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In the battle for Ukraine, the front line is increasingly at a standstill. The reason: rapid innovations in drone technology. From just a few commercial and homemade drones, which the Ukrainians used at the start of the war to locate invading Russian columns, unmanned vehicles now dominate the battlefield. Each side has hundreds of them constantly in the air across the 750-mile front line. Drones can lay mines, deliver everything from ammunition to medication and even evacuate wounded or dead soldiers. Crucially, drones spot any movement along the front line and are dispatched to strike enemy troops and vehicles. ‘Wedding...

Russia has sent a stark and chilling warning to Donald Trump, as the US Congress prepares to vote on a new batch of sanctions against Moscow. -snip- Vladimir Solovyov - a Kremlin apparatchik - warned Trump that Russia could become America's "most terrifying enemy" in a rant on his TV talkshow. "Maybe Trump simply can't grasp that Russia doesn't care about the national interests of other countries if they contradict those of our own state?" he fumed. Warming to his subject, the Putin stooge continued: "The time when someone like Yeltsin, who randomly emerged from the dust of history, managed...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coastal city of Wonsan on Saturday, where he described the two nations' relations as "an invincible fighting brotherhood", Russia's foreign ministry said. The ministry quoted Lavrov as saying that the visit represented the continuation of "strategic dialogue" between the two sides inaugurated by Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea last year. In a message passed on by Lavrov, Putin said that he hoped for more direct contacts in future, TASS news agency reported. Lavrov, the ministry said, also thanked North Korea for the troops...

VLADIMIR Putin's brutal war machine was dealt another blow today as Moscow confirmed the death of another top Russian military chief. Russian authorities have confirmed the death of Colonel Sergei Ilyin, commander of Russia's notorious 155th Marine Brigade. Telegram news channel Astra reported the Colonel's death on Friday, citing a now-deleted post from officials, the Moscow Times has reported. Ilyin had died "during the special military operation" according to a post attributed to the Urmarsky district administration. "Special military operation" is the euphemism used by Kremlin authorities when referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It follows speculation that the...

US President Donald Trump has said he will send weapons, including Patriot air defence systems, to Ukraine via Nato. Trump told NBC News that in a new deal, "we're going to be sending Patriots to Nato, and then Nato will distribute that", adding that Nato would pay for the weapons. His announcement came after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of having a "positive dialogue" with Trump about ensuring that arms arrived on time. He said he had asked for 10 Patriot systems after a surge in Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in the past week. Patriot batteries...

President Trump said Friday he plans to make a “major statement” on Russia early next week — as the Senate considers legislation to force his hand on sanctions after months of threats from the commander-in-chief. “I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview Thursday. “You’ll be seeing things happen,” Trump told a reporter Friday morning on the White House lawn when asked about an overnight Russian drone attack that damaged a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived on Friday in the coastal city of Wonsan, North Korea, according to RIA Novosti. The visit comes ahead of the second round of the strategic dialogue between Moscow and Pyongyang, with Lavrov scheduled to meet his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, to discuss bilateral ties. Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced the meeting would take place, adding that the first round of the dialogue took place in Moscow in January 2024.

THE Kremlin has been accused of covering up the death of a sacked Russian minister after signs of torture were allegedly found on his body just 24 hours before his apparent suicide. Roman Starovoit, who was Vladimir Putin's transport minister for less than a year, was dismissed from his post on July 7 - just hours before he was found dead. Telegram channels with links to the Russian security forces reported Starovoit's cause of death as suicide - claiming the minister was found dead with gunshot wounds. However, an independent Russian media outlet now reports that he had been beaten...

President Donald Trump for the first time since returning to office will send weapons to Kyiv under a presidential power frequently used by his predecessor, two sources familiar with the decision said on Thursday, a move suggesting new interest by the president in defending Ukraine. More than three years after Russia's invasion of its neighbor, Trump's team will identify arms from U.S. stockpiles to send to Ukraine under the Presidential Drawdown Authority, the sources said, with one saying they could be worth around $300 million. Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. would send more weapons to Ukraine to help the...

Everyone agrees: it's getting worse. The people of Kyiv have, like the citizens of other Ukrainian cities, been through a lot. After three and a half years of fluctuating fortunes, they are tough and extremely resilient. But in recent months, they have been experiencing something new: vast, coordinated waves of attacks from the air, involving hundreds of drones and missiles, often concentrated on a single city. Last night, it was Kyiv. And the week before too. In between, it was Lutsk in the far west. Three years ago, Iranian-supplied Shahed drones were a relative novelty. I remember hearing my first,...

