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Russia - Page 2  Russia, Russian, Russians, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, Putin
The Russian leader spoke of "a real war" being waged against his country as he sought to rally the public in his speech at Moscow's annual parade on Tuesday.
By Yuliya Talmazan

Troops paraded through Red Square and President Vladimir Putin exalted his war in Ukraine on Tuesday, but scaled-back celebrations saw Russia’s cherished Victory Day showcase its vulnerability and military weakness, rather than its might.

The country’s annual holiday marking the defeat of Nazi Germany comes nearly 15 months into its own bloody invasion of its neighbor, and just days after an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, as well as the public escalation of a bitter feud between top military leaders ahead of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Though Kyiv has denied involvement in the mysterious incident, events across the country were curtailed over security fears and mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin renewed his rhetorical assault on the Kremlin's top brass, ensuring the most sacred day on the calendar for Putin’s Russia took place under a growing shadow.
Story by Ukrainska Pravda

The Republic of Belarus has introduced a temporary border control on the border with Russia.

Source: Belarusian newspaper Zerkalo with reference to sources and hotline of the State Border Committee of Belarus

Details: According to the publication’s sources, a border checkpoint is being established between Russia and Belarus on the M1 highway near the border.
Story by mloh@insider.com (Matthew Loh)

Russian pensioners are being tricked into tossing Molotov cocktails at Russian military offices and officials' cars, according to local media outlets. Since the war in Ukraine began, Russian citizens have carried out at least 16 separate arson attempts on government or bank properties at the behest of scammers, reported the independent Russian media outlet, MediaZona.

The people involved have tried to set fire to enlistment offices, bank ATMs, a car trunk, and a police department, though most have been unsuccessful, the outlet reported. At least 11 of them were over 55, per MediaZona. Some of them, like the 65-year-old Yelena Belova, were told to shout pro-Ukrainian slogans as they chucked the Molotov cocktails — even though they were also told they were helping the Russian military. The Russian police detained Belova in August after she set fire to the trunk of a deputy army chief's car, per the independent Russian news outlet Shot.
Story by Isabel van Brugen

Two Russian State Duma deputies with the ruling United Russia party were reported dead on Sunday. The death of 77-year-old Nikolay Bortsov, who served as a State Duma deputy since 2003, was announced by Igor Artamanov, the governor of the Lipetsk region. He died at his home Lebedyan. On the same day, State Duma Deputy Dzhasharbek Uzdenov died at the age of 57 after a "serious and prolonged illness," Vladimir Vasilyev, head of the United Russia faction, said.

A number of prominent Russians have died in unexplained or unusual circumstances since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. No cause was given for Bortsov's death. He had previously been hit by sanctions from the United States and other Western countries in connection with Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
“The Russian intelligence services are under pressure, and they need to show that they are doing something,” said one intelligence expert.
By Dan De Luce and Ken Dilanian

Before it arrested a Wall Street Journal reporter Thursday, Russia suffered a string of embarrassing setbacks to its foreign intelligence operations, with hundreds of suspected Russian spies’ being expelled or charged with espionage in Western countries.

Poland arrested nine Russians this month, accusing them of plotting possible sabotage of rail routes carrying Western military aid to Ukraine. Last week, U.S. authorities unmasked an alleged Russian spy who posed as a Brazilian graduate student at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and who prosecutors say tried to land a job at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Sweden, Norway and Germany say they have uncovered and disrupted attempted Russian spying in recent months, and officials in Greece told news outlets that the owner of a knitting shop in Athens was actually a suspected Russian spy.

The head of Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service says roughly half of Russia’s spies working under diplomatic cover in Europe were expelled within six months of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The FBI and the CIA have helped allied countries arrest an unusually large number of Russian spies since the war began, a former senior U.S. counterintelligence official familiar with the matter said. The arrests have targeted Russians operating as “illegals” with fictitious names and passports, unlike Russian spies posted to embassies, who enjoy legal protections.
BBC News

Russia will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, President Vladimir Putin has said.
Story by Ellie Cook

Aclip of an elderly Russian woman denouncing the "brainwashing" of citizens by state television has been viewed nearly 1 million times online as of Monday morning. The clip is taken from the Telegram channel, Neshutki, an opposition outlet. There are a few of these, such as Sota and others, that have been conducting interviews on Russian streets to gauge public opinion on various issues. Human Rights Watch listed the arrest of Neshutki's owner in 2022 as an example of repressions against those opposing the war.
John Bacon, Maureen Groppe, Jorge L. Ortiz | USA TODAY

The Pentagon released footage Thursday of what it says is a Russian fighter jet dumping fuel on a U.S. drone, damaging the propeller and forcing U.S. controllers to crash land the device in the Black Sea on Tuesday. Two Russian Su-27 warplanes conducted an "unsafe and unprofessional intercept" with an Air Force reconnaissance MQ-9 Reaper flying in international airspace, the Pentagon said in a release issued with the video to counter Russian denials of contact between the aircraft.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the video provided “clear and convincing evidence of the account we laid out there” and shows “the Russians have been flat-out lying.” But he said it was not clear the pilot intended to strike the unmanned aircraft, so officials were unable to say if it was deliberate.

Kirby said the United States is not seeking conflict with Russia. Still, the incident further escalated tensions between two global powers already sharply at odds since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year spurred the United States into providing billions of dollars in military aid to Kyiv and leading a coalition opposing the aggression. Steven Myers, founder of an aerospace and defense management consulting firm that bears his name, said the Russians were clearly sending a message with the incident, possibly telling the U.S. to stop poking the bear.
Story by Thomas Kika

A new report claims that more than one million residents of the Russian Federation have called a Ukrainian surrender hotline or visited its website as Russia's invasion losses near a grim milestone. According to the Ukrainian news outlet Pravda, government press secretary Andriy Yusov claimed during a recent telethon that over 1.2 million people had called a surrender hotline run as part of the country's project, "Hochu Zhit," which translates to "I want to live," or visited its corresponding website to inquire about their options. He further claimed that "the lion's share of them are people who are in the territory of the so-called Russian Federation." This influx of appeals comes as Russia's deaths in Ukraine are nearing 100,000.

"Currently these are not intents to surrender, but inquiries to find a way for themselves and their relatives to save their lives in this bloody unjustified war of Putin's occupiers against Ukraine," Yusov said. The "Hochu Zhit" project was launched on September 18 by the Ukrainian government as a means to help Russian military members safely surrender to them. It currently consists of a chatbot that current or prospective soldiers can use to declare their desire not to fight Ukraine, and a telephone hotline they can then use to discuss the process of surrendering once they are in Ukraine.
tporter@businessinsider.com (Tom Porter)

Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that Russia has interfered in US elections in the past and would continue to do so. In a post on the Russian social-media site VKontakte, via his catering firm, Prigozhin said: "We have interfered, we are interfering and we will continue to interfere. Carefully, accurately, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do."

