Putin's Russia is a mess. The Ukraine invasion is just the latest evidence of a decaying nation.
The same is true of Belarus, which Russia must periodically reinforce to keep President Alexander Lukashenko in power. Russia’s population is shrinking in part due to a fertility rate of 1.8 children per woman, well below the level of 2.1 required to stabilize the population. Even without the constant rumors about Putin’s deteriorating health, it is hard to believe the shaky edifice over which he presides will last much longer. Such ties have little resemblance to alliances such as NATO, where participation is voluntary and leaders are democratically elected. The German news agency DW reports that hundreds of thousands of Russians have emigrated since the war began, constituting “the largest exodus since the October Revolution.” The emigrants tend to be drawn from academic, tech and other knowledge fields, meaning the ongoing exodus is a significant brain drain. It sustains a menagerie of client states that fall into one of two categories: adjacent dictatorships once part of the Soviet Union, and more distant authoritarian regimes such as Cuba and Syria. All of these relations cost Russia money, particularly in terms of propping up their shaky leaders. Whatever the security benefits of these relations might be, they contribute little or nothing to Russia’s economy. Like the U.S., Russia had been benefiting from immigration to maintain its population levels, but that has fallen off due to a lack of economic opportunities. The country’s exports are heavily concentrated in fossil fuels at a time when the world is switching to renewables. Russia has some of the worst demographic trends in the industrialized world. The CIA’s World Factbook ranks it 156th out of 226 countries at an average of 72.4 years (just below Moldova). Most industrialized countries, including the U.S., average in the low-to-mid 80s in terms of longevity. Since Putin resumed his role as president in 2012, its annual growth rate has averaged only 1.35%, so the country remains firmly anchored among the ranks of middle-income nations.
The United States pressed NATO allies to ramp up military support for Ukraine after Russia warned the threat of World War III was "real."
“Our sincere apologies for making a mistake in the previous version of the video. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces early in the war and its residents took to the streets in protest against the occupation. Lavrov said the weapons shipments “will be a legitimate target,” adding that Russian forces had already targeted weapons warehouses in western Ukraine. He accused Ukrainian leaders of provoking Russia by asking NATO to become involved in the conflict. It comes just a day after several explosions believed to be caused by rocket-propelled grenades were reported to hit the ministry of state security in the city of Tiraspol, the region’s capital. During the call, Erdogan mentioned the importance of a cease-fire, humanitarian corridors and safe evacuations, according to the statement. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said three people died after Russian shells hit a residential building in the city of Popasna, which Russian forces have been trying to capture. “We have to move at the speed of war,” he said. Putin last week declared victory in Mariupol and ordered Russian troops not to storm the steel plant. The embassy tweeted that Tuesday's trip was "a first step ahead of more regular travel in the immediate future." It caused almost $1 billion in damage to three U.S. companies, including a Pennsylvania hospital system, alone, according to the Justice Department. “It is visible that there is damage, and we are assessing that because our job is to give precise information,” Grossi said.
A roundup of key developments and the latest in-depth coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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United Nations: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, called for the establishment of safe and ...
Transnistria, a narrow strip of land bordering Ukraine, was carved out of Moldova in the country’s 1992 civil war and is held by pro-Russian separatists. Poland and other European nations rejected the demand. Bulgaria gets more than 75% of its gas from Russia and has few immediate options to replace that supply. Mondelez earlier this month was still promoting “The Batman” Oreo cookies, with a chance for Russians to win thousands of U.S. dollars in a related contest online. Earlier this year, Congress approved $13.6 billion in military, humanitarian and economic aid to Ukraine as part of a broader spending bill. The company estimates that will lower its earnings by three cents per share this year. In March, Mondelez’s two Ukrainian factories were significantly damaged, the company said, and the war has increased its costs related to making and selling its snacks. Mondelez said it would discontinue new capital investments and suspend advertising media spending. But exports hit a snag in recent days when Rosneft Oil Co. struggled to find buyers for enough oil to fill a fleet of tankers, traders familiar with the sale said. Mr. Abramovich has become the highest-profile member of the oligarch class in recent weeks. Many U.S. allies left oil and gas shipments out of their harshest sanctions on Russia. Importers in India and elsewhere swooped in to buy cheap Russian barrels at a time of rocketing energy prices. Mr. Guterres travels to Kyiv on Thursday.
