The Ghana-Russia Centre for Commerce and Relations, located in Accra, is launching Russian language courses to promote better ties between Ghana and Russia.
The Centre’s CEO, John Aggrey, emphasized that the initiative is part of a broader effort to enhance Ghana’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through stronger bilateral collaboration, including language education.
Aggrey revealed that the Centre plans to roll out pilot Russian language courses in Accra starting in 2025, with hopes to expand them to other regions of Ghana. The courses will be accessible through both online and face-to-face formats, ensuring broad participation.
“With the advent of IT, we can easily run virtual courses online,” he said, adding that the Centre would collaborate with telecommunications companies to make data packages affordable, enabling applicants to attend virtual classes.
He further stated his commitment to collaborating with telecom companies to provide free internet access for children, ensuring they can fully participate in the Russian language courses.
“We can liaise with the telcos to provide data packages for these young learners or even a free subscription online, allowing parents to supervise their children as they learn a second language.”
Mr. Aggrey expressed his belief that if Ghanaians learn and speak Russian, it would significantly enhance the ties between Ghana and Russia, fostering mutual economic benefits.
He shared these views in Pakro, Akuapem South District, Eastern Region, during a Christmas vacation celebration with children from St. James Anglican Basic School.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has sacked four deputy defence ministers and appointed his cousin, Anna Tsivileva, to fill one of the vacancies, according to Kremlin decrees.
The move appears to be an attempt to install loyalists in the defence ministry.
Putin is set to visit North Korea this week, marking his first trip there in 24 years, according to announcements from both nations. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un invited the Russian president during his visit to Russia’s Far East last September.
“At the invitation of Kim Jong-un, Chairman of State Affairs of the DPRK, Vladimir Putin will make a friendly state visit to North Korea on June 18-19,” the Kremlin stated. Following this visit, Putin will travel to Vietnam from June 19-20.
A Russian navy warship, the Marshal Shaposhinkov, made a notable arrival at Eritrea’s primary Red Sea port of Massawa amidst regional tension stirred by Iran-backed Houthi militants.
Senior Eritrean military officials and dignitaries greeted the vessel upon its docking on Thursday, alongside Russia’s ambassador to Eritrea.
Eritrea’s Minister of Information, Yemane Gebre Meskel, revealed that the frigate belongs to Russia’s Pacific Fleet, clarifying that its presence marked the “30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Russia and Eritrea”.
Amid concerns over Houthi attacks, a US naval task force patrols the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to safeguard commercial and military vessels navigating the critical trade route.
Eritrea, historically wary of Western military presence in the region, has recently strengthened its relationship with Moscow.
Houthi militants, controlling northern Yemen, have targeted ships in the Red Sea amid conflict in Gaza, aligning themselves with the “axis of resistance” against Israel. Despite claims of targeting Israeli-affiliated vessels, they’ve attacked others unrelated to Israel.
In January, US and British warships launched strikes against Houthi positions in response to their missile and drone assaults.
Russian missiles hit Kyiv and other cities on Wednesday morning, causing at least one person to die and several others to get hurt, according to Ukrainian officials.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that a Russian missile caused damage to power lines and some homes in the city are now without electricity.
One person was said to have died in the city of Mykolaiv in the east.
The entire country was placed on air alert at around 06:00 in the morning.
Mayor Klitschko said that nine people in the capital city had been hurt, including a pregnant woman.
Other people got help at the place where the attack happened. The attack broke houses and also the gas and water systems.
In Kharkiv, there were also loud explosions. The military said that some buildings and roads were damaged.
Ukraine’s air force spotted Russian cruise missiles flying over the western areas of Lviv, Ternopil, and Ivano-Frankivsk.
Ukraine has been getting attacked a lot by air since Russia invaded on 24 February 2022. The Russian army often uses different weapons like drones and missiles in their attacks.
Tatarsky was murdered by a bomb hidden in a statue Trepova gave him, just as he was getting ready to speak in St. Petersburg Many people got hurt in the explosion.
Trepova, who is 26 years old, said she didn’t do it and thought the small statue had a listening device inside.
She said she did what a Ukrainian told her to do, and she was tricked.
Maxim Fomin, also known as Tatarsky, was attacked on April 2, 2023.
Trepova was accused of being involved in a group that caused a terrorist attack resulting in intentional deaths, and of having illegal explosive devices with the group.
Russian investigators say Ukraine did the attack, but Ukrainian officials haven’t said if it’s true or not.
But Trepova said in court that she was doing what a man in Ukraine named Gestalt told her to do. We do not know who he is.
She said she talked to him through Ukrainian journalist Roman Popkov. She does not support Russia’s war in Ukraine and wants to go there to work as a journalist.
Trepova said that she followed Gestalt’s advice and was able to make Tatarsky trust her by pretending to be an art student named Anastasia Kriulina and going to his talks.
In March, Gestalt sent her a small statue and told her it had a listening device and a tracking device inside. She said she was worried that it could have a bomb inside.
“I’m really sorry that I was so easily tricked and didn’t realize the problems it would cause. ” “I didn’t want to harm anyone,” Trepova said in court this week, according to Reuters.
“I feel really bad and embarrassed that I did a terrorist act myself. ”
Tatarsky was a popular blogger who had over 500,000 followers, but he also had a history of committing crimes.
He is from eastern Ukraine and he said he became part of the separatists supported by Russia after they let him out of jail. He was in jail for robbing with a weapon.
He was in a group of military bloggers who support the Russian government, and they have become more well-known since Russia started invading Ukraine in February 2022.
Tatarsky was one of the people who criticized the Russian government, especially the military and President Vladimir Putin, for their failures in the war.
But even though he had passed away, Mr. Putin gave him the Order of Courage as an award.
Trepova has been sentenced, after another pro-war figure Igor Girkin was also sentenced to jail for promoting extremist activities.
Russia has decided to build a military base near Abkhazia, a region in Georgia that wants to be independent from Georgia. The leader of Abkhazia told the Russian media about this plan.
Aslan Bzhania told a newspaper called Izvestia that his region, which is supported by Moscow, will soon have a permanent location for Russia on the Black Sea coast.
This happens as Ukraine is attacking Russia’s Black Sea fleet more often. Two weeks ago, Kyiv attacked the fleet’s main base in Crimea.
The Russian government has chosen not to say anything about the reported agreement.
Georgia’s government said that it would be a serious act that goes against Georgia’s authority and land if this were to happen.
Abkhazia is a place in Georgia that is next to Russia. It already has a Russian military area there.
The area was involved in a war with Georgia from 1992-1993 and claimed independence in 1999, although not many countries acknowledge it as an independent nation.
After the war between Georgia and Russia in 2008, Moscow accepted it as a separate country. Georgia accuses Russia of occupying Abkhazia.
Mr Bzhania said the new naval base in the Ochamchire district would increase Russia and Abkhazia’s ability to defend themselves and protect their important interests. “He told Izvestia that security is the most important thing. ”
He saw Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin earlier this week and showed he backs Moscow’s conflict in Ukraine.
The UK defence ministry has suggested that Russia’s Black Sea fleet is moving towards the eastern region due to increased attacks from Ukraine in occupied Crimea.
Satellite pictures show that 17 Russian ships have moved from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk.
The alleged new Abkhazia base is located 500km (300 miles) to the southeast of Novorossiysk, near the Black Sea coast.
Russian presidential spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, ignored questions about ship deployments and told reporters to ask the defense ministry instead.
The Black Sea fleet in Moscow is considered the most important unit in their navy. The ships shot missiles at Ukraine, which resulted in serious damage.
Kyiv sees the fleet as an important target, so they attacked its headquarters in Crimea in late September. They claimed to have killed 34 Russian officers.
A court in Moscow has given a journalist named Marina Ovsyannikova a prison sentence of 8. 5She protested on live television against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The person, who is 45 years old, was not present at their trial. They were found guilty of sharing untrue information about the Russian armed forces, knowing it was untrue.
Last year, she ran away from being kept at home and left Russia with her daughter. She thinks the charges are ridiculous.
Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022.
However, in Russia it is against the law to refer to the war as an “invasion”. The government tells news organizations to call it a “special military operation”.
Many people have been imprisoned or given money penalties for criticizing the country’s military. This crackdown on voicing disagreement is said to be the strongest under President Vladimir Putin.
On Wednesday, the court in Moscow said that Maria Ovsyannikova was given a prison sentence of eight years and six months in a jail.
It also stopped her from using anything related to electronic media, like the internet, for four years.
During the protest, she held a sign with Russian words saying “Putin is a killer. ” His soldiers are extremely right-wing and have oppressive beliefs.
During the trial, some members of the Ovsyannikova family, such as her ex-husband and son, testified on behalf of the prosecution, as reported by Russia’s Mediazone website.
It is not known where Ovsyannikova is right now. She said that the accusations against her are related to politics and not based on the truth.
She wrote in a statement before the verdict that she definitely didn’t admit to being guilty.
She said that she made a really hard but the only right moral decision and now has to live away from her home.
Ovsyannikova made news in March 2022 when she interrupted a live news broadcast on Channel One TV. She held a sign saying, “no war, stop the war; don’t believe the propaganda; they’re lying to you here”.
Even though the Russian authorities are after her, many Ukrainian journalists and Russian dissidents do not trust Ovsyannikova because of her previous work for the Russian state media.
Last summer, she went to Ukraine to report on the war for Germany’s Die Welt newspaper. This made many Ukrainians very angry and they wanted her to be fired right away.
The attack on Tuesday lasted for over two hours and caused damage to a port building, storage facilities, and more than 30 trucks and cars, as confirmed by the governor of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper.
Moscow has increased its airstrikes on Ukrainian ports along the Danube River, such as Izmail and Reni. This happened because they stopped a grain agreement in July that used to guarantee the secure shipment of Ukrainian grains.
On Tuesday, a Russian missile attack also hurt a business in the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, according to Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul. It is not clear yet if anyone was hurt.
A drone attack by Ukraine caused the power to be shut off in seven towns in Russia’s Kursk region, according to Governor Roman Starovoyt.
Earlier, the defense ministry of Russia stated that their air defense systems had destroyed a drone launched by Ukraine over the Kursk area around 5:30 am.
Afterwards, there were many reports of several drones being hit and destroyed in the area near Ukraine on Monday.
Yesterday, Russia launched missiles on the city of Odessa in Ukraine. This happened while the city’s Jewish community was observing the important religious holiday called Yom Kippur.
Fighters attacked the famous Hotel Odessa, which was being used as a training center for the military. The hotel was severely damaged and destroyed by the fire that followed.
Other people who saw it said that there was a long attack on the Black Sea port. Russia fired a lot of dangerous missiles for more than an hour.
We do not know when the video with Viktor Sokolov and the defence minister was recorded.
The ministry said they had a meeting with important people on Tuesday.
OnMonday, the special forces of Ukraine announced that Adm Sokolov and 33 other officers were killed by a missile attack on the headquarters of their fleet in Sevastopol, which is controlled by Russia in Crimea.
They did not say the admiral’s name directly, and they didn’t provide any proof that he had passed away. Now, they are saying that they are giving more information about the reports.
“They said that 34 officers died when a missile hit the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. “
According to some reports, the leader of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was among the people who died. Many [people] still haven’t been recognized because their body parts are in bad shape.
The video is 8minuteslong and shows a meeting at the Defence Ministry that happened on Tuesday morning. The Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu is having a conversation with important people in a meeting room in Moscow.
He is sometimes shown on video calls with the commanders of Russia’s five fleets, including the Black Sea Fleet. None of the commanders speak during these calls.
The facial recognition software found similarities between pictures of Adm Sokolov and the man in the newest video, indicating that it is likely him.
But the BBC is not sureif the meeting really happened on Tuesday or if the video of Adm Sokolov is live. On Friday, Ukraine announced that they had attacked the main base of the Russian navy which is considered the strongest, and it was a significant goal for Kyiv.
Videos on social media showed thick smoke coming out of the building. Russia said that it had destroyed five missiles, but unfortunately, one soldier went missing during the attack.
Recently, the Kyiv army has been attacking the Russian troops stationed in Crimea almost everyday.
Is Ukraine attempting to regain control of Crimea.
Inaddition to being used for attacking Ukraine, the Black Sea fleet is a significant symbol of Russia’s long-standing military presence in the region.
The place was in Crimea under a rental agreement even before Russia took over the peninsula illegally in 2014.
Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, told reporters that Kim’s programme was ‘very intense’ and that it was not yet clear how long he would remain in Russia, state news agency RIA reported.
It also quoted Oleg Kozhemyako, governor of Vladivostok’s Primorye region, as saying he would have talks with Kim on Sunday on cooperation in sport, tourism and culture.
After the aircraft and missiles, Kim inspected the Russian Pacific Fleet’s frigate ‘Marshal Shaposhnikov’ in Vladivostok and saw a demonstration of modern missile control systems, RIA said.
South Korea and the United States said on Friday that military cooperation between North Korea and Russia would violate UN sanctions against Pyongyang and that the allies would ensure there was a price to pay.
Russia has gone out of its way to publicise Kim’s visit and drop repeated hints about the prospect of military cooperation with North Korea, which was formed in 1948 with the backing of the Soviet Union.
For Putin, who says Moscow is locked in an existential battle with the West over Ukraine, courting Kim allows him to needle Washington and its Asian allies while potentially securing a deep supply of artillery for the Ukraine war.
Washington has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, which has the world’s biggest store of nuclear warheads, but it is unclear whether any deliveries have been made.
He and Putin discussed military matters, the war in Ukraine and deepening cooperation when they met on Wednesday.
Putin told reporters Russia was ‘not going to violate anything’, but would keep developing relations with North Korea.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters there had not been a plan to sign any formal agreements during the visit.
Russian diplomats said Washington had no right to lecture Moscow after the United States had bolstered its allies across the world, including with a visit of a US nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine to South Korea in July.
While in Vladivostok, Kim watched the first act of the ballet ‘Sleeping Beauty’, staged by St Petersburg’s Mariinsky theatre, the RIA news agency reported.
The security service and navy of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, carried out an attack on a Russian military site near Yevpatoriya using cruise missiles, according to a source from Ukrainian intelligence that spoke to the BBC.
People on social media shared videos that showed a fire and smoke in a place called Yevpatoriya, which is located in the western part of a peninsula that Russia has control over.
Moscow has not said anything about the attack so far.
However, the Russian defense ministry stated on Wednesday that they had destroyed multiple Ukrainian flying robots and prevented another attempt to harm a naval patrol ship.
There were some explosions reported in Crimea, which Russia took over unlawfully in 2014, earlier on Thursday.
According to a source from the BBC who knows a lot, the Ukrainian operation used drones to attack a Russian radar. Then, they used cruise missiles to attack missile launchers that protect against attacks from the air.
