Category Archives: Russia

Dozens of diplomats walk out during Russian foreign minister’s UN speech – video

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Dozens of diplomats walked out of a speech by the Russian foreign minister to the UN human rights forum on Tuesday.

Sergei Lavrov was addressing the UN human rights council remotely, after cancelling his attendance previously because of what the Russian mission in Geneva said on Monday were EU states blocking his flight path, when delegates from the UK, US and EU started to walk out in protest.

Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine's ambassador to the UN, said the organisation was taking a 'very strong stance in defence of its own principles'

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Russia’s NHL hero Alex Ovechkin has a rare chance to hit Putin where it hurts

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The Washington Capitals star is popular among Russians who may not usually question their leader. And he has debated the need for war

In 2017, Alexander Ovechkin, inarguably the best Russian hockey player alive or dead and the country’s most famous male athlete, started something called PutinTeam.

“I have never hidden my attitude towards our president, always supporting him,” the Muscovite and captain of the NHL’s Washington Capitals wrote, three years after Russia annexed Crimea. “I am confident that there are many of us, supporting Vladimir Putin. So let’s unite and show everyone a united and strong Russia!”

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Russia-Ukraine war latest news: 70 Ukrainian soldiers killed in Okhtyrka, huge Russian army convoy nears Kyiv – live updates

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Convoy north of Ukraine capital has more doubled in length, images suggest; ICC prosecutor to open possible war crimes inquiry; Kharkiv civilians ‘massacred’, says mayor

Satellite images taken on Monday show a Russian military convoy north of Kyiv that stretches for about 40 miles (64km) in an area north-west of Kyiv. It is substantially longer than the 17 miles (27km) reported earlier in the day, according to the US company Maxar.

Maxar, which filed a series of satellite images on the Russian military buildup on the Ukraine border, also said additional ground forces deployments and ground attack helicopter units were seen in southern Belarus, less than 20 miles (32km) north of the Ukraine border.

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More than 70 Ukrainian soldiers killed in Russian attack on base near Kharkiv

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Rescuers searching rubble of base in Okhtyrka in eastern Ukraine as Russian forces gather outside Kyiv

More than 70 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the eastern city of Okhtyrka after a Russian missile strike on a military base, in what is thought to be the biggest loss of life in a single incident in Moscow’s invasion.

The death toll – reported by Ukrainian officials in the city – follows a sharp intensification of the Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities, including the use of multiple-launch rocket systems against civilian areas, which has led to increasing casualties.

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Pandemic, war and a rocky economy loom large over Biden’s first state of the union

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White House officials say president will steer conversation toward economic progress rather than pessimism

Joe Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday before a bitterly divided Congress, seeking to inspire a pandemic-weary nation deeply unhappy with its leaders and government, while projecting strength to the world after Russia unleashed the largest land war in Europe since the second world war.

The prime-time address comes at a precarious moment for Biden and the world. Speaking in the House chamber, Biden will interrupt harrowing coverage of combat in a European capital, as evidence builds that Russian attacks are striking civilian areas and Russian president, Vladimir Putin, threatens nuclear war.

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Flood of Russian misinformation puts tech companies in the hot seat

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With Facebook and other platforms key to spreading news from Ukraine, officials and activists urge broader crackdown

Millions of people are flocking to platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and Twitter for round-the-clock updates the Russian invasion of Ukraine – renewing scrutiny of the outsized role that tech companies play in disseminating news of war.

Social media has long been instrumental in distributing frontline footage, but Ukraine presents a new scale of global conflict for private platforms to navigate.

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The show can’t go on: Russian arts cancelled worldwide

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Concerts, dance recitals and exhibitions have been postponed indefinitely after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has prompted responses from the cultural sphere, with Russian artists and companies beginning to feel the repercussions of decisions taken by the Kremlin. Not only has Russia been stripped of two prestigious events – the Champions League men’s final and Formula One’s Russian Grand Prix –but an increasing number of performances by Russians are being cancelled worldwide.

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What are thermobaric weapons and how do they work?

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The ‘vacuum bomb’, which Ukraine says the Russians have used in the invasion, ignites a fireball that sucks in all surrounding oxygen

Fears have risen over the use of thermobaric weapons by Russia after the Ukrainian ambassador to the US said a vacuum bomb – another term for the weapon – had been used during the invasion.

The use of such weapons, which suck in oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, has yet to be independently confirmed, though footage from Ukraine has shown thermobaric rocket launchers on Russia’s TOS-1 vehicles.

