Ukrainian Releases ‘Massive’ Missile Barrage, Blows Up Russian Warship Near Crimea

"According to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, the guided missile ship “Ivanovets” suffered multiple hits and sank overnight in Lake Donuzlav, Crimea’s deepest lake.

Night-time footage released by Ukraine shows naval drones striking the vessel, causing substantial damage and leading to its apparent sinking." Metro

Ukrainian intelligence chief confirms opposition leader Alexei Navalny's natural cause of death

"Alexei Navalny, a prominent political opponent of Vladimir Putin, passed away on February 16 at a prison colony in the remote north of Russia. General Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR), spoke up about the issue surrounding the Russian adversary's death.

"I am sorry to disappoint you, but from what we know, Navalny sadly died of a blood clot. This is more or less confirmed. This information was not sourced from the internet, but it appears to be a natural cause of death," Budanov told a journalist at the "Ukraine: The Year 2024" conference in Kiev." MS

Putin's army 'incinerates one of the most capable tanks in the world' in Ukraine

"Russia incinerated ‘one of the most capable tanks in the world’ deployed by Ukraine, it has

been reported.
Footage circulating on pro-war Telegram channels shows the burning armored vehicle near the frontline city of Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region.
Military bloggers boasted it is one of the 31 M1 Abrams tanks that Joe Biden sent to Ukraine in 2022. Soldiers of the 15th brigade hit the tank with a kamikaze drone and finished it off with a grenade launcher." MS

Houthis knock out underwater cables linking Europe to Asia

"Four underwater communications cables between Saudi Arabia and Djibouti have been struck out of commission in recent months, presumably as a result of attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The successful targeting of the four cables, which are believed to belong to the AAE-1, Seacom, EIG, and TGN systems, marks a serious disruption of communications between Europe and Asia." MS

CIA Built "12 Secret Spy Bases" In Ukraine & Waged Shadow War For Last Decade, Bombshell NYT Report Confirms

"The New York Times published an explosive and very belated full admission that US intelligence has not only been instrumental in Ukraine wartime decision-making, but has established and financed high tech command-and-control spy centers, and was doing so long prior to the Feb. 24 Russian invasion of two years ago.

Among the biggest revelations is that the program was established a decade ago and spans three different American presidents. The Times says the CIA program to modernize Ukraine's intelligence services has "transformed" the former Soviet state and its capabilities into "Washington’s most important intelligence partners against the Kremlin today."
This has included the agency having secretly trained and equipped Ukrainian intelligence officers spanning back to just after the 2014 Maidan coup events, as well constructing a network of 12 secret bases along the Russian border—work which began eight years ago. These intelligence bases, from which Russian commanders' communications can be swept up and Russian spy satellites monitored, are being used launch and track cross-border drone and missile attacks on Russian territory.
This means that with the disclosure of the longtime "closely guarded secret" the world just got a big step closer to WW3, given it means the CIA is largely responsible for the effectiveness of the recent spate of attacks which have included direct drone hits on key oil refineries and energy infrastructure.
"Without them [the CIA and elite commandoes it's trained], there would have been no way for us to resist the Russians, or to beat them," according to Ivan Bakanov, former head of the SBU, which is Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency.
Clearly, Kiev and Washington now want world to know of the deep intelligence relationship they tried to conceal for over the past decade. It is perhaps a kind of warning to Moscow at a moment Ukraine's forces are in retreat: the US is fighting hand in glove with the Ukrainians. And yet the revelations contained in the NY Times report also confirm what President Putin has precisely accused Washington of all along.
The report contains a surprisingly detailed description of one of the 'secret' underground command centers established by the CIA near the Russian border... location undisclosed of course:

"Not far away, a discreet passageway descends to a subterranean bunker where teams of Ukrainian soldiers track Russian spy satellites and eavesdrop on conversations between Russian commanders. On one screen, a red line followed the route of an explosive drone threading through Russian air defenses from a point in central Ukraine to a target in the Russian city of Rostov.

The underground bunker, built to replace the destroyed command center in the months after Russia’s invasion, is a secret nerve center of Ukraine’s military."