The drones targeted the devices that protect against air attacks and the devices that detect enemy planes. After turning off the radar stations, the Navy groups attacked the S300 and S400 ‘Triumph’ systems, which are valued at $1. 2 billion, using two Neptune cruise missiles,” the person said.
No information was given about how many batteries were focused on.
Ukrainian news sources said that there were explosions and smoke near a military base at around 5:40 am local time. Local residents reported this. Some videos have been posted on social media.
Russia’s defense department said that they shot down 11 flying drones over Crimea, but they don’t think the attack was very significant.
Local officials that Russia chose have not said that they found any problems with the military place or the systems that protect from attacks in the air.
The S400 air defence system from Russia started being used in 2007, and it is a newer and improved version of the S300 that has been used since 1978.
There are different types of these systems, but the most advanced one has the longest reach and can go up to 400km (249 miles) in distance, says the Russian Defence Ministry.
The S400 is able to destroy both manned and unmanned aircraft, as well as ballistic missiles.
It seems that Ukraine is increasing the number of attacks on the forces that have taken control of Crimea.
The attack happened after a big attack on the port of Sevastopol, where Ukraine says two Russian naval ships were badly damaged.
Russian officials said that 10 missiles were used in the attack and it caused 24 people to get hurt. Ukraine used missiles to show that they are using more long-range weapons, some of which they made in their own country.
The Ukrainian military said they are now using their own made Neptune cruise missiles.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s finance ministry announced that the country will receive $1. 25 billion (around £1 billion) from the United States for the World Bank’s PEACE in Ukraine project.
Officials stated that the money would be used for things that are not related to the military. It would be given to people who are in need and used to provide education and medical help.
Russian President Vladimir Putin showed that he might be open to helping North Korea with their space and satellite program during a visit to Russia’s Vostochny space launch site. This happened before planned discussions about weapons.
When a reporter asked Putin if Russia would assist North Korea in launching their own satellites and rockets, Putin replied, “That’s the main reason we are here. ”
The leader of North Korea is very interested in space and rockets, and they are working hard to develop their space program. “We will present our new items,” Putin said at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, located in Russia’s far east on Wednesday. “We will discuss all the problems slowly and calmly because there is enough time. ”
Putin’s words suggest that Russia and North Korea are getting closer, which concerns US officials. They have warned that this could lead to North Korea providing weapons to Russia for use in their struggling conflict in Ukraine in exchange for prohibited missile technology.
A video from the Kremlin was published on Wednesday. It showed the two leaders shaking hands and then visiting the space center and rocket complex. The complex is where they put together and test the vehicles that are launched into space. This information was reported by Russian state media.
North Korea really wants to develop space technology, but they haven’t been successful yet. They tried two times this year to put a spy satellite in space, but they didn’t work.
In April, Kim emphasized the importance of military satellites for keeping the country safe and maintaining control over their land. He also talked about how valuable these satellites are for planning military operations in advance, according to North Korean media.
Giving this technology to North Korea would go against the rules set by the international community. These rules are meant to make it harder for North Korea to make nuclear weapons and missiles.
Putin said that the talks were about working together on economy, helping people, and understanding what is happening in the area. The conversation lasted a little more than an hour.
Kim said both countries have “a lot of problems” that they can work together on. He commended Russia for protecting its independence and safety against dominant powers. He implied that the US and the West were the dominant powers. He also mentioned that he fully supports everything Russia does in response to these powers.
“And I want to make it clear that I will always support Russia in their fight against imperialism and for independence,” said the leader of North Korea.
After the discussions, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that there are no intentions to sign any documents, as reported by Russian state media.
Peskov said that having a good relationship means talking and working together, especially in important areas like military cooperation and discussing important security problems.
Why it matters that Putin and Kim are meeting at a space center
During the tour, the two leaders visited the place where Russia plans to start using its new spacecraft.
According to state news agency TASS, the facilities were constructed to welcome and prepare rockets for launch, carry out the launches, and handle tasks after the launch.
Experts believe that the choice of the space center as the venue for Wednesday’s summit is important.
The meeting at Russia’s eastern spaceport is concerning because it could mean that Putin might give North Korea technology to launch satellites illegally, and in return, North Korea would provide weapons for Russia to use in their unlawful war in Ukraine. This was stated by Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, during an interview with CNN.
Moscow needs more ammunition and shells because the war in Ukraine has severely weakened its military. North Korea, on the other hand, lacks many important things like money, food, and missile technology due to years of international sanctions because of its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea also said that the meeting will improve their relationship.
Kim came to Russia on Tuesday in his very protected private train with his friends and military leaders, as shown in pictures shared by North Korean state media.
Kim visited the border town of Khasan and was greeted by Russian officials. He said that his trip to Russia showed how important the relationship between North Korea and Moscow is.
Former US National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday that the meeting between Putin and Kim is very important and goes beyond just the possibility of a weapons agreement.
Bolton told CNN that from North Korea’s perspective, this would reconnect them with Russia in an important way. It has been a while since they had such a connection, since the Soviet Union broke apart.
According to state media, after the discussions, Kremlin spokesperson Peskov said that North Korea is a nearby country to us.
“And no matter what others say, we will form good connections with the people living nearby in a way that is helpful for both us and them,” he stated.
Kim’s delegation includes Ri Pyong Chol, who is the military’s second-in-command. Ri is under sanctions from the US and UN because he played a leading role in the country’s ballistic missile programs as the former head of the Department of the Munitions Industry. His sister, Kim Yo Jong, who is a high-ranking official, was seen standing next to her brother when he signed a guest book.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is with Putin in Pyongyang. Shoigu went there in July. Putin said on Wednesday that Shoigu was welcomed in North Korea and that they have many questions.
Shortly before the meeting, North Korea fired two small missiles from the Sunan area around 11:43 a. mand eleven fifty-three in the morning. The time in the area near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) reported.
North Korea launched two missiles on Wednesday morning. These missiles flew about 650 kilometers (400 miles) before landing in the sea, as reported by the JCS.
The US and South Korean intelligence authorities are looking at more information about the launch. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it was a very serious action that endangers the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the world.
Experts say it’s not common for Pyongyang to launch something when Kim is away from North Korea.
North Korea might want to demonstrate that their military is always prepared and in control, according to Easley.
“It is noteworthy that North Korea launches missiles despite being under UN sanctions, while Kim is in Russia for a meeting with the leader of a permanent member of the Security Council,” Easley mentioned.
Ankit Panda, a person who knows a lot about nuclear policy, said the launch was important.
Since 2019, Kim began to be less involved in testing and exercises. Many launches happened without him being there. “This launch could have happened because Panda said so. ”
This happens as North Korea has started using tactical nuclear weapons and giving more control to others.
People who live in areas of Ukraine that are controlled by Russia are being requested to participate in what the government is calling local elections.
The foreign minister of Ukraine said the elections were fake and would not have any legal significance.
All the candidates are either from Russia or support Russia, and some of them were chosen by Moscow to be governors.
A lot of people who voted early were asked to vote while there were Russian soldiers with weapons around.
Ukrainian officials are telling people not to join in. They say that Ukrainian citizens who help with the elections will be punished later on.
The Council of Europe, which focuses on human rights, criticized the action in the areas of Ukraine that were taken over without permission. They said it goes against international law and Russia is not paying attention to this.
These areas are a very important part of Ukraine. The council said that holding elections there makes it seem like there is democracy, but it is not really true.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, criticized the elections in Ukraine held in areas controlled by Russia, calling them fake and not valid. In response, the Russian embassy in the US accused Washington of interfering in their internal matters, as reported by state media.
The elections will end on Sunday and are happening in four areas that Russia doesn’t have complete control over. These areas include Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
Together, they contribute 15% of the total land owned by Ukraine.
These are the places that Russia said were theirs last September, after asking people if they wanted to be part of Russia or not.
The international community strongly criticized those referendums as being fake. There were reports that showed more than 99% of people supported the regions going under control of Moscow. In some cases, soldiers carrying weapons went from house to house to collect votes.
The mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, who has been forced to leave the city, said that the recent local elections are not valid and have no value. He mentioned that many candidates in the Zaporizhzhia region are not from the area and some are even from Siberia.
He said to the AP news agency that the city had increased its security recently, and the residents felt scared because voting in a city that was controlled by others was similar to voting in a jail.
The Zaporizhzhia region is also the main target of Kyiv’s counter-attack, which started during the summer.
Ukrainian generals say they have broken through Russia’s strong front line defenses in that area, which means that the attack there is about to become stronger.
Experts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) say that recent progress in Ukraine is very important in terms of tactics. It is expanding the area where Ukraine is breaking through the defense lines of Russia and is also posing a threat to Russia’s backup defense lines.
Ukraine has been primarily focusing its efforts on the village of Robotyne, which is located about 56km (35 miles) to the south-east of the city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital.
A video shows the Swedish army using a small portable missile launcher to successfully attack an aircraft.
In simple words, a guy from Ukraine said to shoot, and a few seconds later, someone happily shouted that they hit the target.
The Ka-52, a helicopter gunship, is very expensive, costing at least £12. 5 million The Kremlin praises it as the best in the world. However, sometimes it crashes and causes a big fire.
A Russian helicopter called Ka-52 was destroyed by Ukrainian forces. A video of what happened afterwards shows fire and smoke coming out of the crashed plane.
The event is said to have occurred in August at a field close to a place called Robotyne, that was recently freed. It happened in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Video from a Telegram channel called War Gonzo showed that while the ‘Alligator’ was on fire in a field, a Russian transport helicopter flew nearby and landed.
The pilot ran with two rescuers into a helicopter while his plane was producing a lot of thick black smoke. The news channel said that right after the helicopter crash, another helicopter called Mi-28 came to the site. It checked the area, found where the person who survived was, and sent a message for them to be rescued.
A little while later, a helicopter came and took the pilot.
The Ka-52 helicopter can destroy things on the ground like tanks, vehicles with and without armor, and slow-moving objects in the air.
As soldiers move closer to the battlefront during the three-month counterattack, people are paying more attention to how well they are performing.
Ukrainian soldiers said that two helicopters, called ‘Alligators’, were shot down. One was near Robytyne and the other was near Bakhmut, both in Donetsk region.
Russia is estimated to have lost nine attack helicopters in the war with Ukraine.
Russian forces attacked Ukrainian port facilities on the Danube River that are used for sending food out of the country on Sunday. This happened just one day before Russian President Vladimir Putin is supposed to talk about restarting a deal to export grains with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
At least two people got hurt in the attacks, as told by a spokesperson from the local military. The ports were damaged, which caused a fire. But the fire was put out fast.
The Air Force of Ukraine said that 25 flying robots were used in attacks on the Odesa region during the night, but only 3 of them were not destroyed.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said they were attacking fuel storage places in the Ukrainian port of Reni, which are used to supply Ukraine’s military. The Russian statement also said that the attack went well and all planned targets were dealt with effectively.
The attack hit very close to the NATO member Romania, and it quickly angered the country. Romania’s Ministry of Defense strongly criticized the attack, saying it was wrong and went against the rules of international humanitarian law.
The ministry stated that Romania’s land and territorial waters were not in immediate danger.
Russian terrorists are still attacking port infrastructure. Their goal is to cause a food crisis and famine worldwide. Andriy Yermak, an assistant, shared this information on the messaging app Telegram.
During the night, Russia launched airstrikes to attack Ukrainian shipping infrastructure. This is not the first time they have done this since July. In July, Russia stopped a deal that allowed Ukrainian ships to go around a blockade and safely pass through a waterway to reach Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait and connect to markets worldwide.
This president has supported both Russia and Ukraine in their conflict.
The breakdown of the agreement caused the prices of food worldwide to rise and strengthened concerns that the world’s most impoverished nations would have difficulty feeding their people.
Erdogan, the leader of a country that has control over entering and leaving the Black Sea, played a part in arranging the first agreement and is now trying to mediate and convince Russia to join again. He will probably talk about bringing back the deal when he meets Putin in the Russian city of Sochi on Monday.
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has said that Russia is willing to rejoin the pact if it is assured that the benefits promised to them will actually happen.
For now, Ukraine has tried to make temporary routes for merchant ships, but Kyiv cannot promise that they will be safe from Russian attacks or mines. Many ships have used these routes even though they are dangerous.
The United Nations has been trying to bring the agreement back to life.
Russia’s diplomats were once a pivotal component of President Putin’s foreign policy strategy, but that paradigm has undergone a profound transformation.
In the years leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, diplomats witnessed a erosion of their authority, as their role dwindled to echoing the Kremlin’s aggressive rhetoric.
BBC Russian delves into the breakdown of Russian diplomacy, seeking insights from former Western diplomats, as well as ex-Kremlin and White House insiders.
In October 2021, US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland attended a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow. Seated across from her was Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, with whom Ms. Nuland had maintained a decades-long rapport.
Mr. Ryabkov had been perceived by his American counterparts as a pragmatic and composed negotiator—a person with whom they could engage in dialogue, even amid the deterioration of the bilateral relationship.
However, this time, the dynamics were notably different.
Mr. Ryabkov recited Moscow’s official stance from a written statement and resisted Ms. Nuland’s efforts to initiate a discussion. According to two individuals who discussed the incident with her, Ms. Nuland was taken aback.
Describing Mr. Ryabkov and one of his colleagues as “robots with papers,” she reportedly remarked on their demeanor (the State Department declined to comment on the incident).
Beyond the confines of the negotiation room, Russian diplomats were employing increasingly undiplomatic language.
“We spit on Western sanctions.”
“Let me speak. Otherwise, you will really hear what Russian Grad missiles are capable of.”
“Morons” – preceded by an expletive.
These are all quotes from people in positions of authority at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in recent years.
How did we get here?
A new Cold War
It might be hard to imagine now, but Mr Putin himself told the BBC back in 2000 that “Russia is ready to co-operate with Nato… right up to joining the alliance”.
“I cannot imagine my country isolated from Europe,” he added.
Back then, early in his presidency, Mr Putin was eager to build ties with the West, a former senior Kremlin official told the BBC.
Russian diplomats were a key part of Mr Putin’s team, helping resolve territorial disputes with China and Norway, leading talks on deeper co-operation with European countries, and ensuring a peaceful transition after a revolution in Georgia.
But as Mr Putin became more powerful and experienced, he became increasingly convinced he had all the answers and that diplomats were unnecessary, says Alexander Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, who is living in exile in Berlin.
The first signal that a new Cold War was beginning came in 2007 with a speech Mr Putin made to the Munich Security Conference.
In a 30-minute diatribe, he accused Western countries of attempting to build a unipolar world. Russia’s diplomats followed his lead. A year later, when Russia invaded Georgia, Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly swore at his UK counterpart, David Miliband, asking: “Who are you to lecture me?”
Western officials still thought it was worth trying to work with Russia. In 2009, Mr Lavrov and the then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed a giant red “reset button” in relations, and the two countries seemed to be building co-operation – especially on security issues.
