Russia | DD News

May 13, 2024 11:42 AM

Putin removes long-term ally Sergei Shoigu as defence minister

Russian President Vladimir Putin tapped a civilian economist as his surprise new defence minister on Sunday in an attempt to gird Russia for economic war by trying to better utilise the defence budget and harness greater innovation to win in Ukraine. More than two years into the conflict, which has cost both sides heavy casualties, Putin proposed Andrei Belousov, a 65-year-old former deputy prime minister who specialises in economics, to replace his long-term ally, Sergei Shoigu, 68, as defenc...

May 12, 2024 1:46 PM

Fierce fighting rages in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region as Russia touts gains

Fierce fighting raged into a second day on the fringes of Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region on Saturday as Moscow said it had captured five villages, while Kyiv said it was repulsing the attacks and battling for control of the settlements. Russia launched the armoured incursion early on Friday, an attack on a new front that may presage a broader push into Kharkiv region or aim to draw away overstretched Ukrainian forces from where Moscow's offensive is focused in the east. Kyiv has been on...

May 10, 2024 11:09 PM

Russian forces attack Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, opening new front

Russian forces launched an armoured ground attack on Friday near Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv in the northeast of the country and made small inroads, opening a new front in a war that has long been waged in the east and south. Ukraine sent reinforcements as fighting raged in the border areas of the region, the defence ministry said, adding that Russia had pounded the frontier town of Vovchansk with guided aerial bombs and artillery. "Russia has begun a new wave of counteroffensive actions ...

May 9, 2024 5:26 PM

Putin agrees to withdraw Russian forces from various Armenian regions, says Ifax

President Vladimir Putin has agreed to withdraw Russian forces and border guards from various parts of Armenia at Yerevan's request, Putin's spokesman was cited as saying on Thursday by Russia's Interfax news agency. The announcement follows the departure of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers from in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region which Azerbaijan returned by force in September last year. Their exit ended a multi-year deployment which gave Moscow a military foothold in the strategic S...

May 9, 2024 4:20 PM

Putin warns of global clash as Russia marks victory in World War Two

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West on Thursday of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world's biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. As Russian troops advance against Ukraine's Western-backed forces, Putin accused "arrogant" Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, and of stoking conflicts across the world. "We know wha...

May 9, 2024 8:50 AM

Russia backs India, questions US lack of evidence implicating India in Pannun case

Rubbishing the allegations by the US on India for a foiled assassination plot against pro-Khalistan radical Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Washington has not yet provided any reliable evidence of the involvement of Indian citizens in the case. "According to the information we have, Washington has not yet provided any reliable evidence of the involvement of Indian citizens in the preparation of the murder of a certain GS Pannun. Speculation on this topic in the a...

May 7, 2024 5:22 PM

Russia’s Vladimir Putin sworn in as president for a fifth term

President Vladimir Putin was sworn in for a new six-year term on Tuesday (May 7) at a Kremlin ceremony that was boycotted by the United States and a number of other Western countries due to Russia's war in Ukraine. Putin, in power as president or prime minister since 1999, begins his new mandate more than two years after he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, where Russian forces have regained the initiative after a series of reversals and are seeking to advance further in the east...

May 7, 2024 2:49 PM

Bugging devices found in Polish government meeting room

Polish security agents have discovered bugging devices in a room where ministers were due to meet on Tuesday, authorities said, without revealing who might have placed them there. As a hub for Western military supplies to Ukraine during the more than two-year war with Russia, Poland has been on heightened alert for spying. "The State Protection Service, in cooperation with the Internal Security Agency, detected and dismantled devices that could be used for eavesdropping in the room where the m...

May 6, 2024 9:58 PM

Putin orders tactical nuclear weapon drills to deter the West

Russia said on Monday it would practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military after what the Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russia has repeatedly warned of rising nuclear risks - warnings which the United States says it has to take seriously though U.S. officials say they have seen no change in Russia's nuclear posture. Russia says the United States and its European allies are pushing the w...

May 3, 2024 5:21 PM

Germany summons Russian envoy over alleged cyberspying

Germany summoned the acting representative of the Russian embassy on Friday over a sweeping cyberespionage campaign dating back to 2022 that Berlin blames on Moscow's GRU military intelligence service. "We and our partners will not tolerate these cyberattacks and will use the entire spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia's aggressive behaviour in cyberspace," a foreign ministry spokesperson said. The Russian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ru...