Latest news with #RussianDefenseMinistry
Arab News
11 hours ago
- General
- Arab News
Evacuation order for 11 villages on Ukraine border with Russia
KYIV: Authorities in Ukraine's Sumy region bordering Russia on Saturday ordered the mandatory evacuation of 11 villages because of bombardments, as Kyiv feared a Russian offensive there. 'This decision takes into account the constant threat to civilian lives because of the bombardments of border communities,' Sumy's administration said. Russia's defense ministry on Saturday said its forces had taken another Sumy village, Vodolagy, known as Vodolahy in Ukrainian. Russia in recent weeks has claimed to have taken several villages in the northeastern region, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that Moscow was massing more than 50,000 soldiers nearby in a sign of a possible offensive. A spokesman for Ukraine's border guard service, Andriy Demchenko, on Thursday said that Russia was poised to 'attempt an attack' on Sumy. He said the Russian troop build-up began when Moscow's forces fought Ukrainian soldiers who last year had entered the Russian side of the border, in the Kursk region. Russia has recently retaken control of virtually all of Kursk. Currently, Russia — which launched its all-out invasion in February 2022 — controls around 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. The ongoing conflict has killed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides. Washington has been leading diplomatic efforts to try to bring about a ceasefire, but Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of not wanting peace. The Kremlin has proposed further negotiations in Istanbul on Monday, after a May 16 round of talks that yielded little beyond a large prisoner-of-war exchange. Kyiv has not yet said whether it will attend the Istanbul meeting, and is demanding that Moscow drop its opposition to an immediate truce.
The Standard
13 hours ago
- Business
- The Standard
Trump and Putin hint at US-Russia trade revival, but business environment remains hostile
FILE - In this photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, April 19, 2024, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, second right, visits a factory workshop as he checks the implementation of the state defense order at an enterprise of the military-industrial complex in the Omsk region of Russia, which produces tanks and heavy flamethrower systems. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS]
Free Malaysia Today
4 days ago
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
Russia says it captures 3 more settlements in east Ukraine
Ukraine has for months reported Russian attempts to seize parts of Sumy, but never confirmed any losses. (AP pic) MOSCOW : Russian troops advancing slowly on the eastern front of the war in Ukraine have captured two settlements in Donetsk region as well as one in Ukraine's northern region of Sumy, the Russian defence ministry said on Saturday. Since their failed advance on the capital Kyiv in the first weeks of the war, Russian forces have focused on capturing the Donbas in the east, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In recent months, Moscow has also tried to advance in Sumy region, particularly after Russia's military said it had ousted Ukrainian troops from the Russian border region of Kursk. A Russian defence ministry statement said its forces had captured the village of Stupochky in Donetsk region, east of Kostiantynivka, a town under recent Russian pressure. It also said it had taken control of Otradne, a village further west along the 1,000km front and announced the capture of Loknya, a village inside the Russian border in Sumy region. The general staff of Ukraine's military acknowledged no such losses, referring to Otradne as one of several towns where Ukrainian troops had halted 18 frontline Russian attacks. It referred to Stupochky earlier this week as part of an area under Russian attack. For months, Ukraine has reported attempts by Russian forces to occupy areas of Sumy region, but has never acknowledged the capture of any of them. Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts from either side. Ukraine's popular DeepState military blog, which uses open source reports, said Russian forces had for the first time 'been able to take up positions' along a line of border villages. Russia's defence ministry on Friday announced the capture of Radkivka, a village outside the northeastern city of Kupiansk, which has been under pressure for months. On Saturday, Kupiansk Mayor Andrii Besedin said the attacks were taking a toll, including two city workers killed on Friday. 'We are seeing awful losses among our people, our colleagues who give their lives so the city can go on living,' Besedin told national television. 'Sadly, as of now, the city is 90% destroyed.'
