Page 85 - Russia

Putin shuffles security team, replaces defence minister Sergei Shoigu

Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed replacing Sergei Shoigu as defence minister on Sunday and appointed him as secretary of Russia's national security council. The appointment comes after Putin proposed appointing Andrei Belousov as the country's defence minister in place of Shoigu, who has served in the post for years. The reshuffle comes as Putin starts his fifth presidential term and as the war in Ukraine drags on for the third year In line with Russian law, the entire Russian Cabinet resigned on Tuesday following Putin's glittering inauguration in the Kremlin. The announcement came as thousands more civilians have fled Russia's renewed ground offensive in Ukraine's northeast that has targeted towns and villages with a barrage of artillery and mortar shelling, officials said Sunday. The intense battles have forced at least one Ukrainian unit to withdraw in the Kharkiv region, capitulating more land to Russian forces across less defended settlements in the so-cal

What EU sanctions on re-exporting Russian LNG would mean for global gas

Russian producer Novatek PJSC relies on stopovers in the EU to move Arctic fuel from ice-class ships onto conventional tankers

Our army is locked in border battles amid Russia's assault: Zelenskyy

Ukrainian troops are locked in intense battles with the advancing Russian army in two border areas, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, while the death toll from a Russian apartment building collapse blamed on Ukrainian shelling rose to 15. Zelenskyy said fierce battles are taking place near the border in eastern and northeastern Ukraine as outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers try to push back a significant Russian ground offensive. Defensive battles are ongoing, fierce battles, on a large part of our border area, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Sunday. The Kremlin's forces are aiming to exploit Ukrainian weaknesses before a big batch of new military aid for Kyiv from the US and European partners arrives on the battlefield in the coming weeks and months, analysts say. That makes this period a window of opportunity for Moscow and one of the most dangerous for Kyiv in the two-year war, they say. The new Russian push in the northeastern Kharkiv region, along wi

Lithuanian President leads as country heads to runoff vote in two weeks

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda won the most votes in a weekend presidential election, officials said Monday, but he still faces a runoff in two weeks against Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte. Nauseda won 44 per cent of the votes and Simonyte nearly 20 per cent, according to preliminary results published by Lithuania's Central Electoral Commission. There were eight candidates running in all, making it difficult for any candidate to muster the 50 per cent of the votes needed to win the presidency outright on Sunday. The runoff is scheduled to be held on May 26. The election came at a time as Russian gains in Ukraine are fuelling greater fears about Moscow's intentions, particularly in the strategically important Baltic region. The president's main tasks in NATO-member Lithuania's political system are overseeing foreign and defence policy, along with acting as the supreme commander of the armed forces. Given that Lithuania is strategically located on NATO's eastern flank, the ..

Russian air defence system downs Ukraine-launched missiles, 31 drones

An apartment building partially collapsed in the Russian border city of Belgorod on Sunday, causing at least 13 deaths and injuring 20 other people, officials said. They blamed Ukrainian shelling for the building's destruction. Online footage showed rescuers searching for survivors among the remnants of the building's stairwell, then fleeing the scene as part of the roof crashed to the ground. Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said 13 bodies had been recovered from the rubble so far. Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top law enforcement agency, said in a statement that the 10-story building had been hit by Ukrainian shelling. The Russian Defence Ministry later wrote on social media that the building had been damaged by fragments of a downed Tochka-U TRC missile. It also said that air defences had shot down several more rockets over the Belgorod region, as well as two drones that were destroyed in a separate incident later Sunday. Air raid alerts continued across

Thousands of civilians flee Ukraine as Russia presses new border assault

Thousands more civilians have fled Russia's renewed ground offensive in Ukraine's northeast that has targeted towns and villages with a barrage of artillery and mortar fire, officials said Sunday. The intense battles have forced at least one Ukrainian unit to withdraw in the Kharkiv region, capitulating more land to Russian forces across less defended settlements in the so-called contested gray zone" along the Russian border. By Sunday afternoon, the town of Vovchansk, with a prewar population of 17,000, emerged as a focal point in the battle. Volodymyr Tymoshko, the head of the Kharkiv regional police, said Russian forces were in the outskirts of the town and approaching from three directions. A Russian tank was spotted along a major road leading to the town, Tymoshko said, illustrating Moscow's confidence to deploy heavy weaponry. An Associated Press team, positioned in a nearby village, saw plumes of smoke rising from the town as Russian forces hurled shells. Evacuation teams ...

5 Ukraine villages taken, says Russia as over 1,700 civilians try to flee

The Russian Defence Ministry said Saturday that Moscow's forces have captured five villages as part of a renewed ground assault in northeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials haven't officially confirmed whether Russian had taken the villages, which lie in a contested gray zone on the border of Ukraine's Kharkiv region and Russia. Ukrainian journalists reported that the villages of Borysivka, Ohirtseve, Pylna and Strilecha, were taken by Russian troops on Friday. Russia said the village of Pletenivka was also taken. The Institute for the Study of War said Friday that geolocated footage confirms at least one of the villages was seized. The Washington-based think tank described recent Russian gains as tactically significant. The renewed assault on the region has forced more than 1,700 civilians residing in settlements near the fighting to flee, according to Ukrainian authorities. It comes after Russia stepped up attacks in March targeting energy infrastructure and settlements, which ..

