Category Archives: Russia

Ukraine secret service says it killed Russian agents suspected of Kyiv assassination

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SBU intelligence agency claims to have ‘liquidated’ members of Russia’s FSB who were suspected of killing Colonel Ivan Voronych last week

Ukrainian intelligence agents killed members of a Russian secret service cell wanted on suspicion of having shot dead a colonel last week, the SBU said.

The SBU intelligence agency said in a statement that the operation had sought the arrest of the agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), who it believes were behind the killing of Colonel Ivan Voronych – also a member of the SBU security service – in Kyiv on Thursday.

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Trump expected to resume weapons deliveries to Ukraine through Nato allies

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President hints at ‘major announcement’ on Monday after halting arms shipments due to dwindling stockpiles

Donald Trump appears poised to deliver weapons to Ukraine by selling them first to Nato allies in a major policy shift for his administration amid frustrations with Vladimir Putin over stalling negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

During an interview with NBC News, Trump said he will probably have a “major announcement” on Russia on Monday and confirmed he had struck a deal with Nato leaders to supply weapons to Ukraine.

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Ukraine arrests Chinese father and son on suspicion of spying

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Pair accused of spying on Neptune missile programme, which is seen as critical to defence against Russia

Ukraine says it has arrested a Chinese father and son on suspicion of spying on its Neptune anti-ship missile programme, a key part of Kyiv’s growing domestic arms industry that is critical to its defence against Russian forces.

The announcement by Ukraine’s security service (SBU) follows assertions by Kyiv in recent months that Beijing, which has sought to project an image of neutrality, is helping the Kremlin’s war effort.

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Zelenskyy urges west to hit Russia with sanctions after huge attack on Kyiv

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Ukrainian president wants allies to speed up action against Putin after two killed in second night of major strikes

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukraine’s allies to speed up imposing new sanctions on Russia after another huge wave of strikes on his country’s capital killed two people and left more wounded.

“Sanctions must be imposed faster, and pressure on Russia must be strong enough that they truly feel the consequences of their terror,” the Ukrainian president said on social media. Ukraine’s air defence force said Moscow sent 400 drones and 18 missiles across the country in the early hours.

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Has the Trump-Putin bromance finally run its course?

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US president appears to have run out of patience with his Russian counterpart – but how that transmits into practical support for Kyiv remains to be seen

“I’m not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now,” Trump said, expressing his frustration with the Russian leader over the war in Ukraine. “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin … He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

It may not have been Churchillian in oratorical flourish, and with Trump everything is capable of being reversed in hours, but possibly, just possibly, the rupture between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump has happened. If so it is a transformatory moment, and a vindication for both Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he arrives in Rome for the annual Ukraine reconstruction conference and for those others, notably the British and the French governments, who have patiently helped the scales to fall from Trump’s eyes about Putin’s true intentions. At long last and after many false starts, the US president seems to have accepted he is unpersuadable on ending the war.

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Russia’s former transport minister dies from gunshot hours after sacking

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News of Roman Starovoit’s death made public shortly after that of his sacking by Putin, but timeline is unconfirmed

Russia’s former transport minister has died from a gunshot wound just hours after Vladimir Putin sacked him.

The body of Roman Starovoit, the ex-minister, was found in his car in a Moscow suburb. He appeared to have killed himself, Russia’s investigative committee said in a statement.

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Trump has ‘good conversation’ with Zelenskyy after heavy bombardment of Ukraine by Russia

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US munitions slated for Ukraine held up over shortage as Trump ‘disappointed’ by Putin’s refusal to make concessions

Donald Trump spoke with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Friday as the US president appears increasingly disheartened over his chances of fulfilling a campaign pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The call with Zelenskyy comes as Washington has halted its latest shipment of military aid to Ukraine including Patriot air defense missiles and other crucial munitions meant to support the country’s defenses.

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Ukraine accuses Putin of humiliating Trump with devastating attack on Kyiv

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Russia launches record number of drones and ballistic missiles in seven-hour assault shortly after its leader spoke to US president

Ukraine has accused Vladimir Putin of “publicly humiliating” Donald Trump after Russia launched a devastating attack with a record number of drones and ballistic missiles on Kyiv, hours after the two leaders spoke by phone.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the seven-hour raid as a “deliberate act of terror” which “immediately followed the call between Washington and Moscow”. It was one of the most severe assaults of the entire war and a “clear interpretation of how Moscow interprets diplomacy”, he added.

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Pentagon reviews arms exports to allies as munition stockpiles reportedly drop

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Spokesperson Sean Parnell confirms defence department reviewing shipments may not affect only Ukraine

The Pentagon has said that it is reviewing weapons deliveries to allies around the world as reports grow of concerns over dwindling stockpiles of crucial munitions including anti-air missiles.

The announcement came after the White House confirmed that it was limiting deliveries of weapons to Ukraine to “put America’s interests first following a Department of Defense review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries around the globe”.

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US halts weapons shipments to Ukraine over fears its stockpiles are too low

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Some shipments have been stopped ‘to put America’s interests first’, White House says

The Pentagon has halted shipments of US Patriot air defence systems and other precision weapons to Ukraine after concern that US stockpiles were running too low, prompting alarm in Kyiv.

