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Russian President defies reports of counter offensives to personally deliver Easter greetings to the troops. In the second time in as many months, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a visit to the newly annexed areas of Kherson and Lugansk, having visited Mariupol last month. He traveled by helicopter in spite of threats of a spring counter offensive by Ukrainian forces to receive personally progress reports from the military authorities in the regions, demonstrating that Russia is in control of these regions and no threat is serious enough to prevent him visiting at will. After receiving progress reports, the President congratulated...

Two Russian men who claim to be former Wagner Group commanders have told a human rights activist that they killed children and civilians during their time in Ukraine. The claims were made in video interviews with Gulagu.net, a human rights organization targeting corruption and torture in Russia. In the video interviews posted online, former Russian convicts Azamat Uldarov and Alexey Savichev – who were both pardoned by Russian presidential decrees last year, according to Gulagu.net – describe their actions in Ukraine, during Russia’s invasion. CNN cannot independently verify their claims or identities in the videos but has obtained Russian penal...

Hollywood star Mark Hamill, best known for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, ended up committing quite a blunder after he participated in a video chat with members of Ukrainian armed forces. During said chat, a fragment of which Hamill shared on Twitter, Hamill praised the Ukrainian militants who he claimed were "fighting the good fight" and compared Ukrainian forces to the rebels from Star Wars. "It was a pleasure meeting with the brave Ukrainian drone operators. We talked about the challenges they face on a daily basis, but they also wanted to talk about Wookiees...

The photographed tank appears to be from the 1950s with no modern upgrades The first of several hundred 70-year-old Soviet-era Russian tanks appears to have been deployed to Ukraine, as the Kremlin desperately replenish its depleted resources. An image appeared on Friday which showed a T-55 Soviet tank located in Zaporizhzhia, an oblast in southern Ukraine, weeks after they were videoed on their way to the war-torn country. The photographed tank appears to be from the 1950s and shows no modern upgrades - suggesting that Russia is shipping the decrepit machinery in an attempt to aid its war effort. The...

We’ve touched in these pages — one of our earliest posts, in fact — on Soviet war heroine Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a teenager executed by the advancing German army in November 1941 for conducting partisan attacks behind enemy lines. Zoya’s story became known after the Red Army recaptured village of Petrishchevo, where she was hanged. A January 27, 1942 Pravda article recounted the gallows defiance of the young guerrilla, whom villagers knew only by her nom de guerre, “Tanya”. She had withstood German torture, refused to give them any information, and at her hanging incited her countrymen and -women to resist...

Bungling commanders sent them to help failing frontline infantry, leaked US documents reveal This is after Russian commanders sent Spetsnaz troops into direct combat Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has devastated Russia's clandestine special (Spetsnaz) forces, classified American documents that were leaked online reported. The leak first became widely known about a week ago. But the revelations have also demonstrated how deep American spy networks have infiltrated the Kremlin's own intelligence agencies and military command structure. And to compound the Kremlin's own embarrassment, the documents have also provided a damning assessment of Russia's own military capabilities. The deployment of Spetsnaz...

In a recent post on his blog, Seymour Hersh writes that Ukrainian President Zelensky embezzled $400 million from the US that was allocated to Ukraine for fuel. This isn’t the first time that we have heard about corruption in Ukraine. In 2019 The Gateway Pundit reported on Ukrainian businessman Igor Kolomoisky, who controlled Ukraine’s largest commercial bank, Privat Bank. This bank was said to control Burisma, the oil and gas company that gave Hunter Biden millions. John Kerry was involved in Burisma as well. There were reports that Kolmiosky somehow lost $1.8 billion of the bank’s money. It was suspected...

The father of a a Russian girl sent to an orphanage after drawing an antiwar sketch at school has been extradited from Belarus back to Russia...He faces two years in prison...Alexei Moskalyov fled house arrest just before his sentencing hearing last month in the town of Yefremov, south of Moscow. He was detained in Belarus...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov may not be able to attend when the UN Security Council meets in the United States later in April. He has not yet been granted a visa to enter the United States writes Svenska Dagbladet with reference to the Russian news agency Tass. "No visa has been issued yet. Not a single visa has been issued," Lavrov told the news agency. The Security Council has a rotating presidency, and Russia currently holds the presidency and Lavrov is the chairman. [Original text in Swedish - translation by SB]

Sen. Rand Paul’s heated opposition to a TikTok ban startled Capitol Hill last week, but you could look at it as a straightforward case of following the money, according to insiders – in this case, the money of a major GOP donor who has $33 billion on the line. The gentleman from Kentucky – who has made his career partly as a China hawk – surprised colleagues on the Senate floor last week when he blocked Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s hopes for fast-tracked legislation to ban TikTok. “Speech is protected whether you like it or not,” Rand said, jumping...

