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☆ Ukraine's spymaster comes out of the shadows
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Tom Balmforth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

For an intelligence chief running Ukraine's spy operations during war with Russia, Kyrylo Budanov, 37, has built up an unusually public profile that he has used to get his message out and to menace Russia from afar. These days, a spy boss cannot stay in the shadows, he says. "It's not possible without this, not anymore," the head of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) told Reuters in an interview at his heavily defended headquarters in the capital. The prospect of a spy agency sending assassins to hunt down Ukraine's enemies has drawn comparisons with Israel's Mossad. Budanov began his military career as a special forces operative and served in the east after Russia illegally annexed Crimea and its proxies took over Ukraine's eastern fringes.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Kyrylo Budanov, GUR, Budanov, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin, haven't, Tom Balmforth, Sergiy, Mike Collett, White, Peter Graff Organizations: Kyiv, Ukraine's Main Intelligence, Reuters, Russian Interior Ministry, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Ukraine, RUSSIA, Russian, Crimea, Rybalskyi

☆ Europeans Are Capable of Defending Themselves Against Russia - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Rajan Menon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The contention that the wealthy, technologically advanced European nations cannot join forces to acquire enough military power to deter or defeat Russia strains credulity. But Russia has been unable to transform its massive advantage in troops and arms into anything resembling victory. Compare Europe and Russia on any metric typically used for gauging power, and Europe proves vastly superior. That means the European Union, even without Britain, has an economy more than seven times as large as Russia’s. The mixed record of some top-shelf Russian equipment used in Ukraine’s battlefields bears this out.

Persons: —, Russia’s Organizations: Kyiv School of Economics, United Nations, Press, NATO, Ukrainian Army, European Union Locations: Russia, Finland, Sweden, United States, Europe, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Kyiv, European, Japan, South Korea

The Kremlin said on Monday that Putin had held talks with Wagner commanders and Prigozhin at a meeting on June 29, five days after the mutiny. But Kommersant, one of Russia's top newspapers, published Putin's remarks to its most experienced Kremlin correspondent, Andrei Kolesnikov, which suggested the future of Prigozhin and Wagner was in doubt. "But Wagner does not exist," Putin told Kommersant when asked if it would be preserved as a fighting unit. "All of them could have gathered in one place and continued to serve," Kommersant quoted Putin as saying. "'No, the boys won't agree with such a decision'," Putin quoted Prigozhin as saying.

Persons: Putin, Wagner, Prigozhin Biden, Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Andrei Kolesnikov, Prigozhin, Joe Biden, I’d, Biden, Ron Popeski, Nick Starkov, Rosalba O'Brien, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: Kommersant, Kremlin, Ukraine, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Belarus, Afghanistan, Chechnya, St Petersburg, Russian, Rostov, United States, Russia

☆ Jabeur and Vondrousova Finesse Way to Wimbledon Final
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Matthew Futterman | More About Matthew Futterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For a set and a half, Sabalenka overpowered Jabeur, and she got within two games of advancing to the final and taking the top ranking. But down a set and by 4-2 in the second, Jabeur dug in. “Crazy match,” said Jabeur, a groundbreaking figure for the Arab world. “One more match to go.”In Vondrousova, Jabeur will face an opponent with a deceptively slim résumé but a penchant for ruining sentimental narratives. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Vondrousova eliminated Naomi Osaka, the national hero and international star who lit the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony, on her way to winning a silver medal.

Persons: Elina Svitolina, Aryna, Sabalenka, Jabeur, Marketa, ”, Vondrousova, Naomi Osaka Organizations: Wimbledon, Aryna Sabalenka, Court, Tunisian, Tokyo Locations: Ukraine, Belarusian, Belarus, Sabalenka, Czech Republic

☆ The Holocaust in Poland and the Erasures of the Past
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Richard J. Evans | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Three million Jews had been murdered in occupied Poland by the Nazis — half of all the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Their assets were taken over by Germans and in many cases, after the war, by Poles who were conveniently helped by laws about abandoned property. “It seemed,” Rakowsky notes, “like decades of suppression of facts and enduring self-interest of those who benefited from Jewish property had sealed off this dark history.”Some former neighbors do talk. This was no isolated incident; it was a relatively common event in wartime and early postwar Poland. “Jews had a 1.5–2.0 percent chance of surviving the Holocaust in Poland,” Rakowsky writes, “due not only to actions by the Germans but also their own neighbors.”Certainly, many Poles hid Jews and their families from the Germans during the war.

