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Ukraine loses grip on key Russian territory, as Trump says peace ‘is up to Russia now’

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Russian forces have recaptured Sudzha, the largest town that Ukraine once occupied in the Kursk region, according to Moscow, threatening Kyiv’s sole territorial bargaining chip amid pressure to negotiate an end to the war.

“In the course of the offensive operations, units of the North military group liberated the settlements of Melovoy, Podol and Sudzha,” the Russian defense ministry said Thursday.

The US-based conflict monitor the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also said footage from the ground indicated that Russian forces had seized Sudzha and advanced to southern Zaoleshenka, a settlement just northwest of the town.

Its recapture would represent a major symbolic victory for Russia. Although Sudzha is a small place, with a population of about 5,000 people before Ukraine’s incursion, it was one of the only key towns still held by Ukraine.

It comes as US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow Thursday, a source familiar with the situation told CNN. Witkoff is expected to brief Russian officials on the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire covering the entire frontline, which Ukraine has already accepted.

Speaking on the regular call with reporters Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov expressed confidence that all parts of the Kursk region held by Ukraine will soon be liberated.

“President (Vladimir Putin) said that this needs to be done as quickly as possible. (It will take) as much time as is necessary to save the maximum number of lives of our military and civilians. But there is no doubt that the Kursk region will be liberated fairly soon,” Peskov said asked how long it might take to push the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the area.

Putin made a surprise visit to the Kursk region on Wednesday. Wearing military uniform in video broadcast by Russian state television, the Russian president told frontline troops that Moscow’s goal is to “completely liberate” Kursk as soon as possible, during his first trip to the western region since Ukraine’s unexpected incursion there last year.

The carefully choreographed visit appeared designed to boost morale as Russian forces advance on the final remnants of Ukraine’s holdouts inside Russia.

Putin delivered a speech to soldiers, in which he urged them to oust the remaining Ukrainian forces in the region and raised the possibility of creating a “buffer zone” along Russia’s border with Ukraine.

In video broadcast by Russian state television, President Vladimir Putin told frontline troops that Moscow’s goal is to “completely liberate” Kursk as soon as possible.

Ukrainian soldiers captured in Kursk should be treated as “terrorists,” Putin added.

Ukraine launched its shock incursion into Kursk in August, swiftly capturing territory in what was the first ground invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War II. As well as capturing land that could potentially be swapped for Russian-occupied territory, the campaign aimed to divert Moscow’s resources from the frontlines in Ukraine’s east.

But Kyiv has struggled to hold onto its captured territory, with its grip on the region rapidly deteriorating in recent days.

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s top general Oleksandr Syrskyi hinted at further tactical retreats to “more favorable positions,” saying his priority was to “save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.” Russia had carried out airstrikes on its own land, including the town of Sudzha, which was “almost completely destroyed,” Syrskyi added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also told reporters on Wednesday: “The Russians are clearly trying to put maximum pressure on our troops. The military command is doing what it has to do, saving as many lives as possible.”

Russia’s top general Valery Gerasimov claimed Wednesday that Russian forces had recaptured more than 86% of the area taken by Ukraine, that 430 Ukrainian soldiers had been taken prisoner – and the remaining Ukrainians were surrounded.

CNN’s Ivana Kottasová and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional developments.



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Medals for Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics unveiled ahead of next year’s Games

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The medals for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics were unveiled in Venice on Tuesday, 206 days before the games begin.

The medals, created by the Italian State Mint and Polygraphic Institute (IPZS), will use recycled metal recovered from production waste, and will be created in induction furnaces powered by renewable energy, organizers explained. The medals are designed with two halves to represent both Olympic and Paralympic values, organizers revealed.

Italian athletes Federica Pellegrini, who is a double Olympic medalist and Italy’s most successful swimmer, and Francesca Porcellato, the winner of 15 Paralympic medals after appearances in 13 Summer and Winter Games, accompanied the medals by boat to the ceremony at Venice’s Palazzo Balbi on the Canal Grande.

“The medals we have created to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games represent the mastery and excellence of Italian design. Each one is a unique piece, the result of craftsmanship and innovation,” Paolo Perrone, President of the IPZS, said in a statement released by organizers.

“The Milano Cortina 2026 medals place the athlete at the center of the story, expressing the universality of sport, the struggle, and the emotion of victory,” he added.

The design of the medals was revealed in a ceremony in Venice.

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will take place from February 6-22, followed by the Paralympic Winter Games, scheduled from March 6-15.

Next year’s Games mark the Winter Olympics’ return to Europe, with the event having been hosted by Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018 and the Chinese city of Beijing staging the Games in 2022.

Ski mountaineering, where athletes will ascend and descend a mountain in Bormio, in the Valtellina valley, using a mixture of on foot and on ski techniques, will make its debut at the Games.

Italy has twice hosted Winter Olympics in the past – Cortina in 1956 and Turin in 2006 – but it will be the first held in Milan.

The unveiling included a glimpse at a Winter Paralympics Gold, which has text in Braille.
The other side of the Paralympics gold medal.
The Games will start in February 2026.



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Patriot missiles: What are they and why does Ukraine need them so badly?

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US President Donald Trump’s announcement that Ukraine will receive Patriot missile systems as part of a new package of US weaponry has been warmly welcomed in Kyiv as it reels under nightly Russian bombardments.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has made repeated requests for Patriots in recent weeks as Moscow sends record numbers of drones and missiles to cause havoc and fear in Ukrainian cities and towns.

But there were few specifics in Trump’s announcement, and major questions remain over how many Ukraine will receive, when they will arrive, and who will provide them.

Here’s what we know about the vaunted US missile defense system:

The Patriots, short for Phased Array Tracking Radar for Intercept on Target, are the US Army’s key missile defense system.

