The UK has said it will place more than 50 new restrictions on Russia before the second anniversary of their invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions aim to punish people and companies supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort.
Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron said the UK will keep supporting Kyiv for as long as necessary.
After the opposition leader Alexei Navalny died, six Russian prison bosses were punished with sanctions.
The Foreign Office said the new punishments will target those who give Russia’s military weapons like rocket launchers, missiles, and explosives.
The sanctions are aimed at stopping Russia from making money from metals, diamonds, and energy. This is to stop President Putin from getting funding for his war.
Lord Cameron said that because of the economic pressure from other countries, Russia cannot afford to continue with the illegal invasion.
“Our sanctions are making it hard for Putin to get the money he needs to support his war. ”
“United, we will keep fighting against tyranny without giving up. ” We will keep helping Ukraine in its fight for democracy for as long as it is needed.
Some people were punished, including oil trader Niels Troost and his company Paramount Energy and Commodities SA, and Pavel Alekseevich Marinychev, the new CEO of Alrosa, which is the biggest state-owned diamond producer in Russia.
The Foreign Office said that they have also targeted several foreign companies for helping Russia in their war efforts.
Saturday is the second anniversary of when Russia invaded Ukraine.
The fight is kind of stuck and not making much progress, although Moscow seems to be doing better lately. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has asked the western countries to give Ukraine more weapons. He says if they don’t, it will make Russia’s forces feel more confident.
The EU is creating a set of plans to go along with the anniversary of the war.
The British government has put restrictions on Russia. This happened one day after the Foreign Office said it had stopped the prison bosses in charge of the jail where Alexei Navalny died from using their money and from traveling.
Some people said the measures were not strong enough and complained about them.
The government has approved sanctions on 2,000 people, businesses, and groups as part of its efforts against Russia.
The US said it will impose more sanctions on Russia after Navalny died.
Navalny was a very important leader for the Russian opposition for the last ten years. He was in jail for 19 years for charges that many people thought were made up for political reasons.
The Russian prison service said he died last Friday at the IK-3 Arctic penal colony, also known as “Polar Wolf”, after going for a walk and suddenly falling down.
Navalny’s team says they think President Putin ordered his murder. Western leaders are putting the blame on Mr. Putin and the Russian authorities for his death.
Mr Putin has not said anything about his death directly. The Kremlin admitted that he died and said the Russian president knew about it.
Tag: Russia
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UK imposes additional sanctions on Russian military
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Russian pilot “shot dead” in Spain after defecting to Ukraine
A man was shot and killed in Spain. There is speculation that he is the Russian helicopter pilot who traveled to Ukraine last year.
In August, Maxim Kuzminov flew a helicopter into Ukraine and turned himself in.
The Spanish police have not said who the man is, but he was killed near Alicante last week.
But, Ukrainian spies said that Mr Kuzminov died on Monday.
“We confirm that he died,” said a representative to the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda. He chose to go to Spain instead of staying here.
“He asked his former wife to come with him, and later he was found dead from a gunshot. ”
Spanish police told the media that the person who got hurt might have been living using a fake name.
According to the Spanish news agency Efe, the body of Mr. Kuzminov was found near a house in the town of Villajoyosa on the eastern coast of Spain. His documents matched his nationality, but had a different name on them.
A burned car that might have been used by the attackers was found close to where the crime happened, the intelligence agency’s press service said.
Last year, Mr Kuzminov told the Ukrainian secret service that he wanted to leave and join them.
The “Operation Synytsia” allowed him to fly his Mi-8 helicopter over the border and land it in eastern Ukraine on 9 August.
Two more people on the helicopter didn’t know what Mr. Kuzminov was going to do. They were shot and killed when they tried to run back to the border after the helicopter landed. Kuzminov, who was also shot in the leg, said that the Russian forces were responsible for the killings.
In September, Mr Kuzminov said in a news conference that he changed his mind and joined the other side because he didn’t agree with Russia’s war on Ukraine.
He also said that Ukraine agreed to give him $500,000 (£397,000) in government payments, new documents, and protection for his family.
The Ukrainian government said they gave Mr Kuzminov the chance to stay in Ukraine.
The person in charge of keeping Ukraine safe said that the person would have been safe here. “He said they didn’t behave as badly here as they did in Spain. ”
Russian officials have not made a statement, but Sergei Naryshkin, who runs Russia’s spy agency, called the person a traitor and criminal.
A few months after Mr Kuzminov left, Russian TV showed a man who is supposed to be a Russian spy saying, “I don’t think he will live long enough to go to trial. “ -
Ukraine war: Russia arrests US-Russian woman on suspicion of treason
A woman with citizenship in both the US and Russia has been arrested in Russia for allegedly betraying her country and giving money to Ukraine’s army.
The woman from Los Angeles was collecting money for a Ukrainian group that supports the armed forces in Kyiv, according to the Russian security agency FSB.
She was also accused of going to rallies in the US that support Ukraine.
The 33-year-old was held by the police in Yekaterinburg.
The FSB stated that the woman has been gathering money for the Ukrainian organization since February 2022, when Russia began its big military operation in the country.
It said that the money was later used to buy things like medical supplies, equipment, and weapons and bullets for the Ukrainian army.
The video from RIA Novosti, a Russian news agency, showed a woman with her face covered and blurred, walking with a police officer.
She was put in handcuffs and taken to a police car. Then she was taken to a small room in the court and later taken out.
The FSB stated that the woman was working against the safety of our country and was supporting the Ukrainian army while in the US.
Last year in April, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, made a new law that gives a longer jail sentence for treason. This is part of his plan to stop people from speaking against the government.
The FSB arrested a woman in Yekaterinburg, which is 1,600km east of Moscow. This is the same city where US journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested for spying last year.
Mr Gershkovich, who knows a lot about Russia, was working for the Wall Street Journal at the time.
In January, Russia decided to keep him in jail until the end of March for trial. He could go to prison for up to 20 years if he is proven guilty.
The US government says that the reporter was kept in custody unfairly.
Last week, Mr Putin told US host Tucker Carlson in an interview that he thinks they might be able to make a deal to release Mr Gershkovich.
A few more Americans are currently in jail in Russia. One of them is Paul Whelan, a former marine who has been in prison there since 2018. He was found guilty of spying and has to spend 16 years in prison. -
Ukraine war: Attack on Russia’s Belgorod commercial complex close to border
At least five people died in an air attack on the Russian city of Belgorod, according to the governor of the region.
Eighteen people were hurt in the attack near the Ukrainian border.
Videos on social media showed many ambulances outside a shopping center with broken windows.
Russian officials said their defense systems shot down 14 missiles from Ukraine in the Belgorod region.
Russian Zvezda TV, which is connected to the military, reported that one missile hit a shopping center and one landed on the city’s sports stadium.
Belgorod is about 30 kilometers (19 miles) away from the Ukraine border.
Ukrainian forces have been attacking it since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago.
In December, a drone and rocket attack killed 25 people and hurt 100 others in Belgorod, marking the deadliest attack in the city.
Yesterday, Russia shot 26 missiles at Ukraine. It killed a 66-year-old woman in Chuguyiv, near Kharkiv in the east, and hurt many other people.
At the same time, fighting continues in the eastern town of Avdiivka in Ukraine.
A few Ukrainian soldiers told the media that the town might be taken over very soon. They said they don’t have enough weapons and ammunition.
NATO boss Jen Stoltenberg said Thursday that if the US doesn’t keep helping Ukraine’s military, it will hurt them in fighting.
Avdiivka is an important place because it is a way to get to the city of Donetsk, which is controlled by Russia. It has been active on the front line since 2014 when the fighting in eastern Ukraine began. -
Russian landing ship Caesar Kunikov sank off coast of Crimea – Ukraine
A large Russian ship called the Caesar Kunikov has sunk near Crimea. Ukraine’s armed forces reported this.
There were loud explosions on Wednesday morning, as per local social media. They said that the ship was hit not far from Yalta town.
Ukraine has attacked Russia’s navy in Crimea several times.
Satellite pictures from last year showed that most of the ships had left the peninsula.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency said on a messaging app that they used Magura V5 naval drones in the attack.
Russia has been at war with Ukraine for almost three years. Ukraine’s military leader says the situation is very difficult.
Last week, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi became the top commander. On Wednesday, he went to the front line after a Russian missile killed three people in Selydove.
Russia’s navy did not confirm that the Caesar Kunikov ship was sunk in the Black Sea. They only said they destroyed six Ukrainian drones. A video showing the aftermath of the Ukrainian attack was recently uploaded and verified by media.
Russian military bloggers acknowledged that their aircraft had been hit, but said that the crew had survived. The Russian military doesn’t often tell about big defeats and Russians listen to just a few popular bloggers for news.
The Caesar Kunikov was made at the end of the Soviet period. If it’s confirmed that the ship has sunk, it would be the second time a ship has been successfully hit in the Black Sea this month. A little ship called Ivanovets was attacked by drones about two weeks ago.
In December, the Novocherkassk, a Russian landing ship, was hit while parked in the port of Feodosiya. -
7 “burned alive” after Russia strikes oil station in Kharkiv
Seven people died in a Russian drone attack in the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine. This caused a big fire.
Two parents and their three young boys were killed in a fire at their home, according to regional deputy police chief Serhiy Blovinov.
The entire street. “He said it was like a hellish melted mess when the attack happened on Friday night,” he told Ukrainian TV.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported that 15 houses belonging to individuals were completely destroyed by fire.
President Zelensky promised to take strong action against Russian acts of terrorism.
He found out that the three children who died were named Oleksiy, who was 7 years old, Mykhailo, who was 4 years old, and Pavlo, who was only 7 months old.
An old couple died in a fire in a house on Kotelna street in the eastern Nemyshlianskyi district.
The Mayor Terekhov said in a video that the Russian attacker is destroying our city. “We will succeed. “We will be victorious,” he said.
He said the Russian attack made 57 people in Russia homeless and without any belongings.
Ukraine’s leaders said a gas station was hit, but then said they were wrong.
Kharkiv, a big city in Ukraine close to Russia, has been attacked by Russians almost every day in the past few days, resulting in a lot of deaths.
One man got hurt in a Russian drone attack in Odesa, a city in southern Ukraine, on Friday night.
Russia’s army did not say anything about the attacks that were reported.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine with a big army in February 2022. -
Russia’s war economy has gained time, but cannot endure – Faisal Islam
It was March of 2022. The Russian money (rouble) lost a lot of its value, and the big companies Gazprom and Sberbank lost almost all of their worth in London. Lines started to form at the ATM machines in Moscow. The rich people’s expensive boats, sports teams, big houses and even their credit cards were taken away.
Russia’s economy went into a big downturn.
This happened right after the West tried really hard to control Russia’s money because they invaded Ukraine.
At the center of the situation was taking control of Russia’s official money from other countries, including freezing the central bank’s $300 billion in reserves.
Western governments did not say “economic war”, but it seemed like they were fighting with the Kremlin over money. It was better than if the nuclear states had fought directly.
A lot has changed in the economy in the past two years.
This week, President Putin said in a long interview that Russia has the fastest growing economy in Europe, and he seemed very happy about it.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the Russian economy is doing well and they expect it to grow by 2. 6% this year, which is higher than they previously thought.
According to the IMF, the Russian economy grew faster than the economies of the G7 countries last year, and it is expected to do the same again in 2024.
These are more than just numbers. Russia has been using its economy to strengthen its military presence in Ukraine, especially by building defense lines in the east and south of the country. This has led to a deadlock in the conflict and the expectation that it will continue for a long time.
Western leaders say that this model cannot continue for much longer. But how long can it last.
Russia changed its economy to focus on supporting the war. The Russian government is spending more money than ever before since the Soviet Union broke up.
