Day: June 24, 2022

  • Russia Eyes Full Donbas Control as Sievierodonetsk Set to Fall

    Russia Eyes Full Donbas Control as Sievierodonetsk Set to Fall

    A two-month Russian assault on the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk entered its final phase Friday after Ukrainian forces were ordered to retreat.  The capture of the city, where 100,000 people lived prior to Russia’s invasion, represents a small but significant victory for Russian forces that are poised to take control of eastern Ukraine’s entire Luhansk…

  • Thinking Outside the Box the Russian Way

    Thinking Outside the Box the Russian Way

    Смекалка: smarts, ingenuity, resourcefulness About a thousand years ago in Moscow, way back when the man in charge was a General Secretary, I bought a kilo of unshelled walnuts (грецкие орехи) at the market. But when I got home, I realized that I didn’t have a nutcracker (щелкунчик). Nor did I have a hammer (молоток).…

  • Russia Is Not Preventing Ukrainian Grain Shipments, Putin Says

    Russia Is Not Preventing Ukrainian Grain Shipments, Putin Says

    Russian President Vladimir Putin denied on Friday that Moscow is stopping Ukraine from exporting grain as Russia’s ongoing Black Sea port blockade continued to raise fears of a global food crisis. Kyiv is one of the world’s major exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but its shipments have been blocked since the Kremlin’s invasion…

  • When Vladimir Took Kyiv and the Misuse of History

    When Vladimir Took Kyiv and the Misuse of History

    In Vladimir Putin’s 2021 essay about Ukraine, he wrote that Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians are all descendants of Ancient Rus and shared “the same historical and spiritual space.” Kyiv was “the mother of all Russian cities,” he quoted, and stated that “both the nobility and the common people perceived Rus as a common territory.” He…

  • Moscow Fashion Week, in Photos

    Moscow Fashion Week, in Photos

    The Russian capital played host to over 100 fashion shows this week as part of Moscow Fashion Week. While Moscow Fashion Week was always meant to showcase Russian fashion house’s designs, this year’s event placed a particular emphasis on domestic brands after virtually every Western brand exited the Russian market over the invasion of Ukraine.…

  • Ukraine War Strains Ties Between Kazakhstan and Russia

    Ukraine War Strains Ties Between Kazakhstan and Russia

    Kazakhstan, which shares the world’s longest continuous border with Russia, has long balanced its status as Moscow’s most trusted ally in ex-Soviet Central Asia with attempts to maintain cordial ties with the West. But Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, combined with Russian perceptions that the Kremlin secured the Kazakh regime during a political crisis earlier this…

  • Kremlin Warns Against ‘Problems’ With Ukraine, Moldova EU Candidacy

    Kremlin Warns Against ‘Problems’ With Ukraine, Moldova EU Candidacy

    The Kremlin said Friday it hopes that Ukraine and Moldova’s already strained ties with Moscow will not be worsened by the countries’ new status as candidates for European Union membership. EU leaders on Thursday agreed to grant candidate status to Ukraine, whose outgunned military has been battling Russian forces for four months, and Moldova in…

  • NovaWind Starts Concreting Foundations at Kuzminskaya Wind Farm in Stavropol Krai

    Concrete was poured for the first wind turbine foundation at the Kuzminskaya Wind Farm in the Stavropol Krai (Southern Russia). A total of 64 wind turbines with a capacity of 2.5 MW each will be installed on the site. With an aggregate capacity of 160 MW, the wind farm is estimated to generate 378 million…

  • Russia Plans First Mass Drone Production – Kommersant

    Russia Plans First Mass Drone Production – Kommersant

    Russia plans to scale up industrial drone production following China’s exit from the commercial market and increasing demand from the Russian military in Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. The open-source drone manufacturer Copter Express (COEX) sold its industrial division to the drone nest maker Hive for an undisclosed sum, the publication reported. Industrial…

  • Car Bomb Kills Russia-Installed Official in Occupied Ukraine

    Car Bomb Kills Russia-Installed Official in Occupied Ukraine

    A Russian-appointed official in southern Ukraine’s occupied city of Kherson was killed in an apparent car bomb attack, local authorities reported Friday. Kherson’s so-called “military-civilian” administration told the state-run TASS news agency that one person died in a car explosion in a residential neighborhood in the early morning. “Today, my friend, head of the department of family,…

  • Ukraine Forces to Retreat From Severodonetsk: Governor

    Ukraine Forces to Retreat From Severodonetsk: Governor

    Ukrainian forces will retreat from Severodonetsk in the face of a brutal Russian offensive that is reducing the battleground city to rubble, a senior Ukrainian official said Friday. The news came shortly after the European Union made a strong show of support for Ukraine, granting the former Soviet republic candidate status, although there is still…

  • Road Shelled as Russian Forces Battle for Devastated Ukraine City

    Road Shelled as Russian Forces Battle for Devastated Ukraine City

    Driving out of the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk Thursday, AFP journalists twice had to jump out of cars and lie on the ground as Russian forces shelled the city’s main supply road. Soon after noon (0900 GMT), an AFP team saw dark smoke rising over the road ahead. They heard artillery fire and…

  • 4 Killed in Military Plane Crash South of Moscow

    4 Killed in Military Plane Crash South of Moscow

    A Russian military cargo plane crash landed south of Moscow on Friday, killing at least four out of nine to 10 people on board, according to media reports. The Il-76 cargo aircraft crashed in the city of Ryazan 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow, officials said in a statement carried by news agencies. Reports said it was…