Heading towards World War III?

Ukraine's President Zelensky said he has "good news", claiming the recapture of several settlements from Russia.

Rumours have swirled for days about a possible breakthrough in the eastern Kharkiv region, but with no word from Ukrainian officials.

Mr Zelensky declined to name which places had been retaken, saying that "now is not the time to name" them.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62828859

The offices of the nongovernmental organization ‘Together With Russia’ in Melitopol were bombed on Wednesday evening, the group said on social media. Though the building was damaged, there were no reports of injuries or deaths.

‘Together With Russia’ accused the Ukrainian government of a “terrorist act” after its headquarters on Lomonosov Street were damaged in the explosion. The group distributes humanitarian aid to residents of the Russian-controlled territories in Ukraine’s Zaporozhye Region and advocates for unification with Russia.

“The leadership of the terrorist state refuses to abandon the tactic of terrorizing civilians, even though it has failed to work,” the group said in a statement. “All Ukraine can do is fire at civilians at night.”

Melitopol is a community of around 150,000 residents in the central Zaporozhye Region. Nearby Berdyansk, also under Russian control, was targeted by drones and artillery on Wednesday. The city’s head of the military-civilian administration was seriously injured in a car bombing on Tuesday.

Pro-Russian activists say this is a campaign of terror aimed at intimidating the residents, which overwhelmingly favor rule by the Russian Federation. A poll administered by a Crimean researcher last week showed 83% of the residents were willing to take part in a referendum on joining Russia, and 86% of them would vote in favor.

Ukraine has not commented on the latest attack so far. Earlier, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk, who is also in charge of the “reintegration of temporarily occupied territories,” said on Saturday that the percentage of people willing to take part in such plebiscites was “tiny, not even two percent.”

Those who do take part, Vereschuk told the Ukrainian media, can be convicted for “collaboration” and punished with up to 12 years in prison and confiscation of their property. Kiev has already threatened penalties of up to 15 years in prison to those applying for Russian citizenship and even accepting humanitarian aid from Russia.

www.rt.com/russia/562398-melitopol-blast-ukraine-referendum

The offices of the nongovernmental organization ‘Together With Russia’ in Melitopol were bombed on Wednesday evening, the group said on social media. Though the building was damaged, there were no reports of injuries or deaths.

‘Together With Russia’ accused the Ukrainian government of a “terrorist act” after its headquarters on Lomonosov Street were damaged in the explosion. The group distributes humanitarian aid to residents of the Russian-controlled territories in Ukraine’s Zaporozhye Region and advocates for unification with Russia.

“The leadership of the terrorist state refuses to abandon the tactic of terrorizing civilians, even though it has failed to work,” the group said in a statement. “All Ukraine can do is fire at civilians at night.”

Melitopol is a community of around 150,000 residents in the central Zaporozhye Region. Nearby Berdyansk, also under Russian control, was targeted by drones and artillery on Wednesday. The city’s head of the military-civilian administration was seriously injured in a car bombing on Tuesday.

Pro-Russian activists say this is a campaign of terror aimed at intimidating the residents, which overwhelmingly favor rule by the Russian Federation. A poll administered by a Crimean researcher last week showed 83% of the residents were willing to take part in a referendum on joining Russia, and 86% of them would vote in favor.

Ukraine has not commented on the latest attack so far. Earlier, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk, who is also in charge of the “reintegration of temporarily occupied territories,” said on Saturday that the percentage of people willing to take part in such plebiscites was “tiny, not even two percent.”

Those who do take part, Vereschuk told the Ukrainian media, can be convicted for “collaboration” and punished with up to 12 years in prison and confiscation of their property. Kiev has already threatened penalties of up to 15 years in prison to those applying for Russian citizenship and even accepting humanitarian aid from Russia.

www.rt.com/russia/562398-melitopol-blast-ukraine-referendum

A senior US military official said Washington provided training to Ukrainian forces who allegedly sank two Russian warships earlier this year, appearing to suggest the troops were brought to the US for instruction on Harpoon missiles before the Pentagon denied the assertion.

Speaking at an event hosted by Defense News on Wednesday, Defense Undersecretary for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante highlighted American assistance to Kiev throughout its conflict with Russia, discussing alleged operations in June involving Harpoon anti-ship missiles.

