Tag: russia today

  • Russian man nearly dies whereas implanting a chip in his mind

    By India Today News Desk: A 40-year-old Russian man had an in depth encounter with dying because of extreme bleeding when he tried to carry out mind surgical procedure on himself utilizing a handheld drill.

    Mikhail Raduga, a resident of Russia’s Novosibirsk area, tried to carry out complicated neuro surgical procedure on himself to put in a microchip in his mind with a view to management his desires, as reported by Russia Today.

    Mikhail Raduga acquired the thought to put in the electrode in his mind over a 12 months in the past and selected himself as a take a look at topic for his experiments, the report said.

    Initially, Raduga considered taking the assistance of neurosurgeons for the complicated surgical procedure however later dropped the thought because of many causes, together with the prison legal responsibility of neurosurgeons.

    Mikhail Raduga additionally shared the photographs of his try on Twitter.

    Sharing graphic footage of a microchip in his mind, Raduga mentioned, “For the first time in history, we conducted direct electrical stimulation of the motor cortex of the brain during REM sleep, lucid dreams, and sleep paralysis.”

    Despite nearly dropping his life because of extreme blood loss, Raduga added in his tweet, “The results open up fantastic prospects for future dream control technologies.”

    BRAIN IMPLANT FOR LUCID DREAMING

    For the primary time in historical past, we performed direct electrical stimulation of the motor cortex of the mind throughout REM sleep, lucid desires, and sleep paralysis. The outcomes open up incredible prospects for future dream management applied sciences. pic.twitter.com/qypqV6ntyV
    — Michael Raduga (@MichaelRaduga) June 28, 2023

    While chatting with RT, Raduga mentioned that he carried out the operation on May 17 after watching a number of hours-long YouTube movies on neurosurgery to grasp how neurosurgeons work.

    However, due to a whole lack of surgical expertise, he reportedly misplaced almost a litre of blood throughout the four-hour complicated surgical procedure and almost misplaced his life. Later, he was shifted to hospital the place he obtained remedy for his accidents.

    “Do not repeat! It’s much harder and more dangerous than you might imagine. A four-hour video of the operation clearly demonstrates this,” he was quoted as saying by RT.

  • Ukraine’s Zelenskiy sees injury in recaptured cities; Russia strikes metropolis water system

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated cities and villages recaptured from Russian forces had been devastated, whereas a significant metropolis struggled to comprise injury to its water system from missile assaults by Kremlin’s forces.

    Kryvyi Rih, the biggest metropolis in central Ukraine with an estimated pre-war inhabitants of 650,000, was focused by eight cruise missiles on Wednesday, officers stated.

    “The water pumping station was destroyed. The river broke through the dam and overflowed its banks. Residential buildings are just a few metres away from the river,” Ukrainian legislator Inna Sovsun stated on Twitter.

    The missile strikes hit the Karachunov reservoir dam, Zelenskiy stated in a video tackle launched early on Thursday. The water system had “no military value” and lots of of hundreds of civilians rely on it day by day, he stated.

    The video was launched after Zelenskiy’s return to Kyiv from the northeast Kharkiv area and following phrase from his workplace that his automobile had collided with a personal car within the capital.

    “The president was examined by a doctor, no serious injuries were found,” presidential spokesman Serhii Nykyforov stated in a Facebook publish early on Thursday.

    Russian forces suffered a shocking reversal this month after Ukrainian troops made a fast armoured thrust within the Kharkiv area, forcing a rushed Russian withdrawal.

    Zelenskiy on Wednesday made a shock go to to Izium – till 4 days in the past Russia’s essential bastion and logistics hub within the area – the place he watched because the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag was raised in entrance of the charred metropolis council constructing.

    “Our law enforcers are already receiving evidence of murder, torture, and abductions of people by the occupiers,” Zelenskiy stated in his tackle.

    “They only destroyed, only seized, only deported. They left devastated villages, and in some of them there is not a single surviving house,” he added.

    Russia denies intentionally focusing on civilians, and Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm the claims.

