A group of Ukrainian “prisoners of war” has been handed over to Hungary, according to the Russian Orthodox Church, with Kyiv saying Friday they had not been informed of the move. The transfer took place on Thursday “with the blessing” of Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill “within the framework of cooperation between churches and at…
Russian-installed authorities in occupied Ukraine are developing a centralized “information space” for pro-Russian mass media and outreach, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday. Russia claims to have annexed four regions of Ukraine — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — in September 2022 following widely disputed referendums, despite failing to fully control any of them. Moscow-installed…
Russia’s Central Bank on Friday extended its interest rate pause, the longest in more than seven years, as inflation pressures sparked by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine continued to loom over the economy. The Central Bank maintained its key interest rate at 7.5%, a move widely expected by analysts. But the Bank also hinted at future…
Iceland said Friday it would suspend work at its embassy in Russia as of Aug. 1, the first country to do so, and asked Russia to limit its operations in Reykjavik. “The current situation simply does not make it viable for the small foreign service of Iceland to operate an embassy in Russia,” Foreign Minister…
Ukraine’s SBU security service on Friday published an intercepted phone call in which an alleged Russian soldier claims that Tuesday’s explosion at the Kakhovka dam was organized by a Russian sabotage group. “They [the Ukrainian military] didn’t blow it up. That was our sabotage group. They wanted to scare [Ukrainians] with this dam,” said the…
Seismologists from the Norwegian Seismic Array monitoring group (NORSAR) have detected signals of an explosion in the area of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam, which collapsed Tuesday and caused catastrophic flooding in the south of the country. Data from NORSAR’s regional seismic stations showed signals of an explosion on June 6 at 02:54 a.m. local time (1:54 a.m.…
Authorities in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya have pressured Chechens to fight in Ukraine using money and force since the start of the war, according to a report published Thursday by the SK SOS human rights organization. “The invasion of Ukraine was another opportunity for [Chechen leader] Ramzan Kadyrov to curry favor with Vladimir…
Russian oil companies have exported 37% more gasoline so far this year despite Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Friday. January-May 2023 gasoline exports from Russia neared 2.5 million tons, the publication said, citing an unidentified source familiar with the data. Russia exported about 2 million tons of gasoline…
One hundred of the biggest Western companies still operating in Russia posted net profits totaling 1.1 trillion rubles ($13.3 billion) in 2022, the exiled independent Russian news website Novaya Gazeta Europe reported Thursday. The results, based on the financial statements of Russian-registered legal entities that are fully or partially foreign-owned, mark a 54% increase from…
Ukraine and Russia accused each other of shelling rescuers and evacuees in the flood-hit Kherson region on Thursday as Moscow said its forces fought off a Ukrainian offensive in another part of the front line. Emergency services were still racing to rescue people stranded by the flood-swollen waters of the Dnipro River, which have forced…
Russian Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin has lost the latest round of his High Court battle after being subjected to sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine. Mazepin used to race for Haas, but the F1 team “terminated its relationship” with him soon after Russia started the war in Ukraine last year. The 24-year-old has not…
Oleg Orlov, co-chair of the human rights group Memorial, went on trial in Moscow on Thursday over criticism of Russia’s Ukraine campaign, which could see him jailed for up to five years. AFP journalists at Moscow’s Golovinsky district court reported the beginning of the trial, the latest in a series against Russian civil society organizations.…
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and a group of Russian independent media organizations have called on big tech companies to establish a working group to prevent Russia’s online information shutdown. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has blocked or forced the closure of nearly all independent media outlets and blocked major platforms —…
MOSCOW – For Russians, avoiding the sight of army recruitment advertisements plastered on billboards and shop windows, distributed on street corners and flashed across television screens has become next to impossible in recent months. Appealing to a sense of patriotism, concern about Russia’s future and traditional ideas of masculinity, the unprecedented recruitment campaign has also…
Ukraine’s forces have launched their long-awaited counteroffensive to reclaim territory occupied by Russia, The Washington Post reported Thursday, citing four Ukrainian soldiers and officers. The Ukrainian military opened a “crucial phase” in the war with intensified attacks on the frontline in southeast Ukraine on Wednesday, the members were cited as saying. Kyiv’s counterattack aims both…
