European Union (EU)has condemned Russia’s removal of buoys demarcating the border with Estonia along the Narva River.
According to Estonian officials, 24 out of 50 buoys installed to delineate sailing routes were removed in the early hours of Thursday.
Tensions over the border have escalated since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has denounced these actions as unacceptable.
“This border incident is part of a broader pattern of provocative behaviour and hybrid actions by Russia, including on its maritime and land borders in the Baltic Sea region,” he said in a statement.
Moscow has raised objections to the positioning of floating markers, which are employed to prevent boats from entering foreign waters, disputing the planned locations of approximately half of the 250 buoys, as reported by Estonia’s border guard service.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas stated that she is working to clarify the situation with Russia.
She said it appeared to be part of a “broader pattern” of action by Moscow to use “tools related to the border to create fear and anxiety”.
Estonia’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires and said it was treating the move as a “provocative border incident”.
In a statement, it said it had demanded the “immediate return” of the buoys.
Following the Russian defense ministry’s brief publication of a proposal to alter its maritime border in the Baltic Sea this week, the plan sparked concern among NATO members, notably Estonia.
However, the proposal was swiftly deleted. As of now, Moscow has notissued any comment on the matter.
During their meeting, Putin and Xi strengthened their strong partnership and criticized US military alliances in Asia and the Pacific region. They are working closely together as both countries face tensions with the West.
Putin is visiting a close friend for two days while his country’s forces are attacking northeastern Ukraine. This is the biggest attack on the border since they invaded in February. 24, 2022 n On the 24th of January, 2022.
China says it is neutral in the conflict, but it supports Russia’s view that the West provoked Russia to attack Ukraine. China also provides Russia with important parts for making weapons.
A statement from Putin and Xi said they both think the Ukrainian crisis needs to be solved by getting rid of the things that caused it.
The Kremlin keeps saying Ukraine’s leaders are connected to Nazis, even though the country has a democratically elected Jewish president who lost family in the Holocaust. Many Ukrainians want to make their country more democratic, reduce corruption, and get closer to the West. But the Kremlin still accuses them of being linked to Nazism.
It wasn’t clear if the statement meant China was supporting Russia’s claim about Nazi influence in Ukraine.
But the statement also said that both sides agreed it’s important to teach people the right way to understand history, and to protect monuments that remember the fight against fascism. They also strongly condemn anyone who tries to glorify or bring back Nazi beliefs or militarism. This is similar to Russia’s belief that Western countries don’t give enough credit to the Red Army for defeating Nazi Germany.
In 2023, China suggested a plan for peace. The plan asked for fighting to stop and for Russia and Ukraine to have discussions. However, Ukraine and the West did not accept the plan because it did not ask Russia to leave the parts of Ukraine that it has taken over.
The visit was mainly a symbol of the partnership between two countries that both have issues in their relationships with the US and Europe.
“Both sides want to show that they are not going to stop supporting each other, even with the pressure they are getting from the US,” said Hoo Tiang Boon, a professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore who studies Chinese foreign policy.
Both leaders said they want the war in Ukraine to stop, but they didn’t suggest any new ideas during their public speeches on Thursday afternoon.
“China wants Europe to be peaceful and stable again. We will help make this happen,” Xi said while standing next to Putin.
He said the same thing as China did last year when it proposed a plan to stop the war in Ukraine.
Putin said he will tell the Chinese leader all about what’s happening in Ukraine. He also said he’s thankful for the Chinese government’s help in trying to solve the situation. He mentioned that they will talk more about foreign policy when they meet again on Thursday.
After Russia attacked Ukraine last week, the war has become very serious. Ukraine’s military is running low on weapons and is waiting for the United States to send them more anti-aircraft missiles and artillery shells.
China and Russia released a statement together. They criticized the US foreign policy and the alliances that the US has made. They said these alliances show a mindset like the Cold War.
“Both sides are very worried about how AUKUS could affect the stability of the Asia-Pacific region,” according to the statement. AUKUS stands for Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
China and Russia say the US is putting medium-range missiles in Asia-Pacific during joint exercises with other countries. They said the US actions in Asia were “shifting the power balance” and “putting all countries in the region at risk. ”
The meeting on Thursday showed that they are still good friends and have a strong relationship. They made this agreement in 2022, before Russia attacked Ukraine.
After that, Russia started relying more on China for its economy because Western sanctions stopped it from trading with many other countries. China traded a lot with Russia last year, which helped them deal with some of the negative effects of sanctions.
Moscow is sending most of its energy to China and getting high-tech parts for its military from Chinese companies to avoid sanctions from the West.
“I and President Putin both think we should work together to find ways our countries can benefit from each other, and become more connected. We should appreciate each other’s successes. ”
During their meeting, Xi said congratulations to Putin for being elected as leader for the fifth time and they both celebrated the 75 years of friendship between Soviet Union and China. The friendship started after a war in 1949. Putin had no real competition in the election for president, and, like Xi, hasn’t said who might take over after him.
On the day before the visit, Putin mentioned in an interview.
Putin and Nikol Pashinyan met to talk after attending a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union, which is an economic alliance dominated by Moscow. The talks happened the day after Putin started his fifth term as President in a fancy ceremony at the Kremlin.
In short, Putin briefly commented at the beginning of the talks that trade between the two countries was increasing, but he also mentioned some concerns about security in the region.
Pashinyan, who last went to Moscow in December, said that “some problems have built up since then. ”
Armenia and Russia are not as close as they used to be because of a conflict in September. Azerbaijan wanted to take back control of the Karabakh area from Armenia, and this ended a long period of rule by Armenian separatists.
The Kremlin is upset because Pashinyan is trying to make friends with the West and move away from Moscow’s control over his country’s security and economy.
While Pashinyan was in Moscow on Wednesday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said the country will stop giving money to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which is run by Russia. Armenia stopped being part of the group because Pashinyan wanted to make stronger connections with the European Union and NATO.
Russia was upset that Armenia decided to join the International Criminal Court because they had indicted Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Moscow is worried about the conflict between Ukraine and Yerevan, but they are trying to not make a big deal out of it.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that there are some problems in our relationship with another country, but we are still willing to talk and work things out.
Air defenses in Russia shot down fifty drones in eight different areas, with 26 being shot down in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border. A woman with a broken leg and the man taking care of her died during a big attack. The explosions caused a fire in their home, and they didn’t make it out alive. This happened in Belgorod, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov posted on the internet.
A woman who was going to have a baby and her unborn child were also killed in the shelling on Saturday.
Drones were also said to be destroyed over several regions in Russia’s west and south, including the Bryansk, Kursk, Tula, Smolensk, Ryazan, and Kaluga regions, as well as in the Moscow region.
Ukrainian officials usually don’t say anything about attacks in Russia. But a lot of the drone attacks seemed to target Russia’s energy facilities.
Vladislav Shapsha, the leader of the Kaluga area, said that a drone attack caused a fire at a power station, and the Governor of Bryansk also mentioned it. Alexander Bogomaz and the governor of Smolensk. Vasily Anokhin said there were also fires at places where fuel and energy are stored.
Lately, Ukrainian drones have been targeting Russian oil refineries and terminals. This is part of increased attacks on Russia’s land.
Ukrainian people who make drones have been making the weapons go farther for a long time. They are doing this because Kyiv wants to make up for not having as many weapons and soldiers as the other side in battle. Drones are a cheaper choice for Ukraine while they wait for more military help from the US.
Russell Bentley, 64, used to work for the Russian news agency Sputnik but is no longer involved in military activities. The people he used to work with and the boss of a TV channel said he died. They called him “a real American. ” He went by the nickname “Texas” and had been in jail for smuggling drugs before he left the United States.
The reason for Bentley’s death is not known yet, but the local police had said earlier that they couldn’t find him from April 8.
Last night, Russia launched seven missiles at Ukraine. The Ukrainian air force was able to stop two missiles and three drones.
The GovernorThe leader of Ukraine’s Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said that infrastructure was damaged by ballistic missiles last night, but he did not give more information. The Black Sea city was attacked on Friday and the port was damaged, including two places where food is sent out, said President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to the governor, two men were killed in the Russian attack, including an 81-year-old retired man in the city of Vovchansk. Oleh Syniehubov is the leader of the Kharkiv region in Ukraine.
A 60-year-old lady got hurt when a bomb hit a tall apartment building.
Beside the attacks, Ukrainian police are looking for two Ukrainian soldiers who killed a police officer at a checkpoint in Vinnytsia region.
The soldiers started shooting at Maksym Zaretskyi, who is 20 years old, early on Saturday morning when he stopped their car for a regular check. Zaretskyi’s friend got hurt, but he was able to survive the attack.
On social media, Ukraine’s Ground Forces Command said that the two men were in the military. They said Zaretskyi’s death is a big loss and the people who killed him should be punished very harshly.
The Ground Forces Command said they will help with a thorough and fair investigation in any way they can.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that the Russian defense minister’s remarks about Ukraine and France being involved in the deadly concert hall attack in Moscow last month are not sensible.
Macron talked about this a day after the French and Russian defense ministers had a rare phone call. The media said different things about the call.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that Sergei Shoigu told the French Defense Minister that the Kyiv government does everything with approval from the West. He also said he hopes that the French special services were not involved in the Moscow attack.
Macron told reporters that the comments were complicated and scary, but not surprising. He was speaking at the opening of a new swimming pool for the Paris Olympics.
“Simply put, it’s silly,” Macron said.
“He said that saying France or Ukraine could be responsible for the Moscow attack doesn’t make sense and doesn’t match with reality. ” “But it’s a way of tricking people with false information, and it’s something Russia uses in its wars. ”
The defense ministry of France said that their minister, Sebastien Lecornu, strongly spoke out against the March 22 attack on a concert hall in Moscow. The attack killed 145 people, making it the worst assault on Russian soil in many years.
Lecornu said that France does not have any evidence connecting this attack to Ukraine.
He also criticized Russia’s war in Ukraine and said France will keep helping Kyiv as much as necessary, according to the French defense ministry.
The Russian summary said Shoigu told France to not send soldiers to Ukraine in the future. Macron has not decided if he will do this or not.
The call was the first time the Russian and French defense ministers talked since October 2022.
Macron said on Thursday that France is ready to share important information about the Moscow attack to help others affected by terrorism.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his officials are blaming Ukraine and the West for the attack, even though Ukraine strongly denies it. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, and the US warned Russia in advance about it.
Russia is still feeling really bad from the attack on Friday. Gunmen killed 139 people in a concert hall near Moscow. The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, said on Monday that the attackers are “extreme Islamists. ” Even though there is a lot of evidence showing that the Islamic State was involved, Putin keeps saying that Ukraine might have been involved too. Kyiv has said they were not involved in the attack.
Four men who are accused of doing the attack went to a court in Moscow on Sunday. They are being charged with terrorism. They also had signs of being severely beaten. One seemed barely awake during the meeting.
The men are from Tajikistan, and their names are Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, and Mukhammadsobir Faizov. They were accused of causing a terrorist attack that killed people. The crime can be punished with life in prison.
On Tuesday, a high-ranking Turkish security official said that two of the Moscow attackers were in Turkey for a short time before going to Russia together on March 2nd.
One of the attackers, named Fariduni, came into Turkey in February. On the next day, 20th, I went to a hotel in Istanbul’s Fatih district and left on Feb. 21stThe official said twenty-seven. Rachabalizoda went to a hotel in the same area on January. 5, leaving on January. Rewrite this text using simpler words.
The Turkish authorities think the two suspects were influenced by radical beliefs while they were in Russia because they didn’t stay in Turkey for very long. They were not legally allowed to be arrested, so they could travel between Russia and Turkey without any problems, the official said anonymously. He wasn’t allowed to speak publicly about it.
The attack at the Crocus City Hall music venue in Moscow on Friday night was one of the worst in Russia in a long time, and over 180 people were hurt.
Two days after the Islamic State’s Afghanistan group said they were behind the attack at the music place, Putin admitted during a meeting with government officials that the killings were done by extremists with beliefs that the Islamic world has been fighting against for a long time.
Putin said that the four people who attacked were caught trying to escape to Ukraine. He also said that they haven’t figured out who told them to do it, but it’s important to find out why they were trying to go to Ukraine and who was waiting for them there.
The group that is associated with IS said they did the attack, and US intelligence has information that says the group is responsible. French President Emmanuel Macron said that France has information showing that a group associated with IS is responsible for the attack.
People attending aconcert in suburban Moscow were targeted by gunmen. The building was destroyed by fire and there were more than 130 people dead. Russian authorities have arrested four suspects. President Putin said that they were caught while trying to leave and go to Ukraine.
Kyiv said it wasn’t involved in the attack on the music venue in Krasnogorsk, and a group from Afghanistan’s Islamic State claimed they did it.
Putin did not talk about IS in his speech, and Kyiv said he and other Russian politicians are lying about Ukraine being involved in the attack to make people more excited about Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has been going on for three years.
US officials who gather information confirmed the IS affiliate’s claim that it was responsible for the attack, a US official told The Associated Press. American spies found out that the IS group was planning to attack Moscow. They told the Russian government about it a few weeks ago. The official was told about the issue but wasn’t allowed to talk about the secret information publicly. They spoke to the AP anonymously.
Putin said that 11 people were arrested for the attack. More than 100 people at the concert were hurt and the venue in Moscow was left destroyed. He said it was a terrible and violent attack by terrorists. The Russian authorities caught four suspected gunmen as they were trying to escape to Ukraine through a prepared route on the border.
Russian news showed videos of people being arrested and questioned. One person said he was paid by someone he didn’t know to take part in the attack.
