Ukraine said Monday it had withdrawn from the settlement of Lastochkyne in eastern Ukraine, which Russia said it had captured, the latest in a string of Russian advances after the fall of Avdiivka. As the war enters its third year, Moscow’s troops have mounted heavy attacks and taken Avdiivka — a key eastern town —…
Updated to add the Financial Times’ and Deutsche Welle’s report. Opposition activist Alexei Navalny died ahead of a planned prisoner swap between Moscow and Western governments, the late Kremlin critic’s allies said Monday. “In early February, [President Vladimir] Putin was given an offer to swap the FSB killer Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a prison…
Danish police said Monday that they were closing their investigation into the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia and Germany, a move dubbed “close to absurd” by the Kremlin. Neighboring Sweden closed its investigation in early February citing a lack of jurisdiction, meaning only Germany now has an ongoing investigation into…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday that it has “dismantled” a financing ring for a Syrian militant group. “As a result of the activities carried out in 22 Russian regions, 49 members of a terrorist network involved in the collection and transfer of funds for the needs of militants operating in Syria were detained,”…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday his country’s victory “depends” on Western support and that he was “sure” the United States would approve a critical package of military aid. He also said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in two years of war with Russia, in a rare admission of military losses. “Whether Ukraine will…
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has held power since 1994, said on Sunday he intended to seek re-election next year, which could extend his grip on the country to 36 years. He was speaking on the day Belarus, a neighbor and ally of Russia, held parliamentary elections decried as a sham by the opposition. “Tell…
Sri Lanka said Sunday it had ended long-term tourist visa extensions for thousands of Russians and Ukrainians using the policy to live on the island since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “The government is not granting further visa extensions,” Commissioner-General of Immigration Harsha Ilukpitiya told AFP, giving a March 7 deadline for departure. “The flight situation…
VORONEZH, Russia — Valeria, a 28-year-old journalist, was woken up in the middle of the night to the sounds of explosions last Saturday. On Feb. 17, when the Defense Ministry announced that it destroyed four drones near her block, she had to sleep in her bathroom for fear of shelling. “I heard about five explosions,…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised victory against Russia on the second anniversary of the invasion on Saturday as his troops fight on despite a lack of Western aid and recent Russian gains. “We will win,” he said at a ceremony at Kyiv’s Gostomel airport, which was targeted by Russia in the first days of the…
The body of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed to his mother, more than a week after he died in an Arctic prison colony, his spokesperson said on Saturday. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic, died on February 16 in one of Russia’s toughest prisons in northern Siberia, where he was…
MOSCOW — For most Russians, their country’s two-year war with Ukraine has long faded into the background of everyday life. “The average Russian is just waiting for this to end,” was how one Moscow resident described prevailing sentiments about the war. “The idea of ‘let me live my life and leave me alone’ resonates with many…
Ukraine on Saturday said it hit one of Russia’s largest steel plants with a drone strike on the second anniversary of Moscow launching its invasion. Russia reported a fire in the huge Novolipetsk (NLMK) factory in the western Lipetsk region, with images on social media showing a huge blaze. If confirmed, the attack would be…
Russian police on Saturday detained at least four people, including reporters, at a weekly protest outside the Kremlin by the wives of mobilized soldiers fighting in Ukraine. The wives of mobilized soldiers have staged rare protests in Moscow demanding their spouses be brought home from Ukraine. A video published by SOTA, an independent media outlet,…
Russia’s ethnic minorities continue to suffer outsized fatalities in the country’s two-year war in Ukraine, a trend that analysts warn will have long-term destructive impacts on these communities. Though ethnic Russians comprise the majority of deaths in absolute terms, Russia’s non-Slavic minorities and indigenous peoples are greatly overrepresented among the casualties relative to their share…
Alexei Navalny’s widow said Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally ordered that his arch critic’s body should not be handed over to his family after his death in an Arctic jail nine days ago. Navalny’s mother said authorities in the Arctic town of Salekhard are threatening to bury him on the prison grounds if she…
KAMYANKA, Ukraine — Two weeks after Ukraine liberated this village in the Kharkiv region in September 2022, Viktor, a local farmer and tractor driver, and his wife Larissa returned to their home for the first time since the Russian occupation. Half a year earlier, the couple had managed to escape the advancing Russian army. For…