"During our pinpoint operations, we will remove both kidneys and the liver at once," Prigozhin added, in an apparent reference to the surgical nature of the operations. Prigozhin, who has been dubbed "Putin's chef" for securing valuable Kremlin catering contracts, has been accused of attempts to subvert past US elections through his control of so-called "troll farms," which flooded social media platforms with disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Destroyed Russian tanks and armoured vehicles in the recently liberated city of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine.
Pjotr Sauer

After Russia’s chaotic retreats in Kherson – less than a week after Vladimir Putin illegally annexed the Ukrainian province alongside three others – the region’s Moscow-appointed governor, Kirill Stremousov, sought to calm the mood. Far from a rout, the withdrawal was a tactical “regrouping” to “deliver a retaliatory blow”, Stremousov said on Wednesday. His comments – the first public admission of Russia’s retreats in Kherson – attempted to mask what even many vocal supporters of the war now say: the situation is the most dire the Russian army has found itself in since the start of the invasion seven months ago.

“Friends, I know you’re waiting for me to comment on the situation. But I really don’t know what to say to you. The retreat … is catastrophic,” Roman Saponkov, a prominent war correspondent, wrote on his Telegram channel, describing his despair over the pullback in Kherson. The extent of Russia’s retreat remains unclear for now. During his nightly address on Tuesday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “The Ukrainian army is making quite fast and powerful movements in the south of our country.” Henamed eight small towns in Kherson that had recently been recaptured.
By Zoe Strozewski | Newsweek

A recent series of explosions in Crimea has spurred Russia to shuffle some of its planes and Black Sea Fleet troops out of the occupied peninsula, according to a Ukrainian military intelligence official. Vadym Skibitsky, a representative for the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, told Krym.Realii in a report published Wednesday that the redeployed Black Sea Fleet personnel were sent to the Russian port city of Novorossiysk. Skibitsky said that those personnel "are not directly involved and have auxiliary functions" in the fleet.

The redeployed Russian aircraft were sent to airfields in Russian territory, he said. Skibitsky added that the directorate cannot rule out the possibility of some warships and supply vessels also being moved from Sevastopol, Crimea's largest city and a major Black Sea port, to Novorossiysk to "avoid getting hit." Ukraine's defense ministry has previously said that Russian planes and helicopters were being moved either deep into Crimea or into Russian territory in the wake of the explosions.
The mass exodus out of Russia shows no signs of easing as hundreds of thousands of Russians scramble to flee across Russia's borders. In Georgia, the mass exodus of men, alone or with their families or friends began shortly after President Vladimir Putin called for 300,000 more troops. Since then, cars have been forming long, snaking lines. The mass exodus comes on the heels of what the White House is calling a sham referendum in occupied parts of Ukraine. Putin is expected to use the results to declare the regions are now part of Russia as early as this Friday.
By Katie Bo Lillis, Natasha Bertrand and Kylie Atwood, CNN

CNN — European security officials on Monday and Tuesday observed Russian Navy support ships in the vicinity of leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines likely caused by underwater explosions, according two Western intelligence officials and one other source familiar with the matter. It’s unclear whether the ships had anything to do with those explosions, these sources and others said – but it’s one of the many factors that investigators will be looking into. Russian submarines were also observed not far from those areas last week, one of the intelligence officials said.

Three US officials said that the US has no thorough explanation yet for what happened, days after the explosions appeared to cause three separate and simultaneous leaks in the two pipelines on Monday. Russian ships routinely operate in the area, according to one Danish military official, who emphasized that the presence of the ships doesn’t necessarily indicate that Russia caused the damage.
Reuters

Ballots were cast in occupied parts of Ukraine on Saturday, a day after Russia launched referendums aimed at annexing four occupied regions of the country. The move drew condemnation from Kyiv and Western nations, who dismissed the votes as a sham and pledged not to recognize their results. Ukrainian officials said people were banned from leaving some occupied areas until the four-day vote was over.

Adding that armed groups were going into homes, and employees were threatened with the sack if they did not participate. Reuters could not immediately verify reports of coercion. In Kyiv on Saturday, internally displaced people from Mariupol, like Oleh Sukhov, protested the vote. “Today a referendum is taking place in Mariupol. I am strongly against it. It is not needed. How, say, I, a native Mariupol resident, am now able to say 'no' in this ballot? I have no such right. I considered myself, I consider myself a Mariupol resident and I want Mariupol to be Ukraine.”
Analysis by Brad Lendon, CNN

CNN — For Russia, the numbers are catastrophic. From Wednesday to Sunday, Vladimir Putin’s military forces saw at least 338 pieces of important military hardware – from fighter jets to tanks to trucks – destroyed, damaged or captured, according to numbers from the open source intelligence website Oryx, as Ukraine’s forces have bolted through Russian-held territory in an offensive that has stunned the Russians in its speed and breadth. Ukraine’s top military commander claimed on Sunday that more than 3,000 square kilometers (1,158 square miles) of territory had been retaken by his country’s forces since the beginning of September. And for more perspective, just “since Wednesday, Ukraine has recaptured territory at least twice the size of Greater London,” the British Defense Ministry said Monday.

Ukrainian reports say Putin’s troops are fleeing east to the Russian border in whatever transport they can find, even taking cars from the civilian population in the areas they had captured since the start of the war in February. In their wake they leave hundreds of pieces of the Russian war machine, which since Putin’s so-called “special military operation” commenced, has not come close to living up to its pre-war billing as one of the world’s great powers. These Russian losses are the accumulation of a multitude of existing problems that are now colliding head-on with a Ukrainian military that has been patient, methodical and infused with billions of dollars of the Western military equipment that Russia cannot match. And without a drastic, and potentially unconventional intervention from Putin, the Ukrainian victories are likely to accelerate, analysts say. Many of Russia’s problems – poor and inflexible leadership, sour troop morale, inadequate logistics and hardware beset by maintenance issues – have been evident since the beginning stages of the war more than seven months ago.
By Paul Kirby

The chairman of Russia's Lukoil oil giant, Ravil Maganov, has died after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, reports say. The company confirmed his death but said only that Maganov, 67, had "passed away following a severe illness". Russian media said he was being treated at Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital and died of his injuries. Maganov is the latest of a number of high-profile business executives to die in mysterious circumstances. Investigating authorities said they were working at the scene to establish how he died. Tass news agency quoted sources saying he had fallen out of a sixth-floor window early on Thursday morning, adding later that he had taken his own life. Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Lukoil board called for the conflict to end as soon as possible, expressing its sympathy to victims of "this tragedy".
By David Ljunggren

Aug 30 (Reuters) - Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, hospital officials in Moscow said. Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, forged arms reduction deals with the United States and partnerships with Western powers to remove the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since World War Two and bring about the reunification of Germany.

"Mikhail Gorbachev passed away tonight after a serious and protracted disease," Russia's Central Clinical Hospital said in a statement. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed "his deepest condolences" on Gorbachev's death, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax news agency. "Tomorrow he will send a telegram of condolences to his family and friends," he said. Putin said in 2018 he would reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union if he could, news agencies reported at the time.
By Mohammed Tawfeeq, Josh Pennington, Jonny Hallam and Tara John, CNN

(CNN) Russian authorities said Sunday they had opened a murder investigation after the daughter of influential, ultra-nationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin was killed by a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow. The Russian Investigative Committee said it believed someone planned and ordered the car explosion that killed Darya Dugina, based on evidence already collected from the blast. "Taking into account the data already obtained, the investigation believes that the crime was pre-planned and was of an ordered nature," the investigative committee said in a statement Sunday.