The amount of money being spent on the military and security is now as high as it was during the late Soviet era, up to 40% of the budget. Other government services for people have been reduced to pay for making tanks, missiles, and defenses in Ukraine.
Furthermore, even though Western countries have put limits on Russian oil and gas, the money from selling these resources has still been coming into the government’s bank account.
The tankers are now going to India and China. They are getting paid more in Chinese yuan than in US dollars.
Russian oil production is still at 9. 5 million barrels every day, which is not much lower than before the war. The country has avoided sanctions by purchasing and using a large number of tankers that are not officially registered.
The government’s finance department said that in January, they collected more taxes from oil and gas than they did in January 2022. This was just before the war started.
The money coming into Russia from selling oil, gas, and diamonds has also helped to make the value of the rouble less strained.
Western leaders strongly believe that this cannot continue, but they understand how it is affecting things.
One important person said in secret that Putin will have a better year in 2024 than we thought. He did a better job of organizing his business than we expected.
Russia showed something.
However, this way of economic growth has made Moscow rely a lot on money from selling oil, on China, and on spending money on wars instead of making useful things.
As the need for oil and gas goes up and other countries in the Arabian Gulf start producing more, Russia will have to face challenges.The GDP goes up when tanks and shells are made and used in eastern Ukraine, but this doesn’t help the country’s economy.
In the meantime, Russia has lost some of its smartest people to other countries.
The West’s plan is not to attack Russia’s economy directly, but to play a game of cat and mouse to limit their access to technology, increase their expenses, reduce their income, and make the conflict difficult for them in the long run.
One official from the US said they would prefer if Russia used its money to buy oil tankers instead of tanks. In the oil market, the goal of policy is not to stop India, for instance, from purchasing Russian oil but to reduce the money going to Russia’s military from that trade.
However, this strength and deadlock may continue for the rest of the year. It fits with the plan in the Kremlin to wait for a new US president and less money from the West for Ukraine’s defense.
That’s why people are now focusing on the important role of the billions of dollars in Russian money that is frozen.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that if the world has $300 billion, they should use it to fund Ukraine’s rebuilding. He wants to use the frozen funds for this purpose.
The Chancellor of the UK, Jeremy Hunt, and the Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, support the decision.
Lord Cameron said: “We have stopped these assets from being used. ” The question is, will we use them.
He said that using some of this money now is like getting an early payment for Russia’s debt for invading Ukraine. This money could be used to help Ukraine and also save money for Western taxpayers.
The G7 wants its banking experts to study and explain the details. Central bankers are nervous. A top money expert warned me that there could be dangers in using the dollar as a weapon. Normally, central banks are protected from these kinds of actions by government authority.
A plan is being made to use the money made from investments to raise a lot of money for Ukraine.
But it is a delicate balance. If Russia’s money is taken like this, what will other countries think about keeping their money safe in Western banks. This could worry countries in the Gulf, Central Asia, or Africa.
These relationships are really important for global money flow, moving a lot of money around to pay for energy worldwide. Putin wanted to say that China is becoming a choice for countries that are not part of the West.
The Russians also said they will go to court if anything is taken from them, and they will take assets from Western companies in Russian banks in return.
Understanding the fight for control of Russia’s economy is really important for knowing what’s going on in this conflict and the global economy.
Russia’s economy during war is not able to last a long time, but it has given the country more time. The Western countries are going to increase their efforts, because Russia has shown unexpected strength.
The way money is growing will have big effects, not just in Russia and Ukraine, but in other places too. -
Trump promises to ‘convince’ Russia to strike NATO nations who fail to make bill payments
Donald Trump wants Russia to attack any Nato country that doesn’t pay its bills.
At a big gathering on Saturday, he said he had told a leader he wouldn’t defend a country that didn’t pay its bills and would let the bad guys do whatever they wanted.
Nato members promise to protect any country in the group if it is attacked.
The White House said the comments were terrible and crazy.
Speaking to a big group at a rally in South Carolina, Mr Trump said he talked about Russia when he met with leaders from Nato countries.
He remembered that the leader of a “big country” talked about a made-up situation where they were not paying their bills to Nato and got attacked by Moscow.
Mr Trump said the leader wanted to know if the US would help his country in that situation, which made him give a strong criticism.
I asked, “Didn’t you pay. Are you late with your payment. ” “No, I won’t defend you. In fact, I would support them doing anything they want. ” You have to give money.
A spokesperson from the White House said the ex-president was supporting attacks on our closest friends by violent governments, and called the remarks terrible and crazy.
He said that the statement puts American safety, worldwide stability, and our economy in danger at home.
Mr Trump, who is expected to be the Republican candidate in the upcoming US presidential election, has always criticized Nato and thinks that the United States is spending too much money on defending 30 other countries.
Russia started a big attack on Ukraine in 2022, after Mr. Trump stopped being the President. He has complained about the money that the US sends to Ukraine because Ukraine is not a member of NATO.
The US has given Ukraine more money than any other country. They have given them over $44 billion since 2022, when the invasion happened. These numbers come from the White House in December.
But Republicans in Congress have stopped any new money from being given since the beginning of the year. They want strict rules to limit people from coming into the US from the southern border, and they said no to the changed bill when it was shown earlier this week.
Mr Trump was happy that the President Biden’s proposals were rejected and he talked about it at a rally on Saturday. He said that the proposals were very bad.
The two problems have been separated, so now senators can talk about the aid money separately. -
Ukraine claims Russian drone strike on Kharkiv killed three children
At least seven people died after Russian drones attacked the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine.
Oleh Syniehubov says that a baby and two kids, aged four and seven, were hurt.
Pictures from the town close to the Russian border show some houses on fire because a petrol station was hit.
A man got hurt in a drone attack in the southern city of Odesa, Ukraine, by Russia.
Upset and emotional, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that the Russian attacker is destroying our city.
“We will succeed in the end. “We are going to win,” he said in a video from where the Russian attack happened.
He said that 14 houses were burned down.
The Russian military has not said anything about the strikes that were reported.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin started a big attack on Ukraine in February 2022. -
Putin’s opponent disqualified from running for president of Russia
Russia’s election committee said no to Boris Nadezhdin, who wanted to run for president and is against the war.
Mr Nadezhdin has spoken out against Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, but in Russia, not many people are allowed to disagree.
He tried to prove that the election commission was wrong about more than 15% of the signatures on his application being wrong.
However, the commission said no to his offer.
Mr Nadezhdin said on social media that he won’t give up and will take the decision to Russia’s Supreme Court.
I got over 200,000 people’s names in Russia. We gathered things in a fair and honest way.
The Election Commission said that Mr Nadezhdin‘s 9,000 signatures were not valid.
He was very close to getting the 100,000 signatures he needed, but he ended up with 95,587 names, said commission member Andrei Shutov.
Russia will choose a president between 15-17 March. It’s already known that only candidates approved by the Kremlin are running, so the result is not a surprise.
A decision on who can participate in the election will be made on Saturday. -
3 people killed by Russian airstrikes in Ukraine
Russian missiles hit Kyiv and other cities on Wednesday morning. This caused at least three deaths and 11 injuries, as reported by Ukrainian authorities.
President Zelensky said two people died and 10 others got hurt in Kyiv.
Officials said a man was killed in Mykolaiv, a city in the south.
The entire country was told to be careful of air attacks, and there were reports of attacks as far west as Lviv, near the border with Poland.
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a Russian missile hit power lines, causing some people in the city to lose electricity.
Ukraine’s top military leader, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said that Russia launched 64 missiles and drones, but 44 of them were stopped. The Ukrainian air force found Russian cruise missiles flying over the western areas of Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk.
In Mykolaiv, someone who was taken to the hospital after being hurt has passed away, according to the city’s mayor Oleksandr Senkevich.
Some people got help at the place where they were hurt from the attack. The attack also broke homes and stopped gas and water from working, the man said.
There were also loud explosions in Kharkiv, and the military said that some buildings and roads were damaged.
Ukraine has been getting bombed a lot since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022. Russian soldiers often use different kinds of weapons like drones and missiles when they attack. -
Russian attack on Ukrainian hotel kills two-month-old baby boy
A baby boy who was two months old died and his mother got hurt when a missile from Russia hit a hotel in the north-eastern part of Ukraine, according to officials.
The baby was rescued from the collapsed building in Zolochiv village, according to the governor of Kharkiv region, Oleh Synehubov.
Two more women got hurt when Russia launched two S-300 missiles. The missiles hit the hotel and buildings close by.
The area of Kharkiv has been facing more and more attacks since the end of 2023.
Zolochiv is only 20km (12 miles) from the Russian border, and Ukraine’s air defenses can’t protect it very well because it’s too close to Russia.
The missiles that hit the hotel on Tuesday were made to defend Russia’s air space, but were changed to target Ukraine on the ground. They are thought to be less expensive than better-targeted cruise missiles.
In the city of Kharkiv, a hotel was hit by missiles. Many people, including journalists, were hurt. It happened last month.
Ukrainian soldiers fought back against Russia’s attack in late December by launching a deadly assault on the city of Belgorod, which is only a short drive from the border.
In another news, Ukraine’s security service, SBU, has arrested five people suspected of being part of a Russian spy group.
The SBU said that five people, who are currently or used to work for the main intelligence and foreign intelligence agencies, were involved. They are accused of giving information to Russia’s FSB about the military, energy plants, and where US-made rockets are located.
Russia has been fighting a big war in Ukraine for almost two years, but they haven’t been winning much on the battlefield after the first few weeks.
Russian soldiers are trying really hard to take control of the town of Avdiivka in the east. They want to get to the city of Donetsk, which is controlled by Russia.
The town is almost empty and most of its buildings are destroyed.
Ukraine didn’t gain much land in their counter-attack last summer. President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is thinking about replacing some of the leaders of the country.
Many people think that he is going to remove the very liked leader of the armed forces, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who said in November that the war was stuck and not moving forward.
If we want to be successful, we all need to be leaders and work together to achieve victory. The president told Rai TV that we must not lose hope or give up in despair.
The US government wants to give Ukraine $60 billion in aid, but some members of Congress are stopping it from happening. They are doing this because they are also trying to make a law for border security, and they have connected the two issues together.
The European Union agreed to give Ukraine 50 billion euros (about 43 billion pounds) in aid over the next four years. Josep Borrell, who is in charge of the EU’s foreign policy, visited Kyiv on Tuesday to show that the EU strongly supports Kyiv as the war approaches its third year. -
Jospong Group to sponsor 600 Ghanaian students’ education at RUDN University
Over the next five years, more than 600 Ghanaian students are set to receive scholarship packages from the Jospong Group of Companies for studies at RUDN University in Russia.
The scholarships, covering Agriculture, Information Technology, Integrated Waste Management, and Climate Change studies, will benefit 120 Ghanaian students annually from 2024 to 2029.
The historic event was attended by the Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, and the Russian Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Sergei Berdnikov.
Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, the Executive Chairman of Jospong Group, affirmed the company’s commitment to absorbing the students upon the completion of their education.
In his assurance, Dr. Agyepong stated, “Gone are days when you finish your education and you stay behind because of lack of opportunities back home but I want to assure you that Jospong is ready to work with you so come and let’s develop Ghana together,” he assured.
This collaboration marks a significant stride in expanding educational opportunities for Ghanaian youth.
The ceremony symbolizes the beginning of a partnership aimed at making enduring contributions to agriculture, information technology, integrated waste management, and climate change studies.
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Jospong Group of Companies awards scholarships to over 600 Ghanaian students for studies in Russia
The Jospong Group of Companies has announced scholarship packages for over 600 Ghanaian students to pursue their studies at RUDN University in Russia over the next five years.
The scholarships, spanning diverse fields such as Agriculture, Information Technology, Integrated Waste Management, and Climate Change studies, are set to benefit 120 Ghanaian students annually from 2024 to 2029.
