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Russia launched a “massive” missile strike on Ukraine overnight, hitting energy facilities and damaging power plants in several regions, officials in Kyiv said on Saturday. Moscow has escalated its strikes against Ukraine’s power network in recent months, causing blackouts and triggering Ukraine to ask consumers to ration their energy supplies. “Russian armed forces staged another…

A senior Ukrainian security source told AFP on Friday that Russia had increased attacks on railway infrastructure with the aim of disrupting movement of military cargo that includes Western aid. Russian forces have firepower and manpower advantages over Ukrainian forces across the front line and Kyiv has warned that fighting will be especially difficult over…

Police carried out searches at Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Russian media reported Friday. The Ostorozhno Novosti news channel on Telegram said officers were at the museum’s archival building and a second building where Garage offers walking tours. “Garage supervisors and curators are being held and are banned from using their phones until the [searches] end,”…

Ukrainian bombardments killed three people in separate attacks on Russian border regions and in occupied Ukrainian territory, Russian and Moscow-installed officials said Friday. Ukrainian forces over recent months have escalated fatal missile and drone attacks on Russian border regions, and also targeted Russian energy infrastructure. “The village of Korovyakovka was shelled from the Ukrainian side…

Russia’s Central Bank on Friday held interest rates unchanged after President Vladimir Putin cautioned against cutting borrowing costs prematurely. Moscow last year hiked its key interest rate to 16% to combat a surge in inflation, as the Russian currency wobbled under the pressure of Western sanctions. The Central Bank said on Friday it was still…

Читайте русскую версию здесь. BRUSSELS — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to the seat of the European Union this month underscored the country’s delicate balancing act as it branches outside Russia’s sphere of influence. After talks with EU President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Brussels and Washington promised…

Russian officials said on Friday that Ukrainian bombardments had left two people dead in separate attacks on the border region of Kursk, and in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian soldiers. Ukrainian forces over recent months have escalated fatal missile and drone attacks on Russian border regions, and also targeted Russian energy infrastructure. “The village of…

Two Russian soldiers have been arrested on suspicion of going on a drunken killing spree in the Moscow-occupied part of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region this week, according to media reports. Alexander Osipov, 34, and Alexander Kaigorodtsev, 36, were detained Wednesday after several people were found dead in the neighboring villages of Podo-Kalynivka and Abrykosivka, the…

Russia has arrested a journalist from the Russian edition of Forbes magazine for social media reposts over accusations of Russian atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, his lawyer and Forbes said on Friday. Rights groups say hundreds of Russians have been arrested, fined and jailed for criticizing Russia’s offensive on Ukraine under tough military…

Russia is reopening the first of several regional airports that were closed when the country invaded Ukraine more than two years ago, state civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia announced Friday. All flights to and from 11 airports in southern and central parts of the country have been grounded over safety concerns since President Vladimir Putin ordered troops…

Nearly four decades ago today, the Soviet Union witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history when the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded. In the present-day Russian capital, another potential radioactive threat lies dormant beneath Muscovites’ feet. In Moscow’s northwestern Shchukino district, city authorities are planning new developments atop underground…

Russia is seeking to ban the vaguely defined “anti-Russian separatist movement” as an “extremist” organization, the Justice Ministry said Friday. According to the ministry, the so-called movement’s goal is to “destroy the multinational unity and territorial integrity of Russia.” The ministry’s request is set to be heard by Russia’s Supreme Court on June 7. The independent…

A teenager from the Siberian city of Chita has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for anti-war graffiti and social media posts, a Russian court said Thursday. Russian media said this was the first time a minor was imprisoned for their anti-war views. Tenth-grader Lyubov Lizunova, 17, was detained alongside Alexander Snezhkov, 19, and Vladislav Vishnevsky, 23,…

Russian soldiers returning from Ukraine have killed 107 people since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor over two years ago, the independent investigative news outlet Vyorstka reported Thursday, citing media reports and court filings. Vyorstka said it tallied up the violent crime convictions of 91 ex-convicts pardoned after fighting in Ukraine and 84 regular…