Persons: ” Rakowsky, “, Rakowsky, Sam, Judy Rakowsky Locations: Poland, America

☆ Heineken, Sbarro Pizza, TGI Fridays, and WeWork said they would leave Russia in response to its brutal war against Ukraine. Investigators say it's still business as usual.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Heineken, Sbarro Pizza, TGI Fridays, WeWork, and other companies are still doing business in Russia, investigators found. Investigators downgraded a list of companies, including WeWork, Shell, Heineken, tobacco giant Philip Morris, Mondelez — the maker of Oreos —, Carl's Jr., TGI Fridays, and Sbarro Pizza. Huntsman Corporation, a chemical giant founded by the father of Ambassador Jon Huntsman, said it has working hard to leave the Russian market. The entire list of companies that have left the Russian market can be seen here. A condensed list of the companies that have been downgraded after promising to leave Russia can be read here.

Persons: Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, expeditiously, Philip Morris, Mondelez, Oreos, Carl's Jr, Carl's, Shell, Jon Huntsman, Gary Chapman, Sonnenfeld, Vladimir Putin Organizations: Yale, Heineken, Service, CNN, Investigators, Shell, Huntsman Corporation, Huntsman Locations: Russia, Wall, Silicon, Ukraine, Shell, Heineken, Russian, South Africa

CNN —Amid the raging war and constant threat of Russian missiles, a successful heart transplant has been performed on a 6-year-old girl in Kyiv, authorities with the Heart Institute of Ukraine’s Ministry of Health announced on Monday. It was the first time a heart transplant had been performed in Ukraine on children so young, the institute said. “The operation went smoothly, the girl was extubated two hours after the operation,” Todurov said in a post on his official Facebook page. Ukrainian Transplant Coordination CenterThe Heart Institute released images from the operation showing the mother of the boy whose heart was donated standing by the girl’s bedside. The Heart Institute has purchased special generators so operations can continue during blackouts, and it has an autonomous water supply.

Persons: CNN —, Dr, Boris Todurov, ” Todurov, Oksana Dmytrieva, ” Dmytrieva, “, ”, hasn’t Organizations: CNN, Heart Institute of Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, Heart Institute, Transplant Coordination, Ukrainian, Facebook, National Children’s Locations: Russian, Kyiv, Ukraine, Kherson region, Kirovohrad

☆ A Tangled Past Complicates Poland’s Welcome to Ukrainian Refugees
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bound by shared hostility toward Russia’s imperial ambitions and determination to resist the military onslaught ordered by President Vladimir V. Putin, Poland and Ukraine also share painfully entangled pasts. The carnage of 1943 has been a source of tension for decades, but it is now an episode of pressing import as Poland prepares to commemorate its 80th anniversary on July 11. On Sunday, President Andrzej Duda of Poland and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visited a church in Lutsk, in western Ukraine, to remember the massacre. Mr. Duda’s office and Mr. Zelensky posted photographs on Twitter from the ceremony, using the same language to pay tribute to the victims. She still resents “that they show no remorse” and has not forgotten the frenzied cries of “kill the Polacks, kill the Polacks” that echoed around her home village when she was 13.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Andrzej Duda of Poland, Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Osinska, “ Locations: Poland, Ukraine, Warsaw, Lutsk

☆ Heineken, Unilever and Oreo maker Mondelez accused of breaking promises to leave Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