The head of Russia's private Wagner militia said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces were not leaving the city of Bakhmut and fighting was continuing in the western part of the city. "It must be said clearly that the enemy is not going anywhere," Yevgeny Prigozhin said on his Telegram channel. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had on Wednesday raised the prospect of a possible withdrawal from the city, saying Kyiv would take the "corresponding" decisions if its forces in the city risked being encircled by Russian troops. The months-long battle for Bakhmut, one of the last urban centres in Ukraine's eastern...

A month after Russia informed the U.S. that it is suspending participation in the last remaining nuclear pact between the two countries, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday that Moscow is now refusing to hand over data on its nuclear warheads, due at the end of this week. In response, the U.S. will not provide Russia with data on its deployed strategic warheads, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb said on Capitol Hill. Plumb told a hearing of the House Armed Services subcommittee on Strategic Forces that the U.S. had pressed the Russians on the issue...

The U.S. National Security Council spokesman has suggested the best way for Moscow's tankers to avoid the British depleted uranium munitions being sent to Ukraine would be to retreat back across the border. London announced on Monday that it would send depleted uranium tank rounds—which are particularly effective in piercing enemy armor—along with the Challenger 2 main battle tanks being provided for Kyiv's use. The news touched off a furious reaction in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin falsely equated the munitions to nuclear weapons. NSC spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday dismissed the Kremlin's concerns about the depleted uranium munitions during...

Washington is concerned by Kiev’s dwindling supply of ammunition, air defenses and experienced troops, according to the outlet Ukrainian servicemen. US officials estimate that more than 100,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since the outbreak of the conflict with Russia last February, Politico has reported, without disclosing its sources.“Many of these losses are taking place in Bakhmut,” it added.

Update(1017ET): What's being described as an initial, informal meeting between Presidents Xi and Putin is underway at the Kremlin. While the expected cordialities and expressions of closer relations were exchange, among the most notable early statements came from Putin, who said he's "open" to peace talks with Ukraine and China's mediation efforts."We have a lot of joint tasks, goals," Putin told his Chinese counterpart while also congratulating him on re-election as the head of the Chinese state for a third 5-year term. Xi in return said "Russia succeeded in promoting prosperity under Putin’s leadership." Putin further expressed that "we will...

A gloomy assessment of Ukraine’s prospects for victory against Russia emerged from a recent private gathering of former top US soldiers, intelligence officials and scholars with resumes reaching from the Reagan to the Trump administrations. Short of trained personnel and ammunition, one speaker argued, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky might consider a Chinese peace plan, especially after Beijing’s successful mediation of the Iran-Saudi dispute. The several dozen attendees, many of whom had held cabinet or sub-cabinet positions, met under Chatham House rules, which forbid identification of individual participants but allow the content itself to be presented. Overwhelmingly, the sentiment of participants...

Russia does not use hypersonic weapons in fact now, though it has them, same as other cutting-edge systems, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview for the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program on Rossiya-1 TV channel published by journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

The maximum penalty for criticizing the military forces has also been increased from five years to seven years...Public dissemination of ‘deliberately false information’ can result in prison sentencing of up to 15 years. Additionally, the law issues criminal liability for illegally entering a state facility...The current draft age is from 18-27 years old and will likely be changed to 21-30 years old,...

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s elite propagandists wanted to drink champagne in the studio to properly celebrate the moment. Head of state propaganda agency, RT, Margarita Simonyan, expressed “an overwhelming sense of euphoria” and added: “I’ve been waiting eight years for this . . . it finally happened. This is true happiness.” With the bloody all-out invasion now in its second year, the euphoria has been replaced by a lingering sense of dread, with Putin’s mouthpieces routinely fretting about the possibility of war crimes tribunals. The issue is playing on their minds. Appearing on the state TV show, Evening...

"Definitely we're selling to a lot of governments around the world, not only in Europe," sales and marketing director Poven Kumaresan told reporters. He added that Inflatech's three dozen employees currently produce 30-40 decoys a month. These decoys including tanks, armoured vehicles and even jet fighters, weigh between 25 and 90 kilos and take two to four people to handle in the battlefield. The engine used to inflate the weapons also emanates heat that will fool the enemy's infrared sensors.