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The world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk faced sharp backlash Monday afternoon after sharing his thoughts on how to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on terms far more amenable to Russia than the Western consensus, continuing to opine about global politics on the heels of bad corporate news closer to home. -snip- Musk’s controversial foreign policy proposal came as Tesla shares cratered 9% in Monday trading, hitting a three-month low as the market reacted poorly to third quarter vehicle deliveries falling short of estimates.

The withdrawal of Russian forces from a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine has prompted two powerful allies of President Vladimir Putin to do something rare in modern Russia: publicly ridicule the war machine's top brass. Russia's loss of the bastion of Lyman, which puts western parts of Luhansk region under threat, touched a nerve for Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya. Kadyrov, who has been close to Putin since his father and former president of Chechnya, Akhmad, was killed in a 2004 bomb attack in Grozny that also killed a Reuters photographer, suggested that...

Ukrainian forces achieved their biggest breakthrough in the south of the country since the war began, bursting through the front and advancing rapidly along the Dnipro River on Monday, threatening to encircle thousands of Russian troops. Kyiv gave no official confirmation of the gains, but Russian sources acknowledged that a Ukrainian tank offensive had advanced dozens of kilometers (miles) along the river’s west bank, recapturing a number of villages along the way. “The information is tense, let’s put it that way, because, yes there were indeed breakthroughs,” Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed leader in occupied parts of Ukraine’s Kherson province told...

Vladimir Putin today came under stinging criticism from his own side after Russia was forced to withdraw troops from a key Ukrainian city this afternoon as Ukraine's eastern counteroffensive recaptures more territory. Ukrainian forces encircled the strategic eastern city of Lyman on Saturday in a counteroffensive that has humiliated the Kremlin, while Russian bombardments intensified after Moscow illegally annexed a swath of Ukrainian territory in a sharp escalation of the war. Russia's own Tass and RIA news agencies announced that troops have fled Lyman, citing the Russian defence ministry. It comes after the Russian President Vladimir Putin was pictured grinning...

Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Russia’s region of Chechnya, said on Saturday that Moscow should consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine amid new reversals on the battlefield. In a message on Telegram criticizing Russian commanders for abandoning the east Ukrainian town of Lyman on Saturday, Kadyrov wrote: “In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons.” Developing

Vladimir Putin yesterday claimed that four occupied Ukrainian regions would remain part of Russia ‘for ever’ in a bizarre 40-minute tirade that included rants about ‘Satanism’ and colonialism. The rambling speech formed part of a ceremony in Moscow that formally confirmed his land grab following a series of rigged referendums. Ambling late to the podium in front of hundreds of ashen-faced officials, the despot lashed out at the West’s ‘neo-colonial’ foreign policy. ‘I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me, so that they remember this,’ Putin said. ‘People living in Luhansk and Donetsk,...

The defence minister of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov believes that Belarusian soldiers have no motivation to enter the war with Ukraine, and if ordered by their authorities to fight, they would lay down their weapons. "I don't understand what would motivate Belarusians to consciously go to war with Ukraine, kill and die for no one knows what, even if they are officers who are under oath obliged to follow orders. If they go on the attack with their units, they could cross the Belarusian border, raise their hands, lay down their weapons and say, ‘Ukrainians, we are your syabry. [Belarusians] are...

Belarus has allegedly threatened to deploy 100,000 troops in Ukraine unless Kyiv withdraws its forces from the ‘new Russian territories’ after the referendums. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the Belarus government in Minsk today, Thursday, September 29, announced that unless Kyiv withdraws all of its military forces from the four new regions of Russia, it will deploy 100,000 troops in Ukraine. They were referring of course to the four occupied regions of Ukraine where the recent ‘referendums’ were held in which people allegedly voted to join the Russian Federation. They also revealed that railway stations and airports in the...

Russian troops have been deployed near the border with Georgia today even as the Kremlin tries to stamp out rumours that Putin is about to introduce martial law and ban people from leaving in order to avoid being conscripted into the army. Footage geolocated to the small town of Chmi, on the main highway from Russia into Georgia's South Ossetia region, shows at least six soldiers sitting on top of an armoured vehicle passing a queue of cars in the direction of the crossing. Troops arrived to set up a checkpoint, sources told the Russia's RBC network, with the FSB...

The Kremlin appears to have sent soldiers to force Ukrainians to vote in its staged referendums at gunpoint, according to residents who say troops came to their homes in occupied territories to enforce the 'vote'. 'My family was just forced to vote at gunpoint in Russian cosplay of a "referendum” in southern Ukraine,' said Maxim Eristavi, journalist and co-founder of Hromadske International, a broadcasting station in Ukraine. The Ukrainian journalist posted a video purporting to show armed soldiers entering the hallways where his family live and forcing them to vote in favour of joining Russia. Western countries have accused Russia...