A decision was quietly taken last month by the Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby. Kyiv said halting weapons shipments would only encourage Russian aggression, but the White House said it had been done “to put America’s interests first following a DoD [Department of Defense] review”.

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Russia has taken first village in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk, state media claims

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If confirmed, advance of Russian forces into region could be psychological blow for Kyiv

Russian forces have captured a village in the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk for the first time in their three-year offensive, Russian state media and pro-war bloggers have claimed, marking a potential psychological blow to Ukraine.

There was no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian officials or from the Russian defence ministry.

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US charges 11 people in Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare of $10bn

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Prosecutors allege more than a million Medicare recipients had their information stolen and used by the defendants for fraudulent claims

US federal prosecutors charged 11 people on Friday in a Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare – the American health insurance program for the elderly and disabled – out of $10.6bn through fraudulent billing for expensive medical equipment.

The “transnational criminal organization” orchestrated a “multi-billion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme” that included purchasing dozens of medical equipment companies from prior legitimate owners to perpetrate the fraud, according to the indictment dated 18 June.

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Ukraine and UK to jointly produce long-range drones, Zelenskyy says

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Ukrainian president says two countries will deepen defence cooperation with the objective to ‘stop Russian terror’

Ukraine and the UK are to deepen their defence cooperation by jointly producing long-range drones, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday after talks with Keir Starmer in Downing Street aimed at forcing Russia to “think about peace”.

Zelenskyy said his main objective was “to save as many lives as possible” and to “stop Russian terror”. Writing on social media, he called for “maximum political and diplomatic coordination” and closer work on “joint defence projects and weapons production”.

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‘My husband is free!’ Belarus opposition leader freed after nearly five years in jail

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Syarhei Tsikhanouski arrested shortly after announcing candidacy in rigged 2020 election won by Lukashenko

One of the leaders of Belarus’s opposition movement, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, has been released from jail after being pardoned after almost five years behind bars.

His wife, the exiled politician Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, who took over the opposition cause after his jailing, on Saturday shared a video of him smiling and embracing her after his release.

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Banned from home for 40 years: deportations are Russia’s latest move to ‘cleanse’ Ukraine

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A deal freezing frontlines would be unacceptable for Serhiy Serdiuk, who was taken to Georgia in handcuffs with his family after refusing to teach the Russian curriculum

Earlier this year, Serhiy Serdiuk was deported from Russia, along with his wife and daughter. He was given a 40-year ban from re-entering the country.

Serdiuk’s home town of Komysh-Zoria, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, was part of the territory occupied in the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion in spring 2022. According to Moscow, it is now part of Russia. And because Serdiuk, the headteacher of a local school, refused to work for the new authorities, they decided he had no place living there.

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Denmark deploys ‘saildrones’ in Baltic to protect undersea cables from Russia

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US-made unmanned vessels will monitor maritime activity as part of trial, amid criticism over closer ties with America

Denmark is deploying floating drones on the Baltic Sea to protect undersea infrastructure and bolster maritime surveillance amid the growing threat of hybrid attacks from Russia.

The arrival of Saildrone, a California-based company, has prompted criticism in Denmark over forging tighter bonds with the US in such a sensitive area as digital security.

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Spanish PM rejects Nato’s ‘unreasonable’ 5% GDP target for defence spending – as it happened

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This blog is now closed, you can read more of our European news coverage here

Earlier today, I cheekily suggested that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is probably wondering how to persuade US president Donald Trump to stay at the Nato summit in The Hague next week long enough to get to discussions on Ukraine and Russia – and not leave early, as he did at the G7 summit.

Well, looks like this issue may have actually influenced the planning.

“Budapest city hall will organise the Budapest Pride march on 28 June as a city event. Period.”

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Iranian regime collapse would be serious blow for Russia

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While some in Moscow have tried to put positive spin on Israel’s assault, Kremlin risks losing key strategic partner

When a group of Russian and Iranian foreign policy officials arranged to meet in Moscow for a conference titled “Russian-Iranian cooperation in a changing world”, they probably did not anticipate just how timely that phrase would turn out to be.

Seated around a table on Wednesday at the President hotel near the Kremlin, officials from both sides were forced to confront a stark new reality: Iran’s regime – a key ally of Moscow – is facing its most serious threat in decades.

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UK firm not racist for rejecting Chinese applicant over security concerns, tribunal rules

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Judge says not discrimination to refuse to hire people from ‘hostile’ states like China and Russia if it may pose risk to British security

Refusing to give a job to Chinese and Russian people in companies that deal with issues of national security and require security clearance is not racist, an employment tribunal has ruled.

It is not discriminatory to stop people from “hostile” states taking up certain jobs in the defence sector because of the risk to British security, the judgment says.

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Europe will never return to Russian gas, European Commission insists

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Body unveils plans to ban all gas imports from Russia by January 2028 – but faces backlash from Hungary, Slovakia and Austria

The European Commission has insisted there will be no return to Russian gas, as it published plans to phase out fossil fuel imports from its eastern neighbour by 2028.

The EU energy commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, said a proposed ban on Russian gas imports would remain, irrespective of whether there was peace in Ukraine.

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