Russian defence ministry says troops continue to make gains in Donetsk province, as Ukrainian president visits frontline in Kharkiv
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had arrived in the area of Vovchansk in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, where Russian forces have been trying to advance since May.
“Today, I had the honour to be there to congratulate our special forces warriors on their professional day and to present them with state awards,” the Ukrainian president wrote on X.
Continue reading...Russian leader says Washington risks triggering cold war-style missile crisis and promises to respond in kind
Vladimir Putin has warned the US that if Washington deploys long-range missiles in Germany from 2026, Russia will station similar missiles within striking distance of the west.
The US would start deploying long-range fire capabilities in Germany in 2026 in an effort to demonstrate its commitment to Nato and European defence, Washington and Germany said earlier this month.
Continue reading...Group of finance ministers call for sanctions to be ratcheted up amid signs Moscow’s war machine is weakening
Vladimir Putin is “peddling lies” about the strength of the Russian economy that must be refuted, finance ministers from eight EU member states have said, with growing signs of deterioration in the face of biting sanctions.
They say there are signs that the economy is being “sovietised” with many hallmarks of the former USSR including expropriation of private assets to fund public spending, a “total disregard to the social and economic wellbeing of the population” and reorientation of the economy towards its war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Gen Sir Roly Walker says west faces ‘axis of upheaval’ with increasing threats from Russia, China and Iran
Britain must be prepared to fight a war in three years’ time and double the lethality of its army as the separate threats of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea come to a head, the new chief of the army has warned.
Gen Sir Roly Walker, the chief of the general staff, told reporters that the west faced “an axis of upheaval” with increasing military ambition and that a conflict involving one of the countries could lead to “a significant detonation” in another theatre.
Continue reading...Pompeyo González Pascual, 76, sent explosive packages to Spain’s prime minister and US and Ukrainian embassies
A Spanish court has sentenced a man to 18 years in prison over letter bombs sent to Spain’s prime minister and the US and Ukrainian embassies in 2022.
Pompeyo González Pascual, 76, who opposed western support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, was found guilty of terrorism and manufacturing explosives by Spain’s top criminal court, the audiencia nacional.
Continue reading...Late spring and early summer blazes in Canada, Alaska and eastern Russia add to carbon emissions
The northern hemisphere has had a large number of intense wildfires in the first half of summer, carrying vast amounts of smoke across Eurasia and North America.
Research by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (Cams) showed large-scale and intense wildfires had been developing throughout the late spring and summer, with numerous fires burning in Canada, Alaska and eastern Russia.
Continue reading...Pro-democracy campaign group finds exports of goods to Russia, vital to its war efforts, roughly doubled in a year
Hong Kong has become a global trade hub for “the world’s most brutal regimes”, according to a report examining the city’s role in facilitating the flow of goods to countries under sanctions by the west, including Russia, Iran and North Korea.
A report published on Monday by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a campaign group, found that between 2021 and 2022, exports of semiconductors from Hong Kong to Russia roughly doubled to $400m (£310m), second only to shipments from mainland China. Semiconductors are vital to Russia’s war effort as they are a component in weaponry such as drones and cruise missiles.
Continue reading...Polish prime minister Donald Tusk and UK PM Keir Starmer among US allies to pay tribute to US president’s decades of public service
Leaders from around the world have begun to react to Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election this year, endorsing vice-president Kamala Harris in the most unorthodox US presidential campaign in generations.
US allies largely offered tributes to Biden’s work over decades of government service, discussing his work as a partner in international security, without addressing the tense political debate still unfolding in the US.
Continue reading...US presidential contender’s reference echoes the ‘love letters’ he received from North Korea’s Kim Jong-un as he calls authoritarian leaders ‘smart, tough’ people
Donald Trump has said China’s president wrote him a “beautiful note” after the assassination attempt a week ago, as he continued to court leaders whom Joe Biden has criticised as dictators.
In his first campaign rally since narrowly escaping the attempt on his life in Pennsylvania, Trump told a crowd in Michigan on Saturday: “[President Xi Jinping] wrote me a beautiful note the other day when he heard about what happened.”
Continue reading...Secretive trial of Rico Krieger, 30, may be linked to Belarusian volunteer unit fighting alongside Ukraine against Russia
A German national has been sentenced to death in Belarus, the German foreign ministry has said, hours after a Belarusian human rights group said a German combat medic had been sentenced to death by firing squad.
The German ministry did not name its national but the Viasna Human Rights Centre said earlier on Friday that Rico Krieger, 30, had been convicted under six articles of Belarus’s criminal code in a trial held at the end of June. It said he had been in custody since November.
Continue reading...Iryna Farion, 60, a former MP known for her opposition to officials speaking in Russian, was attacked on the street
A nationalist former member of Ukraine’s parliament known for her vociferous campaigns to defend the Ukrainian language has died after being shot in Lviv.
