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Russia's private Wagner militia, which is leading the assault on Bakhmut in Ukraine and has been active in Africa, could soon cease to exist, founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in video remarks to a blogger that were released on Friday. It was not immediately clear when Prigozhin had spoken and how serious he was being. Earlier this week he withdrew comments about the frontline he said had been a joke. Prigozhin has complained repeatedly about how Russia is conducting the war in Ukraine. He often says the regular armed forces are not giving his men the ammunition they need and sometimes...

For Ruslan, an engineer in the Belarus capital of Minsk, Russia’s war in neighboring Ukraine suddenly seemed closer than ever when a conscription office recently sent him a summons for military training. It’s part of an effort that will see thousands of men in Belarus attend drills amid fears that the staunch Moscow ally could be drawn into the fighting. “They are telling us that Belarus won’t enter the war against Ukraine, but I hear Russian warplanes roar over my house heading to the Machulishchi air base outside Minsk,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He...

Ukraine’s military has set up positions on the eastern side of the Dnipro River near Kherson city, the Institute for the Study of War cites Russian military bloggers as saying. Infiltrating the area could be a first step towards trying to dislodge Russian forces from positions they are using to shell and shoot at Kherson. The constant attacks have made it impossible for residents to return to normal life months after Ukrainian troops liberated the city from occupation. Ukrainian military forays across the river could also mark the first tentative steps towards launching a long-awaited spring offensive to reclaim more...

Wagner soldiers returning to Russia following their brief service in Ukraine have terrorized their hometown communities, according to reports. "The state and personally Putin and Prigozhin are to blame for Yulia’s death and should answer for it," an unnamed close relative of Yulia Buiskich, a woman allegedly killed by a paroled Wagner troop, told The Observer. "They released a sick b------ into society." Buiskich, 85, was found dead in her home in the town of Novyj Burets, a community of some few hundred people. Ivan Rossomakhin, a 28-year-old Wagner soldier who received a pardon for his service in Ukraine, allegedly...

A super PAC supporting a potential White House bid from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday it will financially support former President Donald Trump's move to California — just one day after the GOP 2024 front runner took aim at the Sunshine State's leadership and called it the "worst state." "Donald Trump has so deeply disparaged the state of Florida by calling it the ‘worst state,’ we at Never Back Down will help him leave by offering financial assistance to help him move to his beloved California, so he can be close to his good buddy Gavin Newsom, whom he...

The Wagner Group private military company (PMC) may be trying to force mobilized Russian personnel to sign contracts with the mercenaries fighting for Moscow to offset their troop losses in Ukraine. Spearheading Moscow's fierce fight for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut that has raged for months, the group, headed by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, has seen a huge number of troops killed in action. "A group of around 170 mobilized men from these aircraft ... were forced to sign contracts with the Wagner PMC," Astra reported, citing the soldiers' relatives. Russian sources had previously reported that 100 mobilized personnel in Luhansk...

Major Russian media now reporting Bakhmut in Russian handsBakhmut was the basic lynchpin of the entire ukie defensive system in the East.

Russia lost elections to three United Nations bodies this week, a sign that opposition to its invasion of Ukraine over a year ago remains strong. The votes in the 54-member U.N. Economic and Social Council follow approval of six non-binding resolutions against Russia by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly. The latest — on Feb. 23, the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion — called for Moscow to end hostilities and withdraw its forces and was adopted by a vote of 141-7 with 32 abstentions. In the ECOSOC votes, Russia was overwhelmingly defeated by Romania for a seat on...

Ukraine is able to export electricity for the first time in six months as its energy infrastructure recovers from months of repeated Russian attacks. Russia began its lengthy and deliberate assault on Ukraine's energy infrastructure last October. It led to power cuts and scheduled blackouts, leaving towns and cities in darkness during winter. Ukraine was forced to stop electricity exports - but will now be able to sell its excess power again. Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko signed an executive order authorising the exports, although local customers remain the priority. He said the system had been producing extra capacity for almost...

The Nordic country will become NATO’s 31st member on Tuesday, expanding the alliance in a strategic setback for President Vladimir Putin of Russia. (snip) Finland’s flag is being raised on Tuesday afternoon at NATO headquarters, a deeply symbolic moment marking the Nordic nation’s official welcome into the alliance and the shifting power calculations as the West strengthens its allegiances in response to the war in Ukraine. The president of Finland, Sauli Niinisto, is expected to attend the ceremony, on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 74th anniversary, in what amounts to a strategic defeat for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia,...