But it soon became obvious to US officials that their Russian counterparts were simply parroting Mr Putin’s growing anti-Western views, says Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor to former US President Barack Obama.
Image caption,Ben Rhodes (L), deputy national security advisor to President Obama, says Putin increasingly ignored his own foreign ministry
Mr Rhodes recalls President Obama having breakfast with Mr Putin in 2009, accompanied by a folk orchestra. He says Mr Putin was more interested in presenting his view of the world than discussing co-operation and that the Russian leader blamed Mr Obama’s predecessor, George W Bush, for betraying Russia.
As the Arab Spring, the US involvement in Libya, and the Russian street protests unfolded in 2011 and 2012, Mr Putin decided that diplomacy wouldn’t get him anywhere, Mr Rhodes says.
“On certain issues – Ukraine in particular – I did not get the sense that [diplomats] had much influence at all,” says Mr Rhodes.
As an example, when Mr Lavrov, the foreign minister, was appointed nearly 20 years ago he had an “international perspective and his own position”, a former senior Kremlin official told the BBC.
The Kremlin used to consult him even when it knew he might have a different view to Mr Putin, says Mr Gabuev.
But when troops were sent into Ukraine in 2022, Mr Lavrov only found out a few hours before the war began, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Image caption,Putin was said to be more interested in expressing his world views to Obama in 2009 than discussing co-operation
Andrei Kelin, Moscow’s ambassador to the UK, rejects the idea that Russian diplomats have lost their influence. He has worked on relations with Western countries throughout his diplomatic career.
In an interview with the BBC, he refused to concede that either Moscow or individual diplomats bear any responsibility for the collapse of relations with the West.
“We are not the ones doing the destroying,” he said. “We have problems with the Kyiv regime. There is nothing we can do about it.”
He says war in Ukraine is “a continuation of diplomacy by other means”.
Diplomacy as a spectacle
As foreign policy officials became less and less influential, they turned their attention back to Russia. Maria Zakharova, who became the ministry’s spokesperson in 2015, is a symbol of this new chapter.
“Before her, diplomats behaved like diplomats, speaking in refined expressions,” says former foreign ministry official Boris Bondarev, who resigned in protest over the war.
But with Ms Zakharova’s arrival, foreign ministry briefings became a spectacle. Ms Zakharova often yelled at reporters who asked her difficult questions and responded to criticism from other countries with insults.
Image caption,Spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry Maria Zakharova is known for “theatrical” press briefings
Her diplomatic colleagues were going the same way. Mr Bondarev, who used to work for Moscow’s mission to the UN in Geneva, recalls one meeting where Russia blocked all proposed initiatives, prompting colleagues from Switzerland to complain.
“We said to them: ‘Well, what’s the problem? We are a great power, and you are just Switzerland!’
“That’s [Russian] diplomacy for you,” he says.
This approach was aimed at impressing Russians back home, says Mr Gabuev, the foreign policy analyst.
But an even more crucial target audience for diplomats is their own bosses, according to Mr Bondarev. Official telegrams sent to Moscow after foreign meetings are focussed on how passionately diplomats defended the country’s interests, he explains.
A typical message, according to him, would be something like: “We really gave them a hard time! We heroically defended Russian interests, and the Westerners couldn’t do anything and backed down!”
If everyone writes about “putting Westerners in their place” and you write that you “achieved consensus”, you will be looked at with disdain, he says.
Image caption,Boris Bondarev quit as a Russian diplomat over the Ukraine invasion
Mr Bondarev recalls a dinner in Geneva in January 2022 when Mr Ryabkov, from the foreign ministry, met US officials. US First Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman hoped to avert the invasion of Ukraine through 11th-hour negotiations.
“It was awful,” says Mr Bondarev. “The Americans were like, ‘Let’s negotiate.’ And instead Ryabkov starts shouting, ‘We need Ukraine! We won’t go anywhere without Ukraine! Take all your stuff and go back to the 1997 [Nato] borders!’ Sherman is an iron lady, but I think even her jaw dropped at this.
“[Ryabkov] was always very polite and really nice to talk to. And now he’s banging his fist on the table and talking nonsense.”
It should be noted that, in recent years, the diplomatic tone has changed in other countries too, albeit on a smaller scale.
A few years earlier, Japan’s representative for human rights at the UN, Hideaki Ueda, demanded that foreign colleagues “shut up” at a meeting. Gavin Williamson used the same words against Russia when he was the UK defence secretary. And Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, last year referred to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as an “offended liver sausage”.
The US can’t snap their fingers and end this war
After a year and a half of war, is there any hope that diplomacy could help to bring the fighting to an end?
Most of the people the BBC spoke to think it is highly unlikely. Usually, 95% of diplomats’ work is “unofficial meetings and having coffee”, explains Mr Bondarev. Such contacts have greatly declined, he says – there is no longer much to talk about.
Ambassador Kelin has been banned from entering the UK Parliament. At one point, he says, the Russian embassy in London was almost left without gas and electricity, and insurance companies refused to insure the mission’s cars.
Image caption,President Putin with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
Sooner or later, dialogue will have to happen, says RAND analyst Samuel Charap. The only alternative to negotiations is “absolute victory”, and it’s unlikely either Kyiv or Moscow could achieve this on the battlefield, he argues.
But he does not expect talks to happen soon. “Putin has changed pretty dramatically over the course of his term in power,” he says. “And frankly, I don’t know whether he’s going to be willing to engage.”
The Ukrainian authorities complain that Russia is once again offering ultimatums instead of compromises, such as demanding that Ukraine accepts the annexation of occupied territories. Kyiv has no intention to negotiate under such conditions, and its Western allies publicly support this decision.
Russia seems set on relying on its military machine, intelligence services and geo-economic power for influence – rather than diplomacy.
In these dispiriting circumstances, why aren’t Russian diplomats simply voting with their feet and resigning from the foreign service altogether?
“It’s a problem for everyone who’s been stuck in their positions for 10 to 20 years,” a former Kremlin employee told the BBC. “There’s no other life for you. It’s terrifying.”
Mr Bondarev, the former diplomat, can relate to that. “If it hadn’t been for the war, I probably would have stayed and put up with it,” he says.
“The job isn’t so bad. You sit, suffer a bit and in the evening you go out.”
A famous Russian space scientist passed away after supposedly being poisoned with mushrooms.
Professor Vitaly Melnikov was in charge of the department that makes rockets and spaceships at RSC Energia, which is the top company in Moscow for building spacecraft.
The person who was 77 years old had been sick for more than two weeks because of severe poisoning. Unfortunately, the doctors could not save him.
According to a news outlet in Moscow, it is believed that the person was poisoned by mushrooms that cannot be eaten.
However, it is not known or disclosed how he was supposedly poisoned.
It is in charge of everything related to people going into space and leads Russia’s work for the International Space Station. Mr Melnikov previously held a position as the head researcher at TsNIIMASH, a part of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
He wrote 291 scientific articles and was thought of as one of the most respected space scientists. He also collaborated with NASA and taught at a university in Russia.
This happened a few weeks after Putin’s hopes were ruined when a Russian spaceship sent to study the moon crashed into its surface because it lost control.
Mr Melnikov’s death is one of several senior Russian figures who have died in strange or suspicious ways since President Vladimir Putin started his conflict with Ukraine.
Reports from Moscow say that Professor Vitaly Melnikov, a top Russian space scientist, has died at the age of 77. The cause of his death is believed to be mushroom poisoning.
In the past few weeks, a Russian general who knew important information about the dictator’s expensive palace died unexpectedly in prison, just as he could have been released. Additionally, a military leader who briefly commanded the invasion of Ukraine also passed away at the age of 58.
Earlier this year, a very wealthy Russian member of parliament named Nikolay Bortsov, who was 77 years old and had connections to the UK, was discovered dead on the same day as another politician named Dzhasharbek Uzdenov, who was 56 years old.
A lot of people linked to Putin have died in unusual ways. Some fell from windows, some were shot randomly, some died in helicopter accidents, and others had mysterious “suicides”.
A Russian rich person died last year supposedly after ‘shamans’ gave him toad venom to help with his hangover. However, his cause of death was officially recorded as a heart attack.
The leader of a group of paid soldiers called the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is 62 years old, was one of 10 people who died in a plane accident. His right-hand man and co-founder, Dmitry Utkin, who is 53 years old, also died in the accident.
But many people believe and talk about the idea that Prigozhin may not have actually been on the plane.
More people started believing the rumours when the wife of a man who looked like him was seen at the warlord’s tomb the day after his funeral.
On Thursday, a creepy video from Prigozhin appeared, appearing to send a message to his soldiers from beyond the afterlife.
The Kremlin first said that the idea of Prigozhin being murdered was completely false, but later admitted that the plane crash might have been done on purpose. However, the Russian government has not said that Putin had any part in Prigozhin’s death.
In a different place, the situation of the harmful mushroom lunch incident is still making people very interested. A woman made a meal using poisonous mushrooms for her husband’s parents, causing the death of three people and making one person very sick.
However, Budanov’s remarks suggest that the cause of the incident was not a long-range weapon.
On Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that a weapon made in Ukraine successfully hit a target 700km away. Pskov is quite far away from the Ukrainian border, about 700km (434 miles) apart.
“We are operating from Russia,” Mr. Budanov said on Thursday to the War Zone website, but he did not mention the specific type or amount of drones used.
He said the drones attacked the parts of the aircraft that hold the fuel and an important part of the wing.
The broken planes are big cargo planes that can carry soldiers and equipment over long distances. These planes are very important in war for Russia.
According to BBC reporter Paul Adams, Ukrainian officials usually don’t talk much about attacks that happen in Russia. However, it seems that as the campaign continues to develop, officials in Kyiv are becoming more willing to say that these things are part of Ukraine’s war efforts. Last night, drones attacked different places in Russia and the attacks are still ongoing.
There are reports that a factory near Moscow was hit. This factory makes electronic parts for rockets. However, these reports have not been confirmed yet.
But, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, the drones that were flying over Lyubertsy were brought down without causing any harm or injuries.
Like past attacks in Moscow, several flights from Moscow airports were postponed or canceled on Friday morning.
The Governor of Kursk Region, Roman Starovoyt, said that two buildings were damaged in the town of Kurchatov, near the Kursk nuclear plant.
Ukraine is still pushing back against Russia’s occupation of its land.
The Institute for the Study of War said that progress was made near Bakhmut in the east, and in the west of Zaporizhzhia region.
It is believed that Ukraine attacked an important Russian airbase this week using drones made of cardboard. These drones are said to be easier to assemble than IKEA flatpack furniture.
Kyiv says they hit one MiG-29 and four Su-30 fighter jets when they used a drone to attack the Kursk airfield in western Russia last weekend.
It’s believed that two Pantsir-S1 air defense systems and a radar connected to a long-range S-300 missile system were also harmed during the attack.
Around 16 small flying robots were used in the attack. It is thought that these robots were provided by Australians and are made of paper soaked in wax and rubber bands.
Experts believe that the low-quality features of the drones might make them very difficult for Russian detection systems to spot.
Every drone is delivered in a box that is easy to assemble and it only costs $3,500 (£2,750) to make.
Since March, Ukraine has had control of these aircraft. This happened because the Australian government promised to give Kyiv 100 of these planes every month. The deal is worth $20 million (£15. 7 million)
There are rumors that the drones were part of an attack on several military sites inside Russia on Tuesday night. One of the sites attacked was the Pskov airbase, which is near the border with Estonia.
Two large planes used for transporting things were destroyed in the attack, and two others were left broken but not completely destroyed.
There were new drone attacks in Crimea and three airports in Moscow, which led to big delays for flights. People were worried that there might be a strike in the capital city.
This week, Ukraine has been launching a lot more drone attacks on Russia and the areas it took control of. The military leaders are trying to figure out how the drones are able to get through their defenses.
There are a few explanations as to why Russians could have impaired their air defenses, such as reallocating them for other purposes and deploying their top-notch equipment to Ukraine. However, the design of the SYPAQ drones is believed to be an important factor in the success of the attacks.
The plane is small and has a wingspan of a little over 6ft. It is made out of foam or waxed cardboard, which is not as good as metal at picking up radio waves from below.
The drones were not meant to attack the enemy, but to bring supplies to soldiers on the front lines.
But Ukrainians have created cardboard drones that can be used to carry out attacks in Russia.
Valery Romanenko, a drone expert from Ukraine, said that these drones were made in Australia.
‘They are already being used for strikes, which is a part of our modernization. ‘
According to reports, the drones were flown by a group in Russia called RDK. RDK is a paramilitary group that opposes Putin. They are suspected to have carried out the Kursk attack.
The RDK said that after crossing the border, without being stopped, on the night of August 27, we attacked a military base using drones.
Russia is getting more and more worried about Ukrainian spies operating secretly within its borders.
The newspaper Kyiv Post said that there is some evidence that drones from Australia could be responsible for it, but there is no definite proof.
According to a Russian news outlet, the Ukrainian military recently used Australian SYPAQ kamikaze drones for the first time. They used these drones to attack a military airfield and an electronic warfare unit in the Kursk region during the night of August 27.
Last night, there were new drone attacks on Crimea, particularly near the town of Feodosia.
It was not clear what got hit.
During the fast and intense attack, the Russian region known as Bryansk was also affected.
A Russian officer died in an explosion when he was relaxing at home and mowing his lawn near Ukraine’s border.
On Sunday, a man named Alexei Chernykh, who works as a deputy chief in a local anti-corruption police department, was allegedly exploded in the village of Schetinovka.
The village is often attacked by drones because Ukraine has increased its attacks across the border.
A channel called Baza on Telegram said that a drone dropped a bomb on Chernykh’s property.
According to the Telegram channel, a drone from Ukraine dropped ammunition in Shchetynovka. Alexey was not working that day and was cutting his grass. Sadly, he lost his life in the accident.
Based on his social media, Chernykh was attacked right before his 40th birthday, which he was supposed to celebrate today.
The governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, believes that Ukraine was responsible for a drone attack that he claims caused the death of an innocent person.
Gladkov said that they made a bomb drop from a flying robot and it hit a regular person who was cutting the grass near his vacation house.
He said that the person died from small pieces of metal hurting their body, but he didn’t say who it was.
If Chernykh’s death is confirmed, he would be the most recent important Russian official to die since Vladimir Putin started the attack on Ukraine.
Russian sources have said that around six generals, including four Major Generals and two Lieutenant Generals, have been killed since February 2022. However, Ukraine says that the real number is 15.
Last month, a Ukrainian missile attack resulted in the death of General Oleg Tsokov.
He was punished by both the UK and the EU for his involvement in the war against Ukraine.
Recently, Ukraine has launched a series of attacks on Russia. This includes an attack on the Kremlin in May and multiple drone attacks on civilian areas in Moscow.
Today, Putin had a very bad night because four military planes at a Russian airport were damaged in a big drone attack, which seems to be the largest one since the war in Ukraine started.
