The cathedral on the grounds of the historic Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built around 1050 and one of the holiest sites in Eastern Europe, is on fire tonight as Russia launches another mass missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s capital. Mayor Klitschko confirmed the blaze.

Today, I’m releasing never before seen intelligence revealing new evidence of past US government funding for more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries, including Ukraine. In support of President Trump‘s Executive Order to end federal funding of dangerous gain of function research around the world, and increase transparency and accountability, ODNI will continue working with partners across the Administration to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain, and what “research” is being conducted. odni.gov/index.php/newsroom/…

"I think Nabiullina is in serious trouble, they're certainly making her the scapegoat. Someone needs to be turned over to the public, to be told that these bad liberals entrenched in government are undermining Putin's economic breakthrough." economist Vladislav Zhukovsky.

In the late forties, George Bernard Shaw visited Stalin's Russia, and had nothing but praise for it

No, sweetie. Donetsk was a city of a million roses when its own Ukrainian flag flew above it. Back then, it was also the fastest-growing and most rapidly prospering city in Ukraine -- home to what was the finest regional airport in Eastern Europe, one of the world's best football stadiums, a state-of-the-art railway terminal, and one of the cleanest, best-maintained cities in the region. Its elites were running Kyiv, and every time I visited Donetsk as a student, riding the famous trolleybus Route No. 2 through the city, I was amazed by how many new office buildings were appearing, how much money was flowing into the city, and how many international companies were opening their doors there. Fifteen years ago, to us kids from Donbas, Donetsk felt like the center of the universe because it had everything one could possibly dream of. It was a young city of universities and libraries, where the overwhelming majority of boys and girls from across Donbas went to study, including those from my own small hometown an hour away by bus. Names like Liverpool or Detroit Rock City may mean nothing to you, but our Ukrainian Donetsk was a city of great rock clubs and unforgettable concerts. We traveled there to see Western bands perform. We bought rock merchandise at the legendary Right House store near Krytyi Market. Scorpions, Rihanna, and Beyoncé performed at the famous Donbass Arena. Schoolchildren from across Donbas were bused in to watch Shakhtar Donetsk matches. The city even had a famous monument to The Beatles. It was a city where we sang songs on guitars in its beautifully maintained parks and along the Kalmius embankment before heading out to buy the famous "green Donetsk burgers." Our older friends moved there after graduation, formed rock bands, recorded full albums, and held wedding celebrations in the squares around Donbas Arena. We traveled there to visit the legendary Radio Market in search of films, music, and books. And then you arrived. And you turned the wealthiest, most prosperous Ukrainian city into a piece of shit. You deceived many of its people with sweet promises of Russian oil-fueled prosperity broadcast from television screens, but what you brought instead was war. You transformed a thriving city into a criminal wasteland ruled by ethnic gangs from Russia, into a kingdom of Stalinist terror straight out of the 1930s, complete with torture chambers in the infamous Izolyatsia prison camp. You turned the magnificent Donetsk Airport into lifeless gray rubble, while the vast stands of Donbas Arena have spent a second decade slowly being reclaimed by weeds instead of hosting Champions League finals and Metallica concerts. You swept away an entire generation of the city's men through your forced mobilization and threw them against Ukrainian machine guns until there were barely enough people left to keep basic municipal services running. Because of you, prosperous Donetsk became a withered desert without reliable water, because your war destroyed the canal system that carried water from the Siverskyi Donets River into Donbas. For years now, people have lived with chronic water shortages and have been reduced shitting into plastic bags forever. You dragged Donetsk back like seventy years in time. You turned it into a depressed backwater, devoid of hope and future. Even ten years ago, tens of thousands of people, the most active, the most talented, the most entrepreneurial, fled the city and found refuge in Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine. Many of them still remember our Donetsk with tears in their eyes, the Donetsk that existed before the arrival of the "Russian World." You transformed it into something that even my pro-Russian acquaintances are shocked to see when they return after years of occupation. It was you who trampled the million roses of our Ukrainian Donetsk into shit beneath the tracks of your tanks and the boots of your death troops, turning them into a foul swamp of death and despair. And that stain will forever remain on the conscience of fascist Russia, which brings nothing but destruction, decay, and death wherever it goes.

This is the most “The European mind can’t comprehend this” moment of my life. One of my friends said, “Punch me five times tomorrow and I’ll still think this isn’t real.”

Today, during a stopover at Chișinău Airport, I spoke with envoys of the President of the United States Steve Witkoff @SEPeaceMissions and @JaredKushner. A very positive conversation. I am grateful for their readiness to work as actively as possible in the coming weeks to reinvigorate diplomacy aimed at ending Russia’s war against Ukraine. We understand how much of the world’s attention is focused on the situation around Iran. But our shared goal of peace in Europe remains on the agenda. We discussed prospects in the context of the G7 Summit and other events in June. I outlined the data we have regarding what Moscow is intent on. I am grateful for the words of respect for Ukrainians and the positive assessment of Ukraine’s positions. Thank you, America! Thank you to Moldova for the hospitality.

While certain irreverent podcasters owned the headlines at SPIEF, Ilan Shor had himself a busy week. A7 hosted a stand at the conference, and announced plans to open 20 offices across Latin America and Africa over the next two years. frankmedia.ru/284152