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Massive explosions have been seen hitting a key naval port in annexed Crimea that Russia claim was targeted in a major Ukrainian drone assault. Russian Black Sea warships were reportedly having to fight the attack off in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea which was annexed from Ukraine in 2014. According to Ukrainian sources, several of the Russian ships from the fleet were blown up. Local media are reporting that rescuers this morning are still attempting to put out a fire on one of the ships. Residents claimed that the huge explosions 'shook' their homes and windows while black smoke...

Russia has acknowledged for the first time that it doesn't have enough equipment for mobilized soldiers in its war against Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that there are issues with equipment for the hundreds of thousands of men being sent to fight in Ukraine under President Vladimir Putin's partial mobilization decree. Peskov said a newly-formed council created by Putin is working on resolving problems with equipment. "Vigorous measures taken to rectify the situation are already yielding the first positive results," he said. Regional authorities are working on providing "the missing gear," Peskov said, noting that Deputy...

Vladimir Putin’s Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov has declared “Big Jihad” and urged Russian Muslims to fight Ukraine’s “demons” and “satanic democracy.” Kadyrov, one of Putin’s most fanatical backers, urged his supporters to lay waste to Ukraine and backed calls from Russian allies to wipe cities “off the face of the f—ing Earth.” -snip- “I swear with the Almighty’s name, this is the Big Jihad, which we must all take part in and we will not stop. “We will be killing them wherever they are. No matter who is helping them, America or Europe. “There is nothing to worry about. They...

A group of liberal Democrats in the US Congress is pressing president Joe Biden to pursue direct talks with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin, opening a new front of pressure on his Ukraine strategy as his administration tries to maintain domestic support for Kyiv. -snip- Talks with Moscow have the potential “to reduce harm and support Ukraine in achieving a peaceful settlement”, according to the letter, which was signed by lawmakers including Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley — a group of liberal congresswomen known as “the Squad”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been seen in a recent video with what appear to be IV track marks on the back of his hand, reigniting rumors that he is battling cancer. Eagle-eyed viewers watching a propaganda video that was released by Russia’s Ministry of Defense last week spotted a suspicious mark on Putin’s right hand as he was grasping a soldier’s arm while visiting a boot camp in the Ryazan region.

Mystery surrounds Russian nuclear tests that were expected to take this week and never materialised, amid claims they are being 'disrupted' from within. Moscow typically carries out large-scale atomic drills dubbed 'Grom' at this time of year and in recent days had issued a number of airspace alerts over its usual testing grounds - heavily suggesting they would be going ahead. But the US says it has received no alert from Moscow about any upcoming tests and there has been no official word from the Kremlin explaining their absence, with the air alerts due to expire Saturday. That has led...

The new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine acknowledged on Tuesday that his troops were under broad pressure and faced hard choices, as the Russian-appointed governor of occupied Kherson province announced a partial evacuation. "The situation in the area of the 'Special Military Operation' can be described as tense," Sergei Surovikin, an air force general named this month to command Russia's invasion forces, told the state-owned Rossiya 24 television news channel. -snip- Russian forces in Kherson have been driven back by 20-30 km (13-20 miles) in the last few weeks and are at risk of being pinned against the right...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there is no need for more massive strikes on Ukraine, days after the heaviest bombardment of the country since the war began. He said most designated targets of the strikes had been hit, adding that it was not his aim to destroy Ukraine. Moscow's goal of mobilising 300,000 men would be met within two weeks, he said. Mr Putin's words come as Russian forces seem stalled and Ukraine advances, almost eight months since the invasion. Speaking to journalists after a summit with regional leaders in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, the Russian leader said that the...

Ukraine’s armed forces on Wednesday downed four Russian helicopters in 18 minutes in the south of the country. Between 8.40am and 8.58am, anti-aircraft missile units of Ukraine’s Air Force managed to hit the Russian aircrafts, it was claimed. “Combat work was carried out on two more helicopters, so there is a high probability that the number of confirmed down helicopters will increase,” the Air Force said in a press release. It was claimed one Russian helicopter, believed to be a Ka-52, crashed on territory recently liberated from Russian-backed militants, while the rest crashed behind enemy lines. The helicopters were said...

A leading Ukrainian presidential aide claimed this morning that the explosion which damaged a key bridge in Crimea may have been ordered by one of Vladimir Putin's warring commanders. The 12 mile crossing over the Kerch strait links Crimea to the Russian mainland and is a major artery for Putin's forces that control most of southern Ukraine's Kherson region and for the Russian naval port of Sevastopol. It was damaged in an explosion early Saturday morning which saw chunks of the bridge fall into the sea and a large fire break out. The incident prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials...

Key figures including Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin are using military defeats to undermine defence chief Sergei Shoigu. Friends, rivals and enemies took their seats in the Grand Kremlin Palace as Vladimir Putin gathered the country’s elite to formalise Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine. The ceremony was meant to portray strength and unity, but within 24 hours had been overshadowed by Russia’s failures on the battlefield. These losses, which continued into this week on the southern and eastern fronts in Ukraine, have led to a major, unprecedented rupture within the ruling class as the Kremlin seeks scapegoats...

Breaking: The Kerch Bridge, which connects occupied Crimea to Russia, is on fire.

Footage has emerged of a Russian propagandist being brutally arrested for speaking out against high-ranking Russian officials. Affiliates and members of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group have repeatedly criticised the Russian Armed Forces and its leaders on Telegram. Alexey Slobodenyuk, the head of media for a Russian mercenary group fighting in Ukraine, was pulled from his car by a special branch of the National Guard of Russia known for their unwavering loyalty to Vladimir Putin. Slobodenyuk has been accused of attacking defence minister Sergei Shoigu online, claiming that Russia’s current failings in Ukraine were in part due to organisational failures....

ideos have emerged on social media that appeared to show infighting among Russia's elite, with mobilized Russians allegedly complaining about accommodation conditions before being sent to fight in Ukraine. On Wednesday, the pro-Russian Telegram channel Rybar published a video that appeared to show Russian soldiers standing in front of a passenger train. The clip has been geolocated to Russia's Belgorod region near the Ukraine border. "We are now in the Belgorod region. There are about 500 of us. Material support, monetary allowance...Absolutely nothing!" the cameraman states, panning the video to his fellow soldiers. The majority have their face covered with...

Russian conscripts are in revolt after being treated like 'cattle' and given 'no training' as they head to the war in Ukraine. A video shows the men publicly complaining about their treatment in 'brutal, absolutely appalling conditions' after they were mobilised by Vladimir Putin. The shocking footage is just the latest evidence of the total chaos over the Russian call-up of reservists that has left even Kremlin cheerleaders in despair. The desperate recruits risk punishment by venting their fury over their plight after arriving by train in Belgorod region which borders Ukraine. One of the soldiers, acting as a spokesman...

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...

A top Russian officer reportedly had his face 'smashed' during a brawl with furious conscripts after telling them their lives were going to be thrown away on the front lines in Ukraine. The mobilised recruits turned on the Russian lieutenant-colonel after he bluntly said: 'You are all cannon fodder, you are facing slaughter.' The high-ranking officer had bones in his face broken in a brawl in which 'every single one of them was drunk', say reports.

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...