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This weekend Ukraine launched military and likely civilian attacks on Russia just before new peace negotiations begin in Istanbul on Monday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and “expressed sincere condolences on the civilian casualties resulting from the bombings of railway infrastructure in the Bryansk and Kursk regions on June 1.” Russia says that this was “caused by sabotage,” but has not specifically placed blame on Ukraine. At least seven people were killed.
This happened just one day after Ukraine struck Russia’s military airfields over the weekend, reportedly without the knowledge of the U.S. According to Moscow, most of the strikes were repelled, with some resulting in material damage but no casualties. Russia retaliated with several strikes on Ukraine’s defense industries.
Ukraine had to use NATO weapons to do this but the U.S. reportedly did not know about it. Why would Ukraine do this? Does it give them any advantage going into the negotiations on Monday? Are these attacks a message to Russia — or to NATO?