Category Archives: Russia

The ‘ordinary’ woman accused of assassinating a Russian commander in Crimea

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Friends close to Margarita Reutt are shocked she could allegedly plant bomb that killed Ukrainian defector Robert Shageev, while others recall a stubborn grit to see any plan through

It was just after dawn in Sevastopol when a powerful explosion tore through a quiet square in a residential district of the Russian-occupied Crimean port city.

Hidden inside a rubbish bin, a bomb containing the equivalent of about 500g of TNT detonated on 13 August as Robert Shageev, the deputy commander of a Russian Black Sea fleet submarine brigade, walked past in naval uniform. He was killed on the spot.

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Attack on Ukraine shopping centre that killed 16 is ‘terror by design’, says EU foreign policy chief

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Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, threatens harshest sanctions yet on Russia after strike on Kryvyi Rih, the home town of Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Russian drones have slammed into a busy shopping centre in central Ukraine, killing 16 people in an attack that Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned as “cynical and despicable”.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, condemned Friday’s attack on Kryvyi Rih – the president’s home town – as “terror by design” and said she was “putting forward the most far-reaching Russia sanctions listings since the start of the war” when ministers meet in Ireland next month.

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Gun stash in German forest believed to be linked to Russia, say reports

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Germany seeking to extradite suspect from Romania over guns it is feared could have been used ⁠in assassinations

Germany is seeking to extradite a suspect from Romania over the discovery of an underground stash of weapons in a forest near Berlin that German media reports have linked to Russian intelligence.

Two weeks after German authorities found a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, the interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, confirmed federal prosecutors had opened an investigation related to the secret cache of guns “on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that threatens national security”.

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Russia’s missile tests around disputed islands anger Japan

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Pacific fleet launched missile drills near what Moscow calls the Kuril Islands but Japan regards as its Northern Territories

Japan has criticised missile tests carried out by Russia’s navy around the disputed islands visited by Vladimir Putin last week amid continuing tensions between the two countries.

Russia’s Pacific fleet said on Thursday that it had fired Bastion surface-to-ship missiles from Etorofu, the largest island in the disputed archipelago, simulating an attack on enemy vessels, hitting all of its targets approximately 300km away.

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More than 16 killed as Kyiv comes under intense Russian bombardment

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Missile and drone attack one of heaviest since war began, with children’s hospital and residential areas hit

A heavy Russian missile and drone bombardment has killed at least 16 people in and around Kyiv in one of the most intense aerial attacks on Ukraine’s capital since the start of the war.

Vitali Klitschko, the city’s mayor, said homes, a school and a children’s medical centre were among the buildings damaged overnight in an attack that began at about midnight and was continuing into the early afternoon.

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Moscow threat of ‘consequences’ will not alter UK support for Ukraine, says Burnham

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Prime minister responds to Russian anger over Kyiv’s use of British-made drones in ‘deep strike’ campaign

Andy Burnham says the UK will continue to “support Ukraine 100%” after Russia threatened consequences after strikes by British-made drones.

The Russian embassy to the UK said on Monday that Britain had been deliberately escalating the Ukraine conflict and the deeper its involvement, “the higher the price it will pay”.

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‘Our task is to laugh at these enemies’: the Ukrainian unit posting drone videos of Russian soldiers’ last moments

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Creators of chase compilations reject any moral qualms and say they show ‘death is waiting’ for those who join war

To many observers they will appear dehumanising and offensive. To many Ukrainians, however, they are a brutal reminder of the fate that awaits Russian soldiers who take part in Vladimir Putin’s invasion, as well as a potent propaganda weapon.

Over the past year and a half, videos of kamikaze drones chasing Russian service personnel to their deaths have become a distinctive genre on social media. They are the brainchild of Robert Brovdi, the head of Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces and founder of “Magyar’s Birds”, named after his call sign.

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Finland halts deportation of Russian family who ‘risked everything’ to oppose Ukraine invasion

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Mother and son Olga and Nikita Belov say they were facing jail and potential torture after asylum case was rejected

A Russian family who were on the brink of being deported from Finland after repeatedly being denied asylum – despite the threat of arrest, imprisonment and torture for their pro-Ukrainian activism – have won a court appeal and will have their case reconsidered.

Nikita Belov and his mother, Olga Belov, fled their homeland for Finland in 2022 after attracting the attention of Russian authorities – including a military summons, threatening messages and attempts to locate them – for expressing opposition to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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Ukrainian drone attack on Russia kills at least six, says Moscow

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Kyiv launches what may be its largest attack wave of war, with fire breaking out at warehouse near Russian capital

Ukraine has launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war, causing a fire at a distribution warehouse near Moscow and killing at least six people overnight, according to Russian authorities.

The defence ministry in Moscow said it had shot down 1,478 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours – the highest ever total claimed – in an escalating air war in which seven Ukrainians were also killed as Russia bombed 13 locations inside the country.

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Concerns grow over increased global ties with Taliban in Afghanistan

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Campaigners fear deeper diplomatic contacts are undermining demands for improvements in human rights

The Taliban in Afghanistan have launched a diplomatic effort to end their isolation as major regional and international powers show a readiness to engage more closely with the repressive regime despite its systematic human rights abuses.

Five years after the Taliban took power, an increasing number of countries are renewing ties or scaling up diplomatic contacts with the hardline Islamists, who seized power in Kabul in 2021 after 20 years of brutal insurgent warfare.

