President Zelensky celebrates return home of Ukrainian commanders captured by Russia
President Volodymyr Zelensky brought home from Turkey on Saturday five former commanders of Ukraine’s garrison in Mariupol, a highly symbolic achievement that Russia said violated a prisoner exchange deal engineered last year. Russia immediately denounced the release. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ankara had promised under the exchange agreement to...
Russia launches night cruise missile attack on Ukraine’s Lviv city, kills at least four people
Ukraine’s airforce reported it intercepted seven of the 10 Kalibr cruise missiles that Russia fired from Black Sea toward the Lviv region and its namesake city – more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) away — around 1 am on Thursday. The Kremlin’s forces have repeatedly hit civilian areas during the war, although Russian officials say they choose only targets of military value.
Former Putin political strategist calls for an end to mercenary groups in Russia in wake of mutiny
As first deputy chief of the Kremlin administration from 1999 to 2011, Vladislav Surkov helped Putin forge his tightly controlled political system. He then worked in the government and later returned to the Kremlin as an adviser to Putin.
Greek leader Kyriakos Mitsotaki blasts critics of rescue effort for sunken vessel with 750 migrants on board
Greek authorities continue to face criticism, however, over their failure to act more quickly. They say the migrants insisted they didn’t need any help, but non-governmental organisations say they received a number of calls for help.
Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russia sends panic to Moscow as Zelensky praises his troops
Ukrainian officials have imposed an information blackout to help operational security, but say that Russia has suffered much greater losses than Ukraine has during its new assault. A regional official said Ukrainian forces had destroyed a Russian ammunition dump in occupied Kherson region, part of a weeks-long effort by Kyiv to disrupt Russian supply lines.
African leaders attempt mediation in Ukraine war but Russia ‘greets’ them with rocket strikes on Kyiv
African are seeking agreement on a series of “confidence building measures”, but Kyiv has said its own peace initiative must be the basis of any settlement and has launched a counteroffensive to push back Russian occupying forces.
Russian defence vulnerabilities exposed after Ukraine rained drones on Moscow
Last week, the Russian border region of Belgorod was the target of one of the most serious cross-border raids since the war began, with two far-right pro-Ukrainian paramilitary groups claiming responsibility. Officials in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar near annexed Crimea said two drones struck there Friday, damaging residential buildings. The attacks also drew calls for bolstering Russia’s borders.
‘Only an evil state can fight against clinics’, Ukrainian president says of Russian attack on hospitals
Moscow has dismissed allegations that its soldiers have committed war crimes and denies deliberately targeting civilians although it has bombarded cities across Ukraine since invading 15 months ago. Moscow said earlier on Friday Ukraine had struck two regions in southern Russia with a rocket and a drone, but the missile was shot down.
Pandemic of a different nature: Developed countries led by UK report ‘excess deaths’
Official UK statistics also showed that in the week ending April 21, 2023, the number of deaths exceeded the five-year average by 22.1 per cent (2,540 excess deaths), while in the week ending April 28, the excess figure was 12.9 per cent (1,569 excess deaths). Only 3.8 per cent of deaths during this period mentioned Covid-19 in the death certificates.
Privatising war: Why the US and Russia hire private companies to fight for them on frontlines
The involvement of private companies has allowed Washington to continue to conduct its operations around the globe, even if many Americans think that our war on terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere has ended. I tried looking for any kind of a survey of how many of us realise that it continues in Iraq and elsewhere, but all I could find was pollster Nate Silver’s analysis of “lessons learned” from that global conflict, as if it were part of our history.
