Ukrainian forces shelled the center of Gorlovka, eight civilians were injured, said the head of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin.

The attack was deliberately carried out on a hospital and a blood transfusion station - presumably by HIMARS.

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❗️Russian troops struck and destroyed Ukraine’s “North” Operational Command center, the Russian Defense Ministry announced

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What's behind Poland's bid to join the European Sky Shield Initiative?

Poland's intention to join the German-led European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) comes after Iran's recent missile attack on Israel and reflects Warsaw's desire to address air defense (AD) issues, Mikael Valtersson, a former officer in the Swedish Armed Forces and chief of staff of the Sweden Democrats, told Sputnik.

"The successful interception of most of the Iranian missiles by the Israeli Iron Dome Air Defense shield has put focus again on how important AD is," Valtersson said.

He recalled that while "Polish liberal Donald PM Tusk" supports the idea of his country joining ESSI, the country's "conservative President Andrzej Duda" opposes Poland's membership in Sky Shield.

"Poland already has an ongoing AD cooperation with the US and the UK. Duda is probably worried that this cooperation might be jeopardized with participation in the ESSI, while Tusk mainly sees this as a method to lower acquisition cost for future missiles and not competing with the ongoing AD cooperation with America and Britain," the expert argued.

The Duda-Tusk spat could "lead to a fight about ESSI membership in Poland,” Valtersson warned, suggesting that if Warsaw joins the initiative, “it will increase the bargaining power of the ESSI countries a bit, but not result in any drastic changes."
Tusk announced earlier this week that Poland intends to join ESSI, which aims to build a common air and missile defense system across Europe.

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❗️Russian Air defense shot down 251 Ukrainian UAVs, two Tochka-U missiles and 33 Vampire MLRS shells - Russian Defense Ministry

🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the daily briefing of the Russian Defense Ministry on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️ In the territory of the DPR, the Ukrainian army lost up to 590 servicemen during the day. Russian forces repulsed the counterattack;

▪️ Near Kupyansk, Russian troops repelled two counterattacks;

▪️In the Avdeyevka area, Ukraine lost up to 130 military personnel, Russian forces repulsed seven counterattacks;

▪️In the southern DPR area, Ukraine lost up to 140 soldiers and three field ammunition depots.

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❗️Iran may reconsider nuclear policy in light of Israeli threat — Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

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Iran has identified the location of "all Israeli nuclear facilities" and is ready to strike them at any moment in case of aggression by Tel Aviv, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened.

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Iran is ready to repel any Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has said.

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Iran carried out its strikes on Israel using outdated missile weapons, an IRGC general revealed.

Tehran thereby forced Israel to expend a maximum amount of funds to repel the attack, while Iran spent minimal effort in conducting it, the general asserted.

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Report: Russia’s 5-to-1 advantage on battlefield — major concern for West

"Concerns are mounting that Russia may make major gains in the coming weeks by punching through overstretched Ukrainian lines," Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter in the US and Europe.

So far, the paper gives excuses for Ukraine's failures, such as "delays in US and European military aid" and "personnel shortages," but it also points to Russia's advantage in artillery, ammunition and men.

"Russia is breaking through to the front line, using a five-to-one advantage in artillery, ammunition and a surplus of men, backed up by the use of the latest weapons," the article said, quoting General Sir Richard Barrons, former commander of Britain's Joint Forces Command.

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❗️Britain has added the IRGC Navy and the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces to the sanctions list

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❗️US imposes new Iran-related sanctions targeting UAV program, steel industry and auto companies, according to US Treasury Department.

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❗️US imposes sanctions on 16 individuals and two entities in response to Iran's attack on Israel, US State Department says.

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🇦🇷 Millei strikes again

Argentina wants to become a global partner of NATO and has submitted an application to do so, Defence Minister Luis Alfonso Petri said.

"I met with Deputy Secretary General of NATO Geoana. I transmitted a letter of intent to him," Petri said on social media.

Argentina continues to work on restoring relations that will allow it to modernise and prepare its armed forces according to NATO standards, the minister added.

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Russia's court has arrested the Ukrainian agent who blew up the car of ex-SBU Lieutenant Colonel Prozorov in Moscow, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

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❗️LIVE: UNSC Discusses Middle East and Palestine

Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website

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Project Nimbus: Google's AI tools to turn Israel into Mideast police state

Google has terminated the employment of 28 individuals who participated in a 10-hour sit-in protest on Tuesday against Project Nimbus, a collaboration between Google and Amazon aimed at providing cloud computing and AI services to the Israeli government and military during the ongoing Gaza war.

Earlier in March, a cloud engineer was let go after expressing concerns about the contract's potential to enable “genocide or surveillance”.

The controversy surrounding Project Nimbus has been ongoing since Google and Amazon were awarded the contract in April 2021, with employees from both companies highlighting the risks of misuse by Israel.

What do we know about the secretive project?

▪️Israel describes Project Nimbus as a multiyear program to move the Jewish state's entire public information to the cloud. The cloud server storage will be located in Israel, and all data stored on them will remain within Israel’s borders. Details of Project Nimbus and the way it will be used by Israel remain top secret.

▪️Materials obtained by the Intercept in July 2022, suggest that Project Nimbus will provide Israel with facial detection capabilities, automated image categorization, object tracking, as well as sentiment analysis to assess the emotional content of pictures, speech, and writing.

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