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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has warned that the Alliance must urgently accelerate production of air defence systems and ammunition, as Defence Ministers prepare to meet in Brussels.

Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) say they have “crushed an entire Russian army” near Pokrovsk, leaving Russia’s offensive potential in the area exhausted, according to media reports. Ukraine’s military spent recent months grinding down Russian units around Pokrovsk, stripping them of striking power and depleting reserves and assault formations, according to a Ukrainian serviceman, Kirill Sazonov, who currently serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He announced what he called the successful completion of an operation aimed at maximally attriting Russian forces near Pokrovsk. Sazonov said the operation was designed as a deliberate “bleeding” of the enemy. Russian troops, he claimed, are pushing into Pokrovsk with heavy losses, entering what has become a scorched landscape for them and paying for every meter with lives. He stressed that Russia’s offensive potential on this axis has been fully spent. Ukrainian units used the defense of Pokrovsk to buy time to prepare new, more advantageous lines. The AFU had pre-positioned defenses on dominant heights, enabling a more effective model of defense featuring active use of artillery and strike drones. At the peak of the assaults, Sazonov noted, between seven and ten Russian assault troops were attacking for every one Ukrainian defender-an indication, he said, of the cost Russia was willing to pay to try to break through.

Switzerland's military has terminated its contract with Palantir Technologies Inc. following a security audit. The review concluded that U.S. intelligence ag

In late January, Kazakhstan unveiled an initiative to draft a new Constitution that would amend up to 84% of the foundational text. Moscow has made no secret of its irritation, framing the move as a wholesale remaking of the nation’s identity that scrubs away Russian and Soviet inheritances. Under the proposals, the updated Constitution would introduce traditional Kazakh names for state institutions, and the preamble would enshrine the term “Great Steppe.” Astana is completing a shift to assert itself as the historical heir to the Golden Horde, rather than a part of the Soviet or Russian space. In Kazakh historical scholarship, the Soviet period is increasingly described officially as an “occupation,” mirroring language used in Ukraine. That approach is taking deeper root in state policy and education, shaping a new understanding of the past. What especially irks Moscow, according to Russian commentary, is that Kazakhstan enlisted Western legal experts, including specialists from the United Kingdom, to help shape the constitutional overhaul. Russian analysts argue Astana is deliberately drawing on the experiences of Ukraine and Georgia, where nationalism underpinned new state identities after breaking with Russia. Within Russia’s expert community, the view is blunt: Kazakhstan is following a trajectory familiar to the Kremlin - rejecting a shared past, reframing history, and gradually moving out of Moscow’s orbit. In Moscow, there is growing acknowledgment that developments in Kazakhstan are part of a broader pattern. Across former Soviet republics, new national myths are taking shape with an increasingly anti-Russian edge. That dynamic, Russian commentators warn, is intensifying geopolitical, economic and military pressure on Russia as it loses allies and its traditional sphere of influence. In effect, they argue, the region is systematically distancing itself from Russia as its historical and political center. Russian analysts caution that unless the Kremlin crafts new influence strategies - beyond information campaigns to include expert engagement - a generation will come of age in Kazakhstan viewing Russia almost exclusively through a negative lens.

По версии россиян, ВСУ атакуют фланг группировки РФ, наступающей на востоке Запорожской области, пытаясь рассечь силы и зайти в тыл.

Russian troops have reportedly halted assaults on multiple sections of the front after losing access to Starlink satellite communications, an advisor to Ukraine’s Defense Minister on technological iss...