Page 62 - Russia

Russian glide bomb strikes Ukrainian apartment building, 12 injured

A Russian glide bomb struck a five-story apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, injuring at least 12 people including a 3-year-old girl, local officials said Thursday. The bomb hit between the third and fourth floors of the building on Wednesday night, igniting blazes, Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Firefighters searched for survivors through smoke and rubble. The city of Kharkiv, located around 30 km (18 miles) from the Russian border, has been a frequent target of aerial attacks throughout the war against Russia that is now deep into its third year. Glide bombs have become an increasingly common weapon in the war. They have terrorised civilians and bludgeoned the Ukrainian army's front-line defences. They were a key weapon in Russia's capture of the tactically significant town of Vuhledar on Wednesday, as Russian forces wreak destruction on the eastern Donetsk region and force weary Ukrainian troops to withdraw from obliterated towns and ...

Putin allows criminal defendants to escape trial if they enlist in army

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law measures that allow defendants in criminal cases to avoid prosecution if they join the military. The measures, whose enacted versions appeared on a government website Wednesday, come as Russia's need for military manpower remains high in the more than 2 1/2-year-old conflict in Ukraine. The measures amend a section of the Russian criminal code that stated convicts could be released if they enlisted in the military, and that suspects whose cases are under investigation but not yet in court can be eligible to have their cases suspended. The new measures extend the suspension offer to those whose cases are in the trial stage. The legislation also allows for sentences or proceedings to be entirely cancelled if the enlistee is discharged for age or health reasons or with the end of martial law. Russia imposed martial law in October 2022, about six months after it sent troops into Ukraine. The intense and drawn-out fighting has straine

Four Russian journalists accused of working for Navalny group go on trial

Four Russian journalists went on trial in Moscow on Wednesday after being accused of working for an anti-corruption group founded by the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, which was designated by authorities as an extremist organisation in 2021. Antonina Favorskaya, Artyom Kriger, Sergey Karelin and Konstantin Gabov were arrested earlier this year and charged with involvement with an extremist group, a criminal offense punishable by up to six years in prison. All four have rejected the charges. The trial, which is being held behind closed doors, is the latest step in the Kremlin's unrelenting crackdown on dissent that has reached unprecedented levels after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. The authorities have targeted opposition figures, independent journalists, rights activists and ordinary Russians critical of the Kremlin with criminal and misdemeanour charges, jailing hundreds and prompting thousands to leave the country, fearing ...

Can't confirm report on nationalisation of energy companies: Kremlin

Russian authorities have repeatedly said they have no plans to de-privatise large companies, including oil and gas producers

India is communicating between Russia and Ukraine: EAM Jaishankar

India is communicating between Russia and Ukraine to help the two warring nations resolve their differences, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday. "I'm glad you used the word communication because I think at the moment perhaps (it) is the best description for what we are currently in terms of," he said in response to a question during his appearance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a top American think-tank. The minister was asked about India's role in dealing with Russia and Ukraine. "Our public position is that we do not believe that differences or disputes between countries can be settled by war. A second public position is we do not believe that we are actually from the battlefield going to get a decisive outcome. Three is if you're not going to get a decisive outcome, at some point, in some form, there has to be a negotiation. "If there is a negotiation, whenever we get there, then obviously there has to be some preparation or some explorati

Russia asks Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, warns of escalation

Israel said commando and paratroop units launched raids into Lebanon on Tuesday as part of a "limited" ground incursion, while Iran-backed Hezbollah said it had fired a barrage of missiles into Israel

Russian artillery strike hit market in Ukraine city of Kherson, kills 7

An apparent Russian artillery strike hit a market in the southern Ukraine city of Kherson on Tuesday, killing at least seven people and wounding three others, authorities said. The strike happened as shoppers made their way between stalls at the city centre market, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said. He published a video showing the blurred corpses of people in civilian clothes lying near a stall with tomatoes and other vegetables. Ukraine's General Prosecutor's Office said the strike was most likely carried out by Russian artillery and hit close to a public transport stop. The city has not recently been a hotspot in the war, now deep into its third year, as the fiercest battles have been taking place in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region where Russia's army is pushing hard to take ground ahead of the winter. Ukrainian forces have struck back with an incursion into Russia's Kursk border region, but the government is waiting to hear what further Western military and financial supp

Nato's new Chief Rutte prepares to take on Putin with Dutch pragmatism

Rutte will also have to handle pressure from some members to devote more attention to counter-terrorism and reinforce Nato's southern flank

Kishida's legacy: Scandals at home, global respect for security, diplomacy

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will step down Tuesday, handing over leadership to his successor Shigeru Ishiba, who is expected to formally take office later in the day. He says he plans to call a snap election for October 27. Kishida's popularity ratings were precarious during most of his three-year term due to damaging corruption scandals that eventually led him to bow out. At home, Kishida was seen as a leader without a vision who compromised with powerful conservative nationalists within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to stay in power. But he has won respect outside Japan, especially from the United States, for pushing bold changes in Japanese defence and security policies and for standing tougher against Russia and China. Here is a lookback at Kishida's leadership and his legacy: Distress at home After taking office in October 2021, Kishida made a number of major decisions, such as reversing Japan's nuclear energy phase-out and pursuing a rapid military buildup. B

Russia's Dy PM Novak sees oil price stability despite Mideast turmoil

Novak, who also oversees the broader Russian economy, said the sanctions-hit economy will sustain any pressure

14 injured as Russia strikes residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia

Earlier on September 22, Russia had launched an attack on a residential building in Kharkiv, which left 21 civilians injured

