African politicians who wanted to settle the conflict in Ukraine met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday in St. Petersburg.
Despite both of them downplaying the idea, the delegation wants to bring the warring parties to the bargaining table.
The Ukraine war, which is already into its second year, has had an effect on several African countries, particularly as grain prices have risen sharply.
Along with the presidents of Zambia, the Comoros, Congo Brazzaville, Egypt, Senegal, and Uganda, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa arrived in St. Petersburg, according to a statement provided by his office.
The delegation is “seeking a road to peace to the 16 months long conflict between Ukraine and Russia which has thus caused devastating economic impact, loss of life and global instability,” the statement said.
The leaders visited Kyiv on Friday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
They were initially greeted with explosions and forced to take shelter in bunkers as Russian airstrikes hit the capital.
The delegation voiced concerns that the continent of Africa was suffering under a prolonged conflict, with Ramaphosa insisting to Zelensky that “there should be peace through negotiations.”
But Zelensky rebuffed efforts to bring Kyiv to the negotiating table imminently, and ruled out any peace negotiations with Russia until Moscow’s troops withdraw from his country’s territory.
“Today, I have clearly said repeatedly at our meeting that to allow any negotiations with Russia now that the occupier is on our land means to freeze the war, to freeze pain and suffering,” he told journalists in a press conference after the meeting.
Ramaphosa’s office had previously described the peace initiative as “the first time that Africa is united behind the resolution of a conflict outside of our continent, and where you have a group of African heads of state and government traveling together in an attempt to find a path to peace to this conflict.”
Western nations have criticized some African countries for not condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and conspicuously stayed away from votes denouncing the invasion at the United Nations General Assembly.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Ramaphosa has been clear that he will not “take sides in a contest between global powers” and that he is pushing for a negotiated end to the conflict.
CNN’s Sarah Dean, Olga Voitovych, Nimi Princewell and Niamh Kennedy contributed reporting.
Vladimir Putin claims that Russia has already placed a first wave of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
They would only be used if Russia’s state or territory was in danger, the president of Russia stated at a seminar.
There is no indication, according to the US government, that the Kremlin will attack Ukraine with nuclear weapons.
After Mr. Putin’s remarks, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated, “We don’t see any indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.”
Belarus is a key Russian ally and served as a launchpad for Mr Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Mr Putin said transferring the tactical nuclear warheads would be completed by the end of the summer.
Answering questions after a speech at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia’s president said the move was about “containment” and to remind anyone “thinking of inflicting a strategic defeat on us”.
When asked by the forum’s moderator about the possibility of using those weapons, he replied: “Why should we threaten the whole world? I have already said that the use of extreme measures is possible in case there is a danger to Russian statehood.”
Tactical nuclear weapons are small nuclear warheads and delivery systems intended for use on the battlefield, or for a limited strike. They are designed to destroy enemy targets in a specific area without causing widespread radioactive fallout.
The smallest tactical nuclear weapons can be one kiloton or less (producing the equivalent to a thousand tonnes of the explosive TNT). The largest ones can be as big as 100 kilotons. By comparison, the atomic bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 was 15 kilotons.
The Russian leader is due to meet African leaders in St Petersburg after they visited Kyiv on Friday as part of a peace initiative they are presenting to both countries.
However while they were in the city it came under Russian missile attack.
Image caption, The African leaders are due to meet Mr Putin on Saturday
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for de-escalation on both sides and negotiations for peace.
“We came here to listen and recognise what the people of Ukraine have gone through,” he said.
But Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said instead of making diplomatic overtures to Russia it should be frozen out diplomatically to send a message that the international community condemned its invasion.
Kyiv would not enter negotiations with Moscow while it still occupied Ukrainian territory, Mr Zelensky said.Media caption,
‘The road to peace is not an easy one,’ said President Cyril Ramaphosa in Ukraine
Mr Putin also repeated his claim that Ukraine stood no chance of succeeding in its ongoing counter-offensive.
The Ukrainian military was also running out of its own military equipment and would soon only be using Western-donated equipment, he said.
“You can’t fight for long like that,” he said, warning that any F16 US fighter jets given to Ukraine “will burn, no doubt about it”.
Ukraine has previously dismissed similar remarks, asserting they are making progress in recapturing territory in both eastern and southern Ukraine.
On Friday, Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said in the south of the country units had advanced 2km in all directions.
The BBC cannot independently verify battlefield claims.
The Russian leader also addressed economic themes, claiming that Western sanctions on Russia had failed to isolate it and instead led to an expansion in its trade with “the markets of the future”.
He praised new deals with countries in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America – calling them “reliable, responsible partners”.
Vladimir Putin claims that after preparations are finished in a few weeks, the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus will start “immediately.”
During a meeting with his Belarusian colleague Alexander Lukashenko today in Sochi, the Russian President confirmed the information.
Putin replied, “So everything is going as planned, everything is stable,” according to a Kremlin readout.
After the facilities are ready on July 7–8, Russia will begin deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, he continued.
The two men had previously agreed the plan to deploy Russian land-based short-range nuclear missiles on the territory of Moscow’s close ally, where they will remain under Russian command.
Since invading Ukraine last year, Putin has repeatedly warned Russia would be ready to use nuclear weapons if needed to defend its ‘territorial integrity’.
Ukraine said Belarus had been ‘taken hostage’ by the Kremlin, when the agreement was first announced back in March,
Today, Russia reported heavy fighting along the front in southern Ukraine, where bloggers described the first sightings of German and U.S. armour, signalling that Ukraine’s long-anticipated counterattack was under way.
Reuters reports that the push is ultimately expected to involve thousands of Ukrainian troops trained and equipped by the West.
Russia, which has had months to prepare its defensive lines, says it has withstood attacks since the start of the week. Kyiv meanwhile, has so far said its main effort has yet to begin.
Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said reports of German-made Leopard tanks and U.S. Bradley armoured vehicles seen near Tokmak south of Orikhiv, if confirmed, would provide the first evidence that Ukraine’s new brigades of Western-armed troops had joined the battle.
In all, Kyiv has 12 brigades totalling 50,000-60,000 troops ready to unleash in the counteroffensive. Nine of the brigades have been armed and trained by the West.
‘They’ve got a choice of how many they commit initially and how many they keep in reserve in case the battlefield dynamics change,’ Mr Barry added.
Ukraine generally prevents journalists from reporting on its side of front lines during offensive operations, emphasising the need to keep its plans secret.
In Russia’s latest report from the battlefield, the army claimed to have destroyed 21 Ukrainian armoured vehicles in the past 24 hours.
In Kyiv’s few comments on the fighting, it has reported gains of territory in the east around the city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured last month after nearly a year of the deadliest ground combat in Europe since World War Two.
In his nightly video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Ukrainian troops and repeated earlier claims of success in Bakhmut, but gave no further account.
‘We see every detail. But it’s not time to talk about it today,’ he said.
In the latest Russian air strikes, Ukraine said it had shot down four of six missiles overnight.
After leaking an elaborately faked statement from Vladimir Putin, hackers instilled fear in the hearts of millions of Russians about a full-scale Ukrainian attack.
Putin appeared to impose martial law in the message and said that Ukrainian forces had “entered the territories of Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk.”
A video message that initially appeared as a radio broadcast and eventually made its way onto the country’s state media later went viral on social media, with numerous clips of the emergency appeal.
The announcement, sounding like an official broadcast from Putin, said: ‘Fellow citizens, brothers and sisters, at 4am today Ukrainian troops, armed to the teeth by the NATO bloc, with approval and support from Washington, have entered the territories of Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions.
‘Our border guards and Armed Forces are fighting back the superior troops of the aggressor. My order introduced martial law in Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions.
Russian radio hit by ‘major hack’ with Putin impersonator imposing ‘martial law’
‘Also today, I will sign a law [to declare] general mobilisation because in order to fight a dangerous and treacherous enemy we would need to unite all forces of the Russian Federation.
‘I am asking residents of Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions to evacuate deeper into Russia, maintaining order and peace.’
The broadcast added: ‘Strictly follow orders by local military administration while leaving your living place, to give the Russian army the chance to defend Russian land from Ukrainian Nazis. The enemy will be destroyed, the victory will be ours.’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted the Russian media had been caught out and branded the special Putin broadcast a ‘hack’.
‘Experts have already taken control and eliminated the hack, due to which some TV networks showed ‘Putin’s emergency appeal’,’ said Peskov.
While it remains unclear who was behind the attack, Russian officials immediately blamed Ukraine.
It appeared TV channels had repeated the message after it was first broadcast on FM radio stations across at least Belgorod, Rostov and Voronezh regions.
The latest hack across a wide area of western Russia increases the feeling that Putin’s government is losing control.
Ironically, though, the ‘Putin broadcast’ promoted calls among the autocrat’s most ardest supporters to properly announce mass mobilisation and martial law.
Putin has so far resisted such moves fearing a backlash from Russians already suffering from his ill-conceived war.
Ukraine has acknowledged that one of its top aims in the conflict is to murder Vladimir Putin.
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian minister of defence, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and Valery Gerasimov are all on the hit list, according to intelligence chief Vadym Skibitsky.
However, Putin “stayed holed up,” according to the second-in-command of Ukraine’s military intelligence, making it challenging to assassinate him.
Even while the Russian president “is now beginning to stick his head out,” he continued, spies can never be certain “it’s really him” because of the long-rumored employment of doppelgängers at public occasions.
Skibitsky said Putin ‘notices that we’re getting ever closer to him’ – a claim backed by new US intelligence that Ukraine was likely behind last month’s audacious drone attack on the Kremlin.
He also said the tyrant is ‘afraid of being killed by his own people’.
Putin sits at the top of the list ‘because he co-ordinates and decides what happens, Sibitsky went on: ‘Ultimately, however, everyone will have to answer for their actions.
‘Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu planned the attack and now they cannot turn back.’
Prominent Russian commanders are also on the list.
Prigozhin, whose troops have been accused of a catalogue of appalling war crimes, was relaxed about his inclusion.
‘Of course, Prigozhin, as one of the important actors in this war, must be eliminated. This is 100 per cent true, so they are doing absolutely the right steps,’ he said.
‘I always say that the enemy must be treated with respect. Of course, I respect their decision as well.’
Skibitsky claimed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was also on the wanted list even though he had ‘realised that strategically the Putin regime has already lost’.
‘General Armageddon’ Sergei Surovikin was also named.
‘We are at war and these are our enemies,’ he said. ‘If an important figure produces and finances weapons for them, then its elimination would save the lives of many civilians.
‘And then he gets wiped out. According to international conventions, it is then a legitimate target.’
Russia has already accused Ukraine of seeking to assassinate Putin with a strike on the Kremlin on May 3.
One of two drones hit the Senate building where his official apartment, which he seldom uses, is located.
Initially there were claims that the attack was a stunt by the secret services.
But a report in The New York Times said US officials are now less inclined to see it as some kind of false flag operation.
US spy agencies suggest it was orchestrated by Ukrainian military intelligence, although it was unclear if President Volodymyr Zelensky or his officials were aware of it.
Confidence it was directly authorised by the Ukrainian government was ‘low’, the report
Vladimir Putin has praised Russian troops and the paramilitary Wagner Group for capturing the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
The longest and bloodiest fight of the 15-month conflict would culminate with the capture of the largely flattened city, and Russia has often declared victory there in error in recent months.
Insisting that battle is still going on for control of the Donetsk Oblast’s transport and logistical hub, Ukrainian officials quickly refuted these assertions.
Reports that Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed earlier today that his army has lost control were also misinterpreted.
A Ukrainian soldier in the frontline city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, on April 23, 2023 (Picture: AFP)Residential buildings damaged by shelling (Picture: AFP)
Speaking alongside US president Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, the Ukrainian president was asked if Bakhmut is still in Ukraine’s hands.
He then replied ‘I think no’ in answer to a journalist, who stated ‘the Russians say they have taken Bakhmut’.
‘You have to understand that there is nothing,’ the leader added. ‘They [Russians] destroyed everything.
‘For today, Bakhmut is only in our hearts. There is nothing in this place.’
In a Facebook post, his spokesperson Sergii Nykyforov clarified the response: ‘As for the answers of the president of Ukraine to the questions about Bakhmut.
‘Reporter’s question: “Russians said they have taken Bakhmut.” President’s reply: “I think no.” Thus the president denied taking Bakhmut.”
Russia’s defence ministry had said early on Sunday that Wagner forces, with the support of Russian troops, had captured the city.
It came about eight hours after a similar claim by leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who shared a video on his Telegram channel in which his fighters waved Russian flags against a backdrop of ruins.
‘Today on May 20, around midday, Bakhmut was taken in its entirety,’ he said in the video, adding that Wagner fighters would search the city before handing it over to the Russian army.
‘By May 25 we will completely examine [Bakhmut], create the necessary lines of defence and hand it to the military.’
The claims come after a week in which Ukrainian forces have made their most rapid gains for six months on the northern and southern flanks ahead of a long-anticipated counteroffensive.
Whether they have left the city or not, troops have been slowly pulling back inside it, to clusters of buildings on the western edge.
Meanwhile, to the north and south, they have seized large areas from the Russian army.
Vladimir Putin has referred to the West as being ‘halfwits’ who will fall short of defeating Russia.
He disparaged his ‘adversaries’ as ‘neo-colonialists’ for supporting Ukraine while disregarding his own imperialist attempt to invade and conquer the nation, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
The Kremlin autocrat asserted that Russia‘s multinationalism was its strength while appearing slumped and pallid.
In a deranged speech at the Council for Interethnic Relations, he said: ‘Our state was built around the values of multinational harmony…
Putin referred to his enemies as ‘half-wits’ who would fail to defeat Russia
’Our enemies….people with neo-colonial thinking, half-wits really – do not understand that this diversity makes us stronger.
’In vain they count on the effect for which they are trying.
’Well, I already said that people who are guided by their neo-colonial ideas are half-wits.
’And in the competition of halfwits, they would take second place.
’Why only second? Yes, because they are halfwits.’
He waited for his loyalists to laugh at his supposed joke but it appeared only his deputy chief of staff Sergey Kiriyenko found it in any way funny.
Putin claimed the more sanctions were imposed on Russia, the more consolidated people would become behind him.
He claimed 90 per cent of society now backed him.
Contradicting himself, he demanded yet more cohesion.
‘[My opponents] say that Russia should be divided into dozens of small state entities and it is quite obvious what for,’ he said.
‘In order to later bend them to their will, exploit, use in their selfish interests. They have no other goals.’
He reportedly travelled to Pyatigorsk in the Caucasus for the council session but then addressed an audience substantially online – his trademark method of communicating with his functionaries.
Following the downing of his hypersonic missiles by Ukraine, Vladimir Putin “will likely turn to nuclear weapons,” according to an ex-US Army official.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s air defence system forced the Kremlin to ground its most intense aerial attack to date against Kyiv.
According to the US Centre for Strategic International Studies, Russian Kinzhal missiles—which translate as “dagger” in Russian—are some of the most advanced nuclear-capable weapons in the country’s arsenal.
Kevin Ryan, an associate fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. said Ukraine stopping Putin’s ‘unstoppable’ rockets has humiliated him.
‘Putin is running out of ways to escalate the war in a way that would force Ukraine – and the West – to back down,’ he told the MailOnline.
‘His massive invasion and frequent bombing campaigns have failed to give him a decisive victory.
‘If he cannot force a victory with conventional weapons, he will probably turn to nuclear weapons.’
The shot-down missiles are the latest embarrassing blow to Vladimir Putin (Picture: Reuters)
According to UAwar, citing Ukrainian ministry data, Russia has lost nearly 179,000 soldiers, 3600 tanks and 2,750 artillery systems in the year-long conflict.
‘Russia’s conventional (non-nuclear) forces are already showing themselves not up to the task in Ukraine,’ Ryan added.
‘That is why Putin has relied so heavily on nuclear threats.
‘If it’s proven that the Kinzhal has not lived up to expectations, the effectiveness of the whole spectrum of Russia’s strategic weapons, nuclear and nonnuclear, are put in doubt.’