Dugina died at the scene after "an explosive device, presumably installed in the Toyota Land Cruiser, went off on a public road and the car caught fire" at around 9.00 p.m. local time on Saturday, near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy, according to the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee, as reported by the Russian state news agency TASS. Dugina's father is a Russian author and ideologue, credited with being the architect or "spiritual guide" to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He is purported to have significant influence over Russian President Vladimir Putin and was described as "Putin's Brain" by Foreign Affairs magazine.
Shanthi Rexaline

Atop Russian diplomat Wednesday warned the U.S. against proceeding with efforts to bring the country before an international war court. Wrath Of God:' Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, said the U.S. may have to face the "wrath of God" if it helps set up an international tribunal to investigate Russia's action in Ukraine, the Associated Press reported. Medvedev, President Vladimir Putin's trusted aide, also pulled up the U.S. for its uncalled-for actions in spreading "chaos and destruction across the world."

The official alleged U.S., in the past, has engaged in war and violence and yet not been subjected to international scrutiny of its actions. Medvedev reportedly said on his Telegram channel that U.S. was engaged in a series of bloody wars right from the times of subjugation of native Indians to the nuclear bombing of Japan during World War II to the war in Vietnam. No such tribunal was constituted to condemn the actions of the U.S., he added.
Victoria Scott

Russia's domestic aviation industry continues to struggle intensely in the wake of the country's invasion of Ukraine. First, Russia was cut off from genuine parts supplies for its Western-made commercial planes, as Airbus and Boeing announced that they would stop sales of parts and services to Russian aviation companies. Next, European leasing firms sought to repossess jets leased by Russian carriers by revoking their airworthiness certifications. In an unprecedented move, Vladimir Putin allowed Russian aviation companies to steal those leased aircraft and re-register them in Russia, violating decades-old international standards and causing European companies to lose an estimated $10 billion in airplanes. That theft was too much for an otherwise mostly neutral China to tolerate. The Chinese Civil Aviation Authority announced earlier this week that those stolen planes are no longer allowed in its airspace, closing off even more of the globe to most Russian air traffic.
BY ISABEL VAN BRUGEN

The Russian command is holding hostage the families of troops who refuse to perform combat missions in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian intelligence. The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, the military intelligence service of the Ukrainian government, said in a report Monday that Russian forces currently stationed in occupied areas in eastern Ukraine who refuse to fight are being issued with ultimatums. "If the occupiers refuse to perform combat missions, their wives and children are threatened with relocation to the depressed regions of the Far East," the subdivision of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said on the Telegram messaging app. The families of Russian forces in the country's western military district are also barred from leaving the country, the ministry said.
Anton Troianovski

Natalia Abiyeva is a real estate agent specializing in rental apartments in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow. But lately, she has been learning a lot about battlefield medicine. Packets of hemostatic granules, she found out, can stop catastrophic bleeding; decompression needles can relieve pressure in a punctured chest. At a military hospital, a wounded commander told her that a comrade died in his arms because there were no airway tubes available to keep him breathing. Abiyeva, 37, has decided to take matters into her own hands. On Wednesday, she and two friends set out in a van for the Ukrainian border for the seventh time since the war began in February, bringing onions, potatoes, two-way radios, binoculars, first-aid gear and even a mobile dentistry set. Since the start of the war, she said, she has raised more than $60,000 to buy food, clothes and equipment for Russian soldiers serving in Ukraine.
kcorcoran@businessinsider.com (Kieran Corcoran)

Two regional officials in Russia were branded traitors and ordered to leave a legislative meeting after calling on Vladimir Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine. Deputies Leonid Vasyukevich and Gennady Shulga spoke at a meeting on Friday of the legislative assembly of Primorsky Krai in far eastern Russia. Both are part of Russia's Communist Party. Video of the meeting shows Vasyukevich unexpectedly calling on Putin to end the war, which he said is failing and costing many Russian lives. Shulga later speaks in his support. Vasyukevich starts speaking about 1 hour 59 minutes into the clip:
Isabel van Brugen

ARussian official who demanded that President Vladimir Putin end the war against Ukraine was branded a traitor, escorted out of a high-level meeting and denied the right to vote, according to local media reports. During a meeting of the Legislative Assembly of Russia's Primorsky Krai in the far east of the country, a member of Russia's Communist Party faction, Leonid Vasyukevich, appealed to Putin to stop the months-long war in Ukraine and to withdraw his troops from the country. Speaking on behalf of four party members in a rare critique of what Putin describes a "special military operation," Vasyukevich said he and his colleagues had signed an appeal to the president. "We understand that if our country does not stop the military operation, there will be even more orphans in our country," said Vasyukevich. "During the military operation, young people who could bring great benefit to our country die and become disabled." He added, "We demand the immediate withdrawal of the troops of the Russian Federation."
Elliot Smith

The U.S. has announced that it will not extend an exemption permitting Moscow to pay foreign debt to American investors in U.S. dollars, potentially forcing Russia into default. Up until Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department had granted a key exemption to sanctions on Russia’s central bank that allowed it to process payments to bondholders in dollars through U.S. and international banks, on a case-by-case basis. This had enabled Russia to meet its previous debt payment deadlines, though forced it to tap into its accumulated foreign currency reserves in order to make payments. However, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control allowed the exemption to expire early Wednesday morning. Russia has built up substantial foreign currency reserves in recent years and has the funds to pay, so will likely contest any declaration of default on the grounds that it attempted payment but was blocked by the tightened sanctions regime.
By ELENA BECATOROS, OLEKSANDR STASHEVSKYI and RICARDO MAZALAN

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a Ukrainian civilian was sentenced to life in prison on Monday in the first war crimes trial since Moscow invaded three months ago, unleashing a brutal conflict that has led to accusations of atrocities, left thousands dead, driven millions from their homes and flattened whole swaths of cities. In a rare public expression of opposition to the war from the ranks of the Russian elite, a veteran diplomat resigned and sent a letter to foreign colleagues in which he said he had never been so ashamed as on the day Moscow invaded. Since then, a stiff Ukrainian resistance has bogged Russian troops down, thwarting their attempt to take the capital, and the two sides are now fighting village by village in the eastern Donbas region. As the war rages on, judicial authorities worked to hold one low-level soldier to account in a speedy trial.
Zeleb.es

Tension has increased in Europe since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Finland and Sweden, Nordic countries that traditionally have maintained a neutral balance between the East and the West, now have grown closer to NATO.
The Associated Press

