Russian forces left a trail of destruction Thursday, seeking to push deeper into the eastern Donbas region as President Vladimir Putin said his military campaign was still ramping up. Diplomatic tensions meanwhile mounted between Ankara and Kyiv, with Ukraine accusing Turkey of ignoring calls to seize Ukrainian grain being transported by a Russian ship. A…
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday challenged the West to try and defeat Russia “on the battlefield” and said Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine marked a shift to a “multi-polar world.” Delivering one of his strongest speeches since he sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, Putin also raged against “totalitarian liberalism” that he said the West…
A Russian prosecutor on Thursday requested a seven-year prison term for a Moscow city councillor accused of criticizing Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine. Alexei Gorinov, a 60-year-old lawyer by training, was arrested in late April for spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian army and is now on trial. Gorinov is the first elected member…
A growing number of Russian officials have been handed senior jobs in occupied parts of Ukraine in what analysts said was an attempt to strengthen ties to Moscow ahead of a possible annexation process. This week alone, appointments included a former deputy from the Russian parliament, regional government officials and a high-ranking Federal Security Service…
British and American diplomats in Moscow will refuse to adopt new addresses for their embassies after officials renamed streets in honor of eastern Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin separatist republics. City authorities renamed the area close to the British Embassy on Monday, effectively changing the building’s address to “1 Luhansk People’s Republic Square.” The move comes less than…
American basketball player Brittney Griner has pleaded guilty to drug charges before a Russian judge. The two-time Olympian denied that she had any intention of breaking Russian law when she was detained at a Moscow airport in February with cannabis vape cartridges in her luggage. “I was in a rush packing. And the cartridges accidentally…
Russian forces left a trail of destruction in their wake Thursday as they grinded deeper into Donbas with their sights set on the industrial hub of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine as their next target. Moscow’s slow push came as diplomatic tensions mounted between Ankara and Kyiv, where Ukrainian officials accused Turkey of ignoring calls to…
Russian lawmakers have advanced new legislation to block the public from accessing information from the country’s state real estate register, a move that could hinder independent journalists from investigating the hidden wealth of the country’s elite. The bill, which passed its third and final reading in the lower-house State Duma on Thursday, restricts third parties…
The Kremlin says it hopes that the U.K.’s next leader will be “more professional,” after Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned as the country’s ruling Conservative Party leader Thursday. The politician will remain as a “caretaker” Prime Minister until elections are held later this year. “We would like to hope that someday in Great Britain more…
A disputed cargo ship carrying allegedly stolen grain from Ukraine has returned to Russian territorial waters, Turkish sources told AFP on Thursday, drawing angry condemnation from Kyiv. The marinetraffic.com website showed Zhibek Zholy moving at least 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from Turkey’s Black Sea port of Karasu before apparently switching off its transponder and…
The Russian ruble extended a recent slump Thursday, declining 17% against the U.S. dollar in 48 hours to reach its lowest level since late May. The ruble hit 64.5 against the greenback during morning trading on the Moscow Exchange as the Russian authorities apparently intervened in currency markets to stop the ruble from strengthening and…
Moscow will not discuss swapping basketball star Brittney Griner in a potential exchange with the United States until her formal conviction on drug smuggling charges, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday. Ryabkov told reporters that were currently “no nominal, formal or procedural grounds to take any further steps” regarding Griner’s exchange, the state-run…
A court in the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok sentenced a dozen North Korean fishermen to long sentences for attacking Russian coast guards in a clash in the Sea of Japan in 2019. Twelve fishermen from the closed state were handed sentences from four to 13 years in prison. The court found them guilty…