    DIPLOMACY

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are set to debate Ukraine and Taiwan at a gathering in Uzbekistan on Thursday which the Kremlin stated would maintain “special significance”.

    Ahead of the assembly, the navies of the 2 international locations carried out joint tactical manoeuvres and workout routines involving artillery and helicopters within the Pacific Ocean.

    Moscow and Beijing declared a “no limits” partnership earlier this 12 months, backing one another over standoffs on Ukraine and Taiwan with a promise to collaborate extra towards the West.

    Also on the diplomatic entrance, the U.N. General Assembly is on Friday on account of contemplate a proposal for Zelenskiy to deal with the annual gathering of leaders subsequent week with a pre-recorded video. Russia is against Zelenskiy talking.

    Away from Ukraine, Russian authorities are dealing with challenges in different former Soviet states, with lethal preventing between Azerbaijan and Armenia and border guard clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

    Western politicians and navy officers have stated it was too early to inform whether or not Ukraine’s current success marked a turning level as a result of Russia had but to totally reply.

    “We should avoid euphoria. There is still a lot of work to be done to liberate our lands, and Russia has a large number of weapons,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the nationwide safety and defence council, stated in an internet publish.

    Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in a Twitter publish after the assaults on Kryvyi Rih, stated “Russia is a terrorist state and must be recognised as such”.

    In that vein, U.S. senators from Democratic and Republican events launched laws that may designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. The measure is opposed by President Joe Biden’s administration.

    FEAR LINGERS IN IZIUM

    Back in Izium, smashed home windows, pock-marked facades and scorched partitions lined a battle-scarred essential thoroughfare comprised of abandoned meat retailers and pharmacies and ruined magnificence salons. A forlorn handwritten signal on a door learn: ‘People live here’.

    With a pink hood wrapped round her face for heat, Liubov Sinna, 74, stated Izium residents have been nonetheless fearful.

    “Because we lived through this whole six months. We sat it out in cellars. We went through everything it is possible to go through. We absolutely cannot say that we feel safe,” she stated.

    She stated the city stood on the “gates of the Donbas”, the jap area whose complete seize Putin has talked up as a key warfare goal.

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who spoke to Putin over the cellphone this week, stated the Russian president “unfortunately” nonetheless didn’t suppose his invasion was a mistake.

    Putin says he desires to make sure Russian safety and defend Russian-speakers in Ukraine. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of an unprovoked warfare of aggression.

    In a transfer that means Putin had wider warfare goals when he ordered troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, three folks near the Russian management advised Reuters that Putin had rejected a provisional cope with Kyiv across the time the warfare started.

    They stated the deal would have glad Russia’s demand that Ukraine keep out of the U.S.-led Western navy alliance NATO. The Kremlin stated the Reuters report had “absolutely no relation to reality”. It additionally stated Ukraine’s ambitions to hitch NATO nonetheless introduced a menace to Russia.

     

  • Xi to fulfill Putin in first journey exterior China since COVID started

    Xi Jinping will depart China for the primary time in additional than two years for a visit this week to Central Asia the place he’ll meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin, only a month earlier than he’s set to cement his place as essentially the most highly effective Chinese chief since Mao Zedong.

    The journey, Xi’s first overseas for the reason that begin of the COVID-19 pandemic, reveals he’s assured about each his grip on energy as he heads for a 3rd time period in workplace and about his function as a world chief at a time of renewed nice energy friction.

    Against a backdrop of Russia’s confrontation with the West over Ukraine, the disaster over Taiwan and a stuttering international economic system, Xi is due on a state go to to Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

    China’s president will then meet Putin on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit within the historical Silk Road metropolis of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the Kremlin mentioned. China confirmed the journey on Monday.

    Putin’s international coverage aide, Yuri Ushakov, instructed reporters final week that the Russian president was anticipated to fulfill Xi on the summit. The Kremlin declined to offer particulars on their talks.

    The assembly will give Xi a possibility to underscore his clout whereas Putin can reveal Russia’s tilt in direction of Asia; each leaders can present their opposition to the United States simply because the West seeks to punish Russia for the Ukraine conflict.

