Three civilians were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded by a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian capital and its surrounding region on Saturday night, local authorities have said.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanian said on social media on Sunday morning that a total of 127 UAVs had been destroyed by air defenses during the previous 24 hours. He described the raid as “massive.”

The attack appeared to be one of the largest Ukrainian drone raids targeting Moscow in more than a year.

There have been several major UAV attacks on the capital in recent months, but the number of drones deployed by Kiev during them never exceeded 65.

Fatalities in Moscow Region

Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyev confirmed that three people were killed during the attack.

Two men died when the debris of a downed drone fell on a home construction site in the village of Pogorelki near the city of Mytishchi, adjacent to Moscow in the north-east, he said.

Another UAV struck an apartment block, killing a female resident in the city of Khimki, north-west of the capital, while another person remained trapped under the rubble, according to Vorobyev.

Moment a Ukrainian drone crashes into a residential building in Moscow. https://t.co/vEcAt6Pf5M pic.twitter.com/q0ZEdHpV2R

— Woofers (@NotWoofers) May 17, 2026

In Istra, some 50 km north-west of Moscow, four people were wounded when an apartment block and six private homes were hit, he said.

Residential areas and infrastructure facilities have also been targeted in other parts of the region, the governor added.

In the town of Lobnya, north of Moscow, a woman was injured in a drone attack that left five apartment blocks and 20 cars damaged, the local authorities said.

Strike on Moscow Oil Refinery

A total of 12 people were wounded in Moscow as a result of the raid, according to Sobyanin.

Most of those injured were construction workers affected by an explosion near the entrance to the Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya District in the north-east of the city, he said. The refinery’s operations weren’t affected by the incident, he added.

Air traffic disruptions

More than 200 flights were delayed or canceled at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo international airports as the authorities introduced air traffic restrictions during the drone raid. Some of the incoming passenger jets had to be redirected to other airfields.

Incursions across Russia

The capital and Moscow Region weren’t the only targets of Kiev’s UAVs on Sunday night, with the Russian Defense Ministry reporting the destruction of a total of 586 drones across the country.

The additional interceptions took place not only parts of Russia bordering Ukraine (Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk region) but also deep inside the country, including in Kaluga, Tula, Smolensk, Pskov, Tver, Rostov and Krasnodar Regions, as well as over Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.

Escalation of raids in recent months

Ukrainian drone raids deep inside Russia have intensified since mid-March, with Kiev launching hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs on an almost daily basis against residential neighborhoods, civilian infrastructure, and industrial facilities far from the front.

The Russian officials have described the aerial incursions as “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks Kiev’s military has been suffering on the battlefield.
Moscow has responded with long-range missile and drone strikes targeting Ukraine’s military, energy and other dual-use infrastructure. Russian officials insist the operations are aimed solely at assets supporting Kiev’s war effort and not at civilian targets.

On Sunday, the Ukrainian media and Telegram channels reported more explosions near the country’s capital Kiev as well as in the cities of Kharkov and Dnepr, and parts of Zaporozhye Region which remain under Ukraine’s control.

An amateur cycling race taking riders through the "Golden Circle" surrounding Moscow has begun in the city of Kostroma, launching a summer-long series of mass events.

Around 2,400 riders are expected to take part in the 504 km “Rossiya” competition, which combines cycling with tourism and cultural events along Russia’s Golden Ring route, known for its historic towns and UNESCO-listed landmarks.

The race involves eight stages passing through Vladimir, Suzdal, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Kalyazin, Nizhny Novgorod, Sergiev Posad, and Moscow, where the finale will take place on September 12.

The project is backed by the Russian Cycling Federation, the Sports Ministry and Liga Geroev (“League of Heroes”), a company known for organizing large amateur sports events and obstacle races across Russia. While aimed mainly at amateur cyclists, experienced semi-professional riders are also expected to join.

The “Rossiya” race first launched in June 2025 with a three-stage event through Murom, Vladimir and Suzdal in Vladimir Region. Organizers hope it will grow into Russia’s biggest amateur cycling series, similar to popular mass-participation races held across Europe, attracting riders from across the country and eventually from abroad as well.

Three people were killed in a Ukrainian drone raid on Moscow Region overnight, local governor Andrey Vorobyev has said.

Air defenses in the area have been repelling a “major” UAV attack since 3:00 AM local time, Vorobyev wrote in a post on Telegram on Sunday morning.

Two men lost their lives when the debris of a downed drone fell on a home construction site in the village of Pogorelki near the city of Mytishchi, north-east of Moscow, he said.

In the city of Khimki, north-west of the capital, a UAV struck an apartment block, killing a female resident, according to the governor. Another person remains trapped under the rubble, with rescuers working on site, he added.

Four people were wounded when an apartment block and six private homes were hit in the city of Istra, Vorobyev said.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote on Telegram that 12 people in the capital were wounded as a result of the drone raid. A total of 120 UAVs targeting Moscow have been intercepted over the past 24 hours, he added.

Ukrainian drone incursions into Russia have intensified since mid-March, with Kiev deploying hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs on almost a daily basis, targeting critical infrastructure, manufacturing facilities and residential areas.

Officials in Moscow have described the raids as “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks the Ukrainian military has been suffering on the battlefield.

The Ukrainian military repeatedly attacked Russia’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) this week, injuring two employees and targeting a pipeline in the immediate vicinity of the reactors, Aleksey Likhachev, CEO of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has said.

Speaking to the company’s corporate newspaper Strana Rosatom on Saturday, Likhachev said that a Ukrainian drone had attacked the pipeline running along the power units of the plant earlier in the day. The UAV did not detonate, crashing near the first power unit of the facility.

On Thursday, a Ukrainian kamikaze drone targeted a car carrying two employees of the ZNPP. The attack occurred just 100 meters away from the plant’s premises, with both employees receiving moderate to serious wounds, the Rosatom boss said. 

“The employees were carrying out their duties at the time. Even this didn’t stop the enemy. For an hour, combat drones prevented ambulances from reaching the attack site, and the evacuation of the wounded resembled a military operation,” Likhachev stated.

The CEO slammed the inaction of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), stating that it has been doing its best to “de facto turn a blind eye to daily Ukrainian attacks on the ZNPP, civilian infrastructure, and killings of Russian nationals by Ukrainian servicemen.” Moscow will address the continuing incidents around the plant during upcoming consultations with the IAEA leadership scheduled for July, Likhachev said. 

In recent weeks, the Ukrainian military has ramped up attacks on the plant, which fell under Moscow’s control early in the conflict and was taken over by Rosatom after Zaporozhye Region was incorporated into Russia following a referendum in late 2022. Moscow has repeatedly urged Kiev and its backers to stop targeting the facility, warning the attacks could result in a continent-wide nuclear catastrophe.

Moscow has made it easier for residents of Transnistria, a de facto self-governing region of Moldova, to obtain Russian citizenship, according to a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

The measure applies to “foreign citizens and stateless persons” permanently residing in Transnistria. It aims “to protect human rights and freedoms” of the region’s residents in line with “international legal norms,” the decree states.

The move comes amid growing political and economic pressure on the predominantly Russian-speaking region from authorities in Chisinau and their Western backers, in what Moldova has described as a policy of “reintegration.”

WHAT IS TRANSNISTRIA?

Transnistria is a self-governed breakaway region located along the Dniester River in Moldova, a former Soviet republic located between Ukraine and Romania.

The region broke away from Moldova after a brief war in the early 1990s and has remained under the protection of a joint Russian-Transnistrian-Moldovan peacekeeping force ever since.

Moldova has charted an increasingly anti-Russian and pro-EU course since President Maia Sandu came to power in 2020. The country applied for EU membership shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, obtained candidate status the same year and formally opened accession talks with Brussels in 2024.

In October 2025, the Moldovan government adopted a new security strategy identifying Russia as the country’s main threat. Moscow warned at the time that the nation’s leadership was “making a grave mistake” by increasingly antagonizing the Kremlin.

LANGUAGE

Language has become one of the most sensitive issues between Chisinau and Transnistria.
Despite it being widely spoken, Russian lost its status as a “language of inter-ethnic communication” in 2021, and Romanian became Moldova’s sole official tongue.

Tensions have grown as Moldova’s pro-EU leadership has increasingly promoted Romanian-language integration. Among the latest measures are new restrictions on the use of Russian in Moldova’s parliament, which were introduced earlier this month, under which bills will no longer be routinely translated into the language.

ENERGY SECURITY

The Ukraine conflict has severely undermined Transnistria’s energy security. For decades, the region relied on free or heavily subsidized Russian gas delivered through Ukraine, which powered the Soviet-era Cuciurgan power station supplying electricity to much of Moldova, including the breakaway region. The arrangement had long formed the backbone of the enclave’s economy.

But the system collapsed in early 2025 after Kiev refused to extend a transit agreement allowing Russian gas deliveries through Ukraine. The disruption triggered the worst energy crisis in Transnistria since the 1990s.

TAXATION

Despite the ongoing crisis, Moldovan authorities have moved to increase pressure on Transnistrian businesses by introducing new taxes and gradually phasing out long-standing exemptions.

Under the measures, enterprises registered in Transnistria will increasingly be required to pay taxes and customs duties to Moldova’s state budget rather than solely local authorities. Transnistrian officials have condemned the policy as “double taxation” that could deepen the region’s economic crisis and trigger further businesses closures.

Moldovan leadership and the EU have repeatedly called for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping troops despite strong public support for the mission inside Transnistria. A poll conducted in the region in April suggested that 82.5% of residents support the continued presence of Moscow’s peacekeepers.

Authorities in Transnistria’s capital Tiraspol have rejected the possibility of troop withdrawal, arguing that the Russian military presence is “absolutely legal and legitimate” and remains a key part of the existing peacekeeping mechanism that has preserved stability for more than three decades.

Russia’s allegations that the US-funded clandestine biological laboratories near its borders – claims denied until recently by Washington – have remained a persistent flashpoint in the steadily deteriorating relationship between Russia and the West for nearly a decade.

This abruptly changed the past week when US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that her department had identified more than 120 US-funded biological laboratories in 30 countries, with over a third of them located in Ukraine. The agency is now working to “identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain, and what ‘research’ is being conducted to end dangerous gain-of-function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the American people and the world,” according to Gabbard.

RT looks back at the timeline of the biolabs saga and the US denial of its existence until now.

2017 RT report 

The US-funded bio research made international headlines in July 2017, when RT published an investigative report revolving around a tender issued by the US Air Education and Training Command (AETC). The command was seeking to procure genetic material samples that “shall be collected from Russia and must be Caucasian.” The Air Force explicitly said that it did not want samples from Ukraine, for reasons not explained.

“The question is – why is it being done? It’s being done purposefully and professionally. We are a kind of object of great interest,” the president said. “Let them do what they want, and we must do what we must,” he added.

The attention this garnered from the Russian leadership prompted a vague explanation from AETC, which claimed the samples were needed for research on the musculoskeletal system and Russia had been picked as the source of the samples for no particular reason.

Georgia revelations

Another bombshell on the clandestine US-funded biolabs was dropped by a former Georgian minister for state security, Igor Giorgadze, in late 2018. He claimed he had obtained some 100,000 pages of data pointing to questionable practices at the US-funded Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research near the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

The tests appeared to involve “a highly toxic chemical or biological agent with a high lethality rate,” the commander of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces (RKhBZ), Igor Kirillov, said at the time. Kirillov, who had spearheaded the Russian military’s probe into the US-funded biolabs in Ukraine and beyond, was assassinated in late 2024 in a bombing staged by Kiev’s intelligence.

The Pentagon flatly denied the allegations, with then-spokesman Eric Pahon dismissing the Russian ministry’s statements as a part of “a Russian disinformation campaign directed against the West.” The US and Georgian governments also dismissed the claims made by Giorgadze, describing them as “absurd.”

Ukraine conflict 

The escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022 marked a new turn in the biolabs saga. While Moscow seized additional evidence of questionable research activities conducted in secretive facilities dotting Ukraine, the West entered a full-denial mode, bluntly dismissing any Russian statement on the matter as “propaganda.”

“The credibility of information provided by the Kremlin is in general very doubtful and low,” EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said at the time. “Russian disinformation has a track record of promoting manipulative narratives about biological weapons and alleged ‘secret labs.’”

The Biden administration took a similar defensive stance, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki calling the allegations “preposterous” and accusing Moscow of plotting to use “chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine or to create a false flag operation using them.” John Kirby, then-Pentagon spokesman, also branded the Russian allegations “absurd,” “laughable,” and a “bunch of malarkey.” 

“There’s nothing to it. It’s classic Russian propaganda,” Kirby told reporters at the time.

Gabbard’s remarks this past week have reignited scrutiny of a program Washington spent years denying existed.

Ukraine is stripping some doctors of their draft exemptions and requiring medical students to undergo compulsory military training, Health Minister Viktor Lyashko has announced.

Lyashko made the remarks during question hour at the Ukrainian parliament on Friday, saying the Health Ministry would be authorized to cancel draft deferrals of certain medical workers at the request of the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces’ Medical Forces Command.

“There will be changes to the procedure under which all doctors are currently exempt, and it is currently impossible to replace the active doctors at the front,” he said.

Medical students at universities “will become service members, and upon completing their studies, will receive the rank of officer,” Lyashko added.

Lyashko also stressed that most injured service members are treated in civilian hospitals.

The announcement comes amid Ukraine’s increasingly unpopular forced mobilization campaign, which has been fraught with violent clashes between conscription officers and reluctant recruits, with the overall effort being widely mocked as “busification.” 
In July 2025, the Council of Europe found systemic human rights violations in the drive, including beatings and the conscription of people with disabilities.

By embracing harsh mobilization policies, Ukraine is seeking to stem the manpower crisis caused by mounting battlefield losses. According to a report by the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies last year, some of the Ukrainian frontline units are operating at as low as 30% of their intended strength.

New videos circulating online show Ukrainian military recruiters and police officers forcibly detaining men and placing them into unmarked vehicles for possible mobilization into the conflict with Russia.

Ukraine continues to rely on mandatory conscription to replenish troop numbers at the front line, with press gangs operating in major cities and rural areas alike. The mobilization campaign has increasingly sparked public resentment, with many Ukrainians accusing officials of corruption and abuse of power. Videos showing confrontations between civilians and draft officers regularly spread across social media platforms.

In one recent clip from the Black Sea city of Odessa, a man is seen clinging to the legs of military recruiters as they drag him into a van. The footage was reportedly submitted to a local Telegram news channel by the man himself, who claimed he was legally exempt from military service.

Another video from Kiev shows police officers forcing a young man into a vehicle while bystanders shout at the officials. The man resists so strongly that the officers drive away with the rear door still open and his legs hanging outside the car.

The practice of forced mobilization has become widely known in Ukraine as ‘busification’, a reference to the vans used to transport detained men to conscription centers. Officials acknowledge that the campaign has become one of the biggest sources of domestic dissatisfaction, particularly because draft officers are perceived to operate with virtual impunity.

In a recent interview, Ukrainian MP Yury Kamelchuk recounted the case of a father of five – exempt from military service under Ukrainian law – who he claimed was “literally murdered” inside a draft center before the incident was allegedly covered up. According to the lawmaker, the case was far from unique.

The Danish government has suspended plans for a solid rocket fuel facility intended to supply Fire Point, the Ukrainian defense company widely linked to high-level corruption involving Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle, one of the firm’s senior executives has told the Financial Times.

The Danish government had used national security provisions to bypass potential legal objections surrounding the construction of a facility in Vojens, southern Jutland, where fuel for Fire Point’s missile systems was expected to be manufactured. However, the project announced last September was quietly halted earlier this month, Fire Point chief designer and co-owner Denis Shtilerman told the outlet on Thursday.

Originally operating as a film scouting agency owned by Zelensky insiders, Fire Point has been exposed in leaked transcripts of conversations between Zelensky’s inner circle as a vehicle for syphoning off lucrative arms contracts.

Surveillance recordings published by Ukrainian media since April indicated that businessman Timur Mindich – who is wanted in Ukraine over an alleged $100 million corruption scheme in the energy sector – effectively controlled Fire Point during 2025. The recordings also suggested he enjoyed preferential treatment from then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who now serves as secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

Shtilerman dismissed the allegations as “rumors,” while lamenting that the suspicions had delayed the company’s plans. He claimed that Fire Point’s products could contribute to the creation of a “pan-European air-defense shield” and claimed that Gulf states, Germany, and other countries had shown strong interest in the firm’s technology.

Mindich scandal widens

The recordings were originally gathered by Western-backed anti-corruption agencies as part of their investigation into Mindich, a longtime business associate of Zelensky dating back to the Ukrainian leader’s entertainment career. Ukrainian media have nicknamed Mindich “Zelensky’s wallet.”

Political uncertainty in Denmark

While Danish media acknowledged that the so-called ‘Mindich tapes’ had intensified scrutiny of Fire Point’s operations in Denmark, authorities have up to now stopped short of confirming that the fuel plant project was in jeopardy.

In late 2025, Deputy Foreign Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, who also serves as defense minister under pro-Ukrainian Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, stated that Copenhagen “does everything it can to follow the money we give” Ukraine.

Denmark is currently facing difficult coalition negotiations after Frederiksen’s Social Democrats recorded their worst election result since 1903 in March voting. Last week, King Frederik asked Poulsen to attempt to form a new government after Frederiksen failed to secure enough parliamentary support for a third term.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 205 prisoners of war, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Friday.

The ministry said the Russian servicemen are currently in Belarus and are receiving psychological and medical assistance, adding that they will be taken to Russia for further treatment and rehabilitation.

The officials noted that the release was negotiated with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates, which has helped mediate exchanges on numerous occasions.

A source for RT Russian said the bodies of deceased service members were also exchanged, with Russia handing over a disproportionately larger number (526 to 41).

Ukraine has confirmed the swap, describing it as the first stage of a wider 1,000 for 1,000 exchange, which was announced by US President Donald Trump on May 8 as part of a US-mediated three-day ceasefire around Russia’s Victory Day commemorations.

Officials in Kiev said the freed group includes army, navy, and air force service members, as well as members of the territorial defense forces, the National Guard, and the Border Guard Service.

Russia and Ukraine regularly exchange POWs and bodies of deceased service members. The last swap took place in late April, with both sides releasing 193.

Ukrainian drones have killed four people, including a child, in the Russian city of Ryazan after striking high-rise residential buildings, regional Governor Pavel Malkov said on Friday.

Ryazan, the capital of the eponymous region located 210 km (130 miles) southeast of Moscow, was targeted overnight, with the UAVs damaging two apartment complexes.

Malkov said a total of 99 kamikaze aircraft were involved in the raid on the region. Multiple people were injured, including seven whose wounds are serious enough to demand treatment in hospital. The governor’s initial preliminary account reported three fatalities and a dozen other casualties.

According to photos from the scene, one of the drones struck the Tricolor residential complex, a group of three 25-story buildings decorated in the colors of the Russian flag.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has designated the incident a terrorist attack. The agency mentioned unspecified industrial sites as damaged during the raid.

Drone attacks were also reported in several other regions across western and southern Russia, including Voronezh and Rostov. The Defense Ministry reported intercepting 355 Ukrainian drones overnight.

An eccentric Russian man who became famous for attempting to reach South America on foot while pulling a makeshift wagon was reportedly killed in a Ukrainian drone strike.

Bryansk Region Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said a man was killed on Wednesday in the village of Staraya Pogoshch, near the border with Ukraine. Although he did not identify the victim by name, RIA Novosti, citing law enforcement sources, reported that it was a local celebrity known online as Sasha the Horse.

Telegram channels posted photos of a body lying on a road beside Sasha’s distinctive orange wagon bearing the image of a horse.

Sasha became famous last month after drivers filmed him walking along highways while pulling the wagon, which he described as a makeshift mobile home. Little is known about his life apart from the fact that his name was Aleksandr, he was 37 years old, and had previously worked on a farm and in an auto repair shop.

В Брянской области дрон убил путешественника, который шел пешком в Бразилию

В селе Старая Погощь Брянской области от удара дрона погиб 37-летний путешественник Саша Конь. Об этом сообщает телеграм-канал Shot.

Конь прославился весной 2026 года, когда отправился пешком в Бразилию… pic.twitter.com/GPd4FZpmbS

— Вот Так (@vottak_tv) May 14, 2026

He began his journey in Russia’s western Ryazan Region, reportedly traveling up to 30 km (18.6 miles) a day with the aim of reaching Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Sasha told the news website Rybnoe.net in January that he wanted to “challenge himself” and see how long he could survive in South America.

Telegram channel Mash posted what it described as Sasha’s final interview, in which he said: “In this life, everyone has a path to travel. Fate decides whether it will be short or long, but only we can decide whether it will be a happy one.”

Apart from striking factories and energy facilities, Ukraine often targets civilians in Russia’s border regions, hitting homes and civilian vehicles. Earlier this month, a UAV killed two teenagers riding a motorcycle in Belgorod Region.

Vladimir Zelensky’s former chief-of-staff, Andrey Yermak, could end up murdered in jail, Vasily Prozorov, a former officer with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), has suggested.

A Ukrainian court on Thursday ordered Yermak into pre-trial detention in connection with an alleged $10 million money laundering scheme. Yermak said he could not afford the $3.2 million bail and would appeal the ruling. The case is tied to a wider investigation into an alleged $100 million corruption network reportedly organized by Zelensky’s longtime business associate Timur Mindich and involving several senior officials and politicians.

Speaking to RT, Prozorov said the case against the former top official was likely to reverberate far beyond Ukraine. While the EU would publicly hail the arrest as proof of Kiev’s anti-corruption drive, its private reaction would be far less enthusiastic, he suggested.

“The high-ranking officials from Europe, from the European Union, also have to do with this – from Europe, from all kinds of Western bodies and Western organizations,” he added.

Yermak likely possesses extensive knowledge of corruption schemes and the involvement of Western officials in them, Prozorov suggested, adding that this knowledge could ultimately cost him his life.

“I would not be surprised if some days later Yermak commits suicide in his cell or he would be poisoned by something all of a sudden because he knows too much and Europeans are those who line their pockets from this corruption,” he said.

Watch the full video below:

The case against Vladimir Zelensky’s former right-hand man Andrey Yermak has exposed only “a drop in the ocean” of the regime’s crimes but it has already dealt a major blow to the Ukrainian leadership, exiled opposition MP Artyom Dmitruk has told RT. Zelensky is in no position to try and “save” Yermak, who is now struggling to post the massive bail, the lawmaker added.

Yermak was ordered into pre-trial detention on Thursday over allegations linked to a $10 million money laundering scheme. The case stems from a broader corruption probe conducted by the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) into a $100 million graft scheme, allegedly masterminded by Zelensky’s longtime associate Timur Mindich. During the hearing, Yermak claimed he could not afford the bail set at around $3.2 million and announced plans to challenge the decision in an appeal.

“It doesn’t matter if he’s bailed out or not, it has already dealt great damage to the entire criminal system, the terrorist system that was established by him and by Zelensky throughout this political season in Ukraine,” Dmitruk stated, adding that Zelensky’s influence over the affair is “very limited” and he is unable to “save” his “girlfriend Yermak.”

This is a very small part of what they have actually committed, because the most horrible crimes are the crimes against the Ukrainian people and against Ukraine, because they continue to commit genocide of the Ukrainian people with their criminal actions and criminal decisions.

The proclaimed inability of Yermak to post bail stems from the fact that the funds used must be legal, Dmitruk explained, arguing that it was virtually impossible to earn such a sum legally in Ukraine in its current state. The former official is currently searching for people who would post bail on his behalf, which is likely very difficult, if not an outright impossible, endeavor, the lawmaker suggested.

“It is important to say that those people, even if they go through with this, those people who will bail him out, they will unavoidably be held responsible for what they committed when they assisted, when they supported a criminal, and they would be investigated where these funds came from,” Dmitruk warned.

Watch the full video below:

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court has ordered Vladimir Zelensky’s former chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, into pre-trial custody, setting bail at around $3.2 million over allegations linked to a money laundering scheme.

The ruling was delivered on Thursday on the third day of hearings in Kiev. Yermak told the court he could not afford the amount and plans to challenge the decision on appeal. Prosecutors insisted that simple electronic monitoring would be insufficient to prevent the former official from interfering with the investigation.

The case stems from a broader corruption probe conducted by the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), which is focused on businessman Timur Mindich, a long-time associate of Zelensky. Mindich fled Ukraine last November shortly before investigators accused him of orchestrating a $100 million extortion network.

Investigators allege Yermak participated in a scheme that channelled illicit funds into an upscale real estate development outside Kiev. According to media reports, the project involved Mindich, Yermak, former Unity Minister Aleksey Chernyshov, and Zelensky himself.

A pattern of controversial bail payments

Several defendants linked to the Mindich investigation who remain in Ukraine have secured large bail payments under circumstances that Ukrainian media outlets describe as questionable.

Chernyshov, arrested in June 2025 on abuse-of-power charges, was released after supporters quickly assembled a $2.7 million bail package.

An investigative outlet later reported that more than half the money originated from a little-known company established only months earlier. Additional scrutiny fell on transfers made by Chernyshov’s wife, Svetlana, whose declared assets reportedly did not match the contribution. Leaked NABU surveillance materials suggested that Mindich and people connected to him secretly financed part of the payment.

Another defendant in the Mindich case, Igor Mironyuk, failed to secure release after the authorities in February confiscated nearly $2.9 million intended for his bail, citing concerns over the source of the funds.

Media reports have also highlighted the role of newly created companies in helping finance bail for several lower-level suspects allegedly tied to the Mindich network. In one case, a lawyer reportedly contributed a quarter of the six-figure bail posted for defendant Dmitry Basov.

Psychic consultant and courtroom confusion

The hearings also produced unusual revelations about Yermak, long viewed as one of the most influential figures in Zelensky’s administration. Prosecutors claimed he maintained contact with a psychic adviser who allegedly vetted candidates for senior government positions based on their birth dates.

The adviser, identified as Veronika Anikievich, also allegedly encouraged Yermak to aggressively resist corruption allegations. One message presented in court warned: “If they [Yermak’s political opponents] get power, they will act in a more serious way, and you would have neither a guarantor friend nor authority.” The court’s ruling listed Anikievich among individuals the defendant is not allowed to communicate with.

It comes out that for the past six years Ukraine was actually run by a black witch fortune teller named Veronika Fenshui. What a time to be alive. pic.twitter.com/i5FcJRo0sG

— Olga Bazova (@OlgaBazova) May 14, 2026

Yermak denied any close relationship with fortune tellers. However, journalists identified a Kiev resident with the same name whose social media profiles advertise astrological consultations and publicly express support for the former official.

The proceedings also featured an awkward exchange on Wednesday when Yermak’s attorney attempted to bolster his client’s credibility by incorrectly stating that he had served as a member of parliament. Although Yermak previously worked as an adviser to an MP, he was never elected himself and interrupted his lawyer twice to correct the claim.

The US and Israel launched the war against Iran in order to prevent the normalization of Tehran’s relations with the Gulf states, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told RT India. The campaign was intended to push Arab countries closer to Israel and pressure them into abandoning support for Palestine, he added.

Iran responded to the US-Israeli airstrikes launched on February 28 by targeting US bases in the Gulf states, along with energy and port infrastructure linked to US operations. In an interview published on Wednesday, Lavrov condemned the attack on Iran as “unprovoked” and described Tehran’s response as an act of self-defense.

“I have no doubt that when plans to stir up aggression against Iran were being hatched, one of the goals was to prevent the normalization of relations between Iran and the Arab states,” Lavrov said. “Now, everything is being done to ensure that reconciliation never happens.”

“They seek to rule the world through controlling global energy supplies,” Lavrov added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he secretly traveled to the UAE at the height of the war and described the trip as “a historic breakthrough.” The UAE has denied that the visit took place.

Media outlets reported this week that Saudi Arabia and the UAE conducted covert airstrikes against Iran during the conflict. The UAE denied the claims, though Saudi Arabia neither confirmed nor denied the reports. Iranian officials have accused the Gulf states of facilitating attacks on Iranian territory and called on the US to withdraw from the region.

Ukrainian draft officers have snatched several workers directly from construction sites, MP Georgy Mazurashu told parliament on Wednesday, calling the practice “banditry” that must be stopped.

According to the lawmaker, the press gangs are merely “chasing numbers” and forcing unwilling men into the military, which only fuels desertion.

Mazurashu described one incident in the western Ukrainian city of Chernovtsy several weeks ago, when construction workers climbed into a cradle suspended between the third and fourth floors of a building to avoid being captured.

“Five dozen busificators, some wearing balaclavas, surrounded the construction site,” the MP said Wednesday, referring to the press gangs.

