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US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Keith Kellogg, on Wednesday scolded a top Russian official for stoking fears of World War Three after Trump warned President Vladimir Putin was “playing with fire” over Ukraine. -snip- US envoy Kellogg quoted Medvedev’s post and said it reckless. “Stoking fears of WW III is an unfortunate, reckless comment... and unfitting of a world power,” Kellogg said on X. “President Trump @POTUS is working to stop this war and end the killing. We await receipt of RU Memorandum (Term Sheet) that you promised a week ago. Cease fire now.”

Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev has issued a sobering warning to Donald Trump after the US leader accused Vladimir Putin of “playing with fire”. US President Mr Trump, writing on his Truth Social platform, said: “What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!” The remark drew a sharp response from Mr Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and one of Mr Putin’s most outspoken allies. Posting on X, formerly Twitter, he said: “Regarding Trump's...

-snip- "There are things that wouldn't be pleasant in a financial sense. I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don't want to do that because I want to get peace," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "In a financial sense, yes, we could do things that would be very bad for Russia, that would be devastating for Russia. But I don't want to do that because I want to see peace. And we’re getting close to maybe getting something done. We got Ukraine done. And, as you know, Ukraine might have been the...

Russian propagandists expressed their outrage about President Donald Trump's recent statement regarding Moscow-U. S. relations. -snip- "Trump has threatened us twice in 24 hours. No illusions. A capitalist who doesn't give a damn about other countries. No matter, Russia is like a KAMAZ, the more you load, the better it goes. How tightly you can blockade 1/6 of the planet Earth's land mass." Sladkov added that he was "also outraged by Trump's lie: 'Russia helped us win the war (the Great Patriotic War)'" as "in 1944, we barely persuaded these Anglo-Saxons to take part in military operations in Europe. They,...

Russian vodka enthusiasts are seething after the Finance Ministry implemented a 17 percent price hike for a half-litre bottle on New Year's Day. Russia holds the title as the world's largest vodka producer, accounting for over 30 percent of global production. Domestic consumption makes up more than 90 percent of Russia-made vodka, making it one of the country's most beloved beverages. As of January 1st, a bottle will now set consumers back 349 rubles (£2.53), up from 299 (£2.16) - a jump of 50 rubles. This follows a 6.4 percent increase in June 2024, meaning that within the last six...

In a significant escalation of the ongoing war, Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the RS-26 "Rubezh," at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. The attack, carried out from Astrakhan in southern Russia at 5 a.m. local time, marks the first known use of an ICBM in the conflict, signalling a chilling warning to NATO and Ukraine alike. The RS-26 "Rubezh" is a mobile-ground ballistic missile system derived from the RS-24 "Yars," itself a modernized version of the older Soviet Topol-M system. First tested in 2012, the RS-26 is essentially a shorter version of the RS-24 with one fewer stage....

The shooting comes in the wake of a blood feud declared by Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov against politicians from Dagestan and Ingushetia. Unidentified gunmen targeted a car carrying Russian counterterrorism officers, killing three. The incident happened on Friday in Magas, the capital city of the Republic of Ingushetia in Russia's North Caucasus. The shooting comes in the wake of a blood feud declared by Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov against politicians from Dagestan and Ingushetia and have sparked fears of growing instability and bloodshed. The gunmen were allegedly aiming to kill Adam Khamkhoyev, the deputy head of Putin's Centre 'E' counterterrorism...

A Russian private military company (PMC) told the Express that their commander stands by his calls for the overthrow of Vladimir Putin. Georgy Zakrevsky is the founder of the Paladin PMC, one of many shadowy military groups like the former Wagner Group militia, that are linked to the Kremlin. The militia commander launched a blistering attack on the Russian president during a video recording in which he blamed all the military failures in Ukraine on Putin personally. He also went on to accuse Putin of causing all of Russia's economic and social ills, as he urged the military to rise...

Associates of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have discussed holding a phone call between the two leaders, according to two sources familiar with the matter. One source said the call could occur on Friday, but Reuters was not able to immediately determine if the conversation, which would be their first since the former U.S. president left the White House in 2021, had been confirmed. CNN reported earlier on Thursday that the two leaders had a phone call scheduled on Friday. The news organization warned that the schedule of the former president - who is in...

The charges relate to missile attacks on civilian infrastructure, in particular on the energy sector. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Russia's former Minister of Defence and its current army chief, in a body blow for Putin. Sergey Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov have been charged with war crimes committed in Ukraine between the period October 10, 2022 until at least March 9, 2023. The charges relate to missile attacks on civilian infrastructure, in particular on the energy sector. While acknowledging they may have been deemed as genuine army targets at the time, the collateral damage to civilians...