    “It is all about Xi in my view: he wants to show just how confident he is domestically and to be seen as the international leader of nations opposed to Western hegemony,” mentioned George Magnus, writer of “Red Flags”, a guide about Xi’s challenges.

    “Privately I imagine Xi will be most anxious about how Putin’s war is going and indeed if Putin or Russia are in play at some point in the near future because China still needs an anti-western leadership in Moscow.”

    Russia suffered its worst defeat of the conflict final week, abandoning its foremost bastion in northeastern Ukraine.

    The deepening “no limits” partnership between the rising superpower of China and the pure sources titan of Russia is a geopolitical growth the West is watching with nervousness.

    Once the senior accomplice within the international Communist hierarchy, Russia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union is now a junior accomplice to a resurgent Communist China which is forecast to overhaul the United States because the world’s greatest economic system within the subsequent decade.

    Though historic contradictions abound within the partnership, there isn’t any signal that Xi is able to drop assist for Putin in Russia’s most critical confrontation with the West for the reason that top of the Cold War.

    Instead, the 2 69-year-old leaders are deepening ties. Trade soared by almost a 3rd between Russia and China within the first 7 months of 2022.

    The go to “shows that China is willing to not only continue ‘business as usual’ with Russia but even show explicit support and accelerate the formation of a stronger China-Russia alignment,” mentioned Alexander Korolev, senior lecturer in politics and worldwide relations at UNSW Sydney.

    “Beijing is reluctant to distance itself from Moscow even when facing serious reputational costs and the risks of becoming a target of secondary economic sanctions.”

    XI SUPREME

    Xi is broadly anticipated to interrupt with precedent at a Communist Party congress that begins on Oct. 16 and safe his third five-year management time period.

    While Xi has met Putin in particular person 38 instances since changing into China’s president in 2013, he has but to fulfill Joe Biden in particular person for the reason that latter grew to become U.S. President in 2021.

    Xi final met Putin in February simply weeks earlier than the Russian president ordered the invasion of Ukraine which has left tens of 1000’s of individuals lifeless and sown chaos by means of the worldwide economic system.

    At that assembly on the opening of the Winter Olympics, Xi and Putin declared their no limits partnership, backing one another over standoffs on Ukraine and Taiwan with a promise to collaborate extra towards the West.

    China has kept away from condemning Russia’s operation towards Ukraine or calling it an “invasion” in keeping with the Kremlin which casts the conflict as “a special military operation”.

    “The bigger message really isn’t that Xi is supporting Putin, because it’s been pretty clear that Xi supports Putin,” mentioned Professor Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute on the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

    “The bigger signal is that he, Xi Jinping, is going out of China for the first time since the pandemic in the run-up to the party congress. If there were going to be plottings against him this is when the plottings would happen. And he’s clearly confident that the plottings are not going to take place because he is out of the country.”

    Xi, the son of a communist revolutionary, final left China in January 2020, earlier than the world went into COVID lockdown.

    KREMLIN CHIEF

    After the West imposed on Moscow essentially the most extreme sanctions in fashionable historical past because of the conflict in Ukraine, Putin says Russia is popping in direction of Asia after centuries of seeking to the West because the crucible of financial progress, know-how and conflict.

    Casting the West as a declining, U.S.-dominated coalition which goals to shackle – and even destroy – Russia, Putin’s worldview chimes with that of Xi, who presents China as an alternative choice to the U.S.-led, post-World War Two order.

    Putin aide Ushakov mentioned the Xi-Putin assembly can be “very important”. He didn’t give additional particulars.

    As Europe seeks to show away from Russian power imports, Putin will search to spice up power exports to China and Asia.

    Putin mentioned final week {that a} main fuel export path to China through Mongolia had been agreed. Gazprom has for years been finding out the likelihood for a significant new fuel pipeline – the Power of Siberia 2 – to journey by means of Mongolia taking Russian fuel to China.

    It will carry 50 billion cubic metres of fuel per yr, round a 3rd of what Russia often sells Europe – or equal to the Nord Stream 1 annual volumes.

    The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which incorporates Russia, China, India, Pakistan and 4 Central Asian states, is because of admit Iran, one in every of Moscow’s key allies within the Middle East.