The term ‘busification’ emerged in Ukraine as hundreds of videos have surfaced on social media showing military-age men being snatched off the streets, from workplaces, and from residential areas, then taken to recruitment centers in mini-buses against their will. The practice has often triggered clashes with relatives, neighbors, and passersby.

The local draft office in Chernovtsy rejected Mazurashu’s accusations, claiming that no “illegal actions” had been committed by its staff members, adding that two men had been detained for “violating the rules of military registration” at the time mentioned by the lawmaker.

The accusations came just days after the Ukrainskaya Pravda media outlet reported that the number of complaints against draft officials filed with the parliamentary commissioner for human rights had reached nearly 12,000 since February 2022.

Ukraine has faced chronic manpower shortages throughout the conflict with Russia amid high battlefield losses, extensive draft dodging, and desertion. Kiev barred nearly all adult men from leaving the country soon after it declared a general mobilization in 2022.

The recruitment drive has grown increasingly brutal over the years. Several conscripts have reportedly died shortly after arriving at draft offices.

On May 12, 2026, Russia carried out the second successful launch of its newest heavy liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile, the Sarmat. The launch marked another major milestone in the flight-testing program for Russia’s next-generation strategic missile system. Following the test, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the first regiment equipped with Sarmat ICBMs would officially enter combat duty by the end of 2026.

A ballistic missile of this class is being developed in modern Russia for the first time. The Sarmat is intended to replace the Soviet-era Voevoda missiles, which until now have remained the most powerful ICBMs ever deployed. Thanks to the immense power of its liquid-fuel rocket engines, the Sarmat is expected to carry an unprecedented payload – between 10 and 14 medium-yield thermonuclear warheads, each with an estimated yield of around 700 kilotons, or potentially up to five maneuverable hypersonic glide vehicles similar to those used in the Avangard system.

Conventional ballistic warheads can be deployed together with penetration aids designed to overwhelm missile defense systems. However, maneuverable hypersonic glide vehicles present an entirely different challenge. Modern missile defense systems are effectively incapable of intercepting such weapons, making the Sarmat a uniquely formidable retaliatory strike platform.

Work on the Sarmat project began in the late 2000s through a collaboration between several Russian missile design bureaus specializing in liquid-fueled rocket technology. These included the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau in Miass – traditionally focused on submarine-launched ballistic missiles – and NPO Mashinostroyenia in Reutov, which had been developing the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle for the UR-100NUTTH intercontinental missile system. Together, the two organizations brought highly complementary expertise in advanced missile engineering. From the outset, the Sarmat was envisioned as the future replacement for the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces’ aging R-36M2 Voevoda heavy ICBMs.

In 2022, Vladimir Degtyar, CEO of the Makeyev Design Bureau, announced that serial production of the fifth-generation RS-28 Sarmat ICBM had officially begun in Russia. “The missile system has already entered serial production and is fully supplied with the necessary materials and manufacturing equipment,” he stated. According to Russian officials, the new ICBM will significantly strengthen the country’s strategic deterrent capability for the next 40 to 50 years.

The Sarmat is believed to have a range of at least 12,000 kilometers while carrying roughly 10 tons of payload, including its post-boost vehicle and warheads. However, the missile is also reportedly capable of striking targets by approaching from the opposite direction – flying over the South Pole and effectively circling the globe. While such a trajectory would reduce the missile’s payload capacity, it would still allow for multiple nuclear warheads to reach their targets. The missile is also expected to achieve exceptional accuracy, with a probable circular error measured at no more than roughly 150 meters.

Preparations for deploying the first operational Sarmat missiles began back in 2023 at the missile division in Uzhur, located in southern Krasnoyarsk Krai. The process of replacing the aging Voevoda missiles with Sarmat systems is expected to continue for at least four to five years, if not longer. In addition to Uzhur, Sarmat missiles are also expected to be deployed near Dombarovsky in the Orenburg region.

In total, Russia is expected to field at least 50 hardened silo launchers for the Sarmat system, making it the most powerful and lethal component of the country’s nuclear retaliatory forces – a true weapon of retaliation. Heavy missiles of this class are specifically designed to launch even under conditions of an incoming nuclear strike on their deployment area. In theory, dozens of Sarmat missiles could leave their silos while under nuclear attack, carrying a combined total of roughly 500 warheads capable of devastating any potential adversary.

What makes these glide vehicles so difficult to defeat is their flight profile. Unlike traditional ballistic warheads, they travel along a relatively low, flattened trajectory at hypersonic speeds near the edge of the atmosphere while retaining the ability to maneuver both in altitude and direction. As a result, they are detected much later than conventional reentry vehicles and are extraordinarily difficult to intercept due to their unpredictable maneuvering. The Sarmat may be able to carry more than a dozen standard warheads, but likely no more than three to five hypersonic glide vehicles. Nevertheless, such payloads would presumably be reserved for the highest-priority strategic targets – and, according to Russian military doctrine, those targets would be struck with near certainty.

Does any other country possess missiles comparable to the Sarmat? At the moment, no. China still operates heavy liquid-fueled missiles, but those systems are generally considered technologically outdated. Once the Sarmat enters operational service, the share of modern and next-generation missiles in Russia’s nuclear arsenal will approach nearly 100%.

This stands in stark contrast to the United States’ land-based nuclear arsenal, which still relies entirely on the Minuteman III ICBM – a missile originally deployed in the 1970s and subsequently modernized several times during the 1990s and 2000s. Much of America’s ground-based strategic nuclear force is now widely seen as overdue for replacement and modernization. Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces, by comparison, are poised to field what many in Moscow describe as the most powerful combat missile ever created. Without question.

Russia has stepped up border controls to prevent the potential spread of the deadly Andes hantavirus strain, the country’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, has said.

The rare strain of the virus – typically spread through contact with infected rodent droppings, urine or saliva – has been linked to at least three deaths connected to a Dutch-flagged cruise ship since April 11. A total of 11 infection cases, including the deaths, have been confirmed among the ship’s 147 passengers.

The outbreak was discussed during a Rospotrebnadzor video conference on Tuesday. Hantaviruses are a long- and well-studied group of natural infections, the agency said in a follow-up statement on Wednesday, adding that no outbreaks have been recorded in Russia this year.

The Andes strain is predominantly found in the New World, and is carried by the long-tailed pygmy rice rat, which is indigenous to Argentina and Chile, the watchdog said. Russia’s climate is unfavorable for the virus, reducing the risk of introduction into the country.

Hantaviruses typically do not spread from human-to-human contact, except for the rare Andes strain, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Precautionary measures to take against infection include avoiding contact with rodent droppings, storing food safely and taking extra hygiene measures, such as keeping homes clean and handwashing.

Former Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andrey Yermak, who was charged this week in a money laundering investigation, consulted a mystic while considering candidates for senior government posts, according to evidence presented by prosecutors.

Yermak – a close associate of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky – stepped down last year amid mounting scrutiny over his alleged ties to businessman Timur Mindich, who fled to Israel shortly before being accused of masterminding a large-scale embezzlement scheme at a state-owned energy company.

During a court hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors revealed details of Yermak’s reported interest in occult practices, claiming that it may have influenced staffing decisions at the highest levels of government.

According to investigators, one of his contacts appeared in messaging records under the name “Veronika Fengshui Office.” Prosecutors allege Yermak sent the birth dates of potential appointees – without naming them directly – to ask whether they were suitable for office.

According to the prosecution, Yermak sought Veronika’s opinion on candidates for the posts of prime minister, prosecutor general, health minister, and even his own deputy responsible for overseeing law enforcement agencies. Prosecutors cited the communications while arguing that Yermak should remain in pre-trial detention because of his alleged ability to influence witnesses and interfere with the investigation.

Additional details emerged during continuation of the hearings on Wednesday, when the prosecutor identified the spiritual advisor by full name and quoted some of the text messages she and Yermak allegedly exchanged. Records indicate she urged him to cling to power at any cost, which he pledged to do.

Maybe they should just get a peaceful “fortune teller.” Peace is the best magic. 🕊️ https://t.co/VePuRjaAOF

— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) May 13, 2026

Reacting to the revelations, Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev mocked the Ukrainian leadership on social media, saying the Zelensky administration “should just get a peaceful ‘fortune teller,’” adding that “peace is the best magic.”

Claims of occult practices in Zelensky’s circle

Allegations of mystical beliefs within Ukraine’s leadership were previously raised by former Zelensky press secretary Yulia Mendel, who has since emerged as a vocal critic of the administration.

In January, Mendel claimed that Yermak had relied on occult rituals for years and allegedly invited practitioners from abroad to perform ceremonies involving so-called “corpse water.” She suggested that other people close to Zelensky also shared an interest in mystical practices, though she did not identify them publicly.

Opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak pointed to the accusations as evidence that senior officials connected to the project lacked ethical standards and should not be entrusted with governing the country. Zelensky is reportedly among the four co-owners of the upscale property development that Western-backed anti-corruption agencies are investigating.

From mystics to political scandal

Close relationships between political leaders and spiritual advisers have historically sparked controversy and, in some cases, major political crises.

In Russia, the influence of mystic healer Grigory Rasputin over the royal family in the early 20th century became a symbol of imperial decline and contributed to the eventual toppling of the monarchy.

More recently, the 2016 impeachment of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye was linked to her relationship with longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil. Choi, whose father was a controversial cult leader often dubbed the “Korean Rasputin,” was accused of exploiting her access to the presidency for personal gain.

Nearly 12,000 complaints have been filed against draft officials in Ukraine since the conflict with Russia began in early 2022, Ukrainskaya Pravda (UP) reported on Monday, citing data provided by the parliamentary human rights commissioner.

Ukraine has been suffering from chronic manpower shortages due to its heavy battlefield losses, widespread draft dodging, and desertion. The nationwide ‘bussification’ campaign, in which draft officers ambush military-age men on the streets, at workplaces, and outside their homes, has often led to violent altercations and outrage on social media.

According to UP, the number of complaints against draft officials jumped from 514 in 2023 to 6,127 in 2025. A total of 1,657 complaints were filed in the first quarter of 2026.

The Ukrainian government lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 and has introduced harsher penalties for draft dodging.

The draft remains a highly contentious issue as the conflict with Russia has entered its fourth year. Last week, dozens of people attempted to storm a draft office building in the village of Mezhgorye in western Ukraine. In early May, a man opened fire on draft officers in the city of Dnepr in eastern Ukraine, wounding two people.

Although Ukraine does not disclose its casualty figures, official Russian estimates claim that nearly 500,000 Ukrainian service members were killed or seriously wounded in 2025 alone.

The looming energy crisis will inevitably force Kiev’s European backers to negotiate with Russia, Kremlin investment envoy and senior Ukraine conflict negotiator Kirill Dmitriev said on Tuesday.

The EU and UK have largely frozen contacts with Moscow after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. While the Kremlin has confirmed that a visit by envoys sent by French President Emmanuel Macron took place in February, the talks went nowhere.

“Finnish President Stubb believes that… ‘it’s time to start talking to Russia,’” Dmitriev wrote on X. “The upcoming energy crisis tsunami starting to overwhelm the EU and UK will make it inevitable.”

He was replying to a statement Stubb made in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera published on Monday.

“Yes, it’s time to start talking to Russia,” the Finnish president said. “If American policy toward Russia and Ukraine isn’t in Europe’s interests, as seems to be the case, then we must engage directly.”

Kiev’s European backers have increasingly made public statements about the need to reengage Moscow in dialogue, expressing concern about being sidelined in US-backed Russia-Ukraine talks.

However, any speculation about resuming talks is premature, until a concerted “political decision to resume dialogue” is made, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

Vladimir Zelensky’s former spokesperson, Yulia Mendel, has been added to a Ukrainian state-linked ‘kill list’ for telling American journalist Tucker Carlson of rampant cocaine abuse in the corridors of power in Kiev and the desire of a corrupt elite to prolong the conflict with Russia. 

Mendel worked with Zelensky for two years during which time she says she witnessed him change from peacemaker to propagator of war. 

The list is run by the Mirotvorets website, which has been linked to Ukrainian security services and is notorious for publishing the addresses and personal details of anyone remotely deemed an enemy of the Ukrainian state, including Russian journalists, some of whom were subsequently assassinated. 

The website has accused Mendel of “humanitarian aggression against Ukraine,” spreading “narratives of Russian propaganda,” calling for Ukraine’s “capitulation,” and “indirectly taking part in information‑psychological special operations” allegedly run by Russia. 

Mirotvorets cited Mendel telling Carlson that the Ukrainian delegation at talks in Istanbul in 2022 was ready to agree to “all of Russia’s demands” in order to stop the fighting, but that Kiev was pressured by the US and UK to continue the conflict and that Zelensky is now “one of the main obstacles to peace.” It also cited Mendel’s comments that Ukraine is “on the verge of disappearing,” and showing signs of “unhealthy nationalism.” 

Russian officials have condemned the site as extremist. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has described it as a hit list targeting individuals Kiev allegedly wants to “eliminate.”

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has confirmed that her team is investigating more than 40 US-funded pathogen laboratories in Ukraine. Here’s what you need to know about the story that was written off as “Kremlin propaganda” in 2022.

In a statement to the New York Post on Tuesday, Gabbard said that her department had identified more than 120 biological laboratories in 30 countries that had been funded by the US taxpayer for decades. More than a third of these labs are located in Ukraine.

Gain of function research refers to the modification of animal viruses to increase their transmissibility in order to study their effect on humans. The ODNI is currently investigating the origins of the Covid-19 coronavirus, which Gabbard and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. maintain was created in a US-funded biolab in Wuhan, China.

Gabbard’s confirmation of US-funded biolabs in Ukraine vindicates claims made by the Russian military in the early days of the Ukraine conflict – claims that were dismissed by then-President Joe Biden’s administration as “outright lies.”

What did Russia say about biolabs in Ukraine?

As the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022, Vladimir Zelensky’s government in Kiev ordered the “emergency destruction” of dangerous pathogens at multiple US-funded laboratories in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on March 6 of that year.

The ministry claimed that Kiev ordered the destruction of the samples in order to hide its role in an American biological warfare program. Documents released by the ministry included an order from the Ukrainian Ministry of Health to destroy the pathogens, which included “plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases.”

Many of these laboratories were set up following the US-orchestrated ‘Maidan’ coup in 2014, and were run by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) – the largest biomedical research facility administered by the US military, according to the ministry.

After reviewing thousands of pages of documents seized from labs in Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov of the Russian Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces concluded in 2023 that “the US, under the guise of ensuring global biosecurity, conducted dual-use research, including the creation of biological weapons components, in close proximity to Russian borders.” Kirillov led Russia’s investigation into the labs until he was assassinated in 2024, allegedly by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

How did the US respond?

Former US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, a notorious Russia hawk, admitted under oath on March 8 that “Ukraine has biological research facilities,” which the US was helping to secure. Nuland, a driving force behind the Maidan coup, did not mention that the labs were American-run and funded.

“The United States does not own or operate any chemical or biological laboratories in Ukraine, it is in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention, and it does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere”

Washington went into full biolab denial mode the following day. “This is preposterous,” then White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki wrote on social media on March 9 (she hosts one of MSNow’s most popular shows). “It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine.”

However, another partial admission came from then-Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on March 10. Whereas Nuland claimed that the US was not involved in running any Ukrainian biolabs, Haines told lawmakers that “the US government provides assistance, or at least has in the past provided assistance, really in the context of biosafety, which is something that we’ve done globally with a variety of different countries.”

Nevertheless, the official policy from the White House remained one of denial. “There are no Ukrainian biological weapons laboratories supported by the United States,” Biden’s ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council on March 11.

In a press conference on March 21, Biden claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “back is against the wall,” and Moscow’s claims that “we, in America, have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe” are “simply not true.”

The US media largely toed this line. In the weeks following these statements, the New York Times described Russia’s story as a “baseless theory,” NPR referred to it as “a lurid and difficult to believe claim,” and The Guardian, CBS News, Bloomberg, and others all called it a “conspiracy theory.” Even on March 14, days after Nuland and Haines confirmed the labs’ existence, MSNBC ran a story on how “Ukraine’s non-existent biolabs” were a creation of “Russian propaganda.”

Were the labs making bioweapons?

Nuland and Haines admitted that the labs existed, but insisted that they carried out legitimate research. However, the line between legitimate gain-of-function research and the creation of bioweapons is blurred. Enhancing the transmissibility and lethality of viruses allows vaccines to be created, but also leaves scientists with potent pathogens that can easily be weaponized.

The Pentagon said in late 2022 that its biological research in Ukraine “focused on improving public health and agricultural safety.”

One year later, Kennedy Jr. told US journalist Tucker Carlson that this was merely a cover story, and that “we have biolabs in Ukraine because we’re developing bioweapons.”

Kennedy claimed that these facilities were creating “frightening stuff,” including genetically-engineered pathogens created with CRISPR DNA sequencing technology. This research used to be carried out in the US, but was moved abroad after some “bugs” escaped from American labs in 2014. “A lot of them went to Ukraine,” he added.

The DTRA’s biological research in Ukraine was paused in 2022, but resumed in 2023, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The program, which was previously known as ‘Joint Biological Research’, was rebranded as ‘Biological Control Research’ for the relaunch, according to documents released by the ministry.

Where are the rest of the US’ biolabs located?

As RT reported, whistleblowers in Georgia have alleged that the laboratories in that country worked on plague, tularemia, brucellosis, and various hemorrhagic fevers, and people living near one lab in Tbilisi have claimed that some of these bugs have escaped and infected locals.

In the wake of the Ukraine conflict, the US has transferred much of its biological research to Africa, the Russian Defense Ministry has alleged. According to documents published by the ministry in 2024, laboratories have been set up in 18 countries, with some Pentagon-funded facilities studying deadly pathogens such as Ebola, and carrying out pharmaceutical trials on locals.

British officials should seek medical help over the latest sanctions, which target a Russian psychiatric hospital and children’s camps, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

On Monday, London added 85 individuals and entities to its Russia sanctions list, including Clinical Psychiatric Hospital No. 5 in Crimea, along with several orphanages, children’s health camps, boarding houses, a resort, and a youth center on the peninsula.

“When the [British PM Keir] Starmer government imposes sanctions on a psychiatric hospital, it is time for London to call in the medics,” Zakharova told the newspaper Izvestia.

The UK Foreign Office has claimed that the institutions are involved in activities deemed to destabilize Ukraine by alleged facilitation of “the forced deportation, indoctrination and militarization of Ukrainian children.”

Moscow has insisted that since the start of the Ukraine conflict, it has evacuated children from the combat zone and relocated them to safety until they could be reunited with their families.

UK sanctions on the institutions are mainly legal and financial measures, including asset freezes, transaction bans, and limits on professional cooperation. In practice, they are often seen as largely symbolic, as such institutions typically have little or no direct financial or operational ties with the UK.

“It is clear that they [Western nations] are experiencing a certain shortage of targets,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in 2023, highlighting “the illogical inclusion of various individuals and legal entities on the lists in an absurd manner.”

The targeting of medical institutions with sanctions has repeatedly drawn criticism from humanitarian organizations over unintended consequences.

In Syria, several state-run healthcare institutions were subject to US and EU sanctions over alleged links to the country’s government during the civil war, a policy approach that has also been criticized for complicating the delivery of essential medical services. In Iran, Western sanctions indirectly affecting the Tehran University of Medical Sciences Cancer Institute have been linked to shortages of essential drugs and medical equipment, while financial restrictions further limit imports of medical supplies.

The indictment of Vladimir Zelensky’s closest political and personal associate, Andrey Yermak, for alleged money laundering involving a luxury housing complex is broadly viewed as a final warning from the West before potential charges against the Ukrainian leader himself.

Monday’s bombshell announcement by the Western-backed Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) is part of the agency’s ongoing investigation of businessman Timur Mindich, a fugitive nicknamed “Zelensky’s wallet” in the press, who fled to Israel last November shortly before being charged with running a $100 million embezzlement and extortion scheme at the atomic energy giant Energoatom.

Zelensky’s grip on power was weakened in the months following the initial revelations, as prosecutions and leaks to the media implicated members of his inner circle in rampant corruption.

Who is Andrey Yermak?

Yermak is a lawyer by background who entered politics in the mid-2010s as a staffer for a Ukrainian lawmaker from the Party of Regions – once led by Viktor Yanukovich, the former president ousted in the 2014 Maidan coup. Yermak was elevated to the top levels of Ukrainian power in 2019, when the newly elected President Zelensky appointed him as an adviser and later as head of his administration. 

The chief of staff became a dominant figure in Ukrainian politics. Foreign media identified Yermak as a major irritant for Western governments, as he sought to intervene in top-level negotiations and refused to ask for an interpreter despite his abysmal English.

What is Yermak suspected of?

Yermak stands accused of large-scale money laundering through a multimillion-dollar construction project to build four elite villas in one of Kiev’s most expensive suburbs. NABU’s allegations focus on a luxury property complex in Kozin – a riverside settlement of enormous mansions and summer houses.

Reportedly to accommodate Zelensky and three others, the development is being overwhelmingly funded through a criminal financial mechanism linked to Mindich’s ring, the agency has claimed. A total of six suspects have been charged.

The Dinastia (Dynasty) luxury villa project reportedly had four principal owners, identified as R1, R2, R3, and R4 in communications intercepted by NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). Records released by the agency point to Yermak, Mindich, and former Unity Minister Aleksey Chernyshov – who is also a leading suspect in the Energoatom investigation – as beneficiaries R2 to R4. Previous media reports have identified Zelensky as the fourth partner.

According to NABU, Dynasty was launched in late 2019 with the purchase of a 10-acre parcel of land by a company co-founded by Chernyshov, who used his wife Svetlana – who is reportedly a close personal friend of Zelensky’s wife Elena – to hide his involvement.

Since then the plot size has doubled and the equivalent of around $10 million in today’s money spent on four mansions and a common area for the partners, NABU has claimed. (Ukrainian currency has significantly depreciated against the dollar over the past several years, so the value of investment is higher.) About 10% of the funding allegedly went through regular banking channels, while the rest was dark money poured via the suspected ‘laundromat’ also used to legalize Energoatom profits. Chernyshov is suspected of giving protection to the operation.

NABU records say investor R2 issued instructions on his own future residence and was called ‘Andrey’ by an architect who was employed by both him and Mindich. Notably that portion of the report was previously published by the outlet Ukrainskaya Pravda, challenging a recent claim by a Zelensky aide that transcripts had been fabricated.

Why did NABU sit on the evidence?

The six-month delay between the indictments of Mindich and Yermak may be the result of procedural constraints, but Ukrainian politicians and media believe NABU and SAPO to be involved in a pressure campaign targeting Zelensky.

What are NABU and SAPO and who backs them?

NABU and SAPO were created after the 2014 coup under Western pressure to serve as checks on top-level government corruption in Kiev. There are two primary hypotheses in Ukraine on their assumed political goals.

One is that NABU and SAPO are basically a branch of the FBI and are used by US President Donald Trump to overcome Zelensky’s resistance to a compromise peace deal with Russia. Supporters of the theory suggest that Trump needs a political win ahead of the midterm elections in the US after failing to achieve a quick and easy victory in the war on Iran.

The American leader reportedly dislikes Zelensky personally despite his semi-complimentary description of him as the world’s best salesman. Trump also had every opportunity to be briefed on Zelensky’s involvement with Mindich ahead of the infamous shouting match in the Oval Office that shocked many Ukraine supporters in late February 2025.

The second popular explanation is that NABU and SAPO are acting on behalf of EU sponsors of Ukraine, who purportedly seek to strip real power from a corrupt and unreasonable Zelensky while maintaining Ukraine’s general anti-Russian course.

Is the noose tightening around Zelensky’s corrupt schemes?

MP Maks Buzhinsky, viewed as a Zelensky loyalist, claimed that Ukrainian elites now “rightfully believe that we are being pushed towards not peace but rather full and unconditional capitulation.” He cited the fact that the charges coincided with a highly critical interview by Zelensky’s former press secretary Yulia Mendel.

Speaking recently to American talk show host Tucker Carlson, Mendel described her former boss as a suspected cocaine addict, a war profiteer, and a leader who demanded Goebels-level propaganda from his media team to disguise lack of accomplishments. She voiced similar accusations in other interviews she gave in the past several months.

Does Zelensky have immunity from prosecution?

Zelensky’s term as president has long expired, and he retains his powers instead of transferring them to the speaker of the parliament as required by the constitution under martial law. His rule is enforced by what amounts to a semi-criminal secret police and an ever-present threat of mandatory conscription for fighting-age men.

As president, he technically can claim immunity, and the Ukrainian Constitution requires an impeachment procedure to try him for crimes. However, the basic law is more what you call guidelines than actual rules in present realities.

In other words, without mandate nor oversight, Zelensky’s leadership rests domestically on the loyalty of partisan agencies and armed thugs, and internationally on the highly selective blindness of donors who spent years pumping his ego with comparisons to Winston Churchill. Neither foundation is solid.

The Russian military has successfully test-fired the advanced RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, the commander of the Strategic Missile Troops, General Sergey Karakaev, has reported to President Vladimir Putin. The development would allow the military to equip the first missile regiment with the new weapon systems by the end of the year, Karakaev said.

The liquid-fueled heavy RS-28 Sarmat is designed to replace the world’s most powerful silo-based missile, the RS-20V Voevoda (SS-18 Satan according to NATO classification). It is believed to be to be able to carry up to ten heavy warheads with multiple re-entry capability.

According to Karakaev, the new missile system demonstrated capabilities exceeding those of its predecessor, primarily in terms of its range and payload. Its onboard systems also allow it to “securely penetrate the existing and emerging missile defense systems,” the general said.

Putin congratulated the military on the successful test, calling Sarmat “the most powerful missile system in the world.” According to the president, it is capable of delivering a payload four times bigger than that of any Western missile. It also has a range of over 35,000 kilometers and is twice as precise as its predecessor, he added.

The missile is reportedly compatible with the hypersonic glider used in another Russian missile system called Avangard. This type of warhead can approach targets in the atmosphere at high speeds while retaining maneuverability to dodge anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems. The Russian military have previously stated that the Sarmat’s range allows it to be fired from Russia at targets in the US via the South Pole, avoiding the American ABM site in Alaska.

“We were forced to think about ensuring our strategic security in a new reality,” the president said, adding that Moscow’s actions were aimed at “preserving the strategic balance of power.”

Two other advanced weapon systems are also in the final development stages: the unlimited-range cruise missile Burevestnik and the underwater Poseidon drone, both powered by miniaturized nuclear reactors, Putin stated.

Speculation over who should serve as the EU’s representative in potential negotiations with Russia is meaningless as long as the bloc has not committed to diplomacy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Debates over resuming talks were reignited last week when Russian President Vladimir Putin said former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder would be a suitable EU envoy.

Brussels has rejected the idea. Media reports later named outgoing German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a potential candidate. Speaking to RIA Novosti on Tuesday, Peskov called the discussions premature.

“One could read the tea leaves and list every famous name,” Peskov said. “Anyone could [take on that task]. What matters is a political decision to resume dialogue.”

Kallas rejects ‘lobbyist’ Schroeder

Western nations have sought to isolate Russia since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. While the US has abandoned the policy under the administration of President Donald Trump, Brussels maintains its position of not engaging Moscow diplomatically – though fears have grown in the EU that its concerns will be sidelined if a peace deal is reached.

“Before we discuss with Russia, we should discuss among ourselves what exactly we want to discuss with them,” Kallas said, adding that EU leaders are seeking security guarantees from Moscow. Kallas is a vocal opponent of normalizing relations with Moscow.

Putin said European governments are free to nominate any representative they want, provided that the individual has not publicly slandered Russia in the past. “We were not the ones who refused talks – they were,” he added.

SPD calls for pragmatic approach

According to Der Spiegel, the German government considers Putin’s remarks about Schroeder a “sham proposal.”

“The goal must be for Europe to have a seat at the negotiating table,” Ahmetovic told the outlet, adding that Schroeder should be “carefully considered together with our European partners rather than ruled out categorically from the outset.”

Schroeder, 82, led the SPD and served as German chancellor from 1998 to 2005 before being succeeded by Christian Democratic leader Angela Merkel. Since 2022, he has been ostracized by his own party over his support for Russian-German energy cooperation.

Steinmeier, a fellow member of the SPD, is expected to step down from his largely ceremonial role as German president in early 2027. He was among the architects of the controversial Minsk II agreement – the 2015 roadmap for settling the Donbass conflict negotiated by Kiev, Berlin, Paris, and Moscow – which former Ukrainian and Western officials later admitted helped buy time for Ukraine’s military buildup.

