Russian shelling killed two children — a brother and sister — in the village of Druzhba (Friendship) in eastern Ukraine on Friday, the local governor said. “At about three o’clock in the afternoon, the Russians shelled the village with artillery — one of the shells hit the yard where the children were,” Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko…
A Russian prosecutor on Friday requested an 18-year prison sentence for Ilya Sachkov, founder of one of the country’s top cybersecurity firms, on treason charges. Sachkov, 37, co-founded the Group-IB cybersecurity firm in 2003. It specializes in the detection and prevention of cyberattacks and works with Interpol and several other global institutions. “State prosecutors requested…
Residents of the village of Sosva have been losing their homes to forest fires for years. In the most recent major incident in April, a wildfire destroyed 130 houses, killed two individuals and left 659 people homeless in this village in the Sverdlovsk region. When Novaya Gazeta Europe reporter Irina Kravtsova arrived in Sosva, locals…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been ordered to spend 13 days in a solitary confinement cell until a court verdict that could see him sentenced to a further 20 years in prison, his lawyer said Friday. “Just an hour ago, Alexei Navalny was again placed in a solitary punishment cell [for] introducing himself incorrectly,”…
Russian army veteran and ex-FSB officer Igor Girkin has been detained, his wife and the RBC business daily’s sources said Friday. Girkin, who helped Moscow annex Crimea in 2014 and then organized pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, was detained by law enforcement officers around 11:30 a.m. Moscow time, his wife Miroslava Reginskaya said on his…
Ukraine’s counteroffensive to recapture occupied territories is failing even with Western military support, President Vladimir Putin said Friday. “Today it’s clear that the Kyiv regime’s Western curators are disappointed with the results of the so-called counteroffensive,” Putin said at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council. “There are no results, at least not yet,” he told senior government…
Russia’s Central Bank hiked interest rates on Friday for the first time in 16 months, as Moscow’s spending on its invasion of Ukraine, shortages across the labor market and a sharp fall in the value of the ruble trigger fresh concerns over inflation. The regulator raised its key rate from 7.5% to 8.5% — ahead…
Russian schoolchildren will learn the basics of combat drone flying as part of military training classes starting this fall, a senior lawmaker said Friday. Basic military training, which was abolished after the Soviet collapse, will become part of the curriculum for Russian high schoolers in grades 10 and 11 as part of curriculum changes following…
Russia will keep its minimum conscription age at 18 despite a promise to raise the limit as part of the military’s plans to increase troop numbers, a senior lawmaker said Friday. A bill backed by President Vladimir Putin originally envisioned an increase in age limits for compulsory military service from the current range of men…
Russian oil exports to China reached an all-time record last month as Moscow’s “pivot to Asia” continues to gather steam amid its isolation from the West, the business daily Vedomosti reported Friday, citing Chinese customs data. Russia exported 10.5 million tons of crude oil to China in June, breaking the previous record of 9.71 million…
Russia’s navy carried out a live fire “exercise” in the northwest Black Sea, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Friday, days after the Kremlin said it would consider ships traveling to Ukraine through the waterway potential military targets. The Black Sea Fleet “carried out live firing of anti-ship cruise missiles at the target ship in the combat…
The United States placed more than 120 companies from Russia as well as several Kyrgyzstan firms on its sanctions blacklist Thursday for what it said were their contributions to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The sanctions aimed at further choking off Russia’s access to critical raw and manufactured materials as well as financing in order to hinder its war machine,…
Russian prosecutors have requested a 20-year prison sentence for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on a new string of “extremism” charges, his team reported Thursday. Navalny, 47, has been charged with creating an extremist community and an organization that infringes on the rights of citizens; financing extremism; making calls to extremism; and involving minors in dangerous acts…
Business at RTSB-RUS, a logistics company that ships cargo by rail across Russia, has boomed over the last 18 months. Amid an exodus of Western rivals and a surge in trade with China, its freight volumes jumped nearly fourfold in 2022 alone, Chief Executive Alexander Baskakov told The Moscow Times. Elevated cargo shipments are just…
Moscow on Thursday announced that British diplomats working in Russia will need to notify authorities in advance about their movements around the country. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Britain’s charge d’affaires Tom Dodd to inform him of a “notification procedure for the movement of employees of British diplomatic missions on the territory of our country.”…
