Latest news with #CarnegieRussiaEurasiaCentre
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Putin Ambassador Accuses UK Of Helping Ukraine Attack Russia – And Comes Up With A Bizarre British Motive
Vladimir Putin's ambassador to Britain has accused the UK of aiding Ukraine in its major attack against Russia last weekend. Ukraine deployed more than a hundred drones inside Russia last weekend in a sophisticated operation which destroyed more than 40 warplanes. Andrei Kelin told Sky News that Ukraine could only have achieved this 'serious escalation' if the UK had offered up its 'geospace data' for use. While denying that Kyiv's astonishing attack was a 'humiliation' for Moscow, Kelin warned Ukraine not to 'try to engulf World War III'. 'We know how much London is involved, how deeply British forces are involved in working together with Ukraine in targeting,' he said. The ambassador claimed only London and Washington have access to such 'geospace data', but that he does not believe Donald Trump would have aided Ukraine in such a way. According to Kelin, the UK wants to 'concentrate' on Russia to distract from its own internal issues. 'This story is as old as the world,' he told Sky News. 'When the government is not capable of dealing with internal economics and could not provide the population with normal conditions of life, then it tries to find an outside threat and concentrate on this threat.' It's worth noting that Putin's invasion of Ukraine has actually put a strain on Russia's economy because the president is redirecting funds to the defence sector and businesses tied to the war. As Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre in Berlin, said, this means the life of Russian civilians suffers. The ambassador also questioned defence secretary John Healey's recent claim that the UK is getting 'daily threats' from Russia. 'We do not represent any threat to Britain, at all, neither on the sea or in the air,' Kelin insisted. Asked by Sky News if there was any accuracy to the claims, the UK's environment secretary Steve Reed said he was not aware of any further details. He said: 'I'm afraid that's not something I can give you an answer to because I don't know the answer to that. 'I know that we as a government, cross-party actually, are standing alongside Ukraine as they try to defend themselves against a brutal unprovoked illegal attack, an invasion, from Putin.' The White House previously claimed it had no prior knowledge of Ukraine's attack. Putin's 'Blatant Disregard' For Russian Troops Unveiled As Moscow Approaches 'Grizzly' Milestone Why Ukraine's Surprise Attack Is Being Called 'Russia's Pearl Harbour' Keir Starmer Puts The UK On A War Footing As He Warns Of 'Growing Russian Aggression'
Leader Live
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Leader Live
Slow progress dampens hopes for Russia-Ukraine peace deal
'It is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time to continue the war and occupation,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday on Telegram. 'We are working with partners to put pressure on the Russians to behave differently,' he added in an apparent reference to further international sanctions on Russia. Ukraine has offered a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire, which Moscow has effectively rejected by imposing far-reaching conditions, and Mr Zelensky proposed a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin but the Russian leader spurned that offer. Mr Trump said his personal intervention was needed to push peace efforts forward, and on Monday he held separate talks over the phone with Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin. Russia and Ukraine will 'immediately' begin ceasefire negotiations, Mr Trump announced, though there was no detail on when or where such talks might take place. 'The status quo has not changed,' Mykhailo Podoliak, a senior adviser to Mr Zelensky, wrote on social media platform X on Tuesday. US officials have for the past few months urged Russia and Ukraine to reach a settlement, as Mr Trump sought a swift end to Europe's biggest conflict since the Second World War. Mr Trump said his talks with Mr Putin on Monday were 'excellent', but European officials were sceptical about Russia's intentions. 'Putin has never changed his position,' Estonian defence minister Hanno Pevkur said in Brussels on Tuesday. 'Russia actually doesn't want to end this war.' The European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said Russia's failure to negotiate in good faith should trigger threatened US sanctions. 'We really haven't seen, you know, the pressure on Russia from these talks,' she told reporters. Also, some were unconvinced by Mr Putin's promise to Mr Trump that Russia is 'ready to work with' Ukraine on a 'memorandum' outlining the framework for 'a possible future peace treaty'. 'It appears that Putin has devised a way to offer Trump an interim, tangible outcome from Washington's peace efforts without making any real concessions,' Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, said on X. The warring countries are insisting on apparently irreconcilable conditions for peace, and even a temporary truce has been out of reach. The first direct Russia-Ukraine peace talks since the early weeks of Moscow's 2022 invasion ended after less than two hours last Friday, and while both sides agreed on a large prisoner swap, they clearly remained far apart on key conditions for ending the fighting.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Slow progress dampens hopes for Russia-Ukraine peace deal