The Russian president has long made often vague threats about using nuclear weapons in the war.
From Putin threatening the use of ‘all available means’ to massive missiles being carted around in front of cameras, the Kremlin has made its stockpile clear.
The attack against Kyiv was one of the Kremlin’s largest in the year-long war (Picture: Reuters)
Experts have been conflicted about whether Putin could actually push the button.
The Heritage Foundation, a US think-tank, said in March that Putin’s ‘martyr complex’ could push him either way as his dreams of victory ‘collapse’.
Though, other analysts have said what could put Putin off from using nuclear arms is the wind, as it could blow radiation straight into Russian territory.
In 2020, the Kremlin said it has four reasons why it would ever resort to nuclear weapons, such as a pre-emptive strike or in response to a nuclear strike against it.
The executive order added that the only other two reasons for long-range nukes would be responding to a threat that would limit its control over its nuclear arms, such as a cyberattack, or when the ‘existence’ of Russia itself is threatened.
‘Russian doctrine has long accepted the use of shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield and it is much more cautious about long-range strategic nuclear weapons designed to hit the enemy’s homeland,’ the Heritage Foundation added.
Hypersonic missiles can travel at least five times faster than the speed of sound (about a mile a second) and can swerve most defence systems.
After Tuesday’s barrage, US officials confirmed an American-made Patriot system – a top-of-the-line ground-based air defence system – had been damaged.
In a Telegram statement, Ukraine’s air force did not specify whether the Patriot system was involved in the shooting down of Russia’s hypersonic missiles.
‘Let’s keep the sky!’ the statement added.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky struck a similarly triumphant tone in a video speech to the Council of Europe, a major human rights organisation.
‘At 3 o’clock in the morning, our people woke up to explosions,’ he said, ‘eighteen Russian missiles of different types were in our skies, in particular, ballistic ones, which the terrorist state has boasted about.
‘We were told such missiles would bring a guaranteed death because they are supposedly impossible to shoot down.
‘But all lives were protected. All missiles were shot down, including ballistic ones – 100%.
As reported by Russian media on Friday, Russia has issued an arrest warrant for the chief judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who in March issued one for President Vladimir Putin on suspicion of war crimes.
Per the Russian media, which cited the Interior Ministry’s database, the British judge Karim Ahmed Khan has been placed to the wanted list.
As reported by Russian media on Friday, Russia has issued an arrest warrant for the chief judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who in March issued one for President Vladimir Putin on suspicion of war crimes.
According to Russian media, which cited the Interior Ministry’s database, the British judge Karim Ahmed Khan has been placed to the wanted list.
Following Ukraine’s allegation that it had shot down a barrage of ‘undefeatable’ missiles, three of Vladimir Putin‘s top hypersonic experts were imprisoned on charges of high treason.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Anatoly Maslov, Alexander Shiplyuk, and Valery Zvegintsev are all facing “very serious accusations.”
The three people have all been involved with the weapons project for many years, and they contributed to a book chapter titled “Hypersonic Short-Duration Facilities for Aerodynamic Research at ITAM, Russia.”
Putin has long boasted that Russia is the global leader in hypersonic missiles and unveiled his ‘Kinzhal’ rockets in 2018, hailing them as ‘undefeatable’ by any present or future defence systems.
But he faced fresh humiliation on Tuesday when Ukraine said it had destroyed six of them in a single night.
Colleagues of the three men published an open letter protesting their innocence and warning the prosecutions posed serious risk to Russian science.
‘We know each of them as a patriot and a decent person who is not capable of doing what the investigating authorities suspect them of,’ they said.
‘In this situation, we are not only afraid for the fate of our colleagues. We just do not understand how to continue to do our job.’
The letter cited the case of Dmitry Kolker, a Siberian scientist who was arrested last year on suspicion of state treason and flown to Moscow despite suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer.
The laser specialist died two days later. It said such cases were having a chilling effect on young Russian scientists.
‘Even now, the best students refuse to come to work with us, and our best young employees are leaving science,’ the letter stated.
‘A number of research areas that are critically important to laying the fundamental groundwork for the aerospace technology of the future are simply closing because employees are afraid to engage in such research.’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the eminent academics all face ‘very serious accusations’ (Picture: Reuters)
Asked about the letter, Peskov said: ‘We have indeed seen this appeal, but Russian special services are working on this. They are doing their job. These are very serious accusations.’
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said the country’s air defences, bolstered by Western-supplied systems, had thwarted an intense Russian attack.
He said the barrage included six Kinzhal aero-ballistic hypersonic missiles, the most fired in a single attack in the war so far. All were shot down, he added.
Putin has repeatedly touted the Kinzhals as providing a key strategic competitive advantage and among the most advanced weapons in his country’s arsenal.
What we know about Kinzhal, Russia’s hypersonic missile
Russia began using the Kinzhal, which means ‘dagger’, to strike targets in Ukraine early in the invasion.
But it has used the expensive weapon sparingly and against priority targets, apparently reflecting limited availability.
– It is an air-launched ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads. Ukraine said six of them were fired on Tuesday.
– It has a reported range of 1,500 to 2,000 km (930 to 1,240 miles) while carrying a payload of 480 kg. It may reach speeds of up to Mach 10 (12,250 kph).
– The Kinzhal is one of six ‘next generation’ weapons unveiled by Putin in a speech in March 2018. He has said these weapons could penetrate both existing and any future missile defence systems.
– Putin said in December 2021, two months before the invasion of Ukraine, that Russia was the global leader in hypersonic missiles and, by the time other countries caught up, was likely to have developed technology to counteract these new weapons.
‘In our advanced developments, we are definitely the leaders,’ he said.
Ukraine is suspected to have downed an ‘unstoppable’ Russian Kinzhal – or Dagger – hypersonic missile, pictured here with its carrier MiG-31 (Picture: MoD Russia/e2w)
– Russia sent fighter jets armed with Kinzhal missiles to Syria for the first time in 2021, military analysts say.
– Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have fired a Kinzhal missile at a munitions dump in southwestern Ukraine on March 19, 2022, the first known use of the weapon in combat.
It has since fired Kinzhal missiles on several other occasions in Ukraine.
– On May 6, Ukraine said for the first time that it had shot down a Kinzhal, using a Patriot system. It was not clear whether the ‘Western’ systems Kyiv said it used against Kinzhals on Tuesday were also Patriots.
The missiles are difficult to detect and intercept because of their hypersonic speed and manoeuvrability.
If Ukraine’s claim of having shot down six fired Tuesday is confirmed, it would mark another blow to Putin’s war efforts and show the increasing effectiveness of the country’s air defences.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu contested the Ukrainian claims, telling the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency: ‘We have not launched as many Kinzhals as they allegedly shoot down every time with their statements.’
Overnight, Russia conducted yet another hefty missile attack on the Ukrainian capital.
For the second time in three days, a round of cruise missile attacks against Kyiv occurred early in the morning.
Vladimir Putin has already ordered aircraft attacks on the city nine times this month.
Although the Ukrainian air defence was able to intercept all of the missiles, two fires were started in eastern regions by falling debris from the air raid, according to officials.
The head of Kyiv’s civilian military administration said the attack had been launched from Russian strategic bombers over the Caspian sea.
Serhiy Popko said on Telegram that a fire had broken out in non-residential premises in the Desnyansky district, just east of the capital.
He provided no information on casualties.
Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said one fire had broken out in a garage facility in the Darnitsya region of the capital – debris also fell in the Dnipro region of Kyiv.
He said there were no casualties from either of the incidents.
Explosions also rocked several other cities across the country in the night as Russian forces continue to bombard Ukraine, with millions of people subjected to air raid alerts.
One person was killed by a Russian missile strike on an industrial facility in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa.
Two more people were wounded in the Odesa attack, military administration spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk wrote on Telegram.
Blasts were also heard in the central regions of Vinnitsa, Khmelnitsky and Zhytomyr.
On Tuesday, Ukraine said it shot down six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, during one of the largest air attacks on the capital since the start of the Russian invasion.
Kinzhals are ballistic missiles capable of travelling at up to 10 times the speed of sound and were among a volley of 18 missiles downed over Kyiv.
Three people were injured in the onslaught, which included a combination of drones and cruise missiles, alongside the Kinzhals.
Following the attack, Mr Popko said it was the ‘maximum number of attacking missiles in the shortest period of time’ as debris fell across several districts.
Three of Putin’s top hypersonic scientists were arrested on suspicion of high treason after the ‘undefeatable’ Kinzhals were intercepted.
The past week has seen Ukrainian forces make their biggest gains on the battlefield since last November, recapturing several square km of territory on the northern and southern outskirts of the battlefield city of Bakhmut.
Moscow has acknowledged that some of its troops have retreated but denies that its battle lines are crumbling.
Kyiv says those advances are localised and do not yet represent the full force of its upcoming counteroffensive, which is expected to take advantage of hundreds of modern tanks and armoured vehicles sent by the West this year.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive would bring the next major phase of the war after a huge Russian winter offensive that failed to capture significant new territory despite the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War II.
According to the president of South Africa, the group would attempt to create a peace plan to stop the conflict in Ukraine.
According to Cyril Ramaphosa, he spoke with Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky over the phone over the weekend, and both men agreed to host ‘an African leaders peace mission’ in Moscow and Kyiv, respectively.
‘Principal to our discussions are efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the devastating conflict in the Ukraine,’ Mr Ramaphosa said.
The leaders of Zambia, Senegal, Congo, Uganda and Egypt would make up the delegation along with Mr Ramaphosa, he said in a statement, and Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky gave him the go-ahead to ‘commence the preparations’.
Four of the African countries – South Africa, Congo, Senegal and Uganda – abstained from a UN vote last year on condemning Russia’s invasion.
Zambia and Egypt voted in favour of the motion.
Mr Ramaphosa did not give a timeframe or outline any parameters for the possible peace talks. Mr Zelensky has previously said he would not consider a peace deal to end the 15-month war until Russian forces withdraw from Ukrainian territory.
The potential impact of African nations, if their persuasions are successful, could be a ‘game-changer’, experts have said.
Michael Butler, associate professor of political science at Clark University, described the potential impact of African states involvement in ending the war.
He said: ‘The offer to mediate the Russia-Ukraine war by a range of African states is potentially a game-changer – but more for what it signifies about Africa’s position on the world stage than from the standpoint of actually resolving the conflict.
‘These (and other) African states have successfully mediated numerous conflicts in Africa, but we have not seen a venture of this scale “out of area.” Individually and collectively, these states do satisfy a key requirement for effective mediation, in the form of impartiality.
‘However, it is less clear that any of them have the requisite “stake” in resolving the conflict necessary to signal their credibility and commitment to the Russian and Ukrainian leadership, which is crucial for securing “buy-in” from both parties.’
As reported by Ukraine, thousands of Russian soldiers have left their positions in Bakhmut, the Kremlin’s primary target during its unsuccessful winter onslaught.
Russian units in some areas of the town, according to Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, had withdrawn by up to two kilometres (1.2 miles) as a result of counterattacks.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the renowned mercenary group’s leader, claimed on Tuesday that a Russian battalion had fled, “pissing away” a large area of territory.
The oligarch has been a vociferous critic of the military top brass, saying his fighters have only been supplied 10% of the shells they need to seize control of the town.
His latest expletive-ridden rant appears to contain a thinly veiled – but explosive – reference to Vladimir Putin.
Without naming names, Prigozhin said a ‘happy grandfather’ was convinced that all was going well with Russia’s campaign.
He then added: ‘If he turns out to be right, God bless everyone. But what should the country do . . . if it turns out that this grandfather is a complete asshole?’
Prigozhin has previously poured scorn on Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff, but has avoided all personal criticism of Putin.
But the Russian president has often been dismissed as the ‘grandfather in the bunker’ by Kremlin critics, and opposition figure Olga Romanova remarked ‘there aren’t that many alternative’ targets.
Prigozhin’s Wagner units have led a months-long Russian assault on the eastern city – scene of the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War Two – suffering heavy losses.
And Ukrainian forces say the offensive is stalling.
In a statement, Ukraine’s Third Separate Assault Brigade said: ‘It’s official. Prigozhin’s report about the flight of Russia’s 72nd Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade from near Bakhmut and the “500 corpses” of Russians left behind is true.’
A Russian brigade is typically formed of several thousand troops.
In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy named the Third Brigade and noted its report ‘about the flight of Russia’s 72nd Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade from near Bakhmut’.
The Kremlin said it was in no doubt that Bakhmut ‘will be captured and will be kept under control’.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying: ‘The special military operation continues. This is a very difficult operation, and, of course, certain goals have been achieved in a year.
‘We managed to beat up the Ukrainian military machine quite a bit. This work will continue.’
He said progress had been slow because Russia is not ‘waging war’ in Ukraine.
‘Waging war is a completely different matter – it means complete destruction of infrastucture, it means complete destruction of cities,’ he said.
‘We are not doing this. We are trying to preserve infrastructure and preserve human lives.’
Peskov’s comments did not address the claims about the 72nd Separate Motor-rifle Brigade abandoning their positions.
As per information provided by a Ukrainian military business, commandos are being trained for missions behind Russian lines.
In response to the ongoing occurrences of’mysterious’ damage on territory controlled by the Kremlin, the Omega Consulting Group (OCG) has upgraded the skills of over 1,000 soldiers, including the ‘exceptional’ operators.
As well as sending experts to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the security and defense consultancy also participates in covert operations that it claims it is unable to discuss just now. The Crimea, which Vladimir Putin’s forces illegitimately annexed in 2014, was the subject of CEO Andrei Kebkalo’s interview with Metro.co.uk while drone attacks continued there.
The security and defence consultancy is providing specialists for the Armed Forces of Ukraine as well as itself taking part in shadowy missions which it says it cannot yet disclose. Chief executive Andrei Kebkalo spoke to Metro.co.uk as unclaimed drone strikes continued in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Vladimir Putin’s forces in 2014.
Snipers, bomb technicians, fire controllers, survival, evasion, resistance and escape specialists, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) pilots and anti-tank operators are among those being trained by his firm.
Drone training is also incorporated into a three-week reconnaissance course for Special Operations Forces (SOF).
The Ukrainian Omega Consulting Group delivers training in long-range reconnaissance (Picture: Omega Consulting Group)
‘After completing the training courses trainees return to their assigned units for continued service,’ Mr Kebkalo said.
‘Some of them are going straight to Bakhmut, the hotspot of fierce clashes between Russian and Ukrainian troops.
‘Some of them with extraordinary skillsets are taking part in clandestine operations behind enemy lines.’
Headquartered in northern Ukraine on the border with Belarus, OCG became involved in conventional and then guerilla warfare from the first day of the full-scale invasion, Mr Kebkalo said. The base in Chernihiv was directly in the path of Moscow’s fiercely repelled advance towards Kyiv and the quickest overland route to Chernobyl in eastern Ukraine.
The company’s founder spoke as a steady stream of explosions, UAV attacks and assassinations continues behind Russian lines, with no party claiming responsibility. The incidents include the double drone attack on the Kremlin in the early hours of May 3, which is still defying explanation amid a plethora of competing theories.
Mr Kebkalo did not specify who he thought was responsible but emphasised that Ukraine’s military and irregular resistance movements have volunteers from across the world, including the International Legion, said to have fighters from 52 countries, and Belarus and Russia.
In December, Metro.co.uk told how a secretive ‘Black Box Project’ funded through donations to the Ukrainian Come Back Alive foundation was being used for the stated purpose of degrading Russia’s offensive capability.
Working in partnership with Kyiv’s military intelligence services, the civilian group gave away few details other than oblique references to ‘accidents’ behind Russian lines.
‘This truly hybrid war created a tremendous number of military and paramilitary units, supporters and sympathisers, people and organisations who are willing to help Ukraine in its struggle against the illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,’ Mr Kebkalo said.