The United Kingdom on Thursday lifted sanctions against the exiled former banking tycoon Oleg Tinkov. The decision was announced just days after British billionaire Richard Branson called on his government to lift the “unwarranted” sanctions imposed against Tinkov last year. Allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny had also previously urged London to lift sanctions…
Ukraine said Thursday that ships going to Russian-controlled ports on the Black Sea would be treated as possibly carrying military cargo, a day after Russia announced a similar move. Tensions are rising over the Black Sea after Russia exited a deal protecting maritime exports from Ukraine. “Starting from 00:00 on July 21, 2023, all vessels in the Black Sea…
The armed forces of Belarus on Thursday began the first publicly known training drills with Russia’s exiled Wagner fighters. Video shared by the Belarusian Defense Ministry showed members of its Special Operations Forces and masked men in military fatigues with Wagner patches performing combat tasks at a training facility. “We’re trying to absorb everything like…
Russia’s clergy should forgo displays of “provocative luxury” at a time when citizens are making sacrifices and limiting themselves, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has said. According to Patriarch Kirill, a cleric has the right to decently “furnish his life,” but his lifestyle should not “demonstratively contrast with the way of life of…
Authorities in Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region are recruiting female fighters for defense units along the border with Ukraine. State television broadcast reports this week featuring an all-female unit undergoing military training in the western part of the region, which has been targeted by armed incursions in recent months. Channel One and Rossia showed footage of…
Russian strikes hit the Ukrainian port of Odesa for a third consecutive night since Moscow pulled out of a grain export deal, officials said Thursday, as Crimean authorities said a teenager had died in Kyiv’s latest attack on the peninsula. At least 20 people were wounded following strikes on Odesa and the southern port city…
Russian and Belarusian gymnasts will be allowed to compete in international competitions as “individual neutral athletes” from Jan. 1, the sport’s governing body said. In March 2022, gymnasts from both countries were banned from taking part in international competitions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) said in a statement on…
Russia’s Wagner mercenary outfit expects to deploy around 10,000 fighters in neighboring Belarus after its failed mutiny last month, a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel said late Wednesday. Another 15,000 Wagner fighters “have already gone on vacation,” said the channel Razgruzka Vagnera (“Unloading Wagner”), citing a senior commander by only his call sign Marx. The channel previously…
A Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea damaged administrative buildings and killed a teenage girl, the region’s Moscow-installed governor said on Thursday, days after Kyiv struck a strategic bridge that links the peninsula to mainland Russia. “As a result of an attack by an enemy drone, four administrative buildings were damaged in one of the settlements…
The Kremlin’s move to seize the Russian assets of Carlsberg and Danone is Moscow’s most brazen attack yet on foreign firms operating in Russia, and is likely to trigger fresh concern among businesses that have continued operating in the country, experts said. President Vladimir Putin is handing control of the Russian subsidiaries of French food…
Russia said Wednesday that it will now consider all vessels nearing Ukraine’s ports to be potential carriers of military cargo from Thursday. The announcement comes days after Moscow pulled out of a deal allowing wartime exports of Ukrainian grain that had eased a global food crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion. “From 00:00 a.m. Moscow time…
The wife and son of Alexander Zakharov, the creator of Russia’s ZALA Lancet combat drone, are the owners of an upscale apartment in central London, the investigative outlet iStories reported Wednesday, citing Britain’s real estate registry. Zakharov’s firm, CST, was placed under British sanctions in February 2023 for its role in “providing military equipment such as drones…
Russian lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill that would allow the National Guard to deploy heavy weapons, including tanks, in the wake of a short-lived insurrection by the mercenary group Wagner. The National Guard was created by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2016 with the aim of warding off unrest and breaking up protests. The…
The Wagner mercenary outfit’s short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership has cast a shadow of uncertainty over the future of the private military group’s far-flung presence abroad, where it worked to covertly advance the Kremlin’s geopolitical interests. While the Kremlin swiftly moved to dissolve Wagner’s structures in Russia and Ukraine by handing its military hardware…
Municipal deputies in the Russian city of Volgograd voted Wednesday to temporarily rename their city to Stalingrad for a total of 10 days out of the year. Volgograd had carried the name Stalingrad in honor of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin starting in 1925. The site of the Battle of Stalingrad, where the Soviet army beat…
