Day: December 14, 2022

Ukraine’s SBU security service on Wednesday found “propaganda literature” in counter-intelligence searches in churches and monasteries across the country, in its most recent descent on religious sites of the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church. “The Security Service of Ukraine found Russian passports, propaganda literature and laissez-passer” issued by Russian occupation authorities during searches on Wednesday, the…

The cancellation of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual press conference earlier this week was a last minute decision taken due to growing fears the televised event would be dominated by the Ukraine war, six Kremlin and government officials told The Moscow Times.  Putin has held 17 such press conferences — a set piece of the…

New legislation that punishes organization, financing and recruitment for acts of sabotage with stiff sentences of up to life imprisonment was approved by Russia’s State Duma in its first reading on Wednesday, state-owned news agency RIA reported. The legislation, which supplements an existing law with three new articles, mandates severe punishments including life imprisonment for…

Ukraine announced that it had secured the release 64 Ukrainians and one U.S. citizen in its latest prisoner swap with Russian forces on Wednesday. “64 soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who fought in the Donetsk and Luhansk sectors are going home,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak tweeted. “It was also possible…

The Russian military has formed what it called its first “artistic” units of musicians, actors and other creatives to boost troop morale amid a series of battlefield losses in Ukraine. “Two permanent frontline creative brigades were formed for the first time in the modern history of the Russian Armed Forces,” the Defense Ministry said in a…

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it had not received any proposals from Kyiv to halt fighting in Ukraine during the upcoming holiday period and that a ceasefire was not on Moscow’s agenda. “No, no proposals have been received from anyone and no topic of this kind is on the agenda,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry…

St. Petersburg has contributed 100 million rubles ($1.5 million) toward the reconstruction of Mariupol, the southern Ukrainian port city largely destroyed by Russian troops this year, the independent media outlet Rotonda reported. The allocation has apparently cut into the city’s budget for ice and snow cleanup, making the streets of Russia’s second-largest city — already…

A former Russian presidential guard who fled President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization now faces extradition from neighboring Kazakhstan on charges of desertion and illegal border-crossing, Kazakh media has reported. If approved, Mikhal Zhilin’s extradition would mark the first publicly known time an allied country has returned a draft dodger to Russia, where his family says he faces…

Russia has sourced at least $2.6 billion in computer components and electronics in the months since falling under Western tech sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing purchased Russian customs records. Semiconductors and other technology arrived in Russia between April and Oct. 31 via Hong Kong and Turkey — which have not…

The Pentagon is finalizing plans to send Patriot missile batteries that can shoot down incoming missiles to Ukraine, U.S. media reported Tuesday. As Russia has ramped up missile strikes on key Ukrainian infrastructure, the administration of President Joe Biden could announce the deployment as early as this week, U.S. officials told The New York Times…

Ukraine’s Western allies pledged an additional one billion euros ($1.1 billion) in emergency winter aid on Tuesday, responding to pleas from President Volodymyr Zelensky to help the country withstand Russia’s onslaught against its energy grid. Around 70 countries and international organizations gathered in Paris for a meeting aimed at enabling Ukrainians “to get through this…