RUSSIA has deployed war wolves on the Ukraine front line — because the beasts react early to kamikaze drone sounds.
Troops say the howling animals have a good sense of smell, are sociable and active, and can warn of danger in advance.
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Vladimit Putin has deployed war wolves on the Ukraine front line — because the beasts react early to kamikaze drone soundsCredit: EPA
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Troops say the howling animals have a good sense of smell, are sociable and active, and can warn of danger in advanceCredit: East2West
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Wolf-tamer Aleksandr Konchakov raised two females that were rescued from Siberian region KhakassiaCredit: East2West
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A Ukrainian soldier launches a kamikaze FPV drone on the front lineCredit: Reuters
Two tamed wolves have been sent to serve with Vladimir Putin’s soldiers and more will follow if the experiment is a success.
A Russian news agency reported: “The predators can hear the approach of drones and warn of danger in advance.
“They will help Russian soldiers carry out combat missions in the [war] zone.”
The two females were rescued from Siberian region Khakassia and raised by wolf-tamer Aleksandr Konchakov.
In a video, he can be seen feeding ice cream to one of the wolves, called Vysota.
He said: “The puppies were simply brought to me by hunters without a mother.
“They have excellent intuition and are smart.”
Inside ‘Wolves’ of Ukraine the battalion of volunteer troops defending the ‘Road of Life’ – the last way out of wasteland Bakhmut
Moscow State Circus chief Edgard Zapashny said: “I hope these two female wolves, who will now be with our fighters, will not be harmed, and that the men will surround them with care and ensure their safety.
“In turn, they will save the lives of our soldiers.”
VLADIMIR Putin is telling Russians to start having sex at work in an attempt to counter the plummeting birth rates.
The Kremlin is set to implement a sex-at-work scheme after too many citizens reportedly complained of not having enough time or energy for late night romps.
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Vladimir Putin is telling Russians to start having sex at work in an attempt to counter the plummeting birth ratesCredit: Getty
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The Russian tyrant has called the push for more babies a ‘question of national importance’Credit: Alamy
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Putin kissing a baby during a public visit in RussiaCredit: AFP
The plan has been proposed by a health minister after Putin made an urgent demand to increase the number of people having babies.
It will see staff allowed to get it on during their lunch and coffee breaks in peace.
Bosses have even been told to encourage all midday romps.
Russian doctor Yevgeny Shestopalov is pushing for the scheme to be implemented and sees it as a way to stop “lame excuses”.
He said: “Being very busy at work is not a valid reason, but a lame excuse.
“You can engage in procreation during breaks, because life flies by too quickly.”
Putin has said in the past that “the fate of Russia depends on how many of us there will be”.
Calling the huge push for more babies a “question of national importance”.
Give birth, give birth and give birth again, you need to give birth
Zhanna RyabtsevaRussian MP
Blinkered politician Tatyana Butskaya, 49, has even drawn up a blueprint plan telling Russian employers to coerce women into having babies.
She said:“Large families are becoming the new elite so [regional] governors should report on the birth rate.
“Each employer should look at their workplace, what is your birth rate?
“This is exactly how we should pose this question, we will monitor it.”
Putin is ‘grooming secret son, 9, to be his successor with his daughters ready to act as regents’, claims ex-Russian MP
The sex-at-work scheme is just one of many initiatives in Russia aimed at women and couples.
In Moscow, women aged 18 to 40 are being told to attend free fertility checks to assess their “reproductive potential”.
Several regions are even offering students cash rewards if they give birth.
Chelyabinsk is paying any mum under 24 a whopping £8,500 for the birth of their first child.
Karelia has a similar scheme with them paying £850.
A number of prominent Putin politicians have been ordering their residents to think about having children from a young age.
Anna Kuznetsova has demanded women should have their first born before they reach 21 so they can go on to have multiple other children.
As MP Zhanna Ryabtseva has echoed similar thoughts saying women should already be thinking about having kids by the time they reach 18.
She said: “Give birth, give birth and give birth again, you need to give birth.”
Russia’s current fertility rate is just 1.5 children per woman.
This is far below the typical rate of 2.1 which most researchers agree is vital to keep up a stable population.
The population of Russia is expected to take a worrying nosedive over the next 25 years.
Projections say the 144 million population Putin controls as of today will drop to under 130 million by 2050.
Critics say Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is to blame for the shrivelling birth rate.
Almost 640,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the fighting started in February 2022, according to Ukraine.
This has torn families apart with fathers and husbands yet to return home.
The uncertainties of war are also said to be scaring young couples away from starting a family.
Who are Putin’s children?
THE official number of Vlad’s offspring is two, according to the Kremlin.
These are a pair of daughters, Maria Vorontsova, 39, and Katerina Tikhonova, 37.
Both come from his previous marriage to ex-first lady Lyudmila Putina.
Their marriage lasted 30 years, spanning Mr Putin’s rapid rise to the top of Russia’s political system.
Tikhonova started as an acrobatic dancer in her younger years before she went on to spearhead a major new Russian artificial intelligence initiative.
Vorontsova has built a career in medical research, is an expert on dwarfism and married to a Dutch businessman, Jorrit Faassen.
But, independent journalists recently confirmed Putin has a number of other hidden children.
Two sons, Ivan, nine and Vladimir, five, have reportedly grown up with the tyrant and his longterm lover Alina Kabaeva, 41.
They have already confirmed another daughter, Luiza, 21, born from an extra-marital relationship with a cleaner turned millionaire.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged over 100 prisoners of war on Saturday as Kyiv marked its third Independence Day since Moscow’s full-scale invasion.Related video above: Ukrainian authorities order evacuation of eastern city of Pokrovsk amid Russian advance Ukraine said the 115 servicemen who were freed were conscripts, many of whom were taken prisoner in the first months of Russia’s invasion. Among them are nearly 50 soldiers captured by Russian forces from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.The Russian Defense Ministry said the 115 Russian soldiers had been captured in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched their surprise offensive into Russia two weeks ago. The ministry said the soldiers were currently in Belarus, but would be taken to Russia for medical treatment and rehabilitation.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that the United Arab Emirates had again brokered the exchange, the 55th since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.Photos attached to Zelenskyy’s post show gaunt servicemen with shaven heads and wrapped in Ukrainian flags.”We remember each and every one. We are searching and doing our best to get everyone back,” Zelenskyy said in the post.Officials from the two sides meet only when they swap their dead and POWs, after lengthy preparation and diplomacy. Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses how many POWs there are in total.According to the U.N., most Ukrainian POWs suffer routine medical neglect, severe and systematic mistreatment, and even torture while in detention. There have also been isolated reports of abuse of Russian soldiers, mostly during capture or transit to internment sites.Last January, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in the biggest single release.Drone and artillery attacks continueFive people were killed and five others wounded in Russian shelling of the center of the city of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s partially occupied eastern Donetsk region, local officials said.In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed two people and wounded four, including a baby, officials said.Ukraine’s air force said it had intercepted and destroyed seven drones over the country’s south. Russian long-range bombers also attacked the area of Zmiinyi (Snake) Island with four cruise missiles, while the wider Kherson region was also struck by aerial bombs.In Russia, the Defense Ministry said Saturday that air defenses had shot down seven drones overnight.Five drones were downed over the southwestern Voronezh region bordering Ukraine, wounding two people, regional Gov. Aleksandr Gusev said. Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate claimed to have blown up a warehouse storing 5,000 tonnes of ammunition in the region’s Ostrogozhsky district. News outlet Astra published videos appearing to show explosions at the ammunition depot after being hit by a drone. The videos could not be independently verified.Two people were wounded in a drone attack in the Belgorod region, also bordering Ukraine, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Local authorities did not report any casualties in the Bryansk region, where the fifth drone was intercepted.In the Kursk region, regional Gov. Alexei Smirnov said Saturday that three missiles were shot down overnight and another four on Saturday morning.Russian air defenses shot down two more drones on Saturday morning, Russia’s Defense Ministry said — one over the Kursk region and one over the Bryansk region.Independence Day commemorationsUkraine marked its 33rd Independence Day Saturday as its war against Russia’s aggression reaches a 30-month milestone. No festivities are planned, and instead, Ukrainians will mark the day with commemorations for civilians and soldiers killed in the war.Poland’s President Andrzej Duda arrived by train early Saturday to Kyiv in a symbolic show of support from one of Ukraine’s key allies.Videos posted by his office show him being greeted by Ukrainian officials and later paying his respects in a ceremony at the Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen for Ukraine.Duda’s visit to Kyiv, his fifth since February 2022, sends a message that Warsaw’s support for Ukraine remains strong as the war drags on for the third year.Poland, located to Ukraine’s west, has donated arms and become a hub for Western weapons destined for Ukraine. It has also welcomed tens of thousands of Ukrainians who fled the war. It hosts the most Ukrainian refugees outside of the country after Germany.A trade dispute over Ukrainian grain that dragged down ties last year, and historical grievances between the two countries, sometime provoke bad feelings, particularly among Poles who remember a World War II-era massacre by Ukrainian nationalists.___Morton reported from London.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) —
Russia and Ukraine exchanged over 100 prisoners of war on Saturday as Kyiv marked its third Independence Day since Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
Related video above: Ukrainian authorities order evacuation of eastern city of Pokrovsk amid Russian advance
Ukraine said the 115 servicemen who were freed were conscripts, many of whom were taken prisoner in the first months of Russia’s invasion. Among them are nearly 50 soldiers captured by Russian forces from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the 115 Russian soldiers had been captured in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched their surprise offensive into Russia two weeks ago. The ministry said the soldiers were currently in Belarus, but would be taken to Russia for medical treatment and rehabilitation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that the United Arab Emirates had again brokered the exchange, the 55th since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
Photos attached to Zelenskyy’s post show gaunt servicemen with shaven heads and wrapped in Ukrainian flags.
