Rehearsals are underway for Russia’s upcoming Victory Day celebrations, when the country marks the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s 1945 defeat of the Nazis with a massive military parade on Red Square. May 9 is one of Russia’s most significant holidays, as many Russians are related to someone who was killed during World War II.…
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has said he didn’t anticipate the war in Ukraine would “drag on this way,” over two months after close ally Russia invaded its pro-Western neighbor that also shares a border with Belarus. Analysts have said Russia’s leadership aimed to swiftly crush Ukraine’s military and take the capital Kyiv in the days…
A Russian car plant is handing out farmland to workers facing furlough after Western automakers left Russia over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The Avtotor factory, based in Russia’s western enclave of Kaliningrad, has earmarked 300 hectares (740 acres) for its garden giveaway. Avtotor said that giving land so that workers could grow their own produce…
The Kremlin on Thursday accused the West of preventing a “quick” end to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine by supplying weapons to the pro-Western country. Asked about a New York Times report that U.S. intelligence helped Ukraine kill a number of Russian generals, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The United States, Britain, NATO as a…
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deputy chief of staff has unveiled a statue symbolizing support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the occupied city of Mariupol. Sergei Kiriyenko gave a speech alongside the monument, which depicts an elderly Ukrainian woman holding a Soviet flag, on the city’s Leninsky Komsomol Square. The pensioner, known as babushka Anya,…
Russia said Wednesday its forces had carried out simulated nuclear missile strikes in the western enclave of Kaliningrad on the border with the European Union. The announcement came on the 70th day of Moscow’s military action in the pro-Western country, with thousands killed and more than 13 million displaced. After sending troops to Ukraine in…
Officials in Russian-controlled Crimea said Thursday they have ended an eight-year Ukrainian blockade of the peninsula and begun restoring traffic via formerly Ukraine-held territory. Ukraine suspended train and bus services to Crimea and imposed a blockade on freight shipments in the months after Russia seized it from Kyiv in 2014. “The transportation blockade of Crimea…
A Russian-announced ceasefire was due to begin Thursday at the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the devastated Ukrainian city of Mariupol to allow civilians to flee. The three-day halt in Russia’s attack on the Azovstal steelworks was announced as EU member states debated a proposed ban on Russian oil, the bloc’s toughest move yet over…
U.S. intelligence has helped Ukraine kill some of the 12 Russian generals who died on the frontlines of the Russia-Ukraine war, The New York Times reported late Wednesday. Real-time U.S. battlefield intelligence reportedly included locations of the Russian military’s mobile headquarters and anticipated troop movements, according to unnamed U.S. officials. The officials cited by the…
As many as 600 people could have been killed when the Mariupol theater sheltering hundreds of civilians was shelled by Russian forces in March, a new investigation by the Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday. The Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater was hit by a Russian air strike on March 16, killing an unknown number of…
A Russian army helicopter violated Finland’s airspace on Wednesday, the Finnish defense ministry said, as the country mulls an increasingly likely NATO membership bid. “The aircraft type is a Mi-17 helicopter and the depth of the suspected violation is about four to five kilometers”, a ministry spokesman told AFP. This is the second Russian airspace…
A spate of airstrikes by Russian combat jets in eastern Ukraine last week was a sign that Russia’s Air Force may be changing tack after failing to achieve aerial superiority over Ukraine, analysts told The Moscow Times. Russian pilots have largely taken a risk-averse approach to air combat in the two-month war, choosing to attack…
An elderly Ukrainian woman has become a symbol of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after the pensioner mistakenly greeted Ukrainian soldiers with a Soviet banner. Her viral popularity comes in the run-up to Russia’s May 9 holiday Victory Day, when nostalgia for the Soviet Union and its defeat of Nazi Germany in World War…
Pro-Kremlin television host Vladimir Solovyov visited the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, he said in a YouTube broadcast Tuesday. Solovyov was pictured at a metallurgical plant in Mariupol alongside Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR). In the photo, the state television anchor can be seen dressed in military fatigues…
The European Union’s executive unveiled Wednesday plans for a gradual ban on Russian oil imports as part of a raft of new sanctions to punish Moscow for invading Ukraine. The proposed measures include moves against Russia’s biggest bank and the targeting of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. If approved, the oil…