‘Many people support us. I know about the existence of guerrilla movements not only in our occupied territories but also in Russia and Belarus. I presume some of them possess the necessary skills, technologies and motivation to create such “mysterious bangs”.’
Damage within Russia’s established borders has been a moot point, with the US, Ukraine’s biggest military backer, not sanctioning such attacks.
However Mr Kebkalo drew a distinction with territory that had been in Ukrainian control before Moscow’s aggression began in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and the Donbas war.
At the weekend, 10 drone attacks were carried out in the peninsula, where at least eight Russian war planes were damaged or destroyed at Saky airbase in another strike last August.
Some of the ‘mysterious’ incidents behind Russian lines
August 9, 2022Crimea air base attack
At least eight Russian war planes were damaged or destroyed in an attack on Saky airbase. The site lies more than 100 miles from the frontline.
October 8, 2022CRIMEA BRIDGE EXPLOSION
The key bridge linking Crimea to Russia was struck by a huge explosion. The blast degraded one of Moscow’s key military supply lines.
December 4, 2022AIR BASE ATTACKS
Attacks take place on two air bases deep inside Russia. Heavy bombers are damaged in what is said to be Ukraine’s most daring operation up to that point.
FEBRUARY 28, 2023oil depot fire
A large fire breaks out at the facility in the southern Russian city of Tuapse. Two drones exploded at the terminal in the early hours, according to local reports.
April 29, 2023crimea fuel depot fire
A huge fire breaks out at a fuel depot in the port city of Sevastopol after a suspected drone strike described as ‘God’s punishment’ by Ukrainian intelligence
May 3, 2023Kremlin Drone attack
Two drone strikes are carried out on the Kremlin citadel, the most protected area of Moscow. The explosions are filmed at the top of the Senate Palace.
In November, OCG shared a picture on social media of graduates who had completed training in disciplines such as sniping, demolition, subversion, long-range reconnaissance, topography and weapons manipulation.
The company says more than 1,000 soldiers have received training on courses ranging from basic infantry to SOF levels since April 2022, with the majority of the equipment and instruction at NATO standard.
‘Perhaps somewhere mysterious bangs might be heard,’ the post said.
‘If it is our territory, firstly we have all rights to attack the invaders in their rearguard,’ Mr Kebkalo said. ‘Secondly, it is quite important because we can damage or destroy high value targets that are out of reach for our soldiers and technical means on the frontline.
‘I am talking about radar, surface-to-air missile systems, MLRS [Multiple Launch Rocket System], fuel depots etc.
‘Cutting the supply lines is also very important.
‘In terms of sabotage operations on foreign land, then in my personal opinion, and considering the level of Russian hate and barbarism towards Ukrainian people, any damage to enemy military assets is welcome, even if such damage was accidental, through negligence, lack of vigilance, lack of competence, resources or corruption, you name it.
‘I would also highlight that sabotage is quite a symbolic thing.
‘The symbolism of sabotage itself is sometimes more important than its military consequences.’
The most spectacular unclaimed attack in the 15 months of war to date was the explosion on the Kerch Strait Bridge, which degraded one of Moscow’s key military supply lines linking Crimea to Russia.
Mr Kebkalo described the incidents as ‘audacious, effective and somehow symbolic’ without acknowledging who was responsible.
He instead quoted ex-CIA executive director Alvin Bernard ‘Buzzy’ Krongard, who said: ‘The war will be won in large measure by forces you don’t know about, in actions you will not see and in ways you may not want to know about, but we will prevail.’
Speaking ahead of a widely expected Ukrainian counter-offensive, Mr Kebkalo described Western military aid, which has included US HIMARS missile systems and British Challenger 2 tanks, as a vital part of the country’s dogged resistance effort.
‘Foreign military help is invaluable to Ukrainians and definitely an irritating bone in the throat to Russians,’ he said. ‘Yes, sometimes it is not enough, sometimes it is slow, but we are getting literally the best equipment.
‘I want to say thank you to all our foreign partners for supporting Ukraine in the largest war of the 21st Century. United we stand.’
The UK Ministry of Defence said at the weekend that six Russian regions, Crimea and 21 cities had cancelled their May 9 Victory Day parades due to security concerns. The UAV strikes on the Kremlin were said in the intelligence update to have raised Moscow’s ‘threat perception’ over the annual commemorations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.
Russia launched a missile blitz on Ukraine overnight, thought to be one of the biggest since the start of the all-out war. More than 100 drone, missile and air strikes took place ahead of the Victory Day holiday tomorrow.
British military expert Sean Bell told Sky News that Vladimir Putin was ‘desperately trying to seize the initiative’ ahead of Kyiv’s much anticipated counter-offensive.
A wealthy Russian lawmaker with enigmatic ties to the UK has been discovered dead.
According to information that was leaked in 2019, Nikolay Bortsov had gained the right to reside in Britain covertly.
Despite seeming to be a devoted supporter of Vladimir Putin, he reportedly obtained “indefinite leave to remain” status as a resident of the UK.
The oligarch was discovered dead at his residence in the Lipetsk region on Sunday. He belonged to United Russia, the biggest pro-Putin group.
No cause of death was given for the 77-year-old, who made his fortune as the boss of a soft drinks company which he later sold a majority share of to PepsiCo.
As one of Mr Putin’s wealthiest deputies, he was reportedly worth £450 million and included in the Forbes list of Russia’s richest businessmen from 2011 to 2021.
Mr Bortsov is one of dozens of high-profile people connected to Putin to have died since the outbreak of the dictator’s war in Ukraine last year.
Multi-millionaire Mr Bortsov secretly gained rights to live in the UK in 2019, according to leaked data (Picture: Social media/east2west news)
Many of those deaths have come in strange circumstances, including falls from windows, random shootings, helicopter crashes and mysterious ‘suicides’.
One Russian oligarch even died last year after ‘shamans’ reportedly gave him toad venom to cure his hangover – but his cause of death was recorded as a heart attack.
Another MP, Dzhasharbek Uzdenov, 56, is also reported to have died the same day as Mr Bortsov.
At the time of the leak of his alleged UK status in 2019, Mr Bortsov denied holding British citizenship and always maintained it wasn’t true.
But news outlet Argumenti Nedeli reported leaked data that put him on a list of top Russian officials who had been granted residency in the UK.
It led to calls in Moscow for him and other parliamentarians to be checked by the security services for their loyalty.
He was subsequently sanctioned by Britain, the US, EU and Ukraine over the war.
Ukraine sentenced him to 15 years in prison in absentia for recognising the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk ‘people’s republics’.
Lipetsk region governor Igor Artamonov said: ‘We will remember Nikolay Bortsov as a patriot of his country, always ready to help those who need it, a man who did not stand aside.’
Mr Artamonov did not provide any details about Mr Bortsov’s cause of death.
During a speech in Moscow’s Red Square, Vladimir Putin asserted that “war is being waged against Russia.”
Victory Day, the biggest secular holiday in Russia, is being celebrated today with military parades and other festivities in Moscow and other Russian towns. However, this year’s celebrations have been greatly overshadowed by the conflict in Ukraine.
The Russian president compared the situation to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during his speech, saying it had brought the world community “to a breaking point.”
‘Today, civilization is again at a decisive turning point. A real war has been unleashed against our homeland. We have repulsed international terrorism, we will protect the inhabitants of Donbas, we will ensure our security,’ he said.
Victory Day is one of the most important holidays in the Russian calendar, but celebrations were muted this year (Picture: Reuters)
In a 10-minute speech on Red Square, Putin repeated familiar messages he has delivered many times in the nearly 15 months of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Putin claimed Russia wants to see a ‘peaceful future’, and accused Western elites of sowing the seeds of ‘hatred and Russophobia’.
He said ‘Western globalist elites’ were sowing Russophobia and aggressive nationalism, while the Ukrainian people had become ‘hostages to a state coup’ and to the ambitions of the West.
He did not address the challenges facing Russia as its forces prepare for an expected major counter-offensive by Ukraine, or outline any path to victory.
The speech, followed by a huge military parade across Red Square, was taking place following a wave of strikes inside Russia this month – including a purported drone attack on the Kremlin citadel itself less than a week ago.
Putin concluded the address by welcoming the soldiers fighting in Ukraine who were present at the parade. ‘To Russia! To our brave armed forces! To Victory!’ he said.
He was joined onstage by WW2 vets and a number of allied foreign leaders, including Belarusian President Lukashenko (Centre) (Picture: Getty)
At least 21 Russian towns and cities have cancelled the traditional parades for the first time in years, which are meant to honour the country’s victory over Germany in World War II.
Regional officials blamed unspecified ‘security concerns’ for the cancellations.
Some speculated, however, that the reason the marches were cancelled was the fact that Russians might bring portraits of relatives who died in Ukraine to those processions, illustrating the scale of Russia’s losses in the drawn-out conflict.
Meanwhile, Kremlin forces launched 25 missiles overnight in a wave of attacks across Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that air defense had successfully destroyed 23 of them.
In a Telegram post, the air force said eight Kalibr cruise missiles were launched from carriers in the Black Sea toward the east and 17 from strategic aircraft.
Joining Putin on stage were a number of leaders from former Soviet nations currently allied with Russia.
Initially, only one of them — Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov — was expected to attend, but at the last minute on Monday officials confirmed that leaders of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were heading to Moscow as well.
President Vladimir Putin while addressing the Victory Day parade in Moscow stated that the world is at a “turning point,” as various events throughout the country are being canceled due to security concerns.
The yearly military parade honors the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during WWII.
Putin attempted to link Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the fight against Nazism once more, stating that Russia was preserving its sovereignty.
Addressing the crowds in Red Square, President Putin said “Today civilisation is again at a decisive turning point.”
“A real war has again been unleashed against our Motherland but we have countered international terrorism, we will protect the inhabitants of the Donbas and we will protect our country.”
He noted Russia wants to see a “peaceful future”, but said the Western elites are sowing the seeds of “hatred and Russophobia”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was joined by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Moscow Credit: Reuters
Victory Day marks the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
Germany officially signed its surrender late on 8 May, which was already 9 May Moscow time.
The Soviet Union had lost around 27 million citizens during World War Two, far more than any other country involved in the conflict; it is often said that every Soviet family lost at least one immediate or distant relative in the war.
On Sunday night, Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine, like the rest of Europe, is commemorating Europe Day, which aims to promote peace on the continent.
Nato has warned that Russia may have mined European submarine cables as retaliation for the west’s support for Ukraine.
The alliance has increased its efforts to safeguard underwater infrastructure in the wake of the Nord Stream attacks in September of last year.
After Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out botched drone assaults on the Kremlin in an attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin, which Ukraine denies, tensions rose once more.
‘There are heightened concerns that Russia may target undersea cables and other important infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Western life,’ said David Cattler, the head of Nato’s intelligence service, “to gain leverage against those nations that are providing security to Ukraine.”
He confirmed Russians were patrolling the Atlantic and have stepped up activities in the North and Baltic Seas since the Nord Stream blast.
In response, Nato has increased the number of ships patrolling the North and Baltic seas and established a Critical Undersea Infrastructure Protection Cell.
‘The Russians are more active than we have seen them in years in this domain,’ Mr Cattler added.
The yet unexplained explosions damaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines and since then further threats have become the focus of public attention.
Cattler declined to speculate who was behind the Nord Stream attacks during his briefing in Brussels on Wednesday.
But he did say: ‘Russia is actively mapping allied critical infrastructure both on land and on the seabed.’
Meanwhile, a Nato official told The Times: ‘There are strong suspicions that cables or pipelines have been mined. Companies have their own highly classified information. We have a lot of suspicions.
‘Somewhere in Moscow there are people sitting and thinking of the best ways they can to blow up our pipelines or cut our cables.
‘Our job is to make that a costly and futile endeavour. At least, to make it undeniable, lessening the appeal because it is then an act of war.’
While concerns grow over the security of cables, the west plans to build new wind parks in the North Sea which will be linked to the mainland by cables.
According to Nato, other undersea cables transport some 95% of internet traffic around the world at speeds of about 200 terabytes per second, with 200 of these 400 cables deemed critical.
Nato is monitoring Russian vessels equipped with sensors that can collect electronic or acoustic information from the seabed.
Spy ships can be identified by their antennae or unusual activity near critical areas.
The devastation caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine is now clearly visible in Google Earth’s new satellite images above Mariupol.
New pictures of the city show large areas of buildings reduced to rubble and entirely destroyed green spaces.
One of the first locations to be turned over to Vladimir Putin’s forces was Mariupol, which is still occupied.
After seeing some of the most horrific combat of the conflict over the past year, it has garnered attention across the globe.
The world was shocked when the city’s Donetsk Regional Drama Theatre was targeted while more than 1,300 Ukrainian civilians cowered inside.
It was bombed on March 16 last year, despite being daubed with huge signs warning children were inside.
The central part of the three-storey venue collapsed with rubble blocking the entrance, initially obstructing rescuers from entering.
The former mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, accused Moscow of hiding civilian bodies in mass graves.
He has since claimed that more than 20,000 residents were killed by Russian soldiers.
Mr Putin visited the port city in March this year, with television clips showing supposedly grateful Ukrainians greeting the leader.
A heckler’s voice was heard shouting: ‘It’s all lies, it’s all just for show’, which seemed to prompt the president’s security team to frantically look around.
Putin made the move shortly after the International Criminal Court in the Hague issued an arrest warrent for him for alleged war crimes.
Ukrainian forces reportedly tried to assassinate him but failed after the drone ‘crashed a few miles short of their target,’ it was claimed on Thursday.
Putin was due to visit a newly built industrial estate near Moscow at the weekend, where the drone was supposed to explode and kill him, it was said.
But before it reached the Rudnevo industrial park it crashed around 12 miles away, according to German website Bild.
It cited a tweet by Ukrainian activist Yuriy Romanenko, who claims to have close ties to Kyiv’s intelligence services.
A Ukrainian prisoner of war broke down in tears after eating fresh fruit for the first time in a year.
Heartbreaking footage was captured of the scene just after Ukrainian soldiers were released from a Russian POW camp.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, posted yesterday on Telegram that 44 prisoners had been released from Russian custody.
Out of those, he claimed, 42 were military personnel and two were civilians, and some of those freed had torture-related wounds.
The short clip shows a small group of released Ukrainian prisoners, who have all had their heads shaved, sitting on the ground.
It first shows a relieved soldier with a beaming smile on his face as he tucks into an apple.
A TikTok user who posted a translated version of the video titled ‘heroes are returning home from Russian captivity’ explained that the man says: ‘I’ve dreamt about an apple for a year.’
It then pans to a second man in the group who is clearly very emotional as he’s seen cradling an apple in his hands and eating it.
He continually weeps as he’s speaking to another man nearby in a gut-wrenching moment.
A third soldier in the shot claims he’s lost more than 3st in weight while he was imprisoned, saying: ‘I’ve lost 20 kilograms.’
Visegrád 24, an English account for central and eastern European news, tweeted: ‘First apple or fresh fruit for these Ukrainian soldiers in nearly a year.
‘They were part of a group of 44 Ukrainian POWs exchanged yesterday.’
The group of prisoners posed for pictures to celebrate being set free and were photographed proudly holding up Ukrainian flags together before boarding coaches to leave.
Since Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago, there have been regular prisoner exchanges.
Conflict has continued in recent weeks with Ukrainian forces crossing the Dnipro River for the first time as part of a long-awaited counter offensive.
Ukraine’s ‘unique’ special forces are also reportedly destroying targets deep behind Russian lines, while Putin has rolled out Russia’s newest tanks onto the battlefield.
A drone carrying 17 kg of lethal bombs crashed not far from the location where Putin was visiting over the weekend.
According to reports, Ukraine used a kamikaze drone loaded with explosives to attempt to kill Vladimir Putin.
According to reports, secret service personnel attempted to assassinate the Russian president but were unsuccessful because the drone “crashed a few miles short of their target.”
On Sunday, the UJ-22 drone, loaded with 17 kg of C4 plastic explosive, was purportedly fired by Ukrainian forces.
