Ukraine’s security service said Tuesday it had raided a historic Orthodox monastery in Kyiv over suspected links to Russian agents. The Kremlin denounced the searches as the latest chapter in Kyiv’s “war” against the Russian church. Located south of the city center, the 11th-century Kyiv Pechersk Lavra is a UNESCO World Heritage site and seat…
Russia’s state media watchdog has denied ordering state television to censor war-related words after several entertainment channels censored the lyrics “war” and “peace” in recent broadcasts, state media reported Monday. Vadim Subbotin, deputy head of the Roskomnadzor regulator, maintained that the agency does not keep a list of banned words apart from explicit language, according…
Russian troops allegedly dumped and burned the bodies of fallen fellow soldiers at a landfill site on the outskirts of the recently liberated southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, The Guardian reported Monday. Workers and local residents told the publication they had witnessed black bags being unloaded from Russian open trucks and set on fire over…
Russia on Tuesday said it hoped Turkey would exercise “restraint” and refrain from “any excessive use of force” in Syria, where Ankara has carried out air strikes and is threatening to launch a ground offensive against Kurdish fighters. “We hope to convince our Turkish colleagues to refrain from resorting to excessive use of force on Syrian…
Russia on Tuesday called for Turkey to exercise “restraint” and warned against “destabilizing” Syria, where Ankara has carried out air strikes and is threatening to launch a ground offensive against Kurdish fighters. “We understand and respect Turkey’s concerns regarding its own security. We believe this is the legal right of Turkey,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov…
Russians have murdered, tortured and kidnapped Ukrainians in a systematic pattern that could implicate top officials in war crimes, a senior U.S. official said Monday as Kyiv said it had discovered four Russian torture sites in newly-liberated Kherson. Moscow, in turn, accused Ukrainian forces of summarily killing a number of prisoners of war after a…
A Polish court on Monday overturned a decision by Poland’s anti-monopoly watchdog to impose a 6.2 billion euro ($6.3 billion) fine against Russian gas giant Gazprom, the watchdog said. The fine imposed in 2020 against Gazprom and five other companies, including British-Dutch giant Shell, was over construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Supplies through…
The first criminal case against conscripted soldiers refusing to fight in Ukraine has opened in Russia, according to footage circulating on social media over the weekend. The video shows two soldiers who allegedly refused to go to the frontlines being pulled out of a lineup by military police, according to the Veteran’s Notes Telegram channel.…
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he is suing his maximum security prison for not giving him winter boots, as temperatures in Russia drop below freezing. “I am suing my colony and demanding to be issued winter boots,” Navalny said on Twitter. The 46-year-old is serving a nine-year sentence outside Vladimir, a…
The director of a children’s play has claimed that its run at a Siberian theater was canceled just days after it began due to audience allegations that its content amounted to “gay propaganda,” local media reported on Sunday. The incident in the city of Novosibirsk came as lawmakers in Russia’s State Duma are debating…
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Monday denied the Kremlin was considering a second wave of mobilization to further bolster Russian forces in Ukraine. “There are no discussions about that,” Peskov told reporters in a call, according to the state-run TASS news agency. The Kremlin denial of another round of mobilization came amid increasing speculation that…
The New York Times said Sunday it has verified footage showing captive Russian troops being killed by Ukrainian forces as experts remain divided on whether the grisly episode constitutes a war crime or an act of self-defense. At least four drone and cellphone videos of the incident emerged between Nov. 12-17 as Ukraine recaptured the village…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Kazakhstan’s incumbent president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, on his landslide victory in a snap presidential poll held months after deadly unrest in the oil-rich Central Asian country. “You have received a convincing mandate of trust from fellow citizens, which opens up new opportunities for the implementation of the course…
At least five people were killed in a fire at a warehouse in central Moscow near three railway stations linking the Russian capital to major cities, according to Russian emergency services. The fire broke out at a two-story brick warehouse on Sunday afternoon near the usually busy stations connecting Moscow to cities such as St.…
Ukrainian authorities said they will soon begin voluntary evacuations from the liberated southern city of Kherson and nearby areas as Russian strikes have hammered the country’s power grid at the onset of winter. Remaining residents of Kherson — as well as Mykolaiv 65 kilometers to the northwest — whose homes were damaged in Russia’s invasion…
The Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights on Sunday denied Kyiv’s forces had killed Russian prisoners of war, arguing that Ukraine’s soldiers were defending themselves against Russians who feigned surrender. Videos circulated on Russian social media this week purporting to show the bodies of Russian servicemen killed after surrendering to Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets…
A warehouse caught fire in the center of Moscow near three railway stations linking the Russian capital to several major cities, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Sunday. Thick plumes of black smoke rose above the city’s skyline in contrast with the snow-covered pavements just next to the Yaroslavsky, Leningradsky and Kazansky train stations, Russian television footage showed. …
Kyiv and Moscow on Sunday traded accusations of shelling on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that Russia controls in southern Ukraine. The UN atomic watchdog that has a team of experts at the plant — the biggest nuclear facility in Europe — said “powerful explosions” had occurred on Saturday and Sunday. Kyiv…
The news that American basketball player Brittney Griner had arrived in the IK-2 penal colony in Mordovia, also known as the Russian “land of prisons,” left locals rather unmoved. The double Olympic gold medalist was handed nine years in prison in August for drug possession and trafficking over possessing vape cartridges with a small quantity…
The West’s attempts to persuade Ukraine to negotiate with Moscow, after a series of major military victories by Kyiv, are “bizarre” and amount to asking for its capitulation, a key adviser to the Ukrainian presidency told AFP. “When you have the initiative on the battlefield, it’s slightly bizarre to receive proposals like: ‘you will not…
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday used his first visit to Kyiv to announce a major new air defense package, as the country celebrated retaking the southern city of Kherson. Kyiv meanwhile said it was checking the authenticity of video footage Moscow says shows surrendering Russian soldiers being executed. “I am here today to say…
Russia Saturday blasted Warsaw’s refusal to allow Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to attend a meeting next month of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as “unprecedented and provocative”. “The decision from Poland, which is the acting chairman of the OSCE, to refuse the participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov in…
A suspected gas explosion early Saturday in a five-story residential building killed nine people in Russia’s southeastern Sakhalin island, the local governor said. The blast occurred in a brick building built in the 1980s in the village of Tymovskoye, the TASS news agency reported. “Nine people were killed, including four children,” the region’s governor Valery…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday dismissed the idea of a “short truce” with Russia, saying it would only make things worse. “Russia is now looking for a short truce, a respite to regain strength. Someone may call this the war’s end, but such a respite will only worsen the situation,” the Ukrainian leader said…
Thursday was a special day in the Soviet Union— Fish Day. All the cafeterias in the country only sold fish dishes that day. Until Friday dawned, meat and poultry were off the menus and Soviet citizens dined on fried pollock or minced cod patties. Fish Day was invented by Anastas Mikoyan in 1932. The order…
Ералаш: mish-mash, chaos; Soviet-era children’s television show It’s Friday in a rather gloomy November, which is the perfect time for a pop quiz. Clear your desk of all papers, switch off your cell phones, get out your pencils and start testing your knowledge of Russian. Паноптикум is (pick two): a) a special wide-angle lens used…
Updates with comments and background The Russian Defence Ministry on Friday accused Kyiv of executing at least 10 prisoners of war in what Moscow said constituted a “war crime,” the latest allegation of abuses after nearly nine months of fighting in Ukraine. Moscow’s claims come after the UN this week published a report saying prisoners…
Finland unveiled a plan on Friday to build a 200-kilometer fence along its border with Russia, amid increased security concerns since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine began in late February. “In this situation, we have every reason to reconsider our arrangements,” Brigadier General Jari Tolppanen of the Finnish Border Guard agency told AFP. Some 200 kilometers of…
The Netherlands summoned the Russian ambassador on Friday after Moscow accused a Dutch court of a politically motivated verdict in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 above Ukraine. Russia’s foreign ministry had on Thursday described as “scandalous” the ruling by Dutch judges that saw two Russians and a Ukrainian sentenced to life imprisonment in…
Russia’s war in Ukraine has had a “significant impact” on the security of other countries, G7 interior ministers said on Friday, warning of attacks on key infrastructure and risks posed by returning foreign fighters. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser reaffirmed the Group of Seven’s “unwavering solidarity” with Ukraine, after hosting two days of talks in…
