China poses a growing threat to global security, Germany said in its first national security strategy on Wednesday, underscoring Berlin’s shift in emphasis from economic interests to geopolitics following Russia’s war with Ukraine. Using blunt language about its top trading partner, the strategy document describes Beijing as aggressively claiming supremacy …
Read More »Belarus starts taking delivery of Russian nuclear weapons
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The deployment is Moscow’s first move of such warheads – …
Read More »Ukraine says six people killed in strikes on Kryvyi Rig
Ukrainian officials say the death toll from, what they said, Russian missile strikes on the central city of Kryvyi Rig, the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky, has risen to six. Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rig’s military administration, claimed on Tuesday that six missiles had hit five civilian sites …
Read More »North Korea’s leader vows to ‘hold hands’ with Russia’s Putin for cooperation
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un says he will “hold hands” with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, offering “full support and solidarity” to Moscow. In a message to Putin on the occasion of Russia’s national day on Monday, Kim called for “closer strategic cooperation” with Moscow, and “holding hands firmly with …
Read More »Russia says Ukraine tried to attack Russian vessel near gas pipelines in Black Sea
Russia said on Sunday that Ukraine had made unsuccessful attempt to attack a Russian naval ship with six high-speed drone boats as the Russian vessel patrolled major natural gas pipelines in the Black Sea. The ‘Priazovye’ ship was carrying out what Russia’s defense ministry said was “monitoring of the situation …
Read More »Putin says Ukrainian offensive has begun, but failed so far
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had begun a major offensive against Russia’s army but that Ukrainian forces had failed to achieve their objectives despite intense fighting over at least three days. “We can state for sure that this offensive has begun. This is evidenced by the use of strategic …
Read More »‘Everything indicates’ Russia behind dam breach: EU’s Borrell
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrel said Friday that “everything indicates” Russia is behind the Kakhovka dam breach, which Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of causing. The dam was destroyed on Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee their homes as water surged into the Dnipro River, flooding dozens of …
Read More »Ukraine lost a thousand troops and dozens of tanks in one day – Moscow
The Armed Forces of Ukraine incurred the losses as it pushed against Russian defenses, the military has claimed. Ukrainian forces have lost up to 1,240 troops and 39 tanks during one 24-hour period, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported in its latest daily update on Friday. This adds to the …
Read More »Russia launches ‘largest drone strike’ on Kyiv since start of war
Russia launched the biggest drone strike on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv a day after Ukraine struck oil pipeline installations and other targets deep inside Russia with a series of drone attacks. Serhiy Popko, the head of the Ukrainian military said in a statement on Sunday that the assault was …
Read More »Germany to remove at least 100 staff from its missions in Russia – source
Germany will remove more than 100 employees working at its missions in Russia after Moscow imposed limits on the numbers allowed to work in the country, a source with the German foreign ministry said on Saturday. “This limit, set by Russia for the beginning of June, requires a major cut …
Read More »Wagner group starts withdrawing units, handing control of Bakhmut to Russia’s army – Prigozhin
Russia’s Wagner group has started withdrawing its forces from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and transferring its positions there to regular Russian troops, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video published on Thursday. “We are withdrawing the units from Bakhmut. From today at five in the morning, May 25 …
Read More »Opinion | Ukraine War and Western Arms Supply to Kyiv Reshaping the World Order
The United Kingdom has confirmed that it is supplying Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles, becoming the first country to supply Kyiv with such weapons, even before the United States. The so-called “Storm Shadow” cruise missiles are reportedly able to carry a 450kg conventional warhead to a range of up to …
Read More »Russia says it battles saboteurs in cross-border raid from Ukraine
Russia said on Monday it was battling a cross-border incursion by saboteurs who burst through the frontier from Ukraine, in what appeared to be one of the biggest attacks of its kind since the war began. Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region adjacent to northeastern Ukraine, said the Russian …
Read More »Opinion | ‘Normalization of Assad’ is objectively a positive thing for the world
Last week, Saudi Arabia invited Syria, long excluded from multilateral formats in West Asia, to this week’s meeting of the Arab League. This was followed on Monday with the United Arab Emirates asking Damascus to attend the COP28 climate summit at the end of this year, giving the embattled country …
Read More »G7 countries offer Ukraine long-term support despite Russia’s warnings
The Group of Seven (G7) leaders have said that they would not back down from supporting Ukraine in its war as Russian forces continue to make advancements in the pro-Moscow regions. “Together with the entire G7 we have Ukraine’s back and I promise we’re not going anywhere,” octogenarian US President …
Read More »Putin says battle for Bakhmut is over, thanks Wagner, army
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday congratulated the Wagner group force and the Russian army for what he called the “liberation” of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which Russia calls by its Soviet-era name of Artyomovsk. In a statement published on the Kremlin website, Putin said that the battle …
Read More »Russia’s Wagner group head Prigozhin claims full control of Bakhmut
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on Saturday claimed full control of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the focus of the longest and bloodiest battle of the war. Reuters could not independently confirm the claim. Prigozhin made it in a video in which he appeared in combat …
Read More »Russia: Giving F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine a ‘colossal risk’
Western countries ‘are still adhering to the escalation scenario’ that risks widening the Ukraine war in Europe, says deputy foreign minister. Western countries will be running “colossal risks” if they supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, a Russian official says. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko was responding to a …
Read More »Russia says hypersonic missile scientists face ‘very serious’ treason accusations
Three Russian academics who have worked on hypersonic missile technology face “very serious accusations”, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, in a treason investigation that has spread alarm through Russia’s scientific community. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was aware of an open letter from Siberian scientists in defence of the …
Read More »Ukraine denies Russia destroyed Patriot missile defence system
Ukraine denied on Wednesday that a Russian hypersonic missile had destroyed a U.S.-made Patriot missile defence system during an air strike on Kyiv. Russia’s defence ministry made the assertion on Tuesday after an overnight air attack on the Ukrainian capital. Two U.S. officials later said a Patriot system had probably …
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