HELSINKI — Russia halted gas exports to neighboring Finland on Saturday, a highly symbolic move that came just days after the Nordic country announced it wanted to join NATO and marked a likely end to Finland's nearly 50 years of importing natural gas from Russia. The measure taken by the Russian energy giant Gazprom was in line with an earlier announcement following Helsinki's refusal to pay for the gas in rubles as Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded European countries do since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The Finnish state-owned gas company Gasum said that "natural gas supplies to Finland under Gasum's supply contract have been cut off" by Russia on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. local time (0400 GMT). The announcement follows Moscow's decision to cut off electricity exports to Finland earlier this month and an earlier decision by the Finnish state-controlled oil company Neste to replace imports of Russian crude oil with crude oil from elsewhere. After decades of energy cooperation that was seen beneficial for both Helsinki — particularly in the case of inexpensive Russian crude oil — and Moscow, Finland's energy ties with Russia are now all but gone.
By Anne Kauranen

HELSINKI, May 20 (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) has informed Finland it will halt flows of natural gas from Saturday morning, Gasum said on Friday, after the Finnish state-owned gas wholesaler refused to pay its Russian supplier in roubles. Gazprom Export has demanded that European countries pay for Russian gas supplies in roubles because of sanctions imposed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Most supply contracts are denominated in euros or dollars and Moscow has already cut off gas to Bulgaria and Poland last month after they refused to comply with the new payment terms. The majority of gas used in Finland comes from Russia but gas only accounts for about 5% of its annual energy consumption.
Holly Ellyatt

In a country where independent media and commentary has all but disappeared from public view, it’s rare to hear dissenting voices on the many state-controlled TV networks in Russia — particularly now with the country at war with Ukraine. But one well-known military analyst and veteran has stood out this week after he appeared on state TV and gave a damning assessment of the Ukraine invasion, or what Russia calls its “special military operation.” “The situation, frankly speaking, will get worse for us,” Mikhail Khodaryonok, a retired Russian army colonel, told the “60 Minutes” talk show on Rossiya-1 TV program hosted by Olga Skabeyeva, who’s renowned for her pro-Kremlin stance.
By Gerrard Kaonga

Russian forces may have opened fire at Israel's jets in Syria, according to a report. The alleged attack is believed to have taken place in Syria on Friday last week, according to Israel's Channel 13 news. Newsweek has not been able to independently verify whether the attack did take place and whether it was the act of Russian forces. The unsourced report alleges that Russia used its S-300 anti-aircraft missiles as the Israeli jets attacked targets in Northwestern Syria. On Friday night, at least five people were killed and seven injured in the alleged airstrike, according to Syria's state news agency. However, other media in the country claimed that six people were killed. The reports indicated that the Syrian military fired off dozens of anti-aircraft missiles at the Israeli jets. As well as this, Syria's S-300 batteries, that are operated by the Russian military and cannot fire without their approval, were also used against the jets. The reports also claimed that S-300 radar did not manage to lock onto the Israeli jets.
By Natalie Colarossi

Several contracted soldiers in Russia have been sent to fight in Ukraine against their will and told that they could face criminal charges if they attempt to quit, according to a new report. Relatives of contract soldiers told Meduza, an independent Russian news outlet that operates out of Latvia, that it is nearly impossible for them to resign from the military service. According to the news outlet, Russians can enlist as a contract soldier instead of carrying out compulsory military service if they have received higher education or vocational training. Newsweek could not independently verify these claims and has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment.
By Jason Lemon

Russian mini-bloggers are "shocked" at their military's "incompetence" as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to push his internationally condemned invasion of Ukraine, a new report said. Moscow began the full-scale unprovoked assault on its Eastern European neighbor on February 24, drawing rapid backlash from the majority of United Nations General Assembly countries. Although the Kremlin reportedly believed that Russian troops could easily take control of much of Ukraine's territory and topple Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's government, they have largely failed to achieve their objectives. After reports surfaced Wednesday that Ukraine had destroyed a Russian unit attempting to traverse the strategically significant Siversky Donets river in Ukraine's southeastern Donbas region, a number of Russian observers of the conflict reportedly became alarmed. Drone footage has since confirmed the reports of the Russian unit's destruction, the Atlantic Council reported Friday. In a Saturday report, the Institute for the Study of War explained that the tone coming from Russian mini-bloggers shifted after news of the unit's destruction emerged.
By Tim Lister, Veronica Stracqualursi and Hira Humayun, CNN

(CNN) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with a congressional delegation led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kyiv Saturday, and called for Russia to officially be recognized as a "terrorist state," he said Saturday in his nightly address. McConnell said in a statement Saturday evening after the delegation had "just left" Ukraine that it was an "honor" to meet with Zelensky and his senior advisers. McConnell was joined on the unannounced trip by Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, John Barrasso of Wyoming and John Cornyn of Texas. McConnell and the other senators became the latest US officials to visit Ukraine since Russia invaded the eastern European nation in late February.
Yuliya Talmazan

How many seconds does it take for a ballistic missile to reach London, Paris or Berlin?  That’s the question pundits on Russian state TV were pondering as the war in Ukraine entered its third month. The eerie estimates were accompanied by a graphic showing the trajectories that Moscow’s intercontinental ballistic missiles would take to reach the capitals of European nations that supply Kyiv with the most military aid. All the while, pro-Kremlin host Olga Skabeyeva and the experts on her “60 Minutes” show on the Russia-1 TV channel were nonchalantly joking about how the West should tune in. Just months ago, the graphic, the rhetoric and the seeming casualness of such conversations would have been shocking, even by the standards of Russian propaganda. But with Russia’s military struggling, its rivals emboldened and the neighbor it invaded responding with defiance, NBC News watched dozens of hours of state media coverage to find the Kremlin and its mouthpieces increasingly reaching for new and more outlandish claims to justify the Ukraine invasion.
Brendan Cole

A Russian lawmaker who has previously boasted about his country's missile capabilities on Kremlin-backed television has said that Finland is endangering its existence if it joins NATO. Duma deputy Aleksey Zhuravlyov, who chairs the nationalist Rodina political party, told the news outlet Ura.ru that Finland and Russia once enjoyed good relations following World War Two but now Helsinki is "going to do something to create additional problems for us." "When you create problems for someone, you must understand that you will get them yourself," he said in the article headlined, "Joining NATO threatens Finland with annihilation." Last month, Zhuravlyov said on the program 60 Minutes, which pushes the Kremlin line on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that he wished missiles had hit Kyiv while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting. On another episode of the program, Zhuravlyov suggested Moscow's latest missile, the Sarmat, should target the U.K. because of London's support for Ukraine's war effort.
By Brendan Cole

The host of a news program in Russia has issued an ominous warning in response to Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki's condemnation of Vladimir Putin. The show 60 Minutes on Russia-1 has been pushing fiery rhetoric justifying Putin's invasion of Ukraine, while condemning the actions of NATO members, in particular the U.K. and the U.S. for their supporting of Kyiv's war effort. In Friday's episode, host Olga Skabeyeva took aim at Poland and Morawiecki's op-ed in The Daily Telegraph where he said Putin's idea of a 'Russkiy Mir' (Russian world) was "a cancer" which proliferated in Russian society and "poses a deadly threat to the whole of Europe."
tporter@businessinsider.com (Tom Porter)