“We remember each and every one. We are searching and doing our best to get everyone back,” Zelenskyy said in the post.
Officials from the two sides meet only when they swap their dead and POWs, after lengthy preparation and diplomacy. Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses how many POWs there are in total.
According to the U.N., most Ukrainian POWs suffer routine medical neglect, severe and systematic mistreatment, and even torture while in detention. There have also been isolated reports of abuse of Russian soldiers, mostly during capture or transit to internment sites.
Last January, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in the biggest single release.
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
In this photo taken from a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, a Russian soldier fires from D-30 howitzer towards Ukrainian positions in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
Drone and artillery attacks continue
Five people were killed and five others wounded in Russian shelling of the center of the city of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s partially occupied eastern Donetsk region, local officials said.
In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed two people and wounded four, including a baby, officials said.
Ukraine’s air force said it had intercepted and destroyed seven drones over the country’s south. Russian long-range bombers also attacked the area of Zmiinyi (Snake) Island with four cruise missiles, while the wider Kherson region was also struck by aerial bombs.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said Saturday that air defenses had shot down seven drones overnight.
Five drones were downed over the southwestern Voronezh region bordering Ukraine, wounding two people, regional Gov. Aleksandr Gusev said. Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate claimed to have blown up a warehouse storing 5,000 tonnes of ammunition in the region’s Ostrogozhsky district. News outlet Astra published videos appearing to show explosions at the ammunition depot after being hit by a drone. The videos could not be independently verified.
Two people were wounded in a drone attack in the Belgorod region, also bordering Ukraine, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Local authorities did not report any casualties in the Bryansk region, where the fifth drone was intercepted.
In the Kursk region, regional Gov. Alexei Smirnov said Saturday that three missiles were shot down overnight and another four on Saturday morning.
Russian air defenses shot down two more drones on Saturday morning, Russia’s Defense Ministry said — one over the Kursk region and one over the Bryansk region.
Efrem Lukatsky
A veteran pays his respect at a makeshift memorial for fallen Ukrainian soldiers during the Ukrainian Independence Day on Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Independence Day commemorations
Ukraine marked its 33rd Independence Day Saturday as its war against Russia’s aggression reaches a 30-month milestone. No festivities are planned, and instead, Ukrainians will mark the day with commemorations for civilians and soldiers killed in the war.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda arrived by train early Saturday to Kyiv in a symbolic show of support from one of Ukraine’s key allies.
Videos posted by his office show him being greeted by Ukrainian officials and later paying his respects in a ceremony at the Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen for Ukraine.
Duda’s visit to Kyiv, his fifth since February 2022, sends a message that Warsaw’s support for Ukraine remains strong as the war drags on for the third year.
Poland, located to Ukraine’s west, has donated arms and become a hub for Western weapons destined for Ukraine. It has also welcomed tens of thousands of Ukrainians who fled the war. It hosts the most Ukrainian refugees outside of the country after Germany.
A trade dispute over Ukrainian grain that dragged down ties last year, and historical grievances between the two countries, sometime provoke bad feelings, particularly among Poles who remember a World War II-era massacre by Ukrainian nationalists.
INCREDIBLE footage illustrates how Ukraine has captured a huge slice of Russian territory in a week-long rapid blitz.
It’s taken Kyiv’s troops just several days to claim 400 square miles of enemy soil as Vlad grapples with being the first Russian leader to surrender home turf since the Second World War.
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Ukraine is blasting its way into Russia as the war enters a fiery new chapterCredit: Reuters
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A Russian man reacts to missile debris, with many of his fellow residents evacuatingCredit: Kommersant Photo/Anatoliy Zhdanov via REUTERS RUSSIA
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A Ukrainian soldier holds up the peace sign as he goes into battleCredit: Reuters
The advance then spills into the rival country in multiple directions, with troops speeding straight ahead in a sharp incision as others take wider territory to the northwest and southeast.
Ukraine’s territory takeover then broadens out in all directions, leading to the huge 400,000 square mile coup in only seven days, according to the country’s top commander.
Thousands of troops have piled in with beefed up convoys including tanks and aircraft.
Read more on Russia-Ukraine
Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed Ukraine now controlled the massive chunk of Russian territory as it continued to “conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region”.
He said:“The troops are fulfilling their tasks. Fighting continues along the entire front line. The situation is under our control.”
President Volodomyr Zelensky on Monday night warned adversary Vladimir Putin that war was “coming home” to Russia.
He said: “Russia brought war to others, now it’s coming home.
“Ukraine has always wanted only peace, and we will certainly ensure peace.”
Tens of thousands of Kursk citizens were forced to evacuate last week with locals in the neighbouring Belgorod region now also given orders to leave.
‘Rattled’ Putin’s body language reveals deep fear over Ukraine invasion as he nervously twitches & rubs hands
As many as 130,000 Russians are now displaced.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov warned the entire region was under missile alert.
He told residents: “Go down to the basement and stay there until you receive the all-clear”.
The warring nations traded air attacks overnight, with 14 Ukraine drones launched into the Kursk, Belgorod and Voronezh regions taken out by air defence, according to Russian media.
Kremlin forces fired 38 attack drones and two ballistic missiles into Ukraine, sending the entire country on air-raid alert as fighting intensifies.
On the ground, Zelensky’s men tried to push further into Vlad’s territory.
The Kursk town of Sudzha is expected to be hotly fought over given the flow of Russian gas that runs through it.
As much as half of Russian natural gas sent into Europe travelled through Sudzha in 2023, making up five per cent of EU consumption.
Russian war bloggers and Ukrainian telegram channels claimed it was under Kyiv’s control, according to Reuters, although those assertions are yet to be verified.
Putin’s illegal invasion in 2022 has led to the Kremlin currently controlling nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory after two-and-a-half years of fighting.
Ukraine’s surprise push into Russia has been widely seen as an attempt to divert fighting away from its own turf.
