Speaking of his participation in quelling the mercenaries’ military uprising that sparked crisis in Russia over the weekend, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko asserts that he persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin not to “destroy” the Wagner organisation and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
On Tuesday, Lukashenko gave his perspective on the negotiations that caused Prigozhin to halt his march towards Moscow and said the oligarch is now in Belarus in accordance with the agreement.
According to Belarussian official media, Lukashenko stated that “the most dangerous thing, as I understand it, is not what the situation was, but how it could develop and its consequences.”
“I also realized there was a harsh decision taken – to destroy. I suggested Putin not to hurry. Let’s talk with Prigozhin, with his commanders.”
Lukashenko – a longtime ally of the Russian President – said Putin told him: “Listen, Alex, it’s useless. (Prigozhin) doesn’t even pick up the phone, he doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”
But Lukashenko said he managed to get hold of the Wagner boss and, according to his account, warned he would be “crushed like a bug” if Wagner troops continued their advance to the Russian capital.
“We talked for the first round of 30 minutes in a swear language. Exclusively. There were 10 times more swear words (I later analyzed them) than normal vocabulary,” Lukashenko added, describing his interactions with a foul-mouthed Prigozhin.
“Of course, he apologized in advance, and began to tell me everything using these obscene words.”
The Kremlin has credited Lukashenko with helping to deescalate the situation, though the Belarus leader’s account of events has not been corroborated by Putin or Prigozhin.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Lukashenko was able to draw on a personal relationship with Prigozhin to reach the deal, which would also see Wagner troops and equipment absorbed by the Russian military.
Russia’s Federal Security Service meanwhile said it would drop a case against Wagner fighters over the apparent uprising.
Prigozhin’s rebellion marked a sudden and dramatic escalation of his long-running feud with Russia’s military commanders.
He seized control of a southern military headquarters and directed his private Wagner troops towards Moscow, and demanded the resignation of defense minister Sergei Shoigu – a call that Lukashenko says he eventually backed down from during discussions.
While Putin survived the events, his standing appears significantly weakened. In an address on Monday, the Russian leader thanked the mercenaries for making the “right decision” in halting their advance, and offered them contracts to join the Russian ministry of defense’s force. He also claimed that the “armed rebellion would have been suppressed anyway,” without specifying how.
Lukashenko said Tuesday that Prigozhin has received his personal assurances of safety, and the safety of his men, in order to defuse the rebellion on Saturday evening.
“At five o’clock in the evening he called me and said: “…I accept all your conditions. But … What should I do? We stop – they will destroy us.” I say: “They won’t. I guarantee you. I’ll take it upon myself,” Lukashenko recalled.
Preparations are currently underway for Wagner, a private military company, to hand over its heavy military equipment, as stated by Russia’s defense ministry. This comes in the aftermath of a failed rebellion that took place on Saturday.
Russian media reports indicate that the Federal Security Service (FSB) has closed the criminal case against the mutineers from Wagner.
Fighters associated with Wagner have been given three options: they can choose to join the Russian military, return to their families, or relocate to Belarus.
During an address to military personnel on Tuesday, President Putin praised their efforts in “halting a civil war” and called for a minute of silence to honor pilots who lost their lives in clashes with Wagner troops.
Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, stated on Monday that the short-lived rebellion was in response to government plans to assume direct control over the mercenary group. He later agreed to leave Russia for Belarus after calling off his troops. On Tuesday, a plane connected to Prigozhin landed in the capital city of Minsk.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, also in Minsk, described the mutiny as “painful to watch” and stated that he had ordered his country’s army to be “combat ready” during the incident.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that the counter-offensive had made progress on all fronts.
In a speech to the country this evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that “any attempt at blackmail is doomed to fail.”
Speaking from the Kremlin, the Russian president promised that those responsible for the weekend’s “criminal activity” would face justice.
In a statement, Putin claimed that the uprising was “criminal activity that is intended to weaken the country” and that the “organisers of this rebellion will be brought to justice.”
In a statement, he said that ‘any kind of blackmail is doomed to failure’ and that the mutiny leaders ‘wanted our society to be fragmented’.
He thanked the Russian public for its ‘support, patriotism and solidarity’ since the rebellion and Belarus’s Lukashenko for a peaceful resolution.
The President addressed the nation in a speech tonight (Picture: Sky News)The Wagner Group leader has spoken out since he was exiled to Belarus after the failed coup (Picture: Getty)
‘Virtually the entirety of Russian society… was united by its responsibility to defend their homeland,’ Putin said.
He also thanked Wagner officials who ‘took the right decision to stop and go back to prevent bloodshed’.
Putin added that most Wagner mercenaries are ‘patriots’ who were ‘used’ by organisers of the rebellion.
The uprising was ‘doomed to fail’ and that ‘its organisers, even though they lost their sense of right and wrong, couldn’t have failed to realise that,’ he continued.
Putin also accused Ukraine of being involved and calls the revolt ‘revenge for their failed counteroffensive’.
Earlier on Monday, Prigozhin revealed he ordered his fighters to halt their advance on Moscow because he ‘did not want to shed Russian blood’.
Yevgeny Prigozhin posed for selfies and smiled as he left Rostov (Picture: Reuters)
Prigozhin broke his silence since the failed military coup at the weekend and posted an 11-minute audio message where he failed to reveal his location – despite being exiled to Belarus.
There are currently unconfirmed reports that Progozhin is currently in Minsk – the capital of Belarus.
He said no-one agreed to sign a contract with the defence ministry and that his mercenary firm was bound to cease existence on July 1.
Prigozhin said: ‘We started our march because of an injustice.’
He claimed the decision to turn around the march on Moscow was because he and his fighters didn’t want to shed Russian blood.
Prigozhin also said it was not his aim to overthrow the Russian government but to demonstrate his anger with the actions of the Ministry of Defence.
The former Wagner leader also repeated his claim that his troops were attacked by Russian soldiers, saying 30 people died with more injured.
The militia revolted on Friday, with Prigozhin saying he wanted to punish defence minister Sergei Shoigu and army chief Valery Gerasimov for targeting his troops with rockets.
He said his troops had advanced 124 miles towards Moscow in the following 24 hours, with the city braced for war.
The uprising posed the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin’s leadership in more than two decades in power.
Putin had vowed to crush the rebellion – calling it a ‘stab in the back’ – and warned anyone involved in the ‘rebellion’ will ‘suffer inevitable punishment’.
The Kremlin denied reports he had fled the capital amid several claiming aircraft linked to the president were spotted flying out as Wagner forces close in.
Prigozhin, whose forces have spearheaded the Russian advance in Ukraine, claimed to have captured the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in Rostov without firing a shot.
It came as Russian media speculated that Mr Shoigu and other military leaders had lost Mr Putin’s confidence and could be replaced.
Before the uprising, Mr Prigozhin had criticised Mr Shoigu and General Staff chief General Valery Gerasimov with expletive-ridden insults for months, accusing them of failing to provide his troops with enough ammunition during the fight for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, the war’s longest and bloodiest battle.
Mr Prigozhin’s statement appeared to confirm analysts’ view that the revolt was a move to save Wagner from being dismantled after an order that all private military companies sign contracts with the Defence Ministry by July 1.
He said most of his fighters refused to come under the Defence Ministry’s command, and the force planned to hand over the military equipment it was using in Ukraine on June 30 after pulling out of Ukraine and gathering in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
He accused the Defence Ministry of attacking Wagner’s camp, prompting them to move sooner.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has addressed the future of Wagner fighters operating in Africa.
While recent events involving Wagner and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin have primarily focused on Russia and Ukraine, the mercenary group also has a presence in various African countries, including the Central African Republic and Mali, where they have faced allegations of committing atrocities and war crimes.
Concerns have been raised regarding the future of these African deployments, as they have been viewed by many as unofficial representations of Russia.
However, in an interview on the state-owned RT channel, Mr. Lavrov stated that the Wagner operations in Africa will continue, as reported by the AFP news agency.
Wagner members “are working there as instructors. This work, of course, will continue,” the minister said.
He said the aborted rebellion would not change Russia’s relationship with “partners and friends”, AFP quotes him as saying.
The Wagner Group officially known asPMC Wagneris a Russian paramilitary organization. It is seen as a private military company(PMC), a network of mercenaries and a de facto private army of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman formerly with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It operates in support of Russian interests, receives equipment from the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and has used MoD installations for training. While the Wagner Group itself is not ideologically driven, elements of it have been linked to neo-Nazism and far-right politics.
Prior to June 2023, it was widely speculated that the Wagner Group was used by the Russian government to allow for plausible deniability and to obscure the true casualties and financial costs of Russia’s foreign interventions. The group came to prominence during the Donbas war in Ukraine, where it helped pro-Russian separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics from 2014 to 2015. Its contractors have reportedly taken part in conflicts around the world, including the civil wars in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and Mali, often fighting on the side of forces aligned with the Russian government. Wagner operatives have been accused of committing war crimes, including rape, robbery of civilians, and torturing accused deserters.
Wagner has played a significant role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where it has been reportedly deployed to assassinate Ukrainian leaders, among other activities, and for which it has recruited prison inmates from Russia for frontline combat. In December 2022, United States National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby claimed Wagner had 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts. Others put the number of recruited prisoners at more than 20,000, with the overall number of PMC forces present in Ukraine estimated at 20,000. In 2023, Russia granted combat veteranstatus to Wagner contractors who took part in the invasion.
After years of denying links to the Wagner Group, Prigozhin admitted in September 2022 that he founded it. He declared, “I am proud that I was able to defend their right to protect the interests of their country.”
On 23 June 2023, Prigozhin launched an armed rebellion after accusing the Russian military of killing Wagner forces. Wagner units withdrew from Ukraine and seized the city of Rostov-on-Donin Russia. A convoy of Wagner forces then headed towards Moscow, attempting to reach the capital before it could be intercepted by regular forces loyal to the government. The rebellion was abruptly halted on 24 June by a deal brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
Origins and leadership
The Wagner Group first appeared in Ukraine in 2014, where it participated in the annexation of Crimea. The group was also active in 2014, fighting with Russia-backed separatists in the Luhansk region of Ukraine.
Dmitriy Valeryevich Utkin, a veteran of the First and Second Chechen Wars, reportedly founded the group. Until 2008 or 2013, Utkin served as lieutenant colonel and brigade commander of a unit of Spetsnaz GRU, the 700th Independent Spetsnaz Detachment of the 2nd Independent Brigade.
After leaving the military, in 2013 he began working for the Moran Security Group, a private company founded by Russian military veterans, which was involved in security and training missions worldwide, and specializes in security against piracy. The same year, senior Moran Security Group managers were involved in setting up the Hong Kong-based Slavonic Corps, which headhunted contractors to “protect oil fields and pipelines” in Syria during its civil war. Utkin was deployed in Syria as a member of the Slavonic Corps, surviving its disastrous mission. Subsequently, Russia’s Federal Security Service arrested some members of the Slavonic Corps for illegal mercenary activity in November 2013.
In 2021, the Foreign Policy report noted the origin of the name “Wagner” to be unknown.Others say the group’s name comes from Utkin’s own call sign “Wagner”, reportedly after the German composer Richard Wagner, which Utkin is said to have chosen due to his passion for the Third Reich (Wagner being Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer). As such, some believe he is a neo-Nazi, with The Economist reporting that Utkin has several Nazi tattoos. Members of Wagner Group say Utkin is a Rodnover, a believer of Slavic native faith. Radio Liberty cited insiders as saying that the leadership of the Wagner Group are followers of the Slavic Native Faith, a modern Pagan new religious movement. In August 2017, the Turkish newspaper Yeni Şafak speculated that Utkin was possibly a figurehead for the company, while the real head of Wagner was someone else.