There is also one more secret: The base is almost fully financed, and partly equipped, by the CIA.Below is a hugely ironic excerpt from the Times report.
The section begins by noting that Putin has repeatedly blamed the US-NATO for expanding its military and intelligence infrastructure into Ukraine. Not only had this precisely been going on for the past decade, as is now being admitted, but was presented by the Kremlin as a key cause of the Russian invasion of Feb.24, 2022. Putin and his officials were adamant on the eve of the invasion that NATO was militarizing Ukraine. The Times appears to now fully admit that, yes - this was actually the case:

"Putin has long blamed Western intelligence agencies for manipulating Kyiv and sowing anti-Russia sentiment in Ukraine.

Toward the end of 2021, according to a senior European official, Putin was weighing whether to launch his full-scale invasion when he met with the head of one of Russia’s main spy services, who told him that the CIA, together with Britain’s MI6, were controlling Ukraine and turning it into a beachhead for operations against Moscow.

...U.S. officials were often reluctant to fully engage, fearing that Ukrainian officials could not be trusted, and worrying about provoking the Kremlin.Yet a tight circle of Ukrainian intelligence officials assiduously courted the CIA and gradually made themselves vital to the Americans. In 2015, Gen. Valeriy Kondratiuk, then Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, arrived at a meeting with the CIA’s deputy station chief and without warning handed over a stack of top-secret files."

Among the most interesting and curious moments of the NYT report is a description of the CIA program's expanse under the Trump administration. The report suggests that the true scope may have even been hidden from Trump. The Russian hawks in his administration quietly did the 'dirty work'." ZH

Active-duty U.S. airman dies after setting himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy

"An active-duty airman has died after authorities say he set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.

The man was identified by the Metropolitan Police Department as 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell of San Antonio.
The incident unfolded just before 1 p.m. ET outside the gates of the Israeli Embassy in northwest Washington, according to statements from the city's Metropolitan Police Department and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department....Members of the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division extinguished the flames before fire crews arrived. Bushnell was unconscious when he was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries." MS

95 combat engagements occurred over past day

"Over the last day, 95 combat engagements took place in the frontline. In total, the enemy launched 11 missiles and 98 air strikes, fired 129 times from multiple launch rocket systems at the Ukrainian troops' positions and settlements. air strikes hit Yamne, Nova Sich (Sumy oblast), Vesele Kostyantynivka, Kurdyumivka, Maiorsk, Pivnichne, Zalizne, New York, Ocheretyne, Zhelanne, Berdychi, Lastochkyno, Yasnobrodivka, Netailove, Umanske,

Vodyane, Paraskoviivka, Ocheretyne, Novomykhailivka, Volodymyrivka, Urozhaine, Staromaiors’ke (Donetsk oblast), Malynivka, Orikhiv, Mala Tokmachka, and Robotyne (Zaporizhzhia oblast).
More than 110x settlements in Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Mykolaiv oblasts came under artillery fire.
Pivnich operational-strategic group, Volyn and Polissya axes: no significant changes.
Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna axes: the adversary maintains its military presence in the areas of russia bordering Ukraine. The enemy troops conduct subversive activities in order to prevent the deployment of Ukrainian troops to threatened axes. The adversary increases the density of minefields along the state border in Belgorod oblast (russia).
Khortytsia operational-strategic group, Kupyansk axis: 6x adversary attacks were repelled in the vicinities of settlements of Synkivka and Tabaivka (Kharkiv oblast).
Lyman axis: the Ukrainian troops repelled 5x enemy attacks in the vicinities of Terny (Donetsk oblast), and Bilohorivka (Luhansk oblast)." Ukrin

Houthis attacked tanker flying American flag in Gulf of Aden

"Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked the oil tanker Torm Thor in the Gulf of Aden, which was sailing under the American flag, informs Reuters.An anti-ship missile was used in the attack on the vessel. The US Central Command reported that the USS Mason destroyer intercepted an anti-ship ballistic missile launched into the Gulf of Aden from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, which was likely targeting the tanker Torm Thor sailing under the American flag." MS