Some news reports say that around 10 to 20 drones attacked an airbase in the Pskov region, which is close to Estonia and Latvia, right before midnight on Tuesday.
Pictures on social media display a big dark cloud of smoke coming from the location, with flames at the bottom giving it an orange glow.
President Alexander Lukashenko stated on Thursday that Belarus would be willing to use the nuclear weapons provided by close ally Russia in the event of foreign “aggression” as tensions along the country’s borders with NATO countries increase.
Moscow has used Belarus as one of its launchpads for the invasion in early 2022, and joint Russia-Belarus military training over the past year have stoked worries that Belarusian troops could join Russian forces in the battle. Minsk has played a significant role in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Belarus apparently received Russian nuclear warheads in June for “deterrence,” according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Lukashenko asserted Belarus would “never get involved in this war” until Ukrainians crossed its border in an interview with the state news service Belta. But he added, “We will keep helping Russia, they are our ally.”
He also said that Belarus will “immediately respond with everything we have,” including nuclear weapons, if provoked, particularly by NATO neighbours Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
Although senior officials from the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) said they had “no reason to doubt” Putin’s claim, it is unclear how much of Russia’s nuclear arsenal was recently transported to Belarus, and US and Western officials have not publicly confirmed that any weapons have been transferred.
In an interview, Lukashenko stated that Belarus would not “tarry, wait, and the rest” if it were to come under attack. We’ll employ every weapon in our arsenal to deter.
He continued, “We didn’t bring nuclear weapons here to frighten someone. “Yes, nuclear weapons do serve as a potent deterrent. But these aren’t strategic nuclear weapons; they’re tactical. As soon as hostilities are initiated against us, we will employ them right away.
In July, senior DIA officials stated they did not think Lukashenko would have any influence over the weapons, which they believed would most certainly be completely under Russian control.
With Belarus’ northern neighbours on edge due to the presence of the Russian mercenary organisation Wagner, which is stationed in Belarus in the wake of its brief uprising in Russia earlier this summer, Lukashenko’s most recent remarks come as the security environment in Europe becomes more unstable.
In an apparent effort to exert more pressure on NATO and EU countries, there have been rumours of Wagner troops heading towards a narrow sliver of land between Poland and Lithuania in recent weeks.
Poland recently declared it would send some 10,000 troops to its border with Belarus, citing Wagner-related worries, and detained two Russians on suspicion of espionage and spreading disinformation for the Russian mercenary force.
Due to worries about Wagner forces, Lithuania announced on Wednesday that it will temporarily halt operations at two of its six border checkpoints with Belarus. The interior minister cited “emerging threats to national security and possible provocations at the border.”
As a retaliatory measure, Belarus criticised Lithuania for taking a “unconstructive and unfriendly step,” calling its Wagner justification “far-fetched.”
In the interview on Thursday, Lukashenko rejected the idea that the failed Wagner mutiny may have undermined Putin, labelling such accusations as “total nonsense.”
“Putin is now more active, shrewd, and intelligent. Nobody will remove Putin today, Lukashenko added, and our enemies need to know it.
He added that the decision to send Wagner fighters to Belarus had come from him. He remarked, “The rebellion could have been terrible to everyone, thus it was important to accept any terms in order to quiet this mutiny, to put out this fire.
According to the Polish ambassador, Poland is preparing for “growing aggressiveness” from Russia and Belarus.
On Thursday, Lukashenko added his voice to the discussion of the ongoing conflict by announcing that Moscow would never relinquish the Crimean peninsula that it had illegitimately taken from Ukraine over seven years earlier.
Russia will “never ever return Crimea,” he declared, according to Belta, even though it is willing to negotiate with Ukraine.
“It won’t take place. I don’t think we can come to an agreement here in the east right now. But Russia is open to talking on any subject. I am positive of it,” Lukashenko remarked.
However, he asserted that Ukrainians “are pushed by Americans” and do not currently want to discuss, adding that negotiations “have to start without preliminary conditions.” Belarus should be a part of any peace negotiations over Ukraine because “we have our interests there, and our position should be heard,” he continued.
In 2014, shortly after Ukrainian protesters assisted in the overthrow of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia forcibly annexed Crimea when tens of thousands of its special operations forces deployed throughout the peninsula in unmarked uniforms.
Following a referendum that was denounced as invalid by Ukraine and the majority of the world, Russia finished annexing Crimea two weeks later. At the time, this was seen to be the largest land grab in Europe since World War II.
Human rights watchdogs have noted Crimea’s transformation into a police state after annexation, with local officials and Russian security forces arresting and prosecuting those believed to be loyal to Ukraine, notably members of the Crimean Tatar population.
A 2020 US State Department study detailed a pattern of illegal or arbitrarily carried out killings and forced disappearances in Crimea by Russian or Russian-led authorities.
Since then, the occupied region has played a significant role in the conflict in Ukraine. The Crimean bridge, which connects the peninsula to the Russian mainland, serves as a crucial supply route for Russian forces and a target for the Ukrainian operation.
Belarus, a former Soviet satellite that proclaimed its independence in 1990, is an autocratic nation that Lukashenko has essentially ruled since the country’s declaration of independence.
A Russian prisoner who had been let free to fight in Ukraine is charged with killing two people when he returns home.
Demyan Kevorkyan, who has been detained since 2016, is accused of killing a young man and woman on their way home from work. Kevorkyan has been incarcerated for 18 years.
He denies the allegations made against him.
Kevorkyan is one of thousands of detainees selected from Russian prisons to fight in Ukraine with the Wagner mercenary group.
Despite suffering severe casualties, a handful of convicts have since fulfilled their contracts and have returned to Russia as free men. Recruits are promised freedom if they can survive six months on the front lines.
On August 31, 2022, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin reportedly paid a visit to Kevorkyan’s prison before recruiting him and about 150 other detainees.
The ex-convict was reportedly recently seen in his birthplace of Pridorozhnaya in the Krasnodar area of southwest Russia after returning from the Ukrainian battlefields, according to a former detainee.
Tatyana Mostyko, 19, who works as a children’s entertainment in the region, is one of his claimed victims.
According to her mother Nadezhda, “She loved that work.” She would chuckle about what they had been doing and how she had made them laugh when she returned from a job.
On April 28, after finishing a work, Tatyana and her boss Kirill Chubko were returning home when their car developed a punctured tyre.
Darya, Kirill’s wife, informed the local media that he had called her during this period to let her know about the holdup and that some young men had politely offered to help.
Both of them were ultimately killed by the three-person squad led by Kevorkyan.
The other two suspects, Anatoly Dvoynikov and Aram Tatosyan, allegedly led detectives to temporary graves in a neighbouring wooded area near the location of Kirill’s burned-out automobile.
The victims, Kirill and Tatyana, had both been fatally stabbed, and according to law enforcement, the girl had died violently.
The worst part was when I turned my phone back on after we arrived. There were countless messages,” Nadezhda claims.
You have no idea how terrified I was. They could only mean one thing, and that was that it was all over, so I threw the phone into the air. It was a dread of animals. I struggle to explain it.
Kevorkyan was initially incarcerated for his participation in a carjacking gang that had taken possession of a vehicle close to the scene of the subsequent murders. The inhabitants had been robbed by the gang, who also shot and killed one person in the process.
“What legal justification was there for his release?” The broadcaster was told by Nadezhda. According to Russian legislation, prisoners must complete at least two-thirds of their sentences.He ought to have served a minimum of 12 years. He only served six.
President Vladimir Putin acknowledged for the first time in June 2023 that he had pardoned inmates who had returned from fighting in the Ukraine conflict.
According to Prigozhin, the reoffending rate among ex-Wagner recruits is 10% to 20% lower than the national average for criminals who have been released from prison.
However, Olga Romanova, the director of the prisoner rights group Russia Behind Bars, asserts that the actual figure may be far higher because many crimes go unreported because of a rule that forbids criticism of the Kremlin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
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.
Russian authorities have reported that an explosion at a warehouse close to Moscow has injured more than 50 persons.
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.
Attacks on Russian land, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, are a “inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process.”
The daughter of the Russian defense minister and her ‘anti-war’ husband have separated, sparking rumors that Vladimir Putin was involved.
The daughter of defense minister Sergei Shoigu, Ksenia Shoigu, 32, has long seemed content in her marriage to fitness expert Alexey Stolyarov, 33.
However, the couple startled their hundreds of millions of fans by announcing their breakup to the Russian news channel 360° last Saturday.
“It’s been a while since we were a couple.” However, we are also extremely close friends and partners,’ Shoigu remarked.
Stolyarov continued, “We have been friends for a very long time,” adding that their relationship ended “several months ago.”
They are planning to spend more time with their daughter, he said. “We’re headed to her right away!” We still work as a team, and we also have sporting projects in the works,’ Stolyarov said.
They were conversing at the 2019 Race of Heroes obstacle course race in Alabino, a city near Moscow.
Before welcoming their daughter in 2021, Shoigu and Stolyarov spent years hiding their marriage.
The couple told 360° that over time, their competing and demanding work schedules drove a gap between them and caused their breakup.
Nevertheless, considering Stolyarov’s history of conflicts with Putin’s pro-war authorities and sympathizers, Russian social media users were unpersuaded.
‘Everyone in the Kremlin knew that Shoigu’s opponents took samples of Stolyarov’s [online posts] into Putin’s office multiple times,’ a Russian user of social media claimed.
The Russian president allegedly “twice asked” Shoigu to “shut [Stolyarov] up,” according to the Narrarivy Telegram channel.
According to the source, Ksenia recently discussed getting a divorce and decided to openly disavow Stolyarov.
Formerly the son-in-law of Putin’s devoted defence minister, Stolyarov declined to enlist in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
When he liked an anti-war Instagram post by Yuri Dud, a Russian journalist the government had labelled a “foreign agent” for his posts criticising Putin’s war machine, he came under fire in February.
According to the article, according to the Russian news outlet Meduza, “Putin and his entourage unleashed bloody and pointless war exactly a year ago.”
Stolyarov swiftly deleted the like while denying having ever expressed an interest in it.
Poligon.media claimed he had conducted interviews with two other Dud figures, including the film filmmaker Alexander Molochnikov, who had left Russia after criticising Putin.
Stolyarov did this while posting pictures of himself on the Russian social media site VK driving a luxurious car and vacationing in Dubai when other men his age were dying or being hurt in battle.
This did not impress his followers who questioned why he was not already on the “frontlines” and labelled him as “unpatriotic.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the short mutinous mercenary organisation Wagner, stoked the flames in February when he asked that Stolyarov be drafted.
Progozhin posted on Telegram that “it is necessary to catch Stolyarov and bring him to me,” even urging that Ukrainian military “rape” Stolyarov.
While Stolyarov’s opinions on the war are still hazy, his opinions of Shoigu have been a little bit more lucid.
He is the sweetest and most upbeat guy I know. In 2021, he declared to the online Russian entertainment programme Night Contact, “I have never met a person like this.”
In a shocking turn of events, the democratically elected President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, has been ousted from power by the very individuals entrusted to safeguard and uphold his office – the presidential guards stationed outside his palace.
President Bazoum had made history as the first democratically elected leader to succeed another in Niger since its independence in 1960.
However, his presidency was cut short as his captors, the presidential guards, have taken control of the country. They have gone on to suspend Niger’s constitution and have appointed Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani as the new head of state.
Niger holds a significant position in the African region known as the Sahel, which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. The area is grappling with ongoing jihadist insurgency and has a history of military rule.
The international community, particularly Western nations, had viewed Niger as a vital pillar against further instability and the spread of Russian influence in the region. Unfortunately, those hopes have been dashed as the recent events unfold.
The crisis in Niger has profound implications, and the situation is closely being monitored by the global community.
Why is Niger important?
From a geographical standpoint, Niger holds the distinction of being the largest country in West Africa.
On the political front, it has been regarded as a beacon of relative democratic stability in recent times, in stark contrast to its neighboring countries, Mali and Burkina Faso, which have experienced military coups.
Strategically, Niger plays a crucial role as it hosts military bases belonging to both France and the United States, making it a significant partner in the global fight against Islamist insurgents.
In fact, the US state department recognizes Niger’s importance, describing it as a linchpin for stability in the Sahel and a reliable counter-terrorism partner against various Islamist groups associated with either Islamic State or al-Qaeda.
Economically, Niger boasts substantial uranium reserves, accounting for 7% of the world’s total supplies. The significance of this radioactive metal is so profound that one of the grandest thoroughfares in the capital, Niamey, is named the Avenue de l’Uranium.
Despite its uranium wealth, the people of Niger continually face challenges, consistently ranking as having the lowest standards of living anywhere in the world.
Why did the coup happen?
The Sahel region is a turbulent and unstable part of the world and democracy is currently in retreat there.
Violent Islamist groups have gained ground by controlling territory and conducting attacks in the tri-border region between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The mutinous soldiers in Niger have cited this worsening security situation as a reason for their uprising, although Niger was handling the insurgencies far better than Mali and Burkina Faso before their own coups.
The growing unrest has led some to believe that only harsh military crackdowns can solve the problem, hence the popular support that the coup seems to enjoy in some quarters.
However, it is far from clear that a military junta would have greater success in tackling the insurgents than the recently ousted government. The takeovers in neighbouring countries have not made much difference.
Did coups in Mali and Burkina Faso halt jihadist attacks?
Adding to the instability in the region, climate change is causing desertification to spread southwards from the Sahara into the Sahel. Experts say temperatures in the Sahel are rising faster than anywhere else in the world.
What’s the international reaction to the coup?
France, the former colonial power, has been stern in its condemnation of the military takeover.
A statement by the French foreign ministry said President Bazoum was the country’s sole leader, adding that France “does not recognise the authorities resulting from the putsch led by Gen Tchiani”.
It added that France “reaffirmed in the strongest terms the clear demands of the international community calling for the immediate restoration of constitutional order and democratically-elected civilian government in Niger”.
The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, has called for the president’s immediate release, while the African Union, the West African regional bloc Ecowas, the EU and the UN have all spoken out against the coup.
The only voice in favour has been that of the leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has reportedly described it as a triumph.
“What happened in Niger is nothing other than the struggle of the people of Niger with their colonisers,” he was quoted as saying on a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel, although his comments have not been independently verified.
What’s it got to do with Russia and Wagner?
As well as jihadist groups, the Wagner mercenaries, who are active elsewhere in the region, have been seen as exercising a malign influence in Niger. Some supporters of the coup have been seen waving the Russian flag alongside that of Niger.
Image caption,Supporters of the coup have been waving the Russian flag
Before the coup, President Bazoum had complained of “disinformation campaigns” by Wagner against his government – and there is little doubt that Wagner, which has exploited mineral resources in other African countries to fund its operations, would like to do the same in Niger.
The US has said there is no indication that the Wagner force was involved in the overthrow of President Bazoum, but added that the situation continues to be quite fluid.