“We got [the missiles] off the ship, put them on some flatbed trucks, put the Harpoons, the modules, on the flatbed truck,” he said, describing the arms transfer, going on to claim that the Pentagon “brought the Ukrainians to train on it over Memorial Day weekend – in our country, over Memorial Day weekend – and the next week two Russian ships were sunk with those Harpoons.”

The official did not specify the Russian vessels in question, though the Pentagon previously claimed a supply ship was sunk using Harpoons. Moscow has not confirmed the alleged attack.

However, while LaPlante appeared to say Ukrainian soldiers were brought to the US for training on the Harpoons – a decision Washington had not previously made public – a Pentagon spokesperson later told Defense One the training occurred elsewhere.

Instead, LaPlante “meant that the weekend the Ukrainians received training is called Memorial Day in the United States,” the spokesperson said.

Another unnamed military official reached by the outlet noted that the training was overseen jointly by US forces and foreign partners, but said the instruction itself was carried out by a “vendor.” It is unclear where that took place or what organization trained the Ukrainians to operate the Harpoons, which are produced by Boeing.

Ukraine first started fielding the US-made anti-ship weapon back in June, after it received a transfer from Denmark, while Washington later pledged two vehicle-mounted versions of the system as part of a $1 billion aid package to Kiev.

Ahead of that shipment, a senior Ukrainian adviser declared that the Pentagon was “preparing a plan for the destruction” of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which included “deliveries of powerful anti-ship weapons” such as the Harpoon. US officials denied that charge “definitively,” though Washington has acknowledged training Ukrainian forces previously and frequently touts the billions in military aid provided to the government in Kiev.

www.rt.com/news/562400-pentagon-trained-ukrainians-harpoon

The US will send additional weapons worth $675 million to Ukraine, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced on Thursday.

Austin made the announcement at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he traveled on Wednesday for a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. He said Kiev is at “another key point” in its attempts to fight against Russia and pledged US help over a long period of time.

The expected announcement was reported earlier by the Washington Post, which cited an anonymous US official. The source said the US wants to replenish rocket artillery munitions used by Ukraine.

Secretary Austin said the package also includes more howitzers, Humvees, armored ambulances, anti-tank systems, and other weapons in addition to the resupplying of munitions. The aid was authorized by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, he added.

Last week, the White House asked the Congress to allocate an additional $11.7 billion to fund military assistance for Ukraine, including $4.5 billion for arms and equipment acquisitions.

The US has been the biggest sponsor of the Ukrainian military amid the conflict with Russia. Among the heavy weapons sent to Kiev by the Pentagon are High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), M777 howitzers, and combat drones.

www.rt.com/news/562404-us-weapons-aid-ukraine

Portugal’s General Staff of the Armed Forces (EMGFA) has been targeted by a “prolonged and unprecedented” cyber attack, resulting in the leak of a raft of secret NATO documents, local media outlets reported on Thursday.

According to Diario de Noticias newspaper, the Portuguese government was not even aware of the attack until the US informed it of the breach, which has been classified by the nation’s authorities as “extremely serious.”

The outlet’s sources claim that it was the US intelligence community that found “hundreds” of confidential or secret NATO documents put up for sale on the dark web. According to the report, the notice on the discovery was sent directly to Antonio Costa, the nation’s prime minister, last August.

A spokesperson for the US embassy in Lisbon would neither confirm nor deny the report, saying they do not comment on intelligence matters.

The report indicates that the General Staff has conducted a comprehensive audit of its internal systems and managed to identify the computers from which the NATO documents were stolen. The agency also found that rules related to the secure transmission of classified documents had been broken.

“This cyberattack was prolonged in time and undetectable and used bots programmed to detect types of document,” one of the outlet’s sources noted, adding that information was extracted in several phases.

The outlet says that NATO will demand explanations and guarantees from the Portuguese government, and an unnamed official told the outlet that the government can guarantee that its armed forces will “work daily so that Portugal's credibility, as a founding member of the Atlantic Alliance, remains intact.”

The data leak comes after NATO claimed in late August that the bloc was investigating a hacking of missile firm MBDA by unknown malicious actors. According to media reports, the hackers had put blueprints of weapons used by Ukraine in its conflict with Russia on sale on the dark web.

www.rt.com/news/562453-portugal-secret-nato-documents-hack