hit Poland Was Not Ukrainian

By The Hill. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted on Wednesday that a missile believed to be fired over the Poland-Ukraine border that killed two people was not Ukrainian.

“I have no doubt that it was not our missile or our missile strike,” Zelensky told Ukrainian news outlets, adding, “I want us to be fair, and if it was the use of our air defense, then I want that evidence.”

Zelensky also said he believes Ukraine should be part of the investigation into the missile blast.

A missile strike killed two people in a Polish village near the country’s border with Ukraine on Tuesday. Initial reports suggested that the missile was Russian, raising concerns of a potential escalation of war with other countries amid the conflict in Ukraine.

However, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday that the strike appeared to be accidental and said it was “highly probable” that it was the result of a Ukrainian air defense missile. (Read more from “Zelensky Insists Missile That Hit Poland Was Not Ukrainian” HERE)

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