The Russian news said the shooters were from Tajikistan, a country in Central Asia that used to be part of the Soviet Union. It is mostly Muslim and next to Afghanistan. Around 15 million people from Tajikistan have worked in Russia and some of them are now Russian citizens.
Tajikistan’s foreign ministry said it didn’t know about other Tajiks involved in the raid. They didn’t respond to a request for comment about the arrests on Saturday.
Many Russian people who strongly disagree with Tajik immigrants wanted the government to take strong action against them. But Putin said no, and he believes that no one will be able to create problems or divisions in our diverse society using force.
He said that Sunday will be a day of sadness and that more security rules were made in all of Russia.
The attack was the deadliest in Russia in a long time. It’s a big problem for the Russian leader and happened just a few days after he secured his position in power for another six years. This came after a harsh crackdown on people who disagreed with the government, which was the strictest since the time of the Soviet Union.
133 people died in the attack, making it the worst in Russia in a long time.
The raid was a big problem for the Russian leader and it happened soon after he got more power in the country for six more years. He had cracked down on people who disagreed with him before the vote.
Some people on Russian social media were wondering how the government, which has been cracking down on any opposition and controlling the media, did not stop the attack even though they knew about it. Be careful, be safe, take caution.
The attack happened two weeks after the United States. The US Embassy in Moscow warned Americans to stay away from busy places because extremists are planning to attack large gatherings like concerts. Many other embassies from Western countries also gave the same warning. Earlier this week, Putin criticized the warning as an attempt to scare Russians.
On Saturday, investigators searched through the burned remains of the hall to find more victims. Officials said the number of people who died may increase.
Putin said the attackers tried to escape to Ukraine. Russian lawmakers also blamed Ukraine right after the attack.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, strongly disagreed with Moscow’s accusations. He said that Putin and his team are trying to blame Ukraine for their actions and are not taking care of their own people.
“They are setting fire to our cities and trying to blame Ukraine,” he said in a message on his app. “They hurt and sexually assault our people, and then they say it’s their fault. ” They brought a lot of their fighters here to Ukraine to fight us, and they don’t care what happens in their own country.
Pictures from Russian state media showed that there were still ambulances and fire trucks outside the destroyed Crocus City Hall. The building was able to hold more than 6,000 people and it hosted many important events, such as the 2013 Miss Universe beauty pageant with Donald Trump.
On Friday, many people went to a place to see a concert by the Russian rock band Picnic.
Videos on the internet showed people with guns shooting at close range at the place, and hurting innocent people. Russian news said that the attackers threw bombs that caused a fire in the building. The fire became big and destroyed the building’s roof.
Dave Primov, who was able to stay safe during the attack, told the AP that the gunmen were shooting at the people in the front rows without aiming. He said the hall was a mess because people at the concert started to panic, run, and bump into each other as they tried to get out. Some people fell and others walked over them.
After he and others crawled out of the hall and into nearby rooms, he heard small explosives going off and smelled something burning as the attackers set the building on fire.
IS has been trying to harm Russia for a long time, especially after Russia’s military attack in Syria. IS’s Afghanistan branch said it attacked a big group of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk, in a statement on their Aamaq news agency.
On Saturday, the group said on Aamaq that four men attacked using guns, a pistol, knives, and firebombs. The attackers shot at the crowd and used knives to kill people at the concert. They did this because they believe Islam is being fought against by other countries.
In October 2015, a bomb made by IS caused a Russian plane to crash in Sinai, and all 224 people on board died. Most of them were Russian tourists coming back from Egypt.
The group mostly works in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa. They have also said they did several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other areas in recent years. It got soldiers from Russia and other places that used to be part of the Soviet Union.
The Afghanistan branch of the group is called ISIS-K or IS-K. It got its name from Khorasan Province, a place that was big in the past and covered parts of Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia.
The affiliate has lots of fighters who have done many attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in 2021. They are enemies with the Taliban.
ISIS-K did the suicide bombing at Kabul airport in August 2021. It killed 13 American troops and about 170 Afghans during the US withdrawal. They also admitted to causing a bomb attack in Kerman, Iran, in January. The attack killed 95 people at a memorial procession.
On March 7, the US Embassy warned about possible attacks, and Russia’s top security agency said they stopped an attack on a synagogue in Moscow and killed some members of a group linked to IS near the Russian capital. A few days ago, the Russian government said that six people believed to be members of the IS group were shot and killed in a fight in Ingushetia, a region in Russia.
Reporters Michael Balsamo in Washington and Colleen Long in Wilmington, Delaware, helped with this article.
The government said that the people on the list were actively supporting the praise of Hitler’s helpers from the OUN-UPA and the Galicia Division. “CEOs and leaders of companies who provide weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and those who are actively participating in Canada’s campaign against Russia. ”
The OUN-UPA and the Galicia Division were groups of Ukrainian people who fought against the Soviet army during World War Two. The OUN-UPA fought during the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Galicia Division was a group of Ukrainian volunteers recruited by the German Nazi party to fight the Soviet Red Army.
The government says nearly 1,600 Canadians are not allowed to go to Russia.
This news story is still being updated. Come back later for more information.
A group of up to five gunmen dressed in camouflage opened fire with automatic weapons at a music venue near Moscow. Some people were killed and hurt, as shown in a video from the area.
It was not known yet how many people were hurt or who the shooters were, but Russian news agencies said 50 ambulance teams were sent to help.
Fire shot up in the air and dark smoke went up from the place, a video revealed.
“A very sad event happened at the Crocus City shopping center today,” said Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
“I feel bad for the families of the people who were hurt or killed. ”
Sobyanin promised to help all the people who got hurt in the accident.
In a video on social media, men were shown shooting guns at people who were hiding and crying near a sign for “Crocus City Hall. ” The video has not been confirmed as true.
More videos showed many people lying still in blood outside the hall. Reuters could not check the video right away.
Another video showed the bad guys shooting at the people in the concert hall.
Earlier this month, the US embassy in Russia said that “extremists” were about to attack Moscow.
It warned people after Russia’s security service stopped an attack on a synagogue in Moscow by a group linked to Islamic State.
America embassy in Russia said that dangerous people have plans to attack Moscow soon. This comes after Russian security services stopped a planned shooting at a synagogue by a group linked to Islamic State in Afghanistan.
The embassy has asked the U.S several times to do something about the situation. The government has told its people in Russia to leave right away. However, the government failed to tell them why, but they warned to stay away from large gatherings and to be careful of their surroundings.
The Embassy is keeping an eye on reports that extremists have plans to attack big events in Moscow, like concerts and events involving the U.S The embassy’s website said that people should stay away from big crowds for the next two days.
It warned a few hours after Russia’s FSB said it stopped an attack on a synagogue in Moscow by a group from Islamic State.
It was not clear if the two statements were connected.
Many countries say it’s not safe to travel to Russia and tell their citizens to come back home. The United States of America and Russia has been given the highest warning level, which is the same as countries like Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, South Sudan and Iran. It means “do not travel”.
The fighting in Ukraine has caused a major problem in Russia’s relationship with the West, the biggest since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
The Kremlin is blaming the relationship between Russia and the United States are not good right now because the United States is helping Ukraine with money, weapons, and intelligence in its fight against Russia.
The FSB found an Islamic State group in Russia’s Kaluga region. This group is part of ISIS-Khorasan, which wants to control many countries in the region and is based in Afghanistan.
The group showed up in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and became known for being very brutal.
The FSB said that the person was getting ready to shoot people at a synagogue.
Russian special forces fought back against the militants and eventually stopped them with return fire.
The FSB said they found and took away guns, bullets, and parts to make a homemade bomb.
Western countries now think that being a diplomat in Moscow is really hard.
Western diplomats in Moscow say they are often spied on and bothered. They use a guide called “Moscow Rules” to help them stay safe, which was made by Western spies in the past and has been updated for today’s Russia.
Russia has been saying that its diplomats are often mistreated in big Western cities and its citizens are unfairly treated because of a strong dislike of Russia. They say this is the worst it has been in 100 years.
The police were at the cemetery, but everything was peaceful, according to Russian TV channel Dozhd (Rain).
The police allowed people to say goodbye to the politician without hurrying them. This was reported on the Telegram messaging app by one of the outlet’s readers at the scene.
Dozhd said that people made memorials for Navalny and they were destroyed in many Russian cities. Flowers were taken out of cities, like St. Petersburg and Voronezh were mentioned.
Thousands of people said goodbye to Navalny on Friday. He died two weeks ago in a prison, but we still don’t know how. The police were watching closely. Many people gathered to support Navalny outside a church and cemetery in a snowy area near the capital. They cheered for Navalny and against President Putin and the war in Ukraine.
The police didn’t do anything to them, but at least 106 people were taken by the police at events in Russia to remember Navalny, according to OVD-Info, a group that follows political arrests. It said that many people were not allowed to put flowers at monuments for the people who were hurt by the Soviet government.
Navalny was laid to rest after a quick Russian Orthodox service, with lots of people waiting outside the church and then going to the new grave with flowers.
Navalny’s wife, Yulia, did not attend the funeral. She promised to keep doing his work and thanked him lovingly for “26 years of complete happiness. ”
The funeral happened after a fight with officials about letting his body go. His team said that many churches in Moscow didn’t want to have the funeral for the man who fought against corruption and arranged big protests. Many Western leaders said the Russian leader was responsible for the death, but the Kremlin said it wasn’t true and got mad.
Many people offered their final farewells to Alexei Navalny at his funeral in Moscow. Alexei Navalny died two weeks ago in a prison, and the cause of his death is still unknown. The funeral had a lot of police there to keep things safe.
The service happened after a struggle with officials to release the body of President Vladimir Putin’s strongest critic. His friends said that many churches in Moscow didn’t want to do the funeral for the man who fought against corruption and organized big protests. Western leaders said the Russian leader was responsible for the death, but the Kremlin denied this angrily.
Navalny’s team finally got approval from the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, which was surrounded by barriers on Friday.
As the box with his body was brought out of the car and carried into the church, the people outside clapped and said his name. Some also yelled, “You were brave and so are we. ” and later “We don’t want war. ”
American and other Western diplomats Ambassador Lynn Tracy and some presidential candidates, Boris Nadezhdin and Yekaterina Duntsova, went to the event. Both of them wanted to compete with Putin in the next election and disagreed with his war in Ukraine. But neither of them were allowed to be on the ballot.
A picture inside the church showed Navalny’s body in an open casket with red and white flowers on top, and his mother sitting next to it holding a candle.
Navalny’s dad was there too, but it was not known if anyone else from his family was there. His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, spoke at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France two days ago. His daughter is studying at Stanford University, and we don’t know where his son is.
The politician’s friends left Russia because they were under pressure. They watched his funeral online from a different country.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned people in Moscow and other places not to do anything illegal, because large gatherings without permission are against the law.
“Nadezhda Ivanova, who lives in Kaliningrad, said that people who pay attention to current events can see that this man is a hero of our country. We won’t forget him. ” “Everything that happened to him is really hard to understand and deal with. ”
After the quick funeral, a large group of people walked from the church to the nearby Borisovskoye Cemetery. The police were also there in big numbers for the burial.
Navalny’s mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, spent eight days asking officials to let her have her son’s body after he died in February. 16 people died at a prison camp. In a town called Kharp, in a place called Yamalo-Nenets region, which is about 1,900 kilometres (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.
Even on Friday, the place where the body was being kept took a long time to let it go, according to Ivan Zhdanov, who is a close friend of Navalny and is in charge of his Anti-Corruption Foundation.
The police said they couldn’t give back the body because they needed to do some tests on it after the person had died. Navalnaya asked Putin to let her bury her son properly and with respect, in a video.
One person in charge of funerals said he was not allowed to help Navalny’s supporters, according to Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh on social media. They had a hard time finding a car to carry the coffin.
Yarmysh said that people we don’t know are calling and threatening others not to move Alexei’s body.
The Russian government has not said why Navalny, who was 47, died.
Navalny went to jail in January 2021 after coming back to Moscow from Germany, where he was getting better from being poisoned with a nerve agent that he said the Kremlin did.
The Russian government said his Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his offices in different areas were “extremist organizations” that year.
His wife said that Putin and the Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, tried to stop a public funeral.
“We just want people to have the chance to say goodbye to Alexei in a regular way. No special treatment needed,” Yulia Navalnaya wrote on the platform previously known as Twitter. In a talk to European lawmakers on Wednesday, she also said she was worried that the police might interrupt the gathering or would “arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband. ”
The government in Moscow said no to holding a special event to remember Navalny and Boris Nemtsov because of COVID-19 rules. This was announced by politician Yekaterina Duntsova. Nemtsov, who used to be a deputy prime minister, was killed while walking on a bridge near the Kremlin on the night of February. He was 55 years old. 27th of May, 2015.
Yarmysh requested that people who support Navalny put flowers in his memory on Friday.
Yarmysh said on Thursday that everyone who knew Alexei said he was a happy, brave, and truthful person. “But the real truth is that even if you didn’t meet Alexei, you still knew what kind of person he was. ” You helped with his investigations, you joined him at rallies, and you read his posts while he was in prison. His behavior taught a lot of people how to act even when things were frightening and hard.
Many people offered their final farewells to Alexei Navalny at his funeral in Moscow. Alexei Navalny died two weeks ago in a prison, and the cause of his death is still unknown. The funeral had a lot of police there to keep things safe.
The service happened after a struggle with officials to release the body of President Vladimir Putin’s strongest critic. His friends said that many churches in Moscow didn’t want to do the funeral for the man who fought against corruption and organized big protests. Western leaders said the Russian leader was responsible for the death, but the Kremlin denied this angrily.
