Tag: Russia

Russian military jet crashes in southwest, at least six dead

  Moscow, Russia | AFP | A Russian military plane crashed on Monday into a residential area of Yeysk, a town in southwest Russia near the border with Ukraine, causing a huge fire and killing at least six people, according to Russian authorities. “Six people died, 19 injured including two children,” a spokesman for the ministry of emergency situations said giving an updated toll late Monday. The resulting fire that engulfed a nine-storey residential building […]

France’s TotalEnergies faces legal case for allegedly fuelling Russian bombers

Paris, France | AFP | Two associations have lodged a complaint against French energy giant TotalEnergies for “complicity in war crimes” for allegedly helping fuel Russian planes that have bombed Ukraine, a source close to the case said Friday. The France-based Darwin Climax Coalition and Ukrainian group Razom We Stand handed the file to the national anti-terrorist prosecutor, who investigates war crime allegations, on Thursday. Le Monde newspaper in August said TotalEnergies held a stake […]

Moscow-installed head of Ukraine’s Kherson region asks Russia to evacuate locals

Moscow, Russia | AFP | The Moscow-installed head of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, which the Kremlin says it has annexed, asked Russia on Thursday to help evacuate civilians from the area, in a sign that a Ukrainian counteroffensive is advancing. “We suggested to all people of the Kherson region to, if they wish, leave to other regions to protect themselves from missile hits,” the head of the Russian-backed administration, Vladimir Saldo, said on Telegram. “In […]

Russian army will be ‘annihilated’ if Pres. Putin nukes Ukraine: EU Policy Chief Josep Borrell

  Brussels, Belgium | AFP | EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Moscow on Thursday that its forces would be “annihilated” by the West’s military response if President Vladimir Putin uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine. “Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing, and it has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the Member States, and the United States and NATO are not […]

Ukraine claims new gains, welcomes Western air defense pledge

by Emmanuel PEUCHOT, with Dave CLARK in Toretsk Agence France-Presse KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukraine said Wednesday it had reclaimed more territory in the south and welcomed a Western pledge to deliver air defense systems to Kyiv “as fast as we can” after days of intense Russian missile strikes. A US-led group of around 50 countries held talks at the NATO headquarters in Brussels and vowed to deliver new anti-missile systems to Kyiv. Ukraine is […]

Russia says eight suspects detained over Crimea bridge blast

  Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russia has detained eight suspects over the deadly explosion of the bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia, the FSB security service said in a statement quoted by news agencies on Wednesday. The suspects include five Russians and “three Ukrainian and Armenian citizens”, it said, without providing more details. “The explosives were hidden in 22 plastic film rolls weighing 22,770 kilograms (50,200 pounds),” it said. The rolls left on a […]

Ukraine says recaptured five settlements in Kherson region

  Kyiv, Ukraine | AFP | Ukraine said Wednesday it had retaken five more settlements in the southern region of Kherson as Kyiv continues its counteroffensive despite mass Russian missile strikes that hit the country in the past days. “Ukrainian armed forces have liberated five more settlements in Beryslav district (of Kherson region): Novovasylivka, Novogrygorivka, Nova Kamyanka, Tryfonivka, Chervone,” the presidency said in its daily report. “The enemy continues shelling the positions of our units […]

Pres. Putin ‘miscalculated’ Russia’s ability to occupy Ukraine: Pres. Biden

  Washington, United States | AFP US President Joe Biden said Tuesday he believes his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is a normally rational actor who badly misjudged his prospects of occupying Ukraine. The president spoke out in a rare televised interview as his administration looks for what he has described as an “off-ramp” for Putin to deescalate his invasion of Ukraine before he resorts to weapons of mass destruction. “I think he is a rational actor who has […]

US airport websites hit by suspected pro-Russian cyberattacks

Washington, United States | AFP | The websites for a number of major US airports were briefly knocked offline Monday after a cyberattack promoted by a pro-Russian hacking group. The disruptions affected airport websites in cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and St Louis, and were carried out via distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which involve taking a website offline by flooding it with traffic. The airport websites were targeted […]

Biden promises Zelensky advanced air defense systems

Washington, United States | AFP | US President Joe Biden on Monday promised to provide advanced air defense systems to Ukraine after Russian missiles rained down on the capital Kyiv and other cities, the White House said in a statement. Biden spoke to President Volodymyr Zelensky and “pledged to continue providing Ukraine with the support needed to defend itself, including advanced air defense systems,” the statement said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened more “severe” […]

Russian president seeks escalation with Ukraine missile blitz: experts

Paris, France | AFP | by Adam PLOWRIGHT and Daphne BENOIT With Russia firing a hail of missiles into Ukraine on Monday and Belarus making fresh threats against Kyiv, President Vladimir Putin is seeking to escalate the nearly eight-month war and compensate for humiliating recent losses, Western analysts say. According to Ukrainian authorities, 41 out of 75 missiles were intercepted, but the remainder struck cities around the country, including the capital Kyiv and western Lviv […]

Russian President Putin says response to Ukrainian attacks will be ‘severe’

Moscow, Russia | AFP | President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia’s response to any further Ukrainian attacks would be “severe”, after Moscow’s forces carried out retaliatory missile strikes across Ukraine. “It was not possible to leave (Ukrainian attacks) unanswered. If attempts at terrorist attacks continue, the response from Russia will be severe and correspond to the level of threat,” Putin said at the start of a televised meeting of his security council. “Let there […]