After Finland's example, Norway mulls building fence on border with Russia

Norway may put a fence along part or all of the 198-kilometer (123-mile) border it shares with Russia, a minister said, a move inspired by a similar project in its Nordic neighbour Finland. A border fence is very interesting, not only because it can act as a deterrent but also because it contains sensors and technology that allow you to detect if people are moving close to the border, Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said in an interview by the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK published late Saturday. She said the Norwegian government is currently looking at several measures to beef up security on the border with Russia in the Arctic north, such as fencing, increasing the number of border staff or stepping up monitoring. The Storskog border station, which has witnessed only a handful of illegal border crossing attempts in the past few years, is the only official crossing point into Norway from Russia. Should the security situation in the delicate Arctic area worsen, the Norwegian

Russia downs more than 100 Ukrainian drones in one of largest barrages

More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia Sunday, officials said, sparking a wildfire and setting an apartment block alight in one of the largest barrages seen over Russian skies since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Russia's Ministry of Defence reported that it had shot down 125 drones overnight across seven regions. The southwestern region of Volgograd came under particularly heavy fire, with 67 Ukrainian drones reportedly downed by Russian air defences. Seventeen drones were also seen over Russia's Voronezh region, where falling debris damaged an apartment block and a private home, said Gov. Aleksandr Gusev. Images on social media showed flames rising from the windows of the top floor of a high-rise building. No casualties were reported. A further 18 drones were reported over Russia's Rostov region, where falling debris sparked a wildfire, said Gov. Vasily Golubev. He said that the fire did not pose a threat to populated areas, but that emergency service

Russia condemns West during UNGA speech; invokes nuclear capacity

Russia's top diplomat warned Saturday against trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power, delivering a UN General Assembly speech packed with condemnations of what Russia sees as Western machinations in Ukraine and elsewhere including inside the United Nations itself. Three days after Russian President Vladimir Putin aired a shift in his country's nuclear doctrine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of using Ukraine which Russia invaded in February 2022 as a tool to try to defeat" Moscow strategically, and preparing Europe for it to also throw itself into this suicidal escapade. I'm not going to talk here about the senselessness and the danger of the very idea of trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power, which is what Russia is, he said. The specter of nuclear threats and confrontation has hung over the war in Ukraine since its start. Shortly before the invasion, Putin reminded the world that his country was one of the most powerful nuclear states, and h

8 people killed by Russian strikes on medical center in Ukrainian city

Two consecutive Russian attacks on a medical center in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed at least eight people on Saturday morning, officials said. The first strike killed one person. Russia attacked again while patients and staff were evacuating, said Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Local officials in Sumy said Shahed drones were used in the attack. Eleven other people were wounded, the head of the Sumy City Military administration, Oleksii Drozdenko, said. Sumy lies some 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since Aug. 6 in a bid to divert the Kremlin's military focus away from the front line in Ukraine. Ukraine's air force said it shot down 69 of 73 Russian drones launched overnight as well as two of the four missiles. City authorities in Kyiv said around 15 drones had been shot down over the Ukrainian capital and its outskirts. In Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's home city, lo

Explosion, fire at service station blast kills 11 in Russia's Dagestan

Local officials said a body was pulled from the rubble Saturday following an explosion at a gas station in Russia's southern region of Dagestan, bringing the death toll to at least 11. The explosion on Friday triggered a fire that tore through the service station and its cafeteria on the outskirts of the regional capital, Makhachkala, said Russia's Emergencies Ministry, adding that two children were among the dead. The fire was later extinguished. Makhachkala is about 1,600 kilometers (990 miles) south of Moscow. Regional authorities said a criminal investigation into the cause of the explosion has been opened and that Saturday has been declared a day of mourning in Dagestan. Last August, a massive explosion at a gas station in Dagestan killed 35 people and injured 115 more.

Changes in nuclear doctrine intended to send warning to West: Kremlin

Changes in Russia's nuclear doctrine are intended to discourage Ukraine's Western allies from supporting attacks on Russia, the Kremlin said on Thursday. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the revisions in the document announced by President Vladimir Putin are a warning signal to those countries about the consequences in case of their involvement in an attack on our country with various assets, not necessarily nuclear ones. In a strong, new warning to the West, Putin said Wednesday that any nation's conventional attack on Russia that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country. The threat, outlined in a revision of Moscow's nuclear doctrine, was clearly aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia's nuclear arsenal. Speaking during Wednesday's Security Council meeting that discussed changes in th

Google restricts creation of new accounts for Russian users, says report

The ministry said there was no certainty that SMS confirmations for two-factor authentication would continue working, Interfax reported

Russia's adaptability to US sanctions stymied their impact: Economists

Waves of sanctions imposed by the Biden administration after Russia's invasion of Ukraine haven't inflicted the devastating blow to Moscow's economy that some had expected. In a new report, two researchers are offering reasons why. Oleg Itskhoki of Harvard University and Elina Ribakova of the Peterson Institute for International Economics argue that the sanctions should have been imposed more forcefully immediately after the invasion rather than in a piecemeal manner. In retrospect, it is evident that there was no reason not to have imposed all possible decisive measures against Russia from the outset once Russia launched the full scale invasion in February 2022, the authors state in the paper. Still, the critical takeaway is that sanctions are not a silver bullet, Ribakova said on a call with reporters this week, to preview the study. The researchers say Russia was able to brace for the financial penalties because of the lessons learned from sanctions imposed in 2014 after it inva

Russian, Chinese FM deem Western sanctions unacceptable during UNGA talks

During their discussion, both leaders reiterated the sanctions imposed by the Western countries' violated UN Security Council resolutions