Other names floated by the Western media as potential EU envoys for talks with Russia include Finnish President Alexander Stubb, whose country abandoned decades of military neutrality to join NATO in 2023, and Kallas, who has repeatedly ruled out negotiations as long as Putin remains in power.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s alleged drug use is “an open secret,” former spokeswoman Yulia Mendel has claimed on the Tucker Carlson Show.

Allegations of drug use first surfaced during the 2019 presidential election campaign, in which Zelensky defeated Petro Poroshenko.

Zelensky, a former actor, dismissed the claims as slander at the time, and both candidates underwent tests for alcohol and drugs.

Mendel worked for Zelensky from 2019 to 2021 and has since become highly critical of her former boss. In an interview released on Monday, Carlson asked whether Zelensky used drugs, to which Mendel replied: “This is an open secret.”

“The thing is that I’ve never seen him taking drugs. However, [while] writing my book, I met a lot of people who confirmed that they saw him taking drugs in different clubs. Only one saw him taking drugs in 2021,” she claimed. Mendel added that she learned about an alleged “supplier” from a person working at Kvartal 95 Studio, the entertainment company Zelensky co-founded in the 2000s.

Zelensky’s former press secretary alleges he urged subordinates to carry out ‘propaganda like Goebbels’

Yulia Mendel claims that after a drop in ratings in 2019, the Narcofuhrer ordered his PR team to improve his image, pointing to the effectiveness of Nazi Germany’s propaganda… pic.twitter.com/k6s7xpuE8V

— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) May 12, 2026

“All these people are talking about cocaine, yes,” Mendel said, adding that before interviews, Zelensky had a habit of spending 15 minutes in the bathroom and emerging as a “different person.”

Mendel also accused Zelensky of sending critics, including journalists, to the front line as punishment.

Political opponents, including Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, have frequently accused Zelensky of abuse of power. Last year, US President Donald Trump called Zelensky – whose presidential term expired in 2024 – a dictator for refusing to call a new presidential election. Zelensky has argued that elections are prohibited under martial law and that a permanent ceasefire with Russia would be required before a new election can be held.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky is prolonging his country's conflict with Russia in order to enrich himself and his associates in his cabinet, former spokeswoman Yulia Mendel has claimed in an interview with Tucker Carlson.

Mendel, Zelensky’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, launched a series of stinging allegations of corruption and drug use as Andrey Yermak, Zelensky’s former influential chief of staff, was named a suspect in a money laundering case. Zelensky’s longtime former business partner, Timur Mindich, fled the country last year to avoid arrest in connection with another major corruption scandal involving energy-sector kickbacks that has seen several other close associates of the Ukrainian leader placed under suspicion.

In an episode of the Tucker Carlson Show released on Monday, Mendel described her former boss as a “dictator” who has grown “detached from reality” and employed “thousands of talking heads” to craft a favorable image both at home and abroad.

“There are a lot of people in his government who want peace. [Zelensky] is going to come up with any condition, he is going to change his positions all the time just to prolong this war and to get more money,” Mendel said, arguing that ending the conflict would be “political suicide” for Zelensky.

When Carlson suggested that Ukraine cannot defeat Russia in a war of attrition, Mendel replied: “I think it’s obvious to Zelensky, too. But he thrives on this war. Why would he end it?”

Zelensky, whose presidential term expired in 2024, has refused to hold new elections, citing martial law. The move has been criticized by both US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mendel, citing an unnamed insider, claimed that secret polls commissioned by the Ukrainian government show Zelensky is “unelectable” if he runs again.

Andrey Yermak, a former influential chief of staff to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, has been named a suspect in a new criminal case, according to a statement posted on Telegram by the country’s Western-backed anti-corruption agencies.

The former official is accused of being part of a criminal group that laundered 460 million hryvnias ($10 million) through an elite residential construction project.

Often described as the grey cardinal behind Zelensky, Yermak was forced out in November 2025 after the anti-corruption agencies raided his properties as part of a high-profile corruption probe. The investigation was focused on a $100 million graft scheme linked to Zelensky’s inner circle and his former business partner and close associate, Timur Mindich.

Yermak himself denied ties to corruption at the time and claimed he stepped down to avoid “creating problems” for Zelensky.

The former chief of staff now stands accused of violating Article 209 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, which covers “money laundering and legalization of ill-gotten gains.” Earlier on Monday, the Ukrainian media reported that Yermak was subjected to some “investigative procedures” by the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

In December, the Ukrainian media reported that Yermak had retained influence following his resignation and was talking to Zelensky daily by phone and meeting him most evenings at his residence despite holding no formal government position.

The news comes amid another corruption scandal. Last month, Ukrainskaya Pravda released what it called leaked transcripts from surveillance recordings of Mindich and his business partners, as well as Ukrainian government officials. The files that have since become known as ‘Mindich tapes’ included a conversation Mindich had with a woman identified as Natalia, who reportedly oversaw a luxury construction project for him and Yermak. The leaks are yet to be officially verified.

In a brief statement to journalists on Monday evening, Yermak denied any involvement in the Dinastia (Dynasty) development project outside Kiev. He also denied being featured in conversations involving Mindich that were recorded by law enforcement.

Read RT's curated coverage of the ongoing investigations into allegations of corruption and graft by Zelensky's inner circle here.

The Ukrainian military has violated the Victory Day ceasefire more than 16,000 times since it took effect on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

In a statement on Sunday, the ministry said Ukrainian forces had carried out drone and artillery strikes on civilian sites in Crimea, Belgorod Region, Kursk Region, Kaluga Region, Rostov Region, and Krasnodar Region. In Belgorod alone, five civilians, including a teenager, were injured in Ukrainian drone attacks, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Ukrainian troops also carried out 676 strikes against Russian positions using artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems, mortars, and tanks. Kiev’s forces launched 6,331 drone attacks and attempted eight assaults on Russian positions.

Russian forces “continue to strictly observe the ceasefire regime and remain at previously occupied lines and positions,” the ministry stated.

The Victory Day truce announced by Russia last week to mark the 81st anniversary of the end of World War II was initially set to expire on Sunday, but following a proposal from US President Donald Trump, Moscow agreed to extend it for two more days.

Throughout the conflict, Moscow has repeatedly declared temporary truces during major religious and national holidays. Last month, Russia announced an Easter ceasefire, which the Defense Ministry said was violated by Ukrainian forces more than 6,500 times within 32 hours.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the warning apparently reached Washington and contributed to Trump’s extended ceasefire initiative. He also said that while the globalist faction of Western elites is still effectively waging war against Russia, using Ukrainians as proxies, the conflict is heading towards its end.

Russia expects Armenia to explain its lack of reaction to the “anti-Russian” statements made by Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky during a recent summit in Yerevan, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Providing a venue for such rhetoric goes against the spirit of partnership between the two nations, he told journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday.

Zelensky was in Yerevan earlier this week for a two-day summit of the European Political Community (EPC), an EU-led intergovernmental group launched in 2022 in response to the escalation of the Ukraine crisis. He asked for more military and financial assistance from the West while claiming that Moscow was scared that Ukrainian “drones may buzz over Red Square” ahead of Victory Day celebrations in Russia.

The Russian Defense Ministry then warned that if Ukraine attempted to disrupt the festivities with attacks, a major retaliatory strike would follow.

On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Armenian ambassador in Moscow to protest “opening the floor” for Zelensky’s “terrorist threats against Russia.”

Peskov maintained that Yerevan has a “sovereign right” to define its foreign policy and host any summits it wants, adding that Moscow only wants it not to take an anti-Russian position.

Relations between Russia and Armenia started to cool after Pashinyan came to power in 2018. During his time in office, Armenia lost a proxy war with neighboring Azerbaijan over the latter’s region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinyan then attempted to fault Moscow for not providing military assistance at the time.

The Ukrainian military needs to pull back from Donbass for the peace process to move forward, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov has said. Talks between Moscow and Kiev will remain stalled until then, he told journalist Pavel Zarubin, adding that the Ukrainian government knows this.

Russia and Ukraine have held several rounds of talks, including with US mediation, since early 2025, when President Donald Trump returned to the White House. The process has slowed down following the latest US-mediated meeting in Geneva in February.

According to Ushakov, any new meetings will not change the situation unless Ukrainian troops are withdrawn. “Until [Ukraine] makes the step, one can hold some more rounds, dozens of rounds [of talks] but we will remain in the same spot,” he said.

“They know in Ukraine that it must be done and they will do it sooner or later,” the presidential aide stated. Ushakov also said that Moscow maintains close contacts with Washington when it comes to the peace process, adding that Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, could visit Russia “soon.”

Earlier this week, Ushakov called a potential Ukrainian withdrawal from Donbass “one serious step” that would greatly advance the settlement process. Military action would cease after that, he stated on Thursday.

The two Donbass republics voted to join Russia together with two other former Ukrainian territories – Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions – in autumn 2022. In March, President Vladimir Putin stated that only between 15% and 17% of the Donetsk People’s Republic remains under Kiev’s control. In April, the Russian military reported fully liberating the neighboring Lugansk People’s Republic.

The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly refused to both recognize the status of the new Russian regions or to cede any territory to Moscow. It also maintains that recapturing the regions incorporated into Russia is one of its ultimate goals.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has pushed back against what he described as a “new Iron Curtain” between the EU and Russia, calling for the restoration of pragmatic dialogue with Moscow instead of continuing “hatred.”

Fico, who has described himself as one of the EU’s “black sheep” over his stance on Russia, was the only sitting EU leader to travel to Moscow for Victory Day celebrations on May 9 and to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, drawing harsh criticism from Brussels and several member states.

In a video statement posted on Facebook on Saturday, Fico accused the EU of downplaying the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany. Speaking aboard the Slovak government jet while returning from Moscow, he warned that Brussels’ Russia policy was damaging the bloc’s competitiveness and energy security.

He also shared footage of his visit.

“I reject a new Iron Curtain between the European Union and Russia. We are interested in standard, friendly, and mutually beneficial relations with this world power,” Fico said.

He argued that the EU was making a “huge mistake” by relying on sanctions and military support for Ukraine instead of direct political dialogue with Moscow.

“We cannot, just out of hatred for Russia, replace one energy dependence with another – this time American,” he argued. According to energy data, the US supplied more than half of the bloc’s liquefied natural gas imports in 2025.

Ukrainian enlistment officers have reportedly opened fire at members of the Roma community who were attempting to storm a recruitment center in Transcarpathia, western Ukraine.

The incident occurred in the village of Mezhgorye on Saturday after a press gang seized a local man, according to Ukrainian journalist Vitaly Glagola. Around 30 people reportedly gathered outside the enlistment office and tried to force their way inside by hurling objects and breaking down doors.

The journalist claimed that several shots were fired using a pistol and a Kalashnikov rifle. He added that officials initially denied the shooting, saying that only two blank rounds had been fired, which contradicted footage in which “at least four shots” could be heard.

“Now even the testimony of the TCC employees themselves does not match,” Glagola wrote on Telegram.

The “threat was localized, and the attack was repelled,” the office added in a statement on social media.

Faced with mounting losses, widespread desertion, and a shortage of willing recruits in the conflict with Russia, Ukrainian recruitment squads have increasingly resorted to coercion and brute force to fill the ranks.

The practice, commonly known as “busification,” involves military-age men being seized on the streets, at workplaces, and in residential areas before being taken to enlistment centers against their will and reportedly dispatched to the front after only cursory training.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that a meeting with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky could take place “anywhere,” including in a third country, but only after a final long-term peace agreement is fully prepared and ready for signing.

“The Ukrainian side and Mr. Zelensky, they are ready to have a personal meeting... We have never refused,” Putin said during a press conference after Victory Day celebrations on May 9. “We can meet in the third country as well, but only after there is an ultimate agreement regarding a peace deal that must be a long-term deal.” 

He stressed that the meeting should be the “final thing,” the signing ceremony, and not turn into negotiations. Recalling the Minsk Accords experience, Putin noted: “We can speak hours, day and night and it would yield no results. We need specialists to take care of that... then we can meet, we can sign.” 

During the same May 9 briefing, Putin declared that the Ukraine conflict “is heading towards the end.” 

These remarks came one day after US President Donald Trump expressed hope that the ceasefire declared by Moscow on May 8 could lead to the fighting wrapping up soon.

Last December, Putin reiterated that Russia seeks a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict provided its root causes are eliminated.

Crowds of people gathered in the Estonian city of Narva to watch the Victory Day concert and fireworks display held in Russia’s Ivangorod, situated just across the border.

The Estonian authorities banned Victory Day celebrations on May 9, penalizing anyone seen with Soviet or Russian-themed symbols, such as the Ribbon of Saint George.

One of the spectators on the Estonian side of the Narva river told RT on Sunday that compared to previous years, even more people had come to the embankment to see the event. The person said that Victory Day “has always been the most important holiday for us, no matter what.”

Victory Day celebrations across Russia and the world: As it happened (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

The person added that his boss at work had objected to him going to watch the Victory Day concert, but he went anyway. He explained to RT that his own relatives had fought against Nazi Germany, adding that the “desire to pay homage to our heroes beats fear of any potential punishment” from the Estonian authorities.

As the celebrations unfolded across the river, some Narva residents lit lanterns in greeting to their neighbors in Ivangorod, according to footage sent to RT by a subscriber. She said the gesture has become a local tradition dating back to the coronavirus pandemic, when border crossings became difficult.

According to the news agency, citing Ivangorod and Narva residents, many people in Estonia spent several hours in lines at the border just to watch the celebrations on the Russian side.

Aleksandr Drozdenko, the governor of Leningrad Region, where Ivangorod is located, previously told TASS that it was particularly important to the regional authorities that the “concert is also being heard on the other side of the Narva River.”

“We know that there are people there, to whom Victory Day is just as important, and they are waiting for this day,” the Russian official said. According to Drozdenko, “on both riverbanks, people are singing our common songs familiar from childhood,” in what he described as “people’s karaoke.”

The celebration culminated in a bright fireworks display over Ivangorod, watched from both banks of the river.

Meanwhile, the Estonian police reported that at least 20 administrative cases related to Victory Day celebrations were initiated on Sunday, as reported by Delfi media outlet. Most of those involved displays of banned symbols.

Victory Day celebrations across Russia and around the world concluded on May 9, while President Vladimir Putin wrapped up a series of meetings with foreign leaders who came to Moscow and spoke to journalists about the Ukraine conflict, Russia-China ties, and other international issues.

“I think the matter is heading towards the completion of the Ukrainian conflict,” the Russian leader said while answering questions from the press. He also did not rule out a possible meeting with Vladimir Zelensky in a third country once final agreements on a settlement are reached.

Here are some further highlights from Putin’s remarks:

Western elites fighting Russia with Ukrainian hands

Putin stated that it is the globalist faction of Western elites that is effectively waging war against Russia, using Ukrainians as proxies.

“We need to make sure that no one is threatening us. This is our goal,” Putin said when asked about the parameters of peace negotiations. He emphasized that Moscow is well aware of Western assistance to Ukraine, particularly with drone technology, but noted that the other side is now looking for ways to establish contact, fully understanding that further escalation could be very costly.

Trump supported Victory Day ceasefire

“President Trump supported it,” Putin said. Russia publicly announced the truce, but Kiev instead proposed a ceasefire starting on May 6, which it apparently had no intention of upholding.

The Ukrainian military violated the Victory Day ceasefire on 8,970 occasions after Moscow ordered all of its troops along the front line in Ukraine to halt combat operations and remain in their positions, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Moscow warned partners about possible retaliatory strike on Kiev

The Russian leader emphasized that Moscow has no desire to escalate or worsen relations with anyone, and that it repeatedly warned its foreign partners about the possible consequences of Kiev’s provocations on Victory Day.

Putin pointed out that all key Ukrainian government and military decision-making centers are located in central Kiev, in close proximity to dozens of foreign diplomatic missions. He said Russia clearly outlined the potential scenario that could unfold, first warning key partners such as China and India.

Moscow also informed Washington about the possible consequences, which Putin believes contributed to Trump’s extended ceasefire initiative.

Ukraine yet to respond to Trump’s POW exchange initiative

Moscow sent Kiev a list of 500 Ukrainian prisoners of war and proposed an exchange back on May 5, but has yet to receive a response, Putin said. When Trump later announced an even larger 1,000-for-1,000 POW swap, “we supported it right away,” Putin added.

According to the Russian president, Ukraine said it needed time to review the proposal and later stated that it was “not prepared” for the exchange.

Putin explains absence of military vehicles at Victory Day parade

“We decided that we would definitely hold festive events, but without the demonstration of military equipment. Not only due to security concerns, but above all because the armed forces must focus their attention on the final defeat of the enemy,” Putin said.

The president added that the decision was taken long before any provocative statements from the Ukrainian authorities. The parade on May 9 still included marching servicemen and an aviation flyover.

Putin hopes for restoration of ties with West in future

Putin expressed confidence that Russia would restore relations with many Western countries in the future, even as he blamed Western politicians for triggering the Ukraine conflict.

Seeking to use Ukraine as an instrument of their geopolitical goals, these Western figures deceived everyone, and they’re now publicly admitting it... And they began deceiving us about the West’s eastward expansion back in the early 1990s... All of this, taken together, provoked today’s situation.

The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had never closed the door to negotiations with the EU or Ukraine and mentioned former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as a preferred intermediary for dialogue.

Russia offered help on Iran nuclear issue

According to the president, the United States, Iran, and Israel initially agreed to the idea. However, both Washington and Tehran later hardened their positions: the US demanded that the uranium be sent only to its territory, while Iran proposed creating a joint Russian-Iranian enterprise on its own soil to dilute the uranium. As a result, the situation has reached a complete deadlock.

Europe has become Russia’s “principal adversary” for the first time since the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the president of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), Dmitri Trenin, has told Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi.

In the latest episode of Going Underground, the renowned international affairs expert said that “today, Russia is at war again, and this is not simply a war between Russia and Ukraine” but rather a proxy war against Moscow that is being waged by the West.

According to Trenin, while the US under President Donald Trump has increasingly distanced itself from the Ukraine conflict, European involvement has become progressively more prominent of late. He told Rattansi that elites in European capitals are using a perceived Russian threat in an apparent effort to consolidate the “crumbling” European Union and to “relaunch their economies through militarization.”

“They’re trying, above all, to keep themselves in power” by pushing alarmist narratives regarding Russia, he added.

The international affairs expert expressed confidence that Russia would eventually accomplish its goals in the conflict, though it would take a long time. He defined Russia’s vision of victory as the vanquishing of neo-Nazi elements within Ukraine, as well as “those forces in Europe, primarily among the elites, that have built Russia into a bogeyman again.”

Commenting on Trump’s attempts at mediation, Trenin claimed that the US president is “essentially powerless to insist on something that is of central importance to ending this conflict,” and so his role is rather limited in defining its course. According to the RIAC president, Trump has apparently been unable to get EU warmongers and the Ukrainian leadership to act on the understanding reached by him and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, last August.

Andrei Starikov, director of the documentary film ‘Victory Day in the Baltics: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’, spoke with RT about how Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are shaping the historical memory politics of the Western world. He also discussed how it has been turned into a political instrument by the supporters of Hitler and their descendants, who returned to the Baltic nations after the Cold War, and why the Baltic region could become a serious flashpoint. 

RT: Andrei, your film addresses the revision of the outcomes of the Second World War, a topic that the Western audience knows little about. Do you think this is a coincidence or the result of a deliberate information strategy?

Andrei Starikov: I wouldn’t exaggerate and say that it’s some kind of centralized effort to suppress information. It’s not a conspiracy or a particular strategy. We are, rather, talking about a certain perception: every country or society has its own pain points that it focuses on. 

However, it’s crucial to understand that even if a topic seems to be of regional importance, its implications can be global. History provides examples of this; the First World War was sparked by a local event – the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. At first glance, it seemed like a minor incident, but it triggered a massive conflict.

The situation in the Baltic states follows a similar logic. This is a small region but it lies at the intersection of major powers’ interests.

Looking at the bigger picture, we observe a broader geopolitical landscape composed of the United States, China, and Russia. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia ceased to be the superpower it once was, and a ‘belt’ of new states (the former Soviet republics) formed around it.

The Baltic countries – Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia – are part of this belt. These countries are Russia’s neighbors but they are also part of Western structures like the EU and NATO. And today, they find themselves in a challenging position. 

RT: Why is it challenging? 

Andrei Starikov: Primarily because of their historical and demographic structure. After 1991, a Russian-speaking population remained in these countries. In Latvia, nearly half of the population is Russian-speaking; in Estonia, it’s about 35-40%; Lithuania has a lower percentage of Russian speakers, but still a considerable number. 

It’s important to note that Russians didn’t appear there by chance. And it didn’t occur instantly. Some residents are descendants of migrants from the days of the Russian Empire – as far back as the 18th and 19th centuries. There were also religious migrations, such as Old Believers who fled church reforms.

In the 20th century, more migrants came during the Soviet era. When these territories joined the USSR, specialists such as engineers, workers, and builders migrated there actively. They established enterprises, infrastructure, and cultural institutions in the new republics.

During Soviet times, the Baltic nations found themselves in a unique position. These republics were sort of the ‘showcase of the USSR’ – a region that demonstrated the level of development, quality of life, and efficiency of the system. Thus, the Russian-speaking population appeared in the Baltics as a result of a lengthy historical process. 

From ‘bridge’ to frontline

RT: Today, the Baltic states refer to the Soviet era as “occupation” and Russians are seen not as settlers but as “occupiers.”

Andrei Starikov: When speaking of this, we must consider the historical context of the early 20th century. During that time, both Western and Eastern Europe demonstrated a strong interest in leftist ideas. Communist parties enjoyed significant support due to widespread disillusionment with capitalism, dire social conditions, and a lack of basic rights for workers.

The Soviet Union was viewed as a project that offered an alternative: social guarantees, education, healthcare, and labor rights protection.

Thus, the incorporation of the Baltics into the USSR in 1940 was part of a broader historical process supported by a segment of society. It wasn’t forced; it didn’t stem from Moscow’s ultimatum. It was a natural process that many welcomed.

Later, during the Soviet period, active modernization began in the region, involving the construction of industries, infrastructure, and cultural institutions. This further integrated the Russian-speaking population that had moved to Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

RT: Why did the authorities’ stance change drastically after the collapse of the USSR?

Andrei Starikov: A new identity was formed at that time. When countries emerge from a large political entity, they need to redefine who they are. This is often done through a rejection of their past.

For the Baltics, distancing themselves from the Soviet legacy symbolized a break from Russia. Geopolitics plays a role here: when you push away from one center of power, you inevitably gravitate toward another.

Small nations caught between major powers can rarely maintain neutrality. It’s like in physics – larger bodies attract smaller ones. The Baltic nations faced a choice: to serve as a ‘bridge’ between the East and the West or to become a dividing line. Unfortunately, political elites chose the latter path, and this led to heightened tensions both externally and internally. 

The people resist, many pack their bags and leave. When society operates under a constant state of opposition, people seek more stable conditions – they emigrate, postpone starting families, and birth rates decline.

All the challenges that Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are currently facing stem from their leaders’ decision to play an active role in the confrontation between Russia and the West.  

This is an awful course that affects both those who identify themselves as ethnic Lithuanians, Estonians, and Latvians, and the remaining Russian population.

Naturally, this creates tension within these countries and outlines a potential civil conflict. I repeat: there are those who lean towards Russia and wish to facilitate dialogue, and then there are those who desire war. The latter include nationalists whose stance has been shaped by those who fought alongside Nazi Germany and those who fled to Latin America and other countries after the war.

Victory Day and the battle over historical memory

RT: What role does Victory Day play in this conflict?

Andrei Starikov: Victory Day is the cornerstone of historical memory. The anti-Hitler coalition emerged victorious in WWII, and the Soviet Union was  part of it. The USSR suffered the heaviest losses, as most battles occurred on its soil. Moreover, the Nazi occupation was exceptionally brutal and terror-driven in Soviet territories. It was true genocide.

For Russia and many post-Soviet countries, victory over Nazism is more than just a date; it’s woven into their identity and collective memory – a vital element that resonates powerfully even with today’s generations, the descendants of the victors. For the people of Russia and neighboring countries, Victory Day remains a deeply significant, emotional, and truly national holiday.

Any attempts to challenge or reinterpret this holiday cause deep pain. The memory of WWII victory in Russia is codified not only socially but also legally – it’s enshrined in the constitution. Yet, it transcends mere legal norms; it forms an organic foundation upon which modern Russian identity and foreign policy thinking largely rest.

Any actions taken against the symbols of this holiday – especially in the post-Soviet space – are perceived in Russia as personal affronts and insults. Naturally, such steps provoke strong reactions, both socially and politically.

In some ways, this can be likened to how the legacy of the Civil War continues to shape the national consciousness in the United States. Much time has passed, yet the topic remains part of the national consciousness and evokes strong responses.

Today, in the Baltic states – Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia – public celebrations of Victory Day are prohibited.

Related events, concerts, fireworks, and WWII victory symbols are banned. Those who attempt to publicly commemorate the day face administrative and sometimes criminal charges. People may be fined, persecuted, sometimes even stripped of their status or deported.

Russia perceives any actions regarding May 9th acutely – especially when they are prohibitive or demonstrative in nature. For Russia, this is a day of remembrance and at the same time a celebration of victory, and such [prohibitive] measures are seen as an assault on [historical] memory. 

This is particularly painful for those for whom this day holds personal significance – the descendants of the veterans and their families, for whom the memory of the war is alive. When people are forbidden from honoring that memory and denied the opportunity to pay their respects, it generates a lot of tension.

RT: Can we say that the leadership of the Baltic states, which has banned Victory Day, aims to provoke Russia?

Andrei Starikov: Their actions are mostly symbolic but [for Russia, it’s a] deeply sensitive matter. Such actions are perceived as attempts to offend, provoke, and humiliate. 

This is particularly hard for the older generation living in the Baltic states, including those who experienced the war or grew up in its aftermath. For these individuals, Victory Day isn’t just a date on the calendar – it’s part of their life. 

When these people are denied the chance to commemorate Victory Day, when their rights are restricted, their access to healthcare or social services is limited, and when they are pushed out of public life, it feels like an assault on the very memory of Victory. 

Today, one of the main threats is that in the political elites of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, there are strong forces that advocate for revanchism and seek to reinterpret the outcomes of WWII. They prioritize rigid ideological positions over pragmatism, economic development, or constructive dialogue.

Such an approach creates points of tension that could escalate into larger conflicts. History shows that major wars often stem from local crises. Today, the Baltic Sea region – Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia – has become one of those sensitive flashpoints.

The tail wagging the dog

RT: How significantly do perspectives on WWII differ in Eastern and Western Europe? Can we say that the Baltic states influence how the wider Western world interprets history?

Andrei Starikov: Since joining the European Union and NATO, the Baltic countries have positioned themselves as sort of ‘experts on Russia.’ They say, ‘We know Russia better than anyone else; our historical experience and Russian language skills give us unique insights because we lived in the Soviet Union.’ 

Despite their small size – these nations collectively have only a few million inhabitants – they have actively engaged in shaping EU policy in Eastern Europe. Through participation in EU institutions, through resolutions, memoranda, and committee work, they have managed to set a tougher and more confrontational tone towards Russia.

Additionally, there’s the factor of emigration. After WWII, people from these countries emigrated to the West – particularly to the US, Latin America, and Australia. Over time, they integrated into political and social structures there, forming lobbying networks. Today, these connections continue to function, amplifying their agenda.

RT: Did the Baltic states’ accession to the EU mark a turning point after which Russia and the West began to view 20th-century historical events differently?

Andrei Starikov:  It was a significant milestone, but not the starting point. Small states positioned between major power centers can’t exist in a vacuum or remain entirely neutral.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Baltic nations chose to distance themselves from their Soviet past – and consequently, from Russia. In doing so, they inevitably began to construct their identities in opposition to Russia.

This process began in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Joining the EU and NATO solidified this choice and gave them added confidence, partly due to the NATO ‘security umbrella’. 

From that point on, they were able to adopt a firmer stance, often disregarding Russia’s position.

Can the truth about WWII still be defended?

Andrei Starikov: I believe we can. Some aspects are open to interpretation, but there are also fundamental truths. WWII victory is one of these truths. It’s not merely a historical fact; it serves as a critical reference point.

No matter how hard people try to reinterpret, distort, or rewrite it, this victory remains relevant. It represents a triumph over an ideology that denied the value of human life.

For Europe and the West, this moment is just as significant as the Civil War is for the US. It was a dialogue about values, albeit in a deeply tragic context. The victory in WWII set a trajectory toward progress, human rights, and equal opportunities. For Russia, it’s even more pivotal. It’s not just a part of history – it’s foundational to its identity.

