Category Archives: Russia

Biden official says more sanctions are needed to counter Russia war economy

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Daleep Singh said that sanctioning third parties that trade with Russia is needed, in addition to seizing assets for Ukraine

Russia’s shift towards a full-fledged war economy requires the west to extend its sanctions policy, including by sanctioning third-party entities that trade with Moscow, a senior White House official signalled on Tuesday.

Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, said the United States would consider export controls to prevent China-Russia trade that threatens American security and take further action to increase the cost of Russia using a shadow fleet to evade the G7 countries’ oil price cap.

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Georgian parliament overrides veto by president on ‘foreign influence’ law

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Salome Zourabichvili addresses protesters outside parliament by video link, urging them to mobilise against ‘Russian slavery’

Georgia’s parliament has voted to override a presidential veto on the controversial “foreign influence” law, a move that is poised to derail the EU aspirations of many Georgians in favour of closer ties with Moscow.

The divisive bill, which requires civil society organisations and media that receive more than 20% of their revenues from abroad to register as “organisations serving the interests of a foreign power”, was approved by the parliament earlier this month.

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Spain to give Ukraine €1bn in military aid in decade-long defence deal

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Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister, says the funding will improve Kyiv’s air defences, just days after Russia killed 18 people in Kharkiv

Spain will provide Ukraine with €1bn in military aid this year after the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, met in Madrid to sign an “enormously important”, decade-long defence and security deal.

Although the precise details of the agreement have not been made public, the Spanish government said its assistance would “allow Ukraine to prioritise its capacities, including its air defences”.

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‘Putin’s patience snapped’: Insiders marvel at Russia’s military purge

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Under new defence minister Andrei Belousov, FSB is tackling corruption aggressively with serious implications for Ukraine

In the weeks since Vladimir Putin sacked his longtime defence minister Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s FSB security service has pursued a series of high-level corruption cases against a deputy minister and department heads in what many insiders are now calling a purge in the defence ministry.

Andrei Belousov, the technocrat economist appointed to replace Shoigu, has a mandate to reduce corruption in the defence ministry and streamline military production for a long war against Ukraine that could largely be decided by industrial output.

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Lithuania President Nausėda wins landslide re-election in vote shaped by Russia fears

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Incumbent, who beat challenge from prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė, says Lithuania’s independence a ‘fragile vessel that we must cherish’

Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda has won re-election, official results showed, in a vote marked by defence concerns over neighbouring Russia.

The count published by the electoral commission showed that Nausėda won 74.6% of votes with 90% of ballots counted after polls closed on Sunday in the second-round vote.

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Zelenskiy calls on world leaders to attend Ukraine ‘peace summit’ after deadly Kharkiv strike

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Ukraine president urges Joe Biden and Xi Jinping to ‘show your leadership’ and send message to Moscow

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has released a desperate video plea calling on world leaders to attend a “peace summit” next month in Switzerland after a deadly Russian attack on a DIY hypermarket in Kharkiv on Saturday killed at least 16people and injured dozens more.

Zelenskiy appealed in particular to the US president, Joe Biden, and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to attend the summit, which is due to start on 15 June. “Please, show your leadership in advancing the peace – the real peace and not just a pause between the strikes,” said Zelenskiy in English.

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Russian strikes on Kharkiv supermarket kill six and injure 40

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Dozens also injured after guided bombs hit residential area, in attack Zelenskiy says is ‘terrorism’

Russian strikes on a crowded DIY hardware store and a residential area in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv killed at least six people and injured 40 on Saturday, local officials said.

Four people were killed after two guided bombs hit the DIY hypermarket in a residential area of the city, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on national television, while 40 people were injured in the attack and 16 still unaccounted for.

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Hopes grow of G7 deal to support Ukraine with $300bn in frozen Russian assets

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Foreign ministers confident of agreement to use bank assets as security for Ukraine reconstruction loan

Hopes of a multi-country deal to use $300bn of Russian state assets frozen in the European banking system to support Ukraine have grown after it emerged that G7 ministers were confident of overcoming technical and political obstacles at a meeting in northern Italy on Saturday.

The Canadian finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, said she was optimistic that G7 leaders would reach an agreement, as support coalesced around a plan to use frozen Russian central bank assets as security for a $50bn (£39bn) loan.

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Polish foreign minister calls for long-term rearmament of Europe

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Exclusive: Radosław Sikorski also says he favours deepest possible inclusion of UK in EU defence structures

A long-term rearmament of Europe, in which the UK can play the closest possible role, is necessary to defeat Russian imperial ambitions, Poland’s foreign minister has said.

Radosław Sikorski also called for majority voting for EU sanctions and a 5,000-strong EU mechanised brigade, and said Poland was willing to back an EU-wide scheme to incentivise Ukrainian draft dodgers to return to their homeland.