Various elements of Wagner have been linked to white supremacist and neo-Nazi far-right extremists, such as Wagner’s openly far-right and neo-Nazi Rusich unit, and Wagner members have left neo-Nazi graffiti on the battlefield. However, Erica Gaston, a senior policy adviser at the UN University Centre for Policy Research, noted that the Wagner Group is not ideologically driven, but rather a network of mercenaries “linked to the Russian security state”. Russia denies the connection and officially the group does not exist.
In December 2016, Utkin was photographed with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Kremlin reception given in honour of those who had been awarded the Order of Courage and the title Hero of the Russian Federation (to mark the Day of Heroes of the Fatherland [ru]), along with Alexander Kuznetsov, Andrey Bogatov [ru] and Andrei Troshev. Kuznetsov (call sign “Ratibor”) was said to be the commander of Wagner’s first reconnaissance and assault company, Bogatov was the commander of the fourth reconnaissance and assault company, and Troshev served as the company’s “executive director”. A few days after, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the presence of Utkin at the reception, stating that Utkin was from the Novgorod Region and had received the award, but could not say for what except that it was presumably for courage. Peskov stated he was not aware how famous Utkin was.
It has been reported that Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin—sometimes called “Putin’s chef”, because of his catering businesses that hosted dinners which Vladimir Putin attended with foreign dignitaries— has links with Wagner and Utkin personally. The businessman has been said to be the founder and actual owner of the Wagner Group. Prigozhin denied any communication with Wagner, until September 2022, when he admitted having created the group in a post at VKontakte. Prigozhin claimed, “I cleaned the old weapons myself, sorted out the bulletproof vests myself and found specialists who could help me with this. From that moment, on May 1, 2014, a group of patriots was born, which later came to be called the Wagner Battalion.” Previously, Prigozhin had sued Bellingcat, Meduza, and Echo of Moscow for reporting his links to the mercenary group.
In 2019, as the presence of Wagner PMCs in Africa was growing, a planned trip by Utkin to Rwanda was reportedly cancelled at the last moment. He was supposed to travel with Valery Zakharov, a Russian security advisor to the President of the Central African Republic. Subsequently, it was thought that Utkin was withdrawn from the Wagner Group’s African operations due to his over-exposure that was the result of the medal-awarding ceremony at the Kremlin in 2016, and the United States sanctions imposed on him. Subsequently, Colonel Konstantin Aleksandrovich Pikalov (call sign “Mazay”) was said to have been put in charge of Wagner’s African operations. According to another report, there was a change in leadership in the Wagner Group due to changes in the methodology and direction of its work, with Utkin leaving the group and Konstantin Pikalov becoming the new head of the organization. Another theory was that Dmitry Utkin had been killed, as his phone number was no longer functioning and his regular trips from Krasnodar to St. Petersburg stopped.
Pikalov served as a military officer in Russia’s experimental military unit numbered 99795, located in the village of Storozhevo, near St. Petersburg. The unit was tasked, in part, with “determining the effects of radioactive rays on living organisms”. Following his retirement, he continued to live on the military base until at least 2012 and ran a private detective agency.
In the autumn of 2014, along with a large group of Cossacks, he possibly took part in suppressing opponents of the Russian-supported President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, during the Republika Srpska general election in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dodik won the re-election. Between 2014 and 2017, Pikalov traveled several times to destinations near the Ukrainian border, sometimes on joint bookings with known Wagner officers.
In 2016, Pikalov ran for office in local council elections in the district of his military base near St. Petersburg on behalf of the pro-Kremlin A Just Russia party. However, his participation was denied by Russia’s Central Election Committee, possibly due to his criminal record. His name is listed on a Central Bank blacklist with a note that he was “a suspect in money laundering”, although his current criminal file is blank. According to Bellingcat, this could mean either that the suspicion did not result in criminal charges or that the records were purged. Former employees of Prigozhin interviewed on the condition of anonymity by Bellingcat stated Pikalov was known to have taken part in military operations in both Ukraine and Syria.
He has always reacted by using force, so you can be sure of that.
Internal liberties may be further restricted and the media, particularly significant Telegram channels, may be more strictly regulated.
Or Putin may conduct another set of military strikes on the territory of Ukraine.
Or maybe both.
One thing is clear – if Ukraine breaks Russian fortifications on the frontline next week, Moscow will definitely blame that on Wagner and its so-called betrayal.
The unity and stability that Putin and his state media have been attempting to portray for years are called into question by Prigozhin’s uprising
Some members of the political elites panicked. Flight radar services pinged dozens of private jets leaving Moscow.
But it wasn’t a systemic crisis.
Regional governors were quick and unanimous in pledging public allegiance to Moscow.
These scenes were very different from 1991 – another attempted military coup. Back then, some of the regional leaders quickly aligned with the rebels. We saw nothing even close to that yesterday.
At the same time, Putin’s image was clearly ruptured.
Vladimir Putin spoke out strongly on national television yesterday, but the BBC’s Russia editor claims that Putin “doesn’t come out of this looking very strong.”
Speaking from Moscow, Steve Rosenberg says Putin began yesterday by saying Russia had been “stabbed in the back” by the Wagner Group’s attempted mutiny.
By the end of the day its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, whom Putin had labelled a traitor, had all the charges against him dropped.
“We don’t know all the details of the agreement that was reached between the Kremlin and Wagner,” he tells the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Perhaps more details will emerge in the coming days – but Putin doesn’t look particularly strong after this, Rosenberg reiterates.
Putin is “weakened and strengthened” as a result of Prigozhin’s uprising, according to Polish MEP Radek Sikorski.
Speaking to BBC 5Live Breakfast, Sikorski said Putin’s vulnerabilities were exposed when “a group of armed men were able to cross [thousands of] kilometres of Russia hardly challenged”.
But, Sikorski said the Russian leader will now “probably purge those who he saw as wavering”, meaning his regime will become “more authoritarian and more brutal at the same time”.
We’re waiting to see how the Kremlin reacts to what’s happened this weekend. We’ll bring you more news – and analysis – as it happens.
Deputy foreign minister of Russia, Andrei Rudenko, has been to Beijing to meet with Chinese officials to discuss “international” concerns.
Rudenko on Sunday exchanged views with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang in a meeting in the Chinese capital on Sunday on Sino-Russian relations as well as “international and regional issues of common concern”, China’s foreign ministry said in a one-line statement on its website.
It was unclear when Rudenko arrived in Beijing, or whether his visit to China, a key ally of Russia, was in response to the apparent rebellion by heavily armed mercenaries on Friday.
A correspondent from Al Jazeera, Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, has said that President Putinhas urged unity and referred to the actions of the Wagner chief as a “betrayal.”
“[Putin] says Russia is fighting for its future and all we need is unity now. He called what is going on a betrayal,” Shapovalova said.
“The Ministry of Defence addressed the Wagner group fighters saying that they got involved in Prigozhin’s criminal adventure and participated in an armed rebellion,” she said.
“The ministry guaranteed everyone’s safety if the fighters surrendered. And now we see reports by state media outlets, saying that some fighters returned to their initial positions as they had been asked by the army,” she added.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said that Ukraine will soon run out of its own military equipment and will be completely reliant on hardware supplied to them by Western countries.
He also claims that that Ukraine hasn’t made any progress in its counter offensive and says the country had “no chance” against Russia’s army.
President Putin made the comment at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg today.
Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia has already moved some warheads to Belarus.
Earlier this month, Russia said it would deploy tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil from July.
Kyiv remains “absolutely calm” over the prospect, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov previously told the BBC.
According to Putin, nuclear weapons would only be used in the event of a threat to the existence of the Russian state.
But Russia has “no such need” to use them, he added.
But he refuses to be drawn further on the matter, asking the session host: “Do you want me to frighten the whole world? No, I don’t want to.”
Putin closed the discussion by saying Russia was using “all the power in our hands” against use of nuclear weapons.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have spoken over the phone about the upcoming peace mission by six Africa leaders to Russia and Ukraine.
“President Putin has welcomed the initiative by African heads of state and expressed his desire to receive the peace mission,” a statement from the South African presidency said.
On Tuesday, the African leaders involved had held discussions “exploring ways of bringing an end to the conflict”, it added.
The other leaders in the peace bid are from the Comoros, Egypt, Senegal, Uganda and Senegal – and according to a statement from the presidency on Wednesday all said they were available to travel in mid-June.
“The leaders agreed that they would engage with both President Putin and President [Volodymyr] Zelensky on the elements for a ceasefire and a lasting peace in the region.”
Their foreign ministers were now in the process of finalising the elements of a road-map to peace, it added.
Separately a Russia-Africa summit is scheduled to take place at the end of July in St Petersburg, the presidency said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed that he had a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the forthcoming peace mission involving six African leaders to Russia and Ukraine.
“The leaders agreed that they would engage with both President Putin and President [Volodymyr] Zelensky on the elements for a ceasefire and a lasting peace in the region.”
The two presidents’ foreign ministers are currently working on finalizing a roadmap for peace, according to the statement.
Additionally, a Russia-Africa summit is set to occur in St. Petersburg at the end of July, as announced by the presidency.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has bizarrely authorised the establishment of an annual competition for internet games, but Counter-Strike is not permitted.
Vladimir Putin seems to be interested in the regional gaming and esports scene in Russia, despite the ongoing situation in Ukraine.
Numerous Russian esports teams have had limitations as a result of the conflict, including being excluded from sponsorship opportunities and competitions.
According to reports, the President recently revealed his decision to establish a ‘cyberchampionship‘ during a visit to an exhibition of creative industries at Moscow’s Zotov Centre.
The tournament is said to feature popular Russian titles such as World Of Tanks, a game from the World Of War series, along with other domestic hits.
Interestingly, these versions of the games will be under the control of Lesta Games, as Wargaming transferred its entire Russian and Belarusian gaming business to them following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Gaukhar Aldiyarova, an executive at Lesta Games, told Kommersant that the championship would exclusively feature games from Russian developers and those from friendly nations.
She also provided examples, mentioning League Of Legends, which is owned by the Chinese publisher Tencent – who bought Riot Games in 2011.
However, games like Valve’s Counter-Strike will be excluded from consideration due to their ‘one-sided coverage of political events within the game universe.’
Although it’s not immediately obvious what this means, it’s likely a reference to journalists from Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat using Counter-Strike to sneak news stories of the Ukraine invasion into Russia.
Leveraging the fact you can create and share maps in Counter-Strike, Helsingin Sanomat crafted their own custom map called da_voyna (‘voyna’ meaning ‘war’ in Russian) which contained a hidden room full of reports and photographs of the war.
It might seem peculiar, to say the least, for Putin to establish a ‘cyberchampionship’ while Moscow faces drone strikes, but it’s not entirely unexpected.
The country has been trying to cultivate a self-reliant games industry ever since numerous western tech companies announced their departure from the country last year.
South Africa’s largest opposition party has made claims on Tuesday May 30 that it has taken legal measures to ensure that Vladimir Putin is arrested if he enters the nation for a summit in August.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is asking the courts for “an order” stipulating that if Mr Putin arrives in South Africa to take part in the Brics summit (a group of countries comprising South Africa, Brazil, China, India, and Russia), the government must arrest him, as required by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The ICC, based in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin in March for the war crime of “deporting” Ukrainian children as part of Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine.
As South Africa is a member of the ICC, it is theoretically supposed to arrest the Russian president on his arrival in the country.