Putin was due to visit a newly built industrial estate near Moscow at the weekend, where the drone was supposed to explode and kill him, it was claimed.
The drone landed around 12 miles short of the intended target it has been reported
But before it reached the Rudnevo industrial park it crashed around 12 miles away, according to German website Bild.
It cited a tweet by Ukrainian activist Yuriy Romanenko, who who claims to have close ties to Kyiv’s intelligence services.
He alleged that Ukrainian secret service agents had received ‘information’ about Putin’s apparent trip, and claimed the drone had crashed in Voroskogo village.
In a tweet cited by Bild, Romanenko said: ‘Putin we are getting closer. Everyone saw the news about the drone that flew to Moscow, but did not explode?
‘So, this drone flew for a reason.
‘Last week, our intelligence officers received information about Putin’s trip to the industrial park in Rudnevo.
‘Accordingly, our kamikaze drone took off, which flew through all the air defenses of the Russian Federation and crashed not far from the industrial park.’
Kyiv has yet to officially comment on the claims.
A UJ-22 drone, which has a range of 500 miles, did crash near Vorokogo village on Sunday, with images posted on social media sites including Telegram showing the destroyed UAV in a forest near Moscow.
The drone was laden with 30 C4 plastic explosive blocks weighing 17 kilograms, which are often used by the US army.
Putin propagandist Paval Zarubin said on Sunday morning that Putin was planning to ‘visit an industrial park in Moscow’ without giving timings.
Video posted on social media showed the lawn in front of the Rudnevo industrial park had been spray painted green.
It was said this was in preparation for Putin’s arrival.
But Russian state media said Putin was set to visit the Rudnevo industrial park and hold a meeting on the development of unmanned aircraft systems today.
TASS news agency said the Russian despot would look at how the systems are developed. There was no mention of the drone incident in the state media report.
However Bild cited Romanenko claiming that there was an assassination attempt.
He said: ‘Considering how much Putin is obsessed with his own security, this story could have huge implications for the Kremlin towers’.
And Ukraine expert Sergej Sumlenny told the newspaper: ‘It is clear that a precision strike against the Russian head of state with a kamikaze drone is an almost impossible action.
‘But the very fact that such a drone would reach a place where Putin plans to stay is a slap in the face for the Russian dictator.’
Putin has previously claimed he has escaped numerous assassination attempts.
In 2017, Putin told filmmaker Oliver Stone that there had been five assassination attempts against him – and the only reason he is alive is because he deals with his own security personally.
The Russian army has imprisoned its own deserters in pits with metal grills on top and a medieval aesthetic.
Several males are seen abandoned in confined holes buried beneath the ground in video uploaded on the Telegram channel Layouts.
They allege that Vladimir Putin‘s men threw them in there before depriving them of food and water because they chose not to fight in Ukraine or because they were heavily intoxicated.
Additionally, these holes resemble the rooms where torture victims were held in a Russian prison camp in Chechnya in 2000.
Flarit Baitemirov said he has been held captive since March 23
Flarit Baitemirov was one of the soldiers locked in a three-metre deep put called a ‘zindan’, according to the post on the messaging app.
‘I am being held captive by my own. I am Russian, I came as a volunteer,’ the 35-year-old said.
‘I am asking for help from the Ministry of Defence. Some kind of criminal case has been initiated against me. They have kept me here for the third week already.’
According to the soldier, he has been in a three-metre-deep pit since March 23.
In one of the videos, he says that he was placed in the pit for drinking alcohol with colleagues, and before that he was beaten and his collarbone was injured.
Baitemirov also speaks about rampant corruption in the regiment and the theft of humanitarian aid.
Another one shows rainwater dripping inside a stone hole where a Russian soldier sleeps.
His left eye socket looks badly bruised, and his lip swollen. He shows the dungeon like conditions, and his bed made out of a wooden pallet and nylon.
All his belongings look drenched with water, and he himself only has a rain jacket to protect himself with.
Since the first months of the invasion, Russian soldiers have been complaining about horror conditions and ‘torture’ pits.
But it is yet unclear where these pits are located, and how many men are being held there.
According to his staff, the most renowned opponent of Vladimir Putin will be imprisoned until the year 2056.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, 46, is presently serving a nine-year prison term on fabricated embezzlement allegations. A fresh set of charges are being prepared against him.
Putin’s main domestic challenger is pro-democracy activist Navalny, who the tyrant is said to despise so much for his caustic sense of humor that he won’t even say his name.
If Russian authorities succeed in prosecuting Navalny on terrorism charges- considered by the West to be entirely fabricated- then he could end up serving a maximum sentence of 35 years.
Putin has been accused of trying to kill Navalny behind bars (Picture: AP)
A conviction would see Navalny imprisoned until 2056- at which point he would be 80 years old and Putin would’ve turned 104.
It is believed Putin’s real intention is to have Navalny assassinated in prison, after Russia’s FSB agency failed to kill him in 2020 by lacing his underwear with the poisonous nerve agent Novichok.
At the very least, the goal is to ensure Navalny remains imprisoned for as long as Putin remains in power.
Navalny is currently suffering a mystery stomach ailment, and is refused medical help.
Members of his team believe the opposition leader is being slowly poisoned.
‘No-one knows the cause of his stomach ache,’ said his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh.
‘He has never had this before.
‘And precisely this makes us suspect that perhaps he is being poisoned all this time, with small doses, so that he dies slowly and painfully, but attracting less attention.’
Navalny currently resides in a high-security ‘torture prison’ notorious for brutal beatings and the systematic rape of male prisoners.
This week he was kneed in the groin by one of Putin’s prison warden thugs, his lawyer Vadim Kobzev has claimed.
The move was part of a provocation against Navalny when a ‘stinking’ homeless man was assigned to the politician’s cell.
Navalny tried to escort the man out of the cell but he was accused of attacking him- and will face a charge over the incident which could add up to five years to his jail tariff.
‘Navalny, who did not offer any resistance, received a knee blow to the groin,’ said the lawyer.
Prison guards had previously been accused of forcing the politician to share a jail cell with ‘flu patients’, in an attempt to make him fall ill.
Yarmysh said there are now ten criminal cases against Navalny, as the authorities seek to hide him from Putin forever.
‘By law, a person can receive no more than 35 years in prison,’ she said.
‘Based on the previous nine criminal cases, Alexei has already accumulated 35 years. A new case will not add anything in terms of time.’
‘Navalny’s defence is outraged by such a blatant, brazen and cynical provocation,’ said Kobzev over the latest ‘provocation’ against Navalny involving the stinking homeless man.
‘We demand an immediate response from the leadership of the [prison service] and the Prosecutor’s Office.’
He accused Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalova of siding with the authorities and ignoring an advance warning that such a scenario would be staged against Navalny.
The latest Navalny incident in his jail in Vladimir region comes in the week dual Russian-British citizen Vladimir Kara-Murza – was sentenced to a draconian 25 years in jail for ‘treason’ and opposing Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Britain condemned the sentence as ‘politically motivated’.
Navalny labelled the move as ‘fascist’.
A Russian judge this week also turned down a bail plea by Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, a US citizen, who was arrested on charges of espionage for which he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Navalny has said he wants to set Russia on a democratic path, and claims he would defeat Putin in a fair election.
According to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin has visited military headquarters in the southern Kherson and eastern Luhansk territories, which Russia holds in part.
The Russian president attended a military command meeting in the Kherson region to hear commanders’ reports and to consult with other senior officers about the circumstances in the provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, both of which Moscow has annexed.
Additionally, Putin went to the Luhansk region’s national guard headquarters, which Moscow annexed last year.
The Kremlin did not say when Mr Putin attended the meetings or what comments he made.
Last November, Russian troops were ordered to withdraw from the city of Kherson and surrounding areas in the south of Ukraine.
Russia’s top commander in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, said it was no longer possible to supply the city and other parts of the west bank of the Dnipro River that it sat on.
The announcement marked one of Russia’s most significant retreats and another humiliating setback for Mr Putin.
The Kherson region was illegally annexed in September, along with three other Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. The international community has not recognised the annexations.
Chaos, terror, and rage rippled throughout Russia when Vladimir Putin attempted to rally hundreds of thousands of civilians to fight in his invasion of Ukraine last September.
After the Russian parliament passed a law making the nation’s conscription program more effective, contemporary, and difficult to escape on Wednesday, many felt those emotions again.
Irina, a 51-year-old psychologist whose son is of mobilization age, told CNN from Moscow, “We have been anticipating the second mobilization wave for a long time now, and this is the beginning.” These changes have already made me feel uneasy and anxious, therefore they have already had an impact.
The new bill – passed by lawmakers on Wednesday, and awaiting only Putin’s signature before it becomes law – is, according to the Kremlin, an unremarkable streamlining of Russia’s biannual conscription process.
It would allow for the electronic delivery of military call-up papers, in addition to traditional letters, and bans those liable for military service from traveling abroad. It also includes tough penalties for those who ignore a summons – barring them from getting a loan, moving into a new apartment, registering as self-employed and driving a vehicle.
But CNN spoke to a number of Russians who dismiss the Kremlin’s reassurances, and say the move lays the groundwork for another attempt to force Russians onto the battlefields in Ukraine.
“This is the second wave,” Irina said. “Of course, they have to feed this war with fresh meat all the time.
“During the first wave they used police raids to round up conscripts. People didn’t like that. So now they are trying to concoct something different,” she said.
“This may well be an attempt to avoid the full-scale manhunt they employed before, which caused so much panic,” added Artem, 25, who dodged the September mobilization despite receiving a call-up. “I am not at all convinced these measures will help to avoid a rampant mobilization like in autumn last year.”
But he is certain of one thing: if another attempt at mass mobilization arrives, he will not comply. “My relatives, not fit for army service, can drive my car if they take away my license,” he said. “I don’t own any real estate. And the traveling ban has more of a psychological effect on me than practical – or I would have left long ago.”
He is confident his friends and family would take a similar approach. “It will prompt them to take more measures to dodge. Some will leave, others – move to their country homes, still others – forge their documents,” he said. “Everyone will have to find some ways around this somehow.
“None of the people I know – my friends and aquaintances will go to conscription centers,” concurred Irina. “They will employ anything to avoid getting there,” she said.
“It’s better to be sent to prison than be killed.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the new bill is meant only to “fix the mess” that followed September’s controversial partial mobilization order.
It was a rare admission of failure that reflected how damaging that initial effort was. The order was beset by issues, and prompted thousands of Russians to flee to the border.
Asked during a regular call with reporters if the Kremlin is concerned that the impending new law would trigger another wave of mass exodus of Russians, Peskov said: “Absolutely not. It has nothing to do with mobilization, it has to do with military registration.”
“I don’t believe a word of this,” Alexey, a 41-year-old lawyer from Moscow, told CNN. While he is not within the official age range for mobilization, he does not expect the Kremlin to stick to their own guidelines when calling up recruits.
“Now it will be much easier to mobilize me, given how digitalized life in Moscow has become,” he said.
Currently, conscription documents in Russia must be hand-delivered by the local military enlistment office or through an employer. The new bill makes an electronic summons – uploaded to a government portal called Gosuslugi – equal to the traditional method, and does not take into account whether it has been read.
Russia’s Defense Ministry routinely conscripts men for compulsory military service twice a year, in spring and autumn. The spring conscription this year will apply to 147,000 citizens aged between 18 and 27 and will take place from April 1 to July 15, according to an official document published by the government.
Officials say the changes are related to this process, which was ongoing in Russia before it invaded Ukraine last year. But the memories of September are felt intensely among young men and families around the country.
“I have no trust in today’s authorities in Russia. I fear for my son even more than about my own life,” said Alexey, whose son falls within the official age range for conscription.
The prospect of leaving Russia has been a realistic one for many who oppose the war, and who have avoided or fear a call-up.
“Should (the war) drag on and intensify, and if there is a real second wave of mobilization, then I think some will try to leave (Russia), of course,” said Olga, a 48-year-old woman who hopes her son, who is 16, will be admitted to technical college and therefore become exempt from mobilization.
“I feel very badly about this war. And same goes for all other wars and any deaths by force regardless of the cause,” she said. “I would prefer for wars to be fought only by professional military or volunteers.
But fleeing is a difficult proposition. Artem told CNN he is exploring the possibility, but sees few options and fears being unable to find work abroad.
“I do not rule out leaving Russia but I don’t see how, if they impose the ban on draft dodgers traveling abroad,” added Irina. “I don’t see a solution here.”
“And even if it were possible, finding work and accommodation abroad is not so simple. Many of those who had left in autumn last year had returned,” she said. “But, of course, I would feel much better had my son been living in another country. My daughter had left two years ago and I worry about her much less than I would, had she been here.”
Though the Kremlin has been quick to downplay the significance of the move, its provisions and timing are convenient for a military bogged down in stalemate in its ground campaign in eastern Ukraine, after months of grinding combat which has bled their manpower and weaponry.
Western officials last week told CNN they believe Russia has a problem generating “trained military manpower.”
“[Russia has] acknowledged that they needed 400,000 more troops and that’s not just for the conflict [in Ukraine], but also to fulfill new formations which are going to be put on the new border with NATO and Finland,” the officials said in a briefing on Wednesday, answering a question from CNN.
“How they generate that is unclear at the moment,” the officials added, noting that a new wave of call-ups would pose risks for Moscow. “Whether the population can sustain another round of mobilization and whether the Kremlin actually wants to test the population’s resilience to that it is unclear at the moment, but the fact they haven’t done would indicate to us that they have some concerns about that.”
The war appears to remain generally popular in Russia – a sentiment reinforced by relentless propaganda on state-controlled media outlets – but analysts have noted that September’s mobilization order was a turning point for many Russians, bringing the realities of conflict home to families across the country.
For those who oppose the conflict, it only hardened their opposition. “Is it the second wave? (It) seems very much so,” Artem said. “But any wave of mobilization is intended to supply the front with more meat.”
Summing up his feelings, and referring to Putin by his first and middle names, he added: “Try and recall all of the most eloquent obscenities you know … that would be my view on the war, the draft and everything to do with Vladimir Vladimirovich’s system of governing.”
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and Li Shangfu, the defense minister of China, met on Sunday in Moscow and praised the tight military collaboration between their two nations.
The meeting marked the beginning of Li’s four-day trip to Russia, which will be his first international tour since taking up the position last month. It occurs at a time when Western nations have increased their pressure on Beijing to persuade Putin to halt his conflict against Ukraine.
General Li, a veteran of China’s military modernization effort, was sanctioned by the US in 2018 for dealings with Rosoboronexport, the country’s state-controlled arms exporter, while he was in charge of the Chinese military’s Equipment Development Department.
Those transactions included Russia’s delivery to China of Su-35 combat aircraft in 2017 and S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment in 2018, according to the US State Department.
Li’s trip follows Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to Russia last month, in which Xi and Putin further cemented their countries’ ties and pledged to “deepen military mutual trust” and strengthen military exchanges and cooperation.
During his meeting with Li on Sunday, Putin called Xi’s recent visit to Russia “very productive,” and said relations between Russia and China were developing well in all areas, including the military departments, according to a Kremlin statement.
Military cooperation ️between the countries was “one of the most important areas that strengthens the remarkably trusting, strategic nature of relations,” Putin said.
Li told Putin that trust between the two countries’ militaries has been “increasingly consolidated” and cooperation has yielded “fruitful results,” according to a readout from Chinese state media.
China was ready to work with Russia to “strengthen strategic communication between the two militaries, strengthen multilateral coordination and cooperation, and make new contributions to safeguarding regional and global security and stability,” Li said, citing consensus between Xi and Putin.
Ukraine was not mentioned in either side’s official readout of the meeting.
China has claimed neutrality over the war in Ukraine and called for peace in the conflict. But it has also refused to condemn Russia’s invasion or make any public call for Russia to withdraw its troops. Its officials have instead repeatedly said that the “legitimate” security concerns of all countries must be taken into account and accused NATO and the US of fueling the conflict.
