Page 67 - Russia

Wreckage of helicopter located in Russia's far east, 17 bodies found

Rescuers have located a helicopter that went missing in Russia's far east with 22 people on board, officials said Sunday. Russia's emergencies ministry said the bodies of 17 people have been found and that rescuers were continuing to search for the remaining occupants. All those on board are presumed to have died, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said, citing the Emergencies Ministry, adding that the helicopter had likely crashed due to poor visibility in bad weather conditions. The wreckage of the previously missing helicopter was discovered from the air. It is located at an altitude of 900 metres near the place where it was last contacted, the emergencies ministry wrote on Telegram. The Mi-8 helicopter took off close to the Vachkazhets volcano in the Kamchatka region on Saturday but did not arrive at its destination as scheduled, Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency earlier said in a statement. It said it believed that 19 passengers and three crew members were on board. T

Downed over 150 drones in biggest Ukrainian attack in ongoing war: Russia

Russian air defences intercepted and destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over Moscow and nine over the surrounding region, the Defence Ministry said Sunday. Forty-six of the drones were over the Kursk region, where Ukraine has sent its forces in recent weeks in the largest incursion on Russian soil since World War II. A further 34 were shot over the Bryansk region, 28 over the Voronezh region, and 14 over the Belgorod region all of which border Ukraine. Drones were also shot down deeper into Russia, including one each in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, and the Ivanovo region, northeast of the Russian capital. Russia's Defence Ministry said drones were intercepted over 15 regions, while one other governor said a drone was shot down over his region, too. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that falling debris from one of the two drones shot down over the city caused a fire at an oil refinery. Ukrainian drone strikes have brought the fight far from the front l

Zelenskyy seeks Western allies' help for missiles to safeguard Ukraine

Zelenskyy further emphasised Ukraine's top priority is to equip its defence forces with long-range capabilities to prevent Russia's terror attacks

India to support mutually acceptable solution: MEA on Russia-Ukraine war

Randhir Jaiswal said, The decision as to when and how to commence peace talks is the prerogative of the two parties to the conflict

ONGC Videsh in talks with Russia, US to regain control of projects

Sought special licence from US for Venezuela operations, rouble payments to Russia for Sakhalin

Russia payment hurdles with China partners intensified in August: Report

Russian companies, officials for a few months have pointed to delays in transactions after Chinese banks tightened compliance following Western threats of secondary sanctions for dealing with Russia

EU diplomat builds pressure on Ukraine's backers to allow targeting strikes

The European Union's top diplomat on Thursday ramped up pressure on Ukraine's international backers to lift restrictions on the use of weapons they provide the conflict-ravaged country to allow its armed forces to strike targets inside Russia. The US restricts the use of long-range ballistic missiles it provides to Ukraine and some EU members also limit the use of their weapons. Ukraine is desperate to target airfields and other military installations inside Russia that are used to stage attacks on its armed forces and civilians. We need to lift restrictions on the use of weaponry against Russian military targets, in accordance with international law, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said as the bloc's foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The weaponry that we are providing to Ukraine has to have full use, and the restrictions have to be lifted in order for the Ukrainians to be able to target the places where Russia is bombing them. ...

Here's why Russia struggled to halt Ukraine's incursion into Kursk region

After three weeks of fighting, Russia is still struggling to dislodge Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region, a surprisingly slow and low-key response to the first occupation of its territory since World War II. It all comes down to Russian manpower and Russian priorities. With the bulk of its military pressing offensives inside Ukraine, the Kremlin appears to lack enough reserves for now to drive out Kyiv's forces. President Vladimir Putin doesn't seem to view the attack or at least, give the impression that he views it as a grave enough threat to warrant pulling troops from eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, his priority target. Putin's focus is on the collapse of the Ukrainian state, which he believes will automatically render any territorial control irrelevant, wrote Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre. Putin's priorities Months after launching the full-scale invasion in 2022, Putin illegally annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk

Russia bans 92 more Americans from the country, including journalists

Russia's Foreign Ministry announced 92 additions Wednesday to its list of Americans banned from entering the country, including some journalists who formerly worked in Russia, and law enforcement and business people. A ministry statement said the bans were imposed in response to the Russophobic course pursued by the Biden administration with the declared goal of 'inflicting a strategic defeat on Moscow.' It said the banned journalists represent leading liberal-globalist publications involved in the production and dissemination of fakes' about Russia and the Russian armed forces. The new list of banned Americans includes 11 current or former staff members of the Wall Street Journal including its Editor in Chief, Emma Tucker. She had repeatedly criticised Russia for the arrest and conviction on espionage charges of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, who spent 16 months behind bars before being released in August in a prisoner exchange. The ban has also been imposed on five New York Time