It’s shameful and unethical.”Sonnenfeld, who has testified before Congress about companies leaving Russia, is not accusing these corporations of breaking the law. ‘Implied endorsement of the Putin regime’The “poster child” for this problem is the popular Dutch brewing giant Heineken, Sonnenfeld said. In March 2022, just one month after the invasion of Ukraine, Heineken won praise for promising to leave Russia. “We expect a significant financial loss to the Heineken company. The Yale research said Mondelez shows “no tangible signs of progress towards exiting” and continues to do business in Russia.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Jeff Sonnenfeld, Philip Morris, ” Sonnenfeld, “, ”, ‘, Putin, Sonnenfeld, Steven Tian, ExxonMobil –, ” Heineken, ” Mondelez, Mondelez, That’s, Lipton, Mark Dixon, Nestle, Kit Kat, Purina, Sbarro, Carl’s Jr, Carl’s, Yale, Tim Calkins, Calkins Organizations: New York CNN Business, Yale, Heineken, Unilever, CNN, ”, Institute . Yale, BP, ExxonMobil, Nabisco, Kyiv School of Economics, Agency, Nestle, WeWork, Mondelez, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Restaurants Holdings, CKE, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Russian, ”, American, South Africa

☆ Ukrainian refugees: how will the economy recover with a diminished population?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Olena Harmash | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

In previous refugee crises, for example in Syria, refugees' desire to return home has faded with time, UNHCR studies show. Conscription-aged men are restricted from leaving Ukraine, so working-aged women, and children, make up the majority of refugees. Ukraine's population problem goes beyond millions of refugees. A census in 2001 - the country's only so far - recorded a population of 48.5 million. Demographer Libanova estimated the population at between 28 million and 34 million at the start of 2023 in parts of the country controlled by Kyiv.

Persons: Korzh, Volodymyr Kostiuk, Kostiuk, It's, Dmytro Tsygankov, Ella Libanova, Libanova, Ksenia Karpenko, Karpenko, Corina Rodriguez, Catarina Demony, Mike Collett, White, Frank Jack Daniel Our Organizations: United Nations, UNHCR, Kyiv, for Economic Research, Political, for Economic, MEN, National Academy of Science, European Commission's, Research, The, Economic Strategy, Reuters, Thomson Locations: KYIV, Europe, Kyiv, Portugal, Ukraine, Lagoa, Syria, Ukrainian, Moscow, Russia, Crimea, Belarus, Russian, Tarragona, Spain, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon

☆ NATO makes membership pledge to Ukraine as Zelenskiy drums up support
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Robert Muller | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala visit the Velvet Revolution Memorial in Prague, Czech Republic, July 7, 2023. In Prague, he won a pledge of support for Ukraine to join NATO "as soon as the war (with Russia) is over", and in Sofia secured backing for membership "as soon as conditions allow". "There is strength in unity of NATO," he said, adding that undecided questions over Ukraine's future in NATO and Sweden's pending membership were "a threat to the alliance's strength". Zelenskiy has acknowledged that Kyiv is unlikely to be able to join NATO while at war with Russia. TALKS DUE IN TURKEYDespite Russia's anger, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told a news conference with Zelenskiy in Prague that he expected all NATO allies to support Ukraine in its membership aspirations.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Petr Fiala, Zelenskiy, Jens Stoltenberg, Stoltenberg, Zuzana Caputova, Vladimir Putin, Fiala, Tayyip Erdogan, Jason Hovet, Pavel Polityuk, Timothy Heritage, Gareth Jones, Philippa Fletcher Organizations: Presidential Press Service, NATO, EU Zelenskiy, Zelenskiy, European Union, Thomson Locations: Czech, Prague, Czech Republic, Ukraine, PRAGUE, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, Sofia, Bratislava, Vilnius, Lithuanian, Brussels, Russian, Russia's, TURKEY, Europe, Kyiv, United States, Istanbul

☆ US to send Ukraine cluster munitions, NATO makes membership pledge
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The cluster munitions "will deliver in a time frame that is relevant for the counteroffensive," a Pentagon official told reporters. Cluster munitions are prohibited by more than 100 countries.Russia, Ukraine and the United States have not signed on to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans production, stockpiling, use and transfer of the weapons. BOTH SIDES SHOULD STOP USING CLUSTER BOMBS -HRWHuman Rights Watch has accused Russian and Ukrainian forces of using cluster munitions, which have killed civilians. Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said after meeting Zelenskiy that Ukraine deserved NATO membership and that Ankara would continue working on a negotiated end to the war. "Our summit will send a clear message: NATO stands united, and Russia's aggression will not pay," Stoltenberg said at a news conference in Brussels.

