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A fire erupted at one of Russia's largest oil refineries in the city of Ufa in Bashkortostan, approximately 900 miles from the Ukrainian border, following a reported drone attack. -snip- Videos circulating on social media showed a huge fire engulf the Bashneft-owned refinery, which is situated about 932 miles east of the Ukrainian border, and processes up to 168,000 barrels per day, according to Reuters. The Bashkortostan Ministry of Emergency Situations said the fire erupted "in the area of the incinerator." "There is no threat to residents of nearby areas. A laboratory is operating on site to monitor the air...

Russia is demanding control of cities in Ukraine that its forces don't currently occupy as part of a deal with President Donald Trump to potentially bring an end to the war, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said. -snip- Trump has suggested that both Russia and Ukraine must make concessions in the war. Kyiv has rejected any idea of ceding territory to Moscow, while Putin has demanded that Ukraine give up its aspirations of joining the NATO military alliance, and cede its Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The ISW think tank, based in Washington D.C., noted...

In Moscow, it was like Christmas, Easter, and New Year’s all rolled into one. In a gushing readout of his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the immediate start of negotiations about the future of Ukraine—without preconditions or other countries at the table. Earlier, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine and any chance of a return to the country’s internationally recognized borders, fulfilling two key Russian conditions. On the same day, the U.S. Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard, whose talking points often align with Kremlin propaganda, as the next director of...

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the U.S. would hit Moscow with sanctions and potentially military action if Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t agree to a peace deal with Ukraine that guarantees Kyiv’s long-term independence. Vance said the option of sending U.S. troops to Ukraine if Moscow failed to negotiate in good faith remained “on the table,” striking a far tougher tone than did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who on Wednesday suggested the U.S. wouldn’t commit forces. “There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage” the U.S. could use against Putin, Vance said....

U.S. President Donald Trump is proving to be somewhat popular within Russia, leaving the Kremlin to grapple with how to counter Russians' love of a leader who isn't President Vladimir Putin, recent media reports suggest. -snip- Alexander Baunov, the editor-in-chief of Carnegie Politika and a senior fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said in an analysis published on January 31 that in Russia, Trump is a new "anti-elitist president" who, "like a beloved Hollywood lone hero, is closer and more understandable to the generation of the Russian elite that lived through the 1990s or grew up watching American movies than...

Two Russian colonels are reported to have fallen out of windows in the space of two days, adding to a growing list of high-ranking officials who have died in mysterious circumstances since Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine began. Artur Pryakhin, 56, the head of a regional branch of Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) in the Republic of Karelia, died after falling from a fifth floor window of an office building at around noon on February 4. Local authorities said he left a suicide note in his office in which he apologized to his wife, asked his loved ones for forgiveness,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already begun initial preparations for his annual Victory Day military parade in May, and he is expecting a special guest from the U.S. for the big day, a Kremlin insider has said. -snip- Putin held a meeting on Wednesday to kickstart preparations for Victory Day, asking the heads of Russian regions and public organizations to "approach the upcoming events with conscience." One Kremlin source said it's clear that Russia must trumpet victory of some sort regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine, but officials are uncertain of the details.

Ukraine targeted five of Russia's air defense systems worth an estimated $350 million in a single day, serving a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin's exhausted military in the nearly three-year-old war. Russia lost two Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile and gun systems and one OSA air defense system, as well as two S-300 air defense systems, according to Ukraine's military and a war reporter. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian government for comment via email. Ukraine has frequently zeroed-in on Russia's advanced air-defense systems, and Monday's reported loss marks a success for Kyiv's military as both sides continue to sustain...

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed unwavering confidence in Russia's triumph in its conflict with Ukraine, asserting that divine support is on Moscow's side. Speaking to reporters on Thursday after attending the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council (SEEC) meeting in St. Petersburg, Putin’s remarks stirred fresh debate amid ongoing speculation about US mediation efforts. When asked whether Russia would secure victory by 2025, Putin said, “I believe in God. And God is with us.”

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When a vehicle is captured and then...

