Latest news, headlines and top stories you need to know RIGHT NOW about Russia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Russia has extended another harsh warning to the U.S. regarding potential future attacks on Russian-controlled Crimea. “Strikes on this territory are considered by us as an attack on any other region of the Russian Federation. It is important that the United States is fully aware of the Russian response,” Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. said on Sunday.
Senior Ukrainian official, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, who leads the country’s military intelligence service, confirmed in an interview with The Times of London that Kyiv has assassinated “quite a few” Russian civilians who have backed both Putin and his war in Ukraine. Budanov also vowed that there would be more attacks in the future.
Two months ago, Ukraine was widely criticized for “indoctrinating” its children after a video circulated through mainstream media that showed Ukrainian children handling military weapons as part of a program that is designed to prepare them for the military.
On Saturday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s paramilitary group Wagner, announced that his forces had taken full control of the strategic Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for Russia after months of intense fighting that had turned the city into a ‘meatgrinder.’
On Thursday, another Russian train derailed in Crimea in what many sources are describing as sabotage. According to a statement released by the Crimean Railways, the derailment was caused by “interference from outside persons.” No specifics of the alleged sabotage have been released.
This week Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met with Chinese special envoy Li Hui to discuss both countries’ respective peace plans to potentially end Russia’s war in Ukraine. During the talks, Kuleba made it clear that any plan that required Ukraine to cede territory to Russia was a non-starter for Kyiv.