Persons: Washington's, Vladimir Putin, Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden, Anatoly Antonov, Antonov, Igor Ovcharruck, Clodagh, It's, Colin Kahl, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Tayyip Erdogan, Zelenskiy, Jens Stoltenberg, Stoltenberg, Biden, Putin, Martin Griffiths, Griffiths, Robert Muller, Jason Hovet, Pavel Polityuk, Mike Stone, Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Michelle Nichols, Grant McCool, Diane Craft, David Gregorio Our Organizations: NATO, United States, Rights, United Nations, Pentagon, Cluster Munitions, White House, Watch, U.S, Washington, TASS, REUTERS, Treaty Organization, CNN, UN, Initiative, U.N, United, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Russian, U.S, United States, Ukrainian, Kharkiv, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Zelenskiy, Ankara, Prague, Sofia, Brussels, Vilnius, Lithuanian, RUSSIA, Moscow, Odesa, United Nations, Kyiv, Washington

☆ Ukraine's wounded grain giant weathers war with Danube exports
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Tom Balmforth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

He added that Nibulon never had faith in the Black Sea grain deal and was surprised it had been agreed in the first place. That share has risen to 70%-80% versus the volumes it ships across the Black Sea under the grain deal. He acknowledged that the Danube route where infrastructure is less developed is more expensive than the Black Sea. "We decided to have a more expensive logistics route, but more secure route." If the Black Sea deal ends on July 17, Nibulon would benefit in the short term, he said.

Persons: Son, KYIV, Oleksiy Vadaturskiy, Andriy, Vadaturskiy, Nibulon, It's, Tom Balmforth, David Evans Organizations: Black, Reuters, European Bank for Reconstruction, IFC, Thomson Locations: Russian, Kyiv ., Russia, Mykolaiv, Dnipro, Ukraine

☆ Inside Ukraine's tech push to counter Russian 'suicide' drone threat
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Tom Balmforth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

One man arrived in shorts and a baseball cap with a large drone under his arm. Another participant, Yuriy, an engineer and deputy head of a Ukrainian company, said his team presented designs for new anti-drone electronic warfare systems that would be more effective against Shaheds. "This really is an unprecedented war of drones," Fedorov said, adding that Ukraine's military technology innovation had boomed since Russia's invasion. Anatoliy Khrapchynskyi, who works for a firm developing electronic warfare technology, contrasted Ukraine's approach to technological innovation with Russia's. "There were seven companies that could sell drones to the state when we began this project last year.

Persons: Yuriy Motov, Alina Smutko, Mykhailo Fedorov, Oleksandr Kubrakov, Fedorov, Oleksandr, Yuriy, Yurii, Shchyhol, Anatoliy Khrapchynskyi, ", " Fedorov, Tom Balmforth, Mike Collett, White, Gareth Jones Organizations: REUTERS, Russian, Reuters, Shaheds, Army, Defence Ministry, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Russia, KYIV, Kyiv, Ukrainian, Yemen, Syria, Nagorno, Karabakh, China

☆ What Really Happened Inside This Nazi Brothel?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Charlotte Shane | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

THE MADAM AND THE SPYMASTER: The Secret History of the Most Famous Brothel in Wartime Berlin, by Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner and Julia SchrammelThe brothel owner Kitty Schmidt began to sneak portions of her savings out of Nazi Germany sometime in the mid-1930s, often by sending her girls to London with cash sewn in their underwear. By 1938, officials had caught on, but thanks to her police connections, she wasn’t formally charged with currency smuggling. If she wanted to flee the Third Reich, it had to be now. Although Schellenberg’s memoirs describe the existence of such an establishment, where all the staff, “from the maids to the waiter,” were spies for the Nazi regime, most of what we know is likely invented. In “The Madam and the Spymaster,” the journalists Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner and Julia Schrammel try to uncover the facts.

