Category Archives: Russia

Russian warships arrive in Havana in visit seen as show of strength

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Four vessels, including nuclear-powered submarine and frigate, greeted by sparse crowd upon arrival in Cuba

A fleet of Russian warships has arrived in the bay of Havana, in a visit seen as a show of strength amid tensions with the west over support for Ukraine.

Four vessels, including the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan and the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, entered Havana Bay early on Wednesday, where they offered a 21-gun salute that was reciprocated from the battlements of La Cabaña, the fortress where Che Guevara once had his office.

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G7 leaders head to Italy for summit as Ukraine and Russia top the agenda

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US wants show of strength with planned sanctions for helping Russia, but group will also discuss migration, Middle East and AI

A dramatic expansion of entities exposed to US sanctions for helping the Russian economy and an EU-led $50bn loan to ease the financial burden on Ukraine will be at the centre of discussions at a summit of the leaders of wealthy G7 nations in Puglia, Italy, starting on Thursday.

The leaders, facing unprecedented challenges from discontented electorates, will be under heightened pressure to provide concrete results as their three days of discussion range across an interlinked agenda encompassing the war in Ukraine, migration, Africa, the Middle East, the climate crisis and harnessing artificial intelligence (AI).

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Zelenskiy lobbies for support and investment to reconstruct Ukraine

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Ukrainian president appeals in Berlin for funding to repair and rebuild energy infrastructure and for defence

The Ukrainian president and his allies have used a major conference in Berlin to lobby international business for support in the country’s reconstruction and recovery efforts even as it continues to be bombarded by Russia.

Speaking at the Ukraine recovery conference, hosted by the German government, at which the topic of Ukraine’s survival was centre stage, Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Europe’s peace was also at stake if his country was not able to protect and rebuild itself as it stood up to Russia.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Jets outside Ukraine could become targets says Russian politician; Russia claims to have taken Donetsk village

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Russian defence politician says military airfields outside of Ukraine targets if raids launched from there; Russian claims it has taken Staromaiorsk

Belarus said on Monday its army was taking part in the second stage of Russian exercises to practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons, Reuters reports.

The first phase of the drills, ordered by president Vladimir Putin, took place last month.
The Belarus defence ministry said the exercises were being held “in the interests of guaranteeing our own security” and were not intended as a threat to other countries.

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Guterres warns humanity on ‘knife’s edge’ as AI raises nuclear war threat

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UN secretary general makes plea for nuclear states to agree on mutual pledge not to be first to use nuclear weapons

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that the spread of artificial intelligence technology multiplies the threat of nuclear war, and that humanity is now “on a knife’s edge” as dangers to its existence coalesce.

Guterres’s warning is due to be shown on a recorded video to be played on Friday morning at the annual meeting of the US Arms Control Association (ACA) in Washington.

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Joe Biden apologises to Zelenskiy for delay in US military support

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US president says sorry for ‘weeks of not knowing’, referring to members of Congress holding up $225m aid package

The US president, Joe Biden, has apologised publicly to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for the months of delay in American military assistance that allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield, and announced a further $225m (£177m) in military aid to Ukraine.

Meeting Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday, Biden told him: “You haven’t bowed down, you haven’t yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is … just remarkable. We are not going to walk away from you.”

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Biden and Macron use D-day event to emphasise support for Ukraine

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Leaders rally behind Zelenskiy to make clear to Putin that, as in 1944, freedom in Europe is worth fighting for

Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron have marked the 80th anniversary of D-day with a rallying cry for support for Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskiy was embraced by western leaders in Normandy.

The US president used his address at the American commemorative event to send a message to Moscow that the US and its allies “will not bow down” and will “stand for freedom”.

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D-day 80th anniversary comes at time of conflict and growing carelessness

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As grim memory of world war fades, many people are anxious amid rise of nationalist, country-first rhetoric

Twenty-two British D-day veterans, the youngest nearly 100, crossed the Channel on Tuesday to mark this week’s 80th anniversary of the landings in Normandy, representing a thinning thread to the heroics of two or three generations ago when about 150,000 allied soldiers began a seaborne invasion of western Europe that helped end the second world war.

Ron Hayward, a tank trooper who lost his legs fighting in France three weeks after D-day, told crowds assembled in Portsmouth on Wednesday why he and other soldiers were there: “I represent the men and women who put their lives on hold to go and fight for democracy and this country. I am here to honour their memory and their legacy, and to ensure that their story is never forgotten.”

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Russia to send combat vessels to Caribbean to project ‘global power’, US official says

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Naval exercises spurred by US support for Ukraine are likely to include port calls in Cuba and Venezuela, says official

Russia plans to send combat vessels into the Caribbean region this summer as part of naval exercises that will probably include port calls in Cuba and possibly stops in Venezuela, a senior US official said on Wednesday.

“As part of Russia’s regular military exercises, we anticipate that this summer, Russia will conduct heightened naval and air activity near the United States. These actions will culminate in a global Russian naval exercise this fall,” the official said.

