Tag Archives: Ukraine

The Washington Post reports: The United States for several months has been sending private communications to Moscow warning Russia’s leadership of the grave consequences that would follow the use of a nuclear weapon, according to U.S. officials, who said the messages underscore what President Biden and his aides have articulated publicly. The State Department has been involved in the private …

The Associated Press reports: Voting began Friday in Moscow-held regions of Ukraine on referendums to become part of Russia, Russian-backed officials there said. The Kremlin-orchestrated referendums, which have been widely denounced by Ukraine and the West as shams without any legal force, are seen as a step toward annexing the territories by Russia. The vote, which asks residents if they …

Reuters reports: Some draft-age Russians headed abroad on Thursday to escape their country’s biggest conscription drive since World War Two, while explosions shook southeastern Ukraine on the eve of referendums planned there by pro-Moscow separatists. President Vladimir Putin’s new mobilisation campaign escalates a war that has already killed thousands, displaced millions, pulverised cities, damaged the global economy and revived Cold …

Air Live reports: Russian airlines have stopped selling tickets to Russian men aged 18 to 65 unless they can provide evidence of approval to travel from the Ministry of Defense. All flights from Russia to available foreign destinations were sold out Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin declared a “partial” mobilization of the country’s 25 million reservists. Flights from Moscow to …

Bloomberg News reports: As Russia moves to annex occupied Ukrainian territory, Putin also renewed his warnings of a nuclear threat. “When the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people,” he said in a televised national address Wednesday. “This is not a bluff.” “Those who …

Reuters reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called up 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine and said Moscow would respond with the might of all its vast arsenal if the West pursued what he called its “nuclear blackmail” over the conflict there. It was Russia’s first such mobilisation since World War Two and signified a major escalation of the …

The Associated Press reports: The separatist leaders of four Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine said Tuesday they were planning to hold votes starting later this week for the territories to become part of Russia as Moscow loses ground in the war it launched. The four regions are Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia. The announcements of referendums starting Friday came after a …

NPR reports: A Russian missile struck close to a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine without damaging the three reactors but hit other industrial equipment in what Ukrainian authorities denounced Monday as an act of “nuclear terrorism.” The missile struck 328 yards from the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear plant, also known as the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, according to Ukrainian nuclear …

Politico Europe reports: The foreign minister of the Czech Republic, current holder of the presidency of the Council of the EU, called for a “special international tribunal” after evidence of torture on civilians emerged from a mass burial site in Izyum in northeastern Ukraine. “Russia left behind mass graves of hundreds of shot and tortured people in the Izyum area. …

Reuters reports: Ukrainian officials said they found a mass burial site with 440 bodies, mainly of civilians, in a northeastern city recaptured from Russian forces, calling it proof of war crimes carried out by the invaders in territory they had occupied for months. “Russia is leaving death behind it everywhere and must be held responsible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said …

Yahoo News reports: Another top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has died this week, this time of an alleged “stroke” while on a business trip in the village of Roshchino in Russia’s far east region. Vladimir Nikolayevich Sungorkin, 68, was editor-in-chief of the Russian state newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda. According to the newspaper, Sungorkin died “suddenly” after showing signs of …

Reuters reports: Vladimir Putin’s chief envoy on Ukraine told the Russian leader as the war began that he had struck a provisional deal with Kyiv that would satisfy Russia’s demand that Ukraine stay out of NATO, but Putin rejected it and pressed ahead with his military campaign, according to three people close to the Russian leadership. The Ukrainian-born envoy, Dmitry …

Reuters reports: Ukraine said on Tuesday it aimed to liberate all of its territory after driving back Russian forces in the northeast of country in a rapid offensive, but called on the West to speed up deliveries of weapons systems to back the advance. Since Moscow abandoned its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, marking its worst defeat since …

The Associated Press reports: Ukrainian troops expanded their territorial gains Monday by pushing all the way to the country’s northeastern border in places and claimed to have captured many Russian soldiers as part of the lightning advance that forced Moscow to make a hasty retreat. A spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian troops were surrendering en masse as “they …

The Associated Press reports: Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Saturday that it’s pulling back troops from two areas in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made significant advances in the past week. The news came after days of apparent advances by Ukraine south of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, in what could become the biggest battlefield success for …

Politico reports: Russia is purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea for use in the Ukraine conflict, according to a U.S. official, citing newly downgraded intelligence. The news comes a week after Kyiv began a major counteroffensive in the south of the country to take back territory Moscow captured in its initial invasion. Since the operation began, …

Reuters reports: Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil died on Thursday after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, two sources familiar with the situation said, becoming the latest in a series of businessmen to meet with sudden unexplained deaths. The sources confirmed reports by several Russian media that the 67-year-old had plunged to his death, …

The New York Times reports: The Vatican on Tuesday for the first time said that Russia was the aggressor in the Ukraine war, condemning Moscow’s invasion in strong terms after earlier comments by Pope Francis prompted criticism from Kyiv. “As for the large-scale war in Ukraine, initiated by the Russian Federation, the interventions of the Holy Father Pope Francis are …

Politico Europe reports: The EU should significantly expand but must first undergo fundamental reforms to ensure an enlarged bloc can still function, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Monday. During an hour-long speech at Charles University in Prague, Scholz outlined his vision for an EU of the future — one that has absorbed up to nine new members on its eastern …

NBC News reports: International inspectors were heading Monday to the Ukrainian nuclear plant at the center of growing alarm about a potential radiation disaster. The United Nations nuclear watchdog mission is set to arrive at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia power plant later this week, offering hope for progress even as the two warring sides exchanged new accusations of shelling around the …