Russia has said that the threat of a nuclear war is very significant, as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed the risks should not be underestimated. However ...
We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it cannot do the kinds of things it has done in invading Ukraine," Austin told the press. In terms of our — their ability to win, the first step in winning is believing that you can win. Heappey also appeared to emphasize that the West was not responsible for these attacks, despite providing Ukraine with weapons that have the range to reach Russian territory. "It is simply wrong to go first to Russia," Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy told press on Saturday. "There is no justice and no logic in this order. I don't think that right now there is an imminent threat of escalation," James Heappey told the BBC Breakfast program on Tuesday. Kuleba said that the war would be over sooner if allies sent more weapons to Ukraine and imposed additional sanctions on Russian oil and gas. Simson did not specify exactly what the sanctions would target, though the EU has come under pressure for its continued buying of Russian energy resources, providing Moscow with billions in revenues every week. "The visit was a first step ahead of more regular travel in the immediate future," the embassy said. "The human impact and the suffering already caused by this war are staggering. Russia has said that the threat of a nuclear war is very significant, as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed the risks should not be underestimated. "Nobody wants to see a nuclear war that nobody can win at. According to Turkey, Erdogan emphasized how important it was for Russia and Ukraine to continue high level talks like those that Erdogan hosted in Istanbul last month.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict: There has been much speculation with several health experts analysing Putin's body language and the way he has addressed public ...
The New York Post has even reported that the Russian President looked noticeably bloated when he posed for photographs at an awards ceremony for the country's Olympic athletes. Experts believe he has done this to enhance his “tough guy” image and to prevent his advancing age from betraying that representation, according to news.com.au. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shone a spotlight on President Vladimir Putin's personal life with several news outlets attempting to analyse the long time Russian head of state's health.
Gazprom says it has suspended gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria over their refusal to pay in Russian roubles.
The statue depicted a Ukrainian and Russian worker on a plinth, holding aloft together a Soviet order of friendship. Bulgaria said it has taken steps to find alternative gas supplies and no restrictions on gas consumption were required for now. “If Putin succeeds there will be untold further misery across Europe and terrible consequences across the globe. So we must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine,” she will say according to advance extracts of a speech she will give later on Wednesday to diplomats and business leaders in London. This is consistent with earlier reports that the airbase at #Tiraspolwas likely preparing for Russian aircraft on April 6 and 7. We now see what this ‘friendship’ is – destruction of Ukrainian cities, ruining the lives of Ukrainians, killing tens of thousands of peaceful people. Poland is on the list of unfriendly countries,” TASS reported. “We want the facility to be ready in 2025, we are speeding this up. “Our forces defeated hostile positions on Zmiinyi Island. A hit on the control point was recorded, the destruction of the Strela-10 anti-aircraft missile system. “They apparently did it to prevent the possibility of deploying our forces there. “He really believes in this Soviet myth. That they could organise a paratrooper operation there,” Oleksiy Arestovich said in televised remark.
The Kremlin's move to cut off natural gas shipments to Bulgaria and Poland was a blow to Europe, which relies on Russia for much of its energy.
And that’s the best way to address that.” The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Russia is focusing most of its air activity on southern and eastern Ukraine, providing support to ground forces, the British defense officials said. The suspension will last from Wednesday “until the payments are made” in rubles, Gazprom said. Russian shelling and airstrikes devastated residential areas, causing fires and severe damage to homes and prompting evacuations, Haidai wrote Wednesday. He accused Russian forces of aiming at housing stock and reported that at least two people were killed, including a 68-year-old man whose yard was shelled. “I think he’s got a lot of room for maneuver.” The site’s loss could disrupt vital oil supplies to the Ukraine war’s northeastern front, where Russian troops are pressing ahead with an attempt to seize territory in the Donbas region. It is the first supply disruption since Russian President Vladimir Putin said “unfriendly countries” would have to pay for natural gas in rubles instead of other currencies. The governor didn’t speculate on the possible cause of the fire. I appeal to Russia’s soldiers & their superiors to put an end to their violence. “This is unjustified and unacceptable.” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, called the explosions that were reported overnight in three regions of Russia “karma” — without claiming responsibility — and suggested they may even have been a “divine intervention.” Russian media, citing local officials, said explosions were reported in the Belgorod, Voronezh and Kursk regions, although the claims could not be independently verified.
