Latest news with #SovietEra
Bloomberg
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Moscow Installs Replica of Historical Stalin Monument in Metro
Moscow's famed metro system has unveiled a Soviet-era monument to Josef Stalin in one of its central stations, as part of a gradual reappraisal of the dictator's legacy in Russia. The life-sized wall sculpture in the Taganskaya metro station is called 'Gratitude of the People to the Leader-Commander' and dedicated to the victory in World War II, according to a statement from the transportation system. It depicts Stalin surrounded by a crowd of adoring civilians.
The Sun
19-05-2025
- The Sun
Brit ‘smuggler' Bella Culley, 18, ‘receiving NO medical care' behind bars in grim ex-Soviet jail
BRIT drugs charge teenager Bella Culley is being denied proper medical care in her bleak jail cell in Georgia - despite telling the authorities she is pregnant. Backpacker Bella, 18, is in custody following her arrest in Georgia's Tbilisi airport with a suitcase of cannabis after going missing 4,000 miles away in Thailand. 11 11 11 She will spend at least nine months on remand in a grim Soviet-era lock-up alongside hardened criminals and faces a sentence from 15 years to life if convicted of importing the huge stash. Celebrity Georgian lawyer Mariam Kublashvili, 39, was allowed to visit Bella for 30 minutes on Monday and brought the first news of her condition behind bars. Shockingly, she revealed the pregnant teen had not received a proper medical examination since telling a Tbilisi court she was pregnant. She also assessed that the shy and scared young Briton was a victim rather than a calculating criminal who deserves to be caged for years. Ms Kublashvili said: 'She is pregnant and needs medical care which she complained she wasn't getting. 'She told me no tests, checks or medical examinations have been done. 'She said she asked for a doctor, but the doctor wasn't speaking English and they couldn't understand each other.' The Sun also revealed that Bella could be forced to being up her child behind bars in unforgiving conditions. Experts spoke of their fears for her unborn child which could spend the first three years of its life in a prison nursery. Eliso Rukhadze, Georgian women's rights defender and lawyer told The Sun last week: 'Bella will be transferred to a hospital to have the baby and then rushed back to prison. Bella Culley's dad stands by daughter amid fears drug gangs are targeting Brit backpackers 'Over the last few years, a large amount of funds have been allocated to make the space as comfortable as possible. 'Equipment is modern. There is a kindergarten and nursery too to create the best possible conditions for the child in the prison. 'For up to three years, the child would grow up there and the mom would have unrestricted access to the child - including breastfeeding. 'They would have to be cared for by a family member. "The nationality will add complications. If the child is Georgian, and the family is British, they will have to take extra steps to be given wardship of the child. 11 11 'It won't be put up for adoption. The child will only be given to members of the family, but it adds an extra layer of bureaucracy.' Bella's pregnancy has yet to be confirmed by medical checks - but her dad, Neil, 49, appeared distressed as he faced the possibility of his first grandchild being born in prison. Puffing shakily on a cigarette, the dad told The Sun: 'I'm sorry - I don't want to say anything.' Ms Kublashvili painted a sorrowful picture of a 'sad but calm' Bella - who she said appeared visibly cold in a thin green top and leggings with her hair untied when they met in a draughty meeting room. She said the teen constantly thanked the prison advocate during their talk and appeared timid and reserved as she quietly set out her concerns. 11 11 11 Ms Kublashvili said: 'My Initial impression was very positive - she is very open, very pleasant, and charming. She doesn't fit the profile of a drug trafficker at all. 'For anyone, like me, with experience in dealing with such cases, it would be quite obvious that she is a victim here - she's been used and manipulated. 'She is sad and would very much like to go home. I have a 20-year-old child myself and can only imagine what her parents must be feeling. 'But I have a great deal of experience helping women in situations like this and want to do all I can for her so I'm offering my services free of charge." The glam lawyer is the former-Soviet state's best-known celebrity lawyer - and was previously employed by British "speedboat killer" Jack Shepherd who fled to Georgia. She emerged from the jail on Monday with a food shopping list from the teenager for chicken fillets, beef or veal, bread, apples, pears and pomegranates. The 18-year-old had also asked for tuna, which Kublashvili thought could be a pregnancy craving, but that isn't allowed to be sent in. 11 Her others requests included warmer clothes and for the lawyer to broker a visit from her father - which is expected to happen either on Tuesday or later in the week. Bella's Vietnam-based oil rig electrician dad Niel, 39, and her aunt Kerrie Culley flew to Georgia to support her but have so far been blocked from visiting by jail red tape. The father told The Sun he will stay 'as long as it takes' to help end her ordeal and is currently dealing with a local legal aid lawyer. Niel is estranged from Bella's UK-based mum Lyanne Kennedy who has struggled to find enough cash to fly to Georgia. Bella is sharing a cell at the prison with two other women inmates, but it was unclear what crimes they have been accused of or committed, Ms Kublashvili said. Bella was detained in Georgia following a tip-off on May 11 after a 20-hour flight from Bangkok via Sharjah in the UAE with the drug stash in her hold bag. She had spent weeks away having holiday fun in the Philippines and Thailand where she met a group of young men from the north west of England. She joked online of 'Bonnie and Clyde' hijinks and was pictured smoking a suspicious-looking cigarette and showing off wads of cash.