On Feb. 24, 2022, people across Ukraine awoke to the sound of Russian missiles as President Vladimir Putin declared what he called a “special military operation.” Two years later, millions of Ukrainians have been displaced, tens of thousands of civilians and combatants have been killed and a number of cities and towns have been destroyed…
The United Kingdom is offering British passports to Russian officials in exchange for intelligence information, the British newspaper i reported Friday, citing three anonymous U.K. intelligence sources and one former Russian informant. The report comes just over half a year after the head of Britain’s MI6 spy service, Richard Moore, urged Russians appalled by the…
Boris Nadezhdin says he will not rally his supporters to protest against his exclusion from next month’s presidential election — because, he says, he has learned from “Alexei Navalny’s mistakes.” “It would mean exposing my supporters to the police and Rosgvardia’s batons,” Nadezhdin told The Moscow Times, referring to the inevitable crackdown awaiting unauthorized protests…
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer arrived Friday in Ukraine in a bid to put pressure on his Republican opponents in Congress to unlock crucial aid for Kyiv as Russia’s invasion enters its third year. “We are here to show the Ukrainian people that America stands with them and will [continue] fighting to get the…
Russia’s appeal against its suspension by the International Olympic Committee was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday with Moscow lambasting its banishment from this summer’s Paris Games as “discrimination.” The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in October last year for violating the territorial integrity of the membership of Ukraine…
Russian investigators have told the mother of Alexei Navalny that she must agree to hold a secret funeral for her son or they will bury him at the prison where he died last week, the late activist’s spokeswoman said Friday. “An investigator called Alexei’s mother an hour ago and gave her an ultimatum: either she…
Russia has blocked the websites of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) five Central Asian bureaus, the independent internet freedom monitor Roskomsvoboda said Friday. An “unspecified state body” ruled to block the websites more than a year ago, in January 2023, but their domains were restricted inside Russia only on Thursday. RFE/RL operates in 27 languages in 23 countries,…
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday announced sanctions against Russia on over 500 targets to mark the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine, vowing sustained pressure to stop President Vladimir Putin’s “war machine.” The sanctions, described as the largest single tranche since the start of the war, also seek to impose a cost for…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced Friday that it has “significantly” expanded an entry ban for European officials in response to the EU’s “illegal and unfriendly” sanctions on the eve of the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine. The EU’s 13th round of sanctions, adopted on Wednesday, targets 200 officials and entities mainly from Russia involved…
Dozens of Russian cultural figures and activists have called on authorities to release the body of opposition activist Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony last Friday. After days of being denied access, Navalny’s mother Lyudmila said Thursday she had finally been allowed to see her dead son’s body, but added that authorities refuse…
Moscow-installed authorities in annexed Crimea have charged Crimean Tatar activist and citizen journalist Lutfiye Zudiyeva with “misue of freedom of mass media,” the advocacy group Crimean Solidarity said Thursday. Several masked agents were filmed escorting Zudiyeva from her home in Dzhankoi, a town located in the north of the Crimean penninsula. “In a few days,…
Armenia has suspended its participation in a Russia-led security bloc, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview published on Friday, Yerevan’s latest step in distancing itself from Moscow. Russia and Armenia have traditionally been allies but relations soured last year when Russian peacekeepers failed to intervene when Azerbaijan took control of the disputed enclave…
Putin has also been bolstered at home, ahead of an election certain to extend his long rule: a massive crackdown has all but crushed dissent and the Russian leader’s main opponent — Alexei Navalny — is dead. Ukraine, meanwhile, has been weakened by the blocking of U.S. aid, its failed counter-offensive and worsening ammunition shortages.…
The United States on Thursday charged Russian banking tycoon Andrei Kostin and two U.S.-based associates for violating sanctions by paying for the maintenance of his luxury property. Kostin, chairman of Russia’s second-largest state-owned bank VTB, was accused of participating in a scheme to evade sanctions and launder funds to support his two superyachts, the Justice Department…