Countries around the world are stepping up to meet Ukraine's urgent needs, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. Ukraine updates.
Asked for his assessment of what’s happening in Russia, Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s propaganda system is hard to penetrate, but citizens are increasingly feeling the effects of sanctions. He said Ukrainians won the battle for Kyiv and the city is coming back to life. Heappey said the likelihood of nuclear war is "vanishingly small" since it would not be in the best interests of any country. “It's impossible not to be moved by what the Ukrainians have achieved.” Ukraine has the right to use Western-provided weapons to strike military targets on Russian soil, U.K. Defense Minister James Heappey said. That's what really worries a lot of people," said Olena Khorenjenko, 33, a Ukrainian refugee who fled to Moldova and is familiar with Transnistria. The level of support is the highest that Gallup has ever found in a survey about various refugee situations, dating back to 1939. "Ukraine’s defense of Mariupol has also exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness," the British assessment says. Russian forces control most of the city; holdouts are centered in and around the sprawling Azovstal steel plant. Before 2022, the highest level of support for refugees entering the U.S. was for allowing "several hundred ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo" in 1999, when 66% approved. Austin said Germany, which had balked at providing heavy weaponry to Ukraine, has agreed to send 50 anti-aircraft weapons to the embattled nation now in its third month of a grueling war against Russia's invading forces. He said meetings similar to the one Tuesday will be held once a month, either virtually or in person.
Ukraine condemns Russia's 'gas blackmail' as Poland, Bulgaria say Gazprom is set to cut their gas supplies on Wednesday.
Warsaw said this week that it too was sending weaponry to Ukraine’s army in the form of tanks. It has supported sanctions against Russia and sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine but has been hesitant to provide military aid. Several years ago, Poland opened its first terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Swinoujscie on the Baltic Sea coast, and later this year, a pipeline from Norway is to become operational. Before the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Europe received about 40 percent of its gas from Russia, mainly for residential heating, electrical generation and the fuel industry, with Germany particularly dependent on it. Only Hungary has agreed to do so, with other countries rejecting the demand as an unacceptable one-sided breach of contracts and a violation of sanctions. Putin’s demand was apparently intended to help bolster the Russian currency against Western sanctions.
Get the latest updates here. Fighting. Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces were pressing their offensive in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions and they had ...
Ukraine is the world’s fifth-biggest exporter of wheat. - Russian President Vladimir Putinagreed“in principle” to UN and International Committee of the Red Cross involvement in the evacuation of civilians from a besieged steel plant in Ukraine’s southern city of Mariupol, the United Nations said. - Ukrainian authorities dismantled a Soviet-era monument in the centre of Kyiv meant to symbolise friendship between Russia and Ukraine, a response to Moscow’s invasion, according to the city’s mayor.
Polish PM says his country will 'deal with this blackmail' after Russia halts supply of gas; 287 British MPs 'closed from entering Russian Federation'
Kazakhstan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic, has so far not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but has called for the crisis to be resolved in line with the United Nations charter. - US secretary of state Antony Blinken told Congress that the US is working on reopening its embassy inUkraine. “I think this will play out over the next few weeks,” he said. - A Ukrainian commander in the besieged city of Mariupol said there are more than 600 injured civilians and fighters in the Azovstal steel works. The money will come from the agriculture department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). “About 2,500km of roads and almost 300 bridges have been ruined or damaged.” - Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Russia’s actions as amounting to “energy blackmail” against Europe in his nightly nationaladdress. US President Joe Biden saidnegotiations for the release of Trevor Reed, 30,“required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly”. They will not continue to rise if they do not play by the rules. - Truss singled out China, demanding it “play by the rules”. “China is not impervious. But my view, is that inaction would be the greatest provocation,” she said. “We’ve got to double down on our support for Ukraine,” she said. “This new humanitarian parole program will complement the existing legal pathways available to Ukrainians, including immigrant visas and refugee processing.
Russia halts gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria; Volodymyr Zelenskiy accuses Moscow of seeking to destabilise Moldova region.
