Porsches and Bentleys fill Helsinki airport as Russian tourists head to Europe

Discontent grows over Finland’s visa policy as country becomes key transit route for Russian travellers

Porsches, Bentleys and other luxury cars with Russian licence plates are filling the parking garage at Helsinki airport as Finland becomes an important transit country for Russian tourists flying to Europe.

The EU shut its airspace to Russian planes after Moscow invaded Ukraine, forcing anyone who wants to travel to Europe to drive across the border or take a circuitous route using non-western airlines.

Continue reading...

Russia to step up strikes on civilians, US says, as Ukraine independence day nears

Alert from US embassy comes a day before Ukraine is set to mark 31 years since it became an independent state

The US state department has issued a security alert warning that Russia is “stepping up” efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days.

The warning, issued on Tuesday, is the first specific security alert issued by the US embassy in Kyiv in recent months. It does not say what places it believes Russia plans to target, but advised US citizens to leave Ukraine if safe to do so.

Continue reading...

Russian TV news head hints at country’s role in Skripal poisoning

Editor of state-owned RT network Margarita Simonyan appears to contradict Kremlin position in post about Darya Dugina killing

The influential head of Russia’s RT news network has hinted at Russia’s role in the poisoning of the former spy Sergei Skripal, in a remarkable post that contradicts the Kremlin’s official position on the incident.

In a post on her Telegram channel on Monday, Margarita Simonyan appeared to acknowledge Russia’s part in the Skripal poisoning when she wrote that Russian “professionals who want to admire spires” should travel to Estonia to go after the alleged killer of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who was killed in a car bomb on Saturday night.

Continue reading...

Russian security service accuses Ukraine of Darya Dugina’s murder

FSB claims Ukraine’s special services carried out car bomb attack on daughter of ultra-nationalist

Russia has accused Ukraine’s intelligence services of carrying out the murder of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue, raising fears of a violent retaliation.

Dugina was killed on Saturday evening when a bomb blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving, Russian investigators said.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: Putin condemns ‘despicable, cruel’ killing of Darya Dugina as Russia blames Ukraine for car bombing – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can find our latest stories below:

News agency AFP has posted a graphic showing the economic indicators impacted by Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine.

The charts show the soaring cost of natural gas, a forecasted fall in global economic growth, the increased price of commodities and skyrocketing forecasted inflation.

Continue reading...

Ukraine braces for intensified attacks after Moscow car bomb killing

Kyiv denies any involvement in death of daughter of ultranationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin

Ukraine is bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday in the aftermath of the car-bomb killing of the daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue.

The country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines out in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days from Monday.

Continue reading...

Dennis Rodman plans Russia visit to seek release of Brittney Griner

  • NBA hall of famer has called himself a ‘basketball ambassador’
  • Griner currently serving nine-year sentence in Russia

NBA hall of famer Dennis Rodman says he has permission to travel to Russia as he attempts to secure the release of fellow basketball star Brittney Griner.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in Russian jail for drug possession earlier this month. Her lawyers have filed an appeal and there are understood to be separate talks underway over a possible prisoner swap. But Rodman told NBC this weekend that he plans to make a trip of his own to negotiate the Olympic champion’s release.

Continue reading...

Ex-Russian MP claims Russian partisans responsible for Moscow car bomb

Speaking in Kyiv, Ilya Ponomarev alleges bomb that killed daughter of Putin ally was work of underground group

A former member of Russia’s Duma who was expelled for anti-Kremlin activities has claimed that Russian partisans were allegedly behind a car bomb which blew up the daughter of one of Vladimir Putin’s close political allies on the outskirts of Moscow.

Speaking in Kyiv, where he is based, Ilya Ponomarev alleged the explosion on Saturday evening was the work of the National Republican Army, which he claimed was an underground group working inside Russia and dedicated to overthrowing the Putin regime.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war latest: what we know on day 179 of the invasion

Daughter of Putin ally killed in car bomb; Volodymyr Zelenskiy warns Russia ‘could try something ugly’ ahead of independence day

The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin has been killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow. Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.

Ukraine has denied involvement in the death of Darya Dugina amid fears the car bombing raises the stakes in the Russia-Ukraine war. Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, told Ukrainian TV: “I confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state.”

Russia’s defence ministry said it has destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made rocket systems and other Western-made anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to a report by Reuters.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to be vigilant in the coming week as they prepare to celebrate their independence day on Wednesday. In his nightly video address on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to “spread despondency and fear” as they mark the 31st anniversary of independence from Soviet rule. “We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious,” Zelenskiy said.

