RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Ukraine is ‘artificial state’ – Putin Modern Ukraine is a country that was artificially created by the actions of the late Soviet leader Joseph Stalin after World War II, Russian President Vladimir Putin told American journalist Tucker Carlson on Friday. In a wide-ranging and highly anticipated interview that lasted more than two hours, Putin described in detail the process by which Ukraine was created in its current form. He recalled that, during the feudal fragmentation of Russia in the Middle Ages, Ukraine – which he described as being part of Russian lands – came under heavy Polish cultural,…

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Russian forces foil two rotations of Ukrainian troops in southern Donetsk area Units of Russia’s Battlegroup East broke up two rotations of Ukrainian troops in the southern Donetsk area during the past day, the battlegroup’s spokesman Alexander Gordeyev told TASS. "Units of the Battlegroup East continue to fulfil combat tasks of the special military operation in the southern Donetsk area. Artillery systems and heavy flamethrowers hit strongholds and areas of the deployment of manpower of the 23rd brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard, the 72nd mechanized brigade and the 128th territorial defense brigade of the Ukrainian army near…