Battlefield AssessmentRussian forces maintained offensive combat operations along multiple axes. In eastern and northeastern Ukraine, Russian units assaulted areas near Bakhmut and in the outer rings of Kharkiv, and secured marginal advances in ground attacks around Chasiv Yar and Avdiivka. In southern Ukraine, the Kremlin’s forces scaled up offensive action …

For long, the world’s big powers have been using cross-border assassinations to advance their domestic and geopolitical interests. Increasingly, lesser powers are also resorting to it to eliminate dissidents, separatists and terrorists. Cross-border political assassinations, allegedly carried out by States, are no longer the exclusive preserve of the world’s superpowers. …

The terrorist attacks in Dagestan, the result of the lack of consolidation among the peoples of Russia and a clear failure by Moscow’s security services, will further “marginalize and endanger Russia’s Muslims, leading to expanded repression of Muslim dissidents, Leyla Latypova says. And what is especially worrisome, the Moscow Times …