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Ukraine is reported to have wiped out the entire command of Russia's 35th Brigade in a deadly missile strike. The attack was carried out using HIMARS missiles on the brigade's headquarters in the eastern town of Selydove. The town was captured by the Russians in October last year and lies just 11 miles northwest of the strategically important city of Pokrovsk. The attack was filmed by Ukrainian drones hovering close to the building, housing the headquarters. In a video posted to social media, a huge ball of flames rises from a building after the impact of the missiles. Thick black...

Russia has got so desperate it has had to go back to one of the most old-fashioned ways to carry bullets and guns during a war. The Soviet army had to start using donkeys and horses to carry ammunition in Ukraine – something that hasn’t been done for over a century. Military blogger Kirill Fedorov wrote on his Telegram channel that Putin and his soldiers have started to send the animals to the front line. He said that an official government transport list says these animals include horses, camels and deer. He wrote: ‘The fighters were given a donkey to...

President Trump is prepared to double down on US sanctions for Russia to bring about an end to its war on Ukraine, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, his special envoy to the conflict, exclusively told The Post this week — but he knows both Kyiv and Moscow will have to make concessions to end the “industrial-sized” killing in Europe’s largest country. Sanctions enforcement on Russia are “only about a three” on a scale of one to 10 on how painful the economic pressure can be, Kellogg said. The US sanctions themselves — such as those targeting Russia’s lucrative energy sector —...

Vladimir Putin’s Russian Space Agency boss has been fired after a “catastrophic” number of launch failures of missiles, satellites and rockets in recent years. Yury Borisov, 68, an ex-deputy premier and close ally, was replaced at the space agency, known as Roscosmos, by deputy transport minister Dmitry Bakanov, 39 -snip- A key failure for both men was the doomsday Sarmat - aka Satan-2 - missile, Russia's largest weapon. Under Borisov, also a former deputy defence minister, a test in September 2024 exploded on the launch at Plesetsk cosmodrome leaving a 200ft wide crater. A year earlier, Borisov had reported to...

The United States' 'America First' policy has disturbing similarities to the slogan 'Germany above all' used by the Nazis to assert national superiority over others, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned. In an op-ed for the magazine 'Russia in Global Affairs' published on Tuesday, Lavrov argued that Washington's approach undermines the UN Charter and the post-war global order built on sovereign equality. He noted that this principle was enshrined in the Yalta-Potsdam agreements signed in 1945 by the USSR, US, and UK, shaping the modern international system. With the administration of US President Donald Trump back in power, Washington's...

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has sharply criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to tie future military aid for Ukraine to access to its rare earth resources, calling the move "very egotistic, very self-centered." Scholz said that Ukraine needs its natural resources to finance post-war rebuilding, not to bargain for security assistance. "That's why I think it would be better if Ukraine's resources were used for a good future," he said. However, Ukraine appears more open to the idea — at least the opening up of its critical raw materials to allies, if not explicitly the quid pro quo suggested by...

-snip- Serhiy Dubovik, deputy head of Ukraine's Central Election Commission, said it would take at least four to six months to prepare so that campaigning could start ahead of an election, given the displacement of voters and widespread destruction. Millions of Ukrainians still live abroad, millions more are internally displaced by the war, a fifth of Ukraine is occupied and front-line areas have been devastated. -snip- Zelenskyy's public trust rating is above 50%, according to opinion polls, although it has dropped since Russia's Feb. 24, 2022 invasion, when it rose to over 90% as Ukrainians rallied around the flag. The...

-snip- Late on February 2, Trump said talks with Ukraine and Russia were going "pretty well." "We have meetings and talks scheduled with various parties, including Ukraine and Russia. And I think those discussions are actually going pretty well," he added without being specific. Hours earlier, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, warned both sides will have to make concessions if they hope to negotiate a settlement to the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "has already indicated he will soften his position on land," Kellogg said. "And [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going to have to soften...

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seen by Russia as possible venues for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, two Russian sources with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters. -snip- Saudi Arabia and the UAE did not respond to requests for comment. The Kremlin declined comment. But both Trump and Putin have developed friendly relations with rulers of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Trump said on Sunday that his administration had "meetings and talks scheduled with various parties, including Ukraine and Russia." When asked about those remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday not inviting Russia to events marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp was “shameful.” “As for the invitation and non-invitation to events related to the liberation of Auschwitz, this is, of course, such a strange, shameful thing,” Putin said in an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin, an excerpt of which was shared on his Telegram account. “You can have any attitude toward Russia’s policy, toward the head of the Russian state, toward me; no one is begging for any invitation. But if you think about it, you...

The Kremlin has accused President Trump of attempting to erode Russia and China’s nuclear potential with his plan for an Iron Dome missile defence system. The programme was “yet another confirmation of the US focus on turning space into a scene of armed confrontation and deployment of weapons”, Maria Zakharova, the chief spokeswoman of the Russian foreign ministry, said. Trump issued an executive order on Monday mandating a process to develop an “Iron Dome for America”, a reference to the aerial defence shield used by Israel. Zakharova said that this implied “a sharp intensification of the US national missile defence...