US President Donald Trump's phone calls with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine deepened expectations that progress might soon be made on ending the war, though frustration at the slow pace of negotiations and the absence of any significant breakthrough kept hopes low. 'It is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time to continue the war and occupation,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday on Telegram. 'We are working with partners to put pressure on the Russians to behave differently,' he added in an apparent reference to further international sanctions on Russia. Ukraine has offered a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire, which Moscow has effectively rejected by imposing far-reaching conditions, and Mr Zelensky proposed a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin but the Russian leader spurned that offer. Mr Trump said his personal intervention was needed to push peace efforts forward, and on Monday he held separate talks over the phone with Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin. Russia and Ukraine will 'immediately' begin ceasefire negotiations, Mr Trump announced, though there was no detail on when or where such talks might take place. 'The status quo has not changed,' Mykhailo Podoliak, a senior adviser to Mr Zelensky, wrote on social media platform X on Tuesday. US officials have for the past few months urged Russia and Ukraine to reach a settlement, as Mr Trump sought a swift end to Europe's biggest conflict since the Second World War. Mr Trump said his talks with Mr Putin on Monday were 'excellent', but European officials were sceptical about Russia's intentions. 'Putin has never changed his position,' Estonian defence minister Hanno Pevkur said in Brussels on Tuesday. 'Russia actually doesn't want to end this war.' The European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said Russia's failure to negotiate in good faith should trigger threatened US sanctions. 'We really haven't seen, you know, the pressure on Russia from these talks,' she told reporters. Also, some were unconvinced by Mr Putin's promise to Mr Trump that Russia is 'ready to work with' Ukraine on a 'memorandum' outlining the framework for 'a possible future peace treaty'. 'It appears that Putin has devised a way to offer Trump an interim, tangible outcome from Washington's peace efforts without making any real concessions,' Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, said on X. The warring countries are insisting on apparently irreconcilable conditions for peace, and even a temporary truce has been out of reach. The first direct Russia-Ukraine peace talks since the early weeks of Moscow's 2022 invasion ended after less than two hours last Friday, and while both sides agreed on a large prisoner swap, they clearly remained far apart on key conditions for ending the fighting.
AsiaOne
16-05-2025
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Russian nationalists press Putin to fight on in Ukraine, World News
As Russian President Vladimir Putin explores a potential peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine, hawkish anti-Western nationalists at home are waging a campaign to keep the conflict going. "We surrender our weapons, we surrender our country!", Pavel Gubarev, a pro-Moscow activist in part of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region controlled by Moscow, posted on Sunday, raging against the prospect of the conflict being "frozen" along current lines. To someone brought up in the West, it might look at first sight as if Putin is under pressure. However, the so-called 'Z-patriots' — named after a symbol Russian forces in Ukraine paint on their vehicles — must conform to certain rules and do not ultimately pose a threat to Putin, three people close to the Kremlin said. They will be expected to toe the line if and when the moment comes to make peace, the people said. At the same time, Putin and his intelligence agencies do need to manage Russia's hardcore nationalists to ensure they don't disrupt his goals, the three people said. Analysts say that by arguing for the war to continue, as US President Donald Trump and some Western European leaders push for a deal, the Z-patriots can sometimes go too far for the Kremlin's liking by riling up the public and creating expectations of a more ambitious battlefield campaign. "They are not all under full control," said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre who has studied the Kremlin for years. Stanovaya, whom the Russian authorities last year designated a "foreign agent," noted that some Z-patriots have called on the Russian army to take the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Odesa and even attack Poland. Such targets go well beyond what Putin, who has claimed four Ukrainian regions as part of Russia — in addition to Crimea — has stated as Russia's war aims. "Their whipping up of people and pushing society to support a bigger military campaign is a hindrance and work goes on to get them to tone down what they are saying or put a sock in it because they stir up society when Putin needs to hold talks," said Stanovaya. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. Some of the Z-patriots — war bloggers or war correspondents — have half a million followers or more on the Telegram social media platform and are widely read inside Russia, including among the elite, abroad, and in Ukraine. But they must tread carefully. [[nid:717974]] Nationalists who have crossed the Kremlin in the past ran into problems — notably rebellious Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and outspoken ultra-nationalist Igor Girkin. Prigozhin died in a plane crash and Girkin was jailed. The Kremlin has rejected as an "absolute lie" the suggestion that Putin had Prigozhin killed in revenge for his mutiny. It says it does not interfere in court cases, something critics contest. Analysts say the Z-patriots have been useful to the Kremlin, helping it build and maintain broad public support for the war for the last three years. But Z-patriots who make too much of a fuss about any eventual peace deal risk being purged, said the three sources, who, like others in this story, spoke on condition of anonymity given the matter's sensitivity. One of the sources said the ultra-nationalists would quickly change their rhetoric once the Kremlin settles on a peace plan. "It will be like a light switch is being flicked," the source said. 