Ukrainians held prisoner by Russian and pro-Moscow forces have accused their captors of torture in a series of interviews. Paramedic Yuliia Paievska, widely known by her nickname Taira, was captured in mid-March while assisting civilians wounded in an airstrike on a theater in the port city of Mariupol. The city fell to Russian forces in…
The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament threatened Wednesday to “claim back” Alaska if the United States froze or seized Russian assets as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. “Let America always remember: there’s a piece of territory, Alaska,” Vyacheslav Volodin said at the last session of parliament, the State Duma, before it goes on…
French oil and gas firm TotalEnergies said Wednesday it had pulled out of a Russian oil project. Russian oil firm Zarubezhneft will take over its remaining 20 percent stake in the Kharyaga project in the Arctic pending approval by Russian authorities. No information about the financial terms of the transaction was provided. TotalEnergies had already…
Two Russian armored vehicles, battered, charred and dented, provide a dramatic sight for visitors arriving at Warsaw’s historic Castle Square. The T-72 tank and 2S-19 self-propelled howitzer could almost be mistaken for museum pieces were it not for the mud and grass still stuck to their tracks. The two vehicles were hit and then captured…
Norwegian authorities have allowed the passage of essential goods bound for Russian miners on the country’s Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) reported Wednesday. Russian officials last week voiced outrage at Norway’s decision to halt the passage of Russian goods, including foodstuffs, destined for the roughly 400 miners in the town of…
Russian society is reeling from a historic crackdown on dissent which has intensified since President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on Feb. 24. Rights activists fear the new legislation will be used to snuff out any last vestiges of dissent. “The changes are an adequate and timely response to the challenges that our country…
Russian lawmakers have approved the creation of a modern-day youth organization in the style of the Soviet pioneers. Children as young as six could join the new group, which was laid out in a bill passed Wednesday by Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma. Artyom Metelev, the bill’s co-author and chairman of the…
A court in southern Russia has ordered the suspension of operations of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), a major exporter of oil from Kazakhstan, the company confirmed Wednesday. The CPC pipeline’s work will be halted for 30 days due to “irregularities in paperwork guiding elimination of oil spill emergencies” that were uncovered by a government…
Russia’s grinding, hard-fought military campaign in eastern Ukraine has seen major successes in recent weeks as its forces have captured the strategic cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. The two cities, located in the Luhansk region, are seen as critical to gaining total control over the wider Donbas region, which had been partially held by pro-Russian…
Russian-installed authorities claim to have blocked access to YouTube and Instagram in southern Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region. “We shut down YouTube a few days ago,” Sergei Moroz, a video blogger and spokesperson for the local occupation administration, said in a video message posted on Telegram Wednesday. “We’re now without YouTube or Instagram. But it’s OK,…
Three Russian police generals, including an assistant to the country’s Interior Minister, have been detained on charges of misappropriating funds, Russian law enforcement announced Wednesday. Lieutenant General Sergei Umnov and two senior colleagues — Major General Alexei Semyonov, head of St. Petersburg’s traffic police, and Major General Ivan Abakumov — are accused of embezzling money…
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev invoked Wednesday the possibility of nuclear war if the International Criminal Court (ICC) moves to punish Moscow for alleged crimes in Ukraine. “The idea to punish a country that has the largest nuclear arsenal is absurd in and of itself,” Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said on…
RN-Purneftegaz volunteers initiated the Clean Banks of the Pyakupur River campaign in Gubkinsky (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District).
Employees of the Achinsk refinery (an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company’s refining complex) planted more than 21,000 pine seedlings in the forests of Krasnoyarsk Territory.
