Category Archives: Russia

Belarus partisans say they blew up Russian plane near Minsk

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Group says it used drones to hit early warning aircraft at Machulishchy airfield 12km from Minsk

Belarusian anti-war partisans claim to have severely damaged a Russian military aircraft in what an opposition leader has called the “most successful diversion” since the beginning of the war.

BYPOL, the Belarusian partisan organisation, said it had used drones to strike the Machulishchy airfield 12km from Minsk, severely damaging a Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft (Awacs).

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German minister warns of ‘massive’ danger from Russian hackers

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Nancy Faeser says Ukraine war has exacerbated German cybersecurity concerns

Germany’s interior minister has warned of a “massive danger” facing Germany from Russian sabotage, disinformation and spying attacks.

Nancy Faeser said Vladimir Putin was putting huge resources into cyber-attacks as a key part of his war of aggression. “The cybersecurity concerns have been exacerbated by the war. The attacks of pro-Russia hackers have increased,” she said in an interview with the news network Funke Mediengruppe published on Sunday.

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Vladimir Putin accuses west of seeking to ‘dismember’ Russia

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Russian leader’s comments on state TV channel follow first anniversary of invasion of Ukraine

Vladimir Putin has accused the west of seeking to “dismember” Russia and and to turn the vast country into a series of weak mini-states.

In an interview with the state TV channel Rossiya on Sunday, Putin claimed the US and its Nato allies wanted to “inflict a strategic defeat on us”. The aim, he said, was to “make our people suffer”, adding: “How can we ignore their nuclear capabilities in these conditions?”

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin accuses west of wanting to dismantle Russia – as it happened

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Putin makes claim in TV address; mercenary boss and Ukraine make conflicting claims over control of Yahidne village

German defence minister Boris Pistorius on Sunday reacted with scepticism to a Chinese ceasefire proposal for the war in Ukraine.

“When I hear reports – and I don’t know whether they are true – according to which China may be planning to supply kamikaze drones to Russia while at the same time presenting a peace plan, then I suggest we judge China by its actions and not its words,” he told German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk in an interview.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow cuts oil supply to Poland – as it happened

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Comments from French president come after Joe Biden said it was ‘not rational’ for Beijing to be negotiating a peace deal

Ukraine has issued a postage stamp with a reproduction of a Banksy mural, of a boy defeating a grown man in judo, to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

It was painted by the British street artist on a demolished wall in the town of Borodianka, north-west of Kyiv, where many buildings were reduced to rubble by Russian aircraft at the start of the invasion.

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Zelenskiy open to China peace plan but rejects compromise with ‘sick’ Putin

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Ukrainian president shows steel and emotion in marathon press conference, as Joe Biden says having China as peacemaker is ‘just not rational’

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has cautiously welcomed China’s peace plan to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but said it would be acceptable only if it led to Vladimir Putin pulling his troops out from all occupied Ukrainian territory.

Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv to mark the first anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale attack, the Ukrainian president said he “wanted to believe” Beijing was interested in a “fair peace”. That meant not “supplying weapons to Russia”, he said, adding: “I’m doing my best to prevent that from happening. This is priority number one.”

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US attempts to win over UN members who are neutral on war in Ukraine

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US secretary of state warns peace plan proposed by China draws ‘false equivalence’ by calling on both sides to stop fighting

The US has launched a fresh bid to win over abstaining and neutral states by urging them not to be fooled by Russian calls for a temporary or unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine, warning that a peace plan proposed by China drew “false equivalence” by calling on both sides to stop fighting.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken was speaking at a highly charged meeting of the UN security council where he reminded his fellow diplomats that the Russian envoy only a year ago had dismissed his warnings that Moscow was about to launch an invasion of Ukraine.

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Polish Leopard tanks arrive in Ukraine as west piles new sanctions on Russia

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Poland’s PM visits Kyiv as allies demonstrate support on first anniversary of invasion

The first Polish Leopard tanks have arrived in Ukraine, as western allies including the G7 announced a range of further economic, military and financial sanctions against Russia, in a renewed effort to weaken Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

Speaking on the anniversary of the Russian invasion, Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, confirmed that four Leopard tanks had been delivered to Ukraine. “Poland and Europe stand by your side. We will definitely not leave you, we will support Ukraine until complete victory over Russia,” he said, standing alongside the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during his visit to Kyiv.