Lambrecht said the government has agreed to sign off the delivery of around 50 Gepard anti-aircraft weapons systems. Germany willauthorise the delivery of 50 anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine, the German defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, said. “We must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine. “The goal is obvious – to destabilise the situation in the region, to threaten Moldova. They show that if Moldova supports Ukraine, there will be certain steps,” Zelenskiy said in his latest national address. Russia will stop supplying gas to Poland and Bulgaria from Wednesday.Warsaw has refused to pay its supplier, Gazprom, in roublesand earlier announced that it was imposing sanctions on 50 entities and individuals including Russia’s biggest gas company. Russia’s defence ministry warned of an immediate “proportional response” if Britain continues its “direct provocation” of the Kyiv regime, after the UK armed forces minister, James Heappey,described Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil that hit supplies and disrupt logistics as “completely legitimate”.
Russian defense officials said their air force hit 59 military facilities in Ukraine overnight, while Russian air-defense systems shot down 18 Ukrainian drones ...
Russia committed to removing the munitions and its estimated 1,500 troops in Transnistria at a 1999 summit in Istanbul of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe but has never done so, citing security concerns of Russian-speaking people in Transnistria. Cobasna, on the eastern edge of the strip of Moldovan territory claimed by pro-Russian Transnistria, is the site of a huge ammunition depot established in the 1940s by the Soviet Union. The weapons stash, often characterized as the largest in Europe, has been a focus of decades of international efforts to resolve the standoff in Moldova. No casualties were reported in any of the incidents.
By providing arms but avoiding military intervention western leaders are prolonging this hideous conflict, says former BBC Moscow correspondent Angus ...
For Ukraine’s sake, we need to stop him now, one way or the other, before nothing is left of the country we want to protect. Encouraging the Ukrainians to continue, however just their cause, is merely making their country uninhabitable. If Russia’s aim was to exterminate the Ukrainian nation, then the west’s approach is helping to do just that. If Russia continues to suffer “defeats” at this pace, then in another two months the entire south of Ukraine will be in ruins, cities such as Odesa will resemble Mariupol, and thousands upon thousands more Ukrainians will have died. Yet the west’s current approach of supporting Ukraine’s war aim of defeating the aggressor, and providing arms for that purpose while pointedly avoiding direct military intervention, is guaranteed to prolong the war. It follows that supporting Ukraine is the right thing to do.
Vladimir Putin has warned the West that he will use nuclear weapons if any other country intervenes in his war in Ukraine.
Since the initial shock of 24 February, the war in Ukraine has acquired a deceptive stability for those lucky enough to be viewing it from a distance. We would like to assure you that the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not wish harm on peaceful residents but those who stay in town will be considered members of sabotage groups and will be eliminated with no prior warning.” And the Foreign Secretary is right about that." The opportunity for strategic surprise seems to have passed. The Justice Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I certainly don't think we should be... Almost imperceptibly, the Russians have conceded escalation dominance to Nato. "We will continue our work to expand humanitarian support and secure the evacuation of civilians from conflict zones. We stand with the people of Ukraine.” Russia’s immediate intentions are clear to the world, not just to the Ukrainians. But one big strategic shift has occurred. The other is in nearby Lysychansk. As stories of mobile crematoria and abandoned corpses leak back into Russia from the front, young men appear increasingly unwilling to sacrifice themselves. The footage could not immediately be independently verified.
In an address to the Council of Legislators in St Petersburg, the Russian leader said his response to any threats will be "lightning-fast" and deadly, ...
Previously, gas payments from Bulgaria and Poland have been made in euros. "Today, our prayers have been answered and Trevor is safely on his way back to the United States," his parents, Joey and Paula, and his sister, Taylor, said in a statement. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said continual deliveries of supplies and weaponry to Ukraine means the NATO alliance has positioned itself as "in essence engaged in war with Russia" and accused the organisation of "pouring oil on the fire". In an address to the Council of Legislators in St Petersburg, the Russian leader said "all the objectives will definitely be carried out" in the Ukraine war. In an address to the Council of Legislators in St Petersburg, the Russian leader said his response to any threats will be "lightning-fast" and deadly, adding that "all the objectives will definitely be carried out" in the conflict with Ukraine. He said what he called the "special military operation" in Ukraine would "guarantee the safety" of people in the Donbas and Crimea.
Russia has cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, targeting Europe's economy to pressure Ukraine's allies.