Nevertheless, European leaders have expressed hope that Xi could use his rapport with Putin to push for peace. Several leaders traveled to the Chinese capital in recent days in an attempt to advance such aims.
During a joint press conference with her Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Xi’s recent visit to Moscow indicates that no country has a larger influence over Russia than China.
“In the same fashion as how China mediated between Iran and Saudi Arabia, we want China to use that influence to urge Russia to end its war in Ukraine,” Baerbock said, referring to a recent Beijing-brokered deal that saw the two long-standing Middle Eastern rivals restore diplomatic ties.
Her visit followed a joint trip from French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in which Ukraine was high on the agenda.
A joint statement from Macron and Xi released by the Elysee, however, failed to see the Chinese leader depart from Beijing’s previously stated positions on the war.
Meanwhile, the US and its allies have repeatedly raised concerns that China was considering sending lethal aid to the Kremlin’s war effort – a claim Beijing has denied. The two countries have continued to run joint military exercises around the world since the Russian invasion.
Li is expected to remain in Moscow until Wednesday. He will hold talks with Russian military officials and visit Russian military academies during the visit, a ministry spokesperson said last week.
Li took up the largely ceremonial post of defense minister last month during the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp legislature. He is also a member on the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, which controls the military in practice.
One year ago today, Vladimir Putin‘s Black Sea fleet’s flagship, the Moskva cruiser, was sunk by Neptune missiles, according to footage released by Ukraine.
The video is being released at the same time that Russia is still trying to cover up the tragedy by refusing to say how many people perished or what mistakes in command caused the ship to capsize.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet’s flagship sank on April 14, 2022, and is now submerged about 150 feet.
Only a few of the sailors who went missing have been identified.
Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov used the anniversary to taunt the Russians saying ‘I’ll be your guide’ to visit the wreck of Putin’s modern warship.
He said: ‘If diving enthusiasts listen to me, after victory [in the war] I invite you to visit a new dive spot in the Black Sea – the Cruiser Moskva underwater museum….
‘I invite you and will be your guide.’
The sinking of the warship – leading to an unknown number of deaths – ‘did the seemingly impossible’ Mr Reznikov continued.
Ukraine claims the footage shows the moments Neptune missiles were launched
He said: ‘It changed the course of history, because a chain reaction began.
‘It was the last day of the Russian fleet’s dominance in the Black Sea.’
As relatives marked the anniversary of the sinking, Dmitry Shkrebets, 44, whose son Yegor, 20, was killed, vowed to win justice for those who perished.
Russia has still not revealed the number who died, or the circumstance, but instead is staging a criminal investigation against this father for protesting at alleged incompetence by commanders.
Anguished parents demanded answers from the Kremlin over what’s happened (Pictures: Rex/east2west)
It is clear many of the ‘dozens’ killed were conscripts, who Putin had vowed would not be sent to the war zone, said Shkrebets.
He blamed the dictator for cruel ‘indifference’ to the Moskva dead, and demanded answers to the fate of the lost men.
The strike on the Moskva ‘should not have occurred, but it was allowed to,’ said the distraught father.
He said: ‘It all happened at 14.20 Moscow time, in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.
The last exit of the Moskva cruiser on April 10, 2022 (Picture: Social media/EAST2WEST News)
‘Dozens of sailors and members of the ship’s crew died, including my son….’
The vessel was hit on 13 April 2022, the day Yegor died, but the vessel sank on 14 April.
These conscripts ‘were not supposed to take part in the [special military operation] – this was publicly promised to the whole country by President Vladimir Putin,’ said Shkrebets.
‘Yet they became its participants from the first day, from the first military campaign of the Moskva cruiser on February 24, 2022.
‘Eternal memory to you…and peace to your bright souls.
‘See you soon, son.’
Shkrebets faces a probe after condemning Putin for failing to meet or acknowledge the lost Moskva sailors, and appointing inept commanders, but vowed to fight on and reveal the truth once the investigation is over.
He had declared: ‘Putin is no longer my president.
‘I do not believe this man, he betrayed me.
‘I consider him a hypocrite and a traitor to my Motherland.’
A Russian defector from Wagner claimed to have seen the killing of a Ukrainian prisoner of war in video, and he recognized his former coworkers in the scene.
Andrey Medvedev, who in January managed to flee Vladimir Putin’s de facto private army and later applied for asylum in Norway, said he was able to identify the hired men by their “nicknames, the way they talk, and their manner when talking over the radio.”
The distressing videos, which surfaced on social media over the weekend, purport to show a Russian military allegedly chopping off a hostage’s head with a knife.
In one video, a voice encourages a killer to break the spine of his victim, identified by a yellow tactical armband, as he struggles on the floor.
‘Get working, brothers. Break his spine, f–k, have you never cut off a head?’, they can be heard saying.
It is unclear when or where this ISIS-style footage was shot, and who is behind it.
But an exiled Russian human rights group has said evidence indicates it was an act by Wagner fighters.
‘We contacted Andrey Medvedev, 26, ex-commander of the first squad of the 4th platoon of the 7th Wagner PMC assault squad, now in deportation prison,’ said Vladimir Osechkin, founder of Gulagu.net.
‘We sent this video, he listened to it several times and watched it carefully. He definitely identifies [in the video] his former colleagues, members of the Wagner PMC [private military company].
‘By their distinctive callsigns, the way they talk, what they say on the radios, as they go about this extrajudicial execution, that brutal murder.’
Osechkin stressed that Medvedev ‘was in Wagner and knows their call signs and code words and ciphers’.
He ‘helps us to identify them [and establish] that fighters of the illegal armed group known as Wagner PMC were involved in this extrajudicial execution, a terrible murder’.
Ukraine has vowed to identify the knifeman and a second suspected Russian fighter who appeared to be taunting him to decapitate the prisoner of war.
Osechkin has offered a £2,670 reward for information on the identities of those behind the atrocity.
The identity of the victim – seen pleading for mercy before he is decapitated – remains unclear.
The chief of Wagner, close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, said: ‘I watched this video.
‘It is bad when people’s heads are cut off, but I have not found anywhere that this is happening near Bakhmut or that fighters of PMC Wagner are participating in the execution.’
Donald Trump alleges that when he was detained and checked in at a New York courthouse last week, officers and workers “were genuinely crying.”
He made history by denying 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with an alleged hush money plan involving adult film star Stormy Daniels. He was the first former US president to be charged with a crime.
In his first interview since, he spoke extensively about the arraignment, explaining how the court’s hardened officers—who are capable of “putting in murderers”—were “in tears or close to it.”
He also discussed the evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021, saying the US left a number of dogs – ‘mostly German Shepherds’ – behind, as well as the Ukraine war, calling Vladimir Putin a ‘smart’ man who has ‘loves Ukraine’ and has had ‘probably a bad year’.
Footage from inside the Manhattan courthouse last week showed Trump surrounded by stony-faced staff – one of whom even appeared to refuse to hold the door open for him.
The former president has long been mocked for claiming people cry when they meet him.
Speaking to Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, he said: ‘When I went to the courthouse, which is also a prison, in a sense, they signed me in and I’ll tell you, people were crying.
Former president Donald Trump spoke to Tucker Carlson (Picture: Fox News)Trump appears in court for his arraignment (Picture: AP)Trump arrives inside State Supreme Court at 100 Centre Street for his arraignment (Picture: Louis Lanzano/UPI/Shutterstock)
‘People that work there, professionally work there, that have no problems putting in murderers, they see everybody. It’s a tough, tough place, and they were crying. They were actually crying.
‘They said I’m sorry. They’d say “2024, sir, 2024” and tears are pouring down their eyes. I’ve never seen anything like it.
‘Those people are phenomenal. Those are your police. Those are the people that work at the courthouse, they’re unbelievable people.
‘Many of them were in tears or close to it. Many apologies – “we’re sorry, sir, we’re sorry”.
‘In one sense it was beautiful, because they get it, but in another sense it’s nasty – I went to the Wharton School of Finance, they didn’t teach me that.’
Trump repeated his insistence that he is innocent and there is no case against him.
Carlson asked if there was ‘anything they could throw at [him] legally’ that would convince him to drop out of the 2024 race to the White House.
Trump replied: ‘No, I’d never drop out. It’s not my thing. I wouldn’t do it.’
There is no legal bar to running or winning the presidency as a convicted felon or even from behind bars.
Elsewhere in the hour-long interview, he told Carlson he asked a five-year-old about the best way to manage the evacuation from Afghanistan and claimed the US left a number of dogs behind.
He said: ‘They left the dogs — you know the dog lovers, and there are a lot of them, I love dogs, you love dogs, but they left the dogs.
‘One of the first questions I got: “What did they do with the dogs?” Mostly German Shepherds.’
Trump, who has criticised the way his successor Joe Biden handled the evacuation, said he asked a child what order it should have happened.
He said: ‘I did a little skit with a five-year-old kid, I said, “Let me ask you: here’s the situation.” I explained the situation. I said, “Would you take the military out first or would you take it out last?” “I’d take it out last.” Five-year-old.”
Trump was also asked if he had spoken to Putin about Ukraine, saying: ‘I could see that he loved it. He considers it to be a part of Russia. I said not when I’m president.’
He said of the Russian president: ‘Putin – very smart. Now, he’s had probably a bad year.’
The likelihood that Vladimir Putin would order a new round of mobilization for Moscow’s conflict in Ukraine has increased as he prepares to sign a law making it harder for Russians to avoid military conscription.
In addition to traditional letters, the law would permit internet distribution of military call-up documents. It would also prohibit those who must serve in the military from traveling abroad.
Following a botched order in September that led to a large number of Russians fleeing the country, Russian officials have refuted claims that the bill paves the way for a new round of mobilization.
But the strict new rules make it harder and more difficult for Russian men to avoid an order should it be made. Under the bill, the Kremlin would consider Russians notified from the moment they receive a summons, even if they haven’t seen the call-up, and would then ban them from leaving Russia.
The bill passed through its third reading in the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament Tuesday. It is now set to be approved by the upper chamber, the Federation Council, on Wednesday, and finally signed into law by Putin; both steps are considered a formality.
Asked during a regular call with reporters if the Kremlin is concerned that the proposed law, if passed, would trigger another wave of mass exodus of Russians, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “Absolutely not. It has nothing to do with mobilization, it has to do with military registration.
“There is no second wave,” Peskov said after being pressed further to respond to rumors of new attempt at mass mobilization.
The initial effort in September was greeted by chaos, as scores of Russians headed to the border to avoid being sent to fight. Protests also erupted in ethnic minority regions, and some military enlistment offices have been set on fire. The original announcement also sparked rare anti-war demonstrations across Russia.
Officials said the draft’s target of recruiting 300,000 personnel had been met by late October, and brought the drive to an end.
Currently, conscription documents in Russia must be hand-delivered by the local military enlistment office or through an employer. The new bill makes an electronic summons – uploaded to a government portal called Gosuslugi – equal to the traditional method, and does not take into account whether it has been read.
Though the Kremlin has been quick to downplay the significance of the move, its provisions and timing are convenient for a military bogged down in stalemate in its ground campaign in eastern Ukraine, after months of grinding combat which has bled their manpower and weaponry.
Western officials last week told CNN they believe Russia has a problem generating “trained military manpower.”
“[Russia has] acknowledged that they needed 400,000 more troops and that’s not just for the conflict [in Ukraine], but also to fulfill new formations which are going to be put on the new border with NATO and Finland,” the officials said in a briefing on Wednesday, answering a question from CNN.
“How they generate that is unclear at the moment,” the officials added, noting that a new wave of call-ups would pose risks for Moscow. “Whether the population can sustain another round of mobilization and whether the Kremlin actually wants to test the population’s resilience to that it is unclear at the moment, but the fact they haven’t done would indicate to us that they have some concerns about that.”
As per reports, Vladimir Putin experienced a number of significant health scares that led medical professionals to “panic.”
According to the General SVR Telegram channel, the Russian president experienced “extreme pain” in his head, clouded vision, and a “numb tongue.”
Additionally, it is said that he had a “partial loss of sensation in his right arm and leg” that necessitated immediate medical care.
First aid was administered, and Putin was told to take medicine and take it easy for a few days by a “committee of doctors.”
But rather than following this advice, the Russian premier refused to rest, choosing instead to give gloomy reports from the war in Ukraine.
His condition improved, easing concern among his large team of medics, said the post.
It stated: ‘The president’s relatives were more worried.’
The Russian president also had a ‘partial loss of sensation in his arm’ (Picture: Getty Images)
For them ‘such a sharp deterioration in Vladimir Putin’s health caused a nervous reaction, more like panic’.
The channel, which claims inside knowledge from the Kremlin, has repeatedly said Putin is terminally ill with cancer, and his conditions and medication impacts his decision-making.
‘The temporary sharp deterioration in the president’s health has already made those closest to him tense,’ said General SVR.
‘The sudden death of Putin will put them all in front of the unknown, or rather, on the brink of survival.’
It stated that ‘none of them even had a rough plan of action in this case’.
Rumours have spiralled about Putin’s health fuelled by his habit of gripping hard onto desks and making strange twitching movements with his feet.
The Kremlin and his ministers insist he is in perfect health.
According to Adel Khaydarshin, an attorney for the blogger and his girlfriend, Russian officials detained a Chinese blogger who identifies as LGBTQ on Wednesday for allegedly breaking a rule that forbids what is known as same-sex “propaganda.”
Haoyang Xu, a citizen of China, was found guilty at a court on Thursday, according to Khaydarshin. According to a statement from the court that Khaydarshin sent to CNN, he is currently being held in a facility for temporary foreign custody and is in danger of being expelled from Russia.
This comes months after Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, approved a law expanding the country’s current ban on so-called LGBTQ “propaganda.” Anyone who promoted same-sex relationships or implied that non-heterosexual orientations were “normal” was in violation of the law.
Xu’s Russian partner, Gela Gogishvili, has also been charged in connection with the same law, Khaydarshin said. But Gogishvili, who faces fines of up to 200,000 Rubles (more than $2,400 USD), has not yet been arrested, according to the lawyer.
The bloggers have regularly documented their life online through social media as a same-sex couple living in Russia.
According to court documents given to CNN by Khaydarshin, Xu was arrested for allegedly posting videos depicting “non-traditional sexual relations” with Gogishvili.
“Namely, being males, they kiss each other, hug, touch each other on various parts of the body, including in the genital area, while the description of the videos contains the following, How does a gay couple sleep? Kiss me all night,” the court document said.
Police said they uncovered the footage during an inspection of the couple’s YouTube account, according to the court document.
They also claimed nearly 1,800 of the account’s 64,900 subscribers were under 18 years of age, the document says.
CNN is unable to independently verify these claims.
Video posted to the couple’s Telegram feed showed police escorting a handcuffed Xu down a staircase. Another image shared on the Telegram feed shows Xu standing beside a police car. The picture’s caption says he was being sent to the temporary detention center for foreign citizens.
Xu has not yet been deported; he has the opportunity to appeal the court’s decision, the lawyer added.
CNN has reached out to the Chinese embassy in Moscow for comment on the arrest.
The law was first adopted in Russia in 2013 and banned the dissemination of LGBTQ-related information to minors. Since then, the law has been expanded multiple times.
Human Rights Watch has described it as an “unabashed example of political homophobia.”
In November 2022, Russia’s upper house of parliament unanimously voted to toughen the controversial law to make it apply to Russians of all ages.
Individuals who spread what the bill called “LGBT propaganda” or attempt to do so, can be fined up to 400,000 rubles (about $5,000 USD). Legal entities can be fined up to 5 million rubles (nearly $62,000 USD). Foreigners can be arrested for up to 15 days or deported, according to the text of the bill.
The law was expanded in December 2022, making it illegal for anyone to promote same-sex relationships or suggest that non-heterosexual orientations are “normal.”
The ban was rubber-stamped by Putin just days after a harsh new “foreign agents” law came into effect, as the Kremlin cracked down on free speech and human rights amid its military operation in Ukraine.