Navalny’s team finally got approval from the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, which was surrounded by barriers on Friday.
As the box with his body was brought out of the car and carried into the church, the people outside clapped and said his name. Some also yelled, “You were brave and so are we. ” and later “We don’t want war. ”
American and other Western diplomats Ambassador Lynn Tracy and some presidential candidates, Boris Nadezhdin and Yekaterina Duntsova, went to the event. Both of them wanted to compete with Putin in the next election and disagreed with his war in Ukraine. But neither of them were allowed to be on the ballot.
A picture inside the church showed Navalny’s body in an open casket with red and white flowers on top, and his mother sitting next to it holding a candle.
Navalny’s dad was there too, but it was not known if anyone else from his family was there. His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, spoke at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France two days ago. His daughter is studying at Stanford University, and we don’t know where his son is.
The politician’s friends left Russia because they were under pressure. They watched his funeral online from a different country.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned people in Moscow and other places not to do anything illegal, because large gatherings without permission are against the law.
“Nadezhda Ivanova, who lives in Kaliningrad, said that people who pay attention to current events can see that this man is a hero of our country. We won’t forget him. ” “Everything that happened to him is really hard to understand and deal with. ”
After the quick funeral, a large group of people walked from the church to the nearby Borisovskoye Cemetery. The police were also there in big numbers for the burial.
Navalny’s mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, spent eight days asking officials to let her have her son’s body after he died in February. 16 people died at a prison camp. In a town called Kharp, in a place called Yamalo-Nenets region, which is about 1,900 kilometres (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.
Even on Friday, the place where the body was being kept took a long time to let it go, according to Ivan Zhdanov, who is a close friend of Navalny and is in charge of his Anti-Corruption Foundation.
The police said they couldn’t give back the body because they needed to do some tests on it after the person had died. Navalnaya asked Putin to let her bury her son properly and with respect, in a video.
One person in charge of funerals said he was not allowed to help Navalny’s supporters, according to Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh on social media. They had a hard time finding a car to carry the coffin.
Yarmysh said that people we don’t know are calling and threatening others not to move Alexei’s body.
The Russian government has not said why Navalny, who was 47, died.
Navalny went to jail in January 2021 after coming back to Moscow from Germany, where he was getting better from being poisoned with a nerve agent that he said the Kremlin did.
The Russian government said his Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his offices in different areas were “extremist organizations” that year.
His wife said that Putin and the Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, tried to stop a public funeral.
“We just want people to have the chance to say goodbye to Alexei in a regular way. No special treatment needed,” Yulia Navalnaya wrote on the platform previously known as Twitter. In a talk to European lawmakers on Wednesday, she also said she was worried that the police might interrupt the gathering or would “arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband. ”
The government in Moscow said no to holding a special event to remember Navalny and Boris Nemtsov because of COVID-19 rules. This was announced by politician Yekaterina Duntsova. Nemtsov, who used to be a deputy prime minister, was killed while walking on a bridge near the Kremlin on the night of February. He was 55 years old. 27th of May, 2015.
Yarmysh requested that people who support Navalny put flowers in his memory on Friday.
Yarmysh said on Thursday that everyone who knew Alexei said he was a happy, brave, and truthful person. “But the real truth is that even if you didn’t meet Alexei, you still knew what kind of person he was. ” You helped with his investigations, you joined him at rallies, and you read his posts while he was in prison. His behavior taught a lot of people how to act even when things were frightening and hard.
According to leader of the dissenting group the event will take place at Borisovskoye Cemetery, following a ceremony to say goodbye to him in the Maryino area.
The leader of the dissenting group mentioned on Tuesday that they were struggling to find a location for a funeral. Some places said no when they found out who it was for.
Alexei Navalny died in a prison in the Arctic earlier this month.
Navalny’s team planned to have the funeral on 29 February, but they couldn’t find anyone to dig the grave on that day. Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, wrote about it.
Mr Zhdanov suggested that the reason for this was because Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to give his yearly speech to the Federal Assembly on the same day.
The Kremlin knows that nobody will listen to Putin’sspeech on the day of Alexei’s farewell.
He also told people to come early so they can say goodbye to Alexei.
Russia’s defense department said 65 Ukrainian soldiers who were captured were on a plane going to the Belgorod region for a swap with prisoners.
We cannot confirm any of the information about the people on board.
Ria Novosti news agency reported that there were nine more people on the plane, including six crew members.
Ukraine’s military leaders said the plane was carrying missiles for Russia’s air defense systems. They told this to the Ukrainska Pravda website. It didn’t talk about prisoners of war.
However, the leader of Ukraine’s military intelligence department, Andriy Yusov, said that a swap of prisoners was supposed to happen.
“I want to say that the trade that was supposed to happen today is not happening,” he told Radio Liberty.
A video on social media showed a plane crashing and exploding with a big fireball near a place called Yablonovo. It happened at 11:00 am local time near the city of Belgorod, about 44 miles away.
The leader of Belgorod region in Russia said a plane crashed in a field near houses and everyone on the plane died.
Some news sources in Ukraine said at first that the Il-76 might have been shot down by Ukrainian forces, but those reports were taken off later.
The Ukrainian government group in charge of prisoners of war said that Russia is doing secret operations to cause problems in Ukrainian society.
In a later message, the Russian defense ministry said a military plane took off from Chkalovsky air base near Moscow and was heading to Belgorod. They claimed that Ukraine’s air force had shot two anti-aircraft missiles from the Lyptsi area, south of the Ukrainian border.
A swap of prisoners was supposed to happen on Wednesday afternoon at a border checkpoint 100km west of Belgorod.
Andrei Kartapolov, the head of Russia’s military defense committee, said there was another plane carrying 80 Ukrainian prisoners in the sky, but it changed direction later.
MrKartapolov told Russian TV that there will not be any more prisoner exchanges.
Ukraine and Russia have traded prisoners during the war.
Earlier this month, Ukraine and Russia swapped prisoners. Ukraine let go of 248 Russian prisoners of war, and Russia released 230 people. The United Arab Emirates helped make this deal happen.
More than 8,000 Ukrainians are still kidnapped by Russia, and tens of thousands are still missing, according to Ukraine’s Coordination HQ.
A warning was issued across Ukraine after a plane crash.
Belgorod, a place close to Ukraine, has been hit by air strikes and drones many times and many people have been hurt or killed.
In December, an air attack happened and 25 people died while 100 were hurt. Ukraine said they only aimed at military buildings and blamed Russia for the pieces landing in the city.
Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022 and the war has been going on for almost three years.
Russia said they took over a village near the damaged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv has not said if the claim is true.
Recently, the Russian air attacks have been happening more often. On Tuesday, 18 people died and 130 were hurt in missile attacks on cities in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that Ukrainian forces do not have enough ammunition. He also said that Russia has used over 600 missiles and 1,000 drones in the last two months.
Ukraine is using drones to fight. Over the weekend, a drone attack caused a big blast at a gas terminal near the city of St Petersburg.
In Moscow, men are dancing on a stage while holding reindeer antlers. It is a type of wedding ceremony that comes from the northern part of Russia and has been done for a long time.
The bride and groom, Ilona and Alexander, are sitting by a pretend campfire and watching traditional ceremonies, like tearing fabric and dancing with animal furs.
This is one of many weddings from different places in Russia happening at a show that supports love for the country and old-fashioned beliefs.
The ceremony is finished. The person in charge says, “Based on the laws of Russia, I now declare you married. ”
Russia’s laws were changed three years ago to say that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. Every wedding shown at the exhibition has a bride and groom.
In Russia, couples that are not traditional, like same-sex couples, are not allowed to legally form a union.
In recent years, Russia’s LGBT community has been facing more pressure from the authorities. In 2013, a law was passed that says it’s not allowed to talk to kids about relationships that are not traditional.
Last year, all age groups in Russia had to follow those rules. Mentions of LGBT people have been taken out of books, movies, ads, and TV shows. Earlier this month, a Russian TV channel changed the colors of a rainbow in a South Korean pop video to follow a law against promoting being gay.
Russia’s justice department wants the supreme court to declare the “International LGBT public movement” as an extremist group and make it illegal. Even though there is no official organization by that name.
What will happen if the supreme court agrees with the request.
Sergei Troshin, a deputy in St. Petersburg who recently came out as gay, believes that the new law could result in long prison sentences for anyone the government sees as an LGBT activist for “participating in an extremist organization. ” The person who planned the group will have to stay in prison for an even longer time.
This is actual oppression. The LGBT community in Russia is very scared and worried. People are leaving quickly. The word we are using is “evacuation. ” We have to leave our own country. “It’s really bad. ”
In the Russian parliament’s lower house, called the Duma, they have a different opinion.
“This does not involve people’s private lives or sexual orientation. ” Vitaly Milonov, a politician from the ruling party, United Russia, says the LGBT international movement is focused on its political agenda. He is known for being against LGBT people.
“They have things they need to do and things they want to achieve. ” They work as a political group, a political system, and their goals go against the Russian Constitution.
“I’ll talk about how the government is set up,” I replied. “There is no official international LGBT public movement. So, it doesn’t make sense to ban something that doesn’t even exist. ”
“Oh, it’s not hard,” Mr Milonov answers. “We can stop any activities from LGBT groups from other countries in Russia. ” That is good. We do not need them.
“I’m excited for the next step, which is to ban the six-color rainbow flag. ” We don’t want this flag. It represents the struggle against the traditional family. I don’t want anyone to display this flag in Russia.
Under Vladimir Putin, the government in Russia has adopted a belief system focused on traditional ideas and “family values”. The government shows LGBT activism as a Western idea that is unfriendly to Russia. Pressure is being put on the LGBT community in Russia to protect what is considered morally right.
And can it also help someone win votes.
Sergei Troshin thinks that the supreme court hearing is connected to the presidential election in March. “The government is making a fake enemy. ”
“They claim that we are fighting against the West. ” The fight against LGBT people is part of this anti-Western talk. Many conservatives who are against the West also oppose the LGBT community. This topic will be discussed before the election.
Maxim Goldman says that the Russian authorities are trying to make people focus on less important things so they don’t think about the real problems. He is employed by a Russian organization that helps transgender and non-binary people.
“When we found out about the supreme court hearing, the people in charge of our organization knew we had to leave the country right away. ” “It turned into a sudden urgent situation. ”
I am talking to Maxim, who says he is non-binary, on his last day in Russia. He put some clothes in a little suitcase and is going to the airport soon.
Maxim feels like his own country doesn’t want him. “We’re supposed to have a system where everyone can have a say in how our country is run. ” The leaders we choose to lead us are supposed to look after us.
The opposite is happening. They are trying to hurt us. They are treating us badly. “I have to leave against my will. ”
Right now, Sergei Troshin, who is a local government official, is staying. He doesn’t have any false beliefs.
“Sergei told me that he has talked a lot about LGBT rights in the past. ” “It’s possible that this could be enough evidence to start a criminal case against me. I don’t want it to happen, but it might. And this is scary.
Russian people are very afraid in their society. With each word you say, it’s like walking through a dangerous area with mines. If you say one thing, you could go to prison for five years. If you say something else, you could go to prison for ten or fifteen years.
Russia said stormy winds and heavy floods had left about 1. 9 million people without power in the south, also mentioning Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Moscow.
The Russian Energy Ministry said the worst affected regions were Dagestan, Krasnodar and Rostov, as well as the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea regions of Ukraine.
Local media reported at least four deaths due to the storm. Ukraine said 2,019 of its villages and towns were without electricity after the snowstorm. The storm also hit Moldova, Georgia and Bulgaria.
In the Russian Black Sea port of Sochi, large waves were observed on the city’s riverbank. Footage was also released showing a three-story building collapsing. Near the city of Anapa, also on Russia’s Black Sea coast, a cargo ship with 21 crew ran aground.
In the capital Moscow, authorities had to deploy specialized machinery to clear roads after heavy snowfall.
In the south of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula – illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 – Moscow-appointed officials reported flooding in coastal areas. Fallen trees and other debris were seen on the streets of several cities.
About 800 exotic fish died when a historic aquarium museum was destroyed by flooding in the port of Sevastopol, local media quoted the museum director as saying.
A state of emergency is currently in place in several cities in Crimea. Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, said the storm had “washed away the trenches in Crimea that Russian troops had dug on the beach. ”
The Russian military has not commented on this statement. Legendary, In Ukraine, dozens of passengers had to be rescued from cars stuck in heavy snow.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s DSNS emergency service said snowstorms and strong winds were hitting 16 regions of the country.
According to the statement, 48 people, including children, were evacuated from stranded vehicles in the hardest-hit area of Odessa in the southwest. Emergency services said up to 840 vehicles had to be towed away as more than two meters of snow fell in some places.
There are currently at least 1,370 trucks stuck. At least six people suffered from hypothermia. Traffic is currently congested on 14 highways.
The southern region of Mykolaiv, Ukraine, was also heavily affected. Several vehicles overturned due to strong winds in the Odessa region of Ukraine More than 1,500 rescue workers are currently deployed across Ukraine in a large-scale clean-up operation.
They were assisted by police, border guards and National Guard members.
In the capital Kiev, the country’s largest flag – measuring 16 x 24m – had to come down from a 90m high flagpole after being damaged by strong winds. City officials said the flag will be replaced and raised again.
The extreme weather comes amid reports that Russia is once again preparing large-scale missile and drone attacks on the country’s power grid and other critical infrastructure.
Ukraine Last fall and winter, Moscow carried out a wave of deadly attacks, leaving millions across Ukraine without electricity or heat.