Bulgaria gets more than 90 percent of its gas from Russia, and officials have said they were working to find other sources, such as from Azerbaijan. The statement said the U.K. assesses Ukrainian forces pose a threat to Russian aircraft, but the ministry did not go into greater detail. And I was delighted to be able to share with them the good news about Trevor’s freedom,” Biden said in a statement. This followed Russian President Vladimir Putin's demand in March for European nations to pay for gas in rubles. “The Russian advances even in this area are proceeding methodically rather than rapidly,” said the report, released Monday evening. A massive fire also broke out this week at a fuel depot in nearby Bryansk. Ukraine didn’t confirm responsibility for the reported incidents on Russian territory. “His safe return is a testament to the priority my Administration places on bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad. The move was made to help boost Ukraine’s economy and its exports to the trading bloc of 27 nations after Russia’s invasion. “This is not blackmail," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday. "Russia has been and remains a reliable supplier of energy resources to its consumers. Europe is heavily reliant on Russian energy supplies and the halt ratcheted up the economic stakes in a standoff that is increasingly resembling the Cold War. “The satellite recorded the excavated trenches on the territory of the Staryi Krym cemetery. Vadim Boychenko, Mariupol's mayor, claimed in the same statement that Russian forces have enlisted locals to help with burials in exchange for supplies.
After failing to capture the capital Kyiv and northern Ukraine, Moscow focuses on completing its conquest of the south.
The city of Odesa looks like an especially coveted war trophy. “They will not succeed in anything. “If the Odesa region is not occupied, [Ukrainians] will cover the entire areas of the Black and Azov seas with new missiles,” Igor Strelkov, a former “defence minister” in separatist Donetsk, told the News.ru publication on April 22. A military analyst in Ukraine said even if the Russian landing in Transnistria does take place, it will not signify a change of the Kremlin’s military fortunes. Apart from the creation of the “land bridge”, Moscow wants to isolate the rest of Ukraine from the Black Sea and mobilise potential pro-Russian collaborators, Kyiv-based analyst Aleksey Kushch said. Kyiv, Ukraine – It took several cruise missiles to destroy a bridge that linked southwestern Ukraine with Romania – and stood hundreds of kilometres away from the front lines of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says there will be an "immediate" and "quick" response to countries that intervene in events in Ukraine. Follow live.
It has always been the case, so shall it be now," Mr Putin said. "Bulgaria's energy independence is very important. "I'm surprised. By Shiloh Payne By Shiloh Payne Others are now stepping up as well but we all need to go further," she said. By Shiloh Payne By Shiloh Payne By Shiloh Payne By Shiloh Payne By Shiloh Payne By Shiloh Payne
The Kremlin halted natural gas shipments to Poland and Bulgaria in its toughest response yet to European sanctions. Explosions inside Russia near the ...
Iulian Groza, the head of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, a research institution in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, said a Russian invasion of Moldova did not appear to be imminent. But an embargo on Russian gas has long been viewed as a Rubicon not to be crossed by the European Union because of how heavily reliant Germany and other countries are on it for heating and energy production. They met in Lviv with Ukrainian officials before returning to Poland for the night, a first step towards an eventual re-opening of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. Gazprom’s announcement on Tuesday that it would suspend natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria is not likely to have a major impact on the overall European gas market, analysts say. But it is unclear if Russian troops, who are facing fatigue and low morale after their defeats in central Ukraine, are “strong enough to accomplish such a task,” the report said. During one hearing, Mr. Reed said that the case against him was political and linked his troubles in Russia to his military affiliation. And while Germany in particular has resisted an embargo on Russian oil or gas because of the outsize costs to its industry, officials have recently reconsidered. The European Union has been drafting plans for an embargo on Russian oil but made no mention of it in the hours after Gazprom’s cutoff. Some analysts said it was likely that Russia, which has stationed thousands of troops in the Transnistria region, had staged the blasts as a pretext for further aggression against Ukraine. “In order to get through the winter without Russian gas, further work at full speed is needed,” said the official, Robert Habeck, who is Germany’s economic minister and vice chancellor. At the same time, a series of explosions across Ukraine’s borders raised the possibility that the war, now in its third month, might spread. The Kremlin halted natural gas shipments to Poland and Bulgaria in its toughest response yet to European sanctions.