Niger coup makes a troubled region yet more fragile
Now there are concerns that Niger’s new leadership could move away from its Western allies and closer to Russia.
If it does, it would follow in the footsteps of Burkina Faso and Mali, which have both pivoted towards Moscow since their own military coups.
What other global consequences could the coup have?
President Bazoum’s government has been a partner to European countries trying to stop the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea, agreeing to take back hundreds of migrants from detention centres in Libya.
He has also cracked down on human traffickers in what had been a key transit point between other countries in West Africa and those further north.
A Russian drone bombed a Ukrainian port on the Danube River in this unnerving occurrence, approximately 200 metres from NATO territory.
Early on Monday, footage was taken from a boat on the river of the attack on the grain storage facilities in the town of Reni, which lit up the Romanian sky.
In its attempts to limit Ukraine‘s crucial agricultural exports to the rest of the globe, Russia came the closest to assaulting a member of the alliance since the war’s beginning in February 2022.
It was stressed by Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis that this presented a “serious risk to the security of the Black Sea.”
He blasted the demonstration along the Danube River and warned that the most recent escalation “affects further Ukrainian grain transit and global food security.”
The Russian military has increased its airstrikes on civilian targets in the Odesa region ever since the Russian Federation unilaterally chose to discontinue taking part in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, said Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
“We demand that the Russian Federation immediately cease aerial attacks against Ukrainian port infrastructure.”
The Russian Federation’s targeting of port infrastructure, which has a detrimental effect on global food security and puts many people in danger, is another evidence of its desire to obstruct Ukrainian grain exports to foreign markets.
It was the most recent in a string of assaults that have recently destroyed crucial infrastructure in southern Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian military, four personnel suffered injuries and a grain hangar and a storehouse for other commodities were both destroyed.
The attacks were billed as payback for last week’s attack on the vital Kerch Bridge connecting Russia and Crimea by the Kremlin.
Oleh Kiper, the regional governor of Odesa, claimed that Russian drones of Iranian manufacture had been attacking for four hours and that Ukrainian air defences had shot down three of them.
Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, posted on Twitter that “Russia hit another Ukrainian grain storage overnight.”
By keeping 400 million people hostage, it tries to get concessions.
“I urge all countries to mount a coordinated global response to food terrorism, especially those in Africa and Asia that are most impacted by rising food prices.”
The United Nations has stated that the evidence does not corroborate Russian claims of a missile strike on a camp housing Ukrainian prisoners of war in July 2022.
In that year’s strike on an Olenivka detention facility, more than 50 Ukrainian detainees perished. The conclusions of the UN Human Rights Commissioner (OHCHR) now confirm a lengthy CNN investigation from August of last year that found theRussian claim that the camp had been struck by a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket did not hold up to scrutiny.
The strike, according to Russian and local officials from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, was launched by the Ukrainian side using one of the HIMARS rockets that the US had recently given.
Andrey Lazarev, who works for the Zvezda media outlet of the Russian Defence Ministry, pointed to shards the morning following the explosion. One of the bits contained the serial number of a HIMARS rocket in exceptionally good condition.
According to Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, the detention facility was “hit by a missile attack from the American HIMARS.”
The Russian version of events is very likely a fiction, according to CNN’s research, which was based on analysis of video and pictures taken at the scene, satellite imagery taken before and after the attack, and the work of forensic and weapons specialists. The likelihood that a HIMARS rocket damaged the facility where the inmates were housed is quite low.
CNN examined experts who ruled out a HIMARS strike on Olenivka, but they were unable to determine with certainty what caused the deaths and injuries of so many detainees. According to the study, “experts say most signs point to an intense fire, and according to several witnesses there was no sound of an incoming rocket.”
In agreement, the UN stated that “the information available and our analysis enable the Office to conclude that [the strike] was not caused by a HIMARS rocket.”
“The Russian Federation neither granted general requests by the UN Human Rights Office to access areas of Ukraine that are temporarily under the military control of the Russian Federation, nor provided satisfactory guarantees about secure access for the United Nations to visit the specific site.”
The UN concurred, saying, “The information available and our analysis enable the Office to conclude that [the strike] was not caused by a HIMARS rocket.”
“Neither did the Russian Federation provide satisfactory assurances about secure access for the United Nations to visit the specific site, nor did it grant general requests by the UN Human Rights Office to access areas of Ukraine that are temporarily under the Russian Federation’s military control.”
According to the OHCHR, “extensive interviews with survivors of the incident in Olenivka were conducted, and careful analysis of supplementary information was undertaken…Although the exact details of the occurrence on the night of July 28–29, 2022, are still unknown, the Office may determine from the facts at hand and our analysis that a HIMARS rocket was not to blame.
According to the facts at hand, the OHCHR continued, “it is not currently possible to establish either the specific source of the explosion or the precise direction from which a weapon may have been fired.”
Inmates who survived and their families “deserve the truth to be known, and for those responsible for breaches of international law to be held accountable,” said Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, on Tuesday.
“Our office has met with the victims’ relatives and listened to their cries for justice and the truth; in fact, they have a right to truth, justice, and restitution. We must do every effort to see that justice is served for all those who have been harmed by this catastrophe.
Volodymyr Ventsel initially experienced rage when coming under Russian fire while attempting to protect innocent lives.
The paramedic now sees being targeted by Russian forces as a regular occurrence in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine.
He is one of the first responders caught in the crossfire of Vladimir Putin‘s massive invasion as hospitals are repeatedly attacked.
The 27-year-old described how Moscow’s operators’ strategies include waiting until first responders approach to the area of a bombardment before attacking them.
The UK Ministry of Defence said this week that ‘a war on healthcare is raging in Ukraine’ and highlighted a figure showing there have been more than 1,000 attacks on the sector since February 24 last year.
Volodymyr’s experiences bear out the pattern of Russian attacks on medics in contravention of international law. He also told how international assistance is aiding Kharkiv’s Centre for Emergency Assistance and Medicine of Catastrophe, which has a fleet bolstered by 21 ‘Type C’ ambulances donated by the official Ukrainian fundraising platform United24.
‘From my experience, the Russian forces are intentionally targeting medics,’ Volodymyr said. ‘In Kharkiv they will even wait for about 15 minutes after a missile attack and then check with drones to see if the emergency services are arriving on the scene.
Volodymyr Ventsel (left), Oleksandra Rudkovska-Rubann and Serhiy Sushitski work in Kharkiv (Picture: United24)
‘Then they will carry out another attack in exactly the same place.
‘There was a situation when the ambulance was stationary in the city and an attack began, which damaged the truck and destroyed medical equipment. It happens quite often.
‘At first, I was angry, now I am used to the fact that these are people with no value for human life, that these types of attacks are just normal for them.
‘They do not care that it is forbidden to attack medical staff, especially when they are providing assistance to other people.’
The intervention of the team with modern equipment and vehicles is making the difference between life and death (Picture: United24)
Ukraine’s second city has been in the eye of Russian fire over the 18 months of war to date, with the shelling, suicide drone and missile strikes continuing after Moscow’s troops were beaten back from the region.
The invaders have also dropped cluster munitions on residential areas of Kharkiv, according to Human Rights Watch.
In March 2023, Volodymyr’s team arrived at the scene of an ambulance which had been hit by artillery fire. Mobile phone footage shows the medics starting to work on one of the casualties close to the gutted remains of the vehicle, which had been clearly marked with a cross.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk from the city, Volodymyr said: ‘One night, my team was on the way to a call when we heard bombing.
‘We stopped and some people told us our assistance would be needed.
‘Five minutes later we found an ambulance that had been damaged by artillery fire and had crashed into some concrete blocks on the Kharkiv city highway as the driver tried to escape an area under attack.
‘We could smell the explosives and see some craters in the ground nearby.
‘The driver was injured, and some of the equipment in the truck was destroyed. Our team was in one of the ambulances provided by United24 and managed to help those who had been hurt.
‘There were 11 casualties, with four having very serious injuries while others escaped with grazes. The ambulance and excellent equipment from United24 helped to save people’s lives in this incident.’
The state-run centre has a fleet of around 100 ambulances covering Kharkiv, with approximately another 240 assigned to the wider oblast.
In the city, each of the clearly marked vehicles is assigned to a ‘brigade’ of three responders, with the teams working around the clock in shifts.
Ukraine’s lifesavers face dangers starkly illustrated by WHO reports showing there were 1,067 attacks on healthcare facilities between February 24 last year and yesterday. They resulted in 101 deaths and 139 injuries, according to the agency’s surveillance system.
The vast majority were caused by heavy weapons.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the UK Ministry of Defence said the ‘war on healthcare’ involved Russian forces ‘deliberately targeting hospitals, healthcare facilities & healthcare workers’.
Intentionally attacking medics and healthcare facilities is a war crime according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Volodymyr feels a ‘great responsibility’ to continue saving lives — even if it means placing himself in danger.
‘The main types of injuries we encounter are a result of Russian artillery and rocket fire, they include amputations and other traumas and injuries,’ he said. ‘We feel a great responsibility when we go out to use our specialist skills to save people’s lives.
‘As for the future, all we want is for the war to finish with Ukraine’s victory.’
Russian forces have targeted civilian objects throughout the war, as evidenced by the work of the Tribunal4Putin coalition who spoke to Metro.co.uk earlier this month.
Three successive nights of missile and drone strikes have been launched against port and grain infrastructure in southern Ukraine following the Kremlin’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain deal, the US Institute for the Study of War said this morning.
On the battlefield, Ukraine was continuing counter-offensive operations, with likely advances on three areas of the eastern front, according to an update from the UK Ministry of Defence yesterday.
Launched by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, United24 is contributing to the defence through a ‘process that brings Ukraine’s victory closer’, which involves work with organisations and high-profile ambassadors across the world.
Former Chelsea ace Andriy Shevchenko and Arsenal star Oleksandr Zinchenko are supporting the platform through the Game4Ukraine due to take place Stamford Bridge on August 5.
The top commander of Ukraine has hinted that Ukrainian-made weapons may soon be used in strikes against Russian territory.
General Valery Zaluzhny, commander in chief of Ukraine, recently spoke with the Washington Post. In the interview, he defended his army’s ability to launch attacks against Russian territory using homegrown weapons and lamented the red lines that the AFU’s western partners had placed on it.
Why do I need permission to act on enemy land in order to save my people? He informed the WP.
‘For some reason, I have to think that I’m not allowed to do anything there. Why? Because Putin will … use nuclear weapons? The kids who are dying don’t care.’
One of the key conditions imposed on Ukraine by its western allies when providing them with arms was that Kyiv doesn’t use their weaponry to strike targets inside Russia due to fears of further escalation.
To date, despite a number of strikes taking place on Russian territory, Kyiv has rarely claimed responsibility for the attacks.
But according to Zaluzhny, this could soon change.
‘If our partners are afraid to use their weapons, we will kill with our own. But only as much as is necessary.’
He added: ‘This is our problem, and it is up to us to decide how to kill this enemy. It is possible and necessary to kill on its territory in a war.’
Despite being told by allies that they have enough heavy weapons to conduct their counteroffensive, Zaluzhny said Ukraine still lacks the necessary resources to liberate all the occupied territories and minimise casualties.
The general criticised those who say Ukraine doesn’t need F-16 fighter jets, and said that Kyiv’s Western allies would never fight like this.
Zaluzhny also reiterated Ukraine’s goal to liberate Russian-occupied Crimea despite concerns over Putin’s potential response voiced by some Western officials.
‘As soon as I have the means, I’ll do something. I don’t give a damn — nobody will stop me,’ he said.
Elsewhere in the interview, the army commander claimed to ‘eagerly’ read everything written by Russia’s top general Valerey Gerasmiov, which he described as ‘very, very interesting’, before lamenting the fact that ‘he hasn’t published anything lately’.
‘He is an enemy — an enemy who is very smart,’ Zaluzhny said.
‘Smart and therefore devious. He is still strong. So you have to respect him as such and look for ways to kill him. Because that is the only way to win.’
The beautiful Russian daughter of a Putin ally was discovered dead in her flat after apparently complaining of feeling ill.
The concierge of Natalia Bochkareva’s building in Moscow’s Presnensky District sounded the alarm, leading to her discovery.
Before discovering her dead on Tuesday, police officers pounded on the door.
The 44-year-old had complained of feeling ill the day before, according to the concierge.
According to preliminary reports, there were no signs of a violent death.
Her death is the latest in a long line of high-profile Russian figures to suddenly die in mysterious circumstances.
Ms Bochkareva was the daughter of the late Vasily Bochkarev, who governed Penza Oblast from 1998 to 2015.
A year after leaving office, the 67-year-old, who belonged to Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, died from lung cancer.
Ms Bochkareva managed the family’s lumber-processing and bakery businesses after her father’s death.
Two years ago she hit headlines for falling for scam. It’s reported she sent a self-styled fortune teller 16 million rubles (£136,000) to remove a curse.
But after receiving the money, the fortune teller broke off all contact with Natalia and, according to Ms Bochkareva, failed to fulfil her part of the agreement.
The police ended up getting involved.
According to some reports, Natalia suffered from heart problems.
Other recent deaths of Russia’s elite include that of 28-year-old Kristina Baikova in June.
Ms Baikova, a vice-president at Loko-Bank, allegedly fell from her 11th floor apartment in Moscow.
In February Russian defence official Marina Yankina, 58,also fell from an apartment window and died.
As head of the financial support department of the Ministry of Defence, Ms Yankina was a key figure in the funding of the war.
Her death was reported as a suspected suicide – although this is common in Russia before any investigation is carried out or when facts are unclear.
In May meanwhile, Russia’s deputy science minister, Pyotr Kucherenko, thought to be a critic of the war, died suddenly after falling ill on a flight back to Moscow after a work trip in Cuba, the Mail Online reports.
In April, Igor Shkurko, the deputy general director of Russian energy company Yakutskenergo, was found dead in his prison cell
The 49-year-old was a member of the pro-Putin United Russia political party but his membership was suspended following the bribe accusation.
Two months earlier,Russian oil boss Viatcheslav Rovneiko, 59, was ‘found unconscious’ late at night at his home.
Doctors were unable to save him, a report in Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper claimed.
On December 26, Pavel Antonov – a wealthy sausage tycoon, local politician and a Putin critic – died in India after falling out of a hotel window.
His friend Vladimir Bidenov was found dead in the same hotel four days earlier.
Russian media said that a shooter who killed a Russian submarine commander on Monday while he was jogging may have been hunting him down using a popular running app.
The state news agency TASS stated that Stanislav Rzhitsky was slain earlier this week in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar by a “unknown person,” and that “the motive for the crime is being investigated.”
A man has been apprehended in connection with the murder of Rzhitsky, the Russian Investigative Committee announced on Telegram, adding that the suspect was in possession of a gun with a silencer “by means of which, presumably, the murder was committed.”
