A senior Ukrainian military official said Wednesday that Russian forces had dropped back from some areas near Bakhmut after limited counterattacks by Kyiv’s forces in the longest-running battle of Moscow’s invasion. Commander of Ukrainian ground forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said Russian troops had fallen back in some regions of the front in the eastern Donetsk region…
Russia said on Wednesday that a roadmap to normalize ties between Syria and Turkey will be drafted following a meeting of their foreign ministers in Moscow. Earlier Wednesday the foreign ministers of Turkey and Syria held their first official meeting since the start of the Syrian civil war more than a decade ago. The talks in…
Poland will stop using the official name for Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave and revert to its historic equivalent, the government in Warsaw said Wednesday, drawing Moscow’s ire. Citing a recommendation by a state commission tasked with standardizing foreign names in the Polish language, Poland’s development minister Waldemar Buda said Kaliningrad would now officially be called Konigsberg (“Krolewiec”…
Russia has seized four tugboats belonging to a subsidiary of Danish shipping giant Maersk in Russia’s Far East, according to the group, which ceased operations in the country after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “On April 25 we were informed a local court has ordered the tugboats cannot leave Russia and also transferred custody of the…
A total of 7.4 billion Swiss francs ($8.3 billion) of reserves and assets of the Russian Central Bank are being held in Switzerland, the Swiss economic affairs ministry said Wednesday. Transactions related to the management of Russia’s Central Bank assets and reserves have been prohibited since a month after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in…
President Vladimir Putin has lifted a flight ban and visa regime with Georgia, against which Russia fought a brief war in 2008, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. According to a decree released on Wednesday, Putin has introduced a 90-day visa-free regime for Georgian citizens from May 15. Another decree resumed air travel between Russia and Georgia.…
The two military veterans seated next to President Vladimir Putin at Tuesday’s Victory Day parade on Red Square did not fight in World War II, the Agentsvo investigative outlet reported. Putin is traditionally flanked by World War II veterans on Victory Day, which celebrates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 with a…
AFP’s Ukraine video coordinator Arman Soldin was killed on Tuesday by rocket fire near Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine, AFP journalists who witnessed the incident said. The attack happened at around 4:30 p.m. (13:30 GMT) on the outskirts of the town close to Bakhmut, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine for several months.…
KURSK, Russia — The main World War II memorial complex in this western Russian city was fenced off and guarded by dozens of police officers on Tuesday morning as celebrations marking the 78th anniversary of the Soviet defeat over Nazi Germany got underway. Visitors who came to lay flowers were carefully checked with metal detectors. …
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said peace negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine were “not possible at this moment,” in an interview published by Spanish daily El Pais on Tuesday. His statement came as the leaders of Russia and Ukraine both called for victory during events commemorating the end of World War II. “It is…
Russia’s ambassador to Poland was blocked by activists from laying flowers at a Soviet memorial in Warsaw on Tuesday, the day Russia celebrates Victory Day over Nazi Germany in World War II. Several dozen activists also unveiled an art installation at the entrance to the memorial, comprising hundreds of Ukrainian flags and crosses for Ukrainians…
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said Tuesday that he had received a letter from Russia’s Defense Ministry threatening to charge his mercenary outfit with treason if they withdrew from Bakhmut, for months the focal point of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In a video published on the messaging app Telegram as Russia kicked off Victory Day…
Updated with details of military parade in Moscow and recast throughout. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a combative speech Tuesday attacking the West and claiming that Russia’s future depended on the outcome of the war in Ukraine as he attended a slimmed-down military parade on Red Square to mark Victory Day. “Civilization again finds itself…
Ukraine was hit by a barrage of Russian missiles for the second night in a row Monday and early Tuesday, just hours before Moscow’s planned May 9 celebration of the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in the Second World War. Russia fired 25 missiles between late Monday night and early Tuesday morning, according to the…
Updates with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s arrival in Moscow on Monday evening. The leaders of six former Soviet republics are now expected to attend Russia’s annual Victory Day parade in Moscow on Tuesday, after Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko arrived unannounced in Moscow on Monday evening for what his press service said would be a “working visit.”…