Several MiG-29 fighter aircraft have been delivered to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against Russia, Marcin Przydacz, Head of the International Policy Bureau of the President of Poland, said to RMF24 radio on Monday. The transfer would make Poland the first Ukrainian ally to supply it with warplanes. Polish President Andrzej Duda said on March 16 that four of the aircraft would be delivered in the coming days. Przydacz said that there would be further transfers of fighter craft to Ukraine. Duda said that Poland has around 20 MiG-29s, Reuters reported.

Russian, Ukrainian, and Western sources observed on April 1 that the Russian winter offensive has failed to achieve the Kremlin’s goals of seizing the Donetsk and Luhansk oblast administrative borders by March 31. Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov had announced on December 22 that Russian forces were focusing most of their efforts on seizing Donetsk Oblast, and Russian forces launched their winter offensive operation in early February along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna-Lyman line and on select frontlines in western Donetsk Oblast. The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) observed that Gerasimov has failed to extend Russian control over Donbas during...

Moldovan President Maia Sandu has stated that Russia wants to use her country against Ukraine like the Kremlin uses Belarus. Sandu said Russia is trying to undermine and overthrow the government in Chișinău, and the Moldovan authorities have evidence of such actions. "It is clear that Russia is trying to install a pro-Russian government in Chișinău to use Moldova against Ukraine, as is the case, for example, with Belarus," the president said. She recalled the recent statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding his intention to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. "This is exactly what Russia wants to do...

Turkey’s parliament has voted to approve Finland’s NATO membership bid, paving the way for the Nordic country to join the security alliance. The decision only applies to Finland, not Sweden, its neighbor and fellow NATO hopeful. Both countries applied on the same day last year, having made the decision to join the alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine. Thursday’s vote was the last hurdle in Finland’s quest to join the military organization. Its eventual accession would remake European security, doubling NATO’s land border with Russia and bringing the full force of the alliance to Europe’s far north.

Poland's prime minister said on Monday his government would ask Germany for permission to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, and planned to send them whether or not Berlin agreed. Germany's foreign minister had said on Sunday that Berlin would not stand in the way if Poland wanted to do so. The issue of supplying the German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine has dominated recent discussions among Western allies about how much and what sort of material aid they should give Ukraine as the first anniversary of the Russian invasion nears. The development comes as both sides are believed to be...

The Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee sought Sunday to tamp down speculation that the new GOP majority will be less likely to fund aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia, though he did suggest some members of his party may need to be convinced about the need to continue US support. “I think there’s enough support on both sides of the aisle. Majority in the Democratic Party, majority in the Republican,” Texas Rep. Michael McCaul told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” referring to aid to Ukraine. But he added, “We have to educate...

For years, the United States has insisted that Crimea is still part of Ukraine. Yet the Biden administration has held to a hard line since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, refusing to provide Kyiv with the weapons it needs to target the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has been using as a base for launching devastating strikes. Now that line is starting to soften. After months of discussions with Ukrainian officials, the Biden administration is finally starting to concede that Kyiv may need the power to strike the Russian sanctuary, even if such a move increases the risk of escalation, according to...

The German and Dutch foreign ministers on Monday condemned the deportation by Russians of thousands of Ukrainian children, calling it a deliberate policy of cruel and inhumane abductions that is tearing families apart. Since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine nearly a year ago, Russians have been accused of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories to raise them as their own. At least 1,000 children were seized from schools and orphanages in the Kherson region during Russia’s eight-month occupation of the area, local authorities say. Their whereabouts are still unknown. Russia claims that these children don’t have parents...

A recorded meeting shows Russian President Vladimir Putin losing his temper when arguing with his deputy prime minister. In Putin's first video call meeting of the year with government ministers, he sparred with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov before humiliating him by asking why he was "fooling around" instead of securing new contracts for plane construction, a video released by RIA Novosti shows. When Manturov attempted to defend himself, Putin adopted a mocking tone before giving him one month as a deadline. The incident started with a disagreement over whether or not new contracts...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed a new commander to lead his forces in Ukraine. Gen. Valery Gerasimov will take over from Sergei Surovikin, the country’s Defense Ministry said on Telegram Wednesday, a change that comes as the Kremlin's forces appeared close to a breakthrough in bitter fighting on the eastern front lines. The announcement came just three months after Surovikin became the first person to be handed sole charge of the campaign since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24. The ministry said he would now serve as one of Gerasimov's three deputies, along with Army Gen. Oleg Salyukov...