After being held up by half a year of partisan infighting in Congress, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a $61 billion package of desperately needed aid for Ukraine, showing that Kyiv’s most vital ally will continue to support its fight against Russia’s invasion — at least for now. But while Kyiv has welcomed the news,…

Russia on Thursday denied reports that it was considering barring its own citizens from renewing passports abroad, a move that would further disadvantage exiled dissidents who fled political persecution. The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta said earlier Thursday that it had obtained a copy of a draft Foreign Ministry decree suspending passport renewals and other consular services for Russians…

The Ukrainian city of Mariupol was almost entirely raised to the ground during an 80-day-long conquest waged by Russia in 2022. At least 8,000 residents of the city died of war-related causes during the siege, according to Human Rights Watch. Images of life and death in the besieged city — which were also depicted in…

The Russian TV personality and blogger who organized a controversial celebrity “nearly naked” party in December has been fined $542 for “discrediting” the Russian military. Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court found Anastasia Ivleeva guilty of “public actions aimed at discrediting the Russian Armed Forces” and issued a 50,000-ruble fine, according to the Moscow court system’s Telegram channel. A…

The Kremlin said Thursday that Ukraine’s access to long-range weapons, including ATACMS provided by the United States, would not fundamentally change the outcome of the conflict, now in its third year. That comments came hours after the State Department said the United States had secretly sent ATACMS missiles to Ukraine for use inside its own…

Russia on Thursday handed a long jail term to a Siberian man accused of state treason and terrorism over plans to join Russian units fighting for Ukraine. This is the latest arrest of Russian citizens accused of wanting to fight as part of pro-Ukrainian armed groups, which have led several deadly incursions into Russia. The…

A Moscow court has launched hearings against a young woman who backs the invasion of Ukraine on accusations of vandalizing a ballot box with green antiseptic dye, the independent news outlet Mediazona has reported. Alina Nevmyanova, 20, is among several Russians who were caught on camera pouring the dye — zelyonka in Russian — or setting…

A senior Russian proxy official in the occupied Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia said Thursday that two civilians had been killed by a Ukrainian drone. The Kremlin claimed to have annexed Zaporizhzhia in late 2022 despite not fully controlling the industrial territory, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict. “A man and…

Ukrainian and Russian forces exchanged drone and artillery fire on Thursday, leaving at least seven dead, regional officials on both sides of the frontline announced. The uptick in civilian deaths came as Russian forces are pressing in hard in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, ahead of events in Moscow on May 9, hailing the…

Russian security and law enforcement authorities said Thursday they have thwarted a fake bomb threat allegedly organized by a private security firm. Investigators said three members of an unidentified transportation security organization had last November installed three fake bombs under two road bridges in the city of Tver, 160 kilometers northwest of Moscow. “They then provided fake…

The State Department confirmed Wednesday that the United States had secretly sent long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine as part of the March assistance package, fulfilling a long-standing request from Kyiv. “We did not announce this at the onset in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told…

Independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported on Monday that Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya, has been living with a potentially fatal illness for more than five years, prompting the Kremlin to start working on a plan for a managed transfer of power. In the first part of its investigation into the political…

Kyiv’s SBU security service said Wednesday it suspected a high-ranking cleric and head of east Ukraine’s main monastery of having revealed army positions to Russian forces. The SBU said it had “served a notice of suspicion to the Metropolitan of the Sviatohirsk Lavra who ‘tipped off’” Ukrainian positions in the Donetsk region to Russian forces.…

The arrest of a senior defense official on bribery suspicions signals Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s diminishing status and the rising influence of the security services, two sources in the Russian government and a person close to the Kremlin told The Moscow Times.  All spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic.…

When the water started rising sharply in Orenburg, a regional capital near Russia’s border with Kazakhstan, Veronika realized that a “gigantic tragedy” was unfolding before her eyes.  “It was such a terrible, nerve-wracking situation because the water kept rising and rising,” Orenburg resident Veronika told The Moscow Times. “Every day you wake up, scroll through…