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‘Absolutely unacceptable’: Japan condemns visit by Vladimir Putin to disputed Kuril Islands

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Japanese PM says islands seized by Soviets late in second world war are part of her country under international law

The Japanese government has reacted angrily to Vladimir Putin’s first visit to the disputed Kuril Islands, which are claimed by both Tokyo and Moscow.

Japan’s foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, summoned the Russian ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev, while the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, called Putin’s actions “absolutely unacceptable”.

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Countries in ‘armed conflict’ barred from hosting Eurovision

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Organisers says new rule will ensure contest provides ‘safe and welcoming environment’ for participants

Broadcasters will no longer be eligible to host the Eurovision song contest if their state is involved in an “armed conflict” or “sensitive geopolitical situation”.

Eurovision is traditionally hosted by the previous year’s winner’s broadcaster, with next year’s show due to take place in Bulgaria after the singer Dara’s victory for the country in May.

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Ukraine drone strike on oil refinery deep inside Russia kills at least 13

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Attack hundreds of miles from border would be among deadliest of war as Kyiv aims to strangle Russian economy

A Ukrainian drone strike on an industrial city deep inside Russia has killed at least 13 people, according to the local mayor, as Kyiv steps up its campaign of long-range strikes on targets far from the frontline.

Kyiv said it hit the Taneco refinery in the city of Nizhnekamsk, about 750 miles (1,200km) from the Ukrainian border. Footage circulating online appeared to show smoke rising from the refinery.

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US intelligence ‘believes Russia was behind Leipzig airport drone bomb’

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German government talks of a ‘new level of danger’ but declines to say who it thinks was responsible for device

American intelligence experts believe Russia was behind an attack on a German airport last week with a drone laden with explosives, US media have reported, as Berlin remained silent on the likely culprit.

Last week’s security emergency prompted the interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, to break off his summer holiday in Italy and rush to the scene in the eastern city of Leipzig, as he spoke of a “new level of danger” for Germany.

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Russian family denied asylum in Finland fear reprisals for pro-Ukraine activism

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Nikita and Olga Belov say they will be persecuted on return to Moscow but are yet to convince Finnish authorities

A Russian family faces deportation from Finland after repeatedly being denied asylum – despite the threat of arrest, imprisonment and potential torture for their pro-Ukrainian activism.

Nikita and Olga Belov fled their homeland in 2022 after attracting the attention of Russian authorities – including military summons, threatening messages and attempts to locate them – after expressing opposition to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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US Senate passes Russia sanctions bill championed by Lindsey Graham

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Late senator spent final days of his life working to advance bill that will now head to the House after 86-11 Senate vote

By a large, bipartisan margin, the US Senate on Friday approved a bill intended to punish Russia and countries that buy its petroleum exports over the invasion of Ukraine, capping a legislative push that was spurred by the death of its champion, the Republican senator Lindsey Graham.

The measure, renamed the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia Act in honor of the late senator’s work on the issue, was approved by an 86-11 vote. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the sole Republican to oppose the legislation, together with 10 Democrats.

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Leipzig drone bomb was found near Ukrainian plane carrying ammunition, say police

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Germany investigating whether foreign state involved as minister says ‘ripped’ detonator stopped device going off

A catastrophe with multiple casualties was possibly narrowly averted by the discovery of a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, German officials said, as they examined whether a foreign state could be behind the plot.

One of the Ukrainian aircraft next to where the bomb drone was found was loaded with military ammunition, according to a classified police report quoted by the public broadcasters WDR and NDR and the Süddeutsche newspaper.

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Nato to ‘urgently’ get air defences for Ukraine, as Zelenskyy warns of surge in Russian missile production

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After Ukraine failed to shoot down a single ballistic missile fired by Russia on Wednesday, the president urged allies to increase supplies of Patriot interceptors

Nato is working to get Ukraine the air defences it “urgently needs”, its secretary general has said, after Kyiv failed to shoot down a single Russian missile in an attack on Wednesday, and as Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow was seeking to significantly boost missile ⁠production ahead of winter.

Speaking at a National Security and Defense Council meeting on winter resilience, the Ukrainian president did not rule out the idea that stalling missile supplies from western allies were “aimed at making Ukraine, so to speak, more willing to compromise” in peace talks with Russia.

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Nato to ‘urgently’ get air defences for Ukraine, as Zelenskyy warns of surge in Russian missile production

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After Ukraine failed to shoot down a single ballistic missile fired by Russia on Wednesday, the president urged allies to increase supplies of Patriot interceptors

Nato is working to get Ukraine the air defences it “urgently needs”, its secretary general has said, after Kyiv failed to shoot down a single Russian missile in an attack on Wednesday, and as Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow was seeking to significantly boost missile ⁠production ahead of winter.

Speaking at a National Security and Defense Council meeting on winter resilience, the Ukrainian president did not rule out the idea that stalling missile supplies from western allies were “aimed at making Ukraine, so to speak, more willing to compromise” in peace talks with Russia.

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The Leipzig drone bomb marks a dangerous escalation for Europe

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Initial evidence suggests aerial drone, found near Ukrainian cargo planes at German airport, came from Russia

The armed drone found at Leipzig airport on Wednesday may not have exploded, but the fact that it got inside the perimeter, close to Ukrainian cargo planes, raises obvious concerns for the security of international aviation.

Though the identity of the culprits is unknown, the initial evidence points firmly towards a Russian-orchestrated plot. It is the first time that a drone with explosives has been found in Europe far from the Ukrainian border.

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