Latest news with #pro-Kremlin
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Putin has eyes set on another country after Ukraine war, ex-CIA boss warns
Former top spy David Petraeus has warned Vladimir Putin will want to move in on another European country after installing a pro-Kremlin puppet to carry out his bidding in Ukraine A former CIA chief has warned that Vladimir Putin will extend his bloody campaign further inside Europe if he was allowed to claim victory in Ukraine - having set his sights on one key nation. David Petraeus, who chaired the agency between 2011 and 2012 during the Obama administration, has warned the Russian despot would march west into Europe's Baltic states. Putin is reportedly set to launch a devastating summer offensive on Ukraine in the coming weeks, having recently stepped up both drone and missile attacks in a bid to sap the country's morale. Now, Mr Petraeus said, he is looking to claim the entire country for himself before moving on to a nation that has featured frequently in his speeches. Speaking at the Policy Exchange think-tank in London this week, Mr Petraeus said Russia seeks to remove Zelensky and replace him with a pro-Russian puppet. He said the Kremlin wants to "install a puppet leader and to control all of Ukraine". He went on to add that, once this objective is accomplished, Putin would move on to "one of the Baltic states". He added: "Once that's done, you are going to see them focus on one of the Baltic states." Mr Petraeus specifically warned that Russian neighbour Lithuania would be next on the list, saying: "Lithuania has featured prominently in his speeches and we should have listened a lot more." Long before the war in Ukraine began in 2022, Putin had frequently insisted the country was a part of Russia, and that Ukrainians and Russians were "one people". In 2020 he said: "Kyiv is the mother of Russian cities. Ancient Rus' is our common source and we cannot live without each other.' Kremlin-backed organisations have made similar claims about Lithuania. Russian top foreign-policy institute MGIMO published a 400-page history of the country claiming it was established solely as a proxy for Polish terrorism. The book, which comes with a written foreward by Putin's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, adds that the country's exit from the crumbling USSR in 1991 was fraudulent and undemocratic. Lithuanian officials are aware of Russia's open hostility to the country, having last month unveiled an evacuation plan for its capital, Vilnius, in the event of an invasion. The national government has also invested in updating its border defences, especially at a critical border choke point known as the Suwałki Gap. The point has long been seen as one of the likeliest staging areas for a Russian attack on Lithuania, with Lithuanian Deputy Defense Minister Tomas Godliauskas telling POLITICO the fortifications are "critical to us from a security and defense perspective". Mr Godliauskas added: "They've always been part of our civil-military planning as key ground routes for allied support during a crisis."
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Portnov reportedly met controversial Zelensky staffer, Ukraine's investigations chief before being killed in Madrid
Former Ukrainian top official Andriy Portnov met in Ukraine with Oleh Tatarov, deputy head of the Presidential Office, and Oleksii Sukhachov, director of the State Bureau of Investigation, days before he was killed in Madrid, Ukrainska Pravda reported on May 29, citing undisclosed sources. Portnov was shot dead by unidentified attackers outside the American School in Madrid on May 21. Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that two or three people are believed to be involved in the attack, though no arrests have been made so far, and the motive remains unclear. Portnov served in the administration of pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych between 2010 and 2014. After the EuroMaidan Revolution, he lived alternately abroad and in Ukraine and was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2021 over allegations that he was involved in corruption. Four sources confirmed to Ukrainska Pravda that Portnov was in Ukraine between May 17 and 18 and held meetings with senior officials overseeing Ukraine's law enforcement agencies, including Tatarov and Sukhachov. The sources said they were unaware of the topics discussed. Tatarov is the most controversial official in President Volodymyr Zelensky's administration. He was charged with bribery before joining the administration, but the corruption case against him was obstructed by law enforcement agencies and courts and eventually closed. According to the media outlet's sources, Portnov has recently been seeking ways to have U.S. sanctions against him lifted. He also reportedly gathered information on the activities of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and civil society activists in Ukraine. The Kyiv Independent submitted official requests for comment to the Presidential Office and the State Bureau of Investigation but did not receive an immediate response. Portnov led the legal team of then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko from 2005 to 2010 and sat in the parliament between 2006 and 2010. After 2010, he became the head of Yanukovych's main judiciary department and deputy head of his administration. The ex-official left Ukraine for Russia and later Austria after Yanukovych was ousted in the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014, but returned to Ukraine in 2019. Portnov fled Ukraine again in 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion broke out, even though the travel ban for military-age men was already in effect. Read also: Hated, tainted, and covertly pro-Russian — Andriy Portnov, the top Ukrainian ex-official shot dead in Spain We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump admits protecting Putin over Ukraine: ‘He's playing with fire!'