Kyiv on Wednesday said Russia had destroyed 60,000 tons of grain meant for export in overnight strikes around the port of Odesa. Russia has fired missiles at Ukraine’s southern Odesa region for two nights in a row, hitting ports on the Black Sea after backing out of a grain deal that allowed the safe passage of cargo ships. …
President Vladimir Putin will not attend a BRICS nations summit in South Africa in August, the country’s presidential office said Wednesday, ending months of speculation over whether the Russian leader would visit while under an international arrest warrant. “By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit,” Vincent Magwenya, a spokesperson…
The United States may soon impose secondary sanctions on Kyrgyzstan for helping Russia procure sensitive technologies for its war effort in Ukraine, The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing two anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The small Central Asian republic saw a “striking” expansion of import-export companies profiting from sales of Chinese and European…
Russia’s military courts have convicted at least 100 deserters every week so far in 2023, the independent news outlet Mediazona reported Wednesday. The soldiers are prosecuted under Russia’s sweeping new laws that tighten punishments for wartime acts committed during mobilization, which is legally still in force despite the Kremlin’s claims of its completion. Russian courts…
Kremlin loyalists will take control of the seized assets of French food maker Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg, media outlets reported late Tuesday. President Vladimir Putin ordered the seizure of Danone and Carlsberg’s Russian subsidiaries Sunday in retaliation to foreign moves against Russian companies abroad after Moscow invaded Ukraine last year. Russia’s state property agency…
Russia launched strikes on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, the local governor said early Wednesday, the second consecutive night of attacks on the area since Moscow pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal. Oleg Kiper said there had been a “massive attack” and asked residents to stay in shelters. Ukraine’s air force said it had…
Recast with Budanov’s comments. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for a fire that broke out early Wednesday at a Russian military training area in annexed Crimea. “A successful operation was carried out in occupied Crimea. The enemy hides the extent of the damage done and the number of casualties,” said Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian Defense…
Correction: An earlier version of this article cited a Telegram account claiming to be Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, which falsely stated that Kyiv was responsible for Wednesday’s fire. A fire broke out Wednesday at a military training area in annexed Crimea, the Russian-installed governor said, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of more…
Russia’s health minister has criticized the trend of women prioritizing their education and careers over having children, labeling it an “improper practice.” Addressing a plenary session of the State Duma on Tuesday, Mikhail Murashko lamented the prevalent mindset in society that a woman should first pursue education, build a career, and secure her financial status before…
Russia has banned the U.S.-headquartered Wild Salmon Center (WSC) as an “undesirable” organization Tuesday, accusing the conservation NGO of working to hinder the country’s economy. The label means the WSC, which works to protect wild salmon populations and their habitats, must cease all operations in Russia. It is also illegal for Russians to carry out…
Arresting Vladimir Putin would amount to a declaration of war on Russia, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote in court papers released on Tuesday as the country wrangles over hosting the Russian leader. Putin has been invited to a BRICS summit in Johannesburg next month but is the target of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant…
Saudi Arabia and Turkey are hoping to broker a deal to return Ukrainian children taken to Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported Tuesday, citing several anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Russia and Ukraine have refused to engage directly on the issue — over which the International Criminal Court indicted President…
The Kremlin warned Tuesday that exporting grain from Ukraine’s Russia-blockaded ports carried “risks,” one day after Moscow pulled out of a landmark deal to allow wartime exports of Ukrainian grain. “Without appropriate security guarantees, certain risks arise here. If [a future agreement] is formalized without Russia, then these risks should be taken into account,” Kremlin spokesman…
Members of the Wagner mercenary outfit have announced the closure of the group’s main base in southern Russia as it redeploys in neighboring Belarus following a failed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership. The Molkino military range in the Krasnodar region had served as Wagner’s main training grounds until mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a short-lived…
Monday’s strike on the sole bridge connecting mainland Russia to annexed Crimea, the second attack in 10 months, has been met with little surprise among Russian political and business elites despite killing two people and disrupting a key transit link. As the war in Ukraine drags on, the Crimea bridge — which takes both Russian military…
