FORMER US Marine Trevor Reed has been exchanged for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko in a prison swap.

Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders decried the move as “blackmail.”

Russia's top diplomat has warned that NATO is now fighting a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and there is a 'very serious' risk the conflict could turn nuclear.

In a major reversal following Chancellor Olaf Scholz only days ago voicing strong resistance, it appears Berlin has bowed to the mounting pressure among allies and approved new tank deliveries to Ukraine from Germany's own stock, which Scholz had previously said was depleted.

In its effort to send more weapons into Ukraine, the Pentagon has put out an open call to the arms industry to offer weapons and other systems that could rapidly be delivered to the country.

Deputy national security adviser Jon Finer says the US will announce a new weapons package for Ukraine this week. Kyiv is expecting more arms for hosting a meeting with high-ranking US officials.

During Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's unannounced trip to Kiev on Sunday (which had been revealed the day prior by Zelensky himself), where they met with the Ukrainian leader and hashed out details of new impending US weapons shipments, among the most significant announcements from Blinken is the planned return of American diplomats to the country.

The death toll in the massive fire that broke out earlier in the day at a sensitive Russian Defense Ministry research facility in the city of Tver has risen to seven after emergency crews battled the Thursday blaze throughout the afternoon, state-run TASS reports.

On Thursday, President Biden announced another $1.3 billion in aid for Ukraine. Of that amount, $800 million will go towards a new weapons package, and $500 million will go directly to the Ukrainian government for economic assistance.

In an interview on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said some NATO member states want the war in Ukraine to last longer as a way to hurt Russia.

A US official said the White House has “almost zero” ability to track the weapons it is sending to Ukraine. So far, President Joe Biden has approved over $3 billion in arms shipments to Kiev.

Ignoring warnings from Russia, the US and its NATO allies continue to escalate the military assistance they are providing to Ukraine.

Weeks ago Russian forces had already captured and besieged much of the southeast Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which began a process of the majority of civilians emptying out - though there could still be tens of thousands remaining. Within the past days an estimated couple thousand Azov fighters have been surrounded and holed up at the large, cavernous Azovstal steel plant, reportedly including some civilians, resulting in a standoff situation where those inside are fast running out of supplies.

CNN published an article acknowledging that the White House “doesn’t really know” what happens to the vast quantities of weapons being sent to Ukraine, with one source saying it all “drops into a big black hole.”

President Biden is preparing to announce a new massive military aid package for Ukraine that will be about the same size as the previous $800 million one, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Brussels estimates that hundreds of billions of euros will be needed for the rebuilding of the war-torn nation

The American people are allowing their blood soaked rulers in Washington to callously prolong the war in Ukraine. The complicit media has propagandized and lied the American people into insisting Washington double down on all their worst aggressions. And so continues the hawks’ reckless gamble on World War 3 to spite President Vladimir Putin and – once and for all – destroy Russia.

(Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow was starting a new stage of what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine which he predicted would be a significant development.

Even before hostilities broke out, the CEOs of major weapons firms were talking about how tensions in Europe could pad their profits.

HUSARIVKA, Ukraine — It was in early March when the spent warhead of a cluster munition rocket landed next to Yurii Doroshenko’s home in eastern Ukraine, having dispensed its lethal bomblets over his village.