Category Archives: Russia

Zelenskiy says Russia’s recent offensive shows pressure on Kremlin ‘not enough’

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Ukrainian president signs military agreement with EU and says ‘fulfilment of every promise’ of support is important

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has told EU leaders that Russia’s spring offensive in Kharkiv showed that international pressure on the Kremlin was “not enough”, as he signed a military agreement with the bloc.

Vladimir Putin had tried to “expand the war” in May with a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, Zelenskiy said on Thursday, referring to relentless attacks on the Kharkiv region.

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Closed-door trial of US journalist Evan Gershkovich begins in Russia

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WSJ reporter faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on spying charges US says are politically motivated

A Russian court has begun a closed-door trial of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on spying charges that he, his employer and the US government have all described as politically motivated.

Gershkovich appeared in a courtroom in Ekaterinburg on Wednesday, his head shaven by prison authorities, after being transferred from the Moscow jail where has been held since March 2023.

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Russia-Ukraine war: ICC issues arrest warrants for Russian officials over attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets – as it happened

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International criminal court issues arrest warrants for Russia’s former defence minister Sergei Shogu and military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov

President Maia Sandu welcomed the start of the EU accession talks with Moldova, stressing that her country is within the European family.

“We are stronger together,” she said on X.

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ICC issues arrest warrants for Russian officials over alleged Ukraine war crimes

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Army chief and ex-minister of defence accused over missile attacks on civilian targets including power plants

The international criminal court (ICC) at The Hague has issued arrest warrants for Russia’s ex-minister of defence and current army chief of staff for alleged war crimes in Ukraine after a missile campaign targeting Ukrainian power plants and other civilian infrastructure during the full-scale invasion.

Ex-minister of defence Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, Valery Gerasimov, are accused of the war crimes of directing attacks at civilian objects and of causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects. They are also accused of crimes against humanity.

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Zelenskiy replaces commander leading war on Russia in eastern Ukraine

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Dismissal of Lt Gen Yuriy Sodol comes amid series of personnel changes by Ukrainian president

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has replaced the commander of the Joint Forces Command of Ukraine’s military, after a well-known soldier accused the commander of causing mass casualties in the war with Russia.

In his nightly video address on Monday, Zelenskiy said Lt Gen Yuriy Sodol had been replaced by Brig Gen Andriy Hnatov, without giving a reason for the shake up.

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Eight killed in Moscow office block fire including two who jumped to deaths

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Companies who rented space in the building reportedly include electronics institute sanctioned by US

At least eight people have died in a fire in an office building near Moscow, including two who jumped from the building to escape the flames.

Video taken in the town of Fryazino on Monday showed smoke and flames billowing out of at least three of the building’s top floors and a group of four people huddled around a broken window trying to escape.

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NHS confirms stolen data published online is from blood test provider

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Health service in England issues update saying there is ‘no evidence’ hackers published entire database

Stolen data published online has been confirmed as having come from the NHS provider Synnovis, NHS England has said.

Synnovis, which manages blood tests for NHS trusts and GP services, primarily in south-east London, was the victim of a cyber-attack – understood to have been carried out by the Russian group Qilin – on 3 June.

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Dagestan attack highlights Russia’s Islamist terror threat as forces are engaged in Ukraine

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Attacks by gunmen in two cities appeared to catch local security officials by surprise

Sunday’s terrorist attack in Dagestan that left at least 19 people dead has highlighted Russia’s growing difficulties in managing a tide of Islamist terror at home as its security forces are engaged in the war in Ukraine.

The attack, which was carried out by four gunmen in the capital, Makhachkala, and two in the seaside city of Derbent, appeared to catch Dagestani officials by surprise. At least 15 police officers were among those killed, and the attackers also burned down a synagogue and set fire to a church in acts that Russian officials are clearly concerned could lead to a tide of inter-ethnic violence at home.

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Gunmen who attacked religious buildings in Russia’s Dagestan region ‘eliminated’

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Three days of mourning declared after 15 people reportedly killed during multiple assaults in restive province

Five people responsible for multiple gun attacks targeting churches and synagogues in Russia’s Dagestan region have been “eliminated”, said the authorities as the region began three days of mourning.

A criminal investigation has been launched under anti-terrorism laws after gunmen killed 19 people in co-ordinated attacks in two cities in the restive region in the North Caucasus.

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Ukraine endures widespread blackouts as Russia attacks critical infrastructure

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Moscow’s renewed assault on Ukraine’s energy grid has seen worst rolling outages since full-scale invasion began

Ukrainians are having to cope with widespread emergency blackouts as Russia continues to pound critical infrastructure.

In recent months, Moscow has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid. On Friday night, energy facilities came under a “massive attack”, Ukraine’s energy ministry said. Several workers were injured as a result of shelling at one of the facilities.

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‘A return to the cold war’: Putin and Kim have joined forces as global delinquents | Andrew Roth

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The defiant Russia-North Korea friendship pact raises big questions for Washington and Seoul – but also for Beijing

A quarter of a century ago, Vladimir Putin flew to Pyongyang to sign a ­“friendship treaty” with Kim Jong-il that helped revive Russia’s relations with North Korea without obliging the two sides to come to each other’s aid in case of a military attack.