In the two years since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine, Russia has experienced a backsliding in several key areas connected to environmental protection and the fight against climate change. This not only poses risks to public health but could also undermine global efforts to address the climate crisis. While many of Russia’s environmental policies and related…
A video ad released this week urges Russians to go out and vote in the upcoming presidential election or face the consequences of a dystopian future in which traditional family values have been outlawed. The 6-minute video, published on YouTube Wednesday, employs a number of homophobic tropes to paint a hypothetical Russia of the year 2036, one…
Russian authorities have prosecuted more than 116,000 activists during President Vladimir Putin’s latest term in office, the investigative news outlet Proekt reported, surpassing levels of political repression seen during the rule of Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. Between 2018 and 2023, Russian courts fined 105,000 people for making public statements or attending protests. Another…
Ukraine said Friday it had shot down an A-50U Russian spy plane over the Sea of Azov, and shared a map appearing to show it had crashed over southern Russia. Moscow made no official comment, but authorities in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region said fire crews were at the scene of an air crash, without elaborating.…
President Joe Biden met privately in California on Thursday with the widow and daughter of Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died last week in a Russian prison, the White House said. Biden met with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya in San Francisco “to express his heartfelt condolences for their terrible loss,” a statement said, adding…
Latvia’s parliament on Thursday banned the import of food products from Russia and Belarus, including via intermediary countries, following protests by farmers over “blood grain” imports. Earlier this month, thousands of farmers demonstrated in 16 towns across the country calling for a ban on Russian grain — which they said was funding the Kremlin’s war…
Anti-riot police raided an activist meeting near St. Petersburg that state television claimed was an “LGBT party against the special military operation” in Ukraine, the independent news website Mediazona reported Thursday. The broadcasters Ren-TV and 78.ru published identical reports of the Feb. 18 raid showing masked agents lining up several attendees and asking them about their…
Russian courts have convicted more than 4,600 soldiers for desertion and other offenses related to refusing to serve in the military since Moscow invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago, the independent investigative outlet Proekt reported Thursday. Russia passed new legislation in the fall of 2022 that toughened punishment for voluntary surrender, conscientious objection and desertion.…
The mother of late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Thursday that Russian investigators had finally allowed her to see her son’s body but are now pressuring her to hold a funeral for him in secret. “Looking into my eyes, they [investigators] told me they’ll do something to my son’s body if I don’t agree to…
The U.K. on Thursday announced more than 50 new sanctions against Russia ahead of the second anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions target arms manufacturers, electronics companies, as well as diamond and oil traders, and they aim to “diminish” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s weapons arsenal, the British foreign office said. They also seek…
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Tuesday that a dual U.S.-Russian citizen was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg on charges of “financially assisting a foreign state in activities directed against [Russian] security.” The detainee was later identified by news agencies as 33-year-old Ksenia Karelina, a native of Yekaterinburg who obtained U.S. citizenship in 2021…
Russia claimed on Thursday its forces had advanced further in east Ukraine, piling pressure on Kyiv days before the two-year anniversary of the conflict. Ukraine has faced intense pressure on its eastern front in recent months as it grapples with ammunition shortages and hold-ups to much-needed Western military aid. The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday…
Ukraine said Thursday that its forces had struck Russian military training grounds on the Moscow-occupied bank of the Dnipro River in the southern Kherson region, killing or wounding dozens of troops. Military spokeswoman Natalia Gumeniuk said on television that the attack took place Wednesday, striking a range where Russian troops undergoing combat exercises. “The work…
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a sarcastic response on Thursday when asked to comment on U.S. counterpart Joe Biden calling him a “crazy SOB.” The Kremlin leader, who endorsed Biden over rival Donald Trump in the upcoming U.S. elections, joked: “He can’t of course say to me: Volodya, well done, thank you [for the endorsement],…
Scientists of the Siberian Federal University with the support of Vostsibneftegaz (an enterprise of Rosneft’s oil and gas production block) analysed the state of the wolf population in the Evenki district of Krasnoyarsk Territory.