The package of amendments signed by Putin also included heavier penalties for anyone promoting “non-traditional sexual relations and/or preferences,” as well as pedophilia and gender transition. Under the new law, it was banned across the internet, media, books, audiovisual services, cinema and advertising.
Vladimir Putin probably wouldn’t be able to get away with stating that many people on the world.
Yet perhaps the Russian president is careful not to get enraged at the friends he still has while his horrific war in Ukraine further isolates him from the rest of the world.
But, things became very awkward when the president of Belarus informed him that he appeared a little exhausted during a meeting in Moscow yesterday.
Aleksandr Lukashenko asked his fellow despot, before even saying hello, “Are you OK? Looks worn out.
Putin shrugged and the two leaders warmly embraced, but Lukashenko would not let it go, adding: ‘I am saying to you, a tired president!’
When the Belarusian dictator started berating his aides for not looking after him properly, Putin said: ‘It’s OK, I’ve got to work a bit and then pick up my salary at the end of the month.
‘You have to earn your pay cheque.’
Lukashenko, an authoritarian who has ruled Belarus as its president since 1994, is one of the Russian leader’s few remaining friends in Europe.
Alexander Lukashenko arrived in Moscow yesterday for talks with Vladimir Putin (Picture: Sputnik/AFP)Russia is the biggest financial backer for Minsk, as well as its closest political ally (Picture: EPA)
The Kremlin has often used its special relationship with the country strategically since the invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
At the very beginning, Belarus was used as a launch pad for Russian troops to enter the country from the north ahead of their failed bid to capture Kyiv.
On Tuesday, the same day Finland officially entered Nato, Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu announced Belarusian jets were capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The news came just over a week after Putin said his country had struck a deal with Belarus to station tactical nuclear weapons on its territory.
He said the construction of a storage facility for the weapons would be completed by July 1.
Lukashenko’s visit to Moscow was reportedly set to last two days, and involve discussions about how the two countries can expand their ties even further.
His closeness with Putin has not come without a cost, as the US imposed fresh sanctions on seven Belarusian election officials, two state-owned automotive manufacturers and the president’s private Boeing 737 aircraft last month.
Doctors had to respond quickly to check on the anti-war protester who had been detained after a bomb murdered a blogger who supported Vladimir Putin.
After propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in an explosion at a café in St. Petersburg on Sunday afternoon, Daria Trepova, 26, was taken in.
She was sent to Moscow, where she reportedly underwent nine hours of questioning.
According to Russian television station Ren TV, the anti-war activist “complained of feeling poorly, adding that she could not hear well and could not gain her bearings.”
Presenters said: ‘Medics were called in to examine and assist Daria.
‘According to preliminary reports, the woman’s condition may have been caused by concussion as a result of the blast.’
Daria has admitted giving a statuette to Tatarsky but did not know what was inside it.
Vladlen Tatarsky was a fanatical pro-Putin supporter who made frequent reports from the frontlines of Ukraine (Picture: Shutterstock)
She apparently told investigators: ‘I was set up. I was just being used.’
The former art student had previously been detained for participating in a rally against the war on February 24, last year and she spent 10 days in jail at the time.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the restaurateur and mercenary chief who heads the Wagner Group military contractor spearheading Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine, said he owned the café and allowed patriotic groups to use it for meetings.
He said he doubts the involvement of Ukrainian authorities in the bombing, and said it was likely launched by a ‘group of radicals’ unrelated to the government in Kyiv.
However, Progozhin was swiftly contradicted by Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who blamed Kyiv for the attack, who blamed Kyiv for the attack and said the bombing justified the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.
At a press conference on Monday, Peskov said: ‘Russia has faced the Kyiv regime, which has supported terrorist activities.
‘That is why the special military operation is being conducted.’
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky meanwhile brushed off the attack while speaking to reporters.
‘I don’t think about what is happening in St Petersburg or Moscow. Russia should think about this. I am thinking about our country,’ he told journalists.
As Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko had private meetings yesterday, a fire burned beside the Kremlin.
Emergency personnel flocked to a fire at a Moscow defense ministry building at 19 Znamenka Street while the two leaders spoke.
Spectacular film displays smoke rising into the sky and flowing from windows.
The source of the fire is yet unknown, however approximately 50 people were evacuated.
Smoke could be seen billowing into the sky (Picture: social media/ East2west News)
The fire took place at a building known as Apraksin House, which has housed the administrative services of the Russian Ministry of Defence since 1987.
It is close to the headquarters of the defence ministry and situated just several hundreds yards from the Kremlin.
In a statement, Russia’s defence ministry said: ‘Around 19:30 (16:30 GMT), in one of the administrative buildings of the defence ministry in Moscow, duty workers detected smoke on the premises.
‘The fire department and ministry of emergency situations came to the scene.’
Emergency services at the scene last night (Picture: social media/ East2west News)
Some reports said the section of the building on fire was a department of military property dealing with facilities across the country.
No injuries were reported.
As firefighters battle to extinguish the flames, Putin was believed to be holding talks with Lukashenko – an ally in his war with Ukraine – in the Kremlin.
Unexplained fires in Russia have been reported at factories, barracks and even a former Ikea store in recent months.
Ukrainian intelligence chief, Major-General Kyrylo Budanov told Forbes last month that the country was seeing many unusual explosions and fires.
‘Much of this is no accident,’ he said, admitting that Ukraine was paying Russian saboteurs.
‘Something is constantly on fire [in Russia].
‘Signalling equipment on railways, it lights up several times a day, on various highways constantly for two to three hours, sometimes for five to six hours, traffic gets suspended.’
A Russian military volunteer spent £20,000 on drones for Vladimir Putin’s army, but hackers intercepted the shipment and instead sent dildos and strap-ons.
Mikhail Luchin, 34, raised the enormous sum of money deliberately to aid the Russian troops in wreaking havoc in Ukraine.
Yet because of interference from the Cyber Resistance Group, he ended up with tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of sex gadgets that are allegedly non-returnable.
‘Instead of drones, Misha [Mikhail] will now send to the invader [troops] trucks of dildos, strap-ons and other things useful to every Russian that we ordered and paid for with his card on AliExpress’, the hackers said.
Luchin is a Putin supporter (Picture: Mikhail Luchin/ East2west News)
At first, Luchin said he’d simply just send the items back to AliExpress and get his money back.
But he has apparently since realised that this is not possible.
‘I will open a sex shop here [in Russia], make 300% profit and buy three times more drones’, he has now vowed.
He also told followers ‘it would be good to have a Kalibr [missile]’ to launch at the cyber operatives.
The Cyber Resistance group told InformNapalm site that their mission was ‘important’.
’He collected money and spent it on the purchase of drones for the Russian army’, they said.
‘So it was important to write it off for something else. We decided to order him a bunch of [sex] toys.’
The head of the Kremlin is “shut off from the world,” according to a former officer in Vladimir Putin‘s elite personal security team.
After being deployed to Kazakhstan, Gleb Karakulov, 35, broke ranks and defected, making him a wanted man now.
He provided hints about Putin’s mysterious personal life in an interview with the Dossier Center, a London-based investigative organization supported by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a prominent member of the Russian opposition.
“Our president has turned into a war criminal,” he declared. It is time to put an end to this battle and to speak up.
Karakulov was a captain in Russia’s secretive Federal Protective Service (FSO) tasked with setting up secure communications for the country’s president and prime minister.
In 13 years of service, he says he never saw Putin use a mobile phone.
The Kremlin leader also never requested internet access, suggesting he rarely reads non media or reports from outside Russia.
‘Our president is cut off from the world, he lives in an informational vacuum,’ Karakulov said.
‘He is pathologically afraid for his life. He has surrounded himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantine and a lack of any information from the internet.’
There have been widespread rumours as to the state of Putin’s health, with many pointing out potential symptoms of serious illness.
The way the Kremlin leader walks, talks and even sits have all been analysed in detail.
But Karakulov said he has taken more than 180 trips with the Russian president, and contrary to widespread speculation, Putin appears to be in good health.
He has only cancelled a few trips due to illness and has annual medical checkups, he said.
It was Karakulov’s job to set up secure communications at the hospital when Putin checked in.
Many had speculated that the Russian ruler’s reluctance to ease the offensive in Ukraine was due to his poor health.
But Karakulov says it isn’t due to his physical health, but his mental state.
‘I understand that he’s simply afraid,’ he said.
Putin’s paranoia has reportedly deepened since the war broke out, and he opts to travel by a ‘nondescript train car’ rather than a plane.
The Kremlin leader has set up identical offices in multiple locations, with matching details down to the desk and wall hangings, and official reports sometimes say he’s one place when he is actually in another, according to Karakulov and prior reporting by a Russian media outlet.
Karakulov’s interview with the Dossier Center gives the world vital insight into the mind of Putin.
The rare defection of a Russian insider raises questions about how deep public support for the war in Ukraine actually runs in Russia.
Karakulov wasn’t the only one from the FSO who wanted out.
An engineer at a regional FSO center in Siberia tried to flee to Kazakhstan in September, shortly after Russia’s draft took effect.
But authorities there sent him back to Russia, where he was sentenced to six -and-a-half years in a penal colony.
Boris Bondarev, a career diplomat in Geneva who quit in May and denounced the war, said there are plenty of Russians who quietly oppose the war but don’t dare speak out, for fear of losing their livelihoods.
A few Foreign Ministry colleagues quit after he did but didn’t go public, he said. He added that, like him, they’re having trouble finding work.
Bondarev is now living as a political refugee on a government allowance in Switzerland, with security constraints he’d rather leave ‘deliberately ambiguous.’
But he doesn’t have regrets.
‘You must do what your what your conscience tells you to do,’ he said.
According to rumors, the Kremlin wants to replace the infamous Wagner Group with a different group over which Vladimir Putin has more sway.
Putin has allegedly grown concerned about his own position as a result of an apparent conflict between the Russian Defense Ministry and the mercenary group.
In light of rumors of a power struggle between significant Russian officials, the Russian president is said to be concerned that the Wagner Group has grown excessively influential.
However, no other known Russian group comes close to Wagner’s military size or combat power, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.
The British defence experts said the desire for a replacement group shows the Kremlin still wants to use mercenaries in Ukraine.
This is because they are less constrained by limited pay levels and the inefficiency that hampers Russia’s regular army.
The military leadership believe heavy casualties among a replacement group would also be more tolerated by Russian society, compared to regular military losses.
The Wagner Group – made up of ex-convicts – has played an important role in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The Wagner group does not actually exist as a legal entity (Picture: Reuters)
But in February, Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was ordered to reduce his 50,000-strong army, and replace them with 300,000 ordinary soldiers.
Putin reportedly fears Prigozhin’s influence in Ukraine could soon outstrip his own and make him vulnerable if a leadership bid was launched.
Fears of a power struggle between Putin and Prigozhin may also explain the Kremlin’s determination to replace the Wagner Group.
While the group is notorious, feared and dangerous – it does not actually exist as a legal entity, and analysts are still debating how to define it.
It instead operates more like a network of different, overlapping groups in various parts of the world.
The group is seemingly run beyond the law in Russia and is linked to neo-Nazism and far-right extremism.
Operatives have committed war crimes in Ukraine and other locations, including rape and robbery of civilians as well as torturing accused deserters.
The Nordic country’s border with Russia has doubled as a result of its formal entry into the largest security alliance in the world.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Finland and Sweden together applied to join Nato.
Although Sweden are still awaiting approval, Finland’s membership represents a major change in Europe’s security landscape.
Finnish flags will be raised at the organisation’s headquartrs in Brussels to mark the occasion (Picture: AP)
The country adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in the Second World War, but its leaders signalled they wanted to join the alliance just months after Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent fear through Moscow’s neighbours.
The move is a strategic and political blow to Mr Putin, who has long complained about Nato’s expansion toward Russia and partly used that as a justification for the invasion. The alliance says it poses no threat to Moscow.
Finland shares an 832 mile land border with Russia- the largest in Europe.
The process was formalised this afternoon when Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto handed over signed accession documents to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Following their accession, the length of Russia’s border with Nato member states has now doubled.
Rishi Sunak has welcomed Finland becoming the newest member of the Nato defence alliance.
The Prime Minister said: ‘This is an historic day for Finland and for Nato. Their accession has made our alliance stronger and every one of us safer.
Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto signed the documents and presented them to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken this afternoon (Picture: Emmi Korhonen/Shutterstock)
‘All Nato members now need to take the steps necessary to admit Sweden too, so we can stand together as one alliance to defend freedom in Europe and across the world.’
Russia warned that it would be forced to take ‘retaliatory measures’ to address what it called security threats created by Finland’s membership.
It has also warned it will bolster forces near Finland if Nato sends any additional troops or equipment to its 31st member country.
Earlier today, Russian defence minister Segei Shoigu announced that a number Belarusian jets had been fitted to carry nuclear warheads in response.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels that ‘there will be no Nato troops in Finland without the consent of Finland’.
But he refused to rule out the possibility of holding more military exercises there and said that Nato would not allow Russia’s demands to dictate the organisation’s decisions.
‘We are constantly assessing our posture, our presence. We have more exercises, we have more presence, also in the Nordic area,’ he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Finland’s membership reflects the alliance’s anti-Russian course and warned that Moscow will respond depending on what weapons Nato allies place there.
‘We will closely monitor what will be going on in Finland and how Nato will use the territory of Finland for the deployment of weapons, equipment and infrastructure next to our border that would potentially threaten us. Measures will be taken dependent on that,’ Mr Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
But Mr Peskov also sought to play down the impact, noting that Russia has no territorial disputes with Finland.
It is not clear what additional military resources Russia could send to the Finnish border. Moscow has deployed the bulk of its most capable military units to Ukraine.
Mr Stoltenberg said that Finland will benefit from Nato’s ‘iron-clad security guarantee” under which all member countries vow to come to the defence of any ally that comes under attack.
‘By (Finland) become a full-fledged member, we are removing the room for miscalculation in Moscow about Nato’s readiness to protect Finland, and that makes Finland safer and stronger, and all of us safer,’ Mr Stoltenberg said.
Vladimir Putin‘s global cyberwar strategy against the West has been made public as a result of the leak of a vast number of top-secret documents.
The “Vulkan Files,” which were released on March 30th, describe how a mysterious Russian cybersecurity firm by the name of RTV Vulkan has been covertly engaging in cyberwarfare on the Kremlin’s behalf.
On February 24, 2022, a whistleblower who opposed the conflict in Ukraine allegedly disclosed the records to German media. Since then, they have been examined by a group of more than 50 journalists from eight different nations.
Included in the leak is evidence of tools used to influence social media discussion, manipulate public opinion, interfere in elections, and attack national infrastructure.
The files reveal how a Russian cybersecurity company waged digital warfare around the world on the Kremlin’s behalf (Picture: Shutterstock)
Also revealed is the agency’s links to the notorious hacking organisation Sandworm, who disabled Ukraine’s power grid in 2015 and played a key role in Russia’s brazen attempts to derail the US presidential election the following year.
Two of the group’s operatives were indicted for distributing emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s Democrats in 2016, and in 2017 Sandworm attempted use the same tactics to influence the outcome of the French presidential vote, the US claims.
Sandworm has also been credited with distributing the most destructive malware ever recorded, known as NotPetya, and targeting the South Korean Oympics.
Codenamed Scan-V, NotPetya scours the internet for vulnerabilities, which are then stored for use in future cyber-attacks.
Another powerful disinformation tool, known as Amezit, was also found to be in use by the group.
Amezit is used to create fake profiles en masse which are then used to disseminate pro-Kremlin content on a large scale via email, SMS, and social media.
Public opinion can be influenced by pushing individual hashtags in a targeted manner, and bot databases provide the basis for these operations.
These tools were used to influence foreign affairs, and to exert even greater control over parts of the internet in Russia’s sphere of influence.
It has been reported that one of the leaked documents includes maps of US energy infrastructure. Another contains the details of a nuclear power station in Switzerland.