India, Russia discuss use of space monitoring tech in risk forecast

India and Russia on Wednesday discussed the use of space monitoring technologies for risk forecasting and emergency response during the second meeting of their joint commission on the cooperation in the field of emergency management in Moscow, a government statement said. During the meeting, both sides signed a working plan of the commission which will be implemented during 2025-26, it said. "Both the countries agreed to implement this Plan during 2025-2026 and also decided to continue the exchange of the best practices and lessons learnt in the field of Disaster Management," the statement said. The Indian delegation, led by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, and the Russian side under Kurenkov Aleksandr Vyacheslavovich, Minister of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (EMERCOM of Russia) held the second meeting of the Commission in Moscow on Wednesday. During the meeting, three key issues were ...

Telegram founder Durov's various citizenships add mystery to his detention

Over more than a decade, the founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram has amassed various different citizenships, something that's only added to the mystery surrounding his detention in France. Those passports provided Pavel Durov protection after he created and ran Telegram as a self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist. The app has been used by some to plan protests in repressive governments like in Iran and his native Russia. However, Western governments allege Telegram aided the work of drug traffickers, money launderers, militant groups and child pornographers. "To be truly free, you should be ready to risk everything for freedom," Durov once wrote on Instagram, interspersed between images of himself shirtless with the skyscrapers of Dubai or the ruins of Mada'in Saleh in Saudi Arabia behind him. That risk now appears to have caught up with him, despite passports from Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, and his wealth, estimated by Forbes to b

Pavel Durov's arrest highlights Russia's love-hate bond with Telegram

France's arrest last weekend of Telegram's billionaire founder Pavel Durov, who fled Russia for Dubai a decade ago, has been almost universally condemned in his native country

Russia slams UN nuclear watchdog after trip to plant close to fighting

Russian state news agency RIA quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying in a radio interview that Moscow wanted the IAEA to speak out more clearly on issues of nuclear security

Pennsylvania ammo plant boosts artillery production in Russia-Ukraine fight

A Pennsylvania ammunition plant that makes a key artillery shell in Ukraine's fight against Russia has managed to boost production by 50% to meet surging demand, with more capacity set to come on line. Government officials revealed the increase in production this week as they showcased the historic factory's ongoing, $400 million modernization. The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant cuts and forges 2,000-pound (907-kilogram) bars of steel into 155 mm howitzer rounds that are then shipped to Iowa to be packed with explosives and fitted with fuses. From there, many of them make their way to the fight in Ukraine, where they are highly sought. The Scranton plant, along with two other ammunition plants in nearby Wilkes-Barre, recently increased production from 24,000 rounds per month to 36,000 rounds per month. Three new production lines are under development that will allow the Scranton facility to churn out even more of the critical munitions, the factory's top official said. Right now we

Ukraine's drones set oil depot in Russia's Rostov ablaze, says Guv Golubev

Videos posted on Russian social media showed what looked like large tanks ablaze at night. Reuters was able to identify the location of one of the videos as in Rostov's Kamensky district

Ukraine wants less US caution on weapons amid escalating fight with Russia

Ukraine's daring ground offensive has taken the fight to Russia, but not nearly as much as its leaders would like because, they say, the United States won't let them. The U.S. restricts the use of long-range ballistic missiles it provides to Ukraine, which wants to aim them at military targets inside Russia. Ukraine's offensive, along with a barrage of drones and missiles that Moscow launched this week, has intensified pressure on the Biden administration to ease its cautious approach to the use of Western weapons in escalating Ukrainian attacks. The Biden administration says its careful deliberations, including which advanced weapons it supplies to Ukraine and when, are necessary to avoid provoking retaliation from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some analysts agree Putin would take a Ukrainian strike by an American long-range ballistic missile within Russia as an attack by the U.S. itself. But many other American and European supporters of Ukraine say the White House should see

Russia's Brics chairmanship set stage for impactful summit in Kazan

On January 1, Russia was passed the baton of the Brics chairmanship, an association which, according to the decision adopted by the 15th Brics Summit in August 2022, now includes 10 countries

Russia-France ties hit new low after Telegram boss' arrest, says Moscow

Macron denies Russian charge of political motives

IAEA chief warns of nuclear accident risk at Russian plant in Kursk region

Russia says the plant has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces that are just 40 km (25 miles) away after carving out a slice of Russian territory this month

Russian attacks on Ukraine kill five on 2nd day of major strikes, says Kyiv

Two people were killed when a hotel was "wiped out" by a missile in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said