The momentous announcement took place in the presence of key dignitaries, including the Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, and the Russian Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Sergei Berdnikov. The collaboration between Jospong Group and RUDN University signals a significant stride in broadening educational opportunities for Ghanaian youth.
During the ceremony, the Executive Chairman of Jospong Group, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, expressed his commitment to supporting the scholarship recipients beyond their academic pursuits. “Gone are the days when you finish your education and you stay behind because of a lack of opportunities back home. I want to assure you that Jospong is ready to work with you, so come and let’s develop Ghana together,” he declared.
The scholarship program aims to empower Ghanaian students in key sectors, fostering expertise in areas crucial for national development. The fields of Agriculture, Information Technology, Integrated Waste Management, and Climate Change studies represent critical areas where the scholarship recipients are poised to make a lasting impact upon their return to Ghana.
This collaborative effort not only provides educational opportunities but also underscores the commitment of Jospong Group to contribute to the development of the nation. The company’s assurance to absorb the students into meaningful roles post-education aligns with the broader vision of building a skilled and empowered workforce for the country.
As the first cohort of students prepares to embark on this educational journey, the partnership between Jospong Group and RUDN University is poised to create enduring impacts in Ghana, shaping a brighter future for the scholarship recipients and the nation as a whole.
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‘Russian missile boat struck by Ukraine in Black Sea’
Ukrainian forces claim they have destroyed a Russian missile boat from the Black Sea Fleet in a special operation near Russian-occupied Crimea.
The Ivanovets, a small warship, was hit directly on its side and sunk overnight, according to military intelligence.
It has released a video that claims to show the moment when the crash happened, and then a big explosion.
Russian authorities have not said anything about the incident.
However, a Russian military blogger named “Voenkor Kotenok” wrote on Telegram that the boat sank after being hit three times by naval drones.
The boat in the Ukrainian video looks like a Tarantul missile boat, which is the same type of boat that the Ivanovets is.
This includes the arrangement of the mast and sensors on the main part of the ship, and a big radar dome on top of the bridge.
Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said their special unit “Group 13” destroyed the boat in Lake Donuzlav, a bay in Crimea where the naval base is located.
The Russian ship was hit several times and got damaged. It couldn’t move anymore and sank. This was reported on their Telegram channel.
A rescue mission by Russian teams in the area did not find anything.
The ship was said to be worth around $60-70 million (or £47-55 million).
Ukraine did really well in the war near the Black Sea. They were able to damage or destroy Russian warships even though they don’t have their own fleet.
In December, Kyiv destroyed a big boat called Novocherkassk in Feodosia, Crimea. Russia said the ship was broken.
Last September, a missile hit the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol. Satellite pictures revealed that the Russian navy had shifted a lot of its Black Sea fleet from Crimea to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. -
First PoW swap since plane disaster between Russia and Ukraine
Russia and Ukraine traded soldiers they had captured. This is the first time they have done so since a Russian plane crashed, and Russia said it had 65 prisoners of war on it.
Russia’s military says both sides received 195 soldiers back.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 207 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians were brought back on Wednesday.
Kyiv doubts Russia’s statement that Ukrainian prisoners were on the plane that crashed in Russia last week.
Russian investigators now believe that the Il-76 military transport plane was shot down by a missile in the Belgorod region based on information from its flight recorders.
The Russian army said that 65 Ukrainian soldiers were on the plane going to the area for a prisoner swap. -
Putin’s opponent files for presidential candidature in Rusia
Boris Nadezhdin, who is challenging the Kremlin , says he has gathered enough signatures to run for president in Russia.
The old local politician has become known for speaking his mind about Mr. Putin and Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Nadezhdin said he gave the electoral authorities more than 100,000 signatures they needed.
The group in charge of elections needs to look at his application now.
Vladimir Putin, the current president, has signed up to run for the election as an independent candidate in March. It is likely that he will win and serve another six years as president.
Mr Nadezhdin, 60, was a member of the local government for more than 30 years. In a country where people who disagree have been arrested or killed, he has been able to criticize Mr. Putin without getting in trouble, at least for now.
He just said the president has almost ruined the important parts of Russia’s government, and he told the BBC that if he’s chosen, his first job will be to stop the war in Ukraine.
Right after the deadline today, Mr. Nadezhdin posted a picture of himself standing next to some boxes filled with papers that have his supporters’ signatures on them.
This is something I am very proud of – the result of the hard work of many people working tirelessly for many days. He said on X (Twitter) that the things you waited for in long lines in the cold are in those boxes.
Many Russians stood in line in the cold all over the country to add their name to the list of people supporting Mr.
Vladimir Putin has been in charge of Russia’s politics since 2000. In 2020, they changed the rules so he could stay in charge past 2024.
If he wins in March, he will be the president until 2030. After that, he can serve for six more years until 2036 if he chooses to run for election again. -
Vladimir Kara-Murza: Russia activist fears covert jail modification
A lawyer for Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian who opposes the government, says he has been taken to a different prison in Siberia’s Omsk region.
Worry about his safety had increased after the Russian-British man, who was found guilty of treason for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, disappeared from prison.
Transferring prisoners in Russia is kept a secret and can take a long time.
Previously, the UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron asked for clear information about where Mr Kara-Murza is.
First, people asked the prison in Omsk where he was kept, and they said he was not there anymore.
On Tuesday, his lawyers said he was moved to a new prison in the same area, according to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe.
In a letter to his lawyers, Mr Kara-Murza said he was moved as a punishment for not getting up when a guard told him to stand.
He said the guards thought that this was a mean breaking of prison rules.
“I’m goodI have clothes, shoes, food, and warmth. The people here are doing well too,” he said.
Mr Kara-Murza said he was put in a small room by himself and was told he might be moved after four months.
The wife of the activist, Evgenia Kara-Murza, shared the letter on Tuesday.
“I am very worried about Mr. Kara-Murza, who is a British citizen being held in Russia for speaking out against the invasion of Ukraine,” Lord Cameron wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) on January 29th.
Mrs Kara-Murza found out on Monday that he has been taken from a punishment cell to somewhere else in the penal colony where he has been held since September 2023.
“He doesn’t have a reason to be moved, and that is very scary because the people who tried to kill him in 2015 and 2017 are the ones who have him now,” she said, talking about two times when he almost died after being poisoned.
The British foreign secretary said, “I support his wife. ”
Mr Kara-Murza got 25 years in jail in April for sharing wrong information about the Russian army and being part of a group that the government doesn’t like.
The person who used to be a journalist and a politician, and is now 42 years old, said that the accusations against him are not true.
For many years, he has been speaking against Russian President Vladimir Putin and has criticized the government’s actions against people who disagree with them, as well as the war in Ukraine.
He also helped convince Western governments to punish Russian officials for treating people unfairly and being dishonest.
Just before he was punished, he said online: “I believe that one day our country will become better. ”
The UK government didn’t like what he said, so they asked Russia’s ambassador to come in for a talk. They also said they would take action against the people who were responsible for his arrest and treatment.
The US state department said that Mr Kara-Murza is another person targeted by the Russian government’s increasing campaign of repression.
Mr Kara-Murza’s family was well-known for speaking out against the Soviet government. He got British citizenship when he moved to the UK as a teenager with his mother.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been in jail since 2021 for reasons many people think are politically based, was moved to a different part of the prison in December. During this time, he was unable to communicate with his supporters for almost three weeks. -
At least 27 people dead in attack on Donetsk in Russian-occupied Ukraine
Officials appointed by the government in Moscow said that Ukrainian shelling caused the deaths of at least 27 people and injured 25 at a market near Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine that is controlled by Russia.
Two children were hurt in the neighborhood called Tekstilshchik, according to Denis Pushilin, who is in charge there.
Officials in Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, did not give a response to the situation, and The Associated Press could not confirm the claims on their own. Both sides have been using longer-range attacks more often this winter. The front line in the war has not changed much in the past two years, and it covers a distance of 1,500 kilometres (930 miles).
The bombs were shot from Kurakhove and Krasnohorivka towards the west. Pushilin said that the emergency services went to help.
The United Nations The U. N’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly disapproves of all attacks on innocent people and buildings, including the recent shelling of Donetsk in Ukraine. The spokesperson said that these types of attacks are not allowed by the rules of international humanitarian law.
Donetsk is a place in Ukraine that Russia took over without permission in 2022. This happened after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the Ukraine was responsible for the attack and called it a terrorist attack.
Also on Sunday, there was a fire at a chemical transport terminal in Russia’s Ust-Luga port after two explosions, according to local officials. The local news reported that the Baltic Sea port is 165 kilometers (about 100 miles) southwest of St. Petersburg was attacked by drones from Ukraine and it caused a gas tank to explode.
The fire was at a place owned by the second biggest company in Russia that gets natural gas, called Novatek.
The company told a Russian news outlet that the fire was caused by something outside of their control, and that work at the port had stopped.
Yuri Zapalatsky, the leader of the Kingisepp district by the Gulf of Finland where the port is, said no one got hurt but everyone is being extra careful.
The Fontanka news outlet said that they spotted two drones flying towards St. On Sunday morning, the group was supposed to go to Petersburg but had to go to the Kingisepp district instead. AP could not check the reports by itself.
Russia’s military did not say there were any drones flying in the Kingisepp area in its daily report. It was reported that four Ukrainian drones were taken down in Russia’s Smolensk region, and two more were shot down in the Oryol and Tula regions.
Russian officials said that they shot down a Ukrainian drone near St. On Thursday in Petersburg.
In a battle in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry said their forces have captured a village called Krokhmalne in the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian soldiers said the town had been taken over, but they think it won’t last long.
Volodymyr Fityo, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ground Forces Command, said that the troops from Kyiv were moved to backup positions from the village, which used to have about 45 people before the war started.
Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske reported that he said there are five houses. “We want to protect the soldiers in Ukraine and keep them safe. ”
Lately, Russia has been launching a lot of missiles and drones at Ukraine to try and find weak spots in their defense. They are using so many that it seems like they are trying to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defense systems.
A lot of drones and missiles were launched in December. On January 29th. According to officials in Kyiv, the fighters are also using up Ukraine’s weapons. -
Ukrainians fear prisoner swaps with Russia may end plane disaster
Russia and Ukraine are blaming each other for the crash of a Russian military plane. Families are worried that prisoner swaps may not happen and their loved ones may remain in jail.
Simple words: People are arguing about even the most basic things. Russian officials said that the plane was shot down by Kyiv on Wednesday. They also said that there were 65 Ukrainian prisoners on the plane, and they were going for a prisoner swap. Ukraine said they don’t have proof of prisoners of war and think Russia is messing with their minds. It said that something was supposed to happen on Wednesday.
Both sides didn’t show proof for their accusations, leaving family and friends feeling exposed and without any explanations. Many Ukrainians were already very worried before the incident and hadn’t heard anything from their family members in captivity for months.
Yevheniia Synelnyk’s brother has been held captive for more than a year and a half. She was sad and stressed on Wednesday because different news stories made her worry.
She said, “You don’t know which one is true. ”
The next day, feeling very tired.
“I’m too tired to cry anymore,” she said.
Synelnyk is a member of a group called the Association of Azovstal Defenders’ Families. The group was made in June 2022, after about 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers gave up to Russia because of the Ukrainian president’s orders during the attack on the Azovstal steel mill in May. The association says that about 1,500 workers from the steel mill are still being held prisoner. Ukrainian officials said that many people captured in other battles are being held in Russia.
Yevheniia Synelnyk says that the worries of the prisoners’ families are getting bigger because the prisoners who have come back are telling stories of being tortured and mistreated.
Now, lots of families are worried that the trades will end, said Synelnyk. When soldiers came back, they would tell prisoners’ families about other captives. She hasn’t heard anything about her brother for a year.
The families helped each other on Wednesday.