A Russian military blogger who wrote negative things about Russia’s actions in Ukraine was taken into custody in Moscow today, as reported by state news agency RIA Novosti.
Andrey Kurshin is a blogger who manages the Moscow Calling Telegram channel. This channel has around 87,000 followers. The administrator of the Moscow Calling telegram channel, Andrey Kurshin, is being accused of spreading false information about the Russian army. A criminal case has been opened against him. This information was reported by RIA Novosti on Thursday.
The agency said that Moscow investigators are looking into the case while the person in question is being held as a suspect.
The Institute for the Study of War says that Kurshin is not a popular blogger, but someone who strongly believes in extreme nationalism. He often criticizes Russia’s military actions in the Ukrainian war, but also supports the ultranationalist objectives behind the war.
ISW stated that the Russian ultra-nationalist community was happy about Kurshin’s arrest and mentioned that he often criticized the MoscowRussian military.
This happened after a well-known Russian blogger who supported war, Igor Girkin, was arrested in July. Girkin did not agree with Russian President Vladimir Putin and thought he made mistakes in Ukraine.
In April, a Russian military blogger named Vladlen Tatarsky died in a bomb blast at a cafe in downtown St. PetersburgPetersburg, where he was visiting as a guest of a group that supports war.
Daria Trepova, a 26-year-old person who opposes war, was taken into custody and accused of committing terrorism crimes related to the event. Investigators believe that Trepova, who was told to do so by Ukraine, brought a statue filled with explosives to the location and gave it to Tatarsky.
The history of Russia‘s empire has a big influence in Moscow. The walls and towers of the Kremlin are so big that when visitors see them from Red Square, they feel very small.
When I go to Victory Park, which is five miles away, I feel the same way. It is a big place with museums and memorials made to remember when the Soviet Union won against Nazi Germany. The main attraction is a big square with a tall obelisk that is 141. 8mIt represents each day of the Great Patriotic War, which was the Soviet Union’s involvement in World War Two after the Nazi invasion.
When I go there, it’s the day when Russians celebrate their flag. A really big flag, said to be the biggest in the country, is being raised on the square.
Surrounded by strict rows of Russian soldiers, the flag is unfolded while a military band plays songs that make people feel proud of their country. The person in charge of the museum gives a talk, emphasizing that these events bring our community together.
The Russian government has been promoting events that celebrate their country and show pride in it more often since they invaded Ukraine.
Inside the Victory Museum, there is a special exhibit dedicated to the heroic individuals involved in a specific military mission. Information boards are comparing the Russian soldiers who are currently fighting in Ukraine to the Soviet soldiers who fought in World War II.
Andrei Afanasiev, a blogger who supports the government of Russia and teaches at a university, agrees to meet with me. He says that loving one’s country is very important during times of war. He believes that the conflict between the West and Russia has made Russians realize that they can only rely on themselves.
“You can trust only yourself, your country, and your military. ” Certainly, people are more patriotic now than they used to be. “War brings us together and inspires us,” he says.
I ask Andrei if he thinks the war is going poorly for Russia. “He disagrees,” he answers. I think Russia will be successful. We are prepared to win.
On Russian television, they talk about “successes” and “progress,” but the truth is not the same.
The Russian military knows they are in a big problem. According to a unnamed Russian military analyst, they lost land and their morale is really low.
They’re not ready for modern battles. The amount of money being lost is very high.
Did the president tell the truth about the actual situation on the battlefield. No, he says. People at all levels of authority are telling lies. As information spreads, it gets more and more twisted.
The analyst says that Russian officers in Ukraine are feeling anxious because they are barely managing to hold on as Kyiv launches its own attack.
Not only the Russian military is worried. The overall feeling I experience in Moscow is that people are generally feeling anxious or on edge. And there are many things to be concerned about.
In June, Yevgeny Prigozhin started a rebellion and walked towards the main city. The head of the Wagner mercenary group was said to have died in a strange plane accident, which caused people to accuse the Russian government of being involved.
Earlier this month, the value of the rouble dropped significantly. Furthermore, there are frequent drone attacks happening in Moscow almost every day.
Although Russians don’t seem to be worried about these events on their own, many are concerned about the present and afraid of what may happen in the future.
In Gorky Park, which is like Moscow’s version of Hyde Park in London, there is a very peaceful and beautiful setting. Families can be seen walking along the riverside and enjoying activities like rollerblading. On the other hand, there is a big gray building called the Russian Defence Ministry. It has a system to shoot down planes that might attack.
It’s very different to see a surface-to-air missile system beside a beautiful park.
Svyatoslav says that he is not concerned about the air-defence system. Let them place a powerful weapon there if it makes them feel safer. I like what’s happening and we should take over all of Ukraine.
A woman named Irina also says she is not very bothered by the missiles in the middle of Russia’s capital. My feelings are steady, and my mind has gotten used to the situation. I am not as worried as I was before. But I believe that everything will get better and be resolved positively.
Pavel and his wife Olga are taking a walk together. They have different opinions on the war in Ukraine: Olga thinks the Kremlin is right and thinks Ukraine is responsible, but her husband believes it’s Russia’s fault.
Pavel confesses that he is concerned about the drones falling in Moscow. But we agreed not to discuss politics, so that we can avoid arguing and annoying each other.
Many people don’t want to think about what is happening in cities and towns in Ukraine that are less than a day’s drive away.
Not many people in Moscow seem to be feeling excited or enthusiastic about going to war, even though Andrei Afanasiev says otherwise. Not many people wear clothing with the letter Z or other symbols of Russia’s war while walking on the streets. Among many people, there is a lack of interest, a feeling of giving up, or a quiet acceptance.
Many people in positions of authority feel the same way, including someone close to the Kremlin who is talking to me secretly.
People working in the Presidential Administration are either feeling oppressed or sad. They have been working there for a long time and have not gained any other experience. They don’t feel good about what’s coming ahead, but they don’t resist it and just follow along. The source says that there is not another option.
He says that people are scared to talk because there is no one opposing Putin in the government building called the Kremlin.
People in Moscow are very scared right now. In a little room hidden on the highest floor of a shopping center, a gathering of people who disagree with the current situation is happening. They have set up a table with cookies, drinks, and small bites.
Yulia Galyamina, a local politician, is in charge of the meeting. She is one of the very few opposition figures in Russia who have not been sent to jail or forced to leave the country.
“She says that someone different gets arrested every week. ” I am always prepared for someone to knock on the door. I am lonely, but I believe I am doing the correct thing. My people need politicians in their country.
Some of the activists do not want to use their real names.
Yulia, who is an anti-war activist, considers herself fortunate to not be in jail at this point.
I want to know what message she wants to give to people in the West who believe that all Russians are in favor of the war.
“I want to mention that there are many people here who are against war and actively work to promote peace. Despite this, I believe that humanity will ultimately succeed. ” We are in a battle and we will try our hardest.
A court in Moscow has decided to keep Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich in jail for another three months before his trial starts. He was arrested for being accused of spying.
His time in jail before the trial has been extended until November 30, according to the press service of the Lefortovo Court on Thursday. It was supposed to finish on August 30th.
Gershkovich has been held in Russia since March after being arrested for charges that he, the WSJ, and the US government strongly deny.
The US State Department says that Gershkovich is being held unfairly in Russia. US President Joe Biden has been clear and direct about Gershkovich’s arrest, requesting Russia to release him. This is an important news story. More information will be given later.
Russian officials say that three people were killed in an attack in the Belgorod region of Russia. This happened shortly after another attack with a drone in central Moscow.
Belgorod’s leader, Vyacheslav Gladkov, accused Kyiv of being responsible for the attack near the Ukrainian border in our region.
“He said that Ukrainian soldiers used a drone to throw a bomb when there were people walking on the street. ”
Kyiv has not admitted doing either of the incidents, but it usually doesn’t say anything about attacks happening inside Russia.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that a second drone was destroyed in the region, a few hours after the first drone attack killed three people in Belgorod.
Drones were used to attack both Belgorod and a construction site in Moscow, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
The defense ministry said that air defenses successfully destroyed two drones in the Mozhaisk and Khimki districts of the Moscow region. No one got hurt or killed.
After the happenings in Russia’s main city, all trips to and from Moscow’s airports were stopped early Wednesday, but they later went back to normal.
In the past few days, the capital has been hit by multiple drone attacks, leading to the repeated suspension of flights for safety reasons. According to the AFP news agency, there were more attacks in the sky over Moscow for the sixth night in a row.
A drone that crashed into a building being built at the Moscow city complex was stopped by electronic warfare devices, the defense ministry announced. It crashed into the building because it couldn’t control itself.
Windows were broken in two tall buildings across from the construction area, and the emergency services were checking the place, according to Mr.
The US State Department said they were not supporting drone attacks in Russia after hearing about the crashed drones.
American officials said that it was the decision of Ukraine on how to protect itself, and Russia had the power to stop the war whenever it wanted by removing its troops from Ukraine.
What information do we have about drone attacks in Russia.
More and more people have been accusing drone attacks happening in Russia lately.
On Tuesday, the defense ministry of Russia announced that they shot down two small aircrafts in the sky near Moscow. They also stopped two more aircrafts in the air near the border of Ukraine.
Authorities also stated that a Russian military aircraft destroyed a Ukrainian surveillance boat in the Black Sea on Tuesday. The boat was sailing close to Russian gas production sites.
Ukraine did not admit to being responsible for any drone invasions on Tuesday – but President Volodymyr Zelensky has said before that attacks on Russia are something that will happen and is justifiable.
The defense ministry of Russia said it stopped a Ukrainian drone attack by shooting down two drones in the Moscow area.
Two more drones were stopped over the Bryansk area, which is in the northeast of the Ukrainian border.
Flights between Moscow’s airports were temporarily halted early on Tuesday, according to the ministry.
The area above Moscow has been closed a few times recently because drones have been causing problems.
The military ministry of Russia said that a Russian warplane destroyed a Ukrainian boat used for gathering information in the Black Sea. The boat had sailed close to Russian facilities that produce gas.
On Tuesday, Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that Russian defense systems had successfully destroyed two flying robotic devices to the west of the city, in the areas called Krasnogorsk and Shastsy.
No one got hurt in the attacks, and Ukraine has not said anything about them.
Despite not taking direct responsibility, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed that attacking Russian territory with drones is a justified and expected action.
According to reports, on Saturday, a very important Russian bomber plane was destroyed by a drone attack in Ukraine.
Pictures shared on social media and examined by BBC Verify reveal a Tupolev Tu-22 aircraft burning at Soltsy-2 airbase, which is located south of St Petersburg.
Moscow stated that a drone was shot at by guns but still managed to “harm” a plane.
The Russian Tu-22 bomber, which was destroyed, can go very fast and has been used a lot by Russia to attack cities in Ukraine.
The defense ministry of Moscow said that there was an attack at around 10:00 in the morning on Saturday. The attack was carried out by a drone that had a copter-like design.
The text says that Soltsy-2 is located in a military airfield in the Novgorod region.
The small aircraft was spotted by the airfield’s watchtower and was shot at with guns, according to the ministry.
One plane got damaged, but thankfully no one was hurt in the terrorist attack.
The report also mentioned that a fire started in the parking lot of the airfield but was put out quickly.
But, pictures on Telegram showed a big fire covering a jet with the special front part of the Tu-22. The company BBC Verify looked at the pictures and thinks they are trustworthy.
In the past few months, many small planes without pilots have been flying and attacking the capital of Russia.
Moscow has said that Kyiv is responsible for the attacks. Ukraine hardly admits fault for events or attacks that happen in Russia.
There have reportedly been explosions along the Kerch Bridge in Crimea, which connects Russia with the occupied area.
Russian-appointed officials assert that they shot down two drones in the vicinity and that no bridge damage has occurred, despite the temporary suspension of traffic.
Smoke can be seen erupting from the bridge in a video of it.
The report was released after Russian troops overnight destroyed 20 drones over Crimea.
The ministry announced in a Telegram message that 14 drones were shot down by Russian air defences and an additional six were electronically jammed. There were no reported injuries or damage.
The drone strikes on Moscow, the capital of Russia, lasted three days in a row before the nocturnal attacks.
Drone attacks on Russia have little clear military benefit for Ukraine after more than 17 months of hostilities, but the tactic has succeeded in unsettling Russians and making the war’s repercussions real to them.
Drone strikes on Moscow and Crimea, which Russia took from Ukraine in 2014 and which the majority of the world viewed as illegitimate, have risen in recent weeks.
Officials in Kiev have not acknowledged or denied any involvement by Ukraine in the attempted strikes.
In a separate incident, Russia asserted that a nighttime counterattack had allowed it to retake control of the town of Urozhaine in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk area.
According to Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor, a 73-year-old woman was killed early on Saturday morning during Russian shelling of Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv area.
Ihor Klymenko, the minister of internal affairs for Ukraine, reported that a guided Russian aerial bomb struck the city of Orikhiv in the country’s partially controlled southern Zaporizhzhia region, killing one police officer and injuring 12 others.
He claimed that four of the injured also included police officers.
Since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, the city of Odesa on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast has opened a number of beaches.
Six beaches, according to Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper, are open, but he emphasised that it is not permitted to enter beaches when there is an air raid alert.
Since Moscow cancelled a historic grain deal last month amid Kyiv’s relentless efforts to retake its occupied territories, the strategic port and major hub for grain exports has been repeatedly targeted by missile and drone attacks, and Russian mines have frequently washed up on the city’s beaches.
Early this morning, drones were shot down above one of Moscow‘s main airports, setting up a tremendous explosion.
After the walkout at around three in the morning, some flights were temporarily halted at Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports while others were diverted to St. Petersburg.
