Our Monday morning stroll around the world

🇺🇦🇷🇺 Ukraine confirmed its troops are fighting inside Russia. On Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Ukraine’s armed forces for making it possible to “push the war out into the aggressor’s territory.” His comments marked the first time Ukraine officially acknowledged the ongoing incursion since it began last Tuesday. The attack, which reportedly includes thousands of Ukrainian troops, has prompted both a counter-operation from Russia’s military and tens of thousands of civilian evacuations.

📲 A Chinese-language operation carrying out USPS text scams was recently exposed. The scam centers around fake texts claiming USPS is delivering a parcel but needs more details, including a credit card number, in order to do so. US security researcher Grant Smith recently tracked down the Chinese-language group behind one such campaign – then hacked into their systems and handed over evidence to US authorities. What Smith found: The so-called “Smishing Triad” sends 50,000-100,000 scam messages per day, has gained access to 438,000+ unique US credit cards, and sells its scamming kit on Telegram for $200/month.

🇺🇸🇻🇪 The US is reportedly offering to pardon Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro if he steps down. According to a new Wall Street Journal report, US officials have discussed a long-shot plan to push Maduro into giving up power in exchange for amnesty, as more evidence emerges that he lost last month’s election in Venezuela. The pardon would apply to Justice Department indictments filed in 2020 that accuse Maduro of conspiring to flood the US with cocaine (which carry a $15 million bounty).