Why has Ukraine invaded Russia?
By Ellie Doughty
UKRAINE’S daring invasion into Russia has been launched for two key reasons – with one aimed at Putin and one at the West.
A high-ranking Ukrainian official told AFP that the idea behind the attack is to stretch Putin’s armies as much as possible, spreading them thinly over different areas.
The security brass told AFP on condition of anonymity that “the aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border”.
As well as acting as a huge morale-boosting win for Ukraine – the invasion also has a second key purpose in Kyiv’s masterplan.
It is a message to allies in the West who have closely monitored Putin’s war.
Military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady told The Washington Post: “This is definitely one consideration that it is really a signal to the West and to Ukrainian allies and partners that Ukraine is still capable of launching offensive operations.
“That Ukraine is capable of conducting fairly complex operations into enemy territory.”
Vlad on the other hand claims Ukraine are simply trying to gain leverage for peace talk negotiations.
Vlad has speculated the surge was driven “with the help of Western masters” to gain leverage at the negotiating table for potential peace talks.
Although Kremlin chiefs and state media are insisting Ukraine is losing masses of troops in what will be a botched invasion, reports from the ground aren’t as glowing as Moscow might hope.
Speculation is swirling that Russian troops are even looting their own citizens’ evacuated homes.
Footage posted to X purports to show soldiers searching through a Kursk home before complaining that it had already been ransacked.
Retired general Andrei Gurulev, a member of Putin’s United Russia party, hit out at the military for failing to stave off Ukraine’s offensive, The Times reported.
He said: “Regrettably, the group of forces protecting the border didn’t have its own intelligence assets.
“No one likes to see the truth in reports, everybody just wants to hear that all is good.”
According to state news agency RIA, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service called Zelensky’s attacking move “insane”.
They claim the Ukrainian chief has sparked a threat of escalation that could expand beyond the two nations’ conflict.
US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal meanwhile jetted into Kyiv to meet with Zelensky and praised the “bold and brilliant” move.
Graham said: “Taking this war to Putin and making him understand and pay a price is the right thing
“So two-and-a-half years later you’re still standing and you’re in Russia. Remind me not to invade Ukraine.
“I’m so proud of you, your people, your military, your leadership, your country.”
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Zelensky says he’s bringing the war home to RussiaCredit: Ukrainian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
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Tanks and troops rumble further into RussiaCredit: REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi
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Vlad insists Ukraine will lose masses of troops in their offensiveCredit: Reuters
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Ukraine claims tanks and troops have taken a huge slice of territoryCredit: AFP
Stunning new details emerged Friday on the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War, with the Kremlin acknowledging for the first time that some of the Russians held in the West belonged to its security services — and the children of a Russian couple posing as spies only learned their true nationality on the flight to Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that a detained couple released in Slovenia —Artem and Anna Dultsev— were undercover intelligence officers commonly known as “illegals.” Posing as Argentine expats, they used Ljubljana as their base since 2017 to relay Moscow’s orders to other sleeper agents and were arrested on espionage charges in 2022.
Their two children joined them as they flew to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport from Ankara, Turkey, where the mass exchange took place. The children don’t speak Russian, and only learned their parents were Russian nationals sometime on the flight, Peskov said.
They also didn’t know who President Vladimir Putin was, “asking who is it greeting them,” he added.
“That’s how illegals work, and that’s the sacrifices they make because of their dedication to their work,” Peskov said.
In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin welcomes Russian citizens released in a major prisoner swap with the West, at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on August 1, 2024.
MIKHAIL VOSKRESENSKIY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
A total of 24 prisoners were involved in Thursday’s historic swap —and a total of 26 people, including the spy couple’s kids, changed planes on the tarmac in Ankara.
While journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and former Marine Paul Whelan were greeted by their families and President Joe Biden in Maryland on Thursday night, Putin embraced each of the Russian returnees at the airport and promised them state awards and a “talk about your future.”
Also returning to Moscow was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a former Chechen fighter in a Berlin park. The German judges who sentenced Krasikov called Khangoshvili’s murder an act of Russian “state terrorism,” and the incident set off a diplomatic row between Moscow and Berlin.
Peskov told reporters Friday that Krasikov is an officer of the Federal Security Service, or FSB —a fact reported in the West even as Moscow denied state involvement.
He also said Krasikov once served in the FSB’s special forces Alpha unit, along with some of Putin’s bodyguards.
“Naturally, they also greeted each other yesterday when they saw each other,” Peskov said, underscoring Putin’s determination to include Krasikov in the swap. Earlier this year, Putin stopped short of identifying Krasikov, but referenced a “patriot” imprisoned in a “U.S.-allied country” for “liquidating a bandit” who had killed Russian soldiers during fighting in the Caucasus.
The large-scale exchange comes less than two years after WNBA star Brittney Griner was traded for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” on an airport in Abu Dhabi.
Griner was arrested in 2022 at a Moscow airport when vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her bags. She was sentenced to nine years in prison on drug charges.
Arrested in 2008, Bout was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the U.S. for conspiring to sell weapons to people who intended to kill Americans.
One of the Russian dictator’s £260million jets disappeared and a £30million bomber jet was set on fire after Ukrainian forces shot them out of the sky above the Azov Sea.
They were blasted out of the air in one of Moscow’s worst days for its air force since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
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Plumes of smoke could be seen from a distanceCredit: East2West
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Putin’s prized SU-34 is estimated to cost £40millionCredit: East2West
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — The electricity grid operators of the three Baltic countries on Tuesday officially notified Russia and Belarus that they will exit a 2001 agreement that has kept Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania connected to an electricity transmission system controlled by Moscow.
The Baltic countries have already stopped buying electricity from Russia. And in a plan announced last year as part of moves to sever ties with Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, they will shift their grid connections next February to the main continental European energy network in a move to end reliance.
Utility operators Elering of Estonia, AST of Latvia and Litgrid of Lithuania said that the exit notice was signed in the Latvian capital of Riga on Tuesday. The joint agreement with Moscow and Minsk will end Feb. 7, and the Baltic systems will be disconnected from the grid the next day.
“We will disconnect and dismantle the last physical connections with Russian and Belarusian grids,” Litgrid CEO Rokas Masiulis said, calling the move an “ambitious energy independence project.”
The three former Soviet republics do not currently buy electricity from Russia, but remain physically connected to a grid in which the electricity frequency is controlled by Moscow under the 2001 BRELL agreement. The Baltic systems plan to synchronize with the continental European system on Feb. 9, 2025. Both systems use 50 Hz alternating current.
“Synchronization with Continental Europe Synchronous Area will allow for independent, stable and reliable frequency control of the Baltic states electricity grids and will increase energy security in the region,” Estonia’s grid operator Elering said.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland agreed with the European Union’s executive commission in 2019 to coordinate on connecting the Baltic nations to the EU’s power network by the end of 2025. However, Russia’s war in Ukraine led the Baltic countries to speed up the project.
The February 2025 date for the transition was a compromise. Lithuania wanted an energy exit as early as this year, citing Moscow’s unreliability and its aggression in Ukraine. Estonia resisted a quicker cutoff, saying it might experience blackouts if the transition happened too soon.
“The Baltic electricity market has adapted and operates without electricity import from Russia,” said chairman Rolands Irklis from Latvia’s AST.
“Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Latvia has completely stopped electricity import and export from Russia and Belarus, and synchronization with continental Europe is the last step to achieve country’s independence in the field of electricity supply,” Irklis said.
There was no immediate response from Russia’s Energy Ministry to a request by The Associated Press for comment.
EUROPE is looking to build a giant 1,500 mile defensive line to protect itself from a chilling Vladimir Putin invasion.
Poland and the Baltics are planning to create the £2.2billion blockade to keep Russiafrom advancing through the continent as the threat of WW3 looms.