Russian media earlierreported that Rzhitsky’s killer may have used Strava, a widely available app used by runners and cyclists, to follow his movements.
Rzhitsky’s jogging and cycling routes appear on an account in his name on the Strava app. One of his regular jogging circuits that he took while working in Krasnodar include the park where he was killed early Monday.
One Russian media outlet, Tsargrad, said the assailant “planned the murder so carefully that the moment of the attack did not appear on any CCTV cameras.”
“The killer waited in the park near the sports complex ‘Olympus,’ where Rzhitsky regularly made morning jogs. The man died on the spot, the shooter is on the run.”
The Strava profile in Rzhitsky’s name shows that he also used to cycle in Sevastopol in 2014, where Russia’s Black Sea fleet is based.
CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the Strava profile, but it includes many photographs of him.
Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence disclosed how Rzhitsky was apparently shot, in an unusually detailed statement on Telegram. The agency did not explicitly take responsibility for the commander’s death.
“The submariner was jogging in the ’30th Anniversary of Victory’ park in Krasnodar. Around 6 a.m., he was shot seven times with a Makarov pistol. As a result of the gunshot wounds, Rzhitsky died on the spot,” the statement said.
“Due to heavy rain, the park was deserted, so there were no witnesses who could provide details or identify the attacker.”
Rzhitsky commanded one of Russia’s Kilo-class submarine of the Black Sea fleet, capable of firing Kalibr cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian statement and Russian news reports.
Submarine-launched missile attacks have been responsible for some of the most destructive strikes on Ukrainian cities, including one almost exactly a year ago on the central city of Vinnytsia which killed dozens of people, including three children.
A later statement by the Strategic Communications department of Ukraine’s armed forces sought – on the face of it – to downplay suggestions Kyiv might have carried out the attack.
In language striking a detached, perhaps even sarcastic tone, the statement said Rzhitsky had come to the conclusion that missile strikes that killed civilians were ineffective.
“Obviously, he was eliminated by his own men for refusing to continue to carry out combat orders from his command regarding missile attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities,” the statement concluded.
Rzhitsky’s family said he “didn’t participate” in the war on Ukraine “in any way,” and had sought to leave the Russian armed forces in 2021, according to the Russian media outlet Baza.
Rzhitsky filed a report for dismissal from the Russian Armed Forces in December 2021. His father said he was in Sevastopol during his dismissal and did not go to sea, Baza reported. He had previously helmed a submarine based in Sevastopol, his father added.
In August 2022, the commander was finally dismissed and later got a job in the administration of Krasnodar.
Rzhitsky’s parents said they talked to him the day before he was killed and he had been “in a great mood,” according to Russian media outlet Izvestia.
“If he had any suspicions, he might have changed plans, routes and so on. But he didn’t say anything,” his father said.
The Investigative Committee of Russia asked for a report on the progress of the investigation into Rzhitsky’s death.
The war in Ukraine has spread across the border with Russia in recent months, amid reports of intense shelling attacks, drone strikes, and brief incursions on villages in an apparent attempt to destabilize Moscow’s faltering invasion.
Separately, a senior Russian commander, was killed near the Russian-occupied city of Berdiansk in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region on Tuesday, according to Ukrainian officials.
The adviser to Vadym Boichenko, the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, said that Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov was killed Tuesday. The mayor does not currently reside in Mariupol, which is under Russian control.
CNN is unable to independently verify reports about the cause of Tsokov’s death – which would deprive Russia of one of its most experienced generals. Tsokov would also be the most senior Russian general to have been killed in Ukraine.
However, a Russian Telegram channel, Military Informer, wrote Tuesday that a “strike by British Storm Shadow cruise missiles on the 58th Army’s reserve command post near Berdyansk,” killed “the deputy commander of the Southern Military District, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov.”
Tsokov, 51, appears to have been a rising star in the Russian military. In 2021, he addressed a ceremony at the Kremlin attended by President Vladimir Putin for military cadets. Thanking Putin for driving the modernization of Russia’s military, Tsokov said: “For us, the profession of an officer is not just service. This is the calling and meaning of all life, the willingness to sacrifice life for our great Motherland.”
Amid persistent turmoil in Russia’s command structure, Tsokov continued to be promoted through the campaign. A presidential decree in February promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general.
He remained in the Russian armed forces despite reports by Russian military bloggers that he’d been wounded last September in the Svatove area of Kharkiv.
At that point he appears to have been the commander of the 20th Guards Army, having been recently promoted from command of the 144th Motorized Rifle Division.
Independent analysts and CNN’s own tally indicate that Russia has lost about 10 generals in combat since the invasion began.
A Russian lake’s sunbathers and swimmers enjoying the 32°C heat nearly escaped being crushed when an army tank charged by them.
A tank ‘burst’ out of the forest yesterday morning, shocking people who were enjoying themselves by Andreevsky Lake near Tyumen, according to video.
Around 11 a.m., the tank completed three laps around the beach before spewing a ‘mystery gas’ to scatter the beachgoers.
The holidaymakers included children, witnesses said.
One eye-witness told Tyumen news outlet 72 Ru that the smoke engulfed a camper van parked on the embankment.
‘People with children jumped out from the window because there was no escape from the stinking gas,’ they said.
Witnesses claimed the tank sent out ‘gas’ to make them disperse (Picture: Social media/east2west news)
Another beach-goer told the Telegram channel Climb: ‘We arrived at the beach at 11am to sunbathe, swim and, without warning, a tank burst in at high speed.
‘It sprayed this smoke, it stank strongly of diesel. They didn’t make any demands, they didn’t ask anything. They drove between people.’
Local vendor Alina told 72 Ru that her daughter was taken to hospital after she inhaled the smoke, though local health officials said no emergency calls were made in the area.
She added that military officers came back at around 2:30pm to ‘kick out’ the ice cream and water sellers.
‘They kicked us out with the help of the tank. We have been working here for several years. It’s a beautiful place, the kids love it,’ she said.
The Tyumen Higher Military Engineer Command School, which trains engineers for the Russian Army, said that the land is owned by the Ministry of Defence.
Civilians are forbidden to be in the area, the school said, and officials dug up trenches and set up fences last week to discourage people from entering.
The site is routinely used for military drills, so people need to be ‘removed’ for their own safety.
‘The tank turned around and drove away again. It didn’t scare anyone there, nothing happened,’ it added.
The city mayor’s office said their hands were tied when it comes to the ways the military clear out the lakeside.
‘The land there is provided to the Tyumen Higher Military Engineer Command School,’ a spokesman said.
‘So their actions are legal. The city cannot interfere.’
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.
In the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, a Russian missile strike that struck a residential building has resulted in at least four fatalities.
About 60 apartments and 50 automobiles were reportedly destroyed in the attack, according to mayor Andriy Sadovyi.
More stranded victims are still being sought after by rescuers via the debris.
Sadovyi said the strike was the biggest against Lviv’s civilian infrastructure since the start of the all-out invasion last year in a video address to the city’s citizens.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian war refugees have sought safety in the city from other areas to the east.
President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a reaction on Telegram, saying: ‘Unfortunately, there are wounded and dead. My condolences to the relatives!
‘There will definitely be a response to the enemy. A tangible one.’
Zelensky also posted drone footage that shows wrecked buildings from above. Third and fourth floors of the struck building were ruined. Nine people were wounded.
The attack comes amid heightened tensions around Zaporizhzhia, with Ukrainian and Russian officials accusing each other of plotting to bomb Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant.
Ukraine has claimed Moscow may try to cause a deliberate radiation leak in a bid to derail Kyiv’s ongoing counteroffensive in the surrounding region.
Citing the latest intelligence reports, Zelensky alleged Russian troops had placed ‘objects resembling explosives’ on top of several of the plant’s power units to ‘simulate’ an attack from outside.
‘Their detonation should not damage power units but may create a picture of shelling from Ukraine,’ according to a statement from the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces.
In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov raised the spectre of a potentially ‘catastrophic’ provocation by the Ukrainian army at the nuclear plant.
‘The situation is quite tense. There is a great threat of sabotage by the Kyiv regime, which can be catastrophic in its consequences,’ Mr Peskov told reporters.
He also claimed the Kremlin was pursuing ‘all measures’ to counter the alleged Ukrainian threat.
In his first public appearance since facing an armed uprising late last month, Vladimir Putin tried to convey a message of strength on Tuesday before a virtually assembled group of international leaders who support Moscow.
The remarks were made days after Putin put down the uprising led by the Wagner mercenary group during a speech to leaders at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which was hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After more than a year of his bungling invasion of Ukraine, the events were largely regarded as the greatest challenge to Putin’s authority he had ever faced. Both allies and foes began to question just how tightly in control the tyrant actually was.
Putin used his moment to speak at the one-day summit to give his answer to that question.
“The solidarity and high responsibility for the fate of the fatherland was clearly demonstrated by Russian political circles and the entire society by coming out as a united front against the attempted armed rebellion,” he said via video link.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues from the (SCO) countries who have expressed support for the actions of the Russian leadership,” Putin told the attending leaders, who included China’s Xi Jinping, Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko and Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi.
In reference to the impact of his war on Ukraine, Putin also said Russia was withstanding “sanctions and provocations” and “steadily developing.”
Many of the leaders in virtual attendance, Russia-friendly nations who share borders, diplomatic aims or strong economic ties with Moscow, could be significantly impacted by changes in Putin’s fate.
Founded in 2001 and spreadheaded by China and Russia, the SCO also includes India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and accounts for a sweeping portion of Eurasia and, with the inclusion of the world’s two most populous countries, around 40% of the global population.
Tuesday’s summit also provided an opportunity for the grouping to extend its reach – with Iran approved as a full member – the second expansion in the organization’s more than two decade history. Staunch Moscow ally Belarus also took a step toward gaining full membership, expected next year.
Both Moscow and Beijing view the group as an alternative to Western-led blocs and a key vehicle for their bid to push back against what it sees as a US-led world order.
But while many members may support a world with more dispersed global power, SCO contains an tangled web of interests and allegiances, which members must navigate as they aim to enhance regional security and cooperation more broadly.
Modi in opening remarks praised the SCO as an “important platform for peace, prosperity and development in the entire Eurasia region.”
“We do not see the SCO as an extended neighborhood, but an extended family. Security, economic development, connectivity, unity, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and environmental protection are the pillars of our vision for SCO,” he said.
But this year’s event was a toned down affair for the group, compared to last year’s gathering. That event stretched over two in-person days in Samarkand, Uzbekistan and featured a number of sideline meetings between attending leaders.
India announced last month that its leaders’ summit would be held virtually, without specifying why. An online summit can cut time spent together – and reduce the optics of solidarity between participants.
Modi is hosting the gathering days after being welcomed for a state visit in the US by President Joe Biden, who is keen to cultivate New Delhi as a partner in its growing competition with China.
In his address to the summit, Chinese leader Xi called for regional leaders to strengthen their coordination and resist the influence of external forces in the region – employing language typically used by Beijing to decry what it claims are aims of American foreign policy.
“We must be highly vigilant against external forces inciting a ‘new cold war’ in the region and creating confrontation between camps, (and) resolutely oppose any country’s interference in internal affairs and instigation of ‘color revolutions,’” Xi said, using a term to refer to government-toppling political movements.
Member countries should “formulate foreign policies independently based on the overall and long-term interests of the region … and firmly hold the future and destiny of our country’s development and progress in our own hands,” he added, according to a transcript from China’s Foreign Ministry.
The grouping adopted a declaration and two joint statements, one on cooperation countering “radicalization leading to separatism, extremism and terrorism” and a second on cooperation in the field of digital transformation, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said following the close of the summit, which lasted roughly three hours.
Russia has become more dependent on China since Ukraine war began. Here’s how
Putin’s on-going war in Ukraine casts a long shadow over the broadly Russia-friendly gathering, especially as China and India have been under pressure from the West to limit support for Moscow or even push Putin toward peace.
A joint statement between Modi and Biden late last month saw the two express concern over the conflict in Ukraine and “coercive actions and rising tensions” in the India-Pacific region – statements that did not directly name Russia or China, but appeared to point their way.
Putin and Modi spoke via phone last week, with the Indian leader “reiterating his call for dialogue and diplomacy,” New Delhi said.
At last year’s SCO summit, Modi told Putin in “today’s era is not an era of war.”
And India has its own friction with neighboring China.
Beijing remains deeply suspicious of a US Indo-Pacific security grouping known as the Quad of which India is a part, and the two nuclear-armed neighbors have a simmering conflict along a contested border, which has erupted into violence in recent years.
The group also brings together India and Pakistan – another pairing of two nuclear-armed neighbors with a long history of fractious relations.
In May, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari became the most senior-level official to visit India in seven years, when he joined a SCO foreign ministers meeting.
Iran’s entry into the grouping comes after it signed a memorandum of obligations at last year’s summit. Belarus, a close Russian partner, took that step toward full membership this year, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said after the close of the Tuesday’s meeting.
Aspiring SCO member Belarus played a key role in navigating Putin’s crisis, claiming to have brokered a deal allowing Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin to safely leave Russia for Belarus.
Pakistan and India were the most recent countries to join, gaining full membership in 2017. Fourteen countries hold dialogue partner status, while another three are observers, according to New Delhi.
In a speech to the country this evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that “any attempt at blackmail is doomed to fail.”
Speaking from the Kremlin, the Russian president promised that those responsible for the weekend’s “criminal activity” would face justice.
In a statement, Putin claimed that the uprising was “criminal activity that is intended to weaken the country” and that the “organisers of this rebellion will be brought to justice.”
In a statement, he said that ‘any kind of blackmail is doomed to failure’ and that the mutiny leaders ‘wanted our society to be fragmented’.
He thanked the Russian public for its ‘support, patriotism and solidarity’ since the rebellion and Belarus’s Lukashenko for a peaceful resolution.
The President addressed the nation in a speech tonight (Picture: Sky News)The Wagner Group leader has spoken out since he was exiled to Belarus after the failed coup (Picture: Getty)
‘Virtually the entirety of Russian society… was united by its responsibility to defend their homeland,’ Putin said.
He also thanked Wagner officials who ‘took the right decision to stop and go back to prevent bloodshed’.
Putin added that most Wagner mercenaries are ‘patriots’ who were ‘used’ by organisers of the rebellion.
The uprising was ‘doomed to fail’ and that ‘its organisers, even though they lost their sense of right and wrong, couldn’t have failed to realise that,’ he continued.
Putin also accused Ukraine of being involved and calls the revolt ‘revenge for their failed counteroffensive’.
Earlier on Monday, Prigozhin revealed he ordered his fighters to halt their advance on Moscow because he ‘did not want to shed Russian blood’.
Yevgeny Prigozhin posed for selfies and smiled as he left Rostov (Picture: Reuters)
Prigozhin broke his silence since the failed military coup at the weekend and posted an 11-minute audio message where he failed to reveal his location – despite being exiled to Belarus.
