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Russian President Vladimir Putin was told Monday that Ukraine currently controls 28 settlements in the Kursk region, as Russia expanded its evacuations amid Kyiv's ongoing cross-border offensive. The Russian state-run news agency, RIA Novosti reported on its Telegram channel that Putin had a meeting with top Russian security officials where he was notified by the acting Kursk governor that "the situation in the region is difficult" and noted that Ukraine currently controls 28 settlements in the region. Video footage from RIA Novosti showed Putin reacting angrily and interrupting the acting governor during the meeting.

Russia has failed to push back Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region despite sending in reinforcements as the incursion enters its sixth day, Ukrainian soldiers involved in its army’s operation told the Financial Times on Sunday. Speaking near the international border, the troops said they remained in Russian territory. Russian general Valery Gerasimov has repeatedly attempted to portray the situation as being under control, with the defence ministry posting videos on Sunday of fighter jets and helicopters purportedly striking columns of Ukrainian equipment. But verified videos and photographs show Ukrainian troops and equipment have advanced 30km inside Russia since the...

UKRAINE has dealt Vladimir Putin another huge blow after blasting a Russian gas rig in the Black Sea, killing 40 soldiers.

Ukraine's navy and military intelligence have attacked and damaged a former offshore gas platform used by Russian forces in the Black Sea, the navy spokesman said Saturday. "The occupiers used this location for GPS spoofing to make civilian navigation dangerous. We cannot allow this to happen," Dmytro Pletenchuk said on Facebook. He posted a video taken at night showing an explosion on an offshore platform and the ensuing fire. He said that a half a day before the attack, Russian forces had stationed equipment and military personnel on the platform. "There were no civilians there. The platform was not performing...

HUMILIATING video shows the moment despot Vladimir Putin looked slack-jawed as he's told by military chiefs that Russia has been invaded. The tyrant was ashen-faced in a crunch meeting with top generals where they told him 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers had made their way over the border. Putin lashed out on Wednesday, raging against Ukraine's "large-scale provocation" in the border region of Kursk. Russian military boss General Valery Gerasimov was forced to face the despot in a meeting and admit how a significant portion of territory in the region had been lost. The ageing despot, 71, looked quietly furious as he...

Four days into Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk Oblast, just across Ukraine’s northern border with Russia, the number of confirmed Ukrainian brigades in and around the invasion zone has grown to at least five: four army mechanized brigades and one brigade from the independent air assault force. Altogether, these units could oversee as many as 10,000 troops and 600 armored vehicles. Additional artillery, air-defense, drone and reconnaissance units are playing critical supporting roles. To put into perspective the scale of the Ukrainian force in and around Kursk, recall that Kyiv formed a corps with a dozen new brigades to...

Over 76,000 people have been evacuated from Russia's Kursk region, the local emergency ministry said. Russia evacuates 76,000 people from its border region of Kursk as Ukrainian troops advance into its territory in the largest incursion on Russian soil since the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia's Ministry of Defence released footage on Saturday showing what it claims to be tanks, troops and artillery systems deployed to the country's western region of Kursk in a bid to fight off Ukrainian armed forces that stormed the area early this week. The Kremlin released other footage claimed to show helicopters, fighter jets...

THIS is the moment a devastating Ukrainian missile bombardment killed 400 of Vladimir Putin's soldiers inside Russia. The footage shows HIMARS pounding a convoy and Russian troops sprinting for their lives near Rylsk, in the Kursk region. Putin's war machine was rushing to halt a surprise Ukrainian offensive launched two days ago into Russia, reports say. Ukraine's brave strike across the border has caught the Russians off-guard and captured a number of villages miles into the country. New black and white footage of the strike shows explosions mushrooming one after the other as HIMARS missiles hit the column of stationary...

A fire erupted after Ukraine launched a barrage of drone strikes on a Russian military base in Lipetsk amid a major cross-border incursion, footage from social media showed. Residents of four settlements near the Lipetsk airbase were reportedly being evacuated after the explosions as local authorities declared a state of emergency. -snip- A statement released by the Ukrainian military said: "Tonight, the Defense Forces of Ukraine attacked the Lipetsk airfield (Lipetsk region, Russia). During the attack, warehouses with guided aerial bombs and a number of other objects in the airport area were hit. Several ignition sources were recorded, a strong...

Having gained a foothold in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region in the past few days, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are now fast approaching the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Kurchatov, the city’s mayor Igor Korpunkov warned on Friday. Reporting that fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops was taking place “a few dozen kilometres” from the city of Kurchatov, Korpunkov sought to assure residents that all services and business in the city were operating “normally” and urged them not to panic. “The enemy is not only employing military weapons against us, but also so-called ‘psychological special forces’....