That’s why this memory cannot be erased. It still prevents the world from descending into full-scale conflict. It shows that even in times of intense opposition, dialogue, alliances, and shared victories are possible. In this sense, it serves not only as a remembrance of the past but also as a guide for the future. 

Understanding and remembering history is crucial. It can be complex and contradictory. Yet, the goal of politicians and leaders should be to avoid igniting new conflicts based on old wounds and to create space for coexistence.

Conversely, when tensions arise and forces that are interested in escalating the conflict come to power, this creates global risks. These ‘marginal’ groups seize power, create flashpoints and put all of us at risk of nuclear catastrophe. We must stop them, apply pressure, and unite our efforts to defeat them early on, preventing them from spreading their influence.

The Baltic states and other such regions require special attention, since local crises can lead to much more serious consequences. Without addressing the Baltic issue, it will be challenging to engage in dialogue and develop further. 

The Ukrainian military has violated the Victory Day ceasefire on 8,970 occasions since it took effect at midnight on Friday, including drone and artillery strikes, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Moscow said on Friday that it had ordered all of its troops along the Ukraine front line to halt combat operations and stay at their positions.

In a statement on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry stressed that its forces were continuing to abide by the ceasefire. By contrast, the Ukrainian military had conducted “strikes on our forces’ positions involving unmanned aerial vehicles and artillery,” military officials in Moscow reported. On top of that, a number of Russian regions, including Crimea, Bryansk Region, Belgorod Region, Kursk Region, and Moscow Region, have come under Ukrainian attacks.

According to the ministry, of the 8,970 ceasefire violations on Kiev’s part, 1,173 attacks were conducted by Ukrainian artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, mortars and tanks. The Russian military has additionally recorded a total of 7,151 enemy drone strikes.

Russian troops have responded in kind, launching retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian firing positions, command posts, and UAV launch sites, the Defense Ministry stated.

Earlier this week, the MOD announced a unilateral two-day ceasefire on May 8-9 to mark the 81st anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany and the end of World War II in Europe.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he had directly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to cease hostilities for three days, May 9-11, with both agreeing to the proposal. Trump added that Moscow and Kiev would swap 1,000 POWs each during the period.

“Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War,” the US president wrote, expressing hope for a “big extension.”

Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov later confirmed that Moscow agreed to extend the ceasefire it had originally announced for May 8-9 for the period mentioned by Trump, as well as to a major prisoner exchange.

Vladimir Zelensky's Kiev bag man who ran a series of corruption schemes which stole hundreds of millions of dollars from Ukraine's energy sector was alerted by a mole inside an anti-corruption agency that he was about to be arrested, minutes before the bust was due to take place, local media has reported.

Timur Mindich and his right-hand man Aleksandr Zukermanjsut fled to Israel before Western-backed anti-corruption agents raided his home. Ukrainakaya Pravda (UP) is among several outlets that have been publishing purported transcripts of surveillance records gathered during the 2025 investigation that triggered Mindich's decision to flee.

The alleged mole

Friday’s transcript release centers on Andrey Sinyuk, the former deputy head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), who resigned after formal charges were filed against Mindich and his associates. He is suspected of warning Mindich about the raid.

Andrey is described as an old friend of a man named Oleg – whom UP believes to be either deputy head of Zelensky’s administration Oleg Tatarov or one of his aides – and as a “good contact that is worth keeping.”

No honor among thieves

“Oleg is among those who played with him,” Basov said, according to the transcript. “Everyone worked with him, dined and wined and split money. It’s clear what the relationship format there is normal… manly.” However, he added that he feared “this pederasty among those people may backfire,” and that Andrey could “play a double game” by keeping records of the “wages” – regular bribes – he allegedly received.

It is unclear whether the references to homosexuality were meant literally or used as insults aimed at Ukrainian government figures whom Mindich’s associates viewed as untrustworthy.

Suspected tip-off network

UP claims that on October 26, Sinyuk searched classified criminal databases for the names of Energoatom suspects, including Mironyuk and Basov, as well as figures linked to Mindich, such as former energy ministers German Galushchenko and Svetlana Grinchuk. According to the outlet, the searches were logged in the system and later uncovered during an internal investigation.

Escape plan emerges

The outlet also cited conversations allegedly involving Mindich’s personal driver shortly before charges were filed against the businessman, which appeared to point to preparations for an emergency escape from Ukraine.

The so-called ‘Mindich tapes’ have confirmed long-held suspicions in Ukraine of extreme corruption in the upper echelons of Vladimir Zelensky's government and shattered the Western illusion of transparency and accountability for the hundreds of billions in 'aid' sent to Kiev.

The impact is widening since original charges were levelled last year over corruption at Energoatom and have now included Fire Point, a former movie casting and location agency linked to Zelensky's friends that has transformed into a billion-dollar drone and missile company now at the centre of allegations based on content from the Mindich tapes.

The West is busy rewriting the history of World War II, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stated ahead of the 81st anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany.

Russian officials have repeatedly accused the US and EU member states of distorting historical truth and belittling the crucial role of the Soviet Union, which lost an estimated 27 million people in what is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.

Speaking on Thursday, Zakharova said that defending historical memory is a fundamental priority for Russia. This is all the more important in light of revanchist tendencies in the West, according to the spokeswoman.

Zakharova accused EU bureaucrats of waging “historical aggression.” She cited resolutions by the European Parliament, as well as organizations affiliated with the Council of Europe, which “promote the rewriting of history,” with the Soviet Union “being ascribed responsibility nearly equal to that of [Nazi] Germany” for the start of World War II.

The official also noted that “in some countries, the war on monuments and memorials in honor of fighters against Nazism is gaining momentum.” She singled out Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as prime examples of this unsettling trend, citing the demolitions of Soviet war memorials there in recent years.

RT correspondent Marina Kosareva delves into how the reframing of the past has become all too common among senior Western officials, and what ramifications this could have.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu’s pro-EU PAS party has pushed through new procedural rules that severely restrict the use of the Russian language in parliament.

The ex-Soviet republic of around 2.5 million people sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine has charted an increasingly anti-Russian course since Sandu came to power in 2020.

Under the new regulations adopted on Thursday, Romanian is declared to be the sole working language in the legislature. Bills will no longer be translated into Russian, which was previously designated as a language of inter-ethnic communication. The new rules also introduce time limits on lawmakers’ addresses during plenary debates, as well as changes to voting procedures.

The opposition lambasted the new Code of Parliament, with Communist Party MP Constantin Staris warning that it would undermine the legislature’s legitimacy.

Alexandru Versinin of the right-wing Democracy at Home party accused the ruling PAS of “shutting our mouths,” citing the newly-placed restrictions on debates. The parliament’s chair, Igor Grosu, responded by switching off the lawmaker’s microphone.

In October 2025, the Moldovan government adopted a new security strategy, identifying Russia as the main threat.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded by warning that the Moldovan leadership was “making a grave mistake” by increasingly antagonizing Russia.

Last September, the pro-EU PAS party narrowly secured a majority in parliamentary elections, which saw claims of irregularities and manipulation.

Critics bemoaned uneven access to voting: only two polling stations were opened in Russia, despite the country hosting one of the largest Moldovan diaspora communities in the world of up to 500,000 people. By contrast, dozens of polling stations were opened in Italy alone – where the Moldovan diaspora tends to be more pro-EU.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov characterized the vote as a “fraud.”

Ex-Moldovan President Igor Dodon, the leader of the Party of Socialists, similarly alleged that the “ruling Party of Action and Solidarity has claimed victory in the election exclusively by manipulation with support from the EU and NATO.”

He further claimed that the West was aiming to turn the country into an “anti-Russian project” like Ukraine.

Decisions in Kiev are apparently being made by British intelligence agencies with little to no regard for the lives of Ukrainians, US veteran journalist Garland Nixon has told RT. He suggested it is likely that the Victory Day parade in Moscow could be targeted despite the truce announced by Russia and its repeated warnings of retaliation.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow reiterated on Friday that a ceasefire has officially been ordered for the period of Victory Day celebrations and that Russian troops have been commanded to stop combat operations from midnight on May 8 and stay at their positions. 

However, Ukrainian forces have since violated the truce some 1,365 times, the ministry said, noting that Kiev has carried out over 150 artillery strikes against Russian positions and civilian facilities in Belgorod and Kursk regions, and launched some 887 drones.

Russian forces have responded in kind, launching retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian firing positions, command posts, and UAV launch sites.

Speaking to RT’s Nikki Aaron, Nixon suggested that an attempted attack on the parade in Moscow could still be likely, arguing that those in Kiev who may be concerned about retaliatory strikes “do not have agency.” 

“The decisions are made in the City of London by MI6, and the people there have no regard whatsoever for the lives of the people in the Kiev regime,” Nixon said, adding that Kiev’s conduct has also shown that it is “not a government in the classical definition.”

“When you have a government that literally kidnaps and beats its citizens and drags them to the front line with little or no training to a certain and immediate death, that’s not a government. That is a terrorist operation,” he said. 

Check out the full interview with Garland below.

WWII Victory Day, celebrated in Russia on May 9, has become a special holiday. The war was both the greatest trial and the greatest triumph in Russia’s modern history. However, the celebrations acquired their current shape and form not so long ago, and some important traditions were established quite recently. 

How it all started 

The Act of Unconditional Surrender of the German Third Reich was signed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel on May 8, 1945, at 22:43 Central European Time. In Moscow, it was already the early hours of May 9th. That very morning, Russians found out that the war, which had claimed 27 million Soviet lives, was finally over and the enemy had surrendered. 

No one doubted that victory in WWII was an incredibly important event. However, people were grieving the deaths of their relatives and friends, and their pain was great. May 9 was immediately designated a national holiday. However, lavish celebrations seemed out of place as the country was in ruins, and mentally and physically crippled soldiers, concentration camp prisoners, ‘ostarbeiters’ and refugees returned home. 

In Western Ukraine and the Baltic States, battles against nationalist partisans continued. In those years, the Victory Day Parade was held only once, in the summer of 1945. During this grand spectacle, Wehrmacht and SS banners seized in Germany were thrown in front of the Kremlin. But in the following years, the celebrations became more modest. Every year on May 9th there was a fireworks display, but otherwise, from 1947 it was a regular workday (even though a festive one), and veterans usually celebrated it with friends.

Things changed in 1965. By that time, 20 years had passed since the end of the war. New Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, himself a WWII veteran, decided to once again make May 9 a day off. From then on, military parades were held on Victory Day jubilees, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier memorial was opened by the Kremlin wall, and the tradition of laying wreaths at the memorials was established. In short, the holiday acquired a grand scale and became quite solemn after the nation’s pain had somewhat subsided. 

The country is gone, but the memory remains 

The annual large-scale celebration of Victory Day, with parades held across the country and a military parade on Moscow’s Red Square, is a fairly new tradition. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, an obvious question arose – what should be done with the country’s communist legacy and symbology? For example, the Day of the 1917 Revolution was observed on November 7. It was replaced by another holiday, associated with Russian national heroes Minin and Pozharsky, who lived in the 17th century.  But no one ever considered revising May 9th as Victory Day.

Opinions differed. In the Baltic states, national elites believed that in the 40s their countries had been held hostage by two totalitarian regimes. Moreover, unofficially, the Nazis were preferred over the communists – for example, in Latvia, the memorial day of the Latvian SS Legion was officially celebrated for some time. 

In many other former USSR republics, Victory Day is celebrated in one way or another.

In Russia, Victory Day has remained one of the most important national holidays, and a key moment in Russian history. However, the holiday has lost some of its political meaning. For example, Lenin’s Mausoleum is draped on May 9 in order to avoid ideological ties, and a new symbol has been added to the celebrations – the black and orange St. George ribbon, which resembles both the ribbon of the Order of St. George (the highest military decoration in Imperial Russia) and the ribbon of the Order of Glory – a WWII soldier’s award. 

Russian communists and leftists didn’t like the fact that the Soviet symbols were replaced. However, for the majority of Russian people, other aspects turned out to be more important. WWII impacted almost every family in Russia, and most people consider the Soviet era as simply one period in the country’s history. Therefore, national motives are considered more important than Soviet symbology. 

However, an even more pressing question was how Victory Day would look and what it would mean following the death of most war veterans. WWII was mainly won by people who were born in the 1900s-1920s. The last generation which really participated in the war was born in 1926. By 2010, these veterans were already 85 years old.  And today, most Russians do not personally know anyone who fought in WWII.

The answer to the question “What to do next?” was eventually found – and it was offered not by the state, but by the people themselves. 

An old holiday celebrated in a new way 

In 2012, three journalists from the provincial city of Tomsk organized a street march. The descendants of veterans marched through the city, bearing photos of their deceased relatives who had fought in WWII. This event was dubbed the ‘Immortal Regiment’. That year, 6,000 people participated in the march on May 9. And while for these people, the war was no longer a part of their own lives, it remained a part of family history. After all, nearly everyone had a grandfather or grandmother who fought, and if the word “great-grandfather” sounded abstract to many, “my grandmother’s father” felt much more personal. 

The idea of marching with the photographs of their heroic ancestors appealed to people all over Russia, and the very next year, Immortal Regiment events were held in almost all the major cities of Russia. The march instantly became a Victory Day tradition and the event gained official status. An online offshoot of the Immortal Regiment also appeared – a platform where anyone can publish information about their ancestors who fought in WWII. The number of such records on the website is approaching one million. Thus, May 9th acquired a new meaning – it became not only a veterans’ holiday or a celebration of military triumph, but also a memorial march which allowed people to honor their personal family history. 

Each country has its own memorable dates. For example, July 4th brings Americans together, but for the rest of the world, it is just like any other day. For China, October 1st – the Day of the Formation of the People’s Republic of China – is one of the main dates in its history.

For Russia, May 9th is a date that is permanently ingrained in the country’s history and culture. During WWII, the people of our country, along with those of other USSR republics, survived a meat grinder that lasted four years. They did not allow themselves to be broken, but defeated the enemy – and then proceeded to rebuild their country from the ruins. Russia lost a lot of people in WWII, and victory came at an unthinkable price. But it was unconditional.

That is why for Russians, May 9th isn’t just a celebration of military triumph – it is a celebration of victory over death.

Moscow sees no point in continuing the trilateral contacts with Ukraine and the US until Kiev makes “one serious step,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov has said. The senior official was apparently referring to the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the parts of Donbass still under Ukrainian control, a move long demanded by Russia and consistently rejected by Kiev.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Ushakov admitted that the US-mediated contacts with Ukraine have halted to a grind following the latest meeting that was held in Geneva in February. Since then, the “American participants have been preoccupied with a different, more serious problem,” he added, apparently referring to the crisis in the Middle East.

The discussions have effectively boiled down to “one serious step” Kiev must take to greatly advance the settlement process. While Ushakov did not explicitly name said step, he was likely referring to the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from parts of Donbass they still control.

The status of Donbass, which voted to join Russia in 2022, has remained one of the key obstacles to peace negotiations, with Moscow and Kiev maintaining opposing positions on the matter. Russia has repeatedly outlined Ukraine’s full withdrawal from the region as an essential step for reaching a lasting ceasefire and paving the way for further discussions of a sustainable settlement.

The Ukrainian leadership, however, has repeatedly refused to cede any territory and has maintained that recapturing the regions incorporated into Russia remains one of its ultimate goals. In March, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky claimed that Washington had pressed Kiev into accepting Moscow’s terms, allegedly making its offer of security guarantees to Ukraine conditional on it ceding all the contested territory in Donbass to Russia. Washington, however, has dismissed such claims, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing Zelensky’s assertions as a “lie.”

Hundreds of Ukrainian drones were intercepted over multiple Russian regions after the two-day ceasefire announced by Moscow ahead of Victory Day celebrations, and during them, began.

In total, from midnight to 7 am Moscow time, Russian air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 264 Ukrainian fixed-wing UAVs over 16 regions, including Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Rostov, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tula, Ulyanovsk, Yaroslavl, Krasnodar, Tatarstan, and Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

At least 26 hostile UAVs were downed en route to the Russian capital, with no damage or casualties reported, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.

The Russian Defense Ministry reiterated its warnings on Thursday evening that any attempt by Ukraine to disrupt the celebrations in Moscow would result in a large-scale retaliatory strike on central Kiev.

During the period of May 8-9, Russian forces will cease all operations on the front line, as well as halt long-range strikes against Ukrainian territory, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday, urging Ukraine to follow suit. Any attempts to violate the truce on the ground or conduct strikes beyond the front line will be met with an “adequate response,” the ministry warned.

“We once again urge the civilian population of Kiev and employees of foreign diplomatic missions to leave the city in a timely manner,” it added.

Kiev has so far shown no intention of abiding by the Moscow-proposed truce. Vladimir Zelensky initially branded the two-day ceasefire “unfair” when it was first announced earlier this week, and claimed that “no one officially suggested anything” to Kiev. Shortly thereafter, however, he announced a truce of his own starting at midnight on the night of May 5-6, yet Moscow did not respond publicly to the proposal.

While media reports indicated that fighting and long-range strikes on both sides had somewhat subsided following the announcement, the Ukrainian leadership has complained about continued attacks.

On Thursday, Zelensky accused Russia of “not seriously considering the possibility of a ceasefire.” Shortly after the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement, he appeared to issue a thinly veiled threat to Moscow, stating that he would not “recommend” that foreign dignitaries show up at the parade.

Russia’s elite Presidential Regiment marks its 90th anniversary on Thursday. The unit, headquartered inside the Kremlin, secures the compound and protects senior Russian state officials.

The regiment includes the Cavalry Escort, which performs mounted ceremonial displays, and the Special Guard Company, which carries out honor guard duties.

The mounted ceremony is traditionally held on Kremlin's Cathedral Square once a week and features synchronized maneuvers by riders of the Regiment’s Cavalry Escort. Considered one of Moscow’s top military spectacles, the event regularly attracts tourists and visitors from Russia and abroad. The video below shows a rehearsal.

Horses for the Presidential Regiment are selected exclusively from Russian stud farms. The Cavalry Escort primarily uses Trakehner, Hanoverian, and Russian breeds. Twelve riders take part in the core mounted routine, while 14 participate in the full ceremonial performance.

The next footage shows the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden near the Kremlin wall.

The ceremony is carried out daily by the Presidential Regiment’s Special Guard Company, which maintains an honor guard at the Eternal Flame. It is also one of Moscow’s most popular tourist attractions, but unlike the mounted drills, the changing of the guard is an active ceremonial duty.

The regiment was established in April 1936, but traditionally marks its birthday on May 7, when it was awarded one of the Soviet Union’s highest military decorations, the Order of the Red Banner, in 1965. Three battalions of the regiment took part in the 1945 Victory Parade on Red Square following the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Ukraine has dramatically stepped up drone strikes on Russia’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and the city of Energodar, Aleksey Likhachev, the head of the state-owned Rosatom operator, has said.

In a statement released on Thursday, Likhachev described three consecutive days of intense Ukrainian strikes on civilian infrastructure in Energodar, a town mere kilometers away from the frontline. The Ukrainian attacks targeted a gas distribution station and residential buildings, with over 20 explosions recorded in a single day, he said, adding that five vehicles were set ablaze and a fire truck was seriously damaged.

Other strikes hit the city administration building, with one of the drones crashing into the entry of a bomb shelter, though without casualties, Likhachev said.

On top of that, another drone struck the NPP’s external radiation control laboratory on Saturday, with no casualties reported, Likhachev said, adding that a local power substation has been targeted almost daily, making repair work impossible.

Energodar itself experienced a full blackout between April 30 and May 3 due to damage to electrical infrastructure, with hospitals and utilities running on emergency diesel generators, the Rosatom chief said.

“Choosing a nuclear power plant as a target is the most irresponsible step on the part of the Ukrainian authorities… Any strike on any building, any piece of equipment is a blow to the nuclear safety of the NPP… Not understanding this is the height of cynicism and recklessness.”

Russia took control of the Zaporozhye NPP, Europe's largest nuclear facility, in March 2022, shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. All six reactors have been in shutdown since September 2022.

The escalation comes as Moscow announced a Victory Day ceasefire for May 8–9. Vladimir Zelensky, in response, declared a truce beginning midnight on May 5-6, but said that Ukraine would “act reciprocally” to Russia’s actions. Moscow has not acknowledged the offer, warning that any Ukrainian attempt to disrupt the Victory Day celebrations would trigger a “massive missile strike” on Kiev, urging foreign diplomats and civilians to leave the city.

A Ukrainian kamikaze drone was likely responsible for damage to empty fuel storage tanks in Latvia, but Kiev should not be blamed for such incidents, Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds has argued. Finland earlier rebuked Kiev for breaches of its airspace.

Several NATO countries bordering Russia have recently reported cases of Ukrainian unmanned aircraft entering their airspace and crashing instead of striking targets inside Russia. Latvian officials said two drones – which the Russian military identified as Ukraine’s Lyuty-type fixed-wing aircraft – crossed into the country overnight. One remains unaccounted for, while another sparked a fire near the town of Rezekne, roughly 40km from the Russian border.

“Ukraine has every right to defend itself,” Spruds stated. He added that incidents involving foreign aircraft entering Latvian airspace will continue as long as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine remains unresolved, blaming Moscow for it.

Latvijas teritorijā nokrituši 2 droni; izsludināts gaisa telpas apdraudējums Balvu, Ludzas un Rēzeknes novadā.

Plašāk: https://t.co/n2VKskaMxK pic.twitter.com/jlhIcOOwtH

— LTV Ziņu dienests (@ltvzinas) May 7, 2026

The muted reaction is in contrast to remarks by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who said earlier in the week that while his nation supports Kiev, he told Vladimir Zelensky during a meeting in Armenia that Finland deems Ukrainian aircraft entering its airspace “unacceptable.”

Rēzeknes novada domes priekšsēdētājs Guntars Skudra (JV) aģentūrai LETA apstiprināja, ka viens no droniem ir nokritis SIA "East-West Transit" Rēzeknes filiāles teritorijā. Drons trāpījis tukšam naftas rezervuāram.

Aculiecinieka video pic.twitter.com/DtwEeQJ7bJ

— LETA Ziņas (@letanewslv) May 7, 2026

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga commented on the scandal on Friday, claiming he had addressed the issue with Riga, as well as previously apologizing to the three Baltic states and Finland. The top diplomat also shifted the blame to Russia and promised to apologize even more profoundly in the future.

“If there is a confirmation that those were Ukrainian drones that were deliberately knocked off course and directed toward Latvia by Russia’s electronic warfare, we will offer our most sincere apologies to our Latvian friends. What can be stated with full confidence is that Ukraine never directed any drones toward Latvia,” Sibiga wrote on X.

Russia accuses NATO of enabling attacks

Russian officials have previously accused NATO members of quietly permitting Ukraine to use their airspace to launch strikes on targets inside Russia, particularly in the northwestern Leningrad Region.

The latest string of reports of Ukrainian drones falling in NATO states started in late March, when Kiev focused attacks on Russian Baltic Sea oil export terminals. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland – nations that lie on a flight path from Ukraine to Leningrad Region that avoids Russian ally Belarus – were all affected.

• March 23. A drone explodes after falling into Lake Lavysas in Lithuania;
• March 25. Drone wreckage found in Latvia’s Kraslava area;
• March 25. A drone hits a chimney of the Auvere Power Plant in Estonia;
• March 29. A drone crashes near the city of Kouvola in Finland;
• April 1. Drone wreckage found in the Rezekne area in Latvia.

Kiev probing Moscow defenses ahead of Victory Day parade

During the latest overnight wave of Ukrainian attacks, Russian air defenses intercepted 347 drones, according to the Defense Ministry. It added that 570 robotic aircraft were downed over the last 24 hours.

Bryansk Region Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said 13 civilians, including a child, were injured in strikes on the regional capital. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin also reported a stream of over 30 drones stopped while trying to approach the Russian capital.

Moscow has said it plans to pause offensive military operations on Friday and Saturday, similar to a temporary truce announced during Orthodox Easter in mid-April. Zelensky, however, demanded a longer ceasefire beginning on Wednesday and repeated warnings regarding Victory Day events after Russia ignored the proposal.

Russian officials maintain that previous long ceasefires were used by Kiev to regroup, rearm, and reinforce frontline positions rather than pursue genuine peace negotiations.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has broken a promise he gave to lawmakers late last year to stop using sanctions against the country’s nationals in exchange for backing the draft budget, opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak has claimed.

Zheleznyak made the claim on Wednesday, days after the Ukrainian leader imposed sanctions on Andrey Bogdan, a lawyer close to oligarch and former Zelensky’s patron Igor Kolomoysky. Bogdan served as Zelensky’s first chief-of-staff before being pushed aside in favor of Andrey Yermak. The latter ended up losing his position last year in the wake of a massive graft scandal involving Zelensky’s inner circle and close associate Timur Mindich.  

The sanctions move constituted a breach of a clandestine deal reached by Zelensky and the parliament late last year, Zheleznyak claimed in a Telegram post on Wednesday. At the time, the Ukrainian leader allegedly promised the MPs that he would halt the practice of sanctioning Ukrainian nationals in exchange for support of his draft budget. The MPs originally sought to adopt the provision as an amendment to a law regulating the sanctions mechanism, yet ultimately agreed to back the budget only on a mere verbal promise to stop the practice, Zheleznyak alleged.

Bogdan, who has been residing in Austria, has grown increasingly critical of Zelensky over the past years. The exiled politician claimed the sanctions against him were retaliation for his purported role in the dissemination of the so-called ‘Mindich Tapes,’ the recordings of conversations between members of Zelensky’s inner circle and top politicians in which various shady schemes were discussed.

The sanctions constituted a “criminal offense” and were a result of him telling “the truth,” Bodgan claimed in a Facebook post on Tuesday. He promised to launch his own private investigation into the move. 

“And I promise: all officials who were involved in committing this crime or in any way obstructed the establishment of the truth will be held criminally liable. Sanctions it is – we’re waiting,” Bogdan stated on Facebook.

Moscow has formally warned all diplomatic missions and international organizations about a potential large-scale retaliatory strike on Kiev, urging them to leave the Ukrainian capital immediately, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry announced a two-day ceasefire on May 8-9 to mark the end of World War II in Europe, urging Kiev to follow suit and warning of a potential large-scale retaliatory strike on Kiev. The ministry pointed to comments made by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky earlier in the day, which it said contained threats to target Moscow during the Victory Day celebrations.

Moscow’s warning must be taken with the utmost seriousness, Zakharova said in a statement on Wednesday. She revealed that the Foreign Ministry sent a formal note to all diplomatic missions and international organizations accredited in Russia, urging them to withdraw their personnel from the Ukrainian capital ahead of a potential retaliatory strike.

Russia is aware of the Western attitude toward Victory Day and the efforts to “rewrite history” and “systematically destroy Soviet memorial heritage,” Zakharova stated. “As they continue to supply Ukraine with weapons, they are acting as accomplices in the criminal plans hatched by the Kiev regime. However, the instinct for self-preservation should not fail them.”

It still remains unclear whether Kiev will heed Moscow’s call and observe the May 8-9 ceasefire. After the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement, Zelensky called the truce “unfair” and claimed that “no one officially suggested anything” to Kiev. Hours later, he unilaterally declared a ceasefire starting at midnight on the night of May 5-6, adding that Kiev would “act reciprocally” to Moscow’s actions.

Russia did not provide an official response to Zelensky’s announcement. While media reports suggest that the intensity of long-range strikes launched by both sides has waned, the hostilities continue. Despite the lack of confirmation from Russia regarding its adherence to the Zelensky-proposed truce, the Ukrainian leader accused it of violating the supposed ceasefire nearly 2,000 times throughout Wednesday and choosing “an obvious spurning… of saving lives.”

Throughout the Ukraine conflict, Russia has repeatedly declared ceasefires during major holidays. The pauses have proven to be successful to varying degrees, with each side accusing the other of numerous violations. Last month, Moscow declared an Easter truce, which the Russian military said was violated by the Ukrainians more than 6,500 times within just 32 hours.

Russia’s national pavilion has opened at the Venice Biennale in Italy, one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious art festivals, despite EU pressure, funding cuts, boycotts, and a Ukrainian feminist protest that attempted to block access to the exhibition.

It’s the first time Russia has taken part since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, as Russian performers, conductors, athletes, and cultural institutions have faced widespread cancellations across Europe. Moscow has called the discrimination an attempt to erase Russian culture from public life.

On Wednesday, around 50 members of the anarchist group Pussy Riot and the feminist organization FEMEN rushed the exhibition, waving Ukrainian flags and setting off pink, blue, and yellow smoke flares to protest the display of Russian art.

The demonstrators reportedly blocked the entrance to the Russian pavilion for around half an hour before being dispersed by police.