Western nations' intervention in Ukraine will be met with a “lightning-quick” military response, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov called the suspension blackmail, adding: “We will not succumb to such a racket.” Russia claimed its missiles hit a batch of weapons that the United States and European nations had delivered to Ukraine. About 1,000 civilians were said to be taking shelter there with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders. “The countries that have historically tried to contain Russia don’t need a self-sufficient, massive country such as ours. Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence findings, said Russia has made slow progress in the Donbas region in the east with “minor gains”, including the capture of villages and small towns south of Izyum and on the outskirts of Rubizhne. The bellicose threat from Putin came as Russia claimed on Wednesday to have carried out a missile strike in southern Ukraine that destroyed a “large batch” of Western-supplied weapons.
Vladimir Putin warns against western intervention in Ukraine; Liz Truss says the war must be a 'catalyst for change'; António Guterres visits Kyiv.
A Ukrainian commander in the besieged city of Mariupol said there are more than 600 injured civilians and fighters in the Azovstal steel works. “More than 32m square metres of living space, more than 1,500 educational facilities and more than 350 medical facilities have been destroyed or damaged,” he added. Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Russia’s actions as amounting to “energy blackmail” against Europe in his nightly nationaladdress. “About 2,500km of roads and almost 300 bridges have been ruined or damaged.” But my view, is that inaction would be the greatest provocation,” she said. “We’ve got to double down on our support for Ukraine,” she said.
Europe's economy would struggle without Russian natural gas, with analysts at Moody's saying that a total energy cutoff — gas and oil — would throw the ...
The aim is to cut use of Russian gas by two-thirds by the end of the year and completely by 2027. The war has meant a fast reassessment of decades of energy policy in which cheap gas from Russia supported Europe’s economy. If Putin was looking for a pretext to cut off countries that have supported Ukraine, this could serve that function. The economic motives for demanding roubles aren’t clear because Gazprom already has to sell 80 per cent of its foreign earnings for roubles, so the boost to Russia’s currency could be minimal. Under the new payment system, the Kremlin has said importers would have to establish an account in dollars or euros at Russia’s third-largest bank, Gazprombank, then a second account in rouble. European leaders say natural gas contracts spell out payment in euros or dollars and that can’t be suddenly changed by one side.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is in Kyiv after his visit to Moscow where he met the Russian president Vladimir Putin. "I have arrived in ...
Latvia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia are shown to depend heavily on Russian gas imports US secretary of state Antony Blinken said India and Russia became partners of choice out of necessity when the United States was not in a position to be New Delhi's partner. Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom has cut off natural gas to two North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries- Poland and Bulgaria, as the war in Ukraine entered the third month. - Apr 28, 2022 07:56 AM IST Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of lightning-fast retaliation if countries interfere in Ukraine as European leaders accused Russia of "blackmail" over its cuts to gas supplies, Reuters reported. Middle Eastern petrostates are helping Europe make up for a drop in diesel supplies from Russia, Bloomberg reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that any country interfering in Ukraine would be met with a "lightning-fast" response from Moscow.
Russia's war on Ukraine is following this pattern. Given Russian President Vladimir Putin's vicious assault on civilians, it will mean many more Ukrainian dead and almost inevitably more atrocities and war crimes. But the conflict's reverberations are widening in a way that will leave few people on Earth -- from small-town America to poverty-stricken Africa -- untouched.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has warned the West of a "lightning fast" response to any country intervening in the war in Ukraine.
Such instruments that no one can boast of ... and we're going to use them if we have to. Truss' comments come at a time when tensions between Western nations and Russia have risen significantly, with President Vladimir Putin warning that Russia will retaliate against any intervention in the Ukraine war. "The Europeans have, I think, genuinely ambitious plans to move away from this reliance on Russian energy. Gas is a bigger challenge," he added. We have all instruments for that. "I want to stress once more, the special military operation in the Ukraine and Donbas, which started in February, all the objectives will be definitely carried out to guarantee the security of people in the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, the Russian Crimea and all our country," Putin said before Russia's Council of Legislators in St Petersburg. The latest military aid package of $800 million, which is the eighth installment of aid, comes after eight weeks of war and as Russian forces prepare for a renewed fight in the east and south of Ukraine. The fate of Ukraine is hanging in the balance and Western allies must "double down" on their support for the country to ensure Putin fails in Ukraine, the U.K.'s foreign secretary said Wednesday. "I think you are likely to see in the coming weeks further progress on the oil side of the equation in terms of Russian imports. "Ukraine's victory is a strategic imperative for us all," Liz Truss said in a speech in London last night, as she argued the Group of Seven industrialized nations and their allies need to maintain pressure on Russia through tougher sanctions, including "cutting off oil and gas imports once and for all," providing further military aid, and continued humanitarian support. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has warned the West of a "lightning fast" response to any country intervening in the Ukraine war and creating "strategic threats for Russia." "We have all the instruments [to respond] that no one can boast of ... we're going to use them if we have to," he said, in what has widely been seen as an allusion to Russia's arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
Ukraine's Zelensky, who hosts the U.N. secretary general on Thursday, called Russia's suspension of gas deliveries to two E.U. countries “blackmail.”
