Category Archives: Vladimir Putin

Biden says Putin trying to ‘wipe out’ Ukrainian culture, as prospect of retreat looms in east

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US president says Putin trying to eliminate people’s identity, as governor of Luhansk says retreat in Sievierodonetsk may be needed to avoid becoming surrounded.

Joe Biden has accused Vladimir Putin of trying to “wipe out” Ukraine’s culture but suggested the plan had at least partially backfired by spurring the expansion of Nato in Europe.

The US president told 1,200 graduating cadets in Annapolis, Maryland, on Friday: “Not only is he trying to take over Ukraine, he’s literally trying to wipe out the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people. Attacking schools, nurseries, hospitals, museums, with no other purpose than to eliminate a culture.”

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Kremlin mulls Nuremberg-style trials based on second world war tribunals

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Russia to seek to justify invasion of Ukraine by staging show trials of war prisoners, conflict scholars fear

The gloating began just days after the missiles began falling on Ukraine. “Get ready for Nuremberg 2.0,” one former Russian diplomat wrote in a WhatsApp message. Vladimir Putin’s invasion to “denazify” the country has always pointed toward a purge and show trials. Now Moscow may seize on that chance.

As Russia holds hundreds of prisoners from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, its proxies in east Ukraine have floated the idea of holding a “military tribunal” inspired by Nuremberg that observers say would reflect a mass show trial meant to justify Russia’s invasion to the world.

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 94 of the invasion

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Moscow planning ‘full-scale victory in Ukraine by autumn’ and besieged Sievierodonetsk almost completely surrounded by Russian forces

Russia is planning a “full-scale victory in Ukraine by autumn” and may again try to take the capital city of Kyiv, according to independent news source Meduza. Officials close to the Kremlin have said confidence has spread to the leadership of United Russia, the country’s ruling party, that a full-scale victory in Ukraine is possible before the end of the year.

The besieged Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk appears to be almost completely surrounded by attacking Russian forces. “The Russians are pounding residential neighbourhoods relentlessly,” the governor of Ukraine’s eastern region of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, wrote in a Telegram post on Friday. The Kremlin continued to make incremental gains in its offensive in the Donbas region, backed by withering shell fire.

The Luhansk governor has said Ukrainian forces may be forced to retreat from the zone to avoid being captured. “The Russians will not be able to capture Luhansk region in the coming days as analysts have predicted,” Haidai posted on Telegram, adding: “However it is possible that in order not to be surrounded we will have to retreat.”

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the situation in Donbas is “very difficult”. In a short video address, he said Russian forces are concentrated in the coastal region of Ukraine and using “maximum artillery” reserves.

The Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, has stated that Vladimir Putin is “prepared to discuss a prisoner swap with Ukraine”, after holding talks with the Russian president. Nehammer also said Putin had “given signals that he is quite willing to allow exports via the seaports”, adding: “The real willingness will only become apparent when it ... is actually implemented.”

Russia expects to receive 1tn rubles ($14bn) in additional oil and gas revenues this year, the country’s finance minister announced, noting that the additional income will be spent on Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The US president, Joe Biden, accused Putin of attempting to “wipe out” Ukrainian culture and identity during a speech. Biden also said that Putin inadvertently “Nato-ized all of Europe” after Sweden and Finland sought out membership in the alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The US is expected to send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine that could be announced as early as next week, reports CNN. The rocket systems, multiple launch rocket system or MLRS, have been a top request of Ukraine officials who say it is necessary to ward off Russia’s advancements.

More than 100 Russian national guardsmen have been fired for refusing to fight in Ukraine, court documents show. The cases of the 115 national guardsmen, a force also known as Rosgvardia, appear to be the clearest indication yet of dissent among some parts of Russia’s security forces over the invasion of

New UN figures have revealed that 4,031 civilians have died since Russia first invaded Ukraine in February, including 261 children.

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115 Russian national guard soldiers sacked for refusing to fight in Ukraine

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Cases involving Rosgvardia, known as Vladimir Putin’s private army, are clearest sign yet of dissent in Russian ranks

More than 100 Russian national guardsmen have been fired for refusing to fight in Ukraine, court documents show, in what looks to be the clearest indication yet of dissent among some parts of security forces over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The cases of the 115 national guardsmen, a force also known as Rosgvardia, came to light on Wednesday, after a local Russian court rejected their collective lawsuit that challenged their earlier sacking.

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Zelenskiy complains about divisions inside the European Union over more sanctions against Russia – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here

Maksym Kozytskyi, the governor of Lviv, has posted a status update for the day. He said that there was one air alert overnight, but there were no strikes reported. He also said that for the first time since Lviv started accepting displaced people from elsewhere in Ukraine, there was not a single person who registered for temporary accommodation yesterday.

