Ukraine, Briefly

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• President Joe Biden pledged to increase American military activities in Europe to shore up strength and unity among NATO members as they deal with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NBC News wrote Wednesday.

• The occupied Kherson region in southern Ukraine is preparing to vote on formally joining Russia, a Moscow-backed official said Wednesday, the Moscow Times noted. Soon after invading Ukraine in late February, Russian forces seized the port city of Kherson, a crucial land bridge connecting the Russian mainland to the occupied Crimea. Since then, Ukraine has accused Moscow of preparing phony independence referendums in the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to formally annex the area.

• Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, is suing Russia at the European Court of Human Rights, saying the Russian government violated his property rights in its war on his native nation, Bloomberg reported. The plaintiff was once a pro-Russian political operator in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian media. He has denied those allegations.

• Killnet, a Russian hacker gang, claimed responsibility for a series of cyber attacks on hundreds of Lithuanian government, infrastructure, and media websites this week, according to the Washington Post. An extensively distributed denial of service (DDoS) assault hit the government and commercial enterprises, according to Lithuanian officials who acknowledged the strikes.

• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “toxic masculinity” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Independent added.