Ukraine war - Page 33

(AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was “doing everything right” in its nearly eight-month invasion of Ukraine despite a string of embarrassing defeats against Kyiv’s forces, who will receive $725 million in new U.S. military assistance.

Russian forces are making “tactical advances” in the Donbas following a long run of bad news for their “special military operation”, according to British intelligence.

President Emmanuel Macron suggested that France would not use nuclear weapons against Russia should they launch nuclear strikes on Ukraine.

Allowing Ukraine to join NATO would result in a “guaranteed escalation to World War III”, Alexander Venediktov said.

The Director of GCHQ claimed ordinary Russians are now realising the cost of Putin’s “war of choice” as many flee to avoid conscription.

Ukraine has urged African nations “not to stay neutral” in the ongoing Western-backed clash with the Russian Federation following “devastating” missile strikes across the country on Monday.

A building hosting the visa office of the German consulate in Kyiv (Kiev) has been struck amid a wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine, reports claim.

HONG KONG (AP) – A superyacht connected to sanctioned Russian tycoon Alexey Mordashov has anchored in Hong Kong as Western governments move to seize yachts connected to Russian businessmen.

Russian authorities claim the rail and road bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula is already partly open and the damage to it “insignificant” after a blast that killed three.

President Joe Biden’s dire warnings of “Armageddon” over the war in Ukraine were chastised by French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday.

Ukrainians are posing in front of a giant mocked-up commemorative stamp showing Russia’s bridge to Crimea on fire after it was damaged on Saturday morning.  

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has said he agrees that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February “would not have happened” if Donald Trump was still U.S. President.

Polling suggests that only a minority of young, military-age Britons support their country’s role in the Russo-Ukrainian war, while a huge majority of much older Britons are in favour of it. 

The rail and road bridge from mainland Russia to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, has been pictured in flames the morning after President Vladimir Putin’s 70th birthday.

A pair of Russian men landed a small boat on St. Lawrence Island near Gambell, Alaska, on Tuesday morning. The men reportedly sought asylum after fleeing Russia to avoid the Russian war with Ukraine.

Ukrainian refugees living in Finland are reportedly alarmed about being housed with Russians seeking asylum from military conscription.

The Secretary General of Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has issued Italy’s “strongest condemnation” of an attempt by the Russian Federation to annex Ukrainian territories.

Pope Francis called upon Russian President Vladimir Putin Sunday to put an end to his assault on the people of Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown with suicide drones on Sunday, and Ukraine pushed ahead with its counteroffensive after taking back control of a strategic eastern city.

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) – Bulgarians on Sunday cast their ballots in a general election – the fourth in 18 months – marked by a raging war nearby, political instability, and economic hardships in the European Union’s poorest member.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia defended the referendums, claiming that more than 100 international observers from Italy, Germany, Venezuela, and Latvia who observed the voting recognized the outcomes as legitimate.

Ukraine claims it has Russian forces in the key eastern city of Lyman completely surrounded, and that they have eliminated close to 60,000 Russian personnel since February.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of sabotaging Russia-built natural gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea to Germany, a charge vehemently denied by the United States and its allies.

An eight-year-old girl has suffered life-altering injuries after being stabbed up to 74 times in refugee accommodation.

The former head of the German Federal Intelligence Service claims Russia stood “to gain the most” from sabotaging Russian gas pipelines to Germany bypassing Ukraine and Poland.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in the Czech capital of Prague to demand an end to sanctions against Russia on Wednesday,

Swedish authorities have reported a new fourth alleged leak as some fear that the damage to the pipelines may be beyond repair.

The head of the German opposition has claimed that a number of migrants from Ukraine are engaging in so-called “welfare tourism” in his country.

Germany’s economics minister has publicly admitted that much of the nation’s economy has already been reduced to a “burning” fire by the ongoing energy crisis ahead of what is expected to be a cold winter for many in the country.

For Ukrainian and Russian military planners, the clock is ticking, with the approach of winter expected to make fighting more complicated.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Serbia’s foreign minister on Sunday sought to play down the importance of an agreement with Russia after the Balkan state that is seeking European Union membership faced criticism for signing it.

Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at the United Nations on Saturday that his nation would not take sides in the Ukraine conflict following months of criticism for purchasing large amounts of Russian oil.

Invoking history ranging from the U.S. war in Iraq in the early 2000s to the 20th-century Cold War to a 19th-century U.S. policy that essentially proclaimed American influence over the Western Hemisphere, Lavrov portrayed the U.S. as a bully that tries to afford itself “the sacred right to act with impunity wherever and wherever they want” and can’t accept a world where others also advance their national interests.

(AFP) – Russia on Saturday toughened penalties for voluntary surrender and refusal to fight with up to 10 years imprisonment and replaced its top logistics general after a series of setbacks to its seven-month war in Ukraine.

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has courted controversy on the eve of the Italian elections by saying that Russian president Vladimir Putin was “pushed” into war with Ukraine.

The Prime Minister of Estonia has warned that her country faces blackouts if Russia disconnects the three Baltic states — all NATO and EU members — from its grid amid the ongoing Russo-Western sanctions war.