Category Archives: Russia

Johnson faces uphill task to convince Saudis and UAE to boost oil production

Posted on by

Analysis: PM will try and succeed where Biden failed but is unlikely to get a sympathetic hearing

Boris Johnson is facing criticism both domestically and in the Gulf as he tries to persuade Gulf states to boost oil production.

He is expected to visit Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states such as the United Arab Emirates as western powers seek extra oil supplies to loosen the west’s dependence on Russian energy and slow the massive price rises caused by sanctions due to the war in Ukraine.

Continue reading...

New Zealand halves public transport fares as petrol prices soar amid Russia-Ukraine war

Posted on by

Fare cut among measures Jacinda Ardern’s party has introduced to ease cost-of-living pressures

New Zealand is halving public transport fares to ease the pain of sharply rising petrol costs, as fuel oil prices soar following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced that the country would cut fares by 50% amid a suite of other changes to try to ease sharp increases in the cost of living. The government is also cutting petrol excise duties and road user charges by 25c a litre – changes that will come in at midnight on Monday.

Continue reading...

Biden adviser warns China will face consequences if it helps Russia evade sanctions

Posted on by

Amid reports that Russia has requested military help in Ukraine, Jake Sullivan is due to meet China’s top diplomat in Rome on Monday

Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who is due to meet China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Rome on Monday, warned on Sunday that Beijing will “absolutely” face consequences if it helps Moscow evade sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

The White House national security council declined to comment, however, on reports that Russia has asked China for military equipment since its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

Continue reading...

Biden adviser rejects Republican call to ‘close skies’ over Ukraine

Posted on by

Rob Portman of Ohio urges US and Nato as US intelligence community says creating no-fly zone risks escalation of conflict

A senior Republican senator on Sunday urged the US and Nato to “close the skies” over Ukraine, hours after a logistics hub and training base for foreign fighters 11 miles from the Polish border was struck by Russian forces, killing 35.

“The message coming loud and clear is close the skies,” said Rob Portman, a senator from Ohio on a visit to Poland. “Because the skies are where the bombs are coming, whether it’s the missile attacks or the airplane attacks or with artillery.”

Continue reading...

Russia sends message with Yavoriv strike but attack on Poland unlikely

Posted on by

Analysis: proximity to Nato border may appear unnerving but steps have been taken to reinforce air defences

Russia’s deadly multiple missile strike on Ukraine’s military base in Yavoriv, less than 15 miles from the border with Poland, was clearly designed to send a message.

Not only can Russian forces strike the western limits of Ukraine, killing at least 35 people near where western arms will be crossing into the country, but the Kremlin does not care if US or other volunteer fighters were training there.

Continue reading...

US film-maker Brent Renaud reportedly killed by Russian forces in Ukraine

Posted on by

Award-winning journalist and a colleague, who survived, were fired on near checkpoint in Irpin

Brent Renaud, an award-winning US film-maker whose work has appeared in the New York Times and other outlets, has been killed reportedly by Russian forces in the flashpoint town of Irpin, outside Kyiv. A US photographer, Juan Arredondo, was wounded.

Renaud, 51, was hit in the neck and died after coming under Russian fire while working on Sunday, according to local police officials, however, that could not be independently verified.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war latest news: UK says Russian navy has blockaded Black Sea coast; Zelenskiy urges Nato to implement no-fly zone

Posted on by

Call from Ukrainian president comes after death toll from Russian rocket attack on military base at Yavoriv rises to at least 35 people

Russian forces may have also hit an airbase in Ivano-Frankivsk early on Sunday morning, according to the city’s mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv.

“According to preliminary information, this morning’s explosions were from an attack at the airport,” Martsinkiv said, urging those who live close to the airport to relocate in a Facebook post about 7.30 local time.

Continue reading...

Russia missile strike on Ukraine base close to Polish border reportedly kills 20

Posted on by

Bombing close to Lviv follows Kremlin warning that supply lines were ‘legitimate targets’; town of Volnovakha ‘ceases to exist’ after bombardment

Russia has escalated its war in Ukraine with a strike on a major military base in western Ukraine, reportedly killing 20 people, only hours after the Kremlin warned that western supply lines into the embattled country were “legitimate targets”.

Two large explosions were seen on Sunday at the base in Yavoriv, a garrison city 12km (7.5 miles) from the Polish border. The rocket attack took place at 5.45am.

Continue reading...

MPs’ pension fund drops Russian-linked investments in protest

Posted on by

Cross-party group expresses unease about the fund’s stake in HSBC, which has held shares in Moscow’s oil and gas giants

Trustees of the pension fund for members of parliament have agreed to sell all investments linked to Russia after a cross-party group of more than 60 MPs raised concerns about connections to Russian oil and gas companies.

The trustees met last Thursday, having received the MPs’ letter, and agreed to act immediately to ensure the fund was cleansed of both direct and indirect Russian interests.

Continue reading...

