President Biden defended the move to supply Kyiv with cluster munitions, telling reporters that Ukraine is “running out of ammunition” as it looks to break through Russian defensive positions. The administration’s decision comes amid concerns about the pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive and after internal debate over sending the controversial weapons, which are banned by most countries and can leave behind unexploded submunitions that remain deadly for decades.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed support for Ukraine’s NATO bid at a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul, the Ukrainian leader said. In a statement, Zelensky said he was “glad to hear” Erdogan say that “Ukraine deserves to become a member of NATO.” Zelensky has been visiting NATO member states ahead of the alliance’s summit in Lithuania next week.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Kremlin smears Wagner boss Prigozhin, hailing Putin as Russia’s savior: The Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus is in overdrive working to discredit Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin and to cast President Vladimir Putin as the wise leader who saved Russia from civil war, Robyn Dixon reports. But even as the state-controlled media is trashing Prigozhin as a greedy, treasonous opportunist, the Kremlin has permitted him to return to Russia and recover millions in cash and personal weapons, showing that it’s not so easy to make him disappear.
Still, the gaslighting efforts seem to be working, putting Russia’s shocked population back into passive mode and portraying Putin as stronger than ever. “As far as the general public is concerned, it seems like clinging to normalcy is still the most common and the most immediate reaction among the majority,” said Maria Lipman, a Russia analyst at George Washington University.