A Russian businessman with ties to state-owned energy giant Gazprom has died outside St. Petersburg in the latest in a series of mysterious deaths to grip the country’s gas industry in 2022. Yury Voronov, 61, headed the Astra Shipping transportation firm that worked on Gazprom’s Arctic projects, according to the company’s website. Voronov’s body was…
A Russian-flagged cargo ship at the center of a fight over grain between Kyiv and Moscow remained anchored Tuesday off Turkey’s Black Sea coast – a full four days after its unexpected arrival. Ukraine alleges that the Zhibek Zholy had set off from its Kremlin-occupied port of Berdyansk after picking up confiscated wheat. Moscow concedes that…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the publication of a call between President Emmanuel Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin was a breach of “diplomatic etiquette.” “Diplomatic etiquette does not provide for unilateral leaks of (such) recordings,” Lavrov said on a trip to Vietnam. The details of the confidential call days before Moscow’s…
Russia’s lower house of parliament has passed new legislation giving civilians who have contributed to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine the same status as war veterans. The legislation will include doctors, technical specialists, construction workers and journalists who have worked with Russian troops in occupied areas of Ukraine, according to lawmakers. Veteran status gives the holder…
One of the world’s largest restaurant companies, Yum Brands Inc, announced Tuesday it is “in advanced talks” to sell its KFC restaurants and franchise in Russia. The American company plans to fully exit the Russian market after selling the brand to a local buyer, state-run news agency Interfax reported. The company has already sold its…
Russian officials have allegedly ordered the Jewish Agency for Israel to stop all activity inside the country in a measure that could impact thousands of Russian Jews who want to repatriate to Israel, The Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday. The Jewish Agency in Russia confirmed that it received a letter from the Russian government earlier…
ArcelorMittal, one of the world’s largest steelmakers, has resumed shipments to Russia just a month after suspending deliveries, the Kommersant business daily reported late Monday. ArcelorMittal removed Russian materials from its supply chain in March in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In May, Kommersant reported that the Luxembourg-based multinational had suspended supplies to Russia.…
Ufaorgsintez, an enterprise of Rosneft Oil Company’s oil refining and petrochemical complex, has carried out a technical upgrade of its water and wastewater systems.
The Russian website for home retail giant IKEA crashed Tuesday as the company launched its final sale before leaving the country. Buyers were unable to log into their accounts, add items to their carts or place orders. A message on IKEA’s website said later that online carts were unavailable for “technical reasons.” Disruptions linked to…
Prisons and corporations across Russia are recruiting volunteers to fight in Ukraine, independent media reported this week. The effort appears to be an attempt by the Russian military to replace its depleted forces following a grinding four-month effort to capture territories in southern and eastern Ukraine. Wagner, a Kremlin-linked private military company, has allegedly offered…
An official from Russia’s powerful FSB security services took over the government of the Moscow-occupied Kherson region in southern Ukraine, Kremlin-installed authorities said Tuesday. Sergei Yeliseyev, until now the deputy head of government in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, “became head of the government in the Kherson region,” said Vladimir Saldo, who heads the Russian…
Russian villages near the border with Ukraine were subjected to intense artillery fire early Tuesday, according to the governors of the Kursk and Bryansk regions. “The morning began again with artillery shelling of the border settlements,” Roman Starovoit posted on messaging app Telegram. Starovoit later added that an unspecified number of houses were damaged and…
American basketball star Brittney Griner asked US President Joe Biden to free her from a Russian prison in a handwritten letter Monday, portions of which were made public by her family. Two-time Olympic champion Griner, detained in Russia since February on drug smuggling charges, told Biden she fears she might never be freed. “As I sit here…
Russian cosmonauts on board the ISS held a flag symbolizing pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and congratulated Moscow’s forces on capturing the region of Luhansk, the space agency in Moscow said Monday. Roscosmos posted a photograph of cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergei Korsakov holding the flag of the self-proclaimed separatist Luhansk People’s Republic…
Ukraine has long been hailed as one of the world’s great breadbaskets. In 2021, the country accounted for 10% of global wheat exports in 2021, according to the United Nations. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February saw agriculture grind to a halt. As tensions rose in the Black Sea, a blockade of Russian ships disrupted…
Moscow authorities will rename a stretch of land outside the British Embassy in honor of one of eastern Ukraine’s pro-Moscow breakaway republics, the Moscow Mayor’s Office said Monday. The area — which runs along Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya between Protochny Pereulok and the exit onto Ulitsa Novy Arbat — will now be known as “Luhansk People’s Republic…
President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia will continue pressing forward in eastern Ukraine after Kyiv ordered its forces to retreat from the strategic city of Lysychansk and Russian officials claimed control over the entirety of Ukraine’s Luhansk region. “Military units … must carry out their tasks according to previously approved plans,” Putin said in…