Russia slammed Donald Trump’s plan for an ‘Iron Dome’ missile defence shield in a nuclear weapons space war row. Moscow said the move was designed to weaken Russian and Chinese nuclear deterrence. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also stressed that Russia saw the “Iron Dome” plan as confirmation of a US intention to turn space into a theatre of military confrontation. Trump signed an order on Monday for the implementation of a next-generation US missile defence shield against ballistic, hypersonic, cruise missile and other forms of aerial attack. The plan is believed to be modelled on the defensive dome...

NATO fighter planes were scrambled today amid a brutal Russian missile and military drone onslaught on civilian, energy and military sites in Ukraine. Harrowing footage showed residents in Poltava screaming after a strike destroyed ordinary apartment blocks triggering fires amid the debris of smashed buildings. The wave of attacks by Vladimir Putin - which led to power cuts in multiple regions - came soon after Donald Trump announced in the Oval Office that his administration was actively talking to Moscow. “We are having very serious discussions about that war, trying to get it ended,” said the US president. On whether...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing a backlash from within the Kremlin over his pro-China policy, with elites fearing that Moscow is becoming a 'colony' of Beijing. Vladimir Putin is facing intense criticism from rival factions within the Kremlin over his China policy, which could worsen Russia's economic crisis, with earlier reports suggesting China is 'bailing' Russia out by buying distressed assets. Since the start of the Ukraine conflict - where Russia have endured huge personnel losses - in February 2022, Putin has strengthened political and economic ties with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, boosting their bilateral trade to a record...

Syria’s ruler Ahmad Al Shara has demanded that Russia hand over former president Bashar Al Assad and an estimated $2 billion dollars in liquid assets held by the Assad family in Russian banks, during a meeting in Damascus, two sources told The National. The meeting with a Russian delegation led by deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov also focused on other issues thorny but reached no agreement beyond maintaining contact, the sources said. “Handing over [Bashar Al] Assad and all senior officers who escaped to Russia was the top of the list,” said a member of the new political staff at...

-snip- Moscow has had many chances but repeatedly failed to shed its imperial skin. Defeats in the Crimean War and the Russo-Japanese War did not prompt a reckoning. Unlike Spain, Portugal or Belgium, which relinquished colonies and transitioned into post-imperial nations, Russia viewed its losses as temporary setbacks. Even the Soviet Union’s collapse after the humiliating defeat in Afghanistan didn’t extinguish this imperial ethos. Russia’s forerunner, Muscovy owed its rise in the 13th century to the role of a tax collector for the Golden Horde, allowing its princes to amass wealth and outmaneuver rivals. In contrast, Kyiv had already thrived...

Russia's Ryazan oil refinery has suspended operations after an attack by Ukrainian drones late last week, two industry sources told Reuters on Monday. They said oil storage at the refinery had been set ablaze. Among damaged equipment were a railway loading rack and a hydrotreater unit used to remove impurities from refined products. "The railway loading equipment has been damaged. There have been no railways loadings, they stopped oil processing," one person said. Another source said the loadings have been suspended since Friday, also confirming that the plant has been stopped due to inability to dispatch oil products. Rosneft (ROSN.MM),...

Several explosions were reported in Russia overnight as a result of a massive drone attack, with extraordinary images showing the night sky being lit up by fierce flames. Astonishing footage circulating online shows huge blazes enveloping the Ryazan Oil Refining Company as well as the nearby Novo-Ryazan Thermal Power Plant. Regional Governor Pavel Malkov confirmed a drone attack had targeted the region in the early hours of Friday, and added that a private home in Ryazan caught fire due to an air strike. He said the fire has already been extinguished, and there are no casualties. The governor added drones...

"Disrespectful", "insulting", and "ill-informed." Donald Trump's threats aimed at strong-arming Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine have been badly received by some politicians and nationalists in Russia who say his tactics bode ill for a deal. -snip- Influential war bloggers, read by millions of Russians and licenced by the authorities, expressed outrage. One of them, Voenkor Kotonok, said Trump's statement was "insulting, arrogant and self-satisfied." Another, war correspondent Alexander Kots, speculated that the Middle East ceasefire had given Trump a misplaced sense of omnipotence. "Russia is not the Gaza Strip. And starting a dialogue with ultimatums is not the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed on Tuesday how to build ties with Donald Trump, prospects for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine and Moscow's firm support for Beijing's position on Taiwan. Xi and Putin, who spoke for an hour and 35 minutes by video call after Trump was sworn in as U.S. president on Monday -snip- Putin, 72, speaking from his Novo-Ogarevo residency outside Moscow and Xi, 71, speaking from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, called each other "dear friends", and Xi told Putin about a call with Trump...