Eurasia

Six more ships carrying agricultural cargo held up by the war in Ukraine received authorization Sunday to leave the country’s Black Sea coast as analysts warned that Russia was moving troops and equipment in the direction of the southern port cities to stave off a Ukrainian counteroffensive. Ukraine and Russia …

Talks to revive the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers reportedly resumed in Vienna on Thursday, after a six-week hiatus. Negotiators from Iran, the United States, and the European Union separately announced late on Wednesday that they were leaving for Vienna to continue the talks to re-up the 2015 …

Russian forces began an assault Saturday on two key cities in the eastern Donetsk region and kept up rocket and shelling attacks on other Ukrainian cities, including one close to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s military and local officials said. Both cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka had been considered …

Israeli airstrikes flattened homes in Gaza on Saturday and Palestinian rocket barrages into southern Israel persisted for a second day, raising fears of another major escalation in the Mideast conflict. Gaza’s health ministry said 24 people had been killed so far in the coastal strip, including six children. The fighting …

An ambitious new Russian maritime strategy introduced this week aims to challenge the global reach of the U.S. Navy, but it remains to be seen whether the plan is more than Moscow’s standard bravado, analysts say. The 55-page document, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday during the country’s …

Senior US official accuses Beijing of playing both sides in the Middle East’s race for drone technology. Unmanned drones fired by Iran-backed militias at targets across the Middle East in recent years, sometimes with lethal effect, are being supplied from China, a senior US official revealed. Barbara Leaf, the State …

Just as the second person in line for the US Presidency touched down in Taiwan the other day, the Chinese state-run news agency, Xinhua, released a map showing six boxed zones where their nation will be conducting war games not far from the coast of the disputed island nation. A …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Russia Friday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin focusing on a grain deal brokered by Turkey and the UN, prospects for talks on ending hostilities in Ukraine, the situation in Syria and growing economic ties between Moscow and Ankara. Speaking at the start …

What we thought was posturing has now escalated to live firing exercises. Yesterday, SOFREP reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had moved forward with her plan to visit Taiwan amidst warnings from China that they would be resolute in their response. In a separate report here at SOFREP, we also …

New polling data from Moscow indicates that Russian public support for the country’s invasion of Ukraine is growing. However, with the war now in its sixth month, there is little sign of similar enthusiasm within the ranks of Vladimir Putin’s invading army. Instead, much of the available evidence points to …