There are currently unconfirmed reports that Progozhin is currently in Minsk – the capital of Belarus.
He said no-one agreed to sign a contract with the defence ministry and that his mercenary firm was bound to cease existence on July 1.
Prigozhin said: ‘We started our march because of an injustice.’
He claimed the decision to turn around the march on Moscow was because he and his fighters didn’t want to shed Russian blood.
Prigozhin also said it was not his aim to overthrow the Russian government but to demonstrate his anger with the actions of the Ministry of Defence.
The former Wagner leader also repeated his claim that his troops were attacked by Russian soldiers, saying 30 people died with more injured.
The militia revolted on Friday, with Prigozhin saying he wanted to punish defence minister Sergei Shoigu and army chief Valery Gerasimov for targeting his troops with rockets.
He said his troops had advanced 124 miles towards Moscow in the following 24 hours, with the city braced for war.
The uprising posed the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin’s leadership in more than two decades in power.
Putin had vowed to crush the rebellion – calling it a ‘stab in the back’ – and warned anyone involved in the ‘rebellion’ will ‘suffer inevitable punishment’.
The Kremlin denied reports he had fled the capital amid several claiming aircraft linked to the president were spotted flying out as Wagner forces close in.
Prigozhin, whose forces have spearheaded the Russian advance in Ukraine, claimed to have captured the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in Rostov without firing a shot.
It came as Russian media speculated that Mr Shoigu and other military leaders had lost Mr Putin’s confidence and could be replaced.
Before the uprising, Mr Prigozhin had criticised Mr Shoigu and General Staff chief General Valery Gerasimov with expletive-ridden insults for months, accusing them of failing to provide his troops with enough ammunition during the fight for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, the war’s longest and bloodiest battle.
Mr Prigozhin’s statement appeared to confirm analysts’ view that the revolt was a move to save Wagner from being dismantled after an order that all private military companies sign contracts with the Defence Ministry by July 1.
He said most of his fighters refused to come under the Defence Ministry’s command, and the force planned to hand over the military equipment it was using in Ukraine on June 30 after pulling out of Ukraine and gathering in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
He accused the Defence Ministry of attacking Wagner’s camp, prompting them to move sooner.
Following a rowdy incident on an easyJet flight from Manchester to Turkey, two Russian males have been detained.
The 48-year-old and 39-year-old were dragged from the aircraft by police in Greece after the captain made a diversion there because they wouldn’t calm down.
Although there was no violence, according to the authorities, they began yelling at the staff and passengers.
The men were accused of upsetting the peace, interfering with transportation, and failing to follow the crew’s orders.
They were released pending trial but were forced to stay in a police station as they had no Greek visas.
The flight to Dalaman took off without the pair, though it’s believed they will be put on another flight to Turkey later on Sunday.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: ‘easyJet’s cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and to act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time.
‘Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour onboard.’
Alexey Navalny, a jailed leader of the Russian opposition, had appealed against restrictions placed on his access to writing materials in prison, but the Russian Supreme Court on Thursday rejected his case, according to independent news source Mediazona.
Navalny had been contesting the limitations placed on access to writing materials in jails “not only for himself, but for all prisoners” during a hearing at the Supreme Court in Moscow, according to his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh. She claimed Navalny, who was present at the court via video link, had been contesting the limits “not only for himself, but for all prisoners.”
In a tweet on her official Twitter account, she stated that Aleksey was working to secure the right to correspondence for all inmates as well as for himself.
The decision came as Navalny is facing a new trial on charges of “extremism” that could result in his prison sentence being extended by decades.
A court spokesperson said Monday that the trial will take place behind closed doors.
Navalny is already serving sentences totaling 11-and-a-half years in a maximum security facility on fraud and other charges that he says were trumped up.
He and his supporters claim that his arrest and imprisonment were politically motivated, intended to silence his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Just hours after the trial began, Navalny announced the start of a campaign aimed at turning Russians against the war in Ukraine.
In comments posted to his Twitter account, Navalny said the “absurd” charges could lead to him serving a further 30 years behind bars.
After a Russian missile strike, at least three people have died and 25 have been injured in President Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih.
The attack was verified this morning by a Ukrainian official.
The strike hit a five-story residential structure early on Tuesday, according to Serhiy Lysak, chief of the regional administration, and the area was completely consumed by fire.
He stated that rescue efforts were still going on in a Telegram thread.
The destruction of the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky is the most recent act of violence in Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
It comes as Ukrainian forces are mounting counter-offensive operations using Western-supplied firepower to try to drive out the Russians.
Rescuers work at a site of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region(Picture: REUTERS)At least three people have been killed in the strike this morning (Picture: via REUTERS)Residential buildings were hit by the missile earlier today(Picture: REUTERS)
Yesterday Ukraine said it had liberated three villages – claiming they are the army’s first victories since its counter-offensive began.
Footage on social media showed Ukrainian troops celebrating in Blahodatne and Neskuchne – which is believed to mean that they have taken back control of the small villages.
Kyiv’s deputy defence minister, Hannah Maliar said nearby Makarivka was also taken.
Images from the scene relayed by Mr Zelensky on his Telegram channel showed firefighters battling the blaze as pockets of fire poked through multiple broken windows of a building.
Charred and damaged vehicles littered the ground.
‘More terrorist missiles,’ he wrote on the social app. ‘Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people.’
The aerial assault was the latest barrage of strikes by Russian forces that targeted various parts of Ukraine overnight.
The Kyiv military administration reported that the capital come under fire as well on Tuesday but the incoming missiles were destroyed by air defences.
This is a breaking news story, more to follow soon…Check back shortly for further updates.
Following a suspected drone or sabotage attack from Ukraine, a massive explosion has shook a Russian oil refinery.
The factory in the city of Krasnodar was shown to be on fire and emitting thick, foul-smelling black smoke on video footage.
Only 80 miles to the southwest of the facility, on the Black Sea coast, is Vladimir Putin’s infamous £1 billion clifftop home, which features an underground bunker, pole-dancing boudoir, and vineyard.
The major blast comes as Ukraine continues to ramp up its counter-offensive with three villages liberated and one of Putin’s top generals killed in a missile attack this week.
Krasnodar is the capital of the south Russian region of the same name and is linked to the annexed Crimea across the Kerch Strait.
It’s a key link in Putin’s war effort and a hub for supplying occupied Crimea.
More than 130 firefighters were called to the scene of the blaze at Krasnodar Oil Refinery at a diesel processing facility, according to local reports.
Thick black smoke billowed from the facility (Picture: East2West)
The Krasnodar region also suffered a radio hack this week from anti-Putin partisan group Freedom of Russia Legion.
The message threatened to destroy Putin’s ‘war criminals’ in Crimea but would not pose a threat to the civilian population.
Earlier today, at least three people were killed and 25 wounded after a Russian missile strike hit president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih.
Serhiy Lysak, head of the regional administration, said the strike hit a five-storey residential building early on Tuesday and the area was engulfed in fire.
He said in a Telegram post that rescue operations were ongoing.
Images from the scene relayed by Mr Zelensky on his Telegram channel showed firefighters battling the fire as charred and damaged vehicles littered the ground.
He wrote on the app: ‘More terrorist missiles. Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people.’
The aerial assault was the latest barrage of strikes by Russian forces that targeted various parts of Ukraine overnight.
The Kyiv military administration reported that the capital came under fire Tuesday but the incoming missiles were destroyed by air defence.
Despite the chances of a decisive Ukrainian victory increasing since the long-awaited counter-offensive was launched, Putin is reportedly refusing to listen to battlefield reports from his generals.
Russian and Ukrainian forces are reporting intense fighting along the border of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and southern Zaporizhzhia regions as Kyiv’s military attempts to break through the front lines and recapture territory in an ongoing counteroffensive.
The new reports came as Russian missiles attacked the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih early Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 28, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih city military administration.
Air defenses shot down three cruise missiles over the city but there were also “incomings” that hit civilian infrastructure, authorities said, adding that a five-story apartment building was on fire.
Rescue workers are still trying to reach one person trapped under the rubble of a residential building hit by a missile, according to city officials. A day of mourning has been declared for the victims on Wednesday.
The latest battle reports came from Moscow-backed officials and military bloggers who detailed clashes south of the town of Velyka Novosilka along both sides of the Mokri Yaly River, where Ukrainian forces have made gains in recent days.
Ukraine on Saturday seized several small villages along the river, according to geolocated video. And on Sunday, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar said Kyiv’s advances in the area amount to between 5 and 10 kilometers (3 to 6 miles).
Late Monday, a senior Russia-appointed official, Vladimir Rogov, spoke of heavy fighting in an area known as the Vremivka Ridge, claiming that higher ground remained under Russian control.
Rogov, a member of the Russian-installed Zaporizhzhia administration, said on Telegram that Russian attack helicopters were in action, and that in the vicinity of the village of Urozhaine, “reciprocal shelling and heavy fighting of ultra-high intensity continues.”
Rogov conceded that Ukrainian forces were “holding their positions on the northern and eastern outskirts of the village.”
Russian forces are trying to repel Ukraine’s breakthrough with counterattacks, according to the unofficial Russian Telegram channel, Operatsiya Z.
The channel said Monday that Ukrainian forces were trying to take higher ground to “create conditions for advancing,” and assessed that their aim was to advance toward the Russian-occupied hub of Staromlynivka.
Elsewhere Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukrainian Land Forces, said Tuesday that Ukrainian troops have continued “the defense operation in the Bakhmut direction.”
“Our soldiers are advancing, the enemy is losing ground on the flanks,” Syrskyi said.
Ukrainian officials also claim advances towards the direction of the port city of Berdiansk over the past day.
“The area taken under control amounted to three square kilometers,” spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andriy Kovalov, said Tuesday.
In the Donetsk village of Makarivka, Ukrainian forces had “already been driven out by the quick and effective counterattack of the 127th Division,” said Rogov, the Moscow-backed official. CNN cannot independently verify battlefield reports and other accounts paint a gloomier picture for Russian forces around Makarivka.
Ukrainian deputy defense minister Maliar said Monday that Makarivka was one of seven villages recaptured by Ukrainian forces in the past week.
Russian military bloggers have also been reporting intense combat in the area, with one Telegram channel called “Our Donetsk” saying the Ukrainians “managed to deepen and advance through the wooded areas, threatening with further advance to encircle” nearby Russian units.
There is no way to verify these unofficial reports, but they are consistent with a pattern in the fighting that has evolved in the last week.
“Our Donetsk” acknowledged that Russian troops had been forced to abandon Neskuchne – just south of Velyka Novosilka – for a second time, “retreating to positions where they would not be encircled.”
It said the Ukrainians were “accumulating forces” in the area, and heavy fighting continued.
Meanwhile, one of the most prominent Russian bloggers, Voenkor Kotenok, said late Monday that a senior Russian officer was killed as troops of Russia’s Fifth Army were forced to leave Makarivka.
Voenkor, who has 423,000 subscribers, said in a Telegram post that “as a result of an enemy missile attack, the Chief of Staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, Major General Sergei Goryachev, was killed.”
There is no independent verification of the death of Goryachev, a highly experienced commander, and no word from the Russian Defense Ministry.
Voenkor said that “according to representatives of the command of the United Group of Forces (S), the army has lost today one of the brightest and most effective military leaders.”
Another well-known Russian military blogger, WarGonzo, acknowledged Monday that earlier “victorious statements” about the situation in Makarivka were “premature.”
“The settlement is still a place of fierce fighting…The enemy is bringing in infantry in small groups, using light equipment, which makes it difficult to defeat them quickly,” the blogger said on Telegram.
“Despite expectations, we have failed to retake the village by the end of the day. We hope there will be success in this regard tomorrow.”
By contrast, Russian military bloggers are claiming that Ukrainian efforts to advance south of Orikhiv, in another part of the southern front, have been resisted, with several saying the Ukrainians had lost a significant number of demining tanks in an area known to have been heavily fortified by the Russians with minefields and tank traps.
Geolocated video appears to show Ukrainian armor losses in this area.
In his nightly address Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the fighting in the Donetsk-Zaporizhzhia border region is tough but Ukrainian forces are recapturing territory.
“The battles are fierce, but we are moving forward, and this is very important. The enemy’s losses are exactly what we need,” Zelensky said.
“Although the weather is unfavorable these days – the rains make our task more difficult – the strength of our warriors still yields results.”
Zelensky also said “the most important and hottest” operational areas are in the Tavria and the Khortytsia directions.
The commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces and the general of the Tavria operational-strategic group reported “on the success we have achieved, on the front areas where we need to reinforce and on the actions we can take to break more Russian positions,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky’s chief diplomatic adviser Igor Zhovkva told CNN Monday that the “ultimate goal of the counteroffensive campaign is to win back all the territories, including Crimea.”
Zhovkva would not give details on the counteroffensive actions underway.
He also sought to tamp down any expectations that the campaign would achieve rapid results, saying it could take many months for Ukraine to achieve its aims.
CNN’s Olga Voitovych, Sharon Braithwaite and Andrew Carey contributed reporting.
Before being devoured by a shark in Egypt, a man screamed “Papa, save me” in front of his grieving father and startled spectators.
The tiger shark killed 23-year-old Russian citizen Vladimir Popov by mauling him to death off the coast of the Hurghada vacation town in the Red Sea.
Online videos of the attack show Mr. Popov writhing around in the water while being repeatedly mauled by a shark. Then he is pulled under.
Then, according to a witness, the animal played with Mr. Popov’s body for two hours.
The shark was eventually caught, and footage shows it being brought into shore on a boat, before being beaten to death.
Mr Popov’s devastated dad Yury, who saw the attack, told local media his son yelled ‘papa, save me’ as he was attacked.
Yury added: ‘We went to the beach to relax. My son was attacked by a shark. It all happened in seconds.
‘What kind of help can you give? This meat grinder happened in 20 seconds, he was just dragged under the water…’
He said the beach was safe and described the killing as an ‘absolutely ridiculous coincidence’.
Yury added: ‘There are ships and yachts around. It’s never happened there. They usually attack on wild beaches. It is just some kind of evil fate.’
The Russian Consulate in Hurghada confirmed Popov was Russian but said he was a permanent resident of Egypt. It’s believed he’s been living in Egypt for a number of months.
Other beachgoers were seen frantically running out of the water when the attack happened.
An eyewitness said: ‘Children swim [in the area where theshark attacked] very often – there were children’s slides.
‘All this happened not far from a descent into the sea, next to the ladder, used by everyone who went into the water. At one point, the shark appeared, and immediately bit this man.
‘Rescuers saw this and began to start the boat. He tried to swim away from the shark, but he couldn’t.
‘It immediately saw through him, his legs surfaced quickly. And it dragged the body for two hours. It constantly dragged him under the water.’
Another source said there was a woman in the water not far from the man who was screaming.