VLADIMIR Putin's new despicable pal has bizarrely dubbed the despot "God's child" who was sent to Earth to save humanity from World War Three. Professor Sergei Karaganov, Putin's new right hand, claimed the tyrant is the saviour of the world who will not only win against Ukraine but will also thwart a global war. Putin, who has killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers as well as civilians in his illegal war in Ukraine, was also compared to Russia’s most famous emperor, Peter the Great. In an address scripted by the Kremlin, Karaganov chillingly told Putin:...

Ukraine destroyed seven boats in a devastating attack on Russia's Black Sea navy in the Crimea. Ukraine launched a spectacular and devastating attack on Russia's Black Sea Fleet, inflicting major damage on Putin's navy. The Black Sea Fleet is stationed in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Throughout the current war, Ukraine has managed to sink a number of vessels from the fleet including the Moskva flagship missile cruiser. Through a combination of missiles and drones, Kyiv's army has succeeded in nullifying the threat from Putin's navy in the Black Sea, regularly inflicting huge humiliations on the...

In mid-2022, Gazprom restricted gas flows to Europe in what was seen as a move by Putin to get both leverage against Kyiv's allies ahead of the winter season and retaliate against Western sanctions and support of Ukraine. But the EU managed to find alternative long-term sources of gas imports and free itself from most Russian piped-gas imports ... Gazprom's revenue fell by 41 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2023, while sales profits dropped 71 percent and gas production by 25 percent... The report said the company's upstream gas-production base is now isolated because infrastructure connecting its main...

Tucker Carlson’s representative denied reports Tuesday that Carlson launched a show on Russian-owned state television Monday night, telling Forbes the reports were “pure nonsense,” indicating Carlson was not involved with the show that is listed on the website for a Russian state television channel. Arthur Schwartz, a representative for Carlson, told Forbes in an email “it’s pure nonsense” in response to questions about Carlson’s show being aired in Russia with Russian voice overs and whether it was licensed by Carlson. Neil Patel, CEO of the Tucker Carlson Network, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed replacing his defence minister and long-term ally, Sergei Shoigu, more than two years into the Ukraine war, the upper house of parliament said on Sunday. Putin proposed Andrei Belousov, former deputy prime minister, as the new defence minister.

Natalia Kruglova last spoke to her husband, Pvt. Ivan Petrov, on Sept. 29. The Russian army conscript told Kruglova he had been ordered back to the front lines in southeastern Ukraine. Then he disappeared. Kruglova wrote to her husband’s commanding officers, the Defense Ministry and even military prosecutors in search of news, but to no avail. Weeks later, the army declared Petrov missing but offered no explanation of what had happened to him. “It’s as if no one owes you anything, no one cares,” Kruglova, 45, said in an interview from her home in the Russian far eastern city of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has continued his deranged nuclear warnings to the West, warning Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that London's iconic No.10 Downing Street is on a hit list. Russian president Vladimir Putin has today ordered nuclear missile firing drills and warned not even Downing Street will be safe. He told defence minister Sergei Shoigu to prepare exercises in the near future "in order to increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to fulfil combat missions." A Russian defence minister said it would involve land, air and naval forces. A ministry spokesperson said: "A set of measures will be taken...

The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days if Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That's because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs. -snip- If about $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country gets the green light, “we have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move material very quickly,” Ryder told reporters Thursday. “We can move within days.”

"You can't go anywhere at all, not even to Uzbekistan or Belarus for the May holidays," said one source. -snip- Russia is making overseas travel harder for some officials due to fears that foreign powers may try to gain access to state secrets during the worst crisis in relations with the West for more than 60 years, nine sources told Reuters. The Federal Security Service (FSB) is putting pressure on employees across government ministries not to leave Russia at all, even to visit so-called 'friendly' countries that have not imposed sanctions against Moscow, the sources said. Foreign travel was highly...

Up to 30 Russian personnel may have been killed and another 80 injured, according to a new report, after dramatic footage appeared to show explosions at a Russian military base in northern Crimea overnight. "About 30 Russian servicemen were killed and about 80 were wounded at the airfield in Dzhankoy," a Crimean-based Telegram channel called Crimean Wind reported on Wednesday. Crimean Wind is a pro-Ukrainian monitoring group that focuses on Crimea and generally offers reliable information. Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine's southern forces, described Dzhankoy as a legitimate military target on Wednesday but declined to offer up further details. A...