While there is “no immediate nuclear safety risk,” the UN nuclear watchdog is exploring options to get water to keep cooling Europe’s biggest atomic plant after a dam in southern Ukraine was damaged on Tuesday. Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for the damage at the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which has led to thousands…
NATO’s newest member Finland on Tuesday said it would expel nine diplomats working at the Russian embassy in Helsinki for acting in an “intelligence capacity.” “Finland will expel nine people working in the Russian embassy who have been acting in an intelligence capacity,” the government said in a statement. It added that the “activities are…
Russia claimed Tuesday that it had repelled Kyiv’s long-anticipated counteroffensive in eastern Ukraine after three days of fighting, Russian state-run media reported. “For three days, the Ukrainian regime has launched a long-promised offensive at different points along the frontlines,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said. “The offensive attempts were thwarted, the enemy was stopped, Russian…
The World Bank has significantly improved its outlook for the Russian economy this year due to stronger-than-expected revenues from energy exports to countries including India and China. The Russian economy is now forecast to contract only slightly in 2023, the bank said in a semi-annual report on the global economy published Tuesday, marking a sharp…
A Russian-controlled dam near the frontline that supplies southern Ukraine and annexed Crimea with drinking water was significantly damaged early Tuesday, flooding the area and potentially threatening the nearby nuclear power plant. The damage to the Kakhovka dam unleashed a torrent of water that flooded a small city and two dozen villages, sparking the evacuation of…
A court in southern Russia on Tuesday sentenced a Crimean performance artist to 15 years in a penal colony, the Ukrainian Telegram channel Grati reported. Bohdan Ziza was arrested in May 2022 after he splashed paint in the colors of the Ukrainian flag on the door of the Yevpatoria city administration building in Russian-annexed Crimea. He…
China and Russia conducted joint air force patrols over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea on Tuesday, as South Korea said it had deployed fighter jets in response to warplanes near its airspace. Beijing and Moscow “staged the sixth joint aerial patrol in accordance with an annual military cooperation plan between China…
A Belarusian activist who was extradited from Russia has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on multiple charges linked to protests against the re-election of Belarus’ strongman leader, a group of her supporters reported Tuesday. Yana Pinchuk, who lived in Russia since 2018, was detained on Minsk’s request in the Russian city of St. Petersburg…
The European Court of Human Rights Tuesday condemned Russia for failing to properly investigate the 2020 poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny which the West says was an assassination bid. The Strasbourg-based ECHR said Russia had notably failed “to explore the allegations of a possible political motive for the attempted murder, as well as possible…
Russia’s domestic intelligence agency has made arrests in connection with alleged Ukrainian plans to drop “dirty bombs” on Russian energy facilities, state media reported Tuesday. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said two “pilots” of unknown nationality have been detained and “confessed to the committed and planned terrorist acts,” according to the state-run TASS news agency.…
A Russian-controlled dam near the frontline that supplies southern Ukraine and annexed Crimea with drinking water was significantly damaged early Tuesday, prompting evacuations of 17,000 people and threatening the nearby nuclear power plant. Drone footage originally published by pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian bloggers showed the broken Kakhovka dam with water flowing freely downstream. The 30-meter-tall, 3.2-kilometer-long Kakhovka…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday praised his troops for advances claimed near the devastated city of Bakhmut, while Russia said it had repelled a large-scale attack. The contrasting claims came as Pope Francis’s peace envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, arrived in Kyiv for two days of talks. “Well done, warriors! We see how hysterically…