Romania on Sunday said a Russian attack drone targeting civilian infrastructure in neighboring Ukraine overnight had entered its airspace, strongly condemning the “renewed violation” brought on by Moscow’s “illegal attacks.” Since launching its invasion in February 2022, Russia has repeatedly carried out nightly attacks on cities across Ukraine, frequently targeting ports in the southern Odesa…
The Russian army on Sunday said that it had captured a town in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces are advancing on the strategic city of Pokrovsk. Russian forces have “liberated the locality of Novohrodivka” in the Donetsk region, some 20 kilometers from Pokrovsk city, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The town had more than…
A Russian air strike on the Ukrainian border city of Sumy killed two people and wounded several others early Sunday, the region’s military administration said. “As a result of the air strike, two people died [and] four more people were injured, including two children,” military authorities said in a statement. “Necessary medical assistance is provided…
Russia said on Saturday it had seized another village in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s troops are continuing to advance. The defense ministry said Russian forces “have liberated the village of Kalynove” in the Donetsk region, which lies around 25 kilometers (16 miles) southeast of the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk, held by Kyiv’s forces. Russian…
Kyiv on Saturday said it had struck an ammunition depot in a Russian region bordering Ukraine where a large fire broke out overnight after a drone attack. The Russian governor of the Voronezh region said debris from a downed drone triggered a fire and series of explosions, ordering the evacuation of nearby settlements. Russian anti-air…
Four white coffins – one slightly smaller than the others – were laid into a family grave in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday. Dressed in black, with cuts across his face, Yaroslav Bazylevych looked on as the caskets containing his wife and three daughters were lowered into the pit, then covered with…
A university professor fired for sharing anti-war videos has been arrested for disobeying police orders and fined under Russia’s wartime censorship laws, local media in the city of Volgograd reported Thursday, citing anonymous law enforcement sources. Roman Melnichenko, who previously taught constitutional and municipal law at Volgograd State University, was fired in April 2022 and subsequently…
The White House urged Google, Microsoft and other major U.S. tech companies to increase access to state-funded software that helps Russians bypass online censorship, Reuters reported Thursday. In response to Moscow’s growing crackdown on wartime dissent, the U.S. government-backed Open Technology Fund (OTF) has been financing several American firms to offer free virtual private networks…
Russian law enforcement authorities pressed criminal charges against exiled singer Monetochka for breaking the country’s law on “foreign agents,” Moscow’s Prosectuor’s Office announced Friday. Monetochka, whose real name is Elizaveta Gyrdymova, fled Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine due to her opposition to the war. She was designated a “foreign agent” last year. Authorities…
Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad killed at least one person and injured more than 50 others, including three children, authorities said Friday afternoon. The attacks led to “several fires in the city,” including at a high-rise apartment building, according to regional governor Sergiy Lysak. He said a nine-year-old girl and two boys…
Russia’s Central Bank announced Friday that it will extend limits on foreign cash withdrawals, capping the amount at $10,000 until next spring. The Central Bank first introduced the restrictions in March 2022 after the U.S. and EU halted cash transfers of dollars and euros to Russia. At the same time, private customers withdrew some $9…
Residents of 81 federal subjects of Russia will vote in regional and municipal elections starting Friday. The elections mark the second time this year that Russians are heading to the polls following the March presidential election. That vote, which saw Vladimir Putin win a fifth term virtually unchallenged, was marred by widespread reports of vote tampering,…
Moscow will impose restrictions on American media outlets in response to new U.S. sanctions on the state-funded RT news network, the Kremlin said Friday. The United States indicted two RT employees and sanctioned its top editors on Wednesday, accusing them of trying to influence the upcoming U.S. presidential election. “A like response is not possible.…
A Russian court froze the shares of Raiffeisenbank’s Russian subsidiary, further stalling the sale of the largest Western bank still operating in the country, the lender’s Austrian parent company said Thursday. “A Russian court has today issued a preliminary injunction, by which shares of AO Raiffeisenbank are subject to a transfer ban with immediate effect,” Raiffeisen Bank…
France’s criminal case against Telegram founder Pavel Durov has raised fears among Russian users about their digital privacy and in some cases deepened distrust toward Western authorities. The Russian-French billionaire was detained at a Paris airport last month on charges of enabling criminal activity on Telegram. He was later released pending an investigation but is…