They most recently proved their worth last month, when they helped shoot down 13 out of 14 incoming Iranian missiles that were launched at the US Air Force’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

The latest versions of Patriot interceptors are capable of engaging incoming short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at altitudes up to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) and distances of up to 35 kilometers.

Analysts say that gives a single Patriot battery the ability to cover 100 to 200 square kilometers of area, depending on how many launchers are in the battery, local terrain and other conditions. That’s not a large area in a country the size of Ukraine, at more than 603,000 kilometers in total area.

Hence, Kyiv’s need for multiple new Patriot batteries.

US soldiers walk next to a Patriot missile defense battery during joint exercises at the military grounds in Sochaczew, Poland on March 21, 2015.

A battery consists of six to eight missile launchers, each capable of carrying up to 16 interceptors, along with a phased-array radar, a control station, a power generation station – all mounted on trucks and trailers.

About 90 people are assigned to a Patriot battery, but only three soldiers in the command and control center can operate it in a combat situation, according to US military reports.

A Patriot battery is expensive, with the complete setup of launchers, radars and interceptor missiles costing more than a billion dollars, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

A single interceptor costs up to $4 million, making their use against cheap Russian drones that can cost as little as $50,000 problematic, according to a CSIS report – especially when Russia is sending hundreds of drones a night in recent attacks on Ukraine.

In regards to the latest transfer, US officials said Patriots could get to Ukraine quicker if they were moved from European NATO allies to Ukraine, with those then being replaced by systems bought from the US.

Trump said some or all of 17 Patriot batteries ordered by other countries could get to Ukraine “very quickly,” according to a Reuters report.

According to the “Military Balance 2025” from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, six NATO allies – Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain – have Patriot batteries in their arsenals.

<p>A prominent Russian politician said Monday the mood in Russia is “not affected” after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plan for ending the bloodshed in Ukraine.</p>

Russian lawmaker: Mood in Russia “not affected” by Trump’s 50-day deadline

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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Monday that several nations – including Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway – could be potential suppliers of the new equipment, but did not specifically mention the Patriots as coming from those countries.

There has been concern inside and outside the military that US Patriot inventories may be stretched too thin.

“It is our most stressed force element,” Gen. James Mingus, vice chief of staff of the Army, told a dialogue at the CSIS earlier this month.

He noted the Patriot unit in Qatar that helped defend the Al Udeid air base had been deployed to the Middle East for 500 days, Mingus said, a “very stressed force element.”

Ukraine has said it needs 10 new Patriot batteries to protect itself against Russia’s increased onslaught of missiles and drones.

Kyiv has already received six fully operational Patriot batteries – two from the US, two from Germany, one from Romania and one jointly given by Germany and the Netherlands, according to the UK-based arms monitoring group Action on Armed Violence.

Analysts say Patriots alone can’t end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Wesley Clark, a retired US Army general and former NATO supreme commander, told CNN’s Lynda Kinkade on Monday that the for the arms package to have real effect on the battlefield, it would have to include more than air defense systems.

“If you want to really stop this, you’ve got to strike Russia and you’ve got to strike deep,” Clark said. “you have to shoot the archer and not the arrows coming in.”

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report



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Sycamore gap tree fellers sentenced to more than four years each in prison

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Two men have been sentenced to four years and three months each in prison for felling a landmark sycamore tree in northern England.

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were both found guilty of two counts of criminal damage in May, one relating to the tree itself and the other to Hadrian’s Wall that it fell on, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency.

The pair were sentenced in Newcastle Crown Court in northeast England on Tuesday.

The tree had stood sentinel on the Roman-built Hadrian’s Wall for more than 200 years before being “deliberately felled” in September 2023, in what authorities at the time called an “act of vandalism.”

Handing down the sentence, the judge said the pair acted with “sheer bravado” and “revelled in the media coverage” their criminal act engendered.

Prosecuting lawyer Richard Wright KC told jurors during the trial that Graham and Carruthers, who had travelled more than 40 minutes from their homes in Cumbria, had engaged in a “moronic mission” to cut down the landmark, PA reported.

The lead prosecutor in the case, Christopher Atkinson of the Crown Prosecution Service, said in a statement that both men had cynically lied about the part they played and blamed each other for “the mindless destruction of this historic landmark.”

The felling of the tree sparked an outpouring of public grief and made global headlines in September 2023.

“An overwhelming sense of loss and confusion was felt across the world,” Andrew Poad, a manager at the National Trust, said in a victim impact statement read out in court, according to PA media.

Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Susan Dungworth echoed these sentiments in a statement, saying: “The unfathomable felling of the Sycamore Gap Tree generated outrage and upset among many people who had taken Northumberland’s iconic tree to heart.”

“Today those who sought to destroy nature’s poignant symbol of Northumberland have been held accountable,” she added.

The tree was cut down in September 2023.

The beloved sycamore tree, located in the Northumberland National Park, was made famous to millions around the world when it appeared in Kevin Costner’s 1991 blockbuster movie “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.”

The tree – at a spot known as “Sycamore Gap” – was located on the UNESCO World Heritage listed Hadrian’s Wall, which was constructed around 1,900 years ago to guard the furthest northwestern frontier of the Roman Empire.

Sycamore Gap was considered one of the most photographed trees in England and was voted as English Tree of the Year in 2016.

Responding to the sentencing, a National Trust spokesperson said: “As the investigation into the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree concludes, we are deeply grateful for the thousands of messages of support received from around the world over the past 18 months.

“The enduring sense of loss reflects the powerful bond between people and our natural heritage,” the spokesperson added.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Jack Guy and Issy Ronald contributed reporting.



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