The curfew in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, will be extended for the entire day on Wednesday, regional governor Oleh Synehub said on Saturday. The north-eastern city is regularly hit by Russian shelling and normally has a curfew from 10pm to 6am but extra precautions were required on independence day.

Ukraine launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol earlier on Saturday. Officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down and that the city’s air defence system had been called into action again on Saturday night.

Video shared on Twitter appeared to show Russian air defences attempting to destroy the UAV and dark plumes of smoke rising from the city.

Three people with Russian and Ukrainian passports have been arrested for suspected spying after trying to break into a military base and arms factory in central Albania, the Albanian defense ministry said on Saturday. Two Albanian soldiers were injured in the incident at the Gramsh base, the ministry said, adding the conditions of the soldiers was stable. Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama said the three individuals are “suspected of espionage”.

The US is planning to buy about 150,000 metric tonnes of grain from Ukraine in the next few weeks for an upcoming shipment of food aid from ports no longer blockaded by war, the World Food Programme chief has said. The planned shipment, one of several the U.N. agency that fights hunger is pursuing, is more than six times the amount of grain that the first WFP-arranged ship from Ukraine is now carrying toward people in the Horn of Africa at risk of starvation.

Continue reading...

Daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugin killed in car bomb in Moscow

Russian hawks without evidence blame Kyiv for death of Darya Dugina and demand Kremlin response

The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin has been killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow.

Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.

Continue reading...

Ukraine strikes psychological blows in game of drones over Crimea

Analysis: Widely shared footage of drone attacks shows attempt to bring conflict closer to Russian people

For the second time in less than a month, Russia’s naval base at Sevastopol has come under a drone attack. Plumes of smoke were seen rising after the incident on Saturday morning, which the Russian-appointed governor of the city, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said came after a drone flew over the sensitive military site.

In narrow military terms the attack is not significant. Razvozhaev said it involved a single drone. Footage from a local Telegram channel appears to back that up. But a key question is how a drone was able to evade Russian electronic warfare defences and fly right over the naval base.

Continue reading...

Lawrence Freedman: ‘Autocracies tend to make catastrophic decisions. That’s the case with Putin’

The military strategy expert and author of a new book on conflict says the flawed thinking behind Russia’s invasion stems from the inability of those at the top to take responsibility for mistakes

Russia’s war against Ukraine has been hampered by failings experienced by autocratic states during conflict, according to a far-reaching new study of command in war by one of the UK’s most prominent academics in the field.

Command, a wide-ranging analysis of post-second world war conflicts by the leading strategic studies expert Lawrence Freedman, examines a series of well-known conflicts, from the Cuban missile crisis to the French defeat at the hands of the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, through to the Falklands war and Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, up to the present war in Ukraine.

Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy warns of possible ‘vicious’ Russian attack ahead of Ukraine independence day

President urges Ukrainians to stay vigilant as they mark independence from Soviet rule; curfew to be extended in Kharkiv as tensions mount

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to be vigilant in the coming week as they prepare to celebrate their Independence Day, as fresh blasts hit Crimea and a missile wounded 12 civilians near a nuclear power plant.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy on Saturday said Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to “spread despondency and fear” among them as they mark the 31st anniversary of independence from Soviet rule.

Continue reading...

Crimea’s civilians sound alarm after Ukrainian drone hits Russian fleet HQ

Worried locals lambast Sevastopol’s governor after attack on region once regarded as impregnable

A Ukrainian drone hit the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea this weekend, the latest assault on a region Moscow once considered an impregnable fortress.

Plumes of smoke were seen rising from the Sevastopol military base on Saturday morning, and city residents were urged to stay at home immediately after the strike, the latest in a string of high-profile attacks on sensitive targets there and inside Russia.

Continue reading...

Ukraine launches fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters

Video on Twitter appears to show reported drone attack on Sevastopol and plumes of smoke over the city

Ukraine has launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol, where officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down by air defences.

The reported attack on Saturday morning – a day after explosions erupted near military bases in Russian-held areas of Ukraine and Russia itself – came on the same day that 12 civilians were reportedly wounded when a Russian missile hit a residential area of a Ukrainian town.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: explosion reported in Crimea as UK says attacks behind Russian lines hitting logistics – as it happened

UK Ministry of Defence say ‘increasingly frequent’ attacks behind the frontline are also affecting air basing

In case you missed it last night, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave a video address to the nation, vowing that every Russian strike on the country would be answered.

Zelenskyy said: All those who experience this constant horror of the destruction of life and the destruction of everything that gives life normality. We will not leave any of these strikes unanswered. We will establish the identity of every occupier who gives orders and executes these strikes at cities. And we will bring them all to justice in one way or another. No murderer will hide.