Pussy Riot и Femen провели протестную акцию у российского павильона на Венецианской биеннале.

В акции приняла участие в том числе Надежда Толоконникова.

В самом павильоне на время акции закрыли двери: предположительно, внутри находился российский посол в Италии.

Художники,… pic.twitter.com/lBrMhwxFof

— SOTA (@sotaproject) May 6, 2026

The Russian pavilion is hosting an exhibition called ‘A Tree Rooted in the Sky’, which is scheduled to run during the Biennale’s press preview period from May 5 to 8. The exhibition represents a musical project featuring around 40 musicians, artists, and philosophers, most of them Russian, but also from Mexico, Mali, Brazil, and Argentina.

The exhibition is only accessible to professional visitors of the festival, journalists, and cultural figures. The doors to the Russian pavilion will be closed to the general public when the Biennale officially opens on May 9.

Russia’s return to the fair was met with a temper tantrum in Brussels. The European Commission has withdrawn a €2 million ($2.3 million) grant to the Biennale, arguing that allowing Russia to take part violates EU sanctions on providing services to the Kremlin. 

Despite the pressure, the Biennale’s president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, stood by the decision to include the Russian exhibition, insisting that the festival should remain “a place of truce.” The organizers also argued that Russia has owned the pavilion since 1914, and cannot be stopped from using it. 

Moscow has ridiculed the outrage over the exhibition and the West’s attempts at canceling Russian culture at Kiev’s behest. Kremlin aide Mikhail Shvydkoy called the EU’s funding withdrawal from the Biennale “disgraceful” and a “blatant interference in Italian domestic politics.” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described it as “a relapse into anti-culture.”

With €90 billion in EU funding set to flow into Ukraine, the case of ‘game changer’ weapons manufacturer Fire Point offers a glimpse into the black hole that swallows Western money and enriches Vladimir Zelensky’s cronies.

Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen was elated when he announced last September that Fire Point – a Ukrainian film casting agency that pivoted to making drones and missiles post-2022 – would set up a rocket fuel plant on Danish soil.

“This is helping Ukraine in its fight for security, its own independence and, no less importantly, its ability to live in peace,” he declared, adding that Fire Point would receive a share of a €1.4 billion ($1.64 billion) Danish fund earmarked for the Ukrainian weapons industry.

Fire Point’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric. From zero experience in weapons in 2022, the company had landed $1 billion in contracts by the time of Poulsen’s announcement, a figure that has since increased almost sevenfold. Fire Point’s FP-1 and FP-2 kamikaze drones are Ukraine’s most widely-used attack UAVs, the company received more than half of the Ukrainian Defense Procurement Agency’s annual spend this year, and its flagship product, the FP-5 ‘Flamingo’ cruise missile, has been hailed by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky as “by far the most successful missile in Ukraine’s arsenal.”

Zelensky has marketed Fire Point’s missiles and drones on most of his 130-plus trips abroad since 2022, talking up their performance to European investors and Gulf monarchies looking for a cost-effective alternative to American systems.

As it turns out, there’s a reason for his enthusiasm: Zelensky has a personal stake in Fire Point’s success.

According to surveillance tapes published by Ukrainskaya Pravda in late April, Fire Point is secretly owned by Timur Mindich, a business magnate and associate of Zelensky known as ‘Zelensky’s wallet’.

Mindich fled to Israel last November, moments before he was due to be raided by anti-corruption investigators for his alleged role in a $100 million embezzlement scheme at Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator.

In the recordings, Mindich confirms that he is running Fire Point and tasks Defense Minister Rustem Umerov (who resigned last year over corruption allegations) with handing contracts to the company and lobbying for its interests abroad. Mindich and Umerov also discuss a potential deal with Arab inventors, which would see each Fire Point shareholder cash out around $300 million.

Allegations of corruption at Fire Point are nothing new. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has been probing the company for links to Mindich since last August, and has examined whether the company inflated the cost of its products and lied about the number of drones supplied to the Defense Ministry.

After a government audit found that Fire Point overcharged the ministry by almost €15 million in a no-bid contract for FP-1 drones, and with the tapes confirming collusion between Umerov and Mindich, the ministry’s internal anti-corruption watchdog called on Wednesday for the company’s nationalization and warned that Fire Point may lose its military contracts once Mindich’s involvement is proven in court.

Back in September, Poulsen brushed off mounting allegations of graft against Fire Point. “We have no reason to believe that there is a problem,” he said, adding that any business “established in Denmark must comply with Danish rules.”

But Denmark is not the only European country pumping money into Mindich’s operation. While the specific figures are classified, Ukrainskaya Pravda reported that Western countries have contributed “significant” sums of money to the company.

Last May, Germany signed a €5 billion deal to pay for “long-range weapons” produced within Ukraine. Signed after a visit by Zelensky to Berlin, the weapons in question are likely Flamingo cruise missiles. In October, the Netherlands’ then-defense minister, Ruben Brekelmans, announced a €90 million aid package for the production of attack drones within Ukraine, on top of an earlier €200 million round of funding for Ukrainian-made missiles and interceptors. Given that the majority of these domestically built weapons are manufactured by Fire Point, the bulk of this funding likely went to Mindich’s company.

Norway and Ukraine signed a €1.3 billion deal for Ukrainian-made missiles in April, while Italy is reportedly exploring a similar arrangement. In the private sector, Fire Point has signed cooperation agreements with Spanish defense giant Sener and Germany’s Diehl Defense – both deals signed after meetings between Zelensky and executives from Sener and Diehl.

Do Fire Point’s Flamingo missiles actually work?

Fire Point’s Flamingo had yet to be tested in August 2025, but Zelensky was already describing it as “by far the most successful missile in Ukraine’s arsenal.” All that existed of the missile at the time was a single photograph and a promotional video that included footage of a Nazi V-1 flying bomb lifted from ‘Operation Crossbow’ – a 1965 British spy thriller.

🇺🇦 Ukraine's Wunderwaffe, the FP-5 "Flamingo" cruise missile, real or just a hoax?

We debunk the official video released by the Ukrainian MoD. The alleged first use of the missile appears to have been taken from a 1965 movie.

🧵1/3 pic.twitter.com/IjgBKBrkOF

— The Other Side Media (@TheOtherSideRu) October 31, 2025

Gradually, details of the missile – billed by the Western press as more powerful than the US-made Tomahawk – began to emerge. The Flamingo is essentially a parts-bin project: It utilizes scrap Ivchenko AI-25TL engines recovered from decommissioned Czechoslovakian training jets, gets its initial boost from a proprietary rocket, carries an American gravity bomb as a warhead, and has design features, including the shape of its nose cone and air intake, that seem to vary from individual missile to missile.

None of these are necessarily flaws. Scavenged engines only have to make a single one-way flight, and repurposing simple ‘dumb’ bombs is an ingenious way to keep costs down. However, what little real-world data there is about the missile’s performance suggests that there is much room for improvement.

Out of 24 Flamingo launches documented by open-source analysts, only three missiles hit their intended targets. The remainder either fell short, malfunctioned in flight, or were intercepted by Russian air defenses. Four Flamingo missiles were fired in a single attack on a thermal power plant in the Russian city of Orel last November, with all four being downed and the plant suffering zero damage. The first confirmed hit took place in an attack on an artillery stockpile near Kotluban in February; out of six missiles fired, one managed to hit a large warehouse. Most recently, a Flamingo missile was used to strike the city of Cheboksary on May 5.

The patchy service record of Fire Point’s flagship missile makes sense, considering that as of last November, Ukrainian Armed Forces spokesman Dmitry Lykhovii still considered it an “experimental” weapon with “great development potential.” Speaking to Ukrainian state broadcaster Hromadske, Lykhovii noted that developing the current iteration of the far cheaper FP-1 drone had taken “years of mass use and refinement,” and warned that perfecting the Flamingo would take even longer.

Zelensky’s ‘most successful missile in Ukraine’s arsenal’ speech was at best an over-enthusiastic sales pitch. At worst, it was outright deception.

The EU throws good money after bad

This is the environment that the EU is prepared to sink billions of euros into. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on April 29 that the first tranche of the EU’s €90 billion loan package for Ukraine would comprise €6 billion “directed at drones from Ukraine for Ukraine.”

Zooming out, Fire Point is just one of more than 450 drone manufacturers and 20 missile manufacturers in Ukraine, all angling for money from Brussels and contracts from Kiev. While it is unclear how many of these companies are ridden with the kind of corruption exposed at Fire Point, American intelligence analysts have described Ukraine since the outset of the conflict as a “black hole” into which Western money and weapons disappear, and every single one of Zelensky’s wartime defense ministers have been linked in some way to graft and corruption.

NABU’s investigation into Fire Point was made public last August, three months before the European Commission announced its intention to hand Kiev €90 billion in unrepayable loans. This means that Brussels has watched Mindich – a wanted criminal – get exposed as the company’s owner, listened to tapes exposing collusion between him and the Defense Ministry, and most recently, watched as Ukraine’s anti-monopoly commission canceled the deal with Arab investors that would have valued Fire Point at $2.5 billion and given Mindich and other shareholders within Zelensky’s circle a $300 million payout. Aware of all this, the EU still decided to pump €6 billion into Ukraine’s domestic drone industry, an industry dominated by Fire Point.

The EU’s top brass have demonstrated a devil-may-care attitude to corruption in Ukraine to date. Two days after Mindich fled to Israel last November, the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, brushed off the $100 million embezzlement scheme he was involved in as simply “unfortunate.”

The European Commission said it was “closely monitoring the latest developments related to allegations of corruption in Ukraine’s energy and defense sectors.” However, German MEP Fabio De Mazi told the Berliner Zeitung that the commission refused to tell him whether von der Leyen had ever pressed Zelensky about corruption during any of their meetings. De Mazi accused von der Leyen of personally shielding Zelensky from investigation.

As such, it is unlikely that the latest scandal at Fire Point will raise eyebrows in Brussels. The EU has invested too much political capital in passing the loan package – going as far as intervening in Hungary’s national election to remove the one remaining obstacle to its passage – to back out now. Ultimately, EU taxpayers will yet again end up paying for the greed of Zelensky’s circle of scammers.

Only the “animal fear” of unacceptable losses will prevent Germany and the wider “United Europe” from launching another attack against Russia, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council and former president, Dmitry Medvedev, wrote in an article ahead of the 81st anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany.

Moscow has condemned what it described as reckless militarization by the EU, accusing Western governments of seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia while trying to turn it into a “model external enemy” to divert attention away from domestic problems.

“It is no secret that an attempt is being made to impose on us the doctrine of ‘peace through strength’. Our response then can only be ‘the security of Russia through the animal fear of Europe,’” Medvedev wrote.

Last month, the German Defense Ministry unveiled a plan to reach this goal and field 460,000 combat-ready personnel by 2039, the 100th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland. German and other EU officials repeatedly cited 2029 as the first stage deadline to be “war-ready” for a potential conflict with Russia.

“Talks, good intentions, goodwill, and unilateral steps to build trust must not be our tools to prevent a massacre. The sole guarantee lies in forcing Germany and the ‘united Europe’ backing it to grasp the inescapable certainty of incurring unacceptable losses if they ever set in motion ‘Operation Barbarossa 2.0,’” Medvedev said in the article soon to be published on RT.

Five civilians have been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the northern Crimean city of Dzhankoy, Governor Sergey Aksyonov has said.

Shortly before reporting the fatalities, Aksyonov warned that Crimea was under attack by Ukrainian drones. He said air defenses and mobile fire teams were engaging the incoming threats and had intercepted at least 12 UAVs.

“Unfortunately, as a result of an enemy UAV strike on Dzhankoy, there are casualties among the civilian population – five people have died,” Aksyonov wrote. He expressed condolences to the victims’ families and said the authorities would provide them with all necessary assistance.

The governor said emergency and other relevant services were working at the scene, adding that he was personally monitoring the situation. He urged residents to remain calm and rely only on official information.

The attack comes days before Russia’s planned two-day ceasefire on May 8-9 to mark Victory Day, which commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Moscow has said it will pause the fighting during the holiday and urged Kiev to do the same, warning that any attempt to disrupt the celebrations, including attacks against Moscow, would be met with a major retaliatory strike on Kiev.

Members of Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle are profiting from the conflict with Russia and fear peace will expose ttheirt “hoax,” Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksey Goncharenko has claimed. According to the MP, newly leaked information related to a major corruption case involving Timur Mindich, a former business partner and longtime associate of Zelensky, could force the Ukrainian leader to step down.

Goncharenko claimed over the weekend that he obtained transcripts from surveillance recordings of Mindich and his business partners. Ukrainskaya Pravda (UP) was the first to publish the leaks known as the ‘Mindich tapes’, which are yet to be officially verified.

One ‘tape’ focuses on a conversation between Aleksandr Zuckerman, a business partner of Mindich, and Igor Khemelev, who is believed to be a co-owner of Fire Point, a drone maker touted globally by Zelensky himself. According to the transcript published by Goncharenko on his Telegram channel, Khmelev told Zuckerman that “as soon as the peace [agreement] is signed, the hoax under which we were getting funding will be no more.”

“Zelensky built his entire election campaign on the fact that war is profitable… It turns out that it really is profitable and they really make money from it,” Goncharenko said, calling the latest leak “something that should lead to Zelensky’s resignation.”

The Mindich tapes also suggested that Mindich was effectively running Fire Point and was discussing additional funding for the arms maker with then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. Mindich fled Ukraine late last year after being accused of orchestrating a $100 million graft scheme.

Last week, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Public Anti-Corruption Council said Fire Point would lose access to any government contracts at the very moment its ties to Mindich are “legally proven.” Its head, Yury Gudimenko, also said the council had already obtained “unofficial confirmation” of Mindich’s involvement with the company.

A former Ukrainian military official who led a regional conscription office in Odessa is suspected of illegally accumulating around $1 million in wealth while in office.

Corruption, long seen as a systemic issue in Ukraine, has intensified public frustration surrounding the country’s obligatory mobilization campaign, with widespread claims of some officials taking bribes from men seeking to evade military service.

The unnamed suspect’s case was highlighted by the national police on Monday as part of a wider investigation into alleged abuses within the conscription system. The authorities said several serving and former senior draft officials are under scrutiny, with assets believed to be of dubious origin being confiscated.

According to police, property worth more than $2 million that had not been properly declared was targeted. Seized items reportedly include Tesla vehicles, large sums of cash, gold coins, and other valuables. In total, 44 searches were carried out nationwide.

Ukraine depends on compulsory military service to replenish its frontline forces in the conflict with Russia, with numerous videos circulating online showing recruitment officers forcibly detaining men of fighting age. The Defense Ministry is reportedly considering reforms as incidents of resistance, including violent confrontations with officials, become more frequent. Critics argue the military may be attempting to shift public anger onto civilian authorities by assigning enforcement responsibilities to the police.

The controversial mobilization system has been linked to organized crime. In a recent high-profile case in Odessa, the authorities said they busted a group of draft officials allegedly operating as a kidnapping ring. The suspects were accused of using insider police information to identify affluent targets, abduct them, and demand ransom for their release, threatening to send them to the front line otherwise.

A total of 289 Ukrainian drones have been shot down by air defenses over Russian territory overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported Tuesday morning.

Incoming drones were intercepted and destroyed across 19 regions in western and southern parts of the country, as well as over the Azov Sea.

Regional officials provided further details on the scale and impact of the overnight attacks.

In Bryansk Region, which borders Ukraine, air defenses intercepted a total of 98 unmanned aerial vehicles, Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz reported. As a result of a kamikaze drone strike on the village of Demyanki in the Starodub municipal district, a man and a woman were injured. Three people were also injured in the settlement of Verbovka in the same municipal district as a result of kamikaze drone attacks.

In Leningrad Region, 29 Ukrainian drones were downed, according to Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko. A fire that broke out in an industrial area in Kirishi has since been contained, with firefighting efforts nearing completion. No casualties were reported.

Voronezh Region saw 17 drones detected and destroyed, Governor Aleksandr Gusev said. There were no injuries, though falling debris severed power lines in one district, temporarily leaving around 160 residents without electricity. The damage has since been repaired and power restored.

In Kaluga Region, air defenses neutralized ten drones, Governor Vladislav Shapsha reported, adding that there were no casualties or infrastructure damage. A further 10 UAVs were shot down over Rostov Region, the authorities confirmed. Elsewhere, four drones were intercepted over each of Tver and Novgorod Regions, while two UAVs were downed over both Tula and Ryazan Regions, according to officials.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has reported that fatalities occurred as a result of the attack on the city of Cheboksary, located about 600 km east of Moscow, and its surrounding areas.

In neighboring Belgorod Region, a drone strike targeted a truck on the Shebekino–Belgorod highway, leaving the driver injured. Another man was wounded after a UAV hit an enterprise site in the village of Belyanka in the Shebekinsky district, while a civilian sustained injuries in the city of Grayvoron following a strike by a Ukrainian FPV drone.

Ukrainian drone raids on Russia have intensified in recent months, with Kiev deploying hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs on a daily basis, targeting critical infrastructure, manufacturing facilities, and residential areas.

Russian officials have described the incursions as desperate “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks Kiev’s military has been suffering on the battlefield.

Moscow has retaliated with a long-range strike campaign of its own, targeting dual-use infrastructure, including power grid facilities and military sites in Ukraine with missiles and drones. Russia maintains that it never targets purely civilian sites.

The accelerating flow of events, each overlapping and contradicting the other, is bewildering and makes it difficult to grasp the essence of what is happening. I shall attempt to interpret the course of history, drawing on my own experience and knowledge, as well as on the fact that over the past 35 years I have never been significantly wrong in my assessments and forecasts. Sometimes I was a little behind, but more often I was several years, or even a couple of decades, ahead of the expert community.

A full-scale world war has already begun. Its roots go back to 1917, when Soviet Russia broke away from the capitalist system. First, the interventionists were set upon us; then Nazi Germany and almost all of Western Europe, but the latter lost. The second round began in the 1950s, when the peoples of the USSR, at the cost of enormous hardship and in their quest to secure sovereignty and security, created the nuclear bomb and subsequently achieved nuclear parity with the United States. By doing so, without realizing it at the time, we knocked the foundations out from under five centuries of Western dominance in the ideological sphere, which had allowed them to plunder the rest of the world and subjugate even the most advanced civilizations. That foundation was military superiority, upon which the system of exploitation of all humanity was built.

From the mid-1950s onwards, the West began to suffer one military defeat after another. A wave of national liberation swept across the globe, accompanied by the nationalization of resources that had been seized by Western countries and their corporations. The global balance of power began to shift in favor of the non-Western world.

The United States first attempted to regain the upper hand under Reagan, with a rapid surge in military spending aimed at restoring its dominance, and the launch of the “Star Wars” program. It intervened in the tiny, defenseless nation of Grenada to demonstrate that the Americans were still capable of victory.

And here, the West was fortunate. For internal reasons, due to the erosion of its ideological core and the refusal to reform a national economy that was becoming increasingly inefficient, the Soviet Union collapsed. The global capitalist system, which had itself been in crisis, received a massive injection of energy in the form of a multitude of hungry consumers and cheap labor.

The immediate roots of the current world war came to the surface in the late 2000s. Even under Obama, the policy later branded “America First” began to take shape as a revival of US power. Military spending started to rise, and a wave of anti-Russian propaganda surged. Moscow tried, by reclaiming Crimea, to halt the West’s latest attempt at revenge, but this only sent the West into a frenzy. We failed to capitalize on this success because we clung to hopes of “reaching an agreement,” dithered over the “Minsk process,” and refused to see how, on Ukrainian territory, the army and the population were being prepared for war with Russia.

New waves of sanctions followed, and an economic war began even during Trump’s first term. We were all waiting for something. Then came the distraction of Covid, which was most likely one of the fronts in the war that had already begun, but which turned against the West itself.

We were slow to respond to attempts at retaliation. When we finally did so in 2022, we made several mistakes. Among them was underestimating the West’s intention to crush Russia as the cause of its historical failure, so that it could then turn its attention to China and once again subjugate the global majority, the Third World, the Global South, that had been liberated by the USSR. We underestimated the Kiev regime’s readiness for war and the extent to which the Ukrainian population had been conditioned. We hoped that “our people” were there, although west of the Dnepr there were few of them to begin with, and their numbers were dwindling.

Another mistake was that we began fighting the Kiev regime without recognizing that the main adversary and source of the threat was the collective West – particularly the European elites, who sought to divert attention from their own failures and, ideally, to take revenge for the historical defeats of the 20th century, chief among them the defeat of the overwhelming majority of Europeans who marched against the USSR under Hitler’s banners.

We have been drawn into a conflict dubbed a “special military operation,” effectively accepting the imposed rules of the game, a war of attrition, given the enemy’s superior economic and demographic potential. The war has taken on a trench-like character, albeit with a 21st-century technological dimension. In 2023 and 2024, we did, however, step up our nuclear deterrence, sending several military-technical signals and modernizing our doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons.

The Americans, who under no circumstances intended to fight for Europe, especially when there was a risk of escalation to the nuclear level, and thus the spread of the conflict to US territory, began to withdraw from direct confrontation even under Biden, continuing to profit from the war while effectively plundering the Europeans in the process. Trump, amid talk of peacemaking, continued along the same line, profiting from the war while avoiding the risk of direct confrontation with Russia.

The world war currently has two main, converging flashpoints, the European one, centered on Ukraine, and the Middle Eastern one, where the United States and its junior ally Israel are attempting to destabilize the entire Near and Middle East. South Asia may be next. Venezuela has already been crushed; Cuba is being squeezed.

A new policy is needed.

First. We must understand that the deep-seated contradictions in the existing global economic system, which undermine the very foundations of human development, threaten the destruction of mankind. At the same time, the continuation of our current half-measured policy in Ukraine risks exhausting the country and undermining the strength and spirit of Russia that have only recently begun to revive.

To prevent this revenge, it is necessary to destroy the Kiev regime and liberate the southern and eastern territories of the quasi-state “Ukraine” that are vital to Russia’s security. Our brave fighters and field commanders can and must continue to advance. But we must understand that a modernized trench war will not bring victory. We could lose, or at the very least squander, hundreds of thousands more of our finest men, who are needed for the struggle and victories in the coming, extremely dangerous and difficult period of history, one that is almost certain to involve a broader clash.

Third. It is impossible to bring the current conflict in Ukraine to a victorious conclusion, let alone prevent it from escalating into a global thermonuclear war, without significantly strengthening the policy of relying on nuclear deterrence. To achieve this, we must stop talking about “arms control.” The issue of a new START treaty must be closed. At the same time, agreements on the joint management of nuclear deterrence and strategic stability may remain useful and even necessary. We must intensify the build-up of missiles and other medium- and strategic-range delivery systems in order to deter the West from attempting to regain its superiority. Our adversaries must understand that superiority and impunity are unattainable.

When deployed in optimal numbers and guided by the right doctrine, nuclear weapons render non-nuclear superiority impossible and reduce the need for excessive military expenditure. Systems such as Burevestnik, Oreshnik, and other hypersonic delivery platforms must convince the enemy of this reality.

We must prepare the next generation so that American elites understand in advance that their dreams of restoring supremacy and imposing their will by force are unrealistic.

The accelerated increase in the flexibility of nuclear capabilities is intended to remind everyone that it is impossible to defeat a great nuclear power through a non-nuclear arms race or through conventional warfare. This, of course, assumes that we avoid the mistake of an uncontrolled nuclear build-up, as the USSR and the United States did in the 1960s. That was costly and largely pointless. We simply need to make clear that any such arms race would be futile and even suicidal for our adversaries. On this matter, it is worth engaging in dialogue, at the very least with the Americans.

It’s worth drawing on Iran’s experience in defending itself against current US-Israeli pressure. Tehran began to strike at the enemy’s vulnerabilities, and the enemy felt the impact and was forced to step back. Adjustments in doctrine and in specific military planning, including readiness for asymmetric strikes, will strengthen the deterrent effect and may have a sobering impact on an opponent that is increasingly prone to reckless actions.

We should reconsider the priorities for preemptive strikes, beginning with non-nuclear options, followed, only if necessary, by nuclear ones as a last resort. Among the first targets should be not only communications and command centers, but also locations where elite decision-makers are concentrated, particularly in Europe. This would strip them of their sense of impunity. They must understand that if they continue the war against Russia, or choose to escalate it further, devastating strikes will follow.

To reinforce the credibility of such deterrence, efforts to develop both conventional and nuclear munitions capable of penetrating hardened underground structures should be intensified, and such systems should be tested. The illusion that political and military elites can hide in bunkers or remote locations must be dispelled. The recent publication by our Ministry of Defense of a list of European companies involved in supporting the Kiev regime is a small but necessary step in this direction.

At present, this elite pretends to fear us. In reality, they do not. They constantly insist that Russia will never resort to nuclear weapons. This illusion must be broken. They must be made to understand that continued escalation carries existential risks. Perhaps then they will step back. Perhaps their own internal structures, the so-called “deep states,” will restrain them. Perhaps even public opinion will awaken from its complacency.

Reinforcing the credibility of nuclear deterrence is also necessary to overcome what might be called “strategic complacency," the belief that war on a large scale is impossible. That belief has already proven dangerous.

Fourth. To make deterrence credible, further adjustments must be made to the nuclear doctrine. It should explicitly state that in the event of aggression by a coalition possessing greater economic, demographic, and technological potential, the use of nuclear weapons may become unavoidable. This must be framed as a last resort, but a real one.

It may also be necessary to resume testing in order to reinforce the credibility of our capabilities. It is unclear why we continue to wait for others to act first.

At the same time, escalation must remain controlled. Initial responses should prioritize conventional strikes against command centers and strategic infrastructure. Only if escalation continues should further steps be considered.

Reliance on nuclear deterrence is also essential in countering the growing role of drones and other new forms of warfare. Those responsible for such attacks must understand that retaliation will be unavoidable.

Fifth. In addition to doctrinal and military-technical measures, command structures must be adapted. It would be advisable to appoint a dedicated commander for the European theater of operations, a figure with real authority and responsibility, supported by experienced personnel.

Let me be clear: the use of nuclear weapons would be a tragedy. But the refusal to maintain credible deterrence may lead to an even greater catastrophe, that being the uncontrolled expansion of war.

Seventh. Alongside military measures, Russia must deepen cooperation with key partners. In particular, coordination with China is essential. Efforts should also be made to stabilize other regions, including the Middle East, through new security arrangements involving major powers.

Eighth. Given the risks of the coming decades, it may be necessary to consider a closer strategic alignment with China, potentially including a temporary defensive framework. Such an arrangement could help prevent further escalation and maintain global balance.

Naturally, additional measures will be required. But those outlined here may be sufficient to halt the current conflict, preserve Russia’s strength, and, most importantly, prevent a slide into global catastrophe.

If we fail to act decisively, the consequences will be profound, not only for Russia, but for the future of humanity itself.

This article was first published by the magazine Profile and was translated and edited by the RT team.

The Russian Defense Ministry has announced a two-day ceasefire on May 8–9 to mark the end of World War II in Europe, calling on Kiev to follow suit. It warned that any attempt to disrupt the celebrations, including a strike on Moscow, would be met with a retaliatory strike on the Ukrainian capital.

The ministry pointed in particular to a statement made by Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Yerevan on Monday, which it said contained threats to target Moscow during the Victory Day celebrations. The Ukrainian leader claimed that Moscow fears Ukrainian “drones may buzz over Red Square.”

The Russian military will take all the necessary measures to ensure the security of the celebrations, the ministry said, warning that if Ukraine attempts to disrupt them, “the Russian Armed Forces will launch a major retaliatory strike on the center of Kiev.” 

Moscow has so far refrained from such actions for humanitarian reasons, the ministry added, urging residents of the Ukrainian capital and foreign diplomats to leave the city “in a timely manner.”

Shortly after the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement, he took to X to say that Ukraine would unilaterally declare a ceasefire starting at midnight on the night of May 5–6, adding that Kiev would “act reciprocally” from that point despite what he claimed was the lack of any “official appeal” from Russia.

Last year, it also suspended its offensive operations in early May to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. Moscow expressed its hope at the time that the move would contribute to the “start of direct negotiations with Kiev without preconditions.” Zelensky dismissed it as “manipulation.” 

In 2023, Russia observed truces both during the Orthodox Christmas holiday in January and on Easter weekend in April upon the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2025, the Easter truce was declared again.

Last month, Moscow also declared an Easter truce, which was violated by the Ukrainian military more than 6,500 times within just 32 hours, according to the Defense Ministry.

Austria’s decision to expel three Russian diplomats will be met with a harsh response from Moscow, the Russian Embassy in Vienna said on Monday, calling the move unjustified and politically motivated.