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Russia has continued its relentless assault on Ukraine in recent weeks including in busy residential areasCredit: Getty
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Russia is more than two years into its bloody war with UkraineCredit: EPA
The brave allied nations revealed the plans on Wednesday as they asked the European Union for help with the project.
Leaders from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia all claim a protective blockade is essential to protect Europe from a dangerous Moscow.
Putin has been ramping up his military threats among other worrying activities as he repeatedly tells the West to avoid getting involved in his war in Ukraine.
The leaders of the four countries who put together the plan described the need for extra protection as “dire and urgent”.
read more in Europe vs Putin
They added all 27 EU states will be protected by the bloc including over 450 million people.
It will stretch around 1,471 miles and could potentially be shored up with minefields, anti-tank ditches and bunkers.
Belarus, who are regarded as one of Russia’s proxies alongside Kaliningrad, have also been cordoned off in the proposal.
A letter to the chairman of the EU was seen by Reuters who claim it said: “Extraordinary measures need to be employed as the EU’s external border must be protected and defended with military and civilian means.
“Building a defence infrastructure system along the EU external border with Russia and Belarus will address the dire and urgent need to secure the EU from military and hybrid threats.”
Europe planning new ‘nuclear umbrella’ with 300 French nuke missiles spread across continent for showdown with Russia
The EU chair is expected to discuss the proposal at a summit in Brussels which started on Thursday.
Investment into defence systems and warfare is expected to be the main topic at the crunch meeting.
Europe’s biggest worry is over Russia’s military capabilities but the line will also deal with a number of threats away from the battleground.
Plans to filter through misinformation, swat away cyberattacks and cope with increasing economic pressure are also being addressed.
As are the fears of an increased number of migrants being pushed across the borders.
Poland accused Russia of flying thousands of suspected asylum seekers into Moscow last month before trying to ship them across EU eastern borders.
Poland shares a 130-mile border with Russian territory Kaliningrad and an 170-mile one with Belarus.
It’s government said the country is being targeted by Russian aggression via those frontiers.
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Putin has already threatened Europe with war as he continues to bombard UkraineCredit: AP
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Emergency services in Kharkiv battle against a fire following a Russian air strikeCredit: Getty
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Ukraine’s own line of defence with 42,000 concrete ‘dragon’s teeth’ along barbed wire-lined trenchesCredit: Reuters
The extraordinary price tag on the bloc is expected to be met as part of a unified effort through what has been labelled as “a dedicated EU action” plan.
EU diplomats say such a barrier could cost upwards of £2.2billion.
The letter also suggested that Nato could help out in funding and constructing the defensive line.
As well as deploying military personnel along the bloc.
Russia is reportedly planning to take over Gotland – east of Sweden – which General Richard Shirreff says would give Putin dangerous levels of control in the Baltics.
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Polish armed forces’ Chief of Staff Wieslaw Kukula, right, with Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk on Monday – explaining the features of the ‘Tusk Line’
A suspected outbreak of a rare and extremely dangerous food poisoning in Moscow left more than 120 people seeking medical help and at least 30 in intensive care, health officials said on Monday.
The patients were admitted to hospital with suspected foodborne botulism, a life-threatening condition that attacks the nervous system and can cause respiratory failure and paralysis.
Russian authorities said the toxic outbreak came from salads distributed by a popular online delivery service, which on Sunday temporarily suspended its operations amid a criminal investigation.
“In total 121 people sought medical help,” state news agencies quoted Anastasia Rakova, the deputy mayor of Moscow, as saying on Monday.
“At the moment 55 people are in a serious condition, 30 of them in intensive care,” she added.
The city’s consumer and health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said on Saturday it was conducting an “epidemiological investigation into suspected cases of botulism.”
The Moscow prosecutor’s office said it had launched a criminal investigation into a breach of consumer safety standards.
Deputy Mayor Rakova said there was “no threat to the lives” of those who had been hospitalized thanks to timely medical intervention.
The food delivery company linked to the outbreak, Kuchnia Na Rayone (“local kitchen”), said it had identified a “potential risk incident” with a salad that used tinned beans, and it had suspended orders.
What is botulism?
Botulism is an extremely rare condition, typically caused by improperly processed food and linked to canned and preserved goods.
According to the World Health Organization, foodborne botulism is a “serious, potentially fatal disease.” It does not pass between people.
Early symptoms include fatigue, vertigo, blurred vision, dry mouth, and difficulty in swallowing and speaking, according to WHO.
“Incidence of botulism is low, but the mortality rate is high if prompt diagnosis and appropriate, immediate treatment is not given,” WHO states.
Last year, one woman died and eight other people — including a University of Colorado graduate — were in intensive care after an outbreak of botulism linked to a wine bar in France.
There were 82 confirmed cases of botulism across the European Economic Area (EEA) in 2021, the last year of available data, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Ukrainian kids have been going to school like normal despite the latest Russian onslaught in Kharkiv as they learn in underground bunkersCredit: EPA
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Children were seen walking to their classes holding hands as they escaped Vlad’s furyCredit: Reuters
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The heavily fortified underground schools let the children continue to learn with their teachers in wake of the fighting around themCredit: Reuters
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Russia’s latest attack on the Kharkiv region has left buildings and people decimatedCredit: EPA
It comes as Russian snipers take aim above ground at anyone trying to flee to safety.
Thousands of school children aged between six and 16 are being taught in five converted metro stations away from Putin’s horror bombardments.
Some of the old stations, where locals fled to at the start of the brutal Ukraine war, even have miniature playgrounds inside.
The Sun visited one of the renovated schools earlier this year and spoke to teacher Olenna Volodomyr, who said: “It is strange having classes underground, but it is the only way to teach face to face.
“It is much better for the children.
“The children feel safe here, we feel safe here, and the parents feel better because they know their children are safe.”
As the children remain safe underground, thousands of adults have been trying to escape the fighting altogether since the second bloody assault on Kharkiv was launched on Friday.
Military policeman Vlad Yefarov was trying to rescue a pensioner trapped in the north-east border town of Vovchansk when Russian snipers shot at him.
Vlad told The Telegraph: “We were driving past the old shoemaker’s factory when a Russian sniper’s bullet hit the windscreen right in front of me.
“We tried to turn around, but as we did so, a Russian machine-gunner opened fire on us, and the sniper put another round in my driver’s side window.”
This is just one horrific example of Russian fighters bullying Ukrainian civilians and not allowing them to leave areas, such as Kharkiv, where fighting has brutally intensified.
Putin launches surprise fresh invasion across Ukraine border into Kharkiv
Putin’s troops claimed they captured five villages this morning.
They later said four more had been taken in the last few hours taking the total to nine.
Ukraine’s armed forces admitted Moscow had achieved some “tactical successes” around the north-eastern city near the Russian border over the weekend.
Russian troops marched between two and five miles in a multipronged attack across more than 20 miles of front line.
Close to 40,000 soldiers and 500 tanks had been amassed along the border ahead of the large-scale ground attack Kyiv had feared was coming for weeks.
Kharkiv’s regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said: “The enemy is trying to deliberately stretch the front line, attacking in small groups, but in new directions.”
Last night, fighting raged on the outskirts of bomb-blitzed Vovchansk and nearby Lyptsi, which sit a few miles south of the Russia-Ukraine frontier.
Almost 6,000 civilians fled Vovchansk although 300 remain, local officials said yesterday.
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A woman and child venture down into one of Kharkiv’s underground schoolsCredit: Rex
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Civilians have been evacuating Vovchansk and the surrounding regions to escape Russian soldiers advancing through UkraineCredit: Rex
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Kids have been seen smiling and laughing as they socialise and develop normallyCredit: EPA
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Russian missile strikes have bombarded Kharkiv since the offensive began on FridayCredit: Getty
Russian troops are being continuously thrown into meatgrinder assaults in northeastern Ukraine as part of the brutal new ground offensive.