Synelnyk said that we need to stay strong and be together because we don’t have any other option. He also said that they will continue to plan and hold rallies. “As long as people pay attention to them, they are still alive. ”
Illia, a 21-year-old ex-prisoner of war, goes by the name Smurf and doesn’t share his last name for safety reasons. He goes to the rallies every week and tries to never miss one. He thinks it’s the least he can do for the people who are still stuck in prison.
He clearly remembers the last day at the prison in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in the Rostov region. In FebruaryHe heard his name in 2023. He didn’t know that he had been put on the lists to trade. First, he and a group of other prisoners of war traveled in a vehicle for three hours. Afterwards, his eyes were covered and he was taken on a plane for about four hours. The plane stopped to pick up more prisoners of war. The person could not see them, but he heard the sound of their hands being taped. The journey ended with a four-hour bus ride to the meeting point.
“I can’t describe these feelings with words, but I will never forget the moment I realized I had been traded,” he said.
After he came back, he did exercises to get better. But the memories of being trapped for ten months still affect his everyday life. He has been losing weight and the doctors don’t know why. He now weighs only 44 kilograms, which is 97 pounds.
Illia said he believes that the incident could harm future interactions, which would spoil many hopes.
“It’s what every prisoner of war dreams of,” Illia said. -
‘Ultra-patriot’ Russian imprisoned for insulting Putin
I saw Igor Girkin five years ago in a stairwell at a news agency in Moscow.
“Can I interview you. ” I said “NO,” he said firmly and quickly ran off.
I saw him again today. I saw him once more today. No stairs This time, Girkin was in a locked area with police around him in the Moscow City Court.
We were permitted to film him along with other media for just one minute at the end of his trial.
A dog trained to help the police wouldn’t stop barking. Girkin thought it was funny. The verdict is not as much. A few minutes later, he was judged to be guilty of extreme behavior and was given a four-year prison sentence.
He had been convicted before.
In 2022 in The Hague, Girkin was found guilty of killing 298 people on Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, even though he wasn’t there in person.
Russian forces in Ukraine destroyed a Boeing plane in 2014.
Girkin was one of three men who were given a life sentence in prison. He didn’t listen to the judgement.
One year after we first met in the stairwell, I finally talked to Girkin on the phone and asked him about the Hague.
He said he doesn’t believe in the Dutch court’s power for this issue.
“I am a soldier and I don’t think it’s right for a court in another country to punish someone for fighting in a war that wasn’t their own, just because some of the local people were killed. ”
“Do you know who caused the plane to crash. ”
“The rebels didn’t bring down the Boeing plane. ” I have nothing left to say.
“I asked if the Russian soldiers were the ones responsible since it wasn’t the rebels. ”
“That’s all” “Goodbye,” he said and then ended the call.
Now he will be in jail. But not for killing a lot of people at once. Not forever
Who is Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, and why did a Moscow court put him in jail.
He used to work for the Russian security service called the FSB. In 2014, he was an important part of the fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas region. The conflict was planned and directed by Moscow.
He led groups of people who supported Russia in eastern Ukraine.
The court in the Netherlands decided that Russia was in charge of the groups fighting for independence in eastern Ukraine. Also, Girkin was involved in bringing the missile system that shot down flight MH17 into Ukraine.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, ultranationalist Girkin became a popular blogger who supported the war.
He started to be more and more critical of how the Russian government was fighting the war. He thought they were not putting in enough effort.
He started a group called The Club of Angry Patriots, which believed in strong nationalism.
He had problems when he started to show his anger towards President Vladimir Putin.
People said mean things about the Russian president in public. Last year, Girkin said Putin is “meaningless” and “a cowardly person who is not useful”.
A couple of days after that, he got taken by the police. Now he’s been found guilty in court.
Certainly, a four-year prison punishment is not as severe as other punishments given by Russian courts lately.
Last year, a pro-democracy activist named Vladimir Kara-Murza was given a 25-year prison sentence for being found guilty of treason. He and his supporters say that the case was motivated by politics.
How would the “Angry Patriots” respond to Girkin going to prison. Would they go out on the streets to show their anger.
No, not exactly. A small group of fans got together outside the Moscow City Court and shouted “Freedom to Strelkov. ” but they didn’t sound very hopeful.
“Denis says they are trying a Russian person who loves their country. ” I want our people to wake up and start fighting. I’m sorry, but we don’t see people disagreeing much. “Everyone is staying hidden. ”
Also in the crowd was a retired army colonel named Vladimir Kvachkov who is known for being very patriotic and vocal about his beliefs.
Mr Kvachkov told me that Russia will always be an enemy of the West and said that the United Kingdom will break up. He also said that Girkin is being punished for going against the system.
In the past few years, the government has focused on getting rid of Russian political figures who support democracy and the West.
Girkin’s prison sentence shows that Russia is now cracking down on critics who are extreme patriots.
The mutiny led by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries last year might be the cause.
The Putin government overcame the challenge. However, the Kremlin will now be aware of the potential risks from very motivated nationalistic and patriotic people in Russian society. -
Russian plane carrying prisoners of war from Ukraine crashes – Moscow
A Russian military plane called Ilyushin-76 crashed in southern Belgorod region near Ukraine.
Russia’s defense department said 65 Ukrainian soldiers who were captured were on a plane going to the Belgorod region for a swap with prisoners.
We cannot confirm any of the information about the people on board.
Ria Novosti news agency reported that there were nine more people on the plane, including six crew members.
Ukraine’s military leaders said the plane was carrying missiles for Russia’s air defense systems. They told this to the Ukrainska Pravda website. It didn’t talk about prisoners of war.
However, the leader of Ukraine’s military intelligence department, Andriy Yusov, said that a swap of prisoners was supposed to happen.
“I want to say that the trade that was supposed to happen today is not happening,” he told Radio Liberty.
A video on social media showed a plane crashing and exploding with a big fireball near a place called Yablonovo. It happened at 11:00 am local time near the city of Belgorod, about 44 miles away.
The leader of Belgorod region in Russia said a plane crashed in a field near houses and everyone on the plane died.
Some news sources in Ukraine said at first that the Il-76 might have been shot down by Ukrainian forces, but those reports were taken off later.
The Ukraine military told BBC Ukrainian that they didn’t have the right information yet and were looking into what happened.
The Ukrainian government group in charge of prisoners of war said that Russia is doing secret operations to cause problems in Ukrainian society.
In a later message, the Russian defense ministry said a military plane took off from Chkalovsky air base near Moscow and was heading to Belgorod. They claimed that Ukraine’s air force had shot two anti-aircraft missiles from the Lyptsi area, south of the Ukrainian border.
A swap of prisoners was supposed to happen on Wednesday afternoon at a border checkpoint 100km west of Belgorod.
Andrei Kartapolov, the head of Russia’s military defense committee, said there was another plane carrying 80 Ukrainian prisoners in the sky, but it changed direction later.
MrKartapolov told Russian TV that there will not be any more prisoner exchanges.
Ukraine and Russia have traded prisoners during the war.
Earlier this month, Ukraine and Russia swapped prisoners. Ukraine let go of 248 Russian prisoners of war, and Russia released 230 people. The United Arab Emirates helped make this deal happen.
More than 8,000 Ukrainians are still kidnapped by Russia, and tens of thousands are still missing, according to Ukraine’s Coordination HQ.
A warning was issued across Ukraine after a plane crash.
Belgorod, a place close to Ukraine, has been hit by air strikes and drones many times and many people have been hurt or killed.
In December, an air attack happened and 25 people died while 100 were hurt. Ukraine said they only aimed at military buildings and blamed Russia for the pieces landing in the city.
Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022 and the war has been going on for almost three years.
Russia said they took over a village near the damaged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv has not said if the claim is true.
Recently, the Russian air attacks have been happening more often. On Tuesday, 18 people died and 130 were hurt in missile attacks on cities in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that Ukrainian forces do not have enough ammunition. He also said that Russia has used over 600 missiles and 1,000 drones in the last two months.
Ukraine is using drones to fight. Over the weekend, a drone attack caused a big blast at a gas terminal near the city of St Petersburg. -
Russians becoming more alcoholic due to Putin’s war in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin wants to control Ukraine and this is causing more Russians to become addicted to drugs.
More and more people in Russia are becoming addicted to alcohol and experiencing alcohol-related mental health problems. This is happening for the first time in 10 years, and it’s happening as the war enters its third year.
Russian men abroad are often seen with a scruffy face, red cheeks, holding a bottle of alcohol, and saying ‘Na Zdorovie’. This has been a common image of them for a long time.
People in Russia used to drink more alcohol than people in most other countries, but they started drinking less since the early 2000s, but now they are drinking more again.
During Dmitry Medvedev’s time as president, the government tried many times to solve the country’s problems with alcohol.
Several rules about alcohol were made. They included not being able to drink alcohol on the street and not being able to advertise it. These rules worked well until the war started.
A problem that is getting bigger.
In 2022, Rosstat found that over 54,000 people were newly diagnosed with alcohol addiction, which is more than the 53,000 diagnosed the year before.
Experts say that the decrease is because of the Covid pandemic, changes in the economy, and increasing tensions between countries.
Svetlana Gordeeva, a professor at Perm University, said there’s nothing surprising here.
People tend to drink more alcohol during tough times like a pandemic or economic crisis, and this can lead to more cases of alcohol-related mental health problems.
The effects of war
A doctor who studies addiction said that Putin’s war has also caused more people to drink alcohol.
“When people were told to get ready for war, the number of people with alcohol-related mental health problems went up the most in places where they had to wait three to six months before going to the battle. ”
Family members of the people who were called to work told me that lots of vodka was delivered there and no one was checking how much was being sold. As a result, people drank so much that they became mentally ill.
I don’t think these cases were included in the official numbers, but it’s possible that they were discovered.
If that’s true, then we likely got around a thousand new cases from these camps that were moved. -
Russian strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv claimed lives of citizens
Russian missiles hit Kyiv and Kharkiv, and killed four people. Many others were hurt according to officials.
Three people died and 42 were hurt when houses were hit in Kharkiv on Tuesday.
They were two women, one was 40 years old and the other was 56 years old.
The mayor of the city said that some of the apartment buildings were destroyed and rescue workers were searching through the debris to find people who may be alive.
The sky over Kharkiv turned orange because of a fire from Russian missiles. The city is near the border, so it’s hard to stop the missiles in the sky.
Natalia from Kharkiv said to the media that she hasn’t heard this much noise since the war began. She said, “My house was shaking. ” It was very noisy. There were loud booms, then ten seconds later there was another loud noise.
A lot of people don’t have electricity and heat. “I only feel fear and hatred right now,” she said.
At least one person died in the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
In Kyiv, there was an air attack that lasted for over two and a half hours, the longest since 2 January. Many people got hurt when a large building with apartments caught on fire and another building was also damaged.
A representative said a young woman was rescued from the collapsed building. At first, rescuers thought she was dead, but she is now in the hospital in critical condition. Many people were hurt in the central and western districts of Kyiv, Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi.
In Sviatoshinsky, some houses were broken. A few hours after the attacks, the emergency services told the media that they were still at the place of the attacks looking for bombs. They thought there might be a part of a missile that didn’t explode.
Three more parts of Kyiv were also harmed by debris falling after the air defenses stopped the Russian missiles. Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko’s office reports that 20 people are hurt and 13 are in the hospital, including kids.
In another part of the city, after the attack, people came out of their bomb shelters and houses to see the damage.
In places that were not affected this time, people went about their morning like they normally do. Stores were open, and there were lots of people on the roads and streets.
The media went to a hospital where the workers kept working even though there were air raids and they heard the explosions and felt the doors shaking.
Ukraine’s air force destroyed 21 out of 41 missiles launched by Russia last night.
Missiles are hitting Ukraine’s cities more often now, and it’s very dangerous. The attacks have been getting worse in the last few weeks.