Telegraph
19-05-2025
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Russia's motorbike squads may be suicidal but they are hurting Ukraine
The roar of engines rumble across no man's land before a pack of Russian soldiers mounted on motorbikes emerge from a cloud of dust on the horizon. Ukrainian drones spring into action and the race is on. Without any cover, the riders have just minutes to zigzag across mines and craters to reach an enemy trench-line before they are picked off. The odds are not in their favour. Since they were trialled over a year ago, most motorbike attacks have ended in failure, with the majority of riders killed before they can reach their target. Yet, those that are successful solve a key tactical challenge in Ukraine: how to cross an open battlefield under constant surveillance from above – and fast. Russia's military is said to be planning to systematically integrate motorbikes across the front ahead of new offensives. Run, stab, escape Plenty of lives will be lost, but Russia's precious armoured vehicles will be saved – an apparent victory in the eyes of a military that has a steady stream of manpower, but is forced to draw on a rusting stockpile of Soviet-era tanks that have proven unsuitable for the battlefields of Ukraine. The first reports of motorbikes squads started to appear in April 2024. It began as an informal, ad hoc response to persistent drone strikes, which now kill or maim up to 70 per cent of all soldiers and destroy more armoured vehicles than all other weapons systems combined. Since autumn last year, there has been a considerable increase in bike-led attacks in Ukraine's north-eastern Kharkiv region and Donetsk to the east, where Russia largely abandoned armoured vehicle usage after suffering unsustainable losses in the winter of 2023 to 2024. The attacks are fast-paced, but deeply flawed. For months on end, drone footage has shown the remnants of such failures, which have turned the edges of fields and Ukrainian trench lines into a junk yard of twisted metal and burnt tyres. It is not just bikes, but all kinds of unconventional unarmoured vehicles turning up at the front, including quad bikes, civilian cars, Chinese-made buggies and electric scooters.
The Sun
13-05-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Inside Ukraine's most bombed estate in town on Russian border where locals vow ‘we will live here and we will die here'
GLANCING nervously to the sky as yet another air-raid siren wails, the locals on this bombed-out housing estate are praying the blitz spirit will see them through their darkest hour. But these are not memories of wartime Britain recalled for the 80th anniversary of VE Day. 8 8 8 8 This is life today in North Saltivka, in Kharkiv, the most-bombed housing estate in Ukraine. It lies just a few miles from the border with Russia and almost every tower block here has been shelled, leaving the bustling neighbourhood a ghost town after thousands fled. But incredibly, some steely residents refuse to be driven from their homes, even though many have no windows or running water. And they remain convinced that — just like in wartime Britain 80 years ago — that determination will eventually see off their bitter enemy. 'There were mice and food rotting in the fridge' As diplomatic efforts to halt the war inched forward, no-nonsense pensioner Elena Vizer, 72, said: 'This is my home and no one is chasing me out of it.' The estate, made up of scores of Soviet -era nine-storey tower blocks, bore the brunt of Russia's invasion in February 2022, as Putin's shock troops launched a bombardment that killed more than 600 civilians. Around 700,000 of Kharkiv's population of two million fled and President Volodymyr Zelensky later declared that a quarter of Ukraine's second city had been destroyed. As The Sun toured the apocalyptic landscape of North Saltivka amid hopes that Ukraine and Russia could finally sit down for peace talks in Turkey tomorrow, it was clear that barely a single building had escaped damage. Cranes were tearing down buildings beyond repair while the playgrounds were silent — most families with young children having long since left. Retired lab technician Elena was forced out of her home for 14 months after the invasion but has now returned to her half-empty tower block, part of which teeters on the brink of collapse. Will Putin chicken out? Ukraine piles on pressure on Vlad to meet Zelensky as Russia stays deathly silent on Thursday showdown She said: 'They were bombing us with jets right from the start, and the Russian tanks were on the main road outside my home. 'My front doorstep was the front line. The house was shaking — a shell came through the roof of my next-door neighbour's apartment and destroyed it. 'My windows were blown out and my balcony was destroyed. Rescuers and fire engines did not come because the shelling was too intense. 'I didn't see my apartment again until April 2023. When I returned I was so overjoyed I walked around kissing everything. 