Ukrainian soldiers said the Kremlin is using the tried-and-tested Russian tactic of launching human wave attacks – sending forward a disproportionate amount of infantry units to exhaust Ukrainian troops and firepower.
Dramatic footage also showed Ukraine decimating a column of five tanks from above as they attempted to plough further into the Kharkiv region.
Analysts say the Russian onslaught is designed to exploit ammunition shortages before promised Western weapons shipments can reach the frontline.
Its mayor had warned the West that it risked being turned into a “second Aleppo” – the Syrian city which heavy Russian bombing helped to decimate a decade ago.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukrainian troops had been carrying out counterattacks in the border villages.
“Disrupting Russian offensive plans is now our number one task,” he said.
Troops must “return the initiative to Ukraine”, the president insisted, again urging allies to speed up arms deliveries.
The Institute for the Study War said the high-level reshuffle signals that Putin is taking significant steps to prepare for a protracted war in Ukraine and a possible future confrontation with Nato.
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Police in Ukraine have been helping to evacuate thousands of people including the elderly so they can be safe away from Vlad’s terror regimeCredit: AP
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The schools have been designed inside underground metro stationsCredit: EPA
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The aftermath of a savage Russian strikeCredit: Getty
Sun reporter Thomas Godfrey pictured in Narva, Estonia
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Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on the 79th anniversary of the victory over Nazi GermanyCredit: Reuters
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Soldiers on the Victory Day military parade in central MoscowCredit: AFP
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Russian military vehicles on military parade on Russia’s Victory DayCredit: Reuters
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In a rambling address the tyrant, 71, hailed the supposed success of his “special military operation” in Ukraine.
But in a veiled threat he added: “Russia will do everything to avoid a global confrontation.
“But at the same time, we will not allow anyone to threaten us.
“Our strategic forces are always on combat alert.”
Putin was flanked in Moscow by officials carrying his so-called “nuclear briefcase”.
He gave the speech following a toned-down parade featuring only 9,000 troops — less than in previous years — and just one T34 Army tank.
The Red Square parade also showed off three Yars atomic missile launchers.
It comes after Moscow defence chiefs said Putin had ordered the Russian Army to prepare for “non-strategic” nuclear strikes.
They also warned British bases could become targets after Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron gave the green light for UK weapons to be used to hit targets inside Russia.
On the Russia-Estonia border, hundreds packed waterside bars to witness the celebration event marking the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union and the Allies.
Putin’s dreaded ‘nuclear briefcase’ spotted at Victory Day parade…but TV coverage HACKED to show destroyed Russian tanks
A stage facility just 100 meters from Russia’s border with Estonia had hundreds of seats set up for VIP guests with a giant May 9 “Victory” logo.
Another two screens were set up metres from the riverbank, while cinema-style speakers boomed Russian procession music and transmitted speeches by military veterans and officials.
One guest even wrapped a Russian flag around himself and held it up in view of watching Estonians, while border cops continuously kept watch.
But activists on the Estonian side of the river attempted to hinder celebrations by unfurling a giant Ukrainian flag within view of the special guests.
The protest sparked a dramatic confrontation with a Russian family visiting Narva for the day and watching the Victory Day event from across the water.
The group of Russians, including a mum pushing a gold-coloured pram, took issue with the Estonian group who posed for photos beneath Narva Castle – where a giant banner proclaims Putin, 71, to be a “war criminal”.
Milan Skubi, 18, who held up the Ukrainian flag, said one of the Russians threatened him for speaking to The Sun.
He said: “The youngest, he told me, ‘If there were no police here, I would throw you in the river’.”
During their demonstration, the trio were also approached by Estonia’s military police, who told the group they could not intervene if tensions boiled over into a physical confrontation.
Milan, joined by pals Aleksei Mehailainen and Sergei Nikitin, told The Sun: “They weren’t happy that we had the Ukrainian flag.
“They told me, ‘If you like Ukraine so much, why don’t you go there.’
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Estonian and Ukrainian flags stand side by side next to an anti-Putin posterCredit: Peter Jordan
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Aleksei Mehailainen who was holding the Ukrainian flag was urged to be carefulCredit: Peter Jordan
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Meanwhile, across the river, Russians were holding up a Russian flagCredit: Peter Jordan
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A Russian family watching the parade on the banks of the Narva RiverCredit: Peter Jordan
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Huge screens were showing scenes from World War 2Credit: Peter Jordan
“When the police came over, they told me to be careful. They said there isn’t anything they can do if things escalate.
“In the months after Ukraine was invaded a lot of people here were worried. We thought that if Russia could invade Ukraine they could invade here too.
“But now I feel more safe because Nato would protect us.”
“It isn’t just an age divide. There are old people that support Ukraine and there are young people that support Russia.
Asked about a poster branding mad tyrant Vladimir Putin a “war criminal”, he added: “I support this poster because it is correct.”
Narva and Ivangorod, a town of just 10,000, are separated by a 100-metre bridge connecting Estonia and Russia.
The road crossing was more heavily monitored by gun-toting border guards after Putin invaded Ukraine and has been fully locked down with barbed wire and concrete boulders since February.
Some 96 per cent of Narva’s 60,000-strong population speak Russian as a first language while around one in four have Russian passports.
Residents of Narva with both Estonian and Russian citizenships can still cross the bridge on foot for day trips.
Russians settled in the coastal town after it was heavily bombed during World War Two, forcing Estonian natives to flee west.
Once it was rebuilt by the Soviet Union, Russians moved in until the super-state dissolved in 1991.
It means Russian is still the main language spoken in Narva while some locals celebrate Russian holidays and sympathise with Kremlin dictator Putin.
One Russian-born Narva resident, Alexander, said he was not worried about the prospect of Russia invading and claimed supporting Ukraine was a form of “propaganda”.
UK, US & Russia’s alliance in WW2
IN World War 2, the three great Allied powers – the UK, US and Soviet Union formed an alliance that was key to securing victory of Nazi Germany.
On New Year’s Day in 1942, all three nations signed the United Nations Declaration to join together to fight the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan).
The ‘Big Three’ gathered together in Yalta in February 1945 as they were closing in on Germany from both the east and west with very different goals.
Soviet forces pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the German Reichstag in 1945.
The alliance ended after the Nazi’s unconditional surrender came into force at 11:01 p.m. on May 8, 1945.
The Soviet Union lost about 27 million people in the war, an estimate that many historians consider conservative, scarring virtually every family.
In his ranting speech today, Putin said: “In the West, they would like to forget the lessons of the Second World War,” adding that Russia honoured all the allies involved in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
However he failed to mention these allies by name, instead praising the Chinese people’s fight against Japanese imperialism.
Putin added: “But we remember that the fate of mankind was decided in the grand battles near Moscow and Leningrad, Rzhev, Stalingrad, Kursk and Kharkiv, near Minsk, Smolensk and Kyiv, in heavy, bloody battles from Murmansk to the Caucasus and Crimea.”
The 37-year-old said: “I support Russia. I don’t agree with the position of the Estonian state. I condemn it.
“Supporting Ukraine only harms the country and our security. I don’t believe our authorities and propaganda.
“I believe that public opinion is being manipulated (to support Ukraine) in order to distract people from the reality.”
He added: “I want to wish you a happy Victory Day, because without this neither of our countries would exist.”
But British ex-pat Jeff Green said: “Everyone here is petrified of Russia invading but I don’t think it will ever happen.
“If Mr Putin wanted to take control of this city, he could drop 5,000 paras in and take it overnight. He could have done it any time he wanted.
Jeff, 77, who moved to Narva from Aldershot in 2018, continued: “The reason it will never happen now is because Finland and Sweden are in Nato.
“They have a pretty good air force and if Russia came across the border there would be a response in minutes.”
The Kremlin last threatened Narva in 2022 when Putin said he considered the city to be a historical Russian territory.