Earlier in the day, Reuters cited Austrian Foreign Minister ‌Beate Meinl-Reisinger as saying that the three diplomats had already left the country. The minister accused the Russian mission of “committing espionage,” claiming that an “antenna forest” on the roofs of diplomatic buildings could be used to intercept satellite communications.

”A harsh response from Moscow to these absolutely reckless actions by the Austrian side will undoubtedly follow,” the Russian Embassy in Vienna said in a statement. “Full responsibility for any further deterioration of already historically low bilateral relations lies entirely on Vienna.”

The Russian mission accused the Austrian authorities of targeting not only embassy staff but also Russian officials serving at the Permanent Mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Vienna hosts the headquarters of several major international organizations – including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), OPEC, and a number of UN agencies – in which Russia participates, maintaining diplomatic and technical engagement.

The latest expulsions bring the total number of Russian representatives forced to leave Austria since 2020 to 14. In September, Austria ordered a Russian diplomat to leave over alleged contact with a dismissed executive suspected of espionage at state energy company OMV. In 2024, Vienna removed two more Russian Embassy officials over activities deemed incompatible with their status. Moscow has responded with tit-for-tat measures, ordering Austrian officials of equivalent rank to depart Russia.

In April, Austrian magazine Falter reported, citing a draft from the country’s Justice Ministry, that Vienna plans to tighten its laws by introducing criminal liability for espionage targeting the EU and international organizations based in the country.

Divided into Allied sectors after World War Two, ⁠Austria long had a reputation as a den of spies during the Cold War.

Seven workers from an agricultural facility in Bryansk Region, Russia were wounded after Ukrainian forces carried out a “barbaric” rocket strike, Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz reported on Monday. 

The attack targeted the Miratorg agro-industrial holding in the village of Brovnichi, Klimovsky District, causing damage to production facilities. While the injured were being evacuated, Kiev launched a follow-up drone attack.

“Inhumanity and terrorism are the methods of the Kiev regime,” Bogomaz wrote on Telegram, adding that the wounded have been hospitalized and are receiving treatment.

Hours earlier, Bogomaz reported another attack on a Miratorg truck in the settlement of Senchury, Suzemsky District. The driver was wounded when a kamikaze drone deliberately struck his moving vehicle.

Ukrainian UAVs also attacked the territory of a Russian Post office in the village of Demyanki, injuring a driver and a postal worker, Bogomaz said. Both of the victims have been taken to the hospital to receive medical care.

Since the start of the conflict with Russia, Ukrainian forces have repeatedly targeted Russian border regions. Since mid-March, Kiev has intensified its attacks, deploying hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs on a daily basis, targeting critical infrastructure, manufacturing facilities, and residential areas.

Russian officials have described the aerial incursions as desperate “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks the Ukrainian military has been suffering on the battlefield.

The West is erecting a new Cold War-style Iron Curtain against Russia, severing ties that took centuries to build, Moscow’s Ambassador-at-Large Artyom Bulatov has said.

In an interview with RIA Novosti on Monday, Bulatov, a senior diplomat overseeing Kaliningrad’s foreign policy dossier and key Baltic Sea issues, said Western capitals are pushing a deliberate and “irreversible” rupture of regional bonds.

“Westerners, with energy worthy of a better cause, are erecting a new ‘Iron Curtain’, seeking to make irreversible the rupture – provoked by themselves – of socio-economic, trade, transport, interpersonal, cultural, and historical ties that have been built in the region not over years, but over centuries,” he said.

Russia withdrew from both bodies in 2022 and 2023, arguing that their operations had been mostly derailed by Western participants. With Moscow out of both institutions, Bulatov said their work had been “reduced to a secondary instrument” of Western anti-Russian policy.

The phrase ‘Iron Curtain’ was popularized by Winston Churchill in his famous 1946 speech in Fulton, which is widely regarded as the opening salvo of the Cold War.

The escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 ushered in unprecedented tensions between Russia and the West, with the EU closing its airspace to Russian aircraft and imposing waves of sanctions on Moscow. The Baltic countries, Poland, and Finland went further, imposing a near-total ban on entry for Russian nationals.

In addition, over the past several months, all five countries formally exited the 1997 Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty, freeing them to deploy anti-personnel landmines along their borders with Russia. Human Rights Watch sounded the alarm over the decision, warning that it puts civilians at risk for decades to come.

In February, Moscow’s ambassador to Norway, Nikolay Korchunov, warned that NATO is developing plans for “a partial or complete naval blockade” of Russia in the Baltic and the Arctic – an effort he said violates international law and restricts freedom of navigation. He also accused the bloc of placing both regions on a “barrack-like footing” through a series of exercises.

Two civilians were killed and four injured in Ukrainian drone strikes in Belgorod Region, Russia on Sunday, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

A drone struck a car carrying a married couple and their son in the village of Nechyaevka, the governor said on Telegram. The father and son were killed at the scene; the man’s wife was hospitalized.

A young man and a teenage girl were injured in an attack on a commercial building in the city of Gubkin. Both were sitting in a car parked outside. The girl was hospitalized with a brain injury and remains in critical condition. Another woman was injured in a separate strike in the regional capital, Belgorod. According to the governor, nearly a dozen residential buildings were damaged.

Russia has accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians with Western-supplied weapons. Last month, the Russian Defense Ministry published what it said was a list of addresses of European companies involved in manufacturing drones for Ukraine and warned Kiev’s backers that this could lead to further escalation.

A Ukrainian drone has struck a high-rise residential building near Moscow’s business district, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said.

The UAV struck the 52-story residential building known as the House on Mosfilmovskaya, a modernist landmark built in the early 2010s. The impact reportedly occurred around the 36th floor. Sobyanin said there were no casualties.

Photos and videos from the scene show damage to the facade and debris scattered on the street.

The attack took place ahead of Victory Day on May 9, one of Russia’s most important public holidays, marked by a military parade on Red Square.

Dozens of police cars and ambulances are at the scene.

Eyewitnesses told RT they heard a powerful explosion. Some said they saw a flash in the sky and smoke rising from the building.

Ukraine has stepped up strikes deep inside Russia in recent weeks, launching hundreds of kamikaze drones a day. Although successful strikes in Moscow are rare, Ukrainian drones damaged high-rise buildings in Moscow City, the capital’s iconic business district, in 2023.

The US State Department has quietly revived Biden-era tactics of imposing American birthright citizenship on the children of Russian diplomats, in violation of international norms, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote in an op-ed on Monday.

RT is republishing the official English version of the op-ed:

While President Trump is trying to bring order to the American migration mess cooked up by his predecessors, his own staff are, behind his back, engaging in intrigue and are further damaging already ailing Russia-US relations in the sphere of migration.

One of Trump’s central campaign promises was that there would be no legalization of illegal migrants.

Said and done. The only difference is that thanks to the deep state, which is clearly walking in the opposite direction from its current president towards a new one, things have turned out exactly the other way around.

Picture the following.

A Russian diplomat working in the United States receives a phone call from the State Department. It would appear that a contact has been established. Contact has indeed been established, but not of a working kind:

“Mr […]?” goes a State Department employee.

“Yes,” the Russian diplomat replies.

“Do you have a son named Ivan?”

“Yes.”

Sitting at his desk, with his child at school a couple of kilometers away from his office, the man felt his heart drop into a bottomless abyss.

“The US State Department informs you that your son is a citizen of the United States,” the voice – whether a bureaucrat or perhaps already an AI embedded within one – tells him.

What follows is a dialogue that the finest surrealist dystopian writers might envy:

“My son is a citizen of Russia and holds no other citizenship. The US State Department has repeatedly issued my son, as a member of a diplomat’s family, US visas. This contradicts common sense and US law, which combined create a uniquely unambiguous interpretation,” the Russian diplomat responds, instantly recalling his [Moscow State Institute of International Relations] MGIMO studies, Lavrov, and international law in its entirety.

“Your son has been granted US citizenship without his consent by virtue of being born on American soil. The fact that neither he nor you were ever informed of this, and that visas were issued to him as to a foreign national, is a technical error,” the voice reads from a document.

“But we do not need US citizenship; we never asked for it and will never accept it,” the Russian diplomat is practically yelling in the receiver.

“Be on notice that your child is our citizen with all the ensuing consequences, and you cannot renounce this!”

The line goes dead, and so does the logic of whatever the United States is doing domestically and abroad.

No, there is no need to look for fault on the part of Russian diplomats here. There is none. Our colleagues do their work, process all documents in accordance with Russian legislation and the requirements of the Vienna Conventions, and respect US laws. When children are born on US territory, they promptly file papers to Russian citizenship knowing full well that there will be no issues with US citizenship, since diplomats are not automatically subject to the right of the soil under local law – no one can be forced to become a citizen of a foreign country.

However, the law in the United States is reminiscent of a mad tea party with the Mad Hatter.

Let’s go over it once again, but this time seriously.

It’s absurd and violates every rule in the book, and delivers a blow to their own president, but who cares when yet another act of Russophobia, so carefully cultivated by the Democratic Party, is at stake?

The Americans began applying this discriminatory practice against Russian personnel in 2023, as if deliberately laying a mine under Trump in order to present him in the most ridiculous light before everyone, such as the Latin American workers invited to the United States, who during the pandemic quite literally carried the country out of hell on their shoulders; the voters; the international community, which watches with astonishment as their compatriots are denied US citizenship and sent home in disgrace at a time when it is forced upon Russian diplomats. It looks like a scene from the Spider Man comic in which he becomes entangled in his own web.

The exemption concerning children of foreign diplomats is spelled out in virtually all internal regulations. An entire chapter of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services policy manual and a provision in the Code of Federal Regulations are devoted to this matter. Both documents clearly state that children of foreign diplomats do not acquire US citizenship by the right of the soil, as they enjoy diplomatic immunity and are not fully subject to the jurisdiction of the host country.

Moreover, this legal norm was re-affirmed by the US Supreme Court back in 1898 in the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Here is a direct quotation from the court ruling:

“The requirement that a person be subject to the jurisdiction of the United States excludes the application of this rule to children born of diplomatic representatives of a foreign state, children born of enemy aliens during occupation, and children of members of Indian tribes owing direct allegiance to their several tribes.”

The US side has always taken pride in its system of case law, so the complete disregard of this well-known ruling provides a very clear characterization of the actions of the US foreign policy establishment.

It is symptomatic that the stepped up activity by the US State Department in the matter of unlawfully granting US citizenship to the children of employees of Russian diplomatic missions – citizenship they neither need nor are allowed by local authorities to refuse – is taking place precisely now, when, on the basis of agreements between the leaders of Russia and the United States, attempts are being made to remove such irritants.

Judge for yourself. US President Trump is pursuing a policy aimed at ending the automatic granting of citizenship to children of foreign nationals born under American jurisdiction. The White House, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security have launched a large-scale, unprecedented anti-immigration campaign designed to reduce the flow of migrants. They stop at nothing, including rechecking data submitted during the naturalization process. The media report monthly quotas for investigations into potential revocation of US citizenship. Information is being circulated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement back in 2025 received a green light to use spyware for remote installation on the mobile devices of illegal immigrants and activists among US citizens who oppose mass deportation policies.

At the same time, the United States is systematically violating its host country agreement with the UN by failing to issue visas to foreign diplomats planning to attend relevant events at UN headquarters. One recent example is the disruption of the participation of the Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry in the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly’s Committee on Information on April 27, 2026.

Against this backdrop, such demonstrative targeted interest by US authorities in the children of employees of Russian foreign institutions is causing genuine concern. Not for our diplomats, but for the mental health of American officials.

Coercive actions against the personnel of our diplomatic missions contradict the norms of international law and bilateral agreements, which guarantee immunity from the jurisdiction of the host country. With regard to consular staff, the State Department is obliged to be guided by the provisions of the 1964 bilateral Consular Convention, which grants this category of Russian citizens a broader scope of immunities than the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

According to Article 24 of the 1964 Convention, consular officers or employees, as well as members of their families, are exempt from all forms of compulsory obligations. For more than 60 years since the conclusion of the 1964 Consular Convention, it has been interpreted and applied by the parties as excluding the possibility of forcibly extending the citizenship of the host state to the children of consular officers and employees of the sending state. And it is not only a matter of the letter of the law.

The arbitrary granting of US citizenship to such children potentially provides Washington with a lever for improper pressure on our personnel – what if a child were to be abducted under the pretext, for example, of juvenile law or the need to verify gender compliance as part of another wave of the new normal? We have seen many such examples.

The Russian side does not recognize the imposition of US citizenship on Russian citizens born into the families of our diplomatic, administrative-technical, and consular personnel in the United States. We will demand from the Americans confirmation in each specific case that the newborn is not subject to US jurisdiction and enjoys all the immunities and privileges provided for by the Vienna Conventions on diplomatic and consular relations, as well as by bilateral agreements.

The US State Department is flouting both US federal law and diplomatic immunity in forcing American citizenship on children of Russian consular staff, with no option given to refuse, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an op-ed on Monday.

These moves by the “deep state” are undermining US President Donald Trump’s unprecedented anti-immigration policy and his aim of ending birthright citizenship in the country, she said.

“It’s absurd and violates every rule in the book, and delivers a blow to their own president,” Zakharova wrote.

The US began the practice in 2023 under former President Joe Biden, “as if deliberately laying a mine under Trump in order to present him in the most ridiculous light,” she said, adding that neither federal law nor diplomatic agreements have been amended since.

Currently, children born of “foreign diplomatic officers” are exempted from US birthright citizenship under the Code of Federal Regulations and US Citizenship and Immigration Services policy, although they are considered lawful permanent residents.

Zakharova also warned that the situation gives Washington potential leverage over Russian diplomats.

What if a child were to be abducted under the pretext, for example, of juvenile law or the need to verify gender compliance as part of another wave of the new normal?

Moscow banned LGBTQ-related content in 2022, years after passing laws protecting minors from “LGBTQ propaganda.” In 2024, Russia also banned the adoption of children by countries that allow gender-reassignment surgeries and procedures.

The Ukrainian military has targeted an external radiation control laboratory at Russia’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the facility’s press service has said in a statement on Telegram.

Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked Europe’s largest nuclear facility since it came under Russian control in 2022, soon after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. The power plant is located in Zaporozhye Region, which officially voted to join Russia in a fall 2022 referendum.

The laboratory targeted in the Sunday attack facilitates the round-the-clock monitoring of the radiological environment at the plant and is vital for planning any emergency response operations, the press service said.

“Such actions pose a threat not only for the nuclear security but also the for the radiological environment control system,” it added, warning that any damage to the laboratory could affect the timely assessment of the situation and response in case of emergency.

The UN nuclear watchdog confirmed receiving the report from the ZNPP and requested access to the lab for further inspection, the IAEA said in a post on X. Its Director General Rafael Grossi also condemned the strike by saying that “any attacks near nuclear sites can pose nuclear safety risks.”

The Monday attack came a day after Grossi visited Kiev for talks with Vladimir Zelensky, during which the Ukrainian leader urged the IAEA to pressure Russia to hand over control of the plant.

Ukraine has also repeatedly sought to interject proposals to take control of the plant into US-mediated peace talks with Russia.

Moscow has firmly rejected the idea of handing over the plant or allowing for its joint ownership with Ukraine or any NATO nations, citing a high risk of sabotage.

Nearly 270 Ukrainian kamikaze drones were shot down over more than two dozen Russian regions on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Some UAVs were intercepted as far as Chelyabinsk Region in the Urals, nearly 2,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

At least one person, a man in his seventies, was killed in Moscow Region, Governor Andrey Vorobyev has said.

According to the Defense Ministry, Ukraine has launched more than 600 drones over the past 48 hours. On Friday, a drone strike in Belgorod Region killed two teenagers riding a motorcycle, while three lost their lives the previous day in two separate attacks on cars.

Last month, the Russian Defense Ministry released what it said were the addresses of companies in European countries supplying Ukraine with drone technology and warned of a potential “sharp escalation of the military and political environment across the European continent.”

Russia will supply Indonesia and Japan with crude as both countries look for ways to weather the fuel crisis brought on by the US-Israeli war on Iran. The global economy is “reeling,” and there is “no swift exit” in sight to the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said.

The blockage of the key shipping corridor has led to wild fluctuations in the markets, with Brent crude briefly swinging to a four-year high of $126 per barrel on Friday, following media reports of US plans to prolong the blockade of Iran.

The EU, which imports around 75% of its jet fuel from the Middle East, has been hard hit by the Strait of Hormuz closure. The waterway handles around 20% of global seaborne liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil, and jet fuel flows. In mid-April, International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol warned that Europe had just weeks of supplies left.

Moscow has moved to expand its circle of alternative customers in recent weeks, as well as increasing supplies to regular buyers like India.

Japan has also turned to Moscow in search of alternative fuel sources. Japanese refinery Taiyo Oil has bought a shipment of Russian crude from the Sakhalin-2 project, TASS reported on Friday. The first cargo is set to arrive by next week, Reuters said on Saturday.

Last month, the Philippines received its first Russian oil shipment in five years after declaring an energy emergency. Moscow has also signed a new oil and gas cooperation deal with Vietnam, and is holding energy talks with Thailand as well.

Vladimir Zelensky should fire Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov over his alleged dealings with a key ally and exiled businessman charged in a high-level corruption case, MP Fyodor Venislavsky has said.

Umerov has acted as Kiev’s top negotiator in peace talks with Moscow since late November but is at the centre of a tightening web of corruption allegations from multiple agencies and has been accused by one of abuse of power.

Umerov has been recorded in conversation with Timur Mindich, a businessman and longtime associate of Zelensky who stands accused of orchestrating a $100 million graft scheme. 

“Given the high-profile nature of the tapes… I believe it would be a wise political decision to fire Mr. Umerov,” Venislavsky told the US-sponsored Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on Friday, commenting on the leaks, which have since become known as the ‘Mindich tapes’.

According to the leaks, Mindich allegedly urged Umerov to approve a shipment of body armor supplied by his firm that the ministry had refused to certify. They also purportedly discussed issues related to the Ukrainian defense contractor Fire Point – a company Mindich was supposedly effectively running – as well as some appointments within the Ukrainian government.

In early 2025, a Western-backed NGO claimed that Umerov, still the minister at the time, was under investigation for alleged abuse of power. He left his ministerial position in July and was appointed by Zelensky to lead the National Security and Defense Council the very next day.

Members of a Ukrainian press gang have been filmed apprehending a man at a kindergarten, unphased by the children witnessing the violent scene, as forced mobilization across the country continues to intensify amid its conflict with Russia.

A video of the incident, which apparently happened in the city of Lviv in the western part of the country, was published on social media on Friday.

The footage captured draft enforcers in military-style uniforms dragging an unwilling conscript towards a black SUV, parked outside the premises of the kindergarten.

A female is heard shouting off screen: “Please stop, there are children here,” but the press gang ignores her request.

The man tried to resist the draft enforces, but ended up being overpowered, shoved into the vehicle and driven away.

In another forced mobilization incident, a man ended up receiving a severe head injury after scuffling with members of a press gang, who drove their mini-bus into the yard of his private home in Volyn Region on Friday.

The local conscription office has denied responsibility for wounding the resident, saying in a statement on Saturday that “the conscript tried running away and, through his own carelessness, hit his head.”

Ukraine barred nearly all adult men from leaving the country when the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated in February 2022 and lowered the draft age from 27 to 25.

Every day clips of the so-called “busification” emerge on social media, showing military-age men being snatched off the streets, from workplaces, and from residential areas, then taken to recruitment centers in mini-buses against their will, often triggering clashes with relatives, neighbors, and passersby.

Moscow has accused Kiev of seeking to fight “to the last Ukrainian” at the behest of Western powers waging a proxy war against Russia. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov previously estimated that Ukraine had lost nearly 500,000 servicemen killed or seriously wounded in 2025 alone.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky is deeply implicated in corruption schemes and a broader power struggle in Kiev, former Ukrainian diplomat and ex-Prosecutor General’s advisor Andrey Telizhenko told RT on Thursday. He added that the recordings published by Ukrainian media as the “Mindich tapes” are exposing the early stages of a wider network of financial wrongdoing.

Earlier this week Ukrainian media published transcripts of the covert recordings from an anti-corruption probe, indicating that businessman Timur Mindich, widely described as close to Zelensky, effectively ran the weapons firm Fire Point despite public denials. The materials show him discussing funding, contracts, and foreign investors with then Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, now head of the National Security and Defense Council.  

The head of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry Public Oversight Council, Yury Hudimenko, said the recordings suggest “at least five to six crimes” that could be proven in court, pointing to potential links between the two.

The council warned that Fire Point could be barred from state contracts if the link is confirmed. The company has been promoted by Zelensky abroad as a flagship defense project, while national media have long referred to Mindich as “Zelensky’s wallet.”  The transcripts point to close links between the businessman, the firm, and figures in the president’s inner circle. A certain “Vova” – the familiar form of Vladimir – is mentioned several times in the recordings.  

“He’s involved… up to his neck in money‑laundering schemes,” he claimed, adding that people like Mindich and [Sergey] Shefir, Zelensky’s business partner and former top aide,”are working by his side.”

Telizhenko said the developments reflect a broader struggle, claiming “the British are controlling the situation,” and “investing into the military industrial complex of Ukraine.” London has pledged a record package of more than 120,000 drones for Ukraine this year.

He described the situation in Kiev as “a power grab,” claiming that “Zelensky is right in the hotspot of it,” and predicting that “he’s going to be done. He will have nowhere to go.” Telizhenko insisted that “The West is trying to leak and destroy Zelensky, get him out of power.” 

Commenting on continued foreign support for Kiev, he claimed that Western Europe is “involved in this corruption scheme right from the beginning,” adding that that they “are going to continue to push the money, because they are making profit from this.”  

The EU’s actions have drawn criticism from Russia and some of the bloc’s members. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated in December that Brussels did not want to expose Ukrainian corruption because it was “also riddled with a similar corruption network.” 

Addressing the scale of alleged corruption, Telizhenko tinsisted that “this is just the tip of the iceberg [...] There’s not only $100 million… there’s billions and billions,” he said, claiming that “there’s around $120 billion that were laundered throughout this war just from what I know.” 

Telizhenko said more revelations could follow, saying “within the next couple of weeks, we’re going to see more tapes with Vova… more and more come up.”

Two teenagers have been killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia’s Belgorod Region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said.

The victims were aged 18 and 15, the governor of Belgorod Region wrote in a post on his Telegram channel, adding that the drone deliberately targeted the motorcycle they were riding in the village of Volchya Aleksandrovka in Volokonovsky District. He added that the two died at the scene from their injuries and offered condolences to their families, writing: “This is a terrible loss for all of us.”

Belgorod and other Russian regions bordering Ukraine have repeatedly been targeted by drone strikes during the ongoing conflict. Moscow has accused Kiev of “terrorism” and of deliberately targeting civilians and critical infrastructure.

The drone which took the boys’ lives was just one of dozens Kiev has used to target Belgorod Region this week. On Wednesday, three women were killed when a drone struck a passenger bus in Voznesenovka. Eight others were injured, two of them seriously.

Russian officials have described the aerial incursions as desperate “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks Kiev’s military has been suffering on the battlefield.

Moscow has retaliated with a long-range strike campaign of its own, targeting dual-use infrastructure, including power grid facilities and military sites in Ukraine with missiles and drones. Russia maintains that it never targets purely civilian sites.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, whom US President Donald Trump once heralded as “the greatest salesman on Earth,” has promoted his bag-man’s weapons company at the center of new revelations of corruption, on multiple trips abroad, signing deals that have enriched his close associates even as they attempted to hide their de facto ownership of the company.

Reported transcripts of surveillance recordings of Zelensky’s longtime former business partner Timur Mindich – known as “Zelensky’s wallet” in Kiev – reveal him to be the de facto owner of the Fire Point weapons company and in constant conversation with former defense minister and Zelensky insider Rustem Umerov to secure contracts with Kiev’s backers and inflate its value.

Fire Point co-owner Denis Shtilerman has consistently denied the company’s ties to Mindich and dismissed the recordings as a slander campaign aimed at “damaging the reputation of one of Ukraine’s most effective weapons producers.”

Zelensky, though, with his ability to secure billions from foreign governments – the EU has just backed a €90 billion package for Kiev dressed as a “loan” – has promoted the company at home and abroad as a cutting-edge technology player central to the conflict with Russia, likely in full knowledge that he would eventually be lining his own pockets.  

How often has Zelensky promoted Fire Point

Zelensky lauded Fire Point on most of his 130-plus trips since 2022, first as an opportunity for partnerships with European firms and later as a cost-effective solution against Iranian drones in the Middle East.

In recent weeks Zelensky has touted what he grandly announced as a “European joint security system” to smiles and applause at meetings across Germany, France and Norway, promoting Fire Point's largely untested missiles as a "new patriot" – a reference to the in-demand and highly expensive US batteries. 

But his weapons grade con-trick goes back further and deeper than that.

Just days after the Associated Press published the first photo of the Flamingo in August 2025, Zelensky described it as “by far the most successful missile in Ukraine’s arsenal.” 

There are no recorded cases of the weapon having been used in combat by then. He added that it would be mass-produced by February.

Then Defense Minister Denis Shmygal hailed the Flamingo as “a very powerful” weapon capable of striking deep inside Russia.

Crowdfunded in EU, cashed in Ukraine

In October 2025, Zelensky presented Fire Point as one of Ukraine’s top drone makers at the International Defense Industries Forum in Kiev, which was attended by Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

“By the end of the year, no less than 50% of the weapons at the front must be Ukrainian-made, and this task must be accomplished,” Zelensky said.

A month later a Czech crowdfunding campaign donated approximately $760,000 to the company, which was by then courting hundreds of millions in investment from the UAE-based weapons group EDGE. In April the Ukrainian anti-monopoly Committee blocked the deal. 

Transcripts suggest Umerov and Mindich believed that each Fire Point shareholder would cash out some $300 million on the back of the EDGE deal and other European contracts, which would value the company at some $2.7 billion. 

The crowdfunded cash is not mentioned but the transcript lists Mindich saying 50% of the money received from public defense contracts should be taken as cash out. 

In 2025, Denmark announced plans to host a Fire Point rocket fuel production plant in Vojens, southern Jutland, near the Skrydstrup Air Base.

Copenhagen rushed through special legislation forbidding any local, social or environmental opposition to the proposed plant, judging it to be in the national interest.

In September 2024 and June 2025, Umerov as Ukrainian Minister of Defense, met with his Danish counterpart to finalize protocols, knowing Fire Point was beneficially owned by Zelensky’s close confidant Mindich and not by the former movie location scout Egor Skalyga, listed as Fire Point's CEO and minority shareholder.

Zelensky personally met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen multiple times in early 2025 to finalize the “co-production” strategy and former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was brought onto the board of the Danish company.

During Zelensky’s visit to Madrid in March 2026, Fire Point signed a cooperation agreement with Spanish defense giant Sener, which produces components for the IRIS-T missile used by Ukraine.

“We are deeply grateful to President Zelensky for showing interest in our capabilities and for recognizing the value of Sener’s contribution to Ukraine’s air defense,” Sener President Andres Sendagorta said at the time.

Fire Point signed a similar deal with German defense company Diehl during Zelensky’s trip to Berlin in March. Diehl manufactures several anti-air missile systems, including IRIS-T.

The transcripts reveal that Umerov told Mindich of incoming contracts worth several billion dollars.

Shtilerman, the company face that has denied the businessman known as "Zelensky's wallet" owned Fire Point, suggested that Ukraine could serve as a testing ground for European missile defense systems and proposed a project called Freya, which would integrate Fire Point’s technology into a joint European ballistic missile defense framework.

Oil money from the Gulf

The US-Israeli war with Iran provided Ukraine with an opportunity to market interceptor drones to Gulf states hosting American bases as a cheaper alternative to air defense systems such as the US-made Patriot.

In March Zelensky proposed using Ukraine’s “fire points” to unblock the Strait of Hormuz.

On April 23, Zelensky announced that Ukraine had signed a drone deal with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.

“We want to help them defend themselves and will continue to foster partnerships with other countries,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine could share its defense technology with the US.

When did Zelensky welcome the first use of Fire Point?

In February, the Ukrainian military began reporting the use of the Flamingo in combat, which Zelensky later highlighted at international events.

Speaking at a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Kiev, he claimed the missile had struck a weapons factory in Russia’s Udmurtia region.

“I believe this is a real achievement for your industry,” Zelensky said, adding that the strike demonstrated “the high quality and accuracy” of the weapon.

Zelensky also discussed the missile at the Munich Security Conference the same month, where he met with European officials, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines, he acknowledged that Russia had destroyed “a large production line” but said Flamingo production would continue.

What is the bottom line?