  • Russia offers up key northeast cities as Ukrainian forces advance

    Moscow deserted its most important bastion in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, in a sudden collapse of one of many struggle’s principal entrance strains after Ukrainian forces made a speedy advance.

    The swift fall of Izium in Kharkiv province was Moscow’s worst defeat since its troops had been compelled again from the capital Kyiv in March. Ukraine hailed it as a turning level within the 6-month-old struggle, with 1000’s of Russian troopers forsaking ammunition stockpiles and gear as they fled.

    Russian forces used Izium because the logistics base for certainly one of their most important campaigns – a months-long assault from the north on the adjoining Donbas area comprised of Donetsk and Luhansk.

    The state-run TASS information company quoted Russia’s defence ministry as saying it had ordered troops to depart the neighborhood and reinforce operations elsewhere in Donetsk.

    The head of Russia’s administration in Kharkiv advised residents to evacuate the province and flee to Russia to “save lives,” TASS reported. Witnesses described visitors jams of vehicles with individuals leaving Russian-held territory.

    If the reported positive factors are held, it might be a severe blow for Russia, which Western intelligence providers say has suffered big casualties. It would even be an enormous increase for Ukraine, which is eager to point out Western nations supplying it with weapons it deserves their continued help.

    There is stress on Kyiv to exhibit progress earlier than winter units in, amid threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt all power shipments to Europe if Brussels goes forward with a proposal to cap the worth of Russian oil exports.

    Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba mentioned in Kyiv that Ukrainian forces had demonstrated they had been able to defeating the Russian military with the weapons given to them.

    “And so I reiterate: the more weapons we receive, the faster we will win, and the faster this war will end,” he mentioned.

    In his nightly video handle on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned Ukraine’s armed forces had recovered round 2,000 sq. kilometres (770 sq. miles) of territory since its counter-offensive was launched earlier this month.

    “The Russian army is claiming the title of fastest army in the world … keep running!” Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s chief of workers, wrote on Twitter.

    Ukrainian officers stopped wanting confirming that they had recaptured Izium, however Yermak earlier posted a photograph of troops on its outskirts and tweeted an emoji of grapes. The metropolis’s title means “raisin.”

    The Russian withdrawal announcement got here hours after Ukrainian troops captured the town of Kupiansk farther north, the only railway hub supplying Russia’s total entrance line throughout northeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officers posted photographs early on Saturday of their troops elevating the nation’s blue-and-yellow flag in entrance of Kupiansk’s metropolis corridor.

    That left 1000’s of Russian troops abruptly minimize off from provides alongside a entrance that has seen a number of the most intense battles of the struggle.

    Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian forces in jap Ukraine, referred to as the Russian pullback “a major defeat” in remarks on Telegram.

    MECHANISED ASSAULT

    Ukraine has for weeks been speaking up an enormous counteroffensive within the south, which is also underneath manner although particulars are sparse.

    Russia nonetheless occupies in depth territory within the Donbas and within the south close to the Crimean Peninsula it seized in 2014.

    Days in the past, Kyiv’s forces burst via the entrance line within the northeast and have since recaptured dozens of cities and villages in a swift mechanised assault, surging ahead dozens of kilometres (miles) a day.

    Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, sounded a cautionary word, urging individuals to not report prematurely that cities have been “taken” simply because Ukrainian troops had been sighted. Troops entered Balakliia a couple of days in the past, she mentioned, nevertheless it was solely on Saturday that Ukraine established management within the metropolis.

    In Hrakove, certainly one of dozens of villages recaptured within the Ukrainian advance, Reuters noticed burnt-out autos bearing the “Z” image of Russia’s invasion. Boxes of ammunition had been scattered together with garbage at positions the Russians had deserted in evident haste.

    “Hello everyone, we are from Russia,” was spray-painted on a wall. Three our bodies lay in white physique luggage in a yard.

    The regional chief of police, Volodymyr Tymoshenko, mentioned Ukrainian police moved in yesterday, and checked the identities of native residents who had lived underneath Russian occupation for the reason that invasion’s second day.