Police launched a wide search for the gunman alleged to have shot Iryna Farion, 60, on a street in the western city.
Continue reading...Reporter found guilty of spying in trial thought to have been rushed in preparation for prisoner swap
A Russian court has found the US journalist Evan Gershkovich guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison, after a trial widely described as a sham.
Gershkovich, 32, denied the charges and pleaded not guilty during the secretive court proceedings in Yekaterinburg, mostly held behind closed doors. His employer, the Wall Street Journal, described the verdict as a “disgraceful, sham conviction”.
Continue reading...Russian court cases often drag on for months but speed of US journalist’s trial may be sign that long-discussed exchange is in the offing
The courtroom footage of a Russian judge announcing a 16-year prison sentence for Evan Gershkovich – mumbling his way through the verdict as the US journalist looked on impassively from inside a transparent defendant’s box – will be a chilling watch for the family, friends and colleagues of the 32-year-old Wall Street Journal correspondent.
But counterintuitively, the manner of the conviction and sentencing may be encouraging for Gershkovich’s supporters. In Russia’s fixed and politicised legal system, the result of the trial was never in any doubt. But Russian court cases often drag on interminably, with scattered hearings every couple of months. This one moved at lightning pace: after an initial hearing in June, the next court date was unexpectedly moved forward to this week. Evidence was heard in a few hours on Thursday afternoon, and the verdict and sentencing came on Friday.
Continue reading...Ukraine’s president will ask for more help to block Putin’s growing ‘shadow fleet’ of tankers carrying sanctioned crude to buyers
The Ukrainian president, Volodmyr Zelenskiy, will attend an extraordinary meeting of the British cabinet on Friday to bring fresh impetus to efforts to stop Russia evading sanctions on its oil exports.
Zelenskiy will be the first foreign leader to visit Downing Street since Keir Starmer was elected prime minister two weeks ago and the first foreign leader to address cabinet in person since the US president Bill Clinton in 1997.
Continue reading...‘Likely outcome’ of Trump victory means EU should reopen diplomatic talks with Moscow, says Hungarian PM
Viktor Orbán has claimed that Donald Trump has “detailed and well-founded” plans for peace between Russia and Ukraine in a letter to a top EU body that is likely to inflame tensions about the Hungarian prime minister’s diplomatic freelancing.
Orbán, who met Trump at his Palm Beach compound last week, said in his letter to the president of the European Council, who organises meetings of the bloc’s 27 national leaders, that the Republican presidential nominee was ready to act as peace broker “immediately” after his election.
Continue reading...Last Monday’s strike brought terror to the Ukrainian capital, but also a renewed sense of solidarity in the face of tragedy
It was Monday lunchtime and Eka Grbich was waiting to see her doctor at a private maternity clinic in Kyiv. The news that morning was terrible. Ukraine was under a massive Russian attack. One cruise missile hit the capital’s main Okhmatdyt children’s hospital. Another destroyed a block of flats, killing and entombing many of those inside.
Grbich posted distressing images from the hospital on her Instagram account. She made a couple of work calls. And then, suddenly, her own world went dark. “There was a very loud noise. It happened in one second. There was smoke and I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t feel pain. I was thinking: ‘Am I alive?’. Somebody helped me to stand up.”
Continue reading...Prime minister’s comments come as embassy claims agency bosses were trying to fuel ‘anti-Russian paranioa’
Anthony Albanese has told Russia to “back off” after its embassy accused Australia’s security heads of fuelling “anti-Russian paranoia” over the arrest of two alleged spies accused of trying to access classified defence information.
The Russian-born Australians – including one who is an army private – were arrested over an alleged spying scheme targeting the defence department, with authorities emphasising concerns over espionage and foreign interference.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Talks at Blenheim Palace will centre on Ukraine, security and democracy
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to travel to the UK next week to address European leaders at Blenheim Palace who are meeting to discuss Ukraine, European security and democracy.
He will also make his first visit to Ireland on Saturday morning when he touches down in Shannon airport, Co Clare, for a meeting with the Irish taoiseach, Simon Harris.
Continue reading...Analysis by Dutch researchers shows coordinated activity in France, Germany and Italy in run-up to ballot
Coordinated networks of accounts spreading disinformation “flooded” social media in France, Germany and Italy before the elections to the European parliament, Dutch researchers have found.
After an in-depth analysis of disinformation on the platform X in four EU countries, the researchers concluded that many of the accounts had been set up after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but were cranked up in the weeks and days before the vote, with growth in their numbers of followers rocketing.
Continue reading...Partnership could produce up to 90 icebreaker ships to counter Russian and Chinese inroads into region
Canada, the United States and Finland say a newly announced “Ice Pact” to build a fleet of polar icebreaker ships will challenge China’s control of the market as nations scramble for influence in the Arctic.
The deal, announced during the Nato summit in Washington, could see as many as 90 icebreaker ships produced by the three countries in the coming years.
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