But Pretoria, which maintains close diplomatic relations with Moscow and insists on its “neutrality” in the conflict in Ukraine, has not yet indicated whether it will do so.
The DA explains that it has launched a “pre-emptive” judicial application to ensure that the government “respects its obligations” and hands Mr Putin over to the ICC if he comes to South Africa. No “judicial ambiguity” should persist, the statement said.
Kremlin spokesman Boris Peskov confined himself to saying on Tuesday that Russia would be “duly represented” at the Brics summit, without specifying whether Mr Putin planned to attend.
Moscow “assumes, of course” that its Brics partners “will not be guided” by “illegitimate decisions”, namely the ICC arrest warrant, he added.
The DA’s legal action comes as the government granted diplomatic immunity to officials attending a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers this week, followed by a summit of heads of state in August.
Some read the decision as a preparatory step to provide legal cover for Putin’s visit, but Pretoria insists it is standard procedure for the organisation of international conferences.
“These immunities do not cancel an arrest warrant issued by an international court against any participant in the conference”, the foreign affairs ministry defended itself on Tuesday morning.
South Africa has been criticised since the start of the war in Ukraine for its proximity to Moscow. In April, Mr Ramaphosa said that the ICC’s arrest warrant against Mr. Putin was putting a “spanner in the works” for South Africa.
As stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a drone strike on Moscow earlier today was directed at civilians with the intention of inciting the nation.
The incident, which resulted in minor building damage in the Russian capital and forced evacuations, has been attributed by the Kremlin to Ukraine.
Kyiv hasn’t responded, but yesterday the military intelligence chief of Ukraine, Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, issued a warning about a quick response to prior strikes on Kyiv before sunrise.
Russian soldiers who were detained in Ukraine were shown a DVD that detailed some of the crimes committed by their side during the invasion.
The shaven-headed prisoners of war can be seen engrossed as the movie plays out in front of them on a little screen in a video that was made public by Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman.
The 29-minute documentary, dubbed “Absolute Evil,” includes scenes that show people murdering bystanders, killing children and adults, and shelling homes.
The film’s captions state the footage was taken by the Russians themselves, and later uploaded to social media.
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said: ‘The Russian military were shown the documentary film Absolute Evil about their own war crimes committed in Ukraine.
‘What is in the heads of these persons, it is not known – what is in the eyes, see for yourself.
‘I hope that after watching it, they realise who is the absolute evil in this world.’
Several of the prisoners are shown leaning forward in their seats and watching intently, with grim expressions on their faces.
The Russia prisoners of war have stony faces as they watch the documentary (Picture: Ukraine Ombudsman/East2west News)Oleksandr Matsievskyi was killed after being captured, prompting calls for a war crime investigation (Picture: East2west News)
The documentary opens with the killing of prisoner of war Oleksandr Matsievskyi, who smoked a cigarette and said ‘Slava Ukraini’ – glory to Ukraine – ahead of his execution in December last year.
A video showing his death was spread widely in March, and his defiance led President Volodymyr Zelensky to posthumously award him the country’s highest honour: the Hero of Ukraine.
Other moments in the film highlight the case of Liza Dmitrieva, a four-year-old girl who died in a Russian strike last July that also badly wounded her mother Irina.
Directed by Kharkiv-born journalist Andriy Tsaplienko, Absolute Evil takes its name from a comment attributed to a priest at the burial of one victim.
He is quoted as saying: ‘Absolute evil shall be defeated.’
The commentary tells viewers: ‘Mass killings of Ukrainians is Russia’s military strategy.
‘A managed process that involves those who pull the triggers and those who [give] the orders.
‘This film shows just a few of Russia’s war crimes.
‘But even so it helps one comprehend the scale of the absolute evil Ukraine is confronted with.’
Vladimir Putin has referred to the West as being ‘halfwits’ who will fall short of defeating Russia.
He disparaged his ‘adversaries’ as ‘neo-colonialists’ for supporting Ukraine while disregarding his own imperialist attempt to invade and conquer the nation, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
The Kremlin autocrat asserted that Russia‘s multinationalism was its strength while appearing slumped and pallid.
In a deranged speech at the Council for Interethnic Relations, he said: ‘Our state was built around the values of multinational harmony…
Putin referred to his enemies as ‘half-wits’ who would fail to defeat Russia
’Our enemies….people with neo-colonial thinking, half-wits really – do not understand that this diversity makes us stronger.
’In vain they count on the effect for which they are trying.
’Well, I already said that people who are guided by their neo-colonial ideas are half-wits.
’And in the competition of halfwits, they would take second place.
’Why only second? Yes, because they are halfwits.’
He waited for his loyalists to laugh at his supposed joke but it appeared only his deputy chief of staff Sergey Kiriyenko found it in any way funny.
Putin claimed the more sanctions were imposed on Russia, the more consolidated people would become behind him.
He claimed 90 per cent of society now backed him.
Contradicting himself, he demanded yet more cohesion.
‘[My opponents] say that Russia should be divided into dozens of small state entities and it is quite obvious what for,’ he said.
‘In order to later bend them to their will, exploit, use in their selfish interests. They have no other goals.’
He reportedly travelled to Pyatigorsk in the Caucasus for the council session but then addressed an audience substantially online – his trademark method of communicating with his functionaries.
Parents who changed their son’s name to Putin in 2016 in honour of the Russian leader have pleaded with authorities to let them change it back.
The Dzhurayev family relocated to Russia from their home Tajikistan in the early 2010s, and soon after, in a gesture of gratitude to their new nation and its leader, they formally changed the name of their one-year-old son Rasul to Putin.
However, the pair then regretted their choice and is now working to restore Putin’s birth name; they would not, however, elaborate on their reasons for regret.
Ekaterina Belous, head of the Alexandrovsky district registry office in Vladimir oblast, east of Moscow, told local media: ‘The parents have approached us: They, let me put it this way, feel sorry for what they did.’
The family say they ‘regret’ their decison to name their child after the Russian president (Picture: AP)The couple were persuaded by rename their child by his grandfather, a Putin superfan (Picture: gazetanga.ru)
‘They want to give the child the name he received at birth.’
However, the child’s cousin, named Shoigu after Russia’s minister of defence, Sergei Shoigu -will be keeping his name for the time being, Belous confirmed.
Young Putin’s grandfather, Rahmon Juraev, is an ardent supporter of the Russian leader and is believed to be the inspiration for the name change.
‘Vladimir Putin is the number one man in the world for me. Strong, smart and educated. My grandson looks very similar to Putin as a child, and I, without hesitation, decided to change the name of the child,’ Jurayev told the BBC Russian Service at the time.
He was reportedly inspired by an Egyptian journalist who also named his son after Vladimir Putin.
The family fled their home in Tajikistan- where Putin was once hailed as an iconic leader- following a fierce civil war in the 1990s.
But since the war in Ukraine began last year, the president has become less popular in Central Asia.
Enlistment officers in Russia have been entering mosques to search for migrants from the Muslim-populated countries of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
They have offered them payments and expedited citizenship in return for military service in the Ukraine war.
According to Eurasianet, many have been forced to enlist against their will or tricked into joining.
‘Russia needs to know that we and other countries remain steadfast in our resolve to support Ukraine, not just in the here and now with the resources it needs to protect itself, but for the long term as well.’
He added to ITV News: ‘They can’t just outlast us in this conflict.
‘One of the common topics of conversation I’ll be having and have been having with my fellow leaders is about the longer-term security agreements that we put in place in Ukraine, to deter future Russian aggression.’
As part of its new sanctions the UK will ban imports of Russian diamonds, copper, aluminium and nickel.
The diamond export industry was previously worth more than £3 billion to Russia.
New individual sanctions are also being placed by the UK on 86 people and companies.
There has been uncertainty whether the EU will also ban Russian diamonds, as the trade is particularly lucrative for Belgium.
Mr Sunak told the BBC: ‘I’m hopeful and confident that our partner countries will follow as they have done when we’ve done this previously, that will make the sanctions more effective, ensure that Russia pays a price for its illegal activity.’
The UK PM yesterday signed a new defence and security pact with Tokyo – and received a nice new pair of bright red socks – over dinner with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida.
The three-day G7 summit will see the UK, the US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy discuss military and economic support for Ukraine, as well as the security of Taiwan following aggression from China.
Mr Sunak’s official spokesperson said: ‘Guarding against economic coercion is something that the prime minister is pushing for.’
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to attend the summit in person as a guest on Sunday, as is Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Modi has previously remained neutral on the Russian invasion, due to his links with Mr Putin.
But Mr Sunak said he has seen ‘positive’ steps from India in its stance on the war.
He told reporters on a plane to Japan: ‘One thing we have to keep doing is talking to countries like India and also Brazil, that is going to be in that second part of the summit which is a good thing.’
Following Ukraine’s allegation that it had shot down a barrage of ‘undefeatable’ missiles, three of Vladimir Putin‘s top hypersonic experts were imprisoned on charges of high treason.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Anatoly Maslov, Alexander Shiplyuk, and Valery Zvegintsev are all facing “very serious accusations.”
The three people have all been involved with the weapons project for many years, and they contributed to a book chapter titled “Hypersonic Short-Duration Facilities for Aerodynamic Research at ITAM, Russia.”
Putin has long boasted that Russia is the global leader in hypersonic missiles and unveiled his ‘Kinzhal’ rockets in 2018, hailing them as ‘undefeatable’ by any present or future defence systems.
But he faced fresh humiliation on Tuesday when Ukraine said it had destroyed six of them in a single night.
Colleagues of the three men published an open letter protesting their innocence and warning the prosecutions posed serious risk to Russian science.
‘We know each of them as a patriot and a decent person who is not capable of doing what the investigating authorities suspect them of,’ they said.
‘In this situation, we are not only afraid for the fate of our colleagues. We just do not understand how to continue to do our job.’
The letter cited the case of Dmitry Kolker, a Siberian scientist who was arrested last year on suspicion of state treason and flown to Moscow despite suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer.
The laser specialist died two days later. It said such cases were having a chilling effect on young Russian scientists.
‘Even now, the best students refuse to come to work with us, and our best young employees are leaving science,’ the letter stated.
‘A number of research areas that are critically important to laying the fundamental groundwork for the aerospace technology of the future are simply closing because employees are afraid to engage in such research.’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the eminent academics all face ‘very serious accusations’ (Picture: Reuters)
Asked about the letter, Peskov said: ‘We have indeed seen this appeal, but Russian special services are working on this. They are doing their job. These are very serious accusations.’
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said the country’s air defences, bolstered by Western-supplied systems, had thwarted an intense Russian attack.
He said the barrage included six Kinzhal aero-ballistic hypersonic missiles, the most fired in a single attack in the war so far. All were shot down, he added.
Putin has repeatedly touted the Kinzhals as providing a key strategic competitive advantage and among the most advanced weapons in his country’s arsenal.
What we know about Kinzhal, Russia’s hypersonic missile
Russia began using the Kinzhal, which means ‘dagger’, to strike targets in Ukraine early in the invasion.
But it has used the expensive weapon sparingly and against priority targets, apparently reflecting limited availability.
– It is an air-launched ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads. Ukraine said six of them were fired on Tuesday.
– It has a reported range of 1,500 to 2,000 km (930 to 1,240 miles) while carrying a payload of 480 kg. It may reach speeds of up to Mach 10 (12,250 kph).
– The Kinzhal is one of six ‘next generation’ weapons unveiled by Putin in a speech in March 2018. He has said these weapons could penetrate both existing and any future missile defence systems.
– Putin said in December 2021, two months before the invasion of Ukraine, that Russia was the global leader in hypersonic missiles and, by the time other countries caught up, was likely to have developed technology to counteract these new weapons.