But Narva’s defiant mayor, Jaan Toots, told The Sun: “It will not happen because there would be big consequences as we are part of Nato.”
He added: “There is a danger and there always will be.
“In our past there have been several countries (here)… Denmark, Sweden, Russia, so there were a lot of owners of our land.
“In 1944 this land was taken from us by the Russian city on the other side.
“Russia annexed the land from us, not vice-versa.”
The mayor continued: “We can develop our security and our protection. Last year we spent not two per cent of our GDP, but already three per cent.”
In February, the Estonian secret police arrested ten alleged Russian actors on suspicion of plotting to attack the cars of a government minister and a prominent journalist.
Asked whether he was worried he could become a target for Kremlin agents, Mr Toots said: “I am not afraid. There is no problem”.
It comes less as Nato launches the Swift Response exercise at Tapa Army Base today (FRI).
The huge cross-country military drill – including air assaults, live-fire exercises and multinational training – is designed to simulate a response to an enemy state.
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Russians gathered to watch Victory Day celebrationsCredit: Peter Jordan
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Vladimir Putin at the parade in Moscow’s Red SquareCredit: Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin was inaugurated Tuesday for a fifth term. If he completes this six-year term, he’ll become the longest-serving Russian leader since Empress Catherine the Great in the 18th century. David Herszenhorn, international desk editor for The Washington Post, joins CBS News to examine Putin’s ambitions.
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CHILLING drone pictures show how a once lively Ukrainian village has been razed to an apocalyptic wasteland by Vladimir Putin’s troops.
Ocheretyne has been battered by relentless fighting and is now just a shadow of its former self.
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Drone pictures show the damage caused to the Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne by the warCredit: AP
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Smoke still plumes from houses that are now just rubbleCredit: AP
The village has been a prime target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Russian soldiers have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv’s depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs.
Ukraine’s military acknowledged the Russians have gained a foothold in Ocheretyne
Before the war the village had a population of about 3,000 but now not a soul can be seen in the images as the conflict rages on.
Last week residents scrambled to flee the village.
Among them was a 98-year-old woman wearing slippers who walked almost six miles alone, supported by a cane, until she reached Ukrainian front lines.
No building in Ocheretyne has managed to escape the unrelenting bombardment and most appear to be damaged beyond repair.
Many houses have been pummelled so badly they are reduced to just piles of wood and bricks and a factory on the outskirts has also been severely damaged.
The pictures also show smoke billowing from several houses, and fires burning in at least two buildings.
Elsewhere, Russia has in recent weeks stepped up attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, in an attempt to dismantle the regions energy infrastructure and terrorize its 1.3 million residents.
Ukraine given ‘green light’ to blitz targets in Russia with long-range Brit weapons amid WW3 fears
Four people were wounded and a two-story civilian building was damaged and set ablaze overnight after Russian forces struck Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, with exploding drones, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said Saturday.
The four, including a 13-year-old, were hurt by falling debris, he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian state agency RIA reported Saturday that Moscows forces struck a drone warehouse in Kharkiv that had been used by Ukrainian troops overnight.
It cited Sergei Lebedev, described as a coordinator of local pro-Moscow guerrillas but his comments could not be independently verified.
On Saturday another Russian strike hit a civilian business in an industrial district of Kharkhiv, Syniehubov said.
Initial reports indicated that four people were wounded.
In the Black Sea port of Odesa, which has been repeatedly targeted in recent days, three people were hurt in a rocket attack on civil infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.
Ukraines military said Russia launched a total of 13 Shahed drones at the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions of eastern Ukraine overnight, all of which were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
Ukraines energy ministry on Saturday said the overnight strikes damaged an electrical substation in the Dnipropetrovsk region, briefly depriving households and businesses of power.
According to Serhii Lysak, the province’s governor, falling drone debris damaged unspecified critical infrastructure and three private houses, one of which caught on fire.
Two residents, a man and a woman, were rushed to hospital.
Russias Defense Ministry claimed early on Saturday that its forces overnight shot down four U.S.-provided long-range ATACMS missiles over the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The ministry did not provide further details.
Ukraine has recently begun using the missiles, provided secretly by the United States, to hit Russian-held areas, including a military airfield in Crimea and in another area east of the occupied city of Berdyansk, U.S. officials said last week.
Long sought by Ukrainian leaders, the new missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance of up to 190 miles further than it had with the mid-range version of the weapons it received from the U.S. last October.
A Ukrainian drone also damaged telecommunications infrastructure on the outskirts of Belgorod, a Russian city some 31 miles from the Ukrainian border, according to the local governor.
Vyacheslav Gladkov did not say what the site was used for.
Hours later, Gladkov reported that five people in Belgorod were hospitalized, with shrapnel wounds and other injuries, following a strong blast on Saturday that also damaged around 30 private homes and sparked two fires.
He did not immediately clarify what caused the explosions.
PUTIN has boasted captured British armoured cars and American tanks in a sick new exhibition.
Weapons and tanks seized from Ukrainian forces have been put on display in Moscow as a way to glorify the invasion.
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The exhibition will include 30 tanks which were seized during Ukraine warCredit: AP
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Rows of tanks donated to Ukraine by Nato are showcased in Moscow’s Victory ParkCredit: EPA
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Among them is a British Saxon armoured personnel carrier which was donated in 2015Credit: AP
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Some of the tanks can be seen riddled with still fresh bullet holesCredit: AFP
Pictures from Moscow’s Victory Park, which commemorates Russia’s victory against Nazi Germany, show rows of Western military vehicles “captured by Russian servicemen”.
Putin flaunts his military might at the West by showcasing 30 tanks and other pieces of war equipment captured during the war.
A British Saxon armoured personnel carrier, donated to Ukraine in 2015, can be seen pictured under the red banners that proudly claim “Our victory is inevitable”.
An American Bradley tank, a Swedish CV90 and a French-made AMX-10RC armoured fighting vehicle can all be seen riddled with bullet holes.
The military vehicles also spot the flags of their respective countries, including Turkey, Sweden, Czech Republic, South Africa, Finland, Australia and Austria.
Alongside weapons, the month-long exhibition features Ukrainian combat documents and “ideological literature”.
Russia blows its own trumpet with the showcase aimed to celebrate its success “against Ukrainian militants and their Western supporters”.
Ahead of its May 1st opening, trucks bearing military hardware – donated from Nato to the Armed Forces of Ukraine – were spotted pulling up to the open-air museum.
Putin shows off his trophies in light of the Victory Day parade which is held annually to celebrate the country’s victory in World War 2.
The May 9th celebrations are usually used by the warmonger to showcase the might of the Russian military machine and boost national pride.
But this year, many regional parades have been scrapped over fears of Ukrainian kamikaze drone attacks.
Ukraine is ramping up its military arsenal as the US has now approved £49billion military aid to strengthen the 600-mile frontline.
Among the donations is a “game changing” long-range ballistic missiles which can hit targets anywhere and could leave Russian troops “terrified”.
But experts fear that the fresh ammunition could send Putin into an unpredictable spiral.
A former US ambassador issued a chilling warning that reckless Putin is deadly serious about “confronting the West” and could even resort to the use of nukes.
Frank G. Wisner, who served under President Bill Clinton, lashed out at Putin and described the Russian tyrant as “extraordinarily reckless”.
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The proud banner claims ‘Our victory is inevitable’ with German Leopard tank in the backgroundCredit: EPA
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The showcase is aimed to celebrate Russia’s success against Ukraine and its western alliesCredit: Getty
President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine desperately needs more air defences to intercept Moscow’s bombardments.
General Sir Jim Hockenhull, head of the UK’s Strategic Command, also backed Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russia — because it was “fighting a war of national survival”.
He said: “The fact that they see military value in attacking the Russians in depth is unsurprising and entirely understandable.”
