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Vladimir Putin today vowed to back Iran and condemned 'groundless' aggression against its ally after the U.S. joined Israel in striking nuclear facilities on Sunday. 'This is an absolutely unprovoked aggression against Iran,' Putin told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who travelled to Moscow seeking support in mediation. Putin called recent strikes 'unjustified' and added that Russia was 'making efforts to provide assistance to the Iranian people.' Araghchi on Monday thanked Putin for condemning U.S. strikes on Iran, telling him Russia stood on 'the right side of history'.

Workers at Volkswagen factories across Germany have begun strikes after the manufacturer threatened to close plants amid falling demand and a slower-than-expected transition to electric vehicles. Workers on their morning shifts went on strike for two hours, while those on the evening shift plan to leave work early in protest at the carmaker's demands, which include a 10% wage cut. At Volkswagen's main plant in Wolfsburg, which employs 70,000 people, a two-hour strike means several hundred cars cannot be built, union sources said. In addition to Wolfsburg and Hanover, which employs a further 14,000 staff, plants affected include Zwickau, VW's...

This is the moment a senior Kremlin official was urgently ordered not to comment on reports of an intercontinental ballistic missile strike on Ukraine this morning as she gave a press conference on the prospect of peace negotiations. Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, took a call in the middle of a press briefing today and was sternly advised by a senior diplomat not to discuss the unconfirmed reports. 'Hello. I am having a briefing,' she could be heard saying into the phone on footage shared from the conference. 'Masha,' an unknown male voice on the phone said,...

Russian forces have been hammered by an offensive in Kursk since Tuesday Russia has evacuated more than 76,000 people from border areas in the western region of Kursk as Ukraine continues to push deeper in its cross-border offensive, Russian media reported today. 'More than 76,000 people have been temporarily relocated to safe places,' the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing a local official at a press briefing. Russia appears to have been caught off guard by a daring incursion into the southwestern Kursk region since Tuesday, though Ukraine has stopped short of formally claiming responsibility. On Tuesday, Pro-Kyiv forces stormed...

Vladimir Putin has desperately sent troops to repel hundreds of soldiers, tanks and armoured vehicles that have stormed across Russia's border in what Moscow claimed was a Ukrainian attack. Moscow's defence ministry said it has rushed troops and aviation units to the southwestern region after Ukrainian units allegedly tried to attack Russian positions just inside the border, according to Russian officials. 'Border defence troops, together with military units of the FSB border force, are repelling attacks and inflicting fire damage on the enemy,' the defence ministry said in a statement Tuesday. Russia claims Ukraine launched the foray early this morning...

NATO is drawing up plans to send American troops to the frontlines of Europe in the event of an all-out conflict with Russia, it has been revealed. New 'land corridors' are being carved out to quickly funnel soldiers through central Europe without local bureaucratic impediments, allowing NATO forces to pounce in an instant should Putin's devastating war in Ukraine move further west. The plans are said to include contingencies in case of Russian bombardment, letting troops sweep into the Balkans via corridors in Italy, Greece and Turkey, or towards Russia's northern border via Scandinavia, officials told The Telegraph. Tensions have...

Vladimir Putin looked off-colour at a conference with Belarusian ally Alexander Lukashenko today as the pair met to discuss the war in Ukraine. The Russian president, 71, posed for cameras to shake hands with his counterpart in Minsk but appeared frail as he talked through developments in the conflict across the southern border. -snips- Putin appeared at a press conference after the meeting looking tired and rundown as Ukraine claimed minor successes in pushing back his shock advances in the Kharkiv region. Much speculation has been made around the health of Putin, who was sworn in for his fifth term...

Russian citizens have conducted a string of explosive protests in defiance of a presidential election rigged in favour of Vladimir Putin as voting opened on Friday. Video purported to show a woman dousing a Moscow voting booth in flammable liquid before setting it on fire and recording the drama on her smartphone. The fire was promptly extinguished and the woman detained, according to local media. But similar acts of vandalism continued around the country, with a voter setting a ballot box alight in Khanty Mansi region in Siberia, according to local reports. In Saint Petersburg, a woman threw a Molotov...

This is the shocking moment a Ukrainian missile destroyed a £260mn Russian spy plane over Krasnodar on the second anniversary of Putin's bloody invasion. Video showed huge plumes of smoke billowing from the wreckage after the A-50U reconnaissance plane's wing was reportedly torn off by a hit from a revamped S-200 Soviet-era long-range air defence missile - a staggering blow to Russia's already diminishing collection. Ten crew were reported to have been found dead at the crash site in Russia's Krasnodar region, where the dictator's official Black Sea residence and private £1 billion place are located. The eventual toll is...

An Israeli TV station has released new footage which it says appears to show rockets fired over a hospital in Gaza just moments before an explosion killed hundreds last night. It comes after Israel's military shared footage and analysis which they say shows they were not responsible for the horrifying blast at the Al-Ahli Hospital on Tuesday. A video clip from a livestream, aired by Israel's Channel 12 News, shows a salvo of rockets being launched before explosions rock an area claimed to be the medical centre.

Russia's deputy science minister, allegedly a private critic of the 'fascist' invasion of Ukraine, has died suddenly after falling seriously ill on a flight to Moscow on Saturday. Pyotr Kucherenko, 46, was returning from a business trip to Cuba when his plane was forced to make an emergency landing in southern Russia, the Science and Higher Education Ministry said yesterday.Doctors performed CPR but were unable to save the official. His family said the death was linked to an underlying heart condition, but the body is expected to undergo an autopsy on May 24. Independent journalist Roman Super wrote after the...

Washington (CNN)In a rare joint action with attorneys general for each of the 50 states, the Federal Trade Commission says four cancer charities run by extended members of the same family conned donors out of $187 million from 2008 through 2012 and spent almost nothing to help actual cancer patients. Federal Trade Commission: Four cancer charities a sham Federal Trade Commission: Four cancer charities a sham Each of the charities charged were the subject of extensive reporting by CNN in 2013. And in each instance, none of the four charities would comment. We were ordered out of the building at...