‘In our advanced developments, we are definitely the leaders,’ he said.
Ukraine is suspected to have downed an ‘unstoppable’ Russian Kinzhal – or Dagger – hypersonic missile, pictured here with its carrier MiG-31 (Picture: MoD Russia/e2w)
– Russia sent fighter jets armed with Kinzhal missiles to Syria for the first time in 2021, military analysts say.
– Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have fired a Kinzhal missile at a munitions dump in southwestern Ukraine on March 19, 2022, the first known use of the weapon in combat.
It has since fired Kinzhal missiles on several other occasions in Ukraine.
– On May 6, Ukraine said for the first time that it had shot down a Kinzhal, using a Patriot system. It was not clear whether the ‘Western’ systems Kyiv said it used against Kinzhals on Tuesday were also Patriots.
The missiles are difficult to detect and intercept because of their hypersonic speed and manoeuvrability.
If Ukraine’s claim of having shot down six fired Tuesday is confirmed, it would mark another blow to Putin’s war efforts and show the increasing effectiveness of the country’s air defences.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu contested the Ukrainian claims, telling the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency: ‘We have not launched as many Kinzhals as they allegedly shoot down every time with their statements.’
Military analysts claim that Putin‘s generals are ‘panicking’ as seen by the Kremlin’s prompt denial of a Ukrainian ‘breakthrough’ in Bakhmut.
On Thursday, a number of military blogs that support Russia claimed significant Ukrainian gains in several engagements along the eastern metropolis, which has been Putin’s top goal since the winter.
The leader of the Wagner mercenary group, which comprises the majority of the Russian forces there, Yevgeny Prigozhin, meanwhile, accused regular Russian soldiers of evacuating their posts.
In an audio recording, he said: ‘The situation on the flanks is developing according to the worst predicted scenario.
Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin claims Putin’s soldiers are being routed (Picture: AFP)
‘All the territories that were taken with the blood and lives of our comrades over many months, advancing tens or hundreds of metres a day, are now being thrown away practically without a fight by those who should be holding our flanks.’
The Russian defence ministry attempted to downplay the claims as social media chatter, avoiding any direct acknowledgement of Prigozhin’s comments.
In a statement, it said: ‘Statements circulated by individual Telegram channels about ‘defence breakthroughs’ that took place in different areas along the line of military contact do not correspond to reality.
‘The overall situation in the area of the special military operation is under control.’
The claims appear to be absent from Russian media, except for a report by the state-run Tass news agency which appeared only on its English-language version.
It claimed the situation was ‘generally under control’ but also made no mention of Prizoghin’s accusations.
Independent researchers cross-referencing battlefield footage with posts by Russian military bloggers said it was ‘likely’ that Ukrainian forces broke through some Russian lines between Wednesday and Thursday night.
According to the latest analysis by the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian troops were probably forced back in some areas by around two kilometres.
It has previously taken both sides between weeks and months to cover such distances in Bakhmut, which has been dominated by bloody attritional warfare.
The fact that Russia acknowledged ‘the Ukrainian counterattacks [by denying them] uncharacteristically quickly’ suggests ‘increased panic’ among the Russian leadership, the ISW added.
The organisation claimed to have geolocated all the footage used in its analysis, suggesting the images contained file data or known landmarks proving where they were filmed.
Ukrainian forces had been gradually pushed back in Bakhmut but inflicted far greater losses on the enemy than they suffered, according to Western intelligence updates.
Intense fighting rages on in other nearby cities, including Avdiivka and Mariinka, which could decide whether the self-proclaimed pro-Russian ‘Donetsk Republic’ falls back into Ukrainian hands.
As Russia gets ready to commemorate the anniversary of its victory over Nazi Germany, Putin has launched a number of attacks on the capital of Ukraine.
At least five persons were hurt by rocket attacks on Monday morning, according to officials in Kiev; similar explosions were also reported in a number of other areas.
Three people were hurt in Solomyanskyi, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, while two more were hurt in the west of the city’s Sviatoshyn neighborhood.
Drone wreckage is also reported to have fallen on the runway at Zhuliany airport in the southwest, and to have hit a two-storey building in the central Shevchkivskyi area.
In the southern port city of Odessa, officials have posted footage of a food warehouse on fire, seemingly the result of a Russian attack.
Further blasts are reported in the southern Kherson region, the Zaporizhia region to the southeast, and eight locations in the Sumy region to the northeast.
Strikes against Russian targets in Ukraine have also increased in recent weeks, many of them targeting Crimea, a southern peninsula in the Black Sea held by Russia since the partial invasion of 2014.
Ukrainian officials have not confirmed their forces’ role in those attacks, but have stressed destroying key enemy infrastructure, such as those found in Crimea, represents crucial preparation for their forthcoming large-scale counteroffensive.
This morning’s wave of strikes come as the Putin regime prepares for Victory Day, a military parade scheduled to take place in Moscow tomorrow commemorating Russia’s defeat of Germany in the Second World War.
The symbolism of the event is of especial significance this year, given the president’s efforts to equate the leadership in Kyiv with Nazism as a justification for his so-called ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.
Putin’s war has lasted fifteen months, seen thousands killed and millions displaced. He presently faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.
Meanwhile, his stranglehold over dissent and free expression in Russia has continued to intensify, most recently with the sentencing of opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza and detention of US journalist Evan Gershkovich.
Ukrainehas been accused by Russia of a thwarted conspiracy to assassinate its President, Vladimir Putin, in a nighttime drone strike on the Kremlin.
Moscow claimed Ukrainian forces targeted Russia’s parliament with two unmanned drones, but said these had been taken out by the military.
The Kremlin said the alleged attack, which it branded a “terrorist act”, did not cause any damage or casualties.
A statement said that Mr Putin was not inside the Kremlin at the time of the alleged attack. He is safe and continues to work with his schedule, it added.
The Kremlin did not present any evidence of the alleged attack and its statement included few details.
The state-owned Tass news agency quoted the statement as saying that the Kremlin considered the development to be a deliberate attempt on Mr Putin’s life ahead of Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on 9 May.
The statement said: “Two unmanned aerialvehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action.
“We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president’s life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned.
“The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit.”
A senior Ukraine President’s Office official denied Kyiv had anything to do with the attack.
Officials said two drones were aimed at Kremlin, Russia’s parliament (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Officials said two drones were aimed at Kremlin, Russia’s parliament (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
It comes amid tit-for-tat attacks between the two sides as Ukraine prepares for an expected counter-offensive that analysts predict could be launched within weeks.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russia said a massive blaze broke out at an oil depot near a key bridge in the annexed Crimea region.
The oil depot erupted in flames in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, located east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev.
He did not say what caused the fire, which was described as extremely difficult to put out. But some Russian media outlets said it was likely caused by a Ukrainian drone attack overnight. There was no official comment on that possibility.
Local residents heard an explosion shortly before the fire erupted, Russian news site Baza said.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv and elsewhere during the night as Ukrainian air defences shot down 21 of the Russian drones, Ukraine’s Air Force Command said.
No damage or casualties were reported in the third attempt in six days by the Kremlin’s forces to hit Kyiv.
Both sides reportedly have experienced ammunition shortages after a winter of long-range shelling and missile strikes as the conflict became bogged down in a war of attrition.
Analysts believe Ukraine is targeting supply lines in the Russian rear as Kyiv gears up for its counteroffensive amid improving weather conditions and as it receives large amounts of weapons and ammunition from its Western allies.
Vladimir Putin has signed a decree formally increasing the maximum sentence Russians found guilty of treason will must face, being a life sentences.
The move, which is part of a drive to suppress dissent since the start of the war in Ukraine, was posted on the Kremlin website and increases the penalties for treason, terrorism, and aiding the work of international organisations.
Lawmakers had already voted to boost the longest sentences for treason to life, up from 20 years.
Legislators also approved raising the maximum sentence for carrying out “a terrorist act” – defined as a deed which endangered lives and was aimed at destabilising Russia – to 20 years, from 15 years at present.
Those found guilty of sabotage could also go to jail for 20 years, up from 15, while people convicted of “international terrorism” could be sentenced to life, up from 12 years.
The decree did not explain what “international terrorism” is.
Mr Putin signed the new decree at a time when rights groups say authorities are stepping up efforts to quieten the few voices of opposition that remain.
But Russia says such laws are required to protect the country from infiltration by Ukraine and Western intelligence agencies.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) withdrawal plan announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa has been clarified by the South African administration.
On Tuesday, Mr. Ramaphosa announced that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) had decided to leave the ICC due to “unfair treatment” during a state visit by the president of Finland.
According to information that was leaked in 2019, Nikolay Bortsov had gained the right to reside in Britain covertly.
Despite seeming to be a devoted supporter of Vladimir Putin, he reportedly obtained “indefinite leave to remain” status as a resident of the UK.
The oligarch was discovered dead at his residence in the Lipetsk region on Sunday. He belonged to United Russia, the biggest pro-Putin group.
No cause of death was given for the 77-year-old, who made his fortune as the boss of a soft drinks company which he later sold a majority share of to PepsiCo.
As one of Mr Putin’s wealthiest deputies, he was reportedly worth £450 million and included in the Forbes list of Russia’s richest businessmen from 2011 to 2021.
Mr Bortsov is one of dozens of high-profile people connected to Putin to have died since the outbreak of the dictator’s war in Ukraine last year.
Multi-millionaire Mr Bortsov secretly gained rights to live in the UK in 2019, according to leaked data (Picture: Social media/east2west news)
Many of those deaths have come in strange circumstances, including falls from windows, random shootings, helicopter crashes and mysterious ‘suicides’.
One Russian oligarch even died last year after ‘shamans’ reportedly gave him toad venom to cure his hangover – but his cause of death was recorded as a heart attack.
Another MP, Dzhasharbek Uzdenov, 56, is also reported to have died the same day as Mr Bortsov.
At the time of the leak of his alleged UK status in 2019, Mr Bortsov denied holding British citizenship and always maintained it wasn’t true.
But news outlet Argumenti Nedeli reported leaked data that put him on a list of top Russian officials who had been granted residency in the UK.
It led to calls in Moscow for him and other parliamentarians to be checked by the security services for their loyalty.
He was subsequently sanctioned by Britain, the US, EU and Ukraine over the war.
Ukraine sentenced him to 15 years in prison in absentia for recognising the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk ‘people’s republics’.
Lipetsk region governor Igor Artamonov said: ‘We will remember Nikolay Bortsov as a patriot of his country, always ready to help those who need it, a man who did not stand aside.’
Mr Artamonov did not provide any details about Mr Bortsov’s cause of death.
Four bankers who allowed a friend of Vladimir Putin to deposit huge sums in Swiss banks have been found guilty of lacking due diligence.
The former executives at the Zurich branch of Russia’s Gazprombank were given seven-month suspended sentences for helping musician Sergei Roldugin, nicknamed “Putin’s wallet”.
Mr Roldugin reportedly paid in $50m (£42m) between 2014 and 2016.
He gave no credible explanation of where the money had come from.
Under Swiss law, banks are required to reject or close accounts if they have doubts about the account holder or the source of the money. Mr Roldugin, a cellist, is godfather to President Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria.
Three of the convicted bankers are Russian and one is Swiss.
The men, who cannot be identified under Swiss reporting restrictions, said they would appeal against the Swiss court’s decision.
The judge in the Zurich court said it was beyond doubt that Mr Roldugin was not the true owner of the money that he deposited.
The four bankers who opened the accounts should have asked questions: Mr Roldugin had no apparent income, so where did the money come from?