A mysterious fire that was burning over 13,000 square feet at a car repair shop several miles from the airport caused emergency personnel to rush to Domodedovo.
Unverified video posted on Russian Telegram channels depicts a blast’s aftermath.
Russia confirms it shot down a drone over Moscow’s Domodedovo airport while there is fire nearby.
The Russian capital is being overtaken by thick black smoke that can be seen pouring into the sky from kilometres away.
Russian social media reports claim that there were at least two explosions heard prior to the fire.
Over Moscow’s central ring road, one drone was shot down, and another was caught in the Kaluga region’s Maloyaroslavsky district.
Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, asserted that the attacks had done no harm.
The military ministry claimed in a statement that no casualties were reported and blamed Ukraine for the attack.
It said that attempts by the Kyiv government to conduct terrorist acts using unmanned aerial vehicles had been thwarted over the area of the Kaluga and Moscow regions, as well as Sevastopol.
“Two UAVs moving towards Moscow were destroyed in the sky by air defence facilities over the territory of Odintsovo district in Moscow region and Maloyaroslavl district of Kaluga region.”
Nine other UAVs were suppressed by electronic warfare tactics and crashed in the Black Sea without completing their mission, while two UAVs close to Sevastopol were destroyed by active air defence systems.
In total, Russia claimed to have shot down 13 Ukrainian drones that were attempting to strike both Moscow and the biggest city in the Russian-occupied Crimea.
This comes after a massive fire and explosion at a defence facility in Sergiyev Posad, close to the city, which was connected to Vladimir Putin’s fleet of Ka-52 strike helicopters and new generation stealth bombers.
A warehouse explosion outside Moscow left one woman dead and more than 50 people injured, according to officials.
Andrey Vorobyov, the state governor of Moscow, announced on Telegram that six patients were receiving intensive care.
Videos posted online demonstrated a sizable smoke cloud rising from the facility in Sergiyev Posad.
The explosion took place on the property of a plant that, according to Russian media reports, produces military gear like night vision goggles.
Apartments, two schools, and a local sports facility were all harmed when nearby buildings’ windows were blown out by the shockwave.
According to Mr. Vorobyov, the explosion happened in a warehouse housing pyrotechnics on the property of the Zagorsk optical manufacturing facility.
Despite pro-Kremlin commenters speculating that a drone attack was to blame for the explosion, investigators rejected that theory.
The explosion happened not long after the Russian military ministry said that two drones had been shot down overnight near Moscow, one of them close to the airport.
Russia attributed the drone attacks to Ukraine. Neither the drone assaults nor the warehouse explosion have been linked to Ukraine.
As Ukraine intensifies its attacks on Russian infrastructure and territory, major road bridges connecting the seized Crimea with areas of the Kherson region under Russian control have been destroyed by explosions, according to Russian authorities.
The explosions happened the same day the mayor of Moscow reported that a drone had been shot down as it approached the city, and shortly after that, Ukraine attacked a significant naval facility and one of Russia’s largest oil tankers with a sea drone.
Videos appear to show a Russian cruiser being attacked by a Ukrainian sea drone.
The missiles that struck two bridges in Crimeaon Sunday, according to Vladimir Saldo, the interim leader of Kherson region chosen by Russia, were all Storm Shadows, an air-launched long-range missile supplied to Ukraine by the UK.
Saldo said that civilian traffic, not military traffic, used the two bridges. Twenty thousand people of the Kherson city of Henichesk had their supplies cut off due to a gas pipeline rupture that ran across the bridge.
This kind of cunning rocket attack is unforgivable, Saldo remarked. It resembles an injured animal rising to its feet.
“These strikes have no impact on the ongoing special military operation,” They have made the decision to exact small-scale retaliation against civilians and those currently traversing the land of the Kherson region.
He said that no one was wounded and that traffic would resume on the bridge by the end of the day.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, had earlier claimed that a Russian guided aerial bomb had hit a blood transfusion facility in the Kharkiv region on Saturday.
Without giving an exact count, he said, “There are dead and wounded.”
Overnight, a fresh round of Russian missiles also impacted targets across Ukraine, the majority of which were intercepted.
The fighting is becoming more and more frequent with Ukrainian attacks within Russia and on territory that is under Russian control.
Throughout the summer, a number of drone attacks targeted Russian cities, including Moscow, and on Friday, a battleship was left listing after an attack on a Russian port hundreds of kilometres from Ukrainian-held territory.
Russian tanker being attacked by a marine drone in a video. Here’s why it might change everything.
On Saturday, Ukraine vowed that additional strikes on Russian ships and the Crimea bridge will occur.
Any explosions that occur near Russian ships or the bridge over the Crimean Peninsula are “certainly a logical and practical move.” Additionally, these special operations are carried out in Ukrainian territorial seas and are entirely lawful, according to Vasyl Maliuk, head of the SBU.
The only way for the Russians to halt these explosions, according to Maliuk, is to leave Ukraine’s territorial waters and our territory.
According to the BBC, the building’s exterior was harmed, but no injuries were recorded.
It was the fourth strike attempt this week and the fifth this month on the capital region.
It appears from surveillance video that the drone impacted the structure at that same moment.
In a video posted early this morning, smoke can also be seen flowing from the skyscraper.
According to Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, “over 150 square metres of glazing was destroyed.”
The Russian military ministry has attributed a supposed “terrorist attack” on Ukraine.
They reported that two further Ukrainian drones had been shot down in other areas of the capital.
The airport at Vnukovo briefly shut down, according to Russian news media.
In a tweet, Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisor Mykhailo Podolyak predicted that as the war entered its 18th month, there would be “more unidentified drones, more collapse, more civil conflicts, and more war” in Russia.
A security officer was hurt in the incident on Sunday after three drones targeted the city.
Two of the others were jammed and crashed in the Moscow City commercial sector, while one was shot down by air defence systems.
Concerns about Moscow’s vulnerability to strikes have increased as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its 18th month.
Additionally, Ukraine has been charged by Russia with conducting a drone attack on the Kremlin in May.
None of the incidents had a claim of responsibility from Ukraine.
Attacks on Russian territory, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, are a “inevitable, natural, and entirely fair process.”
In a recent video, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) appear to inform the Russian people that various Russian cities will be attacked in less than a month.
The brief video, which was uploaded to the AFU StratCom Telegram channel, depicts a small cartoon child sobbing in front of a demolished house over a picture of a family holding a Ukrainian flag.
He transforms the drawing into a paper aeroplane, a drone, and eventually a fleet of drones.
Then, red lines are displayed travelling from various regions of Ukraine to locations in or occupied by Russia, such as Sevastopol and Melitopol.
Before the screen falls black and the date August 24 is displayed, one last red line is displayed connecting Kyiv to Moscow.
On that day, Ukraine celebrates its Independence Day, which honours the day in 1991 when the nation gained its independence from the Soviet Union.
Threats of attacks on Kyiv marked the day the previous year, and some city residents fled the area.
The year of retribution continues, according to AFU StratCom’s caption in Ukrainian for the video. The dates are flexible.
“And the outcome is still there—the suffering and tragedy of the occupiers.”
There were no fatalities, according to the city’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin, although two office tower facades sustained “slight damage.”
Zelensky did not confirm or deny that Ukraine was responsible for the strikes, but he did state in his nightly speech that the war was gradually returning to Russian soil, including its military sites and symbolic centres, and that this was a natural, unavoidable process that was entirely fair.
One of the four airports near the capital was temporarily closed as a result of the attack.
Screams could be heard as witnesses saw a drone fly into a capital city office block before a massive explosion late on Saturday night.
Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, wrote on Telegram that “the facades of two city office towers were slightly damaged.” There aren’t any victims or hurt people.
The drone attack is the most recent in a string of recent ones that Moscow has attributed to Kiev.
terror as drones target the centre of Putin’s Moscow tower district
It occurs a day after it appeared that Ukraine fired its first missiles at Russian ports as the battle in the Black Sea grew more intense.
It was the third attack on the capital region this week and the fourth this month.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its 18th month, it has increased worries about Moscow’s susceptibility to assault.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, three drones were used to strike the city in what they called a “attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime.”
Air defence systems in the area around Moscow shot down one and jammed two others.
The capital’s Moscow City business centre was struck by those two collisions.
Images from the crash site showed a skyscraper’s exterior with damage to one storey.
According to rescue personnel and the Russian state news service Tass, a security guard was hurt.
According to Tass, no flights entered or left the southern airport of the city, Vnukovo, for approximately an hour, and all aircraft were temporarily barred from the air space over Moscow and the surrounding areas.
Since then, those limitations have been lifted.
A street close to the incident site in the Moscow City neighbourhood was also closed to traffic by Moscow officials.
Officials from Ukraine, who almost never accept responsibility for attacks on Russian territory, made no immediate comments.
A Ukrainian drone was shot down west of Moscow on Friday, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.
The Russian capital was hit by two additional drones on Monday, one of which landed in the middle of the city close to the Defence Ministry’s offices along the Moscow River, around two miles (3 km) from the Kremlin.
The other destroyed several higher stories of an office building in southern Moscow.
The Russian military reported that in a separate strike on July 4 that four drones were shot down by air defences on the outskirts of Moscow and a fifth was jammed by electronic warfare tools and forced to crash.
The most recent Putin supporter to be discovered dead in unexplained circumstances was a Russian oligarch who created spyware that takes personal information from average citizens.
On Saturday, July 22, 40-year-old Anton Cherepennikov was discovered dead in his Moscow workplace after apparently suffering a heart attack.
The businessman overdosed on “medical gas,” a source in Moscow law enforcement later informed state media.
According to the source, who also asserted that three people paid him a visit in his workplace the night before he passed away, Cherepennikov took the medicine for medicinal grounds but apparently took more than was permitted.
His death’s official cause is still under investigation.
The US Treasury previously imposed sanctions on Cherepennikov’s business, ICS Holding, which was founded in 2018. Citadel is a potent strain of malware that has infected over 11 million machines worldwide and cost over £387 million in losses.
Following the introduction of a 2018 law requiring internet and telephone companies to divulge the private communications and data of their users, it has been claimed that Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) employed ICS Holdings to conduct mass surveillance of Russian residents.
Additionally, Cherepennikov worked in Moscow on the creation of a complex facial recognition system and was a member of the boards of directors for the mobile network operators Megafon and USM Telecom.
Independent Russian journalist Vasily Polonsky declared, “I do not believe [he] died of cardiac arrest,” and instantly cast doubt on the cause of his passing. It will take time to pinpoint the specific reason for the entrepreneur’s passing.
Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian expert on internal affairs, added his thoughts to the enigma surrounding his passing on Saturday by tweeting, “Yet another mysterious death of a top-manager in Russia.”
Cherepennikov was described as “an absolutely key tool in Putin’s repression” by an opposition source, the Mirror writes.
The security system is getting desperate because the war isn’t working, thus his assassination cannot be ruled out.
Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began, a number of Russian businesspeople have inexplicably passed away, with Cherepennikov’s death being the most recent.
Igor Kudryakov, a wealthy oligarch, was also discovered dead in his Moscow flat on Friday. According to official sources, he had died of a “oncological disease.”
In the meantime, FSB officers detained Igor Girkin in Moscow on Friday after accusing him of “inciting extremism.” Girkin is the head of an extreme nationalist group and a vocal opponent of Putin.
Girkin might spend up to five years behind bars if found guilty.
Early on Monday, drone attacks were carried out in Moscow by Ukrainian forces, a Kyiv official told CNN.
The representative from Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, a division of the country’s Ministry of Defence, said that the organisation was in charge of the operation that Russia referred to as a “terrorist attack of the Kiev regime,” using the spelling for the country’s capital that is used in Russia.
Due to lack of permission to discuss the incident in public, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The attack was also claimed by Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation. Mykhailo Fedorov, whose ministry is in charge of implementing his nation’s “Army of Drones” acquisition strategy, predicted additional strikes.
The drones struck two non-residential buildings in the Russian capital – including one near the Ministry of Defense headquarters – in Monday’s early hours, according to Russian authorities, who said they had “thwarted” the attack.
The strikes caused no serious damage or casualties, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram Monday – but the incident will serve as a reminder of the range of Kyiv’s drones, as Ukraine seeks to bring the war closer to home for Russians.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that two drones were “suppressed by electronic warfare means and crashed.”
“On the morning of July 24, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to launch a terrorist attack using two unmanned aerial vehicles against facilities on the territory of the city of Moscow was thwarted,” the ministry said on Telegram.
Social media footage of the aftermath, verified by CNN, showed damage to the Russian defense ministry complex.
One of the buildings seen damaged in footage geolocated by CNN houses the ministry’s military orchestra. It was not immediately clear if that had been caused by the drones.
The area also houses the Russian Foreign Military Intelligence, known as GRU, 26165 unit, which carries out cyber activities, according to multiple Western sources. It’s also in the vicinity of the Ministry of Defense’s National Defense Management Center.
Later Monday morning, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Russian air defenses had worked successfully.
“All the drones have been neutralized today, and measures are being taken,” Peskov said. “As for the development of the defense system, ensuring its more intensive work, this is a question for the Ministry of Defense.”
According to Russian state media outlet TASS, a drone hit a high-rise business center on Likhacheva Avenue in Moscow, causing drone debris to fall on Komsomolsky Avenue.
Law enforcement agencies and emergency services are currently working on the scene, and traffic on Komsomolsky Avenue from the center of the city towards the affected region has been blocked off, according to TASS, citing the Department of Transportation and Road Infrastructure Development of Moscow. CNN could not independently verify the reports.
A resident who was the area at the time of the attack told Reuters she was asleep and woken by an explosion.