Persons: Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner, Julia Schrammel, Kitty Schmidt, wasn’t, Kitty, Walter Schellenberg, Schellenberg, Albrecht, ” Organizations: Nazi, SS, Prinz Locations: Wartime Berlin, Nazi Germany, London, Italian

☆ Insight: Young Russian lawyers step up to defend anti-war protesters
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Lucy Papachristou | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

"I have always had a keen sense of justice," Gominova told a Reuters reporter based in Poland. "Defending protesters in court is my version of protest," said Gominova, who began representing anti-war activists in court almost immediately after the invasion. With numerous civil society groups disbanded by the state, many other lawyers also defend anti-war activists independently, but it is hard to determine how many. Several Russian lawyers have attracted the attention – and condemnation – of authorities, not only for defending critics of the invasion but also for expressing their own opposition. Before the Ukraine conflict, Gominova, in St Petersburg, worked mainly on civil cases ranging from family disputes to consumer rights.

Persons: Young, acquittals, Sofia Gominova, Gominova, Violetta Fitsner, Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Kara, Murza, Russia's, Evgenia Kara, Vladimir, Vadim Prokhorov –, Putin –, Prokhorov, Dmitry Talantov, Ivan Safronov, Maria Bontsler, Anastasia Rudenko, George Orwell's, Yuri Mikhailov, Mikhailov, Filipp Lebedev, Gabrielle Tetrault, Farber, Mike Collett, White, Mark Trevelyan, Andrew Cawthorne Organizations: Russia, Ukraine Lawyers, Petersburg Bar Association, Moscow Bar, Russia's, Ministry, Russian Federation, Reuters, U.S, of America, Facebook, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, acquittals Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, Poland, St . Petersburg, St, Petersburg, Moscow, Ivanovo, Russian, St Petersburg, Tbilisi, Geneva

☆ CIA says wartime Russia is a rare spy-recruiting opportunity
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - U.S. CIA Director William Burns said on Saturday that disaffection in Russia with the war in Ukraine was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to recruit spies - and that his agency was not letting it go to waste. "Disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership beneath the steady diet of state propaganda and practiced repression," Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, said in a lecture to Britain's Ditchley Foundation in Oxfordshire, England. "That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at CIA - at our core a human intelligence service. We're not letting it go to waste." Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew CawthorneOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: William Burns, Burns, We're, Guy Faulconbridge, Andrew Cawthorne Organizations: U.S, CIA, Ditchley, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, Ukraine, U.S, Moscow, Oxfordshire, England

☆ Opinion | The American Empire in the Fog of Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In a critique of the political thinker James Burnham, penned in the wake of World War II, George Orwell wrote:Power worship blurs political judgment because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible. But a war that seems stalemated, that grinds without dramatic shifts, poses a somewhat different challenge to political judgment; the observer is always tempted to discern a certain trend, a sweeping historical judgment, amid a state of ebb and flow and wartime fog. The war in Ukraine is a case study, yielding very different big-picture arguments based on developments from month to month and even week to week. The same pattern applies to analysis of how the war fits in the global power picture.

Persons: James Burnham, George Orwell, Orwell, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Samuel Huntington’s, Francis Fukuyama’s Locations: South Asia, Asia, Tobruk, Cairo, Berlin, London, Ukraine

☆ There's blood in the water after Prigozhin's revolt shattered the façade of Putin's invincibility
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Jason Corcoran | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

It represented the most significant affront to President Vladimir Putin's 23-year reign. It has also fed paranoia and put a spotlight on Aleksey Dyumin, Putin's ex-bodyguard turned governor. A brief and ultimately aborted attempt at a coup d'état by Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin represented the most significant affront to President Vladimir Putin's 23-year reign. President Vladimir Putin (L) and Aleksey Dyumin, the governor of Tula and Putin's former personal bodyguard, in Moscow in 2016. Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Tula Governor Aleksey Dyumin visit Russian writer Lev Tolstoy's former home in 2016.