They said: ‘The rescuers dragged her onto the boat, after which they rescued two more girls.
‘They were all taken away by doctors or the police, because they were in [a state of] shock, hysterical.’
The 46 mile (74km) stretch of coastline was closed off and is not expected to reopen until Sunday.
The ministry said the shark is being looked at in a laboratory to try and establish why it attacked, and if it was responsible for other maulings.
Although it’s not common for sharks to attack in the coastal regions of the Red Sea, an Austrian and a Romanian tourist were killed within days of each other last year.
Tourists, including many from Europe, flock to Egypt’s Red Sea resorts each year, with divers being drawn to the coral reefs and colourful sea life.
But numbers have been hit by years of political instability, the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
Tiger sharks are one of the larger shark species that can grow to over five metres. The live in mostly tropical and temperate waters and are among the most cited by the International Shark Attack File for unprovoked attacks on humans.
Last month an American tourist lost her foot in a shark attack while snorkelling in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Egyptian authorities have prohibited swimming near a beach at an Egyptian Red Sea resort following a fatal shark attack that claimed the life of a Russian person on Thursday, according to Egyptian and Russian officials.
The tragedy happened in Hurghada, a well-known tourist destination on Egypt’s eastern coast.
According to Russian Consul-General Viktor Voropayev, a Russian citizen who was born in 1999 “died as a result of a shark attack.”
Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad, ordered a committee to investigate the incident, according to a statement released by Egypt’s Environment Ministry.
She also directed local authorities to implement the “highest levels of safety for those who go to the beaches of the Red Sea, and to take all possible measures to avoid a recurrence of the shark attack incident again,” the statement said.
According to the statement, a specialized team was able to capture the “Tiger shark” that caused the incident “to examine it to find out the possible reasons for its attack and to indicate whether it is the same fish that caused previous accidents.”
The Environment Ministry issued a two-day ban on swimming starting Friday, including snorkeling and all other water sports activities in the area between Gouna to the north of Hurghada and Soma Bay to its south.
Over the past years, several similar incidents have happened in the Egyptian Red Sea.
In 2022, two women were killed in shark attacks in Egypt’s Red Sea, south of the city of Hurghada, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Environment.
In 2020, a Ukrainian boy lost an arm, and an Egyptian tour guide lost a leg in a shark attack. In 2018, a shark killed a Czech tourist off a Red Sea beach,” according to the state-run Al-Ahram Online newspaper.
The destruction of a significant dam and hydroelectric power plant early on Tuesday in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine led to widespread evacuations and fears of widespread destruction, with Kiev accusing Moscow’s forces of committing an act of “ecocide.”
According to the head of Ukraine’s Kherson area military administration, residents downstream from the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River in Kherson were advised to “do everything you can to save your life” as video showed a torrent of water spilling through a significant breach in the dam.
Fast-moving torrents of water were seen pouring out of the broken dam wall in two videos that were geolocated by CNN and shared on social media. Several structures near the dam’s entrance also suffered significant damage.
The critical Nova Kakhovka dam spans the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine and there are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.
Multiple senior Ukrainian officials and military figures accused Russia of sabotaging the dam.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who convened an emergency meeting of his security chiefs, said its destruction “only confirms for the whole world” that Russian forces “must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land.”
“This is ecocide,” added Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
“The Russians will be responsible for the possible deprivation of drinking water for people in the south of Kherson region and in Crimea, the possible destruction of some settlements and the biosphere,” he said.
European Council President Charles Michel also appeared to blame Moscow, writing on Twitter that “Russia and its proxies” will be held accountable.
“Shocked by the unprecedented attack of the Nova Kakhovka dam,” he said, adding the attack on “clearly qualifies as a war crime.”
In recent days Ukraine’s forces have increasingly taken the fight to Russia’s entrenched frontlines in the south and east ahead of a widely expected summer counter-offensive.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Zelensky, said the dam’s destruction would “create obstacles for the offensive actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
“This once again confirms that the Kremlin is not thinking strategically, but rather in terms of short-term situational advantages. But the consequences are already catastrophic,” he told CNN.
Ukraine’s military accused Russia’s forces of blowing up the dam “in panic”.
Ukrainian authorities urged residents living downstream to escape the area, with about 80 settlements in the zone of potential flooding, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
As of 10:00 a.m. local time, 742 people have been evacuated from the Kherson region, the ministry said.
“We are helping citizens in the liberated west-bank part of the Kherson region. We are worried about our people who remained in the temporarily occupied east bank part of the region,” said Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko.
Evacuations were disrupted as water began to inundate some settlements, the ministry said.
“Water is coming. The situation is complicated by the fact that some roads are being washed away. This makes it impossible to drive to some settlements. Evacuation teams are looking for other ways,” it continued.
Around 16,000 people on the west bank of Kherson region are in a “critical zone,” Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukraine-appointed head of the Kherson region military administration, said.
He had previously urged citizens to “collect your documents and most needed belongings and wait for evacuation buses.”
“I ask you to do everything you can to save your life. Leave the dangerous areas immediately,” he added.
Units of Ukraine’s National Police and the state emergency service of the Kherson region have been put on alert to warn and evacuate civilians from potential flood zones, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said.
With the water level rising, authorities urged everyone in the flood zone to turn off all electrical appliances, take documents and essentials, take care of loved ones and pets, and follow the instructions of rescuers and police.
In contrast, regional Russian officials were less urgent in their statements.
The Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, initially denied the dam had collapsed in an interview with Russian state media RIA Novosti, calling it “nonsense.”
He later confirmed the destruction of parts of the dam in what he called “a serious terrorist act” but said there was “no need to evacuate.”
“Overnight strikes on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant destroyed gate valves, causing water to be spilled downstream uncontrollably,” Leontiev said.
Andrey Alekseenko, another Russian-installed Kherson official, also played down the threat saying the situation along the banks of Dnipro was “under control.”
“There is no threat to people’s lives,” Alekseenko said, adding that Ministry of Emergency Situation staff are in control of water levels in the river.
“If necessary, we are ready to evacuate the residents of embankment villages, buses are prepared,” Alekseenko added.
CNN was not immediately able to verify the claims made by Ukrainian and Russian officials.
Throughout the course of the war in Ukraine both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of plotting to blow up the Soviet-era dam.
A critical piece of infrastructure, the dam holds back around 18 cubic kilometers in the Kakhovka Reservoir, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah, according to Reuters news agency.
The 30-meter-high, 3.2-kilometer (2 miles)-long structure is one of six dams along the Dnipro and supplies water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
It also supplies water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which lies upstream and is also under Russian control.
On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern command said the dam’s destruction will “certainly” affect the operation of the nuclear power plant but there was “no need to escalate the situation now and draw the most critical conclusions.”
“Because all experts are involved and will try to create better conditions to avoid the next technogenic catastrophe,” said Natalia Humeniuk, adding that “the situation is currently under control.”
And the International Atomic Energy agency said “no immediate nuclear safety risk” exists at the Zaporizhzhia plant and their experts are “closely monitoring the situation.”
Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom said that while water from the reservoir is needed for the “replenishment for turbine condensers and safety systems” of the plant, the cooling pond is “full” and as of 8:00 a.m. local time “the water level is 16.6 meters, which is sufficient for the plant’s needs.”
In November, the Nova Kakhovka dam was damaged in shelling and satellite images from Maxar Technologies obtained by CNN showed water flowing out of three sluice gates at the dam.
A gang of Wagner mercenary fighters in Ukraine have apparently seized a lieutenant-colonel in the Russian army.
In a video produced by the press office of the private military company (PMC) head Yevgeny Prigozhin, the high-ranking officer ‘confesses’ to being intoxicated on duty and directing his soldiers to fire on Wagner troops.
The clip comes amid escalating tensions between the Russian state army and the mercenaries that were brought in to assist with some of the most severe fighting in Ukraine.
Despite both groups ostensibly battling on the same side, relations between them have soured dramatically in recent months, to the extent that Prigozhin has been filmed criticising army chiefs in vitriolic terms.
The latest video shows a man with a nose that appears to be broken identifying himself as Roman Venevitin, commander of Russia’s 72nd Brigade.
Asked by someone behind the camera what he did, he responds: ‘Opened fire on a Wagner PMC vehicle while intoxicated from alcohol.’
When he is asked why, he answers: ‘Due to my personal animosity.’
According to the mercenary group, the shooting damaged a supply truck but no Wagner soldiers were injured
The private army has also alleged that the Russian army scattered mines on roads with the intention of killing its fighters, and released a short clip of explosives being cleared.
While the dispute between the two pro-Putin sides extends across Ukraine, the focus appears to be on the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Amid continuing confusion over the extent to which the area is under Russian control, Prigozhin furiously berated state army leaders for a supposed lack of support offered to his soldiers.
In another video, he said: ‘He said: ‘Those territories, which were taken with the blood and lives of our comrades-in-arms for many months, every day, by tens or hundreds of metres are now being thrown almost without a fight by Russian army soldiers who are supposed to hold our flanks.’
He added that the Russian defence ministry deserved the blame for ‘not giving [Wagner fighters] the ammunition they asked for so they can cover the military with firepower’.
Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs, said: ‘We are watching with our own eyes how power in Russia is beginning to fall apart.
‘It is not doing it slowly, but it loudly creaks with his massive rusty carcass as it is heading for civil war.’
At the end of last month, it was announced that Wagner troops would be withdrawing from Bakhmut after 10 months of bloody battles for a city that analysts argue has little strategic value.
Ukraine continues to maintain the site has not fallen into the hands of the enemy though, as speculation mounts that the country’s long-anticipated counteroffensive may have begun.
500 children have been slain during Russia‘s war with Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed.
The Ukrainian president disclosed the figure hours after rescue workers uncovered the body of a two-year-old girl who perished in a Russian strike on Saturday.
Two young children were murdered during the bombardment of Kyiv on Thursday, amid a rise in attacks on Ukraine’s capital city with 17 missile strikes throughout the month of May.
Mr Zelensky said that ‘Russian weapons and hatred, which continue to take and destroy the lives of Ukrainian children every day’, had killed the hundreds who had perished since Russia’s invasion began last February.
He continued: ‘Many of them could have become famous scholars, artists, sports champions, contributing to Ukraine’s history.’
‘We must hold out and win this war!
‘All of Ukraine, all our people, all our children, must be free from the Russian terror.’
Mr Zelensky said it was impossible to establish the exact number of children killed because there are still some areas under Russian occupation.
Flowers and toys left at the scene of a destroyed apartment building where several people, including children, died (Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Rescuers found the two-year-old’s body in the rubble of two residential buildings in the suburbs of the city of Dnipro.
The regional governor said five children were among 22 people injured in Saturday’s attack.
Russia launched more drones and cruise missile strikes on Sunday, targeting Kyiv as well as other parts of Ukraine.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said two missiles struck a military air base in Kropyvnytskyi, a city in central Ukraine’s Kyrovohrad province.
The Russian military said it has conducted a series of strikes in recent days on Ukrainian air defence batteries, air bases and troop depots.
Concerns about the safety of civilians have increased after officials found nearly a quarter of 4,800 air raid shelters were locked or unusable.
A 33-year-old woman in Kyiv died on Thursday while waiting outside a shuttered shelter.
Four people were arrested as part of the criminal investigation into her death and a security guard who allegedly failed to unlock the doors remained in custody.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the city had received more than 1,000 complaints about locked, dilapidated or insufficient air raid shelters.
Ukraine has requested a period of operational quietness concerning their counter-attack against Russian-enforced land, in an effort to regain control.
Anticipation has risen around what is supposed to be an attack in the east and south, but president Volodymyr Zelensky finally suggested in an interview released on Saturday that ‘we are ready’ for it.
As expected, there have been no formal statements, but this morning Russia claimed to have repelled a ‘major offensive’ at five frontline points in the eastern Donetsk region.
Though it is yet unclear whether this was the beginning of a counter-offensive, the defence ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said his forces had killed 250 Ukrainian soldiers.
Three infantry fighting vehicles, 16 tanks and 21 armoured combat vehicles were destroyed, the statement said.
‘The enemy’s goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front,’ said Mr Konashenkov.
‘The enemy did not achieve its tasks. It had no success.’
Ukrainian officials made no comment, and have emphasised the need for secrecy about their military operations.
It comes as Ukraine’s defence minister posted a tweet on Sunday quoting music band Depeche Mode, specifically their song titled Enjoy the Silence.
‘Words are very unnecessary… They can only do harm,’ Oleksii Reznikov tweeted alongside a video referring to the counter-offensive.
Posted on Official Telegram channels, and on Crimean TV, a voiceover says: ‘Plans love silence. There will be no announcement of the start.’
Authorities have repeatedly discouraged public speculation, insisting it could help the enemy.
In recent days, there has also been a crackdown on citizens sharing footage of air defence systems shooting down Russian missiles.
For months, Ukrainian officials have spoken about plans to reclaim strategically significant territory from Russians.
The attacks come as people living in Russian villages on the border with Ukraine have started to flee their homes.
Russia’s western Belgorod region has recently been under attack from a sabotage group made up of pro-Ukraine Russian partisan fighters.
The Kremlin has appeared to downplay the situation in border regions, despite intense shelling in recent days.
But the mayor of Belgorod, Valentin Demidov, on Friday told AFP that some 5,000 people who fled border villages have registered with city authorities, with several hundred in temporary housing.
In a lengthy news conference with Russian state media, a former staff member who had accused Joe Biden of sexual assault has defected to Moscow.
When Tara Reade accused then-candidate Joe Biden of harassing and assaulting her when she worked in his Senate office in 1993, the story made news throughout the 2020 presidential campaign.
No former Biden employee has come forward to claim they ever saw or heard of any kind of sexual misbehaviour in his Senate office, and Biden has categorically denied Reade’s accusations.
In an interview with MSNBC in 2020, Biden said he is “saying unequivocally, it never, never happened. It didn’t. It never happened.”
Reade later faced credibility questions of her own including about her education and other credentials.
After being out of the headlines for years, Reade turned up in Moscow on Tuesday, where she sat alongside convicted Kremlin spy Maria Butina and answered questions from Russian state media.
Butina was sentenced to 18 months in a US prison in 2019 for conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent, and now serves in the Russian parliament in President Vladimir Putin’s party.
Reade said she decided to come to Russia following death threats she received this year after she reiterated her accusations regarding Biden and announced on Twitter that she was willing “to testify under oath in Congress if asked.”
“When I got off the plane in Moscow, for the first time in a very long time I felt safe, and I felt heard, and I felt respected. That has not happened in my own country,” Reade said.
CNN cannot verify Reade’s claims of receiving threats on her life.
Reade said that “this illusion of Russia as an enemy is propagated by a few Washington elites who are determined to cause problems.”
During the news conference, Butina promised to discuss the possibility of granting Russian citizenship to Reade and ask Putin “to fast track her citizenship request.”