Continue reading...

Greens question governor general’s ‘non-disclosure’ of Morrison powers – as it happened

Albanese government awaits legal advice from solicitor general over former prime minister’s power grab. This blog is now closed

More on the governor general’s diaries, from AAP:

Governor general David Hurley’s diary makes no mention of the five times he handed extra ministerial powers to then-prime minister Scott Morrison.

Morrison took on the health, finance, treasury, home affairs, industry, science, energy and resources portfolios between March 2020 and May 2021.

The Governor General’s Program lists in detail the numerous activities of Mr Hurley, including phone calls, official events and luncheons.

Morrison was secretly appointed health minister on March 14, 2020, with the knowledge of then-health minister Greg Hunt.

Continue reading...

Gibraltar prepares for first auction of a Russian oligarch’s detained superyacht

Proceeds of the sale of Axioma, valued at £65m, will benefit JP Morgan rather than the Ukrainian people

A £65m superyacht of a Russian oligarch hit by sanctions will be auctioned off by the Gibraltar government on Tuesday, becoming the first of the luxury vessels to be sold off since restrictions were imposed on hundreds of rich Russians after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, the 72.5-metre Axioma is not being sold for the benefit of the Ukrainian people but for a US investment bank, JP Morgan, which claims the yacht’s billionaire owner, Dmitry Pumpyansky, owes it more than $20m (£17m).

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war latest: what we know on day 178 of the invasion

Putin agrees to allow inspectors at Zaporizhzhia nuclear station as UN chief urges Russia not to take it off grid amid fears over cooling system

Vladimir Putin has agreed to inspectors visiting the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. According to the office of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the Russian leader had “reconsidered the demand” that the International Atomic Energy Agency travel through Russia to the site, after Putin himself warned fighting there could bring about a “catastrophe”. The office said Putin had dropped his demand that the IAEA team travel to the site via Russia, saying it could arrive via Ukraine.

The UN secretary general has asked Russia not take the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant off grid. António Guterres asked on Friday that the Russian-occupied facility not be cut off from Ukraine’s electrical grid after Ukrainian reports that Moscow was planning to do so, saying the plant used “Ukrainian electricity”.

Western officials say there are growing concerns over concerns over water cooling at the Zaporizhzhia plant. Its existing reactor cooling system is critical to the safety of the site and relies on the maintenance of the electricity supply to ensure operation, but officials are anxious that Russia may disconnect the supply if it tries to cut off the plant from Ukraine’s grid.

More than half of Russia Black Sea naval aviation has been knocked out, according to a western official in Ukraine. The Ukrainian raid on the Saky airbase in occupied Crimea last week knocked out “more than half” of Russia’s combat naval aviation in the Black Sea, western officials have said. However, overall “combat stasis” remains.

The US has announced a new $775m (£655m) package of defence equipment and ammunition for Ukraine, including various types of missiles, drones, artillery and mine-clearing systems. The US has previously sent Ukraine more than $9bn in weapons systems, ammunition and other equipment.

Russia’s media watchdog said it was taking punitive measures against TikTok, Telegram, Zoom, Discord and Pinterest. Russia has repeatedly threatened to fine sites – including Google – that violate harsh new laws criminalising the spreading of “false information” about the Russian army. On Tuesday, Russian courts fined the US-based live streaming service Twitch 2 million roubles ($34,000) and messenger service Telegram 11 million roubles for violating military censorship laws.

A former Russian mayor has been appointed head of Russian-occupied Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. It is the latest in a string of such appointments, which Kyiv says are part of attempts to annexe its territory.

Ukraine’s economy minister has said the country’s economy could contract 35-40% by the end of the year. Hit by Russia’s 24 February invasion, the economy contracted 15.1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022.

The Kyiv Independent reported that rescuers are searching for people and bodies under the rubble of a dormitory destroyed in attacks on Kharkiv.

The Chinese and Russian leaders, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, will attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, told Bloomberg News. “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” he said. As hosts of this year’s summit, Indonesia has faced pressure from western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin. The country has also invited the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Kharkiv has been one of the most consistently shelled cities since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to British intelligence. Sitting around 15km from the Russian front line, Kharkiv has suffered because it remains within range of most types of Russian artillery, the latest report from the UK’s ministry of defence reads.

Continue reading...

Putin and Xi ‘could meet in September’ at summit in Samarkand

Wall Street Journal suggests Russian and Chinese leaders could hold discussions in Uzbek city

Xi Jinping could meet Vladimir Putin in mid-September at a regional summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, it has been reported.

According to the Wall Street Journal, preparations are being made for the Chinese president to travel to Samarkand on 15 September for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Continue reading...