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Zelenskiy says Russia continued to bomb Ukrainian cities during negotiation talks – video

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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of dropping bombs on Ukrainian cities despite negotiations to end the conflict between the two parties occurring at the same time. Zelenskiy also accused Russia of committing war crimes in Kharkiv and said his country had applied to join the European Union

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Ukraine’s UN ambassador reads texts from Russian soldier to mother before he was killed – video

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Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, has read aloud a text message exchange between a Russian solider in Ukraine and his mother before he was killed. "Mama, I'm in Ukraine. There is a real war raging here. I'm afraid," one message read according to Kyslytsya

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Godfather of Vladimir Putin’s daughter among latest names on EU sanctions list

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Sergei Roldugin, 71, formerly a high-profile orchestra cellist, is one of 26 new additions to 680-strong list

A Russian oligarch, who is part of a financial network known as ‘Putin’s wallet’ in Moscow, according to the EU, is one of 26 businessmen, officials and military figures who have been added to the bloc’s expanding sanctions list.

Sergei Roldugin, 71, the former principal cellist of the Kirov Opera Theatre’s orchestra in the 1980s and godfather to Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria, is among those who it is claimed are threatening the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

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‘It’s about bloody time’: UK finally moves to block Russia’s ‘dirty money’

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Analysis: against the backdrop of the invasion of Ukraine, Kwasi Kwarteng announces clean-up measures

Britain has long been a haven for people of negotiable integrity to stash their cash, often via property deals made with the help of an army of lawyers, PR advisers and bankers.

Not only are super-mansions in London and the home counties a safe bet from an investment point of view, but the ability to disguise ownership via a labyrinthine network of shell companies offers a degree of anonymity to those who prefer their financial dealings to remain secret.

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Weapons from the west vital if Ukraine is to halt Russian advance

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Analysis: previously there has been a reluctance to supply arms to the under-siege state, but that appears to be changing

Since the outbreak of fighting last week and after years of reluctance, western countries have promised to send thousands of anti-tank and hundreds of anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, but they will have to get supplies to the frontline quickly if they are to be effective.

Germany in the past few days broke with decades of anti-rearmament tradition to send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, while Sweden agreed to send 5,000 next generation light anti-tank weapons (NLAWs).

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‘I left everything’: Tens of thousands of Ukrainians seek safety in neighbouring Poland

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Poland is facing what could become Europe’s largest wave of refugees since the second world war

When, at the end of January, Poland’s deputy interior minister, Maciej Wąsik, said his country had “to be prepared for a wave of up to a million people” in the event of a major Russian invasion of Ukraine, many thought he was exaggerating. Just five days after the military attack ordered by Putin, over 280,000 Ukrainians have entered Poland. At this rate, Warsaw could be facing Europe’s largest wave of refugees since the second world war.

The village of Medyka in south-eastern Poland is the main border crossing with Ukraine. Thousands of refugees have crossed the border by bus, car and on foot. They are mostly women and children. After Kyiv decreed a full military mobilisation, Ukrainian men aged 18-60 are forbidden to leave the country.

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UK politics live: Truss warns of ‘some economic hardship’ as she gives more detail of Russian sanctions

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Truss says officials ‘working through the night’ to draw up sanctions against oligarchs; Kwasi Kwarteng in Commons on economic crime bill

In a thread on Twitter, Rob Ford, the politics professor and co-author of Brexitland, a book explaining the attitudinal shifts (including on immigration) that led to Brexit, says that the public may be much more supportive of opening the borders to Ukrainian refugees than people (like Priti Patel?) assume. It starts here.

And here is one of Ford’s conclusions.

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Shell to exit joint ventures with Gazprom and pull out of Nord Stream 2

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Decisive move to end tie-up with Russian state gas firm follows BP pledge to sell its 20% Rosneft stake

Shell is to exit its joint ventures with Russian state energy firm Gazprom, a day after BP said it would offload its 20% stake in Kremlin-owned oil firm Rosneft, as British businesses scrambled to distance themselves from Vladimir Putin.

The oil company said it would “exit its joint ventures with Gazprom and related entities”, which are worth about $3bn.

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Biden under pressure on Ukraine, inflation and more as State of the Union looms – live

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The Republican governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, has come under fire for saying he needs the support of a far-right state senator who told a white nationalist event in Florida she fantasises about building gallows on which to hang her enemies.

State progressive groups said Ducey should “stop catering to hate”.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest news: Turkey will limit Russian warship access to Black Sea, says Erdoğan – live

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Turkish president confirms Ankara will invoke Montreux Convention on day that rocket strikes killed ‘dozens’ in Ukrainian city of Kharkiv

Here’s a report from the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, on how the phone has become the Ukrainian president’s most effective weapon.

In a string of phone calls from a besieged Kyiv, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has persuaded the west to agree to a set of sanctions against Russia that were inconceivable a week ago.

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