Persons: Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin's, Aleksey Dyumin, Putin's, —, Vladimir Putin —, Prigozhin, Vladimir Fesenko, trundling, Sergey Shoigu, Valery Gerasimov, There's Prigozhin, Wagner, Putin, Belarus —, defenestration, Dyumin, Shoigu, Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Svetlov, Igor Girkin, Alexander Lukashenko —, Dyumin's, Dmitry Peskov, Boris Yeltsin, Viktor Yanukoyvch, Girkin, Andrei Gurulyov, Russia's, Lev Tolstoy's, Tatiana Stanovaya, Alexandra Prokopenko, Prokopenko, Sergei Surovikin, Surovikin, Viktor Zolotov, Zolotov, Alexander Lukashenko, Chris Weafer Organizations: Service, Kremlin, Kommersant, Angry Patriots, Russia's First Channel, Prigozhin, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, Central Bank, Washington Post, New York Times, Defense Ministry, Moscow Times, National Guard, Ministry, Macro Locations: Russian, Russia, Rostov, Ukraine, Moscow, Voronezh, Lipetsk, St, Petersburg, Minsk, Belarus, Russia's Tula, Kremlin, Tula, Dyumin's Tula, St Petersburg, Prigozhin, Crimea, Berlin, Novosibirsk, Osipovichi, Africa, Syria

☆ Japan, S.Korea to discuss FX swap deal in first finance talks since 2016
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Tetsushi Kajimoto | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The swap deal expired in 2015 amid worsening relations over issues related to Japan's wartime occupation of the Korean Peninsula, and its restoration would symbolise the improvement in relations, analysts say. "We must strongly raise the momentum for historic improvement of Japan-South Korea relations. The ministers will also discuss global economic developments, infrastructure investment in developing countries, and the role both countries could play in multilateral financial cooperation. The bilateral finance talks, the eighth of their kind, were last held in 2016. Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Leika Kihara, Simon Cameron-Moore and Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Yoon Suk Yeol, Kim Keon, Issei Kato TOKYO, Shunichi Suzuki, Choo Kyungho, Masato Kanda, Suzuki, Choo, Tetsushi Kajimoto, Leika Kihara, Simon Cameron, Moore, Gerry Doyle Organizations: Tokyo International, REUTERS, Japanese Finance, Korean, Thomson Locations: Korean, Tokyo, Japan, South Korea, China, North Korea, Ukraine

☆ Russian general Surovikin was sympathetic towards Wagner rebellion, US officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - General Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russia's military operations in Ukraine, was sympathetic to mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's weekend rebellion, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, though it was unclear if he actively supported it. As the rebellion began, Surovikin publicly urged fighters of the Wagner private militia to give up their opposition to the military leadership and return to their bases. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Surovikin had advance knowledge that Prigozhin was planning a rebellion. U.S. officials and Western officials said Prigozhin had been stockpiling weaponry ahead of the mutiny attempt. The U.S. officials suggested he must have believed he had enough firepower and sympathy within the Russian military to carry out his uprising.

Persons: Sergei Surovikin, Yevgeny Prigozhin's, Prigozhin, Wagner, Surovikin, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Joel Schectman, Don Durfee, Grant McCool Organizations: Wagner Group, New York Times, U.S, Kremlin, Russian, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, U.S, Ukrainian, Moscow, Russian, Chechnya, Syria, Western, Belarus

MOSCOW, June 28 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin not to "wipe out" mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, in response to what the Kremlin cast as a mutiny that pushed Russia towards civil war. While describing his Saturday conversation with Putin, Lukashenko used the Russian criminal slang phrase for killing someone, equivalent to the English phrase to "wipe out". "I also understood: a brutal decision had been made (and it was the undertone of Putin's address) to wipe out" the mutineers, Lukashenko told a meeting of his army officials and journalists on Tuesday, according to Belarusian state media. Later Lukashenko told his military that "people fail to understand that we are approaching this in a pragmatic way ... Prigozhin halted what he called was "march of justice" on Moscow from the southern city of Rostov-on-Don within 200 kilometres of the capital after Lukashenko's intervention.