Russia and Ukraine have for the first time held in-person talks to exchange children displaced by the war, Moscow’s children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova announced Wednesday. Forty-eight children are set to be exchanged under the deal agreed in Qatar, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted Lvova-Belova as saying. Qatar said it mediated the Russian-Ukrainian children’s…

The Russian Orthodox Church has suspended a priest who led a memorial service for the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny last month, according to a ruling on the Moscow diocese website. Priest Dmitry Safronov performed a memorial service at Navalny’s gravesite in Moscow on March 26, 40 days after the Kremlin critic died in an Arctic prison. According…

A Russian deputy defense minister who was exposed in an investigation by late opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s team was remanded in custody Wednesday on suspicion of taking large bribes. The arrest of Timur Ivanov, a longtime ally of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, is the most dramatic corruption case in Russia in recent years, and comes…

Ukraine launched attack drones at oil facilities in western Russia early Wednesday, defense sources in Kyiv confirmed, in the latest aerial assault by Kyiv aiming to dent Russian military logistics. Ukraine over recent weeks has stepped up aerial attacks on Russian energy facilities in the hopes of crippling Moscow’s ability to attack Ukrainian cities or…

The law aims to overhaul the mobilization system, including by toughening penalties against draft dodgers and by forcing men to keep their military registration up to date. The suspension of consular services was needed to “resolve technical issues” linked with the implementation of the new legislation, the ministry said. It said men would be able…

Russia will ramp up strikes on Western weapons delivered to Ukraine, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday following the U.S. Congress’ long-delayed approval of fresh military aid to Kyiv. “We shall increase the intensity of strikes against logistics centers and storage facilities of the Western armament,” Shoigu told the ministry’s advisory board. “Russian servicemen [have] defused…

A Moscow court on Tuesday denied U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich’s appeal against the extension of his pre-trial detention in the espionage case that he and American authorities have rejected as false. Gershkovich, 32, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, has been in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison for more than a year after he was…

The Russian Embassy in Turkey has urged citizens to avoid flying Turkish Airlines due to a recent uptick in passengers being denied boarding on connecting flights from Istanbul to Latin American destinations. “We’re compelled to advise our citizens to carefully weigh the advisability of using the services of this airline,” the embassy said in a statement…

Russia is canceling a popular procession to commemorate World War II victims for a second straight year due to growing security concerns, officials announced Tuesday. For more than a decade, Russians across the country have paraded through cities each May 9 holding portraits of relatives who were killed in what Russia calls the “Great Patriotic…

Some 120 civilians have been killed in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said. Belgorod has been repeatedly targeted by what Russian officials have called indiscriminate Ukrainian attacks since the start of the conflict. “The situation is extremely complicated, the [cross-border]…

Russian drone and rocket attacks on Ukraine throughout Tuesday injured more than a dozen people, Ukrainian officials said. Nine were wounded, including four children, in the southern city of Odesa, by falling debris from an overnight drone attack, the emergency services said. The port city on the Black Sea has been targeted by Russian missile…

Ten years ago, Alexander Krasnogorodtsev, an artist from St. Petersburg, told his parents he was going on a trip to the White Sea to paint Russia’s northern landscapes and would be off the grid for a while. Instead, the 24-year-old drove to Rostov-on-Don, a city about 1,500 kilometers to the south, crossed the Ukrainian border…

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov appeared to show off his physical fitness in a workout video after independent media reported that the 47-year-old has been living with pancreatic necrosis for over five years. Citing anonymous sources at the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital where he was allegedly treated, the news website Novaya Gazeta Europe reported Monday that…

Russia’s worst flooding in decades has submerged Soviet-era uranium mines in the Kurgan region, the investigative news outlet Agentstvo reported Monday, sparking fears that radioactive and chemical pollution could seep into the Tobol River. The Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit is located within the flood zone in Kurgan’s Zverinogolovsky district, Agentsvo reported, citing a map published by local…