The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Mariupol: The United Nations said this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed “in principle” to allow international groups to help evacuate civilians from this wrecked port city. Kherson: Ukrainian leaders said Russian forces used tear gas to break up protesters Wednesday in this occupied southern city. Northwest of Kharkiv, the Sumy region bordering Russia has also suffered shelling for several days, an official said. “Virtually the entire territory of Luhansk” was shelled Tuesday in attacks that set homes on fire, Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova said. “Cyber operations can’t win wars,” Jacquelyn Schneider, a researcher at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, told The Post’s Joseph Marks. “And they don’t start wars either. The technology company said it has helped Ukraine identify threats and on Wednesday released its report detailing alleged Russian activities. And the evidence of this criminality is mounting daily,” Van Schaack said. The episode shows that Russia’s alleged war crimes are not isolated events carried out by rogue individuals, Van Schaack said. China “will not continue to rise if they do not play by the rules,” Truss said. Russian troops have installed a pro-Moscow administration in Kherson, local officials said. The U.N. chief said he would persist with efforts to facilitate civilian evacuations.
President Joe Biden will ask Congress to fund a new Ukraine aid package after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of further retaliation following the ...
Kherson has been occupied by Russian forces since early in the war. In almost all directions, the Russian occupiers are exerting intense fire,” he said in an operational update. Administration officials earlier described the amount of the request as “massive” but would not provide a specific dollar amount. NBC News has not independently verified the allegation. Zelenskyy will hold talks with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in Kyiv on Thursday, after Guterres met with Putin earlier this week to promote diplomacy and efforts to evacuate civilians trapped in Mariupol. We exercise together,” Stoltenberg said.
President Biden is scheduled to deliver a speech on Thursday morning from the White House. Russia and the West are preparing for a protracted struggle, ...
“They brought destructive efforts, they brought espionage efforts, they brought all their best actors to focus on this,” said Tom Burt, who oversees Microsoft’s investigations into the biggest and most complex cyberattacks that are visible through its global networks. Mr. Niblett said a new expansion of NATO — just what Mr. Putin has been objecting to for the last two decades — would “make explicit the new front lines of the standoff with Russia.” Russia has its own handbook, episodically arguing that its goals go beyond “denazification” of Ukraine to the removal of NATO forces and weapons from allied countries that did not host either before 1997. The play, “Mama Po Skaipu,” or “Mother via Skype,” is based on stories by nearly a dozen Ukrainian writers, and it was a rare cultural event in a city now under regular air-raid alerts. But so far, the war has stayed largely within the geographical confines of Ukraine. The United States and its allies said their goal was to get Russia to withdraw its forces “irreversibly,” as Mr. Blinken put it, and respect Ukraine’s borders as they existed before the invasion. In the past three days, the American secretary of defense has called for an effort to degrade the capability of the Russian military so that it could not invade another country for years to come. “Putin is not willing to back down, nor are the Ukrainians, so there is more blood to come,” said Robin Niblett, the director of Chatham House, a British think tank. “This is a time when we need to mobilize the law and send it into battle,” Mr. Khan told the U.N. meeting. And a 85-year-old woman was killed after a hospital was targeted in the city of Severodonetsk. They will form a new ensemble, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, and make an 11-city tour of Europe and the United States in July and August, the orchestra announced this week. “But when we talk about war crimes, we cannot forget that the worst of crimes is war itself.” Maria Zakharova, the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, urged Kyiv and Western capitals to take seriously Russia’s statements “that further calls on Ukraine to strike Russian facilities would definitely lead to a tough response from Russia.”