They failed to do this – and have been found guilty of violating Switzerland’s due diligence laws.
Their sentences are mild, but this case has big implications. If the money wasn’t Mr Roldugin’s, whose was it?
The Russian president, now under Western sanctions, is rumoured to have vast wealth, some of it invested abroad.
According to Ukraine’s foreign minister, incidents like the downing of an American drone over the Black Sea will continue until Russia vacates Crimea.
Yesterday, a $32 million American “Reaper” drone collided with a Russian fighter jet, sending the unmanned surveillance plane plunging into the Black Sea.
The action, which marked the first time an American aircraft had been shot down by a Russian fighter since the Cold War’s height, raised concerns that tensions between the two countries may worsen.
Yet despite the ‘deplorable state’ of relations between the two nations, a Kremlin spokesperson today announced that Russia would not rule out ‘constructive dialogue’ with the US.
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Asked if the incident could inflame tensions with Washington, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement that Russian jets didn’t use their weapons or impact the U.S. drone.
Peskov described U.S.-Russia relations as being at their lowest point, but added that ‘Russia has never rejected constructive dialogue, and it’s not rejecting it now.’
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the drone was flying in international airspace and over international waters when the encounter with the Russian fighter took place Tuesday.
He stressed that the drone’s presence over the Black Sea was not an uncommon occurrence.
‘It is also not uncommon for the Russians to try to intercept them,’ Kirby said, adding that such an encounter ‘does increase the risk of miscalculations, misunderstandings.’
Speaking to the BBC, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he did not expect to see any serious diplomatic escalation.
Describing it as a ‘routine incident’, Mr Kuleba said: ‘As long as Russia controls Crimea, these kinds of incidents will be inevitable and the Black Sea will not be a safe place.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said such skirmishes are ‘inevitable’ while Russia remains in Crimea (Picture: Getty)
‘So the only way to prevent such incidents is actually to kick Russia out of Crimea.’
While encounters between Russian and Nato aircraft are not unusual- before the invasion of Ukraine, Nato planes were involved in an annual average of 400 intercepts with their Russian counterparts- the war has heightened the significance and potential hazards of such incidents.
US military officials said the encounter happened on Tuesday morning and lasted for around 30-40 minutes.
Several times before the collision, Russian jets dumped fuel on the drone in a ‘reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner’, before flying underneath the craft and clipping its propeller, causing it to become ‘unflyable.’
The MQ-9 Reaper drone has not yet been recovered from the Black Sea and it is unclear whether it will be.
The secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, tweeted on Wednesday that the drone incident was ‘a signal from Putin that he is ready to expand the conflict zone, with drawing other parties in.’
At the Pentagon, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the intercept by the Russian jet was part of a ‘pattern of aggressive, risky and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace.’
Vladimir Putin’s spokeman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was open to ‘constructive’ dialogue with the US (Picture: Getty)
He said Russia must operate its aircraft in a safe manner.
‘Make no mistake, the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows, he added.’
After being summoned to speak to officials in Washington, Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov said Moscow saw the drone incident as ‘a provocation’.
Mr Antonov added that from the Kremlin’s point of view, ‘the unacceptable activity of the US military in the close proximity to our borders is a cause for concern.’
When asked by the BBC if the US and its allies might become more cautious following the incident, Mr Kuleba said: ‘The mood is not to escalate but nor is the mood to lean under the pressure – the physical or rhetorical pressure – of Russia.’
‘If the West wants to demonstrate its weakness, it should certainly demonstrate its cautiousness after an incident like this, but I don’t have a feeling that this is the mood in capitals,’ he replied.
An arrest order has been issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).
The basis for the request is the allegation that Putin illegally deported at least 100 children from Ukraine, a nation his troops invaded more than a year ago, committing a war crime.
70-year-old Putin is a former military intelligence officer and the third president who is currently in office who and wanted for arrest.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan were the other two African leaders.
The former is currently in jail after a civilian-led mass protest forced hi from office years ago whiles Gaddafi was killed in the 2011 NATO-backed revolution that threw the North African country into chaos.
Implications of arrest warrant
According to a Reuters report, the legal move will obligate the ICC’s 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.
Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities during its one-year invasion of its neighbour and the Kremlin branded the court decision as “null and void”.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, although Kyiv granted it jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed on its territory. The tribunal has no police force of its own and relies on member countries to detain and transfer suspects to The Hague for trial.
While it is unlikely that Putin will end up in court any time soon, the warrant means that he could be arrested and sent to The Hague if travelling to any ICC member states.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia found the very questions raised by the ICC “outrageous and unacceptable”.
Asked if Putin now feared travelling to countries that recognised the ICC, Peskov said: “I have nothing to add on this subject. That’s all we want to say.”
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and US Vice President Joe Biden has applauded this.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) charged President Putin with war crimes in Ukraine, which President Biden stated the Russian president had “obviously” committed.
The allegations center on the forcible removal of kids from Ukraine to Russia following Moscow’s incursion in 2022.
Moscow has denied the allegations and denounced the warrants as “outrageous”.
It is highly unlikely that much will come of the move, as the ICC has no powers to arrest suspects without the co-operation of a country’s government.
Russia is not an ICC member country, meaning the court, located in The Hague, has no authority there.
However, it could affect Mr Putin in other ways, such as being unable to travel internationally. He could now be arrested if he sets foot in any of the court’s 123 member states.
Mr Putin is only the third president to be issued with an ICC arrest warrant.
President Biden said that, while the court also held no sway in the US, the issuing of the warrant “makes a very strong point”.
“He’s clearly committed war crimes,” he told reporters.
His administration had earlier “formally determined” that Russia had committed war crimes during the conflict in Ukraine, with Vice-President Kamala Harris saying in February that those involved would “be held to account”.
The United Nations also released a report earlier this week that found Moscow’s forced removal of Ukrainian children to areas under its control amounted to a war crime.
In a statement on Friday, the ICC said it had reasonable grounds to believe Mr Putin committed the criminal acts directly, as well as working with others. It also accused him of failing to use his presidential powers to stop children being deported.
Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, is also wanted by the ICC for the same crimes.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has said the warrants were “based upon forensic evidence, scrutiny and what’s been said by those two individuals”.
The court had initially considered keeping the arrest warrants a secret, but decided to make them public to try and stop further crimes being committed.
“Children can’t be treated as the spoils of war, they can’t be deported,” Mr Khan told the BBC.
“This type of crime doesn’t need one to be a lawyer, one needs to be a human being to know how egregious it is.”
Mr Khan also pointed out that nobody thought that Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader who went on trial for war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, would end up in The Hague to face justice.
“Those that feel that you can commit a crime in the daytime, and sleep well at night, should perhaps look at history,” Mr Khan said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any of the court’s decisions were “null and void” and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared the warrant to toilet paper.
Russian opposition activists have welcomed the announcement. Ivan Zhdanov, a close ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has tweeted that it was “a symbolic step” but an important one.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his thanks to Mr Khan and the ICC for their decision to press charges against “state evil”.
The infamous Putin foe and former president of Georgia claims he was poisoned while incarcerated and doesn’t have much time left to live.
Mikheil Saakashvili, the pro-Western leader of Georgia at the time of Russia’s invasion in 2008, said that he has lost approximately half of his body weight recently.
He recently moved from a guarded clinic to prison, where he has been detained since 2018 on charges of corruption and abuse of power.
According to letters seen by Sky News, Mr Saakashvili wrote: ‘I was initially 120 kilograms, now I am 64, if I become less than 60 doctors predict multiple organ failure.’
He added: ‘I am in bed all the time, my bones are disintegrating and it gives [me] excruciating pain.’
Georgian Dream, the ruling party in Georgia, has consistently denied allegations that Mr Saakashvili was poisoned.
The government insists Mr Saakashvili’s weight loss is merely down to him not eating sufficiently, claiming he’s receiving adequate care in custody.
However, an independent expert gave evidence at a recent hearing indicating the former president does indeed show signs of exposure to heavy metals while in prison.
Mikheil Saakashvili claims he is being poisoned in prison.Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the Georgian government of ‘slowly killing’ Saakashvili.
Mr Saakashvili’s renewed claims of an ongoing attempt on his life come after mass protests in the capital of Tbilisi saw the government throw out a proposed law, which threatened to curtail civil society and press freedoms.
Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Georgia’s relationship with the West has steadily deteriorated. Not least given the longstanding ties between the ruling party’s oligarch founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, and powerful Russian business interests.
Those ties have seen repeated calls for Ivanishvili to face sanctions, and have been held up as an obstacle to Georgia’s ongoing aspirations for European Union membership – something supported by roughly 85% of the country’s population.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Tbilisi last week to demonstrate against the government’s attempt to pass measures to crush dissent There were fears the proposed law on ‘foreign agents’ would have threatened press freedoms and civil society if passed.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, has praised the Georgian government for not becoming ‘another irritant’ to the Kremlin by remaining largely neutral on the war in Ukraine.
Though a widely unpopular figure in Georgia due to rampant corruption and human rights abuses during his tenure as president, Mr Saakashvili has increasingly become a flashpoint for mounting tensions.
Last week, French president Emmanuel Macron called for Mr Saakashvili’s release and warned the accelerating deterioration of his health is being viewed as a ‘litmus test’ for Georgia’s goal of joining the bloc.
Founder of Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, is being called on to release his precessor from priosn.
Mr Macron’s comments follow Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accusing the Georgian government of ‘slowly killing’ Mr Saakashvili, who has also served as a politician in Ukraine.
In his correspondence with Sky News, Mr Saakashvili issued a message to those who demonstrated outside the Georgian parliament, writing: ‘Stay very vigilant, be ready to mobilise at short notice, because of the vengeful mood of the oligarch’s regime.’
After weeks of brutal battle steadily wore down an unyielding Ukrainian opposition, Russian soldiers are inching closer and closer to taking the city of Bakhmut.
Bakhmut is a relatively small town in eastern Donetsk that has been out of reach of Russia’s plodding ground assault for many months, which is not the kind of city Moscow had hoped to be fighting for in the second year of its invasion.
Yet, if it were taken, Russian President Vladimir Putin would have made some military progress and would have given his army the chance to conduct aerial assaults on more western major centers.
Here’s what you need to know about the battle for Bakhmut.
Ukraine’s biggest challenge at this moment is defending Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video message Tuesday.
Russian forces have been making incremental gains around the city, but Ukrainian forces are yet to retreat, creating a standoff that recalls drawn-out battles for other eastern cities such as Severodonetsk over the past year.
On Saturday, Land Forces of Ukraine said on its Telegram channel that “the enemy keeps trying to break through the defenses and take Bakhmut” and that the commander of Ukraine’s Eastern Military Group, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, had visited units that are defending the city and its approaches.
Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Zelenksy, told CNN on Tuesday that “the situation is difficult. There is no secret about that.”
“Russia is trying to encircle it right now and they’re using their best Wagner troops, apparently, the most well trained and experienced,” the adviser added. “Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, you know, they’ve held the city, but, if need be, they will strategically pull back because we’re not going to second guess all of our people just for nothing.”
The Ukrainian military has also confirmed that Russian forces are employing more experienced fighters from the ranks of the Russian private military company Wagner as they attempt to capture the town.
There are still around 4,500 civilians in Bakhmut, including 48 children, as Russian forces continue to advance on the city, the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Donetsk regional military administration Tetiana Ignatchenko told CNN on Wednesday.
She called on people to evacuate the city due to the danger but said they had enough supplies.
“There is food, water and medicine in the city. People were provided with everything in advance,” Ignatchenko said. “Still, everyone has to leave. The situation is extremely dangerous for civilians.