Voting in Russia’s three-day local and regional elections began on Friday, with Kremlin-backed candidates expected to dominate a political landscape all but devoid of meaningful competition. Voters will elect governors in 21 regions, legislative assembly members in 13 regions, including two in annexed Crimea, and scores of local officials on Sept. 6-8. In the Kursk…
Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov on Thursday hit out at French authorities for arresting and charging him last month over the publication of extremist and illegal content on the popular messaging app. In a lengthy post on Telegram, his first public remarks since his arrest, Durov said it was “surprising” that he was…
The United States charged five Russian military officers on Thursday for allegedly conducting cyberattacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine ahead of the Russian invasion. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said the members of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency indicted in Maryland waged a cyber campaign against Ukraine known as WhisperGate. “The WhisperGate campaign included the…
Ukraine on Thursday canceled a train that was set to ferry people fleeing the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk amid fears of a possible Russian attack. Moscow’s forces have been advancing on the key logistics hub for months and are within 10 kilometers (six miles) of the city, where officials are urging the 27,000…
Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic said he would not be able to accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to attend the BRICS summit in Russia next month, media reported Thursday. “We have important guests [coming] from abroad at that time,” Vucic was quoted as saying by the Balkan service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Tatarstan…
A joint Russian-Chinese coal project in Siberia is facing difficulties with financing due to Western secondary sanctions on cross-border payments to Russia, the CEO of Russian metals and renewables giant En+ said Thursday. The United States expanded its secondary sanctions against Russia in June, giving the Treasury Department the authority to penalize foreign banks that…
A former deputy minister of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry was charged over the alleged theft of an apartment, federal investigators said Thursday. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said Pavel Baryshev used fraudulent documents between 2017 and 2019 to acquire a three-bedroom apartment in the Moscow area valued at 20 million rubles ($223,700). Law enforcement authorities…
Dmitry Dostoevsky, the only great-grandson of the Russian novelist and short-story writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 79. Dmitry was the grandson of one of the famed novelist’s four children, also named Fyodor Dostoevsky. Born in April 1945, he led a varied life, working as a diamond cutter, cab driver,…
Russia’s republics of Altai, Bashkortostan and Kalmykia are set to vote for their regional heads in this weekend’s nationwide elections. Russia’s third wartime elections are expected to yield few if any surprises, with candidates backed by the ruling United Russia party and the Kremlin expected to win by a landslide. But for the heads of…
Brussels on Thursday warned Serbia that keeping strong ties with Moscow was “not compatible” with its aspiration to join the bloc after a top government official met with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week. Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin described his country as an “ally of Russia” when he met with Putin on…
Russian companies have been able to purchase spare parts for outdated microchip-making machines produced by Dutch tech giant ASML through Chinese intermediaries since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Dutch daily Trouw reported Wednesday, citing Russian customs data. Small Russian importers reportedly obtained these parts at least 170 times between February 2022 and December 2023. Trouw…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he supported Kamala Harris in November’s U.S. presidential election, an apparent wry remark a day after the United States issued indictments accusing Moscow of vote interference. Putin regularly comments on political and social issues in the United States, often in a mocking way. He said last year that the…
Popular Russian YouTubers have experienced noticeable drops in view counts over the past month, with some losing as much as 80% of their audience on the platform amid what appears to be government attempts to throttle YouTube, the Vedomosti business newspaper reported Wednesday, citing an industry analytics report. According to the report, published by the social…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he was ready for talks with Kyiv, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Ukraine’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the southwestern Kursk region in early August, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing dozens of…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said his main aim in Ukraine after 30 months of fighting was to capture the eastern Donbas area — and claimed that Ukraine’s Kursk counter-offensive had made that easier. Putin was speaking a day after Russia attacked Ukraine’s western Lviv region with deadly strikes, and after recent advances by…
