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The Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has said Russia’s defence ministry concocted false pretences to trick Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine and said Moscow could have avoided the war entirely. In a half-hour tirade Prigozhin, founder of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, claimed Russia had faced no immediate threat from Ukraine when Putin began his full-scale invasion last year and accused the army’s top brass of deceiving the Russian president for their own personal gain. The extraordinary rant, posted on social media on Friday, was the former caterer’s latest salvo in a long-running spat with defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who Prigozhin...

A top Russian general has 'vanished' amid claims he had advance knowledge of the weekend armed revolt which threatened Vladimir Putin's regime. One theory is that General Sergei 'Armageddon' Surovikin is under interrogation over a plot to oust defence minister Sergei Shoigu amid a hunt to purge the enemies within. Surovikin, 56, is the second-in-command of the Russian armed forces. He has known links to 'coup leader' Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary army chief. US officials briefed on American intelligence said a top Russian general had advance knowledge of Prigozhin's plans to rebel against Shoigu and chief of the armed...

Russia appears to have moved to take direct control of Wagner, after months of infighting between defence officials and the private military group. Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov said on Saturday "volunteer formations" will be asked to sign contracts directly with the ministry of defence. The vaguely worded statement is widely believed to target the group. But in a furious statement on Sunday, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces would boycott the contracts. The private military group has played a major role in the war in Ukraine, fighting on the side of Russian forces. But Prigozhin, who is said...

President Vladimir Putin has removed Russia's top commander in Ukraine, three months after he was installed. Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov has been appointed to lead what Russia calls its "special military operation" against its neighbour. He replaces Sergei Surovikin who has overseen Moscow's brutal attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The reshuffle comes as Russian forces say they are making progress in eastern Ukraine after months of setbacks. Gen Gerasimov, who has been in post since 2012, is the longest-serving Russian chief of general staff of the post-Soviet era. Gen Surovikin - now his deputy - has been...

The Russian Defense Ministry has demoted General Surovikin to deputy head of the united Russian troops in Ukraine & Valery Gerasimov is the new head. This occurs just after his near predecessor Lapin has been promoted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has fired five generals and one police colonel, according to a report from Moscow-based media group RBC, amid the country's military failures in Ukraine. -snip- RBC reported on Wednesday that it had obtained a copy of Putin's decree and listed the names and positions of the individuals who were reportedly dismissed from their posts. Those fired included Major General of Police Vasily Kukushkin, who was head of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Vladimir region; Major General Alexander Laas, deputy head of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for...

There was seemingly a notable absence from Russia's 'Victory Day' parade in Moscow on Monday—Valery Gerasimov, chief of general staff of the Russian military, was nowhere to be seen. -snip- Multiple media reports said that Gerasimov was wounded and forced to evacuate from a war zone in Izyum in Ukraine's Kharkiv region when visiting the front lines of the eastern Donbas region at the end of April. However, neither Russian nor U.S. officials have confirmed these reports. However, the BBC reported and several military experts on Twitter noted that Gerasimov was not present during the parade in Moscow. In an...

A 'hero' Russian world champion in an international tank warfare competition was killed when he was sent by Vladimir Putin into a real battle in Ukraine. Bato Basanov, 25, from Buryatia, was in a record-breaking tank biathlon team that performed last year in war games in front of defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the army general staff Valery Gerasimov. But his conflict ended in death when his tank was hit in Ukraine.

Ukraine says it destroyed Russia's Izyum command center, killing 200 but just missing Russia's top general Ukrainian officials said an attack on a key Russian command center in the eastern city of Izyum on Saturday evening killed about 200 Russian troops, including Maj. Gen. Andrei Simonov, but just missed hitting the chief of the general staff of the Russian military, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who had just concluded a secret visit to the army and airborne command center. Earlier, unconfirmed reports suggested Gerasimov was wounded in the strike. Two U.S. officials tell The New York Times that Gerasimov had been in...

The Russian ammunition dump in Tomorovka, Russia, was wracked by explosions on Sunday morning. Tomorovka is just west of Belgorod and barely 40 miles north of the Ukrainian strongpoint city of Kharkiv. This ammunition dump would be critical to sustaining the Russian offensive in Donbas. There is no claim of responsibility, so it might be another of those mysterious fires plaguing Russian strategic installations and those installations supporting the Donbas operation. Video of the explosion and aftermath are posted below.There have been a series of explosions and fires at military logistics and storage points inside #Russia that are used to...

VLADIMIR PUTIN's war effort was dealt one of its biggest blows to date yesterday when a surprise Ukrainian ambush attack killed dozens of Russian reinforcement troops and reportedly forced one of the Kremlin's top military commanders to flee the country. The devastating attack is a huge blow to the Kremlin after President Putin had personally sent General Gerasimov to rescue the stalled war ahead of the May 9 Victory Day parade. General Gerasimov, who is the chief of staff of the Russian army, had been sent to the region to take personal control of the all-out assault on the Donbas...

Vladimir Putin's top military commander has been flown out of the war zone with shrapnel wounds after being to sent to Ukraine by the Russian president to secure victory, a former Russian internal affairs minister has claimed. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of the Russian army, was today wounded in Izyum in Ukraine's Kharviv region, which has been at the centre of intense fighting since Russia's invasion. Putin had sent Gerasimov to the region to take personal control of his push to grab territory in eastern Ukraine, after the Russian army abandoned its plans to take Kyiv at the...

VLADIMIR Putin's top military commander has been wounded in Ukraine and was sent back to Russia just days after he arrived to take charge of the war. The Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov had been sent by Putin to take personal control of his push to grab territory in Donbas and eastern Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin's closest advisers appeared perturbed when he dropped his bombshell about readying nuclear weapons yesterday. The expressions of army general Valery Gerasimov and defence minister Sergey Shoygu were caught on camera as the Russian president put his atomic arsenal on stand-by.

A federal court ruling against a border control policy ordered by President Trump, 3 cases of the coronavirus in the United States and a peace deal with Afghanistan's Taliban is just hours away but first..... President Trump spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today and the Turkish government says the two agreed on: "additional steps without delay in order to avert a big humanitarian tragedy unfoling in the Idlib region" The White House spokesman said that Syria, Russia and Iran must halt their 'offensive' in the region an said that President Trump "condemned yesterday's attack that killed Turkish personnel"...