Russia will “develop” its military installations in Central Asian ally Kyrgyzstan, the Kremlin said Monday, following talks between the two countries’ leaders in Moscow. “The heads of state emphasized the importance of strengthening the Kyrgyz Republic’s armed forces and developing Russian military facilities on its territory,” the Kremlin said in a statement. Kyrgyzstan, a majority-Muslim…
Updated with leaders of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan planning to attend Russia’s Victory Day celebrations. Russia is due to hold drastically scaled-back Victory Day celebrations Tuesday amid heightened security concerns following last week’s drone attack on the Kremlin and an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive. The 78th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of…
The suspect in the car blast that wounded pro-Kremlin nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin and killed another person has been indicted on charges of terrorism and arms smuggling, Russia’s top investigative body said Monday. Alexander Permyakov faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of terrorism and 15 years for arms smuggling, Russia’s Investigative Committee, which…
President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Monday that Russian forces would be defeated in Ukraine just as Nazi Germany was beaten in 1945, during an address commemorating the end of World War II. His speech recorded at a war memorial in Kyiv comes one day ahead of Victory Day in Moscow, a Soviet war anniversary to be…
Several people have been killed, more than 300 homes destroyed and states of emergency declared in two Russian regions as forest fires raged across western Siberia, news agencies reported Monday. The governors of the Tyumen and Kurgan regions issued back-to-back emergency declarations Sunday as residents were evacuated and efforts to contain the fast-moving flames proved unsuccessful. Siberia’s…
At least five civilians were injured in Russian drone strikes on Kyiv early Monday, according to authorities in the Ukrainian capital. Kyiv’s military administration reported that fallen debris had likely hit a two-story building, roads and vehicles. The administration said it was the fourth air attack on Ukraine’s capital in the first eight days of…
The leader of Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that he had received “a promise” of more ammunition from the Russian army on Sunday, following his unprecedented public threat to pull his forces from the embattled Ukrainian town of Bakhmut due to a lack of ammunition. “They promised to give us all the ammunition…
Investigators said Ukraine was behind a car explosion on Saturday that killed one person and wounded pro-Kremlin writer Zakhar Prilepin, one of Russia’s best-known novelists. Investigators said they were “probing Alexander Permyakov’s involvement in the assassination attempt on Zakhar Prilepin”. “During the interrogation [the suspect] testified that he acted on the instructions from the Ukrainian…
A prominent pro-Kremlin writer and Russian nationalist was injured Saturday in a car “explosion” and one other person was killed, the interior ministry said, after a string of recent drone attacks in Russia amid the fighting in Ukraine. “According to initial reports, one person was killed by the explosion, and the writer Zakhar Prilepin, who…
Preparations in Moscow for the Victory Day holiday on May 9 are already underway, with decorations, public memorials and a children’s Immortal Regiment event all taking place. One of the country’s most significant holidays, Victory Day has been a central part of the Kremlin’s efforts to rally patriotism by invoking the Soviet Union’s World War…
The border authority in Belarus has begun setting up temporary checkpoints at its land borders with Russia to screen arrivals from its neighbor, the independent news outlet Zerkalo reported Friday, citing official sources. Readers told Zerkalo that work on installing the checkpoints began Thursday evening, with guards putting up barriers, barricade tape, and spikes on the…
Russia on Friday ordered the evacuation of families with children and of the elderly from Russian-held frontline areas in southern Ukraine because of an increase in shelling from the Ukrainian side. “In the past few days, the enemy has stepped up shelling of settlements close to the front line,” the Russian-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia region,…
Russia on Friday announced the full restoration of rail traffic on the controversial Crimean Bridge, which had been closed and under repair since it was badly damaged in an explosion in October. “We managed to finish this work in just seven months. During normal times, it would certainly take over a year, and maybe even…
Russian authorities have ramped up their GPS suppression measures following a slew of drone attacks in recent weeks. Since April, “strong” interference has been observed in at least 15 regions across Russia, according to data from gpsjam.org, which tracks satellite communication based on radio messages from civilian aircraft. Interference is considered “strong” if more than…