Ukraine is worried that Western countries are not giving them the weapons they need. Andriy Yermak, who works for the president, showed a video of the damage in Kharkiv and said, “Look at what’s happening in Kharkiv. ” We are more than just a fortress. “We want guns. ”
Ukrainian soldiers have attacked Russian fuel facilities, including a big attack on an oil terminal in the city of St Petersburg in the last week.
Novatek, an energy company, had to stop some of its work because of a fire at its Ust-Luga Baltic Sea export complex.
Two tall buildings in Kyiv were struck. -
Ukrainian Peace Formula: Ghana called to join team working on ending Russia-Ukraine war
Ghana has received an invitation to participate in the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula, a ten-point plan designed to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a meeting with Ghanaian President Akufo-Addo at the 2024 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, emphasized the importance of Ghana’s involvement in the peace process.
The Ukrainian Peace Formula focuses on key aspects such as food and energy security, territorial integrity, environmental safety, the release of prisoners, withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, and the prevention of future aggression.
Ghana, known for its peace and political stability in the sub-region, has established diplomatic ties with both Russia and Ukraine, particularly in education, science, and technology.
During the meeting, the leaders discussed ways to strengthen relations between Ukraine and Ghana, as well as with other African countries. They also explored the possibility of Ghanaian students studying in Ukrainian higher educational institutions and the potential for creating logistics hubs for the trans-shipment of Ukrainian agricultural products to African nations.
President Zelenskyy commended Ghana for its support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity on the international stage. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has led to global price increases, especially for oil, natural gas, and food items like wheat, of which Ukraine and Russia contribute significantly to global exports.
President Zelenskyy called on the global community to remain united in supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression during his address at the WEF. He announced plans for a global summit to advocate for peace, with hopes of it taking place in Switzerland.
Ghana’s delegation, led by President Akufo-Addo, actively participated in various meetings with high-level stakeholders and global leaders at the Forum. Discussions covered key themes such as achieving security and cooperation in a fractured world, creating growth and jobs for a new era, artificial intelligence as a driving force for the economy and society, and a long-term strategy for climate, nature, and energy.
-
Russia region witnesses rise in protests for imprisoned activists
At least 10 people have been arrested after many protesters gathered in the capital of Russia’s Bashkortostan republic to support jailed rights activist Fail Alsynov.
A video from a news outlet called Sota Vision showed police moving protesters in the city of Ufa.
This was the third protest this week to support Alsynov. It was the first one in the capital of the region.
On Wednesday, he was told he has to spend four years in a prison far away from home.
He said he did not encourage hate against migrant workers and that his words were not translated well into Russian.
Around 1,500 people gathered in Ufa on Friday, even though authorities had warned them not to protest.
The leader of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, said he would show the real intentions of the protesters and accused them of trying to cause trouble and getting support from other countries.
Recordings showed police standing in Salavat Yulaev square in the middle of the city and directing protesters to leave.
In another part of the video, the crowd was fighting with the police when they took a protest sign from a woman who was being taken away by the police.
The protests started two days ago in Baymak, near the Mongolian border, because Fail Alsynov was sentenced to four years in jail.
Many people marched in a small town, about 400km from the regional capital, to show their anger. It was one of the largest protests since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago.
Police reportedly used tear gas and batons on protesters, and protesters were seen throwing snowballs back at the police.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the protests were just a few isolated events and that it’s up to local officials to deal with them.
The police are looking into the people who were protesting in Baymak. They are being charged with “mass rioting,” which can lead to up to 15 years in jail.
Singer Altynai Valitov was visited by local authorities in Ufa because he asked people on Instagram to protest in Bashkortostan and other parts of Russia.
Fail Alsynov was found guilty of being mean to people who moved here, at a protest against digging for gold. But his friends say it’s payback for him stopping soda mining in a special spot to the people who live here.
He called people from Central Asia and the Caucasus region “black people”, which is a mean word in Russia. These people make up most of Russia’s migrant population.
However, he keeps saying that the words he used in the Bashkir language actually mean “poor people” and were translated incorrectly into Russian. He plans to ask for a different decision.
Alsynov previously criticized military gathering in the region as a “genocide” of the Bashkir people, who are closely related to the Tatars and live in the southern Ural mountains.
There are people saying that a lot of ethnic minorities in Russia are being sent to fight in Ukraine.
Alsynov was the leader of a group called Bashkort, which wanted to protect the culture of the Bashkirs. But in 2020, the government said it was too extreme and banned it.
A map is a picture of an area that shows where different things are located, like streets and buildings. -
Ukrainian drone attack targets Russian oil station
A major inferno broke out at a facility in southern Russia where oil is stored after being struck by a drone from Ukraine.
The Russian news said that four oil tanks caught fire and the fire spread over an area of 1,000 square meters.
Authorities in Bryansk, Russia, said that nobody got hurt.
The leader of Bryansk said a flying robot was stopped near the town of Klintsy and its bombs dropped on the oil storage.
The drone attack is the second one on Russian oil places in just two days.
There was a big attack at a large oil terminal in St Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday.
Russian news said a drone was shot down without causing harm. But in Kyiv, they thought that the attack, which was far from Ukraine’s border, showed a new plan.
“Yes, we reached our goal last night. ” “Last night, this thing traveled 1,250km (776 miles),” said Ukraine’s Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin on Thursday. -
Russians throw snowballs at police weeks before election
Vladimir Putin seems to be losing control of Russia with only a few months before the presidential elections. There has been a rebellion in one of the regions that produces oil.
Video shows a group of people throwing snowballs at police officers with shields and batons in a town called Baymak in Bashkortostan.
5,000 people came together to protest against a political leader who supports Putin. This happened because a rights activist was sentenced to four years in prison for extremism.
Fights started outside the court building in support of Fail Alsynov, who was accused of ‘encouraging hatred between different groups of people’.
Police used tear gas and hit the protesters with their batons.
Videos online show people yelling ‘Gas’ and running away during what many are saying is the biggest protest in Russia since the war in Ukraine began.
One video showed a row of police hitting people with batons. In another place, a woman was begging the police to stop hitting someone who was on the ground.
A lady was recorded shouting at a police officer, calling him a fascist and asking if he was going to fight with women. She also asked how he was not embarrassed.
Even though it was very cold at -17°C, a lot of people came to the area and shouted ‘Freedom’.
A lot of people were flying flags of Bashkiristan. Bashkirs are a group of people from Turkey who have fought against colonization for a long time.
In the town of Baymak, which has 17,000 people, there were some very unusual events. The government stopped the internet near the court because they were worried that more people would revolt.
The Kremlin is trying to stop any separatist or nationalist feelings among the Bashkirs in the oil-rich region by arresting and imprisoning Alsynov.
These types of protests almost never happen in the country because people can get arrested for gathering without permission from the authorities.
In the last two years, many people have been arrested for speaking out against the war in Ukraine.
The fighting in Bashkortostan happened a few months before Russians will vote for their new president. -
Dozens demonstrate over activist imprisonment in Russia
Russian police used tear gas and hit protesters with sticks in Bashkortostan because a rights activist was given a four-year prison sentence.
Videos on social media showed Fail Alsynov’s supporters fighting with police and throwing snowballs near the court in Baymak.
Alsynov is in jail for encouraging hate between different ethnic groups, but he says he didn’t do it.
Big demonstrations in Russia hardly ever happen because people are afraid of getting arrested.
According to some news, a few thousand people are protesting. The protest has been going on for many days in very cold weather. There are also reports of some people getting hurt.
The protesters are yelling in support of Alsynov, and some of them tried to stop people from going into the courthouse after the decision was made.
Riot police shot tear gas and protesters threw snowballs at them.
He reportedly called people from Central Asia and the Caucasus region “black people”, which is considered a disrespectful term in Russia. These people make up most of the migrant population in Russia.
However, he says the words he used in the Bashkir language actually mean “poor people” and were translated incorrectly into Russian. He wants to challenge the decision.
Alsynov also disagreed with the military getting ready in the area and called it a “genocide” of the Bashkir people. The Bashkir people are similar to the Tatars and live in the southern Ural mountains.
Many people have said that a lot of people from ethnic minorities in Russia are being made to go and fight in Ukraine.
Alsynov led a group called Bashkort, which wanted to protect the culture of the Bashkirs. But in 2020, the government said it was a bad group.
Map – a picture that shows the details of an area, like roads and buildings. -
Niger PM to strengthen military ties with Russia – Reports
Niger’s Prime Minister appointed by the military government, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, is in Moscow, the capital of Russia, to talk about making the economic and military relationship between the two countries stronger.
He is with Defence Minister Salihou Mody and Niger’s ministers of petroleum and trade.
Mondafrique, a news website in Paris, said that Mr. Zeine would also travel to Turkey, Iran, and Serbia.
Niger’s National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP) group, facing strict punishments from its neighboring countries in West Africa, wants to make new partnerships, according to Mondafrique.
The CNSP wants to become independent from Western influence. They are starting by cutting off military connections with France.More update on this story soon.
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“We shot down Russian spy plane” – Ukraine
Ukraine’s military shot down a Russian spy plane over the Sea of Azov. This is bad news for Russia’s air force.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, leader of the army, said the air force “destroyed” a long range radar detection plane and an air control center.
The A-50 finds enemy air defenses and helps Russian jets know where to attack.
Ukraine has had a hard time making progress against Russian forces in the southeast.
Russian officials said they didn’t know about the attacks, but important Russian people who support war said that losing an A-50 would be a big deal.
A well-known military channel, Rybar, said that if Ukraine’s report about the Russian losses was true, it would be a very bad day for the Russian air force.
Another channel reported that the Il-22 command center was hit by Russian “friendly fire”.
Gen Zaluzhnyi said on the internet that Ukraine’s air force did a very good job with a plan in the Azov region, which is in the south-east part of Ukraine.
Mykola Oleshchuk, who is in charge of the Ukrainian Air Force, talked about the airplane crash in a message on the app Telegram, but didn’t give any specific information.
Justin Bronk, who knows a lot about air wars, said to the BBC that if it’s true that Russia lost an A-50, it would be a really big and embarrassing loss for their air force.
He said the A-50 is an important plane that helps Russian aircraft and missiles get early warning and information about low-flying Ukrainian planes.
He said there are only a few of these planes in the Russian air force and not many trained crews. If one is lost, it would be a big problem.
He said if it’s approved, it would be a very far-reaching attack for Ukrainian Patriot air defense missiles, pushing the weapon to its limits.
Frank Gardner, who reports on security for the BBC, said it’s a small piece of good news for Ukraine in the middle of a lot of bad news.
He said things are not going well for Ukraine. They don’t have enough ammunition, their soldiers are not feeling good, and Russia keeps attacking their infrastructure. -
Russia promises to remain a supplier of grains to Africa in humanitarian aid
Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko stated on Friday that Russia will persist in delivering humanitarian aid, including grain and fertilisers, to Africa.“Russia remains a global breadbasket and a reliable supplier.
The first batches of humanitarian aid in terms of grain and fertilisers have already been sent to African countries, and they will continue in the future,” Abramchenko said in an interview with Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
The Russian deputy prime minister stated that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation acknowledged that sanctions imposed by Western countries on food, fertilisers, logistics, and payments have worsened global hunger.
He added that this issue is expected to increase worldwide. Last year, at the Russia-Africa Summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to send grain as humanitarian aid to six African countries on the World Food Program’s list.
Russian agricultural authorities mentioned that the first two ships, each carrying 25,000 tonnes of wheat for Somalia and Burkina Faso, left Russia in mid-November.
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Businessmen to send trucks carrying aid to Ukraine
Two business people are going to Ukraine to give a lot of donated supplies to help people living in the war.
Mike Racz and Karl Pemberton said they were really grateful for all the help they got from everyone. It was more than they ever expected.