A steady supply of Western weapons has enabled Ukraine's outnumbered military to hold back Russian forces and inflict thousands of casualties during the ongoing war. But experts are increasingly concerned that as Russia's invasion stalls, the Kremlin could choose to retaliate against the West not just through economic and diplomatic means, but also by inciting violent attacks at the heart of the NATO alliance. The tool it could seek to exploit is a network of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups in Russia, Western Europe, and the US with which it has cultivated ties for decades. "They've done that before in much of Europe and I would not be surprised if they are doing that today — trying to get their intelligence services at the right moment to get these groups agitated," Chris Chivvis, who served as the National Security Council's intelligence officer for Europe from 2018 to 2021, told Insider. He warned of a likely effort to stir "political unrest, political violence" and "get these groups agitated to achieve political effects in countries in Europe, and possibly the United States."
“There is an unprecedented and seemingly almost concerted effort to bandy around and play fast and loose with this rhetoric of World War III and nuclear strikes,” one expert said.
By Yuliya Talmazan

How many seconds does it take for a ballistic missile to reach London, Paris or Berlin?  That’s the question pundits on Russian state TV were pondering as the war in Ukraine entered its third month. The eerie estimates were accompanied by a graphic showing the trajectories that Moscow’s intercontinental ballistic missiles would take to reach the capitals of European nations that supply Kyiv with the most military aid. All the while, pro-Kremlin host Olga Skabeyeva and the experts on her “60 Minutes” show on the Russia-1 TV channel were nonchalantly joking about how the West should tune in. Just months ago, the graphic, the rhetoric and the seeming casualness of such conversations would have been shocking, even by the standards of Russian propaganda. But with Russia’s military struggling, its rivals emboldened and the neighbor it invaded responding with defiance, NBC News watched dozens of hours of state media coverage to find the Kremlin and its mouthpieces increasingly reaching for new and more outlandish claims to justify the Ukraine invasion.
Lawrence Richard

Russia said it would cut off electricity to Finland starting Saturday as it claims the country has not paid, a state-owned power company said. RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of Inter ROA, said it will stop exporting electricity to Finland without providing specifics amid larger tensions across Europe beset by the Russia-Ukraine War, Reuters reported. "This situation is exceptional and happened for the first time in over twenty years of our trading history," RAO Nordic said in a statement, per the report. Electrical services, which account for 10% of the country’s total consumption, were discontinued "for the time being" at 1 a.m. local time, Finnish grid operator Fingrid said, according to the report. "Missing imports can be replaced in the electricity market by importing more electricity from Sweden and also by domestic production," the company added, Reuters reported. According to the report, Fingrid is not involved in the dispute. "Nord Pool is the one paying for them. Fingrid is not a party in this electricity trade. We provide the transfer connection from Russia to Finland," Reima Paivinen, Fingrid's senior-vice president for operations told the outlet.
Worries mount that Moscow could grow more moody, provocative
HIROYUKI AKITA, Nikkei Commentator

TOKYO -- Russia has been hit hard by Western sanctions in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine, sparking fears the nation will grow increasingly dependent on China. With the U.S. and many European countries apparently ready to target all aspects of Russia's economy to pile pressure on President Vladimir Putin, the world order could shift as a weakened Moscow moves ever closer to Beijing. That potential realignment has been stoking worries around the world. .S., European and Asian policymakers gathered in New Delhi last month to discuss pressing geopolitical issues at the Raisina Dialogue. Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, president of the European Council, and senior U.S. government officials were among those calling for stronger pressure against Russia, repeatedly urging India and other countries to do more.
Ukraine’s “most vulnerable neighbor” is sounding the alarm and pleading with the West to help protect and sustain the country before it’s too late.
Anna Nemtsova

Russian missiles are landing less than 100 miles from Moldova’s borders. Mysterious explosions rocked the headquarters of a security agency in the country’s Russian-backed separatist enclave last month. An economic crisis is looming. And a Russian general has threatened an expansion of the war in Ukraine to the Moldovan border. Unlike other western neighbors that are receiving Ukrainian refugees, Moldova is not a European Union member, and it does not have the resources the bloc has to house and absorb the rapid flow of asylum-seekers. Yet Moldova has received more Ukrainian refugees per capita than any EU state, in a piling-up of crises that has stirred concerns that the tiny southeastern European country could become the first site of spillover violence from Ukraine. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, Nicu Popescu, Moldova’s minister of foreign affairs and European integration, called on the United States and the EU to pay more attention to Moldova’s struggle, in order to maintain the economy and security of the country. He asked for “flexible and rapid aid to Ukraine’s most vulnerable neighbor.”
Russia threating to cut off oil and gas supplies will only make countries want to get off Russian off oil and gas faster. It will cause countries to reconsider using Russian oil and gas as Russia is no longer a trusted provider of oil and gas.

Reuters

HELSINKI, May 12 (Reuters) - Key Finnish politicians have been warned that Russia could halt its gas supplies to neighbouring Finland on Friday, local newspaper Iltalehti reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. The paper did not specify where the warning would have come from and Reuters was not able to verify the information. Finland's President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Thursday said Finland would apply to join the Western defence alliance NATO "without delay", prompting Russia to vow a response.
By Zoe Strozewski

Since the start of the year, at least seven Russian oligarchs have been found dead under mysterious circumstances in a grim trend happening alongside the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. While few connections can be definitively drawn between all seven oligarchs and their mysterious deaths, they all have two key things in common: none were known to be outwardly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, and none were included on sweeping lists of sanctions imposed on Russian figures, systems and organizations. Strings of high-profile Russian deaths have gained attention in the past. USA Today published a list in 2017 of 38 Russian officials and figures who died under suspicious circumstances. But even while Russia has been accused in the past of attempting to silence critics by deadly means, the seven oligarchs' lack of known criticism of Russia's invasion and freedom from sanctions lists muddies any potential alleged links between Russia and their deaths.
Thomas Newdick

Russia has threatened to respond to Finland’s decision, announced today, that it will seek NATO membership, an aspiration that has been prompted, to a significant degree, by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its 79th day. Kremlin officials have not stated explicitly what kind of reaction could follow, although a spokesman said Finnish accession to NATO posed a direct threat to Russia. Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, today issued a warning of a “full-fledged nuclear war” if NATO continues “pumping weapons into Ukraine,” the timing of which may well be related.
By Isabel van Brugen

Russia said Thursday one person was killed and seven people were injured as a result of shelling by Ukrainian forces in a village in its Belgorod region bordering Ukraine. Ukraine was accused a day earlier of shelling the village of Solokhi in the southwest of the Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine. Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Russian province, said earlier that one person had been killed and six were wounded, but provided a casualty update on his Telegram channel Thursday morning. "Seven wounded, another victim was brought late at night. Everyone is provided with qualified medical care, medicines are available in full. One person died. We will provide material assistance to all the victims and the family of the deceased," Gladkov said. The governor said gas supply in the village that had been disrupted was restored.
wbostock@businessinsider.com (Bill Bostock)