Belarus’ Defense Ministry said early Thursday that it destroyed several drones after they violated the country’s airspace overnight. “Late last night, on September 5, a violation of Belarusian airspace was detected, reportedly involving unmanned aerial vehicles,” the ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram. “A decision was made to neutralize the threat. Prompt actions…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that new U.S. sanctions against the state-funded RT news network were part of an “information campaign” ahead of the November presidential race, adding it was working on a response. Washington indicted on Wednesday two RT employees and sanctioned its top editors, accusing them of trying to influence the upcoming presidential…
The United States indicted two employees of Russia’s RT and imposed sanctions on top editors of the state-funded news outlet on Wednesday, accusing them of seeking to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The 10 individuals and two entities sanctioned by the Treasury Department include RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonovna Simonyan and deputy Elizaveta Yuryevna Brodskaia.…
Russia’s most popular ride-hailing service, Yandex Taxi, may raise prices later this year due to a growing shortage of drivers, a senior manager at the company said Wednesday. Anton Petrakov, who handles corporate and government relations at Yandex Taxi, warned that tightening migration policies and new taxi service regulations could leave the company short by…
Gazprom is postponing several major offshore exploration projects in the Arctic, the Interfax news agency reported, citing data from the state register of geological study of subsoil. The move comes amid record losses, Western sanctions in response to the invasion of Ukraine and China’s refusal to sign a new contract for Russian gas. In the…
Moscow has approved the sale of British consumer goods giant Unilever’s Russian subsidiary at a steep discount, the RBC business news outlet reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Unilever, the maker of Dove soap and Magnum ice cream, halted imports, exports and advertising in Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in March 2022.…
Police confirmed they had received a complaint and said they would look into the matter “to determine whether there are reasonable motives to launch an investigation.” The Veterinary Institute told AFP that “if something suspicious were to come up” under the autopsy, “police would be informed.” When Hvaldimir was found in 2019, Norwegian marine biologists…
A Russian missile attack Wednesday on the Ukrainian city of Lviv killed a woman and her three daughters, leaving their father as the only immediate survivor, Ukrainian officials said. The strike killed seven people in Lviv, which lies in western Ukraine and is hundreds of kilometers from the front line, has been largely spared the…
A Ukrainian attack on an open-air market in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk killed three people and injured five others, Moscow-backed authorities said Wednesday. “Two men and one woman were killed in the Sokol market in Donetsk’s Kirovsky district, and five others were injured,” said Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-appointed governor of the Donetsk region. Pushilin…
Nearly 700 residents of southwestern Russia’s Kursk region remain missing almost a month after Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion there, the search and rescue group Liza Alert said Tuesday. Of the 918 people who were reported missing last month, 202 were found alive, while five were confirmed dead. The search for the remaining 698…
The Dossier Center investigative outlet released an investigation that sheds light on the life of the two alleged young sons of President Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva, a decorated Russian gymnast turned longtime presidential partner. The Moscow Times has gathered the key findings of the investigation into the life of Ivan Putin and Vladimir Putin Jr.:…
Hungary on Wednesday dismissed as “political hysteria” fears that its new work and residency permit scheme for Russian and Belarusian nationals heightened the risk of spying in the European Union. The European Commission and the European Parliament’s biggest group raised concerns after Hungary extended a “national card” system to citizens of the two countries amid…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its deadly strike on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava targeted a drone and electronic warfare training center. At least 53 people were killed and 298 others were injured in Tuesday’s attack on a military institute and nearby hospital in the central city of Poltava. Ukrainian authorities did not say how many of…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that he expects Chinese leader Xi Jinping to attend next month’s BRICS summit in the Tatarstan capital of Kazan. Since ordering the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has increasingly turned to Xi for support, with Russia and China boosting trade to record levels amid heavy Western…
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin was scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia on Wednesday, just days after Serbia signed a multi-billion-dollar fighter jet deal with France. The meeting was expected to take place on the sidelines of an economic forum in Vladivostok, where Putin arrived on Tuesday after a state…
