Page 87 - Russia

ICC prosecutor faces demand to act against Israeli leaders, Putin warrant

The International Criminal Court's prosecutor faced demands Tuesday for speedy action against Israeli leaders and a blistering Russian attack over the ICC's arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin stemming from Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Karim Khan responded by telling the UN Security Council that he will not be swayed or intimidated as his team investigates possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Gaza and the Palestinian territories as well as in Ukraine. Libya's UN ambassador, Taher El-Sonni, told Khan that if the Libyan cases the ICC is investigating are so complex that they won't be completed until the end of 2025, he should allocate the court's efforts to the war in Gaza. El-Sonni claimed genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are being perpetrated by Israeli forces. The world expects the ICC to be courageous and to issue arrest warrants against officials of the Israeli regime who have repeated again and again that they want to commit genocidal actio

Putin backs China's Ukraine peace plan, says Beijing understands conflict

Putin, speaking to China's Xinhua news agency ahead of his visit to Beijing this week, said Russia remained open to dialogue and talks to solve the more than two-year-old conflict

Russia arrests another senior defence min official in bribery charges

Russian authorities arrested another senior Defence Ministry official on charges of bribery, authorities said Tuesday, days after President Vladimir Putin replaced the defence minister in a Cabinet shake-up and amid expectations of further purges at the ministry. The Investigative Committee, Russia's top law enforcement body, wrote in a statement that Lt. Gen. Yury Kuznetsov, the chief of the ministry's main personnel directorate, was arrested on charges of bribery and placed in custody pending investigation and trial. Kuznetsov is accused of accepting an exceptionally large bribe, a charge punishable by up to 15 years in prison, the statement said. The official's home and other properties were searched, the Investigative Committee reported, and the authorities seized gold coins, luxury items and 100 million rubles (just over USD 1 million) in cash. Putin replaced Sergei Shoigu as defence minister Sunday in a Cabinet shakeup that comes as he begins his fifth term in office, moving

US delay in war aide allowed Putin inflict more damage: Ukraine's ex-prez

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said the long delay by the US Congress in approving military aid for his country was a colossal waste of time, allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to inflict more suffering in the 2-year-old invasion and prolonging the war. The severe lack of ammunition, which forced outgunned Ukrainian forces to surrender village after village on the front lines, also sowed concern among Ukraine's other Western allies about Kyiv's prospects in repelling the Russian invasion, Yushchenko told The Associated Press in an interview on Monday. That sent a signal to Putin to attack, ruin infrastructure, rampage all over Ukraine, said Yushchenko, a pro-European reformer who sought to distance Kyiv from Moscow during his 2005-2010 administration. And, of course, this undermines the morale of those in the world who stand with and support Ukraine, said Yushchenko, who was in Philadelphia to speak at a World Affairs Council event. The delay is not fatal to ..

US Prez Biden signs ban on imports of Russian nuclear reactor fuel into law

The ban on imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants begins in about 90 days, although it allows the Department of Energy to issue waivers in case of supply concerns

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