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Russia denies Trump’s claim he can free US journalist if he wins election

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Spokesman says ‘there aren’t any contacts’ with former president regarding Evan Gershkovich’s release from Russia

Donald Trump boasted on Thursday he would quickly free jailed US journalist Evan Gershkovich from Russia if he wins the presidential election, but Moscow denied discussing the case with the Republican candidate.

The former president, who has frequently voiced admiration for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and has voiced skepticism over US support for Ukraine, said the Moscow strongman “will do that for me, but not for anyone else”.

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US challenges British claim China is sending ‘lethal aid’ to Russia

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UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, made claim as Russia begins fresh offensive in north-east of Ukraine with strikes on Kharkiv

Joe Biden’s administration has challenged a claim by the British defence secretary, Grant Shapps, that China is sending “lethal aid” to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.

Speaking on Wednesday, Shapps cited “new intelligence” that suggested Beijing was giving Moscow deadly “combat equipment” for the first time. On Thursday, the Ministry of Defence in London said it would not give further details.

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Inside Kharkiv as Russia advances | podcast

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Shaun Walker reports on Russia’s recent offensive in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine

“We were taking a stroll in Shevchenko Park, which is in the centre of Kharkiv. It was a really nice warm, sunny day. People were sitting outside chatting and drinking coffees.”

Shaun Walker, the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent, was walking around a park in Kharkiv, Ukraine, when he heard an explosion in the distance.

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Russia begins tactical nuclear weapon drills near Ukraine border

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Vladimir Putin announced the exercises earlier this month ‘as a warning to the west not to escalate tensions further’

Russian forces have started military drills near Ukraine simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons in response to what Moscow deems threats from western officials about increased involvement in the conflict.

Vladimir Putin ordered the drills earlier this month in a move Russian officials said was a warning to the west not to escalate tensions further.

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Georgia’s ‘foreign agents’ law could be dropped in return for US support bill

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Draft bill tabled in Congress would open talks on trade deal with Georgia in return for commitments on civil rights

A “foreign agents” law in Georgia that has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters on to the streets of Tbilisi could be dropped in return for a package of economic and security support from Washington, the ruling party has hinted.

In response to a draft bill tabled in the US Congress that would open up talks on a trade deal in return for fresh commitments on civil rights, the governing Georgian Dream party said it would need to see progress on such promises within a year.

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UK and Finland discuss further efforts to stop Russia’s shadow oil fleet

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Third parties could be required to do more to block tankers from operating in Baltic and the Channel

Britain and Finland are discussing plans to require third parties to do more to block the Russian shadow oil tanker fleet operating in the Baltic and the Channel, the Finnish foreign minister has said.

The waters around Finland act as a key choke point for the estimated 100 Russian-bought oil tankers that navigate the Baltic monthly using opaque ownership structures to carry 90m tonnes of oil.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russia to make further bid to carve out ‘buffer zone’ in coming weeks, warns US defence secretary – as it happened

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Lloyd Austin, speaking at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, praises troops’ courage in ‘hard and dangerous fight’. This live blog has closed

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, the Russian state news Tass agency reported on Monday.

It said the ministers were meeting to discuss the implementation of Russian-Chinese agreements reached during Vladimir Putin’s state visit to China last week, and events in Iran, whose president and foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

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Suspect in court as Putin’s friends capitalise on shooting of Slovakian PM Robert Fico

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Media is barred from hearing as 71-year-old man appears in closed session over attempted assassination of prime minister

The suspect in the shooting of Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico appeared in a closed court hearing on Saturday outside Bratislava amid growing fears about the future of the deeply divided nation.

The media was barred from the hearing, and reporters were kept behind a gate by armed police officers wearing balaclavas.

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Disappearing ink, fake polls and voter fraud: EU fears as Russian propaganda ads target Euro elections

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Researcher uncovers vast Facebook campaign and accuses Meta of ‘lack of willingness’ to counter it

The stories are doom-laden, laced with vitriolic sneers about Emmanuel Macron, Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Ursula von der Leyen. Ukrainians are “ready to depose” their leader, Macron is breaking French “rules” with aid to Ukraine, an “uncontrolled influx” from the east is “seriously harming the Germans”.

According to new research, these are just a few examples of a vast pro-Russian propaganda campaign washing over Facebook accounts of French and German citizens, before the European parliament elections next month.

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Zelenskiy says situation in Kharkiv under control but he fears second Russian attack

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Ukraine’s president says air defences must quadruple to halt Russian advance as morale falls among troops

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he expects Russia to step up its offensive in the north-east and warned Kyiv has only a quarter of the air defences it needs to hold the front line.

Russian forces, which had made only moderate advances in recent months, launched a surprise assault in Kharkiv region on 10 May that has resulted in their biggest territorial gains in a year-and-a-half.

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