HomeWorldUkraine war: Putin’s home fortified amid growing threat from Kyiv’s drones

Ukraine war: Putin’s home fortified amid growing threat from Kyiv’s drones

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Ukraine getting ‘closer and closer’ to becoming Nato member, says secretary general

Successful Ukrainian strikes deep inside enemy territory have forced Russia to beef up defences around Vladimir Putin’s home outside St Petersburg.

Satellite imagery collected on 6 May shows Russian forces have concentrated at least seven Pantsir-1 medium-range air defence systems around Putin’s residence in Valdai, Leningrad oblast, according to the US-based think tank The Institute for the Study of War.

The drone strikes, which have successfully hit Russian air bases, have forced the Russian military command to prioritise limited air defence assets to cover what it deems high-value targets, the ISW said.

The move could be futile as Ukrainian drones can still bypass the air defence coverage to strike from uncovered directions, experts have said.

It comes as Kyiv has increasingly prioritised hitting Russian air defence systems in occupied Ukraine, according to its commander-in-chief Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi.

Ukraine appears to be preparing the ground for the use of strike aircraft, as General Syrskyi noted that F-16s from Western allies are due to arrive “soon”.

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Switzerland opens dozens of Russian sanctions cases

Switzerland has opened investigations into more than 50 cases of possible sanctions violations and has found breaches in 15 of them so far, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.

Since Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland has adopted sanctions similar to those of other Western countries, passing new measures earlier this month.

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said in an email to Reuters that the effective implementation of sanctions was a government priority and that it had opened 56 violations proceedings to date.

Of those, around half have been dropped and penalties have been ordered for 15 of them. The others remain under investigation, it said.

SECO did not name the sectors involved, nor the individual companies subject to investigation.

Switzerland said earlier this year it had set up a specialist team to investigate and enforce sanctions that Bern imposed following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 July 2024 11:53

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Russia holds a UN meeting about global cooperation. US calls it ‘hypocrisy’ after Ukraine invasion

Russia’s foreign minister accused the United States on Tuesday of holding the entire West “at gunpoint” and impeding international cooperation, a claim the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations denounced as “hypocrisy” by a country that invaded neighboring Ukraine.

The finger-pointing came at Russia ’s showcase event during its presidency of the U.N. Security Council this month, and it chose the topic — “Multilateral cooperation for a more just, democratic and sustainable world order.” Russia’s top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, flew in from Moscow to preside.

Just before the meeting, Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, read a statement on behalf of about 50 countries, including the United States, whose ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was among the several dozen U.N. envoys surrounding him.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 July 2024 11:26

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Germany will halve military aid for Ukraine next year, even with the possibility that Republican candidate Donald Trump could return to the White House and curb support for Kyiv.

German aid to Ukraine will be cut to 4 billion euros ($4.35 billion) in 2025 from around 8 billion euros in 2024, according to a draft of the 2025 budget seen by Reuters.

Germany hopes Ukraine will be able to meet the bulk of its military needs with the $50 billion in loans from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets agreed by the Group of Seven, and that funds earmarked for armaments will not be fully used.

The stocks of Germany’s armed forces, already run down by decades of underinvestment, have been further depleted by arms supplies to Kyiv.

So far, Berlin has donated three Patriot air defence units to Kyiv, more than any other country, bringing down the number of Patriot systems in Germany to nine.

Although military aid to Ukraine will be cut, Germany will comply with the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defence in 2025, with a total of 75.3 billion euros.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ((c) Copyright 2024, dpa (www.dpa.de). Alle Rechte vorbehalten)

Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 July 2024 10:54

1721208227

China and Russia carry out live-fire naval exercises in South China Sea

China and Russia carried out live-fire naval exercises in the South China Sea this week, Russian and Chinese state media reported, with the two countries having strengthened military and trade ties in recent years following US sanctions.

Both countries were to deploy at least three vessels each for the three-day exercises, China’s state controlled Global Times newspaper said late on Tuesday, citing the People’s Liberation Army Navy.