John Hultquist, the vice-president of intelligence analysis at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, said: ‘These documents suggest that Russia sees attacks on civilian critical infrastructure and social media manipulation as one and the same mission, which is essentially an attack on the enemy’s will to fight.’
The firm counts a wide variety of Russian security services as its clients, including the FSB, the foreign intelligence service, SVR, and the military intelligence service GRU, the Guardian reports.
The whistleblower who leaked the explosive documents told a German newspaper that the FSB and GRU ‘hide behind’ Vulkan in the days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year to avoid culpability.
The anonymous source said: ‘People should know the dangers of this.
‘Because of the events in Ukraine, I decided to make this information public.
‘The company is doing bad things and the Russian government is cowardly and wrong.
‘I am angry about the invasion of Ukraine and the terrible things that are happening there.
‘I hope you can use this information to show what is happening behind closed doors.’
The authenticity of the documents has been confirmed by five separate intelligence agencies.
Following the leak, the ‘Vulkan Files’ international research team identified several hundred accounts on Twitter that could be directly or indirectly linked to the documents.
To hide their Russian origins, profiles created by the group created email accounts at Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail, and paid for transactions with cryptocurrency or prepaid credit cards.
However, despite their careful manoeuvring Russia’s attempts to control the online sphere have faltered since the start of their invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova confirmed that the Kremlin has ceded centralized control over the Russian information space and that Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently cannot readily fix it.
This is due to the emergence of grassroots anti-disinformation groups who have taken an active role in identifying and countering Russian propaganda online.
In their brief exchange with a German journalist, the leaker said they were aware that giving sensitive information to foreign media was dangerous.
But they had taken life-changing precautions. They had left their previous life behind, they said, and now existed ‘as a ghost’.
Four bankers have been found guilty of overseeing one of Vladimir Putin‘s pals’ bank accounts.
The unidentified employees, three of Russian descent and one Swiss, worked for Gazprombank Switzerland.
From 2014 through 2016, cellist Sergei Roldugin patronized the bank. Concerns were raised concerning his involvement in the 2016 Panama Papers revelations.
Roldugin, a Putin acquaintance, was accused by prosecutors of contributing to the export of millions, and it was suggested that bank staff members may have concealed these movements.
The US Treasury Department describes him as ‘part of a system that manages president Putin’s offshore wealth’.
His income was listed at the bank as a million Swiss francs a year (£886,000) and his assets at 10 million francs (£8.8 million).
But his occupation was registered as a musician, indicating that the money flows were ‘in no way plausible as Roldugin’s own wealth’, the indictment said.
On top of this, Gazprombank maintained Roldugin’s accounts despite ‘abundant’ media reports about his relationship to Putin, including that he was godfather to one of the president’s daughters.
Roldugin is one of the multiple people who has faced sanctions from western nations for their close ties with Mr Putin’s government.
The four bankers involved in this case charged with failing to adequately check whether Mr Roldugin owned the assets in the accounts and violating Swiss anti-money-laundering law.
They all denied the accusations against them but were convicted after a trial on March 8.
They were sentenced at Zurich district court with seven-month suspended prison sentences.
If these sentences are violated, they could lead collectively to hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs in fines.
Lawyers for all the defendants immediately announced plans to appeal.
In a statement, the Zurich regional prosecutors’ office welcomed the verdicts as ‘an important signal that due diligence obligations under money-laundering law must be observed’.
Gazprombank Switzerland, a Zurich-based channel of the Russian bank which is in the middle of shutting down operations, did not face charges as an organisation.
In the devasted landscape of Bakhmut, a pentathlete from Ukraine who competed for his nation on the international stage is engaged in combat with Russian soldiers.
Machine gunner Pavlo Zvedeniuk is engaged in grueling warfare with mercenaries from the Wagner Group and Vladimir Putin’s army in the eastern city.
The soldier is one of the country’s top international athletes who has enlisted in the military as the conflict prevents them from competing internationally.
He condemned the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for paving the way to allow Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete at Paris 2024 as neutrals, speaking to Metro.co.uk from the frontline shortly before the body’s executive committee said it had recommended the plan.
At the outbreak of Vladimir Putin’s all-out attack on Ukraine, the 32-year-old helped people including refugees before taking on a combat role with an intelligence unit. He served in the National Guard between 2011 and 2021 but focused primarily on sport as a professional modern pentathlete.
After his service contract ended in December last year he resolved not to join the military again — before the full-scale attack changed everything.
Pavlo Zvedeniuk has used the lessons he has learnt in a lifetime of sport to adapt to the battlefield (Picture: @_jony_fast_)
‘It changed most Ukrainians’ goals, dreams and lifestyles in Ukraine and abroad,’ Zvedeniuk said. ‘For me, February 24 changed everything.
‘Those terrible and heroic days, weeks and months are why I joined the army again. The funny thing is that I joined the army voluntarily as a soldier, having had the rank of chief sergeant in the National Guard.
‘Because it’s not about ranks, we fight for our freedom.’
Pavlo Zvedeniuk on the sports field before the war and in his current military role
Zvedeniuk has backed a campaign against the IOC’s proposal to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals at Paris 2024.
The move follows an outright ban which was implemented by the body last February. The executive board has made the recommendation to international federations but said athletes who actively support the war, or who are contracted to the military, should not be allowed to participate.
The IOC said yesterday that a decision will be taken on next year’s Olympics and the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games ‘at the appropriate time’.
The move is opposed by 35 countries including the UK — which has said the athletes are ‘funded and supported by their states’.
Zvedeniuk said: ‘Russia, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey were not allowed to attend the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp because they started the First World War. For the same reasons, Germany and Japan missed the 1948 Olympics in London.
‘In 1964, the IOC isolated the South African national team. The Olympic movement prohibits any form of discrimination so the apartheid policy was incompatible with it. For many decades, athletes from this country were ineligible to compete.
‘And what about Russia and Belarus? The IOC is suddenly very tolerant. ‘Such behaviour is at least strange. It looks like it is whitewashing war crimes and war criminals. The civilian population is dying in Ukraine, including athletes and coaches.’
Pavlo Zvedeniuk serves in war-torn Bakhmut after swapping athletics for frontline
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Zvedeniuk sent Metro.co.uk a video showing him and several comrades dashing through some of the most dangerous ground in the country.
In another clip, he calmly pauses for thought and shakes his head as Russian artillery fire sounds close by in the ruins of Bakhmut.
The combatant sent a message to IOC president Thomas Bach about the brutal reality of life in Russia’s sights.
He claimed that the IOC is effectively turning a ‘blind eye’ to war crimes by allowing the Russian and Belarusians to compete outside their national flags and not barring them for their states’ actions.
‘Russians destroy civil infrastructure, including sports infrastructure, causing millions of dollars in damage,’ Zvedeniuk said.
‘But the IOC turned a blind eye to all the war crimes. Maybe Thomas Bach can’t see well from above, so he is most welcome here, in Ukraine, to live under the sound of explosions, alarms, crying and screaming.
‘He also might be interested in assessing the state of our sports facilities.
‘But first, I highly recommend that the IOC re-read the Olympic Charter.’
The sportsman, from Lviv, has found similarities in the ‘combat readiness’ needed for athletics and his service with the Territorial Defense Forces.
Ukrainian athletes fighting for their homeland
Among the Ukrainian sports stars engaged in the homeland defence is former heavweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who is mayor of Kyiv. His brother, Wladimir, who also once dominated the sport, is a reservist with the nation’s Territorial Defense Brigade.
Mixed martial arts star Yaroslav Amosov broke off from active service to successfully defend his Bellator title in Dublin.
A number of athletes have died after taking up arms.
European boxing champion Maksym Galinichev is understood to have been killed while serving with Ukraine’s 25th Sycheslav Airborne Brigade in the Luhansk region earlier this month.
Footballers have also taken up arms, with Metro.co.uk reporting on 11 players and coaches from one league who have fallen as fighters, civilians and humanitarian volunteers.
They include Alexander Sukhenko, a gifted former professional who stayed in his village near Kyiv to support residents at great personal risk after it was occupied by Russian troops.
‘A sports career, life, habits and skills helped me adapt to war conditions faster,’ he said. ‘Sports taught me to endure, react quickly to stimuli, adapt to changes and solve tasks with a cool head and without emotions.
‘It is the same at the frontline. It will help if you take quick decisions and adapt to conditions that change most unexpectedly.
‘One should always keep a cool head. Emotions and overreacting will not help you to survive, a clear mind and confidence will.
‘At the frontline, as in sports, there are pre-start heebie-jeebies.
‘Another similarity is that you should be in optimal condition.
‘A state of “combat readiness” is required both for an athlete and a soldier.
‘Sport has hardened me psychologically, which has a positive effect on the performance of combat tasks. If you are a professional athlete, it is easier to adapt to the conditions of war, both physically and psychologically.
‘The body is an adaptive machine that gets used to any condition, whether faster or slower, and the brain itself works better in critical situations.’
The IOC has condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion, expressed its solidarity with Ukraine and kept other sanctions in place, including a recommendation that no international sports events be organised in Russia and Belarus.
The fierce debate is taking place as the first British tanks arrive in Ukraine, with the machines expected to soon begin combat missions.
The UK Ministry of Defence reported today that Russian assaults on Bakhmut are at a ‘reduced level’ as fighting continues in the city.
The update on Twitter said a ‘key achievement’ of Ukrainian forces was to push Wagner mercenaries back from a country road in the area which has become a critical supply route for the defenders.
In a recorded discussion that was released, two of Vladimir Putin’s supporters are believed to have called the Russian President “Devil” and a “dwarf.”
Farkhad Akhmedov, 67, an oligarch and former senator of Russia, and Iosif Prigozhin, 53, a well-known music producer, both alleged Putin supporters, have been charged with defaming the Kremlin.
Ukraine’s Channel Five and Russia’s Federal Security Service both shared an audio recording of what is thought to be a 35-minute phone call between the two (FSB).
In the clip, the pair are heard talking about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, slamming the Kremlin over their failings, and insulting his height.
Public criticism of Putin in Russia is rare, and those found guilty of insulting the Russian state, its army, or Putin himself face fines and even jail time.
Since its release, several Ukrainian and independent Russian outlets – including Meduza – have analysed the audio recording that is understood to have been made on January 24.
According to Meduza, Akhmedov is heard saying the Russian government ‘f***ed us, our children, their future, their destiny,’ in reference to Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Farkhad Akhmedov is an oligarch and ex-Russian senator who is a close ally of Putin (Picture: RBC)Iosif Prigozhin said Putin should pull his troops out of Ukraine in the leaked recording (Picture: Iosif Prigozhin)
‘He’s Satan,’ he adds, before criticising the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, who was also Russian president for four years.
Akhmedov is heard saying: ‘Both this one [Putin] and the second [Medvedev] are notorious. Lilliputians are f***ing undergrown, notorious,’ Meduza reports.
Putin is known to be sensitive about his 5ft 7inch height – with claims he suffers from ‘Napoleon complex’.
On the invasion, Prigozhin, 53, says that Russian authorities are losing to ‘Kvartal 95’ – the name of the production company founded by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2003, while he was still an actor and entertainer.
Prigozhin says that Putin should just pull his forces out of Ukraine and give up.
‘The fact that they say that they are fighting against them, back and forth, they themselves gave them a reason. He [Putin] was driven into this garbage. He got himself into it,’ Prigozhin is heard telling Akhmedov, Meduza reports.
‘To be honest, f**k it, I would stop, get the Nobel Prize, and f**king leave. I gave up the country anyway, damn it,’ he added.
The recording was said to have taken place in January
Akhmedov disputes this, telling his friend that ‘it will be a long time, unfortunately’ before Putin decides to pull his armies out.
He says: ‘He won’t go back, he can’t go forward. He will be like this.’
According to Meduza the F-word is said 157 times in the recording.
The call which first appeared on Telegram has caused a sensation in Russia despite the story being censored by the state media.
The voice sounding identical to Prigozhin says on the call that the elite ‘blame [Russian defence minister Sergei] Shoigu for everything.’
Putin has often been mocked over his height and is said to have a ‘Napoleon complex’ (Picture: Getty)
Soon after the chat was leaked Prigozhin desperately claimed that the recording had been generated by ‘neural networks,’ Meduza reports
At the weekend he posted video online responding to the claims.
He said: Fake audio recording with supposedly my voice and a conversation with an influential person. I want to say that today’s technologies, neural networks, allow you to fake not only a voice, but also a conversation.
‘You know, the Internet has turned into a big dump where there is something useful and you can devalue, discredit any person. Everyone knows my political position, it is present in all interviews and in the public field.’
He later admitted that some phrases in the conversation were genuine, saying in an interview that he ‘doesn’t exactly remember’ the conversation.
‘People in a private conversation can talk about anything. The main thing is that you speak in practice and how you behave in life and in different circumstances,’ he said, according to Meduza. He said he last spoke to Akhmedov in January.
He admitted that he was afraid the consequences that he could face in light of the audio recording, and said that while he and Akhmedov maybe have spoken some of the phrases heard in the recording, they have been altered.
Journalists contested Prigozhin’s suggestion that the clip was fake. Independent TV station chief Vadim Vostrov insisted: ‘This can neither be faked nor compiled.’
The ‘intonations and nuances’ made clear this was a genuine recording.
‘I know that many representatives of the so-called ruling class, from [MPs] to governors, discuss similar things and in approximately the same terms.’
There was ‘so much offensive for Putin personally’ in the call, he said.
Journalist Dmitry Kolezev said the recording appeared ‘genuine’ but ‘many details that are very difficult to invent and fake’ with precise voice matches and ‘manner of communication’.
‘For the first time we have heard what some members of the Russian elite really think and feel,’ he said. ‘They hate Putin, they are fully aware of the scale of the disaster and they understand that the country has no future with Putin.
‘At the same time, they are frightened, not ready to do something themselves, and in fact they are simply waiting for the regime to collapse.’
The leader of Ukraine’s parliament stated that the country’s pilots are prepared to get training to operate British weaponry.
On his visit to Westminster today, Ruslan Stefanchuk stated that once his nation “gets the wings,” it can achieve “joint victory for Ukraine and the world.”
Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with nations again and time again for the aid of jets in their conflict with Russia.
Notwithstanding partners’ reluctance to deliver the cutting-edge airplanes, the RAF will train Ukrainian pilots on Nato-standard jets.
Mr Stefanchuk said: ‘We are ready for more intense training of Ukrainian servicemen.
‘We’re ready to send our pilots to be trained in fighter jets.’
He also thanked Britain for sending 14 Challenger 2 tanks, paving the way for other nations to do the same.
‘Today is the time for Britain to become a leader to also open the door to use aircraft and long-range rockets,’ he said.
Mr Stefanchuk also used his visit to call for the creation of a special tribunal to investigate Moscow’s war crimes.
‘We want to use all the legal mechanisms to make sure Russia is defeated legally, held accountable for all the crimes they commit in Ukraine,’ he said.
He added Vladimir Putin’s crimes are ‘not real if they are not prosecuted’.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle welcomed his Ukrainian counterpart to Westminster, telling him: ‘Our Parliament is your Parliament.
‘Ukrainian politicians play a vital role in serving their people and telling the world the reality of war.
‘We are a friend that will listen, we are a friend that will support and continue to support.’
As the battle approaches what has been called a “now-or-never” moment, the Ukrainian military is expected to launch a wave of drones with a shark design.
The high-end unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are paid for by a philanthropic project that uses donations from sales at a nation-wide network of gas stations.
These will give the military of Kiev greater surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, supplying information for weapons such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. A counteroffensive is anticipated for this spring (HIMAR).
The eastern city of Bakhmut has become the focal point of a conflict where Ukraine’s military has been utilising Western lethal aid and improvised drone systems to exact heavy losses on Russian forces ahead of the expected push-back.
The sharks have been rapidly designed and put into production by a Ukrainian aerospace company during the full-scale invasion.
A total of 25 intelligence complexes consisting of 75 ‘birds’ overall are due to be deployed on the frontline through the initiative run by Come Back Alive, a charitable foundation which supports the armed forces.
