Newspaper uses secret room in first-person shooter game Counter-Strike to bypass Russian censorship
A Finnish newspaper is circumventing Russian media restrictions by hiding news reports about the war in Ukraine in an online game popular among Russian gamers.
“While Helsingin Sanomat and other foreign independent media are blocked in Russia, online games have not been banned so far,” said Antero Mukka, the editor-in-chief of Helsingin Sanomat.
Continue reading...Strikes kill total of 16 and come after leak suggested Ukraine air defence missiles would run out this week
Russia has launched a wave of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine, killing 16 as Moscow tested the strength of the country’s air defences in intensified fighting, including eight people after hitting a supermarket in the southern city of Kherson.
The strikes early on Wednesday, the latest in a string of attacks over the last week, come after leaked Pentagon documents suggested Ukraine would run out of missiles for its S-300 primary air defence system on Tuesday unless Kyiv could urgently find replacements.
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed, you can read more on this story here
Russia has claimed that the Black Sea grain initiative has not allowed it to export agricultural products. State-owned news agency Tass outlines this morning what Russia is looking to achieve with any extension of the deal. It writes:
The Russian foreign ministry indicated that a further decision to extend the deal would depend on the reconnection of Rosselkhozbank [Russian state-owned agricultural bank] to the Swift payment system, the resumption of supplies of agricultural machinery, spare parts and services, the lifting of restrictions on insurance and reinsurance, the lifting of the ban on access to ports, the resumption of operation of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline, [and] unblocking foreign assets and accounts of Russian companies associated with the production and transportation of food and fertilisers.
During the meeting, some issues starting with the grain initiative will be discussed. In this regard, we can say that the sides are looking warmly at the extension of the duration. Our wish is that this initiative is extended without any trouble.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy adviser denies Ukrainian involvement after Kremlin says two attack drones were disabled by Russian defences
Moscow has accused Kyiv of staging a drone attack intended to kill the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in the Kremlin, and vowed to retaliate.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that two drones had been used in the attack, but that they had been disabled by Russian defences.
Continue reading...Governor of region 400 miles from border latest to cancel over ‘safety concerns’ in glaring admission of vulnerability
At least six Russian regions have scrapped 9 May Victory Day parades that mark the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany amid fears over Ukrainian strikes, with a region 400 miles from the border being the latest to cancel.
The governor of Saratov announced the parade there would not go ahead because of “safety concerns”, adding to a string of cancellations that are a glaring admission of the country’s military vulnerability more than 14 months into the war.
Continue reading...Commander of Ukraine ground forces underlines importance Kyiv attaches to holding Bakhmut as preparations continue for a counterattack. This live blog is closed
Reuters has a quick snap to say that all parties in the Black Sea grain initiative will meet for talks on Wednesday, according to a senior Ukrainian source.
The deal is, according to Russia’s timetable, due to expire on 18 May. The Kremlin has been lukewarm about the prospect of it being extended, arguing that restrictions on Russia’s banking and insurance sector have damaged the country’s own agricultural exports.
Our state has already proven that it can win. We have proven that we can liberate our land from the occupier. All those who ensure the de-occupation have proven that, together with the blue and yellow flag, normal life returns for every person and every family. Our goal is to return this life to the whole of Ukraine, to all those areas that are still temporarily under occupation.
Continue reading...Russians in Tbilisi often arrive unaware of historical sensitivities and simmering hostility
As midnight approached on a recent Saturday evening in Tbilisi, the animated chatter and joyous shouting on the city’s central Rustaveli Avenue was almost all taking place in Russian.
A married couple from Rostov-on-Don headed home from dinner; passing them, a group of friends from St Petersburg were off for a late drink with some acquaintances from Moscow.
Continue reading...US estimates 20,000 Russian soldiers have died in five months; Black Sea grain initiative talks scheduled for Wednesday
Continue reading...Ukraine intercepts 15 out of 18 missiles as Moscow launches strikes apparently designed to hamper Kyiv’s plans for a counteroffensive
Russian missiles have struck warehouses reportedly storing ammunition at a railway depot in the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, in an apparent effort to slow Kyiv’s preparations for its much anticipated counteroffensive expected to start shortly.
Video posted on social media showed secondary detonations amid a significant blaze at the site of the strike, which came amid overnight missile launches against a number of Ukrainian cities by Russian strategic bombers.