Russian state media has launched a barrage of criticism against U.S. President Donald Trump after he accused Russia's Vladimir Putin of saying "a lot of bulls***" about the war in Ukraine, the exiled news outlet Agentstvo reported Wednesday. -snip- Prominent pro-Kremlin television host Vladimir Solovyov on Tuesday chastised Trump on his flagship talk show for addressing Putin in what he described as a disrespectful tone. “Trump has started to speak rudely,” Solovyov said. “It seems to us that he’s undergoing a ‘Bidenization.’ His belief that he’s the only person able to speak with Putin has made him transform into another...

Speaking on the State TV channel Russia-1, pro-government host Vladimir Solovyov warned that Russia could destroy both US coasts using nuclear-powered Poseidon torpedoes—underwater weapons designed to trigger a “radioactive tsunami.” During the broadcast, Solovyov directly addressed US President Donald Trump: “Will Trump understand that two Poseidons, launched from different sides, could wipe out the US and create a radioactive disaster? That would be the end—nothing will save them.” “No protective element will help them,” Solovyov declared, referring to US missile defense systems. Framing the hypothetical strike as a response to “Western aggression,” he suggested that Washington underestimates Russia’s capabilities and...

The U.S. Air Force faces a strategic nightmare with its B-1B Lancer bomber fleet. The aging but still capable supersonic bomber is becoming increasingly obsolete, yet its replacement, the B-21 Raider, is still years from being operational. This creates a dangerous capability gap. The Pentagon is weighing difficult options: a costly modernization of the B-1B, which may not be enough; relying on other platforms like the B-52, which can’t match the B-1B’s speed and payload; or accelerating the B-21 program, which risks delays and technical setbacks.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he expressed the United States' frustration that more progress has not been made on ending the war in Ukraine in a meeting on Thursday with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. "It was a frank conversation. It was an important one," Rubio said his 50-minute talks with the Russian foreign minister on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in Malaysia. He said he expressed to Lavrov what U.S. President Donald Trump has said publicly, "that there's not been more flexibility on the Russian side to bring about an end to this conflict." The envoys'...

Americans all too often presume that everyone else aspires to live and think as we do. Others must share our values, if only in secret, or at least be eager to learn them. This is a dangerous attitude to take with any nation or culture, but perhaps especially so with Russians—and never more so than when the topic is war. As Gregory Carleton observes in his superb 2017 study Russia: The Story of War, war is an indispensable part of how Russians see the world and their place in it. The extent to which World War II and all previous...

THE girlfriend of Vladimir Putin's transport official who was found dead ahead of a fraud inquiry could be banned from his funeral. Roman Starovoit, 53, was sacked by Vlad on Monday after he couldn't stop Ukraine causing mayhem to Russia's aviation industry - and was found dead hours later. He was found beside his Tesla with a bullet wound to his head as the mystery behind his "suicide" deepens. Now it has emerged that his long-term girlfriend, 25-year-old Polina Korneeva, might be barred from attending his funeral. Polina was brought to the scene by law enforcement to identify the corpse...

The Kremlin, asked on Wednesday about US President Donald Trump’s criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that Moscow was “calm” regarding the criticism, and that it would continue to try to fix a “broken” US -Russia relationship. In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We are quite calm about this.” “We expect to continue our dialogue with Washington and our line on repairing the rather broken bilateral relations,” he added. Trump said on Tuesday he had approved sending US defensive weapons to Ukraine and was considering additional sanctions on Moscow, underscoring his frustration with Russian President...

NATO jets were scrambled early Wednesday as Russia launched a record attack on Ukraine overnight — just hours after President Trump ripped Russian President Vladimir Putin for his “bulls–t.” Moscow fired 728 Shahed and decoy drones along with 13 cruise and ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday. That was more than 200 over the previous record fired on Friday, July Fourth — itself just a week after the previous largest air assault. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces took aim at enemy air bases and that “all the designated targets have been hit.” However, Ukraine claimed that...

The United States only has about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it needs for all of the Pentagon’s military plans after burning through stockpiles in the Middle East in recent months, an alarming depletion that led to the Trump administration freezing the latest transfer of munitions to Ukraine.The stockpile of the Patriot missiles has fallen so low that it raised concern inside the Pentagon that it could jeopardize potential US military operations, and deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, authorized the transfer to be halted while they reviewed where weapons were being sent.snipTrump also told Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in...

Vladimir Putin has been warned that Russia is facing an economic crisis as potato prices shoot up and fail to meet high demand. Prices of potatoes have skyrocketed by a staggering 167% over the last year, marking the most significant increase among foodstuffs. The Russian President admitted in May: "It turns out that we don't have enough potatoes. I spoke with [President of Belarus] Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko. He said, 'We've already sold everything to Russia'." The soaring cost of this staple is attributed to poor harvests reducing supplies. Compounding this, households are turning to the typically affordable food option as...