    “The first function is to provide help that they need. The next job is to document the crimes committed by Russian invaders on the territories which they temporarily occupied,” he mentioned.

    ‘FIGHTING IS GETTING CLOSER’

    A witness in Valuyki, a city in Russia’s Belgorod area close to the border with Ukraine, advised Reuters she noticed households from Kupiansk consuming and sleeping of their vehicles alongside roads.

    “I was at the market today and saw a lot of people from Kupiansk. They say half of the city was taken by the Ukrainian army and Russia is retreating … the fighting is getting closer,” the witness mentioned.

    Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov mentioned officers had been giving meals and medical assist to individuals queuing at a crossing into Russia. Senator Andrey Turchak, from the pro-Kremlin United Russia celebration, reported greater than 400 autos on the frontier.

    Russian rocket hearth hit Kharkiv metropolis on Saturday night, killing no less than one particular person and damaging a number of houses, a part of a surge in shelling since Kyiv’s counter-offensive, Ukrainian officers mentioned.

    Reuters couldn’t independently affirm the battlefield accounts.

    “The advance is enormous. There are sporadic battles, but mostly the occupiers are fleeing,” Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai advised Ukrainian tv on Saturday.

  • Ukraine says it downs Russian missiles, UN pushes for nuclear plant’s security

    Ukrainian forces shot down 5 Russian cruise missiles on Tuesday, most of them within the south, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned, however he made no point out of a brand new army success within the east hinted at by officers earlier.

    “This morning alone, five of six Russian X-101 missiles were downed,” Zelenskiy mentioned in a night deal with. “This is a costly loss for Russia, and it saves many Ukrainian lives. Four of these missiles were downed by the “South” district of the air command.”

    Reuters was not in a position to independently confirm Zelenskiy’s assertion and there was no quick response from Russia.

    Though Ukrainian officers didn’t give particular particulars, a number of posts on social media from army bloggers and witnesses reported preventing round Balakliia, an japanese city of 27,000 those that lies between Kharkiv and Russian-held Izyum, a metropolis with a serious railway hub utilized by Moscow to produce its forces. One tweet by a Zelenskiy adviser spoke of “great news” coming from the president on the operation in Kharkiv area.

    Reuters was unable to independently confirm the studies posted on social media.

    Little data has emerged about progress of the principle Ukrainian offensive within the southern Kherson area, with Kyiv barring journalists from the entrance line and releasing solely restricted studies to protect the ingredient of shock.

    Russia says it has repelled the Kherson assault, however Ukraine has reported regular success.

    Western army consultants say Ukraine’s intention within the south seems to be to lure hundreds of Russian troops on the west financial institution of the vast Dnipro River and reduce them off by destroying their rear provide strains.

    The announcement of a simultaneous Ukrainian advance close to Kharkiv was a sign that Russian troops had been having issue reinforcing alongside the entrance, mentioned Mark Hertling, a retired former U.S. commander of floor forces in Europe.

    “This confirms RU inability to maneuver forces between theater locations & within their force’s defensive ‘stance’ to counter Ukrainian offensive actions,” Hertling tweeted.

    There have additionally been growing assaults by Ukrainians in Russian-occupied areas in opposition to Moscow-installed authorities.

    On Tuesday, the Russian-installed commandant of the southern port of Berdiansk was badly injured when his automotive was blown up exterior town administration constructing, pro-Russian native officers mentioned, blaming Ukraine for the assault.

    NUCLEAR PLANT SAFETY

    In the most recent plea by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to demilitarize the realm across the Russian-held Zaporozhzhia nuclear energy plant in southern Ukraine, he laid out particular steps for each side on Tuesday.

    The first was for Russian and Ukrainian forces to decide to refraining from army exercise in and across the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear energy station.

    “As a second step, an agreement on a demilitarized perimeter should be secured,” Guterres informed the U.N. Security Council. “Specifically, that would include a commitment by Russian forces to withdraw all military personnel and equipment from that perimeter and a commitment by Ukrainian forces not to move into it.”

    Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia informed reporters forward of the council assembly, “if we demilitarize then the Ukrainians will immediately step in and ruin the whole thing.”

    Russian troopers had been defending the station, Nebenzia mentioned.

    The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog earlier on Tuesday referred to as for a safety zone, saying its consultants had discovered intensive injury on the plant.

    A protracted-awaited report didn’t ascribe blame for the injury, which Russia and Ukraine every accuse the opposite of inflicting. But it referred to as the state of affairs unsustainable and mentioned until the taking pictures stops there could be a danger of catastrophe.

    Zelenskiy on Tuesday night praised the IAEA report, saying it “emphasises pressure on our nuclear workers, and makes clear references to the Russian military occupation.”

    The plant, seized by Russian forces shortly after their Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, continues to be run by Ukrainian technicians. It sits on a Russian-held financial institution of an enormous reservoir, reverse Ukrainian positions throughout the water.

    “While the ongoing shelling has not yet triggered a nuclear emergency, it continues to represent a constant threat to nuclear safety and security with potential impact on critical safety functions that may lead to radiological consequences with great safety significance,” the IAEA report mentioned.

    It made seven suggestions, together with an finish to shelling and the institution of “a nuclear safety and security protection zone.”

    Inspectors mentioned that they had discovered Russian troops and tools on the plant, together with army autos parked in turbine halls. Moscow has denied accusations that it used the plant as a protect for its forces.

    “Ukrainian staff operating the plant under Russian military occupation are under constant high stress and pressure, especially with the limited staff available,” the IAEA mentioned.

    IAEA inspectors led by the company’s chief, Rafael Grossi, braved shelling to cross the entrance line and attain the facility station final week. Two consultants have stayed on to keep up a long-term presence.

    The IAEA report listed areas of the plant that had been broken, together with a constructing housing nuclear gas, a facility for storing radioactive waste, and a constructing housing an alarm system. It mentioned the facility station had been reduce off a number of occasions from offsite energy provides essential to its secure operation.

  • Russia Ukraine War Live Updates: Missile kills 10 in Odesa after Ukraine retakes Snake Island

    Despite yielding floor and taking punishing losses within the japanese Donbas in current weeks, Ukraine hopes to inflict sufficient injury to exhaust Russia’s advancing military and have counter-attacked within the south of the area.

    A girl covers her ears reacting to a Russian air raid in Lysychansk, Luhansk area, Ukraine, June 16, 2022. (AP)

    Ukraine’s Western allies have been sending weapons and the Kyiv authorities was given one other enhance with the United States saying it will present an extra $800 million in weapons and army assist.

    US President Joe Biden, talking after a NATO summit in Madrid, stated Washington and its allies had been united in standing as much as Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    “I don’t know how it’s going to end, but it will not end with Russia defeating Ukraine,” Biden instructed a information convention. “We are going to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

  • Russia Ukraine War News Live Updates: Ukrainian military misplaced as much as 10,000 fighters within the first 100 days of the conflict, says Zelenskyy’s advisor

    President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Russia was making an attempt to “break every town in the Donbas.” Both sides say they’ve inflicted mass casualties.

    Members of a international volunteers unit which fights within the Ukrainian military take positions, as Russia’s assault on Ukraine continues, in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk area. (Reuters)

    Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovych estimated the Russian military is shedding on common 5 to 6 occasions as many fighters because the Ukrainian facet. Asked in a social media interview whether or not that prompt the Ukrainian military had misplaced as much as 10,000 fighters within the first 100 days of the conflict, Arestovych stated, “Yes, one thing like that.”

    Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he phrases his “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, saying his intention was to disarm and “denazify” Russia’s neighbour. Kyiv and its allies name it an unprovoked conflict of aggression to seize territory.

    Weapons specialists from France are serving to their Ukrainian counterparts gather proof of attainable Russian conflict crimes within the northern area of Chernihiv, Ukraine’s prosecutor normal stated. Russia denies focusing on civilians.

    US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday strengthened Washington’s dedication to the area in gentle of Russia’s actions. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is what happens when oppressors trample the rules that protect us all,” Austin advised an Asian safety discussion board in Singapore. “It’s a preview of a possible world of chaos and turmoil that none of us would want to live in.”

