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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian special services and law enforcement agencies are identifying people behind last month's Crocus City Hall terror attack near Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. "Russian special services and law enforcement agencies continue to investigate, to look into the details of this despicable crime. They are identifying people behind it, including those who commissioned the attack, sponsors and organizers," Putin told the 12th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues in the Russian city of St. Petersburg via a video message. None of those guilty of the attack shall escape just retribution, the president...

Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday.

Russian troops have reportedly pushed through Ukrainian lines to take the strategic town of Ocheretyne in Donetsk - the latest scoop for Vladimir Putin's forces amid a recent string of gains on the battlefield. Videos shared on the Telegram messaging app by Russian military bloggers appeared to show the Russian tricolour flying atop a damaged building in the town that once was home to 30,000 Ukrainians. The town was lost after Ukrainian units fled their positions under heavy fire, Msocow's defence ministry claimed, as a Ukrainian army spokesperson said the invaders were 'using the entire arsenal of weapons available... including...

A North Korean delegation led by the cabinet minister for international trade is visiting Iran, the North’s official media says in a rare public report of an exchange between the two countries believed to have secret military ties. The minister for external economic relations, Yun Jong Ho, left Pyongyang on Tuesday by air leading a ministry delegation to visit Iran, the North’s KCNA news agency says. It gives no other detail. North Korea and Iran have long been suspected of cooperating on ballistic missile programs, possibly exchanging technical expertise and components that went into their manufacture.

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned Kremlin will intensify attacks on Western weapons stored in Ukraine. “We will increase the intensity of attacks on logistics centers and storage bases for Western weapons,” Shoigu said on Tuesday, according to Russian state-owned outlet RIA Novosti. The warning from Shoigu came just as the House passed the $95 billion foreign aid package over the weekend and cleared the Senate Tuesday night. It is now on its way to President Biden’s desk to be signed. Foreign aid for embattled U.S. allies includes $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid in Gaza, $8 billion for...

Russian forces have made significant advances in a narrow corridor in eastern Ukraine as an offensive by Moscow to take territory before western military aid arrives appears to be gathering pace. Footage posted by Kremlin military bloggers shows a Russian tricolour flying above the shattered village of Ocheretyne. Russian troops reportedly entered the territory on Sunday, north-west of the town of Avdiivka, after advancing about 5km in 10 days. It comes as Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it was suspending consular services for military-age men living abroad, except for those heading back to Ukraine, in a move designed to increase conscription....

(European Union) Lawmakers want to see more support for Ukraine as US and UK counterparts advance. EU lawmakers have called for Russian state assets to be seized to support Ukraine, saying existing plans worth billions of euros don’t go far enough. EU countries are already discussing plans to deliver an aid package worth around €3bn a year to Ukraine by using the interest from capital held within the bloc by the Russian central bank. But EU lawmakers want to go further, as US counterparts finalise a €57 billion aid package for the war-torn country. “Europe needs to seize all of...

More and more people, including Pope Francis, are asking Ukraine to drop its defense and sit at the negotiation table with Russia. Citing the stalemate on the battlefield and Russia’s superior resources, they urge Ukraine’s leadership to consider a deal. What exactly that would involve is largely left unsaid. But it would clearly involve freezing the conflict, resigning Ukraine’s occupied territory to Russia in exchange for an end to the fighting. My country, Moldova, knows all about that kind of bargain. A small western neighbor of Ukraine, Moldova experienced Russia’s first post-Soviet war of aggression, which ended with a cease-fire...

Russia warned Monday that the risk of a “direct military clash” between Russia and nuclear powers in the West is rising. “Westerners are dangerously balancing on the brink of a direct military clash between nuclear powers, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a video message to the participants of the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference. The comments come after Russia reacted angrily to the U.S. House of Representatives passing a $61 billion foreign aid package for Kyiv at the weekend. House lawmakers approved the aid Saturday despite long-standing objections from hardline Republicans; the bill now...

Germany's domestic spy agency urged Berlin on Monday to give it more powers to monitor financial flows amid growing concerns over potential Russian financing of regional far-right parties ahead of European parliamentary elections. While Germany's interior ministry said in February it was working on adapting existing legislation to this effect, the issue has gained fresh urgency following a report that a lawmaker for the far-right Alternative for Germany party had received money from a pro-Russian news portal. "I would hope to have more authority" to monitor financial developments, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency Thomas Haldenwang told a news...