A Russian military court has sentenced a former soldier from a western region bordering Ukraine to 13 years in prison on treason charges, the state-run TASS news agency reported Friday. According to Interfax, Artyom Semyonov was detained on March 30, 2022, on accusations of treason that the news agency noted was committed before Russia invaded Ukraine one…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin could not have happened without Washington’s awareness and warned Russia would respond with “concrete actions.” “It’s clear that without the knowledge of their minders, the terrorists from Kyiv could not have carried out (the attack),” Lavrov said during a visit to India, referring…
Russian tech giant VK is developing its own dating service that could launch this summer following Tinder’s planned exit from Russia, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday, citing two unnamed sources close to VK and a third source close to the dating app. Experts estimate the development and promotion of VK’s dating app — based on…
The arrival of more than 100,000 Ukrainians in southern Russia following Kyiv’s recapture of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson has driven up housing prices and sparked tensions with local residents, independent media reported Thursday. Russia’s military estimates it had evacuated 115,000 residents of Kherson — nearly half of the city’s pre-war population — before…
Updated to add Prigozhin’s withdrawal announcement. Russia’s Wagner mercenary group will exit eastern Ukraine’s Bakhmut next week after suffering losses due to critical ammunition shortages, the private military contractor’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin announced Friday. Wagner fighters, many of whom are convicts recruited from Russian prisons, have been at the forefront of Russia’s efforts to capture…
As the fallout from Wednesday morning’s apparent drone strike on the Kremlin continued to dominate the Russian news cycle, the deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee made an unusual call for a “squadron of eagle interceptors” to be created to help defend Moscow from future drone strikes. “We need to think about protecting…
Russian forces in Ukraine are so degraded they cannot mount any significant offensive moves and are focused for now on consolidating control of occupied territory, the U.S. intelligence chief said Thursday. As Ukraine prepares for its own offensive in the coming months, Russian President Vladimir Putin still likely aims to prolong the conflict until Western…
The U.S. ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy visited former U.S. marine Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia on spy charges for over four years, on Thursday. Permission to pay a visit to Whelan in Mordovia, a southeastern Russian region, comes just over two weeks after Tracy was given access to U.S. journalist Evan…
Moscow claimed Wednesday that Ukraine attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin in an early morning drone attack on the Kremlin. Dramatic video published online showed at least one drone bursting into flames as it flew into a flagpole on top of the Kremlin’s Senate House, where Putin’s office and apartment are located. Photos taken…
At least two high-profile Russian officials have called on the Kremlin to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine in retaliation for an alleged drone strike on Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin residence and as the prospect of an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive looms. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on Wednesday called the attempted strike a “terrorist attack” while claiming…
Ukraine on Thursday said it arrested the mayor of the Black Sea port of Odesa in a major corruption case dating from before the invasion. Kyiv has struggled to rid itself of corruption, one of the declared aims of the 2014 Maidan revolution, with authorities for years vowing to stamp it out in efforts to…
Authorities in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar raided the office of prominent human rights NGO The Crew Against Torture (CAT) on Thursday. The raid by the Russian Interior Ministry’s counter-extremism unit was, according to the NGO’s own Telegram channel, carried out in connection to CAT’s work in the North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia-Alania where…
Several Russian billionaires are vying to buy the majority stake in the domestic entity of splintered tech giant Yandex, independent media reported Thursday, citing five unnamed sources familiar with negotiations. Sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine have forced Yandex, once the crown jewel of Russia’s tech sector, to split into two new companies: one overseeing its…
The United States was behind Ukraine’s decision to strike President Vladimir Putin’s residence in the Kremlin with drones, his spokesman said Thursday. Russia’s presidential press service said two Ukrainian drones had attempted to strike Putin’s residence in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday. The Kremlin called the incident a “terrorist act” and vowed to retaliate as…
At least 21 Russian cities have called off their annual military parades marking the Soviet victory in World War II next week, the independent Vyorstka media outlet reported Thursday, as the country has alleged a flurry of drone attacks on its territory ahead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russia celebrates the Victory Day holiday every year on…
Russian nationals are traveling abroad more frequently this year despite facing numerous hurdles due to the invasion of Ukraine, the RBC news website reported Thursday, citing Federal Security Service (FSB) border crossing data. Direct flights between Russia and Europe are virtually nonexistent due to mutual airspace bans between Moscow and the European Union, while several…
