Day: October 5, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered his government to take over operations at Europe’s largest nuclear power station in the Russia-annexed region of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine.  “The government will ensure that the nuclear facilities at the plant… are integrated as federal property,” the executive order said.  The power station has been occupied by…

Russian officials sought to allay concerns Wednesday that Ukraine could achieve a major breakthrough in its ongoing counteroffensive amid reports that Kyiv’s forces were advancing in both the south and east of the country.  Russian pro-war blogger Semyon Pegov confirmed Wednesday that Ukraine had recaptured a number of locations in the southern Kherson region, including…

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said Wednesday he was granted a top rank in Russia’s army, just as Moscow’s forces suffer a series of defeats in Ukraine.  The 46-year-old Chechen leader — one of the most outspoken voices in Russia backing Putin’s Ukraine offensive — said it was a “huge honor” for him.…

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that he believed the situation in the four newly annexed Ukrainian regions would stabilize shortly despite Russian forces’ ongoing losses to Kyiv’s counteroffensive. “We are working on the assumption that the situation in the new territories will stabilize,” Putin said during a televised video call with Russian teachers. Kyiv…

The first criminal case for evading mobilization opened in the southern Russian city of Penza on Wednesday, human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov wrote on his Telegram channel.  The case centers on a 32-year-old man who allegedly refused to sign a summons to the local conscript office and was subsequently detained by the OMON, a special…

Yevgenia Kuzevanova has been raising money to buy everything from first aid kits to instant noodles for Russian forces in Ukraine.  Her online group Help for Soldiers, which is based in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region near the Ural mountains, is one of many civilian movements frantically gathering basic equipment for an under-equipped Russian army.  “This is…

An elite, highly secretive Russian military intelligence unit may have lost up to three-quarters of its reconnaissance manpower in Ukraine, according to research published by the BBC’s Russian service Tuesday. Like other special forces units, the exact size of the GRU intelligence agency’s 3rd Guards Spetsnaz Brigade is classified. But based on the brigade’s death…

Moscow said Wednesday it should be part of the probe into leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, after Sweden blocked off the area around the pipelines pending an investigation. “There should really be an investigation. Naturally, with the participation of Russia,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said, as quoted by Russian news agencies. …

Kazakhstan hit back at Russia on Oct. 5 after its ambassador to Moscow was summoned for a dressing-down over aggressive, anti-Russian remarks made by Ukraine’s envoy to Astana. The diplomatic impasse has shed light on the awkward fissures created among once steadfast allies as a consequence of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces.…

Russia will resume gas deliveries to Italy after suspending them due to a transport problem in Austria, Russian energy giant Gazprom said in a statement Wednesday.  “Transportation of Russian gas through the territory of Austria is resuming,” Gazprom said, adding that a “solution” was found with Italian buyers following regulatory changes in Austria. Most Russian gas…

Russian President Vladimir Putin finalized the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian regions Wednesday with laws and decrees signed as his forces’ losses on the battlefield continue to mount. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, as well as the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, are “accepted into the Russian Federation in line with federal…

Russia increased oil production in September as major Western countries debated energy price caps over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the data. Last month’s average daily output rose by 1% from August to nearly 1.47 million metric tons, or 10.8 million barrels per day, according…

A Russian pilot and a member of ground crew staff died Tuesday when a plane that Russia recently delivered to Mali’s armed forces crashed near the northern city of Gao, an official and the military said. Video provided to AFP by a witness showed an aircraft descending at high speed before crashing in a plume…