Russia accused Ukraine at the UN’s top court Thursday of destroying a key dam with artillery strikes, and alleged that Kyiv was led by neo-Nazis — a claim Moscow has used to try to justify its invasion. Moscow’s comments to judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) came as it denied wider allegations by…
A Russian officer has accused the Wagner mercenary group of conducting a “cynical” campaign to discredit the conventional Russian army during efforts to capture eastern Ukraine’s Bakhmut. Lieutenant Colonel Roman Vinivitin first appeared in a Wagner video this week confessing to firing at a Wagner vehicle on orders to disarm its rapid response unit. Wagner leader…
The father of a Russian businessman wanted by the United States for smuggling U.S. military technology has been appointed as senator of a Siberian region that he governed for almost six years, state-run media reported Thursday. Alexander Uss, 68, stepped down as governor of the Krasnoyarsk region in April, one month after his son Artyom fled house…
Western law enforcement agencies have rejected Russian extradition and legal assistance requests for “political” reasons this year, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday, as bilateral legal cooperation continues to deteriorate more than a year into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. European countries rejected 46 Russian extradition requests in January-May 2023, the publication cited Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office…
President Vladimir Putin’s traditional televised call-in show has been delayed because of worries about the military situation in Ukraine where Kyiv’s forces are expected to mount a major counteroffensive, Russia’s Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. This is the second consecutive year that the setpiece event, where ordinary citizens ask the Russian leader to solve their daily…
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine will have a catastrophic effect on locating landmines in the affected region, the Red Cross warned Wednesday. “We knew where the hazards were,” said Erik Tollefsen, head of the Weapon Contamination Unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross. “Now we don’t know. “All we know…
Belarus has pardoned Sofia Sapega, the Russian ex-girlfriend of Belarusian dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, the state-run Belta news agency reported Wednesday. Sapega and her then-boyfriend Protasevich were detained in May 2021 when their Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forcibly diverted in Minsk, with Belarusian authorities citing a bomb threat. The 25-year-old law student…
An Air India flight from New Delhi to San Francisco on Tuesday was forced to make an emergency landing in the Far East Russian city of Magadan due to an engine malfunction. After disembarking, the flight’s passengers — most of whom are likely citizens of India and the U.S. — found themselves stranded in a…
Russian law enforcement officials arrested six former and current members of the democratic youth organization Vesna on charges of “extremism,” state-run media outlets reported Wednesday. The individuals — who were detained in various cities across Russia — are accused of “forming an extremist organization.” “All of those arrested were taken to Moscow. Before that, their…
Regional authorities in Russia have been tasked with distributing free plots of land to veterans of Moscow’s war against Ukraine, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Those eligible to receive land include combat veterans, as well as military personnel, volunteer fighters, and employees of the Russian National Guard who have…
Moscow said Wednesday that a Ukrainian “sabotage” group had blown up the Tolyatti-Odesa pipeline that Russia used to export ammonia before the start of its 15-month offensive. “A Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group blew up the Tolyatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline” near the village of Masyutovka in the northeastern Kharkiv region on Monday evening, the Russian Defense…
Overnight drone strikes on a power station across the state border have caused blackouts in two Russian villages, the regional governor said Wednesday amid an intensifying spate of cross-border attacks. Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region, said Ukrainian forces dropped two explosives on a substation in the village of Popovo-Lezhachi 4 kilometers east of…
Norway rescued a Russian in need of emergency medical assistance on board a scientific vessel stuck in ice near the North Pole in a spectacular helicopter operation, its rescue services said Wednesday. The evacuation took place on Tuesday evening from the Russian ship Severny Polyus (North Pole), located at the 86th parallel north, above Norway’s…
Russia’s domestic intelligence agency has arrested a resident of the country’s Far East on suspicion of spying for Ukraine, the state-run TASS news agency reported Wednesday. “Acting on the instructions of the Ukrainian military intelligence, the Primorye region resident collected and transmitted information about the region’s law enforcement agencies and military infrastructure,” the Federal Security Service…
Plaques honoring the victims of the Soviet gulag forced labor camps have started to disappear from buildings across Moscow, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday. The palm-sized plaques first started appearing on building facades as part of a non-government-affiliated memorial project called Last Address in 2015. They feature the gulag victims’ names, occupations and birth and…