The pair were going to use a small van for donations but now they will use two big trucks instead.
Mr Racz from Wolviston, County Durham, said he was surprised by the amount of help and support people had given.
Mr Racz’s friend, Kateryna Seranova, is from Ukraine and said her family is still in danger.
She said the mall that used to be the biggest was destroyed and no longer exists.
“It’s really important to know where to go and hide in safe places. ”
Mr Racz and Mr. Pemberton were worried because people were not giving as much money to Ukraine, even though the war was still happening during the winter.
Russia has kept attacking the country more and more in the last two weeks, especially by using planes to bomb Ukrainian cities.
A few days ago, two missiles from Russia hit a hotel in Kharkiv and hurt 11 people.
But the weather is also making a difference. On January 12, it was really cold in Kyiv, with the temperature dropping to -11°C at night.
Mr Pemberton, who is the boss at a company called Active Chartered Financial Planners in Stockton, said that it’s really important to give help to people now more than ever.
“He said the weather is really bad over there right now, it’s very cold. ”
“We can give them warm blankets, clothes, and food to help them during the cold winter. ”
“Everything makes a difference. “ -
Russian missiles destroy a hotel in Kharkiv
Two missiles from Russia hit a hotel in Ukraine’s second biggest city, Kharkiv, and 11 people got hurt, according to the governor of Kharkiv.
Pictures from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service showed the hotel very damaged and firefighters there to help.
Governor Oleh Synehubov said that Turkish journalists were also among the injured. At around 10:30 PM, two S-300 missiles hit the target.
Russia has increased bombing in Ukrainian cities in the last two weeks.
Ukrainian leaders say many innocent people have been killed in the attacks using drones and missiles.
Kharkiv, a city close to Russia, has been badly damaged by Russian airstrikes since President Vladimir Putin started a big attack on Ukraine in February 2022.
In the most recent attack, nine people got hurt and had to go to the hospital. One of them, a 35-year-old man, was in critical condition, the governor said on the Telegram messaging service.
The mayor of the city, Ihor Terekhov, said that there were no soldiers in the hotel, only 30 regular people, according to Ukraine’s Unian news agency. It’s in the middle of the city in Kyiv. He said that many other houses and cars close by were also broken.
The city of Belgorod in Russia was attacked by missiles and drones from Ukraine on 30 December. Russian officials say 25 civilians were killed.
Russia has started sending many children from Belgorod to holiday camps that are farther away from Ukraine for three weeks. A camp in Voronejson region got 93 new people on Wednesday. Later, 280 more people arrived in Kaluga region. State TV said that teachers would go there too.
President Zelensky visited Lithuania and asked Western friends to give more weapons for air defense. The Baltic country strongly supports Ukraine in helping them resist Russian forces.
We need more air defence systems. The battle against drones. I am glad that we have deals with Lithuania and many other partners,” he said in Vilnius. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia used to be part of the Soviet Union, but now they are in the NATO alliance.
Lithuania gives the most military aid to Ukraine compared to other countries based on their GDP, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany. The US gives the most help to Ukraine for their defense.
Mr Zelensky, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine, said that Vladimir Putin will continue to cause trouble until he has ruined Ukraine.
He wants to keep us very busy. Sometimes when our allies hesitate to help Ukraine with money and military support, it makes Russia feel more confident and strong.
He said the Russian leader will not stop the war until we all stop him together and cautioned that the Baltic states and Moldova could be targets next.
Recently, the leader of Ukraine has been having serious discussions with Western allies to make sure they keep getting important weapons. Kyiv’s attack last year didn’t go very well, and some people in the West are wondering if Kyiv’s plan is good, which makes them worried about the war’s cost.
Now that Russia is spending a lot more money on its military, Nato countries are having a hard time making enough artillery shells and other heavy weapons.
The European Union wants to give Ukraine €50 billion in aid, but Hungary is stopping it. And the US Congress can’t agree on giving more military aid to Ukraine.
After talking to the Ukrainian government on a video call, Nato said it would give Ukraine a lot of money to help them this year.
“Nato’s leader, Jens Stoltenberg, said that Nato is very upset about Russia attacking Ukrainian people with missiles and drones, using weapons from North Korea and Iran. “ -
Putin spends billions on war leaving Russians abandoned in -30°C
Vladimir Putin is using a lot of money for his war in Ukraine. This has caused people in Moscow to be very cold because they don’t have heating or hot water.
The temperature in the capital dropped to -30°C, and the old heating system is said to not be able to handle the cold weather.
This means that over 20,000 people were left freezing in their homes for several days because of the cold temperatures.
A husband and wife, along with their dog, died from breathing in carbon monoxide while trying to stay warm in the city of Kolomna, in the Moscow region.
A video on Telegram shows windows and doors covered in ice because of the cold weather. People were burning wood on the streets to stay warm.
At the same time, pipes broke in many buildings, making things even worse for people.
There are rumors about an incident at a big ammunition factory in Klimovsk. Some people think it’s related to the problems there.
Reports say that the boiler house at the local cartridge plant in Klimovsk is broken, and it is the only source of heat for the town.
Government officials learned about the problem from social media where many residents were complaining.
On January 5, people in the town protested on the main square because the temperature in their apartments dropped to -10°C.
Some signs saying ‘SOS – We are freezing – Punish the guilty’ were seen, but officials don’t know when heating will be fixed.
A video about a protest said: “They haven’t promised anything since yesterday. ” Grandmas are very cold in their house.
“Kids wearing coats are unwell and coughing. ” The hospitals and everywhere else feels very cold.
“We need to fix this problem. ” We still don’t know who is responsible, and all we hear are excuses.
Someone living here complained: “The police came fast to stop us. ” I hope they bring back the heat as quickly as they sent the police to break us up.
In Lytkarino, a town in Moscow region, a power station stopped working. People had to make fires outside in the cold to stay warm. -
Russian long-range missile attack claims lives of five youngsters
Five kids, with the youngest only three years old, were killed in a Russian attack in eastern Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin sent S-300 missiles to the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. It killed 11 people and hurt eight others. The governor of the Ukrainian-controlled part confirmed this.
Vadym Filashkin said that 11 people died in a very cruel attack, including five children between the ages of three and 17.
He said on Telegram that the attack proved that Russian forces are trying to cause as much sadness as they can in our country.
Video from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine showed rescue teams looking through piles of burnt rubble in the dark.
The strike happened around 3pm on Saturday. People kept looking for survivors at night because there was a lot of damage.
President Zelensky said that Russia attacked regular people’s homes.
He said: ‘Russia needs to know that there will be consequences for their actions. ‘
The dangerous attack on Pokrovks was followed by many drones and cruise missiles sent to Ukraine overnight.
The air force said on Telegram that Russia attacked mostly the southern and eastern areas, and they were able to destroy 21 out of the 28 drones.
However, it didn’t explain what happened to the three cruise missiles.
“The enemy is attacking the frontline areas of Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions with drones,” said air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat on TV. -
Anger over a Russian move against Ukrainian youngsters
Ukraine is angry about a new rule signed by President Putin that allows Russian citizenship to be given to Ukrainian children who go to live in Russia.
In March, the International Criminal Court ordered the arrest of President Putin because Russia was sending children away against their will.
The Ukraine government said the order was against the law.
However, Russia says it is taking the children away from danger.
On 4 January, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a decision to speed up the process for foreigners and people without a country to become Russian citizens.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry said that Ukrainian children without parents can quickly become Russian citizens if the president allows it or if the institution taking care of them asks for it.
The rule says that a child’s legal guardian or the head of a Russian organization in charge of the child can apply for their citizenship.
The Ukrainian government believes that Russia is trying to fix its population problem by taking children from Ukraine. This is against the laws of Ukraine and other countries, and it is also not fair to the children.
The ministry said that the decree shows that Russia is trying to make Ukrainian children act like Russians, and that they are also committing crimes against Ukraine.
Ukraine’s human rights leader, Dmytro Lubinets, says that Russia is giving citizenship to the children so that they won’t be seen as Ukrainians moved to Russia.
The Ukrainian government found out that more than 19,000 Ukrainian kids were sent to Russia since the big attack started in February 2022.
According to the Children of War database in Ukraine, only 387 kids have been brought back.
In November 2023, the BBC’s Panorama TV show said that a friend of Mr. Putin adopted a child taken from a Ukrainian children’s home.
Sergey Mironov, a 70-year-old leader of a Russian political party, is listed as the adoptive parent of a two-year-old girl who was taken in 2022 by the woman he is now married to, according to documents seen by Panorama.
In March, the International Criminal Court said that Mr Putin might have committed war crimes in Ukraine and they want to arrest him. The ICC said he was in charge of taking children from Ukraine to Russia in a way that was against the law.
Maria Lvova-Belova, a person from Russia who helps children, was accused of the same things. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said it’s not right to use children as prizes in war, and that Putin might be brought to trial. -
Russians relocate residents of Ukrainian-affected city
Russia is moving people out of Belgorod because Ukraine attacked the city and it’s not safe for them to stay there.
On Friday, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that a few families had moved out of the city, which is near the border of Ukraine.
Over the weekend, 25 people died and over 100 were hurt in one of the worst attacks in Russia since it entered Ukraine in February 2022.
The attack came after Russia launched a lot of airstrikes on Ukraine, killing many people and hurting over 160.
Kyiv said that Russia‘s recent missile attacks were the largest so far in the war.
On Friday, Mr. Gladkov wrote on Telegram that he saw people asking for help on social media because they were scared and needed to get to a safe place.
“Sure, we will. We have already helped many families move,” he said.
The governor said people would be brought to the towns of Stary Oskol and Gubkin and could stay there for as long as they need.
However, he said that not everyone could be helped there, so he would ask friends from other places to come and help.
The governor sent out a message telling people that a missile could come and to go home or find a safe place to stay.
Russia keeps saying that Ukraine is responsible for the drone attacks that have been happening recently.
Kyiv doesn’t often admit to doing attacks in other countries, but they have done it before.
The fighting across borders has happened because the US is saying Russia is making the situation worse in Ukraine. They say Russia is using missiles and launchers from North Korea, which is a big problem.
Moscow said they didn’t work together on that.
The US government recently approved a $250 million military aid package for Ukraine.
Negotiations for more money in Congress have stopped because Republicans don’t agree. They want stronger security at the US-Mexico border as part of any military aid deal.
Ukraine says it needs more help from the West or it could lose the war and have money problems. -
Another Putin’s top combat commander killed in an attack – Report
Russia is not saying anything about the claim that Putin’s top military leader has been killed in an attack.
Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk from Ukraine said his crews did great in a fight with a Russian military post near Sevastopol in Crimea.
The news in the area says that General Valery Gerasimov, who is Vladimir Putin’s top war commander, may have been killed in an attack. It is not confirmed if he was at the command post at the time.
Nataliya Humenyuk, who speaks for the Ukrainian southern defense forces, did not say if Gerasimov had died. She said, “We are gathering the information you want to know. ”
“Once it’s confirmed, it will be shared with the public. ” Right now, all we can say is what we already know – the control point has been reached.
A big boom and lots of smoke were seen on video from a possible attack with a missile called Storm Shadow at a military headquarters in Yukharin Balka.
Another army place in Crimea in the village of Uyutnoye, near Yevpatoria, in Saki district was also said to be attacked.
Ukrainian sources said a lot of ambulances were seen at both places.
Putin’s chosen governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said: “It was the biggest attack in a long time. ”
Gerasimov was last seen on December 29th giving awards to soldiers who did a good job during the fighting in Marinka, Ukraine. He hasn’t been seen since then.
However, this week is an important Russian holiday, and he has disappeared from public view for long periods before.