How Ukraine’s new $50BILLION war chest will grind Russia’s war machine to halt & buy them precious time to defeat Vlad
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Ukrainian servicemen with British NLAW anti-tank weaponsCredit: EPA
The memorial, a 279ft statue of a woman brandishing a sword, commemorates the “Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad” – one of World War 2’s most epic battles.
In the video, which is now officially banned in Russia, Alena appears to “tickle” the figure’s right breast.
She has also been banned from social media for two years – and will now have to pay 10 per cent of her future earnings as a fine to the state.
He said: “I am informing you that the investigative department for the Central District of Volgograd has a criminal case against you for the desecration of a symbol of military glory of Russia, an insult to the memory of defenders of the fatherland, committed with the use of the internet…”
The influencer appeared to cry in court hearings as she promised to not make the same mistake again.
She said: “I address all residents of Russia and Volgograd and ask everyone not to commit the acts I did last year because of my stupidity.
“I didn’t even think that I could insult someone’s feelings. I ask all Russian citizens for forgiveness.”
Separately, she offered “deep apologies” for her stunt.
Russian rapper Vacio who wore just a SOCK to Moscow elite’s ‘naked party’ is ‘conscripted to fight in Ukraine’
Alena was put on Russia’s wanted list after the incident – and was accused of “desecration of a burial site” and “cynical actions that disregard the norms of morality”.
She went into hiding in Sri Lanka to avoid an action by Putin’s brutal force.
However, she was detained as soon as she entered Russia – and was immediately transported to Volgograd for further action.
The Motherland Calls statue is among the most famous in Russia and commemorates those who fought and died in one of the bloodiest battles in the Second World War, resulting in a decisive Soviet victory against Adolf Hitler.
The USSR suffered more than one million casualties during the Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from August 1942 until February 1943.
Alena’s punishment shows the new morality in Russia under Putin amid the war with Ukraine.
While the despot is known for stripping down and showing off his impressive but steroid-infused physique, he has earned himself a “prudish” reputation for imposing an unprecedented new drive on traditional values.
His new morality hounds anyone who defies “traditional values”, imposing tough sentences on them.
Washington — President Biden pledged Friday to “continue working every day” to secure the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from Russian detention, as the American journalist’s time imprisoned in Russia hit the one-year mark.
“We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips,” Mr. Biden said in a statement released Friday that also mentioned the case of Paul Whelan, another U.S. citizen who has been held in Russia since 2018.
Gershkovich — whom the U.S. State Department deemed “wrongfully detained” soon after his arrest — is still awaiting a trial on espionage charges that the White House, his family and his employer all insist are fabricated, but which could still see him sentenced to decades in prison.
The U.S.-born son of Soviet emigres covered Russia for six years, as the Kremlin made independent, on-the-ground reporting increasingly dangerous and illegal.
Journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, stands inside a defendants’ cage before a hearing to consider an appeal on his arrest at the Moscow City Court in Moscow, April 18, 2023.
NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty
His arrest in March 2023 on charges of spying — the first such charge against a Western journalist since the Soviet era — showed that the Kremlin was prepared to go further than ever before in what President Vladimir Putin has called a “hybrid war” with the West.
The Journal and the U.S. government dismiss the espionage allegations as a false pretext to keep Gershkovich locked up, likely to use him as a bargaining chip in a future prisoner exchange deal.
Putin said last month that he would like to see Gershkovich released as part of a prisoner swap, but the Biden administration has said Moscow rejected the most recent exchange offer presented to it.
The 32-year-old, who has been remanded in custody until at least the end of June, faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
The Gershkovich family said in a letter published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday that they would pursue their campaign for his release.
“We never anticipated this situation happening to our son and brother, let alone a full year with no certainty or clear path forward,” they said. “But despite this long battle, we are still standing strong.”
Gershkovich reported extensively on how ordinary Russians experienced the Ukraine conflict, speaking to the families of dead soldiers and Putin critics. Breaking stories and getting people to talk was becoming increasingly hard, Gershkovich told friends before his arrest.
But as long as it was not impossible, he saw a reason to be there.
“He knew for some stories he was followed around and people he talked to would be pressured not to talk to him,” Guardian correspondent Pjotr Sauer, a close friend, told AFP. “But he was accredited by the foreign ministry. I don’t think any of us could see the Russians going as far as charging him with this fake espionage.”
Speaking to CBS News’ Leslie Stahl last week, the reporter’s sister Danielle said the family back in the U.S. was still worried, despite Gershkovich’s repeated assurances to them of his accreditation, which he thought would keep him safe, as it always had.
But as Stahl reported, what used to be unprecedented in Russia has become almost routine under Putin. Gershkovich is only the most recent American to inadvertently become a pawn on Putin’s geopolitical chessboard against the West.
Whelan, a U.S. Marine veteran, has been jailed in Russia for five years. Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina was arrested in January, accused of treason for helping Ukraine. And basketball star Brittney Griner, imprisoned for nine months on drug charges, was finally freed in an exchange for a notorious arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death.”
Four men accused of staging the Russia concert hall attack that killed more than 130 people appeared before a Moscow court Sunday on terrorism charges showing signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.Court statements said two of the suspects accepted their guilt in the assault, though the men’s condition raised questions about whether they were speaking freely. There had been conflicting reports in Russian media outlets that said three or all four men admitted culpability.The investigators charged Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32; Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, 30; Shamsidin Fariduni, 25; and Mukhammadsobir Faizov, 19, with committing a terrorist attack resulting in the death of others. The offense carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ordered that the men, all of whom were identified in the media as citizens of Tajikistan, be held in custody until May 22 pending investigation and trial.Russian media had reported that the men were tortured during interrogation by the security services, and Mirzoyev, Rachabalizoda and Fariduni showed signs of heavy bruising, including swollen faces.Rachabalizoda also had a heavily bandaged ear. Russian media said Saturday that one of the suspects had his ear cut off during interrogation. The Associated Press couldn’t verify the report or the videos purporting to show this.The fourth suspect, Faizov, was brought to court from a hospital in a wheelchair and sat with his eyes closed throughout the proceedings. He was attended by medics while in court, where he wore a hospital gown and trousers and was seen with multiple cuts.Video below: Russia reeling in the wake of its worst attack in decadesCourt officials said Mirzoyev and Rachabalizoda admitted guilt for the attack after being charged.The hearings came as Russia observed a national day of mourning for the attack Friday on the suburban Crocus City Hall concert venue that killed at least 137 people.The attack, which has been claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group, was the deadliest on Russian soil in years.Russian authorities arrested the four suspected attackers Saturday, with seven more people detained on suspicion of involvement in the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an address to the nation Saturday night. He sought to tie the attack to Ukraine and claimed the assailants were captured while fleeing there. Kyiv has firmly denied involvement.Events at cultural institutions were canceled Sunday, flags were lowered to half-staff and television entertainment and advertising were suspended, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. A steady stream of people added to a makeshift memorial near the burned-out concert hall, creating a huge mound of flowers.“People came to a concert, some people came to relax with their families, and any one of us could have been in that situation. And I want to express my condolences to all the families that were affected here and I want to pay tribute to these people,” Andrey Kondakov, one of the mourners who came to lay flowers at the memorial, told AP.“It is a tragedy that has affected our entire country,” kindergarten employee Marina Korshunova said. “It just doesn’t even make sense that small children were affected by this event.” Three children were among the dead.Rescuers continued to search the damaged building and the death toll rose as more bodies were found as family and friends of some of those still missing waiting for news. Moscow’s Department of Health said Sunday it had begun identifying the bodies of those killed via DNA testing, saying the process would take at least two weeks.Igor Pogadaev was desperately seeking any details about his wife, Yana Pogadaeva, who went to the attack concert. The last he heard from her was when she sent him two photos from the Crocus City Hall music venue.After Pogadaev saw the reports of gunmen opening fire on concertgoers, he rushed to the site, but couldn’t find her in the numerous ambulances or among the hundreds of people who had made their way out of the venue.