“I am your new grandfather Frost,” Navalny said in a social media post on Dec. 26, his first since arriving at IK-3 in Kharp. “I have a tulup, an ushanka and I will have valenki soon,” he said. “I now live above the Arctic Circle … But I don’t say ‘ho-ho-ho, I say ‘oh-oh-oh’ when…
The BBC Russian service and news outlet Mediazona have confirmed the identity of around 45,000 Russian soldiers who died in Ukraine since the invasion began in February 2022. The issue of military casualties is extremely sensitive in both countries. Russia has banned criticism of the conflict and no official figures have been released since 2022.…
The EU has agreed to lift sanctions from Russian tech billionaire Arkady Volozh, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing three sources familiar with the matter. Volozh co-founded the Russian tech company Yandex and announced his resignation in mid-2022 after being targeted by EU sanctions. In August, his lawyers petitioned the EU for sanctions relief after he became…
The United Kingdom on Wednesday announced sanctions against six Russian prison officials in charge of the Arctic penal colony where Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny died last week. Travel bans and asset freezes were imposed on the head of the remote IK-3 penal colony in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district, Colonel Vadim Kalinin, and five of his…
The death of opposition politician Alexei Navalny in a remote Arctic prison last week has dominated headlines and put a spotlight on the brutality of Russia’s penitentiary system. The U.S. State Department in its 2022 Human Rights Practices report described conditions in Russia’s prisons as “harsh and life-threatening,” noting that inmates are systematically abused by…
Several mourners detained at makeshift memorials to the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have been handed military summonses in St. Petersburg, local media reported Wednesday. Police have arrested hundreds of people across Russia for laying flowers at memorials in the days since Navalny died at a remote Arctic prison. At least six mourners in St.…
The French food maker Danone plans to sell its Russian assets to a businessman linked to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing private documents it had seen and anonymous sources familiar with the situation. Kadyrov’s nephew Yakub Zakriev, 33, became the head of Danone’s Russian subsidiary in July 2023 after the Kremlin ordered its…
The EU on Wednesday agreed to ban exports to three Chinese firms and blacklist North Korea’s Defense Minister in new sanctions set to coincide with the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The fresh round of sanctions — the 13th since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion — targets some two hundred officials and entities…
Prominent pro-war blogger and Russian soldier Andrei Morozov has reportedly committed suicide after upsetting his commanders for disclosing high military casualties in Moscow’s recent capture of the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka. Morozov, known by his call sign “Murz,” regularly criticized Russia’s military and political leadership on his Telegram channel over shortages of weapons, bureaucratic inefficiencies…
Ukraine’s army on Wednesday denied Russian claims that it had lost a key bridgehead on the Dnipro River frontline that has faced fierce attacks since Russia lost it. Russia’s defense minister said Tuesday that Moscow’s forces had retaken the village of Krynky, seized by Ukrainian troops last year. Russia has stepped up its offensive ahead…
Anti-American allies Russia and Venezuela vowed to boost cooperation in oil and gas production and the “peaceful use of nuclear energy” at a meeting of foreign ministers in Caracas Tuesday. Russia’s Sergei Lavrov arrived in Venezuela late Monday from Cuba as part of a Latin American tour as Moscow seeks new diplomatic and trading partners…
“I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. I will continue to fight for our country.” That was the message Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya delivered in a video address viewed by millions on Monday after the death of her husband, one of the Kremlin’s most fearless opponents, in prison. For many anti-Kremlin Russians still mourning…
The death of a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine with a military helicopter was shrouded in mystery Tuesday, with Spanish authorities refusing to say if a bullet-riddled body found was his. Maxim Kuzminov flew his Mi-8 helicopter into Ukraine in August in a brazen operation, saying he opposed Russia’s military offensive. Ukraine’s GUR military…
Russia on Tuesday claimed a new military success in Ukraine ahead of the second anniversary of its offensive, while President Vladimir Putin mocked what he called Kyiv’s “flight” from the frontline town of Avdiivka. The eastern Ukraine front has been frozen for months, but Moscow has been bolstered by its capture of Avdiivka last week,…
The Russian Volunteer Corps, a far-right military unit fighting alongside the Ukrainian army against Russian forces, said Tuesday that it had planned to free the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny from prison and bring him to Ukraine. The anti-Kremlin military outfit claimed it sought to “fight off” a prison convoy that in December transferred Navalny from…