China’s total trade with Russia in May soared to levels not seen since the beginning of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, official data showed Wednesday, as Beijing steps up support for its sanctions-hit ally. Trade between the two countries last month was worth $20.5 billion, data from Beijing showed, with Chinese imports from Russia worth $11.3…
Ukraine’s dam break is posing “no short-term risk” to Europe’s biggest atomic plant, despite falling water levels in a reservoir used to cool its reactors, according to the UN nuclear watchdog agency. Ukraine’s Kakhovka hydroelectric dam was breached on Tuesday following an attack that Moscow and Kyiv have blamed on each other. The Kakhovka dam…
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that the partial destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine was “another devastating consequence” of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. An attack on the major Russian-held dam in southern Ukraine unleashed a torrent of water that flooded a small city, inundated two dozen villages and sparked the evacuation…
While there is “no immediate nuclear safety risk,” the UN nuclear watchdog is exploring options to get water to keep cooling Europe’s biggest atomic plant after a dam in southern Ukraine was damaged on Tuesday. Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for the damage at the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which has led to thousands…
NATO’s newest member Finland on Tuesday said it would expel nine diplomats working at the Russian embassy in Helsinki for acting in an “intelligence capacity.” “Finland will expel nine people working in the Russian embassy who have been acting in an intelligence capacity,” the government said in a statement. It added that the “activities are…
Russia claimed Tuesday that it had repelled Kyiv’s long-anticipated counteroffensive in eastern Ukraine after three days of fighting, Russian state-run media reported. “For three days, the Ukrainian regime has launched a long-promised offensive at different points along the frontlines,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said. “The offensive attempts were thwarted, the enemy was stopped, Russian…
The World Bank has significantly improved its outlook for the Russian economy this year due to stronger-than-expected revenues from energy exports to countries including India and China. The Russian economy is now forecast to contract only slightly in 2023, the bank said in a semi-annual report on the global economy published Tuesday, marking a sharp…
A Russian-controlled dam near the frontline that supplies southern Ukraine and annexed Crimea with drinking water was significantly damaged early Tuesday, flooding the area and potentially threatening the nearby nuclear power plant. The damage to the Kakhovka dam unleashed a torrent of water that flooded a small city and two dozen villages, sparking the evacuation of…
A court in southern Russia on Tuesday sentenced a Crimean performance artist to 15 years in a penal colony, the Ukrainian Telegram channel Grati reported. Bohdan Ziza was arrested in May 2022 after he splashed paint in the colors of the Ukrainian flag on the door of the Yevpatoria city administration building in Russian-annexed Crimea. He…
China and Russia conducted joint air force patrols over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea on Tuesday, as South Korea said it had deployed fighter jets in response to warplanes near its airspace. Beijing and Moscow “staged the sixth joint aerial patrol in accordance with an annual military cooperation plan between China…
A Belarusian activist who was extradited from Russia has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on multiple charges linked to protests against the re-election of Belarus’ strongman leader, a group of her supporters reported Tuesday. Yana Pinchuk, who lived in Russia since 2018, was detained on Minsk’s request in the Russian city of St. Petersburg…
The European Court of Human Rights Tuesday condemned Russia for failing to properly investigate the 2020 poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny which the West says was an assassination bid. The Strasbourg-based ECHR said Russia had notably failed “to explore the allegations of a possible political motive for the attempted murder, as well as possible…
Russia’s domestic intelligence agency has made arrests in connection with alleged Ukrainian plans to drop “dirty bombs” on Russian energy facilities, state media reported Tuesday. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said two “pilots” of unknown nationality have been detained and “confessed to the committed and planned terrorist acts,” according to the state-run TASS news agency.…
A Russian-controlled dam near the frontline that supplies southern Ukraine and annexed Crimea with drinking water was significantly damaged early Tuesday, prompting evacuations of 17,000 people and threatening the nearby nuclear power plant. Drone footage originally published by pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian bloggers showed the broken Kakhovka dam with water flowing freely downstream. The 30-meter-tall, 3.2-kilometer-long Kakhovka…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday praised his troops for advances claimed near the devastated city of Bakhmut, while Russia said it had repelled a large-scale attack. The contrasting claims came as Pope Francis’s peace envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, arrived in Kyiv for two days of talks. “Well done, warriors! We see how hysterically…
