Day: July 20, 2022

When Russia was accused of striking the center of Vinnytsia, a Ukrainian city far from the frontlines, last Thursday, Moscow’s version of events rang familiar. “On July 14, Kalibr (cruise) missiles were launched at the House of Officers in Vinnytsia,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said of the strikes that have killed at least 25 civilians, including…

A Moscow court has fined The New Times, an independent news website, a total of 790,000 rubles (more than $14,000) for publishing “fake” information about the war in Ukraine, Interfax reported on Wednesday.  Publishing information contradicting Moscow’s official narrative of its invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a “special military operation,” is illegal under laws…

A St. Petersburg court has terminated the criminal terrorism case against a popular Russian YouTuber over an alleged performance mocking the deadly 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, the court system’s press service announced Wednesday.   Yury Khovansky, 32, was charged with “public justification of terrorism” in June 2021 after video of a performance ironically approving the…

Russian contract soldiers who refused to continue fighting in Ukraine say their military commanders aren’t allowing them to return home and are using threats and intimidation to force them back to the battlefield.  A group of servicemen of the 11th Guards Air Assault Brigade — a military unit from the Siberian republic of Buryatia deployed…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Canada of delaying the return of a turbine for the Nord Stream pipeline, saying Ottawa was eyeing the European market itself. Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom has reduced flows to Germany via Nord Stream 1 by some 60 percent in recent weeks, blaming the absence of a Siemens…

Shadowy Russian private military company Wagner has started recruiting citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to fight in Ukraine, Kyrgyz media reported Wednesday.  Russia has faced heavy military casualties in its five-month invasion of Ukraine, pushing Moscow to search for ways to shore up its manpower without declaring a full mobilization. Kyrgyzstan’s MediaHub investigative outlet said…

Russia has asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to intervene in grain talks with Ukraine to facilitate Moscow’s exports, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. Ukraine and Russia have held talks under Turkish and UN mediation to unblock crucial grain exports, as shipments from Ukrainian ports are disrupted by Moscow’s military offensive.  Lavrov said…

Less than two weeks after joining the army, Ivan was on the frontlines of Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine and taking part in attacks on Ukrainian positions.  Ivan, 31, who requested anonymity to protect his safety, said he received just five days of training before being transferred to Ukraine and flung into combat.  “There was…

Russia’s “geographical goals” in Ukraine have changed to include not only the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics of eastern Ukraine, but a number of other regions as well, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state media Wednesday. “Now, [our] geography is different. It is not only the DNR and LNR, it is also the Kherson…

The German government on Wednesday accused Russia of using the absence of a turbine as an “excuse” to limit gas deliveries via a key pipeline due to go back online this week. “I would like to stress that according to our information this is an excuse by the Russian side,” a German economy ministry spokeswoman…

Updated at 6:45 p.m. on July 21 to add that the bear has been rescued. A team of Moscow veterinarians was dispatched to the Russian Far North to save a polar bear with a can of condensed milk stuck in its mouth, Russia’s environmental watchdog said Wednesday. The rescue team tranquilized the female bear and…

The United Nations agency in charge of investigating the diversion of a Ryanair flight by Belarus last year announced Tuesday it has completed its review, once again pointing the finger at the “unlawful” actions carried out by Minsk.  On May 23, 2021, a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk,…

Russia has decommissioned the world’s largest nuclear ballistic missile submarine, state media reported Wednesday. The Dmitry Donskoy, a Typhoon-class submarine that served in the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet since 1980, stood at 175 meters in length. Its status as the world’s largest submarine will be taken by the 184-meter Oscar II-class Belgorod nuclear submarine, which…

A Moscow court on Tuesday remanded a former university rector and regional lawmaker in custody on charges of murder more than two decades ago. Ilshat Gafurov, 60, headed the republic of Tatarstan’s Kazan Federal University from 2010 until his detention and transfer to Moscow in December 2021. He is suspected of ordering the assassination of…

Russian shelling pounded eastern and southern Ukraine Tuesday as President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would only ease the path for Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain if the West lifts sanctions on Russian shipments. Russian strikes hit the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, killing one person, local authorities said. AFP journalists said a four-story…