“I went around, searched, I asked everyone, I showed photographs. No one saw anything, no one could say anything,” Pogadaev told AP in a video message.He watched flames bursting out of the building as he made frantic calls to a hotline for relatives of the victims, but received no information.As the death toll mounted Saturday, Pogodaev scoured hospitals in the Russian capital and the Moscow region, looking for information on newly admitted patients.His wife wasn’t among the 182 reported injured, nor on the list of 60 victims authorities had already identified, he said.The Moscow region’s branch of the Emergency Ministry posted a video Sunday showing equipment dismantling the damaged music venue to give rescuers access.Putin has called the attack “a bloody, barbaric terrorist act” and said Russian authorities captured the four suspects as they were trying to escape to Ukraine through a “window” prepared for them on the Ukrainian side of the border.Russian media broadcast videos that apparently showed the detention and interrogation of the suspects, including one who told the cameras he was approached by an unidentified assistant to an Islamic preacher via a messaging app and paid to take part in the raid. Putin didn’t mention IS in his speech to the nation, and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault to stoke fervor for Russia’s fight in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year.U.S. intelligence officials said they had confirmed the IS affiliate’s claim.“ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.The U.S. shared information with Russia in early March about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow, and issued a public warning to Americans in Russia, Watson said.The raid was a major embarrassment for Putin and happened just days after he cemented his grip on the country for another six years in a vote that followed the harshest crackdown on dissent since the Soviet times.Some commentators on Russian social media questioned how authorities, who have relentlessly suppressed any opposition activities and prosecuted critics, failed to prevent the attack despite the U.S. warnings.IS, which fought against Russia during its intervention in the Syrian civil war, has long targeted Russia. In a statement posted by the group’s Aamaq news agency, the IS Afghanistan affiliate said that it had attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk.The group issued a new statement Saturday on Aamaq, saying the attack was carried out by four men who used automatic rifles, a pistol, knives and firebombs. It said the assailants fired at the crowd and used knives to kill some concertgoers, casting the raid as part of the Islamic State group’s ongoing war with countries that it says are fighting against Islam.In October 2015, a bomb planted by IS downed a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russian vacationers returning from Egypt.The group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, also has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other regions in past years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
MOSCOW —
Four men accused of staging the Russia concert hall attack that killed more than 130 people appeared before a Moscow court Sunday on terrorism charges showing signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.
Court statements said two of the suspects accepted their guilt in the assault, though the men’s condition raised questions about whether they were speaking freely. There had been conflicting reports in Russian media outlets that said three or all four men admitted culpability.
The investigators charged Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32; Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, 30; Shamsidin Fariduni, 25; and Mukhammadsobir Faizov, 19, with committing a terrorist attack resulting in the death of others. The offense carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ordered that the men, all of whom were identified in the media as citizens of Tajikistan, be held in custody until May 22 pending investigation and trial.
Russian media had reported that the men were tortured during interrogation by the security services, and Mirzoyev, Rachabalizoda and Fariduni showed signs of heavy bruising, including swollen faces.
Rachabalizoda also had a heavily bandaged ear. Russian media said Saturday that one of the suspects had his ear cut off during interrogation. The Associated Press couldn’t verify the report or the videos purporting to show this.
The fourth suspect, Faizov, was brought to court from a hospital in a wheelchair and sat with his eyes closed throughout the proceedings. He was attended by medics while in court, where he wore a hospital gown and trousers and was seen with multiple cuts.
Video below: Russia reeling in the wake of its worst attack in decades
Court officials said Mirzoyev and Rachabalizoda admitted guilt for the attack after being charged.
The hearings came as Russia observed a national day of mourning for the attack Friday on the suburban Crocus City Hall concert venue that killed at least 137 people.
The attack, which has been claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group, was the deadliest on Russian soil in years.
Russian authorities arrested the four suspected attackers Saturday, with seven more people detained on suspicion of involvement in the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an address to the nation Saturday night. He sought to tie the attack to Ukraine and claimed the assailants were captured while fleeing there. Kyiv has firmly denied involvement.
Events at cultural institutions were canceled Sunday, flags were lowered to half-staff and television entertainment and advertising were suspended, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. A steady stream of people added to a makeshift memorial near the burned-out concert hall, creating a huge mound of flowers.
“People came to a concert, some people came to relax with their families, and any one of us could have been in that situation. And I want to express my condolences to all the families that were affected here and I want to pay tribute to these people,” Andrey Kondakov, one of the mourners who came to lay flowers at the memorial, told AP.
“It is a tragedy that has affected our entire country,” kindergarten employee Marina Korshunova said. “It just doesn’t even make sense that small children were affected by this event.” Three children were among the dead.
Rescuers continued to search the damaged building and the death toll rose as more bodies were found as family and friends of some of those still missing waiting for news. Moscow’s Department of Health said Sunday it had begun identifying the bodies of those killed via DNA testing, saying the process would take at least two weeks.
Igor Pogadaev was desperately seeking any details about his wife, Yana Pogadaeva, who went to the attack concert. The last he heard from her was when she sent him two photos from the Crocus City Hall music venue.
Alexander Zemlianichenko
A suspect in the Crocus City Hall shooting on Friday sits in a courtroom in the Basmanny District Court, in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 24, 2024.
After Pogadaev saw the reports of gunmen opening fire on concertgoers, he rushed to the site, but couldn’t find her in the numerous ambulances or among the hundreds of people who had made their way out of the venue.
“I went around, searched, I asked everyone, I showed photographs. No one saw anything, no one could say anything,” Pogadaev told AP in a video message.
He watched flames bursting out of the building as he made frantic calls to a hotline for relatives of the victims, but received no information.
As the death toll mounted Saturday, Pogodaev scoured hospitals in the Russian capital and the Moscow region, looking for information on newly admitted patients.
His wife wasn’t among the 182 reported injured, nor on the list of 60 victims authorities had already identified, he said.
The Moscow region’s branch of the Emergency Ministry posted a video Sunday showing equipment dismantling the damaged music venue to give rescuers access.
Putin has called the attack “a bloody, barbaric terrorist act” and said Russian authorities captured the four suspects as they were trying to escape to Ukraine through a “window” prepared for them on the Ukrainian side of the border.
Russian media broadcast videos that apparently showed the detention and interrogation of the suspects, including one who told the cameras he was approached by an unidentified assistant to an Islamic preacher via a messaging app and paid to take part in the raid.
Putin didn’t mention IS in his speech to the nation, and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault to stoke fervor for Russia’s fight in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year.
U.S. intelligence officials said they had confirmed the IS affiliate’s claim.
“ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
Alexander Zemlianichenko
Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, a suspect in the Crocus City Hall shooting on Friday, sits in a glass cage in the Basmanny District Court in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 24, 2024.
The U.S. shared information with Russia in early March about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow, and issued a public warning to Americans in Russia, Watson said.
The raid was a major embarrassment for Putin and happened just days after he cemented his grip on the country for another six years in a vote that followed the harshest crackdown on dissent since the Soviet times.
Some commentators on Russian social media questioned how authorities, who have relentlessly suppressed any opposition activities and prosecuted critics, failed to prevent the attack despite the U.S. warnings.
IS, which fought against Russia during its intervention in the Syrian civil war, has long targeted Russia. In a statement posted by the group’s Aamaq news agency, the IS Afghanistan affiliate said that it had attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk.
The group issued a new statement Saturday on Aamaq, saying the attack was carried out by four men who used automatic rifles, a pistol, knives and firebombs. It said the assailants fired at the crowd and used knives to kill some concertgoers, casting the raid as part of the Islamic State group’s ongoing war with countries that it says are fighting against Islam.
In October 2015, a bomb planted by IS downed a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russian vacationers returning from Egypt.
The group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, also has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other regions in past years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