Russia is having to use computer chips intended for home appliances to repair its military hardware due to the impact of US sanctions, according to a US official. "We have reports from Ukrainians that when they find Russian military equipment on the ground, it's filled with semiconductors that they took out of dishwashers and refrigerators," commerce secretary Gina Raimondo told the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday. Raimondo recently met with Ukrainian officials who told her that they found parts from refrigerators and commercial and industrial machines when searching captured or abandoned Russian tanks, The Washington Post reported. Raimondo told the committee that exports of US technology to Russia have fallen by just under 70% as a result of sanctions, the first of which were imposed in late February.
Matthew Loh

Two Russian journalists working for the popular pro-Kremlin news site Lenta.Ru flooded the outlet's home page on Monday with dozens of headlines criticizing President Vladimir Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Lenta.Ru was briefly filled with messages such as "Vladimir Putin lied about Russia's plans in Ukraine" and "Putin unleashed one of the bloodiest wars of the 21st century," as seen in an archived version of the webpage. Journalists Egor Polyakov and Alexandra Miroshnikova told independent Russian outlets Mediazona and The Insider that they posted 40 to 45 news facts, cases, and stories about the war that state media have tried to silence in their country. Polyakov, a business reporter, told The Insider that their short takeover of the site wasn't a "hacking by hackers" but a "conscious decision" by the two of them to combat Russian propaganda. "I believe that all opponents of the war now need to unite, regardless of their views," he said. Polyakov said both he and Miroshnikova no longer work at Lenta.Ru and weren't in Russia when they meddled with the site, per The Insider.
Rachel Treisman

Lithuania's parliament has designated Russia a terrorist country and its actions in Ukraine as genocide. The Lithuanian Seimas tweeted Tuesday that its members had passed the resolution unanimously. This makes Lithuania the first country to declare Russia a perpetrator of terrorism, according to Ukraine's Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security. It's not the first to formally accuse Russia of genocide: Canadian lawmakers unanimously adopted such a motion last month. Lithuania's resolution says that Russia's armed forces and mercenaries have committed war crimes in Ukraine, citing the atrocities reported in places Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Borodyaka, Hostomel and other cities, according to public broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT). "The Russian Federation, whose military forces deliberately and systematically target civilian targets, is a state that supports and perpetrates terrorism," the resolution reads.
By James Pearson

NEWPORT, Wales (Reuters) -Russia was behind a massive cyberattack against a satellite internet network which took tens of thousands of modems offline at the onset of Russia-Ukraine war, the United States, Britain, Canada, Estonia and the European Union said on Tuesday. The digital assault against Viasat's KA-SAT network in late February took place just as Russian armour pushed into Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the cyberattack was intended "to disrupt Ukrainian command and control during the invasion, and those actions had spillover impacts into other European countries."
By Zoe Strozewski

The Kremlin denied Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remark that Adolf Hitler may have had "Jewish blood." A Kremlin statement issued Thursday detailing a phone conversation between Putin and Bennett did not mention any apology. Additionally, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the leaders' talks were "exactly as disclosed" in the statement, The Cradle reported. The denial could intensify already strained tensions between Russia and Israel that stemmed from Lavrov's controversial remarks. The conflict may cause Russia to lose a key Middle East ally in Israel, which has so far taken somewhat of a mediator role in the Russia-Ukraine war by expressing support for Ukraine while refraining from publicly criticizing Moscow.
By Jonathan Landay

KYIV, Ukraine, May 6 (Reuters) - Amnesty International said on Friday there was compelling evidence that Russian troops had committed war crimes, including extrajudicial executions of civilians, when they occupied an area outside Ukraine's capital in February and March. Civilians also suffered abuses such as "reckless shootings and torture" at the hands of Russian forces during their failed onslaught on Kyiv in the early stages of the invasion launched by the Kremlin on Feb. 24, the rights group said in a report. "These are not isolated incidents. These are very much part of a pattern wherever Russian forces were in control of a town or a village," Donatella Rovera, Amnesty's senior crisis response adviser, told a news conference in Kyiv. Information collected by the group "can be used, hopefully, for holding the perpetrators to account, if not today, one day in the future", she said. Russia, which calls its invasion a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists, denies its forces committed abuses. Kyiv and its Western backers say the fascism claim is a false pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression.
Amnesty International says it has documented extensive war crimes by Russian forces in communities around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, including arbitrary executions, bombardments of residences and torture
By The Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine -- Amnesty International says it has documented extensive war crimes by Russian forces in communities around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, including arbitrary executions, bombardments of residences and torture. “The pattern of crimes committed by Russian forces that we have documented includes both unlawful attacks and willful killings of civilians,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said in a statement on Friday. “It is vital that all those responsible, including up the chain of command, are brought to justice.” The organization said it collected evidence and testimony in eight cities near Kyiv, including Bucha. After Russian forces retreated from Bucha in April, corpses were found lying on streets, many with their hands bound behind their backs, and in mass graves. Kyiv regional governor Oleksandr Pavlyuk said that at least 1,235 civilian bodies have been found in the region. Russia has consistently claimed that it hits only targets with military values. It has denied war-crimes allegations and claimed that the Bucha corpses were falsified as a “provocation."
By Brendan Cole

Moscow has reiterated that it will not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, a day after its envoy to the United States had criticized NATO for not taking the threat of nuclear war seriously. State news agency Tass reported comments by Russian Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Alexey Zaitsev that Moscow had no intention of using nuclear arms in the Ukraine war, which Moscow calls a "special military operation." With Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine faltering, the prospect of President Vladimir Putin resorting to nuclear weapons has been a talking point in the media and in western capitals. "The scenarios of our potential use of nuclear weapons are clearly prescribed in Russian doctrinal documents," Zaitsev said on Friday. "Russia firmly abides by the principle that there can be no victors in a nuclear war."
By Hannah Ritchie, CNN

(CNN) Forces identified by witnesses as Russian have "summarily executed, tortured, and beaten civilians" in the Central African Republic (CAR) since 2019, a report by rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has alleged. The report -- which is based on interviews with 40 people, including 10 victims of violence and 15 witnesses -- details abuses that were allegedly committed by men "with white skin speaking Russian" who wore "beige khaki clothes" and used military-grade weapons. Citing evidence from "several Western governments, United Nations experts and special rapporteurs," HRW attributed the crimes to "forces linked to Russia operating in the Central African Republic," including "a significant number of members of the Wagner Group," which is a private military security contractor with ties to the Russian government. The Wagner group first came to prominence in 2014, when Russian-backed separatists in Donbas began their war with the Ukrainian government. Since then, independent research and CNN investigations have found that the private military contractor has operated in Syria and multiple countries in Africa. They have been accused by US officials and human rights watchdogs of sustained human rights abuses. In late March, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said about 1,000 people associated with the Wagner group were in the Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. That same month, a senior Ukrainian adviser told CNN that Wagner was involved in an alleged assassination plot against the Ukrainian president and prime minister.
By Jon Jackson

Russia on Wednesday announced it had conducted simulated nuclear missile strikes near a region between Poland and Lithuania, according to a report. The Moscow Times wrote Russia's defense ministry released a statement that said its forces carried out the strikes in a western part of the Kaliningrad province. Kaliningrad is a small Russian enclave separated from Russia's mainland. It lies on the Baltic Sea and borders the European Union countries Poland and Lithuania. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin began his military assault on Ukraine on February 24, he and other Russian officials have made statements that contained threats of retaliatory strikes against countries that interfere with his war. Putin has also been at odds with Poland and other EU nations since the invasion. Last week, Russia stopped supplying natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria due to the countries' support of Ukraine.
Russian mercenaries dragged young men out of their homes and forced them to hide the evidence of a massacre of their friends and neighbors.
Philip Obaji Jr.

