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Vladimir Putin’s top security official has vanished during efforts to end the war in Ukraine, amid swirling health rumours and claims he could be caught up in a corruption probe. Sergei Shoigu, 69, is a Russian army general and currently the secretary of the powerful Russian Security Council. He served as defence minister for most of the war in Ukraine before being replaced one year ago, and is a very well-known member of Putin's entourage. Speculation is swirling in Moscow after he missed the Red Square parade on Friday amid claims his absence was health-related. But an explanation that he...

Ukraine launched a devastating drone attack on Russia overnight as Vladimir Putin prepares to welcome foreign leaders to celebrate VE Day. The strikes hit Moscow and surrounding Russian regions ahead of a large military parade in the capital on Friday, May 9, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2 in Europe. One target hit by Ukrainian drones was Kubinka military airfield in the west of the city, from which aircraft will launch in a scheduled Red Square flypast. The airfield holds Russian MiG-29 and Su-27 fighter jets as well as Putin’s aerobatic team and is often used for...

DICTATOR Vladimir Putin has showed off his private chapel and his favourite drink in a bizarre tour of his Kremlin apartment. The Russian tyrant gave the public a glimpse into his home in an interview marking the 25th anniversary of his first inauguration as president. The bizarre footage shows Putin giving his favourite interviewer, Pavel Zarubin, a tour of the apartment while answering his questions. When asked about his grandchildren from daughters Maria, 39, and Katerina, 37, Putin says they occasionally visit him unexpectedly in his austere apartment. He said: “They can, they can. “But still everyone understands that I...

SICK Putin has returned the disfigured body of a tortured Ukrainian journalist - after Russian pawns removed her brain and eyes. Award-winning reporter Viktoria Roschyna, 27, was brutally beaten to a pulp in occupied Ukraine where she was being held as a prisoner of war. Vile Vlad's troops sent a body bag to Ukraine, marking the corpse as an "unidentified male". But DNA testing confirmed the emaciated body - with her head shaved and a neck bone broken - was Roshchyna's. Ukrainian authorities confirmed there were "numerous signs of torture and cruel treatment". Investigators also found burn marks on her...

Pictures show the CIA deputy director's son who - unbeknownst to his mother and father - was fighting for Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. Michael Gloss, 21, was killed in the war in April last year, but details of the story have only emerged now after an investigation by Russian independent news outlet iStories. Photos showing him wearing camouflage and hanging out with soldiers have emerged. His mother, Julianne Gallina Gloss, is the Central Intelligence Agency's deputy director for digital innovation. His father, Larry Gloss, is a US Navy veteran who participated in Operation Desert Storm and the Iraq War. In...

PUTIN henchman and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is "preparing to flee Russia" - as he has put his son in charge of the police. The infamous leader of Chechnya has already made several moves to prepare for his escape - and his efforts have sparked a conflict with Kremlin cronies. The 48-year-old dictator is a vocal supporter of Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, and has sent tens of thousands of troops to support the bloody war in Ukraine. He has also been accused of violating human rights, including involvement in kidnapping and torture. But relations between Putin and Kadyrov have soured...

A pro-war Russian TV star has been killed on the front line just hours after sharing a social media post mocking Ukraine. Anna Prokofyeva, 35, died in the Demidovka border area of Belgorod, Russia, where Volodomyr Zelensky's forces have been making incursions. Her death was reported by other Kremlin-backed war correspondents and later by the state-run TV station Channel One, where she worked. Just a day before, she said she was "somewhere on the border with country 404", a reference to a common web page error - suggesting she believed Ukraine was a country that does not exist. Multiple other...

VLADIMIR Putin's soldiers have reportedly been left with never-before-seen lung poisoning after crawling through a 10-mile gas pipeline to attack Ukraine. Russian troops were sent on the bizarre mission earlier this month through a disused pipe near Sudzha, in Russia’s Kursk region – with the goal of sneaking behind enemy lines. But not only were many of the soldiers slaughtered by Ukrainian forces, survivors are now said to be suffering from chemical pneumonitis - an acute lung inflammation caused by inhaling toxic substances. Doctors have revealed the condition appears to have worsened over time - with scans showing lungs "resembling...

THIS is the dramatic moment Ukrainian forces obliterate four of Mad Vlad's military helicopters inside a hidden Russian airstrip. Extraordinary aerial footage showed four choppers worth £68million combined being decimated by US-made missiles in the Belgorod region. In the tense video footage, Russian choppers are spotted and located by the overhead camera. The enemy vehicles are highlighted, before laser-fast strikes rain down and demolish them. Large explosions can be seen as they are spectacularly obliterated one at a time. Kyiv's military said that they had destroyed two Mi-8 and two Ka-52s helicopters.

Vladimir Putin has displayed a mystery scar on his forehead while attending an event in Moscow. The cut was prominent on the Russian president's brow as he addressed the Future Technologies Forum. He used his speech to boast about Moscow's military might, reportedly claiming at one point that 'the whole world is talking about' the capabilities of Russia's Oreshnik missile systems. But audience members may have been distracted by the noticeable scab on the dictator's bald head. The mark has been visible in pictures and TV appearances since Wednesday, with little attempt made to conceal it. But there is no...