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia on Wednesday, just days after Belgrade signed a multi-billion-dollar fighter jet deal with France. The meeting took place on the sidelines of an economic forum in Vladivostok, where Putin arrived on Tuesday after a state visit to Mongolia, according to Serbian…
Russia has set up a covert trade route to obtain critical electronics from India for its war in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported Thursday, citing leaked government documents and anonymous sources. The Moscow-based Consortium for Foreign Economic Activity and International Interstate Cooperation in Industry (Ved MMKP) reported to Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry in October 2022 that…
Ukraine’s government reshuffle will not affect potential peace talks with Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists Wednesday. At least six top Ukrainian officials including cabinet ministers have submitted their resignations since Tuesday, while a presidential aide was dismissed. David Arakhamia, who heads the ruling party’s parliamentary faction, declared Wednesday a “day of dismissals.” “This reshuffle…
A Russian strike on the historic center of Lviv in western Ukraine has killed seven people including three children, officials said Wednesday, a day after a particularly bloody attack in the central city of Poltava in which dozens died. Moscow has stepped up its aerial attacks after Ukraine’s offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, which caught…
A sanctioned central banker is to represent Russia on the board of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund, the current holder of the post said on Tuesday. Ksenia Yudaeva is the former first deputy governor at Russia’s Central Bank and a current adviser to its Governor Elvira Nabiullina. “Yes, I confirm. From November 1 Ksenia will be…
UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi said he discussed the safety of Russia’s Kursk nuclear plant with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, four weeks after Ukraine launched its unprecedented cross-border incursion. Ukraine sent thousands of troops into the Kursk region on Aug. 6, triggering fighting less than 50 kilometers (30 miles) away from the nuclear…
The head of Russia’s Far East republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has called on state employees to “not be ashamed” of studying at American universities, calling it an opportunity to “learn from the enemy” to improve things at home. “Don’t be ashamed of going abroad to learn something — including from our enemies — [especially] if…
A military court in southern Russia sentenced a Ukrainian special forces soldier to 20 years in prison after he was captured during a mission in annexed Crimea, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Oleksandr Lyubas was captured in October during an amphibious operation in which Ukrainian military intelligence soldiers reportedly arrived in Crimea on jet skis, unfurled…
Russian law enforcement authorities decided to extend a preliminary investigation into the death of Alexei Navalny at an Arctic prison earlier this year, the late opposition activist’s allies said Tuesday. Navalny was serving a 19-year prison sentence on extremism charges when he died under unclear circumstances at the “Polar Wolf” penal colony on Feb. 16. Authorities…
Russian Orthodox priests drove around the western Bryansk region with a religious icon in an attempt to protect it from a potential Ukrainian incursion, the local diocese said. “Today’s prayer was for the salvation of our fatherland and our native Bryansk region from enemy invasion,” the diocese of Bryansk said in a social media post published…
The pressure of Western sanctions saw Russia scramble to maintain its market power as a key energy exporter, as well as preserve the supply of technologies necessary for its military and civilian sectors. Domestically, this has meant Russia’s increasing state control over the economy, coupled with a tolerance of “grey” schemes to evade sanctions and…
President Vladimir Putin invited his Mongolian counterpart to attend the next BRICS summit in Russia next month, the Kremlin said Tuesday. “I’d like to conclude my opening remarks by inviting you to Russia, to Kazan, where we will host the BRICS summit this year,” Putin told Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh during his visit to Mongolia’s…
A French citizen accused of gathering information about the Russian military and violating the country’s laws on “foreign agents” is set to stand trial on Tuesday. Laurent Vinatier, who worked for a Swiss conflict mediation NGO before he was arrested in Moscow in June, faces up to five years in prison if convicted of the…
Ukrainian drone strikes targeted three towns in Russia’s Belgorod region, seriously damaging a church and hitting public and commercial buildings, local authorities said early Tuesday. “An FPV drone struck St. Nicholas Church in the village of Gruzskoye in the Borisov district,” Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram. Gladkov shared photos showing the church’s…
Two U.S. researchers claim to have identified a new potential deployment site of Russia’s nuclear-armed cruise missile Burevestnik, Reuters reported Monday. Decker Eveleth, an analyst with the CNA research and analysis organization, and Jeffery Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey said they identified a construction project near a nuclear warhead storage facility 475…