President Donald Trump admitted Tuesday he's been protecting Vladimir Putin over the Russian strongman's refusal to end — or even scale back — the war in Ukraine. After seeing his pleas for peace talks or a ceasefire go unanswered for months, Trump conceded that he's defended Putin in discussions over what to do next about Russia's new attacks in Ukraine. 'If it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia,' Trump wrote on his social media site. 'And I mean really bad.' Despite the telling admission, Trump inferred he may soon shift course and impose some cost on Putin for continuing the invasion by Russia of its smaller neighbor. 'He's playing with fire,' Trump exclaimed, without elaborating. Top Putin aide Dmitry Medvedev fired back at Trump, warning that 'I only know of one bad thing — WW III.' But the pro-Kremlin RT News channel chose to mock Trump's tough guy act, noting that he has repeatedly backed down after making previous threats to Putin and on trade. 'Trump's message leaves little room for misinterpretation,' the channel tweeted. 'Until he posts the opposite tomorrow morning.' Putin has shrugged off several previous outbursts from Trump, including branding the U.S. president's recent call for an end to 'crazy' airstrikes an 'emotional reaction.' Trump vowed to end the war in Ukraine on the campaign trail, but so far has seen little to no progress toward that goal since taking office four months ago. He says he believes Putin wants to end the war, but the strategy of mostly taking Russia's side appears to have backfired by giving Putin little reason to make concessions. Trump conceded to Russia's demands that Ukraine be permanently barred from joining NATO and must give up Russian-occupied lands including the Crimea. He hasn't appeared to get anything in return from Putin. Instead, the Russians seem confident they can win more ground on the battlefield and eventually get a better deal when or if they decide to end the war they launched when they invaded their sovereign neighbor in 2022. Months ago, Trump demanded that both sides accept his unilateral call for a ceasefire. Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed, but Putin snubbed Trump and has stubbornly refused to end the fighting. Russia has instead escalated attacks on the front lines in occupied Ukraine and on civilian targets in Kyiv and other cities. Despite Putin's recalcitrance, Trump has refused to make him pay any price for ignoring his pleas. Trump continues to laud Russia as a potentially lucrative trading partner and says he hopes to hold a face-to-face summit soon, effectively sending mixed messages to the Kremlin. _____
Economic Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Economic Times
Russian Facebook VKontakte on fire as thousands of users accuse Trump of having dementia, call him a clown
Live Events What did Donald Trump say about Putin? Why are Russian bots turning on Donald Trump? How are individuals reacting? FAQs (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Donald Trump's criticism of Vladimir Putin has sparked outrage online, but not among Americans. Following Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, ties between the United States and Russia became extremely strained; however, they improved after Donald Trump took office in president of the United States has advocated for a ceasefire and urged his Russian counterpart to put an end to the Donald Trump slammed Vladimir Putin for "killing a lot of people" in Ukraine, thousands of Russian-linked VKontakte accounts flooded with mocking of posts on VKontakte, a Russian Facebook-like platform, have turned against Donald Trump, calling him a clown and accusing him of represents a significant shift from earlier pro-Kremlin neutrality. According to insiders, Donald Trump's abrupt shift in tone may have rattled Moscow even more than it appears, as per Trump reacted angrily to Russia's weekend bombardment of Ukraine with missiles and drones, which Putin's military has been doing since the start of the full-scale Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday that Putin had gone "absolutely CRAZY!" and was "needlessly killing a lot of people" in Ukraine, nearly 1,000 negative posts about Trump have appeared on the Russian social media site VKontakte, as per a report by Trump claimed that Putin "needlessly" killed a lot of people because "something has happened" to him. "And I'm not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever," he to a report published on Tuesday by Agentstvo, an independent investigative Russian news outlet, the accounts, which are "in the interests of the Kremlin," have called Trump a "clown.'After President Trump criticized Putin on Sunday, pro-Kremlin bots stopped being neutral in their remarks about him, according to a spokesperson for the bot-tracking project Trump's comments about Putin were minimized by the Kremlin, but pro-Kremlin bots have begun smearing the American may not be happy with Trump's abrupt change in tone, according to the online attacks, even though the U.S. president recently said their most recent phone conversation went "very well," as per a report by was accused of "acting like a child" and "getting so mad early in the morning, as if he wasn't given what he wanted" in the Russian bots' comments."He's really lost his mind" and "wants to sit on two chairs" a Russian expression for attempting to play both sides, were other bot wrote, "Trump is the one who has lost his mind, not Putin. It seems that dementia, along with the presidential chair, is a genetic gift for every American one bot called Trump a "showman," another called him a "clown.""What can you expect from a clown who threatens Russia instead of taking care of his own country?" wrote to Agentstvo, pro-Kremlin trolls had previously been noticeably quiet when discussing Trump, sticking to neutral or cautious Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, dismissed Trump's comments on Monday as the result of "emotional overstrain."Since he harshly criticized Putin's actions in Ukraine, labeling him "crazy" and accusing him of killing refer to Trump as a "clown," accuse him of dementia, and mock his emotional outbursts.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Kyiv denies Russian claim of Ukrainian drone attack on Putin's helicopter
Ukraine's Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security has denied claims that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's helicopter came under attack from the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Russia's Kursk Oblast. Source: Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security on Facebook Details: The Centre reported that Putin visited Kursk Oblast on 20 May on what was apparently his first trip there since the Russian Defence Ministry claimed the region had been completely cleared of Ukrainian forces. Yuri Dashkin, commander of a Russian air defence division, asserted that Putin's helicopter broke through a swarm of Ukrainian drones attacking the region. Quote: "The pro-Kremlin media, which covered Putin's trip, reported that he travelled across the region solely by car. Footage of the motorcade was shown on all government television channels. Furthermore, neither the Russian Ministry of Defence nor the media and Telegram channels in Kursk reported a UAV attack on the scale described by Dashkin during this time period." Background: On 25 May, Dashkin was quoted as saying that Putin's helicopter was at the centre of efforts to repel a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack during a recent visit by the Kremlin leader to Kursk Oblast. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