Kyiv and Moscow reported drone attacks Thursday including two that sparked fires in Russian oil refineries, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited The Hague to lobby for more support. Zelensky’s surprise visit to meet top officials of the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, came a day…
The Russian Defense Ministry has been recruiting inmates from prisons in at least 25 different regions of the country to serve in the Russian military in Ukraine, according to an investigation by the BBC Russian service published Wednesday. The investigation found that the recruitment drive began in September in the separate network of prisons for former…
Russia has continued to see a precipitous decline in press freedom as the country’s military campaign in Ukraine entered its second year, according to the annual press freedom rankings published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday. Russia placed 164th out of the 180 countries surveyed in the ranking, a nine-point drop from last year amid what…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday denied Moscow’s claims that Kyiv had attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Russia said two drones were shot down at the Kremlin. “We didn’t attack Putin. We leave it to the tribunal. We fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities,” Zelensky told reporters…
The suspect in the Russian cafe bombing that killed a prominent pro-war blogger said she did not know that she was carrying explosives and that she is being denied access to lawyers one month after her arrest on terrorism charges. Daria Trepova, 26, was detained after a bomb planted inside a gilded bust she allegedly presented…
A court in Belarus has sentenced a dissident journalist to eight years in prison on an array of charges that include plotting a coup, state media in the authoritarian state and close Russian ally reported Wednesday. Roman Protasevich, 27, had been the editor of a Telegram channel that was key in rallying protests against President Alexander…
Gas production in Russia decreased by 10% to 180 billion cubic meters this year mostly from Gazprom’s declining capacities, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed source familiar with the data. State-owned gas giant Gazprom has classified its production statistics since the start of 2023. Kommersant’s source said Gazprom and Gazprom Neft each…
Russia saw an uptick in inbound travel including from Europe and China so far this year, the RBC news website reported Wednesday, citing Federal Security Service (FSB) border crossing data. The FSB recorded a 17% increase in January-March 2023 visits to Russia compared with the same time last year, up from 2.78 million to 3.27…
A fuel depot caught fire overnight in the Russian village of Volna, close to the bridge to the Crimean peninsula, the local governor said early Wednesday. “A tank with petroleum products caught fire in Volna village of Temryuksky district. The fire has been assigned the highest level of severity,” Krasnodar region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said…
The station lies about two kilometers outside the regional hub of Bryansk, while the explosion that caused a train to derail and catch fire on Monday occurred near Unecha, closer to the Ukraine border. Russian Railways put out a statement saying the train had derailed due to “the intervention of unauthorized persons in the work…
The Kremlin has issued a list of guidelines for Russia’s state media outlets on how to cover Ukraine’s impending counteroffensive, the independent news outlet Meduza revealed on Tuesday. The guidelines, which recommended emphasizing the fact that Ukraine is being armed by NATO while discouraging any suggestion that Kyiv is underprepared, appear aimed at giving Moscow…
Companies linked to Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman have supplied uniforms and equipment to the Russian military and insured equipment used by Russia’s National Guard to fight in Ukraine, according to a joint investigation by U.S.-funded media outlets Current Time and Radio Svoboda Ukraine. The report comes as Fridman continues to appeal to the European Union…
Russia on Tuesday summoned the Polish embassy’s charge d’affaires after Poland closed a school run by the Russian Embassy in Warsaw, domestic news agencies reported. Poland and Russia have historically had tense relations, which have plummeted even further since the Ukraine offensive. Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency published a video of diplomat Jacek Sladewski entering…
The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday said Russia must compensate several prisoners belonging to an informal caste of “outcasts” who are subject to abuse and ostracisation behind bars. The 11 plaintiffs, who have served or are serving time, said they had been placed in the category by their fellow inmates. So-called “outcasts” are…
Russia on Tuesday responded to U.S.-hosted peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan this week saying there was “no alternative” to a deal that Moscow signed with the two warring countries in 2020. “For the moment, there is no other legal basis that would help a resolution. There is no alternative to these trilateral documents,” Kremlin…