The opening ceremony of the Russian-Chinese naval exercise ‘Maritime Cooperation – 2024’ took place in the Chinese port of Zhanjiang, the Russian defence ministry said earlier this week on the Telegram messaging app.

During their sea manoeuvres, the crews of ships of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the PLA Navy were to conduct joint air defense exercises and anti-submarine drills with the involvement of PLA naval anti-submarine aviation, the Russian defence ministry said.

The drills follow the completion of a separate joint naval patrol in the north Pacific, which the Russian defence ministry said earlier involved a detachment of Russia‘s Pacific Fleet ships, including two corvettes, the Rezky and the Gromky.

(POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 July 2024 10:23

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Russian-installed official says one dead, eight wounded in Ukrainian attacks on Kherson region

One person was killed and eight were wounded in Ukrainian attacks on part of the southern Kherson region which is controlled by Russian forces, Vladimir Saldo, the area’s Russian-backed governor, wrote on Telegram.

Saldo accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the area and of striking it with drones.

Reuters could not independently verify his assertions and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 July 2024 09:40

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Ukraine faces twin challenges of fighting Russia and shifting political sands in the US

After almost 30 months of war with Russia, Ukraine’s difficulties on the battlefield are mounting even as its vital support from the United States is increasingly at the mercy of changing political winds.

A six-month delay in military assistance from the U.S., the biggest single contributor to Ukraine, opened the door for the Kremlin’s forces to push on the front line. Ukrainian troops are now fighting to check the slow but gradual gains by Russia’s bigger and better-equipped army.

“The next two or three months are going to be probably the hardest this year for Ukraine,” military analyst Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment said in a recent podcast.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 July 2024 09:02

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Donald Trump would be ‘strong and decisive’ in support for Ukraine, says Boris Johnson

The Conservative ex-premier was in Washington this week to attend the Republican National Conference in Milwaukee, where Mr Trump was named the party’s official candidate in the upcoming US presidential elections.

After a photograph circulated showing him giving a speech to a near-empty room at the conference on Tuesday, Mr Johnson later shared an image of himself meeting with Mr Trump, just days after the ex-president survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 July 2024 08:33

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Wife of jailed Putin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza calls for West to step in now after prison hospital transfer

The 42-year-old face of the Russian opposition to Vladimir Putin, who grew up in London and earned a history degree from Cambridge University, is currently being held in a medical facility connected to his Siberian penal colony, having been moved there on 4 July. Evgenia Kara-Murza spent days not knowing where or how he was.

Wife of jailed Putin critic calls for West to help release her hospitalised husband

British-Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza is desperate to return to his ‘punishment cell’ only a few metres long and wide, with his wife Evgenia deeply concerned about what will happen to him. Tom Watling speaks to her about facing days not knowing where or how he was before a lawyer was allowed to visit the dissident in hospital

Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 July 2024 08:00

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Hungary says efforts continuing on second peace summit for Ukraine, RIA reports

Efforts are being made to hold a second peace summit on Ukraine this year, Hungary Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told Russia‘s RIA state news agency in remarks published on Wednesday.

“Efforts are being made to hold the next round of the peace conference this year, which we would certainly welcome and appreciate,” Szijjarto told the agency.

“I believe that if we want to hope for any peace conference in the future to be successful, we need to make sure that both sides are represented.”

Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 July 2024 07:25

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Russia, Ukraine to exchange 90 prisoners of war today

Russia and Ukraine are set to exchange 90 prisoners of war on Wednesday in a deal facilitated by the United Arab Emirates, a person familiar with the matter said.

Last week, Ukrainian parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets had said the government, with the help of the UAE, was planning “a big” prisoner exchange with Russia soon.

Russia and Ukraine have conducted a few prisoner swaps in the 27-month-old war that started after Russia invaded its smaller neighbour.

In their last such exchange in June, which was also facilitated by the UAE, Russia and Ukraine each handed back 90 prisoners.

Arpan Rai17 July 2024 07:15

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