VLADIMIR Putin's apocalyptic Satan-2 nuclear missile has been branded an "absolute failure" - despite the Russian despot bragging it is "unstoppable". Putin has sacked the boss of Russian space agency Roscosmos after the killer weapon blew up on a launchpad before even taking off during a missile test. Russia has long boasted the 208-ton intercontinental hypersonic missile - capable of carrying nuclear warheads - is “unstoppable” by the West. The 15,880mph missile system is said to be the size of a 14-storey tower block. But Putin is now said to be frustrated over the production failures of the so-called apocalyptic...

This is the dramatic moment a low-flying Vladimir Putin warplane is shot down by Ukrainian troops and explodes into a huge fireball. The £11million Su-25 attack warplane was captured smashing into the ground near the village of Zaitsevo, close to a major battle scene in Toretsk, Donetsk region. The pilot ejected and is “alive and safe”, according to reports. The plane was hit by a shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile, confirmed the Ukrainians. Footage apparently showed a Russian rescue helicopter plucking the Su-25 pilot to safety after he had hidden in the forest. However, the rescue Mi-8 helicopter was attacked by Ukrainian...

Vladimir Putin’s Russian Space Agency boss has been fired after a “catastrophic” number of launch failures of missiles, satellites and rockets in recent years. Yury Borisov, 68, an ex-deputy premier and close ally, was replaced at the space agency, known as Roscosmos, by deputy transport minister Dmitry Bakanov, 39 -snip- A key failure for both men was the doomsday Sarmat - aka Satan-2 - missile, Russia's largest weapon. Under Borisov, also a former deputy defence minister, a test in September 2024 exploded on the launch at Plesetsk cosmodrome leaving a 200ft wide crater. A year earlier, Borisov had reported to...

ONE of Mad Vlad's war criminal deputy governors has been blown up by a landmine. Sergey Efremov, 51, has become the highest ranking Russian official to be killed in the conflict. -snip- The 51-year-old reportedly died after his military vehicle was blown up after hitting a mine in the Kursk region of Western Russia. Efremov, and another pro-Putin politician, died after attempting to help wounded Russian soldiers.

NATO fighter planes were scrambled today amid a brutal Russian missile and military drone onslaught on civilian, energy and military sites in Ukraine. Harrowing footage showed residents in Poltava screaming after a strike destroyed ordinary apartment blocks triggering fires amid the debris of smashed buildings. The wave of attacks by Vladimir Putin - which led to power cuts in multiple regions - came soon after Donald Trump announced in the Oval Office that his administration was actively talking to Moscow. “We are having very serious discussions about that war, trying to get it ended,” said the US president. On whether...

A leading Vladimir Putin propagandist who urged the Kremlin to fire nuclear bombs at Ukraine is in a coma after suffering a "clinical death." Tigran Keosayan, 59, sanctioned by Britain and other Western countries, had urged the Kremlin dictator to use nuclear bombs and vowed Russia will take full control of Ukraine. His powerful wife Margarita Simonyan, 44, who heads the slavish RT international media empire and is also sanctioned, confirmed his condition after rumours swept Moscow. There was speculation that the satirical show host could have been the target of a Ukrainian military intelligence death squad but she insisted...

Watch the historic moment the sea drone takes down an aerial target. DRAMATIC footage shows the moment Ukraine claimed the historic downing of a Russian M-8 military helicopter off the coast of occupied Crimea by a missile-firing sea drone. Kyiv's military intelligence announced the strike in the Black Sea with a Magura V5 and included a clip of the historic moment. In the black-and-white footage taken from the sea drone, bursts of water can be seen around the drone launching into the air as Vladimir Putin's chopper attacked. Viewers can quickly spot the Russian aircraft in the top right-hand corner...

Zelensky defiantly stood his ground in Kyiv as Russia invaded - despite reports that Russia would claim it in days. UKRAINE drafted a secret plan to move its government to London before tyrant Vladimir Putin invaded in February 2022. But when Russian forces launched their illegal assault Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky famously refused Western pleas to seek safe haven. "The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride," he told the US, according to the Ukrainian embassy in Britain. The embassy said Ukrainians were "proud of their President" as he stood strong in the face of danger when Putin...

AT least one person has died after a Russian oil tanker split in two, with a second ship damaged in the Black Sea. Footage shows one of the tankers split completely in half, with its bow vertically in the water, upturned and rapidly sinking. An emergency rescue operation is currently underway to desperately evacuate both crews in yet another blow to Putin. The Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 are wrecked in the Kerch Strait amid fears for at least 27 sailors, with the damage reportedly resulting in a devastating oil spill. Russian investigators say they have opened two criminal cases to look...

A leading Putin missile scientist has reportedly been gunned down in a Moscow park by a Ukrainian military assassin. Mikhail Shatsky, the Deputy Chief Designer at the Mars Design Bureau, which develops and manufactures onboard guidance systems for the Russian military and space industry, was allegedly eliminated by an unknown assassin in Kuzminsky forest park, at Kotelniki, eight miles southeast of the Kremlin. Reports say the scientist, an associate professor, was working actively on upgrading the Russian Kh-59 cruise missile to the Kh-69 level, which Russian troops use to strike Ukraine. There was immediate speculation that he was assassinated by...