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Ukraine last night claimed it successfully hit a missile system inside Russia using U.S. weapons. It said the country’s forces destroyed Russian missile launchers with a strike in the Belgorod region. Senior politician Yehor Chernev claimed Ukrainian forces used a High Mobility Rocket Artillery System, or HIMARS, The New York Times reported. It comes just days after the U.S. granted permission for Ukraine to fire American weapons into Russia.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has warned of “nuclear escalation” in response to Nato governments stepping up support for Ukraine, with France suggesting troops could be deployed by member nations to Ukraine in just days. Mr Lavrov told Russian state media on Thursday that planned tactical nuclear exercises with Belarus should “sensitise” Ukraine’s allies to the risk of “catastrophic consequences of further advancement on the ladder of nuclear escalation”. link msn link away

A Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian radar station that can track nuclear missiles has sparked alarm in the West. Kyiv hit the Armavir radar station in the Krasnodar border region on May 23, damaging the state-of-the-art facility, which provides conventional air-defence as well as forming part of Moscow’s nuclear warning system. Ukrainian officials confirmed on Saturday that their forces had carried out the strike, saying the facility monitors airspace over the country and occupied Crimea. The radar station has reportedly been able to track long-range Atacms missiles, delivered by the US to Ukraine earlier this year. Mauro Gilli, a...

Russia is managing to produce artillery shells at triple the speed of Ukraine’s allies for a quarter of the price, Sky News reported on May 26, referencing analysis from management consulting firm Bain & Company. Using publicly available data, the firm claims that Russian factories can produce or refurbish 4.5 million 152 mm shells this year for $1,000 per round. European countries and the U.S. are only expected to produce 1.3 million 155 mm shells combined, at an average cost of $4,000 per unit. Slow artillery production has hindered Ukraine’s progress on the battlefield. Soldiers claim that for every round...

Ten separate locations across Crimea were reportedly hit, including a key radar and air defence facility. Ukraine staged a massive missile attack on Putin-occupied Crimea overnight, striking a key radar and air defence facility of the Russian army ‘where high-ranking officers were present’. Explosions were reportedly heard at ten separate locations around the peninsula amid long-range ATACMS attacks in one of the heaviest bombardments of the war. Russia also claimed to have destroyed attacking marine drones off the Crimean coast. Ambulances were reported rushing to Semidvorye, near Alushta where at least six ATACMS ballistic missiles reportedly hit a key communications...

So what changed the policy in Tehran? Mikhail Podolyak, the head of the Ukraine Presidential Office, blamed Iran for agreeing to be "directly complicit in the mass murder of Ukrainians." Why?, he asked: "Russia offered something important to Iran in exchange for killer drones and a ballistic missile contract. It is one of these options: uranium and other materials; nuclear technology; regional guarantees from the Russian Federation."

Sweden officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Thursday, a historic shift that highlights how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is transforming European security in ways he may not have foreseen. At a meeting in Washington, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson deposited the final paperwork with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the last step needed for the former militarily nonaligned nation to become NATO’s 32nd member. Sweden’s neighbor, Finland, joined last year. To justify his aggression in Ukraine, Putin cited the possibility of NATO expansion. Now, in one of the conflict’s many twists, his war has brought a...

Hamas and Fatah are expected to attend a meeting in Moscow to discuss the future governance of a Palestinian state. Representatives from Palestinian political factions, including Hamas and Fatah, are expected to meet in the Russian capital, Moscow, to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government amid Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 30,000 people. Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said on Thursday that while there was a lot of “uncertainty” about the meeting, it is expected to last three days for the factions to develop a “unified strategy”. “Russia has previously held similar...

"Russian officials and state-run and state-affiliated TV channels likely refrained from commenting on the two-year anniversary of the start of Russia's full-scale invasion to avoid drawing attention to Russia's failures to achieve its stated strategic goals in Ukraine and its more immediate goals of seizing all of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, while also suffering high personnel losses," the ISW said... The think tank said a recent opinion poll, conducted by independent Russian opposition polling organization Chronicles between January 23 and 29, suggests that "Russian sentiments about the war in Ukraine have largely remained unchanged in recent months and that most...

Aclose ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons on the U.S. if it fails in its invasion of Ukraine.In a Telegram post on Sunday, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has claimed the Moscow would use nuclear weapons in the event that "Ukraine with its allies" managed to push Russia out of the war-torn country. make nuclear threats against key U.S. and European capital cities. "Against Kyiv, Berlin, London, Washington. Against all other beautiful historical places that have been long ago included in the flight targets of our nuclear triad,"...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday that he preferred Joe Biden to Donald Trump but was willing to work with any U.S. president. Putin was asked by interviewer Pavel Zarubin who was "better for us" out of Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican. Putin replied: "Biden. He is a more experienced, predictable person, a politician of the old school. But we will work with any U.S. president who the American people have confidence in.”

