Category Archives: Russia

Russian man detained after daughter’s pro-Ukraine drawings

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Alexei Moskalyov charged with ‘discrediting Russian army’, while daughter taken into care

A Russian man has been detained for making anti-war statements and his 12-year-old daughter temporarily taken into state care after the family faced pressure from authorities for drawings the girl made at school depicting Russia bombing a family in Ukraine.

Alexei Moskalyov, a single parent from the town of Yefremov, 150 miles south of Moscow, has been arrested for making anti-war statements on Odnoklassniki, a Russian social network.

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Moscow loses at least 130 tanks in Vuhledar, report says; Putin preparing to meet China’s Xi in Moscow – as it happened

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Ukraine officials say ‘epic’ fight on plain near Vuhledar produced the biggest tank battle of the war. This live blog is now closed

Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv region, has posted to Telegram to say two people were injured in Chuhuiv as a result of Russian shelling. He wrote:

According to the information of the regional centre of emergency medical assistance, a 52-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy were injured as a result of the morning shelling of Chuhuiv. The man was hospitalised with shrapnel wounds. The boy has minor injuries, was treated at the scene and did not require hospitalisation.

This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.

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Finland starts building fence on Russian border as MPs prepare to vote on Nato bid

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Construction begins on fence along part of 1,340km boundary amid fears Moscow could weaponise mass migration against Helsinki

Finland has started construction of a fence along parts of its 1,340km (830-mile) border with Russia to boost security and tackle any attempt by Moscow to weaponise mass migration as a result of its invasion of Ukraine.

Finland announced the start of construction on Tuesday. Terrain work would begin “with forest clearance and will proceed in such a way that road construction and fence installation can be started in March”, the Finnish Border Guard said in a statement.

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China spends billions on pro-Russia disinformation, US special envoy says

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Beijing propaganda includes messaging aligned with Moscow on Ukraine war, says James Rubin

The west has been slow to respond to China spending billions globally to spread poisonous disinformation, including messaging that is completely aligned with Russia on Ukraine, a US special envoy has claimed.

James Rubin, a coordinator for the Global Engagement Center, a US state department body set up to “expose and counter” foreign propaganda and disinformation, made the remarks during a European tour this week.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: US does not expect significant Russian gains this year; Lukashenko arrives in China

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Pentagon official says war now a ‘grinding slog’; Belarus president to meet Xi Jinping

The regional government in Sumy, in Ukraine’s north-east, recorded 36 strikes on its territory in overnight Russian shelling, according to reports from Ukraine’s state broadcaster, Suspilne.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Tuesday pledged support for Kazakhstan’s independence on a trip to boost influence in central Asia, which has been rattled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London from my colleague Samantha Lock in Sydney. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

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Wizz Air to suspend Moldova flights due to security fears

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Budget airline links decision to airspace risks from war in neighbouring Ukraine and tensions with Russia

Wizz Air will suspend all its flights to and from Moldova next month due to security concerns linked to growing tensions with Russia.

It comes after a Russian missile was fired over Moldovan airspace earlier this month.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia paying ‘great deal of attention’ to China’s peace plan, says Kremlin

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Moscow says details need to be analysed after western leaders say Beijing lacks credibility to act as mediator

Ukraine’s ministry of defence has claimed that overnight its forces shot down 11 Iranian-made Shahed drones. It also confirmed that an officer of Ukraine’s emergency services was killed in Khmelnytskyi.

The claims have not been independently verified.

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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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