Stanislav Shushkevich, the first leader of independent Belarus who played a key role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, died Wednesday at age 87. Shushkevich’s wife told journalists her husband passed away in the Belarusian capital of Minsk as a result of Covid-19 complications. He was placed in intensive care last month. “We hope…
Belarus, a Moscow ally that shares a border with Ukraine, launched “surprise” military maneuvers on Wednesday, to test the reactive capacity of its army, its defense ministry said. Belarus military units were testing their capacity to “go on the alert, move to predetermined zones and undertake combat training,” the ministry said in a statement. “The…
A Russian military plane was flying in the skies over Berdyansk, a city in southern Ukraine, but no one took much notice. “Nothing to worry about,” said an older woman sitting on a bench in a small square on a sunny weekend afternoon. “It’s one of ours.” Russian forces took control of this port city…
Russia has spent one-tenth of its expected budget on Ukrainian refugees as some emergency accommodation sites remain empty, according to public procurement data and interviews with officials. “Official figures say more than 1 million refugees have entered Russia, but we’re not feeling it,” Yelena Rusakova, a Moscow municipal deputy who volunteers to assist refugees, told…
Russian President Vladimir Putin banned Tuesday economic relations with sanctioned individuals from “unfriendly countries” on a soon to be published list. The move was a response to “unfriendly and contradictory to international law actions of the United States and foreign states and international organizations that joined it, which are aimed at illegally depriving and restricting…
Russian forces launched a major assault Tuesday on the Azovstal steel plant, the last holdout of Ukrainian forces in the devastated southern port city of Mariupol, as 101 civilians who had been trapped in the site for weeks were finally brought to safety. “We are so thankful for everyone who helped us. There was a…
The United States said Tuesday that Russia has unjustly detained basketball star Brittney Griner, a finding that steps up efforts to free her more than two months after she was seized in Moscow. “The Department of State has determined that the Russian Federation has wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Brittney Griner,” a State Department spokesperson said.…
Anti-war Russians who fled abroad in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine are looking to the upcoming annual celebrations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany on May 9 in order to gauge the viability of returning home. There has been much speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use the occasion, which…
Russian President Vladimir Putin told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron Tuesday the West must stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and accused Kyiv of not taking talks to end the conflict seriously, the Kremlin said. Accusing Ukrainian forces of committing war crimes and claiming the EU was “ignoring” them, Putin told Macron “the West could help stop…
The founder of one of Russia’s largest banks has condemned Russia’s business elite for refusing to speak out against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Oleg Tinkov became one of the few influential Russian business owners to protest the war when he denounced the conflict as a “massacre” in an Instagram post on April 19. He later told…
Russian forces have relaunched their attack on Ukrainian fighters inside the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in the besieged city of Mariupol. Troops began a fresh bombardment of the factory on Tuesday May 3 after accusing Ukrainian fighters of violating a ceasefire agreement. The Ukrainian military said that armoured vehicles and ground troops were also…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has accused the Israeli government of supporting a “neo-Nazi regime” in Ukraine. In a text published online Tuesday, officials accused Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid of making “anti-historical statements” which “explained the course of the current Israeli government in supporting the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.” The statement comes after Lapid criticized his…
Fire has ripped through a warehouse storing Russian schoolbooks, days after reports that publishers would remove mentions of Ukraine from the nation’s textbooks. Firefighters were called to a warehouse owned by the Prosveshchenie publishing house in Bogorodsky, east of Moscow, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday. The blaze was extinguished just over four hours later, a…
Two workers were killed at an explosives factory in Russia’s Perm region 1,000 kilometers east of Moscow, local authorities said Monday. “There was a fire at around 20:00 on May 1 at the plastics production site in the Perm Power Plant federal state enterprise,” the regional labor watchdog said in a statement. One employee was…