‘My mother says I am betraying Russia’: Putin’s invasion divides the generations

Posted on by

Families torn apart as younger Russians opposing war in Ukraine fall out with older relatives reliant on diet of state propaganda

On day three of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Victoria Gogh realised her mother was slipping away from her.

“I noticed on the phone that mum was starting to parrot the government’s narrative about this war – that this was all the fault of Nato, that Russia had no choice but to defend itself,” said Gogh, 28, a fashion consultant originally from a small town in Siberia who moved to Moscow.

Continue reading...

Charity that supported St Petersburg ballet and opera closes its doors

Posted on by

Prince Charles was a patron of trust set up by friend of Putin to back the Russian Mariinsky theatre

A UK charity set up to support one of Russia’s oldest theatres has closed. The Anglo-Russian Opera and Ballet Trust, founded in 1992, raised millions for Russian arts organisations and boasted the Prince of Wales as its patron.

The charity was set up by conductor Valery Gergiev, a high-profile friend of Vladimir Putin, with the main goal of supporting St Petersburg’s Mariinsky theatre – one of the best-known cultural institutions in Russia – and promoting its work in the UK.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson to host Nordic and Baltic leaders for talks on Ukraine invasion

Posted on by

Prime minister to host summit of Joint Expeditionary Force as he seeks to bolster European resilience

Boris Johnson is preparing to embark on a series of meetings with Nordic and Baltic leaders as he seeks to bolster European resilience after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The prime minister will host a summit of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) in London, where he will urge leaders to work together to ensure no further nations fall victim to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s aggression, No 10 said.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war latest news: Russia will only take Kyiv if city is ‘razed to the ground’, Zelenskiy says, as Moscow threatens western shipments – live

Posted on by

Ukraine’s president says the capital will only fall to Russian troops if it is completely destroyed, while Moscow warns western shipments of arms to Ukraine could be attacked

In an early morning update on Telegram, Ukraine’s State Emergency Services (SES) said rescuers in Kharkiv had recovered the bodies of five people including two children, who were killed when Russian bombs hit a residential building in the village of Slobozhanske, outside the city.

It also said workers had visited 40 separate addresses to dispose of unexploded ordnance.

Continue reading...

Why has Abramovich’s billionaire friend been left off the UK sanctions list?

Posted on by

Eugene Shvidler has stepped down as a director of Ervaz, the steel company accused of possibly supplying steel for tanks

In March 2000, five of Russia’s richest oligarchs met in a suite at the Dorchester Hotel in London to discuss a multibillion-pound merger involving some of the biggest assets in the world aluminium industry.

The tycoons - one of whom arrived from a legal hearing in the House of Lords - discussed Russian politics, the aluminium wars in their country in the 1990s and the creation of the industrial giant Rusal.

Continue reading...

Putin did not show willingness to end Ukraine war during call, French official says

Posted on by

German chancellor Olaf Scholz and French president Emmanuel Macron called for an immediate ceasefire on call

Vladimir Putin did not show a willingness to end the war with Ukraine during a call on Saturday with French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz, a French presidency official said.

Scholz and Macron called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine during the 75-minute phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin, a German government spokesman added.

Continue reading...

How Ukraine has become the crucible of the new world order

Posted on by

From Russia’s threat of nuclear weapons to the patriotic courage of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an A to Z of how the world has changed

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been described by politicians and commentators as a watershed moment in modern history, a turning point comparable in importance to the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and even the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963.

Whether this portentous view of the war turns out to be justified, only time – and future historians – will tell. But there’s no doubt that in the violent, tumultuous days after 24 February, the established international order has been shaken and, in some respects, upended in extraordinary, unexpected and often unwelcome ways.

Continue reading...

Putin propagandist news host has British home and citizenship

Posted on by

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock calls for Sergei Brilev of state-controlled Rossiya 1 to be banned from UK and have assets frozen

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest news

One of Russia’s most popular television news presenters, who has been accused of being a propagandist for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has British citizenship and a family flat in west London.

Sergei Brilev has been reporting on the war in Ukraine on the state-controlled Rossiya 1, which tightly follows the Kremlin’s messaging. The channel describes the war as a “special military operation” launched to protect Ukrainian citizens from “abuse and genocide”.

Continue reading...

US and allies set to revoke normal trade relations with Russia over Ukraine war, says Biden – as it happened

Posted on by

Bates only took one question before he was interrupted by the pilot asking passengers to take their seats. Shortly thereafter the feed your live-blogger was using to follow the mid-flight briefing cut out.

Asked to elaborate on what consequences Russia could face if it used chemical weapons against Ukraine, Bates deferred to the president’s remarks and said the “meaning was unmistakable”.

Continue reading...

YouTube blocks Russian state-funded media channels globally

Posted on by

The Google-owned platform said the invasion of Ukraine fell under its violent events policy and violating material would be removed

YouTube announced on Friday that it had begun blocking access globally to channels associated with Russian state-funded media, citing a policy barring content that denies, minimizes or trivializes well-documented violent events.

The video platform had previously blocked the channels, specifically those of Russia Today and Sputnik, across Europe.

Continue reading...