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Putin says Trump conviction ‘burns’ idea of US as leading democracy

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Russia expert warned Putin would see verdict as chance to undermine US’s global influence and boost his own standing

Vladimir Putin has described the recent criminal conviction of Donald Trump as politically motivated and claimed that it had “burned” the idea that the US was a leading democracy.

Trump last week became the first former US head of state ever convicted of a felony crime after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 charges over efforts to conceal a sexual liaison with an adult film actor, Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

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French military instructors in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate target’, Russia says

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Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov makes statement after permission given by Kyiv for trainers to come from France to support its troops

Any French military instructors in Ukraine would be a “legitimate target” for Russian armed forces, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Tuesday during a tour of Africa, where frustration with the west has swayed several countries toward Moscow.

Lavrov made the remarks at joint news conference with the Republic of Congo’s foreign minister, Jean Claude Gakosso.

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Owner of UK national lottery operator to sever ties with Gazprom

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Allwyn parent company says deal to buy 3% stake in Czech gas facility will cut final link with Kremlin-controlled energy firm

The billionaire owner of Allwyn, the company that runs the national lottery, will sever his last remaining ties with Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom by the end of June, more than two years after winning the UK’s largest public sector contract.

The Czech tycoon Karel Komárek, who owns Allwyn via his Switzerland-based holding company KKCG, has faced scrutiny over his links to Russia since wresting control of the 10-year licence to operate the lottery from Camelot in 2022.

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Disinformation crisis unit on rapid alert around European elections

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EU officials anticipate ‘narratives questioning the legitimacy of the elections’ for weeks afterwards

Debunking, prebunking and factchecking; correcting lies, fake news and race hate – battling disinformation before this week’s European elections has become a high-stakes, full-time job for hundreds of staff across the continent.

EU leaders are so concerned over foreign interference in the polls, due to take place from Thursday to Sunday, that they have put rapid alert teams on notice to swing into action in the event of a serious incident. Officials say the quantity of disinformation has reached “tsunami levels” – but political leaders have been the slowest to catch on.

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Russian interference suspected after coffins draped with tricolour placed at Eiffel Tower

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Three men charged after five coffins inscribed with ‘French soldiers in the Ukraine’ were left at tower

French police are investigating whether the placing of five full-sized coffins covered with the French tricolour at the Eiffel Tower at the weekend was another act of Russian interference.

Three men were formally put under investigation on Monday – the equivalent of being charged – in connection with the coffins, each of which was inscribed with “French soldiers in the Ukraine”.

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Revealed: Russian legal foundation linked to Kremlin activities in Europe

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Exclusive: Leaked internal documents show Pravfond has spent millions of euros to finance propaganda and legal campaigns

Leaked internal documents have exposed the activities of a Russian state-backed legal defence foundation that European intelligence agencies and analysts say is in fact a Kremlin influence operation active in 48 countries across Europe and around the world.

Internal documents from the Fund for Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad (Pravfond) indicate that the foundation finances propaganda websites targeted at Europeans, helped pay for the legal defence of the convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout and the assassin Vadim Krasikov, and has employed a number of former intelligence officers as the directors of its operations in European countries.

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Zelenskiy accuses China of deterring countries from going to peace summit

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Ukrainian president says Beijing is supporting efforts by Moscow to warn leaders off attending Swiss meeting

Volodomyr Zelenskiy has accused China of discouraging other countries from attending a peace summit in Switzerland later this month that is aimed at bringing peace to war-ravaged Ukraine.

Speaking at Asia’s biggest security conference, the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore, the Ukrainian president sought to rally support among Asia-Pacific nations, urging them to attend the Swiss meeting.

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Russia-Ukraine war: energy facilities hit across Ukraine in overnight strikes – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy has now arrived in Singapore for the annual Shangri-La security summit, where he will address delegates tomorrow.

He is expected to hold talks with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other leaders attending the conference, seeking support for a “peace summit” this month in Switzerland.

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Moscow decries US move to allow its weapons to be used on targets in Russia

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Senior officials say decision marks serious escalation and their threat to use tactical nuclear weapons is not a bluff

The Kremlin has said Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons against targets in Russia demonstrates Washington’s deep involvement in the conflict, as some of Vladimir Putin’s allies increased their nuclear threats against the west.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Friday that Moscow was already aware of attempts by Ukraine to strike targets on Russian territory with weapons provided by the US.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow troop build-up near Kharkiv ‘still not enough for large-scale offensive’ – as it happened

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Ukraine’s top commander says enemy sending reinforcements to area but lacks numbers for a major push

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday it was finalising a proposal for “retaliatory measures” against the EU over the bloc’s ban on the broadcast of four Russian media outlets on its territory.

The EU said earlier this month it was suspending the distribution of the Voice of Europe, the RIA Novosti news agency and the Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspapers.

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