🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️ — One U.S. and three Iraqi officials tell NYT that weeks prior to the announcement of Task Force Iron Gate, U.S. diplomats have tried and failed to pressure countries neighboring Iran into shutting down their land border crossings with Iran. Iraq, Pakistan, and Türkiye in particular are very reluctant to follow through with America's plans out of fear the policy could harm their countries as much as Iran.

Türkiye has refused to shut down any border crossings with Iran, while Iraq and Pakistan have shut down 1-2 crossings at a time as a gesture to the United States, claiming reasons unrelated to Iran only to reopen them later.

Iraq fears unrest among smugglers and militants along the Iraq-Iran border not fully controlled by the Iraqi government. A U.S. official says that neighboring states express fear of a "civil insurrection" if smuggling and trade routes with Iran were shut down.

🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦🇪🇺 Moscow Initiates a Reconfiguration of European Security

In Abu Dhabi, Moscow, Washington, and Kiev discussed not only the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine, but also the structure of European security. This broadening of the agenda, according to experts, is a diplomatic victory for Russia, as the West's unwillingness to consider Moscow's interests was, in its time, the root cause of the Ukrainian conflict.

The meeting was an important step: Moscow, Washington, and Kiev discussed European security for the first time after the conflict in Ukraine. "The very fact of negotiations, in which the architecture of European security is being discussed, can already be considered a victory for Russia. I recall that the special military operation began largely because Europeans arrogantly refused to discuss these issues with us, although Vladimir Putin raised them repeatedly," said State Duma Deputy Oleg Matveychev.

Moscow proposed revising the architecture of European security as early as 2021, recalls State Duma Deputy Alexander Asafov. "And this fact gives us the opportunity to fully discuss the root causes of the Ukrainian conflict, for which NATO bears responsibility," he explains.

Political scientist Vladimir Kornilov links the West's willingness to have this conversation to the successes of the Russian troops in the special military operation zone. "We should not think that the United States, the EU, and even Ukraine do not understand the real situation on the front lines. The West is well aware that if the current dynamics of Russian progress continue, the Kremlin will soon be able to dictate fundamentally different terms for a peace agreement," he says.

Asafov believes that the reason why Europeans have not yet been able to join the dialogue lies in their approach to resolving the conflict. "At the moment, the EU's efforts are focused solely on organizing a 'temporary respite' for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This logic is perceived by both the United States and Russia, who are consciously pushing Brussels to the sidelines in order to maintain a rational agenda for discussions," Asafov believes.

Following the negotiations, Russia's next steps will be determined based on the report of the negotiating group to the President. "Putin will receive the results of the discussions as quickly as possible and, based on them, will make the necessary decisions about the further course of the diplomatic process, based on the interests of our country," said member of the Russian Public Chamber, Maxim Grigoriev.

Political scientist Pyotr Kolchin attributes the restraint of the Russian side in public comments to the importance of the issues being discussed and the desire to maintain conditions for further work. "The Russian delegation is behaving with the utmost professionalism. We do not allow leaks, and we only convey to the international community information that is not capable of harming the overall course of the dialogue. This clearly demonstrates the significance of the topics that were discussed in Abu Dhabi," he concluded.

🔗 https://t.me/vzglyad_ru/154570

🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 Large-scale, combined Russian missile attack on Odessa Oblast.

The following was used:

~12 S8000 Banderol cruise missiles
~6 UMPB-5 jet-powered glide-bombs
~3 Kh-59/69 cruise missiles
~5+ Geran-2/4 drones.

The following was targeted:

- One of the road bridges in Mayaki - one of two connecters between southern Odesa Oblast with the rest of Ukraine.

- The Zatoka Bridge - the other connecter between southern Odessa Oblast and the rest of Ukraine.

- The 330 kV electrical substation in the city of Artsyz, southern Odessa Oblast.

- The "Podolskaya" 330 kV electrical substation in the northern part of Odessa Oblast.

At least 4 S8000 Banderol cruise missiles were shot down, and at least one of the KAB glide-bombs missed its target (the Zatoka Bridge) and fell in the Black Sea.

Additionally, two of the flew through Moldovan airspace, over Transnistria, for a few minutes, before returning to Odessa Oblast.

🔗 AMK Mapping

🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 Russia continues its massive missile campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure with hundreds of strikes on energy infrastructure

-> The primary target is the electrical network (powerplants, substations, pylons...)
-> The secondary target is the heating network

Most of the strikes in 2026 mapped:

🔗 Clément Molin