Russia has evacuated 60 diplomats’ family members from Lebanon as Israel escalates its offensive against Hezbollah, the state-run TASS news agency reported Thursday. The Emergency Services Ministry’s press service told TASS that the evacuation was being carried out on President Vladimir Putin’s orders. The families left on an IL-76 aircraft, which is designed to carry…
Moldovan police carried out dozens of raids Thursday after discovering that at least $15 million was transferred from Russia to Moldovan citizens in an “unprecedented” effort to tamper with presidential elections this month. Moldova’s pro-European President Maia Sandu, who is seeking a second term, has repeatedly accused Russia of political interference in the country, which…
Ukrainian drones struck the Borisoglebsk aviation center in western Russia’s Voronezh region overnight, Ukrainian media reported Thursday, citing anonymous security service sources. The targeted base stored guided aerial bombs, Su-35 and Su-34 fighter jets as well as aviation fuel, according to the UNIAN news agency and the news website liga.net. “That’s where the enemy bombs Ukrainian territories…
After almost two years of fighting, Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from Vuhledar, a key defensive outpost in the frontline Donetsk region. The military command said the decision was taken to preserve the lives of Ukrainian soldiers and their precious equipment. The town, which military analyst Ivan Stupak told The Moscow Times was the “entryway to…
Early one morning in July 2023, I boarded a minibus for a weekend pilgrimage to the Pochaiv Monastery in western Ukraine. The country’s second-largest Orthodox complex after the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, it was founded by monks who fled after the Mongols sacked the capital in 1240. Though it lies on the edge of a mainly…
A court in Moscow on Thursday sentenced a 59-year-old nurse to eight years in prison for social media posts opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Olga Menshikh was accused of spreading “fake” information about the military with two VKontakte posts that condemned Russian strikes on Vinnytsia, Ukraine that killed 28 people in July 2022 and Russian…
A Moscow court ordered that the trial of a 72-year-old U.S. citizen, accused of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine, proceed in secret on Thursday. The man, identified as Stefan Hubbard of Michigan, appeared in court wearing a black hat and beige jacket, walking slowly and dragging his feet, an AFP journalist reported from the…
A rescue operation to release a family of four killer whales from shallow waters off Far East Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula is continuing for the second day, emergency officials said Thursday. Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said Wednesday the two orcas and two calves were caught in a low tide in the Sea of Okhotsk. Video published…
A young Russian man imprisoned in Chechnya for allegedly burning a Quran faces new charges of “high treason” that could see him sentenced to life in prison, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday. Nikita Zhuravel, 20, is serving three-and-a-half years in Chechen prison for “offending religious believers” and “hooliganism” after he was accused of…
President Vladimir Putin has appointed a military officer from occupied eastern Ukraine as his envoy to Russia’s Urals region, a key defense industry hub. Lieutenant Colonel Artyom Zhoga, the chairman of the Russian-installed parliament of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, gained fame when he was filmed last December asking Putin to stand for re-election. During the choreographed exchange,…
A new peace prize backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin bearing Leo Tolstoy’s name has divided the writer’s descendants, bringing to mind the unhappy families of his novel “Anna Karenina.” At the famed Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the first Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize was awarded on September 9 to the African Union, in the…