The impact of the war in Ukraine has been a strong theme running through the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this week. Today, in about half-an-hour, Vitaliy Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, will be speaking about how to rebuild the Ukrainian capital after the war, and what aid will be needed. My colleague Graeme Wearden is there, and he will be covering that live on our business blog. I’ll bring you the top lines here.

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Kyiv denounces Putin’s ‘illegal’ plan for issuing Russian passports in Ukraine

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Putin signs decree to make it easier for residents of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to get passports

Moscow’s plan to make it easier for Ukrainians living in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine to receive Russian citizenship violates international law, Kyiv has said, accusing the Kremlin of “criminal” behaviour.

“The illegal issuing of passports ... is a flagrant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as norms and principles of international humanitarian law,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 88 of the invasion

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Russian airstrikes hit Mykolaiv and Donbas regions; only Ukraine can decide its future, says Polish president

Russian airstrikes hit Ukrainian forces in the Mykolaiv and Donbas regions, targeting command centres, troops and ammunition depots, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday. The ministry said air-launched missiles hit three command points and four ammunition depots in the Donbas. In Mykolaiv, in the south, Russian rockets reportedly struck a mobile anti-drone system near the settlement of Hannivka.

Severodonetsk is one of Russia’s “immediate tactical priorities”, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Sunday. Russia is deploying Terminator tanks to the area, the MoD has said.

Severodonetsk has been attacked from “four separate directions”, said the region’s governor. Serhiy Haidai said Russian forces had not succeeded in breaking into the city.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russia of blocking the export of 22m tonnes of food. The Ukrainian president also said an energy crisis would swiftly follow a food crisis if Ukraine was not given help to unlock its ports.

Only Ukraine has the right to decide its future, the Polish president told lawmakers in Kyiv on Sunday. Andrzej Duda said: “Worrying voices have appeared, saying that Ukraine should give in to Putin’s demands. Only Ukraine has the right to decide about its future … nothing about you without you.” Duda became the first foreign leader to give a speech in person to the Ukrainian parliament since Russia’s invasion.

Russia’s state gas company, Gazprom, halted gas exports to Finland, which refused Moscow’s demands to pay in roubles for Russian gas after western countries imposed sanctions. Gasum, Finland’s state-owned energy company, said it would use other sources, such as the Balticconnector pipeline, which links Finland to its fellow EU member Estonia.

Ukraine has suggested it is willing to resume talks with Russia. Speaking on Saturday, Zelenskiy said: “Discussions between Ukraine and Russia will undoubtedly take place … under what format I don’t know … but the war will be bloody, there will be fighting and [it] will only definitively end through diplomacy.” He added: “We want everything back. And the Russian Federation doesn’t want to return anything. That’s why the ending will be at the negotiating table.”

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Syria’s barrel bomb experts in Russia to help with potential Ukraine campaign

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Over 50 specialists skilled in delivering crude explosive working with Putin’s forces

Technicians linked to the Syrian military’s infamous barrel bombs that have wreaked devastation across much of the country have been deployed to Russia to help potentially prepare for a similar campaign in the Ukraine war, European officials believe.

Intelligence officers say more than 50 specialists, all with vast experience in making and delivering the crude explosive, have been in Russia for several weeks working alongside officials from Vladimir Putin’s military.

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Putin’s daughter flew to Munich ‘more than 50 times’, investigation suggests

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Investigation also suggests president’s youngest daughter is in a relationship with ballet dancer Igor Zelensky

Since the start of his military campaign against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has railed aggressively against pro-western Russians, whose appetite for European cuisine and climates meant “their mentality is there, not here, with our people”.

Yet his own daughter’s enthusiasm for sojourns to western Europe at least matches that of the oligarch “scum and traitors” he has decried, a joint investigation by independent Russian media outlet iStories and German magazine Der Spiegel suggests.

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Questions over future of evacuated Azovstal fighters – as it happened

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The evacuation of Ukrainian fighters from Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, their last remaining redoubt in the city, began on Monday. Here are some images from that evacuation:

A village in Russia’s western province of Kursk bordering Ukraine came under Ukrainian fire on Tuesday, regional governor Roman Starovoit said, according to Reuters, but there were no injuries, although three houses and a school were hit.

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‘When will it all end?’: Kharkiv counts the cost as Russians pull back

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The battle for Ukraine’s second city is near its end, but suburbs are still under attack as Putin’s forces make fighting withdrawal

Standing atop the damaged roof of his house on the main road north from Kharkiv going to villages occupied by Russian forces until a few days ago, Konstantin Kharlamov, 53, had just two hours earlier watched black smoke billow in the distance.

His friend, Vitaliy, 41, the smell of heavy liquor on his breath, said he also saw the explosion, perhaps just two miles away up Lesya Serdyuka Street in the direction of his home village, Strilecha. The departure of the Russians had three days ago given him the chance to move to a safer district of Kharkiv after two-and-a-half months of living under occupation. But he was now cut off because of renewed fighting, despite hoping to return.