A major television tower was toppled in Ukraine’s war-battered city of Kharkiv on Monday after bombardments from Russia forces, as the country’s head of military intelligence warned the situation on the front lines would likely deteriorate in coming weeks. An AFP journalist in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, saw the red-and-white spire of the 240-meter structure…

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has been living with a diagnosis of pancreatic necrosis for more than five years, the independent news website Novaya Gazeta Europe reported Monday, citing anonymous sources at the Moscow presidential hospital where he was allegedly treated. His deteriorating condition has reportedly prompted the Kremlin to start working on a succession plan to…

A Russian court has sentenced Meta spokesman Andy Stone to six years in prison in absentia on “terrorism” charges linked to the company’s wartime content moderation policy, the independent Mediazona news website reported Monday. Stone was charged with the “promotion,” “public calls for” and “justification” of terrorism after his March 2022 announcement that the Facebook and Instagram parent…

A Moscow resident has been sentenced to five years of correctional labor on charges linked to a street interview he gave to the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) news outlet, the OVD-Info rights watchdog reported Monday.  Yury Kokhovets, 39, was approached by RFE/RL journalists in Moscow in July 2022 and asked whether a de-escalation…

Russia has threatened to take a tit-for-tat response after the U.S. Congress passed legislation that would allow the transfer of confiscated Russian assets for Ukraine’s reconstruction. The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday approved long-delayed military aid to Ukraine that also contains provisions for the Biden administration to sell confiscated Russian assets and hand the…

Three people have been killed and two injured in a fire at a machine-building plant in the southern Russian city of Voronezh, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said Monday. Eyewitness footage shared by local social media channels showed thick black smoke coming out of a two-story industrial building and spreading to nearby streets. The fire engulfed around 500 square…

Two traffic police officers have been killed and one seriously wounded in an armed attack in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, law enforcement authorities said Monday. “The gunman fired several shots at the police officers, then stole their service weapons and ammunition,” the regional branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in…

Ukraine said Sunday its navy had struck a salvage ship belonging to Russia’s Black Sea fleet on the annexed Crimean peninsula, putting it out of service. It did not say where the attack took place, but social media footage purportedly filmed in the Crimean port of Sevastopol showed a ship in flames. “Today, the Ukrainian…

Russia said Sunday its forces had gained territory near the key battleground town of Chasiv Yar in east Ukraine, highlighting the pressure facing Kyiv as it gears up to receive $61 billion in new U.S. aid. After nearly a year-and-a-half delay, the United States House of Representatives finally approved the aid package in a vote…

Moscow on Saturday slammed the approval by the U.S. House of Representatives for an aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. “The allocation of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan will exacerbate global crises,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram. She called aid for Kyiv “direct support for terrorist activities” and…

Ukraine and Russia both accused each other of deadly strikes on civilians Saturday, as U.S. lawmakers prepared to vote on a $61 billion aid package Kyiv hopes will boost its flagging war effort. Ukraine’s biggest ally Washington has not approved large-scale support for the war-torn country in nearly a year and a half, a delay…

Ukraine launched drones at eight Russian regions overnight, hitting three electrical substations and a fuel depot, a source in Ukraine’s defence sector told AFP on Saturday. Kyiv has ramped up strikes on Russian oil and gas facilities in recent months, part of what it calls “fair” retaliation on infrastructure used to fuel Russia’s war. “At…

Russian forces shelled two residential buildings in Ukraine’s north east Kharkiv region on Saturday, killing one person and injuring another, authorities said. The attack took place in Vovchansk, a city that lies about five kilometres (three miles) from the Russian border and has been frequently targeted throughout the war. “Russian troops hit a nine-storey building…

Russia’s Izvestia newspaper said Saturday one of its military correspondents was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia. The attack took place on Friday as the journalist Semyon Eremin and his film crew returned from a reporting trip to the frontline village of Pryiutne, Izvestia said. “Eremin’s film crew was…