  • Russia formally departs Council of Europe

    Russia introduced Tuesday that it formally left the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog.

    Russia’s departure from the physique probably preempts the nation’s expulsion following its invasion of Ukraine.

    The head of the delegation on the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Pyotr Tolstoy, handed a letter from Russia’s long-serving international minister, Sergey Lavrov, to the Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric of the Council of Europe, Russian state-run Tass reported.

    The Russian Foreign Ministry additionally posted an announcement on its Telegram channel asserting that it was “launching the procedure to exit the Council of Europe.”

    “We part with such a Council of Europe without regret,” the ministry mentioned.

    What is the Council of Europe?

    The Council of Europe was based in 1949 and its mission is to uphold human rights and the rule of legislation as a part of the postwar order. It is its personal separate establishment distinct from the EU.

    The Council of Europe is answerable for drawing up the European Convention on Human Rights which established the European Court of Human Rights.

    In 1996, the Russian Federation joined the Council of Europe following the break-up of the Soviet Union just a few years prior.

    On February 25, the Council of Europe suspended Russia’s membership following its invasion of Ukraine.

    What have Russia and Ukraine mentioned about Russia’s departure?

    Last week Russia responded to the Council of Europe suspending its membership by blaming the EU and NATO for undermining the Council of Europe. Russia mentioned it could not take part within the physique.

    Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal had urged the Council of Europe to expel Russia on Monday. Shmygal argued these answerable for “this unprovoked and unjustified aggression cannot stay in the single European family where human life is the highest value.”

    Leonid Slutsky, the top of the International Affairs Committee of Russia’s Duma, the decrease home of its rubber stamp parliament, mentioned on his Telegram channel, “But don’t be afraid, all rights will be guaranteed in our country, necessarily and unconditionally.”

    Slutsky additionally accused NATO and the EU of utilising the Council of Europe as “a means of ideological support for their military-political and economic expansion to the east.”

    The Kremlin argued the suspension was unjust. However, it gave Moscow an event by which it may revive capital punishment and an opportunity to withdraw from the Human Rights Commission.

    Russia denies it has invaded Ukraine, as an alternative referring to Putin’s struggle as a “special military operation.”

  • Not all our allies at the moment in place to hitch us: US official on banning import of Russian oil

    The United States administration has stated that it consulted its European allies earlier than banning the import of Russian oil and fuel whereas stressing that it recognises not all of its companions had been ready to observe swimsuit.

    By an govt order signed on Tuesday, Biden banned the import of Russian crude oil and sure petroleum merchandise, liquefied pure fuel, and coal.

    This step is geared toward depriving Russia of billions of {dollars} in revenues from US drivers and shoppers yearly. Last yr, the US imported practically 7,00,000 barrels of crude oil and refined petroleum merchandise from Russia every day.

    “In taking this action, we consulted with European allies closely, but we do not expect them and did not ask them to join us. The United States is able to take this step because of our strong domestic energy production and infrastructure and we recognise that not all of our allies and partners are currently in a position to join us,” stated a senior official within the Joe Biden administration.

    The govt order additionally banned new US funding in Russia’s vitality sector, to make sure that American firms and traders will not be underwriting Vladimir Putin’s efforts to develop vitality manufacturing inside Russia, the White House stated.

    It talked about that Americans will even be prohibited from financing or enabling overseas firms which can be investing to provide vitality in Russia.

    The official underscored that the ban is quick.

    “We block any new purchases of Russian energy. We do allow, though, for wind downs of deliveries for existing purchases that were already contracted for. No new contracts will be allowed. For existing contracts, we are allowing a 45-day wind-down period,” the official defined.

    “In terms of domestic impact, the reality is Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked and brutal war has led to higher energy prices and raised costs for Americans at home — about 75 cents at the gas pump — since he began to amass troops at the Ukrainian border in early November,” the official stated.

    Russian forces launched army operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Moscow recognised Ukraine’s breakaway areas – Donetsk and Luhansk — as impartial entities.