“Everything started to shake. It felt like the whole building had come down. I looked out of the window, I live (in the neighboring building) on the side where there’s less damage. And it felt strange – the damage was so minor,” the resident, who gave her name as Polina, said.
“It sounded worse than it looked, as it seemed like the whole mall had exploded,” she added.
A second resident, who identified themselves to Reuters as Sergei, said he heard a bang “and then nothing.”
“We did not see anything flying, even though the windows were open… and we should have heard the sound (of something flying), but no, nothing,” he said.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense also on Monday accused Ukraine of launching 17 drones towards Russian-occupied Crimea overnight. The drones had been downed by its air defenses, with no casualties, the ministry said.
The reported attacks come after Russian missiles badly damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, sparking outrage and prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to vow retaliation.
See what remains of this UNESCO World Heritage site after missile attacks
The Odesa strikes killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian officials said, the latest in a wave of attacks on the port city. The attacks also destroyed other historic buildings, Ukraine’s culture ministry said.
Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks that have taken place on Russian soil or in Russian-occupied territoriesduring the course of the war, which Moscow began when it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Ukraine denied direct involvement in a drone attack on Moscow in May, which damaged two buildings and injured two people.
Earlier this month, Russia said it “destroyed or neutralized” five Ukrainian drones in what it also described as a “terrorist” attack.
Meanwhile, Russian drones attacked Ukraine’s port infrastructure on the Danube river overnight Monday, targeting Ukrainian grain stocks, according to the Ukrainian Army.
Six people were injured in the attack, Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, said on Telegram.
The Ukrainian Army also said a hangar with grain was destroyed while storage tanks for other types of cargo were damaged.
Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s permanent representative at the United Nations headquarters, said that if Moscow‘s criteria are addressed by international partners, Moscow would be willing to resume the Black Sea grain agreement.
In comments made in response to a query from Reuters and posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Telegram channel on Tuesday, Gatilov charged that the arrangement had strayed from its “intended humanitarian purposes.”
Gatilov did say the UN “tried on its part to urge the Western governments and business structures to implement the Russian-UN Memorandum.”
“However, despite the efforts, the leadership of the UN Secretariat could not overcome the resistance of the Western countries and private companies, on which depended the fulfillment of our demands,” he said.
Gatilov also claimed that Ukraine “repeatedly used the Black Sea humanitarian route for provocations and attacks against Russian civilian and military vessels, as well as infrastructure.”
Based on reports, a guy was detained in Moscow for allegedly attempting to light the Mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin on fire.
He allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail towards the Red Square structure where the embalmed body of the Soviet leader is kept in a room behind bulletproof glass, according to Russian Telegram channels.
Baza recognised him as Konstantin Stachukov, a resident of the Trans-Siberian Railway route city of Chita.
It is alleged he travelled to the capital on the eve of his 37th birthday, throwing a glass bottle with a flammable liquid towards the mausoleum at around 10pm last night.
It crashed in the pavement in front of the building before igniting, but no damage has been reported yet.
No information has been released about the suspect’s motives as of yet.
He was detained by police at the scene and according to local media, he was in an ‘inadequate’ condition and resisted officers.
A case has since been opened for ‘disobedience to the lawful demand of a police officer’.
This is not the first time an attack on the mausoleum as foiled in the last minute.
In February, a Moscow resident was arrested for trying to steal Lenin’s body from the chamber.
Following the foiled Wagner group mutiny, experts have advised that the financial edifices of Russia’s private army be rigorously examined.
Private military contractors (PMCs) have been sanctioned by the UK, but one researcher called the approach ‘uneven’ because Western countries have been focusing on the organisations piecemeal over the past three years.
Wagner refused to sign contracts that would have tied the PMCs more closely to Vladimir Putin‘s Ministry of Defence in the days leading up to and following the uprising.
Calls had been growing before the mutiny, where leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led his troops to within 124 miles of Moscow, for the ‘criminal organisation’ to be classified as a terror group by the UK.
But Moscow’s apparent attempt to assimilate the soldiers and commanders — together with other PMCs who are said to have committed atrocities in Ukraine — poses new questions about the groups’ aims and financial links.
The Molfar open source intelligence community has been monitoring developments involving the PMCs, also known as non-state security actors. Around 25 are thought by the organisation to have been active in Ukraine since the outset of Russian military aggression in 2014.
They include Rusich, regarded as a neo-Nazi organisation, which is estimated by Molfar to currently have a couple dozen fighters.
Others have been identified by the investigative community as Redut, which has up to 7,000 mercenaries, Achmat, with around 3,500, Veterans, with around 2,000, the Russian Imperial Movement, with around 200, and the Russian Legion and Tiger, with around 500 each.
Fighters of the Wagner private mercenary group in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on June 24 (Picture: Reuters)
The UK sanctioned Wagner and a handful of facilitators in March 2023 but the details may already be out of date through the Kremlin’s attempts to absorb or possibly eliminate its leadership.
The tool is meant to freeze assets by preventing any UK business or citizen from dealing with funds held by the designated person and ban the individual from entering or remaining in the UK.
Molfar’s head of research (IT) Maksym Zrazhevskiy told Metro.co.uk: ‘Up to this date, Western countries have imposed sanctions against designated PMCs, with Wagner and the Russian Imperial Movement proscribed as terror groups by France and the US respectively.
‘According to information circulated in the Russian media, some PMCs have already signed contracts with the Russian armed forces. Wagner has only handed over its equipment to the Ministry of Defense.
‘The funding of this criminal organisation remains unknown, so there is plenty of work to be done in simply keeping an eye on the formations and individuals, both on the battlefield and in the business and financial sphere.
‘Media awareness also has a crucial role to play.’
Metro.co.uk told last month how an opaque nexus of formations is now positioned to play a shadowy role in the Kremlin’s power games.
The Wagner mutiny between June 23 and 24 ended with Prigohzin standing his fighters down. They were then given an ultimatum by Putin to sign over to Russia’s regular military, join their leader, then said to be in Belarus, or return to their families.
Uncertainty remains over Prigohzin’s whereabouts, with the Kremlin claiming that he met Putin five days after abandoning his march on Moscow. He has reportedly been in Russia, although he has not made any public appearances via his usual means of social media since the mutiny.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has said the group has handed thousands of tonnes of weaponry and ammunition to the country’s regular forces.
The evidence points to Moscow attempting to clamp down on the private armies, possibly to prevent another element going rogue.
‘We assume that these groups will be absorbed by the Russian Ministry of Defense as with Veterans or Akhmat, who have signed contracts with the regular army,’ Zrazhevskiy explained.
‘This follows Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s resolution on February 15, where it was stated that after July 1 all the PMCs or “voluntary formations” must sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense. After the mutiny they were reminded to do this again, but this time by Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press attaché.
‘Apparently, the Russian government was aware that a mutiny could happen, so to check unrestrained growth or at least be able to control it, they sought to make PMC soldiers sign contracts as leverage.’
The PMCs have been sanctioned by various Western governments, although the UK has been accused of being slow to tackle Wagner’s ‘Londongrad’ links and has been called upon to proscribe it as a terror group.
Australia, Canada, Japan, the EU, and the US have also sanctioned the profits-driven militia, which is responsible for atrocities and criminal acts across Ukraine and Africa, according to the US Treasury.
Rusich, said to have ties to Wagner, is led by fighters with neo-Nazi views and has left behind ‘serious evidence’ of war crimes in Ukraine, according to the Kharkiv Human RIghts Protection Group.
Patriot, another formation, was sanctioned by the US in April 23, 2023, with the Department of the Treasury’s listing stating that the entity was established in 2018 and is engaged in ‘defence activities’.
The group is said to have been formed as a counter-balance to Wagner under the auspices of defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who was the target of angry video tirades by Prigozhin before the Wagner insurrection.
‘There are instances where peace organisations and Ukrainians have not needed to go into the field to collect evidence of war crimes,’ Zrazhevskiy said. ‘The fighters themselves have proudly shared their “achievements” on Telegram or other social media channels.
‘They include videos of Ukrainian soldiers being beheaded in cold blood. In other violations of the Geneva Convention there are instances of ex-Wagner soldiers admitting that they were executing dozens of civilians, including children, in Bakhmut.
‘Another instance is an ex-Wagner soldier admitting to executing hostages. According to Ukrainian intelligence, Wagner was responsible for a powerful explosion which killed Ukrainian prisoners of war in the temporarily occupied town of Olenivka.
‘Outside Ukraine, they are notorious for war crimes in the Central African Republic where they executed more than 100 civilians in the city of Bambari. The authorities of the CAR state have that it was an “operation to eradicate the rebels”.’
Stephen Reimer, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies, told Metro.co.uk that the sanctions are being applied in an ‘uneven’ manner.
‘The supposed absorption of the Wagner group into the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) might be a cosmetic change,’ he said.
‘I suspect the group will continue with at least some of its operations across Africa, which are self-resourcing and self-financing. I would postulate that the contracts that they have signed with governments around the world, such as Mozambique, to do counter-terrorist operations will continue to go into their accounts, and not into the MoD’s accounts.
‘From a UK point of view, the announcement of sanctions seems to have a performative element that follows the identification of the individuals and organisations concerned. Unfortunately, the implementation piece does not always attract the same care and attention as the announcement piece.’
Prigozhin generated a quarter of a billion dollars from his global natural resources empire in the four years before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to corporate records examined by the Financial Times.
Existing sanctions aimed at the chef-turned-warlord failed to stop his operations reaping in cash amid a trail of alleged human rights abuses across the Middle East and Africa, according to the report.
After the mutiny, Putin said Wagner had been paid more than 86 billion rubles (£726,447) between May 2022 and May 2023.
Sanctions name those giving Russia ‘deniability’
The 2023 UK sanctions against Wagner group members state:
‘There are multiple, credible sources which corroborate and support the conclusion that the existence of the organisation known as the Wagner Group is kept purposefully vague and opaque in order to provide a deniable military capability for the Russian State. The Wagner Group is therefore responsible for, engages in, and provides support for actions which destabilise Ukraine and undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine.’
While off-radar leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was sanctioned in 2020, the latest sanctions list other individuals associated with the group including commander Andrei Nikolaevich Troshe and Dmitry Valeryevich Utkin, who is said to have founded the group.
The amounts generated by other PMCs are even more opaque.
‘What needs to be done is to look into Wagner’s companies and complex corporate structures, which allow the group to raise, move and ultimately benefit from their funds,’ Reimer said.
‘There has been some research done by people trying to track down those shell companies but it’s very complicated, the structures are meant to obfuscate, they are the same means used by others, like many Russian oligarchs, to hide their funds. Investigating Wagner’s funds will mean going down many of these rabbit holes.’
Prigozhin himself was sanctioned by the UK in December 2020 but the group itself was not listed until five months later.
‘The sanctioning of Wagner by the UK marks a shift from targeting terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda,’ Reimer said. ‘But while targeting terror groups like these tends to be uncontroversial, the PMCs are really non-state proxies and there are questions around how we expand sanctions to meet the threat they pose and what our allies are doing.
‘Sanctions are most effective when they are done in concert. So if the UK, US, Canada and the EU designate different entities at different times, it leaves an uneven landscape for the PMCs to exploit.
‘It’s something that needs to looked at almost on a day-by-day basis; you sanction one company and another company or enabler can be established in its place. The network will reform around the pieces that have been targeted by sanctions. Sanctions are not a “one and done” tool.
‘I have no idea how much the Wagner group is worth, but you get an idea from looking at photographs of their offices in St Petersburg, which is a Bond-villain type of building, that they are not short of money.’
In a joint statement issued by G7 leaders in February 2023, the UK government reaffirmed its intention to target those profiting from the war in Ukraine. The relevant passage stated: ‘We continue to impose targeted sanctions, including on those responsible for war crimes or human rights violations and abuses, exercising illegitimate authority in Ukraine, or who otherwise are profiting from the war.’
The following month the government announced the £1 billion UK Integrated Security Fund, intended to keep the country ‘safe and address global sources of volatility and insecurity’.
Part of its remit is to tackle evasion ‘across the UK’s trade, transport and financial sanctions’, including through work with the private sector to ‘maximise’ the reach of the financial measure.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it does not comment on individual cases.
Alexander Nikolayev, a 72-year-old seasoned diplomat from Russia, passed just three weeks after being the victim of an unidentified attack close to his country home in the Tver region.
Prior to Vladimir Putin‘s takeover of Crimea, Nikolayev held the position of senior Russian diplomat there. Nikolayev was savagely attacked in an unreported event.
After the brutal attack, Nikolayev was allegedly “covered in blood, haematomas, and bruises” and unable to breathe without a ventilator, according to his family, who then accused the Russian police of conducting a subpar investigation into the assault.
Despite being rushed to one of Moscow’s top hospitals, Nikolayev remained in a coma and eventually succumbed to his injuries.
Following his work in Crimea, Nikolayev later served as the Russian ambassador to Bangladesh before transitioning to working for Rosatom, the state nuclear energy corporation, in 2016.
His murder was later highlighted by Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko as the latest in a series of suspicious deaths of those with high-ranking connections to the Russian energy sector.
The family of Nikolayev sought the assistance of renowned Russian human rights expert and journalist Eva Merkacheva to investigate his death.
She revealed that a local Cossack leader, who had close ties to the police, confessed to having an altercation with an unidentified individual whom he pushed.
The incident occurred near a shop in a village near Konakovo town in the Tver region.
The Cossack leader, Alexander Konopenko, is currently under house arrest, and the Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into Nikolayev’s death.