A soldier from Ukraine’s 93th Brigade says his country’s forces are still standing in Bakhmut, with no plans for a retreat.
“We are standing in Bakhmut. No one is going to retreat yet,” the soldier said a video posted by the Ukrainian military on Wednesday. “We are standing. Bakhmut is Ukraine.”
The soldier also claimed the situation in Bakhmut was a bit calmer than in previous days.
“We have muffled the enemy down a little bit. It’s a little calmer, but there are still gunfights on the outskirts,” he said. “There are isolated explosions, bombs are flying.”
But Ukrainian troops have acknowledged that it is becoming harder to hold onto the city as the routes in from the west are squeezed by Russian forces, who have advanced both to the north and south of Bakhmut.
“The situation in Bakhmut is very difficult now. It is much worse than officially reported,” a soldier who didn’t want to be named told CNN on Tuesday. “In all directions. Especially in the northern direction, where the (Russians) have made the biggest advance between Berkhivka and Yahidne.”
The city sits towards the northeast of the Donetsk region, about 13 miles from Luhansk region, and has been a target for Russian forces for months. Since last summer the city has been a stone’s throw from the front lines, so its capture would represent a long sought-after success for Moscow’s forces – and bring some limited strategic value.
The city has important road connections to other parts of the Donetsk region; eastwards to the border with Luhansk, north-west to Sloviansk and south-west to Kostiantynivka.
For several weeks the routes into Bakhmut have gradually come under the control of Russian forces. Rather than drive directly towards the city center, Wagner groups have sought to encircle the city in a wide arc from the north. In January they claimed the nearby town of Soledar, and have since taken a string of villages and hamlets north of Bakhmut.
If the Russians can take the high ground to the west of the city, nearby industrial towns Kostiantynivka and Kramatorsk would be at the mercy of their artillery and even longer range mortars. And it is unclear where exactly Ukrainian forces would fall back to should they retreat from the city.
But experts say capturing Bakhmut is unlikely to dramatically alter the overall picture of the war in eastern Ukraine, where little territory has changed hands in 2023. And it would in some ways signal the overriding failures of Russia’s invasion that, early in its second year, the capture of a relatively small city has required such a long and costly assault.
While Bakhmut’s strategic importance should not be overstated, its capture could still carry a very welcome symbolic impact for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When Russian troops took the town of Soledar in mid-January, it marked a first gain in the Donbas for months. Six weeks on, the capture of Bakhmut would represent the completion of the next step.
It matters too to oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who runs the Wagner group and has frequently criticized the Russian Defense Ministry’s management of the “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.
His Wagner fighters, many of them former prison inmates, have taken heavy casualties in what has become a battlefield of trenches and mud, reminiscent of World War I. After months in which the Russian Ministry of Defense delivered nothing but retreat, Prigozhin has been keen to show his men can deliver with the seizure of Soledar and now Bakhmut.
Nonetheless, urgent questions will remain for Putin even if his forces pull off a successful assault on Bakhmut.
“The specter of limitless Russian manpower is a myth. Putin has already been forced to make difficult and suboptimal choices to offset the terrible losses his war has inflicted on the Russian military, and he will face similarly difficult choices in 2023 if he persists in his determination to use military force to impose his will on Ukraine and the West,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank wrote on Sunday in an update on the state of Russian forces and firepower.
“Russia can mobilize more manpower, and Putin will likely do so rather than give up. But the costs to Putin and Russia of the measures he will likely need to take at this point will begin to mount rapidly,” the ISW wrote.
On Thursday, the UN General Assembly in New York overwhelmingly backed a resolution denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over a year prior.
Fifteen African countries abstained and 28 supported the vote
South Africa, Ethiopia, Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Namibia, Central Africa Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Guinea, Mozambique, Sudan, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe abstained in the vote.
The resolution demanded an end to hostilities in Ukraine and the departure of all soldiers. Though not legally binding, the measure has political influence.
141 countries voted in favor, 32 abstained, and seven countries opposed. Africa represented over half of the abstentions.
Eritrea and Mali were the only African countries who voted against.
Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and Guinea-Bissau did not take part in the voting.
Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana and Kenya were among the African countries who backed the vote.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the resolution which he described as a powerful signal of global support.
Friday marks exactly a year since the full-scale invasion began.
The #UNGA 11th ESS (resumed) just adopted draft resolution A/ES-11/L.7 on Principles of the Charter of the #UN underlying a comprehensive, just & lasting peace in #Ukraine (by recorded vote: 141 in favour-7 against-32 abstentions) – FULL TEXT 🔗 https://t.co/cY7MpDcTt5@UN_PGApic.twitter.com/wCtq8719t5
On February 24, one year has passed since Russian forces invaded.
When asked if we could expect the battle to continue in another 12 months, Ben Wallace responded, “I think we will.”
“I believe that Russia has completely disregarded the lives of both its own military and the people of Ukraine.
‘We are sitting here 12 months in and 188,000, actually more now, Russian soldiers are dead or injured as a result of this catastrophic miscalculation and aggression by President Putin.
‘When someone has crossed the line and thinks it is OK to do that to your own people, running effectively a meat grinder for an army, I think he is not going to stop.’
Mr Wallace added that planes currently held by Nato countries could be given to Ukraine as the conflict continues.
The Defence Secretary stressed the battle in Ukraine was ‘not a Nato conflict’.
Ukraine has begged for more tanks and weapons to aid their forces (Picture: Getty / REX)Ben Wallace said Putin ‘will not stop’ (Picture: UK MOD Crown copyright)
But, asked on LBC whether Nato-supplied fighter jets could be sent to Kyiv, he said: ‘Supplied by Nato, yes.
‘There is already talk, I think, of an eastern European country supplying MiG-29s.
‘We’re not going to see Nato, we’re going to see countries that are members of Nato potentially put in air force equipment or MiG-29.’
He claimed he ‘didn’t start the war’ in a rambling address that lasted near to two hours.
A selection of cabinet minsters, deputies and senators were all in attendance as the address is broadcast across the world.
Putin referred to the war as a ‘special military operation’ and referred to the situation in Ukraine as a ‘military coup’.
He claimed Ukrainians have been waiting for his troops to ‘come to their help’ and that the West released a ‘genie in a bottle.’
Vladimir Putin attends a patriotic concertin Moscow on February 22, 2023. (Picture: Maksim Blinov/ SPUTNIK/AFP)Medical personnel from Ukraine’s 72nd Mechanized Brigade treat soldiers at a stabilization hospital near the frontline on February 22, 2023 (Picture: John Moore/Getty Images)
Putin said: ‘They started the war and we used the force to stop it.”
‘They spent $150bn to support militarily Kyiv’s regime.’
He went on to tell the audience each Russian has a ‘great responsibility’ to ‘protect our people on our historic land.’
In remarks delivered from Warsaw, Poland, three days before the anniversary of Russia’s complete invasion of Ukraine, Biden specifically criticised Putin.
“President Putin believed we would submit when he ordered his tanks to advance into Ukraine.” He was mistaken,’ Biden said on Tuesday in front of the Polish Presidential Palace.
‘The Ukrainian people are too brave. America, Europe, a coalition of nations for the Atlantic to the Pacific, we were too unified. Democracy was too strong.’
Biden: ‘Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia’
Biden said Putin ‘no longer doubts the strength of our coalition’ but that he ‘doubts our continued support for Ukraine’ and the unification of NATO. The US president assured that ‘NATO will not be divided, and we will not tire’.
‘President Putin’s craven lust for land and power will fail. And the Ukrainian people’s love for their country will prevail,’ Biden said.
‘Democracies in the world will stand guard over freedom today, tomorrow and forever. For that’s what it’s – that’s what’s at stake here: Freedom.’
Biden delivered his remarks a day after making a surprise visit to Kyiv, during which he stood alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced $460million more in military aid.
President Joe Biden delivered a speech marking the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Royal Castle Gardens in Warsaw (Picture: AP)
The US notified the Kremlin of Biden’s surprise visit ‘some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes’, according to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
On Tuesday, Biden said the world a year ago ‘was bracing for the fall of Kyiv’. But, ‘I can report that Kyiv stands strong’, he said.
Biden concluded that the world is at ‘an inflection point’ and that decisions in the next five years will shape the decades to come.
‘While decisions are ours to make now, the principles and the stakes are eternal,’ Biden said. ‘The choice between chaos and stability, between building and destroying between hope and fear, between democracy lifting up the human spirit – and the brutal hand of the dictator who crushes it.’
President Joe Biden condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin by name in remarks from Warsaw, Poland (Picture: Reuters)
Biden ripped Putin, but did not call for him to be ousted.
Hours earlier, Putin told Russia’s parliament that the country would no longer participate in the New START nuclear arms treaty with the US. It was the last major arms control agreement between the two superpowers. Russia will suspend, but not withdraw from the treaty.
Putin did not mention Biden by name in his announcement.
Biden’s speech was not intended as a response to Putin, but rather coincided with the one-year anniversary of the war on Friday, according to Sullivan.
‘We did not set the speech up as some kind of head to head, this is not a rhetorical contest with anyone else,’ Sullivan said. ‘This is an affirmative statement of values, a vision for what the world we’re both trying to build and defend should look like.’
The mayor of Kyiv and former world boxing champion urged people not to ignore the situation in his nation during an interview with Canadian news outlet CTV.
Just keep in mind that we are discussing nuclear weapons, he said.
‘An explosion could touch everyone on our planet, and that is why we have to do everything we can to stop this war.’
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak has said the UK ‘stands ready’ to support allies who can provide Ukraine with fighter jets.
The UK has refused to commit to handing RAF jets to President Zelensky’s forces, with the Prime Minister only saying he has not ruled it out.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko (L) and his brother Wladimir Klitschko (Picture: EPA)
But Mr Sunak said he would back nations who are in a position to supply war planes with immediate effect to Ukraine.
He told broadcasters in Germany: ‘We will happily provide assistance to any country that is able to provide Ukraine with fighter jets right now.
‘The UK stands ready to support those countries as well.’
Downing Street used a visit by Mr Zelensky to Britain last week to announce the Ministry of Defence would train Ukrainian pilots on Nato-standard aircraft.
Despite No 10 opening the door to potentially sending jets to Kyiv, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said the move could be years away, if it happens at all.
Rishi Sunak spent the weekend pledging his support for Ukraine (Picture: Reuters)
Some experts have suggested RAF aircraft are ill-equipped for the warfare in Eastern Europe. And any deal would also have to be signed off by other countries.
Polish aircraft, more similar to Ukrainian jets, could be used in combat sooner than British planes.
Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki said he wanted to discuss transferring its Soviet-era MiG fighter jets, as part of a wider coalition led by the US.
Mr Sunak, asked whether he had spoken to Mr Morawiecki about providing his MiGs to Ukraine, said: ‘What I’ve done is said to all allies that we stand ready to support them if they can provide fighter jets for Ukraine now.’
State-run RIA Novosti news agency said the outage was caused by a distributed denial of service attack.
Radio Mayak – also blocked – said the web channels were hit by hackers.
Before the speech started, state TV broadcast a segment showing technical preparations, saying the live stream would be carried across all major networks.
In his rambling address to the country, Putin claimed he ‘didn’t start the war’, referring to it as a ‘special military operation’.
He claimed Ukrainians have been waiting for his troops to ‘come to their help’ and that the West released a ‘genie in a bottle.’
The screen announced ‘Mistake 500’ (Picture: RossiyaTV/e2w)Putin said the West ‘started the war’ in the address to the nation (Picture: AP)
‘They started the war and we used the force to stop it,’ he said.