Armed police are going door-to-door while gun-toting mercenaries are guarding polling stations as Russian stages sham referendums in occupied Ukraine. 'Voting' is now underway in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions on whether or not to become provinces of Russia - with the results fixed by Moscow. But, just to make extra sure, Kremlin officials, military police and hired guns are keeping a careful eye over the process - with Ukrainian politicians reporting that they are kicking front doors in to force people to cast their ballots. Serhiy Haidai, governor of occupied Luhansk, said some towns under Russian occupation have...

Russia will use its largest and most-powerful nukes to defend the territory it occupies in Ukraine, a staunch ally of Vladimir Putin has insisted today. Dmitry Medvedev, who served as a stand-in for Putin from 2008 to 2012, vowed the territories will become part of Russia when referendums are held this week - after which 'any Russian weapons' will be used to defend them. That includes 'strategic nuclear weapons' such as Putin's giant new Sarmat missile, Medvedev said, and 'weapons based on new principles' - likely a reference to hypersonic technology that the Kremlin claims is invulnerable to air defences.

Police wearing blacked-out helmets are dragging anti-mobilisation protestors off the streets of Russia tonight, as thousands come out to demonstrate against being sent to the front lines in Ukraine. More than 1,000 people have been arrested tonight in 37 cities across Russia, including Moscow and St Petersburg, as they voiced their anger at President Vladimir Putin's order to mobilise 300,000 reservists. There have been angry clashes between activists and security forces, with protestors being forcefully taken to the ground and removed from the streets as the government cracks down on vocal dissent. Demonstrators tonight chanted anti-war slogans, with some calling...

Russian airlines have stopped selling tickets to Russian men aged 18 to 65 unless they can provide evidence of approval to travel from the Ministry of Defense. All flights from Russia to available foreign destinations were sold out Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin declared a “partial” mobilization of the country’s 25 million reservists. Flights from Moscow to the capitals of Georgia, Turkey and Armenia — which do not require visas for Russians — for Sept. 21 were unavailable within minutes of Putin’s announcement, according to Russia’s top travel planning website aviasales.ru. By noon Moscow time, direct flights from Moscow to...

Terrified Russians are scrambling to flee the country today with one-way flights out of Moscow sold out after Vladimir Putin sparked mass panic by ordering a troop mobilisation in a dramatic escalation of the Ukraine war. Tickets to Johannesburg for a family of three were earlier fetching £44,000, while the cheapest flights from the capital to Dubai were costing more than £4,500 - about five times the average monthly wage, amid the desperate race to escape the potential conscription. In a nationwide speech, Putin ordered the call-up of 300,000 military reserves - a first in Russia since the Second World...

Russian president Vladimir Putin was expected to give a speech at 6pm London time from Moscow potentially announcing the official declaration of war in Ukraine to defend Russian-occupied territories, but kept the world waiting on Tuesday night. Russian news channel that announced the speech deleted their posts around two hours after the Russian leader was set to begin what would have been his first international announcement since the country’s invasion of Ukraine on February 25. It appeared as though the Russian leader had cancelled his speech, pushing it back to Wednesday, according to a Telegram account run by political analyst...

Russian-backed officials in several parts of Ukraine have announced plans to hold referenda on joining Russia. Ukraine has slammed the upcoming votes as fake attempt to legitimize Russia’s invasion and slammed the prospect of “sham” ballots. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Russian producers of military equipment to up their production and supplies to Russian troops. Putin was also set to give a major speech to the country on Tuesday — only to later postpone it until Wednesday without explanation.

Russia's parliament on Tuesday approved a bill to toughen punishments for a host of crimes such as desertion, damage to military property and insubordination if they are committed during military mobilisation or combat situations. The bill, passed in its second and third readings on Tuesday by the lower house of parliament, the Duma, comes amid debate inside Russia about a possible mobilisation

Humiliation for Putin's troops is continuing as they begin to abandon the major city of Melitopol in the face of Kyiv's lightning counter-offensive. The city's pre-occupation mayor said that Russian troops were pulling out of the area in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region. Mayor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram that Russian troops were heading towards Moscow-annexed Crimea. He said columns of military equipment were reported at a checkpoint in Chonhar, a village marking the boundary between the Crimean peninsula and the Ukrainian mainland.

Ukrainian soldiers are being welcomed as heroes by gleeful residents who have lived under Russian occupation for months, as Kyiv continues to retake dozens of settlements from the clutches of Vladimir Putin's forces. Videos and pictures have emerged showing troops standing victoriously on top of Russian flags in the liberated city Balakliia, while others have been shown in footage discovering the burnt out wreckages of enemy tanks. The images come as swiftly advancing Ukrainian troops were bearing down on the main railway supplying Moscow's forces in the east on Friday, after the sudden collapse of a section of the Russian...