ABUJA, Nigeria—The French military has released videos appearing to show Russian mercenaries burying corpses near the Gossi military base in northern Mali as part of a smear campaign to falsely accuse the departing French forces of leaving behind mass graves. Not for the first time, it appears to be a case of Russian misdirection. The Russians want Malians to believe their ex-colonial masters are behind the death and destruction in northern Mali but Daily Beast sources say the Russians are to blame. Three witnesses say that Russia’s private military contractors have been blindfolding local villagers and forcing them to dig mass graves to hide the evidence of their atrocities. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that foreign soldiers—believed to be Russian mercenaries from the infamous Wagner Group, which is run by one of President Putin’s closest associates, and their Malian associates summarily executed an estimated 300 civilian men in the central Malian village of Moura in late March.
Cheryl Teh

A Russian propagandist has presented on state TV a simulation of a hypothetical nuclear strike that would wipe out the UK and Ireland. Dmitry Kiselyov, a propaganda figure allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was seen in a May 1 broadcast of "News of the World" show narrating how the UK might be destroyed by a nuclear strike delivered either by air or sea. "Just one launch, Boris, and England is gone," Kiselyov said over a computer-generated simulation, referring to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. "Once and for all. Why play with us?" "It actually seems like they're raving on the British Isles. Why threaten never-ending Russia with nuclear weapons when you're on an island, which, you know, is so small?" Kiselyov said. He added that "just one Sarmat missile" would be "sufficient to sink it once and for all."
Claiming Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson would be an attempt to control of much of the country’s east despite setbacks on battlefield
By Missy Ryan, John Hudson, Louisa Loveluck and David Stern

Moscow is preparing to annex vast new swaths of Ukrainian territory in coming days, the United States said on Monday, potentially moving to cement control of much of the country’s east even as Russian forces struggle to capture key areas on the battlefield. A move by the Kremlin to formally claim as part of Russia the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, along with the southern city of Kherson, amid an intense ongoing military battle could thrust the conflict into an unpredictable, even more explosive phase. It is not clear how Ukrainian forces and their allies would respond to such an attempt, which would echo the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 but, in a crucial difference, occur as forces loyal to Ukraine fight to retain control of their territory.
Reuters

May 3 (Reuters) - Russia's foreign ministry accused Israel on Tuesday of supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, further escalating a row which began when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins.
Dmitry Kiselyov, a Putin propagandist, threatened the UK with a Poseidon underwater drone
Joe Middleton

Britain could be “plunged into the sea” by an underwater nuclear strike, a host on Russian state television has threatened. Dmitry Kiselyov, a key propagandist for Vladimir Putin, used his show on Sunday night to suggest an attack on UK using a Poseidon underwater drone could be a possible course of action for Russia.
By Olexsandr Fylyppov and Tim Lister, CNN

(CNN) Russian troops in the occupied city of Melitopol have stolen all the equipment from a farm equipment dealership -- and shipped it to Chechnya, according to a Ukrainian businessman in the area. But after a journey of more than 700 miles, the thieves were unable to use any of the equipment -- because it had been locked remotely. Over the past few weeks there's been a growing number of reports of Russian troops stealing farm equipment, grain and even building materials - beyond widespread looting of residences. But the removal of valuable agricultural equipment from a John Deere dealership in Melitopol speaks to an increasingly organized operation, one that even uses Russian military transport as part of the heist. CNN has learned that the equipment was removed from an Agrotek dealership in Melitopol, which has been occupied by Russian forces since early March. Altogether it's valued at nearly $5 million. The combine harvesters alone are worth $300,000 each.
Anthony Faiola

RIGA, Latvia — In his two-bedroom Moscow apartment, 35-year-old start-up wizard Pavel Telitchenko spent years mulling a move from Russia, fearing the gradual rise of a police state. Then, three days after the Kremlin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine, he made the hard choice — packing up his young family, along with his prized vinyl-record collection, and joining a historic exodus that includes a massive outflow of Russia’s best and brightest minds in tech. “I did not want to make an emotional decision, but I could not raise my son in a country like that,” said Telitchenko, who resettled in neighboring Latvia in March with his wife and 3-year-old son. He spoke in their comfortable Riga two-story walk-up, standing near a high shelf with a white Santa Claus statue from his childhood — a reminder of what he had left behind. “The war made me realize that Russia will not change,” he said. Western attention is focused on the millions of refugees who have fled Ukraine since the Russian assault began on Feb. 24. But Russia is also in the midst of an emigration wave that is upending its spheres of arts and journalism, and especially the world of tech.
Phil Rosen

Germany's announcement this week that it's ready to stop buying Russian oil makes a sweeping European Union oil embargo much more likely — which would have devastating consequences for Moscow. "Russia's economy is projected to contract by more than 10% already this year. If an EU embargo happens, it would likely send the economy spiraling into a depression," Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at markets analytics firm Kpler, told Insider. Without European buyers, Russia would need to find somewhere to put roughly 2.5 million barrels a day. Unless Moscow can sell that supply quickly or at least find a place to stash it, there's a strong chance Russia will have to slash its oil production dramatically due to its limited storage capacity, he said.
By Ivana Kottasová and Uliana Pavlova, CNN

(CNN) At least five prominent Russian businessmen have reportedly died by suicide since late January, with three of them allegedly killing members of their families before taking their own lives. Four of the dead men were associated with the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom or one of its subsidiaries. CNN's calls to Gazprom have not been returned. A top executive at Gazprom was found dead in his cottage in the village of Leninsky near Leningrad on January 30, 2022, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti. RIA reported that a suicide note was found at the scene and that the investigators were investigating the death as a suicide. Russian national broadcaster RenTv has identified the man as Leonid Shulman, the head of transport at Gazprom Invest.
Zoe Strozewski

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reportedly have plans to strengthen their "Union State" and are looking to attract other former members of the dissolved Soviet Union, but the likelihood of other ex-USSR republics joining seems low in the face of the Ukrainian invasion. Belarus has remained one of Russia's top allies since the start of the Russia-Ukraine War in late February, which drew condemnation from around the globe. But reports from Belarus' state-owned BelTA news agency indicate that Lukashenko and Putin are interested in taking the relationship between their countries to a more cooperative level in a move reminiscent of the former USSR, though authorities have yet to confirm these reports. "We are building a single Union State on the new principles to ensure that everyone's interests are respected, that the sovereign independent states—Belarus and Russia—keep developing. I am sure that this union will attract other republics of the former Soviet Union," BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying during a meeting with Governor of Russia's Voronezh Oblast Aleksandr Gusev in Minsk on Thursday.
Giulia Carbonaro