From 2003 to 2008, Nikolayev served as Russia’s Consul-General in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, before the peninsula’s forceful annexation by Putin in 2014.
Nikolayev, survived by his wife and two daughters, adds to the list of mysterious deaths associated with the Russian energy sector since the conflict with Ukraine began.
While the precise nature of Nikolayev’s role at Rosatom remains unclear, the circumstances surrounding his demise raise significant concerns.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group that attempted to overthrow Vladimir Putin, is either dead or imprisoned, according to a former US military commander.
In a botched uprising against the Kremlin in late June, the mercenary leader directed his troops to advance onMoscow.
Experts now believe that Prigozhin has passed away since the Russian president described his former caterer’s acts as a “armed mutiny.”
He has not been seen in public since, and there has been speculation as to whether he is still in Russia, or in neighbouring country Belarus.
Retired General Robert Abrams told ABC News: ‘My personal assessment is that I doubt we’ll see Prigozhin ever again publicly.
‘I think he’ll either be put in hiding, or sent to prison, or dealt with some other way, but I doubt we’ll ever see him again.’
When asked if he thought the former caterer to the Russian premier was still alive, Mr Abrams said: ‘I personally don’t think he is, and if he is, he’s in a prison somewhere.’
Putin allegedly met Prigozhin five days after the failed coup in Moscow, but Mr Abrams believes this was staged.
‘I would be surprised if we actually see proof of life that Putin met with Prigozhin, and I think it’s highly staged,’ he said.
During the meeting Putin ‘listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them options for further employment’, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
But this did not stop Putin calling his former comrade a traitor, saying he ‘betrayed the Russian people’.
Charges against Prigozhin and the Wagner forces were dropped by the Kremlin to avoid ‘bloodshed’ – but the Wagner Group leader was forced to exile to Belarus.
Yet Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko has said Prigozhin is not in ‘his territory’.
He told reporters : ‘As for Prigozhin, he is in St Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus.’
A business jet linked to Prigozhin left St Petersburg for Moscow, and was heading for southern Russia, according to flight tracking data.
But it was not clear if the mercenary chief was on board the plane.
Lukashenko said an offer for Wagner to station some of its fighters in Belarus – a prospect that has alarmed neighbouring Nato countries – still stands.
Separately, Russia has said the for-hire soldiers can go to Belarus, sign up with its regular armed forces or demobilise.
A significant border between Russia and the annexed Crimea has been temporarily closed as a result of a Ukrainian missile attack.
The Kerch Bridge’s traffic was stopped in both directions after Russian air forces claimed they had shot down a missile nearby.
According to the Russian research group Rybar, Ukraine employed a “modernised missile from an S-200 complex with a range of about 250 miles.”
According to sources, the weapon was brought down on Sunday on the Kerch, or Crimean, side of the 10-mile bridge.
It appears there were no casualties but any damage to the bridge will be seen as a blow to Moscow.
The bridge is largely seen as a vanity project for Vladimir Putin, who ordered the £3 billion crossing to be built after he illegally invaded Crimea in 2014.
It was severely damaged last October when a ‘truck bomb’ blew up and killed at least three people, Russian investigators said at the time.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky previously said his government ‘did not order’ the attack but his deputy minister of defence, Hanna Maliar, seemingly admitted responsibility over the weekend.
As part of a list of 12 Ukrainian achievements posted on Telegram, he said: ‘273 days ago, (we) launched the first strike on the Crimean bridge to disrupt Russian logistics.’
Sergey Aksyonov, head of the pro-Russian government in Crimea, said: ‘In the Kerch area, air defence forces shot down a cruise missile. No damage or casualties.
‘I ask everyone to remain calm and rely only on trusted sources of information.’
Russia was already fearful of disgruntled Wagner fighters, who have turned against Putin, would try to destroy the bridge.
Last week, tourists heading to the Black Sea peninsula faced severe delays of up to seven hours, as each vehicle was subject to strict security checks.
Guards went to extremes, which included sending children to get x-rays and inspecting every single section of the cars, such as the glove compartments, according to citizen information service InformNapalm.
Now, Russian war channels are discussing the possibility the Ukrainian military will set its sights on the bridge again.
Kyiv previously made a video targeted at Russians planning holidays in Crimea, warning them to ‘stay away’.
The slightly bizarre clip, which was released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, starts with the question: ‘Big plans this summer?’
It begins like a budget ad with grainy clips of surfers in the water, with captions that read: ‘A travel advisory is in effect for certain beaches.
’We warned you last summer to stay away from Crimea.’
The video then suddenly cuts to images of explosions and tourists fleeing missile attacks. A Russian woman is also shown crying in the back of a car.
‘Our seasonal forecast calls for stormy weather,’ it warns finally before ending with lightning.
Aleksandr Lukashenko has stated that the paramilitary group’s leader is not in Belarusian territory.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, who oversaw an armed coup against the Kremlin in late June, is a subject of much rumour over his location.
The warlord had promised to move into exile in the adjacent nation as part of a pact to put an end to the uprising that the president of Belarus had mediated.
He has not been seen in public since the mutiny, and last week it was believed he had landed in the capital Minsk.
But Lukashenko said Prigozhin is in Russia and ‘may’ be in St Petersburg or even Moscow.
He told reporters today: ‘As for Prigozhin, he is in St Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus.’
A business jet linked to Prigozhin left St Petersburg for Moscow yesterday, and was heading for southern Russia today, according to flight tracking data.
But it was not clear if the mercenary chief was on board the plane.
Lukashenko said an offer for Wagner to station some of its fighters in Belarus – a prospect that has alarmed neighbouring Nato countries – still stands.
He said he did not see it as a risk to Belarus and did not believe they would ever take up arms against his country.
Separately, Russia has said the for-hire soldiers can go to Belarus, sign up with its regular armed forces or demobilise.
Lukashenko’s comments came just hours after Russian security serve agents raided Prigozhin’s mansion in St Petersburg.
FSB officers found fake wigs and beards, forged passports, guns and ammo, a sledgehammer, gold bars, a stuffed alligator.
A framed photo allegedly showing the severed heads of Prigozhin’s enemies was also among the belongings.
Images of the raid were then leaked and published by the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner company, has been seen wearing a variety of odd disguises after Russian security authorities raided his St. Petersburg mansion and discovered a wardrobe full of wigs.
In addition, FSB agents discovered a stuffed alligator, fake beards, falsified passports, firearms and ammo, a sledgehammer, gold bars, and a framed image supposedly depicting the decapitated heads of his adversaries.
The pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia, whose parent firm is run by Vladimir Putin’s long-rumored ex-gym mate Alina Kabaeva, then leaked and published photos of the raid.
The revelations are seen as a direct attempt to humiliate the ‘treacherous’ mercenary boss after Prigozhin led his guns for hire on what appeared to be an insurrection aimed at toppling the regime.
He later backed down, insisting his ‘march for justice’ was not a military coup, and was exiled to Belarus as part of a deal brokered by its strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Prigozhin has not been seen since landing in Belarus on June 24 and reports suggest the Wagner boss has been travelling to and from Russia to collect an arsenal of weapons.
Lukashenko confirmed on Thursday he ‘may’ still be in Moscow or St Petersburg.
A Russian state TV channel attacked the mercenary chief and claimed the investigation into his rebellion for treason – closed as part of the deal ending the uprising – is still active.
Narrating footage of the raid, Rossiya-1 TV reporter Eduard Petrov called Prigozhin a hypocrite over his corruption allegations against the military leadership.
‘Nobody planned to close this case. The investigation is ongoing,’ Mr Petrov said.
‘We need to get to the bottom of who was on whose side [of the mutiny], we need to punish and prosecute them.’
Photos of Prigozhin donning the disguises show him posing as an employee of Sudan’s defence ministry, a diplomat from Abu Dhabi, and a senior Libyan lieutenant.
He also dressed up as a colonel from Tripoli, a ‘merchant from Syria’, and a field commander named Mohammed.
Security services also found a giant sledgehammer inscribed with the words ‘for use in important negotiations’ on display in a reception room.
Last November, footage posted to Telegram purportedly showed a former mercenary being executed with a sledgehammer blow to the head for defecting.
Prigozhin later sent a sledgehammer smeared in fake blood to the European Parliament after the Wagner Group was added to its terrorist list.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the commander of the Wagner, has spoken out for the first time since the weekend’s aborted military coup.
In an 11-minute audio recording he posted, he claims that no one consented to a contract being signed with the defence ministry and that his mercenary organisation was obligated to suspend operations on July 1.
When he announced that his men would march on Moscow, Prigozhin made it plain that he wasn’t targeting Putin, saying: “We didn’t march to overthrow Russia’s leadership.”
In his video message, he says: ‘The aim of the march was to avoid destruction of Wagner and to hold to account the officials who through their unprofessional actions have committed a massive number of errors’.
He says Wagner regrets ‘they had to hit Russian aviation’ and they turned around ‘to avoid spilling blood of Russian soldiers.’
Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was accused of spying and lost his appeal against the extension of his pre-trial detention in Moscow on Thursday.
Last month, the term of Gershkovich’s confinement at Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo jail was extended until August 30. He faces espionage allegations, which he and his employer fiercely deny, and could spend up to 20 years in prison.
In a glass cage, Gershkovich attended the verdict in a dark t-shirt and pants.
The US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was also at the hearing at Moscow City Court, as were his parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich.
Tracy told reporters outside the court that the US was “extremely disappointed” by the decision to reject Gershkovich’s appeal.
“This was a procedural hearing, appealing the conditions of his continued detention and we were extremely disappointed by the denial of his appeal,” Tracy said, adding that she “could not speak with Evan directly at the courthouse today,” and blasted Russia’s denial of US diplomats’ requests for consular access to him.
“Failing to comply with its obligations under the consular convention enforced between our two countries, Russia has denied the US embassy’s requests for formal consular access on three occasions since I last visited Evan in April,” she said.
“Nonetheless, today, in the courtroom, Evan continued to show remarkable strength and resiliency in these very difficult circumstances.”
Earlier on Thursday, Russian state news agency TASS reported that the Russian Foreign Ministry was considering a request from the United States for consular access to Gershkovich.
Russia’s main security service, the FSB, has claimed that Gershkovich, a correspondent based in Moscow, had been trying to obtain state secrets.
His arrest in March was the first detention of an American reporter in Russia on allegations of spying since the Cold War, rattling White House officials and further straining ties between Moscow and Washington.
On May 23, his detention was extended until at least August 30 while he awaits trial.
The US State Department has officially designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained in Russia. US President Joe Biden has also been blunt about Gershkovich’s arrest, urging Russia to “let him go.”
As stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a drone strike on Moscow earlier today was directed at civilians with the intention of inciting the nation.
The incident, which resulted in minor building damage in the Russian capital and forced evacuations, has been attributed by the Kremlin to Ukraine.
Kyiv hasn’t responded, but yesterday the military intelligence chief of Ukraine, Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, issued a warning about a quick response to prior strikes on Kyiv before sunrise.
Prime Minister of UK, Rishi Sunak has promised to deliver Ukraine hundreds more missiles and attack drones in an effort to shift the pattern of the war.
Zelenskyy landed by helicopter at Chequers, the British leader’s official country retreat, where he was greeted by Rishi Sunak with a handshake and a hug. It’s Zelenskyy’s second trip to the U.K. since Russia invadedUkrainein February 2022.
"Your country's bravery and fortitude is an inspiration to us all", PM Rishi Sunak tells Ukrainian President Zelenskyy as they meet at Chequers.
"We are thankful and privileged to be here," Zelenskyy responds.https://t.co/RaneCGCSkd
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/1PbH58KEQm
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 15, 2023
Zelenskyy thanked Britain for its support so far, and said the war was a matter of “security not only for Ukraine, it is important for all of Europe.”
Sunak told Zelenskyy that “your leadership, your country’s bravery and fortitude are an inspiration to us all.”
This is the fourth European country Zelenskky has visited in the past few days, after France, Germany and Italy. He is seeking more aid as Ukraine prepares a long-anticipated spring offensive to retake territory seized by Russia.
The Kremlin said it took London’s promise to supply Ukraine with more weapons “extremely negatively,” but at the same time believed the supplies wouldn’t drastically change the course of the war, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
“Britain aspires to be at the forefront among countries that continue to pump weapons into Ukraine,” Peskov said. “We repeat once again, it cannot yield any drastic and fundamental influence on the way the special military operation (in Ukraine) is unfolding. But, definitely, it leads to further destruction, further action. … It makes this whole story for Ukraine much more complicated.”
Sunak responded by pledging the U.K.’s long-term support for Ukraine.
The U.K. has become one of Ukraine’s major military allies, sending Kyiv short-range missiles and Challenger tanks and training 15,000 Ukrainian troops on British soil. Last week, Britain announced it had sent Ukraine Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which have a range of more than 250 kilometers (150 miles) — the first known shipment of the weaponry that Kyiv has long sought from its allies.
Sunak’s office said that on Monday Britain would confirm it was giving Ukraine hundreds more air defense missiles, as well as “long-range attack drones” with a range of more than 200 kilometers (120 miles).
“This is a crucial moment in Ukraine’s resistance to a terrible war of aggression they did not choose or provoke,” Sunak said. “They need the sustained support of the international community to defend against the barrage of unrelenting and indiscriminate attacks that have been their daily reality for over a year.
“We must not let them down.”
Zelenskyy said more work was needed to have allies build a “fighter jet coalition” to provide Ukraine with vital air defenses.
While Sunak’s spokesman said no planes would be provided, the prime minister said the U.K. would be a key part of the coalition and would begin training Ukrainian fighter pilots as soon as this summer.