Russian pop star Filipp Kirkorov has slammed the editor-in-chief of state-funded broadcaster RT for questioning the sexual orientation of his ex-wife’s current husband, Maxim Galkin, who fled Russia in protest of the war in Ukraine. Observers describe the latest feud between Kirkorov and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan as signs of cracks within the pro-Putin elite.…
Russia’s Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov paid an unusual visit to the frontline in Ukraine amid the Russian military’s slow progress to capture eastern territories, The New York Times reported Sunday. “Our working assumption is that he was there because there’s a recognition they haven’t worked out all their…
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Monday slammed his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for alleging Adolf Hitler may have “had Jewish blood” and summoned the Russian ambassador for “clarifications.” Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Israel has sought to keep a delicate balance between the two sides, but remarks by the Russian foreign…
U.K.-sanctioned Russian businessman Oleg Tinkov said the Kremlin had forced him to sell his stake in a major bank he had founded after he criticized the Ukraine war. Tinkov told The New York Times the Kremlin told the Tinkoff Bank’s senior executives to cut ties with him the day after his explosive April 19 Instagram…
Dozens of activists, journalists and anti-war protesters have been detained across Russia as the country celebrated May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, an independent watchdog said Sunday. Police apprehended seven people in Moscow and St. Petersburg each, six people in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk and six others the Urals city of Chelyabinsk,…
At least two “large explosions” were heard in the early hours of Monday in the Belgorod region 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, the region’s governor said. “I awoke to two strong explosions,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on the Telegram messaging app without disclosing the location of the blasts. He said there were no injuries…
Russia is not looking to end its war in Ukraine by Victory Day on May 9, its foreign minister said, as the country looks set to mark the key anniversary under the cloud of a deadly conflict. Speaking with Italian outlet Mediaset, Sergei Lavrov insisted Moscow would not rush to wrap up its so-called “special…
Despairing of the economic options in her home country, Marine Khachatryan found work at a flower shop in Moscow’s outskirts in 2020, while her husband got work in construction. But then came the invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in punishing Western sanctions and a crisis in Russia’s economy. “We came here to make money…
Roughly 100 civilians have been evacuated from the besieged Mariupol steel plant in eastern Ukraine and are heading out of Russian-controlled territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday. The announcement came after the UN said a “safe passage operation” was ongoing at Azovstal, where Ukrainian forces say they and hundreds of civilians have been…
A fire broke out on Sunday at a Russian Defense Ministry site in Belgorod, close to the border with Ukraine, the region’s governor said, injuring one person. “On the the borders of three municipalities — Borisov, Belgorod and the urban district of Yakovlevsky — a fire broke out at one of the Defense Ministry’s facilities,”…
Dozens of civilians have left a besieged steel plant in the city of Mariupol, Russia said on Sunday, as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi voiced support for Ukraine’s “fight for freedom” during a visit to Kyiv. Russia’s Defense Ministry said a total of 46 civilians left in two groups on Saturday from the area around…
Russia suggested Sunday that it could seize the Russian-based assets of countries it deems hostile in retaliation for a U.S. proposal to sell off Russian oligarchs’ assets and pay the proceeds to Ukraine. “As far as companies based in Russian territory are concerned whose owners are citizens of hostile countries and where the decision has…
Two days after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a group of hackers managed to get access to several Russian state-owned television channels and broadcast anti-war videos. But the attack ended after a few minutes and regular programming resumed. This type of fleeting hacking operation has been repeated many times in Russia in recent…
Production of Georgia’s iconic Borjomi mineral water will be suspended as a result of financial difficulties caused by the war in Ukraine, the water’s manufacturer has announced. “The company ‘IDS Borjomi Georgia’ has been in a difficult situation since the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine,” the company said in an April 29 statement released to Georgian media.…
One British and one American citizen have been killed in Ukraine’s war against Russia this week. Scott Sibley, identified as a 36-year-old military veteran by British media, is believed to be the first Briton to die fighting in the conflict. “We can confirm that a British national has been killed in Ukraine,” a Foreign Office…
Russia’s Central Bank said Friday it was cutting its key interest rate for a second straight time as risks of price rises and financial instability were no longer rising. The Bank of Russia said it was slashing the rate from 17% to 14% from next week, a greater cut than predicted by many analysts. It…