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko reportedly have plans to strengthen the "Union State" stipulating the close cooperation between the two independent states to attract other countries into the supranational organization, according to Belarusian media. Belarus' state-owned news agency BelTA reported that Lukashenko said he met with Governor of Russia's Voronezh Oblast Aleksandr Gusev in Minsk on Thursday, where the two discussed their interest in further developing the cooperation between Belarus and Russia. "Thanks to you we have this cooperation," Lukashenko said, according to BelTA. "We are building a single Union State on the new principles to ensure that everyone's interests are respected, that the sovereign independent states—Belarus and Russia—keep developing. I am sure that this union will attract other republics of the former Soviet Union."
Celina Tebor, Jorge L. Ortiz, John Bacon, Rebecca Morin | USA TODAY

The U.S. has reliable information that Russian military forces executed Ukrainians who were trying to surrender near Donetsk, U.S. officials say. The U.S. has credible reports and photos of individuals killed "execution-style" with their hands bound, including bodies showing signs of torture and accounts of sexual violence against women and girls, according to Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack, “These images and reports suggest that atrocities are not the result of rogue units or individuals; they, rather, reveal a deeply disturbing pattern of systematic abuse across all areas where Russia’s forces are engaged,” she said at a United Nations meeting Wednesday.
Giulia Carbonaro

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the U.S. wanted to see Russia so "weakened" that it won't be able to support another war like the one it initiated in Ukraine. Now, analysts suggest Moscow might have already reached that point. In an article published on Wednesday, analysts told The Times they believe Russia already burned through so much of its military strength in the past two months of war that it could be "years" before the Kremlin is able to order another such invasion of a neighboring country. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at Washington think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the British newspaper that, according to estimates, Russia might have already lost the equivalent of two years of tank production, one year's supply of aircraft and likely several year's worth of missile production since the beginning of the invasion on February 24.
By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, April 27 (Reuters) - The EU's chief executive on Wednesday branded as "blackmail" Russian giant Gazprom's move to halt supplies to some European customers, but said the bloc was working on a coordinated response to Moscow's escalation. Gazprom (GAZP.MM) said it had cut supplies to Poland and Bulgaria for failing to pay for gas in roubles, Moscow's toughest response yet to sanctions imposed by the West over the conflict in Ukraine. "The announcement by Gazprom that it is unilaterally stopping delivery of gas to customers in Europe is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. "This is unjustified and unacceptable. And it shows once again the unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier," she said in a statement.
Sophia Ankel

A Ukrainian-born executive at Russia's Gazprombank has said that he fled Russia to fight for his home country and wants to "wash off" his Russian past. Igor Volobuev served as the vice president of Gazprombank, a subsidiary of the Russian energy giant, for six years. In an interview with the independent Russian news outlet The Insider, he said he wanted to fight for Ukraine after Russia invaded on February 24. Volobuev said he was born and went to school in Okhtyrka, a city in Ukraine's Sumy Oblast region.
By Sugam Pokharel and Mark Thompson, CNN Business

London (CNN Business) Russia has cut off natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, dramatically escalating its response to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the war in Ukraine. Russian state energy giant Gazprom said in a statement Wednesday that it had fully halted supplies to Polish gas company PGNiG and Bulgaria's Bulgargaz after they refused to meet a demand by Moscow to pay in rubles, rather than euros or dollars. The European Commission described the decision to halt supplies as attempted "blackmail" and said it was coordinating a response among EU member states. "Europeans can trust that we stand united and in full solidarity with the member states impacted in the face of this new challenge. Europeans can count on our full support," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.
prosen@insider.com (Phil Rosen)

Russia's largest state-run oil producer, Rosneft PJSC, failed to sell 37 million barrels of its flagship Urals crude, traders told Reuters, as European traders continue to look elsewhere for energy products amid war in Ukraine. Rosneft PJSC had opened up the oil for bids to unload from ports in May and June, but no European customers were willing to participate. According to the report, some Asian refiners placed bids on the oil, but the state-run refinery did not accept them. Other Asia-based buyers had complained that Roseneft's requirement of 100% prepayment was too stringent. Since European nations have self-sanctioned or otherwise scaled back from buying Russian crude, producers have faced an increasingly difficult challenge of finding a market. The ratio of outgoing Urals seaborne exports going to Europe has dropped from 90% to 50%, Bloomberg reported.
If the war in Ukraine is going as planned, why did Russia have to hire 20,000 mercenaries to fight the war?

Matthew Loh

The Kremlin has hired between 10,000 to 20,000 mercenaries to fight in eastern Ukraine, including infantry fighters from Syria and Libya, a European official said, according to multiple media reports. The official, who spoke to reporters at a briefing in Washington on condition of anonymity, said it is difficult to break down the number of fighters from each country but noted that they were all hired by the private military company Wagner Group, The Guardian reported on Tuesday. "What I can tell you is that we did see some transfer from these areas, Syria and Libya, to the eastern Donbas region, and these guys are mainly used as a mass against the Ukrainian resistance," the official said.
Ukraine is defending itself against an unprovoked Russian invasion, if Russia had not invaded Ukraine in the first place there would not be a possibility of World War III.

Russia’s top diplomat warned Ukraine against provoking World War III and said the threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated” as his country unleashed attacks against rail and fuel installations far from the front lines of Moscow’s new eastern offensive.
Taiyler Simone Mitchell

In nearly nine weeks, Russia lost as many troops during its invasion of Ukraine as it did in the nine years of the Soviet War in Afghanistan. "It is our assessment that approximately 15,000 Russian personnel have been killed during their offensive," Ben Wallace, UK's Secretary of State for Defense said in a statement released by the British embassy in Washington on Monday. He also estimated that approximately a quarter of the battalion tactical groups were "not combat effective." The Soviet War in Afghanistan lasted from 1979 to 1989. Many scholars partially attributed the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse to the military failure in the war. About 14,500 Soviet soldiers died then — along with 90,000 Mujahideen soldiers, 18,000 Afghan soldiers, and approximately one million civilians, The Atlantic reported in 2014.
Photos released by Russian police from the apparent scene of arrest show Nazi memorabilia next to copies of The Sims 3 video game, which critics say was mistaken for SIM cards
By TOI staff

Photos released by Russian security forces on Monday showed items allegedly found at the house of a person Russia claims was among six neo-Nazis working with Ukraine in a plot to assassinate an influential pro-Kremlin TV host. But some of the items shown in the released pictures have led some to suspect that the plot was staged by Russia and that Russian officers mistakenly confused SIM cards with a popular video game. According to a report by the New York Post, the Russian federal police (FSB) said Monday it had arrested six individuals suspected of plotting to kill Russian TV Host Vladimir Solovyov, who is widely regarded as a Kremlin propagandist. The Russian police said the plot was coordinated with Ukrainian security services.
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