European Union countries, including the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, are hesitant to provide Ukraine with Patriot air defense systems. The Netherlands is exploring options to support Ukraine financially and is considering depleting its stock of Patriot systems. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said existing capabilities across the alliance could be made available to Ukraine.

Mandatory military service is under discussion once more in Europe. The reasons? The possibility of Ukraine’s defeat looms large, as does the threat of a future president Donald Trump abandoning nato. Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defence minister, says that Europe must be ready for war before the decade’s end. He describes dropping a one-year period of service for school-leavers in 2011 as “a mistake”. Britain’s army chief, General Patrick Sanders, has called for a “citizen army”. Compulsory stints in the armed forces can take several forms, including the conscription of civilians of any age, call-ups using lotteries and a standard period...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday thanked U.S. political leaders for approving an aid package to Ukraine over the weekend, saying the newfound aid will give the country a chance at "victory" as the country defends itself from Russia. “I think this support will really strengthen the armed forces, I pray, and we will have a chance at victory if Ukraine really gets the weapons system, which we need so much, which thousands of soldiers need so much,” Zelenskyy, who spoke via an interpreter, said on NBC News' "Meet the Press." ... Asked whether this aid will help Ukraine win...

After they beat Azat Azatyan so bad blood came out of his ears; after they sent electric shocks up his genitals; after they wacked him with pipes and truncheons, the Russians began to interrogate him about his faith. “When did you become a Baptist? When did you become an American spy?” Azat tried to explain that in Ukraine there was freedom of religion, you could just choose your faith. But his torturers saw the world the same way as their predecessors at the KGB did: an American church is just a front for the American state. Azat was dragged back...

A U.S. citizen known to have fought with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 has been killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk, Russian media reported Friday. Russia-installed authorities in eastern Ukraine had earlier this month reported the American — 64-year-old Russell Bentley — as missing. "Russell Bentley, known as 'Texas,' a real American, truly from Texas, was killed in Donetsk," the head of the pro-Kremlin RT network Margarita Simonyan said on social media. "He was fighting for our guys," she said. Simonyan gave no details on how he died. The Vostok battalion with which he fought confirmed his death, calling...

CIA Director Bill Burns on Thursday said Ukraine could lose the war by the end of 2024 without more funding from the U.S., delivering his most specific comments yet on a possible defeat as Kyiv struggles against a much larger Russian army. “With the boost that would come from military assistance‚ both practically and psychologically — Ukrainians are entirely capable of holding their own through 2024 and puncturing Putin’s arrogant view that time is on his side,” Burns said Thursday during an event at the George W. Bush Presidential Center, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

They opened the box on a Sunday in late March, getting their first look at Asfan Mohammed since he departed India for Russia four months earlier. He was better dressed than when he’d left – a black suit, white shirt, tie and shoes replacing the casual attire he’d worn when family and friends saw him off. But he had to be buried in line with his Muslim beliefs, so his body would need to be prepared; the neat clothes removed. ...videos on YouTube about job opportunities in Russia gave Asfan new hope, and he contacted an employment agency, his brother...

Ukraine's air force has previously said Russia has used the Tu-22M3 aircraft to fire Kh-22 cruise missiles at Ukrainian territory. The HUR said the bomber that was downed "carried out a missile attack against Ukraine on the night of April 19." The aircraft was shot down "as a result of a [HUR] special operation in cooperation with the Air Force," it said, adding that it was struck at a distance of about 300 kilometers from Ukraine. The HUR added: "It should be noted that this is the first successful destruction of a strategic bomber in the air during a combat...

Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on modern warfare continues with another video on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, as we continue covering Putin's invasion with the events in March of 2024. In the aftermath of the fall of Avdiivka, Russia continues to advance slowly despite taking heavy losses in personnel and hardware. In this video we will describe the events on the front, internal situation in Russia and Ukraine, global diplomatic situation, allied support and much more.

Russia's military death toll in Ukraine has now passed the 50,000 mark, the BBC can confirm. In the second 12 months on the front line - as Moscow pushed its so-called meat grinder strategy - we found the body count was nearly 25% higher than in the first year. BBC Russian, independent media group Mediazona and volunteers have been counting deaths since February 2022. New graves in cemeteries helped provide the names of many soldiers. Our teams also combed through open-source information from official reports, newspapers and social media. More than 27,300 Russian soldiers died in the second year of...