Authorities in Uzbekistan said on Monday 18 people died in clashes in the autonomous Karakalpakstan region when mass protests erupted last week over planned constitutional changes affecting the territory’s status. The unrest, pitting protesters against security forces, represented the most significant challenge yet to the rule of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev since he rose to power…
Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t congratulate his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on his country’s Independence Day holiday, the Kremlin said Monday. “This is because this year, the U.S.’ unfriendly political discourse towards Russia has reached its culmination point,” Interfax quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying to reporters. “Under this circumstance, sending such a congratulatory…
A Siberian journalist and activist has been moved to a psychiatric hospital while facing trial for publishing “fake news” about the Russian army, her colleagues at the RusNews media outlet said. Maria Ponomarenko, 44, was detained in St. Petersburg in April for allegedly publishing information about the Russian bombing of a theater in the Ukrainian…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to press ahead with Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine after troops took control of the entire Lugansk region. “Military units, including the East group and the West group, must carry out their tasks according to previously approved plans,” Putin told Shoigu. “I hope that everything…
Russian troops were on Monday holding the strategic Ukrainian city of Lysychansk after Kyiv’s forces retreated, in a major boost for Russia’s campaign to seize the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. With the war now well into its fifth month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, governments and organizations gathered for a…
Chinese smartphones and home appliances are replacing major Western brands that have exited Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday. January-June 2022 results analyzed by the Marvel Distribution IT supplier showed at least seven Chinese smartphone brands leading sales in Russia, according to Kommersant. Tecno, Infinix, Realme and Xiaomi showed more…
Russian émigré Valentin Semyonov uses sausage as an icebreaker when he meets his Georgian neighbors. “This tastes just like the good old Soviet stuff!” the gangly 38-year-old says as he hands around sticks of salami, of which he appears to have brought an endless supply from his motherland. There is hardly a neighbor in his…
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Sunday that Moscow’s forces have taken the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk and control the entire Luhansk region, which has been the target of fierce battles in recent weeks. “Sergei Shoigu has informed the commander in chief of the Russian armed forces, Vladimir Putin, of the liberation of the People’s Republic…
Updated with Defense Ministry spokesperson comments and new death toll. Russia said four people were killed and several injured in a Sunday strike on a city near the border with Ukraine, the most deadly attack inside Russia since the start of the invasion of its western neighbor. The explosions, which occurred in the early hours…
Fighting raged Saturday for Ukraine’s strategic Lysychansk, as Kyiv denied a claim by Moscow-backed separatists that they had encircled the eastern city. Clashes have been intense in Lysychansk, the last major city in the Luhansk region of the Donbas still in Ukrainian hands, located across the river from neighbouring Severodonetsk seized by Russia last week.…
In a grainy, black and white video published Friday, a Russian jet swoops low over Snake Island in the Black Sea, recently vacated by Russian troops, and drops several bombs. According to the Ukrainain military. the bombs contained white phosphorus. Russia has deployed a huge array weapons in the four months of its ongoing military…
Sweeping Western sanctions are only hastening integration between Russia and Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday. Western countries levied several rounds of sanctions on both Moscow and Minsk in retaliation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, with Belarus accused of acting as a staging ground for Russia’s incursion into northern Ukraine. …
Russia on Friday threatened to close its embassy in Bulgaria and shut down the EU country’s mission in Moscow as tensions rage over Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine and espionage concerns. This week Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said his country would expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff, the biggest number ordered out from the Balkan nation.…
Russia’s new 100-ruble bill will not be introduced into circulation anytime soon due to difficulties stemming from Western ATM and point-of-sale service providers’ exit over the war in Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. Russia’s Central Bank introduced the new 100-ruble banknote — depicting the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower on the front and the Rzhev…
American basketball star Brittney Griner went on trial in a Russian court Friday amid a historic low point in relations between Washington and Moscow. The WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist was detained at a Moscow airport in February after security officers allegedly found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. Griner was…
Missile strikes slammed into a residential building and a recreation centre early Friday, killing 21 people and wounding dozens in Ukraine’s Odesa region, in attacks swiftly condemned by Germany. Two children were among the dead and six others among the injured, Ukrainian officials said, one day after Russia abandoned positions on a strategic island in…