Key highlights of proposed bipartisan Senate package for border security and Ukraine The Associated Press
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Key highlights of proposed bipartisan Senate package for border security and Ukraine - The Associated Press
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Attacks on the Kharkiv region, just over the border from Russia, have intensified recently
A two-month-old boy was killed and his mother wounded when a Russian missile hit a hotel in north-eastern Ukraine, officials say.
The baby's body was pulled out of the rubble of the three-storey building in the village of Zolochiv, said Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov.
Two other women were hurt when Russia fired two S-300 missiles, he said, hitting the hotel and nearby buildings.
Attacks on the Kharkiv region have intensified since the end of 2023.
Zolochiv is only 20km (12 miles) from the Russian border and too close for Ukraine's air defences to offer sufficient cover.
The S-300s that hit the hotel in the early hours of Tuesday were originally produced as surface-to-air missiles for Russia's air defences, but they have been adapted to hit Ukrainian targets on the ground. They are seen as cheaper than more accurate cruise missiles.
Last month, another hotel was hit by S-300 missiles in the city of Kharkiv, leaving a number of people wounded, including journalists covering the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces responded to Russia's bombardment in late December, with a deadly attack on the city of Belgorod, half an hour's drive from the border.
In a separate development, five people have been arrested by Ukraine's SBU security service on suspicion of involvement in a Russian spy ring.
The SBU said the five included current and former members of the main intelligence director and foreign intelligence service. It alleged they had provided Russia's FSB security service with details about the armed forces, energy infrastructure and the sites of US-made MRLS rocket launch systems.
Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine is nearing the end of its second year, with little success on the battlefield since the early weeks of the full-scale invasion.
Russian forces have focused much of their resources on trying to capture the eastern town of Avdiivka, considered a gateway to the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk.
The town's population has all but fled and most of its buildings have been reduced to rubble.
Ukraine's much-heralded counter-offensive last summer also delivered few territorial gains, although Ukrainian forces announced on Tuesday that they had put about a third of the warships in Russia's Black Sea Fleet out of action since the start of the war.
Only last week, Ukrainian military intelligence said it had sunk another warship, the Ivanovets, with naval attack drones on the west coast of occupied Crimea.
However, speculation is rife in Kyiv that President Volodymyr Zelensky is about to fire the widely popular armed forces chief, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who admitted last November that the war had reached a stalemate.
President Zelensky told Italy's Rai TV this week that he was considering a "reset of some leaders of the state". "If we want to win, we, all of us, we have to be leaders of the victory. We cannot lose hope or give up in despair."
US military funding for Ukraine has been stalled in recent weeks because a White House request for $60bn (48bn) in aid for Kyiv has been blocked for weeks by Republicans in Congress after it became tied up in a US bill to tighten border security.
However, the European Union has just approved a four-year programme of aid worth 50bn (43bn) for Ukraine. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, on a visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, said his aim was to underline the EU's unwavering support for Kyiv as the war neared its third year.
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Ukraine war: Baby killed in Russian strike on Kharkiv hotel - BBC.com
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A 26-year-old Karolina Shiino from the Ukrainian city of Ternopil, who had recently won the Miss Japan pageant, renounced the title.
According to local media outlets, Karolina reported about the renouncement shortly after the information about her affair with a married Japanese man emerged in the media.
26-year-old Karolina renounced the Miss Japan title
Photo: Instagram of Karolina Shiino
Interestingly, Karolina never hid the relationship yet allegedly did not know about his marital status. Shiino herself said that she cut all ties with her boyfriend after finding out he was married.
The model agency Karolina works for claims that she continued seeing him even after discovering he has a wife.
Karolina claimed she had broken up with a married man while her model agency states she had not
Photo: Instagram of Karolina Shiino
Organisers of the contest stated that Karolina voluntarily renounced her win. She also "thinks deeply about her own role in the recent scandal". They noted that the Miss Japan title will remain vacant. Its next owner will be chosen in a year.
On her Instagram Karolina commented on the situation soon after the statement was made by the organisational committee. She confirmed that she had renounced her win and revealed that she had left the model agency she worked for.
"We would like to apologise for the inconveniences caused to the wife of Mr. Maeda and everyone involved. There were some discrepancies in what I explained to my agency a few days ago. Confusion and fear did not allow us to tell the truth.
I am sincerely saddened that they are talking about me (online ed.) and telling everyone who supports me something untruthful. I take this situation seriously and renounce my Miss Japan win. I have also turned to my agency with a request to withdraw me from the affiliate, and this decision was made. We sincerely apologise for the inconveniences this has caused and for betraying everyone supporting us," she wrote.
The Miss Japan title will remain vacant until next year
Photo: Instagram of Karolina Shiino
Background: Karolina was born in Ternopil Oblast but moved to Japan with her mother when she was 5 years old. After her win in the contest a discussion sparked online concerning whether it was right that a woman with a European appearance won the title.
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"Miss Japan" winner from Ukraine renounces title amid scandal - Yahoo News
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Lieutenant GeneralYakovRezantsev,Commander ofRussia's Southern Military Districts 49th Combined Arms Army, has been served a notice of suspicion in absentia, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) reported on Telegram on Feb. 5.
He is accused of personally ordering the seizure of Ukraine's southern Kherson OblastFeb,24, 2022. In particular,Rezantsevis responsible for ordering the seizure of a strategic facility inChornobayivkaat any cost, as well as the attacks on infrastructure facilitiesin the Oblastand mass repression of resistance members.
Under his orders, Russian security forces also abducted Ukrainians from the streets and cars at checkpoints.
Based on the evidencepresented,Rezantsevhas beencharged with waging aggressive warandfaces10 to 15 years in prison.
Read also: Ukrainian Armed Forces have not confirmed elimination of Russian General Tatarenko in Belbek airbase attack
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Last years Ukrainian counteroffensive was a failure. Russias defenses in the territory it has captured look impenetrable. Republicans in Washington are blocking further Ukraine aid. President Volodymyr Zelensky is on the precipice of firing his top general who may well become his chief political rival.
Its a difficult moment for Ukraine. And another year of frontal assaults on the trench lines could make 2024 look like 1916, a year in World War I that brought harrowing loss of life but few battlefield gains.
The question now is what Ukraine can reasonably still hope to achieve. In todays newsletter, Ill explain what a negotiated settlement might look like whenever it comes and what a better and worse version might look like. Its still possible that either Ukraine or Russia will mount a more successful military drive this year than experts expect. But the most likely outcome of this years fighting is a continued stalemate. That impasse will shape how the war ends.
Ukraine wants all its territory back. That is not likely to happen.
Ukrainians believe in their ability to fight back. They defended Kyiv, retook Kherson and pushed Russia away from Kharkiv in 2022. Their military is more battle-hardened than anything else in Europe, made more sophisticated by its adoption of American and allied technology. They have avoided the worst outcome: an outright defeat, an overthrow of their democratic government, the installation of a Russian puppet. Many Ukrainians now believe concessions to Russia would mean their compatriots had died in vain.
But the situation is grim. The country has lost nearly one-fifth of its territory. In 2014, Russia took Crimea and orchestrated a separatist rebellion in parts of the Donbas. It grabbed the rest since the current phase of the war began in 2022.
Excerpt from:
Peace in Ukraine - The New York Times
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