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‘Victory inevitable’: Zelenskiy addresses defiant Ukraine on war’s first anniversary

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President says start of Russian invasion was ‘longest day of our lives’ and urges allies to ‘respect promises’

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has declared victory to be inevitable as his country marked the anniversary of the moment invading Russian tanks poured across its border and missiles pummelled its cities, an event he described as “the longest day of our lives”.

Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv late on Friday, Zelenskiy said: “If our partners respect all their promises and deadlines, victory inevitably awaits us.”

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Western leaders give cool response to China’s plan for Ukraine peace talks

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Nato secretary general says Beijing ‘does not have much credibility’ because of failure to condemn Russia’s invasion

Western leaders have largely dismissed a peace plan for Ukraine laid out by China’s government, arguing that Beijing does not have the international credibility to act as a mediator in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

China’s government called for peace talks while urging all parties to avoid nuclear escalation and end attacks on civilians, in a statement which appeared to maintain Beijing’s stance that the west was fuelling the conflict and which analysts dismissed as anodyne.

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BASF to cut 2,600 jobs as energy crisis puts Germany on track for recession

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Chemicals company says disruption from Ukraine war, rising costs and inflation will continue this year

The German chemicals company BASF has said it will cut 2,600 jobs as Europe’s largest economy braces for recession triggered by the energy crisis that intensified after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year ago.

The year was “dominated by the consequences of the war in Ukraine and in particular by increased raw material and energy prices”, BASF said in a statement on Friday. It paid additional energy costs of €3.2bn (£2.8bn) globally during 2022.

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Year of war in Ukraine tests China’s ‘no limits’ relationship with Russia

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There are signs Beijing wants a quick political resolution to conflict as its patience with Russia wears thin

Few analysts expected China’s peace plan for Ukraine, which officials trailed all week, to have any concrete measures for solving the crisis. Their suspicions were correct. The position paper published by China’s foreign ministry on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion called for the “sovereignty of all countries” to be respected, without detailing what this meant for Ukraine. In each of the 12 points, the plan reiterated Chinese talking points about the conflict without offering a solution.

The Chinese peace plan is the culmination of a flurry of diplomatic meetings that kicked off at the Munich security conference on 17 February. There Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, presented a bullish front to western officials, denying claims made by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, that China was on the verge of sending weapons to Russia. Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said such a move would be a “red line” for the bloc. Wang insisted China wanted peace.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv and Moscow welcome China’s intervention in peace process

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Zelenskiy says some points in Chinese statement for peace ‘understandable’ while Kremlin adds Beijing’s involvement appreciated

In joyful news: the Ukrainian football team that has not played in their home city since 2014, qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa League on Thursday with coach Igor Jovicevic hailing the win at French side Rennes as a “victory for Ukraine.”

AFP reports that Shakhtar defeated Rennes 5-4 in a penalty shootout after their playoff had ended 3-3 on aggregate and then went to extra-time.

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Moldova dismisses Russian claims of Ukrainian plot to invade breakaway region

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Moldova’s government has called for calm after Moscow claimed without evidence that an invasion of Transnistria was likely

Moldova’s government has dismissed an accusation by Russia’s defence ministry that Ukraine is planning to invade the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria after staging a false-flag operation.

“We call for calm and for information to be received [by the public] from official and credible sources of the Republic of Moldova,” the government said in a statement.

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UK politicians mark anniversary of war with renewed call to send arms to Kyiv

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They stopped short of Boris Johnson’s demand for UK to ‘break the ice’ and supply Ukraine with fighter jets

UK political leaders have marked the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a renewed call to support Kyiv with additional weaponry – but stopped short of the firm commitments on fighter jets demanded by Boris Johnson.

With James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, in New York for a meeting of the UN security council, Rishi Sunak hosted the Ukrainian ambassador at Downing Street, with a national minute’s silence planned for 11am on Friday.

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UN calls for immediate Russian withdrawal from Ukraine

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Resounding vote before anniversary of war sees 141 countries condemning Russian invasion with seven against and 32 abstentions

The UN has overwhelmingly voted to call for Russia to immediately and unconditionally withdraw from Ukraine, marking one year since Moscow’s invasion by calling for a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace”.

Applause broke out when the result was announced, with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, calling the resolution “a powerful signal of unflagging global support for Ukraine” in a tweet late on Thursday.

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