Ukraine has reportedly captured hundreds of Russian soldiers in a further major blow to Vladimir Putin's army. -snip- New video images posted by Ukraine's army appear to show Russian prisoners of war captured during the incursion. The prisoners include troops from Russia’s 225th Assault Brigade, as well as FSB border guards. One captured Russian identified himself as 22-year-old Danil Kolesnikov from the Belgorod region. In a video clip of his interrogation, the soldier said he served in the 488th regiment on the border in the Kursk-Sudzha area. He was captured early on after Ukrainian troops crossed into Russia on Tuesday....

A convoy of Ukrainian armoured vehicles carrying jubilant troops was captured trundling through Russia's Kursk region in a fresh humiliation for Vladimir Putin after Volodymyr Zelensky's forces launched a surprise assault earlier this week.Tanks, armoured personnel carriers, a UR-77 mine-clearing vehicle and other army equipment were seen surging through a rural area in footage taken by a Ukrainian mortar position and shared to Telegram this morning. Kyiv's forces stormed across the border on Tuesday morning, deploying around 1,000 troops and more than two dozen armoured vehicles and tanks in an unexpected assault on Russian soil, according to the Russian army.The...

Vladimir Putin has declared that Ukraine carried out a 'large-scale provocation' following a daring surprise assault on Russia's the border region of Kursk. Russian authorities have already evacuated several thousand civilians and cancelled all mass gatherings due to fighting in the cross-border incursion, officials said. -snip- Moscow also said it had sent reserves to help repel hundreds of Ukrainian fighters backed by tanks, in a ground incursion that is shaping up to be one the largest into Russian territory during the war. -snip- There were a flurry of warnings today that Ukraine's intention behind the unprecedented thrust into Russian territory...

This is the moment a furious Vladimir Putin was told that 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers had fought their way 'deep' inside Russian territory for the first time in the war. Earlier today, Putin declared that Ukraine carried out a 'large-scale provocation' following a daring surprise assault on Russia's border region of Kursk, which saw thousands evacuated. Now, it has been revealed by Russia's chief of the general staff General Valery Gerasimov that 1,000 troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine went on the offensive to seize a section of territory in the Sudzhinsky district of Kursk. In an emergency meeting with...

"The complete collapse of the entire railroad network in the country could happen in days," the channel said. "[Russian Railways] chiefs have been ordered to work to the point of exhaustion. Those who fail to cope are threatened with dismissal and 'execution.' This is the motivation." Russian Railways in 2023 reported that the number of trains suspended due to issues with its trains more than doubled to 42,600 amid a shortage of critical parts. This was due to "insufficient maintenance of the locomotive fleet," Kommersant reported in March. A Russian Railways spokesperson told Vedomosti in February that the issue "became...

A staunch ally of Vladimir Putin lamented the destruction of the Black Sea Fleet, dealing the Russian president a double blow as his Navy was forced to hold a muted annual parade on Sunday. In a rare admission of Russia's military failures, Yevgeny Fyodorov from the ruling United Russia party complained that Ukraine has disabled such a large proportion of Putin's prized Black Sea Fleet that it is essentially "gone." -snip- "The Russian fleet as an operational mechanism in the Black Sea does not exist! Not physically, but in terms of its actual combat presence. This is a fact," the...

It's half a world away from Moscow, but Venezuela's presidential election could be a nail-biter for the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin may be watching closely when Venezuelans vote in the July 28 election, which pits authoritarian Kremlin ally Nicolas Maduro against the leader of an opposition group advocating for democracy and capitalism. Ahead of the vote, Maduro was trailing in opinion polls by a wide margin to Edmundo Gonzalez, a 74-year-old former diplomat, as Venezuelans tire of a leader who has presided over deepening poverty and economic troubles during his 11-year rule.

VENEZUELA may descend into civil war as its Putin-backed dictator has warned of a "bloodbath" if he loses tomorrow's election. President Nicolas Maduro, 61, has ruled the South American country for 11 years and is set to do whatever it takes to cling on to power. The autocrat has become increasingly unpopular; the country's economy has shrunk 80 percent in a decade, seen massive hyperinflation and skyrocketing poverty.

Russia may be proud of its military history and seamen – but Vladimir Putin looks like he would have preferred to be anywhere else during the nation’s state naval display on Sunday. The Russian president hardly cracked a smile at this morning’s Grand Naval Parade in St Petersburg, a showcasing of around 200 ships and boats all part of the various fleets stationed in Russia’s second city. During the event, he was seen looking bored and unbothered as he sailed across the city’s water and into the dock while fireworks exploded around him. -snip- Meanwhile, Ukraine has over the weekend...

nformation about the worsening health of the Belarusian dictator frequently circulates in the media. Russian propaganda showed an unaltered picture of Alexander Lukashenko. "The dictator looks bad and it is very noticeable," commented Belarusian politician Pavel Latushko. Pavel Latushko shared a picture of Alexander Lukashenko on social media that appeared in Russian propaganda media. "Russian propaganda showed real photo of Lukashenko. It`s not a coincidence" - writes the Belarusian politician, comparing this picture with the image of the dictator that appeared in Belarusian propaganda media. "The dictator looks bad and it is very noticeable" - evaluates Latushko. He added that...