At the World Government Summit, Tucker Carlson told a gathering of world leaders that Moscow “was so much nicer than any city” in the United States. “It’s radicalizing for an American to go to Moscow,” Tucker went on. “I didn’t know that. I’ve learned it this week, to Singapore, to Tokyo, to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, because these cities, no matter how we’re told they’re run and on what principles they’re run, are wonderful places to live -snip- If you’re wealthy, I imagine, Moscow is pretty great. This is true of most European cities. When you’re an American tourist, you...

Ukraine is desperate. It cannot win on the battlefield, and Victoria Nuland’s sister-in-law, who runs the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), is the source of all the propaganda that keeps painting Russia as weak to get the West to attack it. Ukraine is now using drones and long-range missiles, violating the air space of NATO with no concern, and attacking an oil refinery in Finland. Now, they attacked a refinery in southern Russia. It was the Ukrainians that destroyed Nord Stream. The hardliners in Russia say they are correct and they should have nuked Kyiv. They are now...

I just got back from Ukraine, where I was visiting some friends. Everything we have heard about what’s happening in Ukraine is a lie. The reality is darker, bleaker, and unequivocally hopeless. There is no such thing as Ukraine "winning" this war. - By their estimates, they have lost over one million of their sons, fathers and husbands; an entire generation is gone. - Even in the Southwest, where the anti-Russian sentiment is long-standing, citizens are reluctant or straight-up scared to publicly criticize Zelensky; they will go to jail. - In every village and town, the streets, shops, and restaurants...

Vladimir Putin has said that his alliance with Iran has turned the tide of the war in Ukraine, with Tehran’s support giving his forces momentum. Steady supplies of Iranian kamikaze drones, artillery shells and bullets have arrived in Russia since the invasion began, with Tehran quickly becoming one of the Kremlin’s closest military allies as both countries attempt to weather the impact of sanctions. “Our relations are developing very well. Please convey my best wishes to leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei,” Putin told Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian president, in Tehran on Thursday. Thanks to the Iranian head of state, Putin said,...

More Programmes Live NewsWorldRussia Putin pardons Satanist killer after the criminal fought in Ukraine Putin, pictured here last year, has drawn criticism for the move By Saskia O'Donoghue with AFP Published on 22/11/2023 - 15:37 Share this article Comments Nikolai Ogolobyak was given the reprieve after fighting for the notorious Storm Z unit of the Russian army in their war against Ukraine. The Kremlin has announced it will maintain its policy of presidential pardons for prisoners who agree to fight in Ukraine. The news comes following reports by Russian press revealing that a man convicted of Satanist and cannibalistic murders...

A Russian cannibal in a Satanic cult that slaughtered four teenagers — beheading and partially eating two of them — has been pardoned by President Vladimir Putin after fighting against Ukraine in a notorious unit of convicts. Nikolai Ogolobyak, 33, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2010 for murder and desecrating corpses over a series of horrifying ritualistic murders that rocked the Yaroslavl region — where the then-teenager was known as “Count.” Ogolobyak and other Satan worshippers, including one nicknamed “Hitler,” beheaded two of their four victims — then cut out their hearts and tongues which they then...

Guards at Vladimir Putin's residence reportedly entered the Russian leader's apartment after hearing a loud crash before discovering the 71-year-old "lying on the floor next to the bed". Vladimir Putin is alleged to have suffered a "cardiac arrest" in his private Moscow apartment on Sunday evening. A Telegram Channel believed to be run by a former Kremlin insider reported that incident saying the Russian leader was found by guards on the floor of the bedroom "lying on the floor, rolling his eyes." Doctors were reportedly called immediately and they later diagnosed the 71-year-old as having suffered a "cardiac arrest." Putin...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When a vehicle is captured and then...

The country's state energy giant Gazprom said in its latest report that gas production in the first half of 2023 was 179.45 billion cubic meters (bcm). Gazprom added that this represents a year-on-year decrease of nearly a quarter (24.7 percent), and a 26.5 percent drop in gas supplies to the domestic and foreign markets... The invasion also pushed Europe to cut purchases of Russian oil and gas drastically. The continent overcame an energy crunch last winter, in part by reducing energy consumption and finding other suppliers, such as sellers of seaborne liquefied natural gas (LNG)... Independent Russian-language news outlet Agentstvo...