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Moscow set to call referendum on Mariupol joining Russia, says Ukraine

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Kremlin poised to hold referendum in ruined city in bid to secure grip on the region

Moscow is preparing to hold a referendum in Mariupol on whether the city will join Russia, Ukrainian officials have claimed, following the announcement of a similar poll in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the port city’s mayor, who is operating in exile, said sources among those remaining among its ruins believed a vote on its future was in the making, even as residents were going without food and water.

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The Russian bank, the Bruce Willis ad and the $900m sanctions battle

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Ministers warned that millions owed after alleged fraud by ex bosses of National Bank Trust could help fund Putin’s war effort

In one of Russia’s most high-profile marketing campaigns, film star Bruce Willis appeared in cinematic advertisements with a car chase and a rooftop rescue, ending with the slogan, “Trust is just like me, but a bank.”

The campaign for National Bank Trust in 2011 – which included cardboard cutouts of Willis popping up in 400 branches across Russia – was credited with raising the bank’s profile and boosting business.

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Russian émigrés fleeing Putin’s war find freedom in the cafes of Armenia

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Hundreds of thousands of Russians opposed to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and alienated by pro-war sentiment are establishing a new life abroad

In the days after Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in late February, Vladimir Shurupov, a cardiologist from the Siberian city of Tomsk, felt he could not breathe properly. “I was having panic attacks, I could not eat or sleep. I just knew I had to remove myself from this place, from this atmosphere,” he said.

Shurupov, 40, had been a quiet critic of Putin’s government for years, but he had never attended a protest of any kind, fearful of unwanted attention or arrest. When the war began, disgust with the regime combined with a fear he would be sent to the front. “If there was mobilisation, I would have been called up as a military doctor, and this is not a war I would be willing to fight in,” he said.

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Leonid Kravchuk, first president of Ukraine, dies aged 88

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Former leader relinquished his country’s Soviet nuclear arsenal, the third-largest in the world

Ukraine’s first president Leonid Kravchuk, who agreed to give up his country’s Soviet nuclear arsenal, the third-largest in the world, has died at the age of 88.

“Sad news and a great loss,” presidential aide Andriy Yermak said on Telegram, describing Kravchuk as “a wise patriot of Ukraine, a truly historical figure in gaining our independence”.

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Putin could use nuclear weapon if he felt war being lost – US intelligence chief

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Avril Haines says Russian leader could see prospect of Ukraine defeat as existential threat, potentially triggering escalation

Vladimir Putin could view the prospect of defeat in Ukraine as an existential threat to his regime, potentially triggering his resort to using a nuclear weapon, the top US intelligence official has warned.

The warning on Tuesday came in an assessment from intelligence chiefs briefing the Senate on worldwide threats. The prediction for Ukraine was a long, gruelling war of attrition, which could lead to increasingly volatile acts of escalation from Putin, including full mobilisation, the imposition of martial law, and – if the Russian leader felt the war was going against him, endangering his position in Moscow – even the use of a nuclear warhead.

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Putin’s invasion of Ukraine brings shame on Russia, G7 leaders say

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Statement to mark 77th anniversary of end of second world war condemns ‘an attack on feeding the world’

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has brought shame on Russia and the sacrifices its people made to defeat Nazi Germany in the second world war, leaders of the G7 group of leading western economies have said in a statement marking the 77th anniversary of the end of the global conflict.

The statement, made on Sunday after a video conference between the G7 leaders and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was intended as a rallying call by liberal democracies in advance of Russia’s 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow.

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Wagner-linked Putin ally: ‘Dying west thinks Russians are third world scum’

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Yevgeny Prigozhin accused of financing Wagner mercenary group responds to accusations of massacres in Mali

A Russian businessman and close ally of Vladimir Putin accused by the US, EU and others of financing the private military company Wagner group has said that “a dying-out western civilisation” will be defeated by Russia.

The Guardian had approached Yevgeny Prigozhin seeking his reaction to evidence implicating Wagner fighters in massacres in Mali. In response he said he had “repeatedly said that the Wagner group does not exist” and that he had “nothing to do with it”.

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Russian mercenaries linked to civilian massacres in Mali

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Exclusive: internal Malian army documents show Wagner operatives took part in ‘mixed missions’

Russian mercenaries in Africa have been linked to massacres in which several hundred civilians have died, raising new fears about the impact of Moscow’s intensifying interventions on the stability and security of countries across the continent.

Western officials have so far largely steered clear of naming the perpetrators of killings but witnesses, local community leaders, diplomats and local analysts blamed many of the deaths on fighters deployed by the Wagner group, a network of private companies run by a close ally of Vladimir Putin.

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