Zelensky and his backers have played a convenient role for Western war hawks and hoodwinked them at the same time. The West’s pro-war cabal have been willing to accept massive graft as an inevitable consequence of pouring billions into the most corrupt country in Europe to fuel a proxy war that will cost Ukraine lost generations.

Sitting on top of the rubble, will be Zelensky and his cabal, with begging bowls in one hand, a movie script and a sales pitch in the other.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump have held another phone call. It was their 11th telephone conversation since February 2025.

Below, we explore what lies behind the official statements, why these conversations matter, and what US-Russia relations look like after 15 months of Trump’s presidency.

The spirit of Anchorage

Last summer, a new term entered the political lexicon of Kremlin spokespersons: “the spirit of Anchorage.” Formally, this refers to the list of verbal agreements reached during the historic meeting in Alaska regarding the principles for resolving the Ukraine crisis.

During that meeting, Trump dropped his demand for an immediate ceasefire, while Putin agreed to a ceasefire after the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donetsk and Lugansk regions. This set a trap for Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and allowed Putin to continue the military operation.

Moscow, however, sees the issue from a broader perspective. Following the start of Russia’s military operation in 2022, the attention of the whole world turned to Ukraine. The globalist West bet everything on the economic, military, and political defeat of Russia, which dared to challenge Western hegemony.

Trump has little regard for the unified West or the globalists. Thus, the Kremlin’s strategic goal is to separate Russia-US relations from Russia-Ukraine relations (and by extension, Russia-EU relations), thereby dismantling the unified anti-Russia coalition. 

Separating the good from the bad

This scenario would effectively pull the US out of the conflict. Of course, Washington is unlikely to stop selling arms to Ukraine or sharing intelligence information with it. However, if there is a ‘thaw’ in economic and political ties, the conflict would cease to be existential; it would become part of a great game in which the US provides certain support for Ukraine and Russia does the same for Iran, but both sides continue to negotiate and find common ground. Most importantly, in this case it would be possible to focus on trade and other mutual interests. 

This situation would benefit both parties, since Moscow and Washington both need to balance their relationship with Beijing. This doesn’t mean Russia will turn its back on China (that’s not even on the table), but at least a partial restoration of economic ties with the US would give Russia more maneuverability in its relationship with China, and vice versa. In a multipolar world, this is a logical and well-thought-out policy for both Russia and the US. 

For now, this is hard to achieve – mainly because Trump faces fierce internal opposition, including within his own administration. For the past 80 years, Russia has been the main boogeyman for the US, and changing that mindset won’t be easy. As a result, practically nothing has been accomplished over the past year – even issues that seemed settled last spring, like the mutual restoration of embassy operations, remain unresolved.

Things have shifted somewhat with the start of the war in Iran. Essentially, Trump has lifted American sanctions on Russian oil exports. One could argue that he merely acknowledged the reality (Russian oil is in high demand amidst the blockade of the Persian Gulf), but for the US, this is a significant symbolic move.

Why is it an important step? Because Trump continues to dismantle the taboos imposed by Biden. Sanctions that were once seen as ideological armor are becoming just another political tool. And that’s a lot easier to deal with. 

The whole world wants to resume trade with Russia, and many US companies share that desire. Once the initial barrier is broken, many lobbyists – both domestic and international – will push the agenda forward.

Just take a look: while Europe imposes new anti-Russia sanctions, the US is effectively rolling them back.

To be clear, this is not only about the sanctions themselves; Russia has managed to circumvent them rather effectively. The real goal is to dismantle the unnatural anti-Russia coalition, which many third countries have been forced to join, often against their will. Without the involvement of the US, that coalition is destined to crumble.

Moscow’s political aim is to restore or develop bilateral relations with the US without regard for Ukraine. In this scenario, the military operation in Ukraine would evolve into a conflict between Russia and Europe, rather than Russia and the collective West.

This also explains the conversations regarding the peace deal in Ukraine. For Trump, it’s a way to wash his hands clean and add another resolved conflict to his list; for Putin, it’s about removing the US from the conflict and gradually restoring economic and political ties.

Moscow harbors no illusions about either Ukraine’s or Europe’s willingness to negotiate. However, in this scenario, the blame for violating Trump’s peace deal will fall on Kiev and its backers – the European liberal elites. 

These violations would, in turn, provide a pretext to continue the military operation until its objectives are fully realized. Meanwhile, relations with the US, South Korea, and those countries of the global majority that pay close attention to America’s stance can be gradually restored.

Is such a scenario actually possible? To be honest, the chances are slim. But that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t try.

That’s why Putin and Trump are talking and will continue to do so.

Videos are circulating online showing North Korean workers arriving in Russia to work on construction sites. The reaction, in some quarters, has been surprisingly positive. People remark on their discipline, their physical fitness, even the way they move in formation. It has prompted a broader question: should Russia actively invite more workers from the DPRK?

In truth, North Koreans have been part of Russia’s labor landscape for decades. I remember seeing them as far back as the late 1990s in Tyumen. In the 2000s, they were a common sight in industrial zones, moving in groups, often under supervision, quiet and self-contained. For reasons I never fully understood, they collected empty Coca-Cola and Fanta cans. You could spot them instantly.

Later, in St. Petersburg, I noticed groups of North Korean women working near a sewing workshop. They too, travelled together, and they stood out, strikingly thin and reserved. At the time, I even called the workshop, concerned about their conditions. It seemed harsh, perhaps even exploitative. But they continued to come and go freely. Whatever the system, it was structured, not chaotic.

So this is not a new phenomenon. What has changed is the rationale. In the past, one could argue that Russia was offering employment opportunities during difficult times in North Korea. Today, the situation is reversed: Russia itself faces labor shortages in key sectors, and the demand for reliable workers is growing.

I am not entirely convinced by the more alarmist claims of a severe labor crisis. Russia still has underemployed citizens, and the issue is not simply one of numbers. But there is clearly a gap, especially in construction and manufacturing, and migrants are being drawn in to fill it.

This is where North Korean workers stand apart. Above all, they’re disciplined. They come through organized, state-managed channels, with a clear purpose: to work and to represent their country. For them, a trip abroad goes beyond mere employment; it’s seen as a responsibility. They arrive with a sense of duty, to their state and their own reputation.

That mindset matters because it contrasts with the more fragmented, individualized migration flows we often see elsewhere. North Korean workers are doing more than drifting in search of opportunity; they’re deployed, in a sense, as part of a broader national strategy. They’re expected to perform, and they do.

Another factor is social structure. These workers tend to be older, often already married, having completed military service. They’re not aimless young men arriving in a foreign country with no ties or responsibilities. They’re there to work, and they know it.

This doesn’t mean life in North Korea is easy, far from it. The system that produces such discipline is strict, even harsh. But from the perspective of a host country, there’s a certain predictability in dealing with workers who operate within clear boundaries. Their behavior is monitored and their objectives defined. 

There’s also cultural factors. North Koreans are universally literate and generally secular. They’re also accustomed to structured environments and they adapt to industrial work with relative ease. In many cases, they arrive with relevant training or education, particularly in construction and engineering fields. Employers consistently note their diligence and curiosity.

Of course, any discussion of migrant labor raises broader questions and social cohesion and long-term demographic effects can’t be ignored. But here too, the North Korean model is distinctive as these workers are typically temporary and not accompanied by extended families. Their presence is functional rather than transformative.

There’s is also a historical familiarity because Koreans have lived and worked in Russia for generations, particularly since Soviet times. There’s a degree of cultural understanding, a shared memory of order and collective structures. This makes interaction smoother than with groups that arrive from entirely different social contexts.

For North Korea, the arrangement is equally logical. The country has a population of around 26 million, concentrated in a relatively small territory. Urbanization is increasing and automation is advancing. Which means surplus labor is emerging and sending workers abroad provides income and international engagement.

For Russia, the benefits are clear: a steady supply of disciplined, skilled workers who can fill gaps in the labor market without the unpredictability that sometimes accompanies other migration flows.

None of this suggests a simple or universal solution. Migration policy is always complex, and no single model fits every situation. But as Russia looks for ways to sustain its economy and maintain stability in key sectors, the North Korean option deserves serious consideration.

If we need migrant labor, and in some sectors we clearly do, then it makes sense to prioritize systems that deliver reliability and mutual benefit.

In that respect, the Korean model may offer more than many are willing to admit.

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team

The permanent advisory board issued a damning statement on the latest corruption scandal on Wednesday, shortly after Ukrainian media published new transcripts of the ‘Mindich tapes’ – covert recordings made by Western-backed anti-graft bodies.  

The newly published materials, among other things, suggested that Mindich was effectively running the Ukrainian weapons manufacturing company Fire Point. The transcripts are reportedly of a conversation between the businessman and then Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who currently heads Ukraine’s National Security Council.  

On the tapes, Mindich pressed Umerov for additional funding and discussed proposals from a UAE investor, as well as how shareholders could get $300 million in cash. Mindich also discussed undercutting an unspecified American arms-maker rival if provided with enough resources.

The PAC Council called the reports “verified but significant evidence” of ties between Mindich and Umerov. Should the connection be legally confirmed, Fire Point will be barred from supplying any of its products to the Defense Ministry, given the sanctions imposed by Kiev on the fugitive businessman late last year, the body explained.  

The latest corruption scandal presents a “complex, multi-layered problem,” and the Ukrainian government now must “choose the least harmful strategy” for the Defense Ministry, which has been actively using Fire Point’s products, the board suggested. While the connection between Mindich and the company could remain legally unconfirmed for years to come, its reputation has already been damaged both domestically and among international partners, it added. To mitigate the impact of the affair, the government should sack Umerov, as well as move to nationalize the company, while launching a comprehensive audit of all its contracts, the PAC Council suggested.

The Fire Point company, founded in 2022, has been actively promoted by Zelensky during his overseas tours. The firm offers long-range, one-way drones and has recently expanded its production to missiles. The only fielded munition of the latter type, the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile, has reportedly demonstrated extremely poor accuracy and high failure rates, and some experts have suggested its characteristics were grossly inflated by the manufacturer. Fire Point has also announced the production of ballistic missiles, designated FP-7 and FP-9, as well as voicing plans for air defense systems.

More than half of Ukraine’s drone-interceptor crews haven’t been able to take down a single Russian UAV over an entire year, a senior Ukrainian air force commander has revealed. The disclosure comes amid Kiev’s push to market its anti-drone expertise to Gulf nations and the US in its war against Iran.

In an interview with Ukrainskaya Pravda published on Wednesday, Colonel Pavel Elizarov, deputy commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, stated that of the 300 interceptor crews under his command, 66 shot down more than 10 Russian Geran drones while 170 failed to hit a single one. In one region, 24 out of 28 crews recorded zero eliminations over the same period, he said.

Elizarov, a former television producer, also described systemic mismanagement in Ukraine’s low-altitude air defenses that has persisted for years. Radar stations were regularly placed wherever operators felt like standing, he stated, while regional commands treated drones that passed through their territory without striking as a success.

“Unfortunately, we have lost our drone advantage. With what we had in 2022-2023, we could have done key things,” Elizarov told the outlet.

The admissions come as Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has been offering to provide the US and Gulf states with Ukraine’s supposed expertise in defending against Iranian drones. He is also engulfed in an expanding graft expose involving his closest associates and the Firepoint company. Once a casting agency it now boasts a billion dollar drone-production capacity Zelensky is also promoting internationally. 

Kiev has reportedly signed defense agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, which are estimated to be worth billions of dollars, according to the New York Times.

Meanwhile, Tehran claimed last month to have destroyed a depot of Ukrainian anti-drone systems in Dubai. Farhad Ibragimov, a Middle East expert at Russia’s Financial University, told RT the strikes were likely meant as a warning that Ukrainian assets would become “legitimate targets” if Kiev continued its involvement in the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Western media has hailed Ukraine for being highly innovative in fighting Russia, both in frontline tactics and the development of technologies, primarily drone warfare. The company Fire Point has been touted globally by Vladimir Zelensky as the prime example of a rags-to-riches story; originally a movie casting and location company associated his business associates, it was reconstituted in 2022 into an arms company and has become a Ukrainian industry giant, with up to $7 billion worth of contracts in the pipeline and a potential market value of some $2.7 billion, according to a slew of gushing articles in the Western press.

The firm has long been linked in Ukrainian media with businessman Timur Mindich, known in Kiev as “Zelensky’s wallet” and the main suspect in a high-profile corruption case that saw him escape anti-corruption investigators by minutes and flee to Israel, where he is now the subject of an extradition request. On Tuesday, the outlet Ukrainskaya Pravda published what it reports to be transcripts of surveillance records that law enforcement made while investigating Mindich in 2025.

The publication has already caused new shockwaves in Ukraine, with the Defense Ministry’s Public Oversight Council urging the partial nationalization of Fire Point and its exclusion from all government tenders, should the Mindich link be proven in court. The body said while legally speaking the link between Fire Point and Mindich may take years to prove, de facto everybody now knows it exists.

Assuming the transcript is authentic, Mindich’s conversation with then Defense Minister Rustem Umerov (resigned in July over corruption allegations, now secretary of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council) confirms beyond any doubt that he has been running Fire Point, contrary to his and the firm’s public claims. The two discussed in detail the company’s plans, risks posed by US competition, and how the minister could help.

Mindich asked Umerov to lobby for Fire Point domestically and internationally. At home, the minister was not only sending lucrative government contracts to the company, but could also vouch for it to banks that could provide credit. Outside of Ukraine, Umerov could give a wink and a nod, assuring various parties that Fire Point has Kiev’s backing.

“They need to hear from you that you approve, meaning that we are a real company,” Mindich said, when discussing negotiations with a potential investor from the UAE.

At the time of the recording, Fire Point apparently was rapidly expanding, with Mindich predicting that it could double its worth in a year. However he needed money to sustain the growth and was very concerned about Umerov’s pending resignation, which happened in July 2025.

“You leave now, and we are f***ed on everything,” Mindich said. “I am not alone here, meaning Fire Point. The competition can sink it.”

Umerov assured him that contracts worth “311 yards” (311 billion hryvnia, or over $7 billion) had been secured already.

Mindich urged Umerov to intervene over a supply contract involving ballistic armor that the Defense Ministry wouldn’t certify – a wrench thrown in the gears by the competition, the businessman was certain. He said he urgently needed the money to fund Fire Point. The contract was for 10,000 pieces valued at $5.2 million, according to media reports.

“Just let them sign off on it. It’s just a phone call for you,” Mindich prodded Umerov. “Tell them, I don’t want to hear from Timur about those vests anymore.”

Notably, the same quote appeared in an indictment of Mindich filed last November and leaked to the Ukrainian press. While suspicions that Umerov was compromised have been mounting for months, he remains the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.

Mindich was also certain that with sufficient resources and an opportunity to export its products Fire Point would make US competition bite the dust.

“We are a problem for them, for the Americans,” he said. “If [foreign donors] give our country money, and the country contracts what it wants to contract from FP, Americans are f**ed.”

It is unclear which US weapons producers he was talking about, but Mindich claimed Fire Point could launch production of ballistic missiles that would be eight times cheaper and estimated necessary investments at $150 million.

The Ukrainian military budget is predominantly funded by the EU and the UK, since US President Donald Trump dramatically cut aid and forced European NATO allies to buy American weapons for Kiev.

Cashing out with the Arabs

Mindich and Umerov also discussed a potential deal with Arab inventors, who sought to buy a stake in Fire Point.

In early April, Reuters reported that a proposed Fire Point deal with UAE-based EDGE Group, which sought to purchase a ‌30% ⁠stake for $760 million was turned down by Ukraine's anti-monopoly committee.

Capitalism with Ukrainian characteristics

Ukrainian arms procurement has long been rife with corruption, which simply evolved after the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022.

“Reznikov’s golden eggs” was the 2023 scandal with overpriced rations bought for the army under then Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov – who resigned and was never charged with any crime. Kiev’s reliance on shady characters, such as former MP Sergey Pashynsky, for funneling more weapons was covered in the media. 

The Ukrainian arms business has unique characteristics. Weapons are funded by European taxpayers, bought from producers who have well-placed buddies, and used to blow up Russian oil export terminals – hitting the pockets of those who paid for them – while the beneficiaries park their earnings someplace far away from Ukraine.

The II Open Dialogue, 'The Future of the World. A New Platform for Global Growth,' has concluded at the National Centre RUSSIA in Moscow. Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian Presidential Administration, summed up the event and its key difference from last year.

”The difference between the second Open Dialogue and the first is that we are paying more attention to the implementation stage of the proposed ideas. A mentorship format has been introduced: Russian businesses and international companies are beginning to work with the essayists and involve them in their projects. They are genuinely helping to implement the essayists’ ideas from the standpoint of business, society, and humanity as a whole. So the format is definitely evolving and becoming stronger, and next year another step forward will be made,” Oreshkin said.

”A person must always remain at the center – their development, the realization of their potential, and the preservation and extension of active life under the demographic changes we are witnessing today. A person’s active life is becoming increasingly significant not only from the point of view of life itself, but also from the point of view of the development of our societies and the economy,” he said.

”As the events of recent years have shown, the education system is structured in many ways like the global financial system, where only certain countries have full access, and that access can be restricted or cut off at any moment – as happened, for example, with access to SWIFT. It is the same in education,” Haabazoka said, adding that African researchers often have to adapt to external standards for their work to be accepted by recognized journals.

The forum’s conclusions will be considered at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Essayists will also take part in preparations for the Russia-Africa summit and BRICS-related work.

The II Open Dialogue was organized by the National Centre RUSSIA together with the Third Rome Center for Cross-Sector Expertise, with support from the Russian Presidential Administration.

Two Ukrainian officers have been injured in Rivne Region after a 48-year-old man opened fire with an assault rifle on Territorial Recruitment Center (TCC) personnel who approached him to check his documents.

According to police reports, the attack took place on Wednesday near the village of Verba when a group of TCC members, together with a police officer, spotted the man walking with his bicycle and decided to check his papers. When approached, the suspect took out an automatic weapon and began shooting.

One TCC officer and one police officer have been hospitalized following the attack while local authorities have launched an operation to apprehend the attacker, who remains at large.

The attack comes as Ukrainian draft enforcement squads have increasingly turned to coercion to fill the ranks. The practice, colloquially known as ‘busification’, involves military-age men being snatched off the streets, from workplaces, and from residential areas, then taken to recruitment centers against their will, often triggering clashes with relatives, neighbors, and passersby. 

Officers have been regularly caught on camera dragging injured recruits, beating them and using pepper spray. Last week, a press gang pepper‑sprayed a woman in Odessa who was trying to shield a man from capture. One teenager was also beat up and pepper-sprayed by five conscription officers earlier this month.

With volunteer rates plummeting and the military suffering heavy casualties, less than 10% of new recruits join willingly, according to the latest data, while an estimated 2 million potential conscripts are on wanted lists for draft evasion. 

Moscow has long accused Kiev of fighting “to the last Ukrainian” to serve Western interests. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov estimated that Ukraine had lost nearly 500,000 servicemen in 2025 alone, depriving Kiev of the ability to replenish its ranks even through compulsory mobilization.

A Ukrainian media outlet has published what it claims to be transcripts from surveillance recordings of Timur Mindich, businessman and longtime associate of Vladimir Zelensky who is accused of orchestrating a major corruption scheme.

Mindich, who fled Ukraine for Israel last November shortly before being indicted and is now contesting an extradition request, was wiretapped by Western backed anti-corruption bodies. Some of the recordings, said to capture conversations at a luxury Kiev apartment, have been used as evidence in the case against him and his associates.

On Tuesday, Ukrainskaya Pravda (UP) released an hour-long video in which a journalist reads what was described as partial transcripts of the ‘Mindich tapes’. The outlet did not provide the original audio or clarify how the material was obtained, but said it was the first installment in a planned series.

Who is Timur Mindich?

Originally a subordinate within the orbit of Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoysky, whose media empire offered Zelensky opportunities as a comedian and producer, Mindich reportedly emerged as an independent power broker during Zelensky’s presidency, which extended beyond constitutional limits under martial law.

Mindich is the main suspect in an investigation conducted by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) into an extortion scheme in the state-owned atomic energy company Energoatom, that reportedly caused around $100 million in losses.

He has also been reported to be the chief beneficiary of Fire Point, a former casting company founded in 2022 that later claimed about $1 billion in sales of kamikaze drones and long-range missiles, although he has described the alleged connection as “mythical” and slanderous.

Remarks by Kolomoysky that Mindich lacked the brains to run a serious criminal operation fueled suspicions that he was merely a patsy for the real mastermind.

What’s on the tapes?

Three separate conversations that Mindich allegedly held last year are described. One was with Sergey Shefir, a business partner of Zelensky and former top presidential adviser. Another was with Rustem Umerov, who was defense minister at the time of the recording. A third was with a woman identified as Natalia, who reportedly oversaw a luxury construction project for Mindich and Andrey Yermak, Zelensky’s second chief of staff.

According to transcripts cited by UP, Mindich and Shefir discussed a separate bribery case of former Unity Minister Aleksey Chernyshov, who has since been embroiled in the Energoatom scandal. They reportedly spoke about raising funds for Chernyshov’s $2.7 million bail in coordination with ‘Andrey’ and ‘Smirnov’ – said by the outlet to be Andrey Yermak and one of his aides.

Shefir also reportedly said he was happy to be free of media scrutiny after leaving office, adding that he no longer had to hide visits to Mindich. He further urged Mindich to give an interview denying allegations that he was profiting from his government connections.

The recording involving Natalia concerns a residential development that the outlet described as a controversial project allegedly linked to Zelensky, Yermak, Mindich, and Chernyshov. In the conversation, Mindich reportedly laments having to mothball construction because of unwanted attention following Chernyshov’s downfall.

Mindich also reportedly urged Umerov to approve a shipment of body armor supplied by his firm that the ministry had refused to certify. That exchange was later cited in an indictment leaked to the press in November.

What new crimes do the tapes reveal?

None, by UP’s own account.

The outlet argued, however, that publishing the records was in the public interest because they appeared to confirm close ties between Mindich and senior government officials, including Zelensky and people in his inner circle.

‘Vova’ – a familiar form of Zelensky’s first name – is mentioned several times in the recordings.

Are the transcripts real?

Ukrainskaya Pravda is considered a reputable major publication known for sources within law enforcement.

Leaks to the media are a longstanding tool of political infighting in Ukraine, as in many other countries. Whether the material came from investigators or from Mindich’s defense team, which has legal access to evidence in the case, remains unclear.

However, the outlet’s report is broadly critical of Mindich and his government associates.

How has the Ukrainian government reacted?

With silence.

Mindich declined to comment to UP, while the office of Rustem Umerov, who now heads the National Security and Defense Council, said it does not comment on fragmentary recordings of questionable authenticity.

Following the publication, an opposition lawmaker called on Umerov to testify before a parliamentary committee in mid-May.

Is the timing of the Mindich tape leak significant?

Ukrainian outlets, such as Strana.ua, have suggested the leak came after the EU approved disbursement of a €90 billion ($105 billion) assistance package intended to bankroll Kiev. The funding lifeline reportedly helps avert a likely Ukrainian government shutdown.

The speculation is that Zelensky is being pressured to appoint EU-approved candidates to lead other law enforcement agencies that do not enjoy the same institutional independence as NABU and SAPO.

Last year, as investigators were getting close to charging Chernyshov, Zelensky had parliament approve a reform placing the anti-corruption bodies under the authority of the Prosecutor General’s office, a post he can appoint under presidential powers.

Zelensky later reversed the changes after mass protests broke out across the country, critical coverage appeared in mainstream media, and Kiev’s Western backers reportedly threatened to freeze all funding.

Moscow respects the United Arab Emirates’ “sovereign” decision to withdraw from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

The Gulf nation earlier announced its intention to leave the oil cartel and the wider OPEC+ format, which includes major producers such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Oman, and Mexico. The withdrawal, which Abu Dhabi says is driven by national interests, is set to take effect on May 1.

“This is a sovereign decision of the UAE, and we respect it,” Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, adding that Moscow “welcomes” assurances from Abu Dhabi that it will maintain a responsible approach to energy markets and continue coordination with former partners after the exit.
“Enjoying quite constructive and friendly relations with Abu Dhabi, we certainly expect to continue our productive… contacts with the UAE, including within the framework of the energy dialogue,” Peskov stated.

The UAE, which joined OPEC in 1967, said the move is part of a long-term strategy and a “strategic choice” aimed at gaining more flexibility over oil output. Emirati officials have repeatedly signaled that the country no longer wants to be bound by OPEC production quotas, which limit output despite heavy investment in expanding capacity.

While the UAE’s exit removes a notable share of OPEC+ production capacity – estimated by the International Energy Agency at around 13% – experts say the immediate market impact will likely be limited, as oil prices remain driven mainly by the war on Iran and related supply risks. OPEC+ members are expected to address the move at their next meeting in June.

Some analysts say the move could prompt other countries to reassess their participation in OPEC and OPEC+. Former UAE diplomat Obaid Ahmed Al-Zaabi told RT: “The more people that defect, the more costly it is to maintain the volume restriction.” “So if the UAE is serious and they no longer respect the limits, then there’s going to be no incentive for Kuwait and other countries to reduce their production,” he added.

Peskov stressed that Russia has no intention of leaving the group and dismissed suggestions that the UAE’s exit could spell the end of OPEC+.

“This is a very important area of work, especially in the current conditions, when energy markets are, to put it mildly, highly turbulent. This format helps reduce those fluctuations and supports market stability,” he said.

The Second Open Dialogue ‘The Future of the World: A New Platform for Global Growth’ is being held in Moscow from April 27 to 29. The event has brought together more than 100 essay authors writing on economics, demography, migration, and high technology. Their work was selected from 1,600 submissions.

As Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian Presidential Administration, explained, this is not just a theoretical discussion, but a test of advanced ideas for practical implementation.

The forum is taking place at the National Centre RUSSIA and is organized jointly with the Third Rome Center for Cross-Sector Expertise, with support from the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation.

In a video address, President Vladimir Putin said the Open Dialogue is a platform “where interesting and promising ideas begin their journey toward becoming reality.”

“I would note that the conclusions drawn from your discussions, as last year, will be picked up at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in June and will be taken into account in its business program,” he added.

The Open Dialogue is held annually. It first took place in 2025, when around 700 essays were submitted from more than 100 countries. In 2026, organizers received 1,600 entries from entrepreneurs, researchers, students, media representatives, and members of the public and nonprofit sectors in more than 120 countries.

Welcoming participants, Oreshkin said each essay was an attempt to answer where the world is heading and which ideas may shape the next stage of growth.

“Our task is not simply to listen to initiatives one after another. It is important to understand where an idea’s real strength lies, what is new about it, how well developed it is, whether it is applicable in practice, and what partners and conditions are needed for its implementation,” he said.

He added that the format allows authors “to test their idea in a strong professional environment,” hear questions, and take the first steps toward testing their hypotheses in practice.

A total of 102 authors from 43 countries reached the in-person stage after interviews. This year’s jury included participants from last year’s Open Dialogue, which organizers say helps build an intellectual community through continuity.

The first day took the form of closed pitching sessions, with participants given up to seven minutes to present their work to experts. After voting by both jury members and the authors themselves, five top essays were selected in each track.

This year’s forum is built around four themes: investment in people, new technologies, trade and logistics connectivity, and the environment.

The second day began with an opening ceremony, where Oreshkin delivered a report on global economic trends. According to him, the world is shifting from a unipolar to a multipolar system.

“We are seeing that the centers not only of economic growth, but of economic activity as well, have shifted to the BRICS countries. Technology, finance, trade – all of this will increasingly be connected with the BRICS states. The development of BRICS economies, their connectivity, and the new technological solutions that will emerge in them – this is what the world of the future looks like,” he said.

As these changes unfold, the importance of sovereignty is growing, Oreshkin said, identifying three levels: state, social, and socio-economic. Russia, he said, “is ready to help other countries become truly sovereign.”

“Only in joint development, when everyone shares with each other, is that kind of world formed – a world where everyone respects one another and helps one another remain sovereign. Only such a world can develop sustainably,” he added.

The April 28 program included four panel sessions in which the winners presented their concepts in more detail. The forum will conclude on April 29, when experts will sum up the results, and Oreshkin will meet with young people and lead the final session.

Foreign participants also shared their impressions. Francisco Tunyas, an Argentine researcher, NetX Gen co-founder, and semifinalist in the “Investment in Connectivity” track, said the forum gives people from the Global South “a wonderful opportunity to unite.”

“Here we can communicate, exchange ideas, and discuss the megatrends that already exist. After all, our countries share common problems, whether they are countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, or even the West,” he said.

James Law, CEO of Hong Kong-based Cybertecture, called such dialogue extremely important.

