WESTERN PERSPECTIVE With a surprise cross-border attack, Russia ruthlessly exposes Ukraine’s weaknesses The town of Vovchansk in the northern Kharkiv region, liberated from Russian occupation more than 18 months ago, awoke Friday to intense shelling and aerial bombardment. Russia has found another way of stretching Ukraine’s already thin blue line. President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials said that Russian efforts to advance towards the town had been thwarted, but the Russians have since tried to cut road links with Vovchansk. The Russians launched battalion-strength attacks along a 60-kilometer stretch of the border on Friday, claiming to occupy several villages…

Heavy fighting in Gaza's Rafah keeps aid crossings closed and sends 110,000 civilians fleeing Heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Rafah has left crucial nearby aid crossings inaccessible and forced more than 110,000 people to flee north, U.N. officials said Friday. With nothing entering through the crossings, food and other supplies were running critically low, aid agencies said. The World Food Program will run out of food for distribution in southern Gaza by Saturday, said Georgios Petropoulos, an official with the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Russian forces attack Ukraine's Kharkiv region, striking on new front Russian forces launched an armoured ground attack on Friday near Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv in the northeast of the country and made small inroads, opening a new front in a war that has long been waged in the east and south. Ukraine sent reinforcements as fighting raged in the border areas of the region, the defence ministry said, adding that Russia had pounded the frontier town of Vovchansk with guided aerial bombs and artillery. "Russia has begun a new wave of counteroffensive actions in this direction," Ukrainian…

Netanyahu on US threat to withhold arms: Israel will fight with its 'fingernails' if needed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a U.S. threat to withhold some arms would not prevent Israel from continuing its offensive in Gaza, indicating it might proceed with an invasion of the packed city of Rafah against the wishes of its closest ally. President Joe Biden has urged Israel not to go ahead with such an operation over fears it would exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophein the Palestinian enclave. On Wednesday, he said the United States would not provide offensive weapons for a Rafah offensive,…