Sunak will also push allies to deliver more support to Ukraine at a meeting of Group of Seven leaders in Japan later this week, Downing Street said.
As Zelenskyy visited European capitals, Russia stepped up attacks across Ukraine with drones and missiles. On Sunday, Russia shelled two communities in the northern border region of Sumy, regional officials said on Telegram. They said 109 explosions were recorded.
Zelenskyy’s office said Monday that the shelling had killed nine civilians and injured 19 in the past day. Six of the deaths were in the Kherson region. Two civilians were killed in Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region and one in Prymorsk, which is on the Azov Sea coast about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Russian-occupied Berdyansk.
The presidential office also reported that Marhanets, which lies across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, was shelled.
Zelenskyy’s stop in London followed a previously unannounced visit to Paris on Sunday evening, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron. French President Emmanuel Macron, right, welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Elysee palace in Paris, on May 14, 2023. French President Emmanuel Macron, right, welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Elysee palace in Paris, on May 14, 2023.
Michel Euler via Associated Press
Macron’s office said France would supply dozens of light tanks, armored vehicles and more air defense systems “in the weeks ahead,” without giving specific numbers.
About 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers would also receive training in France this year and nearly 4,000 others in Poland as part of a wider European effort, Macron’s office said.
France had dispatched a plane to pick up Zelenskyy in Germany, where he met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, shake hands during the award ceremony of the Charlemagne Prize in Aachen, Germany, on May 14, 2023. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, shake hands during the award ceremony of the Charlemagne Prize in Aachen, Germany, on May 14, 2023.
Ina Fassbender/Pool via Associated Press
It was his first visit to Berlin since the start of the invasion and came a day after the German government announced a new package of military aid for Ukraine worth more than 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion), including tanks, anti-aircraft systems and ammunition.
After initially hesitating to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons, Germany has become one of the biggest suppliers of arms to Ukraine, including Leopard 1 and 2 battle tanks, and the sophisticated IRIS-T SLM air defense system. Modern Western hardware is considered crucial if Ukraine is to succeed in its planned counteroffensive.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy met Pope Francis and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni in Rome. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni shake hands during a press conference after their meeting at Chigi Palace, Government’s office, in Rome, on May 13, 2023. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni shake hands during a press conference after their meeting at Chigi Palace, Government’s office, in Rome, on May 13, 2023.
Alessandra Tarantino via Associated Press
During his European trip, Zelenskyy said Ukraine would aim to liberate Russian-occupied areas within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, and not attack Russian territory.
The Washington Post cited previously undisclosed documents from a trove of U.S. intelligence leaks suggesting that Zelenskyy had considered trying to capture areas in Russia proper for possible use as bargaining chips in peace negotiations to end the war launched by Moscow.
This would put him at odds with Western governments that have insisted that weapons they provide must not be used to attack targets in Russia.
Asked about the report, Zelenskyy said: “We don’t attack Russian territory, we liberate our own legitimate territory.”
“We have neither the time nor the strength (to attack Russia),” he said, according to an official interpreter. “And we also don’t have weapons to spare with which we could do this.
“We are preparing a counterattack for the illegally occupied areas based on our constitutionally defined legitimate borders, which are recognized internationally,” Zelenskyy said.
Among areas still occupied by Russia are the Crimean peninsula and parts of eastern Ukraine with mainly Russian-speaking populations.
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba of the Ugandan Army has declared that uganda will stand by Russian President Vladimir Putin if he is attacked.
Muhoozi, president Yoweri Museveni’s son, declared that Uganda would send troops to Moscow if it became essential to assist Putin in battling what he called “imperialists.”
“Call me a ‘Putinist’ if you will, but we, Uganda shall send soldiers to defend Moscow if it’s ever threatened by the Imperialists!” he tweeted on March 30, 2023.
Believed to be eyeing the presidency when next elections are held, Muhoozi, a controversial figure leading a group called ‘Muhoozi Movement’ has serially used Twitter to make controversial takes bordering on diplomacy, politics and personal life.
He recently criticised the decision by some Ugandan journalists to visit Kiev to report on the Russia-Ukraine war.
“In Africa, we only believe in President Putin when it comes to Eastern Europe. The West is wasting its time with its useless pro-Ukraine propaganda. Russia, China, Africa, India, South America shall win in Ukraine. 75% of humanity shall win against 15%,” another of his pro-Russia tweets read.
Days after Kherson was liberated, Ihor, 29, was standing outside a Russian jail facility and trembled as he thought back to his experiences there.
Ihor, who requested that CNN not use his last name for his protection, claimed that during the 11 days he was detained in this location, he frequently heard screaming coming from the basement. “They used a taser to stab me in the legs as a welcome,” the victim said. Two of them began punching me in the ribs after one of them inquired as to why I had been brought in.
They were “tortured,” he continued, “they were beaten with sticks in the arms and legs, cattle prods, even hooked up to batteries and shocked or waterboarded with water.”
Kherson was the first large city and only regional capital Russian troops have able to occupy since the start of the invasion. Moscow’s armies took over the city on March 2, 2022, and occupied it for several months before being forced to withdraw in early November, after a months-long offensive by Ukrainian forces.
The detention center Ihor was held in was part of a network of at least 20 facilities that Ukrainian and international lawyers said was part of a calculated Russian strategy to extinguish Ukrainian identity.
“These detention centers are linked, they follow a very similar, if not identical way of behaving,” Wayne Jordash, head of the Mobile Justice Team, a collective of international investigators supporting Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General, told CNN.
The investigation found that Russian forces followed a very specific blueprint in several occupied areas, with clear patterns that point to the overarching plan of Moscow’s occupation of Ukraine.
“The first stage, essentially, is to detain and, in many instances, kill a category of people labeled as ‘leaders,’ i.e. those who could physically resist the occupation, but also those who could culturally resist it,” Jordash said.
“The second stage is a sort of filtration process where the population that remains outside of the detention centers is subject to constant monitoring and filtration so that anyone who’s suspected of being involved with ‘leaders’ or been involved with organizing any type of resistance is also then identified and either deported to Russia or detained in the detention centers and tortured.”
Jordash said these methods were employed not just in Kherson but in other areas occupied by Russian forces, such as the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha and Borodianka. However, he added, the lengthy occupation of Kherson allowed Russian forces to go even further.
“The third stage [is] the extinguishing of permanent identity,” he said. This can include removing the Ukrainian curriculum from schools, and confiscating objects considered to be pro-Ukrainian such as flags or t-shirts in the country’s colors “Essentially the population [is] locked down so that all traces of Ukrainian identity can be removed,” he explained.
Ihor’s account of the torture he was subjected to while he was detained matches the findings of the Mobile Justice Team and the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s office. The type of behavior he said he was forced to adopt also lines up with the overarching efforts to eradicate Ukrainian identity described by Jordash.
“We were forced to learn [the] Russian anthem. If you wanted to have a cigarette or a candy you had to sing their anthem,” Ihor said when he took CNN to the center he was held at, on November 23, 2022. “When they opened the door you had to shout, ‘Glory to Russia! Glory to Putin! Glory to Shoigu!’” Sergei Shoigu is Russian defense minister.
“We were beaten if we didn’t do this,” Ihor added.
He wasn’t alone. Another detainee CNN spoke with, Archie, who also did not want us to reveal his last name over security concerns, said he was tortured at the same facility.
“They beat me, electrocuted me, kicked me and beat me with batons,” Archie, 20 recalled. “I can’t say they starved me, but they didn’t give much to eat.” Archie said he was lucky enough to be let go after nine days and after being forced to record a video saying he’d agreed to work with the Russian occupiers.
Ukrainian and International investigators also said they discovered financial links connecting these detention centers to the Russian state.
“Those detention centers have financial links to the Russian state,” Jordash said, citing documents uncovered by the investigators. “These financial documents, they show that the civilian administration is being financed from Russia and the civilian administration is financing the detention centers, so you have very clear patterns and very clear links.”
CNN has not been able to independently review the documents cited by the investigation.
Jordash said these are just the preliminary results of the investigation, explaining that more evidence of Russian war crimes is still being uncovered and processed.
He also said the newly released findings are a helpful indicator of what is happening in the territories currently occupied by Russia, or of what would have happen should Moscow succeed in completely taking over Ukraine.
“For me, what is interesting about Kherson is you really see the microcosm of the overall criminal plan, what would have happened to [the rest of] Ukraine” he explained. “What’s horrifying, as much as the torture …= is the thought of what would have happened, had Russia managed to be successful in its occupation of vast areas of of Ukraine.”
For Jordash, a larger Russian occupation would have lead to an “unprecedented” number of detentions, as well as cases of torture and killings.
“This criminal plan which involves the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, at its very core, you see this moving to a more final, destructive phase, which seems to suggest that absent success in the original plan the plan turns into one of physical destruction, more deaths, more destruction, and potentially genocidal intent,” he said.
CNN reached out to the Russian government for comment on the accusations put forward by Ukrainian and international investigators but has yet to hear back. Russia has repeatedly denied any and all accusations that it has committed war crimes during what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Despite Moscow’s denials, CNN teams on the ground witnessed the brutal results of Russian occupation not just of Kherson but also places like Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka, uncovering evidence of torture, and indiscriminate killing of ordinary civilians. In January, Human Rights Watch accused Moscow of a “litany of violations of international humanitarian law,” and earlier in the week, UN Secretary General António Guterres said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had triggered “the most massive violations of human rights we are living [through] today.”
“It has unleashed widespread death, destruction and displacement,” Guterres continued.
The body of a Tanzanian national who was killed in Ukraine fighting with Russian forces returned to his home country on Friday.
Nemes Tarimo, 37, died three months ago after agreeing to sign up with the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
His body was received by his family at the main airport in Dar es Salaam with burial scheduled for Saturday in his home village in the southern highlands of country.
Mr Tarimo had been in Moscow as a business informatics master’s student at the Russian Technological University. But he was then imprisoned some time after January 2021 for what were described as drugs-related offences.
Last year, he was enticed with a deal: sign up with the Russian mercenary group Wagner and be pardoned or stay in prison.
Ukraine says that Moscow may use Belarus as a staging area for a northern offensive, thereby opening up a new front.
A train carrying Russian troops and equipment has arrived in Belarus, raising fears that Moscow will use the territory of its ally to launch an attack on Ukraine from the north.
Belarus’ defence ministry confirmed the contingent’s arrival on Friday, saying President Alexander Lukashenko had visited a military base where Russian troops were already stationed.
According to the report, Lukashenko and an unnamed representative from the Russian army discussed joint military drills between the two countries during the meeting.
Russian troops “are ready to carry out tasks as intended”, the representative said.
The developments came after Belarus, which has backed Russia over its war inUkraine, said on Thursday that it will receive more weapons and equipment from its neighbour as the two continue to boost military cooperation.
The Belarusian defence ministry said the goal of creating a joint force was “strengthening the protection and defence of the Union State [of Russia and Belarus]”.
“Personnel, weapons, military and special equipment of the armed forces of the Russian Federation will continue to arrive in the Republic of Belarus,” the statement said.
The two countries are preparing for joint air force exercises, the ministry said, without providing any further details.
The Belarusian government has repeatedly said the country will not join Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But Moscow deployed thousands of forces to Belarusian territory under the pretext of military drills before launching its offensive and then funnelled troops into Ukraine when its invasion began on February 24.
According to Kyiv, Russia continues to use Belarusian airspace for drone and missile attacks.
Any new attack on Ukraine from Belarus would open a major new front in the war, which has killed tens of thousands of people.
Lukashenko has blamed Western nations for the war, accusing them of seeking confrontation with Russia and provoking the ongoing bloodshed.
The 67-year-old says Ukraine has the power to end the conflict by accepting Moscow’s demands – namely the loss of partly-occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The massive fire in Khimki, which is close to the Russian capital of Moscow, destroyed the entire shopping centre.
One of the biggest shopping malls in Moscow was completely destroyed by a massive fire that claimed at least one life.
According to authorities, the fire broke out in the Mega shopping centre in Khimki, northwest of the Russian capital, and covered an area of about 7,000 square metres.
Firefighters’ attempts to put out the flames were hampered because the fire caused part of the building to collapse.
It broke out before the centre opened to customers.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was looking into the cause of the fire.
Officials initially said arson may have been involved.
But, authorities later said the blaze appeared to have been sparked by welding that apparently violated safety regulations, with a probe launched.
The shopping centre used to house a number of Western shops, including IKEA, before the chains pulled out of Russia in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.
One of the largest shopping malls near the Russian capital was engulfed in flames on Friday with authorities saying they were looking into the possibility of an arson attack.
The fire spread across an area of around 7,000 square meters (75,000 square feet) at the Mega shopping mall in the town of Khimki on the outskirts of Moscow and just seven kilometers (four miles) from the capital’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Videos shared on social media showed thick black smoke rising from a large blaze while others showed people running away through the parking lot.
Russian authorities reported that one person had died and that the conflagration had caused part of the structure to collapse, hampering the efforts of rescue workers.
“Due to the collapse of the roof, the fire spread instantly to a large area,” the region’s emergency services said on Telegram. More than 70 firefighters and 20 fire trucks were on site tackling the blaze.
The mall is one of the biggest in the Moscow regionImage: Sergei Savostyanov/Tass/dpa/picture alliance
News agencies had first cited emergency services saying that the incident was likely due to “arson,” but state news agencies later said that failure to stick to safety regulations was the suspected cause.
The Mega mall had hosted numerous western chains before many of them pulled out of Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The roof of the mall collapsed causing the fire to spread furtherImage: Sergei Savostyanov/Tass/dpa/picture alliance