Continue reading...Two injured by rocket attacks in Kherson after heavy shelling and homes hit by anti-aircraft missiles in Kharkiv
Shelling through the night in the city of Kherson has injured two people, deputy head of Kherson Oblast Council Yuriy Sobolevsky said this morning.
More than 27 attacks were reported on residential areas of the wider Kherson region on Saturday, according to its authorities, with some 135 shells fired.
Continue reading...A strike that killed 23 people far from any frontlines has forced residents to understand that one could come anywhere
Huddled under a blanket, Iryna Babii turned away from the empty space where, until Friday, nine floors of apartments had been stacked, one of them home to her daughter’s best friend.
The apartments were obliterated when a Russian missile crashed into this residential block, which sits beside a school in a neighbourhood just near the botanical gardens of Uman, a central Ukrainian city that before the war was known mostly as a Jewish pilgrimage site.
Continue reading...With concern among allies seemingly growing, there is a lot riding on an imminent counter-assault on the Russians in the south
The last time “Luh” served in the military, he was a Soviet conscript, sailing the Arctic Ocean with the USSR’s northern fleet over four decades ago.
When Russia seized the Crimean peninsula and Russian-backed proxies moved into his home region of Luhansk nearly a decade ago, he cheered on the Ukrainian army but thought his fighting days were behind him.
Continue reading...Crimea navy oil depot fire extinguished after reported Ukrainian drone strike on fuel tanks; Nancy Pelosi speaks about her ‘dangerous’ Kyiv visit
Continue reading...Moscow-installed governor in Sevastopol says blaze, attributed to Ukrainian drone strike, now under control
Ukraine’s president said on Friday that he had asked his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to help bring back Ukrainian children deported by Russia.
In his evening address, AFP reports that Volodymyr Zelenskiy as saying:
We need to involve everyone ... to put pressure on the Russian aggressor and the terrorists who kidnapped so many of our children.
The UN, many others want to do something, but so far the results have been poor. So I have appealed to the leader of China.
Now, with regard to the need in general for shells at the front, what we want. Today we are coming to the point where Wagner is ending.
Wagner, in a short period of time, will cease to exist. We will become history, nothing to worry about, things like this happen.
Continue reading...Column of smoke seen rising from burning fuel tanks in port city of Sevastopol
A huge fire was burning in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol on Saturday after what was reported to be a Ukrainian drone strike on fuel tanks at a Russian navy depot.
Video footage posted on social media showed a large waterside area on fire, with a column of black smoke rising from the burning fuel. Other images showed a huge pall of smoke hanging over the area.
Continue reading...Five children among dead as toll from Russian missile attacks across Ukraine rises to 26; five EU countries agree on Ukrainian grain transit deal
Continue reading...Submarine rescue vessel SS-750 was photographed in Baltic four days before still-unexplained explosions, says Danish newspaper
A Russian navy vessel specialising in submarine operations was photographed near the sabotaged Nord Stream gas pipelines just prior to the mysterious September blasts, according to the Danish daily newspaper Information.
The prosecutor leading Sweden’s investigation into the sabotage confirmed the existence of the hitherto publicly unknown photographs.
Continue reading...Young Veronika’s neighbours stunned at brutal arrival of Russia’s invasion in the suburb to where she fled to avoid the missiles
The Russian attack killed Veronika in her bed on Friday morning, but left her childish chalk drawings of a happy family intact on the wall of their home.
Portraits of “Mama”, “Nika” (her nickname), her uncles, grandparents and even the family cat “Kuzia” – the names written in by an adult – stretch all along the front of the house.
Continue reading...More than 20 people confirmed dead in wake of Russian aerial bombing of Ukrainian cities on Friday morning
The Kyiv Independent is now reporting that the air defence systems are at work in Kyiv and that people should remain in shelters.
A missile has reportedly hit a high-rise building in Uman, in the Cherkasy region on central Ukraine. Euromaidan, Kyiv Operativ and Faytuks news have posted videos of the reported attack, which shows a large part of a residential building totally blown apart. It is unknown at this stage how many people were inside.
Continue reading...Woman and child die in Dnipro, while missile strikes in Uman, south of Kyiv, kill 19
Russian cruise missiles have killed at least 19 people in the central Ukrainian cities of Uman and Dnipro, days after Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, begged his allies for more air defence supplies.
The attacks were part of a wave of Russian missile and drone strikes in the early hours of Friday morning, the most intense aerial bombing of major Ukrainian cities in weeks.
Continue reading...