Russia's military is advancing in efforts to seize territory in Ukraine's east, pushing south from the city of Izyum with the apparent aim of cutting off ...
Banks such as Credit Suisse Group AG have noted hundreds of millions of dollars in loan losses related to Russia, while cookie maker Mondelez International Inc. said the war had increased its costs for making and selling snacks. The Chicago-based burger chain reported net income of $1.1 billion for its quarter ended March 31, down 28% from last year’s period. The company said it incurred $127 million in costs in its first quarter related to the closure of its Russian market in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, with expenses coming from ongoing payment of staff salaries and unsold inventory.
Get the latest updates here. Fighting. Russia stepped up its assaults on eastern and southern Ukraine, Kyiv said, and President Vladimir Putin threatened ...
The United States has repeatedly warned Russian forces could launch “false-flag” operations to create a pretext for invading other countries. - Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksii Reznikov says the country has “extremely difficult weeks” ahead, warning of major “destruction” in a developing Russian offensive in the east of the country. - Russian forces attacked a huge steel plant where fighters and some civilians are holed up in the southern city of Mariupol, an aide to the city’s mayor says.
Russia Ukraine war has now entered day 64 with Vladimir Putin warning nations against interference in Moscow's actions in Kyiv or facing a "lightning-fast" ...
"In the case of India, there is a relationship that goes back decades. Notably, Brimstone missile 2 has a range of up to 37 miles with a diameter of 180mm and is equipped with a 6.3kg warhead that explodes in stages and can be fired from jets including the Tornado GR4, the Typhoon F2, and Reaper drones, as per The Times report. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has called for the countries of the world to "push" Russia out of whole Ukraine, denouncing its “appalling barbarism and war crimes” in the sovereign nation. Reasoning that New Delhi has maintained ties with Russia out of necessity as Washington was not in the position to do so earlier, Blinken said that US President utilised 'a lot of time engaging with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India's leadership'. Russian forces have shelled dozens of homes in the eastern Donbass region, officials in Donetsk said posting photographs of of the damaged homes in the region on teelgram. “This is fundamentally about the right of every nation in Europe to decide its own future. Authorities have also opened 170 investigations over the use of the ‘Z’ symbol that in some contexts is considered to be a show of support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Germany deems illegal. But if they decide to apply, Finland and Sweden will be warmly welcomed, and I expect the process to go quickly,” he told a conference on Thursday. Canadian MPs have passed a motion, officially recognizing Russia's atrocities in Ukraine as the "acts of genocide." German police have recorded more than 1,700 crimes in the country in connection with the war in Ukraine, most of them property damage and insults. Britain’s defense ministry says the Russian navy still has the ability to strike coastal targets in Ukraine, even after the losses of two warships. As several blasts resonated in the Russian regions, which latter blamed on the Ukraine's military, Ukrainian official described it as a payback and “karma” for its invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is failing so spectacularly, it's making him even more dangerous. Running out of ways to de-escalate while saving face, ...
"They plunder, they butcher, they ravish, and call it by the lying name of 'empire'," he said. "They make a desert and call it 'peace'." He could be a Ukrainian today, talking about the Russians. Even if Putin nominally avoids defeat, whatever victory he'll try to sell the Russian people will be nothing of the sort. The immediate goal is to build a Russian land bridge to connect Crimea, which he annexed in 2014, with the Donbas region now within his grasp. On the military side, Putin has already adjusted his war aims to get a bead on a new victim: Moldova. Unable to take all of Ukraine, he's focusing on controlling just its east and south. One example is the Azovstal steel factory at Mariupol, which Ukrainian troops are defending heroically, even as the surrounding city is reduced to rubble. His signal is that he could turn off the taps to other European countries. But it won't remove his bigger problem, which is the fact that his troops increasingly appear bogged down. To long-time observers of Putin, the narrative sounds all too familiar. In the past, he's compared himself to a cornered rat: rather than giving up, the rat attacks. He promised to reunite two populations - Russians and Ukrainians - whom he considers one people; instead, his atrocities have ensured that Ukrainians will forever feel distinct and hate Russia. He pledged to restore Russia to imperial greatness; instead, he's turned it into an international pariah. Running out of ways to de-escalate while saving face, he appears to think that he has no choice but to escalate.