Putin repeatedly addressed the situation in the Donbas region – where vast areas are controlled by Russian separatist groups as a result of the war.
In his speech, he continued: ‘Step by step, carefully and consistently, we will resolve the tasks facing us.
‘Since 2014, the [people of the] Donbas had been fighting, defending their right to live on their own land, to speak their native language.
Putin: Ukraine started the war, West have kept it going
A family watches the broadcast of Vladimir Putin’s address in Moscow (Picture: AFP)
‘They fought and did not give up in the conditions of blockade and constant shelling, undisguised hatred on the part of the Kyiv regime.
‘We patiently tried to negotiate a peaceful way out of this most difficult conflict, but a completely different scenario was being prepared behind our backs.’
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has ruled out ceding any land to Russia as part of a future peace agreement.
In an interview with the BBC to commemorate a year since Russia’s invasion, he cautioned that giving up land would allow Moscow to “keep coming back,” while Western weaponry would advance the cause of peace.
A expected spring offensive, according to Mr. Zelensky, has already started. “Russian attacks are already happening from several directions,” he said.
He does, however, believe Ukraine’s forces can keep resisting Russia’s advance until they are able to launch a counter-offensive – although he repeated his calls for more military aid from the West.
“Of course, modern weapons speed up peace. Weapons are the only language Russia understands,” Mr Zelensky told the BBC.
He met UK and EU leaders last week in a bid to bolster international support and to ask for modern arms to defend his country. When Ukraine’s president asked for modern fighter jets, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said “nothing is off the table”.
But Kyiv has become increasingly frustrated with the speed with which Western weapons have arrived. Deliveries of battle tanks – promised last month by a swathe of Western countries, including Germany, the US and the UK – are still thought to be weeks away from arriving on the battlefield.
President Zelensky also addressed a threat by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko to wage war alongside Russian troops from his territory if a single Ukrainian soldier crossed the border.
“I hope [Belarus] won’t join [the war],” he said. “If it does, we will fight and we will survive.” Allowing Russia to use Belarus as a staging post for an attack again would be a “huge mistake”, he added.
Russian forces launched part of their full-scale invasion from Belarus 12 months ago. They drove south towards Ukraine’s capital Kyiv but were fought back and made to retreat within weeks, after suffering heavy casualties.
When asked if he was surprised by Russia’s tactics in the war, Mr Zelensky described them as “valueless”.
“The way they destroyed everything. If their soldiers received [and carried out] those orders, that means they share those same values.”
Ukrainian data released this week suggested Russian troops in Ukraine were dying in greater numbers this month than at any time since the first week of their invasion. The figures cannot be verified, but the UK’s Ministry of Defence said the trends were “likely accurate”.
“Today, our survival is our unity,” said Mr Zelensky on how he thought the war will end. “I believe Ukraine is fighting for its survival.” His country was moving towards Europe economically, as well as through its values, he said.
“We chose this path. We want security guarantees. Any territorial compromises would make us weaker as a state.”
“It’s not about compromise itself,” he said. “Why would we be afraid of that? We have millions of compromises in life every day.
“The question is with whom? With Putin? No. Because there’s no trust. Dialogue with him? No. Because there’s no trust.”
Vladimir Putin has said the threat of a nuclear war was rising, but insisted Russia had not “gone mad” and would not use its nuclear weapons first.
The Russian president insisted that his country would only use weapons of mass destruction in response to an attack.
Speaking at Russia’s annual human rights council meeting, he also said the war in Ukraine could be a “lengthy process”.
Western officials believe Putin initially planned for a rapid victory.
Russia’s capacity to use nuclear weapons has come under increased scrutiny since it invaded Ukraine in February.
“Such a threat is growing, it would be wrong to hide it,” Putin warned while talking about the prospect of nuclear war via video link from Moscow.
But he asserted that Russia would “under no circumstances” use the weapons first, and would not threaten anyone with its nuclear arsenal.
“We have not gone mad, we are aware of what nuclear weapons are,” he said, adding: “We aren’t about to run around the world brandishing this weapon like a razor.”
Putin also boasted that Russia had the most modern and advanced nuclear weapons in the world, and contrasted its nuclear strategy to the US – who he said had gone further than Russia by locating its nuclear weapons on other territories.
“We do not have nuclear weapons, including tactical ones, on the territory of other countries, but the Americans do – in Turkey, and in a number of other European countries,” he said.
Putin has previously insisted that Russia’s nuclear doctrine only allowed for the defensive use of nuclear arms.
Appearing to recognise that his plan to claim victory within days of invading Ukraine had failed, Putin admitted the war could be a “lengthy process”.
However, he said the results had already been “significant” – for example, the new territories Russia has illegally claimed after sham-referendums in four regions of Ukraine.
He boasted that the annexations had made the Sea of Azov – which is bordered by south-east Ukraine and south-west Russia – an “internal sea” of Russia, adding that this was an aspiration of Russian Tsar Peter the Great. President Putin has compared himself to the 17th and 18th Century ruler before.
The airstrikes have caused widespread damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions without heating and electricity for hours, or even days, as temperatures dropped below zero.
The Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, warned that Ukraine’s capital – which has been badly affected by power cuts – could face “apocalypse”.
“Kyiv might lose power, water, and heat supply. The apocalypse might happen, like in Hollywood films, when it’s not possible to live in homes considering the low temperature,” Mr Klitschko told Reuters in an interview.
Though heated shelters have been set up in the city, Mr Klitschko admitted there were not enough for all residents, and people should be ready to evacuate if the situation worsens.
Back in Russia, any potential criticism of Putin’s invasion was stymied before the human rights council.
In the run-up to Wednesday’s meeting, 10 members of the council who had expressed doubts about the war were removed. Pro-war replacements were brought in instead.
Subjects to be discussed during the meeting were also heavily vetted beforehand, according to the independent Russian news outlet Verstka.
In recent weeks, Russia’s nuclear doctrine has come under close scrutiny on when nuclear arms could be used, in particular a “tactical” weapon that might be unleashed on the battlefield in Ukraine.
A tactical nuclear weapon is for use in combat, as opposed to the larger “strategic” weapons which are designed to cause massive destruction.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended her policy towards Russia prior to the February invasion of Ukraine, saying she had run out of power to influence Vladimir Putin.
She said she had tried to convene European talks with the Russian president and French President Emmanuel Macron in the summer of 2021.
“But I didn’t have the power to get my way,” she told Spiegel news.
“Really everyone knew: in autumn she’ll be gone,” she said.
After four terms as chancellor Mrs Merkel left office in December. She paid a final visit to Moscow in August 2021, and told the German news magazine that “the feeling was very clear: ‘In terms of power politics you’re finished’.”
She added that “for Putin, only power counts”.
It was significant that, for their final meeting, Mr Putin brought Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with him, she said. Previously they had met one-to-one, she noted.
In light of President Putin’s invasion – preceded by weeks of massive military build-up on Ukraine’s borders – many have argued that Mrs Merkel and other EU leaders should have adopted a tougher approach to the Kremlin.
A foreign policy expert in her Christian Democrat (CDU) party, MP Roderich Kiesewetter, is among those who say she knew that Mr Putin was trying to split and weaken Europe, but she believed “soft power” was the right approach. He argued before the invasion that Germany was too dependent on Russian gas.
In the Spiegel interview, Mrs Merkel said her stance on Ukraine in the Minsk peace talks had bought Kyiv time to defend itself better against the Russian military.
A ceasefire deal was reached in Minsk after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and during its proxy war in the Donbas region. But key points, including disarmament and international supervision, were not implemented.
Mrs Merkel said she did not regret leaving office in December, because she felt her government was failing to make progress not only on the Ukraine crisis, but also on the conflicts in Moldova, Georgia, Syria and Libya, all of which involved Russia.
She and Mr Putin both had direct experience of life in communist East Germany – she grew up there and he served there as a Soviet KGB officer, doing secret intelligence work. Mr Putin speaks fluent German and Mrs Merkel speaks some Russian.
There have been reports that people with no military service have been issued draft papers for Russia’s partial mobilisation.
This is despite defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s guarantee that only those with special military skills or combat experience would be called up to support the campaign in Ukraine.
Now Russia’s two most senior lawmakers, both close Putin allies, have addressed complaints about the Kremlin’s mobilisation drive, ordering regional officials to get a handle on the situation and quickly solve the “excesses” that have sparked public anger.
Valentina Matviyenko, the chairwoman of Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, said she was aware of reports of men who should be ineligible for the draft being called up.
“Such excesses are absolutely unacceptable. And, I consider it absolutely right that they are triggering a sharp reaction in society,” she said in a post on the Telegrammessaging app.
In a direct message to Russia’s regional governors – who she claimed had “full responsibility” for implementing the call-up – she wrote: “Ensure the implementation of partial mobilisation is carried out in full and absolute compliance with the outlined criteria. Without a single mistake.”
Meanwhile, Vyacheslav Volodin, who is the speaker of Russia’s lower chamber, the State Duma, also expressed concern in a separate post. “Complaints are being received,” he said.
“If a mistake is made, it is necessary to correct it… Authorities at every level should understand their responsibilities.”
Some 300,000 Russians will called up to serve in the mobilisation campaign, say officials. The Kremlin has twice denied it plans to draft more than one million, following two separate reports in independent Russian media outlets.
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has supported Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 85-year-old said Russia’s leader was “pushed” into the conflict.
Silvio Berlusconi believes that Russian troops were meant to replace the government with “decent people” then leave.
“Putin was pushed by the Russian population, by his party and by his ministers to invent this special operation. The troops were supposed to enter, reach Kyiv in a week, replace the Zelensky government with decent people and a week later come back,” Mr Berlusconi.
Unfortunately, he said they found “an unexpected resistance, which was then fed by arms of all kinds from the West.”
The three-time Italian PM is a long-term ally of the Russian President.
This weekend his party is expected to take power as part of a right-wing coalition in a general election in Italy.
A narrative alleging the Ukrainian government was slaughtering Russian speakers in the east of the country was created by the media in Moscow, Mr Berlusconi told Italian TV.
He said the reporting, pushed by separatist forces and nationalist politicians in the Russian government, had left Mr Putin with no choice but to launch a limited invasion.
Mr Berlusconi has long been an admirer of Mr Putin, in 2012 joining the then-prime minister for a skiing trip in the Russian city of Sochi.
But in April, he condemned the invasion and said he was “deeply disappointed and saddened” by Mr Putin’s behaviour, adding that the “massacres of civilians in Bucha and other localities are real war crimes”.
The Forza Italia party leader is currently campaigning as part of a right-wing coalition ahead of Sunday’s general election.
His centre-right party is the junior partner of the alliance, which is anchored by Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini’s populist Lega Nord party. Polls have suggested the bloc will win a majority.
Despite Mr Berlusconi’s past friendship with Mr Putin, and Mr Salvini’s criticism of Western sanctions on Russia, Ms Meloni, who is expected to lead any potential government, has pledged to continue Italy’s support of Ukraine.
“The war in Ukraine is the tip of the iceberg of a conflict aimed at reshaping the world order,” she said earlier this month. “So we have to fight this battle.”
Currently Russia has a limit of just over a million military personnel and almost 900,000 civilian staff.
Vladimir Putin’s decree comes amid a recruitment drive around the country, with large cash incentives on offer.
Western officials say 70-80,000 troops have been killed or wounded since Russia invaded Ukraine six months ago.
There have been reports that recruiters have even been visiting prisons, promising inmates freedom and money.
The UK Ministry of Defence said in a statement two weeks ago that volunteer battalions being set up in several Russian regions were likely to form part of a new army corps.