'War will continue' After Putin called for direct peace talks in Istanbul with Ukraine at a Kremlin news conference on Sunday, some ultra-nationalists were quick to voice their concerns. A Russian negotiating team was in Turkey on Thursday for the talks, though it was unclear if they would happen, with Putin himself apparently not attending. "Our war will continue until the complete liberation of Novorossiya and Malorossiya," Konstantin Malofeyev, a nationalist tycoon who is married to a senior government official reporting directly to Putin, wrote in his blog on Monday, using terms that hark back to the Russian Empire and describe a swath of modern-day Ukraine once ruled by the Tsars. Malofeyev did not respond to a request for an interview. Meanwhile Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who is currently deputy chairman of the Security Council and who once styled himself as a liberal pro-Western moderniser, took to X on Saturday to say a truce would offer the Ukrainian army "respite". Medvedev has garnered a reputation for making often extreme and undiplomatic remarks, but his utterances do reflect a strand of thinking among senior Kremlin figures, five diplomats consulted by Reuters said. As a former Kremlin chief, analysts and one of the sources said Medvedev — who remains close to Putin — enjoyed particular licence to speak out. One of the sources said that bellicose pronouncements by nationalists like Malofeyev — though sincere and not scripted — are one way of tracking whether the Kremlin is really close to peace in Ukraine or not. If and when the war ends or is close to ending and the situation changes, such people will sense that the wind has changed, the source said. Those that don't adjust their behaviour could find themselves in jail, said another of the sources. [[nid:718063]] The authorities have made two rules very obvious: don't criticise Putin personally or the army's top brass. Under a law passed soon after tens of thousands of Russian troops swept into Ukraine in 2022, "discrediting" the military was made punishable by up to 15 years in jail. After accusing Putin and the army top brass of failure in Ukraine, Girkin, a former FSB officer and battlefield commander wanted for a war crime in the West, was convicted of inciting extremism in 2024 and handed a four-year jail term. Nonetheless, he wrote on social media from prison on Monday that "only a fool or a saboteur who secretly assists the enemy in the information sphere could talk about the imminent end of the war and any compromise." Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group, took his men on an abortive and bloody march on Moscow in June 23 to try to oust the then defence minister and strayed into personal criticism of Putin. He was killed in a plane crash with his top lieutenants two months to the day after his mutiny. Putin later intimated that the plane had been blown up with hand grenades while those on board were high on cocaine and alcohol. 'The party of war' Many Russians associate the Z-Patriots label with war bloggers and correspondents, a group that rose to prominence after the start of the conflict. Outspoken in the war's early stages, the Kremlin and the Defence Ministry later invited many of them to briefings to try to co-opt them. Some now re-publish Defence Ministry press releases along with their own analysis; others remain more outspoken. But the so-called "party of war" includes a wider group of voices too, including deputies of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, and so-called "political technologists" experts who shape public opinion on primetime state TV chat shows dedicated to the war, providing a useful service to the Kremlin by repeating and amplifying its preferred storyline. War hawks include figures linked to the Defence Ministry, intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies and individuals who have been or remain close to Putin. Those allowed to appear on the TV chat shows about the war regularly bandy about wild threats against the West, such as using nuclear weapons against Britain or invading the Baltic countries. A fourth source inside Russia said the desire to prolong the war in some circles was driven by a domestic pressure inside the system on Putin to definitively settle what they see as Russia's Ukraine problem. Carnegie's Stanovaya, who, based on polling, estimated the Z-patriots' views are shared by 10-15 per cent of Russians, said Putin's own firmly-held ideas meant the nationalists were not a serious influence on him. "Without radical external changes, Putin is committed to ending the war on his own terms," she said referring to his stated territorial and security goals in Ukraine. "He's ready to wage war for years or to achieve his aims in a different way." [[nid:718038]]
The Hindu
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Russia holds Victory Day parade marking the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany
Russia on Friday (May 9, 2025) celebrated the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, as President Vladimir Putin presided over a massive parade of tanks, missiles and troops through Red Square and welcomed over two dozen world leaders — the most since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine. Victory Day, which Russia marks on May 9, is the country's most important secular holiday. The parade and other festivities underline Moscow's efforts to project its global power and cement the alliances it has forged while seeking a counterbalance to the West amid the conflict in Ukraine that is grinding through a fourth year. Friday's parade was the largest since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022 and drew the most global leaders to Moscow in a decade, including high-profile guests like Chinese President Xi Jinping, who sat next to Mr. Putin, and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Their attendance underscored how Putin has tried to emphasize the failure of the West to turn Russia into a global pariah. 'It's again showing that Russia is not isolated, that Russia is seen as a very legitimate victorious nation that is among victors in World War II,' said Alexander Gabuev, director of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre. "Russia is standing tall among the so-called global majority,' Mr. Gabuev said, adding that the attendance of Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico showed that 'Russia has allies even within the Western camp' and marked a major public relations victory for Mr. Putin. World War II is a rare event in the nation's divisive history under Communist rule that is revered by all political groups, and the Kremlin has used that sentiment to encourage national pride and underline Russia's position as a global power. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in what it calls the Great Patriotic War in 1941-45, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche. Addressing the crowd in Red Square, Mr. Putin praised Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, saying that 'we are proud of their courage and determination, their spiritual force that always has brought us victory.' Mr. Putin, who has ruled Russia for 25 years, has turned Victory Day into a key pillar of his tenure and has tried to use it to justify his action in Ukraine. For Mr. Putin, Victory Day celebrations have become "a civic religion that boosts patriotism, nationalism, nostalgia, and justifies both his repressive regime at home and Russia's increasingly expansionist foreign policy abroad, particularly including towards its neighbors,' Mr. Gabuev said. The parade featured over 11,500 troops and more than 180 military vehicles, including tanks, armoured infantry vehicles and artillery used on the battlefield in Ukraine. As a reminder of Russia's nuclear might, huge Yars nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles launchers rolled across Red Square. Also among the weaponry on display were drones carried on military trucks, a tribute to their pivotal role in the conflict. Fighter jets of Russian air force's aerobatic teams flew by in close formation, followed by jets that trailed smoke in the colours of the national flag. Afterward, Mr. Putin shook hands with Russian generals who led the troops onto Red Square and spoke to medal-bedecked senior North Korean officers who watched the parade, hugging one of them. Last month, Mr. Putin thanked North Korea for fighting alongside Russian troops against Ukrainian forces and hailed their sacrifices as Pyongyang confirmed its deployment for the first time. The Russian and North Korean statements emphasised their expanding military partnership, especially after Russia said its troops have fully reclaimed the Kursk region that Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion last year. Ukraine denied the claim. Victory Day festivities this year were overshadowed by Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Moscow and severe disruptions at the capital's airports. Aeroflot on Wednesday cancelled more than 100 flights to and from Moscow, and delayed over 140 others as the military repelled Ukrainian drone attacks on the capital. Russian authorities tightened security ahead of the parade and cellphone internet outages were reported amid electronic countermeasures aimed at foiling more potential drone attacks. Military parades and other festivities were also held in scores of other cities across Russia amid tight security. As a historic tribute, Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg symbolically regained its Soviet-era name of Leningrad for a day Friday and Volgograd temporarily reverted to Stalingrad, as it was known during World War II. Mr. Putin had declared a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire starting May 7 to coincide with the Victory Day celebrations, but warned that Russian troops would retaliate to any attacks. Moscow has been reluctant to accept a U.S.-proposed 30-day truce that Ukraine has accepted, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies to Ukraine and Kyiv's mobilisation effort, conditions Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected. Ukrainian authorities reported scores of Russian strikes Friday that killed at least two people in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and damaged buildings. A Russian drone also struck a civilian vehicle in Zaporizhzhia, critically injuring a man and also wounding his wife. As the parade and other festivities unfolded in Moscow, dozens of European officials met in Lviv, in western Ukraine, to endorse the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian officials accused of war crimes. 'Russia needs to feel our common and, most importantly, growing strength,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, addressing the Lviv meeting. He emphasised the need for Russia to be held accountable, adding that 'this is the moral duty of Europe and of everyone in the world who values human life.' 'I'm sure that this tribunal will allow for the fight against impunity against all war crimes that have been committed during this war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine,' said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. Russian authorities have fiercely denied allegations of war crimes. Ms. Barrot also said European allies have agreed on another package of sanctions against Russia. Standing alongside top Ukrainian government officials in Lviv, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the tribunal's launch will mean that 'nobody can be left unpunished for the crimes committed." Most of Europe marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II on May 8.