Belarus’s autocratic president, Alexander Lukashenko, on Friday ridiculed McDonald’s after the announcement it would be replaced by a Russian franchise following its departure over the Ukraine conflict. McDonald’s in Belarus will from Tuesday operate under the name ‘Delicious. Full Stop.’, the moniker of the Russian chain that took over the U.S. burger group in Russia in…
While usually greeted with excitement, the first snows of the winter were this year met with unease in Ukraine, as millions of people were left without power after a fresh barrage of Russian missile strikes targeting the country’s infrastructure, and millions more feared being left without heat as the mercury plummeted. While the recent recapture…
Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny says he has been moved to a small, isolated cell and deprived of family visits, his team announced on social media. Navalny said he had been placed in a “cramped cell” used for prisoners accused of bad behavior, adding: “Congratulate me!” Under the toughened detention conditions, he is only…
Russian authorities in annexed Crimea are fortifying the peninsula’s defensive positions, its governor said Friday in a signal of Moscow’s growing concerns over Ukrainian forces’ push to reclaim captured territories in the south. Attacks on the Black Sea peninsula have increased in recent weeks as Kyiv presses on with a counteroffensive to retake territory in southern…
The blasts which destroyed sections of the Nord Stream pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea in September were acts of sabotage, Swedish officials confirmed Friday. The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines have been at the center of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation…
The Russian military has dismissed as “fake” a video address by mobilized soldiers who accuse commanders of endangering them during last week’s chaotic retreat from southern Ukraine’s city of Kherson, state media reported Thursday. In the video published Tuesday, the soldiers said they had suffered losses during two days of Ukrainian shelling while they were…
Russia said Friday it hoped the United States will return notorious Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout in a prisoner swap after American basketball star Brittney Griner was transferred to a penal colony. “I would like to hope that the prospect (of an exchange) is not only still a topical issue, but that it is being…
A soldier from a Russian unit accused of committing war crimes in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha said he is ready to testify in an international court as he seeks asylum in Spain, The Guardian reported Thursday. Nikita Chibrin, 27, told The Guardian he heard “widespread rumors” of fellow soldiers committing sexual violence and killing civilians…
Basketball star Brittney Griner, whose plight has generated widespread anger in the United States, has been sent to a remote Russian penal colony, her lawyers said on Thursday. The U.S. athlete was handed nine years in prison in August for possessing vape cartridges with a small quantity of cannabis oil, after she was arrested at a…
The scale of torture that has been discovered in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson taken back from Russian troops this month is “horrific,” a Ukrainian ombudsman said on Thursday. “I have not seen a scale like this before,” Dmytro Lubynets said. “The scale is just horrific.” Since the Russian army retreated last week following eight months…
YEREVAN, Armenia — A growing number of Russians who fled abroad because of the Ukraine war are seeking Armenian citizenship as the fighting drags on and it appears increasingly unlikely they will be able to return home anytime soon. Muscovite Igor Plekhanov, 45, was one of tens of thousands of Russians who relocated to Armenia…
A Dutch court on Thursday convicted three men and acquitted one other for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, which killed all 298 people on board. Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko were found guilty of murder and intentionally causing an aircraft to crash, while Russian…
A Dutch court on Thursday sentenced three men to life imprisonment over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, in the early stages of a war that eight years later would put the world on edge. Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko were found guilty in absentia…
The Kremlin said Thursday that the reason civilians were suffering from blackouts in Ukraine was Kyiv’s refusal to negotiate with Moscow and not missile strikes launched by Russian forces. “The unwillingness of the Ukrainian side to settle the problem, to start negotiations, its refusal to seek common ground, this is their consequence,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday named several supporters of the war in Ukraine to the presidential Human Rights Council in a shake-up of the body which appeared to purge members who have publicly expressed doubts about the war. War correspondent Alexander Kots and two other prominent supporters of the war were added to the…
