Putin says Ukraine fight is taking longer than expected
Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Wednesday that his “special military operation” in Ukraine is taking longer than expected but said it has succeeded in seizing new territory and added that his country’s nuclear weapons are deterring escalation of the conflict.
“Of course, it could be a lengthy process,” Mr. Putin said of the more than 9-month-old war that began with Russia’s invasion Feb. 24 and has displaced millions from their homes, and killed and wounded tens of thousands. Despite its length, he showed no signs of letting up, vowing to “consistently fight for our interests“and to “protect ourselves using all means available.” He reiterated his claim that he had no choice but to send in troops, saying that for years, the West responded to Russia’s security demands with “only spit in the face.”
Speaking in a televised meeting in Russia with members of his Human Rights Council, Mr. Putin described the land gains as “a significant result for Russia,” noting that the Sea of Azov “has become Russia’s internal sea.”
After failing to take Kyiv due to fierce Ukrainian resistance, Russia seized broad swaths of southern Ukraine at the start of the invasion and captured the key Sea of Azov port of Mariupol in May after a nearly three-month siege. In September, Mr. Putin illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions even though his forces didn’t completely control them: Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south, and Donetsk and Luhansk in the east. In 2014, he had illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
In response to an increasing influx of advanced Western weapons, economic, political and humanitarian aid to Kyiv and what he saw as Western leaders’ inflammatory statements, Mr. Putin has periodically hinted at his potential use of nuclear weapons. When a member of the Human Rights Council asked him Wednesday to pledge that Russia would not be the first to use such weapons, Mr. Putin demurred. He said Russia would not be able to use nuclear weapons at all if it agreed not to use them first and then came under a nuclear strike.
Ocasio-Cortez faces ethics probe in House
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is under investigation by the House ethics committee for the
New York Democrat’s alleged but unspecified violation of congressional rules, the panel said Wednesday.
The firebrand progressive lawmaker, who will face the probe in 2023 under the new Republican-led Congress, denied any wrongdoing.
“The congresswoman has always taken ethics incredibly seriously, refusing any donations from lobbyists, corporations or other special interests,” a spokeswoman for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “We are confident that this matter will be dismissed.”
Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., the committee’s acting chair, and Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the ranking minority member, offered no clues as to what the ethics probe was about or what evidence may have surfaced against Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez did not reveal the subject of the probe either.
The Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan group, referred its inquiry into Ms. Ocasio-Cortez to the House ethics panel last June.
FBI received tip about Colo. shooter in 2021
Authorities said the person who would later kill five at a Colorado gay nightclub was on the FBI’s radar a day before being arrested for threatening to kill family members but agents closed out the case just weeks later.
The disclosure by the FBI to The Associated Press creates a new timeline for when law enforcement was first alerted to Anderson Lee Aldrich as a potential danger. Previously it was thought Aldrich only became known to authorities after making the threat on June 18, 2021.
The details of the June 17, 2021, tip to the FBI are not known. But the next day, Aldrich’s grandparents ran from their Colorado Springs home and called 911, saying Aldrich was building a bomb in the basement and had threatened to kill them. Details of the case remain sealed, but an arrest affidavit verified by the AP detailed how Aldrich was upset the grandparents were moving to Florida because it would get in the way of Aldrich’s plans to conduct a mass shooting and bombing.
The grandparents were concerned about Aldrich even before the 911 call, according to the document, with the grandmother telling authorities she and her husband had been “living in fear” because of Aldrich’s “recent homicidal threats toward them and others.”