Persons: Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin, Prigozhin, Lukashenko, Sasha, Wagner, They've, Guy Faulconbridge, Lidia Kelly, Nick Starkov, Andrew Osborn, Peter Graff Organizations: Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russian, Russia, Belarus, Kremlin, Belarusian, Moscow, Rostov, Melbourne

☆ US Green Berets are looking to troops from NATO's newest member as 'mentors' for harsh winter combat
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In March, US Green Berets trained in the Arctic with "mentors" from Finland's Utti Jaeger Regiment. The Utti Jaeger RegimentUtti Jaeger Regiment soldiers during training in May 2019. The Utti Jaeger Regiment takes part in about 40 "executive assistance tasks," which likely includes training and real-world missions, each year. But Finnish forces live in those conditions, and the Special Forces soldiers looked up to them because of it. US Green Berets and Utti Jaeger Regiment troops at a helicopter landing zone in Lapland on March 12.

Persons: Finland's Utti, —, Utti Jaeger, Utti, Lance Cpl, Scott Jenkins, Anthony Bryant, Izabella Workman, I'm, Jaeger, Stavros Atlamazoglou Organizations: Green Berets, Finland's Utti Jaeger, Service, NATO, Utti, Utti Jaeger, US Marine Corps, Utti Jaeger Regiment, US Army, Staff, US Army Special Forces, Green, Special Forces, Special Forces Group, US, Warfare, Finns, 10th Special Forces Group, US Air Force, Utti Jaeger Regiment Helicopter Battalion, Tech, Special Jaeger Battalion, Army, Hellenic Army, 575th Marine Battalion, Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins, School, International Locations: Finland, Ukraine, Russia, Lapland, Finland's, Fort Carson, Colorado, Alaska, Europe, Swedish, Johns

☆ Prigozhin to be investigated after being paid $2 billion in a year - Putin
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW, June 27 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the finances of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's catering firm would be investigated after his mutiny, saying Wagner and its founder had received almost $2 billion from Russia in the past year. He said it had received 86 billion roubles ($1 billion) from the defence ministry between May 2022 and May 2023. In addition, Prigozhin's Concord catering company made 80 billion roubles from state contracts to supply food to the Russian army, Putin said. Prigozhin, whom Putin did not mention by name, could not be reached for immediate comment on Putin's remarks. He said on Monday that he had not been trying to overthrow the Russian state and that he remained a patriot who was trying to settle scores with the defence ministry.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin's, Putin, Prigozhin, Kevin Liffey Organizations: Reuters, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, Belarus, Kremlin, Concord, Ukraine, Russian

☆ Russia is wracked by mutiny and mistakes. Ukraine will seek to take advantage
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Nick Paton Walsh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

But the Russian military may have panicked at seeing mercenaries advance on Moscow and sent help. Wagner forces drove tanks into Rostov-on-Don on June 24, 2023. Firstly, there must have been a radical impact on Russian military morale. Might an earthquake on the battlefield inadvertently rally Moscow’s elite around him, to stave of an existential defeat for Russia as a nation in Ukraine? Moscow’s mistakes have been so plentiful over the past months, at some point Ukraine will likely seize the initiative.

Persons: Wagner, Hanna Mailar, Wagner’s, STRINGER, won’t, Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin –, –, Putin’s, Prigozhin's, Putin, ”, Napoleon Organizations: CNN, Rivnopil, Getty, NATO, Troops, Russia Locations: Moscow, Ukraine, Bakhmut, Donetsk, Mariinka, Russian, Rostov, AFP, Kyiv, Russia, Belarus, Soviet Union, Ukrainian

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