Kazakhstan said Thursday it had prevented a coup attempt by supporters of an exiled opposition figure as it arrested seven people ahead of a presidential election this weekend. On Sunday, Kazakhstan will hold a snap presidential vote expected to cement incumbent Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s grip on power, months after deadly unrest shook the Central Asian country and…
Russian skater Aleksandr Gorshkov, the first Olympic ice dancing champion and president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, has died at the age of 76, the federation said Thursday. “Aleksandr Georgyevich gave his whole life to figure skating, his contribution to the development of Russian and world skating is invaluable,” federation director general Alexander Kogan told…
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) voted late Wednesday to suspend the Russian and Belarusian national committees effective immediately as the war in Ukraine approaches the nine-month mark. The decision raises doubts over Russian and Belarusian Paralympic athletes’ participation at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. The IPC cited the Russian and Belarusian Paralympic committees’ “inability…
The UN-backed agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports safe passage through the Black Sea will be extended by 120 days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday. Zelensky said Kyiv reached the “key decision” with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, both of whom brokered the deal on July 22. “I welcome the…
Russians have moved a record amount of cash out of the country so far this year, state media has reported. The equivalent of $32 billion has been deposited in foreign banks in January-September 2022, according to an analysis of Central Bank data by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. As a result, Russians’ overall foreign bank…
A Dutch court gives its verdict Thursday in the trial of four men over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 above Ukraine in 2014, as tensions soar over Russia’s invasion eight years later. The suspects — Russians Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko — will not be in court as they…
Russia’s economy has entered a recession as gross domestic output fell by four percent in the third quarter, according to first estimates published Wednesday by the national statistics agency, Rosstat. The drop in GDP follows a similar four percent contraction in the second quarter, as Western sanctions pummel Russia’s economy following Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. …
Ukrainian law enforcement said it has caught and returned to prison 166 of 457 inmates who were freed by Russia’s military and Russian-installed authorities as they retreated in the southern Kherson region last week. Among the inmates freed by Russia’s forces, 15 had been serving life sentences, Ukraine’s National Police Chief Igor Klimenko said on…
Moscow’s revenues from fossil fuel exports fell in October to their lowest levels since the Ukraine invasion, but Turkey has become a new route for Russian oil supplies to the European Union, a think tank said Wednesday. Russia collected an estimated 21 billion euros ($21.7 billion) in fossil fuel exports last month, a 7% drop…
Russia said on Wednesday it had banned entry to more than 50 Irish officials including premier Micheal Martin in response to Western sanctions over Ukraine. Among those listed was deputy premier Leo Varadkar, who is set to take back the premiership from Martin next month. It also included Simon Coveney, who is Ireland’s foreign and…
Russia on Wednesday blamed Ukraine for a blast on Polish territory that killed two people and launched a wave of international concern the previous day. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said that the missile which landed in the village of Przewodow near the Ukrainian border was struck down by Ukraine’s air defenses. “Photographs of the…
Border guards in the South Caucasus nation of Georgia have denied entry to at least six independent Russian journalists and activists in the past two weeks, the Agentstvo investigative news website reported Wednesday. Ex-Soviet Georgia, which shares a land border with Russia, became a popular relocation destination for anti-war Russians following the February invasion of Ukraine. But Georgian…
A fuel depot exploded on Wednesday in southern Russia near Ukraine following a suspected drone attack, Russian authorities said. There were no casualties reported in the alleged attack which took place some 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the Ukrainian border in the province of Oryol. “Today [Wednesday] at 04:00 [01:00 GMT] a suspected drone blew…
A Russian soldier faces up to 15 years in prison after getting into an altercation with his superiors for criticizing poor training conditions and equipment shortages, media reported Tuesday. The soldier identified as Private Alexander Leshkov was filmed shouting profanities and shoving an officer at a parade ground near the Russian military’s mega-church outside Moscow. …
Poland’s military was on high alert Wednesday after a deadly missile strike on a village near the border with war-ravaged Ukraine. In Indonesia’s Bali, Western leaders held an “emergency roundtable” on the sidelines of the G20 summit, where they urged against jumping to any conclusions about the origins of the strike. The talks came after…