But it said “very limited levels of popular enthusiasm for volunteering for combat in Ukraine” meant it would be difficult to find the required number of troops.
Russia had initially promised a short, decisive campaign when it invaded Ukraine in February, but fierce Ukrainian resistance has stalled its progress and in recent weeks front lines have hardly moved.
Moscow has not said how many fatalities its army has recorded since it began the war in Ukraine. However, Western officials and Kyiv believe the number is in the thousands.
Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s military to expand with another 137,000 personnel starting from next year.
The announcement by the Russian president came a day after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine reached  its six-month mark.
Moscow has not revealed any losses in the conflict since the first weeks, but Western officials and the Kyiv government believe the number is in the thousands.
The Russian president signed a decree on Thursday, but it didn’t explain how the military will beef up its ranks and whether this would be through more conscriptions, more volunteer soldiers or a combination of both.
The Kremlin said online volunteer contract soldiers participate in the “special military operation” in Ukraine, denying claims that it was thinking of a broad mobilisation.
According to Professor Michael Clarke, unless a “war” is declared by Russia in Ukraine then conscription is not permitted.
Prof Clarke, former director-general of the Royal United Services Institute, said: “Then there is a fair amount of mutiny at the front lines. But that will not stop the offensive in itself.
“Russia is now offering big amounts (three to four times the average monthly salary) for young men to take the military contract and serve for as little as six months, with virtually no training.
“Desperate stuff, but Russia will keep feeding young men into the war. Many of them will die with bulging bank accounts back home.
Mr Putin’s decree aims to increase the number of military personnel to 1,150,628, which will come into effect on 1 January.
In November 2017, Mr Putin fixed the size of the number of combat personnel in Russia’s army to 1.01 million from a total armed forces headcount, including non-combatants, of 1.9 million.
Dozens killed on Independence Day
Wednesday marked 31 years since it gained independence from the Soviet Union, a date that fell on the same day as the six-month point of Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine had been bracing for heavy attacks during the day, and a rocket attack in the town of Chaplyne killed 25 people at a train station.
In the occupied city of Melitopol, in the southeast, the mayor said resistance forces have “blown up” a building which was being used by Russian-back officials in the village of Pryazovsko, which is just outside the city.
Ivan Fedorov posted a video on his Telegram channel said to show damage to the building, which was apparently being used for issuing Russian passports and to prepare for “voting” in a “pseudo-referendum”.
The vote is being planned as a way to incorporate the region into Russia.
Mr Fedorov also claimed on Thursday that Russia had cut off electricity in nearly all the captured areas of the Zaporizhzhia region and said people were now without power, as well as water and gas.
Former US president George W Bush accidently condemned Vladimir Putin’s invasion of “Iraq”, before correcting himself by saying he was talking about Ukraine.
Mr Bush made the gaffe during a speech at an event in Dallas, Texas, where he was talking about the importance of fair elections.
He said, “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq… I mean of Ukraine“.
Mr Bush was president during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 over weapons of mass destruction that were never found.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says that Russia has agreed to offer security assistance in the case of external military threats.
Mr Lukashenko also voiced concerns over Nato military exercises taking place in neighbouring Poland and Lithuania.
The news comes as the embattled president faces mass protests over the disputed 9 August election.
Thousands gathered outside state television on Saturday, demanding full coverage of the demonstrations.
The unrest erupted after President Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in last week’s election, the result of which has been condemned amid widespread allegations of vote-rigging.
The Central Election Commission says Mr Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, won 80.1% of the vote and the main opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya 10.12%.
But Ms Tikhanovskaya insists that where votes were properly counted, she won support ranging from 60% to 70%.
What’s happening politically?
As the unrest continued on Saturday, Mr Lukashenko sought help from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Lukashenko said President Putin had promised to provide what he called comprehensive assistance in the event of external military threats to Belarus.
The announcement came the day after EU foreign ministers agreed to prepare new sanctions against Belarusian officials responsible for “falsification”. The US has also condemned the election as “not free and fair”.
In a joint statement on Saturday, meanwhile, the prime ministers of three Baltic republics – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – “expressed deep concern at the violent crackdown… and the political repression of the opposition by the authorities”.
Lithuania and Latvia have previously said they are prepared to mediate in Belarus, provided the authorities stopped violence against protesters and formed a national council with members of civil society. They warned that the alternative was sanctions.
The leaders said the presidential election was “neither free nor fair” and called for a “transparent” vote “with the participation of international observers”.
“The prime ministers urge the Belarusian authorities to refrain from violence against peaceful demonstrators [and to] release all political prisoners and those that have been detained,” the statement added.
Ms Tikhanovskaya left for Lithuania following the election after she publicly denounced the results. She had sent her children to Lithuania for safety before the vote.
Some 6,700 people were arrested in the wake of the election, and many have spoken of torture at the hands of the security services.
Amnesty International said accounts from released detainees suggested “widespread torture”.
What’s the latest with the protests?
Demonstrations have continued following Ms Tikhanovskaya’s call for further peaceful rallies on Friday.
Some 100 staff came out of the state television building to join Saturday’s protests, saying they planned a strike on Monday, AFP news agency reports. Others have signed a letter in support of a strike.
“Like everyone we are demanding free elections and the release of those detained at mass protests,” one employee, Andrei Yaroshevich, told AFP.
On election day, Belarusian state channels aired the voices of Lukashenko supporters and did not cover the demonstrations. State TV later showed footage of violence to blame protesters and warn people not to participate.
Several journalists have resigned over the coverage.
Earlier on Saturday, thousands of people waved flags, lit candles and laid flowers at the scene close to the metro station where one of the protesters, Alexander Taraikovsky, died on Monday.
Others held up pictures of injured protesters, while drivers joined in by honking their horns.
Many opposition supporters chanted “Leave!” – a call for President Lukashenko to resign – and some carried signs with slogans against police violence.
The circumstances of Mr Taraikovsky’s death are unclear.
Officials say he died when an explosive device went off in his hand during a protest, but his partner, Elena German, told the Associated Press news agency that she believed the 34-year-old was shot by police.
A “March for Freedom” is also planned in the centre of the city on Sunday, a week after the contested election.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said a locally developed vaccine for Covid-19 has been given regulatory approval after less than two months of testing on humans.
Mr Putin said the vaccine had passed all the required checks, adding that his daughter had already been given it.
Officials have said they plan to start mass vaccination in October.
Experts have raised concerns about the speed of Russia’s work, suggesting that researchers might be cutting corners.
Amid fears that safety could have been compromised, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged Russia last week to follow international guidelines for producing a vaccine against Covid-19.
On Tuesday, the WHO said it had been in talks with Russian authorities about undertaking a review of the vaccine.
Currently, the Russian vaccine is not among the WHO’s list of six vaccines that have reached phase three clinical trials, which involve more widespread testing in humans.
More than 100 vaccines around the world are in early development, with some of those being tested on people in clinical trials.
Despite rapid progress, most experts think any vaccine would not become widely available until mid-2021.
What did President Putin say about the vaccine?
Calling it a world first, President Putin said the vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, offered “sustainable immunity” against the coronavirus.
He said he knew the vaccine was “quite effective”, without giving further details, and stressed that it had passed “all needed checks”.
Mr Putin also said the vaccine had been given to one of his daughters, who was feeling fine despite a brief temperature increase.
“I think in this sense she took part in the experiment,” Mr Putin said.
He did not specify which of his two daughters had received the vaccine. It is rare for President Putin to talk publicly about his daughters. The lives of his daughters, named Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova in media reports, have been shrouded in secrecy.
Russian scientists said early-stage trials of the vaccine had been completed and the results were a success.
The Russian vaccine uses adapted strains of the adenovirus, a virus that usually causes the common cold, to trigger an immune response.
In July Russian scientists announced that early-stage trials of a vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute had been completed / EPA
But the vaccine’s approval by Russian regulators comes before the completion of a larger study involving thousands of people, known as a phase-three trial.
Experts consider these trials an essential part of the testing process.
Despite this, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Tuesday the vaccine had “proven to be highly effective and safe”, hailing it as a big step towards “humankind’s victory” over Covid-19.
Russia’s opposition is denouncing this week’s vote on President Vladimir Putin’s constitutional reforms as a joke, pointing out that copies of the amended basic law are already on sale in Moscow bookshops.
From liberal reformers to Communists, Kremlin critics say the vote — which started last week and ends on Wednesday — is a thinly veiled attempt to keep Putin, 67, in power for life.
But other than tepid calls to boycott or vote “No”, the opposition has done little to actively fight the changes.
Russia’s top opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who last summer rallied thousands against suspected voter fraud in Moscow, has also shown little interest in combating the reforms.
Experts say deep divisions and shrewd moves by the Kremlin are keeping opponents from mounting any serious opposition to Putin’s plans.
“A lack of resources, a lack of new faces, a lack of excitement, inspiration and faith — that’s what I think are the main reason for the problems,” said Vitali Shkliarov, a Harvard University fellow and political adviser who has worked with the Russian opposition.
“There have been a million opportunities to prove yourself” since Putin announced the reforms, he said. But after years of repression, Kremlin critics feel dispirited.
“The Russian opposition does not believe in itself.”
Putin proposed amending the constitution in January and later approved a last-minute addition that would reset presidential term limits to zero, potentially allowing him to serve two more six-year terms after his mandate expires in 2024.
They also include political changes like strengthening the role of parliament and a series of populist measures such as a requirement to adjust state pensions for inflation and an effective ban on gay marriage.
Opinion polls show a majority of Russians support the social amendments but there is less enthusiasm for the political reforms.
‘Opposition in a bind’
The amendments have already been approved by parliament but Putin called the public vote in an effort to boost their legitimacy.
Initially planned for April 22, the ballot was postponed by the coronavirus epidemic and analysts say its quick scheduling and then rescheduling is part of the reason the opposition has been unable to mount a strong campaign.
Tatyana Stanovaya, the founder of analysis firm R. Politik, said the Kremlin also pulled the rug from under its opponents when it gave Russians the choice to vote only “yes” or “no” on the entire package of changes, instead of individual amendments.
Opposing popular measures such as better pensions and minimum wages could leave Kremlin opponents vulnerable, she said.
“In such a situation it’s hard to argue against the amendments,” she told AFP. “The opposition is in a bind.”
Liberal party Yabloko has urged Russians to stay away from the “illegal, anti-constitutional and fake vote”.
The Communist Party is calling on its supporters to vote “No”, an unusual move for a party that often toes the Kremlin line.
‘A circus with balloons’
Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner who has organised the biggest anti-Kremlin demonstrations in recent years, has slammed the reforms as a “constitutional coup” but has done little to forcefully oppose them.
He has said a debate about whether to participate in the plebiscite is pointless because lawmakers have already backed the amendments and the vote will be a fraud.
“What we are left with is a circus with balloons,” he wrote on Telegram.
While many opposition supporters have been frustrated by its inability to offer a more decisive plan of action, some said change will come sooner or later.
Mikhail Samin, a 20-year-old programmer who took part in anti-government protests in Moscow last summer, pointed to Putin’s approval ratings, which fell to a historic low of 59 per cent in April, according to a poll by the Levada Centre.
“The opposition is moving in the right direction,” Samin said. “Society is moving in the right direction.”
Navalny has said that, instead of focusing on Putin’s constitutional changes, Russians should prepare for regional elections in September and parliamentary polls due in 2021.
Last year pro-Kremlin candidates suffered losses in Moscow city polls after Navalny called for tactical voting to oppose Putin loyalists.
Analyst Stanovaya said it was time for Navalny to save his strength for another battle.