Newsweek said that some people are saying that Gerasimov is dead, but it’s not proven. It seems like this started after WarVehicleTracker shared a picture from a Russian Telegram channel called “Ordinary Tsarism. ”
“The message said that Valery Gerasimov was killed in an attack on Crimea while he was at a command post near Sevastopol. ”
There is no proof that the general, who was against Yevgeny Prigozhin, was in Crimea or was injured in the attack there.
Russia has not said anything about the claims yet.
Shortly after the attack, Oleshchuk said, “I thank the Ukrainian Air Force pilots and everyone who planned the operation for their excellent work in combat. ”
He said that Russian propaganda might tell lies about the attacks, and he expects them to do the same on January 4th like they did before. -
North Korean missiles allegedly being used by Russia in Ukraine
The US says that Russia used North Korea’s ballistic missiles and launchers in its war with Ukraine.
John Kirby, who works for the National Security Council, said that Pyongyang’s support for Russia is a big problem and it worries them.
He said that the US would talk about this at the UN Security Council and put more penalties on people who are helping to move weapons.
Moscow said they did not work together in any way.
Hours after the White House accused North Korea, Kim Jong Un said he wants to make more missile launch vehicles in the country.
The leader of North Korea went to Russia in September to talk about working together on military stuff.
The US has accused Pyongyang of giving Russia weapons before, but now they are sharing information about ballistic missiles, which are rockets that can fly by themselves and go up to 900km (500 miles) to hit a target.
During a meeting at the White House, Mr. Kirby said that Russia buying ballistic missiles from North Korea breaks many UN Security Council rules.
“He said we will make sure Russia is held responsible for breaking its promises to other countries again. ”
He also said that the US thinks Russia might buy short-range missiles from Iran, but they haven’t done it yet.
The UK said it really disapproves of Russia using ballistic missiles from North Korea in Ukraine.
“North Korea is facing strong punishments, and we will keep working with other countries to make sure North Korea faces consequences for helping Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine,” said a spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Mr Kirby asked the US Congress to quickly approve more money for Ukraine.
“He said the best way to stop Russia from hurting Ukraine is to give Ukraine important tools for defending themselves, like air defense and other military equipment. ”
Iran and North Korea are supporting Russia. Ukrainian people should know that the American government and its people will always support them.
The White House approved a $250 million aid package for Ukraine on December 27th.
Negotiations for more money in Congress are stuck because Republicans want stricter border security to be included in the aid deal.
Ukraine said that if they don’t get more help from the West soon, it will be hard for them to keep fighting in the war and manage their money. -
Russians in border city close to Ukraine find no place to stay
The people in Belgorod have been attacked by Ukraine in the past, but the attack on Saturday was the worst one since the war started.
Twenty-five people died and over 100 others were injured in a large Russian city near Ukraine.
The Ukrainian missile attacks happened one day after Russia’s biggest air attack in the war, which killed more than 40 people.
This week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia attacked Ukraine with 500 missiles and drones in just five days.
Ukraine will be punished for targeting Belgorod, said President Vladimir Putin. The people who live in the city say that the government is not doing enough to keep them safe.
Local people told Russian media that they heard the air raid alerts only 30 minutes into Saturday’s attack.
They were told to hide, but some found that the basement shelters in their apartment buildings were locked.
One person told the BBC that some basements have a paper with a phone number on the door for the person who has the key. “The worst thing that could happen is if the management company has the key, and since it’s the winter holidays, no one is working. ”
What’s the reason for Russia bombing Ukraine more often.
Sheltering from attack is a bigger problem in Ukraine. Attacks happen a lot and in many places. In winter, it’s dangerous for Ukrainians because Russian attacks happen mostly at night. They have to decide whether to sleep in metro stations or stay at home.
But in Belgorod, a city in Russia with 340,000 people that’s only 30 minutes from the border, one woman named Angela used social media to say that the emergencies ministry’s regional department didn’t know about shelters.
“How is this possible. ” she asked the local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
What if a person came to the city to help family. How can they find out about the management company. There has been a special military operation for two years,” she said, using the Kremlin’s term for the war in Ukraine.
Sergei said he has the same problem in his town, Stary Oskol, which is about 180km (110 miles) from the Ukrainian border. He said that the local government is not doing anything about it and just gives a standard response. If there’s shelling, we don’t know where to go to be safe.
According to another person in Belgorod, the shelters have had problems since the war began.
“I am very mad. People have been talking about it, but the shelter problem has only become known now that there have been casualties,” she told the BBC without giving her name.
A year and a half ago, when a tall apartment building was hit, people tried to find basements to hide in, but all the basements were closed. We don’t have bomb shelters that people know about or can use.
Shortly after Vladimir Putin ordered a big attack in February 2022, officials in Belgorod said they couldn’t tell people where the official bomb shelters were because the Ukrainian military might attack them.
Instead, they shared a video that tells you what to do during an air raid. It says to stay away from windows and go to the ground floor or basement.
When Belgorod was attacked again on January 2nd, many people there left their doors open so others could come inside and be safe from the fighting.
Alexander said, “We are just assisting one another. ”
The local leader has not answered publicly to people’s complaints. The BBC has asked his office for comments, but they have not responded yet.
Before the war, Belgorod had a strong connection with the much larger Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which is on the other side of the border.
Russian forces have bombed the middle of Kharkiv from Belgorod region many times. This area near the border has been impacted by the war more than any other place in Russia.
Yulia says that the bombing will definitely keep happening. “But what is going to be different. “ -
Ukraine war: Missiles fired into Crimea and Russian city of Belgorod
Russian officials said they stopped a Ukrainian attack on a border city as the air war between the two countries gets worse.
The authorities said that twelve missiles were destroyed before they reached Belgorod. Twenty-five people were killed in Belgorod on Saturday. Ukraine hasn’t said anything.
The attacks happened after Russia did its biggest bombing from the air.
Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that Russia has fired around 300 missiles and used 200 drones in the last five days.
Russia started bombing Ukraine again last week. Ukrainian soldiers fought back against the attack on Belgorod on Saturday, and more than 100 people got hurt.
In his speech at night, he said Russia shot “almost 100 different types of missiles” on Tuesday. He said that the enemy planned to cause a lot of damage with these weapons.
MrZelensky said that 10 very fast ballistic missiles were destroyed on Tuesday.
Ukrainian leaders said on Wednesday that the attacks on Tuesday, including in the cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv, had hurt or killed over 130 people in the country.
On Tuesday, one person died and five were hurt in Belgorod, according to the region’s governor. However, the 12 missiles that were launched at the area last night were stopped by Russia’s air defense system, according to the defense ministry.
Explosions happened in Sevastopol, the biggest city in Russia-controlled Crimea. A missile was also shot down over the port. The governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said this on Telegram. No one was hurt and nothing was broken. -
Ukraine issues missile warning to Russia after drone attacks
Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has become the target of new Russian drone attacks, with authorities also warning of missile attacks from Moscow.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said explosions were heard in the city on Tuesday morning and that drone debris caused a fire in the Desnianskyi district near the center. Aerial warnings also took place in other cities, including Kherson and Mykolaiv.
Recent days have been marked by significant air strikes from both sides. Klitschko said drone debris caused a fire in the Desnianskyi district and emergency services were at the scene.
The mayor of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine said air defense forces shot down a drone in the town, its debris causing a fire.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram that it shot down all 35 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) launched by Russia on Monday night.
However, after these attacks, many missiles were fired from Russia towards areas such as Kyiv, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad.
He asked people to listen for air raid sirens and go to shelters.
This follows multiple attacks from both sides in recent days, with Russia responding to a Ukrainian attack on the Russian border town of Belgorod on Saturday that left at least 25 people dead and more than 100 injured person.
According to officials installed by Moscow, Ukraine bombed the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk on New Year’s Eve (Sunday), killing four people and wounding 13 others, while Ukraine said the attacks by a Russian drone killed one person and injured nine in Odessa.
On New Year’s Day (Monday), six civilians were killed by Russian attacks in various Ukrainian cities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said his forces will increase attacks on military targets in Ukraine in response to the attack in Belgorod.
Putin also said Western rhetoric about the war is starting to change as they begin to realize that it cannot “destroy” Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed these claims in an interview with The Economist, saying that Putin’s suggestion that Russia was winning the war was just a “feeling”.
He highlighted the number of Russian casualties in Ukraine and said opposition forces had not captured a single major city in 2023.
Mr Zelensky also expressed frustration with Kiev’s Western allies, saying they had lost a sense of urgency.
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Russia bombs three Ukrainian cities with deadly drones to start new year
New Year’s Day in Ukraine was marked by drone attacks as Putin’s relentless war continued.
Brutal drone attacks hit the cities of Odessa, Lviv and Kharviv overnight, while Kyiova’s forces targeted the Donbass Palace hotel in Donetsk shortly after the Russian president gave a speech at midnight before his people.
Ukraine said it shot down 87 out of 90 Iranian-made Shahed suicide drones launched by Russia – a record number.
In Odessa, one person was killed and nine others were injured after debris from a drone hit a high-rise building, causing burning debris to fall to the ground.
Nataliya Humenyuk, a spokesperson for southern Ukraine’s defense forces, said port infrastructure was damaged after explosions caused a fire. Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov criticized Russia for staging an attack on Ukraine before the new year.
“They say that how you celebrate the new year depends on how you spend it,” he said.
“Well, this year Ukraine will break that rule. We will stand and we will prevail because we have justice and God is on our side.
In the village of Belogorscha near Lviv, the Shukhevych Roman Memorial Museum was damaged by Shahed drones following the Russian attack, and university dormitories were also attacked and destroyed in Dublyany.
Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, said: “Tonight the enemy attacked two places of national memory in Lviv: Dublyany University, where [Ukrainian nationalist] Stepan Bandera studied 100 years ago and Shukhevych Roman Museum. “Symbolism and cynicism.
A fight for our history Ukrainian sources said that in the Kharkiv area, Russia attacked four S-300 air defense missiles, three Kh-31P anti-radar missiles and one Kh-59.
In Donetsk – a city currently held by Russia – pro-Moscow leader Denis Pushilin announcedthat4peopledied and 13 were injured. As the new year began, explosions rangout again in the Kiev-controlled city of Kherson.
An air warning was issued in the Volyn, Rivne, Lviv and Ternopil regions of Ukraine. According to the capital’s military authorities,the number of victims of the missile attack on Kiev on December 29 has increased to 27people.
Rescue operations continue and today the city has declared a day of mourning.
Putin’s attack against Ukraine came as he delivered a New Year’s speech declaring his troops “heroes”.
In his shortest New Year’s speech in four years, he said: “I want to speak to our soldiers-all those who serve,those on the front lines fighting for truth and justice.
“You are our heroes. Our beliefs you. We are proud of you and we admire your courage.
“I know well that now you feel the love of yourselves,the strong and sincere support of millions of Russian citizens, the support of the entire people.
“The main thing that unites us is the destiny of the Fatherland.
“We are united in thought,in duty and in struggle, whether at work or on holiday,embodying the main features of the Russian people: solidarity, kindness and steadfastness. ”
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28 causalties recorded in Ukraine amid Russian attack
Recent reports indicate a surge in the death toll in Ukraine following Russia’s military assault.
Ukrainian government and regional officials confirm at least 28 casualties, although overall figures remain inconsistent.
The most significant concentration of fatalities appears to be in Zaporizhzhia, with Governor Yuriy Malashko reporting eight lives lost in that single area.
The situation continues to unfold, underscoring the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the wake of the conflict.
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Russia verifies a warship’s wreckage in the Black Sea
In a Tuesday morning airstrike at Feodosiya in Russian-occupied Crimea, the Ministry of Defence reports the large landing ship Novocherkassk damaged by Ukrainian aircraft with guided missiles.
Ukrainian Air Force claims warplanes destroyed the ship. One fatality and several injuries reported, with six buildings damaged.
Port’s transport operations are reportedly normal after cordoned-off area and contained fire.