US announces $400 million military aid package for embattled Ukraine

This package is the third slated for Kyiv after the US passed the national security supplemental last month that included $61 billion for Kyiv

Ukraine says Russia launched assault to breach defences in parts of Kharkiv

Russia pounded a town in Ukraine's northeast with artillery, rockets and guided aerial bombs Friday before attempting an infantry breach of local defences, authorities said, in a tactical switch that Kyiv officials have been expecting for weeks as the war stretches into its third year. Intense nighttime shelling targeted Vovchansk, in the Kharkiv region and less than 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the Russian border, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. The barrage prompted authorities to begin the evacuation of around 3,000 people. Around dawn, Russian forces tried to pierce the Ukrainian defences near Vovchansk, Ukraine's Defence Ministry said, adding that it had deployed reserve units to fend off the attack. Analysts said the assault could mark the start of a Russian attempt to carve out a buffer zone that President Vladimir Putin vowed to create earlier this year to halt frequent Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border regions. Ukraine had previously said it was awar

LS Polls 2024: Congress, BJP step up campaigning; re-polling in 2 booths

Lok Sabha elections 2024 campaign heats up as Congress and BJP launch scathing attacks. Elections in India catch global attention from United States, Russia ahead of Phase 4 of the polls; details here

Putin, seeking continuity, proposes Mishustin remain as Russia's PM

As dictated by law, the government resigned just before Putin, Russia's paramount leader for nearly a quarter of a century, was sworn in for another six-year term on Tuesday

US dismisses Russia's allegations of interference in India's LS elections

The United States on Thursday dismissed the Russian allegations of the US interfering in the ongoing Indian elections. "No, of course, we don't involve ourselves in elections in India as we don't involve ourselves in elections anywhere in the world. Those are decisions for the people of India to make," State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference. He was responding to a question on Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova statement in Moscow in this regard when asked about a recent Washington Post article alleging that a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer was involved in an alleged plot to kill Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil last year. "Regular unfounded accusations by the United States against New Delhi... we see that they groundlessly accuse not only India but also many other statesof violating religious freedoms are a reflection of the United States' misunderstanding of the national ...

US interfering in Indian elections: Russia on Pannun case

Russia has come out in support of India against the allegations of involvement of Indian officials in the assassination plot against Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. It has criticised the

Putin's next target after Ukraine may be Nato's Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia

With the addition this year of Sweden and last spring of Finland to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Baltic Sea has been dubbed a 'Nato lake' by some analysts

Russian govt rubbishes US allegations implicating India in Pannun case

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is an India-designated terrorist who holds American and Canadian citizenship

Russia launches wide aerial attack on energy facilities in Ukraine

Russia launched aerial attacks on energy facilities throughout Ukraine early Wednesday, targeting seven regions with more than 50 missiles as well as drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The attacks also damaged the railway station and tracks in the city of Kherson, across the Dnieper River from Russian-held territory, and injured two people in Brovary, adjacent to the capital Kyiv, officials said. Russia consistently targets Ukraine's energy infrastructure. There was a major aerial attack on energy facilities on April 27 and another a week earlier. In a social media post, Zelenskyy noted that Wednesday's attacks occurred on the day that Ukraine observes the end of European fighting in World War II. Massive missile attack by Nazi Putin on the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in the Second World War, Zelensky said.The whole world should clearly understand who is who; The whole world has no right to give Nazism another chance. National electrical grid operator Ukren

Russia strikes energy facilities in air attack on Ukraine, say officials

Power generation and transmission facilities in the Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Vinnytsia regions were targeted

Belarus launches nuclear drills after Russia announces them amid tensions

Belarus on Tuesday launched drills involving missiles and warplanes capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons, which close ally Russia has deployed there amid tensions with the West over Ukraine. The Belarusian maneuvers began a day after Russia announced plans to hold similar drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons in what it cast as a response to statements by Western officials signalling possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine. It was the first time such an exercise had been publicly announced by Moscow. Belarus' Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin said a unit of Iskander short-range missiles and a squadron of Su-25 fighter jets will take part in the drills. The maneuvers, held jointly with Russia, began as Russian President Vladimir Putin was inaugurated to a fifth term on Tuesday, vowing to ensure Russia's security. Last year, Russia moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus, which also borders Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Latvia and

CBI arrests 4 for trafficking Indians to Russia-Ukraine conflict zone

The CBI has arrested four people including a contractual translator in the Russian Defence Ministry for their alleged involvement in the human trafficking network that pushed Indians into the Russia-Ukraine war zone, officials said Tuesday. The agency arrested two recruiters, Arun and Yesudas Junior alias Priyan, from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala on Tuesday, while two other accused, Nijil Jobi Bensam, a contractual employee in Russian Defence Ministry, and Anthony Michael Elangovan, a resident of Mumbai, were arrested on April 24. Bensam and Elangovan are in judicial custody, the CBI said in a late night statement. "Accused Nijil Jobi Bensam was working in the Russian defence Ministry on contract basis as Translator and was one of the key member of the network operating in Russia for facilitating recruitment of Indian nationals in Russian Army," an official in the know of development said. Michael Anthony was facilitating his co-accused Faisal Baba based in Dubai and others based i

Putin starts new six-year term as Russian Prez with challenge to West

Leading opposition figures are in prison or exile, and his best known critic, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony in February