Ukraine has claimed to have sunk a Russian Black Sea warship, while Russia has accused the US of an "endless circle of escalation" amid reports that it is planning to station nuclear weapons in the UK.
news.sky.com
Ukraine's head of military intelligence says the war with Russia is going so well, it will reach a turning point by mid August and be over by the end of the year. It is the most precise and optimistic prediction by a senior Ukrainian official so far.
In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Major General Kyrylo Budanov also said a coup to remove Vladimir Putin is already underway in Russia and the Russian leader is seriously ill with cancer.
His office is dark and stuffed with the paraphernalia of war and espionage, sandbags stacked on its windows, machine guns piled on the floor, a spare rifle magazine on his desk used as a paperweight. He is remarkably young to lead his country’s military intelligence agency at just 36 years, and speaks with the dry precision of his trade. He showed little emotion, smiling only once as he said in English, "I’m optimistic".
Budanov correctly predicted when the Russian invasion would happen when others in his government were publicly sceptical and now says he is confident about predicting its conclusion.
"The breaking point will be in the second part of August. Most of the active combat actions will have finished by the end of this year. As a result we will renew Ukrainian power in all our territories that we have lost including Donbass and the Crimea."
Russia’s tactics have not changed despite its shift to the east he says, and Russia is suffering huge losses though he would not be drawn on Ukrainian casualties.
He said he was not surprised by Russia's setbacks in the war.
"We know everything about our enemy. We know about their plans almost as they’re being made.
"Europe sees Russia as a big threat. They are afraid of its aggression. We have been fighting Russia for eight years and we can say that this highly publicised Russian power is a myth. It is not as powerful as this. It is a horde of people with weapons."