“Through this exchange, we share ideas and solutions based on diverse experience that perhaps even we ourselves do not fully realize. Working together is an important part of this process,” said Law, whose company designs smart cities.

Swiss journalist and strategic consultant Marco Cassiano described the atmosphere at the National Centre RUSSIA as “simply fantastic.”

“Both the materials presented here and the people – you know, all of it resonates,” he said.

The Kiev regime has ramped up drone attacks on Russia’s civilian infrastructure, including repeated strikes on an oil refinery port of Tuapse that risk serious environmental impact, President Vladimir Putin has said. He called the attacks an attempt to compensate for battlefield setbacks.

He spoke about the increased terrorist threat Russia has been facing during a meeting on Tuesday dedicated to the security of the elections set to take place this fall. The threat stems from the activities of international terrorist and extremist groups, as well as from Ukraine, Putin said.

“The Kiev regime and its backers have switched to openly terrorist methods,” the president stated.

The terror tactics are meant to compensate for the setbacks Ukraine has been suffering on the battlefield, Putin noted, adding that such actions will not alter the course of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

“The latest example is the strikes on energy infrastructure sites in Tuapse, which could potentially have serious environmental implications,” the president said.

Kiev is determined to try to jeopardize the upcoming elections in the formerly Ukrainian regions that integrated into Russia, Putin said, pointing to similar attempts previously.

“I’d like to remind you that they are not holding elections in Ukraine under the pretext of martial law, and they are trying to disrupt ours too,” he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy sector “further increase the oil deficit in global markets, which are already experiencing significant difficulties because of the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, and provoke further destabilization in global energy markets.” 

In recent days, the Tuapse refinery and adjacent marine terminal were repeatedly subjected to long-range drone strikes, sparking repeated fires at the facility. The attacks prompted evacuations of nearby residents and emergency response measures. The prolonged fires produced high-risk air pollution, with residents advised to use respirators, while oil spilled into the sea damaged a long stretch of the beach in the resort town.

Renowned Russian archaeologist Aleksandr Butyagin, who was detained in Poland at Ukraine’s request, has been released as part of a five-for-five prisoner exchange which involved multiple countries. The negotiations are understood to have been conducted in absolute secrecy, resulting in the release of another Russian national and three Belarusian citizens.

Butyagin was apprehended by the Polish authorities last December while on a European lecture tour. Kiev demanded his extradition, accusing the senior researcher at St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum of conducting illegal excavations and damaging cultural heritage in Crimea, Russia – which Ukraine claims as its own territory.

In a statement on Tuesday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Butyagin was freed earlier in the day, and that Moscow released two officers of Moldova’s Security and Intelligence Service, who were arrested by the Russian authorities last June.

According to BELTA media outlet, citing Belarus’ State Security Committee (KGB), the prisoner swap took place on the Belarus-Polish border, and was made possible thanks to talks that started in September 2025.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko personally oversaw the process, in which the intelligence services of seven countries were involved, the article claims.

The identities of the other prisoners who were freed have not been disclosed.

Speaking at a joint press conference with John Coal, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the prisoner swap, which led to the release of three Polish nationals, would not have happened without Washington’s assistance. He revealed that Warsaw released three people, including the Russian archaeologist.

According to Sikorski, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and Poland were involved in the process, which was undertaken in absolute secrecy.

The second Open Dialogue, ‘The Future of the World. A New Platform for Global Growth,’ has opened at the National Centre RUSSIA in Moscow.

The event was launched by Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian Presidential Administration. A total of 102 authors from 43 countries are taking part in the three-day forum, which includes expert discussions, idea presentations and informal networking.

“We are meeting at a time when the familiar map of the world – economic, political and technological – is changing significantly: centers of growth are shifting, links between countries and markets are being rebuilt, and competition between development models is intensifying,” Oreshkin said. “That is why the Open Dialogue is especially important today – not as an exchange of general declarations, but as a conversation in which ideas are tested for novelty, realism and the ability to work in different conditions.”

This year’s most popular essay themes include the role of people in the future economy, artificial intelligence, the urban environment, technological sovereignty and demographic change. On the first day, closed pitching sessions were held across four tracks: investment in people, connectivity, technology and the environment.

The second day will feature the official opening ceremony, Oreshkin’s presentation on global megatrends and panel discussions with the top essayists. On April 29, experts will sum up the results of the dialogue, after which Oreshkin will meet with young people and lead the final session.

A distinctive feature of the forum is continuity: essayists from previous years serve as experts and jury members, helping create a lasting intellectual community in which ideas move beyond narrow circles into public debate and practical use.

At the end of the Open Dialogue, the best initiatives will be included in a new analytical report to be presented by the Russia National Centre at major international platforms.

The Open Dialogue was launched by the Russia National Centre in 2025 with the support of the Presidential Administration and the Third Rome Center for Expertise. By decision of Vladimir Putin, it became an annual event.

Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure on the Black Sea coast are worsening the global oil crunch caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran and disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Multiple Ukrainian drone strikes have hit Tuapse, a key densely-populated port in Russia’s Krasnodar Region, have targeted its refinery and adjacent marine terminal. Regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev reported fires at the site, including a major blaze at the refinery, prompting evacuations of nearby residents and emergency response measures.

The attacks led to high-risk air pollution, with residents advised to use respirators, as an oil spill destroyed miles of the beach in the resort town. Kondratyev also released a video of the town filled with smoke, with a clean-up operation ongoing on the beach.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Peskov confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the situation. “The Kiev regime has once again struck oil storage facilities, where the oil was intended for export operations, that is, for fulfilling export contract obligations,” he said.

The US-Israeli war on Iran led to a de-facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which handles roughly 20% of global oil consumption, sending benchmark Brent oil prices up well beyond $100 per barrel. To alleviate the pressure on oil markets, the Trump administration went so far as to issue a sanctions waiver on Russian oil already at sea.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the attacks on Tuapse caused civilian casualties and damage to homes, social infrastructure, and environment and criticized a lack of response from the EU and NATO.

“What are the European Union and NATO saying about this? They are silent,” she charged. “There is a serious environmental threat. The pollution is covering 10,000 sq. m. Where are these Western environmentalists?

Moscow has expanded the sanctions on European officials involved in arming Ukraine, after the EU adopted its 20th package of sanctions on Russia.

In a statement on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the restrictions rolled out last week by Brussels “grossly violate international law.”

“In response to the EU’s unlawful decisions, the Russian side has significantly expanded the list of representatives of EU institutions, EU member states, and a number of European countries aligning themselves with Brussels’ anti-Russian policy,” the ministry said.

“Brussels’ destructive policy is incapable of swaying our country’s foreign policy. Russia has been and remains committed to defending its national interests,” the ministry said.

On Thursday, the EU announced additional restrictions on Russia’s financial sector and energy exports, targeting the supposed ‘shadow fleet’ used to bypass sanctions on Russia’s oil trade.

Russia has denied that it has a shadow fleet and has denounced the seizure of tankers by the US and European states as acts of piracy.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters last week that although the sanctions have had an overall “negative impact” on the Russian economy, the country has “gained significant experience in minimizing their effects.”

Three Russian citizens are being held in a detention center in Armenia on accusations of spying for Azerbaijan, even though investigators have failed to present any proof of wrongdoing, their lawyer has told RT. 

The young men are former residents of a Moscow orphanage. Two were detained in June 2024 while filming historical and cultural sites in Armenia, while the third was arrested a month later after traveling there to find out why his friends were being held. 

According to their lawyers, they were working on a documentary about areas in Armenia that previously belonged to Azerbaijan, filming Muslim cemeteries, mosques and other public sites. 

“The prosecution has not presented a single concrete piece of evidence to suggest that the photographs or video footage taken contain any information that could be used to undermine the sovereignty, territorial integrity or external security of the Republic of Armenia,” lawyer Narine Rshtuni told RT.  

Watch the full RT report below.

Almost six months have passed since ‘Mindichgate’ erupted in Ukraine. The corruption scandal, which allegedly implicated large parts of the ruling elite, became the most serious political test of Vladimir Zelensky’s presidency and, for a time, threatened to bring it to an abrupt end.

To stabilize his position, Zelensky was forced into concessions. His long-time ally Andrey Yermak was removed, and in his place came Kirill Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), a figure widely seen as a moderate critic of the president. The cabinet was also reshuffled, with new figures brought in to broaden the coalition. In return, anti-corruption bodies such as NABU and SAPO eased their pressure on the president.

The immediate crisis has subsided. But the structure of power in Ukraine has shifted significantly. The clearest sign of this transformation is the rise of Budanov.

Initially, the new head of the presidential office kept a low public profile. Over time, however, he has grown more confident, and more visible. Throughout April, Budanov appeared to walk a careful line in his public statements, often striking a tone at odds with Zelensky himself.

While the president has prepared the country for a prolonged conflict, Budanov has spoken of ongoing negotiations and suggested that peace may not be as distant as many assume. When Zelensky highlighted Ukraine’s technological breakthroughs, Budanov has downplayed them. He has also openly acknowledged the growing difficulties of mobilization, a rare admission from a senior official in a country at war.

The result is a carefully balanced political persona, and one that increasingly resembles that of a future president.

Budanov’s ambitions are hardly a secret in Kiev. His approval ratings reportedly rival those of Valeriy Zaluzhny, once seen as Zelensky’s most serious potential rival. Unlike Zaluzhny, however, Budanov remains firmly embedded within the system. He is said to have cultivated connections abroad, including with figures in Donald Trump’s political orbit, while at home he enjoys support among influential members of the ruling Servant of the People party.

For Zelensky, bringing Budanov into the inner circle may have seemed a logical move. Where Zaluzhny was sidelined and sent abroad, Budanov was co-opted in an application of the old principle: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. In theory, this should allow the president to monitor potential dissent within the elite.

In practice, it has created a new risk. By elevating Budanov to the centre of power, Zelensky has given him both visibility and institutional leverage. The head of the presidential office is no longer a background figure but a key political actor, one capable of shaping narratives and, potentially, alliances.

The fault line may emerge over the question of negotiations with Russia. As the conflict drags on and the situation at the front becomes more difficult, a growing segment of the Ukrainian elite appears to favor some form of compromise. This sentiment increasingly clashes with Zelensky’s public stance.

Until recently, such a scenario in Ukraine seemed unlikely. There was no obvious figure capable of uniting the disparate factions and presenting a credible alternative. Zaluzhny, for all his popularity, has withdrawn from the political arena.

Budanov, however, may fit the role. He’s ambitious and not entirely controllable, and he’s positioning himself as a bridge between different camps, particularly those who see the need for a negotiated end to the conflict. In that sense, he could become a focal point for elite dissatisfaction.

The question, then, is no longer whether internal tensions will intensify, but how far they may go, and how quickly.

For Russia, the outcome may matter less than the process. Whether Zelensky, Budanov, or another figure occupies the presidential office, Kiev’s political class remains broadly hostile to Moscow. From a pragmatic standpoint, the key issue is policy and personalities are a secondary concern. 

If a future leadership, whether by design or necessity, proves more willing to bring the conflict to an end on terms acceptable to Russia, then that, ultimately, will be the decisive factor.

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team

The dosimeters went off scale. A huge plume of smoke from the explosion shot a kilometer into the sky, and tons of nuclear fuel and graphite were scattered around the nuclear power plant. The shocked operators of the Chernobyl NPP could only watch in horror as the worst radiation disaster in history unfolded. Yet just a couple of hours earlier, no one could have imagined such a catastrophe. 

The Soviet Union was a pioneer in nuclear energy. In 1954, the world’s first nuclear power plant became operational in Obninsk. Enthusiasm soared as new plants were rapidly built across the country. By the late 1970s, as part of an extensive construction program, yet another NPP was built on the banks of Pripyat River near the city of Chernobyl. A city named after the river quickly sprang up around the plant. Pripyat was a clean, well-kept city surrounded by nature. It had a population of 50,000 people – primarily the nuclear power plant’s personnel and their families. The NPP itself, with its combination of cutting-edge technology and industrial achievement, embodied the utopia of the late Soviet era. Nuclear power plants were at the height of popularity at the time; nuclear energy was seen as the simplest, most reliable, and safest way to access unprecedented amounts of energy.

The area’s geographical features played a major role when disaster struck. The area was sparsely populated, and there were no major cities nearby – most of the people affected lived in Pripyat itself. However, the long Pripyat River, with many streams and creeks flowing into it, and the area’s wet soil allowed groundwater to carry radioactive particles far from the explosion’s epicenter.

Even in those years, there was an understanding that unforeseen incidents could occur at nuclear power plants. In 1979, a serious accident happened at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania. The reactor core suffered damage, forcing the temporary evacuation of around 200,000 people. Fortunately, there were no fatalities. The incident at Three Mile Island remained largely an economic issue.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant consisted of four RBMK-type reactors. To understand what happened there, we need to say a few words about them. The reactor core was a seven-meter-high cylinder filled with nuclear fuel and graphite. A constant nuclear reaction occurred there, heating the fuel rods. Water was continuously pumped into the core through special circulation pumps, where it boiled and turned into steam. The steam drove the turbines, converting thermal energy into electricity. The introduction of cold water also prevented the fuel rods from overheating. After passing through the generator, the steam went to a condenser, cooled down, turned back into water, and was then recirculated in the core.

211 control rods made of neutron-absorbing material were used to regulate the reactor’s power output. These rods were inserted and removed through special channels in the reactor core; the deeper they were inserted, the lower the reactor’s power output. If all the rods were fully inserted, the reactor would shut down; if all were removed, it would accelerate uncontrollably. At least 30 rods always had to be in place for safety reasons. This system was quite reliable when all safety regulations were observed. 

The night of fire

On April 25, 1986, an experiment was scheduled at Reactor no. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Operators planned to shut down equipment – including the pumps supplying water to the reactor core – to see how long the turbine could continue generating power through inertia alone. The goal was to calculate the time available for operators to switch to backup power sources.

The problem was that conducting these tests required disabling a significant portion of the plant’s automation, including the emergency cooling pump system.

The water and steam levels in the reactor became unbalanced, but the personnel managed to address the issue. However, the pressure spikes in the water system – critical for energy generation and reactor cooling – were not just warning bells but major alarm signals. The pumps gradually slowed down. The reactor temperature rose, but there was not a single control rod left in the reactor core, and the operators completely lost control of the situation.

At that moment, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was already on the brink of catastrophe.

To this day, no one knows exactly what happened at around 1:23 AM. What is undeniable is that the reactor core overheated uncontrollably. Realizing things had gone out of control, the operators attempted to insert all control rods back, essentially trying to shut the reactor down. The rods were lowered but stopped short after only two meters (out of the seven needed) as the overheating caused the deformation of the technological channels. Akimov rushed to the control panel and disabled the servo-drive mechanisms, hoping that the rods would fall into the core under their own weight. There was nothing else he could do – all systems that could have assisted with emergency cooling had been manually disabled by the operators themselves.

According to one theory, this decision was the final nail in the coffin. The graphite tips of the rods didn’t slow down the reaction; they accelerated it. This effect should have been instantly countered by the main body of the rods, but the simultaneous lowering of 211 graphite tips caused a rapid increase in pressure. This is just one explanation, but regardless, the rods became jammed in the overheated and deformed channels. A chain reaction occurred. The sudden surge in pressure (rising by 15 atm per second) caused the pump valves to slam shut, cutting off all water supply to the reactor. Then, the reactor’s water system ruptured from within. A variety of tumultuous chemical reactions unfolded in the reactor core, causing an explosive mixture to brew in just 18 seconds.

And then it detonated.  

The 130-ton separator drums flew off their mounts, the 500-ton reactor roof blew off, and nuclear fuel shot into the atmosphere, with graphite scattering across the station and igniting. At that moment, Akimov exclaimed:

“What the hell? We did everything right!”  

Around 50 tons of nuclear fuel were released into the air, and another 70 tons settled in the area around the station. The amount of radioactive material that escaped was equivalent to ten Hiroshima bombings, while 800 tons of graphite continued to burn inside the reactor. One member of the shift died on the spot, and another passed away a few hours later. The reactor staff could only guess at the radiation levels around them since the dosimeters read ‘off scale’. The country faced an unprecedented nuclear disaster, and thousands of people were about to confront unimaginable challenges.

There will come soft rains 

At 1:30 AM, Major Leonid Telyatnikov, the head of the Chernobyl fire brigade, was awakened by a sudden phone call. Minutes later, fire trucks raced toward the nuclear plant.

Cold blue lights flickered in the darkness – those were the burning ruins of Reactor No. 4. Firefighters clad in their usual attire climbed onto what remained of the station’s roof. They worked at heights of dozens of meters amid thick smoke. Telyatnikov himself twice climbed to the roof of the turbine hall and the reactor section, 70 meters above the burning abyss.  

The firefighters managed to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading. Fortunately, Yury Bagdasarov, the shift supervisor of the neighboring reactor, acted swiftly and decisively, shutting down his reactor and instructing his crew to don respirators and take potassium iodide – thereby saving many lives. While firefighters were extinguishing the fire in Reactor No. 3, those working in Reactor No. 4 started collapsing from acute radiation sickness. The bodies of these first responders were almost completely destroyed. Radiation sickness kills slowly and painfully; many of Telyatnikov’s subordinates died three weeks later. Among the first to die were fire service lieutenants Vladimir Pravik and Viktor Kibenok, both just 23 years old. The doctor said:

“They needed new bodies; nothing of the old ones remained.”

Major Telyatnikov himself died 18 years later from cancer caused by radiation exposure. The personnel at the station also suffered fatal doses of radiation: Shift supervisor Akimov and his assistant, Toptunov, died within weeks, while Dyatlov passed away several years later. 

On April 27, the evacuation of Pripyat and the 30-kilometer area around it began. To transport the people, the authorities mobilized 1,225 buses and 360 trucks. The government ordered residents to leave their belongings behind; their possessions were contaminated with radiation, and there wasn’t enough transport to evacuate 100,000 people with their belongings. One of the tough moral decisions in those first days was the order to leave animals behind. Their fur had absorbed radiation, making it dangerous to take them along. Stray dogs left behind in the area began attacking cats and then attempted to attack people. A special team was sent to hunt down and shoot the poor animals. Soldiers were also deployed to catch looters.

Some residents resisted evacuation. One man tried to flee in a car packed with contaminated items. The military forced him out of the vehicle and ran over the car and its contents with an armored personnel carrier. Initially, evacuees were taken to a village 50 kilometers from the plant, where they dispersed across Ukraine, many on foot. Military helicopters buzzed overhead. That was the end of Pripyat – the city of dreams, and the beginning of its history as a ghost town.

Equipment for the clean-up operation was gathered from all over the country. The cleanup crews needed engineering machinery, earth-moving equipment, and helicopters. The latter played a crucial role in mitigating the aftermath of the catastrophe. From the sky, the NPP was bombarded with a mixture of boron carbide to absorb neutrons, dolomite to capture thermal energy, sand, and clay to slow the spread of radioactive particles. Helicopters buzzed over the columns of departing refugees.

On the ground, clean-up work continued. Initially, volunteers showed up at the disaster response headquarters, but most of the work was done by soldiers. Armed with only rudimentary protective gear, they undertook an immense amount of labor. They needed to entomb the destroyed reactor under a concrete sarcophagus, establish a drainage system for the river, and decontaminate Pripyat and its surroundings. Furthermore, it was necessary to isolate the NPP underground to prevent radioactive leaks into the soil, which could then contaminate Pripyat and Dnieper rivers. 

People working around the plant continued to receive high doses of radiation and accidents occurred during cleanup operations. However, within seven months, considerable progress was achieved. Toxic substances ceased to spread beyond a relatively broad, yet sparsely populated area. Over 206 days, a concrete sarcophagus, officially called Shelter Object, was constructed over Reactor No. 4. The other reactors were decontaminated as well. Concrete walls were built around the reactor, followed by a 12-meter cascade wall. In addition to concrete walls, a ventilation system and a comprehensive monitoring system were installed. During construction, another tragedy occurred when a helicopter, snagged by a crane cable, crashed, killing the crew. Finally, the work was done and the destroyed reactor was enclosed in a sarcophagus.

While almost all people left the Chernobyl exclusion zone, it has never been truly deserted. With the absence of humans, wildlife flourished. In the first year after the evacuation, mouse populations around Pripyat surged as the rodents feasted on abandoned grain fields. The cooling pond of the reactor became home to massive catfish. A small research center was even established in the Zone for scientific studies. Various animals were brought there, including some species that had never lived in the area before. The forests became populated with boars, elk, and deer.

In a way, the Chernobyl zone transformed into a sanctuary, filled with lynxes, bears, and even Przewalski’s horses, which had been brought there as part of an experiment. For a time, the few people who remained in the zone and the animals were troubled by an overpopulation of wolves. However, rangers quickly reduced their numbers, leaving behind a grim reminder – a wolf’s head with its jaws wide open placed on the radiator of a ranger’s vehicle. Interestingly, the horses played a role in culling the wolves, as rangers often witnessed herds charging at the predators. A pack of wild dogs also settled in the area; initially, they guarded the perimeter of the nearby research facility, but eventually adapted to life in the wild by hunting and even fishing in the technological channels of the abandoned plant.

Officially, only workers from the exclusion zone remained in the area. However, some people known as ‘samosely’ (self-settlers) settled in the nearby forests. These are mostly elderly residents who returned to their homes. Out of 70,000-100,000 evacuees, around 1,200 returned to their former homes. They managed to avoid the most contaminated areas and did not succumb to radiation. Attempts by the police to evict them proved futile, as they stubbornly returned to the area.

Most of these individuals engage in farming to sustain themselves. They learned to navigate the area, identifying places less affected by contamination. Being quite poor and living around 50 kilometers from the nearest inhabited town, they scavenge building materials from the abandoned cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat. Some settled in the abandoned cities, but most built huts in the surrounding forests. Most of the samosely are elderly people.

After the Chernobyl disaster, the government launched an investigation into the causes. Decisions made by the staff, the reactor’s design, and the events of that fateful night on April 26 became subjects of several official inquiries and numerous unofficial discussions. Initially, nearly 100% of the blame for the accident was attributed to human error.

The director of the Chernobyl NPP, Viktor Bryukhanov, Anatoly Dyatlov, and chief engineer Viktor Fomin, along with several others, faced trial for their roles in the disaster. Although none served their full sentences, the psychological impact of the events haunted them all. Dyatlov spent the rest of his life trying to justify his actions and comprehend what went wrong that fateful night, while Fomin ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

However, later investigations significantly shifted the narrative surrounding the incident. Many of the operators’ decisions, initially viewed as criminal, were found to have been made in strict accordance with protocols. Lessons were learned from the catastrophe, prompting humanity to revise its approaches to radiation safety, nuclear power plant operations, responses to technological disasters, and treatment for radiation sickness – all at a tragic cost. The immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster resulted in fewer than 30 direct fatalities, but the effects of radiation exposure lingered for decades. Statistically, cleanup workers and evacuees were 20% more likely to develop cancer, suggesting that anywhere from several thousand to tens of thousands of people might have died of radiation-related illnesses. The challenge lies in the fact that this is an impersonal statistic; it was often impossible to determine whether a cleanup worker died from natural causes or as a consequence of radiation exposure. Yet, there is no doubt that the Chernobyl disaster claimed and shattered countless lives.

The Chernobyl exclusion zone became a destination for extreme tourists. The ruins of Pripyat, preserved in their original state since the 1980s, the old Soviet radar systems, and abandoned radioactive vehicles attracted travelers. However, nature and time played their role in destroying these last remnants of Soviet civilization. Tragically, the number of ruins and abandoned towns in Ukraine has grown due to the ongoing conflict with Russia. In 2022, the exclusion zone briefly became a battleground between Russian and Ukrainian forces. Fortunately, both sides managed to avoid prolonged and intense fighting near the site of the old reactor… but leaving behind these old ruins, the army marched toward new ones.

A Ukrainian drone strike has killed an employee at Russia’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the facility’s press service said in a statement on Monday.

Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked Europe’s largest nuclear facility since it came under Russian control in 2022, soon after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict.

“Today, a driver was killed as a result of a strike by a Ukrainian Armed Forces drone on the transport shop floor of the ZNPP,” the facility said in a statement, adding that it was extending condolences to the family of the deceased.

“Nuclear industry employees should not be targets. Any attack on the ZNPP is a threat not only to people but also to security in general,” it added.

“Director General Rafael Grossi reiterates that strikes on or near NPPs can endanger nuclear safety and must not take place,” the agency wrote in a post on X. “The IAEA’s team on the site will look into the incident and continue to monitor the situation.”

The attack came a day after Grossi visited Kiev for talks with Vladimir Zelensky, during which the Ukrainian leader urged the IAEA to pressure Russia to hand over control of the plant to Kiev.

Moscow has firmly rejected the idea of handing over the power plant.

“Joint operation of the ZNPP with any other state is also unacceptable,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement last month. Even giving Ukrainian or NATO representatives temporary access to the facility is “impossible,” given the close cooperation between their intelligence services and “significant sabotage potential,” it said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid stalled diplomatic efforts to end the US-Israeli war against Iran. 

Araghchi landed in St. Petersburg early Monday as part of his regional tour to coordinate with allies amid the standoff with Washington and West Jerusalem. 

He met with Putin and senior officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the head of Russia’s military intelligence, Admiral Igor Kostyukov.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “the importance of this conversation is difficult to overestimate in terms of how the situation around Iran and in the Middle East is developing.” 

Tehran has insisted that direct talks with the US are pointless as long as Washington maintains a naval blockade of Iranian ports and Israeli attacks against Lebanon continue. 

Russia has positioned itself as a key diplomatic partner of Iran throughout the conflict. Araghchi’s meeting with Putin is expected to focus on the latest ceasefire developments and forming a joint approach to the crisis. 

This live feed is over.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has foiled a planned sabotage attack targeting an oil installation in the Komi Republic, western Russia, the agency reported on Monday.

Two suspects – both Russian citizens – allegedly acting on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence, were killed in a shootout during an arrest attempt.

The suspects established covert contact with Ukrainian operatives via messaging apps and passed on information about regional oil refining facilities, as well as details about Russian military personnel and law enforcement officers, according to an FSB press release.

The agency said the men were tracked to a pre-arranged cache in the city of Ukhta, where they were retrieving drones equipped with improvised explosive devices, allegedly to be used in an attack on a nearby oil facility.

When the officers moved in to arrest them, they were met with armed resistance. Both suspects were killed in the ensuing shootout. No security personnel or civilians were injured.

Footage released by the FSB shows the moment of the shootout and photos taken at the suspects’ hideout, displaying equipment and weaponry they appear to have been retrieving.

The authorities did not disclose the specific facility that was to be targeted. A criminal case has been opened on charges of preparing an act of sabotage, the FSB said.

The agency also repeated its warning that Ukrainian intelligence services are actively recruiting operatives online, including through social media and messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp, and said those who work with Kiev will be identified and prosecuted.

The Russian authorities have often accused Ukrainian intelligence services of carrying out covert operations inside Russia, including sabotage, targeted killings, and suicide bombings against security personnel. These activities often involve individuals recruited online, motivated by ideology or financial incentives, or coerced into criminal actions through scam tactics.

Last week, the FSB foiled a group of Russian neo-Nazis guided by Ukraine to carry out bomb attacks against the head of Roskomnadzor (the Russian media regulator), Andrey Lipov, and his deputies. Seven members of the network – all young adults – were targeted in a series of raids in four cities, and a man in his early 20s identified as the ringleader was killed in Moscow after opening fire on officers attempting to apprehend him, the agency said.

The Chernobyl disaster remains one of the defining technological catastrophes of the 20th century. Its impact is felt to this day, with survivors still living with its consequences. The latest RT documentary Chernobyl: A Lesson for Humanity returns to the exclusion zone nearly 40 years later to hear from those who saw the aftermath up close: liquidators, firefighters, doctors, scientists, archivists, and the people who worked in the evacuated territories.

Our RT team has filmed through the Belarusian sector of the exclusion and resettlement zone; the Chernobyl plant lies just seven kilometers from the border, and abandoned villages still bear the marks of the 1986 evacuation.

The movie features eyewitnesses who worked in local command structures during the liquidation, a nurse who treated the first irradiated patients in Moscow, a Russian nuclear agency adviser who explains the reactor failure, and the heroes of the clean-up effort: veteran ‘liquidators’ who were at the scene 40 years ago.

Their accounts trace the disaster from the first confusion and evacuation of the city of Pripyat to the construction of the sarcophagus, the contamination of vast areas in Belarus and Ukraine, and the long-term medical and ecological consequences.

Watch RT’s full film Chernobyl: A Lesson for Humanity below.