A Russian businessman who founded the country’s third-largest retail bank has sold his stake in the group to an oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin after criticizing the Ukraine conflict. The Interros company of oligarch Vladimir Potanin announced Thursday it was acquiring a 35% stake TCS, the group that owns Tinkoff Bank. Interros said it had received the go-ahead from…
The U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said Friday that one of its staff had died in a Russian strike on Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “Radio Liberty journalist and producer Vera Gyrych died as a result of a Russian missile hitting the house where she lived in Kyiv. The attack took place…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has published the KGB’s top secret investigative file of Adolf Hitler’s personal pilot, including his mugshot, it announced Friday. “Documents from Hans Baur’s investigation file are being published for the first time,” the FSB said, adding that his case file was held in the FSB’s Novgorod region branch in northwestern…
Shootings erupted at two checkpoints on the Russian-Ukrainian border Friday, regional authorities said as Russia’s military offensive on Ukraine continues to spill into its own territory. “It was a restless morning in the border district of Rylsky,” Kursk region Governor Roman Starovoit said on social media. “Mortars were fired at a checkpoint in the village of Krupets…
Russia confirmed Friday that it had carried out a “high-precision” missile strike on a rocket plant in Kyiv as the UN chief visited the Ukrainian capital. Thursday’s missile attack during UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit ended nearly two weeks of relative calm in Ukraine’s capital. At least one person has been killed and at least…
displaced population In Photos: Evacuees from Donbas Arrive in Russia Tens of thousands of women, children and elderly have crossed the border into Russia after separatist leaders accused Ukraine of planning to invade.
A Russian court has granted early release to former economic development minister Alexei Ulyukayev after less than five years in jail, Russian news agencies reported Friday. Ulyukayev was found guilty of bribery in December 2017 and sentenced to eight years in prison in a high-profile criminal case that rocked the political elite. The ex-minister was…
Moscow and St. Petersburg held nighttime World War II victory parade rehearsals late Thursday as Russian forces continued their push to capture territory in eastern Ukraine. Russia marks 77 years since the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9 with a landmark military parade on Red Square aiming to boost domestic patriotic sentiment and…
Russian forces bombarded Ukraine’s capital late Thursday during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who decried the “absurdity” of war in the 21st century, as U.S. President Joe Biden asked for $33 billion more to support Kyiv. At least three people were wounded in the strikes in the western part of the city, which…
Russia has lost its first soldier on home soil since the start of the country’s war with Ukraine, local media reported Thursday. Conscript Nikita Koshelev, 19, died when his base on the Ukrainian border came under bombardment, his friend Kirill Kulikov told news website NN.ru. Koshelev’s relatives in the town of Arzamas in the Russian…
Ukraine is investigating at least 10 Russian soldiers accused of committing war crimes against civilians while occupying the Kyiv suburb of Bucha last month, the country’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said Thursday. Images of civilians apparently executed in the streets and harrowing accounts of torture emerged from Bucha and other Kyiv suburbs as Russian forces…
Russian energy giant Gazprom on Thursday announced a soaring net profit for 2021, boosted by high energy prices. “The main factor that affected the financial result was an increase in gas and oil prices,” the state-controlled group said in a statement. “This resulted in an increase in sales and an increase in the cost of purchased gas and oil.” The group…
Kazakhstan has admonished a pro-Kremlin television presenter after he unleashed a tirade against the ex-Soviet country over its perceived distancing from Moscow since Russian troops invaded Ukraine. Central Asia’s richest country, Kazakhstan shares a land border with Russia, has a significant ethnic Russian minority and was forced to call in troops from a Russia-led bloc to quell unprecedented unrest in January. But…
Russian tech giant Yandex will sell its digital news and blogging products to fellow internet conglomerate VK, the companies announced Thursday. The sale of Yandex.News and Yandex.Zen to VK comes as Yandex, once the jewel of Russia’s rising IT scene, faces an increasingly uncertain future due to Western sanctions and an exodus of Russian IT…
Some 1,200 Syrian and Russian mercenaries have been pulled out of Libya as Moscow’s protracted invasion of Ukraine begins to place strain on the country’s military, the Financial Times reported Thursday. Unnamed Libyan officials told FT that 1,000 Syrians and 200 Russians from the Wagner Group had been moved from the war-torn North African country in…