Arab News
4 days ago
- General
- Arab News
Russia accuses Ukraine of trying to derail peace talks
MOSCOW: Russia said Tuesday that its massive aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent days were a 'response' to escalating Ukrainian drone strikes on its own civilians, accusing Kyiv of trying to 'disrupt' peace efforts. Moscow fired hundreds of drones at Ukraine between late Friday and early Monday, killing more than a dozen people and saturating the country's air defenses. US President Donald Trump, who has been seeking to broker an end to Moscow's three-year invasion, said Vladimir Putin had 'gone absolutely CRAZY' and threatened Russia with sanctions over the attacks. Diplomatic efforts to end the war have accelerated in recent weeks, with Russian and Ukrainian officials holding direct talks for the first time in three years earlier this month but the Kremlin has shown no signs of scaling back its maximalist demands. 'Kyiv, with the support of some European countries, has taken a series of provocative steps to thwart negotiations initiated by Russia,' the Russian defense ministry said in a statement. Russian air defenses destroyed 2,331 Ukrainian drones between May 20 and 27, more than half of which were intercepted in areas outside the battlefield, the ministry said. 'Civilians, including women and children, were injured,' it said, describing its recent strikes on Ukraine as a direct 'response.' Moscow said it had only hit 'military targets' in Ukraine but Ukraine said at least 13 civilians were killed in Russian attacks on Sunday. Kyiv accused Russia of trying to evade responsibility for the killings. 'We need to end this eternal waiting — Russia needs more sanctions,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Telegram Tuesday. Russia's invasion, launched in February 2022, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and ravaged large parts of the east and south of the country. For three of the past four nights, Russia pummelled Ukraine with hundreds of drones in what Kyiv described as a weekend of 'terror.' Moscow fired fewer drones at Ukraine overnight into Tuesday but strikes still damaged buildings in the northern Sumy region and hurt multiple people in the regions of Kherson and Kharkiv, officials said. In a rare rebuke of Russia's Putin, Trump said on social media late Sunday Washington time: 'I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!' 'I've always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that's proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!' The Kremlin played down Trump's criticism on Monday, saying Putin was taking measures 'necessary to ensure Russia's security' and that everyone was feeling 'emotional' at the moment. Ukraine and Russia sent back 1,000 people each over the weekend in their biggest ever prisoner exchange, while Moscow said it was preparing a document outlining its peace terms. But that document was still not ready on Tuesday, despite Russia announcing it would present it to Ukraine once the prisoner swap was complete. Moscow has consistently rejected a call by Kyiv and its Western allies for an unconditional and full ceasefire, and has called for Kyiv to drop its NATO ambitions and cede territory it already controls. 'As soon as the memorandum is ready, it will be sent to Kyiv. We hope that the Ukrainian side is doing the same,' Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tuesday.
BreakingNews.ie
4 days ago
- General
- BreakingNews.ie
Russia seizes Ukrainian border villages as massive bombing campaign slows
Russian forces have taken four border villages in Ukraine's north-eastern Sumy region, a local official has said, days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had issued an order to establish a buffer zone along the border. Meanwhile, a Russian bombing campaign that had escalated in recent days slowed overnight as far fewer Russian drones targeted Ukrainian towns and cities. Advertisement Moscow's invasion has shown no signs of stopping despite months of intense US-led efforts to secure a ceasefire and get traction for peace talks. Since Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey earlier this month for their first direct talks in three years, a large prisoner exchange has been the only tangible outcome, but negotiations have brought no significant breakthrough. Homes in Korostyshiv, in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, pictured on Sunday after being destroyed by a Russian strike (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP) Between Friday and Sunday, Russia launched around 900 drones at Ukraine, officials said, amid a spate of large-scale bombardments. On Sunday night, Russia launched its biggest drone attack of the three-year war against Ukraine, firing 355 drones. From Monday to Tuesday, Russia fired 60 drones at Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said on Tuesday. Advertisement Russia's ministry of defence claimed its air defences had downed 99 Ukrainian drones overnight over seven Russian regions. In Sumy, Russian forces are trying to advance deeper after capturing villages, Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy regional military administration, said in a statement. Ukrainian forces are endeavouring to hold the line, he said. Residents of the captured villages were evacuated earlier, and there was no immediate threat to civilians, Mr Hryhorov said. Advertisement Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had issued an order to establish a buffer zone along the border (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) Mr Putin visited the Kursk region last week for the first time since Moscow claimed that it had driven Ukrainian forces out of the area last month. Kyiv officials have denied the claim. Ukraine seized a pocket of land in Kursk last August. The long border remains vulnerable to Ukrainian incursions, Mr Putin said. He said he told the Russian military to create a 'security buffer zone' along the border but provided no public details of where the proposed zone would be or how far it would stretch. Advertisement Mr Putin said a year ago that a Russian offensive at the time aimed to create a buffer zone in Ukraine's north-eastern Kharkiv region. That could have helped protect Russia's Belgorod border region, where frequent Ukrainian attacks have embarrassed the Kremlin.