Vladimir Putin's chief spokesman has chillingly warned the surprise change to Russia's nuclear weapons doctrine was intended to send a "signal" to the West. On Wednesday, Putin warned Russia could respond to conventional missile strikes with nuclear weapons, effectively lowering the threshold for a strike and putting the world on a path toward nuclear war. The Russian leader also indicated that Moscow would treat any attack backed by a nuclear-armed country as a coordinated assault. That means if the Kremlin deems a Ukrainian assault on Russian soil using US, French, or British missiles to represent a "critical threat" to Russia’s...

DAILY WAR SUMMATION War in Ukraine Explained Reporting from Ukraine 544K subscribers 9-23-2024 11:30 p.m. EDT Minutes 4:53 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igi7w9y5EYM ⚠️ Watch RFU in 20 languages: https://www.youtube.com/@RFU/channels

Other Russian Telegram channels said the attack resulted in about 50 Russian casualties. Ukrainian forces have used the Washington-supplied HIMARS on several occasions throughout the war, including in its Donetsk and Luhansk regions which are largely occupied by Russian forces. The Kremlin has been pushing for the total capture of the two regions—which together comprise the Donbas—since Russia's initial invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014. HIMARS has allowed Ukraine to destroy Russia's most advanced anti-aircraft missile systems. Washington has supplied the Ukrainians with at least 39 HIMARS since the war began on February 24, 2022. In February, Serhiy Bratchuk, a...

"The return of Crimea to Ukraine is a requirement of international law." Erdoğan said in his video address that Turkey has always been opposed to Russia's annexation of Crimea. He decried the persecution of Crimea's ethnic Tatars since 2014. Erdoğan added: "Our sincere wish is for the war to end with a fair and lasting peace based on Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence." In October 2020, the Turkish leader said during a joint press briefing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that his country would never recognize the annexation of Crimea. "We have and always will support Ukraine's sovereignty and...

Vladimir Putin has awoken to one of the largest bombardments on Moscow and other parts of Russia after 30 months of bloodshed. Ukraine unleashed 144 drones, targeting three airports in the capital and lighting up residential buildings in the region of Moscow, during what the Kremlin called a ‘terrorist attack supported by the UK and US’. Debris from aircraft damaged at least two high-rise buildings in the Ramenskoye district in the early hours of Tuesday, setting several flats on fire. A 46-year-old woman was killed and three people were injured, governor Andrei Vorobyov said on Telegram. He added that 43...

Vladimir Putin has sought to shift blame for Ukraine's surprise incursion into the Kursk region, as evidence emerged that his country's handling of the offensive was damaging the Russian leader's image. At a virtual meeting held by Putin Thursday on the situation in Russia's Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions, which border Ukraine, the president told regional officials that the "security issues" in Kursk "are problems that are the responsibility of the security agencies." -snip- "I hope that, as was reported today, interaction between local and regional authorities, the government, and security agencies has been established, and this will also play...

"Russia's wartime economic boom is masking much deeper problems, according to a group of researchers. The authors of a recent article, who hail from institutions including the Yale School of Management, the Wharton School, the Carnegie Endowment, and the Kyiv School of Economics, cast a stark warning for Russia's economic situation despite the nation posting strong growth numbers since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia's economy is expected to expand another 2.4% this year, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund. However, much of that growth stems from the Kremlin's wild spending spree, and Russia's economy is hindered...

Russian companies that do business with China have encountered more headwinds in recent days as Chinese banks raised the yuan-ruble exchange rate to capitalize on their neighbor's weakened currency. While the yuan currently buys 12.07 rubles at the Russian central bank's exchange rate, Chinese banks are selling the currency at 13 rubles per yuan, charging a premium over the Russian central bank rate of 12.07 rubles, the Moscow Times reported on Thursday. -snip- Chinese banks are not the first to profit from the ruble's plight. Mongolia and Turkey have for some time converted rubles into yuan several percentage points above...

"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...

Acting Iranian foreign minister Ali Bagheri held conversations about the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh with his counterpart in Russia, as well as in Arab countries on Thursday, the ministry announced on X. According to the ministry's twitter, Bagheri emphasized "that the Zionist regime has crossed the red line" and said that the "Islamic Republic of Iran has a legitimate right to defend itself" in a phone call with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. Bagheri also thanked Russia for its support, and asked for continued cooperation between the two in stopping "the aggressive actions of the Zionist regime."