Day: December 16, 2022

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner made her first remarks since being released from a Russian prison on Friday, saying that it was “so good to be home” and vowing to play again for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury. Griner, in a message on Instagram, thanked a long list of people for securing her release with a…

Over 10,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since Moscow invaded Ukraine, according to a tally of confirmed military deaths kept by the BBC Russian Service and independent media outlet Mediazona.  While the real scale of Russia’s war losses is likely far higher, the tally is the most accurate independent database of Russian fatalities.  Russia has…

The head of a Russian cultural center in the Central African Republic (CAR) was hospitalized on Friday after an explosive device sent to him in the mail detonated. Dmitry Sitiy, who runs the Bangui branch of Russian House, a state-funded cultural center that promotes Russian culture around the world, collected a parcel addressed to him…

The governor of Russia’s Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, warned on Friday that the country was facing a growing labor shortage following the conscription of over 300,000 civilians during the Defense Ministry’s recent mobilization campaign. “The external environment for the Russian economy remains challenging and significantly constrains economic activity,” the Central Bank said, adding that Russia’s…

Apple is in talks to terminate a lease on its Moscow office that the U.S. tech giant had opened less than a month before Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian media reported Friday, citing unnamed real estate sources. Apple opened its corporate office in one of Moscow’s most expensive office spaces in early February 2022, becoming the first foreign IT…

A fresh barrage of deadly Russian strikes battered Ukraine on Friday, cutting water and electricity in major cities and piling pressure on the grid in sub-zero temperatures. Kyiv residents in winter coats crammed into underground metro stations as air raid sirens rang out and Russian forces fired off dozens of missiles in one of the…

Russian and NASA engineers were assessing a coolant leak on Thursday from a Soyuz crew capsule docked with the International Space Station (ISS) that may have been caused by a micrometeorite strike. Dramatic NASA TV images showed white particles resembling snowflakes streaming out of the rear of the vessel for hours. The coolant leak forced…

Russian job sites are advertising trench- and fortification-digging jobs in occupied Ukrainian and nearby Russian regions, independent media reported Thursday. Russia started building defensive fortifications near the front lines as well as in its border regions following alleged Ukrainian counterstrikes that stoked authorities’ fears of further attacks that could reach deeper into Russian territory. Popular Russian classifieds…

Russian forces bombarded Kherson on Thursday, killing two people and depriving the Ukrainian city of electricity as the European Union announced its latest slew of sanctions against Moscow and an 18 billion euro aid package for Kyiv. Moscow-allied officials in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, meanwhile, said they have come under some of the heaviest…