Radio stations in multiple Russian regions bordering Ukraine on Monday aired a fake “state of emergency” announcement featuring a voice resembling that of President Vladimir Putin, in what the authorities have called a hacking operation. In the fake address — which was aired on radio stations in the Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov regions — what…
A regularly bombarded Russian town on the Ukrainian border has reported a wave of looting after local authorities called on residents to leave their homes due to intensified shelling attacks, the RBC news site reported Monday, citing a local ambulance station. “A plastic window was broken in the technical room” in the town of Shebekino’s ambulance…
Kyiv has cultivated sabotage cells inside Russia and has started supplying them with Ukrainian-made drones, CNN reported Monday, citing multiple unnamed sources familiar with U.S. intelligence. The noticeable increase in drone attacks on Russian soil — starting with an early May strike on the Kremlin — is likely “a culmination of months” of work, one…
An arms contract signed last fall claims to show Iranian ammunition supplies to Russia, Sky News reported Monday, citing an unnamed informed source. If confirmed as authentic, the contract offers direct evidence of Western accusations that Iran has supplied Russia with ammunition amid its offensive on Ukraine. Tehran has repeatedly denied selling arms and ammunition…
Russia is reimporting parts for tanks and missiles previously sold to India and Myanmar, potentially to improve older weapons and equipment destined for use in Ukraine, the financial news outlet Nikkei Asia reported Monday. According to customs clearance data analyzed by journalists, Russian defense industry manufacturers have been buying back equipment that they had previously…
A Russian law firm has announced a class-action lawsuit against European securities settlement houses in Russian courts to recover funds that were frozen over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Vedomosti business daily reported Monday. EU sanctions on Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD) and other Western measures have cut off many Russian investors’ assets held in…
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has captured a Russian officer accused of firing at its positions during the battle for Bakhmut last month, the private military outfit said Sunday in the most dramatic account yet of internecine clashes during Russia’s offensive on Ukraine. An interrogation video showed Lieutenant Colonel Roman Venevitin, commander of the Russian Ground…
Russia’s military said Monday it had repelled “a large-scale offensive” by Ukrainian forces in Moscow-annexed Donetsk, as fighting intensified along their border. Kyiv has for months said it is preparing a major counteroffensive, hoping to reclaim territory lost since Russia launched its military operation in February 2022. Its army said recently there would be no…
AMSTERDAM – Thousands of Russians in more than 100 cities — from Tokyo and Milan to Tel Aviv and Sydney — took part in Sunday demonstrations in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny as he celebrated his third birthday since being imprisoned. In Amsterdam, hundreds gathered at the Museumplein park in the city center, with activists…
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Sunday he was in good spirits on his third birthday behind bars, despite tougher prison conditions and yet another spell in solitary confinement. It came as police arrested at least 45 people taking part in pro-Navalny demonstrations in Russian cities — including Moscow and St. Petersburg — on Sunday,…
Russian authorities on Sunday called on residents of an area on the Ukraine border to leave their homes as Ukrainian shelling intensified this week. The district of Shebekino in the southwestern Belgorod region on the Ukraine border has been hit by daily shelling, killing several civilians and forcing villagers to flee. The governor of the…
An airstrike hit a residential district in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing a two-year-old girl and injuring 22 others, officials said Sunday. The attack, which President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed on Russia, partially destroyed a pair of two-storey buildings as well as 10 private homes, a shop and a gas pipeline, according to the region’s…
Ukrainian shelling killed two people on Saturday in Russia’s Belgorod, a border region that has been hit by repeated attacks this week, the local governor said. Belgorod border villages have been hit by unprecedented shelling, and the latest deaths bring the overall toll to seven this week. “Since this morning, the district of Shebekino has…
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said Saturday that he was ready to send fighters to the Russian Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine and has come under intense shelling. Thousands have fled villages in southwestern Belgorod after days of attacks that came after an armed incursion from Ukraine. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has been…
CHISINAU — An estimated 80,000 people packed into the center of the Moldovan capital last month for the largest pro-European Union gathering in years as the ties binding this tiny eastern European country to Russia fray amid the war in Ukraine. EU, NATO and Moldovan flags were visible all over Chisinau’s Great National Assembly Square…