'But I was also heartbroken because it was in a terrible state. Everything was damaged and there were mice everywhere and rotting food in the fridge.' Her houseplants which she had lovingly tended for 15 years were all dead, apart from an amaryllis which miraculously flowered again when she watered it. 8 The worst of the shelling is over for now but has never fully stopped, and Elena still spends some nights sheltering in a corridor as Russian attack drones fly overhead, but she insists she will never leave. Kharkiv is Ukraine's most-bombed major city, and North Saltivka its most-blitzed neighbour. The Battle of Kharkiv raged for three months at the start of the war, with the city seen as a major target for Russia. As invading tank regiments bore down on the city, terrified Lubov Bobro and her three children found themselves on the wrong side of the front line. And in a bizarre twist, to make it to a safe area they had to evacuate into Russia. They ended up in a city 1,200 miles to the east where officials pressured them into registering as Russian citizens and taking local passports. Brave Lubov refused and managed to flee back to Ukraine with the help of Bring Back Kids, a humanitarian organisation launched by President Zelensky to secure the return of children snatched by Russia. 8 8 8 When they got back to Kharkiv, they found their home had been destroyed by a phosphorus bomb — just one more war crime in a long list committed by Russia. They now live in another house nearby — which has plastic sheeting where the windows used to be, and no running water or mains gas. A week ago they once again had to run to the shelter in the basement when Russia attacked. When they emerged they found that the blast from a nearby attack had ripped off the plaster from the walls of the stairwell. Single mum Lubov, 40, is unable to work because she does not want to leave traumatised kids Olya, 15 Denys, ten, and Tetyana, seven, alone. Instead, she survives on a government handout of £45 a week. She said: 'I lost so much weight because of all the stress. 'I used to think Russia were our brothers' 'When we got back to Ukraine the children were crying tears of joy. 'At the bus station in Kyiv people were asking why we were going back to Kharkiv because it was so dangerous. I told them, 'This is our home'. 'When we came back, everything was broken — our house was completely destroyed. 'The children were shocked and said, 'Mum, where are we going to live?' A neighbour allowed us to stay in an empty house and it has no water, just a well. But this is our home, we will live here and we will die here. This is where we live. Nowhere else is home, only here. So whatever happens, we will never leave.' Pharmacy worker Olena Kusko, 63, who was driven out of North Saltivka when her apartment block was hit, also hailed Kharkiv's blitz spirit. She said: 'People have a great spirit around here. They want to stay because they are connected to this area. This is their home. 'My house was on the seventh floor. The roof and the top two floors were badly damaged so every time it rained water came into my home and I had to move out.' Although the locals insist that Ukraine will never be defeated, they are exhausted after three years of war and are now praying for a ceasefire. But they have little faith that Putin will stick to one — and can never forgive Russia for the invasion. Olena added: 'I am hoping for a short-term peace agreement as that will at least be something, but I don't think war will end any time soon.' Lubov said: 'I hope that peace will come and the guns will fall silent. 'We are praying to God that they can find a common language to end this war. 'But everything Putin says is just talk. I fear that this cannot be resolved and the people will keep suffering.' And Elena said: 'My opinion of Russia has changed 180 degrees. I used to think they were our brothers but not now. How can we ever forgive them? But we always have hope for peace. This war must end.' North Saltivka was one of the first areas in Ukraine hit when Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Around 20,000 Russian soldiers crossed over the border just after midnight and advanced on Kharkiv on several fronts, with the plan to occupy the city within 48 hours. But they met with fierce resistance from Ukraine's 92nd Brigade, the National Guard's 3rd Rapid Response Brigade and the 22nd Motorised Infantry Battalion. Finding themselves unable to occupy the city as planned, the Russians began destroying it, launching a relentless bombardment of North Saltivka and other districts. The heaviest fighting in Ukraine took place in Kharkiv in the early days, with rocket strikes, cluster bombs and snipers all targeting civilians. Two months later, Ukraine launched a counter-offensive and forced Russian troops back toward the border. The worst fighting in the city was over but Russian attacks have continued. Elena added: 'The shelling is less now but it has never stopped. The Sunday before last there was shelling and the house was shaking. I was so scared and feared the entire block would fall down.' She said the one survivor from her beloved houseplant collection had given her hope. She said: 'I loved my plants — I had them for more than 15 years and talked to them and told them I loved them. 'But when I returned to my apartment I found that they had all died apart from one, an amaryllis. 'I gave it some water and it was revived and grew again and flowered. 'That symbolised life for me. Whatever happens, life goes on.'