Two UAVs are already on the battlefield, with the supporting complex including associated equipment such as command and control systems, ground vehicles and launch ramps.
The UAVs have a striking shark design and a camera able to track moving targets (Picture: Come Back Alive/@BackAndAlive)
The ongoing collaborative effort has so far raised 287 million hryvnias (£7.2 million) towards a target of 325 million, with the newly deployed kit being the first results of the amount raised to date.
Mykola Bielieskov, senior analyst at the foundation, told Metro.co.uk: ‘The shark intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance UAVs have critical importance because they will provide data for the most formidable rocket systems like HIMARS and M270 MLRS at a range of 75-plus kilometres.
‘As HIMARS and MLRS can target the enemy at a range of 85 kilometers we need to have the comparable intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance equipment. The UAVs are also being provided in preparation for a possible upcoming counter-offensive.
‘Private enterprise and charity are combining behind this window of opportunity so that our artillery systems can be utilised to the fullest possible extent. This project and others run by the Come Back Alive foundation are examples of how civil society is mobilising behind the military and as you can see, the work is bearing fruit.
‘All Ukrainians pay taxes which go to the Ministry of Defence’s budget but all Ukrainians realise that it is not enough. They are also ready to spend money to purchase fuel and to buy these incredible UAVs.’
The first of the new UAVs have been deployed with the aim of eventually providing 75 drones (Picture: Come Back Alive/@BackAndAlive)
The funding was raised through a partnership with the Ukrainian OKKO fuel station network whereby a hryvnia from every litre of premium Pulls petrol and diesel sold goes to the shark project.
Ukrainian firm Ukrspecsytems has entered the drones into production during the full-scale invasion, equipping the systems with encrypted communications, a 30x optical zoom camera and 150mph top speed.
The Kyiv-headquartered foundation has already provided large consignments of high-tech equipment, together with training, to troops.
Donations have included a strike drone complex, armoured vehicles, pick-up trucks and thousands of pieces of thermal imaging kit.
‘The birds were designed and produced in the space of a year, during the war, from the drawing board, to prototypes, to testing and now to the battlefield,’ Mr Bielieskov said.
The drones have been made from a blueprint drawn up by a Ukrainian company during the full-scale invasion (Picture: Come Back Alive/@BackAndAlive)
‘The private enterprise drew on their previous accumulated expertise, knowledge and experience going back to 2014 when Russia began its war on Ukraine to produce the UAVs, which are incredible not only in terms of range but with their high quality cameras and ability to operate day and night and track moving targets.
‘They are state of the art in terms of what Ukrainian private enterprise can produce for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and tactical range. The project was made possible because our charity is constantly finding the best ways to raise money and use it to the greatest effect.
‘We are now entering a period of “now or never” with this upcoming half a year going to be the most critical time yet to double down.
‘There’s a window of opportunity to provide assistance to the military as Ukraine prepares for a possible counter-offensive before Russia enters another round of mobilisation. It’s not the end of the confrontation but we now have an opportunity to do things right and begin the end game of what started on February 24, 2022.’
The supplied kit includes intelligence complexes with take-off ramps and guidance systems (Picture: Come Back Alive/@BackAndAlive)
Phillips O’Brien, professor of Strategic Studies at the University of St Andrews, described the foundation’s work as a matter of life and death.
Professor O’Brien said: ‘As Ukraine is gearing up for a counter-offensive, it needs to arm its soldiers with both the new heavy equipment being supplied by its friends, but also a large number of smaller systems, from UAVs to SUVs to body armour. Come Back Alive is an organization that has strong support across Ukraine to get such systems in the hands of their soldiers as they prepare for this vital action.
‘In the case of some Ukrainian soldiers, the support of Come Back Alive will make the difference between life and death.’
The sharks are part of what the Come Back Alive foundation anticipates could be a critical phase in the war (Picture: Come Back Alive/@BackAndAlive)
Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited troops near the frontline in the eastern Donetsk region today, presenting medals to ‘heroes’ who he said had protected ‘the sovereignty of our country’.
The Ukrainian president’s visit came as Chinese leader Xi Jinping landed back in Beijing after meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a meeting said by Western analysts to mark an aligning of their interests against the US.
On the battlefield, there were signs of Ukrainian forces shoring up their ground in Donetsk, with fighting near embattled Bakhmut reported by the UK Ministry of Defence.
The update on Twitter stated: ‘Over recent days Ukrainian forces initiated a local counterattack to the west of the Donetsk Oblast town Bakhmut, which is likely to relieve pressure on the threatened H-32 supply route.
‘Fighting continues around the town centre and the Ukrainian defence remains at risk from envelopment from the north and south.
‘However, there is a realistic opportunity that the Russian assault on the town is losing the limited momentum it had obtained, partially because some Russian MoD units have been reallocated to other sectors.’
After surgery, the man who oversaw Vladimir Putin‘s allegedly “fixed” elections for nine years passed quite unexpectedly.
The 70-year-old Vladimir Churov formerly served as the head of the Russian Central Election Commission.
During his tenure from 2007 to 2016, the opposition accused him of “election fraud” that favored Putin.
The president then personally designated him as a Russian ambassador at large.
Lawmaker Leonid Ivlev told news agency TASS: ‘It is sad news indeed.
‘[He died] after surgery in a hospital at 8am today.
‘[He] passed away after suffering a serious heart attack.’
The opposition accused him of ‘election fraud’ favouring Putin during his term between 2007 and 2016.He was writing a book on alleged US meddling in elections abroad.
He added Mr Churov had appeared ‘in good health’ up until today and had been discussing his future plans.
Mr Churov was seen as ‘doing bidding for the Kremlin’ to rig elections while also making them appear creditable.
A former Western diplomat in Moscow said: ‘Churov knew where the bodies were buried over election falsification which gave Putin a clear run, preventing opposition parties gaining a foothold.’
At the time of his death he was in the process of writing a book on alleged US meddling in elections abroad.
The eyes of the world have been on Russia this week after a pomp-filled state visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping.
He told Putin ‘change is coming’ as he left the Kremlin after the two leaders showcased their ‘no-limits friendship’ in front of the media.
Shaking hands as the Chinese president left the imperial palace, Xi said via an interpreter: ‘Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years. And we are driving this change together.’
Putin replied: ‘I agree,’ before his counterpart bid him farewell, saying: ‘Please, take care, dear friend.’
After a pomp-filled state visit in which the two presidents displayed their “no-limits friendship,” Xi Jinping informed Vladimir Putin that “change is coming” as he left the Kremlin on Tuesday.
“Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years,” Xi declared through an interpreter as they shook hands as the Chinese president exited the imperial palace. Together, we are bringing about this transformation.
Before saying goodbye and adding, “Please take care, dear friend,” Putin said, “I agree.”
On Tuesday, the Russian president briefly stood on the sidewalk and waved as Xi’s limousine departed.
His plane left Moscow’s Vnukovo airport after being seen off by a guard of honour playing the Russian and Chinese national anthems, the RIA Novosti news agency said on Wednesday morning.
After hosting Xi over a seven-course private dinner for more than four hours the previous night, Putin greeted him for talks involving top officials from both countries.
Xi walked slowly up the opulent red-carpeted staircase of the Grand Kremlin Palace as guards in 19th century-style parade uniforms snapped to attention.
Putin was waiting to greet the Chinese leader in St George’s hall where walls are covered by white-marble plaques with gold engravings of the names of military units and soldiers awarded the order of St George, a top military award established by Catherine the Great.
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping leave after a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow (Picture: Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)The leaders toast during their dinner at The Palace of the Facets, a building in the Kremlin (Picture: AP)Xi and Putin shake hands as the Chinese President leaves (Picture: AP)
In a tightly choreographed ceremony filled with imperial grandeur, the two leaders entered the huge chandeliered room from opposite sides and shook hands in the middle to the sound of the Russian and Chinese national anthems.
They walked past a line-up of officials from both countries to sit down for talks. Putin and Xi both wore black suits and dark red ties.
The pageantry of the visit, reflected the importance of Xi’s three-day visit to Russia that gave a strong political boost to Putin days after The Hague issued an arrest warrant against him.
The International Criminal Court accuses him of alleged involvement in snatching thousands of children from Ukraine.
Moscow, which doesn’t recognize the court’s jurisdiction, dismissed the move as ‘legally null and void’.
But the warrant further ramped up the pressure on the Russian leader as the fighting in Ukraine has dragged into a second year.
The leaders showcased their ‘no-limits friendship’ (Picture: AP)
After the talks, Putin and Xi issued joint declarations pledging to further bolster their ‘strategic cooperation’, develop cooperation in energy, high-tech industries and other spheres and expand the use of their currencies in mutual trade to reduce dependence on the West.
They said they would develop military cooperation and conduct more joint sea and air patrols, but there was no mention of any prospective Chinese weapons supplies to Russia that the US and other Western allies feared.
Xi appeared more relaxed than Putin in first Moscow meeting, experts say
Western officials will have pored over every detail of the talks between two of the world’s most powerful but secretive leaders.
Body language experts say Chinese President Xi Jinping came across as more relaxed and commanding than his Russian counterpart at Monday’s televised first meeting of Xi’s state visit.
Karen Leong, Managing Director of Singapore-headquartered Influence Solutions, said Xi had pre-empted Putin by a split-second in reaching out for their set-piece handshake, suggesting that ‘even though he is the one visiting Moscow, he is the one who is going to be taking the lead in this relationship’.
Louise Mahler, a body language and leadership behaviour expert based in Melbourne, Australia, took a similar view, noting that Xi had placed his hand on top of Putin’s, something that could also indicate a measure of dominance in the exchange.
When they sat together for polite exchanges through translators, greeting each other as ‘dear friend’, Ms Mahler said Putin had slouched, twitched his leg, clenched his fist and looked at the floor, suggesting underlying agitation.
Xi, meanwhile, appeared ‘settled and confident’.
Ms Leong noticed the same tics in Putin, contrasting with an outwardly relaxed demeanour.
‘If you juxtapose it with Xi, Xi is the composed statesman,’ she said. ‘He has a lot of gravitas, great eye contact, he is looking at Putin as an older brother looks … (at a) more junior, younger partner.’
Putin, 70, is in fact a few months older than Xi, and has been in power more than twice as long.
Ms Leong said Xi had offered a sign that he too had been feeling some pressure, blinking unusually frequently during the sit-down.
Kim Hyung-hee, director of the Korea Body Language Lab, said the tight grip of the handshake and the occasions where the men tried to avoid eye contact showed that there was plenty at stake for both.
‘They have high expectations about the meeting. You can see tension there – and you know there’s no real friends in politics.’
Putin and Xi made long statements after the talks to a selected audience of officials and reporters from their pools. They didn’t take questions.
Xi stayed at a brand-new Chinese-owned Soluxe Hotel set in a lavish riverside park in northern Moscow that features trees and plants from all over China.
He used a Chinese-made Hongqi limousine for driving around Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that he places “priority” on his connections with African nations during his search for worldwide allies in the face of Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine
“I want to emphasise that our country has always given and will continue to give priority to co-operation with African states,” Mr Putin said on Monday at a conference on Russian-African relations in Moscow.
He said Russia will supply food to needy countries in Africa free of charge if an agreement on Ukrainian grain exports is not renewed.
“We are ready to supply the whole volume sent during the past time to African countries particularly requiring it from Russia free of charge to these countries,” he said, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
He said Russia will share its technologies with African nations and continue helping them produce electricity.
Russia has been expanding its influence in Africa in recent years and Mr Putin said he believes the continent will continue increasing its authority and role in the “emerging multipolar world order”.
The conference is being attended by more than 40 delegations from African countries, according to Kremlin’s press service.
Mr Putin is scheduled to host African leaders in June for the Russia-Africa summit – the second of its kind.
An important human rights organization has declared Vladimir Putin to be a “wanted man” after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest order for him on charges of war crimes in Ukraine.
The Russian president is the subject of a warrant that seeks to extradite him to The Hague, Netherlands, to stand trial for allegedly smuggling Ukrainian minors into his nation.
Since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, reports by the UN, many human rights organizations, and the US-based Conflict Observatory have described a “vast network” of detention centers and convoys.
The charges laid down by the ICC this afternoon relate to the ‘unlawful deportation’ of children from occupied areas of Ukraine into Russia and states that there are grounds to believe the two suspects bear ‘criminal responsibility’ for the alleged crimes.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is working to document war crimes and has previously told of ‘unspeakable stories’ regarding alleged executions, torture, rape and looting by Moscow’s troops.
Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director, said: ‘This is a big day for the many victims of crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine since 2014. With these arrest warrants, the ICC has made Putin a wanted man and taken its first step to end the impunity that has emboldened perpetrators in Russia’s war against Ukraine for far too long.
‘The warrants send a clear message that giving orders to commit or tolerating serious crimes against civilians may lead to a prison cell in The Hague. The court’s warrants are a wakeup call to others committing abuses or covering them up that their day in court may be coming, regardless of their rank or position.’
In April last year, HRW crisis and conflict director Ida Sawyer spoke of harrowing cases of human rights abuses by the Kremlin’s troops.
Victims and witnesses who spoke to the non-profit organisation told of rape, summary executions, unlawful violence and threats.
Cases of ‘forcible transfers’ of Ukrainian civilians into Russia or other occupied areas have also been documented by the group in what it has described as ‘a potential crime against humanity’.
International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin
The warrant for Mr Putin and another for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, relate to the alleged trafficking of children across the border into Russia.
ICC president Piotr Hofmanksi said: ‘It is forbidden by international law for occupying powers to transfer civilians from the territory they live in to other territories.
‘Children enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention.’
Mr Hofmanski added: ‘This is an important moment in the process of justice before the ICC.
‘The judges have reviewed the information and evidence submitted by the prosecutor and contend there are credible allegations against these persons for the alleged crimes.
‘The ICC is doing its hard work as a court of law, the judges issued arrest warrants, the execution depends on international co-operation.’
As per reports, Russia is getting ready to send female inmates to the front lines for the first time.
According to the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces, Vladimir Putin has looked for “other sources of replenishment of manpower” because of the war’s severe casualties.
“This week, a train with designated seats for carrying detainees moved into the Donetsk region. According to a statement, one of the carriages was for prisoner women.
Earlier this week, there were reports the Kremlin had moved female convicts to Kuschevka in Krasnodar region, close to the war zone.
Female convicts have been moved to near the front line, Ukraine claims.
Here some female prisoners – released under a special scheme linked to the war effort – were put to work as farm labourers in field as well as ‘greenhouses and cowsheds’, possibly deployed in supplying the military.
Olga Romanova, of Russian Behind Bars Foundation, believes around 100 women were sent to Ukraine.
Male prisoners have been recruited in Russia in their tens of thousands and offered a deal which reduces their sentences if they serve – and stay alive – for six months at the frontline.
Olga Romanova, human rights activist and head of Russia Behind Bars Foundation.
Last month the Ukrainian general staff said that Russia was actively ‘trying to recruit convicted women to participate in the hostilities’.
This was to ‘compensate for losses in personnel’, they said.
Some had been recruited from a women’s penal colony in Snezhnoye, in occupied Donetsk region.
Even before the war broke out, and amid long-term personnel shortages in the Russian Armed Forces, the Kremlin has made little efforts to enlist women.
Russian corporal Anastasia Savitskaya, 35, died in July 2022.
Although throughout the 2010s many women sought to join the armed forces, they were not permitted in frontline combat roles, barred from holding ranks higher than colonel and denied jobs such as ;driver, mechanic, sniper or gunner.’
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu stated in May 2020 that c. 41,000 women were enlisted in the Russian Armed Forces.
According to a 2020 poll conducted by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Centre, 63% of Russians said they didn’t want a daughter of theirs to join the military with 42% saying ‘the army is not a woman’s business, the army is for men’.
On 12 July 2022, Russian media reported the first death of Russian female soldier in the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The soldier was Anastasia Savitskaya, a corporal from Volgograd.
