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Kyiv says Kalibr missiles being transported on a train in Dzhankoi were destroyed as Russia's region chief blames drone attackA Ukrainian drone strike destroyed a shipment of cruise missiles intended for use by Russia's Black Sea fleet. Ukraine's defence ministry said on Monday that an explosion in Dzhankoi in the north of the Crimean peninsula destroyed a number of Kalibr missiles, which are designed to be launched from ships. "An explosion in Dzhankoi city in the north of temporarily occupied Crimea destroyed Russian Kalibr-KN cruise missiles as they were being transported by rail," the ministry's main intelligence directorate said in...

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is making a surprise trip to Ukraine on Tuesday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – a day after Chinese leader Xi Jinping met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Kishida has already left India, where he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and is now on his way to Ukraine, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. His trip is the first time a Japanese prime minister has visited a country or region with ongoing fighting since World War II, NHK reported. It will also be the first visit to Ukraine by an Asian...

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued an ominous warning on Monday, suggesting that Russia could strike the International Criminal Court (ICC) with a hypersonic missile in response to its decision to issue an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin. Attempts to try Putin in the ICC would have "monstrous" consequences for international law, Medvedev, deputy head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, said in a statement on his Telegram channel. The ICC, which is based in The Hague in the Netherlands, concluded on Friday that the Russian leader had committed war crimes in his full-scale invasion of Ukraine,...

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Saturday indicated that lifting all anti-Russia sanctions and canceling all claims against Moscow in international judicial instances should be an intrinsic part of a peace settlement in Ukraine. -snip- "the cancellation of all illegal sanctions and lawsuits against Russia in international courts should become an integral part [of this settlement]," Zakharova said in a statement. It is noteworthy that on Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, on the grounds of alleged "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian...

"Our president knows how to surprise," says regional governor SEVASTOPOL, March 18./TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Sevastopol on the ninth anniversary of Crimea's reunification with Russia at the wheel of a car, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on his Telegram channel...

China's President Xi Jinping will travel to Moscow next week to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, officials say. The Kremlin said they would discuss a "comprehensive partnership and strategic co-operation". The visit comes as Beijing, an ally of Russia, has offered proposals to end the war in Ukraine, to which the West has given a lukewarm reception. Western countries have warned Beijing against supplying Moscow with weapons. This will be President Xi's first visit to Russia since Russian troops invaded Ukraine. He is due to have lunch with Mr Putin on Monday followed by talks on Tuesday. A...

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has been forced to use more of its professional recruits in Bakhmut to replace its depleted supply of enlisted prisoners, who are perishing by the thousands in the longest battle of the war, a Ukrainian official said on Tuesday. The claim suggested that Ukraine sees an opportunity, despite the heavy casualties it has suffered in the eastern city, to exhaust Wagner’s nearly suicidal prisoner assaults, which Ukraine’s commanders regard as one of Russia’s most effective tactics. “This is their last stand,” Col. Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern group of forces, told...