With his visit last week, Putin has in effect gone further into the past, signing a deal with Kim Jong-un reminiscent of the 1961 security pact that existed under the Soviet Union during the cold war. But today Russia is engaged in a hot war in Ukraine that Putin has made his ­foreign policy priority, and a nuclear North Korea has become a crucial lifeline of munitions for his military.

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Russian bomb attack on Kharkiv kills at least three and wounds 52

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President Zelenskiy calls for ‘bold decisions from our partners’ following aerial assault on Ukraine’s second city

At least three people were killed in a Russian bombing attack on Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, on Saturday afternoon, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Another 52 people were wounded in the attack, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Four aerial bombs were launched against the city, damaging residential buildings, shops and public transport stops, said Kharkiv’s regional governor Oleh Syniehubov. He said four of the wounded were in serious condition.

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Farage doubles down on claim west provoked Ukraine invasion

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Reform UK leader refuses to apologise after his remarks attracted widespread condemnation

Nigel Farage has doubled down on his claims that the west provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine, refusing to apologise and insisting he is not an “apologist or supporter of Putin”.

The Reform UK leader had appeared on the BBC’s Panorama programme on Thursday night, drawing a link between Nato and EU expansion in recent decades and the conflict in eastern Europe.

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‘War how it truly is’: Ukrainian director turns accidental footage into a film

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Oleh Sentsov’s film Real is 90 minutes of frontline action captured when he didn’t realise his camera was on

In the new film by the Ukrainian director Oleh Sentsov, soldiers pinned down in a trench try to organise the evacuation of a group of fellow fighters who are stuck and wounded in a frontline position.

Sentsov, who spent several years as a political prisoner in Russia and is now fighting in the Ukrainian army, found the 90 minutes of shaky footage six months after the battle. He was going through old files on his GoPro camera and realised it had been switched on that day.

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Russia-Ukraine war: EU to open enlargement talks with Ukraine and Moldova next week – as it happened

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Countries in the 27-nation bloc formally approve the launch of accession negotiations on Tuesday

A member of Russia’s lower house of parliament said law enforcement authorities need to do more to protect civilians from ex-convicts who have returned home from fighting in Ukraine.

Nina Ostanina, a Communist Party deputy who has been sanctioned by Western countries over Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, told the gazeta.ru newspaper in an interview that violent crimes involving decommissioned soldiers “will be even more numerous” if authorities do not act.

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US ‘incredibly concerned’ over Putin’s threat to supply weapons to North Korea after Asia tour

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State department warns such a move could destabilise the peninsula, as South Korea considers arming Ukraine

Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that Russia could supply weapons to North Korea is “incredibly concerning”, a senior US official has said, days after Putin and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, signed a defence pact that requires their countries to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked.

Matthew Miller, a US state department spokesperson, said the provision of Russian weapons to Pyongyang “would destabilise the Korean peninsula, of course, and potentially … depending on the type of weapons they provide … violate UN security council resolutions that Russia itself has supported”.

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Russian-American woman on trial for treason over $50 pro-Ukraine donation

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Ksenia Karelina was detained in January during a trip to visit family and faces up to 20 years in prison

A Russian American ballerina who lives and works in Los Angeles has gone on trial for treason over an alleged donation of $50 to a pro-Ukrainian charity, in the latest court case to raise tensions between Washington and Moscow.

Ksenia Karelina, 32, was detained by police in the city of Yekaterinburg in late January while on a trip to visit her family in Russia.

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‘It is all lining up’: Plan for Ukraine to finally start using F-16 jets this summer

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After delays in delivery and training pilots and ground staff, Netherlands says Ukraine should get first planes in summer

At a military base in the rural south of the Netherlands, Gen Arnoud Stallmann, a Dutch air force commander, said he expected that at some point this summer, F-16 fighter jets would finally take to the skies over Ukraine.

“Around this summertime, it is all lining up,” he said, speaking in front of two disused F-16s inside a hangar at the base, where a recent programme to train Ukrainian air force instructors in maintenance for the jets had just come to a close.

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Putin arrives in Vietnam for state visit condemned by US

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Russian president’s trip comes after he signed mutual defence pact with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un

Vladimir Putin has arrived in Vietnam for talks with its communist leaders on the final stop of his two-nation tour of Asia after signing a defence pact with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

The Russian president’s plane touched down at Hanoi airport where he was met on a red carpet by Vietnamese deputy prime minister Tran Hong Ha and top party diplomat Le Hoai Trung.

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Russia and North Korea sign mutual defence pact

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Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un’s agreement raises western alarm about possible Russian help for nuclear programme

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, have signed a pact that includes a clause requiring the countries to come to each other’s aid if either is attacked, a move that has raised western concerns about potential Russian aid for Pyongyang’s missile or nuclear programmes.

The inclusion of a mutual defence clause in their comprehensive strategic partnership, which Kim described as an “alliance”, will add to the west’s alarm over growing economic and military ties between North Korea and Russia. The deal was finalised on Wednesday after hours of talks in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

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