ussia is trying to use nuclear threats to discourage Kyiv’s Western backers from providing military aid ahead of an expected counter-offensive, according to a new assessment. Speaking on Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu issued “reinvigorated nuclear blackmail rhetoric,” according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank. Shoigu defended Russia’s […]
Finland has become the 31st member of the Nato security alliance, and its flag will soon be raised at the alliance’s headquarters. The Finnish foreign minister handed the accession document to the US secretary of state who declared Finland a member. Finland’s accession is a setback for Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who repeatedly complained of Nato’s […]
It is unlikely that Ukraine will recover all its internationally recognized sovereign territory this year, according to America’s highest-ranking general. The claim was made by General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during an interview with Defense One, a U.S.-based outlet that specializes in military coverage. Russia has seized substantial chunks of […]
Russia’s intelligence services have detained a U.S. citizen working for the Moscow bureau of The Wall Street Journal. A closed session Russian court formally arrested reporter Evan Gershkovich on charges of espionage and ordered the American journalist held until May 29, pending an investigation, Russian media report. Gershkovich was on a reporting assignment in the […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited the occupied port city of Mariupol, his first trip to the Ukrainian territory that Moscow illegally annexed in September. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin arrived in Mariupol late Saturday after visiting Crimea, a short distance southwest of Mariupol, to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea […]
The U.S. military on Thursday morning released dramatic video that it said showed a Russian fighter jet intercepting and then colliding with the American MQ-9 “Reaper” drone that crashed into the Black Sea on Tuesday. The U.S. has accused Russia of operating its warplane in an “unsafe and unprofessional” manner during the encounter near Ukraine’s […]
A Russian fighter jet struck the propeller of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday in a “brazen violation of international law,” causing American forces to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle, the U.S. said. Moscow said the U.S. drone maneuvered sharply and crashed into water following an encounter with Russian fighter […]
Until now, Ukraine’s air defenses say they have largely succeeded in destroying a substantial number of the Russian rockets being fired into the country’s civilian centers. On Thursday, the Kremlin threw in a new wrinkle. In an early morning attack on targets across the country, Russian forces apparently added several hypersonic missiles, known as Kinzhals […]
At least six people have died after a barrage of Russian missiles hit targets across Ukraine early Thursday, also knocking out power at Europe’s largest atomic power station. Most of the dead were in the western region which includes the city of Lviv, where a Russian missile hit a neighborhood. “It’s been a difficult night,” […]
A Russian virologist who helped develop the country’s COVID vaccine has been found dead after an altercation with an intruder in his Moscow apartment, according to reports in local media. Andrey Botikov, one of 18 scientists who developed the Sputnik V vaccine at the Gamaleya National Research Center, was identified as the man who had […]
Russia told the West on Friday that it would view as an attack on itself any actions that threatened Russian peacekeepers in Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria region, one day after Moscow accused Ukraine of planning an invasion. In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected Moscow’s assertion that Ukraine wanted to take over the region. The warning comes […]
On the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States is hammering Russia with a new round of economic sanctions designed to undermine the country’s ability to continue to wage war. The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday announced deep-cutting new sanctions targeting the metals and mining sector of Russia’s economy. In coordination with […]