Footage purportedly showing a huge explosion in the port was shared by Ukrainian air force commander Lt Gen Mykola Oleshchuk.
The images have not been independently verified. However, satellite imagery from 24 December shows a ship at port in Feodosiya that appears to be the same length as the Novocherkassk – a landing ship designed to transport troops, weapons and cargo to shore.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Ukraine’s air force has denied that Russia shot down two of its Su-24 bombers about 125km (77 miles) from the occupied Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv.
It has also recently denied a claim by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu that his troops have seized the key town of Mariinka in eastern Ukraine.
The area has been used by Ukraine as a defensive barrier since 2014, when Russian-backed fighters seized large swathes of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Image caption,Russia says the Novocherkassk was damaged, while Ukraine says it was destroyed (file image) Tuesday’s attack on Feodosiya is not the first time that the Novocherkassk has been targeted by Ukrainian forces.
In March 2022, Ukraine’s defence ministry reported that the ship had been damaged in an attack on the occupied Ukrainian port of Berdyansk in which another amphibious assault ship, the Saratov, was sunk.
In a post on Telegram, Lt Gen Oleshchuk wrote that the Novocherkassk had gone the way of the Moskva – the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which sank in the Black Sea last year.
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky quipped that he was “grateful” to the country’s air force “for the impressive replenishment of the Russian submarine Black Sea fleet with another vessel,” in reference to other Russian ships that have been sunk during the war.
“The occupiers will not have a single peaceful place in Ukraine,” he said.
Russia seized and annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and its forces based there played a key part in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian forces in Crimea have since come under repeated Ukrainian attack. Last month, Ukraine’s military said it had destroyed 15 Russian navy ships and damaged another 12 in the Black Sea since the start of Russia’s war.
After a missile strike on the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol last September, satellite images showed that the Russian navy had moved much of its Black Sea fleet away from Crimea to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
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Russia bars anti-war candidate from contesting against Putin
A former TV journalist who had declared her intention to challenge President Vladimir Putin in Russia‘s upcoming spring election has been disqualified from standing.
Independent politician Yekaterina Duntsova, aspiring to run on a platform aimed at concluding the conflict with Ukraine, has faced disqualification in Russia’s upcoming elections, casting a shadow over her bid for political participation.
But the electoral commission voted unanimously to reject her candidacy three days after her application, citing 100 “mistakes” on her form.
Ms Duntsova said she would appeal the decision at the Supreme Court.
The presidential election, which will be held in March 2024, is Russia’s first since President Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.
The immediate slap-down of a Putin critic will be seen as evidence by some that no dissent will be tolerated in the campaign.
The head of Russia’s electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, said Ms Duntsova would not be allowed to progress to the next stage of gathering thousands of supporters’ signatures.
“You are a young woman, you have everything ahead of you. Any minus can always be turned into a plus. Any experience is still an experience,” she told Ms Duntsova, 40, after the decision.
The former TV journalist had declared she would run for the presidency in November. At the time, she told the Reuters news agency: “Any sane person taking this step would be afraid – but fear must not win.”
Russia’s constitution was amended in 2020, increasing the presidential term from four to six years and giving Mr Putin a clean slate to run again by cancelling out his previous terms.
Moscow has sidelined opposition figures for years, and President Putin is expected to win in March; the Kremlin claims he enjoys genuine support among Russians.
Ms Duntsova had been vocal on her plans to run a campaign on ending the war in Ukraine and freeing political prisoners.
She was quick to respond after the commission’s decision. “We will appeal to the Supreme Court, since this decision is not based on the law,” a message on her Telegram channel said.
The commission said 29 people have so far filed to run for the presidency. But after today’s decision, Mr Putin remains the only candidate to be able to register as a candidate.
In November, a nationalist pro-war blogger who had fiercely criticised Russia’s military strategy in Ukraine, said he wanted to challenge Putin and disrupt the “sham” poll.
Igor Girkin, 52, was detained in July following a series of social media posts critical of the president. He is now in jail awaiting trial for extremism, which he denies.
Mr Putin recently showed a rare example of caving in to popular pressure – by cutting the cost of buying chicken and eggs. On a public phone-in, a caller berated the Russian president for the high price she was having to pay.
With just three months to go until the election, President Putin has now decided that eggs and chicken should be exempt from all import taxes.
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Ukraine shoots down 3 Russian Su-34 warplanes
Ukraine’s military has reported the downing of three Russian fighter jets in the southern region of the country on Friday.
The Ukrainian air force declared that three Su-34 fighter bombers were successfully shot down over the Kherson region.
President Volodymr Zelensky thanked the servicemen who had downed the planes, saying the incident had occurred in war-torn Kherson Region.
Moscow has not commented on the claims, but influential Russian bloggers have reported losses.
In his nightly address on Friday, Mr Zelensky said the downing of the planes would make Russian pilots attacking targets in Ukraine aware that “none of them [would] go unpunished”.
He also said he had spoken to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte about the future delivery of F-16 jets, as well as a new EU support package.
Russia has not commented on the reported loss of its jets, but Fighterbomber, an influential Russian war blogger, reported the loss of an unspecified number of planes, saying they had probably been downed by US-made Patriot missiles.
Both surviving and dead crew members were recovered, the blogger added.
Another blogger, Voenniy Osvedomitel, said the planes had probably been used to drop glide bombs on a Ukrainian position on the Russian-controlled side of the Dnipro River.
Ukraine is facing an ammunition shortage as it continues to fight occupying Russian forces, following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Kyiv’s counter-offensive ground to a halt at the start of the winter, and Republican representatives in the US – by far Ukraine’s largest military backer – have been reluctant to further fund Ukraine’s war effort.
In a year-end press conference this week, Mr Zelensky insisted that Ukraine was not losing the war with Russia.
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Ukraine moves Christmas from Jan 7 to Dec 25
Ukraine has decided to move its Christmas celebration from January 7 to December 25. This move, seen as a departure from a historical association with Russia, reflects a deliberate choice by Ukraine to align its festivities with the internationally recognized date, underscoring the country’s pursuit of cultural autonomy.
Breaking a tradition that dates back to 1917, Ukraine is now observing Christmas on December 25 for the first time.
The decision goes beyond a mere shift from January 7, the traditional Christmas date in the Julian calendar used by Russia.
It signifies an ongoing and substantial cultural transformation within the nation, representing the most recent effort to eliminate Moscow’s influence in Ukraine.
The adoption of the Western, Gregorian calendar is also a sign of Kyiv’s continuing bid to align itself with Europe.
Whether in war or peacetime, Christmas always comes.
Klavdievo-Tarasove’s decorations factory, in a small town outside Kyiv, used to be one of three which supplied the whole of the Soviet Union.
“We used to have many people – not any more,” Leokadia tells us. She’s worked on this production line since 1978.
She effortlessly blows glass baubles using a gas burner fixed to her desk. It’s a welcome source of heat in these cold, industrial surroundings.
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After years of shrinking output, this factory stopped completely when Russian forces occupied this area for a month soon after the start of the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“It was very scary when tanks drove down the street,” Henya, another worker, explains. “We couldn’t go outside. We had no information, we were cut off from the world. It was terrible.”
And yet, despite only a third of the team having returned, decorations are still being made. Small pieces of Christmas cheer are carefully built and sent out around the country.
And what is Henya’s wish for Ukrainians living under Russian occupation this Christmas?
“You have to believe, hope – and liberation will happen, it will be like that.”
Henya works on the more artistic part of the process: she and her colleagues caringly hand paint each individual bauble.
You immediately notice a military theme. Miniature soldiers, MIG fighter jets, even a Ukrainian tractor pulling a Russian tank – all hang from a shelf, destined for a Christmas tree.
“I think that everyone who will take a look at such a bauble will hope for the victory of our country sooner,” says Tamila with a defiant tone now typical here in Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia share countless cultural ties, and they will always have to live next to each other. Yet the former’s identity is only being strengthened by the latter’s aggression.
Fewer places know that aggression better than the town of Bucha, a couple of miles from the decoration factory.
As the Russian advance towards Kyiv slowed last year, invading troops were accused of killing more than 500 civilians in one of the worst atrocities of the war so far.
Some of their names appear on a silver memorial next to the Church of St Andrew. As its golden domes glisten in the winter sunshine, you can still see where grass has struggled to regrow.
It was here that a mass grave appeared during Russia’s occupation. The bodies of those who died could only be exhumed after they retreated.
“Unfortunately for many people in the world, Ukraine is linked to Russia. And Ukraine is always viewed in the context of being a neighbour of Russia,” explains Father Andriy in the candlelit crypt of St Andrew’s.
Unfortunately for many people in the world, Ukraine is linked to Russia… But I think that we are more a neighbour of Europe
“But I think that we are more a neighbour of Europe,” he says. “And the fact that we’ve now changed the calendar is not shifting away from Russia. It is us returning back to Europe, where we belong.”
Given Russia will always be close by, I ask whether he could ever forgive the invading country for what it’s done to his homeland.
“God forgives a sinner, but only those who repent. We do not see yet that the Russians are trying to repent for their sins and mistakes, so I think it’s too early to talk about forgiveness.”
For Ukraine, any Russian repentance must start with an end of its ongoing invasion. There is still no sign of that happening.
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Russian gas giant Gazprom earns £39 million in profit
Last year, Gazprom, a big energy company from Russia, made €45 million (£39 million) from a gas field in the North Sea, according to its accounts.
Gazprom has been getting gas from the Sillimanite field, which is in UK and Dutch waters, since 2020.
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said it is not okay for gas from the UK to support Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine.
The government said it would increase the pressure on Russia’s economy.
The Sillimanite field is 200km away from the Dutch coast. It is run by Russian company Gazprom and German company Wintershall together. The gas from the field is brought to land in the Netherlands.
The UK, the US and the EU have put strict rules to make it hard for Russia to make money from selling energy. This is to stop them from using that money to pay for the war in Ukraine. There is no proof that this is against the law.
Some top Gazprom leaders, including the boss Alexei Miller, are not allowed to do business with the UK government. But the company Gazprom itself is not affected by these rules. The company still sends gas to Europe through pipelines, but not as much as before the war.
Financial records indicate that Gazprom International UK, a branch of the large Russian energy company, made a profit of €45m before taxes in 2022. They also paid a dividend of €41m to their immediate owner company, Gazprom International Projects BV in the Netherlands. Another payment of €1. 7m was made in June this year.
The company is owned by PJSC Gazprom, which is located in Moscow.
It has also found and paid for its own soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
Sir Ed, who used to be in charge of energy, said it is very wrong that the gas from the UK is helping Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The campaign group Global Witness said it was a sign that the UK’s way of dealing with Russian oil and gas is not good.
“The government is against the war, but it doesn’t make sense to let a company owned by Russia make money from the North Sea while their militia fights in Ukraine,” the statement said.
A government representative said they will keep working with other countries to stop Russia from getting our goods and technology that they could use for their military. This will make it harder for Russia to fight in modern wars.
“Putin and his followers will suffer the consequences for unlawfully invading Ukraine,” he said.
We will keep making it harder for Ukraine’s enemies to make money, and we will punish anyone who tries to find ways around our sanctions. We won’t stop until Ukraine wins and there is peace.
The company had to pay €29 million in taxes. They split the money between the UK and Dutch governments. This means that the energy companies had to pay €4m in taxes in the UK because of high prices after the war in Ukraine, and €5m in taxes in the Netherlands.
The money Gazprom International UK makes comes from selling things to other countries, the records show. The company stopped selling gas to Wintershall in September and started selling it to Gunvor, a Swiss-based trading company, according to the accounts.
Gazprom’s energy supply business in the UK was taken over by the German government last year because its parent company was about to go bankrupt. The business had many business customers. Its new name is SEFE Energy.
Wintershall and Gazprom didn’t answer the BBC’s questions.
