Category: Russia Watch

Officials from Ukraine, Europe and the US are meeting in Miami to discuss ways to break the deadlock in the war. The meeting comes as Russian strikes on Ukraine killed more than 70 people this week.

The story is as underreported as it is consequential for the entire planet.

Video. A Yandex data centre in Russia’s Ryazan region caught fire and was taken offline after what the company said was a Ukrainian drone attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday there would be a response to a Russian strike that hit two buses in the frontline city of Kramatorsk, killing 30 people and wounding 18 others.

France 24 reports that residents of the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine are trapped and facing starvation, and risk their lives to reach food and water along mine-strewn roads by foot and bicycle.

France’s Sophie Adenot and fellow astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Andrey Fedyaev returned to Earth aboard a SpaceX capsule after an eight-month mission on the International Space Station, France 24 said.

South Korea has said it will recall its ambassador to Ukraine. Seoul is upset about a transfer of North Korean prisoners of war being made public knowledge at the UN and had demanded — but not received — an apology.

A 68-year-old Russian man who swam across the Nemunas River from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave into neighbouring Lithuania in an attempt to seek asylum has been sentenced to six years in a strict-regime penal colony in Russia for “publicly justifying terrorism.”

France 24 says the World Health Organization wants more details from Russia on a suspected pneumonic plague case after a top official said it does not know how a lab worker in Siberia died.

The UN health agency said Russia should be more transparent about the case of the plague as reports of a second case of the disease emerged. Russia played down any concerns, saying the population faces no risk.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder visited a Moscow supermarket in his new role on the supervisory board. Schröder is no stranger to retirement stipends in Russia — or the scandal that accompanies them.

France 24 reports that the World Health Organization and Western leaders urged Russia to share more information about a Siberian plague case, as reports emerged of a second suspected case.

Hungary dropped its veto on two clusters of Ukraine’s EU accession talks on Wednesday. The next phase depends on Kyiv’s parliament passing a minority-rights law.

Assassinated Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya “predicted” Moscow’s trajectory under President Vladimir Putin 20 years ago, her former editor said ahead of the anniversary of her death on Wednesday.

Russian missiles and drones killed at least 21 people in Ukraine, including four children, in what President Volodymyr Zelensky ‌called a “massive” strike on Wednesday.

The death of a lab worker at a plague research institute in Russia has sparked claims about a lab accident, hundreds of infections and international spread. Some of these viral narratives are misleading.

PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, October 6: The death of a researcher in Siberia, reportedly from the plague, sparks concern despite Russian authorities’ denial.

Alina Koushyk and Maxim Katz, two opposition journalists living in exile who fled Belarus and Russia respectively, on how they pursue their work from abroad.

Romanian authorities did not say what caused the fire, but local media reported that the ship was carrying grain and was hit by a drone.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday slammed Russia’s increased strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

A worker at a plague research institute in Siberia has died, and nearly 200 of her contacts are under medical observation. Russian authorities deny a link to the bacterial infection. The US is monitoring the situation.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s visit to Ukraine was met with Russian missiles as he pledged €1.3 billion to Kyiv. In Iran, the country’s deputy foreign minister says Washington is reviewing Tehran’s proposal to end the war. And in Brazil, Bolsonaro wins Brazil’s first round election. #EuropeToday

An Anthropic report says the AI model Claude was used in pro-Russian campaigns in the Central African Republic. Similar allegations were raised for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Sudan and Mali.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Ukraine on Sunday to show solidarity after Russian attacks on Kyiv infrastructure, including three bridges.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Sunday on an unannounced visit in a show of support for the country in its war with Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that the US wants to broker a new round of talks with Ukraine and Russia on ending the war and hold it by the end of October.

Bosnians are voting in elections that could affect how much influence Russia has over the small Balkan nation, according to France 24. The campaign is dominated by separatist Serb leader Milorad Dodik amid simmering ethnic tensions.

As air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv, Chancellor Merz called on President Putin to end his “senseless war” and announced new measures to support Ukraine, including plans for joint Ukrainian-German drone production.

The latest Russian attacks killed at least one person and severely disrupted traffic in the Ukrainian capital. Several bridges over the Dnipro River connect western and eastern Kyiv.

Kyiv is in a “very dramatic situation”, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Friday, as Russia pummelled key infrastructure across the capital.

A diplomatic scandal has erupted over two North Korean prisoners of war, with South Korea demanding an apology from Ukraine. What’s been the reaction in Kyiv?

On October 3, Latvians will elect a new parliament with Russia looming large over the campaign. Security fears dominate the agenda, but so does a debate over the economic cost of cutting ties with Moscow.

NATO chief Mark Rutte tells Russia to stop its nuclear threats, speaking at the Euronews Defence Summit as Moscow threatens to use its nuclear arsenal. Rutte also said there’s no imminent threat to NATO territory, while Belgian defence chief Theo Francken argued Russia is Belgium’s biggest threat. #EuropeToday

Russia launched its heaviest combined assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in months on Wednesday, killing seven people and triggering emergency power cuts in Kyiv and nearby regions.

“We always need to think about the worst-case scenario,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said at the Euronews’ Defence Summit, warning of the risk of a Russian nuclear attack if tensions with Europe escalate.

Countries with existing drone cooperation agreements with Kyiv could negotiate access to Ukraine’s latest technology for countering Russia’s new jet-powered drones, Kyrylo Budanov told Euronews.

Denys Kostev says he was forcibly transferred in 2022 and coerced into pro-Russian campaigns before finally escaping.

Video. Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya believes change in Russia could begin with change in Belarus, arguing that her country’s opposition movement is “more consolidated” than its Russian counterpart.

Ukraine’s grid operator ordered emergency power cuts in Kyiv after Russian strikes, according to France 24. DTEK said it carried out the cuts after Russia hit the country’s infrastructure.