The United Nations has expressed alarm over the growing number of treason and espionage arrests made in Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine last year. Sixteen people were convicted in Russia for treason and espionage in 2022, according to UN experts on human rights and freedom of expression. At least 43 others faced similar charges so…
A wave of Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s southern coast damaged port and industrial infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday, hours after Moscow refused to extend a deal allowing the safe export of grain from the region. Six Kalibr missiles “launched from the waters of the Black Sea at Odesa” were destroyed by air…
Russian authorities have partially resumed road traffic across the Crimean bridge connecting the annexed Black Sea peninsula to mainland Russia that was damaged in a drone attack Monday. “As we reported to [President Vladimir Putin] today, we prepared the bridge for launch as soon as possible,” Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said early Tuesday. Undamaged…
Russia has resorted to sending aging, Soviet-made tanks to the battlefield in Ukraine in a desperate bid to compensate for its staggering artillery losses, experts and analysts have said — to mixed effectiveness. According to the Dutch OSINT project Oryx, Russia had by May 31 lost over 2,000 tanks out of the 3,000 combat-ready vehicles…
The bridge linking the annexed Crimean peninsula with mainland Russia was damaged in an overnight attack, Russian officials confirmed Monday. The attack, which killed two people and injured one other while cutting off traffic to and from the peninsula, is the second attack on the bridge since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A…
Russian-installed authorities in occupied southeastern Ukraine announced they would temporarily suspend President Vladimir Putin’s martial law order for those seeking alternative exit routes from Crimea after a deadly drone attack damaged a bridge connecting the annexed peninsula to mainland Russia early Monday. Putin declared martial law — which restricts movement and sets curfews — in…
A Russian military aircraft on Monday crashed into the Sea of Azov off the coast of the southern port town of Yeysk in the Krasnodar region, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing local officials. Russian military authorities said a Su-25 fighter jet crashed after taking off from a local airfield for a training flight,…
The Kremlin is looking for buyers of Russia’s internet giant Yandex who would later sell the company to a Kremlin-linked oligarch sanctioned by the West, independent media reported, citing several anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The Bell business outlet and the news website Meduza said the search follows a breakdown of Yandex’s Dutch-registered holding…
Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker who has joined fighting against Russian forces, said Monday he has been treated for shrapnel wounds after coming under artillery fire on the southern front. The 47-year-old film director from Crimea spent several years imprisoned in Russia on a terrorism charge. He was freed in a prisoner swap and joined Ukrainian special…
A deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that allowed for the safe export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea is “de facto” over, the Kremlin said Monday. “Unfortunately, the Russian part of these Black Sea agreements has not been implemented so far, so it’s terminated,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “That’s the de…
Russia’s Wagner mercenary fighters have arrived in neighboring Belarus as part of an agreement with the Kremlin, Ukrainian and Polish officials confirmed over the weekend. Minsk said Friday that Wagner mercenaries were acting as military instructors for Belarusian territorial defense forces, three weeks after the group’s aborted mutiny in Russia. “As of now, available information…
Two people were killed in a reported explosion on the Crimea bridge, which links the annexed peninsula to southern Russia’s Krasnodar region, state-run media and Russian officials said Monday. “Traffic was stopped on the Crimean bridge: an emergency occurred in the area of the 145th pillar from the Krasnodar Territory,” the Russia-installed governor of Crimea…
Chinese naval vessels set sail this weekend to participate in joint manoeuvres with the Russian military, Chinese defence authorities said Sunday. Ties between Moscow and Beijing have grown closer since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, a move China has not condemned. The two have ramped up defence contacts, including joint military drills in recent months.…
Azerbaijan accused Russia on Sunday of failing to fulfil its obligations under a 2020 Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement to end fighting with Armenia for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region. “The Russian side did not ensure full implementation of the agreement within the framework of its obligations,” Baku’s foreign ministry said, adding that Moscow “did nothing to…
Russia said Sunday it downed at least ten drones around Sevastopol on the Crimea peninsula, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The Russian defence ministry said air defence shot down two unmanned aerial vehicles and electronically disabled five others. The ministry also said its forces destroyed two naval drones and the thwarted attack resulted…